kingforaday

Bought a pedal from Graeme, quick trouble free transaction and the pedal arrived well packaged and in good working order. Thanks!

Here’s what I’ve done so far... 

Gotoh Gb707 tuners... major upgrade on quality 

emg 40dc pickups X2 - again big improvement, volume, sound quality and with the btc preamp its way more versatile. 
 

smaller control knobs and switch. Purely aesthetic but to me, it really improves the look and makes it appear more expensive than it is

which got me thinking... dare I go for a string through body conversion!?! I realise there’s much debate as to whether it actually improves anything but purely from a “I’m modding this thing anyway” point of view, I may do

From my experience, the earlier the better... I’ve owned 2, the other was good but was somehow lacking in the fit and finish department... latter one was lighter too which I guess could be seen as a good thing, but to me it’s always made instruments feel cheap - hence my unhealthy obsession with the seriously weighty Peavey T40!

I’ve started! Not finished yet but so far...

replaced the tuners with gotoh gb707’s (I bought gb350 Res-o-lites first... plastic buttons... really?! Gross. Those are now on eBay!) the gb707’s are great... I found a good price, they’re really good quality, great look and a direct drop in replacement, so super easy too.
 

I bought a pair of emg40dc pickups with a BTC stack pot and wiring... I started obsessing over the switch/control knob size/style etc and I’ve only just tracked the parts I need down. It’s gonna look great though...

Very quickly wired it up to make sure it works but haven’t really played with it yet... 

Next will be the bridge - still a little torn... I always wanted the hip shot A style just purely for looks and adjustability... it’s pricey though and I can’t afford it right now! I had the B style on another bass and it was cool, I do love the top loading aspect of hipshot bridges. Nothing is gonna be both an upgrade and a simple drop in replacement though, so I’m gonna have to get the drill out (I really didn’t want to have to do that)

once I’m done, I’ll chuck some pics up because it’s coming together really nicely and I’m glad I’m finally doing it

Bought a couple of pedals from Chris yesterday... they arrived today... AM!! Very fast shipping and packaged with the kind of care and attention to detail that would make a fussy so and so like me proud! 
 

very pleased and would have no reservations about buying from Chris again in future 

Interesting, plenty of love for Wilkinson then! 
 

kinda what I was hoping for really, although it’s one I know if I’ve never really paid much attention to them... I’ll check out some of their stuff

I was just contemplating the old ‘hipshot, Schaller or gotoh’ conundrum on a bass I’m fixing up... and then thought “I wonder if there’s a cheaper (or even a similarly priced but not so well known) alternative I’m overlooking? 
 

what are the best quality bridges/machineheads that either fall in the ‘great cheap stuff’ or ‘expensive but worth it’ type categories?

11 hours ago, skankdelvar said:

Thanks for all the quality gear you've made for us BassChatters over the years, OBBM. I think we've always regarded you as the industry standard.

Enjoy your retirement and the best of times in your new home 

I was about to write something but the above sums it up. 
 

Thanks!

Got any pics of it? Just guess work without seeing it but if there’s not much in it, would adding a washer or 2 (or spacer of some kind) between body and socket give the clearance you need?

7 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Assuming that nothing is touching anything, I cant see that that itself would create much of an issue, although I wouldn't have done it myself. What blew up / smoked?

Unfortunately I’m not entirely sure, it just sounded like something was crackling and a bit of a hum and then I turned it off... could’ve been the speaker making the noise. There was the smell of burning electronics but no actual smoke as far as I could tell. I haven’t touched it since. Put a new speaker in the cab though so that’s ok now. 
 

it’s annoying as although I have mainly steered clear of power sections on amps through lack of knowledge... I did mod a guitar amp I have, there was way more to it but it went fine. Although to be fair it was supplied in kit form with really comprehensive instructions. 
 

i guess with this I just figured as it seemed so straightforward, It wouldn’t be an issue 

I've owned a couple of these amps and they are surprisingly fantastic-sounding.

I got into a discussion of it with Bobby Baldwin (Peavey amp engineer) and he made some great suggestions about the output coupling capacitor that were easy to implement:
 

Implementing this idea cost me less than $5 in parts and made a HUGE improvement in the sound of the amp -- much bigger down low and more open on top.

See the attached pic; the coupling cap is located in the lower right hand corner of the power amp board. For reference, in the attached pic, the speaker jacks are in the upper right and the mounting tab for the filter cap is in the lower right.

Ok, so here’s what was done, I’ll find the text from people explaining what is done and why in a sec

removed existing cap and replaced with a stack of caps and a film cap 

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

As said above, what was the mod and if you were surprised at how good it was, did it really need it?

Well, in hind sight no... but if someone told you, you could take your gear and with just a few quids worth of parts, improve it massively would you not at least want to try!?

i’ll get some pics and details 

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

The thing that will blow your speaker is a large DC offset which is just putting power into your speaker and burning it out. You can measure that. If it is a solid state amplifier, it doesn't need a speaker connected when you turn it on, so turn it on and measure the DC offset on the speaker terminals. There should be very little or none.

Find a little rubbishy speaker - something from on old radio or something, and connect that, at low volume. Does it go bang?

As said above, what was the mod and if you were surprised at how good it was, did it really need it?

Thanks, this is what I was thinking of... the amp tech I used to have at work mentioned it can happen to me once and it always stuck in my brain but not enough to understand it! 
 

It is indeed solid state so is it as simple as, set the multi meter to dc, put the probes on the socket, if I get a reading then it’s going to damage speakers? 

I know i'm opening myself up to "if you don't know what you're doing, leave it to the professionals" type comments but hopefully someone can offer some advice...

I bought an old Peavey Century amp head out of curiosity and was surprised how good it sounded, I started googling information/opinion on them. I found a lot of threads on other forums in which people mentioned that although they're good, doing an inexpensive mod, that involved adding capacitors because "The additional capacitors make the bottom end bigger and the top end more open." would really improve the amp.

I messaged a guy who had done the mod and he talked me through what I needed and how to do it, assuring me it was very easy etc etc

I got the parts, followed the instructions and all seemed to go well until i put it back together and turned it on and it made a crackling noise and smelt of burnt out electrics! So i turned it off. 

I checked my speaker cab with another amp and it had blown the speaker. I messaged the guy and he's gone very quiet all of a sudden (!) to be fair to him, it's not really his problem. 

I've now replaced the speaker and its back up and running on a different amp but that leaves me unsure how to proceed with this one. I could go through it again and check for issues, I could try putting it back as it was, I could muck about with it to my hearts content but ultimately, I'll have to plug it into a cab again to audio test it. 

So at that point, or hopefully before, is there a way to test the output to the cab to know it won't do the same thing? I have a multi meter, I'm pretty good with a soldering iron/tools etc but sadly this is the first experience of the power/amp side of things, so my knowledge is zero. 

Thanks 

Cheers guys, still searching, but some good options there 

49 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

I’d look out for 2nd hand Hiscox cases, used they’re usually around £70 and it’s money well spent imo.

Yeah for sure, I’d rather have things that will last, so perhaps 2nd hand is the best bet... just might take a while. I was hoping someone might know of a budget bargain brand or something that I’d missed 

We’re looking at hiring out guitars/basses at the rehearsal/recording studios I manage... gradually getting them together on minimal budget (CIC - Not For Profit organisation) 

we’re going to need guitar & bass cases, which I could gradually pickup secondhand (as I am with the guitars themselves - all squier/epiphone kinda level at the moment to test the waters) but I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions of cheap but robust hard cases? 

I was toying with the idea of the gear4music foam ones but I’m a bit concerned about the zips falling apart 

I use the Harley Benton power plant junior and really rate it... However, I modified my board similar to @Twigman and I can’t remember if that was before or after this power supply... 

either way as mentioned, it’s a very simple mod that opens up a lot more possibilities for what can go underneath 

I recently purchased one again (I’ve owned 3 over the years) mainly to A/B it against the Mooer bass sweeper (which has the trimpots on top) 

this post has made me a little more keen to find time to do this!

I have a Tobias Toby Pro 4 (one of the early musicyo ones) and although I rarely play it (ok, never play it) it holds a great deal of sentimental value to me, for years I’ve been thinking about giving it some upgrades and just generally a bit of attention... now I may actually do it! 

now, I know there are people on this forum who have upgraded parts, but I’m struggling to find exactly what you replaced and what it was replaced with. 

I’m thinking replace;

Pickups (emg 40 size seems right)

preamp (no idea)

bridge (was thinking hipshot but the mounting holes aren’t the same?)

machineheads (I bought Schaller tuners but again, mounting holes didn’t line up - I didn’t check before buying them so my bad)

so have you done it, if so what did you use? I’d prefer to not hack the bass up too much so direct drop in replacements massively preferred

cheers!

Bought a tuning pedal from Richard, nice chap to deal with, quick postage and the pedal is absolutely mint! Great stuff 

It all depends what you’re trying to do really but for me I had to do it in order to fit something on my board...

 @bobbass4k evidently you have never come across the GK Diesel Dawg!! It’s huge and unnecessarily so... 

I rehoused it, the pic and the board it’s on shows why I did it. The hardest part (other than trying to carve out a square hole for the DC input - bit of a bodge job) was finding smaller housing that could accommodate it. 

Yay! I finally got a reply! Ha

yeah korg said “hmmm I guess some pedals don’t like being daisy chained” which although at the time seemed pretty unhelpful... it did point me to the solution. I was using a diago power station daisy chain... never had an issue until that one pedal. 

I bought a Harley Benton Power Plant Jr https://m.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_powerplant_junior.htm and with it’s isolated power outputs the problem went away... I’ve subsequently purchased another couple of these power supplies (every time I see them 2nd hand and silly cheap) to use with other pedals/board setups and have had absolutely no issues. Highly recommended 

Have you considered just making your own? That's what I did when I had a very specific setup I wanted to use but didn't want a long pedal board with everything in a row (my always on/infrequent use pedals can go at the back) I bought a job lot of flight cases and ended up making the board to fit inside it. Then I made another to see how many mooer pedals I could fit in. I have a few more cases and tons of scrap wood, so I'll probably just keep making them!