NickA

Pmt only stock really boring basses. Not so far to bass direct in Warwick tho, who have EVERYTHING...and Bass Bros nearby. But for £2k, natural wood finish ... Warwick streamer? Generally go 2nd hand for £1600 to £1800... push the budget and try a Spector?

My dolphin has a jan1. It works. Also pointless, as if the nut height is correct you never need to change it. Eg the fixed brass nut on my MK2 Wal. Nadjustable nuts are something of a Warwick USP ... But I don't really know what they're for.

On bows... again. I was at Oxford Violins today to see and pay for the restoration of my dad's cello. Got to play it with my own bows and: A new bow by Mark Yakoushkin... Flexy, quite nice. A WE Hill bow from around 1920..priced £8.5k... lovely A Tubbs bow from 1880... Just...wow.. and very much not for sale ( but they're £10-20k if you find one to buy. They all made my £1300 arcus t4 seem a bit basic Sadly I'm wondering if there is something about these "lovely antiques" after all.

Excellent bowing strings. How well do they pluck?

Your action is indeed too high, it's really due to the neck angle being wrong, but it would cost a load to fix that. I wonder if the neck joint is giving way. Anyway easy fix is smaller bridge which will make it quieter, but playable. You'll not do any damage to the existing bridge by taking a few mm off the top. Much easier than shaping the feet of a new one and a new adjustable bridge will probably need cutting down anyway. On my own bass I decided after 20 odd years that I wanted a lower action so took 2mm off the top of the bridge. Then realised the bass didnt speak as easily or sound so good with a bow, so had adjusters added to the bridge to bring it up again! Now I can vary it from 8mm to about 15mm under the G. Moving the bridge up and down the length of the bass will change the sound but hardly affect intonation ( minutely changes the scale) Those little "V" shapes on the f-holes are supposed to line up with the middle of the bridge. Generally if you move the bridge toward the end pin, you'll get a harder tone, towards the finger board, a softer one. My bass is best with the Vs aligned with the back of the bridge.

Bridges can be cheap but fitting them is not. They need: Top shaping to match the fingerboard Feet shaping to match the belly of the beast Notches for the strings Tidying up and thinning down No2 is the hard one. If the action is too high just cut the top off the existing bridge. Same shape but lower down. The fingerboard is probably badly grooved if the paint wore through. It will need sanding flat. If you want it black then I'd sand all the paint off, use black wood stain and follow up with a layer of epoxy ( yacht varnish might do). Value = zilch, sadly. Dealers tend to chuck these in a skip rather than mend them. ☹️

Lady at my orchestra has a basic laminate Eastwood bass with a set of Eva's on it. Ribbons on a pig in some ways, but it makes her bass nicer to play and it sounds ok ( if rather quiet ). I think the bass cost £1200 and the strings £220 and I'm tempted to say she should have spent more on the bass ... But a £1400 bass wouldn't really be better, unless it also had £200 strings on it. Given they last forever, for us non pros who aren't knocking out Neilson and Bruckner every night 😉.... it's not a bad investment. My Eva's are 2 years old and as good as new after orchestra every week, jazz gigs twice a month or so and ( not enough) home practice.

he's right if course; but I really like that 10%. 😁😁

Same with ancient violins and modern masterpieces... you'll not tell the difference really. I was reading about the "Davidov" Stradivarius cello...it's priceless; it's owned by Louis Vuiton ( of the handbags) but available to Yo Yo Ma, but he usually plays a Montagna. Previously it was owned by Jacqueline DuPre, but she found it unreliable and switched to a modern cello. Old bows won't lose value, modern bows usually will ..simply because they don't really improve with age and because you can replace them with like. I've got 7 cello bows at the moment, I only need two and would happily sell the others, but no one really wants them. all the more important to buy something you really like and keep it forever! As for pre CBS fenders ..load of bollix; just buy a new one.

Thanks for the responses. @Bremen I'll PM you. That Moukey MSc1 is seriously cheap and does loads. It doesn't say it has a digital input (so may not double as a laptop audio interface). I guess it does, in reality. No internal battery though, so it needs to be connected to a pc or usb PSU. The ashdown tone pocket appears to be the same as the moukey - the usb socket says "recording out", but the description says 48k/44.1kHz "for both playback and recording"... So maybe it does the biz. Needs an external PSU tho. Now I used "laptop audio interface" rather than "guitar headphones amp" as a search string, I've found lots ( eg Audient Evo4)... the pjb is still looking the most versatile due to tiny size and internal battery, tho annoyingly, even the newer HA2 still has a crappy usb micro socket.

I've had a pjb bighead ha1 for years, bought as a gizmo for silent practice, but ended up serving as a dac for my laptop, a headphone amp for my hifi, a tiny preamp used with a powered cab ..... and occasionally for silent practice. A true Swiss army knife of sound. BUT, the mico usb socket has broken free of the internal PCB. It's all surface mount so way beyond my soldering skills to mend it properly. I've fettled it so it will charge, but can't make the digital Comms stuff work ☹️ May need a new one. I'd assumed someone other than pjb would make something similar, but HiFi headphone / dac devices generally lack analogue inputs so you can't plug a bass in, or are analogue only so can't connect o a laptop. Is the pjb big head really so unique?

People selling stuff will always persuade you to spend more! And there is no doubt that a brilliant bow will get the most out of your bass ( I'm sure the £7000 arcus S9 would sound ..even..better than my £1000 S3 ) . When trialing cello bows even my tone deaf wife could hear the differences and we both preferred the same one. But it's diminishing returns when you could spend the money on the bass. Meanwhile, I'm in the process of helping my mum sell my late dad's 'cello, which is with an expert restorer and will eventually sell for up to £100k ( it's what pro's instruments are worth these days, plus "bragging rights" antique value). The restorers were shocked that dad's best bow was that (not brilliant) £3k one and that he usually used a £1500 dorfler. They expected he'd have a lovely antique to go with the cello. However, the very best modern bows don't generally top £8000. You can spend £25k, if the guy accepts your commission, to have something custom made by Benoit rolland and have a bow like yo yo ma uses on his £3m Montagna and priceless Stradivarius! Set a budget, try a few, expect to go a bit over budget. But most of all get something that feels nice, is in good condition and makes a sound you like.

I used a basic wood bow for years before upgrading. My current bow is worth £1k and the bass is worth £6k to £10k. No way I'd ever spend £5k on a bow for it. If I were a much better player with a £25k bass and really in to my classical playing I might shell out £3.5k for a lovely Andrew McGill bow. Antiques aside, the very best modern bows are around £8000.... so I really doubt that 30 to 50% figure. You can get something perfectly ok for occasional use for under £100.

On your fingerboard? Doesn't the wax gunge the strings up?

How far does 9ml go? I'll stick to vodka, that's £12 a litre not £50 ...and you can drink what's left, if you're desperate😁.

I used them for the cello bows. Worked well. My bass bow came from bass bags, they loaned it to me for a month, but had to order it in specially. Caswells had stock in hand. Bowspeed in Bristol are another option.

I used to think bows were unimportant ... then I tried a £1000 one instead of the basic wood one I'd had for 30 years, revelation. So then got to thinking about my cello bow which I'd had for 45 years. I got a shop to send me 6 bows around the £1000 mark ... all better, all different. I decided to buy a carbon arcus T4 which out performed the wooden bows at that price. But back in the shop I asked to try the £1300 T5; not just incrementally better but definitely better so I bought that .. I didn't dare try the £1600 T6. Now I'm wondering about trading my £1000 bass bow in for a better one. They really do make a difference. And they need to be suited to your bass. A dark bass might need a brighter bow etc etc ...and down the rabbit hole we go. What makes a "good" one is what feels best in your hand and makes the sound you want. And that may change as your playing develops. Beware of fancy woods and precious metals, they put gold trimmings on good expensive bows as a signifier that it's one of their best; but putting gold on a bow doesn't improve it, just ups the price. Rules of thumb: glass fibre bows are rubbish. Cheap carbon bow's a bit better, basic "Brazil wood" bows better still, then fancy carbon bows eg from coda and arcus will match or beat any wood bow at the same price. Then bespoke hand crafted Pernambuco bows from a reputable bow maker ... You're talking £3000+ now. Also bragging rights antique bows from tourte, tubbs, hills, sartory etc ..you're paying for rarity as well as quality then. £10k anyone, £50k? I have right now a gold mounted hand made Pernambuco cello bow that was my dads, valued at around £3k ... it's horrible with my cello.

Use the contents as a solvent and fill it with decent malt whisky 😁

Dolphins are special. Took mine out gigging last night and realised I play my Wal a bit too much. Lovely neck, excellent ergonomics and a sound that's clear as a bell. Indicating once again that there is no ONE dream bass.

Are they handed? The symmetry suggests you could play it either way. Tho I guess the strings would be back to front for you, so the nut and bridge would need adapting .. but not too hard to do?

..to clean my fingerboards! Too boring as a drink, tho we usually have a bottle around for my wife to splash in soft drinks ..to make them more interesting!

I just use vodka.

We use them at work permanently on charge where possible, if the power drops out the jackery takes over. We have a set of solar panels for outdoor work away from a socket. We used to use lead acid UPS devices which weigh a ton, have noisy fans and provide backup for minutes not hours...awful things.

Rating and power draw are very different. A 350W pa will probs only draw 50W on average. Plug your pa into the jackery 240 and see what its LCD says about power usage ( add 5W or so for the power used by the Jackery itself). Multiply that power figure by the number of hours you want to play and that's your required Whr rating .. or try it in a rehearsal and see how long it lasts. If the 240 lasts 30 min, then the 500 will last an hour etc.