Doctor J

Your buddy may have paid £50 to get a half-assed repair done, but that doesn't cover what you would lose were you to sell it on, either repaired or as is. Suggest you sell it as is and he covers the difference between what you get and the cost of a new one because that's the amount of damage he did, not £50. If he doesn't agree to that, he's no friend and I wouldn't have a problem taking the small claims route.

[quote name='ezbass' post='632177' date='Oct 21 2009, 10:38 AM']A hand built bass for £800, really? Why am I the last to find about these things?[/quote] Yup, the Woodline J Classics sell on Japanese sites for between US$900-$1000. Even with shipping and taxes you should come in nicely under £800. This second hand P Classic is on [url="http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/u_box"]http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/u_box[/url] for Y50,000 excluding shipping and taxes, that's about 330 of your Queen pounds, I believe. Shouldn't be more than £500 or so all in. I have one of them, it's a work of art. The exchange rate makes buying from Japan just superb value at the moment. Derailed the thread slightly, sorry.

The problem I'd have with these is the price. For the money, you could get a hand made, nitro-finished, selected wood, built the old school way by a master (if that matters to you) Bacchus Woodline J and some change. If you're worried about dinking an unblemished bass, yet you'd pay someone to take a belt sander to one... well, I just can't think of anything to say about that

The mid-frequency control is a frequency sweep, you can select the centre frequency which you cut and boost, very handy. Turn it anti-clockwise to head towards low mids and clockwise to change the upper mids.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='628026' date='Oct 16 2009, 04:07 PM']Isn't that the point? They spend a lot of money on a professional standard instrument and then mould themselves to its individual personality and find the instruments own voice. DB players don't buy and sell with the frequency of electric players.[/quote] That's not really a valid comparison, in my opinion, as the sound from double basses doesn't come from electronics, it's the sound of the wood and what you hear at first is largely the way it is and always will be. Not so with electric instruments, there are many, many more options and combinations to try before one can say they've found the package (wood, electronics, hardware, ergonomics and styling) which suits them best. Why mould yourself to something when there is something out there which might fit just right first time, you just need to find it. You won't find it if you don't look and if you don't find it, well maybe someone can build it. What is wrong with that?

Didn't they try that whole thing where everyone just makes do with what's there and no-one aspires to anything different? What was it called again? Oh yeah, Communism.

[quote name='The Burpster' post='626653' date='Oct 15 2009, 08:27 AM']Welcome on board! Sadly there is no one answer to your question, because 'tone' is such a subjective issue. If there are a 100 folks on here you wil get 100 different answers...... Its easiest and probably most sensible to say that ALL elements of the construction and spec of a bass wil effect its 'tone. 2 basses made from identical wood with the same electrics can sound different - that just the nature of wood, some of it is more dense than other bits and cuts. The most stable and consistant sounding basses are those made of Carbon composites because the matrerial is so stable (as well teh odd metal ones out there too) . The easiest way to change the 'tone of a solid body bass is to change the electrics as ultimately the electric signal is generated by the strings moving through a magnetic field..... change these and the tone will change instantly. Types of wood to generate types of sound is as hit and miss as the lottery.... but to give you a VERY general guideline, the more dense the wood in the build the brigther sound and longer sustain. The reality is much more confusing than that tho' (refer to para 2 above). Anyone who says difinitively that X wood with Y pick up will give Z sound, is using real salesmanship because as soon as wood is involved the whole issue gets foggy! Someone saying this about a Status or Steinberger on the other hand, may be a different issue! The even tone between strings is definately a pick up issue, although the nut and bridge can sometimes have an influence on large dia. low range strings.[/quote] Bravo, a nugget of logic in what is often a forest of wild conjecture!

I went with a custom build because I couldn't find an off-the-shelf 5 string with the pickups (Q-Tuners) and pre-amp (Noll TCM3) in the colour (trans green) which I wanted. I didn't want to go through the time and expense of buying an off the shelf bass and butchering it to fit, so custom was the only option. Had that setup been available by a bespoke vendor I surely would have gone with them, I'm not a fan of spending more money than I have to, but The Man doesn't care what I want. As I see it, it's the fault of Fender et al for not accomodating their potential customers needs and I was left with no choice but to take to the back streets and engage a shady custom builder. Shame on them all, says I.

On the jackplate itself.

Had sopabars in one bass, MM and J in another, got a NTCT and NBMB pres in a couple of other basses. Love their pre-amps, always found their pickups a little too polite sounding. I'd love them to sound a bit more aggressive, bit more growl, they're just not in your face enough.

[quote name='3below' post='608269' date='Sep 24 2009, 10:57 PM']Or is it just a matter of loosen the neck screws, tap the neck to close the gap and tighten screws again.[/quote] Then you'll have a gap on the other side.

[quote name='thedonutman' post='607186' date='Sep 23 2009, 10:22 PM']That's a huuuuge neck pocket gap.[/quote] I was thinking the very same thing, the first pic is shocking. Still, isn't there a problem with the buttons on the Big Al getting stuck too, perhaps 70's build quality is back in along with slab bodies.

Perhaps Bacchus would fit the bill? [url="http://www.guitarjapan.com/bacchus/spec/woodline_j-classic.html"]http://www.guitarjapan.com/bacchus/spec/wo..._j-classic.html[/url] [url="http://www.deviser.co.jp/modules/products/index.php?content_id=113"]http://www.deviser.co.jp/modules/products/...?content_id=113[/url]

[quote name='Kev' post='599587' date='Sep 15 2009, 08:46 PM']My apologies, but what a load of bollocks. If anything, playing a £2k bass is the exact opposite of Rock and Roll. I do get the feeling your just baiting though, as you surely can't actually believe in what you typed? [/quote] I felt it was too obvious to require smilies [quote name='silddx' post='599617' date='Sep 15 2009, 09:16 PM']That really is a very odd, completely misguided approach. The only things that matter are doing justice to the songs and performing to the audience the vision of your songwriter and band at it's best. If that can be done with a pole and a dustbin lid, then that's cool with me. My basses are reasonably expensive because the basses I need to do my work properly and satisfy my own sound, reliablility and performance requirements happen to be that price. I don't mind buying one second hand either. I've played Squiers on stage and the modern Chinese one was pretty poor, the Japanese Silver series was good. My drummer noticed when I started playing a Hohner Pro Jack that the sound was much better, and the Warwicks even more so. I've settled on Warwick as my instrument of choice and I have one fretted and one fretless. I don't need a back up because they are super reliable and I use high quality strings which don't seem to break, even under heavy gig pressure. I wouldn't play a Wesley because I wouldn't trust it to stand up to punishment or deliver the tone I need. The sound of the OP's might be good for his situation, but will the hardware and electronics and tone stand up to hard, prolonged use and BIG, transparent PAs? Maybe his ears and hands can't tell the difference? Who knows?[/quote] Though clearly I need to re-evaluate Seriously gents, I can't believe there are seven pages of justification one way or the other on this. Play what you like because you like it, there is no other reason or justification required.

You owe it to your audience (if you have one) to only play the best. If they've paid in to see you rock out do you really want them to think you're a band of tight-fisted wierdos, that they've given you money and you've spent it on a new conservatory or a nice cardigan instead of a fancy bass? Hell no! That's not rock 'n' roll. That's not even jazz. They want to see you rock, rock hard and would you cheat them out of that by playing some cheapo piece of crap? I should hope not. The audience comes first and that's why I buy expensive basses. Shame on you cheapo lovers, won't you consider somebody other than yourselves for a change?

That's one of the Korean ones, isn't it? It's somewhere between a J and a 24, design-wise. I've seen nicer ones tbh.

I'll tell the postie to get his skates on

[quote name='soopercrip' post='536332' date='Jul 9 2009, 12:05 PM']Without trying to hijack the thread I'm following this with great interest, as I'm about to start a build project and am contemplating which pre-amp to go for. Using a single Nordstrand mm5.2 pup Was wondering wether to match it to a Nordstrand pre or go for the ACG Was hoping someone would comment on the Nordstrand Pre's Any takers??? Andy[/quote] I've got a 55.2 in a Godlyke Disciple 5, I'm waiting on a Bartolini NTMB to arrive for it. I'll let you know how I get on. I had a Sadowsky with the VTC, very nice, couldn't fault it. I've another J with a Noll TCM3 (vol, blend, bass mid treble cut & boost plus a passive push/pull with a passive tone all on a 3 knob Jazz control plate) which is very flexible but the low boost is a little muddy and three stack knobs is a little crowded. I had another bass with an Aguilar OBP1 in it, which was ok, preferred the Sadowsky tone to it. My favourite, however, is a Bacchus with a Bart XTCT in it. The low end is warm but defined, the high is clear without being harsh and it's impossible to get a bad tone out of it no matter what way you set it, which is why I'm going with the Bart to pair with the 55.2

I don't think basses are setup when you get them from a shop either, in my experience, so I don't believe it's worth the extra money at all. Internet for the win. Buy a good bass, no a [i]good[/i] bass, and you don't need to worry about getting a lemon and, if you know where to get it, you can get a hand made work of art for the price of a MIM in your local shop.

What about the Big Al Yankovich?

I haven't used the EQ on my amp in a few years now. Take a great sounding bass, make it loud and use your hands and onboard controls, whatever they may be, to do the fine adjustments.

Definitely in favour. It doesn't get in the way like a J bridge cover and with a set of Elixirs on you won't need to take it off for a good while.

[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='497347' date='May 25 2009, 04:07 PM']It doesn't make any difference whether they're 'parts basses' - I think the end justifies the means. Your car is made up of parts from different manufacturers [/quote] Agreed. It doesn't matter how they're made once the end result is good enough. Besides, I defy anyone to hear the difference in a body routed by a robot holding the router and a human holding the router.

I used to have a 4003 with a similar issue. Have you tried a set of Dean Markley SR2000 strings? They're all tapered and while they didn't get rid of the problem entirely they certainly improved it on my one.

[quote name='artisan' post='492564' date='May 19 2009, 06:07 PM']infact my brother (he's a guitarist by the way--sorry) is an avid Fender collector but after seeing my jazz is now wanting a Bacchus strat' & a tele'.[/quote] It's the smartest thing he'll ever do, here's my other two By the way sorry for putting up guitar pics, I do feel rather dirty right now