Jean-Luc Pickguard

Martin at the Gallery told me that it isn't necessary to cut bass strings when putting them on. I guess this may not always work for Gotoh/Warwick style tuners with skinny posts, but for my fenders I never cut the strings; the windings stack neatly on the post and there's a good break angle on the E. Here's my mustang wearing an uncircumcised set of Thomastic JF324 Flats. [attachment=6732:jlpmustang.JPG]

Unfortunately the only place I saw the Bass Cello was the Bass Centre when they had a retail space. Thomann.de sell them and have a [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/helpdesk_moneyback.html"]policy[/url] where they will take it back if you don't like it for any reason, no questions asked. I ordered my CR5M from them, but didn't send it back

The bass cello is a different instrument to the NS cello (in the video) - The bass cello is bigger - has the same scale length as a bass guitar & can be tuned as a bass or a cello. I almost bought one, but ended up buying an NS-CR5M bass instead.

playing to backing tracks is useful for practice and can be great fun, but just doesn't compare to the thrill of interacting with a drummer and other band members.

A chap I know bought his to use with didj until it broke and has been in for warranty repair for several months with no idea when it'll be fixed

Scroll down the BP forum - Jonathan Herrera confirms that it is not an April Fools joke.

They're thicker than regular strings, so you need to set the intonation at the bridge so the 12th fret harmonic gives the same note as you get when fretting at the 12th fret.

I have them on three of my basses, a highway 1 jazz, an '81 precision & an epi t-bird. Yes they do work - very well as long as: [list] [*]The little screw that governs the amount to detune is set up properly [*]You have a small dab of vaseline on the pivoting piece [*]you remember to tune up, flip the lever up & down and retune [/list] As soon as they make one for my mustang I'll get one for that as well.

[quote name='burray' post='155768' date='Mar 12 2008, 09:29 AM']I don't suppose there are any more of these going are there? I can't find the stopper bottles anywhere around here! :-/[/quote] I discovered last weekend that half-inch* shower hose washers from B&Q work just as well as the Grolsch ones and look a bit neater as well. * that's half-inch as in the size of the hole in the centre, not half-inch as in nicked.

James Jamerson's bass on Bernadette by the four tops

My son has the ashdown mini stack version for geetar and loves it, but then again he is only six. It makes a blummin' horrible fuzzy racket, and much improved by running it clean and using a behringer v-amp as a preamp for proper distortion tones, but I s'pose that defeats the object. I looks really cool though next to his squier mini-strat though.

The bassline on Sparkle City by Shuggie Otis is just perfect.

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='154056' date='Mar 9 2008, 06:01 PM']That looks cool. I wish I could do practical stuff like that - I'm hopeless![/quote] I'm OK planning it out in coreldraw, but by the time I've made it, it'll probably look more like Homer Simpson's spice rack.

My 90s MIJ '62 sounds like a precision should, it does the Jamerson sound with plenty of low-end punch, however my US '81 precision, although still sounding like a precision, sounds very different as it does have a certain growl. I suspect this may a lot to do with the heavy ash body (which makes the bass a bit of a boat-anchor) and one-piece maple neck. Both basses A/B tested with TIJF344 strings.

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='154023' date='Mar 9 2008, 05:16 PM']The spread of light's pretty good - esp in dark pubs. Easy and relatively cheap solution, me thinks.[/quote] That's what I wanted to hear. I think I might just get a set and have a go at making a case/stand thing. [quote name='stingrayfan' post='154023' date='Mar 9 2008, 05:16 PM']If you do - could you build me one please? Haha.[/quote] If I do make one I'm sure I'll post pics on BC and probably a pdf of the plans. Certainly This is the kind of thing I have in mind... [attachment=6310:lightbox.gif]

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='153819' date='Mar 9 2008, 09:47 AM']Hey Barney, we recently got a pair of [url="http://\"http://www.thomann.de/gb/stairville_led_par_56_alu_schwarz.htm\""]these[/url] from Thomann which are great. Bought some [url="http://\"http://www.thomann.de/gb/prod_AR_196226.html\""]floor stands[/url] and put one either side of the stage on auto. They go through a cycle of about 6 colours and look great - better than traffic lights. And as people have mentioned they don\'t get hot. Good old Thomann... Edit: adding picture [/quote] The LED PARs look good - inexpensive & lightweight too. I might have to check them out. With one on each side of the stage, is the spread of light wide & bright enough? It should be possible to design & build a simple ply or mdf case to fit them in that breaks into two halfs and acts as stands for ease of setup. I'm happy with my all-in-one maplins "traffic light" set at the moment (They've only been used for one gig so far) but something small & light which doesn't rely on fragile bulbs or act as a heater would be brilliant.

[quote name='jono b' post='152553' date='Mar 6 2008, 06:06 PM']Clearly what you want is one of [url="http://www.vintageandrareguitars.com/web/our-catalogue/Gibson/Electric-Basses/item/3349"]these[/url]. If only it was sunburst :wub:[/quote] ...If only it was the original pelham blue

I got one of these sets when maplin were doing them for £50. nice & easy to carry as both halves clip toghther and plash in sync.

Bill Wyman - especially when he mumbles along only occasionally hitting an actual note.

I have a bottle of something called "sticky stuff remover" it smells like orange scented petrol. I managed to get 10 year old stickers of my old precision with no ill effects. I have no idea where I got it though as it was ages since I bought it.

Someone's bound to say "the tone is in the fingers" so it might as well be me.

Its a solution looking for a problem that makes an otherwise fairly nice-looking bass into something vaguely comical in appearance.

[quote name='Born 2B Mild' post='151204' date='Mar 4 2008, 06:09 PM']I defy anyone to play both and not agree that there is a genuine difference. Whether that difference is enough to justify the difference in cost is another thing. But having the right badge does help in the Feel Good stakes. Like, riding a Jap chopper and wondering what a real Harley is like. One thing's for sure. Buy used. A gibson will keep its value, and if you buy-use-sell, the real cost is negligble.[/quote] I agree there is a difference - the maple neck on the epi means its probably less likely to suffer decapitation, the epi can have its neck shimmed and its easy to relocate the strap button to the heel area to cure the neckdive, the epi is a lot cheaper, they do sound different, but the epi still sounds great even with the stock pickups. The truss rod cover on the Gibson is nicer though. Joe Punter / Sally Stripper don't care what log is on the headstock - they probably don't know the difference betwen a guitar & a bass anyway. I chose an epi over a gibson because of the differences not despite (& also for the arctic white finish), - maybe I'm weird

Looks interesting, but I'm afraid I didn't get as far as signing up. I couldn't work out why they need my phone no and whether they going to sell my email address to spammers. Yes I'm a cynical old barstool

[quote name='pete.young' post='150522' date='Mar 3 2008, 05:59 PM']It was already too noisy when it was just guitars. That and last years fiasco over the 'bass area' mean that I won' t be bothering this year.[/quote] What "bass area" fiasco was that? I can't even remember if I went last year.