uk_lefty

So here's a noddy question... I've got a USA Stingray with the wheel adjuster for neck relief. Three and a half weeks ago, a very hot day, I picked this up from my repairs and luthier guy who does a lovely bass set up. I have not had the bass out of the case until today and there is a noticeable bend in the neck and the G string is unplayable on frets 1-6 and the other strings rattle when played on frets 1 to 6. I think this must have been caused by heat in the period in between set up and today, with the bass being stored in its hard case but unfortunately in my office room which gets very hot and we had a very hot week after picking up the bass. With the bass I didn't get a special tool for truss rod adjustment but can get a smaller Allen key in there and move the wheel. I'm thinking I need to tighten the truss rod to straighten out the neck and get rid of the string rattle? I. E. If I am standing up with the bass resting back on my legs, strings facing outwards, get the tool in the wheel and pull to my right... Is that correct? It's not something I usually dare to do, especially with an expensive bass but I'm thinking to make small adjustments and keep coming back to check.

My old jazz bass had two stickers: one of my band logo, one of another band logo (originals) where I dep sometimes. The bass was beaten and worn and I was OK with putting stickers on it. My precision, leaving my stable tomorrow for a new home, had a sticker of the snake from the Gruffalo on it. Partly because my daughter loves the Gruffalo and my guitars, and partly because I was writing some songs for a new project and had a really seedy one called "snake" so I thought it all added up. Song didn't get finished, project never got started, bass just got sold. A former colleague was the daughter of a semi pro bassist. She remembers as a child putting googly eye stickers on his bass and after he passed away she inherited the instrument, opened the case and the stickers were still on it. A lovely story when she tells it as it obviously meant a lot to her.

Expectation vs reality. For me at least, I lust after a particular bass or bit of kit and when I get it I'm somehow not the lab created hybrid of Bernard Edwards and Marcus Miller. I recently spent months agonising over selling a bass I don't use to fund some new acquisitions. Now the bass is boxed up and ready to go I'm missing it already and slightly regretting it. I also saw what I thought was my dream bass for sale a while back but couldn't afford until now, so I messaged a dealer saying "hey if you get this or anything similar I'd like to know" and he had something I'd never seen before that really tickled my fancy... And the bass of my dreams came up for sale on the same day. And 24hrs later while I'm thinking "wouldn't it be great to have twin fretted and fretless basses" the fretless twin of my number 1 came up for sale. Can't have them all! But all this time not playing in the band and working full time at home plus being more available to be "dad" means I can only dream about gigging and not I'm not practicing, hence every loo break involves trawling classifieds, Reverb, Gumtree, eBay...

I won't change my RM500, there may be "better" amps out there but this is an uncomplicated and high quality way to get the job done! I found with my Sire V7 I was bypassing the amp EQ but mainly because the on board EQ was so good on the Sire and I didn't want a clash of EQs. With my Precision (which goes to a new owner tomorrow, sadly) I used the amp EQ, bit of mid boost and dig in with the fingers for some clank. With my MM Stingray I do use the amp EQ but I pretty much set and forget the inboard EQ for that bass. Just need to spend the time finding what's best for each bass and then it gets easier. I'm not a knob twiddler when playing live, pretty much like to have a good tone and stick with it unless I need a drastic change for any reason, but then it's very easy to forget to change back!

Not far off, geographically. The actual Road to Hell is in fact the road to Hull. Now known as Kingston Upon Hull as its "rebrand" sought to confuse the incoming heroin smugglers. As a young lad with sporting ambitions that could not be met in tiny, backward North Yorkshire towns, I used to frequent Hull, or Ull as the locals call it, and would regularly pass the shell of burned out cars in a similar spot near a tesco while Viking FM, the local radio aired ads to warn us off the dangers of "Ridin't' White pony".

Ropey rehearsals are good for you, they make you focus on what you need to improve on and I actually quite like being a bit shoddy in the last rehearsal before a gig for that reason.

I saw it as an option on Warmoth years back... Haven't looked there since the exchange rate got less and less attractive. I remember thinking it would be interesting to be a bit flashy but I just can't think how I would personally use it at all except to muck about while guitarists fart about between songs in rehearsal.

The Sire will be excellent quality, they're just great instruments and not just "great for the price". Of course a Hofner would be nice to have and quite resonant if you can't be bothered amping up, then there are the "gold tone micro basses". Not sure if you can get them from a UK Supplier but they look lovely, short scale acoustic basses, I've seen more fretless than fretted, for a home noodle bass it would be excellent, though not cheap if you had to import from the US.

Well I have, with the help of some friends, once lifted up one of our group so he could scuff his feet along the ceiling of a small nightclub during that song. Needless to say it wasn't a great feeling for him, neither was it when the bouncers grabbed us all by the neck.

Haha well it was a hot day... I've played in shorts since but definitely not "action sandals". Lesson learned. The bass has since been sold but only because I couldn't get on with the string spacing.

I played a Hohner cricket bat bass at a very big gig (by the standards of my local covers band) and the negative comments were more about me wearing shorts and "action sandals" than playing the minimalist bass.

Don't know about you but I'm NOT too scared to mention the dandy highwayman, Adam Ant. There, I mentioned him.

And Radiohead did it even better than that, IMO 😜

I get it, have been trying to broaden my horizons with some classical music, though in my band I'm playing riffs and root note eighths most the time if I stick to the original bass line. It's just some (not all, but a vocal few) people on the forum use their "I don't play covers" mantra to beat down anybody else's opinion because they are just so far above anybody else because they play originals only.

Quite a tasty Sandberg on ebay at the moment too.

Eastwood did a lefty flying V bass for a while. I would LOVE one of those! But you're right, there's some weird stuff they pump out that must be for a very niche audience. Glad we are discussing this in the lefty section so we don't have 10 pages of "I hate fender clones" 'but Leo got it right it's what people buy..' "it's not original, I don't care about commerciality, I only play originals and I only play notes that haven't been on top 40 records" and so the snore fest goes..!

For many years my only bass was my five string fretless Kramer, metallic black paint, upside down banana headstock. I played it in an acoustic blues duo, with a female jazzy type singer, with a 90s indie type band, more appropriately with an 80s power ballad band... And in recent years with my covers band there is footage of me dressed as Lemmy (grew the handlebars and everything) rocking that fretless to Uptown Funk.

Ask how much it weighs. Anything under 20kg and there's nothing left inside the box!

Not anymore it's not...!

I tried an adjustable wrench this morning and it just wouldn't grip... Think I'll try a gentle level where the finish is already a bit cracked

Agreed. I think MIM basses had a bad reputation around the 90s but there were still some good ones and it seems now that all round quality is a lot higher, particularly in the last five years or so. If you're buying it to play rather than for resale value etc then MIM would be a good solid instrument.

If you're happy for people to collect them from your home of course. Anyhow, enough has been said and our opinions differ. As I said first off I completely understand it from the other perspective but for me the context of a premium product changes things. Anyhow I'd love to hear more about the US and MIM Fenders as I am seriously considering pushing the button this summer.

Indeed. Why buy a bass when there's trees all along my road? Charging for wood is a rip off.

Depends how the product is costed though doesn't it and what assumptions are made over how many want shipping vs how many don't. Maybe she loses out every time she ships? But you don't know that your default is to resort to talk of being ripped off without thinking.