BigRedX

I used to have a Futurama bass just like the one in beerdragon's photo except mine was red. The whole of the front was a single piece of plastic including the 'scratchplate' and the pickup housings. The rest of the plywood body was covered in red textured vinyl.

I bought it after a disastrous gig where I broke a string on my main bass (a Burns Sonic) and had to do the rest of the gig with the support band's bass - a Grant violin bass copy strung with flats and on a strap so long that it hung down by my knees... However it never sounded even remotely as good as the Burns, plus it was 32" scale which meant that now I had two no standard scale basses but both needing different hard to get strings which was simply too much trouble.

It was still in perfect condition when I sold it to the bassist who also owned the afore-mentioned Grant violin bass. I wonder where it is now?

The IEC standard for phantom powering is 48v and 10mA as the maximum current which you'll need to convert to 9v for the Stagg pre-amp. Also because of the way that the phantom power is supplied on a balanced connection it's not a good idea to connect unbalanced equipment to it plus because the XLR input is designed for microphones it'll probably be the wrong impedance and/or sensitivity for the line-level output of the Stagg. Proceed with caution.

Flamboyant Offset fretless 5-string...







Flamed sycamore/bubinga body, maple/bubinga neck, Brazillian rosewood fingerboard pickup covers and ramp, Bartolini Gary Willis pickups and ACG pre-amp, orange and yellow LEDs.

Probably the best musical instrument I've ever played. Everything I hoped it would it would be when spec'ing up this bass with Martin and then some. Has pretty much cured my fretless GAS!

My early copies of IM will be very battered, since they were pretty much the only contact I had with pro musical instruments as an impressionable teenager, as none of the local music stores had anything better than Grant and Columbus copies in stock.

Stephen Delft was my hero in those days and I made my own guitar while I was in the 6th form by following his articles.

Thanks for the encouragement and offer of alcohol!

Probably more depressed than I should be about the situation since the thought of the gig was one of the things keeping me going when I was trying to fix ActionScript bugs at 1.00 in the morning during the last week...

Still the lack of momentum in the band needs to be addressed in order to keep my interest and commitment and I'll be discussing this with the others sometime in next couple of days.

Thanks.

I've got that very magazine somewhere in a box in the attic along with most of the other issues from 1974 to the early 80s.

Now I can see the Shergold prices they look like much better VFM IMO. £399 for a double-neck like Mike Rutherford'? Bargain!

Go for it!

When I got my first fretless I went from doing a single song on it at our first gig to using it for 75% of the set within 3 months.

Non-existent...

Been looking forward to this after three full-on hectic weeks of work with unfeasible overtime hours in order to get 2 big projects out of the door in time for Christmas. What do we find but the pub closed with no signs of life within and no explanation.

Now seriously hacked-off with the whole thing. The band has only done two gigs this year and one of them was just a 20 minute 4-song set. We've spent 18 months dicking about with replacement lead guitarists and TBH none of them have the same vibe of the original guy.

Right now playing music is pretty much the only good thing going on in my life, but I see little point in being in a band that doesn't do any gigs (which is the only time I come out of my rather shy and geeky shell).

All I want is to be able to play some music in front of a reasonably appreciative audience maybe once a month. Is that too much to ask?

Sorry for being probably more depressing than Homer, but I needed to vent.

I don't know those prices look a little steep for crappy late-70s Fenders.

I'd have been more interested in the seeing the Shergold prices on the other half of the page.

Heads up for anyone thinking of coming to this gig...

ITS CANCELLED.

Venue is all shut up and we've had no notice.
Apologies to anyone who's turned up expecting to see catch some music, we knew nothing until we arrived at the closed pub...

Two points:

Last-minute bidding frenzy, that's how eBay works. For a standard 7 day listing assume that 6 days 23 hours 59 minutes and 45 seconds are viewing time and the actual auction takes place in the final 15 seconds.

Late 70s Fender quality. I helped out in my local musical instrument store in from 78 to 79 and the standard of the Fenders coming in was appallingly low with every single one requiring far more attention than just a simple set up before we hung them on the wall. One or two required completely stripping down and rebuilding the fix things like necks with strings hanging off them at top end of the neck. Add to this all the rather dodgy design decisions such as the enlarged head on the Strats, pickup placement on the Jazz basses, and the questionable finishes like the sh!t brown and the see-thru white that looked like the sprayers couldn't be bothered to do the final coats - this one always seemed to reveal a particularly nasty wood grain too! Compare and contrast with the instruments we were getting from Aria and Ibanez which were brilliant straight out of the box, and that's exactly why late 70s Fenders have such a bad reputation.

There was an ACG at the Gallery in Camden but it doesn't appear to be on their site anymore has it been sold?

There was one on eBay earlier this year and there was guitar version for sale last month...

Just a bump to remind anyone with nothing better to do on a Saturday night in Nottingham it would be great to see you there!

[quote name='martthebass' post='353073' date='Dec 12 2008, 08:12 PM']Brand New Life - Young Marble Giants[/quote]

Class!

Saw YMG at the Boat Club in Nottingham in 1980. One of my all-time favourite gigs.

[quote name='seymourfluid' post='352719' date='Dec 12 2008, 02:16 PM']I don't understand why anyone would want a rack tuner. If you are putting on a show, the last thing you want to do is turn your back on the audience.

SeymourFluid[/quote]



IMO looking down at your pedals on the floor is just as bad as turning around to check your rack. Your front person should be keeping the audience entertained for the short tuning break so it doesn't matter if not every member of the band is connecting with the audience all the time.

The easiest way to find out is to plug a stereo jack into it and do a continuity check between the terminals on the plug and those on the socket. My guess is that there's either some separate switching mechanism in the socket or there are separate terminals on the socket for the "sleeve" contact as well as the body of the socket itself.

In the 80s the synth band I was in use to do a cover of "Summer Wine" as a joke encore

Here's the original:



It was complete nightmare to play on mono synths, but the audience loved it. So much so that we eventually had to stop playing it because we attracted a following that only wanted to hear this song and would shout for it all through the set. Not what you want when rest of your set is dark and moody synth rock with heaps of distortion...

In order to get the mute button on the tuner to completely mute the signal it must be 100% in the signal path. That means before the amp input or in a series FX loop. That means that the tuner will have an affect on the the signal from the bass all the time. It also sounds as though the FX loop on this amp is in parallel if you're only getting attenuation rather than killing the signal completely.

IME most amps with a dedicated tuner out socket will have their own mute button on the amp itself, that kills the signal to all the outputs (including any DI and line outs) except the tuner for silent tuning.

There seem to be three possibilities:

1. Connect the tuner to one of the line outs and turn down the master volume while tuning. The effectiveness of this will depend where in the signal path the master volume and the line out are. Also this may not kill any DI to the PA depending upon where in the signal path this is.

2. Change the amp for one with a dedicated tuner out and a mute switch on the amp.

3. Change the tuner for one that can sit permanently in the signal path and not have a detrimental effect on the tone.

Wal looks like it's gone?

You have an Atalansia?

I'd love to see some pics of it

Please?

Gosh! at The Rose of England, Nottingham on Saturday 13th December.

The venue is in the city centre on Mansfield Road, just up from the Victoria Centre.

Support from Retrograde.

Doors open at 8.30

First band on at 9.00

Chance to see the Red Gus and the Sei fretless in action. (that's the important bit for everyone here reading!)

After what I've read about Moses necks on TalkBass I'd be very reluctant to choose one of theirs.

Added another 11 since my original post:

Born To Rock F4b
Gus G3 5 Active
Hartke XL-4
Kramer 450B
Lace Helix Fretless 5
Manne Piccolo Bass
Overwater Original Fretless 5 Extra Long Scale (the first 5-string Extra Long Scale Overwater bass made according to Chris May)
Reverend Rumblefish 5L
Sei Flamboyant Fretless 5
Switch Innovo
Tokai Talbo B-135

plus a Stagg EUB

and I sold the Squier VMFJ

So the total is now 26 Basses, 7 Guitars, 1 EUB, and 2 MIDI controllers.

Have a look at the [url="http://www.espguitars.co.jp/artist/index.html"]ESP Japan Artist page[/url]. Only a few are variations on the standard ESP range and a good quarter of the signature basses are original designs.