NancyJohnson

The thing I want to know is you traded all that stuff for that?

I'm still trying to eat an entire Papa John's XXL Mexican pizza (with anchovies) in one sitting, but feel this is beyond me. Wordle in one would be nice. Unsure whether impossible desire qualifies as GAS. If so, then nothing.

So many factors affecting tone that are simply not down to the shape of the pickups alone; avoiding to go down the route of everything sounds more or less the same anyway, I can hear subtleties in the P/J sets on the four basses I own that have them - all have different characteristics (for the record, a pair of Hamers (one with EMG GZRs and the other with the stock 80s DiMarzios), a Spector (Barts) and my Ibanez project (Warmans)). I don't like an isolated P pickup tone (nor for that matter the ponky tone of a Jazz pickup in the bridge position), but both on at the same time just seems to work. I suppose I'm a two pickup bloke. Always have been.

I only do original material, so at the very least I'm not being measured against someone else's lines and all my work over the last two years has been remote; the guys I do stuff for know my strengths so in general I'm good. That said, I did have a similar exchange to the OP where I struggled with a looped live drum thing where the producer had mixed up two very different time signatures (for the hell of it, let's just say 11/4 and 7/6) which repeated on a bar and a half cycle, before dropping into a 4/4 time signature for the chorus. The odd-timing was hard enough to resolve, but the drums on the loop were very boomy (and quite musical, if that makes sense) and it just felt that everything I played sounded out of tune. This went back and forth quite a few times; I wasted hours on it and then it never got used.

I refinished a Ibanez with leather dye, Crimson lacquer, then spray clear coats. The leather dye was fine, just make sure you've got all the old finish off. The leather dye may raise the grain, so just lightly sand it back and reapply. I wasn't happy with the Crimson lacquer at all; I tried applying with wadded kitchen paper (as recommended), then brushed it on. After several coats, I knocked it back with wet and dry (1200+) and it came off very easily, so I had patches where I was back to bare wood. I reapplied the leather dye and just bought some clear coat rattle cans from Amazon. These went on easily...couple of coats, light sand with wet and dry, repeat. And repeat. It just got to the stage where I was losing the will to live, so decided to just park things at this point. It looks fine, satinesque, but it's never going to be a showroom finish. Fine for me though.

People get paid for gigs?

This rack was the backbone of my live sound for a while. In the main there was an RBI in the preamp slot, which I upgraded to the Geddy Lee unit (which stopped working properly very quickly). The Aguilars were a short-lived experiment, not lively enough for me (too hifi).

I'm probably too far down the thread for this but here's my opinion. Back in the 70s, never really had a huge vinyl collection, but what I did realise early on was how fragile it was, so whatever I bought was immediately recorded to cassette (even home taped cassettes sounded clearer than official ones). I embraced CD, MiniDisc, MP3/FLAC, streaming services and right now I'd say that I'm more interested in convenience and listening to the song rather than getting into protracted arguments about the whys and wherefores of the format it's derived from. Concerning the uptake of vinyl amongst the younglings, the siblings of friends are buying records like they're buying clothes, if that makes sense. They don't seem to care about what they're buying, it's just about 'buying some vinyls', like it's a fashion statement; also an observation from said parents, once bought, they're never played again ('they just use Spotify'). There also seems to be this thing that they'll avaoid certain records if they don't come with some kind of download code as well, which leads the question of, 'So what's the point?' One last thing, do records made now sound the same as the same ones made 30 or 40 years ago? I was played a Led Zeppelin album from the 70s, the old vinyl was big, loud and full-sounding, the same album from a recent reissue was quite thin and considerably less robust. This raises the question of mastering and what new albums are mastered from. A couple of years ago, there was a lengthy thread on a Japan Facebook page about the Abbey Road half-speed masters of Gentlemen Take Polaroids and Tin Drum. I think these may have been on heavier vinyl too. Many posters were berating the pressings (surface noise/warpage/general quality control/sound generally), but aren't these bumps, crackles and pops the facets of vinyl that people love as much as the music thereon as it provides character?. There just seems to be this thing (ignorance/stupidity?) that because Abbey Road is associated with the mastering process it's got to be good, hasn't it? [Edit] In the last few days I've worked out that I can integrate a turntable with a Bluetooth output into my Sonos network without having to fork out for a Sonos Amp or a Five. I was thinking about getting a Pro-Ject deck to facilitate this so I could have a listen to some records that aren't up on any streaming platform; I have no desire whatsoever to start buying records, new or used. I'm not a sap. My wife kindly offered to get me one for my birthday (ten months off in December), and didn't actually baulk at the cost (£400). I don't know. It's a lot of money just to listen to a handful of records.

OK, moving along, the attachment mechanism is held in place by a split spring roll dowel pin like the one pictured below. It passes through the main pole and the bracket that holds the mechanism. I'm not even certain how I'd get it out, to be honest. I've gone back to Barry the Bass Centre to ask whether they carry spares. They're only a couple of miles from me, so we'll see what they have.

Haha. Sorry, I have quite an intense day job and I'm not monitoring Basschat 24/7. OK, to follow on here, the pole in the speaker stand is 35mm, the lower part of the NS stand is 30mm and the top part (where the attachment mechanism is) is 25mm. As you'll see from this image, the 25m post is crimped and the attachment mechanism is either compression-pressed on or joined by an (invisible) weld, irrespective, there doesn't appear to be any easy way of pulling it off or unscrewing it. Now then. I've done a few searches already to see whether there's any off the shelf parts to facilitate a step down sizing thing from 35mm to 25mm; there is something called a top-hat converter made by a company called FBT in the UK, that might do the trick (similar things seem available). This fits over the top of a 35mm pole and has a 25mm top, that said, I'd still need to attach the NS attachment to it somehow.

We had a sound guy once who said something about owning your own frequency; adding a bit of mids will allow you to own the low-end wobble and effectively cut through into frequencies that aren't really evident...it's like magic and doesn't really change your perception of what you sounded like in isolation. Our guitarist at the time loved a very dirty bassy tone, so by way of compensation I always rolled the treble up on whatever amp set-up I was using. Pre-gig this one particular time, the sound guy and I nefariously changed some of the guitarists tone settings while he was getting a beer and then I did mine on the fly a few seconds before we started playing. Guitarist said afterwards that even from his position he thought we sounded awesome compared to previous gigs.

They should do some with Gibson headstocks.

I'll admit I was suprised to see the BH550. What is the tone in your head? A close approximation will suffice. You mentioned this in your OP. What are your current cab(s)? What style of music do you play?

Burp, ponk and shizzle.

Surely the first thing we have to ascertain what 'punchy' actually means; I've seen and heard it used tons, 'Oh, that sounds punchy,' but the word in isolation means zero. It's not like adding bass, middle or treble to your signal path...nobody ever says, 'Turn up the the punchy control.' Everyone here will have an opinion, but they're only going to be citing what's good on their ears and achievable from the gear they've used or seen used, so you'll get an opinion on just about every enclosure from 4x8s up to 1x18s, and/or combinations thereof. Cabinets are just one part of your signal chain; everything therein will contribute towards what you quantify as 'punch', from the end of your fingers to the air that moves a millisecond later. Your opinion of 'punch' will change from room to room, even cabinet positioning inside the same room.

Porcupine Tree. While there's no doubting the talent on show, there's just something about Steven Wilson that I just find difficult to connect with, he always comes across as so earnest and nice. On the times I've dipped in, I always felt his voice didn't suit the heavier passages. I love his non-contributary work (for instance, the 5.1 XTC/Tears For Fears reissues). Perhaps there's just too much back catalogue to wade through (I've finished In Absentia and I'm deep in Deadwing territory), maybe I should just create a playlist of everything and just put them on shuffle rather than focusing on things on an album by album basis.

Just concerning the tripod stand, I was rooting around in my garage yesterday and found a powered speaker stand I'd bought a couple of years ago (don't ask). It's very light and appears a way more sturdier compared to the NS stand; most importantly it has a pretty small footprint. The uppermost pole though (which would normally go into a hole in the base of a powered speaker) is 35mm, so way bigger that the top part of the NS stand that has the mechanism to attach the EUB. So now I'm on the hunt for a step-down adaptor; I figure there has to be something on the market that will allow me to simply take the top part of the NS stand (whatever the diameter of that is) and marry it with a 35mm hole.

Just because it doesn't come up for sale shouldn't be an indicator that rack kit generally is unliked. I'd probably say that selecting two different components (pre and power) that delivers precisely what you want is a country mile ahead of a one box solution. For many years I ran a 4U rack with a Sansamp RBI, a Korg tuner and a Matrix 2U poweramp. It was joy.

I'd say first out that all my pickups are set at the optimal height to facilitate this. Passive basses (VVT or VT) volume(s) and tone knob fully open. Active basses, volume on full for each pickup, tones at the midpoint, adjust to suit...generally I'd roll the bass up a little to phatten it up.

Fiebings Leather dye. (It stains anything...)

They're tuned differently...

Longevo coated strings are now available at Bass Direct. £34 for four string sets, £39 for five string sets. Nice to know. These are lovely strings.

The photos don't help here at all, do they? To the sellers credit, he is selling an Ampeg head a fridge. Thinking back, I used to work with a chap who owned an old Rickenbacker; about a year/eighteen months before my brief dalliance with a 4003, I borrowed it for an hour one lunchtime for a noodle and the set up was even worse than the eBay seller's bass...the action was easily a centimetre or more mid-neck. The sellers strings look perilously close to the neck pickup cover too.

I worked for a medical company for ten years. Colostomy products in the main (although we did do the writickets for Reading and Leeds festivals). Got the runs? Eat marshmallows. Bag filling with firm poop? Eat a couple of bananas.

I think the thing is, these get buried within long threads and if you're not contributing or reading those threads then you're unaware; simple as.