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Well, after some humming and ahhhing... My 50th birthday present turned up last Friday. Fender Precision Professional in Candy Apple Red, from PMT in Manchester. Initially I was wanting a Precision Active Deluxe (in surf pearl) but after trying one in Dawsons and comparing to the American Pro they had it was clear that the American version for far superior – to me anyway. Possibly just down to the string through body, but it just literally sang, felt so much more alive and I thought the quality of ‘heft’ was particularly telling – it felt more solid. Then after spending an hour or so on my birthday (with an unusually attentive wife...!!!) trying their American Pro (which actually didn’t feel brilliantly set-up compared to the one at Dawsons) I picked up a Nat Mandel Precision. flip, I wish I hadn’t!!! Immediately the output of its Quarter Pounders was so marked – quite a bit louder and with a more pronounced growl – also I think the neck was more appealing, very familiar to my Yamaha BB424 so that was probably the reason it felt good. But, the Pro won out for me. It’s a special thing to me this – I can’t see me spunking this much money again on a guitar – I know, I know it’s only a bloody mid range bass, but as I say it’s a special purchase this so it had to be the American Pro – plus you get a lovely case too Ordered it last Wednesday and it arrived on Tuesday, but could only pick it last Friday due to work commitments. Picked it up and its perfect!! I’m a fussy git, but couldn’t find a single thing wrong with it – both in how it plays and cosmetically. The boys and PMT were awesome too – unknown to me, my Mum and Dad had nipped in 4 days earlier to pay off the remainder after my deposit and they played along with it right up until the end when I was about to pay when they then gave me an invoice saying nothing to pay! They also chucked in guitar stand too. Played it on Saturday night at a gig and it was brilliant - the neck is definetley different to what I'm used to, but it's by no means a negative. The action is so much better, more easier to play and it’s tone is unmistakably P-bass, plus got lots of comments on the colour from the ladies too – really, really pleased with it. ...Just need to learn to play proper now.

I got the gig!

Hope they don't take any flack, they have been informative and played with a straight bat. I think that's all we can ask for, as well as good customer service

I think it`s the difference between Jazzes & Precisions in general. I`ve found this, and to be honest, as a die-hard Precision player my ears are tuned to the P-bass, so setting up a Jazz eq in the mix just never sounds right to me, I can`t seem to coax those great tones out of one as I`m just expecting the Precision sound when I play - that might be part of the problem here maybe? The Jazz tone is much thinner in comparison, I did find that the Seymour Duncan Hot Stack was a good Jazz pickup, didn`t change the sound, just bulked it out and gave more of the same.

Who knows what engineers can do knowadays?? I mean they put a time machine in an Delorian in 1985 for goodness sake 😱

Interestingly the main thing they were worried about was me being in other bands, the things most in my favour were the drummer felt he and I clicked (I agree) and the shitty amp we used (provided by the rehearsal room) sounded horrible and I was the only one who tried to get a decent sound out of it. The others seemed not to notice or care. So what I take from this is: obviously be thorough and do your homework, but more importantly pay attention to any and every detail, you never know what might sway someone.

If your jazz sounds too thin, stick some flats on it. You can thank me later

At home, I can get a Jazz to sound just the way I want it but have never quite got it nailed in a band situation. I've stopped trying in recent years and stick with my P basses.

Not really a gig, just the first band get-together for two years, and it went rather well..! I've not been playing at all in that time, what with one thing and another, so it was with some trepidation that I sat behind my drums again. No, it's not quite like riding a bike, but it does come back quite enough for our rehearsals. A dozen songs from our past repertoires (deUs, Bashung, Radiohead, REM, RHCP, Noir Désir, Chris Cornell and more..) Altogether two hours; we'll do another session next week. Tired, now, but it's worth it.

I can see how megastars like Adele have to put a 'no contact' clause up. First couple of times people want to chat to you it's fine - but after the fifteenth person wanting you to ring their mum and do a verse of Chasing Pavements down the phone you're probably pretty tired of it so you say no, and then they get upset because you were OK with the previous fourteen people asking you for it and go tell everyone you're a beach. Eventually you figure you may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb and institute the "no speaky unless spoken to" ban so they'll leave you alone. Then you go slowly mad through isolation, build a theme park in your back garden, invite a bunch of pre-teens for sleepovers, and your nose falls off. It's a weird business.

No

You practice?

Did you try to favour the neck pup over the bridge pup and set the tone control to 50%? It works for me.

If there;s no phase issue, wiring in a series/parallel switch to be able to switch the pickups in series (like the Fender S1 switch) might help make it sound more beefy.

I did three auditions last year for the first time in about 15 years, I always find them a very surreal experience, I managed to get two out of the three gigs so I was pleased with that. Just remember they are musicians, making quick decisions is not what they are good at Best of luck.

Just remember, sometimes who they pick has nothing to do with who's the best player. Good for you getting out there. Good luck.

Ah, so you were the t1t the guys were talking about when I went in! :-)

Wired parallel two 98dB/w 8 ohm speakers will have 104dB/2.83v voltage sensitivity, but the halved impedance makes 2.83v 2 watts. Their 1 watt sensitivity is 101dB. One way manufacturers fudge the numbers is to quote a 4 ohm speaker at 2.83v sensitivity while making no mention that's 2 watts. If you could wire four speakers parallel the 1 watt sensitivity would go up to 104dB, but unless your amp is 2 ohm capable you have to wire the two pairs series/parallel. In that case the cab will be 8 ohms, and the 2.83v and 1w sensitivity is 101dB. Taking the math backwards, if the Eden and DNS 410s had 106dB/w sensitivity then the sensitivity of each driver would be 103dB. No ten inch driver that is useful below 100Hz has 103dB sensitivity.

New update is out. 2.50 Loads more stuff including all the M series legacy fx.

Cool, I'm there on the Saturday too with MiniMert, will make sure I say hello!

My questions about the 30 keys idea would be: Bach wrote two pieces as examples of each key for Well Tempered Klavier. Why are there 48 pieces, not 60? If an examiner asked me to play a C# major scale, which I did and then, when she asked me to play a different major scale, I played the same thing, but called it Db major, would I get a mark?

The notes A-G have to be named in each key. For example in D major: D, E, F#,G, not: D, E, Gb, G, as then you would not have mentioned F.

True, but it's how you consider it. If I see an F# major chord I'm not going to think Gb, it's F#. It's also how you write it, one's written with flats the other with sharps. And it's also contextual thing, one is Gb the other is F#. Just one of the confusions in music.

I saw an Ashdown CTM 30 in PMT today, and remembered this thread. I used valve amps long ago, and remember them fondly. Then I tried to pick up the CTM. It seemed to have been glued to the cab beneath it which in turn had been glued to the floor. I thought of my Rootmaster 800 and Barefaced cabs and moved swiftly on.

There are 30 keys??

I shall be using this technique at our gig on Friday to play 'Blitzkrieg Bop'. It's what Dee Dee would've wanted.

Haha - I misread that as "I agree, a CTM100 gets me stubby immediately" oo-er

Thank you all for your kind words and get well wishes. I’m very grateful. 😊 I was at a neighbours house at the weekend, and all the floors were bare, varnished, highly polished floorboards, and after dinner, whilst going down some steps, I lost my footing and came crashing down on the stairs themselves. My right forearm took the main hit, resulting in a deep open wound which bled profusely at the time. I was rushed to hospital in a state of shock, and it was confirmed I’d broken my arm too. (First break ever!) I spent the night in hospital and had my arm operated on the next day to clean and close the wound. It’s now in a cast and sling. My whole of my back is also badly bruised, and the side of my face took a hit too. After being given copious amounts of morphine at hospital, I’m now taking strong oral painkillers and antibiotics here at home. Unfortunately, as well as the injury, I’m now going to be missing a lot of work whilst I’m incapacitated. Poor Lucy now has two males at home who can’t look after themselves! 😉 Thank you all again for reaching out. All the best, Dave.

This is becoming similar to that scene in Fawlty Towers, I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it........

To throw my hat in the ring I would say £800 is overpriced... GAK tend to (again in my opinion) overprice all of their second hand stock. For comparision I just picked up a 2001 German made 6 string bolt on Thumb bass for £860, you would be best having a hunt on the second hand market where you are buying direct from the previous owner and not a shop as a shop will always take a 20% (give or take) cut so you are paying at least that much more. Negotiating with the actual seller is always a better option!

Welcome, and glad to have you aboard! I play a Warwick too, great instruments.

I think starting any reply to any concern, especially one that is as serious as suggesting you may have been liberal with your marketing facts by implying the customer is having "a bad day" smacks of not taking them seriously or treating them like they're stupid. Maybe I'm having a "bad day" when reading it, but to me it comes across as massively unprofessional and conjures up the image of a one man band operation, smoking waccy baccy and telling me to "chill out". Again, all IMHO of course. I'm sure 99% of bass players would find it cool.

Bigwan, you're a better man than me. As a service delivery manager in a related technology discipline, I'd have been extremely unhappy if one of my team took the mickey out of and patronised a customer with a genuine concern. But hey, it's banter, right? With this and the response I saw in the B-Social thread, I think that's the last I'll be buying from Ashdown (and I've owned my fair share/defended it enough in the past). All my opinion of course, if you like your companies to treat you like an idiot, then ignore me. *Cue some handbag memes, stinging patronisation and an attempt to cover it off as humour by talking about beer or coffee from Ashdown....

Whether using top or side mounted sockets... 90-degree cable plugs seem a must to me. Normal cable just make me nervous that something/someone will eventually hit it bending it and possibly damaging the socket. Clearly not too much of an issue as most people do just fine without... but that's my take on it.

Not really. It pretty much dictates how it will feel when plucking. It's part of the picture with regards to how a bass feels, but to call it meaningless when in isolation sounds ridiculous to me.

Might as well took a picture of your hand! Chromes have royal blue silks so if the strings on the bass don't have the silks then they're not Chromes.

Hello and welcome. Id say if your happy with the feel Of the bass, just pop in a new set of pickups. Sounds easy! This is where the fun starts. I’ve used Delano, Aguilar, Bartolini, Fender custom, and Lindy Fralin. I like them all. It takes a bit of research. The other option is to fit a new preamp. The John East preamps are excellent. Enjoy the search!

Given that a string that's made as an "E" string, on a bass of 34" scale length, needs to achieve a pre-determined tension for it to put out a note that will be an "E". I find it hard to see how this can happen, unless the string is faulty, or you're tuning it to an E an octave lower than the actual E that it's meant to be putting out. Either that, or the tuning head isn't keeping the string to tension.

Soapbars in the bass world are a bit of a misnomer since, unlike guitar soapbars that are nearly always P90 style fat single coil pickups, they tell you nothing about the actual pickup contained within the housing, just the size of the housing itself. Therefore depending on the size of the soapbar housing the pickup contained within can be anything from a J-style single coil to a MM style humbucker and any variation between that will fit. If you want a PJ type sound then buy soapbars that contain a P and J style pickup inside.

Reminds me of the famous Hoffman/Olivier conversation, in which Sir Larry, after apparently listening to Dustin drone on for hours about Method, offered "You should try acting my dear, it's so much easier"

Hi All! Just got a Realist copperhead fitted to my upright. It sounds nice, if a bit like an electric fretless! I would like to add a mic and blend the two (possibly using a Headway 2 channel pre) to hopefully achieve a woodier, more natural tone. Looked at options from Schertler and DPA but interested in hearing some opinions! What do you think? Cheers! D

Bass heaven: Listening to a great bass player Bass hell: Listening to me try and play the bass

Hi Ellie, what a coincidence! Your name is the same as my daughter's and it's also the name I've given to my new custom s-s Maruszczyk Elwood pictured below!! Oh, and I play an SWB-1 too among other things. Just saying...