6stringbassist

I just bought a new Marcus Miller bass, I love the looks and cool retro style of it, and it's really well made, but I want to improve the rather harsh sound of it, and make it more versatile. In passive mode at the moment it sounds fine, but still a bit thin sounding, partly because there is no passive tone control, so it's sort of on full all the time. I'm considering Seymour Duncan Antiquities, or Nordstarnd NJ4's, and either an East, Audere or Nordstrand preamp. I wondered what peoples experiences are of the above pickups and preamps, and where's the best place to get them from.

I have a set of flats that you can have if you want, drop me a PM with your address. They've been fitted to my Sei at some point but I didn't like them, I think they're Rotosounds, absolutely nothing wrong with them though, measure how long they need to be 1st to see if they'll fit.

Hold the strings down at the 1st fret with a finger of your left hand, and at the end of the neck with your right elbow. Check to see how much space there is under the strings at the 12th fret. If there is a lot of space, then adjust tighten the truss rod a quarter turn at a time, try to get the neck almost flat, just the smallest amount of relief. Then adjust the string height at the bridge until you're happy with it. I have my strings all the same height from the fingerboard to the top of the string, I find this facilitates faster and easier right hand playing.

I really wouldn't bother, they look pretty crap to me, for £5 more you can get a set of Status hotwire flats, they're really good strings, I use their flats on my Sei 6 string.

Anyone heard Brian Eno and David Byrne 'My life in the bush of ghosts', it's 28 years old now, but fantastically funky, and doesn't sound at all aged. It was at the time a very experimental album, they had no sampleres in those days, everything was done using tape loops.

Cool looking bass !. I really do want one of those myself. Happy Christmas !.

I can honestly say, that I don't find TB at all cliquey, quite the contrary, they're very welcoming, and have thousands of members from all over the planet. And cliquey and unfriendly (verging on racist ?) is this comment "our inferior trans-atlantic brethren". I find the majority of talkbass contributors to be extremely friendly, honest and very helpful, actually much like the majority of people on here. Sure, you'll find the odd one or two people who go out of their way to be annoying, but you find people like that on here, or anywhere else. They do have a slight obsession with TI flatwound strings though lol.

I can see loads on there I personally wouldn't have in my list, the no.1 for a start, a bit of joke really that beating 'Teen town' or 'School days'. And 'Ace of spades', come on !. Maybe the idea behind the list is to get people talking about it. I personally think that Bass player magazine is far better, where does the 'full of adverts' thing come from ?. It's a commercial magazine, so there are adverts to pay for it, but I really don't think that they're out of proportion. The gear reviews are really good and infomative, I can't think of any gear that they've reviewed that hasn't found it's way over here, thanks to the internet and international magazines. I used to subscribe to BGM, but didn't bother to renew my subscription, I personally didn't find the reviews, interviews or features at all interesting. The list above just about sums the magazine up.

I had one briefly. They do sound really superb, but found the practical side of ownership to be a bit of a pain, and really not worth it. The controls, gain etc are on the back of the cab, in the bottom left hand corner, not the easiest place to get to anywhere, let alone on a stage at a gig in between numbers. They don't use a normal IEC power lead, so make sure that you don't forget to take the powered speakon thing with you, I did once and had to do a round trip of a hundred miles back home to collect it. The whole thing with having to use a seperate preamp is a nuisance too, I tried the Summit, and it did sound really good, I also used an Avalon U5 which I preferred, both have very limited tone shaping though. The thing also weighs a ton, so if you have a bad back then don't consider it. I really prefer my Epifani rig, it's far more versatile, has ample tone shaping if you need it, though I leave everything set flat. The Epi stuff also weighs far, far less and cost me less than the Berg stuff did. Just my opinion of course, and diffferent to the other posters on tis thread, so maybe it's just me.

I'm a supporting member, I find it really good, friendly, very informative, though the search function is a pain in the ass sometimes.

According to a friend of mine who's an electrical engineer, the most important thing with a circuit is the earth fault loop impedance. If this is too high then whatever protective device you have at the fuse board, may not disconnect fast enough to protect you in the event of a fault. A martindale or other socket tester won't tell you if the earth fault loop impedance is too high, and can give the user a false sense of security, the best thing is to just use an RCD at all times, the RCD won't work, ie let current flow, if there is a fault, and will protect you if one develops while you are playing.

[quote name='Weird War' post='362097' date='Dec 23 2008, 04:02 PM']I want to get RCD protection for gigs but need to travel light (as I'm on foot 90% of the time!) - would I be best getting a RCD socket rather than an extension lead or cable reel? Saw one in B&Q today for a tenner, looked a bit plastic but if it works...[/quote] I have one of both, like you I like to travel light.

A socket tester is only good if you know what you're looking at, and it won't tell you if the neutral and earth are reversed. Best to get a good RCD extension lead, it shouldn't work if there's no earth, and should trip if there's the slightest 30mA leakage to earth, they work on the principle of what goes out should come back, so will trip if there's the slightest difference between current going out through it and coming back through the neutral.

DV42 are really good, but I tend to phone my local shop and have them send it, it does work out cheaper that way, they remember you and will work out a discount. But if it's a major purchase, ie a couple of hundred pounds or more, then you really can't beat going to a shop, even if you have to catch a train or coach down to London, a train from Birmingham to London is only £17 return, you can then see and try what you're buying. And most shops will discount the advertised prices, especially if you pay cash.

I've bought stuff from Saitenkatalog and never had a problem, and I've used stringbusters and stringsdirect loads of times, and again I've never had a problem. Recently though I've decided to switch back and buy things the old fashioned way, ie from a shop. I bought a bulk order of 6 string DR's from Mark at Bassdirect, and I've bought a few sets from the Gallery. Sure you pay a bit more, though to be honest it's really not a lot, but what's a few quid compared with personal service, and you also get the right stuff, and maybe you'll get a bit more discount when you go in a make a major purchase.

I've dealt with Lee a few times now, he's a good guy to deal with, so have no fear, sell your unwanted items here (lol).

Don't use the B as an anchor, that's not really good technique, as it means having to move off that anchor to play the be and E. An ergonomically better way is to sort of float, using your thumb as a mute, move your hand down the strings to play the higher strings. It will take a bit of getting used to, but will be much better in the long run, and if you're only just starting out on a 5, then now's the time to adapt. I find a 5 or a 6 easier to play, I don't have to move around so much up and down the neck, I can play low Eb, F etc in the same position as playing high F, G etc on my C string, or high D and E etc on the G string on a 5 string.

It's useful to have more than one bass. My main is a 6 string, I use it for jazz, funk, rock, indie, pretty much anything. I'm about to buy a 4 string Fender jazz though, more to do with it giving the right vibe for certain gigs, I play in a 70's style funk band, and a 6 string single cut I have to admit just doesn't sit right with the gig.

[quote name='birdy' post='349464' date='Dec 9 2008, 10:43 AM']Agree with this Chris. My eyes have been opened in the last month or so on here and I will now be a lot more wary who I sell to or buy from. I think I 'know' who the definate good guys (pretty much all the regulars) are on the forum and would sell/buy from them without a second thought but from now on if I don't know you I will be very careful. One thing with regards to feedback is that its hard to find - or is it just me? Say I leave a thread titled Birdys feedback unless I include Birdy within the thread then no one can find it by using the search function? This is why you maybe get 4 or 5 threads for the same person. One solution might be to alphabetise (is that a word?) the forum in a similar manner to the review section possibly? Steve[/quote] I like the way that the feedback is on Talkbass, it shows next to your name, have a look at me over there and you'll see my positive 3.