spinynorman

[quote name='Born 2B Mild' post='460837' date='Apr 12 2009, 10:18 PM']One of my early heroes played a T-Bird (Martin Turner) and not so long a go I bought an Epiphone copy. It was good, then I put a low bid on a Gibson IV and won, it to my surprise. Gigged it for a year but realised a few things. - it has a great sound - it feels like a 38" scale ...left hand is way out there! - despite a modest difference in pick up sounds, it really has only one sound - feel wise, it was great to play with a pick, not so great with the fingers, and completely useless for slap 'n tickle Playing in a covers band required more flexibility, so I sold it. I last saw one at a gig when seeing the great ASH (the Northern Ireland guys, not the Wishbone variety) and yeah, Ace sound. But, I found it a one-trick pony. A good one, but only for delivering one style. It did look cool though...[/quote] I had a IV. It was stupidly red and looked either odd or super cool, depending which angle you caught it from. I thought the neck was great, especially the ebony board, but I have quite a long reach. It went because there was a blurry feel to it that I couldn't quite get on with, which I put down to all that mahogany. Definitely in the Gibson bargain basement though, if you can find one. I accept the comments about MIA Fenders being in the same price bracket as an MIA Gibson. What I really meant was there's no equivalent (except the IV) to the good MIJ Fenders you can get for ~£400-£500. Not that Gibson didn't make them, just they were badged Epiphone.

I have manuals for a Behringer Bass V-Amp or V-Amp Pro. Version 1 December 2002. There are 3 books, English, German and French+others. The single language ones are light but A4, about a quid to post. The French+ one is more of a tome and probably £2 to post in the UK or a bit more (at cost) overseas. I think I've also got the V-Amp foot switch somewhere - I'll look for it if anyone's interested. The V-Amp itself is out on unintentionally permanent loan.

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='461693' date='Apr 13 2009, 11:00 PM']The laser lens probably needs recalibrating, did you get it looked at by a tech at all? It would be an easy fix.[/quote] Thanks for the helpful suggestion. The lack of internal damage does suggest it might be something simple to fix if you know how, but rather than do that, I found a used Arcam player on eBay, and it's very nice Before eBay, I contacted Cambridge and they wanted £60 just to look at it. To find a shop that would repair it I'd have to go into Birmingham or Coventry I think, nothing out here in the sticks. Meanwhile, I searched "calibrate CD laser" and found this page [url="http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/3/24/45212/6874"]http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/3/24/45212/6874[/url] and found the "pot" he describes, but turning it every which way had no effect, though I did remove a cataract . Reading further down in the comments it changes the laser power, not as he suggests the alignment. So, maybe someone with easier access to a repair shop could get it fixed at a sensible price, or if you could find Samsung part number YUJIMWTB35 you could replace the whole laser mechanism very easily. Just 2 screws holding it. Offer stands if anyone wants it.

I've always thought musicians were inherently conservative. The last innovation in the brass department i think was the saxophone. And that's still a bit radical for some people. So there's the odd blue electric violin, that's hardly a world away from Stradivarius either.

Really don't know if anyone will be interested in this - it's a Cambridge Audio CD5, which is a good budget CD player, bought from Richer Sounds about a year ago. Plays mp3 CDs, CD-RW etc. Specs are here [url="http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=CAMB-CD5BLK"]http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.ph...pid=CAMB-CD5BLK[/url]. Problem is it got dropped and though it all lights up and tries to read a cd, eventually it gives up with "No Disk". I've looked inside and there's no physical damage that I can see and the mechanism all works. So it's something electronic, possibly to do with the laser. I don't have the knowledge to fix it, but someone else might. Case is in good nick except for the rear left corner, where there's a bit of bare metal showing through. I have the original box with manual and remote. It's going to cost a tenner to post, or free to collect (I'm 30mins from J15 M40, west of Stratford). Otherwise it'll be off to the tip to be disassembled by small chinese children - and who would want that?

The problem is a good Gibson will cost you twice as much as an equally good Fender. Also depends a lot if you like Mahogany, apart from the Ripper period.

I've got an old Spector Rebop, which is a natural oiled finish. It's just a rather grubby lump of alder, which isn't the most exciting wood visually. I'm wondering about a refin and what to use and sources of material. I know about Reranch in the US, but they can't ship anything flammable. Is there an equivalent here?

I just got a 51 RI Precision and it hums like a bee in a matchbox. Would it be worth shielding the control and pickup cavities with copper tape, or is this just a fact of single coil life and not fixable, short of changing the pickup? Supplementary question - if it's worth doing, are there grades of this stuff? Is it better to buy sheets from somewhere like AxesRUS, or is the cheaper tape on eBay ok? Thanks.

Talking of drummers, Jon Hiseman with Colloseum in 1970, hard to believe there was only one drummer playing. I'm sure he had a couple of dwarves hidden behind the kit to help out. I saw the first outing of Derek & the Dominoes at The Lyceum in June 1970, I think the only gig Dave Mason played with them. Oh, and Ginger Baker's Airforce with Phil Seaman and Graham Bond, around the same time.

[quote name='MB1' post='454148' date='Apr 4 2009, 03:00 PM']MB1. .....Who are the Beatles? [/quote] Weren't they a piss take of The Ruttles???

By 1969 I was 17 and still trying to play Bob Dylan covers on an acoustic guitar. Took me another 30 years to discover I could play bass. I do wonder if I could have learned back then, without computers and the Internet. I don't think I'd have had the patience for learning off records. An older lad a few doors down in our street was in a band called Kaleidoscope (not the US one). They got signed to Vertigo and were supposed to be the next big thing, but it never happened. They opened the Hendrix Isle of Wight, but got their set cut to 20mins. Just got shafted right, left and centre. Seems like it was more fun if you didn't almost make it.

Funny looking Jap thing [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-E-Bass-Gitarre-Guitar-aus-JAPAN-Model-NB-1_W0QQitemZ170313964877QQihZ007QQcategoryZ87485QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-E-Bass-Gitar...1QQcmdZViewItem[/url]

I had a 4-string set of bronze round wound strings. But not any more. Gone.

The best thing to stand a small cab on is a big cab ...

Is it one of the ones Fender sued Ibanez over in the 1970s because they were so uncannily accurate and better quality? Or maybe it's off a Fenderbird John Entwhistle lent to Pete Townsend?