mart

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1324299394' post='1472672'] ...and two Infinettes! [/quote] You've got Noah's Ark syndrome even worse than John Entwistle!

Thanks for the replies. The bass is an old Warwick, so I don't think it'll be an ebony strip along the side of the board, although I have no definite information. And, for what it's worth, the LEDs are red except for the octaves (12th and 24th), which are yellow. From Ou7shined's comments, I'm guessing that my LEDs are wired in series, but most of you that have 9v or 18v-powered LEDs have them wired in parallel. Either way, I'm jealous!

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1324231693' post='1472111'] Ooof I bet the seller is upset at not having a reserve... or did it have! [/quote] The seller looks to be something like Cash Converters, so I don't imagine they are fussed - they probably still made a huge profit.

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1324231636' post='1472110'] ... hang on if I had two then they are even less 'rare'! [/quote] Ahem, didn't you used to have two streamettes?

Thanks for the replies guys! [quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1324293896' post='1472557'] Do a bunch of LEDs really need 27V? Is the bass active anyway and some of the batteries are used to power the preamp (say 2 for the preamp and 1 for the LEDs)? Until you trace the wires, you won't know what the scoop is. ... [/quote] Actually, the bass is active, but has another 2 batteries for the 18v preamp. Yes, the bugger takes 5 batteries in total! [quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1324293896' post='1472557'] ... Regarding the surgery, sounds expensive and invasive to me any way you slice it (pardon the pun). I'd guess that it would definitely be cheaper to fret it than move the LEDs based upon the amount of faffing around I'd say is involved. [/quote] That seems plausible, but do you think the frets would interfere with the wiring? Has anybody seen inside a LED-fitted neck? Where do the wires go? [quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1324295261' post='1472578'] Generally, the power supply must have sufficient voltage to provide about 2v for each LED in series (4v for blue and white) plus at least another 2v for the resistor. It soon mounts up. [/quote] Thanks, that explains it. I had been thinking that the voltage for each LED was lower (from a vaguely recalled figure of 0.63V from O level electronics [i]many[/i] years ago).

One of my basses has LEDs installed in the neck as the side fretmarkers. There are three 9v batteries used to power these, and I've been wondering why it needs so many - there are only 12 LEDs in total, and they don't use much power, do they? The other odd thing about this bass is that although it's a fretless, the fretmarkers on the fingerboard (and the LEDs on the side) are in the position they'd be on a fretted bass, i.e., between where the fretlines would be rather than at the fret position itself. This bugs me slightly, but I have no idea what to do about it. Would it be possible to get the markers (and the side LEDs) moved, or is that going to cost an arm and a leg? Or could I get the bass fretted so that the markers and LEDS are in the right positions? (Or are there going to be wires running up the fingerboard that would get sliced if I put frets in the board). Any other suggestions?

Sheesh, two pages of replie[size=4]s to "How on earth do you pick a Fender Precision?"[/size] and nobody's bothered to give the answer: [i]with one of these[/i]

Cardiff Guitars ([url="http://www.cardiffguitars.co.uk/ForSale/sh/sh.aspx"]http://www.cardiffguitars.co.uk/ForSale/sh/sh.aspx[/url]) say they've got a '79 Ricky in at the moment.

[quote name='Huwberry' timestamp='1323436592' post='1463360']...I'm not actually sure whether the larger spring is actually from the Korg - it was in my bag too though...[/quote] PMSL Seriously though, it doesn't look like those parts could go together in many different ways. I think I can see how they must go, but I'm darned if I could explain it! So I'll let someone better at explaining things have a go.

Good stuff, and another album to add to my wishlist!

In the magazine Making Music ages ago I read that Dave Mattacks called the people at gigs MABs - mobile acoustic baffles.

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1322836355' post='1456469'] That was one of my daughters much "loved" requests for me to play anytime she felt like bugging me while I was house-noodling... that and bah bah black fecking sheep... which quite frankly I felt was below my talents as a serious musician. [/quote] I'm still working on bah bah black sheep - anybody got the tab for the middle bit? Oh wait, this isn't talkbass, is it?

I turned that one around. For a while at any kind of practice I'd do a bit of the theme from "In the Night Garden". It was great - half the folks' faces would just turn white, and the other folk would just look puzzled and go "what's that?"

I thought Stuart Zender was the bassist in ZingZillas?

[quote name='TobyB' timestamp='1322588656' post='1453232']...Good basic ideas on gauges Leftybassman ... will look those out. Thanks Bassbuss for a good source of individual strings. Is there any "proper" or "clever" way of working out what gauge string you need? Did skim the net for such a calculator, but if it exists, was choosing the wrong keywords!....[/quote] Try this: [url="http://www.stringbusters.com/stringfaqs.htm#Calculator"]http://www.stringbusters.com/stringfaqs.htm#Calculator[/url] Put in your preferred gauge for a known note (e.g. gauge 100 for an E string) to get a tension figure, then put that tension figure in for each of the other notes you want and get it to calculate the gauge for you. Of course these things can't be exact, but it'll get you pretty close.

+1 to the comments about gauges: it should be achievable if you buy individual strings. But, there is a practical reason for not tuning in fifths: your hands probably aren't big enough! I'm pretty sure the reason mandos are tuned in fifths is because a hand can still span all the frets needed to play a scale without moving position. With the longer scale length of a bass (or guitar) this becomes impossible, which is why fourths are used. So if you tune your bass in fifths then you'll be moving your hand around much more than you would otherwise have to. But give it a go - I'd be interested to hear how you get on. I'm a big fan of people discarding conventional wisdom and trying something new.

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1322020074' post='1445550'] Yep it'll work fine - Fender used the same principle on some of their early models. [/quote] E.g.

From the OED: [quote]base, [i]adj.[/i] Meaning 7a: Of a low or inferior quality or standard; poor, inadequately good. [/quote] I think it really is a base guitar. What an honest listing!

I've had a couple, and not had any issues at all. The packaging was clearly marked as Neutrik, so it's not just a quirk on the Maplins webpage.

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1321466347' post='1439573'] One of these? [url="http://www.maplin.co.uk/6.35mm-stereo-long-reach-chassis-socket-223988"]http://www.maplin.co...s-socket-223988[/url] N39GB [/quote] Yep, that's the one you need.

Interesting topic. The only US P bass I ever owned (a '78, IIRC) had this problem and that's largely why I got rid of it. I remember reading somewhere (a long time ago) that this was a design feature - supposedly to emulate upright basses. But I've no idea which book I read that in and other people have shot that idea down and said one of my coils must have been screwed. I don't know, and the bass is long gone so I can't check. But I find it curious that some people find all Ps are like this, and others have never heard of such a problem.

[quote name='Spike Vincent' timestamp='1321202537' post='1436370'] I'll wait until the cheap Chinese copies appear and then use one as a sparklerholder. [/quote] I must admit, at first glance I thought it was a cigarette holder.

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1321049280' post='1435010']...But, can we accept that the mains lead thing is totally perception/psychological etc as it is physically impossible to make a difference ....[/quote] Yes, absolutely.