NancyJohnson

...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

Searching through a box of old guitar bits earlier today, I came across a new Wilkinson strat pickup that went unused from an old project and thought I'd give it a punt...it couldn't be any worse than the stock pickup. Took the old pickup out - a [i]very [/i]basic looking six pole job - and soldered the Wilkinson in. Boom. It sounds ridiculously good now; the rawness on the G string has dissipated and tonally it's pretty smooth across all notes. Lovely. I'll be using this a lot, I think. P

A couple of years ago I acquired a Squier Bronco 'Badtz Maru' bass through here. Within a day or two it suffered major headstock damage while I was reaming new holes for better machines. Bought a vintage neck/machines from the US, but it had a front bow and the truss rod was maxxed out, so that wasn't a keeper. Since then, the body has just been under a bed in the spare room. Around Christmas, I ordered a Squier Mustang neck (from ebay seller, The Stratosphere), which cost more than I paid for the bass initially - it arrived a few days ago, bolted it on, Straploks screwed in and this is the result. It didn't even need a set up. I have plenty of other go to basses, but I'm really, really in love with this. It weighs nothing, it's fun, plays like a dream and sounds good/decent (if not a little raw; the output is very high), so I'm on the market for a replacement 51P pickup when I find one. No rush! P

I play the Thunderbirds quite low, but my P-bass a bit higher. Bass height has actually gone down with age, but I also now play over the bridge pickup position rather than right on the bridge. The only real issue comes with having to play parts closer to the bridge, at which point I raise my shoulders a bit (the [i]Frankenstein's monster technique[/i] as someone I know called it). P

A Columbus JB was my second bass. £65, late seventies. I have nothing but fond memories of it. No idea what it was made of or who made it, but it weighed a lot on my teenage shoulders and sounded more that OK at the time (I have patchy cassette recordings to support this!). It was just a stepping point bass. Served it's purpose. P

I gigged in Reading about a month ago and took an old Aria ProII Primary (Precision) - I didn't know that venue and really didn't like the idea of taking one of my Thunderbirds. If it got nicked, I'd claim for it through my insuarnce, but it wouldn't have pissed me off as much as if one of the Gibsons got pinched. Reassuringly, it does have great tone. I have a neck coming for an old Squire Bronco (Badtz Maru Mustang thing)...I might give that an outing once it's bolted on! P

I've used a Boss BR600 extensively. The on board microphones are fine so long as you have a decent mix in the room itself and control the recording levels. You can also plug in a couple of mics to get a wider separation. Battery life is decent (get rechargeables!). I also used this machine to track all the guitars and bass for the first collection we did (see link below). It's a great machine. You can pick these up on eBay for £90-ish. Let's face it, you are never going to get studio quality from any portable machine either; they are what they are. P

The doc did my NR scratchplate a couple of months back. I can trace the original Gibson plate and send it to him in a day or two. I have address somewhere. P

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1384554616' post='2278251'] [/quote] You know, I saw this exact spec bass at an auction in Reading maybe 20 years ago. They had a matching Stratocaster up as well. I always wondered what it sold for. It did look awesome and that my friend looks lovely. P

Thanks for the input!

[quote name='Dandelion' timestamp='1387361429' post='2311006'] Has anyone tried a T-Bird with flats? What was it like? [/quote] I usually gig in heels. P

Going back to post #1, I've voiced this previously. Over in the porn section it's pretty much all club-level threads postings albeit without the narcissic need for numbers. I'd sooner see members gear on an individual thread merit basis - much like Gary's plethora of Spectors - rather than trawling through 75 pages of individual Fender Precision and Jazz basses (which, come on, all look pretty much identical). P

Anyone here running a stock Stingray as a [u]passive[/u] bass? I've never owned one, but the idea of grabbing a cheapish one (and not a SUB or OLP) as a live back up option is growing on me somewhat, although I do have issues with active instruments (I've owned a Bongo 5HH, a Warwick Streamer and a John East loaded Jazz). Switching between a passive (Thunderbird) and an active (Stingray) mid-gig doesn't appeal so much, citing possible battery failure/drain (I do tend to leave basses plugged in when I'm not using them) and disparity between tonal set ups etc. So what's the options? This is a bit of a grey area for me...is it possible to use the MM pickup, pull out the pre-amp and just stick in regular pots? Or just remove the battery? Alternatively, which passive replacement pickup unit would give a similar Stingray tone? Or should I just consider another Thunderbird (heh). Cheers Paul