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Opening a Can of Worms...

Fantastic JIO! Because I can never leave well-enough alone, I suggest binding the f-hole with more of that checker binding. :smug:
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Fantastic JIO! Because I can never leave well-enough alone, I suggest binding the f-hole with more of that checker binding. :smug:
:)Thanks! I may eventually. I bought that binding a while ago thinking I would eventually use it, but used all of it. I'll have to see if I can find more.
 
Spectacular restoration!
You definitely saved it ! :cool:
Outstanding!!
:) Thanks guys! I wasn't certain I could pull it off so I'm happy it's now a playable bass with nice action. (it was only marginally playable before and got worse over time) I'll be using it at a Bond Girl dinner-club gig here in SF in a couple weeks where we need to keep the volume down. Hopefully there will be pics.
 
:) Thanks guys! I wasn't certain I could pull it off so I'm happy it's now a playable bass with nice action. (it was only marginally playable before and got worse over time) I'll be using it at a Bond Girl dinner-club gig here in SF in a couple weeks where we need to keep the volume down. Hopefully there will be pics.
I wasn't really sure how big that body was until I saw the pic of you wearing it. While I love BIG hollow bodies, this gem hits the Goldilocks range, not too big, not too small. :thumbsup:
 
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Not familiar - pic?
Was not relating to the bass but the bassist...Graham Maby has been known primarily as Joe Jackson's long time bassist and is in often mentioned as somewhat underrated bassist in TB. I'm certainly a fan of his playing and (as far as I can tell from the distance) his personality, and I noticed some kind of similarity. But probably that's just me.... and was possibly a dumb remark to make...
So back to the thread and congrats to that astonishing repair!

 
I wasn't really sure how big that body was until I saw the pic of you wearing it. While I love BIG hollow bodies, this gem hits the Goldilocks range, not too big, not too small. :thumbsup:
Yah, there are others for sale from Eastern Europe but that one has 24 frets whereas the others like it have 20 or 21 frets. It's a big body but 1-3/4" thick so it very manageable. It reminds me HB's Ronnie Lane, the bassist of Small Faces played.

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Took it to Bond Girl rehearsal tonight - minus our drummer Scott. I never mind rehearsing with one less band member, especially a drummer. Less volume, more open, more 'what's left' focused. You have to concentrate more on nuance and articulation - which is a really good thing. So this bass sounded great and was fun to play. At our rehearsal space, I run a Mesa Boogie M2000 tube/fet 650w amp and a Carvin 18" cab. So big fat bass sound allowing me to play more mid-centric bass. It's my winning formula. :)

It's a thin neck - 1.5" zero-fret / 2" heal, 32 scale and it's 2" longer than a Jazz bass. But only 7lbs! My internal braces were designed to keep the weight down. Super stable but light and not completely a semi-hollowbody. (are there levels of "semi"? :laugh:) I may change the cap (not sure what the Hofner-style harness cap is...) for .047uf to darken it a bit. I jockeyed the toggles & VV knobs and found a decent sound/tone. It has flats (LaBella's if I remember correctly...) so plunky in a good way both finger-style & pick/palm-mute. But I had to goose the bass on my MXR d.i.+ to fatten it up a bit. I've never played a Hofner violin bass so I can't compare it other than; it's German and vintage and hollowbody and has a narrow neck and single-coil pu's, and, and, and... that's about it! :bassist:
 
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A 2A333J capacitor has a significantly lower capacitance value compared to a standard .047 µF capacitor. When used in guitar tone circuits, the 2A333J will result in a brighter tone, while the .047 µF will sound darker and warmer... .047uF Black Beauty cap - mo betta'

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Getting familiar with the Hofner-style harness... never owned a "Beatle bass" so it's new to me and it takes some getting used to in a few ways. First, Volume 1 & 2. Usually it would be the other way around right? Volume 1 being the N-pu closest to the neck, and Volume 2 being the B-pu closest to the bridge. Only way it could make sense is if it were upside down, but if that were true the player would look down and see all the words upside-down. So there's that. Then there's the Rhythm/Solo switch. There is a resistor involved so I think the resistor cuts output (Rhythm) and Solo is free of the resistor. (louder) I opt for Solo but Rhythm may come into use in some case for some reason. Bass On & Treble On is like a pu selector. Both off = no output. I have a Teisco bass with that set-up using 2 rocker switches. But that bass has a V & T knob so you have more nuanced control in the tone dept. With the Hofner-style, if you have both on, you can vary which pu gets more or less volume but there's no tone variation other than the pu's location.

Kinda covers much of the same needs, abet differently. The pu's are very quiet for single-coils. (no hum regardless of settings) Maybe this is why these vintage SIMETO pickups are highly esteemed by collectors in Germany as @flixbass mentioned on page 1.

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A 2A333J capacitor has a significantly lower capacitance value compared to a standard .047 µF capacitor. When used in guitar tone circuits, the 2A333J will result in a brighter tone, while the .047 µF will sound darker and warmer... .047uF Black Beauty cap - mo betta'

View attachment 7486465
2A333J = 0.033 uF.
 
Played the Musima last night at a local SF diner-club called The Rite Spot. We (Bond Girl) did 3 sets. Relatively low volume as required for that sort of situation. The bass sounded good and I had no problem dialing it for the room. It had plenty of bass and maybe less top-end that I'm used to but I rolled with it. An original by Cherie incorporates a harmonics accent I play in the chorus that I couldn't hear, otherwise the overall sound was good. During one of the breaks a fellow bass-player (just met him) commented he has seen/heard us a few times and he felt we sounded best last night. From the stage (and with a very basic PA) you can never tell how it sounds 'out there' so I thanked him for his compliment even if I felt we've sounded better at other past shows. :) Paul agreed...

The other thing I'm noticing is that it stays in tune. The basic/crude 50yr old German tuners leave much to be desired but they lock in. Using flats helps.

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