Kiwi

[quote name='Simon' post='458876' date='Apr 9 2009, 10:12 PM']I find my Sadowsky Metro J5 incredibly bright, so I wonder what the Celinder is like in comparison![/quote] Well personally, I've found the Celinder to be somewhat sweeter than the Sadowsky's I've tried but I'm reliably informed that the difference isn't that significant on stage.

Just discovered this fascinating set of documentaries about Ned Steinberger expanding Steinberger Sound while I was doing some research for an article on composite necks in the wiki Part 5 is particularly interesting for how Ned reacts to japanese rip offs of his designs.

I wouldn't pick holes in that assessment myself. I find my red Celinder is quite bright as well and it probably needs to be a bit warmer. I've found dead spots on the Update J5's as well. But bung Sads, Ateliers and Celinders all through a compressor and then what?

sweet bass and highly under rated.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='458756' date='Apr 9 2009, 07:43 PM']Almost every bass I've ever seen for sale here has been described as "the bess bass I've ever played" by the seller. I think people are just generous and they don't want to keep all the best basses for themselves.[/quote] Must see you coming then? But seriously, probably because they know how desirable they are, and can sell 'em on if they have too many. There are different flavours but all taste good and one is never enough.

The necks are very good. The one on my red Update J is half way between a p and a j neck in nut width (I've measured it!). The black update J I sold was a little bit narrower but still wider than a jazz. I think the strongest thing about Celinders is that Chris has genuinely cracked the secret of what makes a good jazz and precision bass and manages to deliver instruments that are [i]consistently[/i] good. You wouldn't think it would be so difficult but for the fact that there are so many others out there who have managed to nail it sometimes and missed the boat completely at other times suggesting that they haven't quite understood what they need to specify in the wood. Some manufacturers like Ernie Ball are extremely specific about the growth rings per inch, moisture content etc. in their maple and ash (and so they should be). They can probably afford to be that specific if they're buying massive bulk orders too. For the smaller buyers, its more a case of taking what is offered from their local timber merchant as its not in the merchants interests to spend much time going through a load of sawn logs and picking off the stuff that meets the standard. Thats often left to the luthier to do anyway. I did talk to Chris about doing an MM/J type bass at one point but he thought there wasn't an awful lot that he could do as a luthier to improve on the original stingray design (which is paying a massive compliment to EB stingrays). Whether the neck is lacquered or not is a matter of personal taste, Chris's operation is sufficiently small that I'm sure he could accommodate some minor tweaks in finish. In fact it might even be easier for him to do a satin finished neck because it requires less sanding and polishing.

I'm curious about it, has anyone here had any experience of applying it to bass?

[quote name='bootleg' post='457553' date='Apr 8 2009, 04:18 PM']I'm interested in that option. Any wiring instructions for that mod? Mine works in both active and passive. Though, to be honest, I doesn't work too good in either in that it effects the tone immediately and then further adjustments have no effect. is it broke? or a function?[/quote] Sounds like the capacitor might be bypassed in some manner (I'm no electronics expert) probably a good idea to check all the soldering joints and to make sure there are no shorts caused by fraying wires. As far as the passive tone wiring mod goes, I can't remember specifically off the top of my head what I did and I don't have my Jaydee any more as a reference. However the gist of what I did was to re-route the passive eq through the passive side of the active/passive switch...or something like that... I couldn't understand why it wasn't wired like that as standard to be honest.

If I'm not mistaken, that bass is a Roadie II Active - pretty much identical to a Mark King model but with a black headstock facing and no DI or body laminates. Nothing that makes a jot of difference to the sound really. The pickup selector switch has 4 positions so from back most position to front, the options should be 1) Off (no LED) 2) On - back pickup only 3) On - both pickups 4) On - neck pickup only The top chrome control knob is volume (self explanatory really, if you give it a tweak) and the bottom is passive tone which was originally wired to be in parallel with the active eq. However a simple mod can let it run alternatively to the active eq when the active eq switch is used. The five digit serial number was introduced some time around the late 80's I believe. I went to check the Jaydee serial number database but its no longer on the Jaydee website

Blimey, Mr Mann is back too!

I made a bit of a contribution to a previous thread here: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=21840"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=21840[/url] Might be worth this becoming a wiki topic maybe?

I am not worthy... Actually, you and I had lessons set up about 2 years ago but I think you had to go on tour or something. Anyways, welcome aboard matey. Hope you'll stick around and contribute to the forum.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='456246' date='Apr 7 2009, 11:15 AM']If you want someone to built you a bass from your ideas there are two ways to go. You could find a luthier who says they'll build you exactly what you want what ever that may be. Great! but they may not have done all the things you want it that particular combination before and the the end result might not live up to your expectations. A far better idea would be to find someone who's already building basses close to what you want, and have them make the modifications to that basic design that you require. There are so many custom bass makers out there and all accessible on the internet that someone somewhere will already be doing something close to your ideal. It's just a question of finding them.[/quote] +1 Be careful what you ask for, you'll probably get it. Assuming of course they are willing to modify their designs for you. I'm fairly sure Ken Smith and Ernie Ball wouldn't. Rob Green, Martin Peterson and Chris Celinder might depending on what is requested. John Diggins and Jon Shuker definitely will.

Well given April Fools is long past and people are still posting here, I've edited the title to reduce the risk of causing future coronaries.

by custom bass do you mean a bass tailor made to someone's requirements or an expensive off-the-shelf instrument?

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='328971' date='Nov 14 2008, 12:28 PM']As an engineer with some knowledge of pitch tracking, I'm disappointed to hear this. There shouldn't be any particular difficulty in tracking pitch bends even with a fretboard pickup system.[/quote] The pitch sensing is done electronically by fret position not by sensing the note. I don't think you could get the MB4 equipped systems to pitch bend any more than you could do it with a piano. If you did want to pitch bend then it might be quite simple to set up a MIDI controller to do it (like on a MIDI keyboard). I'd agree with you about the application of MIDI and stringed instruments though. I think there is still going to be a use for it regardless though.

Thats a good point and I was thinking about it yesterday myself. If I wanted to minimise the depreciation on any future automotive purchase I might make then going classic might be a good route in the future. However, not at the expense of modern comforts or reliability. Hmmmmmmm... ...a desirable marque from early 90's might be good value next time I'm looking to buy, maybe.

[quote name='escholl' post='453617' date='Apr 3 2009, 07:33 PM']Agreed. Also, a car is not, generally, a piece of art in its own right. A bass, an expensive bass, can be -- thus it's more.[/quote] You can define for yourself what constitutes art of course. But I think anyone who diamond encrusted and pickled their SX and then went on to ask for a few million quid because it was art would find themselves coming up a bit short on covering their costs of production. You can certainly turn a bass into a piece of art but so long as a bass is originally created with the primary purpose of being played then its not a piece of art, its a piece of craft. And if its created as a piece of art in the first place and as a piece of craft in the second then I'd suggest its value would be highly undermined to a bass player. Thats why I don't find the justification of high price tags on basses because they're pieces of "art" at all plausible. I think such claims by the makers are pretentious, to say the least, however we've all seen examples of accessibly priced basses whose makers have had artistic intentions and these instruments tend to blur the boundary a little more authentically (for me at least). But back on topic I think the points made about cars being plentiful and costing money to own is probably as good an explanation I can think of myself. Certainly if someone is looking to buy a used car there is a tremendous variety and range of conditions to choose from and I guess that is what drives the depreciation. And the point about the role of craftsmanship in adding value shouldn't be underestimated as well. Cars such as the one I own are very much a product of a manufacturing process rather than craftsmanship and are priced to take advantage of scales of economy and highly sophisticated, automated manufacturing process that gets cheaper to fund the more cars it produces. Having said all that, out of context, a comparison of the two still defies belief.

All donations are gratefully received! Ped and I have been considering setting up the forum so its eligible for gift aid too...but I think we'd have to register BC as a charidee.

Nice, there was a little over-singing but a lot of soul. Great how the feel was maintained all the way through the song too, despite changes in musicians.

I've just had a look at the value of my car and its about the same as the price as the Celinder Update J I sold recently (depreciation on the car of about 50% over the 3 years I've owned it). When I compare the two in terms of mechanical sophistication, technology and sheer amenity, there's no comparison. The car should be worth way more. I know its to do with market forces and all that but still nevertheless, the idea of trading my car (with its ABS, airbags, electric windows, cd player/radio, precision engineering etc.) for a couple of bits of wood bolted together with some hardware, magnets and basic wiring doesn't seem quite right. Any one else feel the same way?

[quote name='walbassist' post='451899' date='Apr 1 2009, 08:11 PM']No, as all that info was in the manual I assumed it's preloaded in the unit.[/quote] If you check the version number that comes up when you start up the unit, it might tell you for sure.

Well if its any consolation to anyone who still doesn't quite see the funny side of it, I was caught out in a major way myself this morning by a close friend. I fell for it mainly because I didn't think they knew about April Fools and served me up my worst nightmare on a plate! Just goes to show eh?

[quote name='walbassist' post='451513' date='Apr 1 2009, 02:19 PM']To answer CK's question about the tracking, some of the patches worked perfectly all the way down to open B, but others were rubbish below open A.[/quote] Did you download and install the bass compatibility update from the Roland site? [url="http://www.roland.com/products/en/_support/dld.cfm?ln=en&dsp=0&iCncd=311"]http://www.roland.com/products/en/_support...0&iCncd=311[/url]

[quote name='6stringbassist' post='451832' date='Apr 1 2009, 06:28 PM']He's from London, his dad was Polish hence the name.[/quote] Ah cheers for that. [quote name='6stringbassist' post='451832' date='Apr 1 2009, 06:28 PM']I agree with everything you say about hoping people don't spoil it for others, there are a lot of people on here, mysellf included who do want to improve as players, and having people like Janek, Steve and Jeff Berlin can only be a good thing.[/quote] I couldn't agree more myself. I think that it would be a crying shame for one or two members to spoil it for everyone else. I could approach quite a few pros myself and no doubt there are other members within Basschat who could do the same. I think its worth asking the question of whats in it for them though. Some of these Q&A sessions are like chat shows and that big name stars only come on when they've got something to push. So there's got to be a bit of too and fro here. No point in them making the time for this forum if they and their product are only going to get slagged off. BTW BBC, next time you say something tongue in cheek, might be useful to use an emoticon perhaps? It does reduce the potential for miscommunication and saves on the need for moderation too. Thanks.