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I can second James' comment that the neck block is a weak point.

O.P.,

At the price points of the GK MB200 and the TC BQ500, I'd say, if it's financially feasible and your ears really like the MB200, get the TC but keep the GK also.

Play one head till your ears becomes fatigued of it's sound/tone, park it and use the other head till you get tired of it, park it and use the other head till, ect., ect.

You honestly won't get that much for the MB200 on trade or from the hassle of selling it privately.

GK no longer makes available factory service for any of their amps except for their current series of Legacy and Fusion S amps, but...almost every amp repair shop can make repairs if needed on the MB series of amps.

The scratchy pot syndrome is a common problem with just about every amp manufacturer, not just GK.
Years back, my Sunn 200S did it, my Ampeg SVT did it, moving up in time, both of my Mesa M-6's did it, today, my main gigging heads a GK MB Fusion 800 and my Genz-Benz 9.0 does it.

Rotating the pot shaft back and forth solves the problem for awhile.
Since the MB series uses sealed pots, spraying detox/cleaner/lube does nothing other than contaminate the rest of the board and usually causes additional damage.

smurphy28 said:

I'm mainly a guitarist but have been dabbling in bass and acquiring different equipment for my studio. I recently sold an Ampeg Portaflex PF-500 amp head as it was cutting out on me here and there and am now left with the 2x12 cab.

I saw an Acoustic 450 bass amp head from the 70s on my local Craigslist for $300 and was considering it as a replacement. I also have a Traynor YBA-2B bass amp which is great and was a recommendation from JMJ but I want something I could use live that has a bit more power.

View attachment 4522801

For reference, I'm using a JMJ Mustang bass and a MIA P-Bass from the mid 90's with this rig and mostly playing rock/indie type of stuff with my original band.

I'd appreciate any opinions or alternative options I should look into. Thanks!

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They don't like 2 ohms run very hot will shut down Will run till hell freezes over @ 4 2x15 guitar center has one right now model 402 it'll run for ever and be completely loud enough cab will fit in sedan back seat BREAK -A-LEG if both cabs are 8 ohms can run together 3/4 stack

Iridescentone said:

And...once again someone feels compelled to conflate acoustic instruments with electric basses.

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Nope, read it again and you'll see how the previous poster I was responding to introduced the subject.

No problems with any of my basses when flying either, and I brought three of them on one flight from Japan in December.

AGCurry said:

I don't get it. Memphis and St. Louis are pretty close in geography and climate... I have no problems whatsoever with my unvarnished Gamut Pistoy G. Do you have air conditioning? Play outside a lot?

For me, it's yes and no to those questions. My basses ride in a car from an air-conditioned house to air-conditioned venues. I can see @tito mangialajo having a problem in Italy, as I hear that AC is not commonly used in Europe... but it seems that would be a concern for the bass itself, not just the strings.

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My problem was caused, I think, by the fact that I've been playing a lot of outdoor concerts lately in really exceptional heat and humidity, almost impossible to play...And yes, I don't have air conditioning in the house. I'm thinking of installing it next year...

Just saw this thread. It gives me a chance to show off my Harley Benton version of the G4M fan-fret. The HB MSB-5. Looks like similar construction. My wife saw me watching the BassTheWorld video. She liked it and said to order one (probably tired of me buying Sunburst-finish basses). Anyway here it is…



The cat likes it too…

So I'm looking into the whole multiscale bass and came across these two. Anyone got experience from playing them? I mainly play metal and drop down to C# / A.
I usually swap out the E-string for a B, just moving everything one string down when playing a 4-string, losing the G.
Been playing both Ibanez and Warwick for 15+ years but never multiscale so any advice or thoughts are most welcome!
Links below to the basses:

Ibanez
Warwick

Best regards!

Damascus said:

Ok, thank you! They were surprisingly bright and twangy as well as low tension. There was another identical bass with round wounds on it, and the tape wounds were noticeably brighter. Not at all what I expected, but I really liked them. A pleasant surprise. I want a set for a short scale that I have. Perhaps even a 5 string set for BEAD tuning. The low tension and reduction in fret rattle might make them really well suited for this purpose.

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I use the short scale labella set on my Lakland HB30, great string for that application and I think the tension is just fine.

Best bass I've ever owned. A miracle for my shattered wrist.

My dagstar build has begun in case anyone wants to follow the build thread.

In case anyone wants to follow my build thread, as my slot in the Queue has come up.

TolerancEJ said:

Reviving this zombie thread because I just saw a listing for an MBD 5-String at TC Gakki in Japan. Mike Browne's instruments do not pop up often, so I thought to share it here.

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That was dirt cheap!

Right at 9 lbs?

I call Great Score!

my "beginner bass" was a '72 Fender Jazz. Black with a bound and blocked neck. what did I do to it ??
I defretted it during the early Jaco years
I stripped it (very poorly) to natural wood
I played the living crap out of it for about 10 years
I sold it. Don't regret it as it was just an ok bass that I wore the life out of. Never missed it, just got another Jazz bass.

Anyone ever tried the Etymotic active ones ?

Feature?

MovingPitchers said:

The longer the tour goes, the more wear and tear his voice will take...by September it probably won't sound as good as it does now.

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This could be true. I have tentative plans to also catch a show in November and we'll see how things are going at that point.

Playing through a TV at band practice, i'd love to see it.. That reminds me of when I was using a 1950's Scott 99c hifi amp paired with 2x12" record console speakers stuffed into a 10" Yamaha pa speaker cab that was previously destroyed. I installed the 12" speakers in an isobaric configuration. I used the phono input, which had 5 different eq settings (before RIAA became standard). No pic of speaker because it's in storage. The amp needs a refurb as it let out the magic smoke years ago. It's on my to do list.

So many great options out there….

5StringBlues said:

If l was an older female bassist, I'd demand to be known as Grandma Funk.

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If I were an older female bassist, and started a band with some of my old friends, I'd demand to be known as Grandma Funk Railroad.
Too easy?
Yeah, I suppose.

Controlling the M-Vave IR BOX over Midi (USB midi): You'll need a controller than can send SYSEX messages as a host over USB to the IR Box. I used a M-VAVE Chocolate Plus, but anything that can send as a USB host should work (including your PC). There's probably gadgets to make non-host-mode USB things talk to each other but I have no way of testing that.

For whatever reason, M-VAVE didn't make this simple with Midi Program Change or Control Change messages. They buried their own format within Sysex messages. I figured these out by using Wireshark/USBPCap and watching the data sent across USB.

The first 32 are for memory slot selection. So you'd assign a Sysex message to a button (M-Vave sometimes calls these 'custom midi'). So to turn on Memory 5, you'd set your device to send the message/sysex: F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 04 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 04 24 00 F7

1 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 00 34 00 F7
2 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 01 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 01 30 00 F7
3 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 02 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 02 2C 00 F7
4 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 03 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 03 28 00 F7
5 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 04 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 04 24 00 F7
6 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 05 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 05 20 00 F7
7 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 06 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 06 1C 00 F7
8 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 07 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 07 18 00 F7
9 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 08 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 08 14 00 F7
10 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 09 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 09 10 00 F7
11 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 0A 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 0A 0C 00 F7
12 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 0B 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 0B 08 00 F7
13 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 0C 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 0C 04 00 F7
14 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 0D 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 0D 00 00 F7
15 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 0E 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 0E 7C 03 F7
16 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 0F 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 0F 78 03 F7
17 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 10 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 10 74 03 F7
18 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 11 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 11 70 03 F7
19 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 12 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 12 6C 03 F7
20 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 13 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 13 68 03 F7
21 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 14 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 14 64 03 F7
22 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 15 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 15 60 03 F7
23 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 16 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 16 5C 03 F7
24 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 17 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 17 58 03 F7
25 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 18 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 18 54 03 F7
26 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 19 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 19 50 03 F7
27 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 1A 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 1A 4C 03 F7
28 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 1B 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 1B 48 03 F7
29 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 1C 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 1C 44 03 F7
30 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 1D 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 1D 40 03 F7
31 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 1E 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 1E 3C 03 F7
32 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 1F 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 1F 38 03 F7

The above seems to work reliably.

The following codes will turn the sliders for IR and EQ on and off (if you're monitoring with bluetooth and hit the sync) but don't seem to actually change the EQ or IR status. So more work needs to be figured out here. It may be something outside of Midi sysex, and perhaps not something we can control with MIDI. Meanwhile, if you need a bypass, I'd set one memory to have both EQ and IR turned off, and change to that program when you need to bypass. You could also fake a mute switch by having IR on, but volume set to zero on program.

IR ON F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 40 02 11 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 01 4E 03 F7
IR OFF F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 40 02 11 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 50 03 F7
EQ ON F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 40 02 12 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 01 4C 03 F7
EQ OFF F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 40 02 12 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 4E 03 F7

Wow!!!
I’ve been away a couple of weeks and this thread took off
Thank you all for your replies

First, I bought some Labella Medium Scale Flats, and they fit perfectly, and sounds great

Second, about the bridge
I’m not an engineer, but I think it holds the tuning just fine, and seems pretty solid.
As I wrote, I found this bass at the city dump, so I don’t know if it is the original bridge, but I don’t have any reason to think otherwise.
Works for me anyway

J Wilson said:

No they weren't. But they were terrific, and stout-built.

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... and heavy at ~135 lbs

MonetBass said:

Some really good stories and advice in this thread.

My story: Even though I had a couple of serious girlfriends in college and after, marriage never happened for me. Fast-forward to my early 30s, and I had just broken up with a 'boy toy' relationship with a divorcee. (That was actually fun.) But I told my mom at the time, "I don't think I'll ever get married. I give up." A year later, a mutual friend introduced me to my now wife. She said she knew after our 2nd date that we were going to get married. In fact, when I did pop the question seven months later, she said, "If you hadn't asked ME, I was going to ask YOU." I was 36 and she was 35 and neither of us had ever been married.

We really are best friends and get along great. Sure, we've occasionally had our disagreements, but they never last long. We always appreciate each other, and I kiss her goodbye every time I leave the house. We have a wonderful 22-year-old son and will be celebrating our 24th anniversary in November. We both have a bit of OCD regarding cleanliness and organization and are both big Stephen King (and horror/sci fi in general) fans. Now I can't imagine my life without her and our son.

Engagement pic:
View attachment 7537408

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Best knees on TB.