Kiwi

OK peeps, time to close this one down I'm afraid. I'm not going to take sides over what's gone on but it's probably a good thing for those involved to take a chill pill and find something else to chew on while we let the feathers settle.

I held this bass last week, before the lacquer went on. Its very comfy and reasonably light. i'd be very happy with it if it were mine.

[quote name='steve' post='358555' date='Dec 19 2008, 08:52 AM']link please [/quote] Hahaha, NO WAY!

[quote name='Hit&Run' post='364190' date='Dec 27 2008, 02:42 PM']I know AJ played on 'ain't nobody', so there's a good chance he cut other tracks as well.[/quote] We play "Ain't Nobody" at the end of our first set. Its a superb bass line but I'm pretty certain from the sound and manner in which its constructed, that its a keyboard line?! I don't believe MIDI bass was very widely available at the time the track was recorded.

18v allows more headroom but this probably needs a bit of explanation. It's a bit like the difference in bandwidth between a 1mb connection and an 8mb connection and the difference all depends on what you want to do. If you imagine you've got the vibrations of a plucked string on your PC as a graphic waveform a bit like this: With a louder the note the peaks are at higher and lower extremes. For the attacky bits in a note, the sound would be relatively loud and show up as sharper peaks. A waveform for a series of plucked notes might look something like this: What 18v does better than 9v is pass on the extremes of those attack peaks (also known as transients). The extreme peaks normally need a bit of extra oomph to get passed on which the 9v can't do. Transients can also ruin speaker cones and blow HF horn fuses if boosted too much. However in most live gigging situations the difference between 9v and 18v probably isn't going to be that noticeable to fingerstyle players. For people who slap or tap and want the attack of their playing to be passed on faithfully to the amp or PA, 18v might make things sound a little bit cleaner and crisper, especially in a recording situation. It also depends on the instrument, I'd imagine you'd be able to appreciate a 18v preamp a lot more easily in a Status Stealth than in a Gibson EB-3, just because the Status is a much more efficient instrument (although let me add not necessarily better sounding to everyone). Jonas Hellborg had a 36v preamp in his signature Status bass because he wanted to pass on as much of the transients of his playing as possible. I think he has a similar number of batteries in his Abe Wechter acoustic and it also drove the development behind his Warwick line of amps. I guess this means that in a quiet setting you'll get more of the power, more of the intimacy of someone's playing if they're doing solo work, but I can't imagine anyone ever needing a 36v preamp or being able to appreciate the difference in transient attack when playing in a band. Some of the EMG circuits (and IIRC the John East preamps) are capable of taking anywhere between 9 - 24v. It all depends on what you're going to use the bass for and what other gear you're planning to use. Its important to think of the bigger picture as well. Its all very well having a bass that is capable of making sweet jesus love to your ear drums but there's no point in plugging it into an amp that is designed for bog standard fender type basses. The benefits are unlikely to be passed on all the way to your speaker. (And speakers are yet another thing entirely that I'm sure AlexClaber will pick up on).

If anyone likes Julian Crampton's playing, he's available to teach at the moment and he also did some sterling work with Joey Negro in the Sunburst Band. The band did its first live gig in a number of years in November. So I hope they're planning to do a few more yet.

welcome aboard

[quote name='Alun' post='363399' date='Dec 25 2008, 08:24 PM']To be honest, a busy function band will probably expose the gear to a lot more people than an original band doing the pub circuit [/quote] I like the way you think! Wanna become my agent?

[quote name='MythSte' post='363390' date='Dec 25 2008, 08:03 PM']It really is just about being shameless. I dont particularly like it but if it gets me free gear or artist prices...![/quote] Hmm, my band doesn't really live the dream of being adored by the masses for playing originals. We're a bit meat and potatoes and just entertain the punters. Most of the punters probably couldn't give a toss about what strings I'm playing. Billy Sheenan was in a covers band for a long time though (Talas) so maybe there's hope for me one day.

I don't have any endorsements. I'm not good enough and I don't really go out of my way to attract attention to myself anyway. Any freebies you gents could flick my way would be gratefully recieved though .

[quote name='johnnylager' post='363226' date='Dec 25 2008, 09:00 AM']3 posts. EDIT: Possibly.[/quote] LOL [quote name='s_u_y_*' post='363215' date='Dec 25 2008, 05:00 AM']I am a member and find it a useful resource, but really dislike the attitude of some of the forumites there.[/quote] +1 I find there's a certain level of sanctimony, posturing and a collective narrow mindedness expressed by members on some topics which I find patronising, unnecessary and shallow. A few of the regulars do seem to get a bit high on themselves as well. Technically there's nothing over there that I couldn't find out myself through someone here or by googling. The only threads that have peaked my interest there have been on Meshell N'degeocello, composite speaker cabinets, and graphite necks which I've contributed to more than gained benefit from. The rest of it I can leave without losing sleep. Having said that, I've exchanged emails with Paul D. in the past and wouldn't want any of what I think about the membership to reflect badly on him. Any forum THAT big is going to be a handful to manage consistently when relying on voluntary effort.

150 quid with Fedex, overnight delivery to France. They're not the cheapest, but they're super quick and they offer damn good service. I even got friendly with the local collection bod!

Lovely job! You're right about the fanned frets creating an optical illusion. What did the eggs think of it? They look worried.

I'm not so keen on the Sei and Skjold shapes because of the lack of concentric curves (which were a Fender styling innovation.) I think some of the Overwater body shapes are a little stubby on the horns and I'm not so keen on the early Jon Shuker designs with the stubby lower horn. There is another but last time I expressed an opinion on that maker, I got flack in return, so I'm not going to bother mentioning them again. Shapes I like the look of include Alembic, Jaydee, early Status, Spector, and the later (post-Dood) Shuker designs. All nicely balanced, flowing and proportional. The Shuker was by far the most comfortable of any bass I've ever played.

I think that sets the gain level, depending on what is best for your mixing desk. I would speak to your sound man on the night as the requirements may differ depending on the desk he's using at a gig. The PRE/POST allows you to select whether to take the DI before or after your equaliser settings. For live work, normally its best to take it before (pre eq) otherwise any settings you've dialled on the amp for on-stage monitoring may differ to what works for the PA. The sound man won't have to add extra compensation on the mixing desk eq for your bass through the PA if there's any mis-match or overlap. The ground lift (GND/LIFT) is just for any situation where the DI is causing buzz. I'm not totally clear on why buzz should be present in a shielded DI but usually I have mine set to GND unless the sound man instructs me to do otherwise.

I thought it was bad too. Nevermind, here's some more Pino... A god amongst men. (imo)

This one? I'm not so sure Pino is THAT tall but why take my word for it, he's on this clip: I can't tell to be honest. Dollar could be major short arses.

[quote name='Shockwave' post='361401' date='Dec 22 2008, 09:02 PM']Well. 72 hours after selling my red SR5, I am now expecting a nice new white SR5 through my door soon [/quote] Hahaha, nice one Rob. Easy go, easy come yeh?

I nearly pulled the trigger on that Stingray 5. But no, I'm going to be good and wait for the Shuker to be finished... :wacko:

I've been using a couple of basses for a while now. In a previous band, I used a fretted and fretless, so I got matching instruments to reduce the eq faffage needed when I swapped instruments. Then I left that band and joined another (made up of people from the old band) and there was no need for a fretless but I still needed two basses because for the Chic songs we played, a jazz bass or smith/spector just didn't work. So for a while I was using a rack mounted 1u mixer and then a couple of weeks ago I picked up an EBS Microbass II off MXM and plug both the Spector (which runs hot) and the Stingray (which doesn't) into both channels and switch between them. Because the Shuttle 6 is so small, I don't really need a rack and the Microbass seems to do the job reasonably well, although it would be nice to have the same eq on both channels. At the moment I put the Spector on Ch B because it already has a sweep eq, and save Ch A for the Stingray. The pedal has a faint colouring that reminds me of a sonic maximiser. Nothing that gets in the way of the basses midrange though.

[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='360715' date='Dec 22 2008, 09:43 AM']I'm pretty happy with my LMII, it does a fine job but I'm very Shuttle curious - especially as I have a GB Neox 212. Anyone AB'd the two heads?[/quote] I did at Bass Direct Al, there's not a lot between them but I would say that the Shuttle is slightly firmer in the mids than the LMII. Apart from that they sounded very similar to me.

[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='360769' date='Dec 22 2008, 10:46 AM']I'm a bit scared of using a headless bass - does that make me a headless chicken?[/quote] I'm sure there must be a road crossing joke in there somewhere too, Al.

[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='360767' date='Dec 22 2008, 10:41 AM']Absolutely lovely bass Steve, you have remarkable taste - can't wait to see this one finished [/quote] Wow, thanks Al, I'm flattered! I never imagined the birdseye curly redwood might look so good when I bought it off Ebay 3 years ago. With the masking tape removed off the fingerboard, I imagine it might be a bit of a birdseye fest!

[quote name='Merton' post='360738' date='Dec 22 2008, 10:03 AM']Steve, what a gorgeous bass! Bet you're like a kid waiting for, er, Christmas [/quote] Yeah! I have been for quite a while. The facing wood is filled with tiny pockets of resin which prevented the finish from drying. Jon said he's had to partially strip the bass three times because of the finish issues but he's going to get the finish "perfect" (his word). He ended up wiping the bass down with acetone to dissolve the resin and then filled in the pockets with superglue. Some of these 'pockets' are tiny, literally pin pricks! Then he put about three layers of barrier coat on top and refinished in some coats of poly. There are still some air bubbles in the finish that need sorting but its getting there. I saw how uneven the finish is after it goes on, there seems to be a hell of a lot of flatting that goes into the instrument to make the finish mirror smooth. We did a gig in a chapel last night and I sat down with the Spector 6 and just jammed on some latin chordal+melody stuff after soundcheck so I could enjoy the acoustics. I hope to do a bit more of that with the Shuker bass in the future! [quote name='eude' post='360740' date='Dec 22 2008, 10:05 AM']Back on topic, your headless bass is making me GAS so damned hard for a headless 6er of my own, I think I might have to stop checking this thread till I can afford a deposit!...[/quote] Headless 6'ers make so much sense to me in terms of their design and ergonomics. The Shuker feels SO comfortable, it's almost too intimate. I hope it will sound ok! I suspect its going to be a little brighter than the Smiths but that's not necessarily a bad thing.