DirkThrust

When did you receive the second edition?

I've had exactly the same experience with them. I actually quite liked the copy I received but $50 for one edition makes it the most expensive magazine I've ever bought

[quote name='Bigwan' post='471753' date='Apr 24 2009, 06:16 PM']I hear a lot of people say they have to tweak their amps to venues - I must be the odd one out. I run the ashdown combo totally flat, gain up about 3/4, drive at 1/2, volume to taste. That's it.[/quote] +1 Exactly what I do. I don't like EQing any amp beyond a minimal tweak and the Ashdown sounds great flat. I haven't gigged anything else for 5 years.

Another +1 for the Barefaced compact. From a portability angle alone it is unbeatable. The light weight, shallow depth and side mounted handle make it the easiest cab I have ever owned to load onto the back seat of a car. It's a simple one hand lift and sounds great too.

I would be very wary of buying a Fender blind. I've done it and got an exceptionally good one BOTOH I've bought one I played in a shop which has later developed problems so I think it's purely down to luck. I'm impatient like you, if I've paid for something I want it in my hands but if you're not getting the money for a few weeks how about phoning Mr Shuker and seeing if He'll accept a deposit with the balance to be paid when you pick it up. If I was in your position I'd go for the Shuker because you'll get exactly what you want, built to a higher standard than Fender and the most important thing (for me anyway) is that it's UK made therefore helping our trade deficit a little bit

[quote name='bassaussie' post='457350' date='Apr 8 2009, 01:24 PM']That's a very interesting point, and I'd like to address this. I'm not a regular contributor to this forum, however, I've noticed that you're a person who likes to contribute to a lot of the Ebay threads, as well as quite a few of the For Sale threads. With that in mind, I would assume you have a fairly wide knowledge of the basses that are available to us in the current market. Do you think it's possible that, at some point in between the time these modifications were done and today, that various bass models have appeared in the market place that have now made this bass, with it's modifications, somewhat redundant? That maybe the seller has now found a bass that does a better job than this bass, and meets his requirements more suitably? That maybe the market has actually caught up with the needs he has from a bass? Naturally, I'll add a , so that you know I'm not trying to ridicule your post. In fact, I'll add another so that you know we're just funnin' with one another![/quote] Oh dear. This is a bass forum. To discuss anything members find interesting about basses. You might not like the way it's being discussed but why is it your job to put everyone right? What a hero you are. Not that I'm trying to ridicule your post of course (so here's a smiley ) but it's full of the kind of whiny schoolboy sarcasm that makes TalkBass such an unpleasant place to visit.

I'm extremely envious. My all time favourite band and a project I'd just love to do, but just can't find any musicians around here to do it. The closest I've ever got was doing Watcher of the skies in a proggy trib band I was in. Nice to see you're doing the proper old stuff before Genesis went all pop

[quote name='AM1' post='451538' date='Apr 1 2009, 02:38 PM']When I said I just want to play, it goes without saying that I want to play to a level of excellence, both individually and collectively. I am my own worst critic in this respect. I guarantee you no one out there can beat me up about perfection as much as I do myself. When you are forced to go ahead despite knowing that certain circumstances/elements are less than perfect and it's either a case of get on with it and do the best you can (but knowing it could be much better) or don't do it at all, it's just frustrating. Hey ho.[/quote] I feel your pain. My motivation is playing music well. I've been in enough mediocre bands to not want to do that any more but I feel like a wet blanket constantly wanting to drop songs that don't work as well as I'd like. It always seems to be me wanting to drop songs and someone else saying "but it's good enough to gig". Ironically it's probably the best bunch of musicians I've played with. The drummer is absolutely phenomenal, the keys player is a classically trained pianist and one of our 2 female singers has a great voice if the song is right for her. It's very difficult to identify exactly where a song is going wrong and what to do about it and to decide how much time to spend trying to get it right before accepting that it's not going to work. Fortunately the band is fairly democratic so if any one person doesn't like a song and feels strongly about it we will usually end up dropping it but even so, I always seem to be the pessimist saying "I really don't think this is good enough" The last couple of bands I've been in have been dominated by overbearing control freaks who have to have their own way in everything. That type of situation just leads to everyone getting frustrated and angry if one person always overules everyone elses viewpoint.

[quote name='clauster' post='452269' date='Apr 2 2009, 11:28 AM']4. Bring back the Weekend Warrior section[/quote] I didn't realise they'd dropped it but +1. I'm interested in real life stuff rather than just reviews and interviews. Like the reviews of vintage gear that appeared in a few issues and comparing it to modern stuff, weekend warriors, something like "my bass rig is" that Bassist magazine used to do. There is also a column in Guitar and Bass magazine written by a dealer and each week he shows a selection of popular gear he hires out or vintage stuff he owns. I even find readers letters interesting. The fests that BGM used to do are also useful and interesting, although I acknowledge how difficult it is to get gear together from different manufacturers simultaneously. The mag seems to have become very one dimensional lately and TBH is so boring I even enjoy reading G***** and Bass magazine more. It's got a greater variety of articles in it.

Mmm. Nice to look at but [quote name='lapolpora' post='451565' date='Apr 1 2009, 03:03 PM']Personally I'd rather buy a Jap re-issue, go on a nice holiday, buy a new car, pay off a bit of mortgage.......[/quote] Yeah so would I

If you are used to rounds but want to try flats I would suggest D'addario Chromes. I've tried a couple of different brands of flats before, one of which was TI flats but I found them to be too dead and woody sounding, more like a double bass. When I fitted D'addarios they were a revelation.THey sound more like well used roundwound strings, which is the sound I was looking for, and were not such a quantum jump from what I was used to. With reference to the tension comment, TI (Thomastik Infeld) flats have very low tension so when you play them after playing with rounds they will feel comparatively floppy and loose which you may not like and may require some adjustments to your bass. Welcome to BC Edited cos I can't spell

[quote name='hybass' post='444949' date='Mar 25 2009, 01:17 PM']and i am ... French Arnaud[/quote] Nothing wrong with that. I think you'll find most British people secretly admire the French. Why do you think so many want to go and live there? Personally I think it's a wonderful country with great people. Welcome to BC

[quote name='alexclaber' post='444065' date='Mar 24 2009, 06:26 PM']See these 1x15" cabs awaiting being finished off - 150W into all four of these at once will flatten even the loudest rock drummer. It's not about using electricity, it's about moving air! Alex[/quote] One of those is mine

[quote name='Marky L' post='443953' date='Mar 24 2009, 04:47 PM']Oh man, our drummer.. please never let me near a gun when he is in the same room.[/quote] If I was you I'd start looking for another band. Why put yourself through all that misery? Playing with a good drummer is such a fantastic experience that I'm now really choosy about drummers. I had an audition for a band a while ago. THey they were an established band with a full gig diary for the next year, but during the audition I could hear the drummer slowing down very slightly during every song, and I knew that after half a dozen practises it would start to really get on my nerves, so I politely said thanks but no thanks. I'm now in a band that me and some other guys started from scratch. We had to audition drummers and the first one who turned up had a kit that consisted of a bass drum, a snare drum, a hi-hat and a cymbal and the first thing he said was " the snare on my snare drum doesn't work and my kick pedal broke so I borrowed one but it doesn't fit my bass drum". So basically he'd turned up for an audition with a hi-hat and a cymbal The next one was another one of those drummers who thinks that all he needs to bring is a bass drum, snare drum and hi-hat, which is a pet hate of mine. Neither of them had bothered to learn any of the songs. The second one even said to me "so I'll just follow you shall I?" When the third guy turned up we thought we'd won the lottery. He was only about 25 but was the best drummer I've played with by a long way, and he'd actually bothered learned the songs. What a difference a good drummer makes. We sound great, my playing sounds great and we all look forward to band practise and we're making very rapid progress. Life is too short to waste time on crap drummers

Welcome to BC

[quote name='Pete Academy of Sound' post='444819' date='Mar 25 2009, 10:45 AM']My name is Pete Bacanin and I work at The Academy of Sound music store in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. I've been playing and gigging for over 35 years, and currently play with UK Steely Dan tribute band, Nearly Dan.[/quote] Welcome to BC. Weren't you featured in BGM fairly recently?

Olympic white/Tort/Maple is my favourite. GAK are Ok if you're determined to buy mail order. That's where I got this one from. I don't know if they give them a going over before they ship them out but this one played great straight out of the box. Edit: I've made the assumption that you're gonna buy mail order. Don't know if that's right. If not +1 to ARGH's post. The only time I've dealt with Electro was when I bought a Trace head off them many years ago and they were very friendly and helpful. I'm sure most places will match GAK's price.

[quote name='jonsmith' post='435990' date='Mar 16 2009, 12:38 PM']Pedant corner: Glenn Hughes was using a Precision by the time Made In Europe was recorded. It does sound great though.[/quote] Ha. So that explains why it sounded different

Not too sure where the clanky/brittle description comes from. My absolute favourite Ric sound is Glenn Hughes on Deep purple's Made in Europe album and I bought one on the strength of that sound. I naively thought that a 4003 would get me that sound ignoring the fact that he played with a pick though an overdriven valve amp and that he was also playing a 4001 which sounds quite different. It's difficult to describe the aural reason I stopped using the Rick but in my case and in the band situation at the time it just didn't seem to have the same bottom end grunt as a Precision. At the time I blamed the bass but it could just as easily have been my amp setup or the room. I found the sound kind of drifted in and out of the mix and it just didn't speak with the same authority as a Precision. When I changed over to a Precision the drummer commented that it sounded like I had gone from a £9.99 Argos special to a real bass. Not very scientific but you probably get the idea. It could have been down to so many different factors that it's difficult to give relevant advice based on my own experience. You really have to try one out for youself in your own situation. The thing that sold me on the Ric in the shop was the fantastic neck, but again that is so subjective you really have to try one for yourself and make your own mind up.

I used to have one and played it with my thumb resting on the big chrome cover over the front pickup. I found it to be a very comfortable playing position. If I'm playing a J or P type then I will rest my thumb on the front pickup so on the Ric it would mean I was playing a bit further back but I never had a problem with that, in fact I preferred the extra string tension there. A Ric is such a different feeling beast to a Jazz anyway I don't think you'll get away without some modification of your playing technique. In the end I sold mine because the sound didn't work with the band I was in but I was quite happy switching between a Fender and the Ric

I've owned 3 Stingrays now and I can only echo most of the comments here. I just love the feel of them. The pickup placement is perfect for me. I rest my thumb on the pickup and I like the extra string tension back there near the bridge. The necks always feel great. I like the unfinished back and you can get the action down really low with no fret rattle. I like the Stingray sound solo, though it is a bit thin, but in a mix the A, D and particularly the G string just disappear. I tried everything to correct it, different strings, EQ settings, pickup height, compression but never really did, so I always end up back with Fenders. I've seen this discussed on the Ernie Ball forum and Sterling Ball admitted that the active electronics are voiced to give that sound so I guess a lot of people like it that way, and the ones who don't post in threads like this