mart

Yes, £999 is rather unrealistic. I guess this is a small music shop that doesn't have much experience or expertise with Warwicks. The references to $$ and to Korea suggest they're not really sure what they've got.

Ok, that makes sense. Ta! Now I'll stop using right-angled jacks in my strat.

Ok, silicone sealant I can add to my list of non-reversible things to try if the reversible ones don't work. Blu-tack?!? I like the sound of that. Thanks again!

Thanks guys! I'll try the foam first since it's reversible. If that doesn't work, I'll look at the gluing options.

One of my cabs has an irritating buzz when you play an A note. It's only that note, and there's no clipping on the amp, so I was pretty sure it was a mechanical problem rather than an electrical one. So I started tightening every screw in sight. In the process of doing this I noticed that the buzzing stopped when the cab was rotated 90 degrees so that the left-side was on the floor. But it buzzed when it was any other way round. So I figured it was probably something rattling in the right-side handle. Sure enough, when I played an A and pushed the handle hard against the cab, the buzzing stopped. So how do I get rid of the buzz permanently? The handle is a cast piece of steel screwed into a recess in the side of the cab. I've tightened the screws a tiny bit, but they all seem so tight that if I tighten them further I'll probably just strip their threads. Should I be looking at putting some kind of rubber washer between the screw and the handle? Or is there some clever trick for this sort of situation?

[quote name='fonzoooroo' post='1221911' date='May 6 2011, 08:29 AM']... Failure of barrel sockets is often down to straight jacks and their huge leverage being used.[/quote] That sounds intriguing. Can you explain this leverage issue a bit more? Most of my basses have barrel sockets, so I'm very interested in anything that makes them work better.

[quote name='bass445' post='1221254' date='May 5 2011, 04:53 PM']... it produces one of the best sounds I have heard so far ....[/quote] Why would you want to get rid of a bass that produces a sound you like so much? Keep it, and start saving towards your vintage jazz.

[quote name='andydye' post='1221188' date='May 5 2011, 03:41 PM']...The cheaper one's seller has a 'fake' slur in his feedback so it may not be what he says it is, ...[/quote] His feedback is quite interesting, especially when you look at the transactions with aimeereed: 08/03/11: mrbrownesq bought from aimeereed2010 some shoes 02/02/11: aimeereed2010 bought from mrbrownesq -- 17/07/10: aimeereed0 bought from mrbrownesq a red squier p-bass 17/07/10: aimeereed0 bought from mrbrownesq an ibanez guitar 28/02/10: aimeereed0 bought from mrbrownesq --? 28/02/10: aimeereed0 bought from mrbrownesq an adidas tracksuit top 15/12/09: mrbrownesq bought from aimeereed0 -- 15/12/09: mrbrownesq bought from aimeereed0 a leather jacket 15/12/09: mrbrownesq bought from aimeereed0 a men's jumper 03/12/09: mrbrownesq bought from aimeereed0 -- What an interesting exchange of items - men's jumpers, a Hugo Boss leather jacket for £15, and two instruments? It could almost send a shill down your spine. Incidentally, for that last transaction both partners left each other the feedback comment "great e-bayer, thnanks!" (note the spelling!). And if you still trust this customer, note what he's just bought: 01/04/11: mrbrownesq bought a gibson les paul replica 19/04/11: mrbrownesq bought a les paul style truss rod cover Oh, and note that this is the third red squier p-bass he's sold!

I agree that it's worth trying them, and that their volume is lower than one might hope. But I don't agree with the conclusion that this makes them pointless or only useful for their look. Many people play electro-acoustic guitars in situations that are loud enough that they need to amp the guitar, but no-one would suggest they just use an electric instead - they obviously have a different sound, and one that's very appealing for some things. I've got a fretless electro-acoustic. And yes, without amplification it can't even compete with a single 6-string acoustic strummed gently. (It can just about compete with gentle finger-picking). But I've used it live, with amplification, to get a very different sound and vibe to what an electric would give. Yes, people comment about the look, but many more comment about the sound. It's not an upright sound, but it is recognizably acoustic. It's never going to be my main bass, but it's a lovely thing to have.

I got my son (at age 9) one of these: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbp90bk_shortscale_ebass.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbp...scale_ebass.htm[/url] 29" scale, and an unbelievably low price (cheaper than a Sue Ryder ). Yeah, it's not a Fodera, but it's perfectly ok and will keep him ticking over until he can manage 34".

[quote name='KiOgon' post='1212575' date='Apr 27 2011, 01:29 PM']Silly question maybe - but couldn't you have just turned the grille around? ...[/quote] I tried that with my cab, but I got people coming up and asking for burgers and fries ....

And, moreover, now I understand why the volume controls on my Les Paul copy act a bit strange - they are wired the first way and, yes, if the pickup selector is in the middle position then when one volume is turned the whole guitar is turned down. It's a shame Gibson haven't learnt from Fender how to wire two pickups. But I suppose that by now it's become a "feature" of Les Pauls rather than a bug.

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1203413' date='Apr 18 2011, 11:25 AM']It's the same but in reverse.[/quote] I'm afraid you lost me there with the last word - it had too many syllables. [quote name='Dad3353' post='1203463' date='Apr 18 2011, 12:08 PM']Good afternoon, mart... With your first wiring method, if one pot is turned down, then the other pot is also shorted to ground, so no output from either pu. With the method in the diagram (not just for 'Jazz' basses, but almost all 2-pu basses or guitars...), the wiper of the pot feeds progressively more and more to the output as you turn up, but the o/p is never shorted to ground by either. There is no difference electrically whilst both pots are at max or min, but this minimises interaction between the volumes of the 2 pus in between. Is this concise enough..? Hope this helps...[/quote] Ahhh. This I understand. Thank you!

Deleted, cos I just realized that this had already been mentioned in the second post in the thread.

When I were a lad I learnt that to wire a volume control you'd feed the hot and ground wires to the two ends of a variable resistor, and tap it to get the output, like this: But if you google for a wiring diagram for a jazz bass, then what comes up time and again is this: which has the volume controls wired differently, with the hot "input" going to the middle tag, and the "output" coming from one of the end tags. Can someone explain, in words of at most one syllable, why the jazz volume controls are wired this way round?

Maybe. I think there's a threshold, so you only pay duty if the items are (declared to be) worth a certain amount. And then I think there's an element of luck as to whether the powers-that-be choose to demand that duty or not. And if the duty does get charged, you'll probably find yourself paying extra to the courier for the pleasure of giving them the money. HMRC make the courier pay the duty, so they then ask you for the money and their expense. Having said all that, when I've had to pay duty, it's still been cheaper than buying the item locally. Putting that another way, I only buy from the US when the margin is large enough to be sure that it'll work out cheaper. Someone will probably come along with some exact figures but, from memory, I think I've usually ended up paying around 20% of the value of things in duty+charges.

I've owned Warwicks from '94 and '97 that both had "West Germany" on the tuning pegs. They must have had a large stockpile when the wall came down! What year is yours from?

The darkest bass I have is the fretless version of this: [url="http://www.warwick.de/modules/produkte/produkt.php?submenuID=14667&katID=00000023933&cl=EN"]http://www.warwick.de/modules/produkte/pro...23933&cl=EN[/url] and the darkest setting is the neck-bucker solo'd. It's actually too dark for my tastes, so I usually leaven it with a bit of bridge single coil. Of course, the mahogany may also have something to do with this. But based on this, I'd say go for it. If you can get a splittable bucker, then what's to lose? Edit: having just re-read GW's post, I'd agree that it doesn't sound much like an upright. But I wouldn't say the sound was unusable. It's horse for courses, tho, innit!

Is that also the bass that Robbie Robertson's bassist was playing on Later this week?

The last time I tried a bass before buying was in '93. But I did the try-before-buy thing when I was buying a Rickenbacker guitar in '98. I still managed to buy the wrong one though! So I had to sell it a couple of years later and buy the other one. That may be why I've given up trying to assess gear before laying down the cash. I kinda agree that newer players should try things before they buy, but only because they are less likely to be able to tell what instrument is suitable for them from an online description. On the other hand, when I was just beginning I did try-before-buying, but I had no real idea what to look for or listen for, so I'm not sure it was much help. The best answer for a beginner is surely to get the help of someone more experienced. I've happily helped one or two folk buy kit because they didn't think they knew enough themselves to make a good choice.

+1 to icastle's reply. In the circuit linked by tommorichards above, the tone filter circuit takes the signal from the hot wire, through a variable resistor, then through a cap, and to the ground. As your bass is wired, the circuit takes the signal from the hot wire, through the cap and then the resistor, before going to the ground. The different order makes absolutely no difference to the way the circuit works.

Just bought a pickup off Mark, and it was a very easy and smooth process. A pleasure to deal with!

[quote name='BigRedX' post='1197858' date='Apr 13 2011, 10:08 AM']Germans pronounce the letter "W" the same way as we would pronounce the letter "V" so it should be: "Var Vick"[/quote] That's true. But you also need to bear in mind that Germans know that Warwick is not a German word, and they tend to try to get pronunciation correct for the original language. So you'll find they often say it much like we do. Zum beispiel, listen to this video at about 0:08: