Jean-Luc Pickguard

I use pick on guitar and used to use them on bass in the 80s but I only use fingers these days. I don't give a toss what other players use though. They could hit the strings with sardines for all I care.

Apart from the body, paint, pickguard, bridge, tuners & pickups it should be pretty much the same.

[quote name='tauzero' post='420077' date='Feb 26 2009, 01:59 PM']I use the AX3000B to put some short but fairly thick reverb onto the sound, which gives more of an acoustic upright effect - after all, an EUB doesn't have a big echoey box attached to it. I also cheat and use the Slow Gear type effect to give a bowing sound[/quote] I had reverb put on the CR5M when recording the o5b album. I asked the engineer for a room the size of a cupboard to emulate the bass fiddle's body and the 'cupboardy sound' catch phrase has stuck in the band now. Using a slow gear effect is a good idea. I'll have to try that next time I record. I wonder if there's a module in guitar rig that'll do it

I bought the NI Guitar Rig Sessions pack including a lovely little USB2 interface & the cut-down version of GR3 XE, there's an offer on until the end of March to get a free upgrade from the included cut-down XE version to the full version of Guitar Rig 3. I've just received the upgrade code from NI and my guitar rig is now updated to the full version and it all works with no perceivable latency on my MacBook - I'm chuffed - its a a bargain. Its listed slightly cheaper at reverb, but I got a pricematch from DV247.com, so the Interface & now Full version software cost me £145 inc postage. There's only one bass amp model, but its a good one, and the guitar amps & fx are very varied and sound fantastic. It also comes with a €25 voucher towards a Kore soundpack to load into the free NI Kore player vsti, so I'll probably get a half-price Hammond B3 pack.

How about a nice block of perspex?

I have the Kent Armstrong Jazz lipsticks on my Highway1 jazz. I also have a J-retro fitted so any comments about how good they sound probably won't mean much, but the bass does sound blummin' great. I expect Aaron Armstrong would be able to custom wind a jazz lipstick for you with a higher output to match that of your existing pickup. I recall the Lakland Jerry Scheff used custom Armstrong lipsticks with the bridge one overwound to compensate for the wider spacing between the pickups.

Give Alex a ring and see if he'll do you a deal on the one at the Gallery. That one seems to have been there for ages.

1. Behringer cheap-as-chips pedal limiter/enhancer. er... that's it. I never bother taking any of my other pedals to gigs. If I wanted to make funny noises instead of a solid groove I'd have been a geetarist or keybored player. ... ducks for cover

Excellent! Don't forget to post pics when it arrives.

Red one for £399 here: [url="http://www.backalleymusic.co.uk"]http://www.backalleymusic.co.uk[/url] White one at the Gallery for £450. [url="http://thebassgallery.com/fender.html"]http://thebassgallery.com/fender.html[/url] Good luck - have I mentioned how much I love my mustang?

I really wish I'd held onto mine rather than selling it for a 1/4 of the current going rate

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='410924' date='Feb 16 2009, 12:02 PM']I must say i think you can get more for £500.[/quote] Correct. I paid £135 for mine on eBay.

[quote name='The Burpster' post='410701' date='Feb 16 2009, 08:04 AM'].... daisy rock .....[/quote] My Daisy Rock elite is the most Rock n Roll bass I have, slightly longer scale at 32". It sounds very agressive, but the looks aren't to everyone's taste. The Short scale heartbreaker bass 30" my daughter has sounds as good as my mustang and has a very playable neck, (not as slim as the mustang though) but its, er Heart shaped.

Not sure how my mustang would sound with a low B. There's only two songs I do where I would use a Low D. Three of my basses have D tuners on them and my NS upright is a fiver. However if I'm using a bass without a low B, I just play the Ds an octave above. No ones noticed so far. Horses for courses I say. I'm happy sticking with EADG as I use the G string more than I use the B on my 5ers.

The pickups on my '71 musicmaster were very weak & wooly. I put in a Kent Armstrong enclosed dual cool blade. I still prefer my CIJ mustang for the slim neck though. My original Korean reissue danelectro longhorn is cool, but still not as nice to play as the Mustang.

If you must upgrade, you'll want a badass 3 as it'll fit and is a string-thru design

I play my CR5M through my usual rig - LMII & 1212L which works well.

Those look really crap. At screwfix you can get ten sets of straplocks for a quid, but they're sold as rubber shower hose washers, don't require a screwdriver to fit & look much better than those steel ones or red Grolschies. Also they don't cause the strap buttons to come unscrewed sending your bass southbound like schallers.

I bought my CR5-M just before the WAV4 was announced, so I didn't have to make the choice. Also as I was after a 5 string bass the Wav wouldn't have been appropriate for me anyway. The WAV4 is a great instrument and if I had been after a four string I would have probably bought one to save a few quid. Although they look similar there are a few differences apart from the country of manufacture. The Wav is made of beech whereas the CR range is maple. I prefer the oiled finish and the flamed facing of the CR. Th The WAVs have a nice range of colours, but they have a thicker glossy finish which I don't like so much on the back of the neck, but is a matter of preference. The magnetic pickups in the CR5M help to beef up the sound. I wasn't sure how much use they'd get, but I tend to mix the magnetic and piezo pickups. Also the eq is very flexible. If The wav4 has no preamp - its passive, so I don't know how a long cable run would affect the sound of the piezo. I'd probably use a preamp with it. Something like the Behringer ADI21 (which I've used with the Dean Pace I used to own) would probably sound great with it. The only thing I really didn't like about the WAV is the stand. The one I tried was on a tripod that looked much like one from Jessops. The one that comes with the CR range was designed specifically for the job and seems a bit more stable to me.

[quote name='~tl' post='405668' date='Feb 10 2009, 07:30 PM']...sometimes with block inlays[/quote] Not on a precision

[quote name='Gothicontheloose' post='403651' date='Feb 8 2009, 07:03 PM']... So that excludes Fender [/quote] [quote name='Gothicontheloose' post='403651' date='Feb 8 2009, 07:03 PM']... I don't know much about 'em![/quote]

[quote name='ray_6ao7' post='399698' date='Feb 4 2009, 09:05 AM']thanks for all the advice! d'addario have also been in touch so gonna have a word with the guitarists and see what they wanna do.[/quote] No contest - & you might be able to get some nice planet waves stuff like cables & SOS tuners by going with d'addario. Personally I'd hold out for thomastik to make an offer though

I wouldn't use 'em even if they were free.

mine is: fingers -> mustang with TI 324 flats + tone rolled off -> behringer cheapo limiter pedal all controls at 12 oclock -> littlemark II everything flat -> schroeder 1212L with tweeter off