mcnach

post pictures when done!

Good amp. I had the 9.2... Versatile and good sounding.

I don't particularly desire a lot of sustain, I think... but I can think two reasons: 1) you can always mute/deaden a string/note, but you cannot lengthen it. 2) low sustain could be a reflection of the general build quality: not rigid enough to allow strings to vibrate... Still, I'm not sure sustain is something generally considered much when thinking bass guitar... although other bass instruments can have sustain in spades, so why not.

show off

Yup. When I bought my RH450 early in 2009, it was something like £750, and the RS210 cab £370... A couple of years later or so when I was thinking of selling the RH450, the price dropped to about £600... or maybe less, I can't recall exactly, but it was a big drop. I wasn't very happy.

She has, but she doesn't like the necks that much. I know, I know, I considered breaking up with her, but nobody is perfect

and 'correct' logos

where? Their website says only roundwounds available... edit: oh... going through the menu it says otherwise... medium scale you say? For a 4 in-line Fender style instrument ok? Hmm.... their info says to use the long scale for 34-35" standard basses, and they do not have tapewounds on long scale.

Hmmm. I hope they get them back in stock, I'll keep my eye out for them. The price is good, and I love tapewounds... yet they're all quite different from each other, so I'm curious what these ones will be like. I went off Status strings because I bought my first two sets from them (flats and half-round or whatever they called them), and one of them had a terribly dull string, very imbalanced compared to the others in the set. Something was wrong. I contacted them but they ignored me... so I saw no reason to go back. Maybe I was unlucky. I hope I'm luckier next time.

It's true... not just the type of string... sometimes even changing the gauge on a given bass just seems to turn it into something else. I used to go for 110-50 or 105-45 but nothing lower... Then I tried a 95-40 set on one of my Jazz basses, and it was like playing a different bass! It felt different and led me to play differently too. Fun to mix things up a bit.

oh, of course. The idea of buying used strings was alien to me before I joined BassChat. Which is a shame, as I went through a period where I was lucky to pay minimal rent and I had a lot of extra cash for toys, and coincided with my wanting to find about strings, and I had LOTS of different strings... all bought new, and many were removed after a few days and stored never to be used again. Eventually I go rid of the whole lot as I did not need so many 'backup' sets... Then I realised that there was a market for them, and also came across that thing where they were collecting slightly used strings for schools etc... what a waste on my side We could have organised some kind of "used string library" on BassChat to allow people to try different strings for a bit. Even if used, it could be very useful. Although the logistics probably mean it would be too much effort for comparatively little gain unless there were enough people interested... and I think most just use whatever they're used to and rarely stray. If I had a double bass, I think I'd try to brainwash myself into believing my existing strings were the absolute best and that any change would inevitable be doomed and could actually signal the beginning of the end of the universe... £160! Ouch!

I think what he meant is that while you can only bump your own ads every couple of days or something like that, some items get bumped constantly while there's a conversation going on.

Nah. The 'chit chat' may be happening because there's a degree of interest in the item for sale. It's a good place to discuss details publicly. I get your point that some items get bumped to the top more than others, but I think it's a small inconvenience compared to what you can get in open discussion, with updates etc. I like it how sometimes you see a bass for sale, and a previous owner chips in with useful details that the seller didn't remember fully or things like that.

I'm sorry, I'm already taken... (thank you for your kind words... you've just seen a bit of my nice side, I can be a real idiot at times too ... SHE is the great girlfriend and amazing human being, I'm only learning but slowly)

There are quite a few BF users on that Mesa Subway thread... the problem is that at over 500 pages, it gets complicated to find specific details I remember quite a few Two10 and Four10 users, as well as some of the neodymium speaker range as well.

Ouch! I guess... not a lot of "I feel like trying a different set of strings just to see what they're like" on the double bass world!

I'm just worried that this time was a Squier... a couple of years down the line it may be something much more substantial in the dent it'll cause to my bank balance. She has a talent for picking out the most expensive item out of a list, before she knows the price. Yeah... I guess I'll have to break up with her... or start saving!

my ex was the same... we shared the musical taste, but she was clueless about instruments. My girlfriend... we actually met through bass! She was a local fan of my main band. I had seen her coming to our gigs in town for nearly a year, so I recognised her in the crowd and we'd say hello, but nothing much beyond that. One night, between sets, she comes to me and tells me she plays guitar a little and has recently started playing bass... and was learning my basslines from the only CD we had out at the time. That was pretty shocking. Even more shocking was that she was nervous to talk to me because... I was the bass player in this band she really liked "omg" But she needed to talk to me because live I play a few things quite differently and she was trying to figure out what I do in one particular song... That song was the opener for the second set so I made sure to make it obvious to her what I was doing, and she was there watching me for the rest of the gig (I was embarrased by then... look, I play bass because I like the power... and hiding in the back! :D) Anyway... after that we started chatting... that led to going for a beer or 16... for walks... lunch... and we've been together for a bit over two years. Bass is awesome.

she has great taste in men too, apparently

But hopefully the Labellas will last years! (fingers crossed)

I'm supposed to be working on a grant so that I have a job next year, but I decided to make another coffee and distract myself a little and tell you all a story. Grab a mug, it's still warm. Last August, I bought my girlfriend a bass. She's a beginner, but very much into bass. She already had a bass, but there were a number of things she didn't like enough about it. She of course has tried all of mine, and she cannot really describe to me what it is she likes... but when she feels it, she knows. I did all I could to that bass to make it play and sound nice, but it was not quite right. From time to time she shows me pictures of basses she's seen on shop windows etc. But one day in June she shows me this one. She really liked this one. How do I know she really liked it? Because this time, she went in, and asked to try it, and played with it with other people around! She's extremely shy to play in front of anybody. She first loved the way it looked, but then... it felt great, it was very light and comfy, and she was seriously considering going back to buy it after pay day. I didn't show any interest beyond the usual, and didn't ask about the shop but I recognised it. Next opportunity I got, I went to the shop, tried the bass and bought it. Lucky for me, it was not a Wal, but a Squier P/J, Standard range. It was very nice, it just needed to be cleaned up a bit and new strings etc. She never mentioned the bass again... and I thought I had made a mistake and she really didn't want it that much. Then I smiled "cool, I like this bass, I'll keep it if she doesn't want it!" Her birthday was in August... and I gave it to her. She cried. I thought I was in trouble... especially when she yelled at me "I hate you!"... but then she laughed. She said she avoided looking into that shop until she got paid, just in case it was gone. After she got paid she went and... no bass. She went inside, looked around... nope, it was sold. She was very disappointed, and kicked herself for having waited... and decided to push it away from her mind because it was upsetting to have found one bass she really liked everything about and she let it pass. Ok, phew... so she liked the bass. But she didn't like the strings I put. I put some Rotosounds I had, as she had not tried those, and I figured they would do until she finds the strings she likes... and the search for new strings started seriously. We tried a few on her other bass, but she didn't seem to have much of a preference. However, this bass was different for her. She has finally decided she knows what strings she wants to try. Over the past few months I've tried various types on various basses, and she's tested them all, plus I have a few others that I've accumulated in the past couple of years... and she has decided that there was one set of strings that she really really really liked above anything else. Labella white nylon tapewound strings, which is incidentally my most expensive set. It couldn't be the £11 Warwick red label ones, could it!? But it was a good choice. What a difference did they make!!! The bass sounded nice before, but she loves it now, and how it plays... and as a result she's playing the thing constantly now. Strings... so often overlooked, yet so important. Now I'll have to buy myself another set. I hope she doesn't think of trying the same strings on her other bass now

The original plastic covers have the larger 'ears', yes, and buying a set on eBay with the smaller ears solves that... and they are available in a variety of colours! But they are also taller. The polepieces are longer than normal. Not crazy long, but they are longer. As I said, I didn't have to remove wood or anything in the basses I've used them on (3 basses by now), but you may have to use less foam... and if the routing happens to be shallow to start with I can understand how in some rare cases it may need a little work with a chisel. It's a bit like the J-Retro preamp. It fits most Jazz basses... but from time to time you find one where you need those extra 2-3mm or something... and it becomes annoying if you are not handy with a chisel. The vast majority are ok, more or less tight, but ok.

I didn't have to alter anything, but if you like the pickups very far from the strings you may sometimes need to do something, indeed. I put foam under the pickups, and it gets pretty compressed!

Those knobs were for an amp, in fact... but they never got used. I saw them in my box of bits and thought "why not?"