Norris

A friend of mine owns the Guitar Workshop in Ibstock, Leicestershire. He has recently taken the decision to move into selling second hand gear rather than continue trying to compete with massive online retailers. He is therefore having a big stock clearance sale of new stuff to make some room. You can see a lot of stuff on his eBay store [url="http://stores.ebay.co.uk/The-Guitar-Workshop"]http://stores.ebay.c...uitar-Workshop[/url] However I know that is not completely up to date (e.g. there are no bass guitars listed, but he has definitely got some! - possibly even some Chinese-made copies of a well known litigious US manufacturer ), so you are probably best to call to see if you can find a bargain on 01530 260984 BTW, I don't think he has any Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound P/J sets left, as I've just had the last-but-one set off him, but he does still have other SD-QP sets. Edit: Corrected url - sentence full stop became part of it

Fender US Jazz std Fender MIM Jazz fretless Squier P-bass Special Rickenbacker 4003 Gibson Thunderbird Aria Pro II SB-1000 Stagg EUB 3/4 (does that count?)

[quote name='geofio' timestamp='1412137387' post='2565982'] Your E and A saddles are far too forward for correct intonation on a ric , the saddles also look squint have you checked underneath to see what is going on!!! the most important thing is to get the strings lining up with the poles on the pickups, or the bass will not sound right. i have attached a pic of my 3 Rickenbacker's, if you look the saddles are in the most part in the same position. [/quote] Thanks for replying. If anything the A string bridge needs to move more towards the neck to get the intonation correct, but that would involve reversing the bridge piece. Having measured nut - 12th fret, the nut - bridge (height adjuster grub screws) is slightly more than double I.e. it's as if the bridge is very slightly too far away. The bridge hasn't been moved as I checked underneath - no extra holes or mashing. My main issue though is that the saddles seem to have been notched off centre in the factory

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1412110602' post='2565839'] Plug the existing 10 mm holes first (with dowelling..?); you'll get a better cut, I'd suggest. [/quote] Sounds a darned good idea!

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1411928082' post='2564019'] [/quote] Now [i][b]that's[/b][/i] a Thunderbird bass stance! I love my T-bird. I just wish it did "clean" occasionally

I think a solo career is in order, singing whiny dirges about how tough it is in the North East (Tongue firmly in cheek!)

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1411902130' post='2563645'] Do the strings align over the pickup pole pieces? [/quote] Near enough. The saddle cut only seems to be about 1/16" off centre, but that's enough to make the string sit uncomfortably close to the "sticky-uppy" thing. [quote name='TheSiberian' timestamp='1411971095' post='2564331'] Many of the bridge's problems come from an amateur kind of work. [/quote] The saddles are as they left the Ric factory as far as I know. The strings don't actually catch on the sticky-uppy thing, but it's only a good "dig-in" away from it. I'm going to give the bass back to it's owner and let him decide if he wants to do anything further. I really just wondered if it's a common "factory" issue. Thanks for the replies.

Don't you find that even when someone compliments you on a good performance, you are still thinking about that note you missed during the key change into the second chorus, and how the drummer speeded up in the last song before the break, and how the guitarist never can get the rhythm of those accents quite right... and end up replying... [quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1411724157' post='2562232'] Me: "OK, well, cheers!" [/quote]

I used to have a drink while playing when I was younger. These days we don't have a band van any more and have to drive ourselves to the gigs. The music is far better quality for being sober, and far more enjoyable to play. Well done to the OP for his professional handling of the situation.

Hope this works...

The strings are fairly well aligned and no chance of wandering off the fretboard even with a bit of 'centering'. The bridge is the right way round. The A string especially is close to the sticky-uppy bit. Dunno if I can post a pic from my mobile

Last night I looked at a mate's 4003 for him. The bridge appeared to be slightly skewed and the E & A strings are very close to the bits that stick up between the strings over the mute bar (do they have a name?). So anyway I fetched the bridge off just to check the state of the woodwork underneath. All looked ok - 5 neat screw holes and no mashing. The screws are quite heavily countersunk, so I can't really see any way the bridge could be in any other alignment than how it left the factory. Having re-fitted the bridge I then set about sorting the intonation. And that's when it hit me. The bridge looks skewed because the saddles are not cut in the centre. The strings sit slightly to one side of centre and so are quite close to the sticky-uppy bits (whatever they are called!). Having looked at my own 4003 the strings are also off centre on the saddles, but not to the extent of my mate's bass. His A string only has about 1/16" clearance from the "sticky-uppy bit" [size=2][sup](TM)[/sup][/size]. So if there are any 4003 owners out there, could you take a quick look and see if your saddles are cut centrally? Is this a common issue? Does anybody have saddles that are actually cut centrally (and that didn't buy a new set & have them cut "properly")? (BTW, I've already found out that a replacement saddle is $5 from Rickenbacker excl. shipping)

I've gigged my Squier P-bass Special quite a bit (and in preference to my US Jazz!). It's a great Indonesian bass that cost me all of £150 second hand

Try one before you buy. I had major Stingray GAS so managed to borrow one from a mate for a couple of weeks... cured! They are lovely (looking & sounding) basses, just not for me.

We usually aim to do 2x45 or 1x45 + 2x30. It depends on the length of time we have to cover though: with bars staying open later but still wanting you to start at 9 we have to be a little more creative (and extensive) with the set times. Around Leicester £300 is about as good as it gets for pubs.

I've been in a band with an alcoholic singer before. Luckily it didn't last long. Coordinating three or four [i][b]predictable [/b][/i]people is bad enough, but not knowing what state your frontman is going to turn up to a gig in is untenable. We had a similar situation in that the guitarist could sing quite reasonably and took over the frontman duties. Luckily we had no other issues than honouring gigs we had taken. Good luck.

ZZ Top - Gimme All Your Lovin' (although pretty much any of their songs qualify) However, I think the root 8ths actually add to the song by giving the guitar plenty of 'space'

Out. They are pubs ffs, not arenas. Keep the volume to sensible levels & LISTEN TO EACH OTHER.

As a kid I started out on trumpet but then migrated to larger and larger instruments, eventually ending up on bass trombone. In my first school band I was supposed to be the keyboard player as I also learned to play the piano. However we had no bass player and decided that was more important than keys. 30 years later it's still my main instrument. I dabble with other instruments, but it's only ever dabbling. So I suppose yes. I was drawn to deep notes and have spent many years happily producing them!

No pay = no play as far as I'm concerned. You can't eat hope, you can't fill your petrol tank with promises, you can't clothe yourself with 'exposure'. We have a target price and a bottom price. As a result we don't play at half of the pubs in our local area. The ones we do play at are the pubs who regularly put on good quality bands, and are usually full of punters who go there for the decent music. The places we don't play at tend to be the 'transition' pubs who can't hold a crowd because they just go in there to get tanked up cheaply before going on to somewhere else. The general principle being if you pay peanuts expect monkeys, and we 'ain't no monkeys

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1408980133' post='2535169'] Looks like we have a potential new Stagg bass owner? [/quote] ^ This ^ For the money you can't got wrong. 99.9% of the audience will not be able to tell the difference between a Stagg and a 'real' DB, and the Stagg takes up a lot less room. It even has dot markers on the side of the neck

I'm the youngest in our band at 48 and have been playing regularly since I was about 18. Yes, kit seems to get heavier, the nights get later and my knees hurt when I bend down to put my bass away. But I believe that I am playing better than I ever have done and there is still plenty of room for improvement. The other night a youth called me "a sick bass player" - which is apparently a good thing nowadays

For months I've had GAS for a 'ray. Having tried one that my mate lent me, after only 5 minutes I was cured. Nice enough bass, but not my thing

WD-40 isn't the best stuff for penetrating rusty threads. Something like [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Abrasives-809-10-Plusgas-250ml/dp/B0001P02S4/ref=sr_1_3?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1408362329&sr=1-3&keywords=plusgas"]PlusGas[/url] would be better or [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-40-Specialist-44709-Release-Penetrant/dp/B00KPUBO28/ref=sr_1_2?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=1-2&keywords=wd40+penetrating"]WD-40 Penerating Spray[/url].

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1408308658' post='2528917'] Anyone playing in Leicester soon? Not Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday. [/quote] We're at the Nag's Head in Glenfield on Sunday evening. It was originally going to be a 5pm start, but I think it's been moved to a little later now. On Friday we're at the Lady Jane in Whitwick - but that's no good to you