Delberthot

Well maybe Rick James

We had one of those cardboard flight cases for our mixer for years. In fact it was the box the mixer came in so still had the foam inserts to keep it secure in transit. By the time we sold it, the box was more gaffa tape than cardboard

It's still fared a lot better than mine. I defretted my one with a huge flat file before chipping the paint off and eventually binning it in 1991 and getting a Riverhead Jupiter

I've been curious as to how close they are. I can't imagine that they'd be a million miles away to keep the costs down but then again Fender will be buying them by the truck load to fit to their basses as well as selling them separately

Ha - I had one of those as my first bass. £99 from the Littlewoods catalogue in 1987 I have in the past seen knobs with a "D" shaped hole underneath for those type of pots but I would think that regular round shaft knobs would fit as long as you tighten the grub screw into the rounded bit and not the flat bit otherwise it would push the knob in at an angle Be careful with the bridge - the chrome peeled off on mine.

If the thumbnail image of a Youtube video shows the right thumb anywhere near the end of the neck then they get right to feck. I don't play like that and to be honest how many of us make a living slapping all night, or even at all? The same goes for 'tasteful' chords and other such nonsense. Play the bass like a real person would play it - that is about 99% of us who either play with fingers or plectrum. Play a riff that allows us to hear the notes rather than sounding like you've fallen down the stairs with the bass in your hands, give us variation between playing near the bridge and moving towards the neck. We don't need a million notes, we don't need to hear your chops - if you want to do all your w@nky pish then do it on another video - you're meant to be showing us what the bass sounds like, not showing off. Show us what the controls do and how they sound in different positions It's really not difficult at all And breathe 🤪

I'm finding the current D'addario EXL220BT strings too low tension and fancied a change so I've ordered myself a set of Fender 7250ML strings. Going to see for myself if the rumours are true that it is D'addario that make them. Worth a punt at £12.80 for a set delivered from Amazon when it's £18ish for a set of EXL165s

I love my setup and this is the longest that I have kept the same combination of bass, amp and cab in years. There's always been something coming or going over the years that it's nice to be able to set up my gear and just enjoy playing instead of thinking about what I could get next. The Rickenbacker was just for the hell of it 😀 I'll be gigging it in 2 weeks at a corporate gig. Tube ampology bezel in place of the cover and obligatory D'addario EXL165 strings fitted

I'm exactly the opposite - I find that dry, clean fingers are so much easier to play with than wet/greasy/etc ones. My solution years ago was to position a small clip on fan pointing in the direction of my right hand. It means that my fingers don't sweat, my strings don't get sticky and everything is smooth to the touch. If you're looking for smooth rounds then D'addario XL nickels are the smoothest I've ever used. That was really important to me when I made the switch from flats a couple of years ago Plus isn't nose grease etc going to significantly shorten the life of your strings as the grime gets between the windings?

Have you tried the D'addario balanced tension EXL160BT set before? 50, 67, 90, 120 I had them on my Sterling and they were still very playable but I prefer my usual EXL165 strings

I'm doing something similar. So far I have Behringer octave & phaser pedals that cost a grand total of £34 for both of them delivered from Amazon. I've been looking for something like the Boss LS-2 for much cheapness so that I can mix the dry and effected signals but haven't managed to find anything yet - I know they go for around £50 delivered on the forum and EBay but I'm looking for something that costs half that new.

I've noticed a lot of players using that really crooked right wrist technique with the hand bent right back on Youtube videos - surely that's just asking for trouble years down the line? Another example here:

It was me 😉 I took it off to fit a bezel and it was then I noticed that the pickup was wonky The new one is on it's way to me now and I should get it tomorrow but it will be Thursday or Friday before I get a good play. I also received my replacement bezel through the post today as well. I had bought the one with the finger rest incorporated but felt that it was getting in the way so Rickysounds were good enough to swap it over for the standard one.

It looks like an "O" right before the RFA and only "I" or nothing would fit in that space so "P AORFA maybe?

The stamp in the middle looks to me to read "X 6 26 79" so 26th June 1979?

Scales like those can be incredible inaccurate and difficult to get the right weight. The easiest way to weigh you bass is to get a set of bathroom scales. Weigh yourself holding the bass then weigh yourself on your own. The difference is the bass You may or may not get a shock at how much you actually weigh rather than the weight of the bass 😀

If your tuner is having trouble with the E then play the harmonic on the 12th fret by lightly touching the E string right over the 12th fret an pluck the string Some tuners, including some fitted to a bass amp, aren't sensitive enough to hear the E string, let alone the B so I've had to do this in the past. Regarding the thumb, as per Newfoundfreedom's post, do what feels comfortable to you. there is no right or wrong. Depending on the bass I will use either the pickup or the E string, sometimes both

That's the ground wire I had a look under the pickup and the holes in the base plate had been drilled at an angle making the pickup at an angle but I'm unsure what would happen if I undid them. It looks like there is wire underneath the screw and I don't want to damage the pickup on a brand new bass. Someone suggested on another forum of enlarging the screw holes so that you could move the pickup around to suit but that would mean using a big washer in order to secure the screw to the baseplate to stop them going right through

I got that email as well but when I went onto the site to check who was doing it, it seems that it is only available in the US as far as I could tell. That's a shame as I have just used my last set of EXL165s and was thinking about trying something different.

And the wonky pickup

After a couple of emails and a quick call with Richard at Reidys the bass will be picked up on Thursday and another one sent in its place. He did tell me that he had a look at the ones they have on display and they all have squint pickups so mine isn't the only one. The reason for sending it back is the paint finish at the back of the neck. I managed to capture a couple of pictures that don't really show it as bad as it feels It's from the glare from the flash towards the right hand side you can see a sort of rippling of the surface

If you get the chance, give the D'addario EXL160BT set a try. The E is a 120 but doesn't feel overly high tension

This might come in handy

Well it looks like it will be going back but hopefully just to be exchanged. I took the pickup cover off to fit the bezel and noticed that the pickup has been fitted to the base at an angle so sits completely squint. One I had the cover off I noticed a couple of areas of chrome on the surround that were slightly bubbled during the chroming process Not an issue as such but one of the screws holding the truss rod cover was only screwed half way in. I did take all of the screws off to make sure there were no surprises underneath I had a look at the back of the neck and from the area right behind the nut to about the 5th fret there is a section about 1cm across that looks like the paint has rippled. I'm wondering if the bass has been laid down before the paint completely hardened(?) Not impressed on a bass with an RRP of £2350 and not impressed that not only did it pass through the Rickenbacker QC but also the store that I bought it from didn't notice any of this. The bass had been out of the packaging as the case had dirty marks on it when I got it which came off easily so someone had looked at it prior to me buying it. I still want a 4003 but not this one. I've emailed the shop to see about exchanging it for another. I will make sure that they check it thoroughly before sending it out to me, assuming that their website is accurate and they still have another one. It's a shame as this one was set up perfectly right out of the case which would have been a first for me