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Janky-A Rigs of Doom

#641
alaskaleftybass said:
To all Janky lovers, I've noticed something kind of sad. There are a group of snobs on TB who won't view or comment on anything that costs less than $1,000, isn't a boo-teek amp or bass guitar. I pride myself on buying used equipment and making it playable and at times totally professionally capable for stage use.

It bothers me that although everyone throws around the term brothers in bass blah blah blah, what about those of us who present our inexpensive little jewels in our own eyes? Sorry it isn't a Sadowsky or Smoking Glass or whatever, "brothers." But it plays well, has a lot of mojo, and makes me happy!

Have any of you notice this, Janky people? Am I paranoid or what....?
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Haven't noticed, nor tried to keep track, nor do I care. :)
mexicanyella said:
...janktacular...
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Thanks - I just learned a new word!! Made my day.

Been thinking about this thread, as I just picked up an older Hartke XL cab on the cheap. It was covered in dog hair and dust bunnies but it cleaned up well; two of the cone dust caps were coming off (made rattling sound when played) and I re-secured them, now all is fine. Was thinking of adding some polyfill to it to reduce the boxiness it has.

I'm working on picking up a Steel Sound 212 cab (also inexpensive) as I hear they sound very good (and it's inexpensive). I'm powering them with my Ampeg B-1r; only 150 watts but that's OK. I missed out on a Backline 600 at GC for $100 but I'm sure something else will pop up if I ever need more power.

There's a Carvin t100 rack mount 100w tube amp at a pawn shop local to me that needs repair, I may take a chance on that, hmmm.

3BAB12C1-EB89-4BF3-B00B-CB84512934B6.jpeg
 
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#646
Razman said:
Haven't noticed, nor tried to keep track, nor do I care. :)

Thanks - I just learned a new word!! Made my day.

Been thinking about this thread, as I just picked up an older Hartke XL cab on the cheap. It was covered in dog hair and dust bunnies but it cleaned up well; two of the cone dust caps were coming off (made rattling sound when played) and I re-secured them, now all is fine. Was thinking of adding some polyfill to it to reduce the boxiness it has.

I'm working on picking up a Steel Sound 212 cab (also inexpensive) as I hear they sound very good (and it's inexpensive). I'm powering them with my Ampeg B-1r; only 150 watts but that's OK. I missed out on a Backline 600 at GC for $100 but I'm sure something else will pop up if I ever need more power.

There's a Carvin t100 rack mount 100w tube amp at a pawn shop local to me that needs repair, I may take a chance on that, hmmm.

View attachment 3051174
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I'd think that 150 watts would be enough to jank off in a band with, if you lean toward the mid-forward rock tone end of the spectrum. Although that is a pretty tidy-looking rack and cabinet. I sure hope that Steel Sound cab you mentioned has the a dog's airline crate door for a speaker grille and maybe one of the speakers replaced by a automotive 3-way 6 x 9. The rack/Hartke photo looks "old school clean" to me.

Just kidding...cool group of gear items there.

The Janktonic plates under my personal bass-tone continent have been shifting lately. The first step of this was, I got feeling sorry for my neglected Peavey TKO 115 (which I now think of as the sub-Choad Hammer) and took it to our practice space and left my Zoom preamp, power amp and AK cab at home for awhile. A few practices in after this and I'd discovered that the TKO goes from polite to rabid when you dime the gain knob. It doesn't sound really distorted, just somewhat dirtier, but it gains an appealing sense of compression and pushed-speaker badassery, for playing rock alongside a distorted Les Paul/Marshall.

So straight into a cranked, mid-focused TKO was sort of a revelation (and a "why am I just now discovering this?" kind of moment). As a plus, with those settings its 80W output level is just right for keeping up with our drummer and guitarist in our practice space.

But I gots to tinker, and it just occurred to me to try the Dean Markley guitar amp chassis-as-bass-preamp (see my first Janky-A post, way back in this thread) to get the basic slightly dirty tone I like, and augment it with some of the features of my Zoom, downstream of the Markley...namely built-in tuner, noise reduction, and EQ, currently set up as a LPF and HPF to help the Markley's passive guitar-type EQ. No amp emulation, cab emulation or FX, just NR and EQ and adjustable output gain before the power amp, since the Markley's line out is a little weak in level.

WOW! Further experiments, and a photo, to follow soon...hopefully with my "new" janky rat stunt bass also in the photo if I get off my azz and finish the scrapmetal pickguard.
 
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#650
rllefebv said:
View attachment 3051224

Not necessarily a "rig", but I consider the bass to be in the janky arena... it's pretty much all I've been interested in playing lately.

-robert
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Struck correctly with the correct metal object I'm sure you get some amazing sounds out of that light pole! Interesting looking bass too I might add!
 
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#652
kkaarrll said:
is there a thread explaining that?

loooks cool
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Thanks! No build thread, but it was an interesting adventure!

9454B753-E60E-48D3-BAAF-5652FCE0B902.jpeg


In a nutshell, I have some knee and shoulder issues which make playing the upright in my old time band less than enjoyable... I threw this together based around an old upright fingerboard and a Sentell pickup that I had sitting around... 32" scale, can be played upright on the stand or regular sitting down. After trying to make a piezo work, I gave up and went with the Sentell. Fit well with the old time vibe. The guys love it!

-robert
 
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#653
rllefebv said:
Thanks! No build thread, but it was an interesting adventure!

View attachment 3051242

In a nutshell, I have some knee and shoulder issues which make playing the upright in my old time band less than enjoyable... I threw this together based around an old upright fingerboard and a Sentell pickup that I had sitting around... 32" scale, can be played upright on the stand or regular sitting down. After trying to make a piezo work, I gave up and went with the Sentell. Fit well with the old time vibe. The guys love it!

-robert
Click to expand...


inrecdible

got any more pics?
 
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#660
Porkchop2 said:
How's this?
View attachment 3051177
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You get one point for at least one mismatched driver, minus ten points for all matching brand, plus ten points for rig being taller than you, plus one point for posting, plus 5 points for posting pic of good self old enough to have bought all that stuff brand new from saving up his paper round earnings, plus 5 janky garage points.
 
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