Rich

[b]Mcnach's review from [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=132430"]this thread[/url]:[/b] I received the P-Retro preamp and installed it... a pretty easy install, as always. A tiny bit more involved, but I mean *tiny*. There is a paper strip containing four thin wires that you have to prebend and make sure the thin pins slot in their connectors without bending them in the process, which is only marginally fiddly. I had a bit of a problem with it in my haste to get it done in time for a little live session I had, but it was easy to figure it out and John agreed to send me a new strip wire bit so that I make sure I have a solid connection... as always, customer service from John East is fantastic! No soldering whatsoever involved, which is nice if you just want to install it and play. The fit inside the Squier was perfect. It may seem a bit of an imbalance to install this preamp in a Squier, but in my opinion these CV series are pretty nice basses, and I'm really enjoying mine. So there It was nice to see that the cavity in the Squier was pretty neat, and covered with shielding paint with a wire anchored in it. I mean, it's as basic as it gets (I'd prefer copper shielding, but...) and for years and years the normal thing was to find totally unshielded instruments, not just Squier, Fender too. My standard procedure for a new Strat was always open it up and shield it. Glad to see they're taking a bit of care now even on "lowly" Squiers. Better late than never! I didn't take any pictures of the preamp itself, I forgot all about it and it takes so little to install that before you realise, you're done. There are enough pictures on the net anyway if you need to se what it looks like. But I did remember to take one picture. Well, we have all seen those "modified" Sue Ryder P-basses with tortoiseshell pickguards etc... I wondered what it'd be like if I put a SR pickguard on teh Squier I thought it looked pretty cool Anyway, I installed it, and it looks like this: I didn't install the led (battery and charging indicator) bezel on the pickguard, so the led is tucked inside. I haven't yet played much with the various configurations: you can select level of the bass boost switch with an intrnal trim pot, and the bass frequency with a set of dip switches. Also the bright switch. They're all internal, but easily accessible from the side if you just remove a few screws and lift the pickguard a bit. I just used it so far with the defaults and I'm pretty impressed. It took me a bit to get my head around the way it works, because it's very different to most other preamps, but once you play wth it a bit it just "clicks" and makes intuitive sense. What I like about this preamp is that it's not trying to make the P-bass sound like something else. In fact, the core of the tone is a passive circuit, just like the original (one nice point is you get two different capacitors to try... again no soldering, just pull one out and push the other in). So what I do is select the "ballpark" of the sound I want, passively. On P-basses I seem to use the tone control a lot, and I like the results. The P-retro seems to just want to add a bit of "tweakability" to that. Or a lot of it, actually, but not detracting from a recognisable P-bass sound. So, once I get the tone control where I want it, engage the preamp. That gives you a little clean boost if the active tone control is set flat (a centre detent shows you where that position is). Now, I can do two things, I can simply add a bass boost (the gain and frequency are preselected through the internal trim pot and dip switches... so you need to play around with that to figure what settings you want. The defaults worked well enough, but I will certainly investigate further) or start playing with the mids control. The control is a two-pot with concentric knobs. The bottom one allows you to select the frequency, the top one cus/boosts mids. Well, that's the simple way to imagine it and it helps me decide what I want to do with it. In fact the preamp blurb states that clockwise, it boosts mids (based on the freq selected with the bottom part of the concentric knob). In the middle it does nothing. Anticlockwise it boosts bass and treble, rather than simply cutting mids, what it seems is that it may produce that effect by boosting outside the area of frequency selected. To my ears is mostly bass bosst what I hear, more than treble. So you can use that to get a scooped sound and adjust the sound with the frequency sweep control. But the sweep is so wide, from very high to very low frequencies, that it's much more than a "scooped sound generator". If the frequency selected is high... it essentially will act as a bass boost mostly, and viceversa you can enhance the clank of the P-bass if you select a high frequency (although that's more effectively done using the mid boost). It seems complex in words... but it's really intuitive when you try it, and you can go from a dull (in a nice way) vintage type of sound with strong warm mids, to a punk/metal friendly bright sound, to a reggae ultra deep tone... very easily. And they all sound like a P-bass! I didn't use it on Saturday night as I was still trying to get to grips to its functions, having just installed it, so I took my trusty Stingray away (with a John East MMSR preamp... but I have to insist: I have no connection with John East, othr than I really like his designs!). On Sunday I did use it at a jam session, and that's where I learnt to use it and fell in love with it. It's not cheap, but it does what it does very well. So, these were my initial impressions... now I have to play a bit with the multiple choices of frequency and bass boost levels to fine-tune it for my liking... but it's already very nice. Glad I bought this.

And me

Way, way back before they became so absurdly popular, I saw a pre-EB Ray advertised for £250. It took a while to sell too. And I didn't buy it. Twit.

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Hartke-HA3500-cased-bass-guitar-amp-/330553062402?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item4cf67f7402"]Hartke HA3500[/url]... wonderful things. Loud and punchy, well mine is anyway And an absurd bargain. Leaving you lots of cash left over for toys

Waaaay back in the late 80s, in my originals band at the time... we were going for it, we had the image and the clothes and the hair, yes even me... and we had a really great set of catchy original material. We were starting to get interest, Island records were especially keen, and so we spent our whole time gigging up in London to get noticed. Slap was bbbig at the time, I was well into it and, just to blow my own trumpet, I was pretty good at it too. At the time, anyway. Anyway... we were playing support one night at, was it the Rock Garden? can't remember for sure. Hey, it was 24 years ago, give me a break One of our tunes featured a short but fairly brutal slap solo, which I took... and having finished it, looked up into the audience... straight into the eyes of the god-like Nick Beggs, one of my heroes (turned out he was there as a guest with the headline act). I nearly died of shock. He smiled, raised his pint at me and mouthed the word 'nice'. I was walking on air for months after that.

When our beloved OldGit had his Shuker P5 built, he had the LED switch housed in the battery box surround on the back. OK so it meant that you had to take the bass off to switch them on/off, but that's when you do it anyway, right? It was a neat idea and kept the front of the bass clean. Another idea possibly worth pursuing... how about having a push/pull switch on the volume knob and using this as your ac/pas switch? That's what Jon did for my LED switch. If you had a push/pull and the OldGit LED switch idea, you'd only need to find space for one actual flick switch on the front of the bass. Much cleaner.

Banjo! C'mon, you know you want to...

This, we like. 10 out of 10 for something a bit different.

If you need to get the jack on there as well, then it's got to be the last one I reckon.

I don't* but I bloody wish I did, and I doff my hat to those of you that do. * apart from a bit of noodling around on the obligatory pawn-shop acoustic. Everyone should have one.

[quote name='LITTLEWING' post='1201663' date='Apr 16 2011, 11:03 AM']I'm not complaining, it sounds bloody awesome even in passive mode, and that neck - soooo gawjuss !![/quote] I hear ya. My RBX765A has the most comfortable neck of any 5 I've ever played. Yamaha basses are wonderful.

Just going to shift this to the Build Diaries, in the hope that it will be one

Current list is: [b]1. farmer61 2. Steve-Soar 3. the inglourious bass turd [/b][he asked at post #64][b] 4. Gust0o 5. Jacqueslemac 6. Stompbox[/b]

[quote name='Fat Rich' post='1199135' date='Apr 14 2011, 10:30 AM']This sounds suspiciously like my E.L.B.O.W. system. You will be hearing from my solicitors Crunn, Bannister & Bloodnok shortly.[/quote] The similarity is ironic, as a lot of people can't tell the one system from the other. But yeah, bring it on. Direct all correspondence to my solicitors Messrs. Sue, Grabbit & Runn. EDIT: also, your user name is very obviously a parody of mine, so I shall be filing a counter-suit.

Everybody knows that long runs of cable suck the life out of your tone. The longer the signal chain, the less life in the sound, the duller it is. I have studied these theories in great depth over the last few years, examining closely the entire theoretical signal length of each individual note from the very start (the way in which the string is struck or plucked) to the very end (the way in which the note is processed by the ears of the listener). I can now tell you that my studies have proved beyond a doubt that the shorter this entire chain can be made, the more pure the tone. Using my revolutionary Audiological Research Sensory Extension (ARSE) method (pat.pending), all extraneous unwanted effects can be eliminated for the purest possible tone. Normally my ARSE is only available via a teaching pack retailing at a very reasonable $599.99 -- however, in what I consider to be an act of incalculable generosity, I am willing to share the wondrous secrets of my ARSE with you, my BC buddies, entirely [b][i]free of charge[/i][/b]. Just so long as you keep it to yourselves! To witness the marvels of the ARSE, simply do the following: [list=1] [*]Take your finger, or plectrum, or thumb (depending on whether you're a fingerstyle, pick or slap player); [*]Ram it in your ear. [/list]Hey presto. The distance between the very beginning and very end of the total signal length of each note is now reduced to as near zero as is possible. Perfect sonic nirvana is yours! Enjoy.

[quote name='MB1' post='1196290' date='Apr 11 2011, 10:05 PM']MB1. WTF? [/quote] LOL. FFS

+2

[quote name='icastle' post='1193867' date='Apr 9 2011, 04:10 PM']I understand about the baby oil, but I agree that the egg whisk was probably a step too far.[/quote] Actually I thought the egg whisk was an inspired idea. Made such a refreshing change from the usual squeegee mop. But it was when the slug actually went into the mangle that it finally became a bit too much for me.

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1192507' date='Apr 8 2011, 04:30 AM']Remember when Stingrays were changing hands for as little as £550[/quote] I remember seeing one advertised for £250. And I still didn't buy it. I take your point on the question of the "excellent condition, but has a few dings" thing. I think in those cases, the 'excellent condition' would refer to all the stuff that makes a bass playable and good-sounding -- the neck, the action, pups, preamp, etc etc. I would describe my Wal as being in excellent condition, but she's a 30 year old bass and has all the normal stuff you'd expect a 30 year old bass to have... a bit of lacquer crazing on the body, tiny bit of buckle rash, couple of minor dings, that sort of stuff. Everything else is wonderful though. So how [i]should[/i] I describe it, if not 'excellent'? Speaking of my Wal -- in 1986 I bought it for £330, haggled down from 350, and it was hanging on the shop's wall for a good fortnight before I even decided to try it. [i]330 quid for a Wal.[/i] Market value again.

[quote name='bassworld site']Rich Registered user # 28 Location: Wurzel Country Occupation: nude alligator wrestling[/quote] Number 28? Blimey, now I feel [i]really[/i] old.

800 notes for a handmade 5 string Jazz? Absurd value.

Bass solos in jazz... why? Why not?

on The Africa Channel (Sky channel 268) right NOW!

I sincerely hope it's kinder to the bass's sound than the Freebass was...

Flatwounds, if you like the feel of them.