pete.young

Collin Hodgkinson is still playing the same '61 Precision that he had back in the late sixties.

I've reluctantly agreed to help out a friend (at least, someone who used to be a friend!) for a charity concert with his Wind Band, who are missing their regular bass player and can't afford fees for a proper dep. Parts have arrived - half of them are Tuba parts in bass clef, on ledger lines way below the stave! I'm a bit rusty at this sort of thing. Anyone got any tips for transposing them into double bass range, besides the always-useful "work off intervals not notes" ?

(By the way it took me a while to spot this - it would help if you type the new text under the 'Quote' box - Not a very intuitive part of the forum.) I play in a band that specialises in the music of the Pogues. Somewhat confusingly , this mostly isn't tenor banjo: Jem Finer played a 5 string banjo , in a single note style to start with, although he was getting quite capable at the bluegrass style towards the end. But the way things are, we'll take bluegrass, old-time, tenor, plectrum or even guitar banjo. I can even fill in the parts on my digital accordion if necessary but it doesn't look right.

There was a thread in 'Other Instruments' but it was a while ago. If anyone is obsessive-compulsive about it maybe the mods could move it. Like the man says, it depends on what style of music you want to play. If there are any banjo players looking for a gig, I have a vacancy in the Ipswich area! Five string isn't just used for bluegrass, there is also the Appalachian Old-TIme style (what Dolly Parton calls 'mountain music') which doesn't use either picks or a three-finger roll style. Like this:

Twice in the last 12 years or so since I started playing regular gigs. My valve head started to suffer from distorted sounds due to the upside-down power valves starting to fall our of their sockets. Experience of valve tech meant I had a backup Markbass head, so I used that instead. Amp tech fixed the problem by putting some Marshall-pattern retaining springs on it, but I went over to using the Markbass instead. Second time, speaker in my Tecamp combo developed a fault. No big deal either since the main sound was front-of-house anyway and the combo was just a monitor.

https://www.joinmyband.co.uk/classifieds/metalcore-band-looking-for-guitarists-t1124498.html "Need to be between 18-24 as our practise rooms don't allow anyone over that age in" Is that even legal?

So the most important head is the only one you can't change? Though filling it with oil seems strangely attractive 🙂

Have you thought about trying a decent compressor on the vocals? Might be cheaper than a speaker upgrade.

I use a Shadow wing pickup with a PJB Briefcase, and I find that a good pre-amp makes a huge difference to both the signal and the sound quality. I have an EDB-1 which is a great bit of kit. The notch filter is especially useful for tuning out the odd growl. I originally bought the EDB-1 because I wanted a 2-channel pre-amp to add a microphone, but I find that I get a good enough sound for my needs with just the Shadow.

I was thinking more along the lines of Vintage or OLP, which come up second-hand every now and again.

That was a lucky break. No way is that heap of firewood worth 750 Euros. 75 maybe.

Well, the replacement we found in April has just resigned, so once again we're on the lookout for a banjo player, or a guitarist willing to learn banjo or play 6-string banjo.

Does this have to be a J-Retro? A decent pre-amp can seriously improve some of the cheap Stingray copies, although a decent pickup will have a similar effect.

If copper goes anywhere near sea water, it turns green, non?

Good spot, very nice. Think Ash is a member on here.

A Micro Thumpinator would sort that out, they come up used in the For Sale forum from time to time.

I think that's a great idea. Probably the most comfortable bass neck I've owned was the MTD Kingston, which is asymmetric - and that had a huge wide fingerboard but it still felt very effortless to play and just seemed to be right.

There are a couple of things that I think you might need to look at. The first is the bridge. Intonation and string height are matched to the instrument at the construction stage, so once you've made your initial choice of string, that's it? I don't like the idea of not being able to adjust the action or the intonation. Even with the same brand and gauge of string, you sometimes need to make minor adjustments.The other reason for the design, to allow the strings to 'interact' as much as possible through the shared saddle, is something that I don't believe is going to be desirable for bass either. The other thing I'd be looking at is the neck profile. It looks like a box with rounded-off corners. Will that work for bass?

Use proper vibrato technique, up and down the string: not sideways, like a string bend.

I could be mistaken, but this looks like the same bass, same photographs, in a different listing from a different seller? https://www.ebay.com/itm/BASS-COLLECTION-Fretless-Precision-Bass-Made-in-Japan-With-Hard-Case/183505730375?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131231084308%26meid%3Dfb3b43b149d048e3942579432173bbdb%26pid%3D100010%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D283191488995%26itm%3D183505730375&_trksid=p2047675.c100010.m2109

I had a Jim Reed jazz for a while, sold it to someone on here so it may still be around. Neck pocket was an authentic Fender '70s fit (like a todger in a shirt sleeve)

Cool. There is also banjo hangout, www.banjohangout.org - it's fairly US-centric but there are some UK posters on there. Sorry, I'd forgotten about that when I did my first post.

All the above, plus get the kit tuned properly. All of it, not just the bass drum.

Either have a word with Phil Davidson to see if he will take it back as used stock, or put it on commission with Eagle Music in Huddersfield, https://www.eaglemusicshop.com . This is a very high-quality instrument but the case is not worth £400 on it's own - Phil's prices include the case. Difficult to price the instrument, best to get some specialist advice.