oldslapper

I play in a band on occasion that has a blind guitarist, who has perfect pitch, in that you can play any note/chord and he'll identify it. He tunes pianos to supplement his income and as a sound engineer (don't ask how, but he's brilliant at it). However, he has "dep'd" for me on bass in the past and the problem is that he tends to be lazy when it comes to practising parts as he uses the "i've got perfect pitch" as an excuse for turning up and blagging hi way through a set. Which is ok if the gig is full of standards. But with very specific parts he gets found out. Not the fault of having perfect pitch, he's just lazy. You can train your ear to identify "intervals", or "relative pitch" quite easily, and it's useful to have if you are thrown in to a new situation and have to learn new parts quickly without the score.

[quote name='wombatboter' post='691361' date='Dec 22 2009, 11:19 AM']If there's one thing which is clear to me is that you love instruments and take your job very seriously...I have faith in your skills and I think you are an honest person who tries to make musicians happy and get the best out of their instruments. The fact that you get so emotional about this just is more proof that you seem to be the right man for this job. Nice to know that there are still people like you around...[/quote] +1 I am a lazy so and so who has lived with bad necks/set ups because I've been too embarrased or ignorant of what needs to be done to sort them out and have experienced being "palmed off" by shops. A good tech is worth the money and time. I recently bought a Spector bass from a BC'er here and it was the best set up bass I have ever owned in 30 years of playing. He knows what he is looking for though, and has his set-ups done by a guy in his home town. In the "service industry" you will always get a numpty who doesn't appreciate good service, and as someone has already said, he's probably embarrased about buying a bad guitar and you are taking the heat, unfortunately. Keep going dude, and think of all the guitars out there you've set up that are being played by grateful guitarists. On a similar point...Perhaps a seperate thread already exists about what to look for when buying a guitar for people like moi?

Thanks for doing this. Jimmy H is one of my heroes!

Changed my mind, am flogging it, in for sale section. Don't have money to fix/buy new neck. £350

[quote name='henry norton' post='676190' date='Dec 6 2009, 09:50 PM']Hmmm, I'm curious about the twist in the neck. Did you look (or get it checked out by someone else) because you started having problems with it? If so, how bad are the probs? - if not, I would get on and get using it. If a neck's really twisted a defret won't do anything for its' playability either. If you've never adjusted the truss rod and you keep the same basic setup, string gauge, don't spend excessive amounts of time in rain forests etc. you really shouldn't need to adjust it now. I'll probably be shot down for this but I think quite a few truss rod breakages are down to people messing around with them too much - finding reasons to 'give it a tweak' when they don't need to. This comes from bitter experience - if you love the bass and it still works, keep it![/quote] Yes, I'm thinking keeping is the way forward. The twist and stiff truss rod was pointed out by someone else. I never set my own basses up as I've seen other's screwing up very nice guitars for the sake of £35 investment in a luthier/tech. I think my reaction was an emotional one, it's been useful reading other's thoughts and I have a clearer idea about the bass now. Thanks for your comments and cool bike!! My brother had a commando in the 70's.

Ok had a reply. Warwick will send a new neck for £323, plus postage for my old neck. It's a beautiful bass, but I ain't got that kind of money. I'll get a quote from a couple of guys locally. Or I'll live with it, or sell as is. Somebody on the warwick forum said that his luthier loosened the rod and squirted wd40 down, and the rod came free after a bit and the neck was sorted. Love to think that was true! Anyway thanks for replies chaps. John