thisnameistaken

I think the body shape is most important, it has to look balanced - I don't like the Fodera Anthony Jackson for this reason. Headstock has to be a nice shape - I don't like Tyler basses for that reason. Finish has to be tasteful - I don't like figured tops with translucent colours for that reason, same goes for pearlescent pickguards, and of course gold hardware.

Just spotted these dates and thought I'd give a quick heads up if anyone's interested: [url="http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/Ben-Folds-Five-tickets/artist/869242"]http://www.ticketmas...s/artist/869242[/url] I last saw them fifteen years ago and they were great fun live, quite stoked they're doing another tour.

Think I'm changing my mind about how I'm doing this. I've got the Ehrlund preamp mounted behind the tailpiece at the moment using a zip-tie through the A and D string holes and a big wodge of foam to pad it, but I think it's sucked some life out of my A and D strings. :/ So now I'm thinking the only alternative is to not mount the preamp on the bass itself, but I've got the original cable on my pickup (terminating in a male jack) so it's not ideal. I do want to leave the pickup on the bass permanently, but I don't want to have to run this thin wire off the bass to the preamp. I think what I really need is the wire shortening and terminating in a female plug. Such a skinny wire though, I'm going to have to find a hexpert to do it. I certainly wouldn't want to have a go myself.

When I first started playing they were a common beginner brand, they were cheaper than Squiers and had designs that appealed more to metal fans. I haven't played one for 20 years so I can't really give an opinion on whether I thought they were any good.

Dave you have to remember this is a social website first and a marketplace second. People may want to talk about your items, people might want to ask questions without giving you a deposit first, and so on. You might be better off thinking of the threads you start as being public threads that you started rather than "your" threads, if you see what I mean.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1347880017' post='1805983']I thought guitars were only for metal anyway Or at least, that`s the impression you`d get from reading most reviews about them.[/quote] Reviews also give the impression that bass players still slap.

I disagree about working on the bass part alone for a long time before you try singing. I think if you're intending to do both then you should start doing both, and if there are awkward clashes in the timing then slow the piece down as slow as you need to go to 'feel' how the vocal and bass notes slot in between each other. Then you'll be able to bring it back up to speed. Eventually you'll need less time to get new material working. I do harmony vox and when learning new songs in rehearsals I'll usually sing off the mic for the first couple of times through and by then I'm usually able to join in without tripping over myself.

Actually in a volume pedal you don't want a linear response you want an exponential curve from the internal pot - that's why expression pedals are no good as volume controls. The Ernie Ball VP Jr is pretty popular and does everything you ask. I've got one myself but I use it as an expression pedal (and changed the pot!)

They are pretty clever aren't they. Refreshing to hear adventurous stuff in pop music for a change.

Very odd. I'll be keen to hear if it's the silver slaps because I've got a set I've been meaning to put back on my laminate bass.

That seems really weird to me. Is there nowhere between the quiet position and the boomy one where it sounds good? To be honest mine sounded pretty good on my bass in most of the places that I put it, and I'm still not totally decided where it's staying but that's down to choosing what type of sound I want rather than one sound being bad and another good. I'm really surprised to hear that it doesn't sound good on a ripe old antique.

Daf the pre low/high switch isn't really explained in the accompanying instructions. I thought it would be some sort of EQ shape setting to suit different instruments, but I guess not? Is 'low' simply a pad?

Mine's not quite where he's got his. Mine is an inch and a half or so further north and it's up against the edge of the F hole. I may move it further towards that position he's using though as that's quite a nice open sound, but it sounded a little bit too scooped to me when I did it. How is yours mounted? I find if it's mounted very close to the body it starts to sound compressed, and if your blobs of tack are too close to the middle it gets a bit nasal. The most natural-sounding results - for me - were with just a small amount of tack at each corner, creating about a 1mm gap under the mic. Bigger gaps can sound better but the volume starts to drop off quite quickly. I think it's important to try to mount it consistently each time as you move it around looking for an ideal position, because the way the pickup is attached to the bass can have a large influence on the sound. You might not be able to judge the positional adjustment very well if the pickup is mounted closer or less evenly or the tack is blobbing close to the centre, etc. Choose a mounting method and stick as close to it as you can.

I either use the headphone out on my Shuttle, or a headphone out on my audio interface (M-Audio FW1814).

I've seen a fair few bespoke basses for sale here and on eBay. Seems like the 'perfect custom bass' sometimes turns out to be quite disposable.

At that price it's worth a punt surely. You don't necessarily need a bass amp (if it will be used as a pretty low-volume stage monitor), but it might be an idea to look for something wedge-shaped so it's firing at your bassist's ears rather than his knees. Hartke do some wedge-shaped bass combos but I don't know if they'd meet your budget. Or a smaller combo can be placed on a table or something I suppose. I can understand him wanting some monitoring it's a stress playing double bass without it, and as the bass player you're in the worst position in the room to actually hear the stupid thing...

It seems to me you'd be in for a lot of stretching. I wouldn't like it myself.

And I wasn't aware that Danny Thompson uses mittels but certainly I don't get a sound anything like his from my E!

Ah right. I think the nature of E strings is that they have to be hard to play to sound good unfortunately.

Silver Slaps are way lower tension than spiro weichs. To be honest though you could get away with a mittel on the E for slapping in terms of tension but it's going to sound very different to your other strings. Maybe try a Super Silver? Higher tension but a similar sound, might work better as an E.

He's a bit tasty isn't he.