NancyJohnson

OK, what do you want to know? It's back from the tech...bad pots, bad wiring. Pots were 300K (which I'm assured elsewhere are what Gibson are currently using), so these have been upped to 500K units, and the wiring all new. Now it sounds fanblummingtastic; hotter than my others, so I'll do some adjusting in a live setting. All good! P

Well, a minor update here. I'd been using the NR almost exclusively since it arrived and had set up my gear accordingly. You'll see that I used the term 'muddier' in my original post. Following my surgery, my band got back together for a low key jam earlier in the week and clearly something is awry. I swapped basses mid-rehearsal, going back to my '04 TB. It was a shock realisation - all I'm getting from the NR is a horrible mid-low tone, no mids/highs. I spoke to the guy who does my soldering...he asked for a comparison. If the '04 had a tonal output of 1-100, where would the NR sit in this? I guessed at 20-40. I desoldered the tone control and that made little difference, so it's going over to the tech on Tuesday for a rewire. Hopefully this'll sort things out. I'm obviously somewhat disappointed! P

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1361711959' post='1989560'] Very nice indeed.. Most Thunderous! How's John working out? [/quote] I just had a half-time noodle and dropped the neck pickup a couple of mm. Better! P

[quote name='cetera' timestamp='1361713448' post='1989583'] Ah, the lovely Hamer..... [/quote] Still not for sale, Gary. Still not for sale! P

Just an update of where I'm at. And yes, they all have names in order or acquisition. The Gibson basses (left to right on stands); white 2004 (Scott), black 1997 (Alan), a 2000 Gothic (Gordon), 2013 Non-Reverse in vintage sunburst (John). The interloper (reclining in comfort at the front) is a super rare stay at home Hamer FBIV (Virgil)...no idea of the year but best estimate mid-eighties. All the Gibsons are fitted with Hipshot Supertone bridges. Of the lot, my go to bass is the whitey. Light, slim neck, fast action, gritty tone. As I've posted previously it turns me from a slightly overweight guy in my 40s into a lithe slip of a lad in my 20s. It's like magic. Close second the Gothic. I haven't had the 2013 long enough to give full judgment; it still needs some adjustment and I'm sidelined for a few days following hand-surgery. They're all different. Rigwise, everything gets pushed through a Sansamp BDDI into the effects return of a UK made Ashdown ABM, into a pair of Hartke Hydrives. P

Superb stuff. Well done!

I used it last week...a four hour jam without a break. Two concerns. I need to find the correct sweet spot for the pickup height; I adjusted a couple of times during the rehearsal - I suppose once I'm there, I'll leave it set at that. Second, when my hands are dry and the back of the neck is dry, I get a slight static crackle when I got up and down the neck, but this disappears when I get a bit sweaty. I checked it out on some other forums and it seems quite common with mahogany and whatever formula Gibson use to nitro the guitar. I'm not going to be doing much playing for the next week or so as I have to endure another hand operation (seconds out round three) on Thursday to correct another trigger finger problem. Boo. P

Here's my newly arrived 2013 Gibson Thunderbird Non-Reverse. I have done a couple of tweaks...I have no love of the Gibson three-point bridge, so that's a Hipshot Supertone bridge. I've installed Dunlop Straploks and swapped the output jack/tone control around so the controls are in one line. Plays nicely enough. I'd say muddier and less aggressive than any of my regular Thunderbirds, but that may be down to the current setup (which I'll tweak during the upcoming days). P

Well, after a frustrating delay, I should finally have the bass on Monday. I'll be installing a Hipshot Supertone bridge pretty much immediately and will post up some snaps shortly after. P

On 15/1/13, he won/paid £161 for this Schecter guitar [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130832259749?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_nkw%3D130832259749%26_rdc%3D1"]here[/url]. Within days, he'd [i]converted [/i]it from a 7-string to a 6-string and (re)listed it 24/1/12 for £347.00 [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190789082180?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D190789082180%26_rdc%3D1"]here[/url]. Maybe I'm missing another trick here. P

Joel OK, here goes. (For the record, I am a little hungover, so I may wander a bit.) 1) I'd never thought Fender would have bought a company for their distribution network. Really? I've been dipping in and out of guitar stores since the early-80s and if there's one brand that's synonymous by it's unanimity, it has to be Fender. Never struck me that they needed distribution, I thought they sold like hot cakes. 2) Hiatus or otherwise, the information I posted was sent to me from the guys at the Hamer Fan Network, who to a degree have effectively become the Hamer mouthpiece. The Workshop blog hasn't been updated in nearly a year. I would say one thing here, who puts a company into hiatus and then relaunches it at some future date? 3) Recession. Psst. Guitars are still selling aren't they? And what would you rather rock out with? A Guild semi or a Hamer solid? (OK...don't answer that.) 4/5) These are statements of fact/conjecture. 6) I'm running a business selling very expensive sprockets and I have a full order book into 2013/14. I've been selling these sprockets for a few years now, quite successfully it has to be said, but now I'm going to start manufacturing cheaper sprockets. I know, to meet demand, I'll close down my expensive sprocket business, cancel the back orders and move all my machinists over to make my cheaper product. That's some sound business sense, for sure. Now I don't have access to Fender's balance sheet, so I don't know how much sales for Hamer and Guild account for, so don't feel qualified to comment on whether this is a sound decision or not. 7) Other guitar stores are available and there's a big old world beyond those US borders. I work in the jewellery business and we sell into many businesses that are most probably overburdened by debt, but as a credit manager, I can control what goes out and what happens when we don't get paid. There are many channels of distribution globally. I think of Fender being a little like Kiss. Clearly not really interested in what went on outside of the US until things started going down the toilet at which point it became time to concentrate on the markets in Europe, South America, Australasia, Far East. (I'm curious, do the Americans use the term Far East, because in actuality it's probably Close West. Sorry, went off topic there.) 8) This, my friend, is a shameless plug. I will be visiting Amazon imminently. If there's one good thing about the Hamer brand, it's that there's a good 30 years of production still out there (aside from the hundreds Nikki Sixx destroyed), so they're still readily available and will still be even when I'm dust. Oh, and in closing, please desist in the overuse of unnecessary "inverted commas". You're a journalist/magazine editor, are you not? Tut tut!! Message ends. P

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1358505961' post='1940345'] Yes, and your opinions being presented as fact isn't helping. [/quote] Well said.

Nice!

If you're anywhere near New York Public Library on the weekend you should check out this guy busking and give him a couple of dollars. I'm not sure whether the guy is only let out on the weekend, but he's very entertaining (and this isn't a dig at people with learning difficulties or anything...I know it's 2013). We saw him several times during our sojourn in September and he was pulling people left right and centre. He's fearless. P