HowieBass

I watched a bit of the Foo Fighters live show on TV the other evening and didn't think much of the sound (or indeed the performance) on that either - I'm just wondering whether they're past their sell-by date now...

I'm under the impression that hex-core strings tend to be stiffer than round-core - which ought to help with the B; according to this article D'Addario bass strings are all hex-core http://www.bestbassgear.com/ebass/gear/hardware/strings/hex-core-vs-round-core-bass-strings-which-is-right-for-you.html I've also read more than once that neck-thru basses seem to have a better B than bolt-ons but as has already been mentioned it can and does vary from instrument to instrument!

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1432473409' post='2781768'] Why should Andrew be footing the bill for the courier?? If he's done somebody a favour, picked up a bass for them and stored it for several months at his home (and inconvenience) surely the responsibility for collecting it now lies with the "owner". As to whether Andrew has the right to sell it, surely the item has now been "abandoned" so is, in effect, Andrew's?? I'd send a message along the lines of "you have x amount of time to arrange for collection after which time i will dispose of it in any manner I see fit.." So come on Geoff, if you want the bass get your finger out and make arrangements to get it out of his home. [/quote] The guy (Geoff) has said (according to Andrew) this "[color=#282828]Could you pack the bass (i'll pay for the packing and your time for doing it) and if i arrange a courier to pick it up could we do that?"[/color] which states that he (Geoff) will arrange for the courier (and hence pay for it) and he (Geoff) will also pay Andrew for the cost and time involved in packaging the bass.

I haven't ever played a Cort A5 but from what I know about Cort built basses (I own a few) it ought to be well put together and be good value for money - you get a neck-thru design with 2 Bartolini pickups and a 3 band active EQ for around £600 - might be worth trying one if you can find an example.

If it's a simple vocal PA arrangement just be aware that you might not have anything like a personal monitor for your bass so you'll have to make do with hearing yourself in whatever mix comes from the desk (with PA speakers facing away from you, pointing towards the audience).

[quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1432543178' post='2782365'] I'm a bit surprised that the P hummed, I always thought these were hum resistant, but maybe that's just Precisions. [/quote] Looking at the model in question, it's got two J type pups so it'll hum like a Jazz. EDIT: Beaten to it LOL.

Nip to your local Halfords and see if they have any cardboard boxes that their bikes will have been delivered to the store in - I've read more than once that these make great bass mailing boxes.

Is this another 'Ed Balls' Twitter moment?

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1432143303' post='2778610'] What is a "Slebs"? [/quote] Yeah I initially didn't bother reading this post until I realised the OP meant 'Celebs'...

I've yet to have a crush on a Ritter...

Oh I forgot to mention that the chunky bridge looks a lot like the brass affairs found on Westone Thunder II and III basses so that's another possible Matsumoku connection.

It has got a look of a Matsumoku built instrument (the truss rod adjustment pocket, the brass control knobs, the pickup selector switch) and this Japanese factory made Aria instruments in the 70s and 80s - however I've never seen this particular model before

Ah yes, Dennis Dunaway - I liked his bass playing; he co-wrote several hits including 'School's Out'. And to think that Leo Abse tried to ban Alice Cooper from appearing in the UK because of Cooper's "culture of the concentration camp," and "his incitement to infanticide and his commercial exploitation of masochism is evidently an attempt to teach our children to find their destiny in hate, not in love." Here's the band appearing on TOTP in 1972... http://youtu.be/VBEcLxnXVAc

I think a lot of makers put nickels on basses these days so you could try some steels (assuming you get along with the feel). One other thing I'd suggest is that bass boost often does muddy everything up, you might get a better sound backing it off and pushing the treble (which is where I find myself with my Cort Curbow 5).

AFAIK the 'loudness' switch on old stereos (back in the 70s, 80s?) was intended to increase bass when playing music at lower volumes to take account of how we perceive sound (in that we're more sensitive to higher frequencies at lower volumes) so maybe an adaptive volume control does something similar?

You might find a different set of strings brings the bass to life or at least gets you closer to the sound you have in your head. Any idea what it's wearing at the moment?

That resprayed body looks immaculate! Fantastic work!

+1 for a volume with blend arrangement - lots of flexibility with this on my Squier Deluxe Jazz Active.

An amp delivering 30 watts per channel in an average sized room ought to be sufficient unless you like to listen at deafening volumes IMHO (I've never needed to push my old Rotel RA-930AX amp up to maximum volume and that's a 30 watt amp). This assumes you have a decent set of speakers and your input source is offering a decent signal level. As Phil has suggested, you need to identify which component is creating the distortion.

I'm pretty certain this is a bad idea - AFAIK wiring two outputs together trying to feed a single cabinet means each output can see the other and you never want that to happen. I'm not familiar with the AH600 head but a quick Google suggests it outputs 600 watts into a 4 ohm load so you just run one output into your cab to get the full power of 600 watts - the 4ohm thing on the back of the head will be the minimum load (so you could run 2 cabs each 8 ohm from both outputs or 1 cab of 4 ohms from one output).

Regarding looking at the audience during a gig; I've just been thinking about how keyboard players are often positioned side on to the audience (so you can see all of them rather than just their upper torso above the instrument) and they seem to either look across to other band members or down at what they're playing (otherwise they'd have an awful crick in their neck by the end of the gig).

I'd argue that adjustment of a truss rod is little different than setting intonation, pickup height and the action - they're all needed when setting up an instrument. It's common to have to adjust neck relief when changing string gauge and you can only do that via the truss rod. That you can run out of adjustment with a nearly new neck to me suggests a manufacturing fault.

If the rod's as tight as possible and it hasn't broken then I'd guess that the rod has compressed some wood in the neck (at one end of the rod) and the nut/bullet has run out of adjustment. I'd hope that whichever expert looks at this will know you can add washers between the adjustment nut and the threaded rod to take up some of the slack - however I wouldn't expect this to happen with a nearly new bass (as you say it's still under warranty) which suggests that perhaps there's been something wrong with the neck from the beginning.

Nice to see that one of Matsumoku's old engineers is still creating basses... "Design engineer Nobuaki Hayashi (currently with Atlansia) became part of Matsumoku's engineering team in the mid-1970s. Hayashi's pseudonym, "H. Noble", appeared on many of the Aria Pro II instruments he designed. Aria's guitars that followed showed remarkable design innovation and a definitive move away from Gibson and Fender forms. Hayashi is best known as the designer of the Aria Pro II, SB-1000 bass and the Aria Pro II, PE series guitars." (from the Wikipedia entry for Matsumoku).

I don't think it's a Matsumoku - it's unlike anything I've seen before (though I too recognise the Westone/Aria looking headstock). The layout of the control pots is quite unlike what you'll find on Westone and Aria basses. A bit of a mystery this one!