Kiwi

Lovely stuff presoul! Congratulations! You've supported their gear for quite a while haven't you?

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='173796' date='Apr 10 2008, 11:31 AM']Personally, having basses with; A Maple Neck and Phenolic 'board, The Vigier with its 10/90 neck and Phenolic 'board, Numerous Wooden items (!), And having played Statii, Modulii (sic), Ped and the Doc's S2 Vigiers, Cutlasses etc. with their all-graphite necks, what I'd like is.... A Graphite necked instrument with a wooden fretboard. Especially a fretless with an ebony fingerboard or a fretted with Wenge... Stability & neutrality from the neck. Warmth from the fretboard... Anybody? or am I totally mental?![/quote] +100000000000000 I've played the same basses and come to the same conclusion, although we could both be mental. I've been searching for somone who will sell headless graphite necks with wooden fingerboards for YEARS. I've talked to Rob Green about selling me a headless neck too. Sometimes he's said yes and sometimes he's said no depending on when I've spoken to him. I think a nice bit of wenge on the front of a graphite neck would go a long way towards cutting down the fret clatter and brittleness. Interesting that we've formed the same conclusions from totally different starting points perhaps...?

After 4 hours searching this morning, I re-discovered what is perhaps one of the only true custom graphite bass manufacturers (ie will make you a custom all-graphite instrument from a shape you supply). [url="http://www.miller-instruments.com/"]http://www.miller-instruments.com/[/url] This is one of their standard models - all graphite:

heheh, ok Kev, so does the logo look like mine or is it lacking the "1"?

Its all about what motivates you isn't it?

[quote name='bassmandan' post='171970' date='Apr 8 2008, 12:47 AM'] [/quote] Definitely gets a prize for being the most boring bassline. I mean, just show up with a looper pedal, play for the first 4 bars and walk off stage! Easy money! Peekaboo is still hard to beat though

I suspect the problem maybe that the amp is overheating. I had a similar issue with a Warwick combo years ago.

Here's one for the books. Jeff Bridges the actor is apparently a bass player. Steve Klein designed an acoustic bass on behalf of Taylor:

[quote name='The Burpster' post='173703' date='Apr 10 2008, 09:49 AM']Ahhhh but we like drink laden floosiees......! [/quote] +1

[quote name='doctor_of_the_bass' post='173495' date='Apr 9 2008, 10:37 PM']Nick (ps - just bought another Vigier!)[/quote] That one off Ebay? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250231217670"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=250231217670[/url] Ped and I had it on our watch lists too.

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='172878' date='Apr 9 2008, 09:41 AM']I like CK's idea of asking posters if they'd give a bit of an introduction but shouldn't the onus be on the person joining BC to have the decency to do that?[/quote] In principal, [i]absolutely[/i]. FWIW I believe the whole point of running forums like this is so people CAN SHARE stuff eg. information, advice and experiences. The more people share, the better the forum is. However we also have a range of backgrounds and social dispositions. As you've already pointed out, some people don't sign up with the intention (or time even) to become part of the forum. However if the membership encourages newbies to become more involved, then I can't think of a better way to retain them and (hopefully) make the place more interesting to use. I'd suggest its the membership who can make the biggest difference, not the mods.

great article, nice layout too!

But what's the big deal about post counts any way? I mean, am I right in understanding that there are members who feel threatened because another member has accumulated 10 posts from classified ads? Is that the point of being a member for some?

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='172741' date='Apr 8 2008, 11:50 PM']People 'may' be missing my point. It is the number/multitude of people coming on here and they launch straight into sale mode. What's wrong with saying 'Hi, this is me'?[/quote] I understand your frustration, but there's not a lot of options open to the mods to encourage politeness. However, if you see some people who are just posting classifieds, how about about one of you invite them to introduce themselves in the intro forum, by posting the invite on their for sale thread? If they take you up on the offer you'll have a slightly better insight into the kind of person they are. It also shows that the forum is interested in new members instead of viewing all non-locals with suspicion. If they don't bother to introduce themselves, then you're definitely in the picture about what their intentions are. And every one else knows too. However this isn't justification for lynching them if they're not cooperative. You might just be better off showing a bit of tolerance and just focussing on enjoying another part of the forum, maybe?

Hi wajzne, loads of polish people where I live and I have good friends in Poland too (and an addiction to zubrowka). Welcome aboard! What kind of gear do you have?

Damn, thats a pretty good price, but what year is your cutlass? Is it from around 83 when a lot of them were made? Any chance you could pop the neck and take a photo of the heel? I'm really curious to find out what those numbers mean and whether there's any date order to them.

[quote name='BassManKev' post='172485' date='Apr 8 2008, 06:30 PM']iv lost count of how many times iv suggested this, but i still think that members should have to have a certain post count and/or a certain amount of time since joining, before being able to post new threads in the for sale forums[/quote] I believe members have also made a good case for why thats going to create more problems than it solves, each time you've raised it.

[i]Features:[/i] This 34” scale instrument was made in 1984 at the Musicman factory in California. I bought it off Ebay, the bass had some provenance in that the serial was already included on Rod Trussbroken’s database of serial numbers so I felt confident that it hadn’t been created out of spare parts as can sometimes be the case. The bass has 22 frets and 4 strings with an black plastic pickguard and is finished in solid white. For the age, the bass is in remarkably good condition, it looks to have been gigged only in limited amounts. The bass is active and has two humbucker pickups and a stock MM 2 band eq. The neck pickup differs in design to the bridge pickup in that the magnets are smaller and in 4 pairs like a jazz pickup rather than single fat pole pieces like the standard MM humbucker. This might explain why the pickups are hidden under plastic covers rather than exposed as in the stingray. The controls feature one volume, a later edition stratocaster-style 5 way pickup selector switch with a treble and bass control. Earlier models featured a 3 way selector switch including separate switches for coil phasing and treble boost. The body is made from alder or ash and features no date stamp but the neck pocket has the initials GG and EV in pencil. The bass has a body style is the same as the sabre shape so features body chamfers in contrast to the slab bodied pre-EB stingray. The neck joint has 4 bolts and doesn’t have the microtilt feature from the 3 bolt models. The neck dimensions are a cross between a jazz and precision bass in width although The neck has a slight bow in it – at least to me and I’m used to playing basses with very straight necks. Others perhaps with stronger hands find the action and playing height very comfortable. I can play the bass without any problem but for faster passages moving up the neck I definitely prefer lower action. The bridge is standard Musicman Sabre issue, which is very substantial and almost horseshoe shaped. Its of very different construction compared to the plate based design of the stingray bridge but they share two dimensions of movement and top loaded string anchoring. The tuners are classic fender type open backed clover leaf types with conventional gearing. The bass didn’t come with a case but normally I would expect to see it with a hardshell plastic tapered musicman case. The plastic on these cases gets brittle with age and has been known to crack, particularly around the hinges. [i]Sound:[/i] The sound of this bass could is very versatile, as versatile as a jazz bass and the sounds are, on the whole, warmer and fuller. The pickups selector has a series of very illogical settings based on the coils numbered 1+2 (bridge pup) and 3+4 (neck pup). All the coils are wired in parallel, similar to Smith basses. Position (bridge to neck) 1) coil 3 2) coils 1&2&3 3) coils 1&2 4) coils 1&2&3&4 5) coils 3&4 I‘ve grown to really like this bass in a short space of time and my experience gigging with it has made me wonder if Sabres are not highly under rated for what they offer. I guess the looks are a little bit half way between a fender and a stingray and the body is a tad smaller than a stingray too. The only criticism I would make is that I felt the neck pickup could probably be a little fuller. Maybe I should put it closer to the strings but I’ve heard some talk about the neck pick up exerting some string pull and truncating sustain somewhat. I haven’t yet sensed that although I do have the neck pickup further from the strings at the moment. At the moment I use the bass with Gallien Krueger and Trace valve amps through Gallien Krueger 2x10 and EBS neo 2x12 cabs. It sounds superb through both amps, particularly growly through the GK set up. It also sounds very full through the V8 but I haven’t gigged at full volume with the V8 yet. [i]Action Fit and Finish:[/i] The action of this instrument is fairly high for my tastes primarily due to a preset bow in the neck. The feel of this bass however is consistent with the feel of my Cutlass 1 bass. I can’t help but think that if the necks had been manufactured with wooden fingerboards, it would have avoided many of the issues but there again hindsight is a wonderful thing. These graphite necks were produced at a time when there was an abundance of optimism and less understanding than currently exists for composite necks. Otherwise, the finish of components is very good and the bass looks in good condition for an instrument of 1984 vintage. [i]Reliability/Durability:[/i] The bass has proven very reliable so far but I’ve only gigged it once. When I recieved the bass, coil number three didn’t work but Andy from Wizard pickups performed a (very) quick rewind on it and the bass performs very well now. The hardware is robust and the neck stable doesn’t seem to flex much. Apart from the issue of action, there have been no issues with the performance of the instrument whatsoever. [i]Customer Support:[/i] Its fair to say there’s absolutely none available. Ernie Ball doesn’t stock preEB parts and holds no information on preEB basses. [i]Overall rating:[/i] I own a range of other bass gear including Smiths, Musicmans, an Alembic, a Celinder Update P and Pedulla, plus more stuff I’ve sold on. As already mentioned, I think this is an very versatile bass even though it often plays second fiddle to its more idiosyncratic sister bass, the Cutlass I. I note that the neck pickup on HH stingrays also sounds a bit weedy as well. I’m not sure what can be done to remedy this but I’d say that as a player bass, the Cutlass II is way more versatile than a Cutlass I and probably the superior gigging bass. It can do everything the Cutlass I can and then some. I kind of wish they made a 5 string version of the sabre but I guess that’s what the HH SR5 does these days.

[quote name='PaulMartin' post='172411' date='Apr 8 2008, 04:57 PM']I don't think you can really lay down rules about minimum numbers of posts or length of time as a member but it's annoying and feels like people are taking the p1ss when they just come on here to flog stuff. It would be nice if they had the manners to introduce themselves.[/quote] I understand that completely too, but what can realistically be done? Like I said, if you don't trust the person don't buy from them. The fact that SOME members do buy from them suggests there's at least a demand from within the membership, surely?

The cost of a step down transformer can vary substantially, depending on the power rating it has. I wish I could remember where I got the one I used with my SWR Bass350... ...someone on BW bought it off me.

aiii respec bruv! welcome an' all

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='172335' date='Apr 8 2008, 03:37 PM']Unlike fleabay we have no way of verifying anything about newbie sellers. I'm not about to part with my hard earned to a complete stranger but there may well be a few on here who are a bit less thorough in their vetting of a bass related item or its seller. I'm well aware that there are those who will shout let the buyer be ware etc and tough luck if you're fool enough to part with your dosh without seeing/collecting it BUT we are a bit of a bass community... aren't we?[/quote] Indeed we are but this whole issue is a bit complicated. What happens when something goes wrong? Who gets blamed? The basic premise of 'caveat emptor' doesn't change regardless of what safeguards are put in place because a foolproof system doesn't exist. Regardless of however you look at it, everyone takes on a responsibility of assessing their own exposure to risk - thats why the existing feedback forum works how it does. Even if we we operated a members only bass club where someone is recommended and seconded before membership is approved, that isn't any guarantee. If you're not comfortable trusting someone then common sense suggests that you either don't do business with them, or you reach some kind of arrangement whereby you have a recourse if things don't go as well as expected. For example, face to face meeting at the sellers house so you can check the item over to your satisfaction before you leave with it. If members start assuming a degree of safety on this forum because its a community, then that places an obligation of responsibility ON the community to look after the seller. Next thing we know there are vigilante groups on witch hunts like there was on the Dudepit and all sorts of unnecessary drama, name calling, bruised egos, tiaras, tantrums, lawsuits, tsunamis, volcanoes, tornados and coachloads of smurf headed UN personnel prodding the aftermath etc. Oh, and its probably going to be a less pleasant place to use. As I've said time and time again, if you have some concerns about a seller drop one of the mods a PM. We can check them out on other forums and stuff, then approach them offline with questions. If you have a small group of sellers you trust, that's great but what we can't have happening is people being lynched for posting stuff just because they're new and a potential threat. They may actually have the best of intentions and it would be detrimental in the long run to assume all [url="http://www.thisisalocalshop.com"]"non-locals"[/url] are threatening. Phatmonkey is looking at a form of enhanced feedback system within the range of modules this forum can host but its a very basic system and isn't going to safeguard against abuse or retaliatory feedback. At the end of the day its probably not going to be a massive improvement on the feedback forum we already have.