JimBobTTD

Watford? Is that somewhere north of the river? Yes, I meant Sutton in Surrey. Or, as the locals call it, Saturn (but with a glottal stop).

Touchstone Tonewoods in Reigate do them (but they are a long way from cheap). www.touchstonetonewoods.co.uk I recently got some from Neil at [url="http://www.nscustomguitars.co.uk"]http://www.nscustomguitars.co.uk[/url] at a decent price and he's a decent chap. He has a container of wood, he said, including a load of maple from Canada. The quilted maple top he sent me was certainly a beauty. I ordered a mahogany body blank, quilted maple top, mahogany neck blank and a flamed maple neck blank. The mahogany neck was a bit disappointing - make sure you tell him that you want a proper blank, not something that has been worked on already!!! You may find that your local timber yard can sort you out with stuff. Champions Timber in Sutton does mahogany and maple, and the geezer who was there (when I was last there, about 4 years back) makes guitars too. However, you will need to go somewhere else for fancy tops. Biggest tip: make sure you know exactly what you are after and have the dimensions sorted.

Not in this case - I would have needed to send it to Germany (on my coin) to get a refund from Ebay or Paypal. I would have ended up about 95% out of pocket. I ended up selling all the parts on Ebay (making it clear that they were from a cheap, entry-level instrument) and giving away the somewhat useless bass as a sweetener in a guitar sale. I took a gamble - the bass was cheap, after all - and it didn't pay off. Another one chalked up to experience. Go for the six string by all means, but be warned: the seller is dodgy and deals with sub-par instruments. But who knows? It may work out for you.

I have one with a natural neck. 2 volumes, 1 tone, 3-way switch. Excellent bass.

Can you take the neck off? Pack it very well and send it with DPD. I was sent a Gibson which arrived here without a scratch. It was, however, in a hard case, in a box, in a box with paper all around and a bit of scrap wood at the ends to give the box some stability. I think it was sent from Leeds. Leeds to Stockholm, by road (I would avoid air if you can), no problems. It took a week. It's all in the packing. Pack it well, get it weighed and measured, then ring up DPD and get a price. Bob is thus one of your parents' siblings (or, at a stretch, married to one).

I had a small gig at the vocational college where I teach. Year 1 of the course are about to graduate, so they hook up with Year 2, discuss what they did, talk about their work placements etc and then sit down for dinner and start drinking. I had been roped into playing with another teacher, and I roped in a student from Year 1 to sing. No drums. We played "Let Me Entertain You", "Satisfaction" and "Knockin' On Heaven's Door". The crowd were fairly quiet, I thought, but they started to scream during "Satisfaction" and were hollering for more after we finished "...Heaven's Door". Sadly, due to time constraints, we had only managed to learn and rehearse those three songs (and not all that thoroughly, to be honest) and so we had to slink off and wait for them all to quieten down. All in all, we did very well and we are all proud of what we offered. Great things: Karin, the singer, was great. My Ibanez SRX500 was a dream to play. My GK head sounded great, even though bass and vocals went through it. I managed to borrow a Marshall 1x15" cab (and a Marshall solid-state amp for the guitarist) for [b]free [/b]from a shop I regularly frequent. That just shows the importance of good relationships! It felt great to be up there playing again. Our boss thought it was great, so this will be a regular thing. As a consultant in the school (rather than an employee), this suggests that I'll be there for a while longer. I was out of there by 8 o'clock. Of the 60 or so students there, 50 of them were attractive girlies in their early 20s. Nice. Bad things: Now that they have seen my fun side, my students will never fear me again...

[quote name='cytania' post='292401' date='Sep 26 2008, 08:55 AM']BTB470, SR300, ICB2000EX and GSR200 all com in PW models, PW=piano white in Ibanese. Hmm, only 4...[/quote] I like the SR shape, but the 300 (and the whole GSR range) seems a bit cheap to me. I have an SRX500 with flame maple veneer front in grey...yeah, it's nice, but I'd rather have it in white. I must be a solid-colours chap.

Nice taste in gear you have! The 63P (and, to a lesser extent, the SUB) is superdupernice! Welcome to the forum.

Strange...I was looking at Ibanez basses (namely the SR and SRX basses) and wondering why they were all fancy wood jobbies. Where are the solid colours? My absolute favourite is white, but I couldn't see any on the website.

Wow...the response has not been at all what I had thought.

Lordy, that really is sex on toast. Congratulations!

My wedding ring doesn't get in the way of my playing at all.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='288375' date='Sep 21 2008, 08:37 AM'][...] perhaps a Cort A6 could be my "dream, but achievable" bass for the future. As sad as that might seem to those who spend thousands on basses.[/quote] I agree - it looks very nice indeed. If they do them with centred dots on the fretboard (or blocks, or blank), then I'll consider!

Ugh, no thanks. That's more like it. I have no rational explanation for my preference. What do you think?

I would go for: Gallien Krueger head (power rating depending on requirements) Trace Elliot cabs A distortion pedal which doesn't sound crap. I'm currently making one based on BK Butler's Tube Driver. Nearly done! A wah too. I've never tried a bass wah before, so I don't know which make. I'll likely end up with a Crybaby, which will need modding (if it's anything like the guitar version). Ibanez basses This is, excluding the pedals, pretty much my current rig. I played through a small EBS combo the other day in a rehearsal studio and that sounded really good. It was also the first time I had played through something other than Trace Elliot, and I rather liked it. But I'll still stick with what I have. GK: because I love the GK sound. I got my amp from The Funk here, and it has been nothing but a joy to play since then. Trace: for reasons above, really, I suppose. Pedals: because the would be cool to use (sparingly, though!) Ibanez: it's almost as if they design their basses based on my preferences! They all feel like home! But as this is a dream rig, I'd like it to be lightweight (the TE cabs I have are h-e-a-v-y) and for it to make tea and also blackberry pie with vanilla sauce. Tea is to be Lipton Earl Grey, no milk, no sugar, and the vanilla sauce has to be thick and nice but not too rich and creamy, as lactose and I don't get along too well.

[quote name='Geoff' post='283813' date='Sep 14 2008, 07:34 PM']blackened Death metal band[/quote] \m/ Welcome to the forum. I've got a tribe of relatives in the Peterborough area, spread between Peterborough itself and the millions of Deeping St towns there.

Interesting problem. The pickups are plastic, so you touching them does not make a circuit or anything. The pickups are also sealed, so you can't really crack it open and check for any loose wires. EMG say that you do not need to earth the bridge (and thus the strings) - have you done this? Does this happen with a fresh battery, and in other rooms and with other amps? Is the rest of the bass's wiring in good shape? No wires have popped off, or solder joints cracked or anything? If everything else looks good, I think the simplest thing to do would be to earth the screw and see if that clears it all up. I would also drop EMG a line about this - they should know if other people have experienced this, and how to fix it. Although they may just tell you to buy a new pickup!

I've been playing bass since 1992 (or thereabouts) but did take an extended break from playing music from 1996-2003. I've always loved the bass, but always played guitar too. Recently, I've been playing a lot of bass. A lot. The last 14 months or so have been almost guitar-free, and in that time, I've been listening to a lot of music (more than usual), playing a lot of music and started a band. But just the other day I think that I finally [i][b]got it[/b][/i]. I'm not 100% sure what I mean by that or how to start trying to explain it, but I started to see the bass as [i]more [/i]than I used to before. Before, I saw it as something which plays an octave below the guitars, occasionally throws in some odd bits here and there, and plays with the drums every now and then. But now I see that it is an instrument in its own right, rather than a guitar an octave down. It doesn't need to [i]follow [/i]the guitars. I now understand why someone may want more than just the four strings. I think I get why fretless basses are more than just basses without frets. More importantly, I now [b]consciously [/b]understand why I wanted to play bass back in 1992. Sorry for the ramble. I thought that if anyone would understand what I'm on about, it would be someone here!

Go to Ebay and look for vintage basses. There's plenty of fiction there!

[quote name='Gunsfreddy2003' post='276590' date='Sep 3 2008, 11:53 PM']My Behringer BTR2000 rack mounted tuner does not seem to like the low B on my 5 string bass it just does not register at all when I pluck the string. Has anyone else encountered this problem? The tuner works fine on the standard EADG strings. Help!!!1 MJB[/quote] I have one of them. It hardly works on the E. The best help I can offer is the suggestion you get something else. They seem to be complete rubbish.

Here's a pic of one guy playing with his while another guy reaches around and plays too. All the while, another guy looks on and fiddles.

Duff McKagan (Guns N Roses, Loaded, Velvet Revolver) writes with his wrong hand but plays a right-handed instrument.

[quote name='kevbass' post='274748' date='Sep 1 2008, 06:14 PM']Is it Rock Bottom?[/quote] That's the only guitar shop in Croydon I know. I bought my Ibanez PJ bass there in 1992/93. I received the same level of service from them when I was 14 as when, ten years later, I bought a guitar from them. They don't treat youngsters any differently as they do adults...but they don't treat adults with much respect either. So, for my contribution (although I'm sure it has already been said), I'd like to say guitar shops with their "expert" "advice", making them so much "better" than buying off the interweb. I've been in a couple which have treated me well, but they have been the exception which proves the rule.