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Hi @philw Attached are a few photos of the control cavity. Is this what you wanted, or was it the battery box + control board end you wanted? Phil

Dear all, I recently purchased a rather nice Hohner Jack from @eddbass on this very forum (thanks!) Unfortunately, because I practice in a rather noisy electrical environment (solar PV inverters), I'm noticing some noise on the Jack in passive mode, through either/both pickups, which only goes away on touching the metal jack (or otherwise providing a good path to ground). I'm assuming that this means that the grounding is a bit suspect - do others agree? Did Hohner use the same style of grounding as Fender and others (i.e. ground wire touching the bridge, soldered to the sleeve of the jack socket), or should I be looking elsewhere to find the source of the problem? I'm probably going to end up shielding the control cavity and pickup cavities anyway (plus linking all shielding together and then to ground), but wanted to find the source of this noise first. Thanks for any help and tips, Phil

Where did you get it? Import from Japan? Very nice indeed

Nice! I have had a Clement Anne 5 string fretless (semi-chambered) for years and love it. It's a much better instrument than I can do justice to, but I enjoy it every time I pick it up. Enjoy the Florida beauty! Phil

Depends what you are running into it. Rough rule of thumb - passive bass needs active DI Active bass (or anything with buffer like effects pedals) needs passive DI. However, as with all these rules of thumb, it depends what you want. I like the slightly warmer sound of a passive DI containing a transformer, but am too tight to buy a Radial JDI. Instead, I went the local route and get a pre-loved transformer DI from Canford (EMO 520). Quite a few touring PA companies in the UK use them, so you might find one on ebay. https://www.canford.co.uk/EMO-PASSIVE-DIRECT-INJECTION-BOXES I've also used the active Orchid electronics DI as well and was impressed if you want something without any colouring. I purchased a muting version, but have also used the basic one as well. http://orchid-electronics.co.uk/classic_DI.htm Phil

HX Stomp for me (with an additional external unit housing 2 foot switches). It's not perfect, but does a pretty good job, is small, stable, and works well once you've spent the time tweaking and setting up. For me the parallel paths and global EQ were the killer features. Then again, I think the same might be true of any of the newest multiFX units. Phil

2nd hand HX Stomp. Small, portable, and it will do more than you need. Then a cheap DI to isolate the Stomp from phantom power from Orchid electronics (or buy a cheap 2nd hand passive DI from Canford Electronics - under the brand EMO). With the Stomp you can use it with other instruments as well if you ever abandon the bass brotherhood again...! There are tons of choices. Zoom at the cheaper end are also good, but I've happily used a Stomp for 3 years, and once you get to know it and setup patches that work for you, there is little wrong with it.

I would try a couple before buying if you can. I would personally choose Sire if you want a more traditional Fender-like approach, or Ibanez. I've not played either SR or GWB so can't comment on either I'm afraid.

I'm not an expert on this, but think I've seen reports of acoustic guitar players having back problems if they regularly use a footstool due to the uneven set of hips & back. As a result some now prefer to keep both feet on the floor, and then use a rest or cushion if the guitar needs to be held up higher I bought a cheap shaped 'guitar rest' cushion online and this seems to do the job well -except for the strap that is meant to hold it in on your leg being far too short. I just don't use the strap and it is fine. Search for Andoer Guitar Cushion and you should be able to find something similar through your retailer of choice.

Just don't try a Japan-built, vintage BB. Until then you will be happy with what you have. Afterwards, you will *need* to buy the expensive one

To add to this thread, I have used black tapewounds for years on my fretless. I tried the white and copper white tapewounds from La Bella and enjoyed have a lot more high-frequency content. However, in both cases I tried them on 5-string basses (one was my Clement fretless, and the other was an Indonesian Yamaha BB435), and found that the low B was much less controlled - inspecting with an accurate tuner the note was all over the place for ages before settling down. Both were 34" scale length. As a result I'd recommend them for 4-strings, but not so much for 5-strings with a low B. YMMV. Eventually I'll probably end up using the strings as 4s and keep the low Bs as spares.

I purchased a 1978 BB2000 last week. I'm still getting used to it (and to playing round wounds as I've been on tapes/flats on all my basses for years) - but it is rather nice. It sustains longer than any bass I've ever played, but also has more clarity than my (Indonesian, bolt-on) BB425. I've always fancied a neck-through Yamaha - and when I played this one it was hard to say no! I know such a post needs photos, so here goes... Phil

Surely the dream bass multi-effect is just the next one that you buy, and then shortly thereafter sell on the marketplace here? I'm looking at you @stewblack! But yes - open source, build your own is a very nice idea. For me, decent preamp, compressor, tuner, some modulation, and then ideally some spare digital processing for future proofing/loading other processing. It's beginning to sound like the MOD Dwarf (or whatever that project was called). Phil

Just a follow up to this. I tried re-bending to remove the kink. Unfortunately I couldn't get it good enough to please my preferred low action on the fretless - so I then tried to add more tension to the string to flatten it out - and eventually did the foolish thing of snapping the string. What a muppet! I bought a new set, and have asked BassDirect if they can source an individual string separately - currently they don't have the individual strings in stock.

Thanks for the help @itu

Dear all, I recently changed my fretless 5-string Clement from black tapewounds (I've had D'Addarios on there, and La Bella's before that) to rather lovely and brigher Gold White nylon tapewounds from La Bella (760G-B). This was all great apart from on one string - the A string had an extreme MWAH/buzz (depending on string height) just behind the 9th fret line (only on this 1 string, and only at this point on the neck). https://www.labella.com/product/760g-b/. I wasted several weeks monkeying around with neck relief, action, reseating strings in the saddles, feeling the neck for high spots, and gradually got more confused. However, today I took the offending string off to try and reseat it again, and noticed a subtle wave/kink in the string - just at this point. I wish I'd seen it before, but there we go - it's all part of the learning experience! This was a new set bought just a few weeks ago - so I'm a bit miffed. Has anyone had success in straightening out imperfections in a string? I wondered about tuning the A up a 4th and letting it sit for a day or 2 to see if the kink would stretch out. Thoughts from those with more experience would be most welcome. I'm reluctant to bin the strings - but might have to just to get an even sound throughout the neck. Thanks for any help you can offer. Phil

A belated reply. I put the white/copper strings on my fretted Yamaha and really like them. Maybe the roundwounds that were on there before were rather old, but I didn't expect to get more HF content from the tapes when I swapped! Super comfortable and they look good. I'm now going to change black tapewounds to the gold white nylon tape wounds on my fretless and see how that works. They have been on since 2018 so I don't feel too bad about changing them.

Bought a jazz-style VVT with series/parallel pull/push to transform my rather tired cricket bat headless into something that sounds good again! This combined with shielding all cavities and redoing the ground connections, along with a shim under the neck to lower action has made the old blue bat much less horrible. Thanks John - speedy build, and clear instructions.

Hi all, I've developed a bit of liking for tape wound strings (mainly on my fretless) or occasionally flat wounds. My main 2 basses are 5-strings (fretless & fretted)), and it can get quite expensive to find strings for them. My 3rd bass is a cheap wooden Steinberg (cricket bat) copy - so needs double-ball ends. Unfortunately the vendor who supplied Status with their strings has stopped - and their new supplier has much less choice (basically round wound, single end strings only). I liked their tape wound and flat wound strings - and didn't notice them feeling or sounding much worse than the more expensive alternatives (TI, La Bella etc) Does anyone have any other more affordable suppliers of tape wounds, and other unusual strings like double-ball end flats? I've just bitten the bullet and ordered a set of the La Bella white/copper and white/gold strings to try them out - but would prefer a cheaper alternative. Cheers Phil