Bleat

You are like me then... as soon as it comes out the box the faffing-about tools are out in force. I'm not a fan of flat wounds unfortunately. Surprisingly I found there is very little to no raspy scratchy finger noise from the original bronze strings which are still fitted but then not the best quality. I'm just waiting for a new set of bronze strings to arrive, so will see if that changes things sound/scratch-wise. I did think about trying tape wounds but would be an expensive purchase for something that would end up being be no better than putting elastic bands round an empty shoe box and playing that instead.. If the new bronze ones are very scratchy I may just fit the same light gauge Rotosounds that I use on the electric. It's just a case of try it and see/ hear what happens at the moment.

I was looking for a decent acoustic bass recently, and having a bit of a soft spot for Dean guitars and basses decided this would be a good purchase for the price. It's a real monster with an 18" wide body, but looks great. My Washburn electric looks a bit of a tiddler sat next to it! With a bit of work i.e. nut and saddle filing, I have now got it playing exceptionally well with a great low action. The neck is a chunky P-bass style which I like. I added a strap button onto the neck as it only comes fitted with one. The machine heads are certainly functional but would possibly benefit from being fitted with better quality ones which I will do in due course. The basic tonality is on a par with most other acoustic basses, and is not particularly loud until you plug it in, again like most acoustics. The preamp is basic but decent enough with 3 band eq, tuner and phase button.. Overall I'm really pleased with the Dean EAB for the money, and now more importantly have a use for my Dean guitar strap.

If I remember correctly, I think it might have actually been mid-gig 2001 which was the last time I played live. I've been holding myself ever since in the event of possibly joining another band and having another gig to dump at. As I'm not an expert plopper and constrained financially, I would probably opt for an "entry level" brand of toilet roll. I hear Co-Op's own recycled is good value. I would most likely use one sheet folded in half. Nails? Well nail clippers seem to do the job. I guess the clue is in the name.

This is the result of some one who one day decided these sound great with guitars playing through them. Why can't they stick with their bloody guitar amps so I can buy one at a sensible price!

My signature Washburn complete with signature quirks and flaws, signature replacement parts, signature sweat and general grub, signature gig bag, signature brown strap plus my signature Basschat straplocks.... includes my special signature furry cat guitar polishing accessory.

My vote would be to find a used Boss ME-8B. Obviously old tech, but has a great bass synth section. In addition you can add in chorus, fuzz, octave, delay, reverb etc to create some huge synth tones. It tracks really well, bigger than a single pedal but still fairly compact. I sold the one I had and now regret it as I programmed some great speaker blowing Moog like synth patches on it.

I'll say what many are probably thinking... "What a stunning pair of keyboard playing hands".

Is that like "I'm not saying it was aliens...but it was aliens" In answer to the question - what would I pay for that? About as much as a typical knackered, butchered, hack job defret of a bass that can be found on ebay, so maybe £50-£75 at most. Why would I pay ££££'s for something when my very own shitty, knackered bass has way more personal value and playability to me (and also a true part of its journey through life).

I located and bought some new 100k pots for my Washburn B 200 pre-amp board a few months ago. De-soldered the old pots no problem and put the new ones on. The only issue with the replacements is that the threaded parts are a bit shorter than the originals so not enough length to poke through the body to secure with nuts. Basically I just plonked the knobs back on which holds them in place though they are a little "wobbly". I guess I could shave away some of wood in the cavity so that I can get them to poke through enough to get nuts back on. For now I'm just happy that I have good pots and the preamp still works.

Without meaning to slightly contradict my earlier post about just buying new strings (which I still think is the best and easiest thing to do), many years ago a guitar builder told me to try a smidge of WD-40 on a rag to wipe down strings. Yes it works, and it works very well, much more effective than the boiling nonsense at least. I will also add that the last time I mentioned this, a couple of people on here got their derrières in their hands at this suggestion. Obviously remove your strings first, wipe down, leave for a while then re-attach strings. Don't do it if you don't like the smell of WD-40!

Black Sabbath's "Never Say Die" is a great album. AC/DC's "Fly On The Wall" is a great album. Jaco Pastrami or whatever his name is sounds like overrated self indulgent fart-like noise made worse by playing a Jazz bass made even worse by it being fretless.

Total waste of time in my opinion. I tried it once a long time ago. I could barely hear any difference after boiling and wondering why I had wasted a good 1/2 hr of my life staring at a saucepan. What with the convenience of buying from the internet, wide availability of long life and cheap strings it just makes better sense to buy new ones. Personally I just go to Amazon, buy my favourite Rotosound strings at a reasonable price , and delivered next day. I change strings as often as I need to, usually every 4-8 weeks. ( and I am definitely *not* made of money!)

Personally I wouldn't put too much energy into worrying about it, just focus on your own band and sort required band member asap. He sounds like a complete bell end who most likely won't retain new band members for long anyway if he is going to be in charge of his new set up! The FB page is in your bands control anyway, and maybe just put "the original *Band X* looking for...." when advertising?

I love my Digitech Bass Squeeze. Got it cheap, I like the split low/high bands and the way it compresses and enhances the tone at the same time. Do I care that Ovnilabs slated it? .... nah couldn't care less. It does what I want it to. ☺️

No one touches my #1 bass let alone gets to play it. It also helps to have no friends. 😄

Schaller M4. It's a shame they stopped making these. I have a set plus Xtender on my *non-custom shop* dream bass though. I like Grover machine heads too.

Might try that with my car.

Amps: " Recently serviced" By that you mean you sprayed a bit of pot cleaner about then.

" This is without doubt the best ever, most fantastic bass / effect pedal / amp I've ever owned, ever. " Yeah? can't be all that if you're selling it then.

Those shops are full of stock 'cos there's no musicians around to buy anything. 😄 I'm way over on the other side on the Welsh Border... it's mostly farmers with ruddy complexions, wellies and nervous looking sheep here. Definitely nowhere local to me, though I think there's a small handful of venues in Hereford itself. I've not found a decent band to join to play at any of them though! Yeah, I wouldn't want to go upsetting that lot at the camp, then again If you've heard Jack Dee's SAS story, it just about sums up every bloke in Hereford of a Friday night.

I have a DSL 3" strap. It's well made, the colour works well for me, and is comfortable enough to use with my bass. The so called "padding" however is a joke. It would have been sent back for a refund had I bought it new at nearly £40. Good job I only paid about £5 for it. I also have one of those Planet Waves shoulder pad things which is not bad but slips around on the strap too much so always having to adjust it. The best strap I have owned has to be the Gibson Fat Boy, a real heavy duty monster of a strap built to take the weight of a Les Paul. In fact it weighed nearly as much! Sadly not made anymore but I have seen them pop up on eBay every so often.

Don't move down to Herefordshire. I can't even find any decent musicians or bands to join!