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Topics - daan

Pages: 1 [2]
16
The Outpost Cafe / Local (western WI) WW2 aircraft news
« on: August 28, 2013, 01:51:57 PM »
http://www.newrichmond-news.com/content/historic-airplane-returns-flight

Historic airplane returns to flight.
For nearly a decade, XT-752 has been grounded due to its declining condition.
..
But on Aug. 9, after years of restoration efforts, it took to the skies above New Richmond to the cheers of onlookers. It's last flight was in 2004.
Harry Odone, who has guided the historic airplane's return to flight, piloted the historic 1950's-era British warplane that evening.
"She took to the air like she was brand new," Odone said. "It seemed like she wanted to fly. She flew absolutely perfectly. It was quite pleasant, really."
Odone said he was a bit nervous as the pre-flight checks were completed, but it didn't take long for him to get comfortable after takeoff.
"There's a lot that goes through your mind before you take off," he admitted. "You have to expect the unexpected."
 Since the Fairey Gannet's flight, Odone said the restored airplane has received a lot of attention from media outlets around the world. Magazines in France and Germany are already planning features on the XT-752's return to the air. Several television programs are also anticipated.
The airplane's owner, Shannan Hendricks, said she is excited about all the attention the Fairey Gannet is getting.
"I'm overwhelmed with the amazing positive effect she is having around the world, from aviation historians to international media," she commented. "Many European countries are already contacting me to see if she would come over to visit and display at their shows, not to mention the many here at home. She attracts a huge amount of attention wherever she goes which is fantastic, especially for the team who has put thousands of hours in to get to this point."
Thanks to the help from sponsors and partners, such as AkzoNobel, who are the biggest aerospace paint manufacturers in the world, Hendricks said, the XT-752 has found its second life.
She said the airplane will make a few appearances during the fall, but the vast majority of the planning going on now is for the 2014 schedule. Next year is the airplane's 60th anniversary year.
"We are also bringing to the forefront our plans for a very unique historic museum of education with airworthy historic aircraft," Hendricks said. "Our plans include seminars and classes for people of all ages who would like to have a path in aviation either in historic preservation or as flight crew, creating employment as it grows."
For more information about the airplane, visit http://www.faireygannetxt752.com.
The Fairey Gannet XT-752, built in the United Kingdom in 1954, is one of only eight that were manufactured by the British Navy. The XT-752's original job was to hunt Russian submarines during the Cold War.
After the Fairey Gannet was taken out of military service, the plane ended up in the United States. It eventually found a permanent home in New Richmond more than two years ago.
.- See more at: http://www.newrichmond-news.com/content/historic-airplane-returns-flight#sthash.VPQ520KF.dpuf



I had NO IDEA this was even in my town. Sometimes I hear planes around the airport when I take the kids to school, but this one sounded different than the usual "commuter" light planes we get. Then I saw this on the front page of the local paper. Cool!

17
The Bass Zone / Using "guitar" pups in a bass
« on: July 31, 2013, 06:58:31 PM »
I have a Hondo Jazz copy, it has some "issues"  :rolleyes: one of them being the pickups. They fell apart, I had them rewired (the pickup guy said he was able to just re-asemble them instead of actually rewinding them) which was fine, except 2 of the 3 wires coming out of the pups don't actually have WIRE inside the plastic insulation... and I tried taking one apart to see if I could fix it myself. So anyway, I already have a fake P/J style bass that I like the sound of, so I don't just want to put Fender-style pups in this bass (not that they'd fit, it's routed for humbucker-shaped pups now) and also I love the sound of the P-90 pups in the guitar I have. Has anyone here put a P90 in a bass? What would that sound like, does anybody have any experience with that?
An older guitar I used to have, got a set of Gretsch Electromatic pups put into it that I suspect were just guitar "mini humbuckers" with no visible pole pieces, and that sounded great. And the stock pups are close enough in size that I could cut new pup rings to size for minis easier than plugging and re-routing the wood.
So how about it?
Oh yeah, posts about 70's rock, model trains, WWII aircraft and stuff like that are welcome in here too.  ;D

And, I heard that wearing fish nets while playing increases your "tone" by 73%. Is that still true if you have your OEM leg hair still?  :mrgreen:

18
http://www.rondomusic.com/spb1100wh.html




I'm a sucker for semi-hollow basses, I used to have a Hofner that was really nice

and an Ibanez that was also nice,

both of which I had to sell to pay bills. I also had a fake EB-2 that was terrible and don't miss at all.

So instead of actually working on the bass I have now (Hondo fake Jazz bass) I'm farting around on the net and see this Douglas thing that really reminds me of my Ibanez. I think I had that bass for about 3 weeks, and really regretted having to sell it. Now I see this thing and I can almost afford it (well, if I actually finished some of my crap so I could sell it). So somebody on here needs to buy this, so they can tell me it's a dog and I'm not missing anything.

19
Other Bass Brands / Cool Gretsch "Committee" bass
« on: March 18, 2013, 03:10:40 AM »
I saw the guitar version of this at a store by me, and have been poking around the net to learn more about them. Of course a bass popped up on ebay... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gretsch-Committee-Bass-Guitar-70s-Vintage-/181100845346?pt=Guitar&hash=item2a2a739922#ht_237wt_1172






All walnut with maple "stripes". I'm a sucker for the laminated wood neck-thru guitars (as long as the layers aren't from plywood, ha ha) The guitar I tried wasn't particularly heavy so I wonder how much this bass would weigh. Anybody here ever try one of these?

And off-topic, but does the new Photobucket make anybody else want to break things? Jeez what a mess. Good thing it's free...

20
The Outpost Cafe / Thank you guys
« on: March 17, 2013, 11:56:46 PM »
I just got done reading the BOC thread, watching all the videos and digging around in Wikipedia. Every time I come here, it's like I'm in "70's music school" or something (in a good way). I kind of missed all this stuff when it was new (too young for most of it, then too into newer stuff) and kind of dismissed most of stuff from that era as kind of old and not worth going back to. My father-in-law gave me all his records and I've been ripping them onto my Ipod to listen in the car, and it's been really fun hearing all this stuff. Plus reading what you guys write about, it's like learning back stories and what contemporaries thought of it when it was new.
It's really late and I'm rambling now so I'll go back to lurking but thanks again and keep it up.

21
The Bass Zone / Pictures (everybody loves pictures)
« on: December 30, 2012, 12:54:02 AM »
Reading the "your crappy first basses" thread made me want to go find the pix of mine (80's "Global" brand plywood POS that someone had changed the bridge and tuners for decent ones) The pickups sounded REALLY good, especially thru the "Tube Driver" pedal my friend had.

I had that thing for a couple years, but had "headstock envy" and had to trade it for a "real" bass, which of course didn't sound or play as nice as my first one. (Mexican "Squier series" P bass that didn't stick around long) It just sounded like a generic bass, and wouldn't stay in tune real well. Now I would have tried to fix it but at the time (pre-internet) I thought it was a dud bass so it got traded for somehting else(which is also gone) Along with most of my hair  :sad:  :mrgreen:

My sister liked playing my first bass, she was really good too but was only fooling around with it. She picked it up a million times faster than I ever did, but never kept up with it unfortunately.

I had to ambush her "paparazzi style" to get these pix, and she really did try to hit me with the bass in the last pic. One of her friends actually hit her boyfriend with the bass "El Kabong" style later, other than scratches I could never find anything wrong with it. His head, OTOH probably didn't fare as well... Ah the wonders of plywood. I missed that thing as soon as I sold it (don't we all?) I found one on Ebay years later but the guy wanted almost $500 for it, and there's no way it was worth that much. I think I paid just over $100 for mine brand new.
 I found a couple more pix, but my scanner stopped talking to my computer so that's it for now.

22
Bass Amps & Effects / Really stupid amp Q (not trolling!)
« on: November 03, 2012, 12:42:45 AM »
For years now I've been playing thru a "Hohner Marlin" practice amp that I got when I was 15 or so. I'd like a "better" amp but I don't know a thing about them, since I've never actually bought one at a store (I traded a guitar for this thing). I've been to a couple stores and they seem to have a zillion guitar amps, or ones the size of a fridge, but since I've got little kids at home and I'm not playing out or anything I don't need an amp that costs more than my car did (or one as big as it either). My current amp is starting to make a lot of noise, and it blew the fuse the last time I unplugged it so I think it might be time to retire it. I just don't know where to start as far as what to look for. I just want something that will sound good, be reasonably affordable and hopefully last as long as my Marlin did. (That thing got dropped multiple times, got fluids spilled on it, shot with a BB gun (by a girlfriend aiming at my buddy) etc.
Thank you, guys.

23
Gibson Basses / What's the opinion about these (Epi T-bird Pro, older model)
« on: September 11, 2012, 08:06:35 PM »
Like this, with all the different wood laminations:

They had one at the local used store. It played nice, it felt pretty good (unlike the no less than 5 "Nikki Sixx Blackbird"s they had hanging by it) Not that I need any more basses, but the more I hang out here the more I wanna get rid of all my crappy basses and just have ONE decent one. You know, "is it better to have one, $2000 instrument, or 20, $100 ones?"
And, no, I can't go trading mine there, I'd give them all 4 of my basses and still have to pay 75% of what they're asking. Or I need to learn how to negotiate better... :rolleyes:

24
The Bass Zone / Brass hardware Q
« on: April 19, 2012, 03:53:20 PM »
So I have this cool 70s bass (in another thread) that I'm trying to get playing nice. The guy at the store I got it at was saying to make it a total 70s machine (it's already a 70s J-bass copy) I should get the used Bad-*** bridge he has and a brass nut for it. I've seen lots of guitars with brass stuff from that era, what was the deal with using brass on everything? And why did it fall out of favor? I came up in the 80s so it was all graphics and locking tremolos on pointy guitars then, and anything brass was "old"  :rolleyes: The older I get the more appreciation I have for 70s stuff (my music collection, my guitars, etc just not the bell bottoms, ha ha) I wanted to ask you guys because I figured I'd get a straight answer here more than at other places.
Thanks!

25
Other Bass Brands / NBD/bridge question
« on: April 17, 2012, 03:26:33 PM »
(Quick version: What's you guys' favorite F-style bridge for a non-professional guy like me? I don't want to catch my hand on the 2" long screws sticking out of this thing and would like actual intonation ability preferrably without paying as much as a whole Squier bass...)



I just picked this up (70's Hondo II Jazz copy) I know you guys on here are probably going "Yuk" since y'all have real basses, but there's no way I can afford a 'real" Jbass (this one was $79!) and this actually felt nicer than the Squiers they had at the same store. Obviously it didn't sound as nice, but it's a 3-piece ash looking body (instead of the plywood that the "real brand" ones I was comparing it to) and a neck that's easily the nicest shaped bass neck I've had my hands around (other than the real Gibson that cost more than my car did but that's another story...) I've had the terrible plywood Hondos in the past (my 1st real electric was an LP copy) but this thing felt absolutely perfect in my hands, and sounded ...interesting with the humbucker-looking pups. One of them didn't work but who knows if it was the pup itself or the 30 year old wiring but for the price, I'm not complaining.
Anyway the bridge is a 2-barrel one and sometime in the past somebody replaced half of the screws in it with random wood screws, plus I've got "mod-itis" so if you guys were to replace a bridge on something, what would you choose? They have a used chrome 4-barrel bridge at the same store supposedly off a Squier for about the same $ as the new Fender copy ones at guitar-fetish. They also have some weird thing they told me was a "bad-ass copy". I've never replaced a bass bridge, and I'd really like to do it once (and hopefully not spend a huge amount). Considering the bridge on my "real" bass (70's Hofner) is a piece of wood with fret wire holding the strings up  ;D) and I think it plays/sounds fine, I probably don't need to be so picky about this, right?
The store guy said I should find someone who's upgrading a Squier and get his cast-off parts, but of course I couldn't find anything like that locally. Got any spare parts you wanna sell? ;)
More pix:

no plywood here!

most of the natural ash J's I've seen had maple necks, which I just don't care for. The neck on this thing is HUGE, wide nut and really full back contour. I love it! Girth=good!

interesting route poking out of the pup ring-maybe I could slip actual J pups in there. Weird bridge, too. There must have been the ash tray cover over this at some point. Do the screws just come out, nothing is coming out the back?

the usual belt rash but nothing that goes into the actual wood. Nice aged color, too.
I've been sitting here playing this for the last couple hours and only "came up for air" to post this here, no matter what I'm happy with my new toy.

Thanks for letting me schmutz up your awesome forum, I really like coming here but I don't usually have anything to post (some might say I still don't... :mrgreen:)

26
Bill's Shop: Projects, Mods & Repairs / Like I need another project
« on: February 06, 2012, 06:43:47 PM »
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Epiphone-Thunderbird-Ltd-Ed-Bass-Guitar-Body-Mahogany-/400274248173?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item5d323451ed

I'm trying to fix a stripped Epi SG, and while looking for parts for that, I ran across this. (Stripped Silverburst Epi THunderbird in case I hosed up the links) I've watched the various JAE-bird threads on here, and added this to my list of things I'd like to try. Not that I have time for it, but I can't do it if I don't have a body, right?
Didn't someone on here start with a body like this for a fender-bird project?
They're claiming this is mahogany. I've had enough plywood Epis but none of them were maho. ply. Have any of you run across this, or is it safe to assume it's "real" wood?
Maybe one of you should snag this if I don't since A: you guys do waaaay better work than me, and B:it might get finished this century yet.
Oh yeah, no affiliation to seller! Thanks for looking.

27
Other Bass Brands / Talk me out of this (fake EB2)
« on: June 16, 2011, 06:45:21 PM »
Hey guys, I lurk here a lot but don't post real often. Here goes:
I just found this bass on CL  http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/msg/2443290310.html (ad text in case the ad goes away)
"Bruno Conqueror hollowbody bass guitar, made in Japan in the mid-60's. This bass is in very good condition and plays great. The neck is straight and has an adjustable truss rod, the rosewood fretboard has been freshly oiled and looks great, the pots are clean, and the enclosed gear tuners work fine. Bound top and neck. About the only indication of its age is the crazed finish, mainly on the back that runs with the grain and is pretty common on hollowbodies of that era. You don't see many old hollowbody basses, especially as nice as this one."
pics:



Now I've always, always wanted a Gib. EB2 (the ES-355 shape one, at least) but will never be able to afford a real one. THat and my mediocre skills don't really warrant a $$$$$ bass anyway, but that's another story... I have a Hofner that sorta looks like this one so I dig the semi-hollow basses. You guys around here don't seem to be afraid of Gibson basses, or weird Japanese things either so I was wondering if any of you have any experience with "Bruno" or other Japanese copies. If this thing is a total dog then I won't feel so bad about passing on it, but if it's the "75% as good for 10% of the cost" kind of bass, then I'll definitely try to snap it up. Now, how to figure out how to sneak it into the house past the spouse...
Thanks in advance.

Oh yeah if it is worth it, how hard is it (or even worth the effort) to put a 3-pointer on instead of the 2?

28
Other Bass Brands / JB Player fake P/J bass (w/pix)
« on: June 01, 2010, 10:01:06 PM »
Anyone else ever seen one of these? I got this at a used store years and years ago, mostly because I already had a couple JBP guitars, and liked those, that and my Hofner was still in 1000 pieces and I needed something to play.  This one's a neck-thru P-bass copy, with EMG Select pickups. It sounds pretty close to a "real" P bass, isn't much heavier and has that cool 80's hair-metal vibe (well as much as it could have without being pointy) Anyway here's a couple pix:




cool neck joint:



I figure someone on here may have seen (or at least heard of) these things before. I'm not trying to sell or get a value (I paid $100 for it), I just want any info I could find. Thanks in advance!

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