thisnameistaken

That's nothing I bought one of those and the headstock was completely missing. Sounds like the guy knows there's a fault with it. Was there no indication of a problem when you tried it before you bought it? Weird.

I can't listen to that song for very long due to soft rock intolerance, but your playing and tone sound very good to me.

If you think you're losing treble due to cable capacitance it's easier/cheaper to just use a shorter cable than a higher-quality cable. I bet any £5 10ft cable sounds better than any £80 20ft cable given a passive bass as an input signal.

I've tried my laminate with innovation silver slaps, innovation honeys and evah pirazzi. I've tried it with spiros on my carved bass. So a few different strings.

Cheers Tom. PM-ed.

Last year I was gigging my Thumb 4 with a punk/reggae band and it didn't look or sound out of place at all. Sure it doesn't look like a Fender but it's not an outrageous shape and the body has an understated grain rather than a flashy figured top. You can wear a Thumb to any gig I reckon.

I have tried turning the Bass Max over, yeah. What's frustrating me is that most people seem to think it's a good pickup, and I'd like it to be a good pickup. Maybe I need to try another one to see if it's just mine that's knackered. As for blending pickups I did wonder if it might be worth adding a Fishman BP-100 and blending it with my Realist to get a bit more of the string in the sound. But currently I'm using a Fishman Plat Pro which only has one input, so I'd need to look at an alternative preamp or sticking a blender before it. Actually I wonder if a passive 2-in, 1-out blender box with a single mix control mounted to the tailpiece might be feasible?

[quote name='fatback' timestamp='1343310023' post='1748711'] You're describing the reason I gave up on the bassmax. I believe it was the combination of strings, bass and pup. No amount of eq could sort it and it sounded bad on both sides of the bridge. [/quote] This is definitely my experience. [quote name='Mr Bassman' timestamp='1343314719' post='1748846'] My Bassmax sounds fantastic on 3 or 4 different basses, [/quote] And this is why I wonder if mine is broken! I can understand the people describing it as tolerable in return for volume, but 'fantastic'? Really? Mine must be knackered.

I had Warwick do the same for me when I had a dodgy neck on a 6-string bolt-on. Truss rod went, they took it away and decided the neck wasn't stiff enough, replaced it and sent it back with a bunch of free goodies (gig bag, T-shirt, etc.). Nice folks.

I understand that even though I'm not likely to be happy about it. I would be surprised, though, if there isn't a better solution than this Bass Max. :/

As for tightness/looseness - I experimented with that quite a lot on my old bass, to little/no effect. I sanded the slot in my current bridge for a fairly tight fit but felt it was probably pointless to do more sanding given that I already experienced the same issues on my other bass. Rev I appreciate what you're saying about volume for live work and that the sound quality is less important than being heard, but I can't imagine this sound being good enough for anything. Clarky at least you've discouraged me from trying more wing-mount piezos. So that's potentially saved me a few bob!

That does sound a lot like what I'm getting. I honestly thought it was broken, it sounds so bad. I decided to try it on my new bass because I stuck a Realist on there but I'm a bit disappointed that it doesn't pick up any of the mechanical sound of playing the bass - the kind of detail you get from a pickup. I tried cranking the high mids / treble but there's no detail there to amplify. So I thought a pup closer to the strings would do it. I am tempted now to try a Full Circle but it's an expensive experiment. I don't have an adjustable bridge on this bass so that's £150+ before I factor in the price of the pickup.

So I can assume that yours doesn't sound like that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4-oPbzBNgE And leave it to Cud to squeeze all the disco out of this! [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALVXIacRO-E[/media]

You wouldn't like them.

I've never got a decent sound out of this Bass Max pickup. I've now tried it on two basses, through a couple of amps and also direct (via a Fishman Plat Pro) into my Mac, and each time I get the same issue: Basically I get a very strong attack with each note I pluck, consisting of mostly mids, then the rest of the note envelope seems a lot quieter. So the overall effect is of the strings being muted. Is this just what the Bass Max sounds like or have I got a duffer? I've tried various tightnesses of fit in both sides of the bridge of both basses, and the results are always pretty much the same.

To be fair you painstakingly undesirablized that Pedulla yourself.

[quote name='wishface' timestamp='1343134154' post='1745786'] I'm not going to defend what some might consider poor technique. But there is some mileage in the belief that human idiosyncracies are what make musicians unique. [/quote] +lots. I have a really wrong picking technique. I alternate between my index and ring fingers. Then sometimes I use my middle finger. I don't know when or why - I think it's mostly when changing up strings or doing rakes and a lot when string skipping. Anyway, I can play with index/middle, but if I stop concentrating I slip back into index/ring with middle finger nonsense inbetween. But whatever. I doubt anyone else does it (although I've been told Percy Jones does) and it produces an awkward burpy silly stuttery sound I like, and I can always simplify it for more traditional sounding stuff (I did a reggae band for the last two years with no complaints). So yeah. Enjoy what you sound like and stop trying to genericise yourself.

Yarr. I've had Sunday at the Village Vanguard on in the car the last couple of days and there's plenty of Scott getting a little loose all over it. Like I could do any better, but still, not much to learn from that.

The one Warwick I would pay more for is a Streamer Stage 1 of the vintage where they had the wide wenge neck laminates and the two-piece bridge. I've seen them up for sale with the solid bridge and a few fretless examples but I've only ever seen one with the modern bridge and the old neck laminates and for me it's the best looking bass Warwick ever made. I'd love one of those. That said I still gig my 91 Thumb routinely and my my it's a fine ****ing bass guitar. Records great too. If I could only have one bass it's this one.

Mine said it had an ebony fingerboard but I don't know how to tell the difference to be honest. It has a couple of imperfections around C on the E string but I can't tell if that's where it's had a weird rub against something or a knot in the wood or if it's been painted. No doubt I'll find out.

I don't know what those strings are despite quite a lot of experimentation myself(!) - I'm sure Rev can tell you. It might be that they're suitable for pizz but it depends what sort of sound you're after really, and how your bass feels after the inevitable setup. Report back! That action is a bit high and yes you can probably improve it quite a bit and still get a good loud pizz sound. Sorry I can't recommend a luthier in your area (I'm in York) but ask for a quote for lowering it to a good pizz height and also a quote for fitting a new adjustable bridge - I know my local guy will supply and fit a good budget adjustable bridge for £150, so maybe that would be a good option with the height centered around 10mm on the E - that way you'll have plenty of available adjustment in both directions as you get used to the instrument. Glad to hear you're enjoying it. It's such a fun instrument to bang a tune out of and there are so many opportunities for it that a bass guitar just wouldn't suit in the same way. Have fun broadening your gigging horizons man.