tauzero

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='217981' date='Jun 12 2008, 10:24 PM']you'll be well and truly screwed if you ever play that on a hollow stage too. [/quote] Oh, I don't know. After the first note it would be under the hollow stage - problem solved. You'd just need to take some little traffic cones to put round the hole.

[quote name='backwater' post='218901' date='Jun 14 2008, 05:07 PM']Does anyone have a copy of version 1.31 that I can try to see if it works?[/quote] Ashdown do [url="http://www.ashdownmusic.com/bass/detail.asp?ID=156"]here[/url] (pointing to [url="http://www.ashdownmusic.com/bass/software/SuperFly1.31.zip"]this download file[/url]). Was it the laptop you connected to before? You're not going via any hubs or switches are you? And, er, you have got the MIDI/USB switch switched to USB, haven't you?

[quote name='silddx' post='213823' date='Jun 6 2008, 01:03 PM']I have a Hohner Jack and boy am I having problems getting decent strings with short enough wraps. I tried Rotos and the wraps are too long, tried Elites and the 105 E was too thick to fit in the head slot.[/quote] If it's any help in future, I've got a 5-string Jack and the Elite 40 set (100 E) fits with no problem.

I think that suggestion of a Y-adaptor like [url="http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=1272&doy=15m6"]this[/url] would work well with a little headphone amp, either homebrew (which would cost around a tenner for something simple) or something like [url="http://www.djmmusic.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=DE15"]this.[/url] Or perhaps the Dean Bass-in-a-box for £25.

[quote name='Telebass' post='204430' date='May 22 2008, 05:14 PM']Basically, it looked like a tie-ish between the Neotech and the Comfort Strapp. However, it seems the Neotech has been discontinued.[/quote] There's [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290237111151"]a guitar-length one on ebay[/url]. Note that it's 48" to 58" long so all right for bass_ferret and his knee-level basses but 12" too long for my hip-height preference. That Overwater looks tempting - I'd like to know if they stay nicely in position and help stop neck dive as those are my main strap problems.

Personally, I'm happy with a wenge fingerboard and wenge/bubinga neck, in combination with a Warwick pre-amp.

[quote name='lozbass' post='195889' date='May 10 2008, 11:13 AM']Yes to the above, the Bass Gallery is a stockist - you'll find the range here: [url="http://www.thebassgallery.com/bartolini.html"]http://www.thebassgallery.com/bartolini.html[/url][/quote] I bought a pair of soapbar 6-string Barts from [url="http://www.thebassplace.com"]TheBassPlace[/url] - they cost me $180 inc shipping plus about £30 this end (some courier firms charge for picking up from Customs, some don't), a total of around £120. Compare and contrast with the Bass Gallery price of "from £385" and then decide whether getting them in from the US would be cheaper. [url="http://www.bestbassgear.com"]Best Bass Gear[/url] also sell Barts and ship overseas (that's where my 7-string set came from, which cost about £130).

[quote name='mike257' post='218069' date='Jun 13 2008, 02:59 AM']Just out of interest, because the thought of building fancy switchy lighty boxes often occurs to me when I'm mucking about with my rig.... how simple is it to build one of these to sit in your rack, but make it footswitched, so it can be controlled from my board?[/quote] Get a Behringer AB-100, take it out of the box, get a blank 1U panel and find a way of bracketing the PCB onto the back, remove the microswitch and replace it with connections to a jack socket for a momentary action footswitch. Stick a pot in each of the input channels to do the relative volume thing, and that's it sorted. I'm assuming you'll be able to get a 9V feed to it too. It only has two LEDs, I hope that will be enough.

[quote name='obbm' post='218474' date='Jun 13 2008, 05:47 PM'][quote name='tauzero' post='218281' date='Jun 13 2008, 01:24 PM'] Who'd have thought that Marshall would copy Ashdown? And that they'd copy the facet of the Superfly that gets slagged off the most... [/quote] I think its the other way round. That being the case how come no-one spotted the drawback in the 80s when the 3540 was introduced. [/quote] Exactly. It's especially daft for a company which has invented time travel to take someone else's bad design back into the past to copy.

[quote name='Merton' post='217023' date='Jun 11 2008, 04:48 PM']There's gonna be an odd number of strings and an odd number of cutaways on the body and the frets may not be parallel .[/quote] One string with an oval body then. That's a pretty odd number of strings and number of cutaways. And it would be even odder to have fanned frets on a one-string bass.

[quote name='Scoop' post='211702' date='Jun 3 2008, 12:17 PM']Hi Dave, I think I mentioned this at the NW Bass Bash, but personally I'm not a fan of headless basses as I don't intuitively find the fret that I'm after; the lack of headstock in my peripheral vision throws me out on where I am on the neck though I'm sure that would be overcome after spending more time with one.[/quote] It does throw you at first, but you get used to it. I hadn't played a headless for some years when I bought one to use at gigs with small stages, and I didn't rehearse with it at all before the first gig and had no problems, so I think it's also something that once you've learnt, you don't forget.

[quote name='Leowasright' post='218177' date='Jun 13 2008, 11:15 AM']However, I can't understand anyone to buys anything other than a Jazz or Precision.[/quote] Anyone apart from people who've played decent basses, you mean?

Hmmm, lightweight sensitive speakers - sounds like a job for [url="http://www.billfitzmaurice.com"]BFM[/url]... How good are you at woodwork?

[quote name='Shockwave' post='217998' date='Jun 12 2008, 10:47 PM']Anyway, I need to utilize all 400 watts of power through two cabs. However there are 4 outputs on the back. Each pair of outputs are controlled by their own 200 watt power amp.[/quote] Who'd have thought that Marshall would copy Ashdown? And that they'd copy the facet of the Superfly that gets slagged off the most...

I recently got a couple of Laney amps out from disuse in order to sell them. One, either a PB150 or a DP150, had a similar problem, though I didn't spend much time on checking whether I could hear anything at low volumes, just nipped out to Maplin and bought some switch cleaner and sprayed the pots and sockets, and everything was cured.

[quote name='Jobiebass' post='216155' date='Jun 10 2008, 01:34 PM']I went from a lined to a lineless (that even a word?) they normally put the dots ON the line of the 1-3-5-7-9-12 etc. if you have played lined ones it shouldnt take too long to figure this out unless you dont play 1 finger per fret and/or clasical grip.[/quote] Unlined basses can have their markers either at the line position or in the position they would be if it was a fretted bass. I've had both, and I can't remember which of my old ones were on the line position and which weren't. It's not hard to find out though. I don't use the front markers on any of my instruments except one - my Eko 6-string acoustic guitar, which has front dots but none on the side, which is a right pain. I'm tempted to drill some little holes and put some markers in.

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='215831' date='Jun 9 2008, 11:31 PM']I suppose a good rule of thumb is this; [i]If someone makes an item as a retro fit add-on or upgrade to a bass, it probably makes some sort of difference to the tone[/i][/quote] So if I get some of those Fender Precision decals, I can make my Thumb produce that special dull thud? Excellent! Seems a good list to me. Also, as Burpster said, a good neck/body join (or a neck-through), otherwise you'll lose sustain. I would also suggest consistency - don't spend a disproportionate amount (either high or low) on any part.

[quote name='gareth' post='215609' date='Jun 9 2008, 06:36 PM']Its a fix/set-up/sting. Look at the bid history - bidder 6 will be related to the seller, the only substantial bidder he outbid was bidder 4 which is a new ebayer, quite probably also related to the seller.[/quote] If it was shill bidding, I'd expect bidder 6 to withdraw his winning bid. Who do you think was doing the shill bidding?

[quote name='john_the_bass' post='216675' date='Jun 11 2008, 10:18 AM'] [url="http://www.myspace.com/27brigade"]This[/url] is my band.[/quote] I thought your name was John? How come the bassist is called Eric Jones then? Is there something they haven't told you?

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='215302' date='Jun 9 2008, 11:23 AM']I'm talking about artistic integrity: Refusing to play something bloody awful because it's bloody awful and you would be ashamed to take part in it.[/quote] If originals musicians had the sort of artistic integrity that you are defining, I'd have been subjected to far less sh*t music over the years and 90% of local bands would cease to be.

[quote name='Huggy and the Bears' post='212338' date='Jun 4 2008, 10:12 AM']I tend to think of playing your own stuff as 'the good life' ie Tom and Barbara - if you can manage that lifestyle, I think you have it made[/quote] Does that include shagging Felicity Kendall? Dammit, I think I'm channelling tBBC.

[quote name='steve-norris' post='214052' date='Jun 6 2008, 07:22 PM']You can't beat a GOOD fender jazz or one of it's high end clones.[/quote] I can. I've never encountered a Jazz bass anything like as good to play as my Thumb.

Having found an on-line calculator, I can say that I have spent the equivalent of £2k for a bass which was perfect for me. It was £900 20 years ago, and I chopped in my Fender P and my Hofner B2 for it and took out a loan for half the money. But once I played it, I had to have it, it was that good. The fact that I still have it is probably testament to how good a decision that was. Incidentally, is it only me that places the playability of an instrument as the first and by far the greatest priority? There seems so much obsessing about "tone" amongst bassists, and all the going on about different tonewoods and pickups and fingerboard woods and makes of nail varnish. There are certain bounds within which I'd want a bass to be (it would have to have decent sustain, for example) but what I want is a lump of wood (or other material) which is really really nice to play and produces a signal which I can f*** with to my heart's content. If the electronics are disastrous, they can be sorted out, but if the bass is crap to play but with fantastic electronics, I wouldn't want to know. As for how much I would pay - I would have to sell instruments to raise money, but given the right bass, I'd pay up to around £3k. What's scary about certain other instruments is that top-end violin [b]bows[/b] go for more that I'd spend on an entire bass.

My Japanese Squier Strat with Shadow MIDI pickup system. Swapped it with a mate for his Roland U-20 about 15 years ago. He's still got the Strat, I never used the U-20 and flogged it recently.

[quote name='SJA' post='214505' date='Jun 7 2008, 05:41 PM']there's one of those 5-necks in the window of Macari's, Charing cross road. actually- they've gone and got a 6-neck one now! [url="http://www.macaris.co.uk/product_full.asp?productID=824&typeID=7&catID=1"]http://www.macaris.co.uk/product_full.asp?...D=7&catID=1[/url][/quote] And a nice honest description too: "But now he's gone too far - Six necks on a guitar that is impossible to pick up and play - and even if you could , you couldn't reach the necks to play them !" But with two pairs of guitar necks and one pair of bass necks, you could play it between three people...