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Just a little too far from Mid Wales Good luck finding the one

MXR Di 80+ Appear on here at £70 - £80 recently. I bought one, clean sound very impressive, tone controls excellent.

Had a cab with G18C in my youth (1970s). I remember it being pretty good with the AC50 and subsequent Hiwatt 100 I had at the time. Happy days... I wonder if my judgement of sound quality is through rose coloured spectacles.

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1423268741' post='2683104'] It is an incredibly saturated market. One upside of that, though, is that it has pushed quality of cheaper brands up, while pushing the price down. You should see some of the £109 electric guitars we have. They aren't some Stagg crap, they're actually really good, and a £109 price tag doesn't do them justice. [/quote] This is one of the issues I believe Fender (and many others) have to face up to. How hard is it to source reasonable timber, CNC machines and then apply excellent QC. Fender (and others) should be able build at lower prices, build to order and thus give the customer what they want and deliver quality. With CNC machines, custom pickguards, pickups, even body shapes etc are not a serious issue. I have several (recent model) cheapy basses, the quality certainly gives my USA / German / Luthier basses a good run for their money - 90% of the performance at 20% of the price?

Going through this same game over last few weeks. Direct into Focusrite produced so so results with a fair range of basses. Gibson SG sounded best. Bought MXR DI+ from this very forum this week and it has made a significant difference. Compression helps - I just use Audacity default value. Simplistic approach however I am at the start of the learning curve. Recording seems to show all the defects in my playing technique, stuff that sound ok (or even good) live is rather less so in recordings.

Just enjoy the SG bass.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1422984545' post='2679165'] Dating a musician? Cut him in half and count the rings ... [/quote] Drastic, just remove clothes and look for the pencil mark signature and date in some obscure locations. Hopefully the dates on various parts will match.

String changes can sort it out: my G&L SB1 suffered this - even with new strings (the ones with the single reduced core, can't remember what they are called now, seemed like a good idea at the time). Setup and new (normal) strings sorted it. Another bass I have developed the dead spot recently - slackening string, lifting out of nut and bridge then reseating cured it. If the dead spot persists other tactics may work - remove neck, shim then setup again. DIY Fatfinger is as simple as block of stainless steel stuck down on headstock reverse with copydex. If it works fix more permanently.

Dab some superglue in the hole, when set rethread with the pickup screw? If this fails, glue new fibreboard or something under the existing hole, Drill and thread new fibreboard. What are your thoughts?

At the bass, not at Discreet's comments. Can fully relate to them.

I am lost for words.

It might be worthwhile to look at the IC manufacturer reference designs for the TL064 and TL061 that will be somewhere on the internet. I would be surprised if the pre-amp designs deviate far from the reference designs. They might provide useful pointers or confirmation of what you have deduced so far.

I purchased a mini plastic tool - search on ebay, they are about £8. It works very well and does not take too much off at once. Local hardware stores often have diamond sharpening stones 3 for £5, check the flatness though.

Most things on bass / guitar are DIY. I can mostly get my kit setup to how I like it, including fret levelling, re profiling etc, however I am not chasing super low actions. I have resorted to a professional setup on one guitar that I could just not get right. Money well spent in that case.

Ditto ZED mixer, small mixer and lightweight(ish) power amp results in sensible lift weight. I bought a full ply flightcase for mixer / power amp / dbx etc etc. It was at a great price. Once fully loaded it is a beast... cue smaller mixer etc.

Circa 1977 p/xd a 58 Gibson EB2 on a new Precision. The Fender was a better bass all round but I miss that Gibson. Gibson bought in 1974 for £80 - they were not popular then. I bought it unseen from a music shop listing in Melody maker, being 14 and living in rural Herefordshire made it difficult to visit the big city and try kit out. Happy days in a different world.

S/H Warwicks are a steal at the moment representing outstanding value for money. As mentioned above research and price accordingly, lower if you want a quick sale.

One of my projects (long term lol) is a bitsa bass. No volume, no tone, just a pickup blend control. With passive basses I just run them full on. I now have a Warwick Corvette (bought via this very forum) and the tone control seems to do something useful - a new revelation in 40+ years bass playing.

Warwick Corvette - German, Korean or Rockbass Chinese. Choose the right era to get slim or baseball bat neck (which I like). Ebony fingerboard so very wear resistant. Jazz type pickups thus easy to change if you are not happy. Prices very good at the moment. What is not to like.

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1422386928' post='2672066'] I buy so much gear my missus forgets what I've bought and how much it cost,.................. [/quote] Same strategy used here, I believe it is called exposure therapy What is this 'one in, one out' phrase about, I have heard it used by some other bass players.

Chris OTOH I have Pyramid Golds on my SG bass. Have had them on and off a fair few times with string experiments, making bridge bar and playing with setup. They have taken this treatment well and no issues yet. Sometimes they appear at very good prices on the well known internet auction site. I will second the TI flats, I use the 'through bridge plate' stringing on my Kramer DMZ, no problems in 3 years yet.