mcnach

I don't have experience on those units for a B string, but there was a guy on Talkbass, called himself Jauqo III-X, who used them and made a big deal of that. He had a bunch of videos too. Worth looking for his comments. I think he also used the ones with a double stop, so you can get a semitone and a tone down dialled in.

Having a d-tuner is useful if you're switching back and forth between drop-D and standard. Although I admit that with a little practice you can switch pretty accurately even without a tuner. I have a couple of basses with a d-tuner and if installed and maintained (lube it sometimes, that's all really) it's smooth and accurate time after time. I was playing a lot of RATM and it was nice to just flick the lever and get there spot-on every time. Now I probably wouldn't bother (and the prices have gone up a LOT!) but it has it's reason to be. In many cases you could play on a 5 string just fine, but on many occasions you want that open D ringing out and it's not the same if you're fretting it on a 5-string. You can get away with it but if it sounds better in drop-D why wouldn't you? As an aside, to me the point of a 5 string is not so much the additional lower notes, but having a full 2-octave range across the 5 strings within a 5-fret reach. For that reason I don't see anything odd about adding a drop-D or drop-A or whatever detuner, if what you play makes you switch regularly. It's not useful for everybody, but what is?

Multiple OLPs indeed Now all gone. I wish I hadn't sold my main one, I got peanuts for it and it was a great bass.

It looks like it would accept a standard right angle jack, so hopefully that cable can easily be replaced if it fails. This is according to someone on TalkBass who asked BackBeat the question: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/backbeat-club-for-those-who-silently-rumble.1379309/page-14#post-26041687

... and you're completely right, of course. I just checked the headstock on the Matt Freeman. Thanks for the correction!

I didn't get to try both side by side, it was at least 5 years in between and only two examples of the Squier and one of the Vintage... so how representative this is I am not sure. I have played and owned many Squiers (several of the CV series) and a few Vintage ones, both guitars and basses. I felt the CV series Squier was generally a clear step up in quality from any Vintage, in terms of finish and cosmetics: every single Vintage instrument I have had in my hands had some kind of minor cosmetic blemish. However, Vintage instruments tend to be more than decent players and in some cases truly outstanding. It's hard to make a fast rule, the Vintage V4 I tried was a Tony Butler signature (not sure how different it is from a standard V4 apart from the cosmetics) was a very nice bass, but the CV 60s Precisions I've had in my hands all felt like the better instrument. I owned a fiesta red one which had one of the nicest necks I've ever found. I still have a Matt Freeman (from when they were essentially a CV 60s, I bought it because I wanted a maple fingerboard) and again the neck on that one is superb. In general, if in doubt I'd go with the Squier CV series. But both will be decent instruments. I heard that the Chinese CV series were not as good as the original Indonesian CV series, but I can't comment on that having only ever had Indonesian ones. I wish I had both with me so that I could offer a better comparison, sorry.

That's one place I haven't checked, thanks! I only checked the UK eBay.

They are a bit gimmicky, I mean... bright colours that fluoresce brightly under UV light! But the strings are good regardless. Years ago I was using the DR Black Beauties a lot. These are very similar if not identical. They are not as bright as fresh Sunbeams out of the box, but Sunbeams mellow rapidly losing the zing and the coated ones (Neon or standard coloured ones) stay the same longer... I would compare them to 2 week old Sunbeams, which is a good sound! They are quite smooth to the touch too, which is nice. You can feel the grooves but your fingers glide over them. I think they're worth a try, but it's not cheap to experiment with strings eh? In terms of how bright they are under UV light, I have tried the red, orange and blue ones. The orange ones are very very bright. The red ones... they're almost the same: they look red under normal light but they glow bright orange, just a little darker than the orange ones. The blue ones are much dimmer, which I like: they're much less "hey look at me!" but still cool.

I think that's going to be the next step, indeed. And failing that, find someone who wants the 4-string set and get a 5-string set. Or forget about colours and just carry on as usual

Of course, why would I want them otherwise? They're good, in my opinion, similar to the DR Sunbeams. They're not my absolute favourite but they're pretty good, and I fancied a bit of colour for this particular bass.

it does, doesn't it? strange!

Thank you for the suggestion . Unfortunately they don't sell them either 😭

Good call, I forgot about him. I had him work on a couple of guitars years ago, when Sound Control still existed.

My only problem with Chris is that he also builds some very tasty instruments, and he's very very happy to show them to you. Ufff, an exercise on strong will... Best to visit without credit cards and less than 200 in cash, just in case

love it! thank you for posting this!

Dang, the control cavity on the VM4 is tiiiiiiight! I bought a John East Uni-Pre de luxe preamp a few months ago to install on this bass... and I don't think I'll be able to fit it in. My original plan was to make it passive because I am liking much better its passive sound and the preamp is 'meh' for my liking. I thought I would just manage with it as it is, since in passive mode you still get a passive tone control, but its action is pretty limited. The Uni-Pre deluxe combines a 3-band EQ with semiparametric mids, and you can tweak the bass EQ points too, as well as having a passive tone control... agh, I'm going to have to buy a different bass now to fit that in Anyway, back to the original plan, fully passive: volume blend Tonestyler tone control additional control for the 'intenity' of the Tonestyler, as I have a spare hole... Watch this space...

whoa, blast from the past! I remember liking this and hiding it from my heavy metal mates (I was always quite eclectic in my tastes ) I do prefer the original (I still have the 45 RPM single!) by RAF. A bit strange to get someone covering a song the same year (or year after?) the original came out. I could not view that video, so here's the Laura one: and here's the RAF one (the video is not the greatest example of a music video but hey, it was the 80s which spawn masterpieces as well s the worst of the worst 😞

No idea what that is, very strange. Nitrocellulose paint doesn't look like that either, hmm. I hope somebody else can provide some information. The Classic series came both in poly and nitro (the latter one being a bit more expensive), separately from the Roadworn which were quite different animals. You could always test the paint on some hidden area (under the pickguard?). Nitro will dissolve in acetone, while poly will not.

Absolutely this. I have a F1 and it's superb. Pricey, but very good protection, good storage, and very very comfortable to carry, unlike the Mono M80... I have had mine since 2014, used regularly (several times a week usually), and it's still in great condition. They don't make the F1 anymore, but their Urban seems to be the 'new F1' as far as I can see. https://www.fusion-bags.com/collections/urban/products/urban-bass-guitar-gig-bag

I know you asked for Glasgow, but Edinburgh is not that far away and you have the fantastic Chris McIntyre. He's beyond very good. We got lucky when he moved here from London a few years ago. This is for your Sandberg Marlowe DK I gather? If so, it deserves the best https://www.mcintyreguitars.com/

I have a 4-string set and I would like to use it on my 5 string bass, but I haven't seen anywhere selling singles... am I not very good at searching this, or do they really not sell singles? Does anybody know?

Very nice, thank you!