The Last Bass Outpost

Quote from: ilan on August 07, 2023, 06:07:21 AM
In a world of class D bass heads that fit in your gig bag pocket and produce 500—1,000 watts of awesome bass tone without clipping or farting out, I honestly don't understand these. But to each their own.

It looks better than my GK MB500, I'll give you that.

Yes the Class D handbag amps sure are a nice thing if you don't have a crew or even bandmates to help load in and out. I love my pair of Streamliners. But the best tone I get is from my 67 Showman through a Sunn 4x12" sealed cab with 60w Celestions. Which comes sorta close to what my lamented 68 Hiwatt produced.

The attraction in the day was that they were loud. Necessary if you were in a band with guys diming Twins & Supers. My Thunderbass and Traynor could not keep up. 

Then the Sunn Coliseum heads came along which I preferred at the time. 

A few years ago i received one back I had lent out on a "perma-loan". I was psyched to crank it up out of nostalgia. Alas, it was like seeing the prom queen at your 40th high school reunion. 

Thanks guys. Really a stupid purchase. But as gearHED notes, it does sound righteous. 

Tried naptha on a couple of spots and saw no result. I'll give the Virtuoso products a whirl. But there is so much (honest) wear that it may not be worth much effort beyond that.

And on we go ...

A fool and his money are soon parted.

No more live shows, some studio work but those two projects are wrapping up. So --- zero.zero need for a second, especially since my "Shooting Star" Tuxedo is so close to perfection.

But I couldn't resist buying another "orphan" Ric, this time the well-worn, nicotine stained CS bass. It came from Kevin at Kebo as advertised. I had figured I'd try some heavy-duty solvents to partially restore it. But once in hand, it's current condition is growing on me. A few tweaks to get to this weekend, but I'll mostly leave it be. Probably down at the recording studio along with the Versatone in the Tux photo.   

That said, I like the neck profile of the Tux better and, thanks to the refret & carbon fiber rod, the action is unbelievably flat and low without any fret buzz. 

Thanks.

That sounds like the best course of action.

Appreciate the input.

Hello all! I am thinking of reversing course.

A few years ago, there were one or more people making wooden cases with orange tolex to put your Bass Terror 500 into. Many people did not like the look of the metal "lunch box" case it came in. I almost bit on that.

But now, I am pondering whether it would be possible or make sense to do the opposite? 

After selling my 1968 Hiwatt mentioned in another thread, I was tempted by a Sound City Bass 150 which looked pretty cool. It was stored poorly for a long time so not yet working. But if it can be coaxed back to life as promised ....

I am thinking about doing a "reverse Terror case swap" and putting it into some kind of case like the Terrors come in. Or, for that matter, the old Bogen PAs from our youth.

Why?

Because then it would sit nicely on top of some of my smaller width cabs. Right now it only sits well on one of my sealed 4x12" cabs which are nice in a practice or recording room, they are a bear to haul around. except on special occasions, of course!

The original wooden head case is in nice condition, but has like two inches of wasted space on each side. So I wonder how easy it would be to find or have made a trimmer metal cage/enclosure which would both fit on 21" width cabs and have better ventilation.

A quick internet search directed me to "chassis cases" and some look like they might work, but the dimensions tend to be too small.

Do any of you amp builders or modders have any experience with this sort of nonsense?

Thanks!

D.M.N. - I sent you a message with some background info on this.

I recently sold my Hiwatt bass head from that era. Actually, I suspect it was built a little before yours, but no big deal.  The tone was SO beautiful.

You are a lucky guy!

I wonder if the W-ski refin was fine from some years ago. In my experience with THREE of these,  no refin artist likes to deal with any white refin. They all whine how difficult it is because you must be so careful not to let a sneaky hair or bit of dust find it's way to the body after any coat. It ties up the negative pressure work station. They all told me they would never do one again.

Even Joel who did my last one, a true work of art in every way.

https://kennebecinstrument.com/bringing-life-back-to-a-rickenbacker-tuxedo-bass/ 

 

I was wondering if it was the one I had refined some years ago, but it aint.

After annoying my fingers on Sunday, I want to bevel the pickguard on my current Rick.

O l did it before on another bass when I was a more active player. Last Sunday i actually tried to figure out how I could be hurting my fingers, but was left without a clear answer. I need a SLO-MO VIDEO!

Thanks! Those were getting hard to find.

The legendary antipodean models? Krikey, I'm rich!

Quote from: Granny Gremlin on March 31, 2019, 07:41:07 AM
If it really bothers you , you know you can flip it round the right way, right?

Ah, that sounds better than what I've been doing= turning the amp over!

Just curious about the history behind it. Sounds like a Commonwealth thing. I wonder if it helped trigger the American War of Independence? That would make a lot of sense.

So, now & then I play at home through my 1968 Hiwatt amp through a sealed 4x12" cab. At our practice room, I often play my more recent hand-wired Orange head through a similar cab. Both loaded with 75 watt Celestions. None of which is pertinent to my highly technical question:

Why do the power switches on both set opposite to most amps? Meaning why is the amp off when the toggle switch is in the up position?

Never owned a Vox so dunno bout them. And I think I recall that my savage beast Marshall had rocker switches but that was an odd model, so not sure if Marshalls had reversed toggles ir not.

Any thoughts on this oh wise ones?