The Last Bass Outpost

When you slide the chassis out and have to pitch it to clear the transformers, it's a common occurrence for wires to get snagged on the RF shielding plate or handle screws in the top of the head case.

It looks more like they've been pinched removing or replacing the chassis. Mouse chewing usually is much worse. There's a picture on a tech forum I go to where a mouse cached about three cups of dog food inside the chassis of a homebrew and it never messed up the amp.

Here is some more info on your amp I've been able to dig up:

http://www.tube-town.de/ttforum/index.php?action=printpage;topic=11489.0

http://www.dustblow.com/ad200b/

http://www.mercurymagnetics.com/pages/news/PremierGuitar/PremierG-22.htm

http://www.planetoftheamps.com/orange-ad-200-mk3-bassamp.html

When I was in Gruhn's in Nashville a couple of years ago, there was a 57 Precision, sunburst with the anodized gold pickguard for the "bargain" price of $25k hanging on the bottom rack in front. I've played Fenders that old before, but not with price tags that high hanging on them. This was downstairs and not the vaunted "upstairs" where the elite get to pick from instruments worth more than my workplace.  I say 'workplace' because a television station is moderately valuable and selling my house wouldn't even buy a pre-war Martin.

Speaking of old Martins, the day I was in there, there was some guy who looked half-drunk, ham-handedly beating the living shit out of a moderately priced $100k model, barefoot sitting in a rocking chair. I can only assume he was a doctor or lawyer living out his Eric Clapton fantasy and had probably dropped over seven figures in there over the years to get to abuse the guitars like that. This guy sucked so bad, I'm a better guitar player than he was!

I did get my Waterstone 12'er there that day though. What got my attention was the headstock, which is over a foot long and covered in tuners, and I got curious. When I saw a "normal" price on it, my wife said I should try it out just to see how awful it would sound, especially since I'm a fingers only player and multistrings are typically pick basses.

Their test room was a closet under a staircase full of various new Fender amps and the usual never-selling used junk guitar amps, not a bass amp in the lot, even a practice one (nor was there one on the sales floor unless you count tweed Bassmans .) I plugged into a Fender Concert reissue and began playing. Two minutes later, my wife said, "You're buying that." But man did it ever freak me out to have to walk by that $25k P-bass, which was kind of in the way no matter where you walked, carrying that huge Waterstone. I was afraid i was going to hit it or knock it off the rack.

...and on the subject of provenance, Gruhn's is the ONLY stocking dealer for Waterstone basses in the world because Tom Petersson is a regular there. He lives in Nashville. They had two 12er's, one new and one used, but both for the same price. I tried out them both and the used one was better and had a better color, green over flame maple as opposed to the "bad Les Paul cherrywannabe" on the other. After I bought the used one, the guy at the counter told me who it had belonged to previously. Guess who?

Tom had only let it go because it was 34" and he didn't like the extra tension, so I have a Tom Petersson signature bass that used to belong to Tom Petersson. Man I need to get some Cheap Trick vinyl!

I would be curious as to what turntables do it for guys and gals who still spin the vinyl.  

I have a Sony PSX-40 direct drive automatic with an Audio Technica cartridge. It's nothing fancy, but it sounds pretty good, even through a stock Dynaco PAT-4, but the magic happens in my power amps, a pair of Bogen MO-100's and my speakers, a pair of KRK ST-6 studio monitors.

So are you saying the bad biasing might be the cause of all these problems?

Not necessarily bad biasing, but more likely, a failure in the bias circuitry. Do you have a schematic for the version you have? There are a few different ones, and there may be some significant differences in the designs.

On the ornithology front, I'm not any kind of "watcher," but I seem to attract rare birds. Even though I live in an urban setting, I'm from a farm in the country, and evidently, the country followed me here. The first day we moved into our house about nine years ago, when I went out the back door, there was a large Redtailed Hawk sitting on top of my garage.  I see them everywhere it seems. I also see Bald Eagles every few months.  Last month, I saw a Great Grey Owl sitting in my neighbor's yard on the ground (at first I thought it was a small dog!) Last summer, a Peregrine Falcon killed a dove in front of me while I was walking down the street, not ten feet away. They are very rare here, but there is a nesting family on a nearby water tower. Also a few years ago for a day, a large pigeon, no exaggeration, the size of a big chicken, just sat on my front porch all day. It wasn't sick or hurt and even let me pet it! It flew off after few hours, and I never saw it again

My best bird stories come from my parent's house: while walking through the woods, I saw a Golden Eagle flying through the trees. Its body looked like a barrel it was so big, and its wingspan was easily bigger than my height of six feet. How it navigated the dense trees was unreal!  They do venture this far east, but not often. Another time, while jogging, I ran into the middle of a flock of  20 or so wild turkeys, who totally ignored me. I stopped and talked to them, and they just looked up and then went on about their busness scratching the ground. I would have stayed with them for a long time, but my dad's fat German Shephard finally caught up to me, and he chased them off.

- 2 odd scale mini kits (a TU144 and an XB70 - I have a "delta-wing" thing)

I have a 1/48 XB70 and tons of various 1/48 versions of the Blackbird, A-12. SR-71A and B, and a 1/48 B-1B unbuilt. I used to have two built 1/48 SR-71A's detailed down to the seatcushions, one in Vietnam era markings and the other in low visibility markings.  The low vis was a thing of beauty until my mother gave it to my then two-year-old nephew to play with as a toy, who did what you would expect a kid his age to do: destroy it completely.  The Vietnam one made out slightly better, but not unscathed. I've got dozens of 1/72 jet fighters, my favorite build was a 1/72 Sea Harrier- they just look classy.  I also have a Revell 1/48 Apache that pissed me off when the glue fumes fogged the canopy- never had that happen before or since.

 I have lots of oddball fighters unbuilt, mainly Russian stuff, SU-27s of all kinds including the SU-34 and 37 and some of the Kamov helicopters, as well as the "teen" US fighters, F14's, 15's and 16's ( never cared for the F-18, but I would like a YF-17 and a Super Hornet). I'd love to find an YF-23 model of Northop's prototype that lost to the F-22, and I'd like to find a 1/48 Mig 25 or 31 as well as the Avro Arrow, the plane that made them possible. I'd also like to find Testor's 1/48 F-14D "Black Bunny." The 1/72 F-14A version I find alot; the other, not so much. That's just what I remember off the top of my head. I'm sure I have more stuff in the tub.

 

a 1/48 Eurofighter in RAF colours - still hoping for a "tiger" decal to emerge

I would love to see it. It's a hell of a jet.

a 1/100 Vickers Viscount in 1950's BEA trim (my first flying experience - I also own a window from a scrapped real one - sad but true)

Hey- you've got a part. A few years ago, someone sold a vertical stabilizer from an SR-71 on eBay, and it went for cheap, around $100, because no one could afford to ship it! The titanium in it is worth ten or more times that just for scrap.

- kits pending are the super large Revell Saturn V, the 1/48 TSR2, a 1/72 Concorde...

kick ass!

AMT NCC1701D - The plan is to light up with all the relevant coloured LED's - I have blue and white (redundant Xmas lights) but am still looking out
for some other colours to suit - going to open up most of the windows, light up all the relevant nacelles and engines, bridge, reflector, etc - no rush on this one and will post when starting...

There is a documentary on Paramount selling off a bunch of Trek props including the ILM models.  The 10-foot Enterprise D went for over $600,000 IIRC. It was the later, lit version. In the early days, every shot was actually a composite of three different models, one for color, one for shadow, and one for lights, and they were smaller, around 6 feet. The big lit model didn't get built until Season 3. Paramount got rid of them because every Trek show and movie after "First Contact" has been all CGI.

My Orange AD200 needs new powertubes.

What makes you say that?

This would be a good chance to see if I can get a slightly different sound out of this amp.
It now has a pair of Tung Sol tubes, and a pair of General Electric tubes.
I've always found the amp puts out too strong sub lows, and not enough highs.

Depending on how they're arranged and biased, your sound may simply be suffering from phase cancellation. GE's are known for their midrange snarl, as are vintage Tungsols. Were they installed by a tech who biased and checked the output on a scope to see that it's symmetrical?