Muzz

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1339241662' post='1685746'] Wealthy tin-ears, and there are lots of them about. [/quote] Wasn't he in Noddy?

I think this lot are good for another three or four pages, easy. I managed about half a minute of each one, and apart from the arse-clenching awfulness, the main thing I've come away with is 'Blimey, they've got some money...'

The Supertone is a great bridge, I fitted one to my Epi bird in about 5 minutes, again, EBay from the US worked out about £75. I've got a pair of Seymour Duncan SSB4 pickups in mine, but I'm thinking of going the whole hog and putting some Lulls in there. Still got the original Epi black pups kicking around, too. 'Modify the hell out of it' you say? How about my list: new neck, new nut, new tuners, new wiring, new pots, new straplocks, new knobs, new pickups, new bridge. The wood of the body and the neck plate are original though...

[quote name='Rasta' timestamp='1338581985' post='1676902'] Another 94 slim necked green machine here... Love my Fortress, especially now it's passive with wizards ....great basses [/quote] Yep, the Fortress really suits the Wizards (or maybe I just don't like MECs). I'd say it'll be at least as good as a modern German made one, if not better. The secondhand prices of Warwicks are way below their quality. Dunno why.

My 93 Fortress has the best neck and lowest action of anything I've ever played, period. They're very slim necks, not like any other Warwick I've played. IMHO, YMMV, etc, etc. I should add that mine's an early one, with the non-volute headstock and the odd chamfers in the front of the body either side of the neck joint. It's still a bloody awful colour, mind...

I'd say there's a couple of issues: first, a change in tension will very probably need a tweak of the truss rod on the acoustic, so it depends whether you're happy with this sort of thing, and secondly, if you didn't like the tension on your electric, you won't like it on your acoustic. I just didn't like the response and sound of flats on my electrics, but I do on the acoustic. I'd recommend the flats to you, but I've no idea what they are as they came to me second-hand. One thing which put me off about the phosphor bronzes is the smell when they get older. Ew.

Now this may have been done to death, but not for a while, at least, so here we (possibly) go again... Just restrung my Michael Kelley Dragonfly, now the good weather's here and I can get out into the garden and play a bit for fun, and, tightarse that I am, couldn't face paying out for another set of strings, so I had a delve around and tried a few options - Warwick stainless rounds (ok, but a bit too zingy), some oldish nickels of dubious vintage (bit too dead, tbh), and then I found a set of flats I had lying around which I'd taken off a trade bass. I'm on record on here as disliking flats completely, but on the acoustic - wow. They suddenly make sense, tension and everything. Very nice indeed. I'd recommend trying flats on an acoustic to anyone, no matter how flatphobic.

Dingwall, a major improvement on the basic design, my go-to bass... oh, and my Fenderbird and FrankenP, because they're pretty much unique, and I built them. And my early Warwick Fortress has the best neck I've ever played. That's it for now, but I reserve the right to change my mind, although in the case of the Dingwall, I seriously doubt it...

[quote name='TRBboy' timestamp='1338357579' post='1673114'] Are your cabs the same brand, power handling and impedance? I would be quite surprised to hear a difference like that if they are. You're right though, the cab construction, type of drivers, etc, etc does all make a difference. But if you do have two "matching" cabs by the same manufacturer with different size drivers in, they will sound different. Mark at Bass Direct is a great guy, (and I know I'll get shot down for this!) but I think some people on here think that his opinion is gospel and is 100% right all the time. Don't forget he is a business man and is there to sell what's in his shop too. [/quote] Nope, they weren't, but then power handling and impedance refers to just the speakers, not the cab. Another way to illustrate this would be the Schroeders: the 1210 and the 1515 will sound more like each other than they will compared with other cabs, not because they have similar drivers (10", 12" and 15"), but because the cabs have similar designs. Put the two Celestion 15s in my Schroeder into a different cab, and they will sound very different. Even talking purely about speaker size, there's clearly a huge marketing influence, because, as has been thrashed out many times on here by people who know tons more about it than me, the DIAMETER of a modern speaker does not dictate the frequency of the sound it produces - 15s do not always produce more lows than 10s, so why would the mantra about 15s (bottom) and 10s (top) persist, if the manufacturers didn't keep making them for people who know what they like and like what they know? It's a conspiracy, I tell ya... As far as Mark at bass Direct is concerned, he talks more sense (and knows how to listen, a much under-regarded skill) than a lot of people I've met in music shops, but I don't think anyone is suggesting he knows everything. That's our job here on forums . For the record, he's never sold me a cab - I like Schroeders. As far as the OP is concerned, though, his shop is a great resource worth investigating. As an example, I'd never tried a Dingwall before I went there, but I also never realised how much I don't like the Shuttle series, or the Mark Bass Tubes, either. That saved me a few quid finding out. Lord knows, he might even suggest to the OP a 1x15, 4x10 stack...

Lord, that was awful.

[quote name='MrTaff' timestamp='1338221499' post='1671041'] They go back in their cases after soundcheck, when we're playing I use the same Hercules stands I use at home. [/quote] This ^

If that was being played in my garden, I'd shut the curtains.

[quote name='TRBboy' timestamp='1338250246' post='1671764'] I'm genuinely amazed that so many people can't get their heads around mixing 10's and 15's! People have been doing it for decades! You get the get the gut rumbling lows from the 15 and more punch and focus from the 10's. I've always had both! Used to have a Trace 4x10" and 1x15" stack for about 10 years, and now I've got a 2x10" markbass combo and 1x15" ext cab. [/quote] I've got a 2x15 which is punchier and has less lows than my last 4x10. It's much, much less to do with the speaker sizes and much, much more to do with the cabs. A visit to Bass Direct will demonstrate this admirably.

+1 for an afternoon (actually, with your budget go for the day) at Bass Direct. You'll learn an awful lot about what you like, what you don't like, and what you thought you liked but actually don't and what you thought you didn't like, but.... well, you see where I'm going here. Mark's a great guy, knows his onions, and with respect it sounds like you could use some very knowledgeable advice.

I always take two basses (in a double gig bag, unless it's gonna be a really long/rough trip, when I'll hardcase them) because I like the backup, plus I can swap basses for different songs if I feel like it. Means carrying a double stand, but that's hardly any bother at all.

We open with Copperhead Road, and the other week at a posh wedding at the Lowry Hotel in Salford, as the first notes of the pipes intro echoed around the room, a bloke in a kilt wandered across the deserted dance floor, oblivious to us falling about laughing as the singer intoned "If you play it, they will come..."

Dunlop grey .88s, for the last, ooh, thirty years or so. I think I'm settled on them...

[quote name='benthos' timestamp='1337158886' post='1656252'] ....once you let the brown note go. [/quote] I've got tea in my eyebrows.

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' timestamp='1337216578' post='1657374'] I don't know about MusicMan but I am a few weeks from receiving a roasted neck to go with my Dingwall ABII bass which Sheldon has been kindly building for me, I can't wait. Pics to follow, it will be a standard whole maple neck roasted with none of those tiger striped or birdseye maple effect. [/quote] What??? Oh dearie dearie me, that could spell disaster for my wallet in the medium term. Picspicspicspicspicspleeeeease...

[quote name='WalMan' timestamp='1337198175' post='1657119'] I do. Not a problem IME [/quote] Really? My set looked like crap a few weeks in, beardy and scabby, and I don't use the heaviest of picks - .88 Dunlops. Blimey.

Elixirs aren't much use if you play with a pick, tho - well, not unless you like your strings to have a 'beard' pretty quickly I do like D'Addario Nickel rounds, tho: they're great for the money. As far as stainless rounds go, I've always liked the cheapo Hartke ones, although they're getting harder to find.

[quote name='obbm' timestamp='1337159595' post='1656272'] I've had it for the best part of 30 years and as far as I'm concerned there is no fix so I just ignore it and get on with things. Most of the time I hardly notice that I have it. [/quote] Not been aware of it until the last few months, after one horrendous gig in particular (a guitard's Line 6 12" combo at friggin head height was the cause), so I guess I've dodged that particular bullet for a long time, but it's there now. More aware of it trying to get to sleep at night, and now I'm typing about it, but it doesn't prevent me doing much. Needless to say, in the traditional stable-door-bolted-horse manner, my custom ACS ER15s arrive this week...

Ordered three cables from Dave Monday evening, they arrived this morning. Startlingly quick delivery, top, top quality. There's only one place to get cables round here... Cheers!