tauzero

[quote name='WarPig' post='177515' date='Apr 16 2008, 12:32 AM']that links going to cost me alot of money haha Know any similar sites umph?[/quote] [url="http://www.tonepad.com"]Tonepad[/url] (who don't have a Slow Gear but do have other stuff) [url="http://www.generalguitargadgets.com"]General Guitar Gadgets[/url] (who do a Slow Gear and a Mutron III - look under Filters (Envelope) for both) I reckon a Slow Gear would be around a tenner in parts plus the PCB for another tenner plus enclosure, footswitch, and knobs. I'm tempted to make up a 1u rackmount with a Slow Gear and a Neutron and summat else on it.

[quote name='Musky' post='177028' date='Apr 15 2008, 01:45 PM']Yep, I've got one of those (and a micro synth and Korg G5, which would both do the job). Only it's not for me - a friend is being urged to get something suitable for a few songs to fill in for a recently departed keyboard player. And as I hinted at, he's looking to do it on the cheap. I might just suggest the Black Paisley, since nobody seems to have tried the Behringer and there's not really anything else that can be picked up on the cheap.[/quote] What's cheap? The EHX is about £45 which seems not bad, though three times as much as the Behringer (who have also brought out an OC-3 clone, the SO400). I'm currently keeping an eye out for an octaver, as it happens. The best one I have in my possession is a Zoom RFX-1000 multi-effects which does a very good job of tracking and has a nice clean tone (don't want a distorted or synth sound, if I want it distorted I'll do it myself) but I'm undecided about whether to go rack or pedals. Could anyone tell me what the Zoom B2.1u is like on octaving?

[quote name='ahpook' post='177493' date='Apr 16 2008, 12:06 AM']my own fault...using the wrong tool for the wrong job - a blade rather than scissors, but the scissors wouldn't cut through the cable ties holding the file in the packaging.[/quote] Alternative system with cable ties - get a long screwdriver, put it through the middle of the cable tie, then twist so you're stretching the cable tie. Just increase the tension in the cable tie until it breaks. Not that you'll be doing anything so daft again, of course...

[quote name='barneythedog' post='177325' date='Apr 15 2008, 08:26 PM']Anyone remember Musical Exchanges when it was just off Broad Street? Showing my age now. [/quote] Oh yes. Little Gary (who now runs PMT) showed me the pictures after the fire (about which there was a certain amount of speculation). I used to wander up there fairly regularly as a schoolboy. Bought my Precision from Musical Exchanges some years after the move to Snow Hill, and my Thumb from there some time later, and my 5-string fretless Maison, and (quite recently) a 5-string Squier P Special.

[quote name='budget bassist' post='177412' date='Apr 15 2008, 09:56 PM']So i played a warwick jazzman FNA 4 string today in search of THE bass for me. It looked lovely, felt really nice on my lap, nice weight to it, the string spacing was almost perfect (close enough to do some fast widdly stuff but wide enough for some slappin'), and it sounded really nice. Thing is the neck had a really fat profile as in front to back. And i didn't like that one bit aside from that the rest of the bass was near perfect. Are all warwick necks like that?[/quote] No. The neck on the JD Thumbs are nice and shallow. And someone on here is flogging one for £800 - seeing as I paid £900 for mine 20 years ago (and got rid of all my other basses to afford it), that's a bit of a bargain.

As Machines said, plus there's [url="http://www.fairdealmusic.com/"]Fairdeal[/url] in the city centre and if you're considering second-hand, there's the various Crack Converters (the Kings Heath one is supposed to have a pretty good range of stock) plus Stirchley Musical Exchange in, er, Stirchley. There are another three or four but none have much of a selection of basses.

[quote name='ped' post='176943' date='Apr 15 2008, 12:13 PM']I picked this up yesterday whilst I was dragged around primark. I have identified most of them...[/quote] You need to get out more.

Have you asked at [url="http://www.thebassplace.com"]The Bass Place[/url]? Also do Barts, as does [url="http://www.bestbassgear.com"]Best Bass Gear[/url].

[quote name='Buzz' post='176803' date='Apr 15 2008, 01:27 AM']I recognize ZERO in the playlist. Woo for a tiny knowledge of music![/quote] Oh good, it's not just me then. Half the time on open mic nights I'm watching the guitarist's fingers. It's my version of sight-reading.

[quote name='paul, the' post='174752' date='Apr 11 2008, 05:54 PM']Well, it looks like you've successfully hijacked the Stagg!!! thread.[/quote] OK, I'll give it back now. [quote name='paul, the' post='174752' date='Apr 11 2008, 05:54 PM']Thinking about upright playability but with added portability and cheap price, an EUB seems the right option, but why use a stand? Uprighters don't play with a stand do they? Is it to stop the bass swiveling about on its spike?[/quote] There are two types of EUB, stand-mounted and end-pinned. The end-pinned ones have (normally detachable) sticky-out bits so that they can be held against the player's body in a similar position to an acoustic DB. The stand ones sit on the stand and the player puts himself into the appropriate position. It is possible to play end-pinned ones without the sticky-out bits - it's probably easier for a novice like me to do so than for a seasoned player. In fact, I found I preferred the Palatino (the replacement unbroken one) without the bent bit of metal sticking out of the side. I played it sort of three-quarter on: [attachment=7719:Me_and_palatino.jpg] Initially I had problems with it swivelling around the endpin, so I made a T-shaped endpin using some metal tubing from B&Q so I could put a foot on it. It very soon proved unnecessary. It's also possible to get endpin fittings for some of the stand-mounted EUBs. NS do (hideously expensive) endpins for the CR and WAV basses. I have seen someone reporting making an endpin for an [url="http://planadmin.us/ergo/"]Ergo bass[/url], which has no body at all, not even the vestigial one of an NS. Incidentally, the endpin vs stand issue was why I sold the Palatino and got the NS WAV-4. The Palatino was fine while I was playing it, but between songs there was no way to conveniently put it out of the way. DB stands are too wide, and it's too heavy to stick in a length of upright tubing, and I didn't want to lay it down (and generally didn't have room to anyway). Oh, and did I mention it's heavy? The Stagg is actually a bit tempting as I do like DB on a stick rather than a stand, and I think I could manage to put a £250 purchase order in to the future Mrs Zero.

Barn dance organised by the Cotteridge Park association in our case. We'd done one for them last year (which I hadn't played at due to a conflict of dates) which had apparently gone down well - this one did too. Tickets sold out, and a crowd who were actually up for it. The future Mrs Zero was on her feet for four hours of calling (we did have a 20 minute break but she didn't sit down for that) and everyone enjoyed it (including the band). Plus we've got possibly three more bookings out of it, which is nice.

[quote name='Golchen' post='175471' date='Apr 12 2008, 10:48 PM']No offence but I totally disagree with you there! For me, the value of the show is to sit through the whole thing and experience a lot of different types of music/artist that I wouldn't normally get exposed to.[/quote] I've given up on the concept of banging your head against a wall because it's so pleasant when you stop.

[quote name='urb' post='175686' date='Apr 13 2008, 03:55 PM']I read this piece in BP (in Borders, cos I'm a cheapskate!) and I really liked the comments Vic's Bailey and Wooten, and Will Lee made, it's nice to hear them say that the bass had certain qualities, that while Jaco played it the way he did, the bass itself had a very specific feel and sound too. I'm pleased it's been found anyway.[/quote] I'd be curious to know what they'd have said if they hadn't known it was the BoD before playing it.

Due to a decree absolute coming through, The Wife, a '52 short-scale with a heavy tobacco sunburst, is no more. This also means that The Mistress, a '60 full-body, has now been rebadged as The Fiancee. I'm very happy.

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='174679' date='Apr 11 2008, 04:47 PM']I would love some kind sir. Kind find 'em anywhere round here. Would you like a SAE?[/quote] OK, anyone who wants some drop me a PM. No SAE needed.

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='174613' date='Apr 11 2008, 03:21 PM']What a terrible website.[/quote] I wasted 15 seconds of my life waiting for it to load, and as it hadn't managed it by then, I gave up. Anyone want any Grolsch straplocks? I've got a pretty large supply as I get paid in Grolsch for doing house band duties on Thursday nights.

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='173973' date='Apr 10 2008, 03:29 PM']What sort of cost for that job (I realise it may not be that or that the cost may well vary due to manufacturer/power etc.)?[/quote] Cost me somewhere round a tenner for the two capacitors IIRC. I did the work myself, it's not hard (except for remembering where you've put the bolts that hold the amp into the top of the cab, must get some new ones...).

[quote name='RichardH' post='174644' date='Apr 11 2008, 04:01 PM']Man are a great band! Saw them a couple of years ago at a tiny venue (Walkern sports hall). Brilliant.[/quote] They're lasting well. I saw them 35 years ago, IIRC somewhere in Torbay.

[quote name='thedarxide' post='174601' date='Apr 11 2008, 03:07 PM']It's gone, but I just want to have a rant about postage charges since I've bought 10 basses in the past few weeks. I know it's postage *and packing*, but ParcelForce 48 (the cheapest) is like £9.99. Hell, next day by noon is only £13.99. What the hell is he spending the other £15 on?[/quote] How much do you think a bass in a hard case weighs? I took an educated guess at 12kg and it's £17 PF48, £21 PF24. Add wrapping it, wrapping paper, the cost of taking it to the post office, and a few bob for his time. From what he says in the auction, he'd be amenable to other arrangements anyway.

Dammit, went ten minutes ago. I could definitely have been tempted at that price.

[quote name='matty589' post='174501' date='Apr 11 2008, 01:10 PM']I recently read a Jonas Hellborg interview in Bass Player where he was talking about his signature bass and amp. He said that onboard eq never works because it runs on 9 or 18v batteries - nowhere near powerful enough to provide the headroom and frequency response of a good mains-powered eq.[/quote] I really don't understand that. If you're using a 9V supply then theoretically you could put out around 8V peak-to-peak which is well above what a live level input is, let alone an average pickup output. And what has voltage to do with frequency response? It sounds like utter bollocks but of course I could be wrong.

[quote name='TheRev' post='174208' date='Apr 10 2008, 10:49 PM']My Aria's got the same thing - a button on the heel and another roughly behind the bridge so if you were that way inclined you could strap it on and play it like a bass guitar. Feck knows why you'd want to though.[/quote] My BSX had a rather odd bit of shaping on the G string side - the only logical reason I could see for it was if you played it like a bass with it sat on your lap (it was a 34" scale). [attachment=7515:BSX_1.jpg]

[quote name='Maxcat' post='174024' date='Apr 10 2008, 05:10 PM']absolute disaster.Stagg turned up at 1030. Feverish unpacking followed by loads of wows. Then reality dawns. Its only got a chip out of the laminate just below the fingerboard that can be seen clear across the room. After major examination there are numerous dinks and dents in the neck, by the neck bolts and in the string housing. However there was also an inch crack in the laminate leading from the neck join to one of the neck bolts.[/quote] Hah! You have a woman's absolute disaster. [attachment=7513:palatino002.jpg] [attachment=7514:palatino001.jpg] My first Palatino on arrival...

Most of mine are active. I don't actually tend to use the tone controls on the basses much - in fact, one annoyance about the fretless Warwick is that the centre detente on the stacked tone pots is dead, so I have to find midpoint by wiggling and guessing (well, don't we all?). However, the twin-neck BatBass is passive and if it seems a reasonable instrument I shall activate it, as there's only one thing worse than the volume/dullness controls on the Precision, and that's two volume/dullness controls, one for each pickup, on a twin pickup bass. Sorry, quad pickup bass. I did actually activate my Precision a couple of decades ago (delicately butchering the scratchplate and making a Jazz-like control plate out of brass - looked great when it was polished, which it seemed to need every two hours). I repassived it later though. Can't remember why. Mind you, all my experiments with the Precision taught me that actually basses all sound the same. DiMarzio pickups, active circuit - I couldn't tell any difference. And with brand new strings and the treble on the amp turned up full, a Precision sounds just the same as a Warwick with five year old strings.