Jean-Luc Pickguard

When I was after a T-bird I tried Tokais, Epiphones and Gibsons. I bought an Epiphone one (Alpine white). I preferred the weight, the neck feel and that you can shim it. Mine doesn't neck dive as I relocated the front strap button. I didn't do a side by side comparison of the tokai & Epiphone as shops that had the tokai didn't have the epi & vice-versa.

The tokai is still a very nice bass, but the epi suited my requirements better.

I used to use red Grolsch bottle washers, but I now use shower hose washers on all my basses. I think they are are much better as they are smaller & thinner, and as they are made of black rubber they don't stand out. Screwfix do packs of 20 for a quid.

Ok its for charidee, but I can't get my head around how anyone would want to pay so much for this. Its not as if its actually one of Stings basses, just a standard CIJ sig model with a scribble on the Pickguard.

I like the sting bass, but I'm always put off by the 12th fret pearl block with the printed signature. Having the pickguard autographed as well would really ruin it.

Surely it can't be that difficult to get Mr Sting to sign a pickguard.



[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Japanese-Fender-Sting-Signature-Bass-Autographed_W0QQitemZ250333663104QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item250333663104&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1298|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318"]Autographed Sting bass on eBay[/url]

[quote name='karlbbb' post='348234' date='Dec 7 2008, 11:45 PM']I quite like the Behringer Limiter/Enhancer, it's working well for me now, but will be upgrading to a BBE OptoStomp as soon as I can afford it.[/quote]
I've tried loads of compressors, but the Behringer BLE100 bass limited/enhancer is my favourite.

Time for a recount of mine:
[list]
[*]'81 Cherry Sunburst Precision
[*]Blue Fender Ashbory
[*]Black Fender Ashbory
[*]'86 Hohner B2A Cricket Bat
[*]Fretless 'bitsa' Precision
[*]MIJ '62 reissue Fender precision
[*]Fender Highway 1 Jazz
[*]Alpine white Epiphone thunderbird
[*]Danelectro Longhorn
[*]CIJ Fender Mustang
[*]Squier Vista Musicmaster
[*]'71 Fender Musicmaster
[*]Peavey Millennium AC BXP 5 string
[*]Violet-burst Daisy Rock Elite
[*]NS-Design CR-5M upright
[*]Stentor student double bass
[*]a one string electric upright thing
[/list]
brings me up to 17

plus I keep my daughter's three basses strung & set up for her.
[list]
[*]Daisy Rock Heartbreaker
[*]'71 Fender Musicmaster
[*]Another Violet-burst Daisy Rock Elite
[/list]

That appears to be a mid to late 70s one with a replacement pickup. On ebay it would probably go for a little over half the price listed on a good day.

I play fingerstyle and slap or use pleckies, so I make sure its comfy for that, saying that though it depends on the bass. I play my Ashborys are quite high up and almost vertical as they are so small but the thunderbird has to be as low as it can go on the longest neoprene strap I could find. I did move the front strap button to cure the neck dive though. My favourite gigging bass, a mustang is as low as it can go on a standard levys suede guitar strap, which results in the classic [b]CYN[/b]* height.

[color="#808080"][size=1]* CYN= "cover your nuts"[/size][/color]

I wipe my strings over with fast fret & a cloth before & after playing. I use Thomastik Jazz flats which take a couple of months to get played in then then just sound perfect pretty much forever.

In the dim & distant past (20yrs ago) I used to use rotosound roundwounds, but I recall I really couldn't stand the sound of new ones - If I wanted to sound like a harpsichord I'd be playing one instead of a bass.

A bit of sponge cut to size does the job.

mmm sponge

How about something like one of those tascam headphone practice thingies with amp modelling and MP3 playback.

I saw them at the London Music Show. The LEDs I saw looked very good indeed there was a crazy flashing guitar where the LEDs changed colour in sequence. The chap I spoke to on the stand was very helpful & friendly.

If I ever want my bass to look like an xmas tree I'd have no hesitation in using them.

Nope - I like to shim my neck so I have low action, but with the bridge saddles set as high as they can go, so a ramp would be pointless for me unless I can use it to wheel my cab up some steps.

My daughters don't let me play their Violet burst Pearl Daisy Rock Elite bass and guitar so when another bass came up on ebay I bought it for myself.

I haven't got the courage to play it in public yet though
[attachment=16889:daisy_rock_elites.JPG].

stringsdirect aren't passing on the saving. I was going to order a few hundred quids worth of stuff from them early yesterday morning while I thought I still had a job, so in a way its good that I was put off ordering by their "we're not passing on the saving" message on their web site.

Ok here's one possible list

1. Fender
2. Fender
3. Fender
4. Fender
5. Fender
6. Fender
7. Fender
8. Fender
9. Fender
10. Fender



Perhaps I misunderstood the question

[quote name='ironside1966' post='341442' date='Nov 30 2008, 09:37 PM']A quick one.

Are all jap squier equal, or are some better then others?

Jap squier oe MIM fender?[/quote]
Casting my mind back to the 80s, I think the original jv vintage reissue ones had vintage style hardware and nitro finishes, but the non jv ones had cheaper hardware and thick skin finishes. The JVs are the ones that tend to go for much better prices, especially the earliest ones which had a big Fender logo and a little "squier series" logo.

What's rockworld tv?

[quote name='IncX' post='340950' date='Nov 30 2008, 10:36 AM']here's a vverrry interesting Gibson related article and its quality control practices:

[url="http://www.dinosaurrockguitar.com/new/node/240"]http://www.dinosaurrockguitar.com/new/node/240[/url][/quote]

Thanks for the link. That probably explains why I hate my band's guitarist's Les Paul. Its all low end whatever amp & settings are used and makes the whole band sound mushy. Luckily, like me he prefers his old MIJ 50's reissue tele and tends to use that a lot more.

To see if the nut is indeed the problem you could temporarily put a small piece to paper in the slot under the string to raise it up a few gnatscocks.

I've kept mine with the very low action it came with, but I don't get string buzz problems, even on the B string. Perhaps the truss rod needs adjusting? I've never needed totouch the one on mine though.

[quote name='ped' post='340783' date='Nov 29 2008, 09:24 PM']Cool stuff, sounds like a good 'relationship'. I wonder how many basschatters are endorsed?

Cheers
pedro[/quote]
I sent an email to simple to try to get a talc endorsement for my Ashborys as their talc doesn't have any string-rotting additives. However I didn't even get an acknowledgement, so bollocks to them - I've decanted my unscented simple talc into a johnson's bottle.

That's almost as nice as my Alpine white epiphone t-bird. Love the white furry case lining.

They got [b]Ibabez[/b] geetars.

I think the quality can be deduced by the sunburst pattern on the SRV strat - plywood?

[quote name='Musky' post='338537' date='Nov 27 2008, 03:24 PM']I wonder if that means the headstock will be changing to something slightly more Fender-like?[/quote]
I would guess it will be less fender-like, probably a paddle-shape or something hoogly like a johnson.

I believe my Indonesian Daisy Rock Elite Bass & Peavey Millenium fiver came out of cort's factory. The quality is great. Both are very playable and very good sounding & looking basses and certainly giggable however one was £200 new and the other was £135 secondhand. Neither was amazing until I set them up though but at least the frets were good without needing a levelling. I guess Lakland will be putting the production savings into the work done in Chicago.

Hercules do a few that grab & support at the headstock.