Obrienp

WRT the new Sterling Stingray SS: I like the look of the blue one 👍. What I don’t understand though, is that a quick Google search suggests the US Sterling website has it priced at 599.99 USD and over here it is retailing for around £730! They must be shipped directly from the Far East to the various regional distributors (USA, UK, Europe), so what justification is there for the UK price? Is it just that we get gouged in the UK for everything, which explains why European retailers can undercut UK dealers’ prices?

I eventually decided on a Guild Newark Street Starfire 1, having discounted the Epi Rumblekat (because of the nut width). I am sure the Rumblekat is an excellent bass but I am really happy with the Starfire. The Precision type pickup may not seem the obvious choice for a bass of this type but it does give a bit more tonal variation than the more typical mudbucker. I am finding it is a Swiss Army Knife bass for the covers bands I play in. You can get that 60s Brit Invasion style tone, as well as a Precision with depth. I am not sure that the parallel setting adds much but I might find a use for it. I love the neck but then I’m a Jazz bass fan boy. I also think it looks the business and is well made. In common with most large semis, there are a few drawbacks: strap button on the heel of the neck. Not so much neck dive as wanting to hang horizontal to the floor (possibly because of the strap button location). The binding on the top edge starts to dig into the forearm on a long gig. I have cured this with some foam edge protector. It might look a bit strange but it works.

Love a bit of pedalsteel guitar too. I have memories of seeing BJ Cole playing in Cochise when I was a teenager and Jimmy Page did some interesting stuff with Zeppelin. It doesn’t have to be corny. Finding a pedal steel player for a pub band is not easy though. Hold onto him!

Thank you very much. I will look out for that.

Well it does show that you can’t tell the difference between Monaco and Monza in a pic, unless you see them side by side. Good looking cabs IMO and in this case, you can judge the book by its cover.

Thanks for the offer. That would be useful, if you have a spare moment. Thanks.

Are those guitar cases, or specifically for the bass variants? I did a search on Rivoli cases and it just comes up with guitar cases.

You might find a Glockenlang does that and it has the passive option (pull up on the volume) with passive tone control. With the eq at equality, you can’t tell the difference between active and passive. However, I can’t pretend to be a preamp expert. I keep my active basses in passive mode Lol.

My local luthier just uses bits of credit card. I got the tip from him. His view is that it is more likely that the shim will make an impression in the neck and/or neck pocket over time, which will lead to the need to shim again. I guess if the body is made out of a softer wood like basswood, or obeche this could be an issue. I can’t really see it happening with a maple neck, or an ash body but I guess the neck screws are exerting a lot of pressure.

Change the preamp to one that has a passive option?

I did this recently too. I would stick with your series/parallel/single coil idea. There is plenty of tonal difference IMO to make it worth doing. My preference is for the front coil but it’s all personal choice. I tried 500k pots first and it was a very loud bright and not particularly pleasant sound. I swapped out for 250k pots and in a moment of madness a 0.1uf oil in paper cap. That cap was probably a bit too dark and I changed it for .047 that rolled off enough top end without going too dark and muddy. The 250k plus .047 gave a much more pleasant, less brittle sound than the 500ks at the expense of a little volume but still plenty loud enough. I tired both a Kent Armstrong and a Warman pickup. Both were powerful enough to use in a passive circuit. The Kent Armstrong had more finesse to my ears and the added bonus of covered pole pieces, meaning you couldn’t inadvertently touch a pole piece and get that horrible buzz.

Plus one for Guild NS Starfire 1. I just got one and I am seriously impressed with it. It seems to cover both vintage semi boom/thump and P Bass. So far I just have the original 45-105 D’Addario roundwounds on it, which I think gives it more tonal range than putting flats on. There does seem to be a noticeable jump in the transfer between A and D string, which I put down to the Light/Medium strings, as the split pickup is set fine. I might just put a set of D’Addario 45-100 roundwounds on. Build quality on these Starfires is excellent. I honestly can’t see any imperfections and the set up was pretty good straight out of the box. The split P bass style pickup might seem out of place on a semi but it really works. I think a conventional humbucker would remove some of the tonal flexibility and make it a bit muddier. I love the Jazz bass style neck too and the short scale length, plus light weight make this an easy bass to play for extended periods. Downsides: it does seem sensitive to electrical interference; E.g. if you have your mobile in your trouser pocket. I might try spraying some graphite paint onto the inside of the back through the sound holes. I can’t get perfect intonation on the E string. It could do with a bit more travel in the saddles on the tune-o-matic style bridge but I am using the original strings. The binding can dig into your forearm, where it rests on the edge, after a while of playing. I have cured this by sticking some of that foam edge protector stuff (to stop toddlers braining themselves on tables) on the front top edge where my arm rests. It may look a bit odd but it pays off. I would prefer the strap button to be on the top horn, rather than on the neck heel. This is pretty common on semis though. It doesn’t so much want to neck dive as to swivel to the horizontal when you let go of the neck. I am wondering whether to just screw a strap button onto the horn but I am a bit worried the ply isn’t strong enough. It would be better if it had a reinforcing block there. It may do, or at least kerfing: I haven’t tried putting a mirror inside yet to have a look.

I have the same question. I have seen a Guild hard case advertised, I think it was on DV247 but I have heard some stories about buying from them.

I use bits of credit card as shims but I have to admit, I have never accounted for the effects of inflation.

I think they were more likely to be SAE sizes. There is a lot of common sizing between SAE and AF Imperial inch based sizes.

Yes, I get what you are saying. I need to try that. WRT the gear; nothing was actually damaged and it was only the leads that got tossed off the stage but I agree, I would normally return said leads neatly coiled to their owner. Anyway, first world problems: at least nobody is dropping bombs on me! Sorry, I’ve taken so much oxygen on this everybody.

@rwillett Thanks Rob. You are absolutely right. Thank you for the therapy.😀 I must have a masochistic streak and I have to say very low self-confidence when it comes to my prowess as a musician. I’m going to have a chat with the other guys and decide what we are going to do. I can see the other guitarist taking his side and the drummer is so laid back he probably didn’t even notice. Perhaps our keyboard player will be able to come back soon (his Mrs is having radio and chemo therapy at the moment) and fill the gap left by the lead guitarist.

I know you are right and our original drummer did bail for this reason. I think maybe not as easy to get as good a guitarist in our age group in Norfolk. Also I think of the hours we have invested in this band over the last 5 years and wonder if I want to throw that away, and start again, especially with gigs lined up. Like everything there is another side to the story. We are getting on and do have a tendency to ease up. The world would be perfect if everything was around 120 BPM 😀 but generally I think we do pretty well, if we are all relaxed and enjoying ourselves.

Shades of similarity with @stewblack’s post above: Friday evening fund raising gig with the covers band in the hall that we rehearse in. This was a freebie, as one of our guitarists is on the committee and we get to rehearse there for free. We just used the little house Stage Pass PA but the drummer brought a sub to reinforce the low end. Our lead guitarist /vocalist is a difficult person. Extremely good but very intolerant of other peoples’ errors and has absolutely no filter in his comments. We think he is mildly autistic and generally just try to tolerate his behaviour. I knew it was going to be one of those gigs when he declared he wanted to use one of his new songs for the sound check, which involved standard tuning (we normally play a semitone down to aid other guitarist’s vocals). It also involved him playing a 12 string acoustic. I fetch backup bass which I keep in standard tuning. Then 12 string can’t be heard. Why? He is not going into front of house like the rest of us, because he brought an amp without a DI and didn’t bring a mic to put in front of his amp. I go and fetch a DI box from my car. Then there is interference from his wireless system. I fetch a spare guitar lead. We finally get the DI working. By this time I need to retune back up bass. Next thing I know, lead guitarist disappears with his 12 string and puts it in his car. I turn to the others and ask what’s up: “I guess he doesn’t want to do it after all”. Friends of ours do the support session first. Acoustic Americana using AER amps and a Bose PA column set up in front of the stage, cahon for percussion,etc. Julie’s voice is fantastic and they blow everyone away, doing a well deserved encore. We come on. Lead guitarist does Blackbird solo on an acoustic and then we go into Here Comes the Sun. All good so far. Next up Call Me the Breeze, which I have pointed out is 168 BPM in the original, not 187 as per Lynyrd Skynyrd. However, lead guitarist has decided to go for it. From then on he is speeding us up on everything, shouting at us that we are slowing down, giving us evil looks, etc. He actually screws up majorly in several songs (wrong key, doesn’t stick to our arrangement, etc) but it’s all our fault. We play for two hours without a break because he doesn’t want to stop. By the time we get to Gimme Some Lovin (penultimate song) I know I am flagging (I actually set the metronome on my headstock tuner to keep me going). I am spot on 147 BPM most of the song but I can tell I am slipping a bit towards the end. I put this down to being really tense due to lead guitarist winding us all up. We get to the end of our set, with an encore. Lots of punters come up and say how good it was. We have since had emails reinforcing that. Back stage lead guitarist says to me that it was absolute sh!te and tempo may not be important to me and the drummer but it was to him. He packs his gear up and legs it without saying goodbye, stopping to help the rest of us, etc. I have to retrieve bits of the gear I lent him from where he threw it. I feel completely undermined by the whole experience. I get home and I am questioning my abilities as a musician. The other guitarist, who is a peacemaker by nature, is posting copies of the appreciative texts he has received on our band WhatsApp group. No response from the lead guitarist. Apparently he said “I don’t know why we bother practicing and I can’t go on with this” when he left, so it remains to be seen whether he turns up to the rehearsal on Tuesday. We have paying gigs lined up, so I am wondering whether we will have to let people down at short notice! Bands eh!

I live and learn. The drummer in one of the bands I play in uses an electronic kit; Roland I think. It looks more like scaffolding than a drum kit. The actual “drums” are pretty small and certainly don’t resemble their acoustic equivalents. It sounds pretty good though and it can be turned down 😀.

Result! Precious screw. Don’t drop it between the floorboards.