Ok, Michael. Now I understand what makes the difference with the BTB headstock
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Hi, according to my bathroom scale the weight is 5,2 kg. I‘m a bit surprised cause it‘s so well balanced and as you said manageable.
Yow... That's heavy. I think mine comes in at around 9 pounds/4.1 kg. I have to wonder what that extra piece on top does for the tone?
It gives the neck more stability
More body mass and stability for the neck gives a longer sustain. You can notice that especially when playing unplugged, the body resonates in a very special way.
Do you know what strings the previous owner put on? Are those La Bella Black Nylon Tape Wound?
Forgot to mention what I meant to say on my previous post, I've found that the BH1 pickups are the darkest among OEM Bartolini pickups I've ever had. I own 2 basses with the BH1's, of which the other pair is on the SRFF806. Thus, I compensate it with bright sounding strings, hence I've always put stainless steel strings on my Terra Firma 5.
That's purdy... I remember the Terra Firma 5 & 6 were also being offered with maple fretboards.
Regarding the weight, obviously the single cut model would be heavier. My BTB685SC is 4.35kg
Hi Aidil,
Yes, those strings are Black Nylons. I found it interesting to read that you compensate the dark sounding PU with bright strings. I‘ll keep this in mind in case the Nickels do not sound as threy do on my main bass. Thanks for that
I need your experience once again, again regarding my just bought 8 year old btb 686 sc.
I want to exchange the original
strap buttons with these
I‘ve never done this before, so
Do you think this can be done by an average talented amateur or would it be better to ask the professional for this task?
What are the probable risks if there are any?
Frank
Unscrew old one, screw in new one. Not difficult at all. Take your time and it'll be OK, assuming you're not 100% klutz. In that case get a friend who's handy to do it; no need to involve a luthier.
Shaun Cahoon
Commercial User
I always liked the wing shaped ones on the roadstar basses as they had an angular lock on them. I used these elliptical ones on my improvised BTB.
Planet Waves Elliptical End Pins, Black - PWEEP102 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B005FKF2QC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_C68BZMJA5787B0GWGQWH?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
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Some 806MS pics, for those not keeping up with the BTB MS thread:
Weight is 10.12 pounds, and the B is pretty damn good. The G and C are a very small amount more stretched/thin sounding than my Dingwall NG3’s, but…I want to be careful and not overstate it, they still sound and feel plenty good, and the bass is well worth it and sounds great across all of the strings.
Hey everyone. Longtime lurker, but this is my first actual post.
Managed to pick this up just after Christmas for just under £300 UK with case. It's a 2007 WMI-made (Korean) BTB 555 MP (maple top on mahogany body; it has some slight flame, but nothing like the 1005s). It had previously been owned by two guitarists, both of whom had immediately decided they didn't like 5-strings, so I was told it had spent most of its life as a case queen and, based on the cleanliness, I mostly believe it. The saddles were all the way up, which set my spidey-senses a-tingling when I got it home but, not to worry, as soon I sorted the neck relief out, the saddles and their attendant action came all the way back down to 'reasonable'. Just needed a decent set-up, basically.
It's the heaviest bass I own at 4.63Kg (10 lbs 3 oz), but it's really not that bad. It's at the upper end of my tolerable zone, but still definitely within it.
Have been loving it so far, although it made a significant change from my usual J's. Having now got used to it, the only thing I don't really like is the medium frets. I tend to prefer jumbos and 6105s, and have consequently developed a fairly light-fingered fretting style. If you're playing stiff-ish flatwounds on mediums, you sometimes have to bury the string into the fingerboard to get it to ring true, whereas with taller frets you can just give them a light squeeze, sometimes not even touching the fingerboard. Nothing that a change of fretting style can't adjust for, but I still prefer my J's for that. I'll refret it with 6105 stainless at some point, and then the issue will solve itself, but I'm in no particular rush as it plays and sounds fine with a slight style adjustment.
Talking of flats: I found I had to do without my usual beloved Labellas. I found that, with the tapered low B string, it was almost impossible to intonate to anything more than a handful of frets at a time. The monorail's design (all captive-ball-end designs, actually ...) makes it impossible to adjust the string length such that the fat part of the string starts immediately after the saddle, and so you get large amounts of taper overhanging the scale length and buggering-up the intonation. On a toploader or through-body, you can add or remove shims to 'move' the taper point, but you can't in a captive-ball-end bridge.
The solution turned out to be Ernie Ball stainless flats (not the cobalts, the 'group' flats; I went with group II, as I like a stiff flat, but you can adjust to taste). These don't have a taper (neither do GHS precisions, although you might need the 'specialist' longer B string from the GHS; I haven't tried them yet, but the Ernie 'B' works fine). The Ernies are a bit strange in that, out of the packet, they're too metallic and 'zing-y' for my tastes, and they're coated in some weird 'gritty'/'scaley' outer substance that almost makes them feel as if they've been galvanically-dipped (like a BZP coating); in contrast to Labellas which feel mirror-smooth. However, the 'zing' goes away (or at least recedes) over the course of three-to-six weeks, and the coating takes about 6-12 weeks to blow-off/wear-smooth. *Now* (four months later) they feel and sound much more similar to Labellas and I really like them a lot, which surprised me because for the first couple of weeks I was sceptical to the point of considering selling the bass. I wouldn't dream of doing it now as the combination is awesome, but it took a while to marinade, so to speak. Real 'ugly duckling'-type strings.
Anyway ... pics ...
Managed to pick this up just after Christmas for just under £300 UK with case. It's a 2007 WMI-made (Korean) BTB 555 MP (maple top on mahogany body; it has some slight flame, but nothing like the 1005s). It had previously been owned by two guitarists, both of whom had immediately decided they didn't like 5-strings, so I was told it had spent most of its life as a case queen and, based on the cleanliness, I mostly believe it. The saddles were all the way up, which set my spidey-senses a-tingling when I got it home but, not to worry, as soon I sorted the neck relief out, the saddles and their attendant action came all the way back down to 'reasonable'. Just needed a decent set-up, basically.
It's the heaviest bass I own at 4.63Kg (10 lbs 3 oz), but it's really not that bad. It's at the upper end of my tolerable zone, but still definitely within it.
Have been loving it so far, although it made a significant change from my usual J's. Having now got used to it, the only thing I don't really like is the medium frets. I tend to prefer jumbos and 6105s, and have consequently developed a fairly light-fingered fretting style. If you're playing stiff-ish flatwounds on mediums, you sometimes have to bury the string into the fingerboard to get it to ring true, whereas with taller frets you can just give them a light squeeze, sometimes not even touching the fingerboard. Nothing that a change of fretting style can't adjust for, but I still prefer my J's for that. I'll refret it with 6105 stainless at some point, and then the issue will solve itself, but I'm in no particular rush as it plays and sounds fine with a slight style adjustment.
Talking of flats: I found I had to do without my usual beloved Labellas. I found that, with the tapered low B string, it was almost impossible to intonate to anything more than a handful of frets at a time. The monorail's design (all captive-ball-end designs, actually ...) makes it impossible to adjust the string length such that the fat part of the string starts immediately after the saddle, and so you get large amounts of taper overhanging the scale length and buggering-up the intonation. On a toploader or through-body, you can add or remove shims to 'move' the taper point, but you can't in a captive-ball-end bridge.
The solution turned out to be Ernie Ball stainless flats (not the cobalts, the 'group' flats; I went with group II, as I like a stiff flat, but you can adjust to taste). These don't have a taper (neither do GHS precisions, although you might need the 'specialist' longer B string from the GHS; I haven't tried them yet, but the Ernie 'B' works fine). The Ernies are a bit strange in that, out of the packet, they're too metallic and 'zing-y' for my tastes, and they're coated in some weird 'gritty'/'scaley' outer substance that almost makes them feel as if they've been galvanically-dipped (like a BZP coating); in contrast to Labellas which feel mirror-smooth. However, the 'zing' goes away (or at least recedes) over the course of three-to-six weeks, and the coating takes about 6-12 weeks to blow-off/wear-smooth. *Now* (four months later) they feel and sound much more similar to Labellas and I really like them a lot, which surprised me because for the first couple of weeks I was sceptical to the point of considering selling the bass. I wouldn't dream of doing it now as the combination is awesome, but it took a while to marinade, so to speak. Real 'ugly duckling'-type strings.
Anyway ... pics ...
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scottfeldstein
Roots and fifths and a little extra.
Hey, folks. Looks like I should be a member of this club. I own a BTB745. The one that looks like a coffee table you might buy to furnish your lakeside cabin. Don't like: the lack of comfort cut for my right forearm. Love: This neck! I can get the action so low without a bit of buzz! This neck is so stable. it's like the deck of an aircraft carrier in rough seas. I'm using D'Addario NYXLs on it as god intended. The rest of my rig you can see in my sig.
