3below

Showing my age - The Who - live at Leeds, Thin Lizzy and of course Weather Report. They all seem to have a reasonable bass player . They may not be complex but imo there is much great bass playing in context.

Looking at the pickups can suggest series or parallel wiring - it rather depends on what is going on under the fibreboard base(s). It would be interesting to have dc resistances for the various pickups encountered.

[quote name='badboy1984' timestamp='1387445398' post='2311934'] ............ I only really do two things now on my passive bass, full volume and full tone ....... [/quote] How did you find my bass settings [size=4] [/size][size=4]? Am currently (re)assembling a Peavey patriot somewhat beaten bass. Only control is a pickup blend. Volume and tone full on, so no controls needed.[/size]

Keep looking and waiting. Bargains do appear - my VBA 400 was cheap and I sold it on cheap. I have a bedroom use only sound city 120 plus 2x12 cab (amp has original mullards as a bonus), bought on ebay. It was a giveaway- cheaper than a peavey milestone bass... Boot sales also yield good buys. Asking around, many carlsbro, simms watt, laneys about from aging rockers who have given up. This route may take a long time however. I remember the days when Marshall or Hiwatt valve amps were dirt cheap - late 70s - early 80s. Happy days. 100W will be ok with an efficient cab. The VBA was immense - both in volume and mass

Good help from many above. Once you get into the swing of the circuits and understand what they are doing it is not difficult. Very good advice about discharging filter capacitors. I gave myself an unforgettable experience with my Hiwatt 200 in my youth. Those caps hold a lot if charge, a breathtaking amount in fact.

pmd

Time to check it with a 'known working' cab, speaker lead and guitar lead combination. If that does not work check the HT fuses which are usually accessible on the back panel of the amp. Another quick thought - while amp is off toggle the standby switch several times, one of my Fender amps has an 'iffy' standby switch, sometimes it works, sometimes not. If that does not work it may be time to visit amp technician / guru.

What strings are you using, flats, tape wound, nylon covered? Try something different, see if that helps. Next borrow a bass from a friend (or someone on forum), try this for a few weeks, then go back to your new found friend. I have gone through many basses and with most of them I sound like me. Only one bass I own makes a significantly different tone to my others. I have the same effect with guitars as well - must be poor technique GAS can be cured, you may be lucky.

Start looking for adjustable bias circuits - e.g. [url="http://hiwatt.org/DIY/bias.gif"]http://hiwatt.org/DIY/bias.gif[/url] Thank you MR Huss, or other amp circuits. It will soon be obvious how to design such a circuit. Next implement it (and the dropper resistors and test points) and make diy biasing easy. It is not that difficult. The pcb on the Peavey of that era should have nice big wide copper tracks and large components. These amps are great for repair / mods for those reasons alone.

Bassman 100 somewhere in late 70s / early 80s. Great amp, another one I should have kept. Princeton II valve combo, all point to point wiring, absolute bargain. Developed a rattle / buzz that I could never sort. Another I should have kept. Current is red knob super 60. Nice but weights a ton, MDF box

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1387199192' post='2309197'] I'd try another string first. Some strings are just dodgy and never intonate properly. [/quote] I have been caught out (once) with new G string that would not intonate correctly. It was the last thing that I checked for after much faffing - I was amazed a brand new string could be that duff.

Early 1970s Kay (Woolworths brand). Plywood neck (not bad in fairness), plywood body 1" thick. Naff microphonic pickups, cheap bar bridge. The whole thing was crude beyond belief. Replaced by EB2 when EB2s were cheap and unfashionable.

Firebass has lots of features, pre/post DI, effects loops etc. Having owned one, I found two disadvantages. Firstly - heavy (but traditional amp @700W needs big transformer. Secondly - you will lack power with 8 Ohm cabinet, need to have 4 Ohm or even better 2 Ohm. For the money they are very good,, I found the bass 'tighter' and better defined than the VBA 400 I had at the same time.

Does the chain lube come out of the tube? Will the lid remain on? These are serious quality control issues. I confess I have a BF Dubster and previously a Big One so I am clearly deranged and devoid of judgement.

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1386800201' post='2304867'] Great quote - think I may nick that (if you'll tolerate such behaviour)! [/quote] Of course, my agent will deal with the royalties. I am quite tolerant to those who have tolerance.

Surely the decimal place is in the wrong place on the price? £649 is a bit eyewatering.

Maybe I was lucky [size=4] I started at a young age (14 or so) with the carelesness (lack of sensitivity ?) of youth and grew up with people over the years. I would (do) not have much time for the 'purists' / 'fundamentalists' who find electric bass inadmissable. I also get less tolerant of intolerance as I get older....[/size]

[quote name='lowdowner' timestamp='1386789307' post='2304624'] Electric Bass and Folk? I hope you have thick skin! [/quote] Opposite experience here - Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Mid Wales. Folk bass playing for over 40 years on and off, double bass is appreciated, acoustic bass and electric bass no problems. Those I play with appreciate the issue of transporting db etc.

The recommended speakers seem to be Eminence Kappalites (amongst others). These are great speakers - in my Barefaced Dubster, previous Big One, and my Shermann 15/6/horn cab. They are also a phenomenal price now - 3015 both variants about £190. Cost it all up, every last little bit. Next start looking for a good s/h Barefaced or fEARful cab and think long and hard. Cab building can be very marginal. (I have built BFM bass cab, it was/is a nice thing. No longer used, it was big, the 3015LF is in another smaller cab). Cab building can be fun as well.

As mentioned earlier - Peavey Firebass, also Tour 700s can be picked up cheaply. Prefer my Tour 700s to the VBA 400 I owned.

EB2 was great, what an improvement modern amp makes compared to my EB2 and amp in youth. The Stagg was surprisingly good. Would love to see this played with a really cheap bass - Yamaha or Peavey budget bass.

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1386371090' post='2299535'] Its works because your used to hearing other people do it in the same context - its a defining idiom of blues music. Music is actually just as much about what your accustomed to hearing people do in a given situation than it is about abstract theory. [/quote] As above. It works because it sounds right to our ears. At this point we get into the debate - did we make music theory to fit what we hear or was the theory in place and we found it. That is not my take by the way, it is the debate of Popper, Kuhn, Dewey et al in Science.

Regular PVA or even glue gun stick. Advantage of these is that heat (via soldering iron) will allow removal at later date if needed. Roughen the underside of nut with coarse file or similar. I have used basses with the nut just held in by string tension and no problems - strange as it might seem.