Let's see your guitar and bass gear!

Incoming!

Antihero (Forum Supporter) said:

Bad Cats?

 

Let us know how you like them, they make a couple LPs I'd like to try

Yep - they are Bad Cats models, from Amazon. Delivered as described and when expected. 

I don't have a bass amp, so I haven't really played the bass much (and I am not a bass player), although it feels pretty decent just thumping around.  The guitar is bright. Really bright.  The neck is little chunkier than I usually prefer, but otherwise it plays well. 

While I don't expect them to be "main guitars", they should be nice additions to my sonic options.  I have a Hofner Contemporary for similar reasons. 

I'm taking them up to my old bass player's studio on Sunday and we should be able to get more opinions. 

I've read a lot of good stuff about the HeadRush MX5.  I was really tempted for $399 after watching a couple of the videos for it.  But I really don't have a need for it and I already have so much gear I don't use enough.

So a bit of an update on the Bad Cat guitar and bass combo.

The bass - pretty big thumbs up. My old bass player can really make it sing. Set up from the factory is pretty good. Good tonal variety out of the one pickup and basic controls.

The guitar - well, it's got it's good and bad points.  Sound-wise, it's good. We had it plugged into a Orange Tiny Terror w/ an Orange 2x12 and from clean to dirty, overall tone is bright and clear.  The set-up on the other hand, is still a work in progress.  From the factory, the set-up was way off.  I probably have another hour or so of work ahead of me to get the intonation decent. We got it to "acceptable", but some of the saddles are at or near the maximum adjustment range.  Fortunately, the entire saddle/bridge can be adjusted, but it will require starting all over again once that is moved.

This might be my new favorite thing.

So VOX makes these tiny MV50 amps and they were on sale at Sweetwater back in September. Some kind of hybrid tube technology. Good reviews aroused my curiosity and for $140 I figured worse case it could be a convenient practice amp.

They weren't in stock when I ordered and mine finally showed up.

Holy crap it's so good. Simple and good. The classic tubey overdrive tone is there and it packs enough of a punch that I could probably just use this instead of hauling one of my "big" tube heads around.

I'm curious to see how it plays with some pedals and really curious to try the line out direct into the PA at church.

Learning how to drive this Headrush. It's a bit overwhelming at first, simply too many things for my lizard brain. But I have two "rigs" I've made from scratch that I'm quite happy with. One is a classic Plexi, 4x12 "classic 30w" with an eq and OD. The other is called "Mesa ish" and is using the same cab model and a head called "mk2 mod" with a 5-band in the loop. And an OD, because I'm a bit too lazy to really delve into the gain structures. But it's a pretty close approximation of mark-series punch. Both are good enough to make practice fun. Some fine tuning and they may be good enough to replace my real stuff. Definitely good enough to scratch the itch and keep me playing while we're doing the apartment thing. I've been using my open-back AKG cans but I might try the closed Sony set just to see how it feels, though both are pretty flat. 
Almost pains me to say it, but modern tech may have overtaken classic analog. You can't replace the gut punch that is a 100w 4x12, the physicality of it, but it won't make you deaf either. 

After not having an amp awhile, and not being able to get off my wallet or even downselect a small tube practice amp like I wanted, I got a Spark. Well color me impressed with this little solid state berkeleyer. I may take a pic of it as per the thread title, but you all know what it looks like.

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

A friend of mine just got one and was super pleased...and this is an industry guy with top shelf gear. I'm thinking I might need to see what the fuss is all about!

Lately I have been playing this guitar a bit: Fender Reverse Jaguar bass that was part of their Pawn Shop series. I love it: short scale with humbuckers in a funky package. I only go up to about the 12th fret anyway. 

I stole it--brand-new for like $370 while MSRP was just north of a grand. I think the run had ended, and someone had too many in stock. 

Last night I noticed one on eBay with a Buy I Now price of $1675.

In reply to David S. Wallens :
 

That's hawt

barefootskater (Shaun) said:

In reply to David S. Wallens :
 

That's hawt

Thanks. The bassist for American Sharks was playing one when we saw them open for GWAR so that sent me on the hunt for one. Was it custom? Something old? Turned out it was from that Pawn Shop series. (This was in 2014 or so.)

Here's a video, but it's not entirely PG so you have been warned.

jh36 said:

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

A friend of mine just got one and was super pleased...and this is an industry guy with top shelf gear. I'm thinking I might need to see what the fuss is all about!

With the price of the experiment quite low (in comparison to stacks of pedals and amps) I have to endorse it. 

I ordered an Alvarez this morning. Musicians Friend black Friday deal on a factory restock.

I've been casually shopping for a quality acoustic/electric for awhile and this was too good of a deal to pass up. I like Alvarez guitars in general and really dig the color.

Excitement.

Played a couple of lovely Martin acoustics at a friends this afternoon...meme related. 

In reply to 11GTCS :

So, how many did you buy?

In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :

Shockingly, none so far!  It was a treat to play a really nice acoustic but if I’m honest I don’t play the guitars I already have anywhere near enough to justify buying another.   Always fun to take a test drive though.   

In reply to 11GTCS :

Totally agree. I recently got to play a handmade custom acoustic built from redwood that was fantastic.

I really need to get a good cedar acoustic someday

In reply to 11GTCS :

Mmm, nothing quite like a nice Martin.

BlueInGreen - Jon said:

This might be my new favorite thing.

So VOX makes these tiny MV50 amps and they were on sale at Sweetwater back in September. Some kind of hybrid tube technology. Good reviews aroused my curiosity and for $140 I figured worse case it could be a convenient practice amp.

They weren't in stock when I ordered and mine finally showed up.

Holy crap it's so good. Simple and good. The classic tubey overdrive tone is there and it packs enough of a punch that I could probably just use this instead of hauling one of my "big" tube heads around.

I'm curious to see how it plays with some pedals and really curious to try the line out direct into the PA at church.

My Bass amp is a Vox VX50BA; same tech as your little amp. I haven't found a need for anything bigger...

Anyone want a 2 channel tube distortion pedal? I've had it for years and it doesn't jive with me so I threw it up on Reverb. Discount for cool GRM peeps

https://reverb.com/item/47612409-eleca-evd-1-2-channel-tube-distortion

Earlier this year my nephews came over to my place and the bass playing nephew had this in tow:



It's a Martin Stinger P/J bass from the 80's made in Korea, most likely in the Samick factory. Martin wanted to get into the shredder/hair metal/hard rock guitar game in the late 80's, and they imported basses and guitars under this Stinger label. His buddy gave it to him, but it had some issues. Mainly, the neck was a mess. 



After adjusting the truss rod and swapping out the giant brass bridge saddles for a set of Fender barrel saddles, it lowered the action some but not nearly enough. It's playable, but it the action is really high toward the high frets. Anyway, it's been sitting in my office ever since. 

Today, my nephew stopped by for a visit, and I asked him if he wanted to take it home. He said, "Merry Christmas, it's yours!". So, now I have this thing. I've wanted to get a vintage cream-on-maple P/J bass for years, so now I have one. Guess I found my winter project for this year! 

So, I think the easiest solution is to buy a cheap neck and slap it on. I have some Fender cloverleaf tuners in my parts bin, and the pickups and electronics seem to work ok, so I'm ahead of the game with that. The body is nice; it's in good shape and not plywood. I've never purchased a neck by itself, so I need to measure it and see what fits. I'm guessing this has a Fender P-Bass style pocket, but I'll have to measure it.  

In reply to Tony Sestito :

My daughter’s cheap entry level Squire P Bass had that same issue (high action on the upper frets).  Adjusting the truss rod and saddles helped but didn’t get all of it.  I ended up unbolting the neck and shimming it a bit and it made a big difference in playability.   That said I’m looking at that picture again and the action looks consistently high up the neck that’s visible.  Is the nut cut too high?

11GTCS said:

In reply to Tony Sestito :

My daughter’s cheap entry level Squire P Bass had that same issue (high action on the upper frets).  Adjusting the truss rod and saddles helped but didn’t get all of it.  I ended up unbolting the neck and shimming it a bit and it made a big difference in playability.   That said I’m looking at that picture again and the action looks consistently high up the neck that’s visible.  Is the nut is cut too high?

I wonder the same...how is string height at half fret? Could need nut filing, shimming and bridge/saddle adjustment. All the food groups!

In reply to 11GTCS :

This thing had cut up credit card chunks under the neck for a shim. It didn't really help, but that was with the old saddles. It might make a difference now. Also, it was severely bowed; less so after adjustment, but it probably still is (need to check it again). The nut seemed ok, but I'll have to double check. 

I'm kicking myself for not buying a guitar I wanted at the end of last year, looks like the pandemic has screwed up pricing on guitars too.

Lst year, $1299 with a case, now? $1549 with a case.

Ok, so I played around with that Stinger bass a bit after posting earlier to refresh my memory. A few observations:

-The pots are all stuck and won't move. Knobs are also long gone. The pickup switch does work, though. The input is a little wonky. Easy fixes all around.

-Pickups actually sound pretty good. Someone painted them a long time ago for some reason. Really punchy!


-I had adjusted the saddles all the way down to compensate for the height. It didn't help much.



-The nut is cut fine, but it's cracked between the E and A strings. Bummer.



I'm still not convinced this neck is salvageable, but I'll give it a shot. From the story I heard, it was sitting in a basement closet for a couple of decades when my nephew's friend ended up with it. He didn't play bass, so he passed it along to my nephew. Sitting in that basement closet could have warped it, but who knows. I'll give it a shot again and see if more adjustments and shims help. From what I remember last time, I got it nice and straight when the strings were off, but under tension, it bows severely.