neepheid

Not even every split P pickup has exactly the same amount of copper wire around it. Not every pole piece is exactly the same density or chemical make up. You think every single piece of AlNiCo made in existence is identical? The "P-bass" sound is a ballpark at best and I have distilled it down to meaning "not a Jazz" (and thank goodness for that, because to these cloth ears, Jazz basses are the antibass as far as I'm concerned). If it's made by humans, or made by machines designed by humans, there's going to be some slop in the calculations somewhere. You'll drive yourself mad trying to wring them out of there. For years now I have simply had a rough idea of what "good" sounds like to me and run with it. In broad terms, that makes me more P than J. Other than that, it's looks and ergonomics which are my primary considerations. All my basses sound "good" for my wooly, unscientific definition of the term and I choose not to dive deeper, because I've realised that I consider it to be a monumental waste of my time to try to narrow it down further. I'm not doing a PhD on it, I'm just playing the damn things.

Excellent fun last night with Nine Lives at the Balaclava in Fraserburgh. Got a message from the guitarist while the drummer and I were on our way there proclaiming it to be the emptiest he'd ever seen it. Nevertheless, we ploughed on anyway. Were running a bit late but still crucially got there just ahead of the singer to maintain the natural order of things. Yes, it was pretty bad when we got there - single figures, but I had hope - there was a table of fairly young folk had put on some pretty classic stuff and singing along to it... So we got cracking and our wee table of folk were into it right away. Somehow that energy must have leaked outside because the place started to fill up. Second half was really busy and it ended up being a brilliant night. The table I spied at the beginning stayed from start to finish - the heroes of the night for sure. Also had a table of guys come in towards the end of the first half and they were also well into it - singing along and liked the harder stuff - they were on their feet and worshipping the Maiden songs we put in. All in all, what looked like being a damp squib ended up being a bloody great night! Also, 10 points for Bassindor for colour coordination - Markbass stuff plus Sire D5...

I play all my basses live on rotation. If it helps, I have my priorities straight - I choose which bass I'm playing before I choose which shirt I'm going to wear...

The mask has slipped, we are definitely not the same person!

I'm not going to tell you how to bass. You do you.

You don't live in Aberdeen and be wary of driving a few hours to get stuff done... I did attend the SW Bash this year, but I did an overnight stay for that one. Still drove there in one go and back in one go though. Yes, people did think I was crazy.

That's very kind of you to offer, but it's tempting to just to beast it in one day - 5 hours each way is on the cusp of feasibility...

Early May works for me. Should be able to get there from Aberdeen by then

Well, this is a damn sight closer to me than both the SE and SW bashes... colour me interested... Realistically I'd guess for most folk a weekend is best. Bashes seem to traditionally be on a Sunday, but either works for me. You'd better have plenty room - if I come down, I'm bringing it all - 8-ish basses, amp, stands, the whole kit and caboodle...

Hand them the bass and say "OK, you do it then if you're so effing smart"

I don't envy this position at all. I just like basses too much, and I enjoy the variety. Only poverty would cause me to go down to one bass. Only having one bass would be an undesirable situation for me to be in. It wouldn't be hell, just... a bit dull.

I'd love to tell you that the time I don't spend justifying my basses/number of them to people was spent improving my bass playing...

Well, here's the bridge in extreme closeup: Looks like intonation gets adjusted by the screws in the side of the unit, and it also has lockdown screws in the top so it's extra secure - seems a bit overengineered to be honest. Obviously no individual string height adjustment, only either side of the bridge can be raised/lowered. I don't like flats. Of course, each to their own, I'm sure for people who like flats, it'll work really well.

Couldn't tell you when it comes to adjustment - because it was an ex-show demonstrator, as you can imagine it arrived with a flawless setup with regards to intonation and action. I did have the strings off when I was doing my modding so I will say that I appreciated the quick release design of the tailpiece and not having to thread the strings through to remove them.

Wasn't expecting medals. I'm merely realising that I used to be a voracious consumer of new music and nowadays I just DGAF.

That's all very well and good when you're a teenager jacked up on Preludin. Time is on your side then and you probably don't even think about it. This grumpy 47 year old bassist doesn't like travelling for hours, spending an hour each end of a complete waste of time to set up/tear down gear then travelling for hours to little net effect other than the complete and utter waste of several hours of this dwindling resource that is time. I've probably used over half of what I've got up now, so I will be more picky about how I use the remainder.

I've got a different problem - being stuck in a rut of listening to the same stuff I've always listened to. So it's not that I can't listen to stuff I used to like anymore, it's that I can't stop listening to stuff I used to like (and continue to do so) at the expense of new stuff.

We've turned down gigs at known dud venues that never promote their nights, or simply no-one ever seems to visit. Even if we get paid, it's a complete and utter waste of our time, especially if there's lengthy travelling involved. Be discerning, it's not a good look for a band playing to hardly any folk, even if it isn't their fault - people could make the leap that there weren't many people there because you're not very good.

On my old RedSub amp, the headphone jack was the same design and went dodgy and would sometimes mute the amp even if nothing was plugged in (due to the spring contacts not staying in contact with the plug removed). I didn't muck about with trying to bend the contacts at all, I just went straight to replacement. Thankfully it was on a wee daughterboard, so it was a pretty simple remove daughterboard, desolder socket, solder in new socket, reinstall daughterboard, job's a good 'un. This'll be a bit more of a pain to get to the solder points (removal of pots and footswitch etc.) but better than gutting an amp!

Like @Lozz196 did, I too am using a CMD121P (IV) with an NY121 cab. It's not technically two 1x12 cabs because one's a combo, but to all intents and purposes... I also have a Tecamp Puma 900 head, so I think I'll be looking for another Markbass cab (not another NY121, maybe a different 1x12" for variety) to have that as a rig option also. I must admit, it is taking me a little bit of time to get used to the Markbass sound, having used my old amp and cab for nearly 12 years. I think I'm getting there - once I figured out that I didn't need to push the mids any more, they're there when the amp is flat and it only needs small adjustments to taste. Dial in some Old School (I think this used to be called VLE) to lose some of that modernity/help disguise my sloppy technique...

Have you tried PMing Blue instead of having passive/aggressive jibes in a completely unrelated thread? Might be worth a shot, if it bothers you that much.

Sorry, but I'm going to do absolutely nothing about this

Why, were you invited?

Having used both, I prefer the Supertone. I find the Babicz fussy and overengineered. Each to their own.

I did have this issue when I shielded my Epiphone Explorer - the hole for the jack socket is pretty tight, size-wise and when installed, the jack socket was touching the foil. Can't rotate it (other than the whole kit and caboodle in multiples of 90 degrees because it's mounted on a plate) because this Epiphone has flat areas on the thread of the jack socket to prevent the very thing I was trying to do. I got around it by putting some insulating tape over the copper tape in the offending location. Probably wouldn't have been able to use the above solution in a space that small, but for a whole control cavity that's a nifty solution. Nice one!