fergs40

Another satisfied Ishibashi customer here - in Ireland, but the customs and taxes charges and processes are very similar to the UK. Ishibashi went above and beyond, even when An Post didn’t…

This And this And this And done.

I expect this is one of those done to death topics and that someone will be along shortly with some variation on the ‘don’t you know how to search?’ theme, accompanied by whatever degree of snippiness they feel is appropriate for a complete stranger asking an innocent question in a public place. But for the rest of us I figure a) you guys love sharing your knowledge and insights and I am keen to receive them, and b) surely one of the functions of an internet forum with a dedicated theme such as ‘bass guitars’ is to examine a finite number of questions from an infinite number of very slightly different angles. No? I am not a five-string bass player, but I was five-curious enough to pick up a Sandberg Bullet JM5 to explore the extra low end and, as it turns out, the pleasure of playing many previously energetic bass lines while barely moving your hand. Here it is (seller’s picture of my bass): It arrived with a fresh set of unidentified though I’m sure perfectly decent strings which included a tapered B, something I had never come across before. I couldn’t get my head around the physics of this at all - how does a string with such a skinny bit on the saddle and slightly beyond produce a decent low note? - but the sonic evidence was that it did. I just didn’t like it - it seemed to work, but it also seemed…wrong. So, activating tinker mode I went and bought some Ernie Ball Slinkies (the pink ones), put them on and thought no more about it (beyond aha! THAT’S how you do the run in Rhythm Stick without a ridiculous delay while you look at the fret you’re aiming for or don’t look and overshoot 70% of the time. I know - practice trumps technical workarounds, but it pleased me). Anyway, I now return to the question suggested at the top of this topic - regardless of my personal prejudices about how things should be, should I notice any difference between tapered and untapered strings, beyond what I would notice between any two manufacturers’ strings? Thank you, collective.

The wikipedia caption says 1971.

Hallo, upright people. I have never even picked up a double bass, much less played one, so please forgive that this question is coming from a place of complete ignorance... I've been listening to Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool this morning, which features Al McKibbon on several of the tracks. As I do, I've also been idly flicking through the wikipedia bios of the musicians on the record, and came across this picture of Al on his (though very little additional info, even though he lived to 86). Anyway, to the point of this post - what is all that ironmongery on his headstock? And would anyone have a clearer picture of something similar? Just curious! Thanks in anticipation.

None at all - all the holes lined up, neck cutout fitted perfectly and the supplied screws went into the existing holes snugly.

How solid is your floor and how much dancing will you be doing next to the turntable? You can make any needle skip if you work at it…but with a reasonably solid floor (wood or concrete, for example) you shouldn’t encounter too many problems.

A bit like with basses I’d always suggest buying used (unless the new car smell/first owner vibe is an important part of the experience for you), but unlike basses I’d be wary of going too vintage unless you are buying from somewhere that offers a guarantee and/or will fix it if it goes wrong. For example, I still have my Ariston Q Deck II which I bought in 1992 for around £200 (which is getting on for £500 in 2026). Great deck, but the plastic in the tower supporting the arm bearings has become brittle, meaning it’s now held together with glue and hope. Works great for spinning the occasional album in my office, but its days as the main deck are past. I replaced it in 2022 with an Audio-Technica LP5 (now superseded by the LP5X), for all of €185 from the local classifieds. It’s a great thing - really solid construction and it has a built in phono stage, which is good for me as the phono stage in my 1992-vintage Marantz PM35 amp has become very noisy (maybe needs recapping?). Both the LP5 and LP5X had rave reviews from What Hifi, so with that and my personal experience I’d say it’s a solid recommendation. Main downside is that it’s fully manual, so you need to be around to lift the arm at the end of the record. But, hey!, you’re listening to vinyl because you want to concentrate on the music without other distractions, so that won’t be a hardship, right? Anyway, HTH - I’m sure another opinion will be along shortly!

I put one of these 4-ply guards on my LPB 40th Precision - fitted perfectly, despite what it says in the listing about not fitting Squiers. When I bought mine it was about €15 - not sure why it’s shot up to more than €60 when I looked just now, but other variants still seem to be cheaper. Link is for Amazon IE rather than UK, though it was delivered from the UK.

Needs de-blinging (IMHO…) but beyond that it has more than usually solid bones which will take you a long way towards a bass experience which would otherwise be many times the price. Enjoy!

I’m in too. I’m not going to stop looking at stuff, because I’m not an alcoholic, sorry, bassoholic, but as things stand I really don’t know what might present itself to break my resolve. Maybe one of those eight-string Hagstroms. But they come up like never. Right?

Please add a ‘w’ to Newtownards - I’m from Northern Ireland, not Scotland…;-)

Here’s the modern equivalent of that stylus: https://www.audioaffair.co.uk/ortofon-dn-165e-replacement-stylus/ (EDIT: I now see @Hellzero got there before me with that…:-)) I suspect you could also use any of Ortofon’s OM range of styluses (https://ortofon.com/collections/om-hifi-concorde-series-1), which all fit on the same cartridge and run from £40 up to spendy - the OM10 used to be a fairly standard fitment on decent mid-price turntables, and the OM20 is a nice step up, albeit three times the price. Or, as @Matt P suggests, change the cartridge - the Audio Technica ones he suggests are very good and open up a whole range of different stylus options. It can feel a bit daunting, but I’d say if you can do basic setup on a bass you’ll probably manage fitting and aligning a new cartridge. I’d also agree with @Dan Dare that if you’ve never replaced the belt in 40 years it’s probably a good idea to do so. Thakker in Germany is a good source (https://www.thakker.eu/en/belts/turntables/), but I’m sure there will be UK-based suppliers too. Whether you need any other maintenance is really down to your judgement about whether everything is running and moving smoothly - if the platter isn’t making any unpleasant noises, and the arm raises, lowers and tracks across the record smoothly you’re probably good to go. You can also download apps that use the motion sensor in your phone to check whether the rotation speed is right (a worn belt can certainly affect that). Finally, you might just check you’ve got your tracking weight (the downward force on the stylus) right - that might be a cause of the original bending. Plenty of guides online for that. HTH

Well, we live in a golden age of consumerism and benefit from 200+ years of manufacturing expertise, that’s certainly true. Sadly it’s wildly inequitable, not at all sustainable and will be the end of us but, hey!, why not enjoy it while it’s here. Two hundred years ago we’d have been digging coal or weaving cloth and dead by 35. Two hundred years hence -well, who knows, but it probably won’t involve a Squier jazz. We only get one turn round the wheel, we don’t get to choose when it is, we make the best fist of it we can. Right, enough empty philosophising - enjoy your bass!