So clue me in - Triumph content

[hieronymous]

I am not impressed with Guitar Center's prices on vintage gear.  I think they jack the prices up and hold onto the stuff because they have a national network and sometimes, some dope, must come up with the prices they're asking.  When I was trying to bargain recently with them on a vintage amp, the moron sales guy bragged about a 60's Gibson amp he's had on the floor for 12 years because he wouldn't come down on the price one penny.  Really?  That's good salesmanship?  Did it ever occur to you that your price is just stupid if it hasn't sold in 12 years?  Geez.c

Good luck with this, I wouldn't expect them to budge.

I had one good experience with GC on vintage gear - picked up my '68 Starfire I for $1149.99 around 2007 in Sacramento. It wasn't mint, but it had definitely lived under the bed for a long time and was in surprisingly good shape - sold it for $1500 last year - wow, I actually made a profit. Must have been a fluke in more ways than one! I usually end up losing money...

[chromium]

Yeah every once in a while you'll find a good little nugget on their used gear page.  In my case, it has never been a bass- but rather synth and efx stuff.  My best deal was probably a brand new in box Elektron Machinedrum for ~$450 shipped (this model used was fetching around a grand at the time).

I really like that Triumph, but you did the right thing passing on it at that price.

I bought mine for ~1600 several years ago.  It seemed to me like the very high end price spectrum at that time, but it was from the original owner who played it for a year or so and then tucked it away.  Dead mint.  Well... it was dead mint.  I take it out quite a bit, and I'd say that it falls into the "pry it from my cold dead hands" category.  Wonderful basses, these are.






Great collection you've got there, wagdog  

[wagdog]

Is that a Goth or a Nikki Sixx Signature TBird or a regular Epi in black or a Classic Pro? 

That's the Pro, non-Classic active model.  I bought it on a whim, well, just because you can't have too many birds.
 

[uwe]

As active basses go, that doesn't sound bad at all. Agree?

[wagdog]

Agreed.  For a preamp in a inexpensive bass it ain't bad at all.

[uwe]

Like an 18 year-old bass player would like a TBird to sound!

[Granny Gremlin]

I bought mine for ~1600 several years ago.  It seemed to me like the very high end price spectrum at that time, but it was from the original owner who played it for a year or so and then tucked it away.  Dead mint.  Well... it was dead mint.  I take it out quite a bit, and I'd say that it falls into the "pry it from my cold dead hands" category.  Wonderful basses, these are.

I'm not even gonna tell/remind you what I paid for my (formerly) white one (by the time I got her she had been weathered to a deep pee pee yellow and had her fair share of battle scars).

No more than a month after I bought mine I saw a minty one (also white, which is damn rare; only thing rarer is the single black one made according to the production records I saw IIRC)  on ebay go for 2K (6ish years ago).  Needless to say I felt like a bandit/wondered if I had actually bought a stolen bass (it was from Montreal, tour van B&E gear theft and crooked pawn shop owners buying the stuff from junkies capitol of North America), but it's so distinctly 'reliced' (and in tonnes of pics online) that you'd figure the legit owner would have noticed by now (though I console myself by thinking of how I saved her from an obviously abusive relationship).  

The 2K one:

(URL hack the image above for more pics, closeups mostly)

Mine (pup switch knob, trapeze and control plate added by me; replaced one damaged tuner - actually managed to find a single matching, Gibson-branded one on ebay. Still have the original control plate; crack by the jack as usual - still an amazing deal considering what I paid for it):





PS, If anyone wants a metal (sheet aluminium) control plate like mine, I can make one for you, or if you're handy with the tin snips, you can cut it out for yourself and I can send you the label or label template (just print it out on a regular transparency and cut out the screw/pot/switch mount holes; it's mirror imaged so that the ink stays on the underside and wont rub/wear off).  Even (especially) if your original plastic plate is still in good shape, I recommend going metal in order to keep it that way (I have since had the jack yanked a few times and it held up)... unless it's a wall hanging museum peice (they not only sound/playgood, they're dead sexy, so I'd understand).

[wagdog]

Granny, what's with the trapeze tailpiece?  Is it so you can get the string wrap off the saddles?  I like it in a very retro way.

[wagdog]

Like an 18 year-old bass player would like a TBird to sound!

I was 18 once, not that I remember a whole lot about it.

I do remember I was playing a P bass with those newfangled 'copper' round wounds through a Guild Thunderbass tube amp with all the knobs maxed and a sealed 2x15.   So who am I to judge a 18 yo's pursuit of tone?  More power to them!

[Granny Gremlin]

Granny, what's with the trapeze tailpiece?  Is it so you can get the string wrap off the saddles?  I like it in a very retro way.

Mostly yes.  There's also the secondary aesthetic consideration. 

[uwe]

I was 18 once, not that I remember a whole lot about it.

I do remember I was playing a P bass with those newfangled 'copper' round wounds through a Guild Thunderbass tube amp with all the knobs maxed and a sealed 2x15.   So who am I to judge a 18 yo's pursuit of tone?  More power to them!

Hey, you stole my settings then!!! As an 18 year old that was, wait for it, full presence, full treble, full high mids, full low mids and, yes, you guessed it, full bass.  And I played D'Addario XL Reds too.  18 year olds are kind of alike. 

[Highlander]

Depends if either of you were 18 before me, and I know Uwe wasn't - at 18 I'd just bought the cherry and gold Peter Cook and ran her through a WEM sealed 2x15 and a Sound City 120 maxed on all controls and when that one blew to pieces (in a shower of sparks) the pair of Sound City open-back columns and the Hiwatt, again maxed to the hilt and playing at Lemmy for all it was worth...

I do like LP's... never did then though... and lefties just do not look right...

[amptech]

Hey, you stole my settings then!!! As an 18 year old that was, wait for it, full presence, full treble, full high mids, full low mids and, yes, you guessed it, full bass.  And I played D'Addario XL Reds too.  18 year olds are kind of alike. 

Oh, i used them too, but on my ricky 4001. I think i used a couple of sets then they stopped making them, at least they
were not available in Norway. Then, a couple of months ago, I heard an instrumental song our band recorded some 12 years ago - a slow, strange melody with only bass and guitar - and I just had to get one of those XL red sets again. Though not very versatile, they do have that nice piano tone that sounds really good in the right song, at least on a bright bass like the rick.

If they start making them in flats I might try it on my eb-3

Anyone who have used them on eb shortscales with good results?

[Highlander]

... oh yeah... and Rotos...

[uwe]

So we were all brothers in sound. 

Incidentally, they have brought the XL-Reds back - I ordered some for old time's sake.