BassHertz

This is the blur from the ebay auction [b][i]"Unique hybrid construction brings a 'best of both worlds' to the sound and feel (attack and bounce of bolt-on with sustain and growl of thru-neck)"[/i][/b] After playing it I must admit that there is plenty of sustain and plenty of growl and yes the attack is very sharp the notes seems to play before you pluck the strings lol

Saw this bass on ebay and was intrigued by the paddle style neck joint so I decided to give it a try. [b]The specs are a follows; 34" scale (86.36cm) 24 fret range 2.7mm fret gauge Width at nut: 45mm String spacing (bridge): 18mm Individual 2-way adjustable brass bridges with locking saddles and string-thru-body attachment (with optional attachment to the bridge itself ) Single truss rod 6-way bolted paddle joint 7 piece maple / swamp ash neck with ebonol fingerboard Body wood: Swamp Ash with maple top Kent Armstrong dual-coil humbucker soap bars - each 3-way switchable (parallel, single, series) Boost-adjustable 9v preamp with 3-band EQ Master volume (pull for passive operation), Balance, Treble, Mid, Bass, Coil switches D'Addario XL strings [u]4.4kg[/u][/b] [b]Playability[/b] - Out of the box the intonation was set perfectly but the action was a bit higher than I am used to, but a quick tweak of the super responsive truss rod sorted that out. Balances well on a strap, very smooth fast neck and seamless access to the higher frets (not that I go there very much but it’s there if I need it). In terms of weight it feels lighter than my Yamaha TRB5II [b]Fit and finish[/b] – 9/10 only a small bit of overspray of white paint on the side of the bridge on the B string, that about the only fault I could find. The binding is done well, there are no sharp frets and the action goes really low. [b]Sound[/b] – One word – Amazing. I have never heard a bass with this much ‘growl’ and ‘burp’. In passive mode (activated by a push/pull switch ion the volume knob) the output of the pickups is quite low but still very vibrant and alive. The bridge pickup as expected provides most of the burp while the neck pickup which is in the perfect position (as I play mostly reggae) provides the depth and thickness but there is absolutely no mud whatsoever. There is no tone control when using passive mode but I might add one later. In active mode the bass really comes alive. It is fitted with an Artec MB3 preamp with Bass, and concentric Mid-Treble controls. These work quite well and so far no scratching on any of the pots. I am glad there is a midrange control on this bass as there is quite a pronounced level of midrange from the pickups, even in passive mode, so it is good to be able to tame it a little. Overall there is enough control to make this bass sit in any mix. With coil tap switches on both pickups the range of different tones you can get from this bass is endless. The sustain on this baby is immense but with the individual bridges it doesn’t make any of the other strings vibrate. At times while I was playing it I almost got a fretless mwaaah sound out of it. [b]Verdict[/b] – I am very pleased with this bass especially at just under £400 there is a lot of bass for the money. I will try to post some sound clips this week. Check out their website at http://www.rmiuk.biz/

Hi, I have a week off next week and I would like to have a go at this. How to I download the tracks?

@TomRichards. Are there any plans for some left handed models in the future?

Used to have the on in my sig picture. Great basses for the money. Only sold mine because the sheer weight of it was causing hip pain when I played it sitting down. Good luck finding a set of strings thoguh

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Jazz-Bass-1964-Left-Handed-Sunburst-w-original-case-not-a-re-issue-/190822619913?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2c6dea1b09"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Jazz-Bass-1964-Left-Handed-Sunburst-w-original-case-not-a-re-issue-/190822619913?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2c6dea1b09[/url]

The schematic shows that this is a totally passive tone control. You are going to need some sort of buffer circuit with a bit of gain. Are you handy with a soldering iron and is there space for a battery in the control cavity?

Hve you tried swapping the wires around on one of the pickups?

I found some aluminium Unistrut type stuff at work and on one side I stuck some 120Grit sandpaper and for 400Grit on the adjacent side (I know 120 is a bit rough but it was all I had available for free) to make a pretty handy fret levelling tool. I did the levelling with the strings removed and unscientifically used my eye to check that the neck was straight obviously with a tweak of the trussrod. I tried this on an cheap guitar, before letting loose on a bass, and the results were quite pleasing. I also created a fallaway with a few bits of masking tape over the 14th fret. A bit of fret crowning with a proper crowning file and a cheap and nasty guitar with like 6mm action felt like a £2000 boutique guitar (well almost)

But do they sound good with a bass head?

I hear ya Bill - I just wish one of these could fit in my car

Thanks for the replies. Do sealed enclosures require padding/dampening? The Ashdown is sealed

Just got an Ashdown Electric Blue180 with the 15" speaker. It sounded very hollow. I went down to Dunelm Mill and got some wadding/padding and put it on the inner walls of the cabinet, I think it sounds a lot better now, the deep thuds are more audible. Do the manufacturers not bother with padding inside the cabinet anymore? What do you all prefer?

You could just call Peavey on [color="#000000"]01536 461234 and ask to speak to Sales[/color]. I ordered some pots for for a TKO75 and a special 150 they were about £2.40 each

The knobs have little grub screws in them. You will need a 2mm allen key to tighten them

I was quite lucky with the TRB, it was listed on Ebay as a "Yamaha 7RB" so it didnt get much interest so it ended up going for £170. The body had quite a few surface scratches but a couple of minutes with a buffer soon sorted that out. Its probably my favourite bass Oh yeah, Ive got a no name jazz bass with a Yamaha neck pickup. Does that count?

My BBN5II and TRB5II [IMG]http://i49.tinypic.com/2cr29s5.jpg[/IMG]

I quite like the sound of those Yamaha jazz pickups. i put a set in an el-cheapo no name Jazz bass the other day and it really brought the bass to life (cliche I know). The bass went from a low output thuddy indistinct crappy sounding bass to somewhat of a tone monster - and now every note on the neck seems to ring out really well. I had to lower the neck pickup on the E-string side as it was quite bass heavy (which is really saying something as I play reggae) LOL . Out of interest, who makes the pickups for Yamahas?

Hi all, I've had a 5 string Yamaha TRBII for a few months now and I was quite impressed and happy with both the feel and the tone and the translucent blue body - but one thing I didnt like was that the output level was quite low compared to my other basses, even a passive Yamaha BBN5 was considerably louder. So the electronics engineer in me decided to do something about it. I managed to get a copy of the service manual and found the schematic and I noticed that the overall gain is cut down by half after the signal leaves the tone control stages. The gain is set using R52 and R53 around IC1-2 (OP200GP). I decided to change the gain from 0.46 to a gain of 1 by changing the value of R53 from 22k to 47k. The gain is set using R52 and R53 around IC1-2 (OP200GP). I decided to change the gain from 0.46 to a gain of 1 by changing the value of R53 from 22k to 47k Before After If you need a variable gain you could replace R53 with a potentiometer or trimmer. I hope this helps anyone who has the same issue.

Hi, from your description it sounds as if the two coils have been "pre-wired" in a series configuration. the black wire will be your ground and the red wire is your positive or hot. The green and white wires that are jioned should not be soldered to anything, just put some insulating tape around them. Solder the red wire to the middle prong of the pot and the black wire to the pot casing. This should get you going

Did you get any further with this?

just read the bit about the poor shielding in the electronics cavity. I shielded it all properly but then I noticed that the battery kept running flat when unplugged. Turns out that you cant allow the pots to touch ground in that preamp. So i removed as much as i could without taking it all to bits Anyway...any updates LOL

It could be my old one...see my sig pic. Really nice to play but I started to get hip pain after playing it sitting down - too heavy. Like everyone says they are a lot of bass for the money. Cant wait to see it when its finished