hairyhaw

Good shout - about Eels - I saw them when they toured that album and the bass player had an immense sound.

The vocals would be fun!

hahahaha...keep running. In fairness, I do like one of their songs. Only one mind.

Thanks chaps. We adapted some songs to re-distribute what the guitar did elsewhere, eg we play Dee Doo Doo Doo by The Police and the bass does the guitar part in the outro. Others we thought would work (Easy by The Commodores) fell down because the guitar solo was, in our view, too integral to the song. Chris - there is a dialogue of sorts in the band just now that reflects your view about putting songs through a "treatment" or whether we just find songs that were recorded on bass/drums/keys. I suspect we would be playing a lot of Ben Folds and little else though, so it'll likely come down to a mixture of the two approaches. Casapete has a good point about the audiences though - this is primarily a drunken pub audience in Glasgow!

Timing of this thread is good for me. One of my bands parted ways with the lead guitarist recently and we are carrying on as a three, but the setup (bass/vox, drums, keys/vox) means we are scratching our heads a bit for covers that dont feature guitar at all! Ben Folds immediatly came to my mind (and somebody mentioned them further up) but I've been struggling to think of other more well known ones.

I totally get criticism of early MIM basses. The white P in my avatar is from 1992 and the neck pocket has a gap on the E side big enough to slip a penny into - hey, I was 17 and didn't know what to watch out for when I got it! That said, there's never had a problem with tuning stability and the thing is a tank that has had over 25 years of abuse and just keeps going and going. Also have a black 2017 Precision with a maple board - plays beautifully and I can't find any fault with the construction or finishing. Finally, there's a 70's reissue Jazz Bass too and I'd just echo what other folk say about them - really great playing (and looking) bass for the money. If only they made them in more than two colours!

Thanks gents, had a funny feeling the tailpiece didn't look quite right. I've put about a full turn in the truss rod now, think it'll still need about a 3/4 turn before the neck will straighten out.

Picked this up very recently and looks ace. Information on them hard to come by outside of the Aria website though, and this is my first hollowbody bass so would much appreciate any setup advice as I'm coming from Fenders and have no experience of the tune-o-matic bridge fitted to this. [url="http://s425.photobucket.com/user/thesleepwalkers/media/IMG_1705.jpg.html"][/url] Neck has a bit of a bow but is recoverable the action is a little high for me - I've already given the rod two quarter turns over the course of the week, not a huge amount of difference so more work needed but should I be treating this a lot more carefully than a solidbody? [url="http://s425.photobucket.com/user/thesleepwalkers/media/IMG_1707.jpg.html"][/url] Also, there's a dead spot around frets 17/18 on the E string and I noticed there's a bit of pull on the stop tailpiece: [url="http://s425.photobucket.com/user/thesleepwalkers/media/IMG_1706.jpg.html"][/url] Is this an issue I need to sort urgently or can I soldier for a while on in the same manner as 70's Ricks? Thanks in advance!

[quote name='the boy' timestamp='1376000451' post='2168579'] Both Gabriel and Collins have truly inspirational moments of genius, however they are also quite twattish at times also. I must admit though "so" is one of my all time favourite albums. [/quote] Bang on. My introduction was Invisible Touch - I was 10 and completely disinterested in whether they looked/acted cool or not. Got the album for my xmas and was hooked on Anything She Does/Domino/The Brazilian. Explored the rest of the catalogue in later years. Totally don't have the problem with Phil that other people do - I'd also have to say that I think Face Value is sublime.

[quote name='12stringbassist' timestamp='1363524502' post='2013589'] This pic shows the bleed on the lower neck binding. It's spread further now, but only a cosmetic detail in the end. [/quote] I remember following this thread on RRF at the time with interest. John Hall could not take responsibility for, nor acknowledge there was a problem with the bass. All you'd asked for was a pointer to a solution - he spent most of the time blaming the bleed on poor care of the bass post purchase. I thought his attitude in general was digusting - he came across as a nasty, evasive guy.

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1357991849' post='1931438'] True! My 78P has a decent gap, but it still sounds and plays great, and has never moved. Good for storing plectrums too. [/quote] Agree with this (apart from the storing plectrums bit!). I bought the '92 MIM P in my avatar when I was new to bass and didn't know any better and it's got the same gap as the one pointed out by the OP. It's made no difference and out of all my basses, it's the one that sounds best in the recording studio. Go figure!

[quote name='Big_Stu' timestamp='1343768248' post='1755041'] When I used to go thru a lot (I had a girlfriend in Kirkintilloch) there was a cracking used guitar shop away down past Central Station. [b]I remember there was a shop two doors along from it where the neds used to buy their chibs - but also sold used guitars too.[/b] [/quote] My bold - Victor Morris. Really really dodgy shop - the PA/music gear was all second hand (i.e probably stolen and sold on). In fact the only new stuff they stocked was the knives and crossbows. WTF would you need a crossbow for in the centre of Glasgow? Dealing with the grey squirrels in Kelvingrove Park - I remain unconvinced. Was quite pleased when they closed, but then realised that they were just consolidating their dodgy gear in the Guitar Store just up the street, which they also owned - Doh!

Is that a truss rod cover I spy?

Picked this up off ebay the other day as a project: kind of a maple necked Stingray copy with a ply P bass body. Both pickups seem to be two jazzes bound together as some sort of humbucker. I’ve titled the thread “restore” but I’m going to modify it too and use as a beater bass, so restore really means “make it playable” I suppose. The pickup cavities are quite large so there could be a lot of fun had testing out all sorts of pickups. The neck has a few issues I need to sort out though. The action was fairly high and there was a bit of a backbow when I received it. I’ve seen a lot worse though on other basses but there were lots of choked notes from 13th fret onward across all strings. The neck has been shimmed. The bullet truss rod is extremely stiff however I’m wondering if its maxed out as comparing it to my Jazz bass (completely different bass but the only other bullet truss I can compare to) it seems really low down: [attachment=109283:photo.JPG] Secondly, the string tree has been mis-positioned to cover the G and D strings, leaving the A string with zip in the way of break angle so it pops off the nut when you play it. FarOn took this image of the headstock in another thread: [attachment=109289:Hohner headstock.jpg] Its not a problem to move it and the G string still stayed on the nut when I took it out the string tree. The thing I did notice though is that the G string doesn’t go in a nice straight line from nut to machine head as on Fender/EBMM basses, but veers off to the right a bit. In short, it looks a bit untidy. Is it feasible to cut a new hole for the G head and fill the old one in (I’m replacing the pump machine heads with Hipshot HB1’s or something similar so will need to widen the holes anyway), or should I just live with it and get out a bit more? Any advice would be mucho appreciated!