LITTLEWING

Update - bought some Isopropyl wipes as some people suggest. Seemed to remove a bit of poo from all four strings. Killed (to my ears anyway) a previously clear sounding newish set of Rotosounds stone dead in 5 minutes. NEVER putting ANYTHING on my strings again apart from my fingers and a small hand towel after each play. Boo.

Play slowly and from the heart. You might just surprise yourself and learn for the next time.

Looking at pulling the trigger on a brand new MIM P bass Player series. Everything all basically 100% straight out of the cardboard delivery box?

Anybody else feel their strings sound worse after cleaning them with a dedicated string cleaning product? I’m coming to the conclusion that maybe you should just leave them alone except for a wipe over after a sweaty session. (Oo-er missus!) I’m starting to wonder if all the wiping with cloths and ‘cleaner’ is making things worse by the simple virtue that you’re pushing more and more sh*t into the windings. On this note, anyone got any surefire ideas they use to keep them nicer longer? Maybe someone could invent a kind of spinning toothbrush type gadget to move up and down to get all the crud out effectively. Or is that like making a car that would do 800 miles to the gallon so that, like nobody would buy petrol every week, that nobody would buy new strings for ages?

Totally this.

Yep. My 'steels died after one rehearsal and two gigs. Never again.

I tried Entwistles once. Very good, huge powerful sound but unfortunately nothing like a classic P bass sound we all know and love. Totally up to you.

This is precisely why I tried a 5 'er for two years and gave up. Put me off totally and actually made me biased. Still can't see any use for anything lower than E. Maybe a brand over a couple of grand might work but I can't see me going back any time soon.

Have you pressed the B hard over the pup side of the saddle to give a good break angle? Always needs to do this with bass strings as it gives that bit more clarity. (It's called the witness point).

Any Meatloaf number. sorry....

Two bits of wood that don't match up for a body. WHY the heck do they do that? Just looks like they ran out of wood and joined two bits together to get it out the door. Show me a lovely wood grain under a shiny laquer and that always warms my heart. And don't get me started on a perfectly nice paint job and then it gets hit with things and dragged down a set of concrete steps to 'relic' it..... The first thing I do with a pre-loved bass is clean it up and find a nail varnish close enough to the colour and make it look nice again. You wouldn't buy a used car covered in scratches and dings for feck's sake...

FWIW, I still use the two amp to speaker cables I bought from him nearly ten years ago. Still look and sound perfect. Didn't see he'd retired. All the best old chap. Enjoy.

To be fair, she could have been a first time player like myself a couple of years ago. For Father's Day my two amazing daughters bought me sax lessons as I'd always fancied a try as there are a few darn good sax solos recorded over the years and thought I could go up that path of musical adventure. However, on the strength of that I bought a cheapie off a site on the interweb and to cut a long sort short, taking it to this teacher guy he checked it over putting a rope light down it's length (ooh missus!!) and the whole damn thing glowed out of nearly every key hole. It was totally sh*gged and not worth a light. (Pardon the pun). I spoke to the seller and as it happens got my money back as they were also unaware of it's condition. Needless to say I didn't feel like going any further after all that even though I did have a few lessons with the amazing teacher.

I always like to maintain my own basses where I can and something I can't do like fret work I'll go to a luthier. I know perfectly fine how to set up a bass nut and rather than bodge the slots with various implements, I'd like a proper set of nut files specifically made for the job but why are they so damn expensive? £80 odd quid for four files is a bit much for doing one or two now and again, y'know, when you can't help buying a different bass every year, yes we all do it (damn you, interweb!!) unless I was a full time professional luthier. Are there any sensibly priced file sets (not needle file sets which are no use to man nor beast) out there for the 'home enthusiast' like myself?

There are no words! This kid is going places. And that bass face!!!!

It's giving each brand new string a hard push down (tuned up) on the pickup side of each saddle to create an angle on the string rather than a slow bend. This gives maximum contact with the saddle when fitting from new. Try it now on your bass even on slightly not so new strings and you will more than likely get a clearer more true sound on each string.

Hmmmm....are you doing the witness point thing at the saddles? Keeps them clear and ringing from day one.

There's another aspect to all this string height thing. What type and what gauge of strings are on our basses? I recently chucked a set of Fender 9050ML flats on my P bass and have managed to drop the height down more than rounds and it's so much more incredibly playable. It's turning into my favourite bass at the moment.

Great bass player, great ordinary non-diva human being. Read his 'My Bass' etc book and messaged him on Fb saying how much I enjoyed it and he actually took time out to reply to me. Lovin the videos, keep 'em coming GP. Every day's a school day.

Just how long are you going to spend twiddling at soundcheck and then STILL fiddle during the gig? There are too many amps with too many knobs and sliders out there. A simple bass/lower mid/mid/high mid and treble should be enough for any gigging muso. Set it up and play a couple of numbers and adjust the mid if needed during the evening as the place fills up with frequency soaking people. I had a Hartke combo with more sound altering knobs, buttons and sliders than were actually useful and never found a sound I liked while I owned it. Leave the twiddling to the mixer guy or studio engineer I say.

I have a love/hate thing with them. I love them because they keep the same tone for about a year but I always find the E starts to die off first and end up buying a single E to keep the set equal in tone. I thought the problem was with uncoated strings that the E got full of gunk and eventually wouldn't ring properly but it appears not the case. Seems to be just ordinary metal fatigue making any string die, sweat or not.

FWIW, I bought a 2 X 15" Hartke cab once really cheap as it sounded rough. Turned out after a good search that the input jack was tarnished and dull and not making good contact with the plug when inserted. A tickle with wire wool and contact cleaner and it was rattling pub windows.

Saw Les and the band last year in Southampton. Met him afterwards outside. The Mrs told him off for smoking.....Great night as it happens, good band.

Not at all, obviously you need the wires coming off to the pots side so that you don't trap them under the pickup and make it slanted, also to not mistakenly put a height adjustment screw through one of them. One other thing, measure the existing one against the new one's spec. Sometimes it's not a bridge size pickup, it's a neck size one fitted in there. Oh, and you might find the sound with both on full is thin and weird. Don't panic, just refit the black and white to the pots round the opposite way.