Pow_22

Please bare with me here, my ‘technical’ knowledge is lacking so I may well ramble here…. I have a Fender Cabronita bass that I want to replace the pickup in. Main reason being the well documented misaligned pole pieces. I have corrected it slightly with a threaded saddle bridge but looking over on Talkbass the consensus seems to be that the TV Jones blade pickups are a good upgrade. This is where it becomes a bit foggy – TV Jones state their blade ‘bass’ pickup is a “Thunderblade” which specs out at DCR – 4.0k and Inductance 1.74H. However, several TB’ers seem to suggest the TV Jones Superton (advertised by TV Jones as a guitar pickup) is exactly the same as the Thunderblade just in a different casing. The specs do differ slightly though when I look further into it with the Superton speccing in at DCR 4.0K and inductance 1.81h. I do much prefer the look of the Supertron, its more readily available and it does seem to be the pup Fender used on their limited run of Cabronita Borrocha basses. Would the seemingly (to my amateur mind) small variation in inductance affect the tone massively? I don’t want a toppy guitar like pickup but the fact Fender seems to put the Supertons in the Borrocha basses plus the insistence by TB’ers that the pups are one and the same suggests there may be only a very slight difference between the two pups that are advertised as “bass” and “guitar”

I do want to give these another go. I remember mine being almost a Mesa BB750 for nearly quarter of the price. As you say, it does the ‘tubey/valvey’ thing very well

Id say medium/high. Nowhere near roto’s but not floppy noodles like TI’s. May have a used set knocking round if you want to give them a wirl

I love their flats but my one big bugbare with them is their over long E string. Been like that for years and causes the body of the string to wrap round the tuning post. Still sound great but it cant be good for the string? i was told a while back that the Elites are made by GHS which may explain the above as i had the same “issue” with the E on the GHS Precision flats

Bass wise a 90's reissue Epiphone Rivoli in Cherry Red which i sold to an Irish band called the Sea Pinks. Too many an amp to mention - Ampeg Sb12, Sound City 200 Mk3, Ampeg SVT II non pro, Ampeg SVT III Non pro....

So I'm a big fan of tube tone and for home use i have an Ashdown LB30 going into a Ampeg 212AV - very moveable and great sound. However, through sheer laziness I've recently been using the in house old Peavey 1x15 combo at our rehearsal space and whilst it sounds ok its not amazing. I've also never been a pedal kinda guy, just plug my P's straight into the amp and away i go - generally looking for a slight breakup to the notes without full on distortion. On my daily browse of Richtones second hand site i saw the Dr Sparrow bass driver for not much £ and thought 'maybe i can make that old peavey sound a bit more....er....valvey' So anyway, its now on its way to me. Anyone else here use these cheap seemingly VT Bass clones? Anyone getting that "Ampeg SVT on the verge of breakup" type tone or am i expecting way too much?

I recently was in the market for a Mesa Big Block 750 and came across theirs for about £1,600!?!?!

All my basses weear flats. Every now and again i think i want some more 'growl' or 'zing' and i put rounds on....then miss the thump and 'bigness' of flats

I have heard that before. I liked both to be honest, found Status flats a little less dark than Picato but i have definitely heard in other places that Picato made Status strings

My last set had black silks at both ends. I actually had to shave some off the E string as it was sitting on the bridge saddle and dulling the tone. Back in the day they were completely silkless which i loved

Id love another BB750, always regretted selling mine

Sounds like Picato to me. They moved from silkless to black silks towards the end. Can still get sets on ebay etc but as a company they went bump a while back

See my correction, it appears they do have a fan albeit i never noticed it when i had mine

The non pro's dont have gain or drive knobs but are much more akin to 'vintage' svt's. Some might see this as a con in that they are cleaner at lower volumes and you cant crank the gain to get grit. But at full bore the non pro sounds miles better (not that the pro doesnt sound good too) completely my bad, just looked at some guts online and the II non pro does indeed have a fan. Couldve sworn my old one didnt. Sorry

There an SVT II Non Pro on bass bros website, very good price, easily the best of the 'II's' and no fan

Hotrox is my go to place. Cheaper than Watford Valves and dont put their valves in the freezer