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Project Vista Sonic (rut row, JIO's at it again!)

#563
farace said:
Had to share this one, found on a Facebook page called Modified Danelectros. I have no explanation.

View attachment 3874830
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Someones being creative there ... :)

Speaking of which...check this out - a Maton selector switch mod on a Jazzmaser guitar -

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This could work
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#564
Have to share this Reverb British amp survey - of course the Burns associated Fenton-Weill is one... I'm surprised they didn't include Burns or Watkins amps. Watkins (WEM) was huge in the UK in the late '60s for big concert amplification.

6 Vintage British Amps Worth Tracking Down, Part 3

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#566
Well... I finally had the opportunity to take the Vista Sonic out for a Bond Girl rehearsal last night. Bond Girl is a "James Bond rock band" lead by Cherie LeBow that I was involved with for years and after a few years off, we are returning with a quartette (sans tux's) and are booked for a show on June 13th. My BG bass was my '66 Oly wht J but I thought I'd preview the VS as, well.., it is from the same time period and location! ('63 "Burns of London") 1963 premiered the second Sean Connery James Bond movie "From Russia, With Love" - a song on our set-list. The VS equipped with flats and played with a 'plectrum' sounded amazing! I will definitely use it for the show. I had it set at the Wild Dog setting, which after I reversed polarity sounds like a nice Jazz bass. But, not like a Fender Jazz bass. It has a very unique character that is scooped like a J but with a sort of added harmonic level (hard to describe) and very defined. Guitarist Paul was surprised to hear it had flats, saying it sounded "bright". When I quizzed him on what he meant by 'bright', he re-defined it as articulate/defined with sufficient bass fundamentals underneath. (score!) This is the bass sound/tone I strive for.

The bass is... not light. I've gotten spoiled making/playing light-weight basses, and as much as I "chambered" under the pg, it is on the heavy side. Not terrible - but a chunk of wood. Other than that - no complaints. The medium scale feels good and (LaBella) flat-wound strings are a joy. I have a thin piece of foam under the bridge cover for subtle dampening - and when needed I was able to palm-mute just in front of the cover.

Whoever added the mini-toggle 'kill-switch' - that was a good mod when taking a break. I could see doing this on any bass I play and thinking about it now I wonder why it hasn't become a standard.

BG at Slims in SF, the club long owned by Boz Scaggs. He sold it pre-Covid but I hear it will re-open as a Jazz club. This is our current quartette. We were a quartette for a short period - usually Paul (guitar) played horn and we had another (lead) guitarist.
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#570
JIO said:
Realized the LaBella RX-N4A-M; medium scale nickel low-tension strings I ordered are rounds... luckily, I had an unused set of D'Addario ECB81M Chromes (medium scale 45/65/80/100 regular light gauge flats) and installed them. Pretty much what I was after as they are on the 'mellow' end of the spectrum and have a nice smooth feel. So finally fully complete. Now if I could only take it to a rehearsal...
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New response to an old post. I took advantage of D’Addario’s recent string deal to get an essentially free set of Chromes. I had a set of Roto Tru Bass tape wounds on my Vista Sonic, simply because I’d read somewhere that those were the factory strings on Burns basses. Too dull and thuddy; I was not impressed and put the bass away. Based on this thread I decided to try the Chromes and got my set in the mail yesterday. I just installed them, and holy cow it brought this instrument to life. It’s a monster. Still not sold on the Wild Dog setting, and not too much on Treble, but Bass and Contrabass roar like a bear running a chainsaw. My opinion of this bass has gone up greatly (though I still believe that Jim Burns, for all his quirky brilliance, could have given us more flexible switching options).
 
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#571
farace said:
New response to an old post. I took advantage of D’Addario’s recent string deal to get an essentially free set of Chromes. I had a set of Roto Tru Bass tape wounds on my Vista Sonic, simply because I’d read somewhere that those were the factory strings on Burns basses. Too dull and thuddy; I was not impressed and put the bass away. Based on this thread I decided to try the Chromes and got my set in the mail yesterday. I just installed them, and holy cow it brought this instrument to life. It’s a monster. Still not sold on the Wild Dog setting, and not too much on Treble, but Bass and Contrabass roar like a bear running a chainsaw. My opinion of this bass has gone up greatly (though I still believe that Jim Burns, for all his quirky brilliance, could have given us more flexible switching options).
Click to expand...

Switching wires on the Wild Dog connection makes it way more useful. For whatever reason JB's WD is simply wired out of phase. Apparently guitar players sometimes use this - but for a bass... no. Switch the two wires (and it's a Jazz bass. (center and bridge pu) I did finally take the VS to a Bond Girl rehearsal last summer and loved it in the mix! Really worked well with that material. (spy/Bond soundtracks/lounge) When I first joined Bond girl, I used GHS Precision flats but switched to nickel D'Addario EXL's for a bit more note detail. But love playing flats and the Burns delivers with them. :bassist:
 
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#574
JIO said:
Switching wires on the Wild Dog connection makes it way more useful. For whatever reason JB's WD is simply wired out of phase. Apparently guitar players sometimes use this - but for a bass... no. Switch the two wires (and it's a Jazz bass. (center and bridge pu) I did finally take the VS to a Bond Girl rehearsal last summer and loved it in the mix! Really worked well with that material. (spy/Bond soundtracks/lounge) When I first joined Bond girl, I used GHS Precision flats but switched to nickel D'Addario EXL's for a bit more note detail. But love playing flats and the Burns delivers with them. :bassist:
Click to expand...

This is the swap detailed in post 517, swapping the leads from the bridge pickup one going to one of the transformers, the other to the switch? I won’t be able to get to it anytime soon, but I want to make sure I have it right.
 
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#575
farace said:
This is the swap detailed in post 517, swapping the leads from the bridge pickup one going to one of the transformers, the other to the switch? I won’t be able to get to it anytime soon, but I want to make sure I have it right.
Click to expand...

yes - you won't be disappointed
 
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#577
Oh, and I took the Vista Sonic to another Bond Girl rehearsal this week and once again (last time - 3 years ago!) - I really loved it with our material. So I decided that I will debut it for our next live show.

Vic Flick played a Burns guitar, but not on the classic James Bond 'Dr No' theme - one of the most famous guitar riffs, ever. He played the theme on a 1950 Clifford Essex Paragon Deluxe hollow-body.

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#578
It's been a minute... but wanted to share this vid on Burns I just discovered. Pretty interesting in parallel with the rest of the guitar-boom '60s. Check it out - it has the unfortunate annoying mis-alignment of photo references as is typical of current AI BS along along with the fake "British" voice-over.., but it does cover some (hopefully) historic information.

 
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