The Last Bass Outpost

I had been wanting to pick up a small tube amp for guitar for some time now, and I came across a non-functional Blues Junior on Craigslist back in June.  It was in minty condition cosmetically, but it had "blew a fuse" according to the owner.  I took my chances, made him an offer and brought it home.




Upon tearing into it, it looked like one of the power tubes may have failed and smoked the corresponding screen resistor.

I cleaned up and fixed that mess, installed a new set of JJ tubes, and it fired right up!

Since these are pretty popular units to modify, I did some research and decided to make some of the common improvements while I still had it partially disassembled:

- Replaced the cheap PCB-mounted input jack with a Switchcraft
- Replaced the cheap PCB-mounted "fat" switch pushbutton with a toggle
- These are fixed-biased kinda hot from the factory, and so I added a trimmer to provide adjustable bias... and set it up to be a little gentler on the power tubes
- Upgraded the caps in the tone stack, and implemented the "Twin mod" on the midrange pot for a greater range of adjustment
- Replaced/upgraded the power supply filter caps
- Added a 3-position progressive Carling power switch that provides for a "standby" setting in the middle position (nice to mute the amp)
- Grabbed an amber jewel lamp for it just for grins   (haven't installed that yet)






I ran that way for a couple of weeks, and during that time got a promotional email from Antique Electronic Supply advertising a 10% off sale in July.  Figured that offered a good excuse to grab an upgraded driver and reverb tank for it!




That MOD tank made a vast improvement in the sound and sensitivity of the reverb, and the C-Rex driver really tightened up the low end.  It sounds great for a cheapie amp!  I'm happy with the results, especially considering I'm in it <$300 after all is said and done

Has anyone here owned or played one?  If so, I'd welcome your impressions.




The derelict one up on Ebay got me thinking about these again (...and no- I wouldn't touch that particular bass with a ten foot cattle prod)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Stuart-Spector-NS-1-Bass-Guitar-Brooklyn-Era-Feb-1977-/141251562013?pt=Guitar&hash=item20e33fca1d

This one came about rather sudden and unexpectedly!

The fellow I bought my 79 Mockingbird from over a year ago had another Mock up on Ebay last month - an 80s model in "ultraviolet" finish with a Bill Lawrence HB in the bridge.  Neat bass, and I sent him a message just to say "hi" and tell him good luck with it.  He said he has a move coming up, and was selling off some of the toys in prep for that... and in the course of the message exchange I mentioned that if I did ever get another BCR, it would be a Bich 8.  Shortly after that, I had pics of this thing in my email

He tells the story of it in our email exchange much better than I could ever paraphrase:

...

I had Neal Moser refurb it 2 years ago.  I am not in a big hurry to sell but I might be relocating by May so I am selling off big things.  It has "issues" in that at the last minute I had him put on a Hamer bridge after it had been painted. :-)  But, I had one in the 80s that had a badass and I could never intonate.  So Neal had it painted by GRW in LA but I changed it and he had to leave the mount holes for badass in with thr three screws.  So it has multiple bridge options!   Right.

...

Joe,
 
Lots to respond to!     Neal REALLY pushed me for Glitter Rock White and he was correct.  It looks friggin amazing under lights.   It was wood (maple wings and neck) and the previous owner stripped it and then ran out of money I guess.  I begged him to sell it and he finally parted with it.  I was going to send it to Bernie JR or Neal, Neal said yes so I didn't need to ask Bernie JR.  It is all new hardware, new Neal circuit, new Dimarzios, newer Grovers, all new. New custom case Neal's wife ordered from G&G. 

I'd forgotten how serious Neal took me on the bridge until I saw the pics again (she is in the case these days).   There were stud mounts for the Les Paul Bass type tail stop to be used for the original style bridge but when I sent him the Hamer and said, use this, he used the Hamer tail stop instead.  For I while I thought about getting the LP tail stop, but Neal just covered it with pickguard material and put the Hamer on top until I figured something out.  I left it alone since it is such a monster.  Look under the tailpiece and you'll see what I mean -- just wanted to explain my nuttiness on the bridge change.   Neal calls the pickguard covers "flanges".  Look at old mock guitars with Kahlers on them from the factory.  Many have Neal's "flanges." 
 
More info on the Hamer.  Mid-2011 I was starting to freak since I couldn't find an 8 string bridge with as narrow string spacing as the original Starz guitars bridge so I happened to see Cheap Trick on TV and it clicked -- get a Hamer bridge!  It ironic that is the exact same string space width, and Neal filed all of the saddles to fit -- really nice.  Anyway, I called the Hamer custom shop and told the supervisor of my plight and that Neal was redoing it, and he mailed me the bridge for 100.  I would have given him 500!  Now Hamer has closed -- glad I did it when I did!

...

He offered me what I felt was a very generous deal on this (it was less than he paid for the restoration work alone), and so I scrambled to sell off some stuff to try and make it happen.  Much like the Mockingbird, I've lusted after these most of my life.  Well, to be honest it was the 10-string guitar that I always wanted... but I'd get a lot more use out of a bass, and I've really gotten into the coursed string basses over the past five years or so.

So enough talk, here are some cell pics I snapped of it.  They don't do it justice...  I know the style is not to everyone's taste, but man - it's immaculate and simply stunning up close!  Moser really does nice work!

Okay spill the beans... anyone here try them yet?

There is a clip of the "fatbucker", but I haven't heard the Bisonic-alike version in action yet.

http://curtisnovak.com/pickups/EB-AA.shtml

http://curtisnovak.com/pickups/EB-BS.shtml

During the ritual search for stuff I don't need, I stumbled across this...



http://www.gbase.com/gear/danelectro-coral-teardrop-bass-left-handed-19#


Kind of cool looking!  I am a lefty, but can't play lefty to save my life... and so any potential GAS has been averted for now.

I’m brainstorming an attempt to work out some issues on an ailing Ric that I recently adopted, and was hoping to get feedback on some aspects of the repair – and if nothing else share some pics of bass guts!

This bass has an issue that some of these seem to exhibit, where the neck bows inward and breaks away from the body wings, leaving cracks in the finish and a neck like a whammy-bar!  




The cracks on this one extend roughly 5cm into the body on the bass side (and 4cm on the treble), and this butts right up against that long, narrow pole-piece route seen in the pic below.  That is the deepest part of the neck pickup’s swimming pool, and leaves only 1cm thick of wood remaining in the neck structure there:




This is the place where the bass wants to fold in on itself under tension, and I’m planning to reinforce this whole area in an effort to get it useable.  A member on RR forum had shared a photo of how he usually fills this swimming pool route with a maple insert, makes a more deliberate route for the pickup, and a couple channels for the truss rods.  This seems like a good idea, and I’ve bought some maple in order to attempt it.  The pickup doesn’t need a very big route afterall, and that deep pole-piece route could be roughly 6mm more shallow (and quite a bit narrower):






My questions have less to do with that, and more with finding a tactic to use in repairing the neck and body seams.  

Is there any good way to work some glue into those seams without completely removing the body wings?  I’d like to do that when that swimming-pool insert gets glued in.  That way the body+neck pieces will be properly aligned again and the glue will set and bond those cracked areas back together.

I was thinking that maybe a syringe could be used to inject glue into the seams from the top/inside(?)  The problem is that the seams are tight and I’m not sure how I’d pull that off.  Just wondering if anyone here has advice?

New pointy bass day!

First chance I ever had to try one of these was at a guitar shop in the early 90s.  It left an impression - I remember liking its sound and feel (especially the neck), and have had one on the bucket list ever since.  I've always loved the shape of these and the Eagle basses.



Nice birdseye wings:


With some of the varitone family:



I have a gig this weekend, and I'm really looking forward to putting it through the paces there.

With this, an Aria SB, and a Precision, my (inadvertent) Neil Murray shrine is nearly complete!  

"Cats away! Artist turns his dead pet into flying helicopter after it is killed by a car"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2154283/Cats-away-Artist-turns-dead-pet-flying-helicopter-killed-car.html#ixzz1x2md95Zv