spinynorman

From various discussions on Talkbass it appears both versions are recommended to be run at 18V, but will actually work ok at 9V if you want.

I have a Spector Rebop 5, one of the pre-2004 models, which I really like as a 5-string, but can't get on with the active circuit, despite swapping out the standard Tonepump for an Aguilar OBP-1. The pickups are EMG HZ, which are passive, so I'm thinking of taking out the pre-amp altogether and rewiring it as a passive circuit. So I'm just wondering if anyone knows how well HZs work in a passive circuit, or whether they do really need the pre-amp?

I don't have any personal issue with any shop mentioned here, in fact I haven't been in a music shop anywhere for about 5 years, due to the steady decline in the quality of the experience. It just strikes me that any representative of a business wanting to open a constructive dialogue in a forum such as this would have to a) introduce himself personally b ) express some understanding of the issues raised c) express some concern and interest in addressing them. Doesn't look to me like you've had that, at least not yet.

Fortunately for world sanity and the order of the universe, the Australian one didn't sell. There's a nice (looking) Burns Artist on t'bay now for a comparitively reasonable £795. Jump on it now while they're so cheap here. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Burns-Artist-Bass-Electric-Guitar-1960-1962_W0QQitemZ300250405554QQihZ020QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]Link[/url]

Sometime in the last 30 years you'd think someone would have fixed it. Is it playable like that?

We don't do weddings, but if we did ..... they'd probably be crap, which why we don't do them. Anyone who is basing their opinion of Mustang Sally on The Commitments, I would recommend listening to Buddy Guy's version on "Damn Right, I've Got The Blues". One of the advantages of having a girl singer, I've discovered, is that people no longer ask for Status Quo songs.

[quote name='noirpunk' post='261198' date='Aug 12 2008, 10:07 PM']I have no idea , it needs a nut and a bridge. Hopefully it'll sound just as rockabilyl as it looks [/quote] The nearest I can find a picture of is a Cougar, but it's not right, the controls are too far from the f hole, and the bridge is wrong. Similarly the later Lynx, judging by the guitars, is close, but not right. You might get somewhere following that as a start, also the Crucianelli connection (see fetishguitars). Here's the links, see for yourself. [url="http://www.voxamps.co.uk/museum/guitar2.asp"]Vox Museum[/url] (Lynx guitar) [url="http://www.fetishguitars.com/index/vox.html"]Fetish Guitars[/url] (see Cougar basses and Lynx guitars under Crucianelli) [url="http://www.voxshowroom.com/us/guitar/cougar.html"]Vox Showroom[/url] (Cougar bass) [url="http://www.voxguitar.net/gpage1.html"]Voxguitar.net[/url]

Is it this one? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rare-1962-Burns-Vista-sonic-bass-guitar_W0QQitemZ180274592707QQcategoryZ4713QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWINQ3aPOST0Q3aRECOQ3aBINQQcmdZViewItem"]Rare 62 Burns VS eBay[/url] In which case, the colour is certainly unusual and it is possible, though I guess unlikely, a Burns fanatic might be willing to pay that much over the odds to get it. With a bass like that, you need at least two people who really, really want it to get a high price in a standard auction, so he's really just betting that won't happen and is hoping to catch the one collector with deep pockets who happens to pass through. Quite possibly he was given an optimistic valuation by the "historians" he contacted, or is confusing insurance value with sale value. There's one in standard sunburst for sale in Colchester Music Warehouse for £999 - that was played by the owner when he was in the Bert Weeden band, though, so the sky's the limit And just to make you really, really mad, the £1500 BIN is positively reasonable compared to this. You might want to guess the BIN before you look. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1960-Burns-Artist-Bass-Guitar_W0QQitemZ260267414239QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item260267414239&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177"]Burns Artist 1960 Australia eBay[/url]

I saw one a while back on one of the TV breakfast "news" shows. It was a publicity stunt for a music shop. The guy played it sat on the sofa, with the body resting on the floor. He didn't attempt to demonstrate the lowest neck. He said he'd sold one to a six-piece group who were planning to play one neck each. Don't try this at home, kids. Edit: Oh look, here's a news story. Probably the same shop. [url="http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/video/display.var.2255076.0.0.php"]Dorset Echo[/url] and a video. Not exactly leaping around with it. About 10 secs in, after the kid waving. [url="http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/video/index.var.29084.0.0.php"]Video[/url]

[quote name='finnbass' post='260301' date='Aug 11 2008, 07:48 PM']Looks like a hard-boiled egg slicer.[/quote] For ostrich eggs.

There were a couple of nice white Greco TBirds on eBay a few weeks back, sold from Japan. It's worth keeping an eye out for those.

There are a couple of Infinitys for sale on classified sites, doesn't look like your price is out of line. [url="http://www.guitarmart.co.uk/index.cfm/fuseaction/Pages.getModel/Id/4/category/5/brand/154/model/1039"]Guitar Mart[/url] [url="http://www.preloved.co.uk/fuseaction-adverts.showadvert/index-1031417418/150b7f3b.html"]Preloved[/url] [url="http://www.mansons.co.uk/shopping/brands/warwick-bass-guitars/warwick/used-infinity-tn-birdseye/"]Mansons[/url] If it were mine I'd put it on eBay with a slightly higher BIN and use Best Offer to see if you get anything acceptable. But there's a lot of Warwicks at various price levels in the Completed Auctions list and not many sold, so it's a slow market. Also I agree with Bass Ferret, you need more in the description about why it's a really exceptional bass and - this is just my opinion for what its worth - nothing about what you're going to buy with the money. The reason for that is, if someone's going to hand over that sort of money for a bass they want to think it's the best thing ever, and knowing you're off to buy something else kind of takes away from that - like, he's after a custom Shuker, why aren't I?

[quote name='BigRedX' post='258224' date='Aug 8 2008, 03:42 PM']If you are prepared to hunt around and for info and then get you're head round the terrible coding for MySpace it is possible to do something half-way decent. [url="http://www.myspace.com/sugarboxmusicbox"]This[/url] I did for my previous band to keep the interest ticking over and also to figure out what was possible within the site constraints without it being too critical if I messed everything up.[/quote] That looks amazing, but how hard is it to get something that good? I understand customising Myspace is all about CSS, so I wondered if a style sheet editor like Cascade would help?

[quote name='OldGit' post='257670' date='Aug 7 2008, 11:06 PM']Spinynorman _ What is your market? That will decide if you should have a real website plus myspace or just a Myspace.[/quote] I should have anticipated that one. So, we're one of those despicable cover bands that devalue music by playing in pubs for next to no money. Most pubs that support live music seem to have a queue of bands wanting to play, so I can't imagine landlords trawling the net looking for talent. The most the site has to do is be somewhere they can go and look for more information after we've approached them with CD. Second function is for someone looking up what's on in their area and finding us listed at their local pub, or finding their pub listed in our gig list, can get enough from our site to decide if we're worth coming out for. We don't do weddings, don't go looking for parties or corporate events, but do charity gigs if we're asked and are available. That's telling me we don't need to worry that much about Google, so long as a search on the band name brings us to the top. Which it does (we used to be called Still Crazy - that really sucks as a band name for Google purposes). Myspace actually isn't doing a bad job, but some band egos may still require a "proper" web site. So, Wordpress looks interesting. I downloaded the Joomla manual and frightened myself to death, so probably not going there. This is the first time I've thought about what we need a website for and come up with a coherent answer, so thanks for that. Also some interesting ideas here and some good discussions, several things to go and look at. More ideas welcome and also comments if you think I'm reaching the wrong conclusion.

Years ago I built our band website using Net Objects Fusion, then the band changed and we've been using Myspace for gig lists and song samples, while the old site just rots. So I thought I ought to do something about it and started looking at where the technology has got to since I last looked. And I feel rather swamped by the options - content managers like Joomla, CSS editors, Flash builders. So I wondered what anyone here is having success with. I taught myself HTML and Javascript a long time ago, but I'd rather not have to get too deep into syntax now, life's too short.

That's a road? I thought, based on the topiary like shape at the top, he'd stuck it on the hedge. Must be going colour blind (always have been, according to my wife).

If you want songs that make you focus on the rhythm, try playing along with oldies like "Green Onions" by Booker T or "Gimme Some Lovin" by Spencer Davis. The bass lines are very simple, repetitive and relentless. When you've cracked the Booker T "Green Onions", try the extended improvised versions by Al Kooper or Roy Buchanan.

Assuming you're not trying to do this standing up on a crowded commuter train and already have a laptop, software like [url="http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php"]Guitar Pro[/url] lets you build parts for one or more instruments, you can build parts using tab or standard notation, it will play back each note as you add it, will handle chords and will even show you where the notes are on a guitar/bass neck or keyboard. It's also quite cheap for what it does and you can save your work. Final clinching benefit, no Rolf Harris jokes from your fellow passengers.

[quote name='spinynorman' date='Jul 29 2008']If the guitarist starts to play a song in the wrong key, never ever attempt to transpose the bass line in your head. If you get it wrong people will assume it's your fault. The correct procedure is to stop playing, wave your arms above your head and shout "What the f*ck are you doing" as loudly as possible. [quote name='cheddatom' post='250517' date='Jul 29 2008, 03:47 PM'] I would say that if your guitarist is prone to that mistake, learn to transpose your lines! You make the whole band look sh*t by stopping a song once it's started. It doesn't matter who's fault it is, you all look as stupid as each other.[/quote] [/quote] That was a joke, but with a bitter truth behind it. We were playing "America" by Razorlight. It starts with a strummy verse with no bass, the bass comes in part way into the chorus, just a couple of bars, then back to the verse with no bass, and so on until near the end when the bass comes back for a few bars of repeated chorus. So, I picked up my cue, started playing and realised something was wrong. But was it me or something else? During the next bit of downtime I established it wasn't me and then remembered the guitarist uses a capo. So either he'd forgotten, or it was in the wrong place. Which? I couldn't see. So I guessed, wrong as it turned out. There was never enough playing time to work out which key he was in. I think I mimed the last bit. Afterwards, the landlady, who didn't like us anyway, said "and in one song the bass was out of tune." PS. I did once see Sir Simon Rattle stop the Berlin Philharmonic a few bars into the Rite of Spring because they didn't start the way he wanted. So if it's ok for him ....

Don't know why I like the look of this ... [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Relic-Shortscale-Bass-Guitar-GodZilla-Pinup-Japan-old_W0QQitemZ320276757547QQihZ011QQcategoryZ159950QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]Shortscale Godzilla[/url]

Somewhere there's an eBay dictionary where the definition of "Prototype" is "ugly POS".

[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='249551' date='Jul 28 2008, 01:22 PM']I didn't really speak to anyone. I just handed over the cash for one of these brilliant pieces of kit... [/quote] I've got one of those. Seems lame to get excited over a stand, but it really is a superb piece of engineering.

Find something useful to do during songs where the bass doesn't come in till halfway through. For example, tidy out your gig bag, write out the set list for the next gig, clear out all those old receipts from your wallet, practice the riff for the next song. If the guitarist forgets his lead, explain that bass leads are wired with extra low impedance and aren't suitable for use with guitars. If the guitarist starts to play a song in the wrong key, never ever attempt to transpose the bass line in your head. If you get it wrong people will assume it's your fault. The correct procedure is to stop playing, wave your arms above your head and shout "What the f*ck are you doing" as loudly as possible.

The Americans I've come across from other forums don't seem to like Talkbass either. You have to remember that a lot of these people play country music, which explains almost everything.

I read something a while ago about why people do this (on any guitar, not just Fenders). I can't remember exactly what the potential fraud was, but I think it was along the lines that someone would claim the guitar had been stolen from them. It made reasonable sense when I read it originally. It was definitely a fraud against the seller, not someone using the SN to defraud others.