Guitar Nerds Anonymous

bass chat!

Here's my Epiphone Jack Casady - plays lovely

My Squiers.
The brown one is a standard unmodified Jazz from Maccari's, which just sounds brilliant and growly and plays great. Better than every other £200 bass I tried.
The black one is fretless, and has flatwounds on it. It has Seymour Duncan vintage pickups and genuine Fender controls and jackplate, to go with the nice new pearl pickguard. I changed the wiring and controls because it originally had a stacked volume and two tones which really didn't work, so now it has the standard two volumes and one tone, like the fretted one.

I also have a short scale Danelectro I bought off this very thread, and a Hohner Steinberger cricket bat with drop D thing and active electronics, which is awful but ace at the same time.

Just seen fender have reissued the coronado. Gonna try one out this week. NOICE.

^ yeah they are nice - The Starcaster is also nice - Townsend using one famously on the Smothers Brothers show

The Who on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour 1967 (High Quality).mpg - YouTube

I'm selling my 2011 Gibson LP melody maker. Anyone interested before the bay?

How much?

That's pretty...

I like those - sadly not in the market unless I want to be single

I sold it to a hipster in the end.

nice new guitar, joe!

where'd you get it?

Godammit!
in the style of Alberto Forno

Me likey... Cheers, Rob!

Ha! I knew it! Awesome work all round.

Right. Valves. Here's what I have going. Basically, it's the remnants of a really nice NOS set up I bought for a Pro Reverb, essentially the same circuit as a Twin but with only two output tubes instead of four.

There's a pair of matched Phillips 6L6GCs. These, I seem to recall were pretty pricey, I'll have to check back. There is also a used pair of 6L6GAY (fnar) which are a the bulbous (bulbous also tapered) low power variant if you want less overall output.

There's an unused NOS National 5U4GB rectifier tube in it's box. I also have a used 5U3C which I have a feeling is what was in the amp along with 6L6GAYs when I bought it. I'd have to do some digging to check whether that's any good in a Twin.

I also seem to have a couple of Mullard CV4024 KQDD/Ks. These are 12AT7s by another name. I think I may have bought these to try in the pre-amp stage of my Silverface Champ but never got round to it. The theory is that by replacing the 12AX7 with a high quality lower gain alternative, you get more clean headroom out of the notoriously raunchy Champ. I'll probably hang on to these to be fair.

I have a few cheap and cheerful Electro Harmonix 12AU7 and 12AT7s which, I believe function in the phase inverter and reverb driver sections of a Pro or Twin (again, I'd have to double check). These look to be brand new.

I've also got about 10 assorted 12AX7 pre-amp tubes mostly JJ and Sovtek with a couple of Fender branded GrooveTubes.

TS has first dibs on the Twin bits but if anyone needs anything else (with the exception of the Mullards) I'm happy to talk. Will trade cheap stuff for 6V6s or beer. The NOS stuff is pretty rare/high end though.

Cheers,

A

5 Attachments

Just noticed the accidental fish-eye reflection selfie in pic three. Arf.

Yeah, thought so. Those Phillips were £55 each. Yikes.

http://www.watfordvalves.com/product_detail.asp?id=1317

And the National Rectifier was £28:

http://www.watfordvalves.com/product_detail.asp?id=82

The Mullards are £16 each

http://www.watfordvalves.com/product_detail.asp?id=630

Forum/mates rates will apply though, I'm not using them and need cash for an acoustic amp. Offers welcome.

*anticipates no offers

Hello guitar people, I don't hang out in this thread much but...

The other day I bought myself a new acoustic, not for any really good reason, aside from I've had my Yamaha FG300 for about 10 years and spotted this.

It's a 1973 Italian EKO Ranger 6, as played by Jimmy Page, despite being 40+ years old it's in almost perfect condition. Obviously I play guitar like Jimmy Krankie and not Jimmy Page, but it's a nice idea. The previous owner had it from new (apparently) and when I decided that yes, I will buy it, he looked all tearful. He asked to play one last song on it too, nice guy.

It's got a few pretty cool features too. I'm not the biggest fan of the Batmanesque scratchplate design, but it's of an era, so it'll be staying. The back and sides of the body have an awesome almost feathered effect created by the woodgrain, so that's nice. There's a load of internal bracing within the body, it's heavy but feels impregnable. The action is adjustable at the bridge which I've not seen on an old acoustic before and unlike lots of acoustics, there's actually a 0 fret in addition to the nut. The truss rod is accessed from the headstock too, instead of within the body. Good or bad? I don't care, but it's just another little funky touch.

Anyway, there's my new guitar. Cheers

PS - Is anyone interested in a Tanglewood Electric?

http://old.fetishguitars.com/html/eko/catalogues/73/13.html
http://old.fetishguitars.com/html/eko/index/ranger.html
http://proguitarshop.com/andyscorner/the-guitars-of-jimmy-page

Those tubes do sound a bit rich for my blood, Al... I'm hoping to pay less than half that from Watford Valves... They look awesome tho'...

^^^Ooo shouldn't but am tempted by the Phillipses. Wonder if I have some 6V6s? Away at the mo but back soon.

Vg mm btw ts...

^^^Nice funky Eko.

Don't blame you TS. I think the Pro cost £550 from Andy "cash is king" Hackett in 2006. Why I thought it was a good idea to spend nearly £200 on valves for it is beyond me. I guess I was gigging two or three times a week at that time and wanted something killer sounding and super-reliable. Unluckily the band I needed it for split right after I bought the toobs and I never used them in anger.

I sold the Pro in 2008 for about the same as I'd bought it for. Kicking myself now as a cursory google yesterday found only one example under £1000 and only one in the UK. Meh.

Gimme a shout if you want the Phillipseses Rickster. Fellow nerd rates to you.

TBH I should snap them up, I paid £300 for my Twin in 1986 and I've spent less than £100 on it since I bought it!

Bogof?

^^^Dookster I have a Pro Reverb too and reckon it's worth £750 tops. Ya didn't lose much.

Even if I flog it one day, reckon I'll try to always have a 2 x 6L6 amp. I have vague plans concerning rehousing a knackered brown or blond Tremolux head in a 1x12" combo cab to imitate my mate's '62 brown Vibrolux... my fave amp of all time... sigh.

Gah! Watford Valves have got 35% off on a full Super Premium Groove Tubes revalve kit!!

Follow your heart TS. Seriously man, it's no skin off my nose, I'd forgotten I even had them, let alone what they cost. I'll do the pair for £60 if you want but if neither of you chaps want them I might stick them on the bay.

Rickster, pretty much "snap". I did like the Pro a lot but it lost points with me for still being the same size (and a good portion of the weight) of a Twin. It's still too loud to really get cooking in most situations as well. For me it was trumped in tone, usable headroom and portability by a white knob Tremolux reissue we got from our label in the following band. Two 6L6s and 2 efficient 10"s. About 2/3 of the size and as light as a feather compared to the Pro. I *dug *that amp.

Stealth edit. I was thinking of the 2x6V6 Deluxe reverb for a minute there. The Tremolux is def 2x6L6 40W innit? Still seemed more manageble than the pro for some reason.