spinynorman

Bass I sold recently went to Italy, and the price held up compared to what I paid for it a year ago. The shock was the courier charge - double what I've paid in the past. Last 2 basses I sold went to southern Europe, seems to be more money there, but you have to use eBay.

Mine's quite thin and square with rounded corners. Never causes a problem, except when we recorded Teen Spirit, you can hear it clack on the frets as I slide up.

Welcome to Basschat and good luck with the auction. An alternative to paying eBay insertion fees to gauge interest is to put it up here in the Sale section as a feeler. Circulation may not be as wide, but it's free and comments are generally honest and helpful.

[quote name='Bassassin' post='281396' date='Sep 10 2008, 08:48 PM']Just got a delightful (if a little mucky) SQ serial Squier Precision, 83/84, great original condition - but it's arrived with the scratchplate shattered. And wouldn't it look lovely with a Tort? :brow: Jon.[/quote] Welcome to the Fag Burn club (got one on my P). Tort belongs on tortoises.

You make perfect sense, I have the same problem with narrow necks. One option would be to buy a fully loaded J body and a P neck and bolt them together. Probably cost more than £250 though, if you want original Fender parts.

[quote name='yorks5stringer' post='281056' date='Sep 10 2008, 01:01 PM']On the subject of Crack Convertors knowing the price of things...I pop into my local one 2 or 3 times a week, often on a Monday for obvious reasons. However, today noticed a pair of marked s/h Mackie C300 z PA speakers and enquired as to the price as they were unticketed. "£399 mate" was the answer, "Does that include the stands?", "No", was the reply. Just had a look on ebay, a pair of new ones, BIN £319!!!! Someone is having a laugh....[/quote] I bought a C300z pair recently and did some research on prices. Depending where you look they can be vastly different, up to £799. Got mine from Thomann for £399, which at the time was the best deal, there was nothing on eBay. So CC are just hoping for someone who's only seen the list price.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='279888' date='Sep 8 2008, 06:18 PM']This topic comes up every six months or so. The guy is VERY clever. He has Feedback approaching 9,000 and it's overwhelmingly positive. Most of what he sells is small stuff but he averages better than a guitar/bass a week. Where does he get his business from? From YOU of course, telling each other how crazy he is, whereupon all your mates go and visit his website, laugh at his crazy prices for crap basses, then buy a pickguard or set of replacement screws for your tuners. Crazy? Like a fox.[/quote] You rumbled him too. The same threads come up every six months on every guitar and bass forum on the planet. Precisely targeted advertising for the price of a few eBay insertion fees. Genius.

Looks like an EBM-5. [url="http://forums.epiphone.com/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=3098"]Epi forum[/url] [url="http://www.wikizic.org/Epiphone-EBM-5/wiki.htm"]EBM-5 Wiki[/url]

I have a "cheaper" basswood MIJ P, apparently. From what I have been able to find out, there is nothing wrong with basswood, providing you don't want a natural finish and don't intend to use it in a fight. Tone is warm, sustain is good and it is relatively light in weight. Fit and finish on the bass is excellent, hardware looks to be of decent quality, frets are substantial. Nobody ever says anything nice about my playing, but lots of people have said nice things about the sound of my bass. Objectively, it is way, way better than my daughter's ex-boyfriend's Squier P and quite bit better than my MIM Jazz. I have no idea how in compares with anything MIA, but you would have to offer me something very special to get it off me in a trade.

I've got a tedious Stereophonics song to learn, which has all of 2 notes in the bass line, so for no reason at all I decided to try "Walk Don't Run" by the Ventures. Surprisingly tricky.

When you say you're rubbish .... are you sure you're not expecting too much of yourself too soon? There are people who seem to be able to pick up any instrument and just play it, but there's often a reason, like coming from a musical family, or not having any friends . For the rest of us it starts off as a bit of a struggle. The advantage of a teacher is they'll start you off at the right level, and if there really is no hope, they should tell you. +1 for ignoring the guitarist, and anyone else showing off. If he wanted to help he would pick a song with a simple bass line, show you how to play it (assuming he can :) ) and then play the guitar part slowly for you to follow. It's what mates are for, I think.

I had more or less the same problem. I gig with a MIJ P, the rest of the band love it and I have to admit it does sound good and it fits what we do. But I wanted to try a 5er, so I bought a cheap active Vester, which was actually nicer than it had any right to be for the money, but the neck was too narrow, so I sold it and bought a less cheap Spector Rebop 5. The Rebop is absolutely stunning to play, neck width is perfect, but I didn't like the pre-amp, so I bought an Aguilar and fitted that, and it sounds really good, but still seems to frighten our guitarist half to death. So, I thought, maybe it's because it's active, there's been a few MIM Jazz 5ers going cheap in the States, I'll try one of those. Got a nice one in Midnight Wine, but the pickups were a bit weak, so I changed them for Basslines, which make it sound like it should. And that's how I ended up with 2 5ers, one of which comes off the stand for 2 songs a gig if it's lucky. Because, of course, the band still prefer the P. Before anyone uses this cautionary tale to suggest I should have gone round shops and tried basses before I bought any, there is no way on earth I would have bought that P in a shop, it was only an opportunistic, spur of the moment purchase on eBay. Sounds awful solo, it's only with the band it comes into its own. I do not have an ounce of regret. My advice is go for it, but realise what you might be getting into and check neck widths (at the nut). If you're used to a P, some 5ers may feel tight. Both the Rebop (1.84") and the Jazz are ok (surprisingly, as I find 4-string Jazz necks are too narrow).

[quote name='coasterbass' post='271628' date='Aug 28 2008, 11:12 AM']Depends if you are doubling up as soundman whilst playing. If you have a soundguy, or just someone capable who hangs around with you whilst you play, then the 31-band EQ approach is best. But, if you are trying to play whilst run the PA then the feedback destroyers work really well as they can move faster than you can. I used the Behringer Ultracurve for a long time and found it worked very well (as it contains the twin-31 band EQ as well). Looking at other options, I'd also say that upgrading your cabs and mics will help a great deal too. Nothing causes feedback like a pair of PA speakers being driven (too) hard, and quality mics help isolate unwanted noises too. If you are mic'ing the drums then a Gate is essential and will make the job much easier and prevent much of the stage feedback.[/quote] We're only putting vocals through the PA which makes it easier, speakers are new Mackie C300z, so I'd be gutted if they were a problem. I wish I'd realised about the 31 band eq before we bought the Yamaha, but there's no sound guy, and often not much space, so the feedback destroyer sounds like an option worth considering.

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='270437' date='Aug 26 2008, 05:23 PM']Nothing special I'm afraid - Smells Like Teen Spirit :-) I'm also chipping away at "Disco Inferno" and "Just" (Radiohead).[/quote] I love playing Teen Spirit, driving a song on with just 4 notes is a really good exercise.

+1 for "In a Silent Way". Make sure there's no windows you can fall out of though, it's hypnotic.

We seem to spend a lot of time at gigs trying to get a decent volume out of the vocals without feedback. It usually comes right in the end, but always feels like trial and error, despite all the stuff I've read about how to do it with EQ. So I was wondering if a feedback suppressor like the Behringer Destroyer, or DBX AFS224 would be a good purchase? We're using a Yamaha EMX512SC which has quite limited EQ, so that could be why it feels difficult.

I used to have a Morley, can't remember which model. I do remember I really didn't get on with it, I couldn't work out the setup so it came in progressively. However, I am a notorious pedal-phobe, so it may just be me.

By "cleaning", do you mean spraying inside with [url="http://www.maxiaudio.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=Y062"]Servisol[/url], because that would be the first thing to try? I put a DiMarzio P/J set on a 1980s Kay bass I had and was very pleased with them. I was playing mostly Cream, Free and Deep Purple at the time and they suited that stuff well.

The last school my daughter was at has a band made up of teachers and parents. 4 rhythm guitarists, keyboard, bass and drummer with electric kit. The kick drum on the electric kit sounds exactly like a bass guitar. The bass player is a better guitarist than any of the guitarists. They're very popular. The Peter Green version of Fleetwood Mac had 3 guitarists in its later stages. At the time I thought that was so Greenie could skive off and drop acid.

Foo Fighters - "Learn to Fly" G'n'R version of "Knockin on Heaven's Door" Green Day - "Wake Me Up When September Ends", which I've renamed "Wake Me Up When The Bass Comes In" Pearl Jam's "Alive" is work in progress.

The common cormorant or shag Keeps its eggs in a paper bag ... Sorry, I love that poem.

This one is a discussion about why the OBP-1 needs 18v and the conclusion, apparently supported by Aguilar, is that it can work with 9v, but they don't recommend it. About 2/3rds of the way down is a comment from someone who has the old one, which I read as "it sounds ok on 9v, but should be 18v". [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=324541"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=324541[/url]

You can buy the transmitters separately, the downside being they're not far off the price including the receiver. You might be able to do a deal on a package if you went to a shop. [url="http://www.dv247.com/invt/42306/product.htm?gdftrk=gdfV2356_a_7c416_a_7c1181_a_7c42306"]AF1 Transmitter[/url] I had the AP1 which is similar except the receiver is effect pedal size. It was ok, though I found it too easy to accidentally hit the pad switch on the transmitter ( the right angle AG1 version). There's also the AP1B which is supposedly better for bass. I gave up with it after I bought a couple of basses with the jack on the bottom edge. I thought the bug would be likely to fall out, though I never tried it.