geoffbyrne

I've played guitar since 1959 and bass since 2004. I'm a better bass player. G.

I'm nearly 66, fingers a bit stiff, but not getting in the way .....yet..... G.

If you can do vibrato on bass then do it, it's cool. G.

http://www.axesrus.co.uk/Screws-Springs-s/1858.htm G.

[quote name='The Admiral' timestamp='1354349935' post='1885012'] Caught the Friday show last night and yep - S2S were excellent. By contrast, what a complete and utter bag of sh*te the Palma Violets were, and 2 songs God forbid. For me,a classic case of a trendy 'hot' band being given more profile than merited. They looked and sounded like a sixth form public school band who had been booked to play a friends 18th - and whether they were pissed - or just tw*ts (particularly the bass player - 'Chilli' FFS, I regret to say) I have no idea, but it's a sad old state of affairs when dross like that gets 10 minutes on premium music tv. They are signed to Rough Trade and will probably fill the hole left by the LIbertines in the life of awkward and rebellious middle class schoolgirls for their 15 minutes in the sun, and I suppose good luck to them, but it's all been done before, and so much better. Or am I just a grumpy old fart? I suspect both. [/quote] Amen, Brother! G.

Nice to see you're still around, Rich. G.

Sort out the jack issue first - it may be crossed & touching at the back - then see what happens. You'll need a good quality barrel jack & note where the 3 leads are soldered before you remove them otherwise you might end up going through a PP( every few days. G.

"Impedance switch (2 and 4 Ohms) to match virtually any speaker cabinet" but not an 8 Ohm one, then. G.

No. G.

[quote name='Kirky' timestamp='1352448102' post='1863066'] Howard the Bass Doc (on here) makes scratchplates - worth getting in touch. [/quote] Just going to say that ... beat me to it. G.

P basses have a natural mids-SCOOP? G.

I played with a C&W/Americana band which insisted on playing the songs in the key the recording SEEMED to be in - which led to some very strange capo usage as one would capo to play the (say) D in open A style while the other would capo to play the F in open G style. Also, I say SEEMED as they didn't take into consideration the fact that many of the groups in question downtuned - usually by a semitone (half-step in Septic-speak) -but sometimes more, leading to our lot playing some very tortured chords & keys, while the originals were probably done using easy chords like A or G & just downtuning to fit their voices. I wouldn't have minded, but on more than one occasion, they decided to change key between practices & when the key was called on stage, it turned out they didn't know what key it actually was & were playing in a different key to what they thought, while I ended up in the key called & sounded (& was) totally wrong. Didn't stay long with them. I agree with most of the above. There are singers with different ranges. Sometimes if you want that singer to sing a particular song, you just have to change the key to suit his/her range. I've done that quite a lot. The key(!) to doing this on bass it to see the bassline more as a visual pattern that can be moved up or down the neck. This is where playing *across* the neck on a 5 string can help. Also, as has been mentioned, there are some chord shapes that must be used to make a song sound 'right' & if you shift key, you'll need to capo to achieve this. IMO anything else is lazyness (ducks & runs.......) G.

Just replace the stock pups with DiMarzio Model J's wired internally in series - or put a mini switch on them & get parallel too - they sound great in both modes. G.

Peavey Cirrus BXP - decent bass & 35" scale - also, importantly, not the most expensive. I've never used anything as light as a .125 for a B string & I use 5ers exclusively. G.

OK, it's a BBG5S, not 'N', my mistake. G.

For not a lot of money - well under your budget - I'd also consider the Peavey Cirrus BXP 5er. G.

And you'll need Rotosound Nylons..... G.

[quote name='Horizontalste' timestamp='1350136264' post='1835009'] Nice trio Geoff. Out of curiosity, did the humbuckers drop straight into the Bbn? [/quote] The Yammy pickups are a unique shape - luckily they are all the same size, so the pups from the RBX375 fitted the BBG5N exactly, replacing the single coils. I arranged a straight swap with another on this board. Although the originals look the same as the pups in the TRB, those in the 1005 have two coils, but one is a dummy and there's an adjustment coil with which you can balance the hum-bucking element, so you can get single coil sound with the benefit of hum cancelling. G.

[quote name='Sean' timestamp='1350133960' post='1834962'] Hi Geoff, any chance of seeing a photo of the BB415 body close up - back and front? I'd like to see how that East preamp install looks. Thanks. [/quote] Give me a few days, Sean, & I'll see what can be done - I've just moved back to Scotland & the place is in a guddle. I *can* tell you that Howard had to enlarge the cavity a little to accomodate the U-Retro & also cut a new plastic cover for it. The knobs fitted in the holes already there, although we had to use washers on the slightly oversized hole which originally held the toggle switch. Two small holes were drilled for the mini-switches. G.

[quote name='bengovier182' timestamp='1350124133' post='1834794'] That wine burst is just lovely isnt it. [/quote] Yeah, but the quilted maple's growing on me.......................rapidly. Great bridge on the BBG5N, by the way - right heavy! G.

Here's my trio of Yammy's: [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v213/geoffbyrne/P1010062.jpg[/IMG] Left is my BB415 which I had The Bass Doc (God bless 'im!!!!) fit my John East U-Retro & 18V battery box - an exemplary job, even included 2 coats of conductive paint in the re-shaped control cavity. It's otherwise standard. Great tones, lovely player, fitted with Overwaters, the 'Does Everything' instrument. My only complaint is that the tuners rattle audibly when playing acoustically - you can't hear it when plugged in, but I may swap them for something tighter. The middle is the fretless TRB1005 which is totally stock and is not being messed with - almost perfect as is - I just wish the fingerboard wasn't lined and the side dots were in the correct places for fretless. Fitted with Chromes. On the right is the BBG5N which has RBX375 humbuckers on it. Picked this up for pennies - and it is bashed up a bit - but fitted with chromes and given a good setup it's a marvellous player and really my go to instrument. Apart from the pickups it's stock. The humbuckers give it a real 'velvet hammer' kind of attack/tone. And I'm not afraid to take it to the pub jam! G.