lemmywinks

You would expect any bass in that price range (or even a tenth of it) to at least have a realistic setup, you could drive a bus under those strings: The listing says "the play condition has maintained a good condition, and it has been set up by a repairman and it is in a condition that you can use with confidence" but that doesn't exactly ring true when you look at the pics, not something I'd be keen to splash £2.5k on.

That's the one, I tried to link to the live show from the DVD but they've all been copyrighted on YT so the live recording will have to do. Joni is fantastic all the time (was a huge fan as a kid before I'd even picked up a bass) but that particular lineup is a bit special IMO. Still have the DVD somewhere.

Imagine the Joni version (which I like) but replace the tasteful phrasing, relaxed feel and bass/vocal interplay with low rent jazz guitar meandering that sounds like it's a series of exercises from a beginners' guitar book.

I quite like it and I have no idea why, it's horrible.

It's a Charles Mingus tune, if you're band leader is suggesting the soulless Jeff Beck version then he needs his head reading. Here you go, learn this one instead:

Glad to hear you're enjoying it, to me it just sounded right from the get go and didn't take any faffing to get the sound I wanted - it's nice when you find a pedal like that! It also takes up very little board space. Of course someone looking for a different fuzz sound might think it sounds awful which I guess is half the fun, although prices on everything seem to be creeping up. I remember buying and selling Bogdan Helter Skelters and Owen Gremlins for between £30 and £50 a few years ago on here, wish I'd held onto them now!

The Mastotron plays nice with every bass I've thrown at it thanks to the impedance control, IIRC it was one of the things Wooly Mammoth fans with active basses were looking forward to when it launched. I can only agree that prices have gone a bit silly for a basic factory built pedal, I paid in the region of £65 when they came out.

Great bargain that, well done cetera! I love the colour personally, looks great.

Maybe he just didn't hear you properly due to ear wax build up? Try him again, should be clear as a bell now if that bridge is anything to go by! To be fair he does take clear photos of the dubious workmanship and people can choose to buy them or not, the bits that bother me are the over zealous sales patter and hyperboly which verges on (and is sometimes outright) dishonesty, whether the intention is to deceive or he genuinely believes it. I don't think you need to know anything about guitars to looks at some of his work and make a fair assessment of his woodworking abilities.

On the Sires the dual concentric pots are hex bolt fit and the standard ones are split shaft, also you're better off with slimmer stacked knobs due to the cramped nature of the bell plate. If you want flat top knobs (and you should, it looks better) then the dual concentric EMG ones are a great fit (Allparts do 'em) and are very slim/tall, standard Tele knobs off eBay will do for the other 3 pots. Be careful with some of the eBay cheapy stacked knobs though, I got some (standard dome type) a while ago and they were a bit loose on the Sire and sat at an angle even though the measurements were correct, could probably be rectified with some tinkering though. I guess the EMG ones are manufactured to tighter tolerances - not cheap though especially as you need two of them. Here's a poor photo of mine with flat top knobs, you can see how the slim/tall EMG make things easier: Also notice how much nicer flat tops look! EDIT: If you're eBay shopping then you might want to break the calipers out as not all dual concentric pots are created equal, there are a few configurations regarding height and diameter of the two shafts.

He's going off a post here: http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/52660-legacy-epiphone/ Apparently a forum post from Australia saying a Legacy is made by Ephiphone means the ultra cheapo firewood line of Legacy branded guitars we get over here are all made by Epiphone too, even though nowadays Epi is just a brand itself slapped on Samicks and they don't actually build guitars. The model he has is an LED30 which is made in China so didn't come out of the Samick factory and is nothing to do with Epiphone, something that doesn't really need pointing out when you look at the construction of the guitar around the nut and on the rear of the headstock. I don't think he's being deceptive here, I just don't think he knows.

Also what's going on here? Before any mods start getting a tingly feeling in their pants I'm not having a go, I genuinely want to know what is going on here. Is that ear wax? Is he using ear wax to make candles in the bridges of guitars?

On a serious note there must be a more elegant way to make that a 6 string by going 3 a side. Anyhow MDP has 6 acoustic machine heads in his parts drawer now, I wonder what guitar/bass they'll turn up on?

I hope that nut is glued in properly otherwise it's going to be catapulted through the ceiling when you tune up!

That's the best description of his wares I've seen yet!

No fancy screen either, which is actually really handy and intuitive. haven't managed to smash it yet!

I wouldn't use Royal Mail for anything fragile. We stopped using them for everything aside from letters at work as the service was so poor, far too many lost and damaged packages to make them viable and trying to get any form of recompense out of them is like getting blood out of a stone. Like Parcel Force their customer services are designed to discourage rather than to assist. Shame as they used to be pretty good.

Absolutely spot on, the MIJ Yamaha TRB is still the best 6er I've played bar none and is the benchmark I judge others by, if wide spacing is for you then it should be the first bass you try.

I think part of the problem is that he has obviously never really played a well made instrument with a proper setup, being brutally honest the instruments in his videos sound woeful IMO (particularly the basses) and definitely aren't set up hence all the choking and buzzing. The sad fact is if he actually ordered a Harley Benton new from Thomann instead of getting knackered ones he would be in for a shock as it would put his creations to shame in terms of playability and sound.

Incidentally I found it as I was looking for other examples of 7 to 6 string conversions as it does seem to be something that has a niche market and almost all roads lead back to threads like this one albeit on other forums. There was one fella on YouTube who'd done a full conversion (on a Peaver Predator IIRC) but he was a luthier who made a replacement bridge etc. He did say the out of whack pole pieces weren't an issue though so maybe MDP's wouldn't be totally unusable.

I'll just leave this here and be off then, not my work btw (I'm not that clever):

You missed the bit about the raked back tuners, that's the most puzzling part! Anyway if he replies tell him there's a solid £110 offer on that 5 string Peavey sitting here provided he has the original pickup and knobs, been looking for a mistreated one of those to do up.

This is what he's bought: https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_baritone_7sb_dlx_serie_deko.htm?sid=553157f82f9c4050bf30a19d8025e769 Here's what I don't understand - the guitar comes with matching knobs and rail humbuckers so why have these been changed for odd parts drawer knobs and a Jazz bass pickup? Instead of spending £20 on a bass pickup he could have bought 6 individual bridge saddles and done the job properly.

Good point, there's a "D" stamped here: That's a bit naughty really.

Exactly, it would be easier to do this and the end result would be better especially on his 7 to 6 string conversions. You can get single saddle bridge pieces for guitar (like the bass ones) for a couple of quid on AliExpress, he could buy or make a nut blank and use hot rail pickups so the pole pieces aren't out of whack. He could even look at making pickup surrounds or putting his slanty single coils into appropriate humbucker cases which sit properly in the routs. All of this would and make for a cleaner looking instrument which hasn't had any damaged parts, he could even include the original bridge etc. in case the owner wanted to take it back to stock for resale value.