Ampeg Little Stud

i guess it's an early to mid 70s model (it doesn't have any serial number). it a plywood bass, but yet very very heavy. it has a simple volume/tone set up (250k), and the pickup is a chrome affair that i heard was made by Maxon. naturaly it's passive. it's got a great mother of toilet seat inlay though. sorta looks like a weird p-ass, but with 2+2 tuners. the original bridge is a two saddle deal. tuners are standard import crap 'o the day. it's not short scale, but it looks it. the neck is huge. the fret board is really wide. i got it on a trade from a friend with the original ashtray and thumb rest.

i'm getting some work done on it (bridge and tuner replacement, as well as having an active preamp put it). it's a little noisy, but you have to get right up on the amp for it to feedback. it sort of sounds bright, but also warm. as for the sounds that it can make i really can't tell you cuz i play like i play, although it can do funk well, it responds to slaps and pops. plugged into the back of my Tascam 414 mkII it has a great recorded sound, although the G sounds a bit thin for my taste. as for live it has a damn fine growl. my only real gripe it the original bridge. i mean come on, two saddles, and so cheaply made. ack!

it needed a new nut, 500k pots, a new bridge and new tuners, but as far as action goes it was really good, even when i first made the trade. darned snazzy pearliod pickgaurd too!

i think this bass was made for self defence as much as making music. if it came down a people started fronting i'm pretty sure that even a after being pelted with beer bottles, spit on, or defending myself from some angry trogladite with a swithch blade that i could still pop some mean funk on it. i would indeed use on a gig with out a back up, but only because it's my only working bass at the moment.

i don't have enough money to even talk to Ampeg. And i really do think that they are trying to forget that they sold these beasts. sort of like Frankenstien's monster...

i love this bass. if some one stole it i would cry like you stepped on my big toe. i'd love to find more of them, maybe one in a different color, be'in that mine is sort of a tinted natural. the only thing that i really dont like is the knobs. silly big metal knobs. the neck is the best thing about it though. it's big, with vert positive action. and while not a fast as say a new jazz bass, it feels alot like the Epi Thunderbird reissue. i got it with a case. i love that too. but i wanted the case to have a handel (sp?)(or was that the composer?). well, know i know how it feels to want....