Delberthot

Hanging Around by the Stranglers You can almost imagine that the bass strings are rusty bits of barb wire. Its such a dirty sound

If I had the cash I'd buy another Warmoth in a heartbeat. Top notch quality. There's so much choice - you want a Jazz body with a precision and Stingray pickup routes, no problem. Gold coloured fretwire? Of course you can. 8 string neck that will fit a standard Fender body? forget about it

The current bridge only has one saddle for each pair of strings and I don't plan on playing very high up on it so a 4 saddle bridge will be fine. I want to get it sorted cos I don't like the strings that are on it but I don't want to put the new ones on until I can get the strings low enough. I've got a set of Rickenbacker strings which are nice low tension to make it easier to fret. They're around £50 for a set so I want to make sure I can get the strings low enough before I fit them

I've just bought myself an 8 string bass and I'm in the process of setting it up but I'm having a problem with the bridge. Its one of these [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/8-STRING-BASS-GUITAR-BRIDGE-8-string-CHROME-/220487550478?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item335615060e"]chunky ones[/url] The problem is that I've lowered the saddles as low as they'll go but the strings are still higher than i like. I've straightened out the neck to see if it would help. It did to an extent but I still want it lower. I've had an idea to use a standard Fender type one and simply drill another hole next to each of the 4 that are already there. I can get over the issue of having to create new grooves for the octave strings by using one of the old threaded style saddle bridges. I have a cheapy bridge in front of me and I can lower the strings to where they should be with one of these - can anyone forsee any issues with doing this? I've had a look at the Schaller and Wilkinson ones and they also stand too proud and I don't want to have to route the body to make the bridge sit lower. The bass is a neck through one cos if it were a bolt on I would just have whipped the neck off and fired something in at the body end of the neck pocket to shift the pitch and get the strings closer to the body

I use flats exclusively, except on the 8 string although that's only a matter of time but when I do use rounds I will only use Hartke ones as they feel and sound the best to me. I've tried them all from cheap and nasty Alice ones to gold Optimas and I just prefer the Hartkes.

The Rotos are in between the high tension Chromes of the same gauge and the lower tension TIs

I'll take a guess that the TBP is a precision pickup in a Thunderbird shaped housing, the TBJ will be similar but a jazz inside, the TBDC will be similar to the 35DC, ditto for the TBCS = 35CS. The TBTW allows you to switch between a CS humbucker and a Jazz.

That is a good deal - those cabs take an awful lot of power and just keep going. I sold mine purely bacause of the weight or I would still have them

If you're talking about the different Thunderbird models then the standard Thunderbird as far as I know has AlNiCo pickups, the Goth has ceramic, The NIkki Sixx ones are probably laced with cocaine and the Pro has the T-Pro™ bass humbuckers, whatever that involves. if you're talking about something else then I'm lost

[quote name='ogrimark' post='1239007' date='May 21 2011, 09:28 AM']+1 On that one. The one I have is a very similar design and all the gigs and time at home it has never slipped off. It does look dodgy but trust the magic.[/quote] I prefer to use the force, hence the Darth Vader knob

What you really want is an Ibanez Blazer. Personally, I've had Squiers of various descriptions from humble Affinities to the mighty and overrated JVs, MIMs, a MIA (the most disappointing of them all), MIJs, CIJs and so on and they were all disappointing in that I could not get what I believed to be the precision tone I've heard on so many recordings and live performances. So that just left copies to try and when this one came up on the forum I had to have it. Sounds completely different to my Thunderbird which was what I wanted and it gives me what I feel is the 'true' precision tone

[quote name='Johnston' post='1238623' date='May 20 2011, 07:40 PM']I'm not keen on small nuts and find finger playing difficult with tight spacings at the bridge.[/quote] Ooooooooooooooooooooh Matron But seriously folks - I'm in the same boat as Doddy on this one. I've rarely owned a bass for more than a couple of months over the last few years so if you hand me a 4,5, 6, 8, 12ver, fretted, fretless, semi acoustic or electroacoustic I can't see it being a problem as long as I can get a decent sound out of it.

They're only wee screws and don't even require a pilot hole to screw them in so i wouldn't worry about that - just position them straight, start the first screw just past the point where it bites then fire the next one in the same and then tighten. Its really that easy - nothing to worry about

For about the 20th time - ta da: less than a fiver from Thomann. the bass will not slide off it regardless of how it looks. i have used this for my thunderbird at every gig I've done since I bought it last year

if the pickup route is the same as the standard Epi Thunderbird then EMG 35DCs will fit straight in. You'll have a bit of a gap top and bottom but they fit really well with no modification

My new Blazer's been getting all the gigs since I bought it but the Thunderbird will be back out for the next gig. Its more the feel of the bass for me. its the closest I've owned to my perfect bass playing wise. Still buggering around with the electronics. Currently has a set of EMG DCs but over the weekend I'm planning on removing the neck pickup and installing a Bartolini NTBT 2 band EQ and just run it with the bridge pickup

I bought a bass off this guy - it was a Yamaha TRB6 copy, even had the Yamaha logo on the headstock and came with a Yamaha owners manual. But it was absolutely shocking - scratches, poorly finished frets, damage to the end of the fretboard, neck like a banana. Needless to say it went right back to him and I got a refund. Chinese copies perhaps? I couldn't say for certain but I'd never had a copy with the logo on the headstock and an owners manual before so whoever is making them is going to some lengths to try and pass them off as originals

[quote name='FayeAutumn' post='1226389' date='May 10 2011, 04:29 PM']Very tempted to try flats myself now. I've been using Rotosound SwingBass nickel roundwound's and have generally gotten on with them - certainly nicer (for me) than the steels, I still get a bit more buzz than I'd like. I like a nice warm sound without too much zing and clank, and I never play slap (actually can't and not interested in learning) so there'd be no loss there. If I do make the switch it'll be to the Roto Jazz 77's, probably with the same 45-65-85-105 gauge I use now. The price is a bit off-putting but I figure if they're going to last a fair bit longer then it's only a short-term increase in cost.[/quote] That's me 6 months on the Thunderbird and just put a set on the Blazer. I just discovered tonight that I can slap on the Blazer and it sounds exactly like slapping on rounds. I tried it on the Thunderbird but I'm guessing that it may just not be a slap friendly bass. On the Blazer, however, it was awesome The Roto flats are brighter to me than other flats with the added advantage that they are smooth, especially when compared to the very rough roto rounds. They also don't seem to dull down or settle in like other flats. I remember my TI's sound changing over a period of time but the Rotos have remained consistent in tone from new to 6 months so far.

Just back from playing the second night at a club in Dundee. New band but the short story is that a friend of ours' band split up, leaving him with all the gigs as he is the one that books them so he needed a band to do the gigs so myself, the drummer and the keyboard player from my wedding band get asked to do them. Bit strange as the guy who books the gigs is a keyboard player so our keyboard player just sang both nights which was really strange for him. Really strange for the other keyboard player as he usually goes out as a two-piece with backing tracks so its a bit of a shock having a band alongside him. Another bizarre thing is that there is no guitarist which is interesting when you're playing songs like Sex On Fire and Chelsea Dagger but we managed to pull it off. Did our first gig last night with no rehearsal and didn't even know what songs we all knew until we were sitting in the bar but we managed to cobble a rough set together. Overall it was Ok but a bit disjointed in places. Tonight was a completely different kettle of fish. the keyboard player put together a set that we could add or take away stuff from. Really bizarre as I've never used a set for about15 years as we usually play by reading the audience to see what they want. We were really tight and got a lot of complements. I got my first complement in ages about my bass sound - I ended up using the Blazer both nights and it was fantastic. completely different to the soloed bridge pickup sound that I use with the thunderbird and I did find that I had to boost the top end on the amp quite a bit but it was awesome. In fact I'm now on the hunt for one of the single pickup Blazers to try out. Of the 6 or 7 Precisions I've had ranging from a JV Squier to MIA Fender, none have ever given me a satisfying precision sound if that makes sense? This one, however takes the biscuit. Feels great to play as well but its bizarre not having something under the strings when I play near the bridge. Might make myself a ramp to stick under there. Night ended up with us playing an encore to a packed dancefloor and more bookings.

But wait. Who's this? Oh my, it looks like this guy's at the wrong fight. What an embarrassment. So he takes his frustrations out on his drum kit

Grab a granny night at a club in Dundee We were there last night so the gear's still set up.

cool thanks. Needs a wee bit of a tweak for tonight

Kinda feel a bit silly asking this cos i should know but its been so long since I last owned a bass with truss rod adjustment at the body end of the neck. If I'm looking from the bridge end of the bass towards the neck, do I move the allen key to the left or the right to reduce the amount of forward bow? (I know righty tighty etc but didn't know if it was the same with the truss rod adjustment at the other end) Its an Ibanez Blazer so I'm assuming that its the same as any other bass with truss rod at the body end of the neck. Cheers

Well I always have referred to that forum as Talk[b]bs[/b] for a reason I almost got chased to the hills for saying that Jaco's playing sounded like a bunch of cats fighting over a rubber mouse. Well it does

[quote name='Clarky' post='1224653' date='May 8 2011, 11:28 PM']That is drop dead gorgeous - whose is it? A BC'er?[/quote] Alas it was mine a few years ago. Bought it brand new from Peter Cook's. The mintiest green Rick 4003 Blue Boy I've ever seen. Had the Pickguardian make me the vintage scratchplate and pickup surround and fitted a genuine toaster pickup when you could get them for about £60. Like my Midnight Blue 4003 and my '51 Fender P reissue, I just couldn't get on with the lack of top contouring. I may treat myself to a 4003S in the future