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Jack · Jul 25, 2026

Wasnex said:
If you have a quality stereo reverb...let it run stereo.

For the rest of the band, the idea is not to create stereo for the audience. However, IMHO, there are some things I find useful. This is YMMV so try and decide for yourself.
1. If an instrument such as guitar is too loud on one side of the audience and not loud enough on the other, consider panning the instrument to weak side.
2. Gentle panning can be used to open up/make a bit more space in the mix.
3. I would consider gentle panning for a good piano patch. Overall the panning should be fairly narrow. Again the idea is to open up the mix, rather than create an obvious stereo effect.

As I often do, I wander into a thread to find Wasnex has already made my point for me. I work with one guitarist who is in the process of going either ampless or too a very small amp, but for the moment there is backline guitar in stage right and not on stage left. His signal is panned to stage left. Sometimes I'll slightly pan some things maybe 10-15% just to make space, but barring practical things like the above guitarist nothing is hard panned as both sides of the audience need to hear things.

butterfingers1 · Jul 25, 2026

I have and had many compressors. Empress, Broughton Omni, Lusithand Alma, Union Tube&Transistor Lab, Origin Effects Cali, Fairfield Accountant.

The Diamond is easily my favourite. Tone, simplicity, design, aesthetics, ergonomics.

If Diamond is planning for a new version someday, I would think a Blend, higher gain, and internal voltage multiplier.

But really, if this interfered with the current looks and simplicity it should just remain as is. That Mid control is genial.

Hypercaffium · Jul 25, 2026

pcake said:
nice - i really like the red heads!

I've always had a thing for redheads. And gingers, of course.

JimmyM said:
Sounds surprisingly good, too. And of course, as a Yamaha endorser, I approve, even though my own set is Ludwig

It does! The kick drum in particular is a cannon and despite its size I needed to muffle it a little bit to reduce both volume and sustain. I experimented with different things and ended up using a Chihuahua couch. Being a very small kit, tuning range isn't very wide but it works.

Fondsdale said:
Nice, those Evans Hydraulics with the smaller shells would make a great lower volume setup.

That was my plan: going 100% acoustic with manageable volume. Hydraulics work very well when played softly, as well as those thin Jazz cymbals. Since the space isnt't treated acoustically it doesn't sound very well, but it's doable. A couple of weeks ago I decided to try my EAD10 with the new kit and it worked wonderfully. Since it picks up the sound before it crashes around the room, everything sounds beautiful through headphones. Practicing and playing over songs is absolutely fantastic with this setup.

Filipken · Jul 25, 2026

Bassragerstitch said:
So many years ago the original BB circuit and pickup went out so I replaced it with a Seymour Duncan music man 3 band eq, and a Bartolini W4CBC. well last week I ordered the re-issue BB circuit from Aria and it arrived this past Wednesday. I took pictures of the before, during, and after. So bare with me its the first time i've posted something like this.

This is what it started as: 1986 Aria Pro II SB-1000
i've made a few mods, sperzel locking tuners, Bartolini P/U
Seymour Duncan music man 3 band eq
View attachment 1837874

Close up of the body
View attachment 1837875

Control Cavity covers
View attachment 1837876

Control layout up close
View attachment 1837877

Covers removed showing the Seymour Duncan Preamp which i wired to 18 volts
View attachment 1837878

My bass is now gutless
View attachment 1837879

New Aria BB circuit installed, i taped some of the wires together just to make it a little neater looking, it is wired to run on 18 volts, as you can see the batteries are under the circuit board
View attachment 1837880

Finally installed, this was kind of a pain for me because i had to figure out what wires from pickup went to the open lugs on the toggle switch but a few minutes on the phone with a tech helped me out a lot
View attachment 1837881

A cable plugged in to show the LED works, it is used for a battery life indicator, also the toggle functions as an active passive switch and Jazz bass knobs for the volume and tone controls and the original pointer knob for the 6 way selecter switch
View attachment 1837882

This bass sounds soooooo amazing now I'll post sound clips soon

Hello, I experience also some trouble with the EPC653 kit (in my 1982 SB1000). Could you explain the toggle switch change you had to make ? With the batteries in, it has a weak output active and passive. Without batteries it is normal output in passive mode (and no signal on active).

Oddly · Jul 25, 2026

I've seen the Anagram mentioned a few times now on TB, so I looked it up.
Wow.
Expensive and way too complicated.
I understood about one word in ten of the description of what it does and honestly don't think I have enough years left to learn how to use one.

logdrum · Jul 25, 2026

Minbe was already faint as it was walnut over ebony and then I re-dyed the neck, I did not do anything. I have memorized where my hand goes and got lucky that way. If you practice against a drone it will be better t6han any marker Drone Tone Tool practice all keys minor, major dominant, diminished. I will probably F it up if I drill

Old Fart · Jul 25, 2026

I love my vintage SVT/810, but I SURE get a lot of compliments now that I am in a clean-stage band.

El Tookay · Jul 24, 2026

I’ve also owned a few Casady’s, and my personal fave strings for them are Dunlop flats. GHS flats are ‘the sound of dark chocolate’, very sonically rich, but are a bit light tension-wise, TI’s are too light, Ernie Ball Group III feel good, but are a bit bright. Haven’t tried the Olinto’s on a JC yet, but sure sounded good on a friends ‘58 Precision.
The ultimate / now unobtainium flats are the original formula Sadowsky Black Label flats, the perfect flats for tone, tension and feel..sure wish Sadowsky would bring those back…

Mikeus · Jul 24, 2026

I can't find a sansamp anywhere nearby for a good price but I can get the Crazy Tubes for $200 AU

Currently I have and Ibanez tube screamer in my pedals board.

rolfplamperton · Jul 24, 2026

Love me some Tory. She deserves so much more recognition. Incredible musician.

BassicJazzy · Jul 24, 2026

iqi616 said:
Chorus definitely makes it harder for me for intonation.

That's because they introduce secondary synth lines that warble slightly out of tune with the core line. Assuming you have a clean channel so you can hear yourself you can use them for certain periods, but they are not great as an always on effect. Compressor works, as long as you keep it light to moderate. I think color pedals like a preamp with a little dirt and a slight boost sound best for fretless. They don't alter your tone, they just juice it up, improve it a bit.

Old Ozzie Guy · Jul 24, 2026

Chace90 said:
Well my first post was sometime in 2024. So maybe 2 years? But again, I'm not always playing that bass. I don't wipe my strings down, before or after. Perhaps should but

Cool, I thought it was 2 yrs, that great, thanks mate!

iqi616 · Jul 24, 2026

Ritter667 said:
Just learn floating thumb, and you get to mute unwanted strings very naturally too.

This ^

I've not looked back since adopting floating thumb 20+ years ago - it frees up my hand to move along the strings to vary the timbre (or even out the sound).

Ejtibbetts · Jul 24, 2026

BeauZooka said:
View attachment 5417270

This is lovely!

sunbeast · Jul 24, 2026

FunkyFlashFive said:
My 27" Fripp NST is set up and working now, and I can now say 27" is the maximum scale length for this tuning. I had to keep going down in gauge on the high g as it kept breaking either coming up to pitch or in the first few minutes of playing. I've arrived at success with .007 .010 .015 .026w .040w .060w. Either D'addario or Stringjoy will do custom sets and I bet would work well in an equivalent tuning but down a step or 2 for 28.5". It's been fun messing with wider voicings and different patterns. Last night hanging with a guitar friend we discovered it's really fun for playing "Message in a Bottle"

Thanks for the update! I have no issue with the idea of tuning down a step or two as necessary, if I did set it up in NST I likely wouldn’t be using it much in “normal” bands/songs for awhile anyway as I got used to it!

winston · Jul 24, 2026

Haha yes that's where it was! Small world!

GretschWretch · Jul 24, 2026

He also was on the Beach Boys' "Wouldn't it Be Nice" session.

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Obese Chess · Jul 24, 2026

Hopping back in - does anyone have any experience with any of the Yamaha UR or URX-series interfaces? The URX feels like major overkill since I don't need the touchscreen or onboard DSP or whatever else, and in fact those look like "just more things that can go wrong," however, the fact that they are not USB Bus powered really appeals to me as my tiny little Mac Mini really starts to strain when I am powering too many things off its limited USB ports, and I also have lots of other Yamaha gear that's always done right by me.

Also re the earlier discussion about line switchers and patch bays, the Hosa SLW-333 is exactly what I was looking for and I found a used one for sixty bucks. Thanks for pointing me towards Hosa, @silky smoove, I always forget about them and they make good stuff.

dinghy · Jul 24, 2026

Moredator said:
So how much these things weight? Is the neck chunky? Neck dive?

Mine was 10lbs even, though I think I've heard up to 11lbs for some. Neck chunkiness is pretty average I think, it's in between my SX Precision (chunky) and my Ibanez ATK805 (thin). Yes it does have a bit of neck dive. Not too bad though, a good strap fixes it.

Zooberwerx · Jul 24, 2026

BklynKen said:
Wow. In 2008 I was seeing Iron Maiden at Madison Square Garden. I think it's pretty well known how into soccer they are, especially Steve Harris. During the show, they lost power on stage. While waiting for it to come back, they started kicking around a soccer ball. But it stayed on stage.

This happened ~25 years ago. The real pisser was the lady was a hairdresser so getting clipped in one wing was problematic.

Riis

FilterFunk · Jul 24, 2026

Dr. Cheese said:
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Dude is still Layin’ layin’ it down!

"Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk" is one of the coolest bass lines I've ever heard. And Bootsy content is always welcome. Thanks for posting!

NoOneUKnow · Jul 24, 2026

Another pic of its sister. They look identical.

fuadramsey · Jul 24, 2026

SBassman said:
Rediscovering this thread.

I continue to really love this bass.

Same! I've been playing this bass for about 6 months and it's great. A string did slide out of the bridge pin thingy, but I just put it back and pushed the pin in a little harder and it's been fine since. It sounds way better now that the strings have smoothed out. I love this bass. I keep it in my car and practice sets, or new songs during my lunch break.

Also this case from Amazon fits this bass great. It was $25 at the time of purchase.

3/4 Size 36 Inch Acoustic Guitar Case Soft, Acoustic Guitar Bag 0.35 Inch Thicken Sponge Padded, Waterproof Gig Bag with Back Hanger Loop-For 36" Acoustic Classic Guitar

IpseDixit · Jul 24, 2026

Never2Late said:
I did not find the fan replacement especially complex or hard to reassemble. I would compare it to replacing a CPU fan in a desktop computer.

But as @agedhorse stated, it all depends on your mechanical ability. As he has shared, he has had a lifetime of seeing and having to fix botched attempted repairs. And if this is a new amp, this might void your warranty.

These are the steps:

I've found it's easiest to start with the combo laying with its front side down.

There are 9 screws attaching the amp to the enclosure: 5 on the back, 2 on top, 2 on the sides. Take them all out.

Next there's an electrical connector from the amp to the enclosure, for the speakers. Carefully lift the back/bottom of the amp (the edge with the 5 screws) up away from the enclosure. You'll see the white connector close to the center of the amp. Reach in and disconnect it. Then lift the amp out of the enclosure.

The fan is electrically connected to the amp with a 2-wire connector. The wires from the fan to the amp boards are tie-wrapped. Take pictures of the connector, the wires, and tie-wraps to see how to put them back afterwards. Carefully cut the tie-wraps and disconnect the connector from the board.

The fan is mechanically connected to an intake shroud, which is connected to the amp chassis. First remove the 6 screws attaching the intake shroud. Now, with the shroud off, you can remove the 4 screws attaching the fan.

The factory fan has vibration-isolating foam strips on it. Carefully remove those and attach them to the new fan.

My replacement fan did not come with the connector, so I ordered one with wires attached and soldered them together. This is the connector I ordered, from eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/146087311553

Then reassemble in reverse order.

Caveat, again: please be cognizant of your abilities. If you aren't familiar with electronics, safe practices for anything electrical, etc., this isn't advised.

Just wanted to thank you for the EXCELLENT step-by-step disassembly instructions - I had practically no trouble opening up the amp after reading that, and the lack of good info was the thing that had dissuaded me up until now.

I'd managed to track down the quieter fan via Ebay, so all was going smoothly until I was about to mount it to the intake shroud and I noticed how much shorter the included wires were - just slightly too short to reach the connector, frustratingly! I should have checked that earlier in the process, but the eyeball test failed me. I've ordered the part you linked to on eBay and I'll see if that solves that particular problem.

At the moment, it feels optional, however; after re-assembling everything (a bit crestfallen, but wiser) I discovered that something during my dis-assembly process must have helped lessen the vibration that was causing the fan to make so much noise, because it's considerably less noticeable compared to before I started. What once sounded like an ever present whine (I have tinnitus that comes and goes, and at first I thought it was that, just pitched slightly higher than usual) is now closer to standard fan white noise that I have no issues with.

I'm going to keep the new fan (and the connector I ordered) handy for if/when the amp starts acting up again, but for the moment, I'm happy with the outcome. Appreciate this thread and all the help!

Flattitude · Jul 24, 2026

Really amazing information. Thank you all!

I ended up picking up the Bassrig Fifteen as many of you suggested.

In an interesting twist, I’m starting to think I can use just the fifteen and I don’t need the Super Vintage. The Fifteen plus my dirt pedals does the trick. The Broughton Scorpion is especially great here because of its super musical 3-band EQ which helps shape the fifteen to be a little more aggressive when needed.

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3/4 Size 36 Inch Acoustic Guitar Case Soft, Acoustic Guitar Bag 0.35 Inch Thicken Sponge Padded, Waterproof Gig Bag with Back Hanger Loop-For 36" Acoustic Classic Guitar​

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3/4 Size 36 Inch Acoustic Guitar Case Soft, Acoustic Guitar Bag 0.35 Inch Thicken Sponge Padded, Waterproof Gig Bag with Back Hanger Loop-For 36" Acoustic Classic Guitar