neepheid

Am I seeing things, or are you using a neckplate for a shim?

What is there to say? It's an opinion, it shares some common ground with my opinions and differs wildly in others. And that's perfectly fine.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1364845315' post='2031683'] Yes, I was meaning to agree with you and not to point out a problem. [/quote] In that case, I apologise for taking your post the wrong way and being stroppy.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1364833230' post='2031443'] ... and long scale too. [/quote] This thread began by asking if going short scale would solve the weight problem. It is not certain that it would, it depends entirely on the bass. The principal problem the OP is suffering is weight of bass, not length of scale. People seem to have leapt onto the short scale part of this, somewhat unnecessarily. Of course, many semi-hollow and hollow basses are short scale (Gibson EB-2, Epiphone Rivoli, Guild/DeArmond Starfire, Hofner Club etc), so we may not be at such cross purposes after all. But my suggestion is both expedient (as in readily available) and correct (I can vouch for it being light) - thus neatly solving the OP's problem.

Oh yeah, I forgot. My Epiphone Jack Casady is pretty light

Just chuck yourself in at the deep end and see what happens. If you want to survive, you'll swim My first proper gig was an hour long set of ska/2 tone covers that I only had 3 rehearsals with the band, and one of those rehearsals was on the afternoon before the gig. During my first audition for a band I had to shift keys because that got sprung on me at the audition. Got the gig BTW The only way to improve is to push yourself, to put yourself under pressure. +1 for lessons - I didn't get any until I had been playing for a few years and it was a total lightbulb moment, tying together the stuff I had learned through experience and giving things names that I knew I did but didn't know what they meant. Best advice I ever received was from my wife. During my bedroom playing years I used to get really annoyed about making mistakes, and it's easy at home to stop the backing track and start again. Bit different live, when there are others are depending on you to keep it all glued together. My wife picked up a tea towel and said "See this tea towel? This is your mistake". She then scrunched it up and threw it over her shoulder. Gone. It's a fleeting moment in time and you've got to forget about it right away and keep it together. Analyse it all you want afterwards, but don't let it put you off your stride during a song.

Instead of changing scale (which won't necessarily decrease weight, the body won't be that much smaller and you're only losing a couple of inches of neck wood - it's still got the same hardware on it), have you tried looking at different materials? For example, I can't imagine a Cort Curbow is a particularly heavy beast with that tiny luthite body. Or try going headless?

[quote name='Musky' timestamp='1364811853' post='2031055'] They probably don't have a great deal of choice if they want to continue selling imported instruments. The pound isn't doing too well against other currencies at the moment! Having said that I think I saw a passing mention that Fender were about to put their prices up. [/quote] They do have a choice - they choose to maintain (or increase) profit margins instead of taking a slight hit on margins in order to generate better profits through increased sales. They can't keep increasing the price faster than the average person's means. That is not sustainable.

I guess the least intrusive way to (maybe) get more "oomph" would be a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound single coil P bass pickup: http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/bass/pbass/passive/scpb3_quarterpo/ - might need some pickguard modification to fit, easy to check - the dimensions are on the site. But I can't comment on how much more "oomph" it would provide over the stock Vista Tone pickup. Anything else is going to require more extensive modifications, probably routing in the body and definitely pickguard rejigging. If you're going down this route then the world is your oyster basically - the pickguard will hide the work done to the body as long as you do a good job of the pickguard mods. You'll also probably end up screwing the pickup into the body unlike what I believe to be the current situation where it is attached to the pickguard. There's going to be a big change in your sound going from a single coil to a humbucker. Might be worthwhile getting one that has all 4 coil ends available to you - you could then maybe rig up a coil tap on a push/pull pot or something. That way you could still get something approximating the previous sound of the bass, and then oomph it up when you want it.

Companies in general had better watch out, the more they increase prices (further pushing up inflation) while the disparity between inflation and salary increases continues, the less people will be able to afford the goods offered for sale. I'm no economist, so excuse my simplistic view of the situation but it seems like a slippery slope to me.

Bought some tuners from Gareth. Sent promptly, well packaged, good communication. Everything you want from a successful transaction. Thanks!

There's already a thread in Bass Porn for this: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/112380-orange-bass-porn/

Nickel Hartke 45-105s almost exclusively. If they don't fit (ahem, RD Artist) then it's super long D'Addario XL nickels. Both have a nice feel, not too rough but not too smooth and they're plenty bright enough for me.

PHAT.

[quote name='Astrosmurf' timestamp='1364485882' post='2027158'] Got a battery box here, gonna try and fit it this weekend [/quote] I really must learn to read

Looks very similar to the saddle arrangement in ABM bridges to me. Little separate saddle that has two grub screws in it for height adjustment. No idea if they're the same size though. Could measure one for you tonight.

Yeah, somewhere to stuff the battery.

[quote name='niceguyhomer' timestamp='1364463421' post='2026733'] I don't NEED to sell it to buy the Jazz but everytime I've had 3 basses, one never leaves it's case so it's self imposed. [/quote] I have a brood of 9 with a rule - "all instruments are to be played". Not my rule, but I'm happy to comply - I play 'em all on rotation. I even keep a wee spreadsheet to keep track of how many gigs each one has done. Sad maybe, but I like to keep a note of every gig I played - when, where, who with, which bass.

And once again, eBay completely ignores reports of fake gear, I don't know why I bother.

[quote name='ChickenKiev' timestamp='1364397148' post='2025902'] Aye yeah, plus I think the Phoenix is made of Maple or Basswood with a bolt-on neck, so it's a different animal completely to a real Gibbo. Never knew the neck was the same length though. I suppose it's an optical illusion. [/quote] Product knowledge: http://www.espguitars.co.uk/bass-ltd-phoenix204.html [quote] Okay I'll place the split-P in the middle then and squish it next to the bridge-position soapbar. And I definitely want it to sound like a P . Hopefully it'll be like a Precision+. Maybe like one of those Precision Deluxes I've seen knocking about. [/quote] I didn't say squish it next to the bridge pickup or any such vague thing. I said place it in the same place as it would be on a Precision with reference to the scale length. That means taking your measurements from a known common point between the two basses (like the nut, or the 20th fret) on a Precision and then applying that exact same measurement to the LTD when marking where to put the pickup - ignoring how it looks - it will appear to be slightly closer to the end of the fingerboard than on a P because a P only has 20 frets and this one has 21, but it'll be in the same place with regard to the scale length and the speaking length of the strings.

Let me address a few misconceptions: The LTD is exactly the same scale length as a Precision (34"). An Epiphone Thunderbird is hardly representative of all Thunderbirds. Different wood, different pickups, different construction. The only thing that an Epiphone Thunderbird (a bolt on neck one anyway) has in common with a Gibson Thunderbird is the shape and the parent company. Misplaced generalisations are not helpful. Put the split P in the same place as it would be on a P bass relative to the scale length and it'll sound ... similar to a P.

This probably isn't going to do much good because we're up in Aberdeen, but I may as well try The Inevitable Teaspoons are looking for a singer, someone with a big voice, a small ego and sense of humour. We're a new band, primarily playing R&B/blues/rock originals. Current band composition is bass, drums, keys/mouthy, trombone. We work very much as a collaboration so all songwriting input is welcome. If you can play a bit of sax when you're not singing, that would be amazing Recent rehearsal recordings are available for interested parties.

Would love to help, but I'm in Aberdeen, so it's got quite a way to travel before it even thinks of meeting up with me, sorry!

All I would say is that there's no reason on a new build to use tuners with press fit bushings. Screw in ones are a little more chunky looking, granted but they never lift out under string tension unless something else is seriously wrong. Any Schallers apart from BM/BMFL use screw in bushings. Hipshot Ultralites also use screw in - very nice quality, reversible tuner available in lots of finishes, sizes and button styles. Oh, and also Grover Titans (which are kinda like Schaller M4S, but are secured with two screws instead of the pins of the M4S (which you must make holes in the back of the headstock for)) and Gotoh GB7. Oh yes, and pins are neater than screws, invisible fixings: But a little bit more of a faff to install - place tuner where it's supposed to go, push down on it to make the pins leave a little mark, remove tuner, drill some very careful, not very deep holes then refit tuner. It ends up like this:

As I always say to any torturer - "if you're going to remove any fingers, make them the pinkie and ring finger of my right hand"