Woodinblack

I got a reply from John Shuker last night, it is their own made one, from about 15 years ago. He said I can send it in for a service and get it repaired but the rest of the bass in such good condition I think I shall try and repair it and if not, just swap it with something else.

I honestly doubt it would fall apart and if I had it second hand, or if I bought it for a couple of hundred, I would be inclined to agree with you as apart from that and the jack socket, there is nothing I don't like about that bass. But it is brand new and north of £1300 and still in it start days. At that price it has to be good. As you say, the replacement might have issues, I can send that back too! Its rare I buy something new, might as well use the advantages I have for doing that.

True it seems like that lamination isn't glued properly for it to come apart like that. Anyway, its not a cheap bass, there is no excuse for that. So registered the return and will see how good they are.

Yeh - I wondered. That screw that holds the string holder goes straight through the join on that wood. But I have done a big search and can't find any other people talking about it happening, so I am guessing it is just bad luck. I hope so, as I want a replacement, it is my favourite bass to play!

Well, that didn't last long. I love this bass, but picked it up last night and noticed this:

I would say, I am not particularly a fan of deep purple, they seemed like an old peoples group to me when I was first into rock music (not sure why, considering most things I listened to were a similar age), and most people who liked them were 'car guys', where i was a bike guy (not a biker, never been one of those, I just used to ride a bike all the time and hang round with other people doing the same). Anyway, seen them a number of times, know there stuff, even played a few songs in various bands. I was on my walk today, with my headphones on (which I don't normally do- the headphone thing) and my iPhone on random played highway star. Can't say I had really thought about the bassline on it before, but that first descending riff at the start of the song is pretty fast, so I was thinking about whether I could do that, so I searched for this when I got back. Its actually very busy - I know the 'dont' like busy bass lines' people will hate it as it isn't just roots and 5ths, but considering the song is just a straight rock song quite a few bass players would have just played the roots on it, but it pulls the song out a bit (as well as the keyboard playing) and makes it something a bit different. Still not going to be a deep purple fan but I have a bit more respect for what is going on here.

Only 1 left - act fast!

It wasn't until I went to put the battery compartment lid on upside down that I realised how well done this is!

It looks like this: I have no idea what that pot on its own upside down is doing

I am not sure about singing It does actually have a preamp issue at the moment. After changing the batteries it got rid of the hiss but when playing last night after a while the sound faded a lot. I unplugged and replugged and it came back. Had a look at the preamp - I don't recognise the type it is a grey box with a blue control. it also has a 'spare pot' in there connected to the preamp that oddly doesn't appear to do anything - maybe it is a Q control? No idea. Anyway, sounds like a capactitance issue. I don't know how well these things are sealed, whether it is a take apart or replace thing, but not that worried, it will be fixed or replaced. I have contacted shuker to see what the preamp is, to see if that helps

Well, I am sure we have all seen this, but just so we know where things end up, it turned up here! A Shuker 6, with a neck like a major runway. A series 2 I believe. I am not a 6 player and I am not fond of a spacing greater than 17mm, this goes past both of those, its neck is so wide it doesn't fit in any of my hangers or stands, so it will have to sit on the floor! I figured that although it might be difficult to use, if I never manage to get on with it I should be able to not lose on it like I normally do Although a the moment that isn't an issue as I am getting on with it fine at the moment. Plyed it a bit last night but then it started hissing and sound went down, which struck me as a battery problem, sure enough it was, replaced the batteries, all seems good now. Anyway, here are the pictures

Fair enough, I guess that is the point. I suppose they are not really in the market of having to make it look good.

I am not a fan of the asthetic of foderas (I have no idea what they are like to play, I assume they are good), but that one is not actually too bad, as it doesn't have any knobs to be scattered randomly all over the place. But why does that XLR have to be just dumped there like they threw it at a dartboard? I love how ritter put their sockets on the back, it makes so much sense

Yes, that is how the voice live is, I have a multi-gang vocal patch that i use in 'brick in the wall', and a couple of other things, and on its own it can sound a bit metalic, but in a mix it blends nicely.

I did look at that one, their demo is a bit poor on that so I couldn't really tell how good it would be

Both me and the singer use a voicelive play, which is a cheap enough thing. My wife (who technically owns my voicelive play) has a mic mechanic too, she prefered the simplicity of that.

I was watching a video the other day of Bombtrack, and he certainly uses two there, not alternately, but still two. Even though the song isn't actually hard, I have a real problem with the start of the song with two fingers as it seems in the coming back thing you end up with your fingers wanting to do something else, so I have been playing it a bit in practices, even though it is not a song I am doing, to try to get past that. This one in fact

I use those three fingers as well although I am not necessarily using them all at the same time, but they all get an equal look-in. The only time they get used in a sequence would be some sort of galloping line, so if it was playing something like Iron Maiden, all the runs would be three finger runs, so that would be ring, middle, index continuously. I can't do it the other way round

Like my Wrongo?

All you can do is what you did, report him as a non selling seller. I had the same with something I bought, except they flatly admitted they weren't selling it 'well, you can hardly expect me to sell it at that price'.

All of your rics seem to have the pickup at the same angle - maybe it is intentional. Mind you, you can't expect too much them being a budget instrument made by americans

I use the iM1 for sounds in my main band at the moment, but for chords in the back of stuff such as brick in the wall etc. I am using the reface for more dynamic stuff now like linkin park, but with the new band I will have room for a full sized keyboard. As a midlife crises it seems pretty harmless!

Like all these things, its a question of practice. When I was a kid they used to leave me in the local department store where they sold organs and I would just play them and get quite an audience of people - the store seemed to like it and my parents could just dump me and go shopping (you know, it was the 70s, they didn't have problems with that sort of thing back then). And I did my exams and stuff, and got really pretty good, then kind of 15/16 came along and all of a sudden bach didn't seem anywhere near as cool and I wanted a guitar. Since then I didn't really play much until a few years ago, and i am fairly useless now. I often though that if I joined the band as a keyboard player after a while I would get good, but then there is the whole not being good bit to get through, which would hardly be fair on the band. But sounds are important to songs, that is what the keys are for. One thing I like on modern keys, like my DS, is you can pick a sound really quickly. Like the previous keyboard player, we would play, say, stevie wonder, and he would just have the organ sound. Is it not obvious you would just select keys, then start with a basic clavinet sound? Same as things with horn backgrounds - just select the horns and look through there, then adjust when you find something good, but no, always the cheesy organ. I think if you can do it, then do it, being in a band is just as much about learning than something else, so do it and enjoy it. After a while, you are going to get better, because that is what makes you practice, having to do something

Its a great all rounder. One of the problems we had with the last keyboard player, he could play fine but he had no concept of 'the sound for the song'. Whatever he did it sounded like a cheap organ. I was genuinely blown away when I heard how good the Nord Stage was when I heard it played by a demonstrator as all I had heard was cheap organ sounds! In my current new band I will play keys for a few things, but its a bit restrictive when you also have to play bass,.

I don't have one but spent quite a time playing one. If I was playing keyboards in a group full time I would have one, but I have the roland DS at home and that is fine for there.