neepheid

No more difficult than operating a string winder, I guess. String winder's quicker though. But you knew that, you wee stirrer

I use a Planet Waves one which is also a pair of string snips. Had it for years, still works.

A rare night out for The Inevitable Teaspoons this coming Saturday at Drummonds in Aberdeen. Come down and see me mullering original tunes (most of which I had a hand in writing!) instead of mullering classic rock covers for a change

So, a Lace Aluma-P arrived and I put it in the G4M P bass. Eventually. Be warned, either Lace don't know the standard dimensions of a P bass pickup or whoever made this bass doesn't (my money is on Lace knowing what's what), because the cutout is about 5mm too wide (both halves) and I had to make a new screw hole on the right side of both halves of the pickup. Doesn't matter from an aesthetics point of view, it's a rat bass, it knows what it is. Also, the pickup cavity is deeper than normal, because the stock pickup has the bar magnet crudely glued to the underside of the bottom bobbin, so needs a deeper cavity to accommodate this. The Lace Aluma-P has no appreciable mounting lugs (unlike a regular P bass cover) so the screws sit lower relative to a regular pickup. So there's a risk that if you use the existing screws, you could screw through the back of the bass. Now Lace know this and supply short screws. Trouble with that is that then the pickup sits far too low in this extra deep cavity. To work around this, first I used the original screws with the springs above the pickup mounting lug acting as improvised spacers, but then I had a brainwave and borrowed some screws from a bridge humbucker pickup ring (being 2.5x16mm - the Lace screws are 12mm) to get the pickup up to the correct height. I've ordered some screws (2.5x18mm - which are actually intended to be string tree screws) so things will be a bit more secure and I'll be able to return the screws I borrowed to the thing I borrowed them from. Original, super janky mount with original screws and springs acting as spacers (foam pushing up from the bottom): And done properly (albeit with borrowed screws - to be replaced) Sounds great BTW - really punchy, tight sound but not sterile. Great upgrade. Looking forward to giving it a proper razz at a band rehearsal this week.

Because of my geographic location, trying before I buy is an expensive waste of time. When I buy something new at distance, if I don't like it I can just send it back - it's cheaper than a round trip to Glasgow (or further). If I buy used then I have built up enough skills to recover all but the most damaged lemons. If you don't have the setup/repair skills necessary to get yourself out of most holes, then maybe you should check basses out in person before you buy. Most basses are "fine", some need fettling, few are genuinely irredeemable. I know what I like and what I don't so I don't tend to buy things I won't at least enjoy for a while.

Played with Nine Lives at Wilsons in Aberdeen last night. No gear photos, sorry - some muppet left his phone at home, d'oh! Gig went pretty well, we're still getting used to the new PA speakers so took a couple of songs to get the levels etc. right. A few fluffs here and there but no-one seemed to mind. Plenty busy in the first half - maybe a bit too busy - had some woman grinding up behind me during one song, not so much as a cigarette paper between us but oh well, at least I didn't get groped. Grin and bear it - the perils of performing at floor level I guess. Second half was quieter, but we hardened up the rock a bit and they were digging it. Also our guest "guitarist" Gordon came up for a few songs, so that was fun. Gear was the Sire D5 followed by the Reverend Triad into the usual rig - Markbass Mini CMD121P IV + New York 121

I co-own the PA with my drummer. I've been playing with him since 2009. I think it's safe enough.

Jesus wept, what a soap opera. Scratch that, it's a telenovella!

<pointless post>

Seriously? No fnar? Phrasing? Ding dong? Fine, I'll do it then. Fnar. There.

Are we still taking about musical instruments?

You could just point out the amount of human time put into the build. Everyone knows time is money, and that's a cold hard fact you can take to the bank instead of all this florid prose and subjective points of view being paraded as fact.

Feck it, I ordered a Lace Aluma-P

This has to be the bass equivalent of swirling the wine round your mouth, spitting it out then spouting some florid prose about what the sensation meant to you in an ill-advised attempt to sound authoritative? Less cork sniffing, more playing and we all become better bass players.

Thank you for the suggestions, but there is no pickguard to hide behind, so it's going to remain in the traditional Leo orientation. Besides, I've got my Yamaha BB1200 for getting my reverse P yucks, so I can scratch that itch already. Cheers for the thought about the Split P in parallel, I did worry hearing some soundclips that the Split P might be a bit moody sounding.

Hi folks As some of you may know, I recently picked up a £150 "POS" P bass and found that after an evening's fettling the bones were surprisingly good and worth keeping. Of course, at this price, the pickup is ... uninspring, so I want to replace it. I don't want a cookie cutter, regular construction, 2 coil, 2 pole piece per string, "this is my interpretation of an <insert year> Fender" pickup. I already have a very nice alnico split P like that in my Tribute LB-100. What I want is something out there, something genuinely different, in terms of packaging, coils, magnets, poles. So far (probably in order of "weirdness") I'm looking at Lace Aluma-P (just completely out there compared to regular pickups) Herrick 4 coil split P (a separate coil per string) DiMarzio Split P (two coils per pair of strings and blades) Lollar Precision 90 (each half is like a mini P90) Then the usual suspects when it comes to changing up the pole pieces - Delano big pole pieces, Norstrand pole piece variations (big blade, NP4A) - but at this point I start to fall asleep, as it's just a regular P bass pickup with different pole pieces. So apart from the top four, and bearing in mind what I said about looking for something a bit more out there than simply changing the pole pieces), has anyone got any other things I should look at?

I use a Neotech Mega Strap, I've used them for years and it made wearing 12lbs+ Gibsons tolerable for gigs. I'm 5' 9" and while I prefer not to know an accurate weight for myself, I don't think I'm huge. I still fit into 34" jeans, put it that way.

I took my G4M P bass to a band rehearsal last night. It played pretty well - in that the neck, post fettling, was very nice and I was quite happily whizzing around it. But I did uncover another entry in the "Amusing" fun facts - the pickup is comically badly made. It's not that it doesn't make bassy sounds, it does. But one half of the pickup is microphonic, and the other half isn't! Never encountered this in my life. Doesn't matter as I intend to replace the pickup, but it made me chuckle! I think it'll be a fine bass once I change the pickup.

Tonewood == firewood

Song: "What if You're Not Special" by The Inevitable Teaspoons Band: The Inevitable Teaspoons Location: Our rehearsal room Equipment: G4M P bass into Markbass Mini CMD 121P !V

I'm impressed they went to such trouble for you. Nice (potential) customer service there.

Mine arrived yesterday. Me (mostly) likey - enough to keep it at least. Good: For the most part, well enough screwed together (but see bad/amusing points below) I like how it looks (even though I didn't win the flamed maple lottery, mine is more about wood grain than flame) Neck is well proportioned, and the satin finish is nice (couple of rough spots but acceptable for the price) The roast on the neck is light but appreciable I've always fancied a bound P bass so box ticked there It sounds like a P bass (is it possible to get that wrong these days?) Bad: Tuners are garbage (the D tuner in mine in particular is probably faulty - it gets really stiff and difficult to turn when the string gets up to tuned tension regardless of how backed off the screw in the button is) The pickup has a comically low output (when I first plugged it into my headphone amp set flat (half input gain, half volume) I thought the bass was dead, had to crank the input gain and volume up for it to be heard) A couple of quite nasty fret ends String tree wasn't fully screwed down Amusing: One of the bridge saddles was installed the wrong way round The binding is a tad "wobbly" in places But for all that, it's pretty good - certainly commensurate with its price tag of £150. Last night I addressed most of the shortcomings: Stock strings off (and in the bin) Stock tuners off (and in the bin) and replaced with a set of black Grover minis I had hoarded for years (yay for hoarding!) Bridge saddle removed and flipped round the right way Swarf removed from the nut slots Nasty fret ends ground back (tbf there were only 3 that needed attention) New strings on, full setup (needed a the truss rod slackened off a quarter turn - for a horrible moment I thought I had a high fret but it was that the neck was dead flat) It's playing really well now, I'm pretty pleased with it. The plan is to put an "interesting" pickup in there, currently eyeing up a Lace Aluma-P or a Herrick multicoil. Some pics from last night's fettling session:

"on average" - which means there will be lighter examples out there and heavier ones. So back to the retailers (when they have them available) and ask the ones who care about customer service that deeply to get the scales out for you.

Was the Dimension that much different to their regular output? They couldn't even keep that going for more than a few years. Pathetic.