bagsieblue

Correct again my friend - as a (six string) guitar tuning its to drop the low string often to allow the 2 lower notes below E and the one finger barre power chords. In Rock - tuning down a semi tone is very common, as is Drop D tuning - Drop C# does both...

Yep - this is what it is.

If the gig was at a pretty big venue wasn't there a PA that would have been doing all the heavy lifting to get the band that loud?

We play 90 per cent in drop C# in my band...... thoughts: 4 string bass will be better mostly better than a 5 as I'd expect a lot of open low string based riffs, chord changes based around the C#. Try different gauges but heavier gauges are not essential in my experience. If you are looking for a bright zingy sounds some rattle and clank from low tensioned strings might be desirable. The set up is more important that the string gauge to me. For the 5'er fretless option, I'd use that in its standard tuning with a low B.

Yep, it's not where you start, or where you end up...it's about the journey, right?

Thanks Lozz - would be great to see you. Yep, we've played many times at the Waterloo - we like it good venue, great staff, good crowd

Yes, that was my thought...volume wars!. It's a slow process but I find some gentle education to the others of going down the route of everything else turning down to get a good balance. Hopefully preventing the pattern of turning things up one at a time helps.

Oops, now corrected.

First big gig back!!! My band SOLDATO opening for Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons. Waterloo Music Bar Blackpool. Bank Holiday Monday 30th August

Ahhh, didn't realise it was your bass too. Yes, a fine bass as is. I'm half tempted myself. Can you put up a photo of the preamp too, what weight is it?

I think you are referring to my old one there. That has EMG active pickups and a Tonepump upgrade worth around £200. Fret decals as well to complete the look. As stock these will have passive EMG HZ pickups, pretty rubbish in my view and miles away from the true Spector Sound. Preamp is likely an EMG which is actually fine. I see the Gumtree advert says Active, that's the preamp that is active, photos show clearly that the pickups are passive EMG HZ.

Absolutely this for me too, and I hope that not listening to them keeps them fresh when playing live.

Oh no - Awful news. I too considered Martin as a friend, I hope he knew that. Great bloke, funny bloke, all round good guy.

These are all great - Thank you. I will enjoy working through these.

Looks familiar:.....

First gig back for me in a couple of weeks. My band Soldato opening things up on this.

It's entirely possible that even after the commission has been taken out a seller could still end up with the same amount of money or possibly more money. Many used basses on Bass Direct are listed up for over 20% more than they would have been likely to have been listed for in the various places to list a private sale. This also provides access to a larger, specialised customer base. Warwicks for example appear to sell through Bass Direct for much more than a seller would likely get in a straight person to person private sale. Commisssion isnt all negative of couse. I'm always reminded of the commission free currency exchange rates. On many of these you could come out with a better deal on an exchange where you do pay a commission on a rate that is x percentage points over and above what you would pay as a commission percentage.

Fairly certain these 3 are Japanese Made Mick - I've had a few of these, like you. Also had some non Japan ones and have seen the slight differences. The pink one serial number dates to 1988. Black is 1991. Blue is 1991. I think its just a quirk of the build, once upon a time I though it was between 4 strings and 5 strings but now dont think that is the case - the published catalogue photos show this. Many other photos on line showing this too

One thing to be aware of on the size and fit on the PCB's, therefore fixed pot locations, is the location of the pots and the holes in the bass. See my 3 here - you will see that on the pink one (yes it's pink, yes its original judging by the control cavity) and the black one the location of the knob nearest to the bridge. Whilst on the Blue one the location of the knobs is a much more uniform / pleasing diamond shape. All these 3 are early ish Japanese Made ranging from 1988 to 1991