I've recently bought a '79 Peavey T-40. I might have paid too much for it, but seeing that prices are going up recently, and that I had been looking for a T-40 in Italy for ages, I just bought the first one I found with a sensible price (some priced it at €600+, which I think is crazy).
It's in very good nick, few scratches and dents here and there, but very well kept, considering it's a 30 year old bass. Quite heavy, although not as heavy as I thought it would be (about 5kg, erm... I think approx. 10lb), when switching basses, you really feel the difference :-) I didn't find the neck to be "log-like", actually: it's really comfortable, although I must say I'm not a fan of glossy finish on the neck, but it isn't really a problem, especially since I dig the neck profile very much. The only thing I don't really like is the radius, maybe a little bit too flat for my taste, but it's all about getting used to it.
What really fascinated me about this bass was its peculiarity and originality of design, it really has a design of its own: two Peavey-made humbucking pickups, which sound quite fat, with a nice top end as well.
I must say something straightaway. the T-40 has a weird circuit, comprising of a quite useless phase switch, a three-way selector, two volume controls and two tone controls , one of each for each pickup. Now, the tone controls work this way: in the 0-7 range, the pickup's in humbucking mode, in the 7-10 range, it's in single coil mode (in other words, the tone has a coil tap function as well, in addition to being a tone pot). I rewired my T-40 since the phase switch was really useless, and the tone controls didn't work for me, seeing that there is a HUGE volume difference going from single coil to humbucking mode, and I always used the bass in humbucking mode (single coil mode is kinda thin sounding, as with all coil-tapped humbuckers), plus I wanted to keep all the treble in humbucking mode. Now the phase switch is an on-off switch, and the bass is always in humbucking mode now (with the added feature of a clearer tone, since there is no tone roll-off in humbucking mode: with the previous tone circuit, the humbucking mode always sounded a bit muddy).
In the neck position (the one I prefer) it produces a very fat tone, nice and throaty as well, with the added plus of a nice top end. I wouldn't liken it to a P-bass though: it is radically different, it may resemble it vaguely with the tone a bit rolled off, but it isn't as mid-heavy, it has somewhat less presence in the mix, while being softer and "broader", if you get what I mean. The bridge pickup is very nice as well, very usable on its own, quite mid-heavy, while retaining enough low end to sound fat. Very nice for funky-ish lines and for when you need a stronger attack and a clearer sound. I regret saying that combining the two pickups doesn't work for me: the sound gets muddy, too many mids get cut out, and the bass is too woody-sounding to get a nice modern scooped tone, or a nice smooth and compressed 90's r'n'b/soul/hip hop tone. But, of course, YMMV.
Anyway, a very personal tone. Beware of anyone telling you it sounds a bit like a Rick. Simply put, it doesn't (of course, they refer to the single coil mode). Plus, if you get to try the bass, always try it with both tone at the max and the tone at around 7, many people have complained that it's a bit thin sounding, that's probably because they didn't tweak the tone controls (which are a bit stupid, in truth, a push-pull pot or a switch would have been much better). In humbucking mode, the bass is anything but thin.
As a final note, I must say it's not a bass that responds well to hard plucking-picking. It responds better to a lighter touch, it has tons of sustain, but it has a kind of... "compressed" overall feel, which you may like or dislike, of course.
I'm not going to give the usual BGRA ratings. 90% as a minimum rating is not sensible, let alone 98 or 100% *rolls eyes*.
Bass Specifications
Bass type: 4 string fretted
Neck join: Bolt-On
Neck construction: Maple
Fingerboard: Maple
Body :Hard Ash, I suppose
Finish: Natural
Pickups: 2 ceramic humbucking pickups
Hardware: Chrome
Electronics Passive: 2 vol, 2 tone, 3-way selector, phase switch
http://www.bgra.net/
