Beedster

Yellow Submarine anyone?

He's not mugging anyone, I remember the previous thread people saying "he's ripping off the kids". Seriously? I'm not suggesting he's a world leading luthier by any means, but we've been here so many times, I'm just suggesting that folks move on and find something more interesting to discuss, Coleen Rooney and Rebecca Varney for instance

I totally agree, but we've been here before, and I was flamed for saying the same as you about a year or so ago. Comments about tech - coild taps etc - are perhaps fair, comments about him/music not so. But hey, on the internet everyone's Jaco aren't they As far as I'm aware he's a BC member as well.

All fretboards start their life fretless, so yes, an straight forward job for a decent luthier, but don't do it yourself! I imagine the value of the bass will be maintained if not improved if the work is done by the original builder also

String tension, action and tone are a trade-off; higher action and tension are generally more tiring to play but can produce a more pleasing tone. I gave up trying to play complex parts well years ago, these days I'm happy to play simple parts that sound good, and accept that high action is par for the course. YMMV

That made me smile, glad you got it back and that it's doing what it does best!

Had a lovely, albeit all too brief, reunion with Julian at Aber Station yesterday, during which he handed over a rather lovely SVT-ii. A true gent, in every way, I'm looking forward to having enough time for a beer and proper catch up next time

But we love you for it mate

Ha ha, fair point, although if I hadn't, I would still be playing a crap MIJ Jazz through a Peavey TNT combo, which would have been a far greater mistake.

I know you're not exactly a novice at this stuff Gareth (didn't realise it was you when I posted above), but it still suggests that there's part of the board around the 9th fret that's uneven. I don't see either of the above - low nut and flat board - as de facto problems on a fretless bass, whilst both almost always are on a fretted. I have the nut on my FLs cut to the level of the board, they're only there to keep the strings aligned with each other and the PUPs, not to add any height. I also have zero relief on my FLs. Having said this, playing style, tonal preference, and music genre will be factors in what works.

Uneven board most likely, although taking action up significantly should sort it. Sometimes happens with defretted boards wher the filler has not been fully levelled and sits above the board. Only takes a very tiny deviation from flat for this to happen on a fretless.

The old Modulus Flea Bass is one hell of an instrument, nice one Andy. i used to own one just like that, as well as its predecessor, the Sonic Hammer, an instrument so aggressive that I had to muzzle it. Once you've played a well set-up Flea Bass, every other bass you will play will feel like it has very high action, the quality of engineering is in a different league to any other bass I've played. To extend Ped's comment above, there are graphite necks and then there are Modulus graphite necks. Enjoy

Ha ha, I've seen both TG and Kraftwerk, and yes, not a lot going on in terms of physical movement to be sure. A whole lot more going on it terms of music to my mind

The 'energy' is in the robotic synth lines, which assuming a half decent PA/mix, can sound great live. Shame the PSBs have to occasionally ruin the effect by singing Nicely put

And the overdrive was from a guitar amp, not bass (at least for the pre-1980 stuff for which I guess is what we're talking here). And he hit the strings pretty hard.

Very true, which is also why some 4-string versions of 5'ers (TRB as per my previous post) also don't seem to work as well. So many variables influence how and instrument sounds, feels and plays; we have a habit of focussing on PUPs, bridges, strings etc, but there are occasions when switching these can't change the aspects of tone that are a function of the design and dimensions of the instrument.

I don't disagree mate. Something that you can see on the forums here is quite interesting in this context. Someone will advertise a bass, amp, cab, whatever, and it might sit there a while, even months. Then it sells, and within days, sometimes hours, one or more people have posted in 'Items Wanted' for that same item. Why? Possibly because they had got into discussion with the seller, started to anticipate just how good they were going to feel with the new Boogie head or Sadowsky bass, only to find that dream dashed by another pesky buyer. The point is, getting near to something starts a brain/mind process that many people find it hard to step out of*, and eBay know that! The best offer option is about way more than allowing people to sell something a little cheaper. * Regular readers may recognise an autobiographical flavour to this comment