Jean-Luc Pickguard

This looks interesting but pointless http://www.youtube.com/v/PJCRBPY_bJ0 Shame that the resultant sound as awful as is the choice of song to demo it

It looks like the current batch is sold out. The bass is showing on the Thomann site as "not part of the current product range anymore." http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_kahuna_clu_bass.htm so I guess the slightly weird neck profile isn't enough to return it - I'll live with it for now & maybe reshape it sometime later. I had heard reports that on the previous batch the response was not even across the strings - some people were saying the E string was very quiet. On mine it seems perfect. The output is fairly low compared to magnetic pickups or how I remember the preamp was in my old Ashbory, but that isn't a problem. Turning the eq knob to the treble side sounds scratchy and not very pleasant but turning to the bass side sounds full & punchy. The tuner is pretty useless & doesn't help much. Regarding the talc: I don't think that the oils in fragranced talc will do the strings any good which is why I use 'simple' talc, but the plastic containers simple comes in is quite large and it dumps too much out at a time - I refilled an empty 100ml travel pack of 'johnson's' with 'simple' which can sprinkle just a tiny amount into your hand and fits neatly into a gigbag.

I've had a chance to play with my HB kahuna bass now. The strings seem to be much more like that original ashbory silicone strings than the black kala/roadtoad pahoehoes. They are too grabby to play comfortably — at least when they are new. A tiny amount of unscented 'simple' talc helps a lot. The bass sounds good plugged in as long as the eq is turned all the way to the bass side, but the profile of the back of the neck is a little weird on mine — its very square and chunky around the first fret position, which feels strange and a little uncomfortable on the thumb. I wonder whether they're all like that?

Looks very nice highfox. Mine was delivered yesterday, but I'm 200 miles away so I'll only get to unbox it tomorrow evening. I might try a bit of unscented talc on the strings - like I used to use on my ashbory.

fyi - you can use two vouchers on a single order - the second can be pasted into the 'comments' text field with a note and they'll adjust it as required. I actually emailed to ask whether my second voucher which I received the day after I placed the order could be applied, expecting a 'no' but instead I got a 'no problem'

a ukulele – eg: http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_kahuna_clu_40s.htm

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' timestamp='1405508119' post='2502484'] I reviewed the other half of my previous purchases last night and got another voucher this morning - this time for €30. It looks like the order I placed hasn't been processed yet so I've been cheeky & asked whether this voucher can also be applied to my order... [/quote] Got a reply back yesterday saying "no problem"and the order dispatched shortly after so I've now saved €55 - just over £40 - on the cost of the order by writing a bunch of reviews. Now I'm realy looking forward to having some fun with the uke bass or the 'little kahuna' as it will probably be referred to.

I reviewed the other half of my previous purchases last night and got another voucher this morning - this time for €30. It looks like the order I placed hasn't been processed yet so I've been cheeky & asked whether this voucher can also be applied to my order. If not I'll have until the end of October to use it. I'm sure I'll need to get hold of some aquila thundergut strings to keep as spares before then so not a problem if I can't apply the discount to the current order.

I was looking at the Thomann website last week and happened upon a page suggesting I review some of the stuff I had bought previously. I must have been feeling accomodating, so I left a few short reviews to say what I liked about various bits of gear & accessories. Yesterday I received a €25 voucher as a thank you which was totally unexpected and very welcome as it means the Harley Benton bass ukulele I was planning to order anyway is now only costing me a little over £80. Why didn't anyone tell me earlier that Thomann have a policy of rewarding people who leave reviews?

I bet this chap wished he was picking Victor Wooten up from the airport rather than a Thrash Metal band

I have just launched a new mobile-first responsive single-page site for my band. [url="http://junkyardrocket.co.uk"]http://junkyardrocket.co.uk[/url] I normally use WordPress for everything, however once I decided that I wanted to maximise usablility by stripping out anything that wasn't important, it was clear that a CMS probably wasn't required. I used bootstrap with a custom stylesheet, some jQuery plugins & a bit of custom scripting. I'm thinking of turning the template into a WordPress theme aimed at bands with the contact form / audio / scroller functionality included as custom plugins with customisable colour schemes, but alternatively it might be better to add in some flat file functionality system to keep it lightweight and keep the admin overhead as minimal as possible.

I think it is an original version (c2003-2008) honey blond highway 1 precision with a changed pickguard. The 60th anniversary badge identifies it as being made in 2006

I initially used springs on the screws instead of neoprene when I built my Fretless 'P' bitzer. It made the pickup microphonic. I then chopped up a cheapo ikea mousemat and used a few layers under the pickup instead & it was much better

Cheers for the replies chaps. I'd already tried cleaning the old strings with planet waves string cleaner & fast fret but it made no difference. I've not used nylon wrapped strings for a while so I might look into investing in a set. I put the old set of JF324s on & they sound & feel pretty good - I'll need to find the tool to give the truss rod a tweak but its not far out.

I hardly play my Tanglewood (Rosewood Reserve) acoustic bass as the Thomastik Acousticore AB324 Phosrphor Bronze strings feel 'grabby' and make my hands stink after playing. I'm thinking of putting on an old set of JF-324 flats as I love the feel of those on my short scale solid basses & I expect they'll give me a deep thump on the acoustic rather than the zingy twang of a new set of bronze acoustic roundwounds. Is it just me, just these strings or does everyone get this with bronze acoustic strings?

At least its not coldplay. Its probably a gimmick done for BS reasons like when Alicia Keys was blackberry's global creative director.

The batteries in my P were still good after a couple of years, but i don't use that one much so that isn't much of an indication. The test will be the jaguar which is my main rehearsal & gigging bass, but EMGs need very little power and I've only put the batteries in recently so I doubt they'll need replacing for a while. I'll post an update to this thread when I do change them — if I remember. If your basses can already fit a pair of 9v batteries I don't think you'd need the 24v mod thing as there's no difference sound-wise between 18v & 24v as far as I can tell and I expect the battery life will be shorter.

[attachment=163309:24v.jpg] My Squier Jag SS VM bass has a set of EMG PJX pickups. I wouldn't be able to use a harness made from three battery clips to add a second battery for the essential 18v mod as it hardly has room for a single 9v battery. Instead I made this little fella to hold a pair of 23A 12V batteries (car alarm plipper type). The battery holders and battery clips came from ebay sellers in China. Not done much of a sound test to see how much if any improvement there is in the sound, but I didn't kill the pickups - the important thing to remember when soldering the battery holder to the clip is that the red wire on the holder needs to be soldered to the black wire on the clip & vice-versa. I have the parts to make another but I'm waiting for some more batteries so I'll make another for my '81 precision which also has an EMG but is currently powered by 18 volts using an AAA battery holder full of the button cells you find inside 23A batteries.

A heads-up for anyone with an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch who likes free stuff & needs another tuner - IK's UltraTuner is currently free as a free in-app purchase within amplitube IOS & also free as a stand-alone app

[quote name='Diablo' timestamp='1400743699' post='2456498'] I picked up an early 70's Jazz in a London dealers and it had exactly the same issue. I pointed it out to the shop owner who took the bass, knee at the base the of the neck, one hand on the headstock and one on the body, and heaved the neck angle to correct it. I thanked him for his expertise and left! There is usually a tad of movement in the neck pocket so worth checking before sending back I've have thought. [/quote] I'm certain I have read that in the early days of Fender this was a recommended technique for fixing such issues and the company sent instructions to their dealers in how to carry it out.

I'm too worried about my iPad getting damaged in transit or onstage to take it at gigs but my kindle paperwhite is pretty good for setlists & lyrics/chords memory joggers - I just make a document in pages & export to pdf or save as ePub and convert to mobi using calibre

The can't be bothered to help attitude is nothing new. When the Hohner B2A steinberger clone had just come out in 1986 I ventured to Denmark Street on a Saturday to get one. The first shop, Rose Morris had the exact bass I was after in the window so I went in and asked if I could have a closer look & try it out. The chap really couldn't be bothered and although it should have been easy to grab from the window, he insisted that I'd have to come back on Monday as they were due to change the window display. I mentioned that I was planning to buy the bass today if I liked it but he wasn't interested and couldn't be swayed so I left empty handed. I carried on down the street and saw that another shop also had them in. No problem this time: I tried it, liked it, agreed a price and bought it within about 20 minutes. I was told that as it was a new model the hard cases were coming by sea & would be arriving in the UK in a few weeks so I took it in the cardboard box. I couldn't resist going back to Rose Morris, opening the box and asking the first chap in front of his manager "Do you have a hard case for my new Hohner B2A bass?" The expression on his face was priceless.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1398595072' post='2435532'] Music is not a competition. [/quote] Try telling that to Simon Cowell or any of the chumps that appear on his programmes

I'd recommned the same one I got from brandoni guitars in Wembley for my '71 daphne blue musicmaster - an enclosed cool rails strat humbucker. It fits the original pickguard without needing any modification. It sounds massive. I think it was made by Kent Armstrong and it cost about £30 (but that was some years ago). I also put a hot rails in another musicmaster but I don't rate how that one sounds as much as the cool rails

Unless you're going to be driving over the pedal in a tank why would you need to rehouse it? I keep my BDI21 in a lightly padded poundshop discman case to protect it in transit & storage. I've had it and the similar ADI21 for many years and they are both as good as new although they had a lot of use untiI I got a zoom b3.