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Official TUNE Club

#341
Hi there! happy 2012!( hope this forum is still on)
I just bought a second hand (not so old, as new) bassmaniac 4 glossy red, with PJ active and piezo stainless steel bridge. no model is printed it seems to be a TBJ 4 with a piezo steel bridge.
try to put a pic soon.
clockwise, i kind of guessed what the 3 remaining concentric controls are, but i´m not so sure( 1 is volume alone)(SO FAR ;2 is mix between piezo and magnetic/top is balance of P/J)
3 big enhances low, top maybe highs, but not sure,4(top pot near the bridge adds volume in middle frequencies, but no so sure how to combine with the big knob.
any hints on this please? thanks in advance.
the tune web page doesent seem to picture this, ill send them an email,though

[email protected]
 
#342
I just bought a Tune TWB53 a few days ago and am really smitten. Of course I bought it used... not to mentioned abused. I can't get over how this poor thing has been mistreated. From the looks of the fingerboard grime I'd guess it was either heavily played or played by an auto mechanic who rarely washed his/her hands. The body is pretty banged up, mostly on the back, as though it was never transported in even the flimsiest of gig bags. The most horrific thing about it is that it looks like the PO attempted to enlarge the control cavity and pickup routes with a rasp bit chucked into a drill held between his feet. I'm sure he/she had brilliant plans for upgrades:rolleyes:. It's really sad... at least the control cavity damage is mostly hidden by the cover. The pickup routes though will need to fixed in the future. I'll probably route them out for inserts of a slightly contrasting figured wood but will probably just make trim plates for the time being.

On the plus side this is a helluva great bass. A clean up, new strings and set up were all I had to do and this thing feels and sounds absolutely fantastic. Such a wonderfully responsive bass. At first I had reservations about buying the bass even with the $180 price tag but it just felt so right and I had a boatload of sympathy for the poor thing in a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree sorta way. From here on in it will get the pampering and love it deserves.

**UPDATE**
I've been playing my TWB53 almost exclusively for the past couple of weeks to get used to the string spacing (this is my first 5-string) and I gigged it for the first time tonight. I hate to say it but I can't see myself playing any of my other basses much. Not necessarily because of the extra string but because this thing just feels so good and solid that all of my others pale in comparison. I removed the preamp about a week ago and rewired it as 2V-2T passive (I'm not really much of an 'active' bass kinda guy) and this thing just sounds right and fits into the mix perfectly with the band. This is easily the best $180 I've spent on music gear... combined with the Ashdown Electric Blue 180 I bought at a pawn shop for $150 I'm in heaven. As much as I love my Fender Bassman with my P and J basses the Ashdown tone is perfect with the Tune and my Ashdown MAG300 with 2X15 cab is just the thing for larger venues.

Insert the obligatory "sorry for the crappy cel phone pic" here
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#345
Those are from the old boutique days in Japan. Both of them are 36" scales, and they sound like thunder. The B strings are very tight and controlled, and they speak like pianos all over the board. They are not heavy, the ergonomics are great, and the only reason I play anything else is laziness.
 
#346
raulcheva said:
I just bought a second hand (not so old, as new) bassmaniac 4 glossy red, with PJ active and piezo stainless steel bridge. no model is printed it seems to be a TBJ 4 with a piezo steel bridge.
try to put a pic soon. clockwise, i kind of guessed what the 3 remaining concentric controls are, but i´m not so sure( 1 is volume alone)(SO FAR ;2 is mix between piezo and magnetic/top is balance of P/J)
3 big enhances low, top maybe highs, but not sure,4(top pot near the bridge adds volume in middle frequencies, but no so sure how to combine with the big knob. any hints on this please? thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Hi Raul, I've had my fretless Tune Bass Maniac since new (c. 1987, can't remember exactly) and I still have the original manuals. Your model sounds like it has the PB-2G piezo bridge pickup and the TB004S active circuit.

Clockwise from single knob (master volume):
2 main is magnetic P/J pickups balance control; 2 top is magnetic/piezo pickups balance control.
3 main is magnetic pickups cut & boost bass control; 3 top is piezo cut & boost bass control.
4 main is magnetic pickups cut & boost treble control; 3 top is piezo cut & boost treble control.

Hope this helps! Cheers, Tim
 
#347
While here, I guess I should join the club. Here's my Tune: last year I replaced the magnetic pickups with Nordstrands and the preamp with an Aguilar OBP3. She really howls now. Can I get a number please?
 

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#348
MoonDoggy said:
VERY NICE! Are those both Japanese? And is the guy on the right a 36" scale? I'm quite jealous.
Click to expand...

Here are some photos and specs.

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This is a Tune Bull's Eye five string (BE-5 ZW). It has a four-piece maple neck that runs end to end. The headstock tilts back and the truss rod adjusts at the nut. It has a two-octave 36" scale ebony board about 1.85" wide at the nut and 2.55" at the twelfth fret. There are supposed to be two titanium reinforcing rods next to the truss rod. The board has about a 14" radius, but I couldn't measure it accurately where I am right now! Spacing at the bridge is about 0.7125".

The frets are about .063" high and .115" wide. The neck shape is a flattened oval, which does not appear to get substantially deeper until about the 17th position, where the neck starts to melt in to the body.There are small white side dots, and small abalone dots on the fingerboard positioned between the G anrd D strings.


The body wings have 1" ash cores with 1/4" zebra wood tops and backs and very thin black spacers.

This bass has two humbucking soapbar shaped pickups in plastic shells, and volume, blend, and cut-boost controls for bass, middle, and treble. There is a mini-toggle to engage a mid-notch filter, and another mini toggle to switch the bridge pickup from series to parallel mode.

The lightweight cast bridge and enclosed tuners look like standard Gotoh manufacture, although the tuners are branded "Tune Guitar Technology" (as are the pickup covers).

The manual that came with this bass is copyrighted 1996. I can't recall when I bought this one. Bass Alone always had a few Tunes hanging on the wall and they were always absolutely hysterical basses.

Tone and fret job.
 
#350
Here are some pictures and specs on the fretless.

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This is a Tune Modern Acoustic SBB-365. This bass has a 36" scale, two-octave lined fretless ebony fingerboard, with small abalone dots centered between the G and D strings, and small white side dot markers. The headstock is angled back, and the Gotoh tuners are installed so they string backwards, which takes some getting used to but works just as well and keeps the headstock smaller.

It has a three piece maple neck set in to a chambered out ash body with a cedar top. The finish is called Nightwood. There are two magnetic pickups mounted in narrow wooden shells, and piezos mounted in seperate bridge saddles which travel in channels in the ebony bridge. The seperate tailpiece is also carved from ebony. The bass came with gold tuners and knobs but I swapped them out for exact replacements in black.

There is a volume control for each mag pickup and another for the piezos. There are seperate stacked bass and treble cut/boost knobs for the mags and the piezos.

That 36" scale is a very powerful thing. The B feels noticeably tighter than a 35" bass strung with the same gauge strings, and there are great dividends in the bottom five notes on the B string. It is different.

These are some creamy basses. Creamy. :confused:
 
#354
Hi everyone,
Does anyone know if a Yamaha RBX or Ibanez SR gigbag fits a Tune TBJ42? The Tune is being shipped to me without a gigbag, and I'd like to buy one without running around the music stores and exposing my bass to Russian weather.
Thanks in advance!
 
#359
I'm new to Tune and I am looking for a fretted Sixer and I came across this at GC for $769 used. It's got a huge wide manageable though fingerboard that's definitely 19mm or maybe more it will not quite fit in the standard guitar wall hanger there. The scale also seems to be at least 35" as well. It plays like butter. It's a bolt on neck. I think it used to belong to a guy that's playing drums at a church I go to and I should see him tonight. Any thoughts or info?

It's a TWX62
 

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