Basschat, a love letter

[LukeFRC]

And a little bit special this one... it's also lightweight... and a very very early BB1200.
It doesn't get played as much as it deserves but you know when you have a really nice instrument and it just plays and feels like the really expensive basses you've played...
Ok if someone wanted to swap for a fodera I probably would but it's another instrument I'm lucky to get to play.

[LukeFRC]

So as I said earlier I went to sell the GK combo to a guy local to me (and basschatter) who runs a studio here in leeds. He let me play a load of his amps and cabs and basses (his 1977 Stingray was amazing and why I built the pink one)... I went to sell him an amp and ended up giving him twice as much and walking away with this... it makes basses sound how I want basses to sound. It's a B15 for the 21st century and it's probably unsurpassable! A wrongly labled eBay add meant I picked up a 1950's Phillips valve for about £3 that currently sits in her and is a step up from the stock Mesa valve.

Oh and after I sold the electric guitar I missed having something to strum... I set myself a budget and took a punt on something without labels on eBay - purely based on the photo that showed some quite nice wood that looked like ebony. Worst case scenario I wasted my budget on some pile of crap guitar....

What I ended up with is a copy of an early scalloped braced Martin 00, all hand made by a fella called [font="Arial, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif"][color="#000000"]Steve Evans who later created the Boltona resonator company... it's got mahogany body a very wide neck, ebony board and oddly a V shaped neck. It's stunning sounding and really sings - never played another guitar like it. [/color][/font]
[font="Arial, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif"][color="#000000"][/color][/font]
[color=#000000][font=Arial, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif]oh and if anyone is interested it's a Fujifilm XT1, XF18-55 lens with the vivid film sim on... [/font][/color]

[Dazed]

Where's the blue streamer?



......... And the wife?

[LukeFRC]

[quote name='Dazed' timestamp='1455395512' post='2978841']
Where's the blue streamer?



......... And the wife?
[/quote] sold in post 3. I didn't get on with the sound at all... the natural one from the same year was so different sonically!
EDIT: That's obviously about old bluey. The wife's still here - she actually bought me the thumb bass for my birthday- it's useful having someone fluent in German about to import basses from Germany

Edited February 13, 2016 by LukeFRC

[LukeFRC]

So an update 4 years on... 

We last left it with Warwick Streamer, a Warwick Thumb and a BB1200
Three through necks.

The BB1200 I didn't get on with at all. Like it played nice but something about the sound I didn't like. Sounded nothing like a precision despite the way it looked either. 
So I sold that and bought Gareth's 1981/82 Slot polepiece G&L L1000. 
I used to live with a guy who had had a random music career in California, and played pro bass for a while, his advice to me was "basses are basses, but if you see a slot polepiece L1000 - buy it." So I did. It's great and reminded me how much I love bolt on instruments!

 

Next to change was the Thumb.
It was a dream bass for me from before I played bass. And I had finally owned one. And it sounded good... except for one thing. 
Back in 1985 when they made it cabs I think didn't have tweeters as commonly. So a modern sound could be made by boosting the high range. Both the active  pickups AND the preamp were hyping the top end. 
Which is fine, and most the time you wouldn't notice it in a bass rig, or could attenuate it. 
Except I was playing at church with no backline, straight into a DI  and IEM, and all we could hear in our ears was top end! It just didn't work well in that setting. 
I also had the problem that it was a clear number three in the pecking order. There was nothing that the Thumb could do that I couldn't get out of the ACG equipped Streamer... So I ended up trading it with Warwickhunt (again) for his Sadowsky Will Lee. 

I don't like Jazzes much remember... until this one. 

 

That Pink stingray type thing on the previous page got remade as this, USA Sub neck, a body I made myself and yeah. I think only the tuners and pickup from the original got used! Fun build and it was a very nice instrument. But... not as exceptional as the others  

So that got sold to fund something else... the Walkabout also got sold...
To replace it I tracked down another of the Quantum 600 amps (took years to find one!) and built one of the BCCab speakers that Stevie had designed. I bought a HX stomp which does the tone into the effects loop of the Quantum or to the PA.
Because of the Stomp being so flexible the ACG preamp in the Warwick also got sold and the original one went in... so after selling the walkabout, the black thing I made myself and the preamp, and buying the H&K I had a wee bit of money....

And found my first 5 string! Lakland 55-94. Still getting to grips with it.