BigRedX

Unfortunately we weren't able to play last night as our synth player had picked up some lurgy from his kids and was too ill to play. A pity not only because the gig was sold out, but because we'd spent the last few weeks learning how to play our "Christmas Song" as a band. The recorded version had been assembled in the studio, and I think that before we started practicing in order to play it live I'd never played the Bass VI part all the way through in one go. Still the other four bands played and Social Youth Cult who headlined were enough of a draw to have sold most of the tickets, so I don't think we let too many people down. It appears from our social media comments over the last few weeks, that most of the people who wanted to come and see us play had left it too late to buy tickets anyway. Unless something really good comes in at the last minute, we don't have any more gigs until 2026 now. December Snow will have to wait until this time next year.

Back when this thread started the Gardiner Houlgate bass wasn't known. However we still only have the previous and the current seller's word that this bass is actually by John Birch. There's no logo on the headstock as there is in the example in the 70s catalogue and no documentation. The Hyperflux pickups that were in the bass when Gardiner Houlgate were selling it have been removed which IMO seriously impacts on this instrument's worth, and the wiring installed in both versions of this bass are very conventional by John Birch standards. All that can be said for sure is that the bridge is a John Birch bridge. Everything else is heresy and speculation.

And we made a more "traditional" music video too...

I don't know. I suppose it depends on how like the action of your keys? Traditionally an acoustic piano would have a fully weighted action, and organ no weights. Synths would be either the same as an organ or semi weighted, but then it would also depend on what each player was used to. In my very limited experience with my very limited technical ability the action of the keyboard can completely change how I play.

IME the less serious the band is the worse the band politics are.

With a multimeter or continuity tester. TBH, If you don't have at least one of those you probably shouldn't be doing your own wiring as you have no way of checking what you have done wrong if it's not working properly.

2.4 has a better range and is slightly less worse in poor line of sight transmission situations. However it has to compete for bandwidth with far more devices especially at crowded gigs, which at the moment makes it far less reliable than 5.8. However that advantage may disappear in the future. IME if you are going to be suffering from range issues with a 5.8 device you probably need to be looking at seriously pro wireless systems and not ones based on WiFi.

It was discussed in this thread back in August. The general consensus then was that the bridge is by John Birch, and the rest could be anything. If it was a genuine JB it would have had John Birch pickups on it when it was originally made, and I can't think of any sensible reason to replace them.

If any of them are on the Mu:zines wanted list they will be more than grateful to receive them.

This came up on another forum, and the advice from several experienced electrical engineers was that a better and more permanent contact between the screw terminal and the wire conductor was achieved if you did not tin the wires, because the copper strands can compress and essentially cold weld to the terminal under the pressure from the screw.

You only need to worry about the core slipping on strings with a round core. Unless it specifically states on the strings that they are round core you can safely assume that they are hex core and it's OK to cut the strings to length before bending them.

Since all my old photos in this thread were on Photobucket, here's a more recent one of me that you'll actually be able to see:

IME scale length on its own has little effect on the sound and feel of low B. It is all down to the construction of the bass and the right choice of strings. If I was in the OP's position I would first try another set of strings, maybe one with a taper-wound B string. Remember that strings that work with one bass will not necessarily be the best choice for another. All my basses are fitted with different strings because each has a set that suits that particular bass the best. If the problem persists look first at the neck joint. With the strings fitted but not tuned to pitch very slightly loosen the neck bolts - about half a turn is normally sufficient. Then tune the bass to pitch and leave for a few hours to settle. Then tighten the neck bolts up again. What this does is to use the tension of the strings to pull the neck tightly into the neck pocket which makes the joint as strong as possible. If you are still getting dead spot problems then try a Fat Finger as suggested although be aware that this works by moving the position of the dead spot to somewhere where it is hopefully less obvious rather than removing it.

But it was way better than the finishes that followed - that partially see-through white that looked as though they'd run out of rattle can and couldn't be bothered to get another one to complete the job, or sh!t brown.

The break angle over the nut needs to be sufficient to hold the string in place whilst not reducing the compliance of the string. If you look at the first photo in the OP you'll see that the G and D strings pass under a string retainer and therefore their break angle is fixed by the position of the string retainer. Since this is obviously a sufficient angle, it follows that ideally the E and A strings should have the same break angle. That means the A string should probably have one more turn around the post and the E one less.