Grangur

[quote name='waynepunkdude' timestamp='1386066192' post='2295128'] Isn't it Tanglewood? [/quote] Overwater Tanglewood A good number are new, but ex-demo or with problems. I heard Overwater have spent a lot of time in China sorting quality issues. My guess is this is the poor quality ones being sold off to recover the costs. If this is the case, and if I owned Overwater, I'd de-brand them. But I don't and I may be wrong.

I think you have some info here in your favour and some you need to get together. 1 - You need independent witnesses to the fact that the gear performed well at the beginning of their act and was poor at the end. 2 - Why didn't they hang about? My guess is he and his mates knew exactly what had happened. Down-side is I don't think you're going to win this with a polite PM on facebook. What I'd take from this is I'd lend a bass far easier than lend the rig. The problem is a blown rig doesn't look blown on surface, by just looking at the cab, and if the guy is using loads of effects, how can the average punter tell if it's distortion or if it's blown gear?

FWIW I'm in a similar postion. I have 1 hour lessons on an ad-hoc basis. I use them to answer questions, make sure my practice is on-track and he takes me over theory stuff. I think it works. Mind you it is about 3-4 months since I had one. As a mature guy who practices almost every day, I think there's a lot of ground we can cover on our own without a teacher as one key thing we need to do is practice fluency as finding the notes when we need them, reading, playing to a rhythm. I think I would do well to go back just to check things over. I do tend to do Item 4 - leave it to the teacher. Or maybe I'm totally wrong on all scores. (It has happened once before)

Tony Franklin recommends having no lines and just having the dots for the 1, 3, 5, etc. Me I'm just learning fretless and even if I don't look all the time I like to look occasionally and check how my intonation is going. Yes, I know, my ears should tell me, but I'm not totally at that stage yet. Mine's got lines and I'm sticking with lines til I find I can find the notes almost every time. Thanks AT for raising the discussion though.

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1385891431' post='2293135'] Did you read any of the posts above??? [/quote] Yes, but you clearly haven't. How did Rob get on at the Gallery on Saturday?

[quote name='Lord Sausage' timestamp='1385457084' post='2288369'] It should be about 7-8 degrees celsius outside later. Is this to cold to spray nitro? [/quote] Probably. You need the air to be warm an dry. I'd leave it. Better to take your time on this. If you spray when it's too cold and damp it'll get a white milky bloom in the paint/lacquer. And.. if the White spirit is only for removing tape, cleaning brushes etc, it's still ok if it's yellow.

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1385756807' post='2291983'] So it's basically to compensate for poor technique then? *tiptoes over to coat rack...* [/quote] Hmmph!!!! And to think I spoke highly of him on another thread! Actually, when I play up the neck or over the pups I'm not aware of me touching anything apart from the string. So would a ramp be a waste of time?

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1385685628' post='2291278'] If you watch yourself play, or pretty much anyone, most people tend to play over a pickup. This prevents you digging in too much during faster passages. Having a ramp between the pickups, or over any other area of exposed body enables the same thing. It just smooths out your playing, there's a tendency when not playing over something for the finger tips to get more attack, and accent the notes. Obviously sometimes this is something that you want, so in that case a ramp may get in the way, without modifying your technique anyway If I'm playing jazz for example, I like to play closer to the neck for a warmer sound. [/quote] On my fretless I like to play up the neck - instant ramp and it gets warmer.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1385734953' post='2291662'] Hmmm so it would be unlikely that a replacement bridge would be available with only three screws... I'm rather not be drilling any more in the bass ... [/quote] But if the bridge is in the wrong place there's no way a tech can fix that without filling the existing holes and drilling new ones. Sounds to me like you'd do best to use the sawn-off bolt-thread saddles.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1385720433' post='2291428'] Yeah to be honest even if I can get the string sitting in the right place to align with the neck properly, I'm not too sure about having the string at a funny angle over the saddle... That's very kind of you... I'm always in Camden I live here... I'm going to take it down to the gallery tomorrow and ask them what they think. Do you think your badass III will be a straight swap in for the original fender one? If a new bridge is the answer I'll happily buy it from you. I'll see what they say tomorrow. Thanks. [/quote] The Badass III has 5 holes. So my guess is 3 will line up with those you have there. 2 more will make it more solid. Hey! Change the pups to SDs and get some good machine heads on there and you're half-way to a good bass! [size=2] (Runs and hides)[/size]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1385719302' post='2291404'] Ideally the string path should be completely straight from the machine head post to where it anchors at the bridge. [/quote] - Which needs to be done after the bass is assembled. My guess is Fender, in their mass production factory, fit the bridge on the body before it's married to the neck. Rob; I don't when you're about in the Camden area, but through work I get down there every so often. I've re-fitted bridges. If you'd like me to take a look, let me know. It could be good to meet up. Oh, and I so happen to have a Badass III hanging about... If you'd like that option too. Cheers Rich

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1385715297' post='2291359'] Think the 80's was Fender's penny pinching era... Those extra couple of screws probably represented a cost saving... [/quote] As the tension on the strings is pulling the bridge sideways, not pulling it out, theory would tell you that 3 good screws should be ok. My guess is the bridge is a fraction too far to one side; and not completely centred on the neck. The difficulty correcting this is going to be that the error will be less than the width of a screw. So what needs doing is to fill the existing holes and re-fit the bridge. The other option is to fit a Badass Bass III bridge, or similar. This has 5 slots on the top of each of the string-rests - like the old Fender ones. But being a chunky piece of kit it'll help the sustain too. Which would be no bad thing.

Many thanks guys. So I'll keep the B string and continue to move up the G for the high notes. I just wondered. Cheers Richard

Is this what you're looking for in the bub sound? [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_nbYWMZRXU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_nbYWMZRXU[/url] ... but I may be wrong

This might help. Ignore the eyewash about preview of a bass course [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x83qXXLWjak"]http://www.youtube.c...d&v=x83qXXLWjak[/url]

I'm interested in making it. I'm going to make a ramp for my LTD jazz, I'll try to do one for This one too. Hopefully without having to ask Cameron to send me his bass, but not sure how possible that is. Sorry Bill for hijacking your thread. If we go ahead on the ramp and post pics maybe I should go to another thread? or do we stay here?

I've seen a pic of the bass and it's a real beaut of a Thumb with a Pj configuration. I'd suggest he makes up a cardboard ramp as a first time test. Tape it in place and try that first. I'm going to be making a ramp for my Ltd ESP jazz, but I've not tried one on a PJ before.

As a new convert to 5 strings can I please add to Bob's questions with one of my own? Do folk generally find a B or a C string most useful? And for what genres of music? (Apologies to Bob if you object to adding this)

That's it. Go on, blame the blacks! You're right though. So many if the old icons on the bass are black. We owe so much to the guys who created the blues and all the variations that grew out of it, including soul, funk and motown.

Time is a great filter that makes the cream come to the top and the rest get forgotten. Don't forget there's loads of bass players of this century who you've got to know though Youtube and other new media paths who would never have come to your attention without the internet. Victor Wooten pottentialy being one example as he's not in the UK charts too often, so the likes of VW may never have appeared on your radar if he were born 30 years earlier. I recon if you ignore all the Youtube warriors and only talk about big-name bass icons, I challenge you to come up with a list of 10 bass players who APPEARED in the last 10 years who are pushing the boundaries of bass playing and you recon will still be at the fore in 20 years time. Go on, list names and say WHY you recon they're inovators pushing the boundaries.

[quote name='Chooglin stu' timestamp='1385320443' post='2286901'] Wel am 28 and av been playing from the age of 15 ... I can't read any music and if you asked me to play a scale I wouldn't know where the hell to start lol but there's nothing I can't play ! I just need to hear a song and I pick it out and I always play the songs properly and miss nothing , my brothers the same , he plays guitar and together we play in a David bowie tribute band , so in my opinion you just need to have a good ear to be a good musician [/quote] So you've never thought "Oh, ***** how does this one start?" You can't always get out the mp3 to hear it. You can look at the tabs, but they won't tell you the timing. I guess it's all a question of "what do you want to do?" and "how good is good enough".