Kiwi

Hell yes! I'll be starved of decent company out there for a while.

i had a similiar experience with a warwick cl combo and it turns out that it was over heating because it hadn't been fitted with a thermostat when it left the factory.

I tried a 5502 in the gallery yesterday. Superb instrument, looks to me like they're another company who have the wood specification spot on in terms of growl. [u]Positives: [/u] Versatility Growl warmth build quality Jazz bass sound was great weight - relatively light for what it is [u]Negatives:[/u] string spacing a little too wide (for me) neck a little too wide at nut (for me) MM pickup wasn't as grunty as a real MM (but punters probably wouldn't care, to be honest)

all sorted

Skank, Rich, Lee, Simon and Ray - thanks chaps [quote name='Born 2B Mild' post='477729' date='May 2 2009, 02:41 PM']Maybe you need to change your avatar name to [b]The Nightshift[/b] ? Hope to visit NZ one day, and maybe say hello in person. BTW, what happened to your CrazyKiwi basses you were designing/building?[/quote] Hey B2B, that would great. I'm on the verge of registering a trade mark for the brand name and I hope what I've chosen will be cooler than Crazykiwi! The design is on hold, partially because I've had to divert the funds into paying for the shipping of my stuff to NZ instead. Also, Jon has a fairly sizable order book and doesn't have the time to build the bodies at the moment with all the custom work coming in so I've decided to let things take a back seat until my situation is a little more stable and I know how much I can put into the venture. Jon will keep the necks I have in the meantime and will do the bodies if/when he has a quiet period. I suspect that might be a while yet though. The other suppliers I can sort out as/when I have the funding as the lead in times are relatively short. I will look into sourcing some decorative NZ native woods while I'm there and perhaps send some tops back to Jon so the instruments will look genuinely unique. There's even a small chance I could lay my hands on some 30,000 year old acrylised swamp kauri if I find a source. And maybe we can do a small inlay out of NZ paua shell too if I find some that isn't too wormy. I dunno, I'll have a scrounge around and see what kind of interesting stuff I can discover. It might be an idea for the basses to have random collections of scrounged pieces of wood, bone and shell, if I can weave a story behind them. I'll also be taking a couple of necks over with me and experimenting with bodies out of NZ wood too.

why make it out of wood? how about some honeycomb aluminium sheeting?

thanks guys

Thanks Marty, Josh and JPAC. Josh, we call 'Te Wai Pounamu' the Mainland. My family are based in Christchuch but work may well take me to Auckland where I have some contacts from my time in London. FWIW, I'll have a couple of hours to kill in London around knock off time on May 20th if any of the London based members fancy hooking up for one last drink before I head off to Heathrow? PM me if you're interested.

[quote name='obi 2 kenobi' post='476822' date='May 1 2009, 11:11 AM']you could always leave some of your gear (specifically the Alembic or Pedulla) at Obi's shack pending your return[/quote] LOL, Ped already offered but thanks. [quote name='mike257' post='476831' date='May 1 2009, 11:18 AM']I'm only [i]slightly[/i] jealous!![/quote] Well its a small consolation to me but Mercer's Quality of Living survey for 2009 has just been released with the following results: Top 5 cities - Overall Vienna, Austria (1st) Zurich, Switzerland (2nd) Geneva, Switzerland (3rd ) Vancouver, Canada (tied 4th) Auckland, New Zealand (tied 4th) [url="http://www.mercer.com/referencecontent.htm?idContent=1173105#Top_50_cities:_Quality_of_living"]http://www.mercer.com/referencecontent.htm...ality_of_living[/url] [quote name='The Bass Doc' post='476836' date='May 1 2009, 11:22 AM']I guess it will go a bit quiet for you on the forum whilst you transact the move and we should also allow you time to settle in there because I suppose you'll be a bit upside down for a while. Good luck.[/quote] Thanks Howard, it'll be no surprise to you then that this is how some NZ'ers prefer look at the world:

[quote name='Wooks' post='476806' date='May 1 2009, 10:55 AM']can't imagine how you're feeling with a move half way round the world[/quote] I've just spent three days inventorising everything I own for the purpose of insurance and that was a real grind. Apart from that, I've just chosen a company that will do all the packing for me and tried to anticipate what I need by way of gear before I leave, as its going to be a bit more expensive to purchase anything in NZ.

Thanks chaps I'm going to miss the UK. The one job opportunity that was lined up seems to have descended into some squabbling between the funding organisations over who is paying for it and whether it should be permanent or temporary! There was another one with Rich's employer but Cambridge. However even this role been withdrawn because of the economic situation. That works out to be about one vacancy a month! [quote name='chris_b' post='476791' date='May 1 2009, 10:42 AM']Best of luck. I seem to recall there being a [i]lot[/i] of New Zealanders in Sydney for the work. Any chance you'll end up there?[/quote] Its definitely something I can look into after I've landed. But I've got rellies in Sydney who are saying that the uncertainty has hit the engineering sector there at least, and that sector is usually closely linked to regeneration by the same clients. I've got two job leads in Auckland that are looking good and even the council who I didn't get a job with asked me to get in contact with them once I land as they have another position they want to fill. So even when I haven't been successful, the effort hasn't been a total write off either.

I've made references to it in some of my posts recently but for any of you who weren't aware, I'm emigrating to NZ in a few weeks. The reasons are 100% economic and to fall back on the support of family while I get my career in urban regeneration back on a stable footing. After being made redundant three times because of a lack of projects, it seems to me that even if I do snag another job in the UK, there's nothing preventing the same thing from happening a fourth time. I also needed to make the decision to emigrate while I could still afford it. I really don't want to leave the UK but well placed contacts I have in the property development sector are also telling me there's going to be a load more pain to go through in the commercial property market yet before things get better. So it looks like more people in my profession are going to be made redundant as cash and credit reserves are exhausted by developers and commissions continue to dry up. (Just so I don't appear to be a purveyor of doom and gloom, I think other sectors like service industries and manufacturing are going to pick up sooner because they're less reliant on credit). But the short story is that I'm probably looking at years rather than months before things get better. So what this means is [u]I'll still be on Basschat[/u] but I'll be 12 hours ahead of the UK. It also means I won't be able to respond quickly to PM's or situations if they occur during the middle of the day (while NZ is asleep) and obviously I won't be able to physically attend any more Bassbashes unless I happen to be in the UK on holiday or something when one is on. Maybe when the banks lose some of their arrogance and recognise first time buyers as a valuable market once again, then things will look a load more positive for everyone. Anyways, just wanted to let you all know about that just in case any of you need a quick response on anything at some point in the future.

Good stuff! I was also looking at the spec for the Big Baby cab and wondering about two, but with my window for purchases rapidly running out, it seems unlikely that I will be able to take anything to NZ with me.

[quote name='urb' post='476433' date='Apr 30 2009, 10:12 PM']One tip I'll add is... TURN DOWN... it's amazing how music loses so much of its dynamic range when you are play at high volume, obviously if you are into extreme volume levels then fine, but lots of other musical styles will benefit from stripping things down and leaving lots of space, it'll just make those BIG choruses sounds even bigger when everyone joins in.... just a thought.[/quote] I've tried this in a few bands and it does work in rehearsal, we got tighter because we could hear each other more clearly...but on stage we ended up being drowned out by the FOH!

[quote name='JPJ' post='476413' date='Apr 30 2009, 09:45 PM']CK, is that what you made of that sorry specimen from Germany with the lopped off horns?[/quote] The body was part of it, and when I got the 77 body, I decided to make a new bass out of the parts I had left over along with a new status neck. Must have cost me about 650-700 in parts I think.

Glad you appreciate my handiwork I'm still kicking myself over how little I let that bass go for. You need a Cutlass or two in there next I think!

I still swear by my MPXG2. I've had it 4 years and it seems to be infinitely configurable. If you have favourite pedals, the MPXG2 can integrate them and you can switch them in and out with the other effects in a patch if you like. Prices in the US have halved in the last year or so since they stopped making it, I've seen them selling for about $500 on fleabay. I'm still amazed by mine even now and I'm looking for another.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='475790' date='Apr 30 2009, 10:37 AM']It shows the value of an effective MD. I think one of the things we do badly in this UK is the practice of working together as a team to ensure the best possible product. Due to circusmtances, we all tend to tolerate 'adequacy' without comment, preferring not to rock the boat (its a very British thing).[/quote] Good grief yes although band members taking criticism too personally can also act as an obstacle to improvement too. Its important for the band leader to couch their comments in a way that the rest of the band find palatable (spoon full of sugar and all that...). Jools Holland is superb at this, from what I've heard. Also the band leader needs to be accepted by the rest of the band as the leader. There's no point in someone charging in and critiquing before the rest of the band have understood why he should be leader. The leader has got to take the rest of the band along with them in any decision making process and that, to some extent, is influenced by the pace of the least cooperative member of the band. Or it can alienate and split the band up (as I'm sure many others will have seen for themselves with dictatorial band leadership). The other thing I'll add is that knowing your gear intimately can also help save you money. I was all set to look at another effects unit in addition to my MPXG2 because I needed something with twin inputs. I did a bit of digging around in the user manual and discovered I could use the Insert loop as an extra pair of stereo inputs in parallel with the input jack, instead of just a stereo effects loop switched in series! So now I get to combine the stereo signal from my MIDI bass rig with the dry out and apply stereo effects to both. Bloody amazing little unit.

[quote name='The Funk' post='475301' date='Apr 29 2009, 05:38 PM']I like it when people do that. I try to do that myself from time to time but I don't have the stature (physical or professional) of AJ.[/quote] Classic technique in courtroom drama cross examinations though. Oh, and any number of Jeff Berlin rants too. He's only resorting to an emotive argument because he's got nothing else to use as evidence. The most persuasive arguments in my limited experience usually let the facts speak for themselves.

He's not actually that fat any more for those who haven't seen him in the last few years. He's shed a shitload of weight and looks quite trim now. This is one off Matt Garrison's site. EDIT: Of course there's every possibility he might have put it all back on again...

[quote name='ped' post='475562' date='Apr 29 2009, 10:38 PM']Mine was a 4 string so can't comment on the affect on the B string but of all the Bart equipped basses I have had, this was the best. I really like Bart pickups when in the right bass. To my ears it sounded warm, punchy and superbly clean. Isn't the 5er J+J?[/quote] The only bass where Barts have sounded good to my ears was in my Modulus Quantum fretless. They really suited that particular instrument well by taming the highs and fattening the lower mids. [quote name='4000' post='475568' date='Apr 29 2009, 10:42 PM']I tried one with EMGs, but didn't like it as much. I think it all depends what you're playing through, how you eq and what sound you're after[/quote] Well I'll let the results speak for themselves in any case. This is the Pentabuzz with Alembics fitted - click on the sound samples if you like. Loads more upper mid growl with the Alembics fitted. The barts just muffled all that purr. [url="http://www.freewebs.com/crazykiwi_bass/pedullapentabuzz.htm"]http://www.freewebs.com/crazykiwi_bass/pedullapentabuzz.htm[/url] FWIW, I haven't had a bad reaction to it from anyone who's played it and I've owned the instrument for about 4-5 years.