DorsetBlue

[quote name='skelf' timestamp='1392981941' post='2374863'] Drop John East a line he may be able to supply a longer flexi. [/quote] Thanks Alan, that is an option. However I think the bend radius required might be too extreme for this ribbon cable. Just going to have another gander at it to see.

Managed to spend a couple hours on the bass last night and have progressed things somewhat. After re-reading the manual/s, I noted that Alan recommends you still use foil where the pots touch the bass even with screen paint - so I stuck some tape in this area and also improved the earthing to the backplate whilst I was at it. I used my multimeter to confirm that there was very low resistance between the strips of foil, I also attached a new common cavity earthing point to the strip of foil going to the back plate. Now it was on to fitting the units that make up the EQ01, which is a modular design. This has significant benefits in some ways but has a couple of drawbacks for retrofits. Drawback one, in your excitement to get everything fitted you may install all of the modules into the spaces you want them...you may also secure them in space. It will be at that moment you realise that the, admittedly very nice to have, screw terminals have the screw holes in the horizontal and the wire attachment holes in the vertical. Now although you need to use a very very small electricians screwdriver to tighten these terminals, you cannot do this in a populated cavity - there is not enough room, so you have to take everything out again and wire it up before inserting the modules. Luckily I realised this with only the main board and one of the LF boards fitted. In my opinion, it would have been better to have had these terminals with the screw head in the vertical. This would allow for in-situ wiring, still it is only a minor niggle. Drawback two, these modules are quite bulky when faced with a cavity that has been routed for pots and a single pre-amp board. This does limit your orientation options somewhat and makes routing of the interconnecting ribbon cables a challenge. In my case, this has proven impossible with the length of the ribbon cable provided to reach the terminal of the bridge LF board. Not to be daunted by such a minor engineering annoyance, and noting that the ribbon cable is really just a 5 conductor solid core cable, I intend to create an interconnection cable from an appropriate equivalent - probably either Cat5 or telephone cable. Unfortunately I cannot show any photos at this point, as my smartphone decided to die for some unknown reason overnight. Hopefully service and the fit will all be back on schedule shortly.

Bought an Alesis USB interface off of Andy this week, item arrived very promptly and well packaged. Would definitely do business with again.

Similar to Steff's recent Audere topic, I thought I would do one on my current modification to my Cort B4. I love my Cort, it is excellently built for the price (although found one defect doing this, see below) but I have never got on with the preamp in it - most of the time I just run it in bypass mode. After recently acquiring a ACG Graft which didn't have one of Alan's filter based pre-amps in it (single pickup), I thought I would buy one of the EQ01 preamps and fit it to the Cort, to see if I could get my head around a filter pickup before maybe ordering a 5 stringer with one fitted in the future. I was intending to do this all today but the repair (see below) will need 24 hours to dry, so I thought I would put post 1 on now. Here she is before any work: Note that it has 5 knobs plus the bypass switch, so I have bought the 5K version of the EQ01. I intend to fill the gap left by the bypass switch with a battery status LED from John East if this all goes according to plan. On removing the back cover I found that the wood has split around one of the screwholes, this is the repair that has been done. There is pretty good screening inside, with foil on the cover underside and conductive paint used throughout, so I am umming and ahhing about putting anymore in. The Bartolini pickups are apparently split coil humbuckers and I have never had any problem with noise up to now. One to think about before the installation phase. All of the knobs were allen key secured, so they came off easily. I have written numbers on top of the pots for future reference (re-installation or if selling). Removing the existing loom was very easy. The existing preamp was installed with in-line solder joints with heatshrink covers for the pickup connections and battery connections. The outputs to the jack are soldered directly to the volume pot and there are screen wires to the bridge and pickup cavities, all soldered to the shell of one the pots. A quick application of the soldering iron and these were all disconnected. So the preamp and associated loom largely comes out of the bass as one unit. I put some tags on the in-line wires, again for future reference and the pots that had soldered connections also were additionally numbered on the bottom too (there were additional photos taken during de-soldering again for future reference). So the Cort is currently sitting in the conservatory whilst the glue dries on the repair to the screw hole. My guitar tool proved to be just the right size to act as a clamp. I hope to do the installation phase tomorrow, depending on whether my girls want to go out somewhere (half term!).

Are you on about the maple/maple VM Jazz or the Sunburst/Rosewood? The sunburst has a Basswood body (I have one) and that is pretty light. Active means that you have a pre-amp onboard the bass which allows you to make EQ adjustments at the bass and also normally gives your signal a boost too. This does require a battery inside the bass though.

Depends on your budget, my cheap Fender is a bit big and boomy but it plays well. If I was in the market for another acoustic, I would get either the Martin Ed Sheeren sig (not a fan but like the size - and some money goes to a kids hospice) or the Taylor Mini: http://www.martinguitar.com/new/item/3373-lx1e-little-martin.html http://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/acoustic/gs-mini

[quote name='bluejay' timestamp='1392635831' post='2370808'] I'm getting the impression that lefty models are - as many other "luxury" items or items with less of a mass appeal - becoming victims of the financial crisis. Unlike in the past, manufacturers now seem totally reluctant to commit to producing them, and only act upon insistent demand, if at all. [/quote] I don't think/hope this is the case, I just think Gibson is failing on their communications at the moment. Might give the Gibson chap another prod, now that NAMM is over.

Don't think Sherborne has any problems, although Marston Magna was flooded a few weeks ago (between Yeovilton and Sherborne). There was a landslip on the A37 between Dorchester and Yeovil last week I understand. Noting you are in Bristol, I would think the A37 to Yeovil would be your best route and not the M5/Bridgwater/Street way.

I have been in a email conversation with Gibson's european support blokey from since before Xmas and he is not being told anything about leftie basses. Doesn't mean it isn't the case, just that they aren't telling their own people about them.

Sound mix still seems to good to me. Think I might be starting to get used to death metal vocals too lol.

How many lefties are expecting to attend?

Thought that sounded familiar.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1391774117' post='2361104'] Large, they said they'd be the right size. [/quote] Did they fit and what do you think of them (might need to order a set shortly)?

Bit late but I bought some from a guy (emusic2011) on eBay a week or so ago for £3.

Or drive a few miles further west on the A30 and there is the Babylon Hill shopping area in Yeovil.....or shouldn't I have mentioned that.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1391723450' post='2360714'] Just ordered some from here, £3.25 . [/quote] Which size ones did you buy?

Pretty sure no USA dealer will export Gibsons to the UK, as there is a local distributor. Once Gibson let the UK dealers (and indeed their own European support people) know that this model is available left handed, GAK, Andertons etc etc will start listing it on their websites.

Excellent, really enjoyed that.

Schecter Stiletto Studio 5 maybe, all models of that are available Fretless?

I know there is at least one user of these on here but I was wondering if there were more and was after opinions? My daughters are now happily able to knock out a good 12 bar blues sequence on their guitars, so I was thinking about getting one of these so we could jam together. We only have one reasonable size guitar amp in the house, so I was thinking about connecting my daughters into guitar multi-effects modules (I have a RP90 and G3) and me into my B3, feed drum tracks in from my laptop, stick headphones on and away we go.

No idea how accurate but: http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/tablature/youngmanblues-bass.txt

I bought an ACG Bass off of Andy. He was great to deal with, went out of his way to make sure everything went well and packed the bass really really well. I would buy from him again in a heartbeat.

[quote name='glefty' timestamp='1390995430' post='2352005'] I gotta fess up, n I hope it don't get me thrown outta this fine club but I'm a righty who plays lefty for the exact reason listed above. When I was 9 it seemed to make perfect sense, dexterity wise, plus Paul was my fave Beatle so I flipped the strings to lefty n jumped in. Got a proper lefty later n have been at it for 40 yrs now. Rare for a righty but I do have some lefty or ambidexterity in me, about 20/80 lefty tho the strongest n dominant is the right. Guess I'm a muso version of Rafa Nadal. Pls don't disown me now! �� [/quote] I am the same-ish. Definately a rightie, the only two things I do left handed are guitar and archery strangely. I blame my lefty guitar playing on being a brass player originally, so I am used to using my right hand for 'fingering' the notes I am playing. This seems to translate to the fretboard on a guitar. I have found though that I cannot slap, which I think I could do with my right hand but then I am not really into that style anyway (although I would love to add it to my limited repetoire). Also unusually, my F-i-L is a complete righty but plays golf left handed. He cannot explain it at all.

Reminds me a bit of the MTD CRB:

Although this is very good news, why they couldn't tell me (nor their dealer network) this before now boggles the brain. Even their European customer services chap had no clue and was suggesting I buy a 2013 model!