Bassfinger

You're not Norman Bates by any chance? 🤣 Are you signed up to Facebook? Theres bound to be some group pages, musicians wanted pages, that type of thing for your area. I don't do Facebook myself but got my current band because Mrs Bassfinger spotted a "bassist wanted" post on FB.

Slap on a fake beard and a deep voice, get rhe job, then reveal yourself halfway through the first gig.

Also makes you wonder what sound engineer selected a random spot on a wall as an appropriate and representative place to have a meter.

From an engineering perspective I'm not even sure that some of these designs function all that well as bridges. Looks will do it for me too, but only if it's not a retrograde step in holding strings at an accurate height and in consistent intonation. If the design introduces an oppotunity for flex and rotational movement (no names, see if you can work it out) then the appearance alone wont sell it to me.

Aside from looking very pleasant, none of these appear to offer anything that the ubiquitous BBoT provides, provides well and provides at a brilliant low price. The BBoT is simplicity, functionality and e engineering elegance personified. Do you good folks think that it is cost, or no gain in utility that holds back these alternative designs?

Now that's provenance! The note is probably worth as much as the bass.

Aye. It's the closest thing I have to regular employment.

Never met JPJ but im guessing he's a regular sized guy who just happens to play enourmous basses?

50p a mile per vehicle at least. Weve only ever been offered one a long way away, which came about due to circumstances I shan't go into here. They paid us for fuel, Premier Inn, dinner and brekkie, so while it wasn't exactly profitable it was quite enjoyable.

As a scientist myself, although not in the field of acoustics, I can pick holes in their scientific method big enough to walk through. Its a good thing they're not testing vaccines! At least give us something credible, with stringent method and reproducible results, and peer reviewed, just the same as any other piece of science we are expected to believe. Then people can legitimately have some faith in it.

Aye, without some proof of provenance it has no provenance.

Still got my first, a used Ibanez. Its sprouted Wilkinson tuners, Entwistle pups and a Gotoh bridge, the total of which cost me more than the bass itself. It get used quite a bit and is now my main live tool because the boys in the band love the sound. I couldn't disagree with that, and its pleasant enough to play so it still earns its place on the fleet.

A detail like that never stopped the tonewood devotees! 🤣

Weve been asked to play a GK pub on Jubilee weekend. We've declined.

I buy from Thomann all the time (I'm probably single handedly responsible for their various stock shortages!). Im pretty sure theyre still in the EU and have haven't declared their premises UDI, and they still often undercut sellers in the next town. That being the case I think your grievance is as much with the seller than any general situation regarding being in the EU or otherwise. The likes of Thomann show what can be done. Whether its an enormous administrative ball ache for them is a discussion for another thread, but they demonstrate that there is nothing inherently wrong with the prices they can supply to external EU customers. Private sellers are a different kettle of aquatic life entirely, and wherever they are on the globe can often have ridicuous ideas about the worth of their wares. Again, that's down to sellers being greedy/chumps/taking valuation advice from Dave down the pub and little to do with their chosen country of residence. If you found it cheaper in Japan and can get it delivered, then why the moan in the first place? Just buy it and enjoy it. Life is too short to spend it whittling about inconsequential rubbish.

I think what they yell for with such claims is evidence, which seems rarely to be forthcoming. I'm a fence-sitter on that one, but still wouldn't mind seeing some actual science to support this sort of claim. As for the pups, its wire wound round a bobbin with some magnets thrown in. Unless SD have been able to get their hands of one of Jaco's old pickups there's not much likelihood of them being any closer an approximation than anyone elses same gauge wire wrapped around a bobbin of near identical dimensions. It seems a bit of a cynical marketing tactic as much as anything else, and SD do have a lot of form for that.

Whenever these pickups are mentioned I habe this mental picture of Geezer Butler in his shed using a drill to wind the pickups by hand, and then packaging them in EMG boxes. A couple of times a week Tony Iommi calls in to collect them and take them to the post office, but he skims a few off the top to sneakily sell in his own ebay shop. Please don't ruin the illusion!

It's hard to describe, but here goes... Use a large pick, moderately heavy. I use Dunlop Tortex Triangle 1mm. Instead of plucking the string with the flat of the pick, angle the pick so you're striking it obliquely, about 30 or 40 degrees edge on. That starts to get you in the ballpark. It takes a lot of practice for it to come naturally, and there is a bit more to it than just that. Speed, the power behind the strike, etc, all come into play, but the attack angle is the biggest part of it. Hard to describe, although doubtless easy to show. I have a nerve injury which means I can't feel 2 fingers on my plucking hand (-thisnisnwhy my typidhh is so baad). As a result my playing simply wasn't advancing because I can't command my fingers to reliably do what was needed. 3 years ago I gave up and got heavily pick playing and experimenting with differing techniques. We were in the studio in January (producers like pick players, they find each note more uniform and consistent - not sure that's necessarily a good thing muself) and I did a bit of both, although always with the pick for the money takes. Listening back afterwards I can't tell the difference between fingers and pick - after 3 years my pick playing passes the taste test. With lots of practice and dogged persistence it can be done. It took me a good solid 2 years to get there. It's not a panacea, there will always be finger techniques out of reach to the pick and vice versa, but for typical, normal, NATO standard playing it can indeed be done.

Mirror pickguard...

So the country that invented depleted uranium artillery shells makes a fuss over the type of mother of pearl? Odd priorities! What a palavar. I'm glad it made it there safely.

It brings to mind...

I just cant read tab, makes my head hurtmtrying to get my eyes round it. Fortunately I can read music well enough to get by.

Its only handbags, not a real fight. Nice use of cymbals as a weapon though.

If goods or services dont appear you can do a chargeback on a Visa or Mastercard debit card. There is a bit of process, but it usually succeeds. Done it once myself.

Well, the plastic components have no bearing on the sound. Wire differs only in gauge, not quality. Magnets differ only in the strength of the field the produce, and one chooses that which is appropriate to the sound they seek. So if thats the measure, then the answer to the original question is "no".