LITTLEWING

Yes Spondon, I took care of the pups height too and like dmc I'm getting to like 40-100's too after a trial on a spare bass. Every day's a school day!

Just for the hell of it I lowered my normal setup action from 6/64ths E - 5/64ths G down a smidge to 5/64ths - 4/64ths (@17th fret) and adopted a lighter playing style and over the weekend have suddenly become more confident and more accurate in my playing. Gone are the thumping fingers, nasty string 'clack' and with it that initial momentary touch of grunt in the note when the volume's up the steamy end. Watch and listen to guys like Nathan East, his fingers are merely stroking the strings and everything is so composed and in the pocket. (God, I hate that saying!!) Re-training and new discipline after all these years, but so worth it. It REALLY is all in the hands more than the instrument.

Peavey Combos, brilliant beasts. Carlsboro Stingray head I had back in the day?? More bass in a little transistor radio. Sh*te piece of junk.

That's exactly what I was trying to put across, GB. Unless a nut was fitted by Stevie Wonder, it's going to be near enough and usable in a ballpark measurement and most certainly getting a neck as straight as buzz-free possible is the goal. One thing I must also stress is DON'T adjust anything with the guitar on it's back like in these dumb tutorials, gravity will drop the strings lower than you actually want. ALWAYS set up string and pickup height in a playing position. And watch that magnetic pull while you're doing it !!

Sorry to sound a moaner but there's no such thing as a 'proper' set up. Manufacturers give a standard set of measurements as a basis to start with. After that EVERY guitar is different. EVERY player is different. You like a low action at 4/64ths with a hint of buzz, nice. Some people can't stand that and as they may play harder will like a higher action possibly 7/64ths. As for pickups, the nearer to the strings will be more aggressive and further away more mellow. THAT is what's known as 'feel', adjusting every parameter until it's just perfect for you. James Jamerson had an action you could put a pencil under, Scott Devine has low/ buzzy action like yours.

Cut a postcard or an old small Xmas/birthday card to the size of the whole neck pocket then cut it in half, put one piece into the neck pocket right up against the end as snug as it will go and make two new holes in the card where the screw holes are. Refit the neck (making sure the card stays in place) and as you introduce the long screws turn them anti clockwise and with a light pressure you will feel a slight clunk as they find the thread in the neck heel. This ensures you don't start off a new thread and weaken the existing one. Now start to turn them in by hand and eventually use a snug fitting Philips to take them home just tight enough, and before final tightening, check the strings are sitting equally and not too far over to one side of the fretboard (simply grab the headstock end and push either way until they look good) and finally nip them up, not too heavy handed.You'll now be amazed how low the strings are and instantly have loads of adjustment on the saddles. If it turns out to be too much, it's a simple task to take the neck off again and replace the piece of card with something slightly thinner. Experiment. Have fun while you're gaining experience!!

Why and when the heck did Axesrus stop doing their own bass pickups? I've bought a few p bass pups in the past for projects and upgrades and theirs were brilliant low and punchy things at less than £30 if I remember rightly. Now they only do DeMarzios at £85. Okay, they may be damn fine pups but at that price I might as well add a few more quids and get actual Fenders. Boo I say.

Brought = something you decided to bring with you. Bought = something you paid for. For South Hampshire people mostly........

I've been using them for about three years and never had any complaints. Great strings at a great price although lately have sneaked up to £12.99 which is still very comfy on the pocket. I honestly personally can't hear anything bad once we're playing live or rehearsal and probably sticking my neck out here saying is it a case of 'Emporor's new clothes' as far as strings three times the price are concerned? Agreed that not all strings suit all basses but it's definitely all in the hands of the player. I'm more than sure the likes of Paladino sound just as fluent and sickenly amazing on a Squier Affinty as much as a top of the range Lakland.

[quote name='Thunderbird' timestamp='1485543179' post='3224862'] I use rotas quite a bit and they seem to stay bright for ages but I don't sweat much or play heavy [/quote] Same as you, I guess some people's sweaty fingers must kill some strings but I use Legacy (really Rotosounds repackaged) and they keep a level tone for ages.

I need you to sit down...... Y'know Jimi Hendrix? Well.......

I've always used 45 - 105 simply out of habit. I fancy trying 40 - 100 but I don't know if they're going to lose 'fatness' in the sound. Just how much difference actually is there? I know there'll be slightly less tension but maybe that will make me play a bit lighter.

[quote name='Adethefade' timestamp='1484986190' post='3220141'] A couple of observations; when you adjust a saddle screw, if the string is under tension sometimes the saddle won't actually move. You need to lift the string from the saddle seating to free its movement up. Also, I have, on a couple of occasions, found that the pickup being set too high can mess with intonation; probably because of the magnet 'pull'. When you fret the note at the 12th, it's important to apply the sort of pressure you'd realistically use when playing the instrument. If you press too hard, the note will be 'bent' out of tune. I [i]always[/i] set intonation with the instrument in the playing position, not on the bench, because the readings will be different. As has been said, it's important to get your head around the direction of adjustment - moving the saddle away from the neck will flatten the noise, and towards the neck will sharpen it...and remember that any adjustment is applied to the [i]whole string[/i]; you have to retune the open note after every movement, before checking the fretted note. [/quote] Totally this. Beats me why in tutorial videos by so-called expert luthiers they have guitars laying on their backs on supports adjusting string heights and pickups. Gravity always wins and the strings will drop towards the neck and pickups ruining any adjustments and will inevitably be different when standing up playing. ALWAYS set up sitting in the playing position. And one more little tip on intonation, check out the 19th fret octave with the previous string and make the final sweet adjustment.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1484834379' post='3218904'] The amp is far more likely the source of that noise than the speakers. [/quote] Totally. I had an Arsedown Evo which always had that very slight 'fizzing' at the tail end of a note. Tried two other different amps with my cabs and completely clean. Curiously enough, one of their 'After Eight' 15 watters fizzed too even through an extension cab.

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1484398251' post='3215188'] £230 is not cheap and cheerful for a Westone Thunder 1. They're good basses but worth trying first to find if it is the one for you. [/quote] I bought a very tidy one a little while ago for £100 as it had a wire needing soldering on the battery clip. £230 is way too high, £150 to £180 if it's fairly mint. Nice guitar though although the p bass pups don't sound anything like a p bass. Damn powerful active though.

It's so off the wall it's beautiful. Bonus now with the reversed pup, gotta sound nice and punchy.

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1484393290' post='3215134'] Yes a crap drummer will do that for you. [/quote] Gotta agree with that. I had a drummer which made me think my timing and feel was out. Got home and sounded like Paladino indoors playing to a drums app on the iPad. Relief!!

Cheers Bill, that article is most informative. Think I'll just leave the wire off. Lol !!! I hate HF units with even more passion now......

Thanks chaps, just emailed Bluearan. Catch a reply after the weekend I guess. I looked at a few things that Google threw up and so many scary things emerged like overheating L pads and in-line caps not doing much due to mind-numbing science involving high ohmages and stuff...got frightened and went to bed. Also doesn't appear to have a crossover, the pos. and neg. come straight off the speaker terminals to the tweeter/horn.

Totally a pain when temperature changes. My Ibanez goes sharp where the neck bends so slightly backwards in cold weather (bringing on the odd fret buzz) and I have to tune down and then relaxes back to normal as it warms up when I start playing and I have to retune back up a smidge and eventually all is right with the world again. A good reason to open up your guitar case as soon as you get to a gig or rehearsal and let the bass adjust to room temperature also relieving possible condensation while you're setting up the rest of the gear.

I've never been a massive HF unit in a bass cab fan and my old style Ampeg BA-115 100 watt combo's one seems way too over the top in relation to the 15" speaker. I like to have the treble up to give my bass a full range of sound and then use the guitar's tone control to suit each song as required but it sounds like a wasp nest with a football match going on inside. Right now I've taken the positive wire off and disabled it so I can have the treble up full to get the voice I want without the nasty crisp packet in a cinema scenario. Any ideas what I can do to either turn the unit up or down via a control or maybe fit a switch with say three settings to suit?

We're ditching our dinosaur size music stands and going for iPads. Yes, I know we should have all our shiz memorised by now but they're simply handy for set lists and various prompts for those songs that a bunch of lyrics always seem to run away when you come to sing. Doesn't help with age either.....(sigh) Anyway, these babies that attach to mic stands start from under ten quid to nearly forty so what one is the most usable??

[quote name='Highfox' timestamp='1482609646' post='3201925'] We just put the Commodores "easy" into the set, simple bassline but such a nice feel and touch. [/quote] So have we. Gorgeous warm sexy bass lines. Love playing it.

I must admit, for some reason I've never been attracted to them being a long time Precision chap but after acquiring the cheap end of the range GSR200B in walnut (just cos it was there in Bumflea for silly pound notes) and tweaking the set up etc, I've got the action down to 6/64 E to 5/64 D with NOT ONE buzzing fret and I'm really digging the incredible neck and the sound of the reverse split pickups. If I didn't know any better, if someone put a £300 plus label on it I'd be happy as pig in the proverbial. DAMN fine guitar. And as Mr Swift is playing one these days, I'm proud to wear one.

Bill M is so true, it WAS that frequency gap with the combo which made it so annoying. Maybe if there was a control to adjust to taste, that would have made it for me. I'm all for a full range speaker system to make a bass sound great but my Ampeg combo was a bit like when you go round someone's house and the colour telly is so full of colour everyone looks orange.