NancyJohnson

@Heimrich Over the years, I've had many basses and pretty much all of them have needed neck adjustments one time or another to suit my needs. As a start point, I personally would always strive to get the neck as straight as possible with the strings off and work from there. Once you're tuned up, check how the neck is, if it's pulling forward a bit, slacken off the strings, tighten the strings and check again. A bow of a millimeter or two over the length of the neck isn't a huge problem...if the truss rod is doing it's job and maintaining that when the strings are on, it's fine. The thing is, and I hope this has come over in these postings, is that there isn't one adjustment to getting a bass or guitar to play the way you want it to; it's a combination of few little things and there's a lot of adjust, tune-up, play, de-tune, adjust, repitition involved.

We have a builder over here (Crimson Guitars), who posts some detailed videos about guitar building. While this is for a guitar, the levelling/dressing process will be the same for a bass. P

The frets look like there's wear, but they really don't look that bad. There's a lot of fret material left. Try a local tech guy. He'll be able to ensure the neck is straight, that the frets are set OK and get level the frets out. This should sort out the issues you're having.

Compared to the old bass Rich @Grangur did for me, there looks like there's a lot of meat on those frets. If all the frets are seated OK (and don't need tapping in), I'd suggest that if you're not happy trying this yourself, find someone to get the frets levelled and dressed. If you want a punt at doing this yourself, try here: https://www.crimsonguitars.com/collections/luthiers-tools You could spend a small fortune on luthier tools (fret levelling, crowning and polishing tools), or find someone locally who could do the work for probably less. Where do you live? There's a lengthy list of luthiers somewhere on this page.

I haven't actually listened to any of the nine (yes, nine!) CDs that make up XTC's Andy Partridge's Fuzzy Warbles/Hinges collection. The delights of working from home. Wish me luck.

https://www.sky.com/watch/title/programme/4c6e5289-9fa7-4efe-9056-b5c291e61aa0/xtc-this-is-pop There was a bit of a campaign to get this released on BluRay at one point, but that seems to have died a death. Andy Partridge did infer that there was hours of material cut from the broadcast version that wouldlikely make for decent viewing. With XTC releasing Steven Wilson's Surround Series Editions on an annual basis, I kind of see this as being put out with an inevitable Best Of collection rather than being standalone or bundled in with whatever is left for Mr Wilson to sprinkle his magic over.

Ooh, that's good. I'll be able to watch the XTC documentary again in glorious HD.

@Heimrich I'd do a straight edge check while the strings are on (this will determine whether the neck is bowed when it's under string tension). If the neck has a concave bow when the strings are on, I would say that the truss rod would need tightening to straighten it out; ALWAYS do this with the strings off (or very loose). If the neck is too straight, this will at least allow you to identify high frets. In between each little adjustment, I'd just give things 15-30 minutes for the wood to settle, you don't want to cause any undo damage (it's highly unlikely that the neck will split, but go easy), then string up and play. Just one other thing, I used to have a white Gibson Thunderbird; these are known for their very skinny necks. With the strings off, the neck had a quite pronounced convex bow that came back to normal once the strings were on it. I had no issue getting the action down to 2-3mm at the 12th fret. Thing is, there's a multitude of tweaks you can do to achieve your ideal playability. Neck adjustments, nut adjustments, bridge saddles etc.; beyond this, it's possbily fret dressing and/or refrets if there's not much meat on them. It's all about doing little changes.

I'd wager you have a bit of a concave bow going on, which would account for rattling near the nut and the dusty end of the neck (like the top of the image below). If the neck has a concave bow, you need to tighten the truss rod (clockwise/righty-tighty); just do this in quarter/half turns to straighten things up, adjust, leave it to settle, check with a straight edge, adjust. Do not go crazy. Little adjustments. (Also worth remembering that the neck may pull forward once the strings are at tension, so a slight convex box may be in order.) I think it's essential that you take the strings off and determine whether the neck is straight/level first. Have you got a long rule/straight edge? Make the adjustments. Once the neck is straight, check for high/low frets (as Rich and I mentioned above.). As @Chiliwailer said, these are Warwicks and it's feasible that (as they're akin to being funk machines) you may have some fretwear. @Grangur dressed the frets on a 40 year old bass of mine a while back...I was thinking I may need a refret, but it's still going strong. He knows his shirt.

When I read the OP, first thing I would confirm is that the neck is straightish and the truss rod(s) tensioned. Adjust if necessary. Moving along, with the strings off, check for high/low frets; take a straight edge and check for high frets. You can do this (quickly) with a debit card; despite frets being seated OK, you can still have high frets. If you do find one, just tap it in lightly with a plastic headed hammer. Restring and check the neck again...you haven't said whether it's a bolt on or neck through, but it is feasible fo set necks to have stable wood up to the edge of the cutaways and for it to dip away with the headstock pulling towards you when the strings are at tension. If you look at the image below, the Thumb's dusty end is embedded in body wood. I'm glad Rich just chipped in while I was typeing this out @Grangur he does know his stuff. [EDIT] I had a Just a Nut on an old Streamer. Liked it a lot. In truth, that isn't going to affect what happens to the string further up the neck, only what happens if you play an open note.

I still like to hear what I'm playing, so I'll stick with having an amp set up. Did one gig where we were supposed to be using the headliners backline and there wasn't any. I ended using a Sansamp into the desk and monitors. Not good. IEMs are a bit of a pfaff to be honest...our old singer had some and it was always a bit of a runaround getting them to work properly. We'd have our slot, singer would be shouting at the sound guy that they weren't working.

Again on the subject of the aforementioned Mighy Lemons (two of my current band are in them), here's a lockdown cover of a Thin Lizzy classic:

After yesterday's Hollerado burn-through, today it's...Ludo. They're a bonkerswonderful four piece pop/punk band from Missouri. While this is just a hewn together fan video, it is a great genre spanning piece, spanning light opera through to full on heavy metal, via some yo-ho-ho sea shanties. Give it five minutes of your time. If you want to channel some Christmas goodness:

Sorry, another one. I adore That Thing You Do! - god knows how many times I've watched it. It's also one of those films that I can just dip into from any point in the running time and enjoy.

Cough. The Dirt. Cough. I did however enjoy Josie and The Pussycats.

Sorry another Hollerado one. Another one take.

The first album is a belter. Get in, bonny lad!

While I profess I adored the first OKGO! album, the second (well, for me at least) really suffered Stacy's Mom syndrome...without the video for HIGA, very few people outside their immediate fanbase would have been any the wiser of their existence. Reckon they will be forever haunted by the ghost of that treadmill video, so much so I think (from memory) they didn't really shake the whole choreographed video thing, trying to be more and more eloborate with every consecutive video. Really suprised to just read that they haven't released anything for six years!

Anyhow, back to business. This morning I'm listening to the wonderful, albeit now sadly defunkt Canadian band, Hollerado. I love that there's this supposed backstory that they won some money in a battle of the bands competition and spent in on this video. They did a handful of albums although the commercial disaster of 111 Songs, which pretty much stopped them dead in the water for over two years, pretty much finished them off...clue's in the title folks. When they did the first album (Record In A Bag), if you ordered direct, it came in a little ziplock bag containing with confetti, sweets, nonsense: When they did their second (White Paint), they allegedly hated the artwork and painted over every cover with trade white paint:

Despite my punky roots, I concur. It's a great song, beautifully crafted. Like A Prayer is a belter too.

I'm assuming that anyone with the proper kit should just be able to spool up the tape, hit play and record on a computer? I wouldn't need anything mixed, but assume I'd just get a bunch of wav files that I could just load up into ProTools? How long are those Ampex tapes, time wise?

I've got several reels of 1" Ampex in my spare room that I have zero idea of their content. I'd love to get these converted just so I can see what's on them too!

There's a handful of bass players out there that indirectly owe Pete Way a huge debt of gratitude, Nikki Sixx top of that list. And yes, Strangers In The Night is certainly one of the greatest live albums ever released.

The little alleyway shop was Adam Music, the old bloke who ran it smoked cigars, every time I smell a cigar my head thinks it's Christmas (when my dad used to have one) or Adam Music. The Watkins place. I remember buying a big old 1x15 cabinet off a guy in Egham, but it was open fronted. My dad knew about the Watkins place...we bought some heavy plastic speaker grill stuff from there.