• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

U.S. Peavey Club

#15,501
JEDI BASS said:
He looks like a fun guy... somebody I’d like! And those strings sound great!

As for the bridge... I have my doubts about the Babicz bridge and it’s supposed benefits. I’m all about somebody creating a better whatever, but Hipshot (and others) already did that a long time ago. And, I can’t hear a difference (when playing with my band) between the bent plate Fender bridge of the 50s and the best that Hipshot offers. I buy Hipshot for weight choice (aluminum or brass), style choices, looks, and adjustability.
Click to expand...

Can of Worms opened - I disagree with the thought that the Babicz full contact bridge is not good OR heavy. Have you picked them up ? They weigh nearly nothing. They LOOK heavy, but weigh only 3.7 oz, whereas the stock ABM on a Cirrus weighs 10.3 oz. Also, there is an entire thread regarding ABM vs. Hipshot and how Hipshot is just name recognition compared to the highly accurately German engineered ABM ; The BMW of bridges.

A luthier friend of mine here in SF Bay Area owns Veteran Guitar amps. He designed, built and sells them. He also does luthier work and said the Babicz bridges are the best bridges to come out in decades. His opinion, of course, but I trust him.

As we all know, look a the Cirrus. Look at all the parts involved. VFL pickups, ABM bridges, Dunlop strap locks, Switchcraft input jacks, Gotoh tuners. Peavey ONLY used the best quality parts on the Cirrus.

So, if anything, going to a Babicz bridge will lighten your bass by around 7 oz.
 
#15,505
mb94952 said:
I saw that B-Ninety, Raw. It's a Nice one !!! With a case, too, if memory serves.
Click to expand...

Thank you. 58kites pointed that out as well earlier. I called this morning and asked the sales guy some questions while he had the bass in his hands. It's supposed to be super clean, so I'll know more once I get my hands on it.

Tracking says it will be here on Friday. Oddly, I think I was longing for one in metallic grey. I kept looking at Dyna-Basses in the same color.

I wish I could see what the active preamp looks like.
 
#15,506
Raw N Low said:
Well in a turn of events, the Foundation I was going to look at sold yesterday afternoon. I got a tip from @58kites about a clean B-Ninety in slate grey at GC and I pulled the trigger on it this morning. I called GC ahead of the order, and had a guy on the phone with the bass in his hands as I was asking questions.

Everything seems like it's on the up and up and I will keep you folks posted. Kudos to 58kites!
Click to expand...
Nice! This is key with GC: one should really call and talk to the staff directly, this way if you order it, it goes to the shipping shelf and not back on the wall to potentially be sold off the floor.

mb94952 said:
There's a vintage 1980's mohagony body Patriot on GC used for $279. Just throw a new pickguard on there and you're set. Let us know which one of you buys it :)
Click to expand...
Those Hog Patriots are cool!
Don't get me started on how great Patriots are with an additional neck pickup. Ric killer!
 
  • Like
Reactions: tindrum and Raw N Low
#15,509
mb94952 said:
Can of Worms opened - I disagree with the thought that the Babicz full contact bridge is not good OR heavy. Have you picked them up ? They weigh nearly nothing. They LOOK heavy, but weigh only 3.7 oz, whereas the stock ABM on a Cirrus weighs 10.3 oz. Also, there is an entire thread regarding ABM vs. Hipshot and how Hipshot is just name recognition compared to the highly accurately German engineered ABM ; The BMW of bridges.

A luthier friend of mine here in SF Bay Area owns Veteran Guitar amps. He designed, built and sells them. He also does luthier work and said the Babicz bridges are the best bridges to come out in decades. His opinion, of course, but I trust him.

As we all know, look a the Cirrus. Look at all the parts involved. VFL pickups, ABM bridges, Dunlop strap locks, Switchcraft input jacks, Gotoh tuners. Peavey ONLY used the best quality parts on the Cirrus.

So, if anything, going to a Babicz bridge will lighten your bass by around 7 oz.
Click to expand...
Ehhh, I haven’t touched a Babicz. They’re not aesthetically pleasing to me, and I know I would not hear any difference. I also don’t subscribe to the sustain is a needed thing myth.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kodiakblair, Chuck M and drumsnbass
#15,511
JEDI BASS said:
Ehhh, I haven’t touched a Babicz. They’re not aesthetically pleasing to me, and I know I would not hear any difference. I also don’t subscribe to the sustain is a needed thing myth.
Click to expand...

I don’t get the whole sustain thing either. How often does the avge bassist let a note “ring out”? Makes no sense to me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mb94952, JEDI BASS and kodiakblair
#15,513
bigtone23 said:
Nice! This is key with GC: one should really call and talk to the staff directly, this way if you order it, it goes to the shipping shelf and not back on the wall to potentially be sold off the floor.

Those Hog Patriots are cool!
Don't get me started on how great Patriots are with an additional neck pickup. Ric killer!
Click to expand...

*poke* please indulge me. How cool are they with an additional pickup?
 
  • Like
Reactions: JEDI BASS
#15,517
Help identifying screw size. On my '92 Fury, I need a couple of tuner screws. After measuring the thread size, they seem like #2 stainless screws - is that correct? Or are they #3?
20200118_114725.jpg


20200118_114701.jpg
 
#15,518
First cousins. This shows how much the hardware changed through the years.

The blue Foundation is one I bought from 58Kites and it is a beauty as you can see. It has lived its life mostly in the hard case. I made some small changes to the set up on that one and installed a set of TI flats on it. It looked to have the original Peavey strings on it when I got it. It plays perfectly and sounds lovely indeed and is as close to new as I have seen on a bass this age.

The red one is one I bought off Reverb. It has a lot of dings and scratches but looked to be a nice project bass so I put a bid in on it and the seller accepted. It arrived with a lot of forward bow in the neck. A lot! The strings on it were heavy---.105 to .50 and may have contributed to the forward bow. I removed the truss rod cover and found the truss rod nut cavity filled with some kind of glue. That was a new one on me. I wonder why that was done. I carefully chipped out the glue so I could get at the truss rod nut to make an adjustment and found that the nut was in very bad shape and rounded off from a poor fitting wrench or socket that had been used on it. I tried a lot of ways to get it off. Left it on the bench and thought about it. Looked online and really found no solution. I tried heating it with a hair dryer and that did not work. I finally heated it with my soldering iron and was able to get the nut off. Whew.

I ordered a new nut and set the bass aside until it arrived. It came in the mail yesterday and I adjusted the truss rod to straighten the neck and found that I really had to crank on the truss rod to get the neck to move. I was doing the truss rod adjustment with the strings off, by the way. I finally stopped adjusting when the nut was so hard to turn that I was afraid I was close to stripping the threads. By then the neck was almost perfectly straight...with the strings off.

I dug around in the string drawer and found a set of DR Sunbeams that are .100 to .40. I thought the reduced tension of the lighter strings might work on this neck and it turns out that was the case. With the DR's installed and tuned to pitch there is a very reasonable amount of relief in the neck.

So I plugged it in and the controls all seemed to work in a strange way. It sounded pretty bad. I inspected the control cavity and found that it had been worked on. I compared it to the control wiring in the blue bass and found two errors. The hot and ground of the neck PU had been reversed and the output jack was connected to the opposite end of the tone pot rather than being connected to the PU outputs. A few minutes with the soldering iron corrected those mistakes and now the bass sounds great and the controls work as they should.

I really enjoyed getting the red Foundation playing and sounding good. I have also enjoyed comparing the two Foundation basses. They both play about the same...they both sound great but the workmanship and quality of hardware on the Blue bass is way better than the red bass. The body on the blue bass is beautifully shaped and has graceful lines reminiscent of the TL 5's.

IMG-3471.jpg


IMG-3472.jpg


IMG-3473.jpg


IMG-3474.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: mb94952, Giffro, bigtone23 and 5 others
#15,520
Chuck M said:
I really enjoyed getting the red Foundation playing and sounding good. I have also enjoyed comparing the two Foundation basses. They both play about the same...they both sound great but the workmanship and quality of hardware on the Blue bass is way better than the red bass. The body on the blue bass is beautifully shaped and has graceful lines reminiscent of the TL 5's.
Click to expand...

Great looking basses Chuck. It's awesome that you got the skill set to maintain these awesome instruments.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chuck M

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back