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SG & EB Bass Club

#6,561
blacktocomm said:
I've always wanted a Major.
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The gentleman who used to be my BL back in the late '80s - may he RIP - owned a Major and a selection of cabinets that would blow just about anyone's mind. Having said that, I've never actually played an EB through a Major, but both the modded '71 Telecaster Bass and a '70 Jazz Bass which were my choices for that particular band at the time - pretty much straight blues - both sounded awesome, especially the Tele played on its SC only...
 
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#6,562
I don't think i have a number and i wanna be a member, lol:thumbsup:
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#6,563
ajkula66 said:
The gentleman who used to be my BL back in the late '80s - may he RIP - owned a Major and a selection of cabinets that would blow just about anyone's mind. Having said that, I've never actually played an EB through a Major, but both the modded '71 Telecaster Bass and a '70 Jazz Bass which were my choices for that particular band - pretty much straight blues - both sounded awesome, especially the Tele played on its SC only...
Click to expand...


When I had mine during the early 70's I had a 1970 P bass I had bought new in 1970 with probably the original flatwounds on it, the covers I lost right away. I used to play it through two Sunn 2000S cabs with JBL D-140s, it was an earthquake machine and I was a maniac when I was young. You could feel the air coming out of the cabs 20' in front of them, I'm not exaggerating. They used to vibrate everything in the place, tables, cups etc. A bartender in a place we used to play every weekend used to call us The Big Wind. :laugh: This was a fairly large club too.
There was an original cab for sale on Reverb for one a few months ago, a 4 x 15 cab but it only had two speakers in it with the other two holes blocked off, I considered it but it was expensive and original speakers for those are hard to find. It looked like a big 4 x 12 Marshall cab, same style.
Majors are kind of loud to get that Jack Bruce sound out of, they have to be REALLY loud to distort. I use to run mine on probably about 8 most of them time and it was still pretty clean but was loud enough to pull one of the voice coil wires right out of a JBL cone in one of my Sunns and I always used both cabs. When I used my new one last summer I ran it through an old Dual Showman cab which wasn't mine so I was afraid to really crank it but I still did play it pretty loud, it makes me think it didn't have the original speakers as most of them had JBL's and this one didn't and I didn't blow it up.
I forgot what a pain those things are to move, they're even worse than SVT's, they're a little lighter but not balanced at all, at least SVT's have the transformers at the ends so they balance.
 
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#6,564
bobyoung53 said:
There was an original cab for sale on Reverb for one a few months ago, a 4 x 15 cab but it only had two speakers in it with the other two holes blocked off,
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Yep, I played through two of those back then...anyone wonders why my hearing is severely impaired - not kidding - nowadays...:roflmao:

I forgot what a pain those things are to move, they're even worse than SVT's, they're a little lighter but not balanced at all, at least SVT's have the transformers at the ends so they balance.
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My guitar player overseas has a plethora of gear that he rents out including two SVTs and a dozen or so Marshall stacks. Other stuff as well. All of that is beautiful to look at but my Polytone combo is about as much as I can handle these days, both in the respect of weight and of loudness...
 
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#6,567
bobyoung53 said:
How'd they sound? I saw a video on YouTube of a guy with one and a Major head and it sounded great.
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It sounded HUGE. Probably the biggest sound I've ever had "live" with any amp. Probably could push a stone through one's kidney if they stood close enough. I doubt that I'd be able to tolerate that amount of decibels nowadays, though. Seriously.
 
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#6,568
ajkula66 said:
The gentleman who used to be my BL back in the late '80s - may he RIP - owned a Major and a selection of cabinets that would blow just about anyone's mind. Having said that, I've never actually played an EB through a Major, but both the modded '71 Telecaster Bass and a '70 Jazz Bass which were my choices for that particular band at the time - pretty much straight blues - both sounded awesome, especially the Tele played on its SC only...
Click to expand...

I played through one once at a Washington DC area music store close to 30 years ago. It was only at low volume but I was in love. I was also a broke 18 year old kid so it stayed there and I kept rocking my Peavey Mark IV (which I also loved).
It's my go to sim amp for recording though. The Major/4X15 rig in Podfarm sounds incredible. I've recorded well over 100 tracks of various genres with many different basses with just minor tweaks of the Marshall sim. Its the amp sim used in the videos I posted earlier in this thread.
My EBs are two of my favorites running through it.
 
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#6,569
blacktocomm said:
My EBs are two of my favorites running through it.
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You own some very nice basses from what I can recall, but the one that would be my "blind pick" to pair with the Major would be the B-301...

I might have said this before, but it was a B-302 played "live" by a *very* seasoned player that completely re-shaped my idea of how a bass guitar can/should sound some 40 years ago...
 
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#6,570
ajkula66 said:
Yep, I played through two of those back then...anyone wonders why my hearing is severely impaired - not kidding - nowadays...:roflmao:



My guitar player overseas has a plethora of gear that he rents out including two SVTs and a dozen or so Marshall stacks. Other stuff as well. All of that is beautiful to look at but my Polytone combo is about as much as I can handle these days, both in the respect of weight and of loudness...
Click to expand...
Sounds like me — can't take the volume anymore after an ear injury a few years ago. On the positive side (if one can say that), visiting the doctor to deal with the ear injury revealed hearing loss that had been going on in one ear, so I've backed way off on the volume for that reason, too. Meanwhile, I definitely hear you (so to speak) on the weight ;)
 
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#6,571
dmt said:
Meanwhile, I definitely hear you (so to speak) on the weight ;)
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Aging gracefully is not something that everyone is capable of. With my bad knees, messed-up back and improperly healed right wrist, I simply can't - and at this point in the game won't - do any heavy lifting.

My aforementioned guitar player overseas had a *major* surgery a couple of months ago that saved his life but the aftermath of it will likely prevent him from doing any hard physical work for quite some time, possibly ever. He wasn't happy with that idea - still isn't but will have to get used to it eventually - so I told him that I preferred him playing through a Deluxe Reverb as opposed to a Twin anyway...:D
 
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#6,573
ajkula66 said:
Aging gracefully is not something that everyone is capable of. With my bad knees, messed-up back and improperly healed right wrist, I simply can't - and at this point in the game won't - do any heavy lifting.

My aforementioned guitar player overseas had a *major* surgery a couple of months ago that saved his life but the aftermath of it will likely prevent him from doing any hard physical work for quite some time, possibly ever. He wasn't happy with that idea - still isn't but will have to get used to it eventually - so I told him that I preferred him playing through a Deluxe Reverb as opposed to a Twin anyway...:D
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What? No Super Reverb w/ its 4x10s?
 
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#6,575
ajkula66 said:
I'll leave that one for you, young sir...:roflmao:

There was also a Super Six Reverb - which I'm sure you remember - now that was utter insanity...
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The first amp I played the USN issue 65 EB-3 through was a USN issue Super Reverb. That was in 67-68 when I was 20ish and could lift the mother trucker(sp?).
 
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#6,576
ajkula66 said:
You own some very nice basses from what I can recall, but the one that would be my "blind pick" to pair with the Major would be the B-301...

I might have said this before, but it was a B-302 played "live" by a *very* seasoned player that completely re-shaped my idea of how a bass guitar can/should sound some 40 years ago...
Click to expand...

I just recorded an album with the B-301 through the Marshall sim. People like to throw around the "jazz bass on steroids" description, but for that bass its actually very fitting. Big, punchy, vibrant tone. I wish DiMarzio would reissue that pickup.
I recorded the same tracks with my Gibson LP DC and while they also sounded great, it didn't cut through the mix in the same way the Guild did.

I'm always on the look out for a 302, having two of those pickups on tap would be awesome.
 
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#6,580
bobyoung53 said:
I was looking at your '65, very nice by the way, and noticed that your thumb rest is backwards from mine so I googled them and most of them are turned like mine, did you turn yours around or did it come like that?.
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Sharp eye, I never noticed that, so looked at the EB3 catalog on Fly Guitars and sure enough, Mine is the wrong way around. I never took it off so some previous owner must have.
 
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