neepheid

Well that's me back up the road in Aberdeen.  First things first, thanks so much to @rwillett for organising this bash, I think it was a great success and I hope it carries on.  Thanks also to Rob's family for helping behind the scenes, for feeding us pizza and delicious cakes/treats.

Great to meet old friends and make some new ones.  Highlights for me were reacquainting myself with my first ever bass (the Epiphone EB-3), giving a BackBeat a go, playing a bass that cost twice what my car cost me, and checking out Rob's 3D printed instruments.

I took some pics, all of gear I think, I'll get 'em up shortly

All the best to you, and here's to a very successful bash!

Slàinte mhath!

4 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

I've worked for a German engineering company. Stereotypes about German efficiency and quality are all wrong. They do have a sense of humour as well 

Ahh, but they have no word for "fluffy"

(Blackadder Goes Forth, "Private Plane" - incase anyone doesn't get the reference)

I've never been breathalysed in my life!  Not that I'd have an issue with it - it's one or the other, drinking or driving.  I mostly just guzzle pints of water when playing a gig!

Last drink?  Saturday night - had a few drams with a mate.  Walked home.

Apples (if you'll pardon the pun) and oranges.  "Better" is measurable in computers.  In basses, it mostly isn't.

I only offer my personal opinion - what anyone else does is up to them.  But I have my red lines over which I do not cross for any bass, I don't give a monkeys who makes it or what mythical/mystical properties it may have.

I'll be bringing the "neep" my pedalboard also.  It's not super exciting - a tuner, a pitch shifter, a compressor and an EQ/OD/DI

Well, your resident grippy Scot is here to tell you that £1500 is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a bass - I've bought CARS for less FFS!

The most I have ever spent on a bass is £1300, and I thought long and hard about it.  FWIW it was my G&L wunkay and it was my post-lockdown treat to myself.  Apart from that, I try to keep it below a grand.  There's so much good stuff appearing around the £500 mark these days (and lower) that there's no need to spend more to get "quality" any more.  The "high end" manufacturers know this, and they are running scared from the increase in quality at the "lower" end of the market.  They can't make their stuff any better (because they were already "the best", right?) so all they can do to differentiate themselves is to jack the price up to create this artificial aura of superiority - tapping into this "I paid more so it must be better, right?" part of our psyche.

It's all smoke and mirrors.  The high end aren't innovating, they aren't improving, and eventually people will see through this transparent bluff.  I already have, I think.

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

Unless you are intending to create new parts for the song rather than following what's on the definitive recording, does it matter?

Of course it matters - a guitarist and a drummer are wrong and need corrected, tag team style with a keys player.  Get your head in the game!

I like bacon butties.  Pass the HP sauce?

1 minute ago, ead said:

I'm going to change the bass line up I'll be bringing as I have now sold the SBMM, Yamaha and Ibanez basses 

 

The line up will be:  Limelight "Lee Sklar" bass; ACG P-Type (one of only 2 in the world); ACG Graft J Type and ACG SLG 32" scale + practice amp and headphones.

 

 

Great, you'll have space and funds to buy one of my basses then

Tee hee, four days to go and guess who is beginning to get distracted by that fact?

Who, me?

3 minutes ago, BillyBass said:

Sire's response, copied and pasted:

 

Hello Bill.

 

Thank you for contacting Sireguitars and for your inquiry.

 

Sorry for the late response.

 

Below is nut width and string spacing information.

 

4 String nut width: 38mm
5 String nut width: 46mm

 

4 String spacing: 20mm
5 String spacing: 18mm

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

Thank you for choosing SIRE!

Interesting - that contradicts what is on their website - it says 42mm nut width for the 4 string and 45mm for the 5 string.  Goddamn it will they stick to one story?  I don't mind if there has been a spec change, but update your site if that's the case!

20 minutes ago, Nos said:

I'll apologise first for the dumb question, but.... What is this exactly?

I'm in North Devon so it's not far to come and sounds interesting but I just don't have a clue (this goes for most things by the way😆).

A bass bash is when a bunch of bass players get together, bring some/all of their gear, set it up then we all go round admiring and trying out other people's basses.  There's the general social aspect of it, there's often things like talks, gear shootouts, raffles and sometimes food is laid on also (can attest to the feast at this one being particularly good).

Hold my beer, where's that router?

16 hours ago, GreeneKing said:

I’ll have this to bring along Matt. I’ve been busy and I’ve forgotten to do a modding thread. 

I also had to do a double take the first time I saw your pic - I was looking at it on my phone and that towel is obscuring the E tuner successfully enough for me to initially think "has it been converted into a 3 string bass?"

2 hours ago, GreeneKing said:

I’ll have this to bring along Matt. I’ve been busy and I’ve forgotten to do a modding thread. 

Will be interesting to AB with an unmodified D5, looking forward to that!

You know why I'm here... ONE WEEK TO GO

Ach, we had no electricity or bin collections in the seventies, the eighties were made of plastic, the nineties were a pompous, arrogant "no jeans, no trainers" social disaster, the naughties we're all supposed to have turned into robots or something.  I'm still digesting the 2010s.  I've lived through all this doom and gloom and i'm still here.

2 minutes ago, Japhet said:

Teal Green Musicman Stingray 4 with 3 knobs. Bought it new in about 94. Now has a John East preamp in it. I stopped gigging it a few years ago after an 'incident'. We were playing a private party and had a break outside. When I went back in some pi55ed up woman was dancing about swinging it around her neck on the strap. I was so effing livid I don't know how I didn't lamp her. Decided there and then to take cheaper stuff to gigs if that's how people want to behave.

And that's why we always have someone stay with the gear...

End of the world predicted!

1 minute ago, lemmywinks said:

 

That's one of their better colours IMO, regret not grabbing a burgundy mist V7 when Andertons were selling the old Gen2 stock off on the cheap. They also had the lake placid blue on sale as well.

I wish Sire would roll out Champagne Gold to more of their models, that's a lovely pale gold, not so yellow.

10 minutes ago, BillyBass said:

E-mail sent.

 

From the Sire website, it would appear that the Z3s have a mahogany body, a maple neck and fretboard and 2 band EQ pre amp and a single MM style humbucker.  

 

The coloured Z7s have Alder bodies and maple necks.  The 'natural' finish model is made of Swamp Ash and has a roasted maple neck.  The fretboard material varies depending on the body colour.  The Z7s have a 3 band EQ preamp and an extra J style pup at the neck.  This pup is noise cancelling.

 

Both models have rolled edge fretboards, a 45mm bone nut and a string retainer that covers all 5 strings.  Neither model appear to have lightweight tuners or a passive option with the pre amp.

 

I'm interested, depending on weight, neck dive and string spacing.  I like the look, except for the headstock.

 

The controls (for the Z7) are listed as "Volume/Tone, Blender, Treble, Middle/Freq, Bass" - the Marcus Heritage-3 with Middle Frequency Control has a passive mode, on the V7 there's a toggle switch for passive/active, I guess on the Z7 they've hidden it on a push/pull for aesthetic/control plate space considerations.

Z3 has no passive mode AFAIK.  It does have a 3 band EQ though.  Volume, Treble, Mid, Bass.

Couldn't tell you about string spacing - email Sire?

I take back what I said earlier in the thread - I'm drifting towards a Z7 in burgundy.  Yeah, right, it's pink.  Anyhoo, it has grown on me and dat ebony board is also calling.

Heh, overspent on Sunn Mustangs?

7 minutes ago, franzbassist said:

Latest iteration of my board.  Still using the Rockboard Tres 3.0 and the Providence Dual Bass Station, but my purchase of the new Boss Katana 500 head means my trusty Boss MS-3 has been replaced by the Boss GA-FC, which switches the onboard effects.

 

I’ve also added a TU tuner, as the amp doesn’t have one onboard.

 

 

The Rockboard Power LT XL still sits on the shelf and powers the Providence via 12v adapter, as well as the tuner.

 

 

Basses go into the Providence and out of the Mod 2.0 to the amp.  A stereo cable also comes out of the Mod 2.0 to connect the GA-FC  to the amp. 

 

Every time I see the TU-3s, I can't help thinking it's a TU-3 that's been in a terrible accident...