Beedster

This could well be a very happy ending

I spent the late 1970's and early 80's playing awful basses, truly awful. At that time I could only dream of playing a Fender. So, when I grew up* and decided to get back into bass albeit with a bit more cash, I went after 70's Fenders, and in doing so I made a lot of mistakes. Given that you learn from your mistakes this could be seen as good! The biggest lesson I learned was this: if you don't trust the seller 100%, do not buy the instrument, at whatever price. This is for two reasons; firstly in my experience a significant number of people selling vintage basses are hiding something, either because they got caught out themselves when buying, or because they're trying to sell the bass for a lot more than they paid for it. If you ask the seller (and yourself) the right questions - where did you get it, how much did you pay, do you have a receipt, has it been modified, are there any playing issues, why are you selling - you'll quickly get an idea as to how much you do trust them. Second, if you buy the bass and there is an issue that requires a full or partial refund (and this could be anything from a courier issue to the bass being not as expected, unplayable or fake), the seller's behaviour before you buy is a very good predictor of what it will be like to deal with afterwards, and whilst an issue with a vintage instrument is bad enough given the money involved, a difficult/unethical/criminal seller can make things 100 times worse. I get that you're in a country where these are pretty hard to come by, but I think you'd still be better off waiting for what you want to come up on this forum, which is 99.9% trustworthy, and importing it? Good luck mate * Matter of opinion

Yep, great advice, there are basses we love to own - often expensive - and basses we love to play - often surprisingly inexpensive. I’ve tried very hard to turn the former into the latter many times, but despite owning some great basses, my two go-to basses, both bitsas, owe me about £250 each.

If you don't use a pic, it ain't a pickguard

I’d buy the rack case if you fancy selling?

£113 total taxes/duties on a $2000 bass is a bit lucky, am I missing something?

Hi guys, especially Dan, thanks for your replies, why I didn’t got straight to John is beyond me. John, I’ll PM you mate. Cheers Chris

Folks I need a switch to select between P and P PUPs. Smaller the better, as space is limited (which is why I'm not opting for a pan pot). I prefer solder free, not because my soldering is bad, but just because! There's loads for guitars but they all seem to be the big Les Paul type, I'd prefer something small and discrete that retains the essential 'Precision-ness' of the instrument! Cheers Chris

Very fair points mate

Easier than violin is not a fair reference really

Short scale FL is significantly harder to play in tune, and I would not defret, especially the maple board, but buy a new neck In case it doesn’t work out.

How many have you bought Andy

I've seen equally rubbish crap from cultures more consistent with our own. In fact, some of the perpetrators even have their own signature instruments and amplification......

This is one of those threads that will come back to haunt people

Nice tutorial. I really liked the fact that he emphasised using the ears to compress a track, and doing so against the mix in its entirety

Yep, I assumed Barefaced had forgotten to install the driver when I first lifted it, much like when my Super Twin arrived I assumed they'd sent me an empty box. The weight of these cabs is ludicrous! Silly thing is I'm still using an SVT-II, so despite using Barefaced, my whole rig still weighs around the same as a Brontosaurus

I did try a few posts above mate

Apparently not

Yes, very good, but I didn't know that at the time, and going on price assumed them to be not very good. In the context of this thread, I was simply saying "Don't assume the PUPs are not good just because they're not what you expected"

I tend to struggle with the word 'trajectory', scuppered my career in ballistics.

100%, you'll probably spend a while finding and installing the 'original' PUP only to find you preferred the imposter. I bought a bass with a dirt cheap (to my mind) pair of PUPs a couple of years back, I looked at them in disgust, played the bass for a while, was impressed, but wondered just how much better it would sound with some Nordstrands. Two days later, courtesy of Bass Direct, a pair of Nordstrands were in the bass and, f**k me sideways if I didn't prefer the cheapies (Toneriders by the way). So I thought I'd check, reinstalled the Toneriders and yes, for that bass, with those strings, the lovely vintage feel of the Toneriders knocked the socks off their 400% more expensive Scandinavian counterparts, which came across as a little sterile by comparison. Assumption, as they say, is the mother of all pink torpedo-ups

He had it going on, it's easy top praise the Jacos and Stanleys, but Sir Horace's style of tight, precise and 100% necessary bass playing is the bed rock of good live music

For songs with stinky poo loads of repetitive 8ves I alternate in no particular order. Works for me Root Index - 8ve Middle Root Thumb - 8ve Index Root Thumb - 8ve Middle Root Index - 8ve Ring Root Thumb - 8ve Ring

I think we need a thread intermission