P-T-P

Yeah, as others have said. TRB5IIF was Japan made the TRB1005F is Korean made. The QC of the Korean ones is excellent though, I've had both a TRB1005 and TRB1006 and there was nothing at all I could fault about them, think Lakland Skyline quality. I believe all the electronics gubbins and hardware are essentially the same. It was presumably a strategic move on Yamaha's part to enable them to offer a higher wood spec (quilted maple top) at a lower price. For the extra £150 you get a crafter in Japan sticker instead of a crafted in Korea sticker. Pete

Thanks for the info Frank. It's an option I'm considering so good to know it works the way I imagined it would work.

And even more specifically, anyone ever tried a pair of them together but stacked vertically?

This is such a personal issue it's hard for anyone to give accurate advice beyond their own experiences. For me, I found any number of things contribute to left hand comfort, not simply neck dimensions. The way the bass sits on a strap, the amount of neck dive (if any), the amount of friction between your strap and shirt and so on. After a good three years of trying to find the perfect 4 string jazz and continually coming up with the same cramping problem, I've pretty much given up on them. I have particularly small hands so had always assumed the narrower nut and string spacing ona jazz would naturally make it ideal for me. Every jazz I had though gave me problems, moreso when using on a strap than when sat down. It's only through much trial and error that I've realised that the jazz bass neck dimensions, when I wear the bass on a strap, cause my left hand to grip the neck too much which wasn't so much of an issue when seated because my right arm would act as an anchor leaving left hand free to just fret notes rather than hold the neck. I also don't get along to great with necks that are super wide - TRB6 - or those that have a particularly pronounced shoulder to them (this kinda shape \___/ though of course a bit more rounded) - TRB6, Status 4. The best 4 string neck I've ever played was a Status MusicMan replacement job, which felt just great. Looking back, I also got on much better with P-Bass necks than I did with jazz basses. I find Lakland 5 string necks feel just right too, and Fender 5s ain't bad, though I dislike the bridge spacing on the latter. I think it's a bit like cavity backed irons in golf compared to the traditional blade type irons. The traditional ones have a sweet spot about the size of a match head, the cavity backed ones have one about the size of a 5p piece and are more forgiving to swings with a natural fade/draw as a result. The wider necks probably have a larger "sweet spot" where your thumb can sit comfortably whereas on a narrower neck, you're more confined and as a result need to keep your left hand technique that much more in check to avoid getting into a position that is uncomfortable. Don't know if that helps at all, but it could be you have similar tastes to me which I've come to discern as being fairly wide at the nut, with a gently sloping curve to the profile without being particularly deep.

Setting aside the fact the guy was a dick for his attitude, what I'd like to know is, what was his reference point for tuning? Or does he think that he has perfect (non-relative) pitch? If he was getting his reference from someone else, who probably used tuner, then he's an even bigger dick. On the other hand, being able to tune by ear is a a useful skill to try and develop if you can 'cause if there's an acoustic piano on stage that's gonna be used it's probably wise to tune to that.

Sexy mofo of a bass.

Yeah, the rhythm on Maggie May is a bit loud on the mp3s, not so much on the CD copy though, but was thinking of taking it down a smidge. I think you're right on the compression pumping, certainly on Keep on Running, the hi-hats in particular noticeably jump up and down depending on what else is going down. I'm also thinking of bumping up the vocals across the board by a wee smidge. Agreed on the drum parts, at the end of the day they are all synthetic in one way or another! Should have spent more time thinking about them before we recorded. Thanks for the compliments on the bass playing, I was very pleased with the way it came out. And thanks also for taking the time to listen and give some thoughts, I appreciate it.

[quote name='chris_b' post='173934' date='Apr 10 2008, 02:11 PM']After being inspired by a £2000+ Ken Smith are you really going to be happy with any £300 bass? I'd get a bank loan to make up the difference and go for one of the, at least half a dozen, top 6 string basses currently for sale on BC right now.[/quote] Well the Smith wasn't the inspiration behind me wanting a 6 string, I'd dabbled prior to playing that, but there's no doubt it was a fine bass to play, as is the FBass 6 I played when on holiday in Florida last year. I don't ever see a scenario where I'd spend £2000 on a bass though to be honest, maybe if money was no object.

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, the drums are a bit odd. They're all electronic in one way or another. Pretty Woman was a DT Express kit, all on one channel. Hero was me actually writing and weighting dots for all the percussion parts for the soundcard's onboard synth to play. The other three ar on a DDrums kit which gave us bass, snare, toms and cymbals/hi-hat on seperate channels. We should have spent more time checking the drum recordings from the DDrum as it turns out that the mesh is so sensitive it was registering vibrations from the speakers as being a strike, particularly on the kick drum. I had to gate the kick drum quite heavily so it's lost a bit of its boom. The actual performance on Angels is not our drummer's finest hour. Because he could, he also used different sounds for each song and that wasn't really wise as many of them had already been treated, would have been better trying to pick one good kit sound and getting it right. Definitely a lesson learned for next time. I think te overall compression I used on the master may have brought out the hi-hats too much in a couple of places too. When you say the intro is rushed, do mean the timing or the quality of the recording? It is ahead of the beat a bit and his subdivisions aren't great, but I didn't feel it was too noticeable (though I've listened to it for three years now, maybe I'm immune). Getting him to concentrate on playing in time isn't an easy task and when he does we often lose the energy of the performance - I think Maggie Mat's rhythm parts suffer a bit from this, that and the fact we should have used an acoustic. When we've recorded in the past, I've actually snuck back to re-record a lot of the guitar parts for this reason. On Hero, the guitar solo and vocals are the only thing which aren't me. Cheers for taking the time to listen and reply though.

So have recorded some tracks with my cover band which can be found here [url="http://www.thick-as-thieves.co.uk/thick_as_thieves_wedding_function_band_song_list.html"]http://www.thick-as-thieves.co.uk/thick_as..._song_list.html[/url] These are ripped from a cd (except Hero) and naturally sound somewhat different to the original as a result. I also haven't quite figured out how to get the final master to ignore the silence at the start and end of the tracks! The first four were all recorded, mixed and mastered on a Korg D3200 with no other true recording gear used. Vocals and guitars just using SM58 and SM57, final mix done using not particularly flash hi-fi speakers and my decent but a bit artificially bassy PC speakers. The last track was done an age ago and is me recording or programming the tracks on my PC in Cakewalk Home Studio. Vocals again done using SM58 but with no pop filter and a bit of green mic technique from singer and lack of recording knowledge on my part! There's issues with all of the tracks, whether it be the feel of Maggie May performance (a bit lethargic), tuning of guitar in part of Pretty Woman and the Angels' vocal. What I'm interested in mostly is opinions on the quality of the mix (too bassy, too muddy, levels etc) and advice as to what I could/should have done differently, either at the recording or mixing stage bearing in mind the equipment I have at my disposal and the quality of singer's voice, guitarist's inability to play in time etc.

Hmmm. I can think of a downside to the speakon locking system. Back about a year and a half ago we played at the New Inn, Ton Pentre which is a place we've done a few times but the stage isn't exactly massive and the floor area immediately in fron of it serves both as dancefloor and the shortest route between front door and bar so we can't use stands for the FOH speakers 'cause there's basically no room for them. No problem, we simply stacked the normally stand mounted tops onto some bass bins. The whole stack was about 8 foot high and pretty solid barring WWIII type impact. The sginal from our powered mixer goes into one of the tops and then the other (same process for the other channel). Speakon connection out of the mixer and into the cabs. We used a relatively short lead for the stack on the mixer side of the stage (about 15ft). All sorted until mid first set, slightly worse for wear punter arrives and wanders to the bar, gets accidentally clocked by someone dancing, loses balance and manages to crash into the PA stack, sending both of the (not light at all) tops flying. Because of the speakon cables, the powered desk rapidly followed until the cabs hit the floor and was only saved by my intervention. By the time it was all over, the speakon socket on both the desk and cab had been ripped loose from their mounting and the subsequent and sudden loss of load caused the power amp on the desk (for that side) to die. Amazingly, no one was hurt by the flying cabs and eventually the insurance company paid out on the desk, but we were still a bit stuffed for about 6 weeks and had to use some very old and dodgy amp/mixer gear to keep us gigging while we waited for the insurance. In that particular instance, jack leads would have probably served us better.

Thanks for all the input guys, not actually in a position to purchase right now but the info will serve me well. Thinking back, I owned a Toby Pro 6 for a brief few days following a part-ex deal. Was a nice enough bass but was definitely lacking a bit tonally for my taste. This is actually all crazykiwi's fault for letting me try his Smith 6 at the SE bash back last year, it has haunted me ever since.

I feel very much at home on my 5 string basses, but it's taken a long time to get there in terms of finding the right instruments. I've wanted to get into 6 string bass for a while now, to the extent that I've owned both a TRB1006 and an early TR6 but neither really worked out for me. I enjoyed the freedom of being able to reach more notes from one position as well as the greater fun available at the dusty end, but when it came time to just be the bass player in a covers band, I found the TRB's were just that little bit too big (body and neck width) and heavy for me. I'm looking for suggestions then for alternative 6-ers I should consider and the only real guide I have is to look at what I like about my 5 string basses and don't like about a lot of other bassses. In general I dislike fat necks, and by that I mean the depth from back of neck to fretboard. I prefer a more oval shape to the neck profile. More this "("than this "C" and definitely not this "D" I prefer the fretboard not to be overly flat. I like the 19mm string spacing at the bridge on my Laklands and also like the more tapered effect that has on the neck. I particularly dislike Fender Vs for their lack of this, to me they feel like I'm playing a blunt instrument. I like the feel of the smaller than normal jazz body of my DJ5. I know when others ask similar kinds of questions, budget is always something that respondents cite. I don't have one as such. I likely wouldn't spend more than about £800 but would be more comfortable spending in the £300-£500 range and would always be more inclined towards second hand rather than new. Any suggestions much appreciated.