RhysP

Don't ignore Rolf! He lived in Cardiff when he was a kid!

I'd rather see the Wombles than 95% of the sh*t they have on at Glastonbury.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='1267837' date='Jun 13 2011, 08:31 PM']He was rude and arrogant in places.[/quote] No more so than a lot of the other posters in the thread.

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='1267758' date='Jun 13 2011, 07:20 PM']* KS seemed entirely reasonable to me and I agreed with much of what he had to say.[/quote] That's good, I thought I was the only person who thought that. To be honest I also thought there was an element of humour in some of his posts, but people had already decided he was rude & arrogant so they chose to ignore it.

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='1267592' date='Jun 13 2011, 05:39 PM']Who wouldn't?[/quote] Me.

If the choice I had was having nice bass gear or somewhere to live the bass gear would be gone in a flash. It's a question of priorities & in the grand scheme of things basses are pretty unimportant.

[quote name='Ross' post='1267065' date='Jun 13 2011, 10:40 AM']The thing Ken can't seem to grasp, if people are spending £3k+ on a bass, it's not a big thing to expect the company to ship them a $10 pot and not extort $100 for their back pocket claiming it was for shipping. That is disgraceful customer service.[/quote] If you're going to mouth off at least get your facts right. As Skank has pointed out, The shipping fee was what UPS quoted, not some figure plucked from the air by Mr. Smith. Also, the OP did not spend $3000+ on a bass - he had an old secondhand bass.

[quote name='flyfisher' post='1266256' date='Jun 12 2011, 04:21 PM']Now, what sort of company would you prefer to deal with? [/quote] I'd prefer to deal with a company that concentrates on building a quality product, which is what I do. And if that means I've got to pay for a phone call or a spare part then so be it.

[quote name='flyfisher' post='1265986' date='Jun 12 2011, 12:48 PM']How much cheaper it would have been in the long run if the pot had been send out gratis?[/quote] But where then, as a businessman, do you draw the line? The OP gets his free pot, goes on all the bass forums & tells everyone he got it free & what a great guy Ken Smith is. This puts Ken in the position of having set a precedent of sending stuff out for free. The next person he charges for a replacement part then goes on all the forums & starts bitching about it not being fair because other people got their stuff free. You can't win in this situation. Let's remember that we're talking about an old secondhand bass the OP has here. All my basses are secondhand & made by small high end companies. I've sent emails to them about various things in the past, including buying merchandise. I've got replies to some, others have had none. I'm not about to go stamping my feet & saying what a bunch of bastards **** are for not treating me as a valued customer even though they've never actually seen a penny of my money. We're talking about small businesses here, not some multinational company who can afford to have a dedicated team of customer service advisers dealing with queries & complaints 24/7.

I played one of Billy Sheehans basses once at a clinic he did & the action was way higher than most people on here would use. I prefer my action a little on the high side compared to a lot of people on here - too low & I just don't like the feel of it. Anything under 3mm at the 12th fret on the E string I would consider too low for me.

Lots of Ibanez Musician basses - some idea of the actual model would be useful. Post a picture maybe?

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='1265557' date='Jun 11 2011, 11:54 PM']Ran it again. UPS = $147.25. Deffo. Possible confusion - UPS = United Parcel Services. USPS = US Mail. US Mail is cheaper, but I've heard [i]lots [/i]of horror stories.[/quote] I've only ever had stuff shipped from the USA via USPS & I've never had any problems. They got my Hamer 12 string bass to me in two days - it was only in a cardboard box with a bit of thin foam wrapped around it (no case) & it was fine. The only things I've ever had shipped that have got broken have been via UPS - if UPS is my only option then I'd rather not bother.

[quote name='weepaul' post='1265543' date='Jun 11 2011, 11:46 PM']Found this on ebay- [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Guitar-Parts-FRET-LEVELING-DRESSING-KIT-Luthier-Tools-/120735038205?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item1c1c5e7afd"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Guitar-Parts-FRET-LE...=item1c1c5e7afd[/url] Would this do the job ? anybody tried 'em ? Might give it a go.[/quote] Yes it will do the job, but you need to know what you're doing to do it properly.

[quote name='4000' post='1265189' date='Jun 11 2011, 06:23 PM']I've never read any interview (and I've spoken to him twice about this too) where he said it was sanded smaller, although I guess it's possible. Chris Squire of course is the most famous "sanded smaller" guy (McCartneys is just sanded different!). Squire said that he kept refinishing his (it started as Fireglo) and that every time he changed it he sanded the colour off (or wallpaper in one instance at least). He's said many times that the smaller body size of his bass gave it it's tone; I don't know if you're possibly confusing the two, but it's quite possible that they both felt the same.[/quote] Squire didn't do the work himself; Sam Lee did it.

One of the main reasons Geddy Lee moved away from using his Rickenbacker was purely practical. When they started playing bigger stages & his keyboard rig began to get much bigger he found the Rick quite unwieldy to have around his neck whilst playing keyboards, which is why he started to use the Steinberger. The other reason was that he started to use wireless transmitters & found using stereo transmitters with the Rick too much hassle.

This sounds great! Shame I'm far too old...... Glad to finally hear of someone else who's heard of Art Zoyd - saw them perform their "Nosferatu" soundtrack many years ago in Cardiff. Good luck with your search.

[quote name='toneknob' post='1264016' date='Jun 10 2011, 03:19 PM']He used a compressor, said Tone neatly joining together two threads. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=139947"]No technique, apparently[/url].[/quote] Are you sure about that? I've read loads about Jaco's equipment & effects & have never seen a compressor mentioned before.

Here you go: [b]It sounds like you are largely playing in DADGAD. What other tunings do you use?[/b] "I don’t use DADGAD at all! I use a tuning that I derived from DADGAD. Davey Graham invented DADGAD and I’ve messed around with it, but it didn’t make sense for me. I wanted to work in the middle of the guitar and didn’t like working on the top four strings, which is what you have to do in DADGAD. The first alternative tuning I used from DADGAD is DADEAE. What I did was take DADGAD and drop it a fourth. It made the sixth string unusable, but what I was left with was EADEA. So I then shift it all over, so E was the bottom string, and then stuck an E string on top. So I had EADEAE. Because I’m a good folky I did a dropped D! So I ended up with DADEAE. Basically I sat up all night thinking, how can I do this? I played this tuning from about 1965 to 1978". [b]Exclusively?[/b] "I did a lot in normal tuning also. I’ve known a song called ‘Lovely Joan’ for years. I learned the words from The Penguin Book of English Folk Song when it first came out in 1959 and I’ve been singing it ever since. I finally worked out how I could play it on the guitar in 1978, but it was too hard. I worked out I could do it if I dropped the top string to B, so I had DADEAB. I thought yippee! Having done this, I tried to sing and play it, but couldn’t, because it was too high. [b]So I dropped the thing a whole tone and ended up with CGCDGA, which is what I use all the time now[/b]. I found out from dropping that top string, suddenly you’re in really interesting territory. When I played in DADGAD, I felt restricted to the key of D. Some people like Pierre Bensusan can play in any key, but I can’t. But when I got to DADEAE, I found immediately I could play in two keys, D and A. When I took the next step and ended up in CGCDGA, I found I could play in C and G. That’s the equivalent keys, but then I could play in D, F, E minor, B flat and A minor, albeit with a bit of stretch and pain! I remember thinking - you’re a genius; I’ve found another compromise in guitar tunings! And then I stood back and realised, the cello is tuned CGDA. Oops! That’s basically what I’ve got, an extra C and G, but somebody had already been there three hundred years ago".

[quote name='silddx' post='1263804' date='Jun 10 2011, 12:13 PM']They are off, but I feel like they're on! Carthy has the most beautiful tone. I think he still uses his Martin that's over 40 years old with very heavy strings. Wonderful musician.[/quote] He uses his Martin signature model mostly nowadays - he had the original refurbished by Martin & doesn't take it out very often anymore apparently. I had my Fylde set up in Carthy tuning for a while - CGCDGA. The strings were massively heavy, something like a 17 or 19 top string & a 59 low string!

Have you tried playing the guitar stuff with your gloves off? You're playing on the same stage as Carthy? Wow. I wouldn't even hold a guitar in the same building as him, I'd be far too intimidated.

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1262268' date='Jun 9 2011, 08:18 AM']I would love one of those Fodera AJ basses. Did anyone here buy it for me for my birthday next month? Did you? Did you?[/quote] All 16,281 of us chipped in a quid each to buy it for you. $24,000 = approx £14,670, so what do you want us to get you with the remaining £1611.00 or shall we just give you the cash?

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1261493' date='Jun 8 2011, 05:31 PM']Jaco was, in many ways a lick player. If you listen to a lot of his stuff, you will eventually hear his cliches.[/quote] There are a lot of players who are far more guilty of this than Jaco IMO, Stanley Clarke being the king of them.