nilebodgers

My precioussssss...

The bass player is usually the only one with spare leads, batteries, fuses, plugs, tools. Often the one with the PA and a clue of how to fix things when they don't work.

I'd be inclined to leave well alone with small dings like that. I've got a couple on my black J-bass that ideally I'd like to fix, but I doubt my ability to make it look significantly better without practice on something that doesn't matter if I fail.

Black.

LOL. Yes, that one wouldn't fly with a lot of people on here.

Anyone else got some New Year's resolutions for playing? What I wanted to do was "practice more", but based on experience that's not going to happen unless I get specific. So: Play for at least 30 mins every day. Do a warm up then at least one technique exercise for speed/dexterity based on part of a song. Do at least one musical exercise with arpeggios/scales in all keys round the cycle of 4ths. Work on learning songs - a complete song, not just licks or parts. Play along with it until can be done with no significant mistakes. Continue working on the Jazz walking bass course I have been doing. Keep a practice diary and time how long I am spending on each item. Don't buy any more gear! (apart from consumables and odds & ends) This is mostly stuff I have been doing anyway, but in an organised way instead of random impulses and noodling around on a lick that caught my ear. Anyone else got some resolutions they want to share?

Isn't this just the most amazing thing, @neilmurraybass himself posts a transcription. It really doesn't get much better than that. One of the 3 ultimate bass heros of my youth - Neil Murray, Mars Cowling (sadly deceased) and Glenn Hughes.

I hadn’t thought about that extra twist. That is perversely possibly good news as I can’t see Thomann wanting to lose all their UK Fender (etc) sales. I would imagine that they will get a proper UK trading presence like dv247 & others pretty quickly.

The plot thickens!

Zoom b1four. Fantastic practice tool

I thought it was really laboured actually. Tom Jones was surprisingly good though, his voice has held up really well for 80.

Because the seller can claim to know nothing about it. It’s a catch-all lie rather than having to invent a convincing story.

The "waist" in the part of the peg below the cloverleaf sits in the wrong place for current squiers though, it is over wood on those and in air on the ebay bass. I think it's a no-name bitsa, not a Fender or Squier at all.

I found a pic of a squier classic vibe headstock on line and the tuner baseplate shape is the same, so some kind of squier could be a possible.

They aren't mexi fender, I just had a look at mine.

Those machine heads don't look like fender.

Absolutely, but easier and cheaper just not to buy from shops in the EU unless no choice.

Yes, you are right - I didn’t spot the date on the hmrc doc. I just checked and vat has disappeared off the thomann uk checkout process. Paying just the import vat would be ok, but every order is going to be hit with a rip-off handling charge. Royal Mail was £8 last time I imported anything, I don’t imagine other couriers are cheaper. That will make Thomann uneconomic for smaller orders now. I was building up an order to go week after next, but I won’t bother and will buy in the uk now.

Found this: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-what-to-do-if-youre-an-overseas-business-selling-goods-in-the-uk Looks to me that EU shops need to apply for a UK vat reg number and charge uk vat at the point of sale which they then remit to the uk government. So, if I have interpreted this correctly then provided Thomann et al Do things the correct way, buying things as a uk customer should look no different to pre-1st Jan. How do people with more vat expertise than me interpret it?

I just looked at their website - Thomann do this for Switzerland, but no mention of the UK yet. https://www.thomann.de/gb/faq_question_information_for_non_eu_countries.html

Funny the nostalgia for vinyl. I still remember the anxiety of buying LPs in the 70s, getting them home and then sadly having to trail back to the shop because they were scratched or warped. I much preferred CD although the LP format was way better for artwork.

When I was doing live sound I never used a speaker level Di as they were usually very noisy/hissy compared to either instrument or line level. The best results were usually an instrument level clean Di (or pre-eq Di out of the amp) blended with a mic’d cab. Obviously the blend would be tweaked to suit each time. e.g players that used a lot of effects would be mostly cab. (note that I was mixing before two-notes and the like were a thing!)

It is possible to get 2.5mm2 2-core into a standard Neutrik mono jack, I made some adaptors recently. Van Damme cable I think, although it was just kicking around the workshop so it might have been Canford. I’d have to check to be sure.

The Adam Neely video about that on his YouTube channel is very good.

Hard to say without doing a basic setup to get a starting point. Set neck relief to 12thou (0.3mm) and action at 15th fret to 5/64 (2mm) and see if it still buzzes on the first couple of frets. If it does you can then go looking for 1st fret string clearance and possible high frets. 22thou (0.55mm) is a good starting point for 1st fret clearance. (the Elixir strings "Setting Up Your Bass Guitar" series of videos on YouTube is a good introduction if you haven't done setups before)