Skybone

The G&L L2000 Tribute I had promised a lot, but never delivered. Seriously well made, great to play, but I could never find "the sound" I wanted from it. All of this analysis leads me to believe that when it comes to basses, I like single coils over humbuckers. Known for ages that I preferred passives over actives, but never realised about the single coil thing til yesterdays post. See, you do learn something new every day.

Where do you start? Fender Modern Player Jazz: looked nice, sounded dreadful, played... OK-ish EBMM StingRay (late 90's): Looked ace, played ace, sounded pants. Had an '89 that was brilliant, but stupidly sold it, bought another one. Awful. Aria Pro II SB1000: Wanted one for years, but the sound was pants. Superb build and another great player though. Tobias Toby: Another looked great & played great, but sounded pants. Washburn Mercury MB4: What was I thinking selling my old Thunder 1A for that? Except it was a damn sight lighter then the Westone. Pretty sure there are others, but these are the ones that stick in the memory.

Just a replacement switch

From memory, I would suspect that they're wired separately. IIRC, one switches between the 9v & 18v Active circuits, the other switches between Passive & Active.

I think there is life in the bass guitar yet, same with guitars and drums. Their popularity will wane and then grow, but they'll not be going anywhere.

Tha reet

Well, I'll be buying a copy

At least they're lighter than the Dunlop Cry Baby

Sounds like a visit to your local guitar tech/luthier may be in order.

[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1506863901' post='3381567'] I saw Yob on the Clearing The Path To Ascend tour and the bassist was playing a Ric - it was probably the best bass tone I've heard live. Though I think he may have switched to EGC now. [/quote] Only followed them up to Midian, heard the Yob follow on and was not impressed. Overlong songs that didn't go anywhere. I only go on Talkbass because I can't get on here at work.

He used the Morley Power Wahl, I remember cos I bought one!

The original bassist in Yob used a Ric (Isamu? From Elaborations to Quantum Mystic), not sure what the latest bassist uses. You should also check out any of the Steve DiGiorgio vids on YT where he's playing a Ric, most of the time, it'll be tuned somewhere below the standard E.

What should the output be?

Make sure you have enough time to get to the gig, make sure you're fed & watered. Take time to warm up your fingers and run through a few songs, tune up etc. Most importantly, breathe slowly & deeply, try and relax, "centre" yourself.

Yes, most Ric 5 strings were 4 string conversions. IIRC, the current 4004/5 has a wider than standard neck, but they're not only bloody expensive, but also rare as rocking horse doings. Retrovibe made a few 5 string Fakers that had a good reputation, but again, because they're Fakers, rare as rocking horse doings again, but at least they are reasonably priced. If you're after the Ric look, but with a low B, find a Faker 4 string & put the low strings from a 5 string on it.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1506760521' post='3380893'] Aside from sounding better do fancy expensive earplugs actually offer better protection than standard 5p foam plugs? I grab the foam ones from work and they are supposedly designed to be used on building sites so must offer decent protection? Or am I just kidding myself and I might as well be using nothing... [/quote] I used the foam plugs for years too, but I had to stop using them for music as you couldn't actually hear what was going on properly. The ACS ER's have a filter in them, so that they not only attenuate the sounds, but they don't drown out certain frequencies, and allow you to hear what's going on better. I stopped using the foam one's on the bike, because I got sick of having plugs that either never fitted properly, or just lost their "elasticity". The reusable "Christmas tree" one's are much better in both situations. My only regret is not using them sooner, I might have fended off the tinnitus for a few more years.

I suspect that the "dead" pickup is actually a dead pot. The soldering iron has lingered too long and killed the pot, the pickup should be fine. If you have a multimeter, you can check the impedance on it. Back on topic, I must admit that for guitars, alnico magnet pickups haves a certain "warmth" over ceramic magnet pickups. I tried a load of different guitar pickups a few years back, and always kept coming back to alnico magnet pickups. TBH, I've never really noticed that much difference on bass pickups, though I'm pretty sure that the "warmth" of alnico pickups will come across on bass as well.

Another vote for ACS ER20's. I've looked into custom made earplugs, but I never have the spare cash for them, or can never find a set that can offer a similar level of attenuation to the ER20's. I use some 3M industrial ones while on the motorbike, and there's not one custom made option that comes anywhere near their level of attenuation.

Excellent set list, hope it pans out for you.

Sounds like "Beyond the Lighted Stage" to me. There is another one out, post split, can't recall what it's called though.

To be fair, a programme like this has been lacking on TV ever since TotP was taken off the air. It certainly beats the numerous channels that air the same awful videos over and over again (speaking as a parent who gets subjected to them on a regular basis!). Not sure about the "sketches" bit though!

[quote name='bassace' timestamp='1505899533' post='3375021'] And let the drummer set up first, don't get in his way while he's doing it. Otherwise they can get very irritable. [/quote] But always offer to help

I've used both the Dunlop & Schaller strap locks for years, and like Rich said, functional engineering is good design. That said, I always found the Dunlops to be really clunky & awkward, the Schaller's just work. Never had a problem with them either.

The general consensus is that it's better to be the worst in a good band than the best in a rubbish band. Like a few have already said, it's great to work with people who have more skills than you, as they push you to improve & reach their standard, rather than trying to drag other people up to your standard. As much as I hate to admit it, Coldplay are actually good musicians who decided to peddle their bland blend of self indulgent music on society. Someone has to do it I suppose... As for watching an episode of Car Pool Karoake with Chris Martin & James Corden, a) I'd rather watch paint dry and if ever there was an episode where you really wanted to watch a car crash, because they were too busy being egotistical bell-ends, it would be that one.