Jean-Luc Pickguard

How about something completely different like an NS-Design electric upright? There's a secondhand CR5M listed on the "for sale" section within your budget. I will never part with mine as its so much fun to play and the 42" (I think) B string sounds tight AND huge.

[quote name='ahpook' post='222364' date='Jun 19 2008, 06:06 PM']i thought we were talking musical instruments here, not fashion accessories for trustafarians [/quote] That's a bit harsh Its not as easy to play didj properly as it might look: Check out this chap for some rhythmic didj playing: [url="http://www.didjeridu.co.uk/music/"]http://www.didjeridu.co.uk/music/[/url] He's played Didj for Page & Plant as well as with Rolf Harris (but not at the same time)

Don't jack it in, just start or join a new band as a "side-project" with the guitarist if necessary. There are no laws against being in more than one band.

I love short scale basses. My main gigging bass is a Fender Mustang, which is so easy to play it should be considered cheating. For a cheaper alternative the squier bronco, especially 7 the badtz-maru version, looks good: I also have a Squier vista-series musicmaster in shell pink. They come up secondhand sometimes. The danelectro shortscales have nice skinny necks and a very distinctive sound. My daughter is twelve & has a Daisyrock heartbreaker bass, it has a comfy neck and punchy sound, however I had to relocate one of the strap buttons to cure the neck dive & the shape doesn't lend itself to playing sitting down. She also has an '71 musicmaster and a Daisyrock elite which has a 32" scale.

That's right Mustangs are 30", but they have a string-thru bridge whereas musicmasters are toploaders. I find that 32" TI flats work best on my CIJ mustang and it sounds rich & punchy, very much like a precision, probably due to the split pickup. It looks like the plastic pickup covers are missing from yours.

[quote]The original Duncan design pick up are in the bin where they belong.[/quote] How to make yourself look stoopid. Did he really put perfectly good pickups in the bin? Even if he had a valid reason for not liking them he could have sold them separately. The duncan designed pickups on basses I've tried (eg daisy rock) have all sounded very good to my ears.

Sweet! - good price too. Nice one - I love mustangs

Soundwise all of the behringer pedals I have bought (and I have quite a few) are easily as good as much more expensive equivalents. The only one I've tried that I didn't like was the Bass Synth pedal, but I didn't think much of the boss equivalent either. The Behringer pedal tuner is good for guitar, but crap for bass. I only use two pedals live - the limiter/enhancer which is my favorite compressor & the silver BDI21 preamp. I used to have the brown acoustic version of that & it really warmed up my Dean Pace electric upright bass & acoustic guitars, but like a fool I chucked it in when I sold my pace & I still miss it slightly. Obviously the construction of the behringers isn't tankproof like the boss equivalents, but if a £20 pedal bites the dust its not a big deal to just buy another. I look after mine and I haven't had any problems with them.

[quote name='Huggy and the Bears' post='219962' date='Jun 16 2008, 04:02 PM']I have been using the same beer towel to wipe my strings for a couple of years now so maybe it needs substituting for a clean one from the next gig![/quote] I always sneak mine into the magic basket with all the shirts etc. Next time I see it its fresh & clean. I don't think wiping the strings down with a manky towel will actually help if it doesn;t ever get washed. I use a microfibre cloth for the strings and the bar towel for my hands.

I've never liked black pearl, so out of the two it has to be mint green, however I think cream or aged white pearl would look even better.

[quote name='philw' post='219798' date='Jun 16 2008, 12:49 PM']I got to play a bass cello at the LIM show on Thursday and very nice it seemed too - although in the show environment it was pretty hard to make any serious judgment about its sound. One thing surprised me however - I found it quite difficult to play. I use different left-hand fingering techniques - one for electric bass and one for upright bass. The bass cello, in having the scale length of an electric bass but with the orientation of an upright, resulted in my left hand getting tied hopelessly in knots as it lurched randomly between the two fingering techniques. I'm sure, given a little time I'd get used to it, and electric bass fingering would make most sense, but I hate to think what would happen to my upright bass technique. Of course all this is a touch academic - I don't have the £2.2k I was quoted by House Music (The Bass Centre) at the show. Phil[/quote] I tried that one there on Saturday. It felt completely different to my NS CR-5M and even though the scale was similar to that of the Dean Pace I had before the NS, I was all over the place on the basscello. Probably something I'd get used to it I had one, but it certainly helped to stop me gassing for one

GONE!

I'm not a warwick fanboy, so I'm probably not qualified to comment, but it doesn't seem any worse than other warwicks.

Some bits off the top of my head from my experience: The engineer will probably ask what the plan is when you turn up. If you ask him to guide you on a plan of action, he may do what's easiest for him rather than what's best for the band, so have a plan. Also I found it often wastes a lot of time if there isn't a designated producer whose decision goes if disagreements arise. The bass player is probably the best candidate in a lot of bands due to fewer ego issues and being able to listen to the song rather than just their own part. Listen to the kit and bass/guitars after he's placed the mics. Don't let him point the mic roughly in the right direction and hit record. Listen to a quick test recording & move the mics if necessary. Its better to track with a great sound than have to fix it in the mix later. Two days isn't a lot, but you should be able to get four songs down without too much trouble. Possibly more. I'd use the first day to get the tracks down and some overdubs - take home rough mixes to listen to overnight. Don't do too many overdubs the second morning - mixing always takes longer than I expect. Bring coffee not beer. You don't need a big rig to get a big sound. Relax and enjoy it.

I tried one just like that in Wunjo. I think it was £300ish. I wanted to like it. I really did. Still, it looks cool though.

But surely the dirt keeps the funk in the bass.

Sorry I can't be arsed

Another Schroeder user here. I use an LMII with a Schroeder 1212L. I'm very pleased with my rig. The cab is very light & compact but sounds absolutely massive.

Nor my cup of tea either, but this caught my eye: Its called the nomad, but I wonder if they really wanted to call it the gonad.

I have a finger rest (like a thumb rest, but on the treble side of the strings) on five of my vintage style fenders just for the 60s vibe, but never use them to play thumb-plucky style. I do use chrome pickup covers over the strings on my precisions and jazz which I like to rest my hand on jamerson-style (the word [i]style [/i]used in its loosest sense) to play.

The J-Retro I have is very quiet. Maybe yours was one of the older ones, I think John improved the noise levels on later ones and can modify an older one to bring it up to date.

The orange onedoes look lovely Possibly a bit of a neck-divey shape though I guess a hollow body might help though.

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='214197' date='Jun 7 2008, 09:06 AM']I've just had my Warmoth P routed to fit in a Darkstar pickup. Not that there was anything wrong with the Wizard Thumper that came out but I'm curious to see what all the Darkstar fuss is about This is a one way trip so I have a really nice Wizard Thumper doing nothing here if anyone wants to make an offer. Peter[/quote] PMed