Recent content by SMG

If anyone is in the Greenfield, WI area, the Music-Go-Round has a Washburn T-35 Taurus bass for $280. This bass was part of test batch of which only, not sure which it is, 35 were made, or, 35 were sent to the USA. They have this label as a T-25 which has a bolt on neck and Washburn import "J"...

I had a red one that was fretted. Found in a pawn shop that wasn’t really sure what to do with it. Anyway, these were done in a partnership between Washburn and Status, using Status parts and design, but built by Washburn in Asia, if I recall correctly. Washburn also had a more traditional...

I am a 19mm person on basses, both 4 string and 5 string basses. Note that some of the early Japanese basses had 4 string necks narrower than the standard Fender spacing of 19mm. When I first started playing 5's, the narrow seemed right, but the more I played 5's, the more I appreciated the...

Playing blues most of the time, to me it largely depends upon both the bass I am playing and the room. Using a Markbass combo set pretty much flat, there are times that (to my ears) the bass sounds much brighter than other times, so I adjust the tone control a lot. It also depends upon the...

As stated years ago on another Heritage bass thread, I have a red Heritage HB5. It has EMG soapbar pickups and very narrow string spacing...pretty much like the early Ibanez 5 strings, but I also have a Gibson V (read "bass 5", which was the name of the bass) which is a double cut, neck through...

Hey, I was really into collecting Guild basses for a while in the late 90’s, early 2000’s, and have both a 301 & 302, and had a 402. The sound of the 301 and 302 is sort of a beefy version of a Fender J, with the wider pickups and middle and neck set up rather than middle and bridge of a J...

If your Super 5 and Z5 are stock, the ZX5 and AG5 have the same body style and similar necks (though the AG5 has a purpleheart fingerboard, I think) but the electronics are totally different, and different between the two. The ZX5 has more of a standard Bartolini voicing where the AG5 has custom...

I haven’t installed mine yet, but the Guyker saddles, which are made at 18mm, have a locking set screw that gives a tiny bit of adjustment, to maybe 18.5mm spacing. If one loosens the set screw and lifts the saddle assemble, the saddle piece itself will slide out. Doing this I was able to, one...

Check out vintagespector.com, PJ Rubal's site. It has almost anything you could ask for concerning Spector, and if is not on there, email PJ through the site. Just noticed I have repeated myself from earlier in this thread. But, seriously, ask PJ.

How about broad neck options on the Rock bass series?

I am pretty sure I have seen Kramer era Spectors with no visible serial number. Have you looked in the control cavity as a lot of early Spectors have the serial number there, including the solid color Czech basses.

Go to the vintagespector.com cite and email PJ Rubal. As a close friend of Stuart's, and later (I think) co-owner of Spector, he is an encyclopedia of almost all things Spector related.

They actually did it a couple of months ago. I picked up an Ibanez AFR5 that I had been eyeing and got the 10% off. I think it was either the days leading up to Memorial Day or the days leading up to July 4th, not sure which.

Actually, I think the very first batch of Kustom amps were in fact tube amps, but that only lasted for a very short spell. For whatever reason, the transistor style that we are all (from the time period) familiar with became the norm earlier on, and that was what Kustom was known for. also made...

My PBC Dave Bunker basses (2), my Andrew Drake custom Koog, and my Kiesel hardly ever go out of tune. I have played entire evenings without more than one, maybe two of the five strings on each needing to be tuned. All of these are 5 strings, each of these are headless, the Drake and Kiesel...