BassBus

I've dealt with both. Bought my current DB from the Violin Shop. Beautifully set up for my playing. The thing about both shops is they are staffed by players so they understand the instruments very well from a players point of view. I think the Violin Shop would be worth trying first.

Either [url="http://www.theviolinshop-glasgow.co.uk/"]The Violin Shop[/url] in Glasgow or [url="http://www.stringersmusic.com/"]Stringers[/url] in Edinburgh.

Everybody knows... [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQmhQyCMvig"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQmhQyCMvig[/url]

For those who follow this thread, I have started a restoration project on a wrecked SB301. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/209095-sgc-nanyo-bass-collection-rebuild/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/209095-sgc-nanyo-bass-collection-rebuild/[/url]

I recently bought a new fretless ESP. It came with rounds on it (still don't understand why people use rounds on a fretless rosewood board). I tried all sorts of different strings on the bass and the TI Jazz Flats just gave the best sound out of all of them. Even my trusty Status halfwounds. The TIs were really quite an old set too. So, to sum up - I like the sound.

This is the start of a long term project. I bought this wreck of a bass on Ebay for £52 complete with Gotoh tuners and Badass bridge. Nowt else. The neck was a bit of a banana so I clamped that on a number of occasions. I had almost given up hope of it ever straightening but got there in the end. There is still quite a bit of play in the trus rod. I strung it up with an old set of Thomastik Jazz Flats and acoustically it sounds pretty good. I suppose that is the best way to tell how a bass will sound amplified if you get a good tone acoustically. Roundwounds had been used on the bass so you can imagine the state of the finger board. Full of gouges. I bought a 12" radius sanding block and set to removing all the gouges from the rounds. Cut it down with 80 grit paper and finished it off with 330 grit. That's left it smooth enough. Can't decide if I should give it another run with 600 or 800 grit. couple of applications of oil later and there is a lovely sheen to it and it is playing without any buzzes. Next job is to replace the bridge with a Gotoh 201. Other plans: I had thought of having the entire face planed off and a new one applied but that might not be worth the money. I'm more inclined to fill all the holes with dowel then sand the whole thing level to remove the old finish. Stain the face with a dark coloured wood dye and then apply coats of finish over that. I quite fancy Tru-Oil for that. I have a couple of EMG-HZ pickups and would quite like to fit an East U-Retro preamp. I want to fit a Roland GK-3B too but that will be externally to avoid the extra expence of more routing. Still trying to work out what to do with the pickup routings and where to set the EMGs. I know I want the back pickup about 3cm from the edge of the bridge. This will take a while so don't expect regular updates.

Have a look at the UK Distance Selling Regulations. Might be something in there to help you. [url="http://www.out-law.com/page-430#When"]http://www.out-law.com/page-430#When[/url]

[i]" A bunch of downloads stuck to a piece of vinyl" [/i] Brilliant.

But surely that can and is done on YouTube already.

...and I remember that lovely interview she did with Ken Bruce. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLPaqEeogCA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLPaqEeogCA[/url]

Fantastic! Love that kind of stuff. Great rhythm.

I am quite happy to have been born when I was. I was a teenager in the 70s so I was able to see my fave bands at the height of their powers and great they were too. Never saw Pink Floyd though, sad to say. Even now that I've morphed into a jazzer and living in austere times I wouldn't change anything. We have all sorts of fun toys to play with which hadn't even been thought of in the 70s. I may not listen to much 'young persons' music but there is still plenty out there worth listening to. I get more fun out of playing in bands now than I did then. With all of us being older now there aren't the same ego problems around. I wouldn't change a thing. Now, who sang that?

I get bored playing the same bass all the time. As a result I have quite a collection which means when I do get bored with one I move onto another for a couple of months, then another and so on. And I am well aware of how lucky I am to be in that position. When I stop buying basses that's the day I give up.

Not that I would ever advise working a way round something official like a Portable Appliance Test but have a look [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p3984.m570.l1311.R2.TR10.TRC0&_nkw=pat+test+labels&_sacat=0&_from=R40"]here[/url]. [size=4] [/size]

The answer is more practice. Predictable as that might be you will have very little progress if you don't put the hours in. A teacher would benefit anyone who wants to move on. A teacher would maybe help you focus on specific parts of your playing and certainly help you move away from certain bad habits. But then again it is sometimes those bad habits that contribute to an individual style of playing. I'm a big fan of Steve Hackett's playing but if you look at the way he uses his left hand fingers on the fretboard it's not exactly tidy. What might be useful for you is to get hold of [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Band--RealBand-Music-Software-Windows/dp/B002FOQS2I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368868323&sr=8-1&keywords=band+in+a+box+2013"]Band in a Box[/url] software. You type chords into it, select a style, press play and you have a full backing arrangement you can play over. If you want to play the bass part simply mix out the bass. You can type in the notes as well so it plays the tune for you. Very flexible and endless fun for practice.

Mighty fine playing that is! [size=4] [/size] [size=4]I've just had the same experience. I had a tone in my head I wanted to achieve from a bass. None of my expensive basses could quite catch it. Came across and ESP B-204 fretless on Ebay and that has nailed it for £159. These days I don't think you need to spend thousands to get a good bass. Is that going to stop me doing just that...[/size]

Strange. There's no apostrophes either. [size=4] [/size] [size=4]Coat in hand.[/size]

[quote name='bassace' timestamp='1368521899' post='2077884'] [color=#000000][size=4]Yogi: I can't, but I will. 90% of all Jazz is half improvisation. The other half is the part people play while others are playing something they never played with anyone who played that part. So if you play the wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it's wrong.[/size][/color] [/quote] I think that just about sums jazz up in a nutshell. [size=4] [/size]

Flats will work fine. As will nylon wound strings.

Don't forget, Gary Willis uses a lined fretless neck and he is insanely talented.

Also have a look across the front of the instrument from the side. The front should be flat when strung and tuned to pitch. If there is a rise of any sort that might indicate a problem. That's a big job to sort. As Junkyard Rocket said, check the relief of the neck. Hold down the E string at the first fret (capo it if you want). Then fret that string at the fret where the neck joins the body. Look at how far you have to press the string down to fret it while holding these two points. If it's more than about 1mm then tighten the truss rod a bit. Tightening the truss rod, if it needs it, will also lower the action a bit.

What voxpop says. Just jump in. You might sound a bit out to begin with but your ear will tell you when you are wrong. I don't know if you do any soloing with the fretless. I play in a jazz band so soloing is part of it. I use lined and unlined basses but I like the lined to give a bit more accuracy up the dusty end of the neck. On unlined you have the position markers at 3, 5, 7, etc. which gives you a guide.

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1368186378' post='2074186'] I was aiming for the positive aspects of "having a go" rather than dwelling on the (often necessary) negative aspects of the learning process [/quote] Ah. My mistake. I try to do as much of my own setting up as I can. When it comes to nuts though I have no experience so it's off to a luthier. I don't have the files either and for the number of times I needed a nut altered (once) it seems easier to take it to Chris McIntyre.

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1368184476' post='2074145'] But how did the luthier/tech learn how to do it? [/quote] By making mistakes and that's why Graham should take it to a luthier if he doesn't know how to do it. [size=4] [/size]