dannybuoy

Yup, just because the tab says to play in a certain place, I know that I can add or subtract 5 frets and play on the next string up or down, and do so instantly. Being able to convert notes from a staff to a position on the fretboard with the same efficiency that I was able to achieve on day 1 with tab takes years of practice, for which I don't have the time. Of course if I was a professional musician where I was required to sight read music I hadn't heard before, it's a no-brainer - notation all the way.

If you're ordering new you can specify the SLO Special which is essentially a Stingray with a Sterling neck. This would be my choice - admittedly I've not played one to compare, but I have checked out a ton of demos and always found the Sterlings lacking tonally compared to the 'Ray.

Here we go again with the anti-tab brigade! Of course notation is more descriptive but there's a lot of extra layers to process. If someone just wants to learn a song then tab is the easiest way for many. Regarding that video, everything he said regarding the way the brain can recognise patterns and shapes with standard notation applies equally to tab. It's just that he obviously hasn't spent long enough looking at tab for it to sink in that way. The brain can speed read information when it is presented in a form it is used to seeing. When it comes to getting a feel for the music, I'd rather just grasp that by listening to the recording than try to hear it with my eyes.

Standard Phase 90 for me. I found the Small Stone too dark, tried a few digital ones that I didn't like, and most other boutique models are clones of the script Phase 90 that sounds too subtle for my liking.

A few of the Motown/Jamerson books out there are musical notation only, so check Amazon reviews first if it has to be tab!

[quote name='ead' timestamp='1481116216' post='3189801'] I used to have an RBX270 fretless, pretty decent bass, kept it and gigged it for 5 years. [/quote] So did I, it was my first bass and it's a keeper!

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1481114197' post='3189774'] The next bit of joy from all this is used 2005 Standard Precisions on FEEBay at £1100 (well they're £1500 new now guv ). They can bloody well keep 'em. I only gig my 2 rather special Mex's, so Fender, think I'm out now. [/quote] This has been happening with the Roadworns already so I expect to see the same. I struggled to sell a RW for £500 a few years ago and now people are asking £750.

This is a good deal for £100: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/295226-darkglass-vintage-microtubes

It won't do what most people refer to as 'mild grit' too well though. I would supplement your existing drive pedals with a fuzz rather than try to replace them with one.

Anything but EBS flat cables. In fact you can buy mine if you want them, hardly been used! They don't take abuse well, in fact from a dozen or so I ordered, two of them were DOA. But I take care of my stuff and thought they would be fine until I tested them in a true bypass looper through a headphone amp. Just having a single EBS cable in the chain resulted in tons of noise being picked up when my dimmer switch was on nearby (and I had 10 or so, so it wasn't a one-off). A few other cheap patch cables with plastic jacks had the same issue but not to the degree of the EBS ones. They are just poorly shielded, anything with a full metal plug sounded absolutely fine. Since you can't rely on the amount of electrical interference you might be subjected to at a gig or studio, I would avoid! Btw the best non-DIY off-the-shelf cables I have found are the Somner Spirit Flex ones that Thomann sell. Very sturdy and well built and low profile pancake jacks to boot.

Consider going down a size in gauge also, looser strings usually sound a bit more lively!

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1479646220' post='3178041'] There's a bargain custom made bass with 70s J + sweet spot MM configuration lurking in the classifieds somewhere. Sorry I can't remember the name of it! [/quote] Here is said bass: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/282273-fsft-custom-built-jazz-bass-jmj-pickups"]http://basschat.co.u...ass-jmj-pickups[/url] Looks like the MM pup needs to go a tad closer to the bridge but it's pretty close:

I am also running ABP, so yes this strikes me as weird. Anyway, again I have been using this laptop all day, and just opened 3 tabs of Basschat pages; 10 seconds later I have 3 instances of this popup. If advertising is blocked and this is still happening, it's possible the site has been hacked.

There's a bargain custom made bass with 70s J + sweet spot MM configuration lurking in the classifieds somewhere. Sorry I can't remember the name of it!

Check out the Mr Black Fwonkbeta also. I prefer that to the Mutron 3X and Meatball I had previously. It's darker, dirtier and thicker them the Mutron! I've been waiting a few months for my VFE Mini Mu to arrive and just got the customs ticket in the post today. A damn shame the exchange rate has gone tits up, it was a lot higher than expected!

If you want an old big-box Q-Tron (designed by the same man, Mike Beigel) to tide you over until you locate one, I have one for sale. It's not quite the same but it's still a funky little (well, not so little) box!

I doubt it very much. I've been working on the PC all day, and this only appeared when I browsed BC. After closing the site it popped up again the very second I browsed to Basschat. It's most likely a popup ad being triggered by a malicious advertising banner on this site.

Same here. Address bar in the URL starts with data:text/html;base64,PCFET0NUWVBFIGh0bWw.... and is thousands of characters long. Fake Win7 AV window in the background and voiceover telling me to ring them. Might be worth everyone at BC ringing them and leading them up the garden path as I assume it costs them money to host an 0800 number!

A radius wouldn't affect the action if the nut was the same width as the bridge; but because the bridge is wider this does affect the geometry. Take it to extremes, imagine the string anchored at the middle of the nut and the far end of the bridge; up by the nut you could get the action just right, but down the dusty end the would be a bigger gap due to the angle of the string. So a flat board will allow for very slightly lower action.

Looks like these parts fail often - mine went on my BB415 and in a pinch I stole one from a Yamaha RBX275! I'd quite like to get the old one working again so I'd also like to know!

I doubt it's a USA body either. Alder has a wider grain than that usually, that's more likely basswood, plus the sunburst on the USA is 3-tone with a bit of red in there and has a bit more depth to it, that looks more like the cheap 2-tone burst you see on the Squier VMs. Fender on the left:

Just spotted something interesting that I've not seen before. I was looking recently for a 'Ray style bass, this would have ticked all my boxes before I ended up with a Sandberg Basic. On further digging it looks like it's discontinued and this is the only one around for sale: [url="http://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Greg-Bennett-Royale-RLB-4-Bass-Guitar-Black/1BIZ"]http://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Greg-Bennett-Royale-RLB-4-Bass-Guitar-Black/1BIZ[/url] This Sandberg Basic of mine with a single MM pickup and TI flats is one of my favourite basses - tons of thump, throaty mids to poke through, but without the brittle top end that a 'Ray with rounds has. Works great in blues/R&B situations - this looks like it would do a good job there too!

When pushed to overdrive the Zoom Ampeg model is very mushy - with a pick there is enough bite to push through and it actually gets very close to the record, but forget trying`to play fingerstyle - it sounds like your rig is in a swamp! EDIT - seems I've already mentioned this above!

Dunlop Super Bright nickels, or standard D'Addario nickels are the brightest I know of. Also not all steels are that rough - the Dunlop Super Bright steels for example are much smoother than D'Addario FlexSteels.