NancyJohnson

The Grovers are generally pretty stable and frankly I wouldn't bother with changing them out for Hipshots; I tuned up last night and rehearsed for nearly three hours and my TB stayed in tune the whole evening. Once in a while (irrespective of the age of the bass), it's worth removing the strings from the heads and tightening up the nuts (and screws) that anchor the machine heads to the headstock. Periodic maintenance...they do go slack on all my TBs (but weirdly, none of my other basses). If loose, the machine head is pretty much free to rotate a few degrees within the it's hole in the headstock...it'll only take a couple of degrees of rotation and the string tension will pull the string flat. Give it a go. Hope this helps. P

They're supposed to be pretty good facsimiles of the real thing and given it's age and the quality of US builds at that time, it's probably better put together as well! If it was over here the price would be OK, bringing it in from Japan and factoring Mr Cameron's cut to fight the war on terror, you'd be better off shopping around for the real thing. Shame. P

I saw Guthrie when he played with Phil X & The Drills in Guildford last year. We saw him walking around and had no idea who he was at the time, but he was awesome. This probably isn't the best video that's out there, but audibly it's the best one. P [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKmMcZmG9zU[/media]

I'm a bit surprised that the guy in that video didn't say anything about slacking off the strings and allowing the neck to settle. I'd never adjust the truss rod with the neck under tension. P

I have a Pioneer CD receiver system if anyone wants it. It's got a DAB radio, CD, iPod dock. I bought it a couple of years ago for the extension, it didn't get much use and quickly got replaced with a couple of network player units. It's pretty minty, original box. Might do for a kids bedroom. I don't want anything for it (maybe some beers!), but would request that a) it's collected (I'm in Crowthorne, M3 junction J3 about ten minutes), and, whoever takes it make a small contribution to swell the Basschat coffers. Cheers P Pioneer link: [url="http://www.pioneer.eu/uk/products/archive/X-HM20DAB-K/page.html"]http://www.pioneer.eu/uk/products/archive/X-HM20DAB-K/page.html[/url]

I'd second the John Myung quote. I spent some time with them before and after a gig - Bristol Bierkeller - just Googled it, feck, 1993! He was just lovely. Quiet and humble. I honestly wondered how long he would last when the rest of the band were so extrovert by comparison. I still buy the CDs when they come out, but all the material just seems to blur into one long cacophony of notes now. Haven't seen them in years. Hammersmith, many moons ago. It was like torture. P

Does he actually say, 'badass bridge' at about the 25 second mark? Faux pas or otherwise, the bridge is a ringer for this Schaller unit here:

If I can add my thoughts here and to clarify. I'm running five Gibson Thunderbirds, all have Hipshot Supertone bridges. These are great pieces of hardware and most importantly, they are drop in replacements, taking minutes to install. The two piece Badbird bridges are great; by association elsewhere, Neeph and I know the guy who makes them. The major downside is that these units are not drop in and body modifications will be required. New mounting holes will need to be drilled and then you'd be left with three large holes visible in the body. P

Well, there's my next few minutes sorted! P [quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1392310955' post='2367187'] Somebody did on this Talkbass thread. [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/fake-chinese-rickenbackers-820285/index3.html"]http://www.talkbass....285/index3.html[/url] [/quote]

Has anyone here bought a bass or guitar direct from any far east sellers? You know, like the stuff described as Chibson. P

Tongue in cheek or otherwise, the alarming thing here is that I've worked with engineers who have done exactly this, so I will raise your with a ! The main issue is the nuances of dirt/compression ultimately get lost in the final mix...you're just adding another level of dirt behind the already distorted guitar(s). In this example, what you're hearing is the phat bass frequencies, which you can achieve to a degree by tweaking the EQ on the individual track. P [quote name='kyboo' timestamp='1391364011' post='2356244'] This video might help [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mol6awk_aDo[/media] [/quote]

...and ordered! Will report back. P

I used a variety of D'Addario XLs in different gauge sets for maybe ten years of more (after moving from Rotosounds!!) They're reasonably priced, sound/play great and I never felt that I had a poor string in that time. On the flipside, I found they went off fairly quickly and over seven or eight basses, I was buying two sets a month. Last year, I decided to try a set of Elixir Nanowebs on one of the basses and it's been eye opening, so much so, I'm transitioning all of them to Elixirs. Much as I love(d) D'Adds, one set of Elixirs has been on my NR TB for pretty much a year now and they still sound great. OK, the Elixirs are two or three times more expensive, but I've actually spent less on strings as they last so long. Give 'em a go and prepare to be astonished again! P

I'm erring towards the M-Audio BX5 D2s now. P

Like anything, it's been a steep learning curve (while my Altec Lansings spit and splutter). Given the size of the room I'm in (small - 6'x'8'), I got it down to three - Presonus Eris E4.5 (£170), M-Audio AV40 or Alesis Elevate 5 (both under £100 - the price point of which surprised me). At the end of the day, I don't need ear-splitting levels of volume for monitoring or the buck$ to throw at high end stuff, especially considering the whole recording aspect of band membership seems to fall squarely on my shoulders. Ultimately, anything is going to sound better than what I'm using at the moment! I guess I will probably end up with either the M-Audios or the Alesis. I'll report back. P

See? I told you there were bargains to be had if you waited...and waited. Good one! P

Looking for recommendations...I have a VERY small set up at home and generally we track guitars and vocals in a small spare room. It's very basic; Presonus Audiobox USB > PC. I use Adobe Audition and Beta Monkey drum loops for the drums. We're all on cheapish Sennheiser headphones while recording. It works OK and results are pleasing enough. Don't shoot me down, but for external monitoring I've stuck with a set of Altec Lansing sub/satellites (which came with an old PC). To be honest these have been adequate for external monitoring before the audio is fed over our home network to a bigger room, however these are now on the blink, so I'm looking to just keep it take a signal from the main out on the Presonus into some active speakers. Any info/experiences appreciated. Don't want to spend a fortune. £150.00. Thanks muchley P

The Dunlop Max Grip is pretty flexible; I do find I move it around quite a bit. I would rarely play a whole song with just the tip. P

Dunlop Max Grip 1.14 here. I made a rapid transition to these. I get sweaty...the treadplate design helps me hold onto them. I use a .73 for guitar work. They're great. P

Doing a little more research here, it seems the main risk seems to be that of condensation/moisture ingress from bringing the speakers from a cold environment into a warm one and using immediately. Consensus seems to be to allow a little time for the speakers to get to room temperature first. There are a couple of threads over on Talkbass about cabinets being stored in garden sheds in extremely low winter temperatures; the main fear of a couple of posts was that of rodents setting up camp in the cabinet if they had access via ports/baffles! P

I need some advice concerning storage of cabinets, please. I'm running a couple of Hartke Hydrive cabinets (4x10/1x15), when I'm not gigging or rehearsing, these live in a (cosy/warm) brick extension in my house. I'm getting to the point where I'd like to get something smaller/permanent for home use and just store the Hartke stuff in the garage attached to the house, but have some concerns - the garage is dry, but obviously gets cold. The cabinets don't have covers, but I suppose I could just store them face to face and throw a blanket over them to keep any crap off them. I suppose I have concerns over speaker degradation and bring the cabinets from a cold environment into a warm/moistish one. What's the risk? I see a lot of PA stuff on sale that looks like it's come out of skips! Any ideas? P

As a young buck, I was lucky enough to catch Japan at many London gigs...but let's not forget, while MK was a talent, they were all great musicians and it was a sum of all the parts. Let's think for a minute. Rock Garden, Lyceum (twice I think...first time it was about 1/3 full, second time it was rammed and the PA broke down), the Music Machine, The Venue, The Royal Opera House (with David Torn on guitar I think - this was the last time I saw them). Most of the early club gigs were poorly supported, but they were great, happy times for me musically. They were fresh and newish - I'd never heard anyone like them - they were a band that sat quiet unhappily next to my Kiss and Rush albums. I revisit Adolescent Sex and Obscure Alternatives fairly frequently, Quiet Life and Gentleman Take Polaroids less so and beyond that (Tin Drum/Oil On Canvas/Rain Tree Crow), not at all really (unless something comes up on the iPod in shuffle mode).

I saw this trailer earlier. Holy carp! Not a Sabbath fan, but the tone (even though my PC speakers) sounds great. P