chris_b

The sound of flatwound strings was an eye opener for me. I put a set of GHS Precision flats on my Lull PJ5 a few years ago. They were the first set I'd used in many decades and they made a significant improvement to an already great sound. I was surprised as to how much oomph and authority they brought to the tone. I've since put on a set of TI flats and IMO they sound even better. I doubt I'll put rounds on my P basses again. So the plan from now on is rounds on the active J but only flats on the passive P.

If it's a good 5 string bass, flats will sound fine. I assume La Bella's will be good on a 5er but I've not used any. I have a set of TI flats on my Mike Lull PJ5 and the bass sounds just right.

It really shouldn't. There are many reasons for selling a bass, so it's entirely possible to be selling the best bass you've owned and played.

OK, so he wasn't a Jack Bruce but I saw Hendrix in local clubs a couple of times and if a Jack Bruce style player was on bass that band would have been the biggest mess ever, and no one would be fondly remembering any of them. Just like Adam Clayton, Dusty Hill and many others, Noel Redding was exactly right for the band he was in. His job was to hold it all together and give the others a solid platform for their frantic playing styles. And after all, someone in the band has got to be playing the songs. . . . so it might as well be the bass player!

We're old fashioned here. It's either CD's or steam driven radio in this house.

I've never know what the reference to "butter" means, but all the expensive basses I've owned in the last 20 years have either been Pleked when made or fret stoned and set up for me by Martin at the Gallery so, it's true, all those basses have played "like a dream". A couple of cheaper basses were set up by me and when I moved them on they were playing far, far better than when they were sold to me. So from a "nightmare" to a little bit "dreamy", at least. I try to put all the info into my adverts but some don't put in enough. I still add "non smoking home" in my adverts. I remember the old days when basses, amps and cabs, from smokers, came into our non smoking home and the terrible stink that was so hard to get rid of and made our home smell so bad! Plus the awful smell of tobacco clinging to everything from the gigs!

Strange! I've got TI flats on my 35" PJ5 and I wouldn't describe them as floppy at all.

But if there are only 2 notes which one is the root? If you're relying on notes from another instrument, as someone said earlier, then that's more notes. OK so 2 notes counts as a chord, but it isn't because 2 notes can't provide enough information to be usefully called a chord.

2 notes might fit a theoretical definition but in practice how do you establish major or minor chords with just 2 notes?

3 is the minimum.

Then you get to 6:00 and he's very impressed with the band. "Blown away", were his words.

Fodera

Telling manufacturers that we won't accept bad treatment of their workers is exactly what we are doing to reduce child labour in the clothing industry. From what I see that is working. We did the same with apartheid in South Africa, and currently the Russian athletics teams are being excluded from the Olympics. Boycotts work if they are well managed and properly targeted. If you see something being created by "slave labour" stop buying it. The fat cats running those industries just love it when they see us shrugging our shoulders.

This is a perennial problem with Schallers. This has been posted since the start of BC. How are they still getting away with selling these things with their undersized screws? Dunlops never have this problem. Matchsticks are just as good as toothpicks. You don't need hard wood because the pressure of the screw and the thread in the now greatly reduced hole size is enough to keep everything locked down.

Lay your straight fingers across the fret board. Don't stretch and from index finger to pinky you should be covering 2 frets or an octave. If you want to go any further. . . move your hand.

The argument that it's OK to give workers poor pay and bad working conditions because the alternative is worse wasn't acceptable in the UK in the 1800's and isn't valid anywhere else today.

I borrowed a 5 string version of that bass when I flew to some gigs. It was the only 5 they could provide and I didn't like it or the sound at all. I think I'd have preferred if it had disappeared in the mix! We all want different things out of our gear but IMO there are compatibilities. Many amps and cabs work together out of the box, but then some players seem to need to fiddle with the EQ more than others. Maybe they think they are making a better sound if they make more changes. IME the more fiddeling I do the worse the sound gets. I buy an amp that gets the sound I want with all the controls at noon.Then I might move 1 click left or right because of the room, but not often. Any more adjustment than this and I know I've bought he wrong amp. IMO when you reach a certain level of gear it's harder to get a bad sound. My Barefaced and Berg cabs never get a bad sound with any amp. I've tried basses I hated, the Fender Dimension was one, but I can get a good sound out of almost any P and J style bass without much effort so those are the ones I'll choose to play. Why make things more difficult than they already are. It doesn't surprise me that the P worked. That's their strength. . . they just work.

This is one detail that doesn't affect me at all. I've had basses with fat, Gibson-style frets, thin, banjo frets, high and low and everything in between and I've not noticed any difference in the way any of these basses play.

It's all CNC machines and cheap (abused?) labour. The Cort Factory moved from Korea to Indonesia because there was unrest about working practises and bullying the workers wasn't working. Google if you want to find out more.

If it's bothering you so much, email Barefaced and ask.

Consider everything. It's all important.

Loved it. Thanks for finding that.

Try http://barefacedbass.com/which-barefaced.htm

People can use the studio's basses or hire in for the recording and video shoots.

+1 To the OP - In my experience a bass that sustains well usually sounds better than average on the rest of the notes. Sustain is essential to have but that doesn't mean that you have to use it on every note, but if you need it and the bass can't sustain then it's not a good instrument.