thisnameistaken

That's nice. Boring question: Do you have to take the neck off to put a tight piece of elastic around the headstock like that? Seems it would be difficult to get around the headstock and tuners and still be effective on the strings when dragged over the nut.

Another good RHCP tune with a rake at the front of the bass riff is Mellowship Slinky in Bmaj. Try playing the first four notes in the main riff with one finger down all four strings. It's just a Bmaj chord up at the 6/7/7/5 frets.

All my basses have been 34". I think if I had a regular bass guitar gig now though I would look at buying a 32" due to my rubbish wrist tendons. My DBs are both 41.5". Doesn't seem to bother my wrists at all. Bass guitar is just a bad idea I reckon.

[quote name='The Bass Doc' timestamp='1351166820' post='1848122']A pair of modded Jazz basses. The one on the left is a genuine 1962 Fiesta red (refin) and the mod to include the Gibson humbucker was carried out in 1970 when the bass would have been worth around £80.00. Apologies to the purist/collector folks out there but I wasn't to know about the huge value hike that followed. The fretless on the right was built by me later in the 70s.[/quote] Very cool! How useful do you find them? I was thinking it might be useful for reggae stuff (of which I do a lot) and it also might improve note tracking on some effects I use. Now I've seen someone else with a neck pup Jazz bass I must have one.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' timestamp='1350220888' post='1835882']OK I'm going to ask, why do you need more than one?[/quote] I've got two on my board because I split my signal in two. Originally I just had an OC-2 in one channel (because I either wanted it solo or blended with my clean sound or effected sounds) but then I found there were loads of nice sounds to be had by putting an OC-2 infront of the stuff I had in the other channel as well, so I added a second for that. Can't imagine needing six although spares are always a good idea, but two is very sensible.

Only problem with all these hollowbodies - as much as I'm sure they sound great - I can also imagine the neck dive. I'm thinking about routing out a hole in my Squier Jazz and sticking a Gibbo-style mudbucker in there. I'm pretty terrible at doing wood things though.

[quote name='bremen' timestamp='1351067829' post='1846780']When you realise that you're halfway between a drummer and a musician...[/quote] I was once introduced to a pianist who was MD-ing a show at a local theatre as 'This is Kev, he's a musician' - I immediately said 'Well, I'm a bass player'.

I try not to tell people I'm a bass player.

I'd forgotten about that Godin, I like the look of those.

[quote name='Prunesquallor' timestamp='1350992443' post='1845897'] It is a great price, but is it realistic here in the UK? Unfortunately, customs charges and VAT slapped on at the border may increase the price significantly. [/quote] The bass is coming from Germany so you won't pay any additional customs charges or VAT to import it.

That is a great price. Now I'm tempted. :/

OK so the old Gibson basses had a pickup up by the neck, and I've seen the Billy Sheehan sigs do too, but I wondered what other basses have a pickup in that position. I guess Rics count. And there was that PRS three-coil bass. Any others?

How much does it cost to order a custom VM5 from Sandberg? Is there a price list for the options published somewhere? I can't find any information on their website.

I've got a Realist on one bass and Bass Max on the other. The Bass Max has quite a pronounced nasal thwack along with the pizz attack which is difficult to EQ out. The Realist has the same characteristic (it seems all piezo pickups do) but less pronounced, although the Realist has less of everything - it gives you a sound with no treble or high mids, they're just not there to dial in. I guess this is due to the pickup being fitted so far away from the strings. I don't like piezos to be honest but if I had to use one, the next model I would try is the Full Circle, although it's expensive, especially if you don't already have an adjustable bridge.

I've got the duo it makes some really gnarly sounds.

Surprised he didn't say anything about the pasty tax debacle.

[quote name='rogerstodge' timestamp='1350585555' post='1840969'] Ask for the luthiers phone number [/quote] That sounds like a good suggestion to me.

I had to slim down my rig because I moved into a first-floor flat in an 18th century building and I couldn't get a 410 up the narrow stairs on my own. Fair enough if some people find compact neo cabs to be lacking, but if you're going through the PA anyway it doesn't really matter. If you consider your backline as your on-stage monitor then you realise it's actually beneficial not to be swamping the stage with a load of bass. FWIW my rig is currently a Shuttle head, Schroeder 212 and a pedalboard. I can carry all of those plus a bass and bag of cables from the car in one trip. It's a bit awkward and involves some shuffling, and hopefully no doors, but I can do it!

In my last flat where I had upstairs neighbours the landlord had put acoustic insulation between the floors and we never heard a dickie bird from them. When they moved out they said 'Oh we won't be annoying you with our loud music any more' and I was surprised because I'd never heard a thing. Would probably cost a couple hundred quid to sort out your bass-playing room though. :/

3/4 Musima factory laminate ('The Brute'): 5 1/4" 3/4 Gedo Musik carved bass ('Uberbassenbassen'): 5 1/2" I thought the laminate would have the thicker neck, it feels a little chunkier.

[quote name='Clarky' timestamp='1350116948' post='1834680'] If you intend to keep to the ska/two-tone genre, Jamie, I am not sure a Jazz would cut through enough for you. [/quote] I did a punk/reggae/ska band for two years mostly playing a Jazz, works a treat. I also noticed the bass player for The Skints is now playing a Jazz, as is the bassist for The Drop. The guy for The Beat uses a P though so there's some balance. Stingrays and their ilk only really show up in American 3rd-wave (read: rubbish) ska-pop bands.

The blue and green ones look really nice. The one with the '70s neck would look really nice if it didn't have gold hardware and a pukey finish.

I am feeling a lot like Bilbo at the moment. I quit my last band a year ago and still haven't managed to rope a group of musicians together for long enough to get them gigging. I had a great group earlier this year but the pianist turned out to be the flakiest guy I've ever met, one of the singers wasn't far off, and the other vocalist - who has so many great skills that I really want in a band - doesn't seem to want to do anything without the other singer. Only plus side is I've found a really good drummer, but he invited me out to jam with a guitarist at the weekend and it ended up being several hours of blues/funk, which I am really not interested in. Currently I've got two guitarist/singers who I accompany on double bass and I enjoy both gigs but they aren't very regular, and I've got a slowly growing pile of my own recordings that I can't find a band for. Every time I look on the musicians classifieds and sites like Bandmix it seems 99% of the people in my area are guitarists who wants to play alt-rock, or wedding/tribute bands. 'king depressing tbh.