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U.S. Peavey Club

#11,901
Another couple things I like about the chainsaw case is
1. It's fully rounded on the edges-doesn't make dings and marks on the walls and in my car
2. It's got that funky/cool/only-from-Peavey-thing going on.
That's #2 of why I love Peavey, right after being solid, ubiquitous, affordable gear.
The aluminum trim and blue/white/grey/black knobs on the 80s amps and aluminum knobs on the 70s amps, the pointy-spacey logo, the metal pointy P knobs on the early instruments, the triangle string trees, Scorpions, Black Widows, the T series instruments, the list goes on...
 
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#11,902
kodiakblair said:
Do you folks actually use those old cases ?

I must have 8 of them,stashed right at the back of the cupboard/buried behind 30 other cases. Short of skipping them it's the easiest way to ensure I never grab one by mistake :laugh:
Click to expand...

I always keep my basses stored in the case. I have one or 2 max out on the stand at a time. And I do transport with whatever case the bass happens to be in at the time.
 
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#11,903
Runnerman said:
I always keep my basses stored in the case. I have one or 2 max out on the stand at a time. And I do transport with whatever case the bass happens to be in at the time.
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I keep everything in racks for ease of finding, 4 racks of 7 and 10 A frames in the livingroom/another 4 racks of 7 upstairs.Sorting through 45+ cases to find a particular one is not an option.

After the midibase survived a car smash at 60mph in a gigbag,I was convinced they are the way to go. Those old Peavey cases weigh 12lb unloaded, I would have had a 21lb missile launched at me from the passenger seat.

No thank you. Those clunky awkward shaped relics are not for me :thumbsup:
 
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#11,904
My favorite cases are the Non-rectangular ones. I have a contoured Fender brand case that fits some of my Laklands and EBMM, and the Peavey chainsaws. They take up less room in my car or SUV. Rectangular cases are always bumping me or the windows while I’m driving. I’ve got a few gig bags. But, they don’t offer enough protection to keep me from feeling worried the whole time I’m traveling.
 
#11,907
Personally, I’d prefer making another fretless neck fit a T-40, over defretting one. Defretted necks always seem to look like crap hack jobs. And to be done right, they need filled (preferably with maple) and re-radiused. I bought a radius beam for T-40 recently and I could have bought a neck for what it cost.
 
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#11,908
This Sarzo bass I got is really something. :laugh:

- The fretless conversion is pretty DIY aka. Homemade hackjob. If it stays like this I have to sand down the fingerboard a bit to remove some top coat (which look brushed). Also, luckily (we'll come back to this..) the nut hasn't been adjusted either, so to get the strings closer to the fretboard the truss rod was almost maxed out.

- looks like someone took out the last frets with a chisel and input a motif of a.. deer? It's so grotesque it's cool. I usually don't name my basses but this one will be called "The Stag" (even though I'm not sure if the animal in the motif is actually a Red Deer). There's also tree of life motifs on the pickups. And all of these are done with a golden permanent marker.

- Neck has been sanded down to a satin finish, but with really ugly transitions on the nut and body ends. Naturally these have been hidden with golden marker as well. There is a couple of places where it has taken a hit as well, and you can see the wood. The finish must be 1-2mm thick - really, really thick.

- On the neck side there are burn marks to indicate the fret positions and some mysterious symbols filled with the same golden marker (moons, paws?). It's starting to feel like this bass was caught in a 70's blizzard which tried to do brutal "Alembics" to it.

- Seller told me there is no crackle in the electronics when I asked. Well, there is none from the active side as the battery wire is disconnected. And running passive? Pots crackle and the bass has grounding issues. :laugh:Sound is ok, though, so the pickups do work.

Sounds like a disaster? Well, not for the price I got it. I was not expecting much to start with because the seller sent me a bunch of pictures beforehand - My main concern was the neck and truss rod and they seem to be ok (after I backed the truss rod a bit). Anything else I can fix, or get fixed by a luthier. It has the original case and certificate (with a matching serial number!).

I had mentally priced putting frets in already, and it would still be relatively cheap for the price. Luckily the brass nut was not modified, so most likely you can just put in new frets and it's good with some relief in the neck, without the truss rod being maxed out.

The visuals are... interesting and most likely a value detriment, but aside from the Deer it's not anything some nail polish remover and sandpaper can't clean up. The electronics are fixable, but most likely I'll take them out and run this passive with a normal Vol & Tone & PU selector (miniswitch) setup. Then it's just setup work and redoing the wiring, which I've done before so no problem there.

Pics coming at some point, I know you want to see this abhorrence ;)
 
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#11,909
Wow! What a waste of a well built instrument! Granted the p’ups and electronics have a rep here of sounding less than stellar. That aside, I’ll always remember how beautiful mine was and how impressed I was with the attention to detail.

If I owned it, I’d put frets in it myself, and slap EMG guts in it, or maybe T-40 pickups.
 
#11,910
JEDI BASS said:
Wow! What a waste of a well built instrument! Granted the p’ups and electronics have a rep here of sounding less than stellar. That aside, I’ll always remember how beautiful mine was and how impressed I was with the attention to detail.

If I owned it, I’d put frets in it myself, and slap EMG guts in it, or maybe T-40 pickups.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's got that feeling where someone most likely tried to sell it for a long time, couldn't move it and then just went ".... it" -> *hack mod sand chisel golden marker paint job*. It's got potential still, though and I most likely will have it turned back to fretted by some luthier.
 
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#11,911
kkaarrll said:
how can I build a cheap (ish) t40 fretless?
Click to expand...

You'll have to pull the frets yourself or find one that somebody else did. I like my T-45, it was fretless when I found it at a resale shop. The previous owner had done a reasonably clean job pulling the frets, and then ruined it by continuing to play roundwounds, which left a lot of deep scars. A tech had to replane and refinish the fingerboard to get the wood down to the level of the deepest grooves (which ran around $200 and the tech told me there's not enough wood remaining to do that again), so the bridge is bottomed out though the action is not as low as it could be. I still play it almost every day and I've had a couple decades to get used to the quirks, but I'll be the first to admit it's pretty far from a perfect specimen of a fretless bass guitar.

If you are going to DIY, there are a few tutorials in the Luthier section: New "How to" section
 
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#11,912
ardgedee said:
A tech had to replane and refinish the fingerboard to get the wood down to the level of the deepest grooves, so the bridge is bottomed out though the action is not as low as it could be.
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That bridge being bottomed out is easily fixable. There’s two ways that I can think of. First, see how much the neck tilt screw is affecting the neck angle by removing the neck. If the neck tilt screw isn’t extending into the pocket much, then use the tilt (turn it clockwise) to angle the neck. There’s instructions on the web. The other fix is to get a thin piece of hardwood in the crafts section of Walmart or at Hobby Lobby, the same thickness that you’d like to raise the bridge saddles, cut a piece the size of the neck pocket. Drill holes in it for the neck tilt screw and neck bolts. Lay it in the pocket and bolt the neck back on.
 
#11,913
T40-fl
I wouldn't. They aren't great. When you go through selling history - you'll see a T40 I sold. About 6 years ago, I sold a Siena burst with maple and fretless necks matching serial numbers. I had the neck made at the factory... Recorded with it once and let it sit for 20 years. There are tons better fretless out there... Foundation-fl has better overtones. Squier vintage jazz has better overtones... Either are like 200-250 used. There's a bit more to a fretless than just pulling the frets.

I've defretted a Yamaha.. If you are into sanding and set-up defretting is not bad.

In full disclosure, I keep a Fretless on my webpage. I've NEVER received a gig request to bring it.... upright all the time - never fretless.

Contour Cases
I travelled for 5 years ... same case... never a problem. By the end, we'd have contest to see how far up we could throw it to see if it would break --- never an issue. I've often just taped one closed and mailed them. When the open cell foam degrades, I've found using hiking bed mats to be the most successful option.
 
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#11,918
JEDI BASS said:
The other fix is to get a thin piece of hardwood in the crafts section of Walmart or at Hobby Lobby, the same thickness that you’d like to raise the bridge saddles, cut a piece the size of the neck pocket. Drill holes in it for the neck tilt screw and neck bolts. Lay it in the pocket and bolt the neck back on.
Click to expand...

Thanks! For the time being I'll let it alone, the action is perfectly playable as it is -- the E is about 2mm above the board at the octave -- it'd be a lot of work for what I figure would be a very minor improvement. But it's worth consideration in the future, just to have a better range of adjustability available.
 
#11,919
ardgedee said:
Thanks! For the time being I'll let it alone, the action is perfectly playable as it is -- the E is about 2mm above the board at the octave -- it'd be a lot of work for what I figure would be a very minor improvement. But it's worth consideration in the future, just to have a better range of adjustability available.
Click to expand...
On second thought, you can see if the neck tilt is in use by looking at it. Then, adjusting the tilt would literally take less than a minute.
 

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