The Last Bass Outpost

That's what I was thinking.  I just hope the place by my work has 2-5W resistors in something other than ceramic.  I might have to mail order.

I use 5W wirewound (rs#762-9469, cheap but reliable) and always replace all if they look iffy or too low W. Carbon comp screen grid resistors I throw away. Screen grids in tubes is a weak spot in todays tubes.

As a side note, if you suspect one gassy tube or have a bad feeling for it - just replace it. Measure the others and buy one that test similar, people sell good used ones really cheap.

Looking good!

I didn't care for the way they sounded, but I wouldn't agree that they were crap just because Curtis Novak thinks they are.

Curtis makes fine pickups, but he does say things about magnet wire I do not always agree to. 43 AWG wire is not equal to thin 'anemic' sound; many great pickups are made with thin wire. And ceramic magets does good things too, in some designs. I had to look twice at a pickup he calls the 'Charlie Christian P bass pickup'. It's just a tall coil P bass pickup with 38 AWG wire. I know the thick wire was used on the very first version of the bar pickup, but the narrow sensing area of the bar polepiece (as well as the cobalt steel magnets) contributes much more to the sound than just the wire, he's gotta know that... The later CC units with normal wire still sound like CC pickups.

Anyway, I do agree with him that most of the mass produced asian single coil pickups made on a plastic bobbin with glued on ceramic magnets (and whatever eire they use) lack the ability to reproduce a good guitar tone. But they are also the reason I sell quite a few homemade strat pickups, so I can't complain!

This one looks fine, rare to see a good one this old listed as 'EB-0'

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1962-Gibson-EBO-Bass-Guitar-/322221256962?hash=item4b05e23102:g:MP0AAOSw0UdXqN2k

If it does not skyrocket in the last minute it might be a good investment!

Fender amps with smoked screen grid resistors must be the most common sight in my amp shop.
It's a good thing you installed a bias pot, all in all it's worth it to do some safety mods to these amps.
I install 5W screen grid resistors on all these fender amps. In theory you do not need 5W, but 1W or 2W units do
blow up all the time on these amps. The IC caps is also not he best, they fail fairly common too.

But they are good amps when they work!

Don;t know much about what makes the pups unique but it could also be something there too (like their DCR that makes 1 Meg pots work better; not sure)

I think they have about the same DCR as a P90. The bobbin is really very much the same as a P90, but is forbon instead of plastic. I guess that the wire being wound directly around a short rod magnet makes them sound more fenderish than P90's. 

Holy crap Clapton is coked up to the gills in that vid.

A little spoonful of coke?

At least there is lots of nice clips of Jack's beautiful bass!