TheRev

I'm going to buy a cheapish DB (up to £900) which will be used for acoustic and amped gigs as well as at home. Ideally I'd like a solid top hybrid bass rather than a full laminate, but do solid tops have the same issues with feedback when amplified as fully carved basses do? Also - how robust are hybrid basses? I will be gigging this bass and it will be travelling in the back of a van and being humped in and out of venues, so stability & durability is a definite requirement. My current bass is an Eminence EUB, which is effectively a small bodied ply - the live sound is great but feedback can be a problem, so I don't want to get a solid top bass only to find that it's unusable live. My current top chioce is the Thomann 22, which I believe is a Hora - I've heard one of these live and the sound is very nice, but I'm worried that the solid top makes it too fragile to survive the cider sheds/ropey pubs/crazy crowds that it's going to be exposed to. All thoughts welcome.... Dave

I'm in this position - I joined a band just as they were finishing off their album, so I'm out there promoting a CD that I'm not even on. I even spent 2 hours last night assembling 100 CD cases/inserts from the last print run. The band didn't have a bass player before I joined, so I haven't got the hassles of living up to any expectations, but I have replaced the accordion player on gigs as he's in 5 other bands and isn't always available (and we don't get enough from gigs to make the 5 piece commercially viable), so I get a cut of CD sales for promoting a CD that I'm not playing on wheras the accordion player doesn't get a penny. Now that's awkward.

As others have said, I'd start with a preamp like the Fishman and go directly into the PA and see how you get on with the stage monitors. There's a good chance you'll have feedback issues with wedge monitors, especially if the onstage volume is loud, in which case you might also need to get a small combo (something like the Ibanez Promethean) that you can raise up to head height and get as much bass volume as possible.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1318868752' post='1407172'] Even more confusing now with the Sterling by Musicman range too. Never seen anywhere charge more for Sterlings than Stingrays though, you werent caught out by the old car dealers trick were you? "everyone wants x colour so it costs more" then 3 years later "trouble is I cant shift that colour so it worth less as a trade in" [/quote] Hmm. Back when I bought my Sterling (2000), the prices ranged from the £1100-1200 mark wheras 'Rays were £900-1000. A quick recce on GAK brings up a MM Sterling for £1366 and a 2EQ 'Ray at £1199. 3EQ 'Rays are £1333. Admittedly, Classic Rays are a rather eye-watering £1899, but those weren't around 11 years ago. Thomann has both the basic Sterling and StingRay at the same price (£1691....scary).

[quote name='Killerfridge' timestamp='1318854673' post='1406862'] "I want to get a Musicman Stingray, not a cheap knockoff like that guy" (Points at my SRay with Status Graphite neck ) [/quote] I've had similar comments about my Musicman Sterling... 'Ohh! - is that a StingRay?" "No, it's a Sterling. It's made by Musicman though. "Oh right, so it's a StingRay copy then?" "No, it's made by the same people who make the StingRay, it's just a bit smaller and with a slightly different pickup" "Couldn't you afford a StingRay?" "Actually, the Sterling is more expensive than a StingRay" ".... yeah, but the StingRay's better isn't it?" I also used to get annoyed with people saying 'electrified' guitar instead of 'electric', but now I just give them a withering look.

Shower of b@stards.

PMT on Rupert Street is ok, they've got some nice Sandbergs in.

No there's not many about.... Why has the wizzy got your attention? You could probably find a used Barefaced midget for reasonable money.

Have you looked under a rocking horse? Or perhaps asked the chicken dentist?

[quote name='Ian Savage' timestamp='1318260080' post='1399797'] What about when he's not playing ANY of them, which IME is when 90% of accidental damage to guitars happens? [/quote] Exactly! He was also one of those guitarists who sets their guitar case down in the middle of the stage, gets the guitar out and then leaves the case in the middle of the stage for everyone to walk around.. I did suggest he put his guitar in the case between sets, but he wanted a stand because it looked more 'rock'

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1318259599' post='1399785'] Great stuff! ... except he's right - isn't he? [/quote] Yeah, but then he'd be playing as well.... and wouldn't need a stand.

Regarding the old body-new neck issue; when I bought my EBMM Sterling (about 11 years ago) I ordered it in electric blue with a rosewood board. The distributor didn't have a blue Sterling, but said that there was one on a shipment in transit from the States that they would put aside for me. They said they didn't know if the bass in transit had a maple or rosewood board but they had rosewood board necks in the UK wharehouse and could easily swap the necks over when the bass arrived in the UK. So it would appear that swapping bodies and necks around to fill a specific order isn't unusual, but it doesn't excuse the porr workmanship or ridiculous delivery delay. The neck fit on my Sterling is perfect and it took 7 weeks of an estimated 8 weeks to arrive. Hope you get the bass you want soon. Dave

[quote name='GarethFlatlands' timestamp='1318255469' post='1399722'] my patience was rewarded with boobies. [/quote] If only this was always the case.

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1318244629' post='1399544'] Best one yet! So... did you let him use one? [/quote] No.... He tried to argue that I wouldn't need all three as when I was playing one would be spare.

From guitard in an old band while setting up at a pub gig: Guitard: "I've forgotten my guitar stand, did you bring a spare?" Me: "Why would I bring an extra guitar stand?" Guitard: "Just thought you might. Did you bring the PA, the pub doesn't have one" Note: We didn't own a PA, we borrowed or hired as needed. Me: "you didn't tell me to bring a PA - if you knew that there wasn't a PA, why didn't you tell me yesterday?" Guitard: "I just assumed that you'd bring a PA in case we needed one." Me: I have to bring my bass rig, 3 basses and 3 stands, why would I bring a PA unless I had to?" Guitard: "Oh, you've got three stand - have you got a spare?"

I've done a few Jeff Buckley tracks...but not this one! Sorry! Having given it a quick listen, it sounds like a fairly standard chord progression (Chordie says G/C/F/A7) with the bass sticking to the roots with fills at the end of the riff. FWIW, the bass will proabably have a drop D tuning to suit Buckley's usual writing key. Try messing with root-octave and root-4th-5th patterns. Bassist Mick Grondhal tends to be more creative with his rhythms than he does with his melodies, so listen to the track a lot to get the feel of whats going on before trying to work out exactly what's happening melodically. Oh yeah, turn up the fuzz! That can hide any interesting notes you might happen to play..

Gone to the house of bass, where hopefully the basses won't make fun nof little Maya just because she's different.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1317676298' post='1393313'] If its easy to make it to Bristol I'd be interested, might end up on the Gryphon wall if I can't make something interesting of it. [/quote] I'm in Fishponds - I could practically throw it from my window to your place....

Piccies - aploogies for shoddy camera phone quality... [IMG]http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b329/RevDave/Maya04.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b329/RevDave/Maya02.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b329/RevDave/Maya01.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b329/RevDave/Maya05.jpg[/IMG] It's difficult to see in the last image, but the body is about half the thickness you'd expect and you can clearly see the layers of ply through the varnish. Still has loads of retro cool though. I'm making room for an incoming double bass, so this has to go.

I'm 39 and after 20 plus years of playing I've finally ended up in a band that has enough focus, energy and commitment to potentially be able to play music as a full time job. We do have an 'image' but it's not aimed at any particular age range - our fans range from a 12 year old son of one of our older fans to a 75 year old granny. A couple of years ago, the thought of quitting my job for a band would have put me in a serious sweat, but what with the public sector cuts, redundancies at work, potentially being downgraded and the fact that everyone in this band actually wants to be in this band, the idea of quitting my job to be in a band quite appeals to me. We've still got a year of hard work ahead of us but at the end of that year we're hoping to at least be able to cut our day jobs to part time. So yeah, I suppose I'm still trying to 'make it' in a mid-life crisis kind of way.

I've had this hanging around my house for years, waiting to be fixed up into something I could play scuzzy slide guitar on in a side project. However, that band never really got off the ground and once I picked up the double bass, anything with six strings got firmly pushed into the background. Anyway, it's an SG shape, probably form the 70s, clearly made from plywood (and a thin piece of plywood at that), it has a single pickup in the neck position (I think it's a single coil in a PAF style humbucker cover), and that's about it! The neck's pretty chunky and has a few nicks in it but the original crap JapCrap hardware has been replaced with slightly less crap JapCrap hardware that I filched off my guitarist's Colombus Les Paul copy while he wasn't looking. It all works and makes suitably guitar like noises. As I said, I was going to use it for slide work in a scuzzy blues band, so if you have lo-fi indie leanings, this could be for you... Let me know if you want pictures Local pickup preferred, or I could deliver in the Bristol area for a suitable bribe. Cheers Dave

That looks the business. What finish are you gonna do?

[quote name='clarkpegasus4001' timestamp='1317315300' post='1389428'] I'd agree with this......AC/DC [/quote] Especially the early stuff, like 'the jack'

You could look for a second hand Hohner Steinberger clone and put it on a stand - would probably work out cheaper.

I have only recently converted to bass-related hat wearing - both my playing and attention from da laydeez has improved dramatically. I fully support the bassists in hats theorem and shall not perform hatless ever again. Except when it's really hot, obviously.