NancyJohnson

Anyone using one of these? More to the point anyone using one of these and can let me have an MP3 of the unit in action recording a noisy band. I just want to get a field recorder for recording jams,,,this is top of the pile at the moment. Cheers P

Has to be black or black pearly. Have a look at the photo here (I know, it's a DJ5). Beautiful. P

Gbase.com is great for the pictures alone. A 1975 T-bird here: <drool> [url="http://www.gbase.com/Stores/Gear/GearDetails.aspx?Item=1871876"]Linky[/url] </drool> Matching headstock as well. Dreamy. P

[quote name='Shaggy' post='265329' date='Aug 19 2008, 11:26 AM']Again, not trying to hijack this thread, but what was your impressions of the bass otherwise? Seem to have a warmer, woodier sound than a Kramer. Lovely basses! I'd liked to have met your luthier - I also play the lute (badly)[/quote] You know the weirdest thing about the TB is understandably my overriding memory of how heavy it was. It looked beautiful and was incredibly stable, never went out of tune, infinite sustain (which was good, but when you're playing a lot of notes each bar, sustain doesn't come into it!). The pickups weren't very adjustable; there were allen bolts through the back of the body, but they pretty much did nothing other than anchor the pickups/body/neck together. The original bridge was pretty chunky/clunky and I put a BadAss on when the guy changed the fingerboard. Prior to the bridge change, the bass had through-the-body-stringing. The holes never quite matched up, so if you had a tendancy (like most poor musicians) to boil up your strings, it was terrible trying to re-string it with used strings. I have no recordings or anything that I know of. Sure I remember it sounded OK at the time, but nothing special. I've mentioned here a few times that I've always been looking for a Rickenbacker type clank and I never got anywhere close to that. Soundwise I would say (from memory) that I sounded more like a phat version of Peter Swivel (of US 70s metaller Starz) rather than say, Mick Karn. Given the choice, would I get another one? Yes, but only for the novelty of having one. There are dozens and dozens of better basses for the money. If I did try and find one, I would probably go for one of the later models - perhaps serial numbers 400 or above - Travis Bean altered the body shape slightly - the wings were wider and they just looked aesthetically nicer - or if one came up, maybe one of the dozen new prototypes that were made about five years ago, which are [i]incredibly[/i] saucy. If you're looking for a Bean, there's the Travis Bean resource site - google it. There's classifieds, a forum etc. There's also tone of photos! Hope this helps. P

[quote name='Shaggy' post='265202' date='Aug 19 2008, 08:34 AM']Damn, feel your pain on that one – I’ve been looking for a fretless one (in fact any one) for around twenty years![/quote] Not trying to hijack the thread, but this [i]was [/i]fretless for a while. The original board hadn't adhered properly to the aluminium in a couple of spots, so I had an ebony board put on (and a BadAss bridge) by a luthier based in Kingston (he was a British Airways engineer and made baroque instruments in his spare time. Let's just say he knew glue!). It was later refretted by Dick Knight. It was a beauty, would be worth a small fortune now. P

A Travis Bean 2000 series bass #222. I lost interest in the bass and part-exchanged it for an Ibanez Roadster. Read that last sentence again. Part-exchanged. I gave up my TB and gave cash to acquire an Ibanez Roadster! I still think about that TB once or twice a day. P

I'm getting a tad irritated with my old Precision. It's currently referred to as that 'Piece of sh*t'. When it's replacement arrives I'll probably start waxing lyrical about it and calling it Lurlene or something. P

Had a very quick perusal if the Ishibashi site this morning and for all you T-Bird fans out there, Gibson have issued a new Nikki Sixx 'Black Cherry' signature edition. There's three models up...all look a little different from each other finish-wise...everything else looks the same. Red XX markers on the neck, different scratchplates to the usual Thunderbirds (with the same XX insignia and a signature). Needless to say, nothing on the Gibson site for us to drool over (I fail to see how, in this day and age, a company like Gibson can issue a new model and not even update theis sh*tty site). Anyhow: [url="http://tinyurl.com/6av6rm"]LINK[/url] if you're interested. P

[quote name='Delberthot' post='255274' date='Aug 5 2008, 12:08 PM']I believe that the green one is made in the same factory as the Waterstone Tom Petersson bass as it is very close in most respects.[/quote] I had some dealings with Bob Singer at Waterstone a couple of years ago (when I was trying top help with UK distribution). We discussed the Tennessee basses - he was quite flattered that his TP12 model was being copied and confirmed 100% that the Tennessee basses were not coming out of his Korean manufacturing plant. The plant could barely keep up with demand for Waterstone let alone any other maker. P

[quote name='cheddatom' post='156759' date='Mar 13 2008, 03:57 PM']Due to some circumstances out of our control, me and my guitarist could possibly start playing as a duet, with me on drums, and I have suggested him on baritone guitar. He's never played one before, and they're quite hard to find! So: What baritones are there? I swear I saw an Epiphone LP one on Ebay a while ago, and it was really cheap! Where can we find a baritone to actually play in a music shop? (stoke, brum, manchester are our limits) Are the strings on a baritone really thick, like bass strings? Or will it not be much different to heavy guage guitar strings? Ta [/quote] Danelectro used to make one or two very funky/retro baritones. Unless anyone has mentioned it, wasn't there a Fender Jaguar baritone. That was a stonkingly attractive guitar. P

[quote name='BigRedX' post='253176' date='Aug 2 2008, 10:25 AM']I've bought 4 basses form the US (and one from Japan) and had no problems. With USPS it will take 2-3 weeks door to door most of which time is spent in limbo between countries and waiting for the UK customs to inspect it. If the sender uses USPS the delivery here is done by Parcel Force and you [b]WILL[/b] have to pay customs and VAT on it. Customs duty is 3.5% of cost of the item(s) plus shipping but only applicable if it comes to over £7. VAT is 17.5% of cost, shipping and customs duty combined. Parcel Force will also charge you of around £15 for customs handling fee. Customs also use their own exchange rate which isn't normally quiet as good as the current quoted one. Also Parcel Force won't deliver until you have paid these charges. One of the basses I bought came FedEx. That took 3 days door to door and incurred no import duty or VAT. Normally FedEx bill you for import charges after delivery so just because your bass arrives and you haven't had to pay import to get it, don't assume your off the hook. However IME if you have them deliver to your work address (where you should already be VAT registered) this bill never arrives. I haven't been able to 100% verify this and also I don't know if the VAT simply ends up at the work accounts they pay it along with all the others with out realising that it was for me and not work related, but nothing I've had delivered to me at work from abroad by FedEx has had any VAT or duty to pay. YMMV as they say.[/quote] I'd concur with the getting it shipped to a work address. Two basses, not a bill in sight. Maybe I just got lucky...I don't know. Had one delivered to home and I had to pay £80.00 or thereabouts. Good hunting. P

[quote name='Mikey D' post='252583' date='Aug 1 2008, 11:22 AM']Or even better: [url="http://www.wlguitars.com"]Wes Lambe[/url] makes them, and for about a $1000 cheaper! Great instruments.[/quote] Cool, cheers for that link. I don't know which ones I like the look of more to be honest...maybe the Novax. I'll have a better look tonight! Haven't been able to find anything on the Novax site about tunings. P

[quote name='NancyJohnson' post='252488' date='Aug 1 2008, 08:56 AM']I'll be damned if I can remember the name of the company[/quote] It's Novax Guitars [url="http://www.novaxguitars.com/index.html"]Novax[/url] P

Played a Dingwall in the US a couple of years ago out of curiousity more than anything else. It felt [b]very[/b] comfortable from the outset...I didn't feel that the fret system hindered really. There's another luthier in the US who does these fanned fret hybrid guit-bass instruments...from memory they have a slightly extended scale length than a regular guitar (so maybe baritone length). The flagship model was an eight string...for your money you get three bass strings (one bass circuitry that can be routed through a bass amp) and five guitar strings. I'll be damned if I can remember the name of the company (I've got a link on my PC at home if anyone is interested). P

[quote name='cetera' post='241787' date='Jul 17 2008, 02:39 PM']Ah mate, you've discovered the 'secret' joys of the Tech21 Landmark! I LOVE this head..... it does every sound I want and especially excels in the grindy/gritty hi-mid classic rock sound.... As Ade says, I had the Landmark 300 and I sold it to him..... but only so I could buy the more powerful Landmark 600!! If you can hold a little while (crazy busy here at the mo) we can maybe get together and you can give my Landmark a trial run.....[/quote] Cool Gary Cheers - I guess if I went with the POD I'm likely to keep it on a kind of gritty sound anyhow...so maybe only one or two patches. I'm looking for that kind of (Ash) Burn Baby Burn kind of sound...dirty Thunderbird/Rickenbacker kind of thing (although I'll be getting the DJ5 soon enough). I have to say I get that tone already, but my Ashdown stuff is getting a little worn out. I got an e-mail from the UK distributors and the amp isn't available here at all. I'd like to go new, but we'll see. P

[quote name='ped' post='241360' date='Jul 16 2008, 11:09 PM']If you already have a guitar pod, how about a rack XT pro instead of the X3 - I can't see any reason to 'upgrade' except for the fact it does guitar too. I really don't know why they made it 3u!![/quote] I think the X3 appealed simply from the perspective that it was a one-unit-hopefully-does-all kind of thing. I own both a bass and guitar Pod. I hear what you say about the 3U thing. At least the Flightcase Warehouse do a 5U rack on wheels! P

I need a bit of advice. Looking to start upgrading gear in the next couple of weeks (yes Gary, the time has come), so here goes. I've been thinking about piggybacking the new POD X3 Pro (due September) onto a stereo poweramp, but in the last couple of days though, the waters have been clouded somewhat - I've been reading up about the Tech 21 Landmark 300 head and have listened to the sound samples on their website. I like what I'm hearing and what I've read so far, but I can find scant info on UK sellers. I'm looking to run either setup into a 4x10 and a 1x15 (both Ashdown MAGs for now). I know the POD isn't available yet, but I'm thinking with the Tech 21 I get a 2U* rack unit (and presumably a very close version of the Geddy/Chris Squire clank which I want) plus no loading backache. The POD/Amp combo will be 5U rack of POD/Amp. At the end of the day I figure if I need to run a guitar, I have a guitar POD, so I'll use that, dispensing with the new POD So who has a Landmark 300? Any good? Does it fit a standard 19" rack? I'm going to be mighty pissed if it can't cut the mustard. P (or confused of Crowthorne) *Edit...make that a 3U rack - I'd have to factor in a tuner as well.

[quote name='tauzero' post='239030' date='Jul 14 2008, 11:37 AM']A chap called Robert Townsend wrote a book called "Up the organization" which includes a bit in this. He was running Avis, and there was a proposal to create a low-priced sister company to try to increase business. The board were asked for their opinions, and one of them said "I don't know what you call it, but we Poles call it pissing in the soup". I can't see how bringing in a 5-string is pissing in the soup for Fender. They've already done that pretty effectively by introducing Squier. NJ does rather highlight a comparison I've made before between Fender and Harley - innovation is despised by a large proportion of the existing customer base, although it has the potential to bring in new custom.[/quote] It would be nice to see Fender bring out something radical and new that isn't based around their Precision or Jazz shaped bodies though, wouldn't it? P

[quote name='Huge Hands' post='237861' date='Jul 12 2008, 11:32 AM']Sorry NJ, I have to disagree. I love the Precision shape, but for me my regular gigging bass HAS to be five strings. With this in mind, and the fact that I don't have the spare cash to fork out on a new Fender or Lakland similie, I have just bought a second hand Squier Precision V. It has Jazz pickups, but for me it's the neck feel (I like cricket bats!) and look of the guitar that gets me. I am just waiting for the postman to deliver my custom build 5 string Wizard 84's for it. One day I might take a chisel to it and fit a proper split coil precision style pick up, but I'm not brave enough just yet! I completely see what you're saying, but it appears there will alway be a niche market for Fender to exploit with traditionalists like me. It's not just us bass players though, I once played in a blues band who kept pressuring me to change my Cort (Ibanez lookalike) because it was "too modern looking".[/quote] First off, I've no problem with fives at all - my primary bass was a Warwick Streamer 5 for a loooong time - I loved it, but as a Precision player for about ten years or so, in my opinion it's good [i]as is[/i], it's a design classic in the true sense...and it certainly doesn't need a rehash to accommodate that extra string. I am to a degree a traditionalist. I think you hit the nail on the head where you said about Fender exploitation. Well put. I just want my instruments to be robust, functional and playable in solid colours...I've posted previously that I don't really dig basses that look like furniture and I'm really not so keen on these redesigns. Anyhow, who am I? Nothing I can do to stop Fender P

I read a review of one in the last issue of US Bass Player and watched a review of it (and the new range) on Bass Player TV about a month ago. I'm sorry, but it just looks wrong...Precisions should be four string. It's how it is. How it [b]should [/b]be. This is the first Precision Fender have made in a five-string version. The company I work for regularly use the expression of 'denigrating the brand'...now I'm all for company products being innovating, using cutting edge tech etc., but the new Precision V is just unnecessary. Fender rehash their models to keep sales going (which is obviously working), so the new fives are clearly the next step. Expect a John Myung supported six string next year. Not really, I made that up. Fender seem to be running out of ideas. Let's face it, on the solid body front, they have traded very well on the back of probably less than ten bass designs (and three or four basic pickup configurations!) in the last fifty-five years, just tweaking here, adding there. Love or hate companies like Ibanez, BC Rich etc., at least they're bringing new shapes etc. to the market. Anyhow, as you gathered, I'm not keen on the new model. P