Jono Bolton

What are thumb rests (or tug bars) generally made of? I've got one on my P which is hollow plastic and appears to be the same as those used on Fender re-issues, but were they always plastic, or were they made of wood on the early Fenders? It's one of those things I've always wondered but never got round to asking!

[quote name='BottomE' timestamp='1336649191' post='1648843'] Oooh - err don't go there! There is no way another musician is going anywhere near my bass gear. [/quote] If a musician pitches up at a gig asking to borrow your gear, then a musician they certainly ain't. I've loaned amps and basses out to friends who I know would take care of them, but if some snotty-nosed kid comes up to me at soundcheck and asks to use anything, they'll be politely but firmly be told to do one. Any gig I've played, I've always known which bands I'm playing with, and with the likes of Facebook and Myspace it's easy to send a message to the other bands asking if it's ok to share equipment, which I've been happy to do in the past, especially in small venues. I just don't agree with the expectant attitude of some people I've played with in the past.

I bought an American Standard Precision about 3 years ago on here from Clarky, which he'd bought from Nick (Old Horse Murphy). The two of them had done a fine job of keeping it looking pristine, and such was my fear of being the first to scruff it up, I barely played it. I like to keep nice things looking nice, but not if it's interfering with my use of it. I've got an MIM P Bass now that I previously owned and received back in a trade, and I'm much more comfortable with it. The original owner had it in a bit of a state and I preceded to clean it up and make it servicable, and someone who's had it between when I first owned it and when I received it back last year has added a few more dings and done a terribly sh*tty job of trying to drill the bass for pickup and bridge covers, which ruined the scratchplate and left a 5p coin-sized chip out of the finish by the bridge. This "mojo" (or whatever its called, I like damage)means I now have a bass that's great to play, and I'm much happier playing something that's a bit battered-looking, because I don't have to worry as much about damaging it further. Obviously I'm not going to go Pete Townshend on it or anything, but if it picks up a few knocks here and there, it's no big deal

My Jazz. It never gets played, it's sitting in the corner of my room just now and doesn't even have pickups in it at the minute, but it was an 18th birthday present from my folks so it'll never go. I was playing it the other night and it's brilliant to play with an excellent neck and great action, so I plan to save up over the course of this year and fix it up again.

Have you taken the sctrachplate off to have a look? If you can hear something loose inside the bass it can only really be in one of the cavities under the scratchplate. There certainly shouldn't be anything rattling about inside it at any rate.

Is that what that is? Hopefully there's a 'stiff as f***' setting.

Nice! I remember I saw Bedouin Soundclash a few years back and the bassist was using one of these, sounded great!

I'm sure The Bass Doc would be able to sort something out for you, drop him a PM

Great stuff, thanks everyone! These are the tuners I was looking at, but I found them from a seller on ebay for £42.95: http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/product/Vintage_Style_Bass_Tuners_Open_Gear_Nickel_GB-2LN Looks like a purchase is going to be scheduled in for payday, good job that this is our month off with the council tax!

Perfect, that's exactly what I was hoping to hear!

[quote name='Doctor J' timestamp='1336067173' post='1640487'] I've a few different Gotoh sets on the go here. You tune up, they stay in tune until you decide you want to change that. Don't know what else to tell you. [/quote] That's all I really needed to know I suppose, I've had Hipshots in the past and they were excellent, but about twice the price of the Gotohs, I think I paid £88 for a set of 4 HB-2s a few years back, they've since gone up in price. As the Gotohs were much cheaper I didn't know if there would a great difference in the quality, you get what you pay for as they say.

Has anybody here tried the above-mentioned tuners? I've been looking at getting some new one's for my P as the standard one's are struggling to hold their tuning. The Gotohs seem to retail at about £40 (eBay) which is about half the price of the Fender and Hipshot one's I've looked at. Does anyone know how they compare?

What are the delivery charges like? I had a look at the site but couldn't work it out.

I've got an Evo II ABM 300 that I got off eBay about 4 years ago for not much more than £200, and that was in used but still very good condition. It depends what you mean by 'beat up', is that a few scuffs or pretty knackered? Do you know what series it is? You've not given us very much information and not really told us what you're looking to find out.

And even then, the scale would be too short for me

There's only one of the Pawn Shop range that I like, and it's not even a bass:

Yuck! Because I'm using my work computer, a lot of pictures wont load up if they've been posted using Photobuckets and the like, so I had to do a wee Google search to find a picture. Needless to say, I was really disappointed, I was hoping for something like the old Squier Supersonic:

That fretless P is beautiful!

[quote name='LowdownRumble' timestamp='1334776604' post='1621200'] Mine isn't any louder than my old passive bass was. And the change of batteries is pissing me off and I hate that I cant leave it plugged in. Is there such a thing as an active/passive bass? Such as, when the battery dies switch to passive and rock on? [/quote] The Fender Marcus Miller Jazz has a active/passive switch, it may just have been the way I had the EQ set but I noticed a big increase in volume when going from passive to active. If you can switch between the two then I believe it's usually passive pickups, with an active EQ, that was certainly the case with the MM.