pete.young

So what do we think of Beatles tribute bands with right-handed bass players?

I play in a band that plays the music of the Pogues. We try and get as close as we possibly can to the music, and we can manage the ill-fitting suits, but the singer draws the line at having his teeth done like Shane's, so we'll never be a tribute band. We could use a banjo player if anyone is available, or a guitarist who can mug it on a guitar-banjo. Please apply within.

I don't think so. You don't actually look at the fretboard much, so the side markers are much more use. And eventually you have to get to the point of putting your fingers in the right places with or without the lines, which aren't always accurate.

Unless you are a moderator. Moderators can also bump threads.

Seems OK in Firefox on Mac.

Is there any way to turn off the thread summary banner that seems to be appearing under the first post on every page?

When I started playing double bass in my father's folk dance band in the late '60s / early '70s there was no thought of amplifying the double bass. High action, make as much noise as possible, and where possible use the village hall stage as a sounding board through the spike. Amplification was for bass guitars, I wasn't allowed one of these due to lack of space in the car (the bass went on the roof). I don't recall gut strings being as expensive then, since they were ubiquitous on everything from fiddles to basses. The other option that no-one seems to have mentioned is nylon strings. These were cheaper than guts. I have 3 strings from a set of Rotosound Student Double Bass strings from the period. These appear to be some kind of flatwound tape on a nylon core. I remember the excitement when I got my first Lycon D string (we only ever bought replacement strings when one broke, and never a set). This must have been in about 1973. It was 3 times as loud as the other strings. Eventually I got an A and G, and the E was replaced with a much lower tension Rotosound steel core. Remarkably I still have those strings somewhere - I took them off the bass about 10 years ago when I got a second-hand set of Spirocore Weichs from this forum. They must have lasted about 35 years. Not bad.

You have the ability, and at some point you will meet someone who is on the same level. In the meantime, don't be a stranger, you'll be missed.

The thing that astonishes me most about this is that Nigel has your details, can't find a phone number, but isn't able to write to you to say he's got the bass! How hard would that have been?

I seem to recall Cass being a big user of the Korg G5, and I think that's mostly what you can hear on that track.

The orange windings look like my Presto lights, but the ones I have are silver in colour not black.

Common as muck those white ones. Baz, are you absolutely sure you're doing the right thing?

Another reason not to use wire wool on strings is that if the strings are stainless steel, contact with mild steel wire wool can contaminate the stainless and lead to the formation of rust spots. As for 2 years being a long time, I put a set of used Ernie Ball flats on my fretless at least 10 years ago and they're still going strong, although it doesn't get played much!

Something isn't quite right - CIJ didnt appear until 1997, it's hard to tell from the photo but this looks like an 'O' so 1997 - 2000. Still an excellent bass, but this puts a few question marks against the seller. £650 with a US Pickup already fitted seems like a good price to me, but I'm a bit out of touch and used Fender prices have been going up recently.

He's never been away!

Really? And here's me thinking it was about Claudia Lennear. I think a better reason to drop it is that most guitarists attempt to play it on a 6-string in standard tuning, and it sounds pants as a result. One that makes me uncomfortable is seeing 50-something blokes singing 'I saw her standing there'.

You dont. Assuming that the 2 sockets in the 2x10 are wired in parallel, the 4Ohm load will draw twice as much current as the 8Ohm load, so 2/3 of the total power will go to the 4Ohm speaker and 1/3 to the 8Ohm speaker.

I hope he gets it - it'll mean the value of my 465 has quadrupled! The machine head spacing is the same on my 465 - the idea is that the tuning pegs are the same distance apart, and the 'B' machine head is the other way round so that it turns the right way with the string round the wrong side of the peg.

I would describe those as soapbars. If you want a humbucker in a Jazz shell, you'll usually end up with split coils. Lots of people make these, I have a set of Delanos that I really like, but there are lots of options from the likes of Nordstrand, Seymour Duncan, Dimarzio, ...

I've got one of those trolleys too but wouldn't contemplate using it for the double bass. It's OK with something really heavy on it such as a cabinet but can only be pushed, if you try and pull it the wheels fold in and up.

I bought a second-hand golf bag trolley and a longer bit of webbing. £15. That said, it is slightly more bulky than the bass buggie and would be an interesting challenge to get into your average tube train. I tend to use mine more for crossing expanses of fields at folk festivals, or wheeling it round town centres. A bass wheel would probably be a better proposition for you.

Colin Hodgkinson plays a lot of chords, and he uses a Precision with fairly light strings.