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dannylectro said:

Just ordered a set of those phenolics for my CIJ ‘51 P!

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Well done! You're gonna love 'em.

Prolly mentioned before: Theta
Or "Mary had a Little Lamba."
Or is it Lambda? Duh?!

I have a new Album out! Psychedelic Spaghetti Western concept album that blends story arcs with prairie settings and a battle between against sinister forces.

Story description:

One score ago, a rush for resources drew people West. Exiles would travel Transboundary to a booming town to Settle Down on The Prairies.

Soon, they were beset by a shadowy figure who sought exploitation and control, shrouded in the Cloak of Night to disguise evil actions.

Under the smothering cloak, exiles would Dig for Fire, extracting its power for the cloaked figure, learning from cruelty to comply.

A Chance Encounter would alter the exile's fate. Speaking in rhythmic tones, an omen told of the forging of a great sword, wreathed in flame, using the Meltdown of enchanted metal.

Some say the Legend of the Sword of Flame has been forgotten. Out West, Legends can fade like memories, but the glowing ember of the Flame abides, becoming most obvious when darkness arrives.

Bandcamp is best!
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Since the guitarist friend acquired his dream rig last month he is suddenly very keen to host the monthly jam sessions at his place from now on instead of at my place. Due to this I decided to invest in a micro head for travel use as all my amps are on the bulkier side of things. I definitely won’t be moving my Bassman rig out of my music room any time soon.

So here it is. I ended up getting PJB BP-200 head and I’m really pleased. This thing is tiny and weighs nothing yet very sturdy and well constructed (really nice weight on the knobs, the whole unit is not plasticky at all).



The micro head segment seems like an incredibly competitive market in the recent years but the following criteria led me to this particular head.

• clean tone profile
• Speakon connection
• Very quiet
• Headphones input
• Mute switch (somehow I love this feature on an amp)

The head is currently paired with EA NL210 & Berg CN112 for the maximum 210w load @4ohm and it is proving to be a great match so far.

Despite only equipped with three band eq it is easy to sculpt spectrum of clean and punchy tones. The simplicity of the control is quite refreshing to me leading to less dialing and pressing buttons, and more playing!!




In all honesty, I don’t need both cabs connected for its intended use but it is nice to know that this mishmash rig can work well together when needed.

Just to follow up on this.
This seems to be an issue related to some Kala U-Basses (or maybe only Journeyman models).

I don't have a fix, but a workaround I can live with:

Galli Strings UXB810 Ukulele Bass Strings.

I do not like the Thunderguts, that's why I purchased the Journeyman in the first place - it came with roundwounds installed.
Those rounds are super rough and much too noisy for my sloppy play style.
The flats were great in every aspect apart from the fact that they do not work on the E string.
The UXB810 are tapewounds. Not as great as the flats, but flat'ish in sound and feel - with the great bounus of intonating correctly. The only thing I had to do was embiggen the E string hole in the body for a wee bit.

@MrKenmore thank you The tuners on your model do look sturdier than the newer ones. As for the simulated volume boost (which is actually a volume cut on by default and off when pushed) yeah I much prefer to have the full volume range just available and controlled by the volume knob.

@dmrogers you're very welcome Let us know if you do get one and what, if any upgrades you decide to make on it.

Oh and here are the specific parts I used as the stock electronics it came with had some strange values and I couldn't find any specific recommendations for pot and treble bleed value upgrades, so I made an educated guess and it turned out amazingly well:

• Volume: CTS 500k Audio Taper (solid shaft).
• Tone: CTS 250k Audio Taper (solid shaft).
• Selector: Alpha 3-Position, 3-Pole Rotary (solid shaft).
• Treble Bleed: 150k Resistor + .001uF Cap (parallel) on the volume pot.
• Tone Cap: .047uF Orange Drop.
• Output Jack: Pure Tone Mono Jack
• Nut: Graphtech TUSQ XL PT-3834-00 nut (black)
• String Tree: Vintage Forge BSR10-BLK string tree 10mm height (black)

Pretty cool. I wish they had used the GB short scale body shape, but I like the pickup placement and the fact that this one is passive.

Mark Karwan said:

Ric,
Funny to see this post today. I was just thinking about this amp yesterday. I sold it (to you) because I'm addicted to Felix for DB. But this was pretty close and SO awesome as a grab-and-go.

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Mark,
Somehow I missed your post. I so appreciate this amp it’s great for everything I do. My Felix only comes out on rare occasions. Thanks agian.

Pyramid’s bass string product catalog:

There is a mensur index on page 16.

DWBass said:

Agreed. Fender set the standard but there are better basses out there.

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I think there is a lot more to be said about Fender (law suits and cease and desist orders aside).
I think it is logitcal to ask, why are the older Fenders coveted as they are and exact a premium to buy one now? I dunno.

I have some personal experiences, not of 70's basses, but some within this century, but somewhat earlier than now.
In my Fender "stable" I have a 2011 Squire VM 70's J, a 2010 MIM Jazz 5 string and a 2023 USA Pro II 5 string P. Of course, I didn't expect the Squier and the MIM to have to same care as a USA bass (at least at the time), so both basses were treated to a fret level/crown which made all the difference in the world. But the curious and somewhat disappointing thing was my Fender USA Pro II bass. The frets weren't much better than myy Squier or MIM. Luckily I was fortunate to get the bass discounted. but never content with the fret work. So I recently plopped down another $300 to have it Plek'd. IMO a $2000 shouldn't need that.

I don't have a Sandberg Florence, but have a Ken Taylor Basic with exotic top and the thing was so perfect off the rack that in spite of the cost (paying up dearly for the buckeye burl top... see avatar) I couldn't put it down and had to have it. There are so many basses that run circles around Fender in terms of quality these days. If I'm going to spend $2300 there are so many excellent choices that don't have a Fender logo on it.

Ishibashi FSR late 60’s. I think it’s pretty era correct, right down to the lollipops, which I’ve grown to really like.

Ishibashi FSR Late 60’s Jazz, picked up on Guitar Street (Ochanomizu) at the end of a May Japan trip. Went looking for this one and found it in the second shop I walked in to. Love everything about it.

Here is the manual for the amp, you can see detailed connection options and impedance pairings on page 7.

Two 4 ohm cabs in parallel is 2 ohms so you would either connect both cabs to the 2 ohm jacks or connect the amp to one cab and use the parallel jack on the cab to connect the second cab. Both options would put the two 4 ohm cabs in parallel.

Be sure to use speaker cables.


Regarding the volume level. Personally I’ve played in plenty of situations with my vintage V4 and a 212 cab or pair of 112AV cabs with sufficient volume level. Indoors, outdoors, wherever. With a pair of 212 cabs I think it would work for me as well. Plenty of folks will chime in that it wouldn’t be enough for them. Depends a bit on how you eq the amp, how much big booming low end you want, and your tolerance for less-than-clean sounds.

The 212AV is rated at 99db, so a pair would be 102db sensitivity, which means a 100 watt amp could theoretically be hitting 122db. That’s pretty loud. Might not be evenly loud across the frequency response range.

Zombie resurrection here..
I have the Evo II and also feel like the preamp section like to see a hot signal coming in, or the output volume is weak. But after reading the repair report I’m starting to wonder if mine isn’t just faulty like OP’s… one thing is sure the VU meter needle only wants to move from its resting spot when I hit stupid hard on the lowest note.

The Bronco gets my vote, a quality little bass that's bullet proof. Glary and Ibanez are decent options as well. When my son was 9 we bought him a Douglas violin bass, he begged for a Hofner lol, he still has it and even turns to it on occasion. Soon to be 29 he's become a accomplished bassist. Playing in pit orchestras, county bands, punk, classic rock. a original alt rock band and writing, recording and producing a emo artist out of NYC. You never know where that first bass may lead.

Flatwound said:

Took the AD200 MK3 out again. Played another ground-level venue, so why not? I thought I’d give a little comparison of the MK3 vs Terror Bass, now that I have a little more experience with it.

I’ve been using the Terror Bass and 2 OBC112’s for more than 5 years now. Still a great setup. But. These two amps seem more like cousins than twins. I got some advice here to start EQ’ing the TB with the mid all the way up and bass and treble at zero. For me, that was an excellent starting point. Not so much with the MK3. I ended up with the mids around 2:00 or so. Treble just shy of noon, bass at zero. The idea of cranking the mids all the way kind of scares me. We were playing next to a bay, and I think it could kill some fish.

Anyway, even with the compact cabs, I had that pants-flapping feeling, which I don’t get with the TB. The MK3 also seems to be naturally brighter sounding than the TB. The TB seems to have a darker character, but the treble is definitely available. I felt like I had a Chris Squire-ish tone a couple of times.

Conclusions: the TB will continue to get the lion’s share, since it weighs 11 lbs and sounds great. I am also not at all disappointed in the MK3, it’s a monster. If it was any heavier, though, say, like an SVT, it would have to be self-propelled to get to the stage.

View attachment 7525151

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This would sound better if cabs stacked on top not side by side. I know amp would overhang but two vertical speakers sound better than two side by side for various reasons

‘68

moles said:

Bass > Orange Preamp > Mixer channel one
Vocal Mic > Mixer channel two
Mixer output > Line In on amp

While I agree with others that this isn't an ideal setup for live (i.e. on a proper stage) I know that we sometimes have to hack together a solution with a small footprint, and there's nothing wrong with doing so if it works in your situation.

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After a couple of intensive rehearsals, I can say that it worked perfectly. I didn't need to do anything special except for playing a little bit with cab and microphone positioning to minimize feedback. Everything coming out of that amp/cab combination sounds great, to be honest. We tried all the different combinations of vocals, bass and guitar straight into the mixer, from clean up to heavily distorted tones. Even at a volume where I've felt the need to wear ear protection I didn't notice any problem. Being a small untreated space, the door was always left open.

I've since bought an electric wheelchair, finding my acoustic one too tiring at times. Here's a thread about taking basses on both.

kagzer said:

I am looking for a small combo for practicing at home, my study is crowded a bit so I don't have to much space for sound.
I have a multi effect but sometimes I feel like to plug directly into amp.
I don't have problem if I have to eq the sound for piano like high attack or warm for mellow sounds, etc.
I found 3 used for great price:

1. Ampeg BA-108 V2 (I like the 60° tilt)
2. Fender Rumble 15
3. Cort CM20B 20W

I really appreciate the help, unfortunately I don't have opportunity to try any of them, this is why I ask the community opinion.

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Do you consider Joyo BA-30 ?




Search Youtube review .




I din't own one, but i own the Joyo Jam Buddy II , this bed room guitar combo just sound incense great.

Gopherbassist said:

What is it supposed to be doing exactly? I don't hear the difference in the videos.

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As I understand it, it's a low end/sub harmonic booster that goes from adding a bit of warmth and oomph, up to an overblown dubby low end. Apparently there is no synthesised octave down like on a regular octave pedal, just low end and sub harmonic eq/boost. You can clearly hear it in the online demos but you'll need to listen through decent speakers or headphones, not phone or laptop. One of the recommended uses is for warming up ampless rigs... I'm curious how people have found it in real life.

Bob_Ross said:

Whoa, time out: Lake Street Dive went to NEC?!?!

Any idea what years they were there?

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Wikipedia says:
“Lake Street Dive is an American multi-genre band that was formed in 2004 at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston”

I saw a brief note somewhere online that some British makers continued into the 1940s and I live in provincial NZ, so this is likely/possible.

ajkula66 said:

You're a much better person then I am.

I saw the DP MK II back in '87. Budapest, Hungary.

Blackmore was playing for himself the entire night, not paying one ounce of attention to anyone else, and he walked away in the middle of "SOTW" encore.

I listened to a metric ton of Deep Purple in every shape and form imaginable during my formative years but that night was IT for me. Thousands of us froze our butts off coming from various parts of the region just to be utterly disrespected and spat on.

Gillan was horrible that night. Even back then he couldn't sing the high notes. Jon Lord (RIP), Paice and Glover were as good as one would expect them to be, but these two clowns ruined the experience for just about everyone in the crowd.

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I hate to be a Negative Nancy, but Ian Gillan's performance was not good in this video either. He's not the same singer that he was in 1970. I'm not expecting him to sound like his younger self, but yikes! I hope he retires soon with his legacy intact. He's a living legend regardless.

Ritchie Blackmore's guitar solo was not good until the end. He was missing notes galore in the beginning! But that stands to reason because he hasn't played electric guitar in 25 years! His main band (Blackmore's Night) is all acoustic guitar.

Ian Paice, Roger Glover, Don Airey, and Simon McBride were great. The song would have been ruined without them.

hmmm .... and she's playing a Fainder guitar