chris_b

The best mod I did to my Precision was to change the weak Fender pickup to Bartolini. That was a gazillion percent improvement to the tone and worth every penny. Encouraged by this success I spent a fortune adding a J pickup. I found this mod added a minimal amount to the tone, but I didn't hear it take anything away.

Sounds like they're nicely run in. I saw an interview with Bob Glaub, LA session ace, and he has a Precision with 42 year old La Bellas on! I don't think he was joking!

I had GHS flats on my PJ5 until I replaced them with TI flats. I thought they were good. I'd use them again. I'm surprised the La Bellas have "gone off"! Not sure what that means, or how it could happen, especially if they weren't played much. I thought they were good for decades.

I've bought several of my best basses on eBay, but I collected in person so did get to play them before I handed over the cash. I've also bought basses and amps unseen from Bassdirect and Basschat. I'm pretty careful with my choices and who I do business with. I have a very slow turnover of gear and so far (fingers crossed) I haven't been stung.

I've had several great deals. In 2002 no one seemed to be interested in Lakland. I saw a good one, hardly played, on eBay and finally, in 2003, bought it for just over half the original asking price. It was my main bass for a decade. But the best deal, in 2004 I watched a mk2 Wal 5 string on eBay getting no bidders for about 6 months. Again the price dropped to about half the original price! At that point I grabbed it. Sadly I didn't get on with it and a month later (talk about 2 buses!) a wonderful mk 3 Wal 5 string popped up the local ABC Music. They gave me a very good trade deal on the mk 2.

No. I'm saying that "flat" is a concept that doesn't matter to most bassists, but starting from a base point of zero is a better than wherever some deaf thrash metal "person", using a dozen pedals, left off last time.

Start with Music Of My Mind and work up to Hotter Than July (it's ok to leave out Secret Life Of Plants!).

The Customs will make a judgement, then it's up to you to prove them wrong.

OBBM. . . . . oh! damn!!

I didn't say great Top Ten. The pubs, clubs, colleges and University's were a thriving scene. I do really badly on hit records in quizzes. I stopped listening to those songs in about 1967.

If the controls have a 0 at 12 o'clock you know that's where the manufacturer intended the sound of this amp to be. You will be able to add or subtract as you wish, but with this type of control 12 o'clock is a good starting point. If the controls start at 0 and increase as you turn the controls clockwise then start at 0 and find you sound from there. The real "flat" on many amps could be anywhere on the dial and isn't a real concern for most players.

How about searching out a vintage Hiwatt DR103.

Great times.

Sorry, I misread your post.

I went from 500 watts to 800 watts. I play at the same volume but the amp works half as hard and IMO sounds better as a result. The 1200 watt amps that I've seen seem to bring extra clarity and a fuller tone. Plus 2 or even 2.67 ohms is very flexible. The loudest I've ever been was when I used 2 daisy-chained TH500's into a 212 and 2 112's. That was during the sound check. For the gig I had to turn both amps down to 9 o'clock. So really big amps aren't always the answer.

The other thing do is for a player to refine their technique so they don't hit strings inadvertently. Then they won't have to mute every string all the time.

According to Wiki: Sklar (also Sklyar), is a Ukrainian and Belorussian surname meaning "glassmaker",

Assuming the guitarist and drummer hadn't arrived yet, I would turn the volume down, all presets and buttons etc off, put all the EQ to 12 o'clock and take it from there. I wouldn't spend much time working on the sound. IMO rehearsals are to get the band stopping and starting together and to get the geography right, so thereabouts is close enough.

Just looked at your videos. There's very little wrong with your technique and IMO you don't need any serious reorganisation. You'll tighten up various bits of your technique while you put more hours playing.

I agree with the "You will be devaluing your bass" comments, but it's your bass, so I'll focus on what it costs and what you could end up with. You have a bass and you love it and it's sound. One thing you should know, if you replace the pickups you will change that sound. Will you still love the new sound? If you add another pickup and change the electrics you have the same dilemma. You'll change the sound. Do you know what sound you're changing it to? Before you start this you have to be certain you will like the sound of your bass when you are finished, because depending on what you do you might not be able to retrace you steps. Fender pickups will just give you the Fender sound. A very effective way to upgrade your sound is to change the pickup. There are some fantastic P pickups out there, Bartolini, Nordstrand and Seymour Duncan to name just a few. You can get a very wide range of sounds out of those. I'd still recommend looking at outboard preamps. They will give you an even wider range of sounds without having to change your bass. So you keep the sound you love and plug in the preamp for the extra versatility when you need it.

It's not something that I really noticed when I started out, but my muting technique seems to be, any string below (in frequency) the one I'm playing is muted by my right thumb and any string above the one I'm playing is muted by my left hand. It works just as well with 5 string bass as 4 string. I would describe that as the standard way of muting a bass. Why? I prefer to anchor my right hand at a closer place to where I'm playing. The width of the grip of my hand is a comfortable way to pluck the strings for me. I'd suggest whatever comes naturally, without having to spend a great deal of time working it out, will be the best method. Check out videos of your favourite players and see what they do.

The only thing I can think of is you've got a bad valve, but not really sure what could be wrong. I hope you're still in Thomanns return window. This probably won't help, but here is how I used to set up my SVT3PRO. All buttons out and the graphic off.

Has anyone found a 5 string Sire Jazz weighing in at 9 lbs or less? So far I haven't found one and talking to the Sire Club on Talkbass they don't hold out much hope for me.

Your mullet is ok, so is your slap. What's not OK is the director of the video and his his obvious belief that your band and your music wasn't enough and the audience needed his ping-pong direction to make you interesting!