Jean-Luc Pickguard

I'm really into Willie Dixon at the moment. He was a great songwriter and his basslines work perfectly without being flashy. I love James Jamerson's upright on the Four Tops Jazz album as well you can tell he really enjoyed playing on those tracks.

One of the blokes in my blues band uses Hohner mouth organs. I have a 1986 Hohner B2A steiney that I bought new in Denmark street for £249 - its a bit chunky on the neck and the active circuit is f'ked, but apart from that and & looking very 80s its not bad. I even managed to track down some nice double ball flatwounds for it. No idea about the model you have though. Might be a unique design or may be a generic model made by sammick or cort in Korea or indonesia with a Hohner logo slapped on. Post a pic when you get one.

I ha my car broken into whilst playing a charity freebie gig. i'd left the faceplate of the 8 year old sony cd player on and the scroat had tried to get the stereo out leaving screwdriver marks around it. he'd never have got is as it was fitted properly with the security bolt at the back. Stangely the ashdown Mag cab & head on the back seat were completely ignored. Also in a previous life as a student radiographer I provided the music for an end of year party which was open to all hospital staff. I wasn't a proper DJ so I was using a (fairly expensive) portable stereo into my bass amp. Someone set off a fire alarm and as everyone evacuated down the main stairs a scroats made off down the back fire escape with my stereo, walkman, tapes etc. I recognised him by sight and knew which department he worked in and shouted after him that I'd be speaking to his manager in sterile supplies in the morning. He sheepishly returned 20mins later denying all knowlege of the theft and saying he left his jacket behind (which he hadn't) the police turned up soon after and my version was verified by people who hadn't seen him making off with the gear but said they had and he eventually admitted that he had taken it all and tossed it over a fence. When he retrieved all the now damaged gear to give it all back I told him to keep it and I'd take the price of new replacements if he wanted to keep his job. I got the money within a few days. And I still told his manager the full story.

I have one exactly like that. I'm taking it to a skunkeye rehearsal tonight for some luvvery flatwound blues action. Unfortunately my favourite shortie strings, TI JF324 are too long to go on so I have to use rotosounds - but the pale blue silks match the blueburst nicely. Good luck with the sale - hope you get a good price.

If I was in the market for a first EUB I'd go for the harley Benton and do the minor customisations as outlined on the talkbass palatino thread. I have an NS CR5M now, but my first EUB was a dean pace. I found that the piezo sounded excellent when I used a £20ish Behringer ADI21 acoustic modeller/driver pedal - it really sweetened the tone & would probably work well with any of the basses listed. I had to throw in my original ADI21 when I sold the pace to seal the deal, but I've recently aquired another which I use with the NS as well as when recording my stratacoustic.

[quote name='onehappybunny' post='545226' date='Jul 20 2009, 12:38 PM']Oh, that Lakland is soooo gorgeous :wub: Any idea when the Lakland shortie will be available? *shuffles off to empty piggie bank* oh no, just found this [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=548803&page=3"]Talkbass Lakland shortie thread[/url] *puts coppers back into piggie bank*[/quote] My thoughts exactly. I'm trying to tell myself its ugly and I don't like it - but its not working. Just as well I can't afford to spend double the cost of my NS CR5M upright on it I s'pose. I keep thinking it'd be cool to put a japanese mustang neck on a firebird guitar body. Either get a luthier to make one or buy a warmoth firebird body unrouted & route it for bass, possibly setting the neck a bit further back than the stock route to make a perfect mini fenderbird.

[quote name='sykilz' post='541338' date='Jul 15 2009, 02:46 PM']Thanks guys, I did think of the idea of going into the PA, I will see how receptive the owner of the studio is to that idea!!! Live I`ve gone DI to the PA and had no problem,that was the attraction of a small rig, to use as a monitor. I`ll try my old Washburn active 5 stringer next rehearsal and see if I can blow a speaker !!!!!!!!!!! Cheers.[/quote] This for rehearsal rather than a gig? Get the geetards to turn down & stop stomping on your frequencies (Gibson Les Pauls are worst for stomping on bass frequencies) Do you eq your to sound good in isolation with smiley face shape on the graphic - cutting mids? You need mids to get the definition, so you could try cutting the bass slightly & boost the low mids instead.

Blummin' good price. I sold my natural pace for well over three times that. Mine sounded best with a set of TI flats and a Behringer ADI21 acoustic pedal which really sweetened the tone from the piezo.

Get a copy of the Ed Friedland slap bass DVD - a very good guide.

Too modern? - try a set of flatwounds

Best option - get an ashbory. Light as a feather & tiny.

I like TI flats they seem to sound best after about a year of use. I wouldn't say they go dead with age though, just deep rich & bassy. I've never had to change any in the several years since I've been using them (must be about six years). If I ever want zing I'll take up harpsichord or clavinet.

[quote name='allighatt0r' post='536021' date='Jul 8 2009, 09:32 PM']The lower horn is so you can get to the higher frets. Upper fret reach is very hard on a normal thunderbird![/quote] I've never gone higher than the seventh fret on my thunderbird. And even then I've only ventured further than the fifth once or twice by mistake. That ESP is shoddy - daft bu99ers put the tuners on upside-down.

[list=1] [*]cheapo behringer limiter pedal [*]cheapo behringer BDI21 preamp pedal on the mustang / ADI21 on the NS CR5M [*]The magic VLE & VPF controls on the LMII [/list] But the tone really comes from the fingers.

It looks like it should be hanging in toys-R-us with an £80 price tag next to the Hannah Montana washburns and the plywood squier bullet strats.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='532114' date='Jul 3 2009, 10:56 PM'][/quote] That is the bass a grandmaster of ecky thump would play

Just what the world needs - more jazz clones

I've replaced all my grolsch ones with Shower hose washers - 20 for a quid from screwfix.

Make yourself a nice bacon butty and while the bacon is frying, record the sound. Make a short loop from the recording and overdub it onto your track. Probably won't sound as as good as the isotope plugin, but you do get a bacon butty.

Terrible news and at such a young age. Sincerest condolences to his family.

I used to work with someone who had a collection of fridge magnets on the side of his PC. As I was the IT admin at the time, as soon as I notice this I pointed out to him that it *may* not be the best place to keep them and he totally shot me down in flames insisting that there's no way it could harm anything as they were only fridge magnets and the PC had very solid steel sides. A couple of weeks later he came whining to me that his PC is acting up and it looked like his hard drive was corrupted. Of course there's no way of knowing what actually caused the issue, but I told him there wasn't anything I could do beyond a reformat and reinstall do as some numpty had stuck magnets to it.

I'd try to get the seller of the secondhand one to give the price a bit of a haircut to make it a more attractive deal.