The Last Bass Outpost

I decided to start a new thread for the deserving Terror head.  I have the 1000 watt version and it's a brute.  I took the ExFactor and Hofner Club to practice tonight and all went well.  Both basses performed well with the amp.  The ExFactor was huge in active mode.  The Club was great too.  Gone was the woofing mud I had with the Mesa.  The Club ended up being my fave.  It was bassy, hollowish and clear.  I really liked the tone and sound of it. 

Being the capricious gear whore that I am, I know I am prone to switch at a moment's notice on things.  I have however come to some conclusions about amps.  There are so many variables, one cannot control for all possible contingencies.  One just tries to adapt.

My current dilemma, my Mesa Prodigy is a great amp, but I can't get it to perform the way I want it to.  Many folks probably can I'm sure, but after months of trying, I can't seem to dial it in to meet the demands of the tone my brain seeks out and situation I play in routinely.  Part of the problem is the crappy acoustics of our club.  The other is the nature of this all tube amp.  I want deep rich lows, but get a delayed, indistinct boomy output when I try to dial that in.  When I go for cleaner, less boomy, the bass end leaves me wanting more. 

My Hofner Club sounds like total crap through the amp no matter how I set things up.  In fact, all of my hollow bodies suck through this rig.  It could also be the speakers in combination with this amp, although they sound great with other amps.

So, I borrow an Orange Terror 1000 from the shop to try out and wow, I was amazed.  Deep rich lows, no boominess, sharp quick attack, the gain control warmed it up nicely, the speakers were cranking out a distinct warm bass that sounded great in our mix and hit that undefinable sweet spot in my twisted 60's brain.  Man I was bummed and pleased at the same time.  The sound was very close to my little B-15 rig.

So, it's gonna be solid state with a tube preamp for awhile.  I am gonna take my B-15 and the Marshall Super Bass in as well to do some comparisons.  I'll bore you all with my thoughts on that over the next couple weeks!   

I remember reading some time ago that the earlier 4003 basses (late 80's) had slimmer necks without the volute the current ones have.  Is that true, Ric experts?

I've been trolling around for a better band saw and Woodcraft just put one that I was considering on sale.  They knocked off $180 and it's going for $419.  It's a Rikon with good reviews.  Just thought I'd share!  I'd love a heavier duty saw, but this price point works for me.

No need for words..........this blew me away.

It's been months since I tore my shop up to do a redesign of it.  Now, it's almost all back together and I'm making some forms to build the sides on my basses.  I'm going with the one design for now and I'm going to try a acoustic version with bent wood sides and a solid body model.

Here's the design....


And the forms I made this week.......



I'm trying a new, bendable wood for guitar sides, I'll post more on that when it arrives.

Never mind, I'm good for now!

There's an 80's Hamburg model that I am nanoseconds away from buying.  I have always wanted one of these and I know it's not worth $1200, but I still want one.  Geez……...