HowieBass

McCluskey not Rourke

I wonder if that grey/orange colour scheme was chosen to match the album cover or vice versa?

I'm under the impression that single cut basses are more immune to dead spots and offer better sustain than conventional bolt-on neck basses. I'm also under the impression that graphite reinforcement rods are often used in higher end bass necks to do the same job.

That's got a bit more mojo than I need...

I'd be inclined to get a couple of supermarket own brand alkaline batteries and try those - won't be expensive and I reckon the active circuitry won't be that much of a drain anyway. The Duracell you have is still close to full charge so that's still usable. Did you put the VMP brand battery on the resoldered battery connector? If so then maybe there's a short there that affected it but I don't see how it could have gone into a negative polarity state (it'd need something pushing it that way after draining to nil charge and the only power source you have is the Duracell which hasn't drained). Bit of an odd one!

That's looking good

Hmmm, is this 4mm we're talking about here the action or the relief?

Sounds like it's got moisture in it if it really is blooming. There are a few ways to resolve this issue: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/fix-milky-finish-wood-47528.html

I think 'it's all gone landscape' should be the new euphemism for something having gone wrong (take that Pete Tong!) and as for the decorated bass neck, yeah I rather like it too

From what I've read online, upright basses usually do have 'high' actions compared to bass guitars; that's why they can seem difficult to play for beginners. A 4mm action doesn't appear unreasonable to me (but again this comes from somebody who's never owned one).

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1450529419' post='2933649'] Bass Collection Nanyo - and you'll probably get to keep half of your budget.. [/quote] There's a Bass Collection Nanyo SB310 going for sale on here at exactly half the proposed £300 budget (note I'm not associated with the seller). If secondhand doesn't appeal then I'd also second looking at a Squier VM.

I know nothing about EUB fingerboards but if it's got too much relief when strung up to tuning tension I'd expect buzzing (or rather 'sizzle' which is how I describe it with a fretless) up at the end of the fingerboard rather than in the middle or near the nut - at least that's how it works with bass guitars.

I'm pretty certain all of those prices are in pence, looked at a few adverts and in one the description refers to a price that's 100th of the headline (orange) figure. Absolutely crackers. I've seen a similar thing happen when I used to get email newsletters from an eBay trader and a 100 fold figure kept appearing.

[quote name='norvegicusbass' timestamp='1450523402' post='2933543'] [url="https://youtu.be/Ygk6amjgjoU"]https://youtu.be/Ygk6amjgjoU[/url] [/quote] Scott's on here isn't he?

I've got two Squiers; haven't noticed them going out of tune and I haven't struggled to achieve accurate tuning either. The stock tuners do the job for me.

You just have to remember that Mark King started out as a drummer...

A new, high-mass bridge is not a guaranteed way to increase sustain - the existing bridge ought to be quite capable of holding the strings firmly. I also question the need for increasing sustain too; how many times have you found yourself wanting a note to keep on sounding? You'll find most players wanting to develop techniques to selectively mute strings rather than keep them ringing in which case any increase in sustain you manage to achieve with a different bridge is effectively useless. Your biggest gain with a new bridge is really just going to be for aesthetics.

Roundwounds (steel or nickel), cut the mids and/or boost the bass and treble (not unlike the mid-scoop sound you get with both pickups on a Jazz) and say a compressor to even out the slaps/pops. Having said that you'll see slap experts get great sounds out of lots of different basses regardless of how they're set up and what they're playing through so the main ingredient really is technique.

You'd also want to check you've got enough adjustment in intonation with the Schaller compared to the current saddle positions if you intend to use the same centre hole as a datum point - the trouble is you'd need to have the new bridge to hand to check the measurements. It's not difficult to reposition bridge mounting screws as long as you've enough fresh body timber to take the pilot holes - I did it with a Cort B4FL I bought secondhand (though you can always plug existing holes). But I'm going to raise something here that other BCers will have opinions on - the 'need' for a replacement bridge at all and whether something like that is a real enhancement or not? There have been many debates on here about high-mass vs BBOT bridges and whether you get any improvement in tone. If you need more adjustment with the current bridge you could consider swapping the existing saddles for vintage threaded saddles so you can vary the string spacing.

If transporting your amp head, cab and cables is a bit of a faff you might consider getting one of those folding trucks and a few decent bungee cords which would mean fewer trips between the stage/room and your car?

Welcome to the UK and to Basschat! We're a friendly lot round here (well, apart from the sweary bugger I'm unfortunate enough to live next door to... ).

There's a decent review of the TC combos here, including a comparison of the different speaker sizes available (best listened to through headphones). http://youtu.be/Uc4rj6EhB7M The 115 sounds different to the 210 version of the combos and Gregor points out the difference you'll notice in tone between the combos and the RH heads with the RS cabs... something to consider if you love what you're hearing with your current setup.

I've got Fender flats on two basses, one a Squier VM P and the other a Cort B4FL with a neck as skinny as a Jazz and it's been no bother with either of them; didn't need to tweak the truss rod much to get the relief I was after.

[quote name='chriswareham' timestamp='1449943834' post='2928283'] And didn't play on the early records since she was so bad! [/quote] Well she's always played live with the band and I've never found fault with her technique... plus we're talking about [b]our[/b] favourite players here aren't we?

When it comes to household names it's shocked me when I've seen surveys that claim that sizeable percentages of the UK population don't even know who the current Prime Minister is... so expecting that many people who are non-musicians and/or uninterested in music would know bass players by name is probably expecting way too much...