tauzero

[quote name='queenofthedepths' post='333921' date='Nov 21 2008, 03:45 PM']I've got a triple one of those - I used to have a single one but it takes up too much space for one bass! My problem with these is not the neck rest but the cradle that keeps falling off - one of them snapped off completely and is replaced with a pillow, one falls out nearly every time I pick the bass up, and the other is fairly unreliable too! It's not worth replacing for home storage, but I really want something very sturdy for gigs, where I can switch basses without having to worry about my stand falling apart![/quote] Have you put the cradles on properly? Mine's fine as long as you push the cradle pivot well in with the cradle upside down, then turn it right way up. There's a projection on the pivot which needs to go through both walls of the stand tube IYSWIM.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='333980' date='Nov 21 2008, 05:04 PM']When the petrol tank is nearly empty, on both the Buell and the KTM I get an interesting range of pops and backfires on the over-run. Maybe what I need is a special device that simulates a nearly-empty petrol tank.[/quote] Clothes peg on the fuel line.

[quote name='crumpet_tramp' post='330683' date='Nov 17 2008, 02:20 PM']at a band practise recently and my laney combo (HCM65) recently doesn't work, First it does not power on but you can it hum. Too confuse the issue, if you use the fx return you can use the power amp and noise comes out the speaker. I have checked the fuse and it hasn't blown. I opened it up and i could find no other fuses to go wrong.[/quote] I suspect the power supply feed to the preamp section. The mains power will go to the transformer, and the transformer output voltage will be rectified and smoothed either on a separate power supply board or on the power amp board. From there, there will be a power take-off that will go to the pre-amp and the indicator light on the front (which I assume isn't lighting up when you say that it doesn't power on). That's come adrift or broken, or a PCB track has cracked at one end or the other. Consequence is that the power amp section (which includes the fx return) is up and running, but the preamp and power indicator aren't. [quote name='crumpet_tramp' post='330683' date='Nov 17 2008, 02:20 PM']Then about two days later, i was using the head (RB700) and then this also just faded, this does not work if use the FX return. This time when i checked the fuses the main one on the back of the amp had gone. So i replaced this with a slightly smaller fuse and this blew up big time, and blew up all the smaller fuses inside.[/quote] That sounds like it's trying to tell you something, like an output transistor blown.

I use one of the £4-50 goose neck stands from [url="http://www.themusicking.co.uk"]The Music King[/url]. I've got a 7-string and a 6-string one sat in a couple of them at the moment. Must get round to buying another four or five. Only thing to watch out for is losing the plastic stopper/mushroom things at the end of the neck rest, as the rubber cushioning then falls off.

You do accommodate tinnitus after awhile. However, it sounds like the ear infection is causing it, so if you get that sorted (and either ditch or thoroughly sterilise your earplugs, if they're reusables) then it should pass. You can't do anything about it though - best thing to do is not think about it. I don't notice mine unless something makes me think of it, then it takes me a while to ignore it again.

Far more sensible is their [url="http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200271992047"]secven-string fretless acoustic bass[/url]. If they were five bob, I'd have one, but for a couple of hundred quid, I'd at least expect them to be able to cut slots in the nut at even intervals, and get the spacing between the strings at the bridge the same. At least we know who's been employing Mr Wishbass for set-ups.

Birmingham? There's a fair few rehearsal rooms there.

[quote name='Delberthot' post='330852' date='Nov 17 2008, 05:49 PM']I would also like to see a 5 string bass using a 4 string neck. I made one myself a few years ago using a Rick copy (it was dead when I got it). Extra machinehead hole drilled, EMG 35 pickup and Kahler adjustable bridge. Would be good to have one made properly. You get 'wide necks' so why not 'narrow necks'?[/quote] I've got one. Wilkinson (IIRC) 4+1 bridge which adds a string to a P-type neck. Must get a jack socket onto it, I want to sell it...

[quote name='Telebass' post='331789' date='Nov 18 2008, 08:50 PM']Batteries = point of unreliability. I only ever use simple basses, but into a bang-up-to-date amp, and a radio, so no cable loss.[/quote] So the radio is one of those wind-up ones then?

[quote name='bassjamm' post='329631' date='Nov 15 2008, 12:57 PM']I'd like to have a tinker with one for sure, as well as a Jazz 24, they look pretty cool too!!![/quote] Try one before buying it - if the neck's the same as the Precision Standard V (the nut is the same width), it's clunky. Which is fine if you like clunky but I don't.

A double bass for a raft. I'd be a bit torn. My Thumb (an 87) is the nicest bass I've ever played, but the 7-string would keep me occupied trying to get my head round it. And I'm not going to go round the country trying out basses to see if there's another one I'd like more...

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='328803' date='Nov 14 2008, 02:26 AM']I have to confess I've never tried a Variax guitar beyond picking one up in a music shop but it always struck me as a particularly stupid idea. Let's do the processing outboard, eh? I mean, the potential with the Variax is to either like the bass but hate the modelling, or like the modelling but hate the guitar - it's never going to satisfy more than a narrow band of players and its remit is to satisfy loads of us. Really, really silly idea IMO.[/quote] The guitars are great - after all, there are only two guitar necks, and Line 6 cover both of them, depending on model. I'm not so convinced by the basses. I've had a little play on one (unplugged) and didn't think much of the feel of it. If I actually wanted to play a Fender I'd [s]shoot myself[/s] get one. Basses all sound the same anyway.

[quote name='Funkmaster' post='329028' date='Nov 14 2008, 12:23 PM']Is that the Roadhouse in Stirchley tauzero?[/quote] It certainly is. Do you ever go there?

Interesting one last night, not so much from the POV of playing but because of the circumstances. It was open mic night at the Roadhouse, and I arrived to find the stage partially dismantled and a couple of guys working away under it. Turns out that the Roadhouse have parted ways with some members of staff, who then put some booby traps in to sabotage the power and PA system, and also hacked the website. Everything was restored by a few minutes past nine, so it didn't cause too much in the way of organisational problems, but it was a pain in the arse. First time I'd been up for four weeks - did a couple of bits of house bassing and our normal duo slot. Resolved to get there every other week from now on.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='326701' date='Nov 11 2008, 01:08 PM']But this is the bottom line for me; a neatly polished version of Mustang Sally is NOT better than bad jazz, not because it is not good, because it is not professional, not tight, not well delivered etc. It is not better because I know what's coming and don't care![/quote] You haven't heard our version of Mustang Sally with the slap bass and the rapping bit in the middle. Actually, I did work out a rap section for "Knocking on heaven's door". That goes down a treat at folk clubs.

White spirit and some kitchen roll.

If you're near whoever's logging that Antoniotsai 4-string, it would be worth going and checking that out...

The Deluxe 5 looks suspiciously like the Standard P Bass Special V with a Jazz body and active electronics. Nut width is the same at 2.008". If it's the same neck, it's not very good. Useable but clunky.

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='320845' date='Nov 3 2008, 12:27 PM']I now know that Ashborys are in tune if you play between the lines & horribly out of tune (a quarter tone sharp) if played on the line. It just seems weird that it was designed like that.[/quote] It could be that the lines were put on in their theoretical positions, and Ashbory in their wisdom neglected to consider the fact that as you fret the string, you also increase the tension in it, and with an action that is presumably quite high in relation to the scale length, that actually makes a considerable difference to the pitch of the note.

[quote name='OldGit' post='323826' date='Nov 6 2008, 11:05 PM']Yeah there's a few new basses on Jon's site.. I daren't look, specially at this headless SC ...[/quote] It's a good job I don't like singlecuts or bolt-ons. And that I don't have £1800 sloshing round looking for something to spend it on...

We went into the studio yesterday to record some tracks. We finished up doing 6 tracks in 8 hours, which wasn't bad productivity at all. We weren't going for big production - these are to help us getting gigs on the WMC and (hopefully) wedding/function circuit, so they really needed to be a reasonable approximation to our live sound. Anyway, see how they sound (and see if you can guess what basses were used): [url="http://www.break-away.org.uk/mp3s/standbyme.mp3"]Stand by me[/url] [url="http://www.break-away.org.uk/mp3s/impossible.mp3"]Impossible love[/url] [url="http://www.break-away.org.uk/mp3s/browneyedgirl.mp3"]Brown-eyed girl[/url] [url="http://www.break-away.org.uk/mp3s/valerie.mp3"]Valerie[/url] [url="http://www.break-away.org.uk/mp3s/desperado.mp3"]Desperado[/url]

So am I the only person to have listened to "Night Fly" after seeing it lauded to the high heavens and found it tedious and bland?

[quote name='Prosebass' post='323621' date='Nov 6 2008, 05:59 PM']ouch.....hard words for a Warwick....you will reap the wrath of someone saying things like that. It is hideous and I have just spent all afternoon designing around just that problem . I am using a combined tuner / bridge ala Steinberger and if I extend the body past the tuners it looks wrong. If I shorten the body the tuners stick out and you cannot stand it up without risking damage. A problem indeed...[/quote] I'm not keen on the Warwick Nobby either. I've rather gone off cricket bats in general, in fact. The standard approach to what you're trying to do it to have the body a little extended so it's about flush with the ends of the tuners, then put a strap button each side on the wings so the bass will stand up on them. Due to its tuners sticking out of the bottom, the Warwick Nobby has a special stand which, as far as I can make out, goes right up its bottom. On a more general note, I'd love headlessessesses to be more fashionable, then there would be more of a choice as regards neck profiles and body shapes. I'd really like a brace of 5-string headlesses, fretted and fretless, with neck profiles like my main gigging bass, rather than the thick neck of the 5-string Jack. Must try out a 5-string Status sometime to see if that's nearer the mark.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='323495' date='Nov 6 2008, 03:19 PM']I once did a gig in Cardiff and the horn section from Lionel Hampton's big band dropped in! There were all these young guys playing theirs asses off and setting their horns on fire.[/quote] They nicked that idea off Jimi Hendrix. And back to the OP, it's nice to know that there's such a clear unambiguous expression as "in the pocket" which describes playing exactly on the beat either just ahead of or behind it, locked in perfectly with the drummer so you don't play exactly together but the drummer leads the bass who is leading the drummer, and now apparently you also need to have your horn on fire. What happens when there's a hole in the pocket?