tauzero

[quote name='Jobiebass' post='172243' date='Apr 8 2008, 02:19 PM']thought VAT had to be paid by the buyer when it gets shipped.[/quote] No, VAT is an EU-wide tax (though the rates are set by individual countries) and is charged at the point of purchase. And a minor point of the EU, and a major point of the EEC and Common Market before it, was to abolish trade tariffs (although there are certain things, like alcohol and tobacco duty, that are still payable on items purchased in quantity, aka "you're taking the piss").

[quote name='BigRedX' post='172213' date='Apr 8 2008, 01:46 PM']With out having played one - that doesn't sound like it's really going to work as you won't get that glide up and down into the notes they'll all be semi-tone stepped by the frets.[/quote] Um, yes. Your point is? It's described as a "fretless sound". And here's a description: "It began with an idea from phenomenal flamenco bassist Dominique Di Piazza and was developed by Finnish bass builder Neuser. And just days before the Musikmesse began, Neuser received a patent. The Neuser F Plus is an innovative bridge modification for fretted basses that mechanically creates the blossoming sound of fretless. A sliding lever is mounted over each string’s saddle; push it toward the pickups for remarkable fretless mwah, even on open strings; push it back toward the bridge and it’s back to a normal fretted-bass sound. Neuser hopes to offer the device as a retrofit that can be installed on any number of instruments for around €390." However, what you want is [url="http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6350940.html"]this one.[/url]

[quote name='thedarxide' post='172133' date='Apr 8 2008, 11:52 AM']My neighbour signed for them so I've just popped home and unpacked them, will have to give a detailed review later as I had to come back to work and haven't played them, but just as a taster, and so I can be excited all afternoon.... (i've just noticed the 5 string neck has 27 frets....)[/quote] You'll be pleased to find out that the twin-neck is identical to the Artecs twin-neck I got for £70 (except that I have a fretted 4-string neck, but that means I have MORE BATS!!!). I'm currently trying to get the necks to settle down (strings off and trussrods detensioned) because they were a bit wonky, possibly due to a poor set-up. Have a look down each side of each neck and make sure the reliefs look the same. Um, and don't try and tension up the strings much beyond their proper tuning, I think there's a bit of flex in the machine heads' drive mechanism...

[quote name='BigRedX' post='171681' date='Apr 7 2008, 06:58 PM']That looks interesting although there doesn't seem to be any details on how it actually works and the web site goes on about 'fretless sound' rather than actual fretless bass. I'd be interested to discover exactly how a retrofit bridge element can do this.[/quote] I think what they do is have something like a moveable bar which can be positioned just off the string between the bridge saddle and pickup. When the string vibrates, it clips the bar and that creates a sort of mwah sound, mimicing how the fretless mwah sound is created at the other end of the string.

[quote name='jakesbass' post='172059' date='Apr 8 2008, 10:05 AM']I've come accross these meters in places where residential noise limits exist, the really stupid thing I've found is that they seem to be less sensitive to bass frequencies than higher register, due to the long wave length of bass notes they penetrate solids easily (hence cavers using long wave radio underground for rescues) so its the bass the residents will hear, and it seems (can't be categorical about it) that bass is the last thing to set them off.[/quote] Um, long wave radio is a considerably different thing to sound, you know. One is compression pulses in a medium, the other is faeries travelling through the aether carrying their burdens of electromagnetic radiation to their destinations.

[quote name='NancyJohnson' post='171848' date='Apr 7 2008, 10:24 PM']After the gig I did last night (see thread elsewhere), one of the guys in the audience came up to me and commented how much I sounded like JJB.[/quote] Many years ago, a great Stranglers fan commented in a review of my then band that I sounded like JJB. Which proves how irrelevant things like the bass you're using and whether you use a pick are, as I was playing a Warwick Thumb NT with my fingers.

And to read the Guitar Pro files, use TuxGuitar which is freeware: [url="http://www.tuxguitar.com.ar/"]http://www.tuxguitar.com.ar/[/url]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='171596' date='Apr 7 2008, 04:57 PM']I've heard about these systems that cut the stage power and such when the level gets too loud. That seems like an obviously stupid idea to me. Couldn't they just have a warning light? How could this possibly work on average level rather than peak?[/quote] The first one that I encountered, 25 years ago at Hopwas British Legion, operated on a peak level. Hit the threshold and it cut. The one at the Roadhouse requires 5 seconds continuous above the threshold - a sustained vocal note, for example, while the drums are playing a fair bit (the open mic night setup is to have everything through the PA, but drumwise that's just an overhead and a bass drum). There is a warning light but it's not exactly in your eyeline. I suspect that the unit could be better placed anyway, it's right by the stage.

The Roadhouse now has one of these systems in. I think it's badly calibrated - it's cutting out bands on open mic night which aren't exactly loud, in fact we go through the auxiliary PA. If it isn't badly calibrated then gigs are going to be awfully quiet affairs. And I take hearing damage seriously, as I suffer from tinnitus.

+1 for Bostons. I used Schallers before Bostons and still have them on the Thumbs. Have never had an issue with screws.

A-type stands are OK for symmetricalish instruments. If you've got something like a Thumb, they tend to lean over on the stand. What you need for those are stands with a sort of pivoting cradle like [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/millenium_gitarrenstaender.htm"]this one[/url]. It also gives a little protection to the back of the bass - I've had a bit of damage done to a couple of my basses while they've been on A-stands by something scraping the back of the neck near the neck-body join.

[quote name='budget bassist' post='170089' date='Apr 5 2008, 12:53 AM']Only thing is, i like that the ampeg has the kick-back capability so i can hear myself better at practice.[/quote] Amp stand for £20 or less will solve that.

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='171223' date='Apr 7 2008, 10:47 AM']I can even come in and insult everyone in your class if it helps??[/quote] How do you know you haven't already?

Anything by Flanders & Swann or Tom Lehrer, because bassists really should get out more.

"Fever" if it's a fretless. The end bit of "Chain" or bass line from "Summer lovin'" for fretted. Unless I'm feeling in that kind of mood, when it'll be Toccata and Fugue in Dm, BWV 565 (not 566, which is another T&F in Dm but not the famous one).

[quote name='bigjohn' post='169918' date='Apr 4 2008, 05:27 PM']I might be tempted one day with a B string - maybe. Sometimes I wish my bass went down another note or two but it's very rare, most of the time I'd naturally play around "wanting" to go deeper than E and not even notice until I thought about it. I'm not really fan of tuning up or down, I'm used to my bass being EADG, and play mostly by ear. I find it harder to do that if I tune down sometimes, although I get used to it relatively quickly. I think I'd need another bass that I kept constantly tuned down if I were to do that. For me the best bass lines are relatively simple - and 99.9% they don't need anything lower than an open E. But then - I'm a rocker [/quote] That's why you should consider a 5-string. You need never go below the bottom E, but it means you can play a walking bass line in E with your middle finger firmly on the B string 5th fret, so you can do your damping on the left hand rather than the right and you can play the same pattern for the E as for the A and B. We don't actually do much stuff in E (and I use the one an octave from bottom anyway) but it's nice playing a 12-bar in A that you can keep the boomy lower-string tone in by playing it all round the 10th fret rather than having to move from 5th to 10th. Anyone who spends a lot of time on the open E or playing bottom F or F# should consider a 5-string. Please note that I only say "consider".

[quote name='lwtait' post='169913' date='Apr 4 2008, 05:16 PM']not really. i listen music like blink 182, zebrahead, good charlotte, new found glory etc. im not going to try and pretend any of them have good bassists. i wouldn't reccomend listening to them if you wanted to hear good bass playing. im saying you should seriously listen to him because his bass playing is so unique and you can learn a thing or two from him, rather than listen to him because his music is good.[/quote] I don't listen to music for the bass players, which is why, at 50, I am completely unconscious of 99% of the bass players that people rave about. I listen to music for music. I don't consciously listen to bass lines - sometimes a bass line will actually impinge on my consciousness, mostly it won't. In the covers band, I don't give a flying f*** what the original bass line was unless it's actually really important (ie. I've actually noticed it while listening to the track), I'll play my own. Which reminds me, I really must learn the bass line to "Sunny afternoon" by the Kinks for the next time my mate wants to do it on the open mic night.

What I don't understand with all this going on about his chops is that no-one seems to have noticed that the songs were utter, utter sh*te. What f***ing depressingly bad music there was for almost the entirety of the Friday night programme. James Taylor - great. Mike Trovey (?) - didn't know when to stop developing a theme and move on to the next one. Only Ones - crap performance of pretty decent material (the guitarist was particularly bad). Black Kids were like Waterboys colliding with Human League rather messily. Adele - Vicki Pollard. Estelle - anonymous formulaic crap.

[quote name='Smash' post='169731' date='Apr 4 2008, 12:23 PM']Does anybody know where I can find the width of the necks of Warwick basses, especially at the nut end? I like Jazz necks or fast slim necks and someone a while back told me I wouldn't get on with Warwick necks as they are thick? Is this true? Reason for asking is all these cheap Warwicks are unbearable GAS, I don't really need one but..... they look so nice.[/quote] If you want a fast slim neck on a Warwick, there's a JD Thumb for sale at the moment (on the sarf coast, IIRC). That's if it's not gone yet, absolute bargain.

[quote name='lwtait' post='169408' date='Apr 3 2008, 08:21 PM']i realise that I'm not the first to say this, am im sure im not going to be the last, but jaco only used four strings.[/quote] And Nelson only used sailing ships and muzzle-loading cannon, and Fangio only used front-engined cars. Some of us have no desire to emulate Jaco. In fact, some [1] of us haven't even heard him... [1] Or is it just me?

DAMHIK[IJKOK] = Don't Ask Me How I Know [I Just Know, OK] ETLA = Extended Three Letter Acronym (we'll have no pendantry here) IIRC = If I Recall Correctly SWMBO = She Who Must Be Obeyed Possibly useful although not interweb or IT based: HIGNFY = Have I Got News For You ISIHAC = I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue

[quote name='OldGit' post='154402' date='Mar 10 2008, 11:55 AM']You've probably sorted this by now but if you found a source of white lettraset-type lettering I'd be interested .. I used 2mm white lettraset dots as side markers for years where the standard ones were too small to see easily but when I went looking for white rub off lettering this time I failed miserably ...[/quote] Try W H Smiths and Hobbycraft.

40-60-80-100 (+125) for me, except for the 7-string. Normally Elites, but there's a set of Warwicks (red label IIRC) on the fretless. All sorts of music and styles.

[quote name='bremen' post='168910' date='Apr 3 2008, 10:25 AM']'If for instance the real maximum rated power (6400 watt) would be used the pressure level would reach 160 dB, but I wonder who could survive. Not even the house built in steel & concrete maybe would stand up.' Which of us, if we had the cash, wouldn't want to do that to our basement![/quote] Anyone who owns a teenager. Who would want to come home to a pile of rubble?

[quote name='OldGit' post='168920' date='Apr 3 2008, 10:43 AM']Doesn't someone on here build Omni's for people?[/quote] There's [url="http://www.arrowheadguitars.co.uk/basscabs.html"]Arrowhead Guitars[/url] which is Paul_C who has just started up doing them.