LukeFRC

I do think there should be some photos

[quote name='funkyspuke' timestamp='1379604961' post='2214752'] They have this way of 'making' you order something rather than 'forcing' .. I think it's whatever they put in the tea/coffee they offer you instantly on arrival haha! [/quote] i've resisted so far. Mind you if they hadn't utterly aced the frets on my wick I might have been tempted by other basses....

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1379780491' post='2216723'] Managed to get in touch with the seller - forwarded the crime reference number and the officer dealing with the case so hopefully they can sort something out between them. Its a real long shot as this happened six and a half years ago but who knows... Need to get in touch with some old buddies and get hold of some photos of me and the bass. Rob [/quote] this is so random. Hope you get it back!

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1379779831' post='2216710'] We do a lot of work on producing text that is easy for kids with literacy difficulties (including dyslexia) to read. Even the use of the now ubiquitous Comic Sans font! [/quote] have you tried other options that arn't as typographically nasty as comic sans? http://www.k-type.com/?p=520 my personal fave is FS Me which I think is what the DWP uses for most things

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1379775585' post='2216669'] WOAH THERE ! You are assuming[u] [i]way[/i][/u] too much much knowledge on my part , my friend ! As I have just been explaining on another thread , I have no idea what I am doing . I normally have other people do all my word processing for me . ( I have other people do most things for me nowadays , to be honest ) . I took me nine months to work out how to use emoticons , and figuring that out made me feel like I was a computer genius . It takes me all my time to justify my own existance . If I had to justify my text on Bassschat too , it would be too much effort to get out of bed anymore ,. I will see what I can do , but don't hold your breath . ( Just showing off my new-found skill with emoticons ) . [/quote] two things you could do if you wanted to make your text slighlty easier to read... 1. You don't need a space before a punctuation mark. Look at these two examples and see how one scans easier. I like bass , I play every day . Mainly on a warwick streamer , sometimes on a fender type bass . either a Precision or a jazz . I like bass, I play every day. Mainly on a warwick streamer, sometimes on a fender type bass. either a Precision or a jazz . 2. While paragraphs are nice line breaks like this, or even spaces like this break up the text into easier segments. While paragraphs like in a written report are fine on a page on a screen and on screens of different sizes more regular breaks help reading.

ah there you go Dingus .... can you try switching the editing mode button? (top left of the reply box) this mode will set your replies out in a nicer way and organise line breaks better.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1379773556' post='2216648'] Why does everybody have such a problem reading a paragraph? ( I am currently fielding other complaints ). I just don't get it . [/quote] because your posts are displaying really oddly with the line breaks in the wrong places and so on. Looking at you last post the open parenthesis of the "and couldn't" is on the line above, and the text seems to be trying to justify itself - which messes up the spacings - so everything has become spread out and your eye can't flow across the line easily. So if you have the text justified try left aligning it, if you have to have it justified like it is increase the leading (line spacing) - or if you are using something like a phone or tablet which doesn't give you these options use line breaks more.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1379771991' post='2216627'] But surely a decent on-board pre-amp should be buffering each input separately? And if you've gone to the trouble of putting an active circuit in there why on earth is the pickup blend and output volume passive? To my thinking these are the things that would benefit most from active electronics. I can't help but think that in a lot of active basses the pre-amp is nothing more than a compromised EQ circuit that can fit in the space and be driven from a 9V battery and has been specified with no real concern for either the acoustic qualities and the instrument's sound or the sound as produced by the pickups. [/quote] I would kinda agree. It was your comments on preamps that partially steered me to look into and buy the ACG preamp I have in my main bass! So you're to blame for me spending that £200! I think some of it is to do with how onboard preamps came about on basses. The high end Alembic stuff.... people sticking simple buffers into basses after the volume and tone... increasing to buffer plus 2 band EQ cos it's easy to do.... and so on.... I picked up a cheap 80's japanese bass a few years back - and guess what - cheap pickups into a pickup switch into a volume and into a cheap nasty 2 band preamp. For the price of a dollar or two preamp they could sell the bass as more top of the range. and so on. A lot of the time cheap preamps into lower end bass amps can hide the limits of a bass - it's when you stick it through a PA that the PA guy (and the crowd) realise that your bass sounds a bit rubbish. I think if you sat down and designed your own bass guitar, from scratch it would either be pure passive, or have a fully buffered active blend preamp... possibly with different switchable impedance loadings for the pickups....

[quote name='alexclaber' timestamp='1372947395' post='2132001'] If I honestly felt that most of our Big Series customers would be better served by typical active PA speakers then I'd say so and we wouldn't bother making them - [b]the rest of our range has far outsold them to date[/b], anyway. [/quote] why do you think this is Alex?

Was practicing at the same place this week- new drummer who's a lot louder so the HK D.A.R.T. got cranked.... it sounded even better! Mind you thinking about it i dunno if I'm going to change owt with my setup. my cab is only 18kg and sounds fine. Berg IP's don't come up enough (and weigh more) and while the Barefaced Big Baby looks amazing... it doesn't have the DSP that would make it worth the upgrade (tho weighs less.) In terms of Hi-fi stuff... i'm still a bit weary of selling my rig to go with a PA monitor/speaker for some reason.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1379765002' post='2216538'] I hardly think a few mm vs a few cm in the length of the lead between the pickup and the buffer is going to make any real difference. [/quote] yes and no. Partly depends on how many pickups you have. It's a buffer for each pickup. So it would only make no real difference if we were talking about one pickup or a preamp with each input buffered and then an active blend. Here you're talking about the higher end preamp designs... A lot (most) of onboard preamps put the pickup signal through a passive blend and volume and then into the preamp for buffering and Eq. As an aside the original musicman preamp was quite cool in that it fed the pickup straight into the preamp and then used the volume control on the output gain stage of the preamp.

A point to note - the "flat" setting on any active eq might not actually be the flat in terms of sound. Some onboard preamps are built this way (glockenklang for instance springs to mind) whereas others set flat will display characteristic bumps in your Eq curve. [quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1379759919' post='2216474'] BTW What exactly are "active pickups" and how do they differ from a normal magnet and wire coil pickup attached by a very short lead to a pre-amp? I can't help but think that it's all marketing bullshit. [/quote] Active pickups, EMG being the main proponent is where each pickup itself has a preamp and possibly tone shaping built into the pickup. This can then be fed through a pretty much standard passive volume and tone control (different value pots though) and into an amp, or into a onboard preamp. Effectively you are right that they are normal magnet and wire coil with a tiny lead to their own preamp... but it's good to make the distinction so people understnad where it is their signal is being buffered. EDIT: as can be seen here:

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1379671394' post='2215458'] I don't have small hands by any means but find skinny and shallow necks much more comfortable to play. Even to the extent of just a couple of mm - recently bought a lovely Silver Series Jazz bass - beautiful old battered thing that sounds great - but for some reason the neck was 40mm at the nut. I am going to change it to a Mighty Mite Jazz neck as I just feel that much more comfortable with it. Just the way it is - big guys play Jazz basses, ladies with tiny hands play 5/6 string basses - no logic. [/quote] I have a similar age japanese squier precision neck on my bitsa jazz - oddly it's also 40mm - i think they just all went similar sizes. Nice necks though. It must onyl be a few mm between that and the streamer (narrower necks) and the Precision (wider) but it makes such a difference- mind you Dave-the-bass I think may have a point and I may pushing with too much/little pressure as the neck's thinner - which suggests I could get back up to speed on it... or might just chuck it and replace it with something with a thinner neck!

I'm not that sentimental about things - Ive a box of trinkets and stuff I've picked up over the years that is nice to have, and some books I like. Gear wise I sold my first bass to buy something better when it wasn't getting used so don't regret that. My japanese '57ri I had was great - that was my first gigging bass - and kinda wish I'ld kept it - it got sold to afford the JV I currently have - which looks identical and plays better... but it doesn't have the same history. The SS1 i didn't like at first, but changed parts, fret job, and almost 5 years of playing and... I couldn't find a better bass.

[quote name='pietruszka' timestamp='1379693568' post='2215838'] I'm in the same boat as Machines. My dad (sadly not with us any more) got me my Stingray for my 18th birthday. That will never leave me if it's the last thing I do! I can't bare the thought of parting with it, and one of the last conversations we had about gear was him saying "that bass was the best thing I ever got you". Dan [/quote] that's such a good story.

For years and years I played a certain bass, then I replaced it with another bass essentially the same. It has a big wide flat neck. Never a problem I have small short fingers. Then I started playing another bass with a narrower neck accross the fretboard. My playing has progressed. The original bass doesn't fit my hand any more. I can feel myself straining to reach, and some things I can't do quick enough that I can on the thinner necked bass. It's all a bit odd, anyone else experienced this? Is it just that one fits my hand (it does) and the other one is a compromise - or is it that I've just got used to what I'm playing and with practice and time I will be able to go from one to the other no problem. I was always a tiny bit proud I could get by on the wider necked bass with no problems given my stubby fingers - no moaning from me! but it does make a difference. (and does it mean no 5 strings for me ever?!)

bit odd this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trace-Elliot-Prototype-Bass-guitar-made-in-2000-/271280784342?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3f299843d6 so remember the status T bass in the 90's - well apparently this is being sold as a prototype from about 2000 (when it was a gibson company) Who knows what it is - interestingly the fingerboard markers look like the ones status was using on their wood necked basses - but it looks like a one piece neck where I think status used 3 piece.... all a bit odd. Looks well put together whatever it is

I write on my batteries when I stuck them In. I check them when I do a set up or something every few months. If they are over a year and a half old then I just replace them - never had one die on me.

[quote name='cocco' timestamp='1379535594' post='2213980'] Passive for me, I like the simplicity of use on stage, the natural sound of the bass and the lack of a battery. I've tried actives and owned many, Warwick streamer s1 5er, musicman bongo and stingray, trace T-bass, Shuker single cut headless 4 and possibly more. I found them mostly lacking personality, with the exception of the ray. They were too clean and clinical sounding. I like things a little rough 'round the edges. People talk about the output of active basses, and yes it's higher than most passives, but there are plenty of people who'll make you a high output passive pickup. That said I am currently inexplicably also drawn to the troy sanders bass. [/quote] Passive = simplicity??? the first bass in your thread is a Peavey T40!!! I've had one of them - my current bass has a dual filter preamp with 8 knobs... but it's simpler than the passive T40 to get your head round!!! While we're on the T40.... I had one - and to my hands it felt a little dead, compared to my main bass at the time which is super resonant the T40's massive bridge effectivly decoupled the body from the strings. Odd to play but designed that way and playing with a band you realised it didn't matter too much and it was very rewarding bass to play. My point is that the way the bass was constructed, then the pickups and pickup placement determined the sound - and a active circuit after all that isn't going to make too much difference unless it's been designed that way (in the way a stingray or alembic have). My point - wether it takes batteries or not is the least of your worries when bass shopping. [quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1379539035' post='2214060'] I know what you are saying but people are still boosting frequencies without even knowing it in many cases, I am not familar with every amp but I presume many have active EQs like my Genz heads? Also many basses use 18v or even a lead feeding endless power to the bass from a fixed power supply just like the amp has, I know EBS Freak has this for a fact, it also runs all his leds, metronome and tuner, the average P bass lover would be put off by that without hearing it! [/quote] I bet however fancy the EBS system they aint pushing mains voltage down the instument cable! My more serious point was that onboard bass preamps are a compromise of design wether they are on 9 or 18v power supply- in each cases the designer has to ballance the best part with it's power consumption. There's no point making a curcuit that sounds amazing but burns through batteries in only an hour. Obviously on an amp you don't have these constraints and can go for higher power consumption chips... or even ramp the power up and use tubes in your Eq section.... ooooo....

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1379535231' post='2213973'] Mark said it improved it, but what he meant was that he thought it improved it. One shouldn't confuse opinion for fact. [/quote] i did say more or less that.. then decided to remove it from my post. Tecamp preamp is pretty good to my ears - esp with the onboard compressor

[quote name='Mark Dixon' timestamp='1379357049' post='2211733'] You can pre-order for £1599 from Bass Direct [url="http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Vanderkley_Aurora_amplifier.html"]http://www.bassdirec..._amplifier.html[/url] It will be interesting to see how the pre-amp in the Auroa performs. I've just bought a Jule Monique tube pre-amp and used it to by pass the pre-amps in friend's amps, namely: Tecamp Puma 900 Aguilar DB751 (assuming you can hear the amp over the droning fans cooling the bloody thing) Aguilar TH500 Genz Benz Streamliner 900 It was astonishing how the Monique improved the sound from all of them, I guess the pre-amp is the weakest part, hopefully the Aurora addresses this weakness. [/quote] improved? you stick a top of the range boutique valve preamp that you like the tone off before almost anything and it will probably improve it! ESP. when comparing it to bass amps either way cheaper than the preamp or going for solid state lightweight. (or are a DB751 - which I know nothing about apart from it's big and silver)

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1379532762' post='2213900'] How many people on here bang on about passive basses only to put it straight into a modern amp with an active EQ? What they are saying is they prefer a pickup with a really long lead [/quote] The difference is that the amp EQ isn't being forced to run on a 9v battery.... Mind you some classic bass sounds require a certain Eq - the ray, and the slightly nasel sound of a Warwick eq spring to mind

Dr Bass, that's the fella who used to make amazing wee cabs that everyone raved about and then went a bit awol and everyone on talkbass raved init? why do they give you the L pads? what's the theory behind that?