GarethFlatlands

Sounds like I got a good deal, I found the old info on the SWR site and RRP for these was around $1k so you can't go wrong for £50. Of course it could have a load of issues and need a lot of servicing and repair but I know the guys who sold it reasonably well so it should be at least working. The EQ looks a bit more complex than I'm used to but I'm trying it out Wednesday night so we'll see if my simple brain can figure it out.

Aw, I don't usually like filters but the flexibility of this thing is really tempting me.

An Alesis rack gate/comp/limiter (£10!) and a Roland W30 (£50) were the only other good looking things for me, didn't see the Alesis until I'd got home and I'm away for the rest of the weekend so opportunity missed there. That seems to be the general opinion on the amp from what I've read, some people seem to use them as a DI or for studio work (why they had it I guess). Shame it doesn't have more power really but I'll try it at volume and see how it sounds. Quite looking forward to it!

A local studio is moving and getting rid of a lot of stock. In amongst the stuff I didn't want and stuff I did want but in no way needed there was an old SWR Studio 220 head for a bargain £50. I picked it up this morning and haven't had chance to try it out yet (no cab at home) but it looks pretty good for the price. Anyone owned one? I've only played through an SWR once, an old 750 watt head and 6 by 10 cab when I tried out for Oceansize </namedrop> and it was very nice from what I remember but you don't seem to see SWR stuff used much.

[quote name='Gareth Hughes' timestamp='1354661703' post='1888970'] For about £90 you can get a Carl Martin Classic Optical Compressor. I am seriously in love with mine - has a lovely big sound to it with the gain turned up and great, user friendly flexibility with the attack and compress knobs. I'm a fan of simple compressors for live use and this ticks the box. Had previously used a DBX 163A and a Joe Meek 3Q preamp. The Carl Martin is a happy medium there for me. Well worth the money. [/quote] GAK has them for £80 but then delivery is a fiver. I've never tried them but they were one of the recommended cheaper optical compressors on Ovnilabs along with the BYOC (if you want to spend several hours soldering and assembling). The Aguilar is praised on here if you can find one in the for sale section - edit - There's one on there but it's still £105 so out of your budget.

Possibly a daft question but are you controlling by some bass > midi control magic or just a regular midi controller?

Love my M5 on guitar, not so sure about bass. The chorus was a little muddy and neither the compressors or distortion were amazing. A few of the more extreme effects (the synthy ones) seem to have been very much voiced with guitar in mind too. I have to admit to not spending a huge amount of time with it on bass and will stand corrected if there are some amazing sounds that I've missed.

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/192721-vintage-brand-bass-restore/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/192721-vintage-brand-bass-restore/[/url] Check out my repair thread! (Mouse mat foam if you can't be faffed reading.)

[quote name='Elvis Valentine' timestamp='1353424415' post='1874795'] The new Deftones album . Pretty freakin good, a lot more upbeat than Diamond Eyes. Perhaps understandably. [/quote] I didn't like Diamond Eyes that much but the new one is tons better. [quote name='Elvis Valentine' timestamp='1354121942' post='1882378'] The new Future of the Left album - the plot against common sense Its really good. Crazy lyrics. [/quote] Great album, it loses track a little towards the end but there's some moments of genius on there.

Well I took a lesson last week and I'm getting more consistent in actually making it sound musical. The main issue practising quietly in the flat as the mute adds too much resistance and I struggle with hitting the G with it in. Practising quietly is good practice though so it's getting about 20 minutes or so a day with the mute in and out. I'm enjoying the challenge at the moment and look forward to it!

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1353774845' post='1878381'] what brand coffee do you use for your rebuilds? [/quote] Cafedirect medium roast, made in a Sadovsky cafetiere. Bass re-strung, I had a bit of a noodle and it sounded a lot fuller already. I'm going to leave it overnight to adjust and then have a look at a setup tomorrow, maybe with some sound clips.

The next thing was the pickup height. The Kent Armstrongs sat a lot lower, (and I mean a hell of a lot lower) than the stock pickups for some reason. I've posted a pic in the past but lord knows where it's got to so here's another. Crumbs that's low. There are no strings on this one but you can just about see the bridge saddle and edge of the board to see the problem. Weedy quiet, tone central. I needed something to raise the pickup height, and this was something I wasn't prepared to skimp on. It was vintage, Fender only brand foam, woven from the belly button fluff of Leo himself. If you're going to use anything else, you may as well quit playing bass. With that in mind just skip over this picture.... 2 layers looked like it was going to do the job for each pickup. ('scuse the blurriness). A handy clothes label provided some string (with pre-tied end knot) to test the height when strung. Much better!

After much complaining of having nothing to do at the weekend, I dug out my old Vintage 5 string bass which I haven't touched in many a year. I bought it in about '99 and used it for a year or so while I played bass with 65daysofstatic before it got upgraded to a Warwick Rockbass. It was a pretty good bass apart from the dire active circuit and pickups so I ripped them out and put in some Kent Armstrongs but left it very much unfinished and it's been sat behind my bed for a long, long time. I thought I'd finally try and address the little problems I've had with it and see if I couldn't make it workable again as it seemed like a waste of a usable bass. I also figured I'd do a photo journal type thing to see if it helped anyone or if I was doing anything massively wrong. Depending on whether or not it inspired me, I thought I'd ask for suggestions on what to do next with it, eg do I stick a nice 2 band EQ in there or leave it passive? Does anyone fancy cutting me a nice bone nut to replace the crappy plastic one? That kind of thing. First things first, there was a lot of built up dirt on both the frets and the fretboard. The strings also hadn't been changed in probably 7 years or so. So, old strings off and masking tape next to each side of each fret to protect the board. Then, using fine grade wire wool, I cleaned the frets with some vigorous rubbing. Spot the difference between old, dirty fret and nice shiny clean fret. Once done, the fretboard was treated to a rub down with lemon oil. A fair amount of dirt was being picked up by the cloth (as you can see) so I re-oiled it every 5 frets or so and moved to a clean bit of cloth. Again, I used a fair amount of elbow grease to lift as much of the muck as I could. Board oiled, I left it for 20 minutes or so to dry and grabbed a coffee.....

There's an Encore P bass in the lounge. That's me done apparently.

[quote name='Kongo' timestamp='1353638776' post='1876927'] I guess I could flip your question around and say "Why play fretted if you don't slap"? :-P [/quote] I was being facetious which I don't think really came across. For the record, I have one bass which I actually play which is fretless. And while you can play normally and not put in a lot of 'mwah' and vibrato, the harder thing for me was not doing it all the time.

[quote name='Kongo' timestamp='1353602649' post='1876499'] Also might be worth adding here, a fretless bass can just be played as is. You don't HAVE to slide and have a huge amount of "mwah" at all times y'know. :-P [/quote] Then why have a fretless in the first place

[quote name='umph' timestamp='1353540388' post='1875971'] Great stuff dude look forward to having it in! what model is it? [/quote] GT1, probably another month or 2 before it needs to come in as I've not played it much this year but usually gets done around August/September time. I usually use JJ EL34's.

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1353600204' post='1876459'] To be fair, I'm not sure that's a terribly good example. I find it quite hard to pick out what he's playing - especially when he is playing in lower registers. Would that sound cut through a dense mix? I have my doubts. Nice playing though! [/quote] The bass is quite prominent in the mix on the quieter stuff but isn't too clear in the heavier sections because of the dense guitars. Give their stuff a listen! This one is off 'Valley of Smoke', good album.

The guitarist from my last band had a 4 channel amp with one channel on full gain, full treble and all the other tone controls on zero in honour of this video. I made him a vallnott Dymo label for his footswitch.

I just use basic Levys ones that go for about £15, never had any problems with them. I still use the 2nd one I ever bought back in the late 90's on my main guitar. The Bear ones do look nice though.

Dean from Bedford Guitars has set up my last 2 guitars, I've known him for ages and he's learnt his trade extremely well over the years doing guitar tech work for some big name bands. I'll be taking the Matamp there for it's next re-tube.

Check out Intronaut's bassist Joe Lester. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMcj7x-J96o"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMcj7x-J96o[/url]

Phwoar. Depends on the price but yeah. Nice.