Dave Vader

Yep, +1 on axesrus, free delivery. Get alpha pots, they are cheaper and just as good as CTS IMHO. Remember old rule, 250k for single coils, 500k for humbuckers (although you can experiment) One of the reasons that people think putting the expensive electrics in really opened up their bass is that they had the wrong pots in there to start with. Every cheap strat I have ever had came with 500k audio taper pots in it. Fine for the volume, but for a sweeter tone roll off, a 250k linear taper is far better (again IMHO). If I were you I'd get a 250k audio taper for volume, and a 250k linear for your tone. Stick a .047 orange drop cap to the tone control and you'll be laughing. It's what I have in my old P, and it really did change it.

So far I have poured well over £700 into my Rickenbastard faker, I am very happy with it, it has a hipshot bridge which seriously sorted out the ludicrous idea that fender spacing on a ric sized neck could work. Yours seems to have decent pickups in it already, I would say that's a peachy bargain you have there, the new fakers go for twice that, and are about half as good. Sort the bridge with a ric spaced one, and that thing should be brilliant. Remember Hooky played a Hondo, and we've all played RIcs that are total dogs in our time. For a first bass you've lucked in there. Well done.

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1977-USA-Fender-Precision-Bass-Natural-Fretless-/330537668770?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item4cf59490a2#ht_500wt_933"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1977-USA-Fender-Prec...a2#ht_500wt_933[/url] or [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Guild-301-Electric-Bass-Guitar-Vintage-1977-Fretless-/280551417240?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item41522ae598#ht_3353wt_692"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Guild-301-Electric-B...8#ht_3353wt_692[/url] or [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1977-American-Fender-Precision-fretless-/190508678296?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2c5b33bc98#ht_500wt_933"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1977-American-Fender...98#ht_500wt_933[/url] why are all the '77 basses fretless? Those crazy 80s kids and their pliers eh?

I've just replaced my drivers with the Celestion TF 1525, and they sound luvverly. I was after the BL as well, but the chap told me these were damn near identical. They sound great in my old cabs. And as long as the wattage of the speaker is higher than the amp you'll be fine, won't blow anything.

[quote name='Ancient Mariner' post='1148520' date='Mar 3 2011, 04:07 PM']One could argue that being able to hear a musical progression is evidence that one's ear had been trained and educated - the thing missing is the mechanism to explain what you hear to someone else using 'English' to describe the flow of notes.[/quote] All helpful enough, but it must be hard to play with anybody else, if Marty McFly's explanation of Johnny B. Goode is gibberish to you, you might not be able to play with other people. That was as basic as it gets. But if the Starlighters hadn't known what "1-4-5 12 bar in Bb watch me for the changes" or something like that meant, then Marty would have been wiped from history...

Hello fellow Devonian, we play in Exeter a lot, though I've not been to Coventry since 1990, has it changed much?

[quote name='Johnston' post='1147511' date='Mar 2 2011, 07:01 PM']New thread. Whats the cheapest bass on flats [/quote] Oh I think my £25 car boot sale fretless wins that one.

As I recall, when I was a young lad in the early 90s we were specifically told by the old timers that all 70s Fenders were sh*te and thus we shouldn't bother with them. Which is a shame, as I could never afford the pre-CBS that I was told were the only ones worth having, and I passed over a lot of very cheap strats/p-basses/teles/jazzes. Hey ho, ended up with a lot of japcrap, and it all seems to be going up. Oh, and a lot of 70s fenders are as sh*te as I was told, just a shame I've since played a heck of a lot of very nice ones.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='1147989' date='Mar 3 2011, 08:31 AM'][i][color="#0000FF"]I have no provenance but this guitar was once owned by one of the bass players from a 70s punk band[/color].[/i] I've been racking my brains, trying to remember a 70s punk band with more than one bass player ...[/quote] Sex Pistols, oh hang on, that was less than one, eventually.

[quote name='Count Bassy' post='1147423' date='Mar 2 2011, 06:04 PM']Theory aside, I'd be concerned that the keyboard player couldn't [i]hear[/i] the difference between a major and a minor (its a pretty fundamental difference in sound), though to be fair it could have been lost in the cacophony.[/quote] Yeah, she was trying to be polite, it was fairly obvious. She has since quit, I understand her reasons.

Okay, guitar player (as always) narked me off the other night as he said he hated musicians that go on and on about theory all the time. I would have brushed it off as usual reverse snobbery had it not been over the fact that the keys player asked him if he was playing an f major or an f minor. He said he didn't play by notes and letters, he just knew it was down there on the 1st. Now having spent most of my musical career as a guitar player, I've always been fine with them. Just this one, it occured to me that if you want to play with any other musician that isn't a guitar player a basic understanding of music, certainly notes chords and keys is a necessary, if you only deal in tabs, you will only ever be able to communicate with other guitar players, and even then, not very well or quickly. How can this pleb ever expect to get out of his bedroom and play with other people? Amusingly he mostly tries to ape Van Halen/ Satriani et al, the ultimate in super-duper theory headed guitar players, ho ho ho. Certainly couldn't do originals, or jam with anyone without a bit of help surely? I don't want to start the old Theory vs no theory debate again, and I'm not saying we all need to be Bilbo or Doddy, but come on? Minor and Major?!?!? That stuff IS important. (As it happens I'm always with Bilbo and Doddy in those arguments, but thats by the by) Anyone else come across such blatant muppetry?

bassmasta is always fine for me, I use Linux though. Have run it at work using chrome and no pop-up problems.

As a former soundguy myself, I found a trick to dealing with singers/guitarists that kept asking for a bit more this, and a bit more that during soundchecks. Having already set it perfect for the room, as they ask for more of something turn the treble all the way up, and slowly bring it back to where it was in the first place, at this point they will generally say something along the lines of "That's great now, much better". At which point you nod, take all the guitars out of the FOH and hope they don't turn their marshall stacks up any louder or everything's going to go to hell. Let the sound guy do the sound, he's already got enough audience members telling him how to do his job without you lot chiming in as well. Still have to do the sound for the bands I play with now, and pull the same trick on our vocalist every gig still.

Another plus one from here, I used them for ages til I went all flatwound. Lasted longer than the rotos I had been using previously. Still have a set on one of my basses, but I can't remember which.... or where it is....

After a year and a bit of playing in the Spaced Invaders (80s trib band) I have to say the DD bass lines are the bit that make it worth turning up to the gigs (only in it for the money me, hate the 80s). I like to stick my boot on the monitor in Planet Earth and pretend it's Maiden... Oh and the switching between little slappy bits and proper thumpy fingers in Hungry like the wolf is a bitch, especially when you're doing harmony vocals at the same time. Don't believe me? Come to Winkleigh on the 12th of March and watch me cock it up.

Start flat, adjust to the room. Used to bypass the eq on my old ashdown and twist tone on the bass. Can't on my GK, so I just fiddle till it sounds a bit like Geezer on the cheap.

Marv, try Big Stu in Bideford, up in Grenville St, can't remember what he's calling his shop these days, might be Bideford Bay Guitars, might be Atlantic, either way he's a top bloke, known him ages, he should be able to fix it fairly quick, he might have a generic part lying about to sort it with as well. I've never done active electronics otherwise I'd say come over to mine and we'll have a cup of tea and play with a soldering iron. Get something passive next time

[b]First Bass Owned:[/b] 1989 Sunn Mustang P-Bass copy [b]'Go To' Bass:[/b] 1989 Sunn Mustang P-Bass copy [b]'Your' Bass:[/b] 1989 Sunn Mustang P-Bass copy I really do own more than just that one, but I do love it so. Have rebuilt it 3 times as well, not exactly stock is a fairly apt phrase.

Okay, more on the 6-stringers, plugged the tele in. Oh dear... weak and crappy pickups, crank them and they feedback in totally the wrong way. String change might help the weak sound, as it came with girls strings on (9s). Also, took some bits off to have a look, and the assembly was a shock, to say the least. Each of the holes on the p/g had 2 corresponding ones in the body. It had been shunted up after the control plate had been moved up, cos the bit of wood it should have been screwed to had broken off. This left the neck pup at an angle as the p/g was pushing it. Explaining why it was so much weaker than the bridge one. On the bright side, looked like a decent lump of wood. Maybe not alder, but certainly not ply, looks a bit like the alder body of my old Ibby SB70, and feels decently chunky and solid. New nut, new strings and new bridge are first on my list of to dos, then pups if that doesn't help. Might change the neck eventually though. Advice, tom was right, these are dogs. If you don't feel the compulsive need to rebuild every instrument you own (like me, often described as an obsessive turd-polisher, but not in THAT sense) then don't buy one. Actually, even if you are, don't buy one. However, if you have, be nice, don't send it back to a charity shop and demand your money back, just skip it, trash it on stage in a townsend style, or burn it to keep warm. Don't sell it to some poor kid and put him off the instrument for life.

[quote name='Kinder' post='1114023' date='Feb 3 2011, 03:50 PM']Thanks guys, that's great. Lawrence - your build diary is a great read and what an amazing result! It looks superb. I'm really not sure if I've got the patience to put the effort in that you did with all the primer and paint coats though, it sounds like a real labour of love. Do you think it would look crap if I stripped it down and then applied a finish to the natural wood? I actually quite like the look of yours when it was stripped-down in your first diary post. Dave - how many coats of oil are you giving yours?[/quote] I did this to my P-bass (the one in my avatar) a couple of years ago as well. Took 3 coats, worked fine, comes off again fairly quick if you're sweaty, so needs to be topped up. There's some good advice on decent oil finishes on re-ranch. Oh, and Truckstop, if you use the right nitromors it works, has to be the specialist one, designed for poly finishes it is. Bloody marvellous stuff. check this thread for some of what I went through Kinder... [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=558473&highlight=sunn+mustang"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.p...ht=sunn+mustang[/url] (yes I know it's THAT forum, I've changed...)

I take off the thick poly finishes in 2 stages, first using nitromors specialist (the orange one) and a wallpaper scraper to take off the clear and most of the colour coat. Then go at it with p60 sandpaper to scrape out the rest of it, and get through that poly sealer. Do it over a few days and you won't go insane with the pain of it. And then use ever increasing grades of sandpaper to get a nice smooth finish to the wood. Just done an epiphone SG like this, and I'm currently danish oiling it, working nicely.

[quote name='mcnach' post='1113965' date='Feb 3 2011, 03:12 PM']I am sure it will be usable. Even if the fretwire is not the best, it will be usable. I think sometimes people look for exquisit details when it's a little out of place. The day back in '95 when I bought my 7 year old Fiat Uno I bought a perfectly useable and nice car, it served me well. But it didn't have ABS. The gearbox was clunky. The wheel rims were not fantastic. There were vibrations/noises in the car... It was a cheap car and I loved it That's what I was referring to. Of course I expect something that *works*. It's sold as a guitar, not decoration. But we can't expect £600-worth quality in £60, that's all [/quote] +1 Can I also point out that I drive a hyundai accent that my gran gave me when she stopped driving last year. It works, all the time. But it is not a ferrari. This Tele (more on it tommorrow folks) is similar.

[quote name='tom1946' post='1113922' date='Feb 3 2011, 02:39 PM']Re the g*itars, I said earlier that they are awful things, the acoustic versions will keep the fire burning for ten minutes or so [/quote] Depends on your view of awful. I reckon a string thru, solid wood tele body with some bits and bobs attached to keep it going while you save for upgrades is worth 60 quid of anyones money. Certainly saved me the time and effort I was going to put in converting my old 71 antoria to string thru. Frets might not be so bad, I belive they are also known as "vintage" frets, rather than my usual description of crappy, skinny, mandolin wire. Some people like them.

Tele update... Still haven't plugged it in, but, can confirm, frets are crappy little mandolin frets, will probably wear out in a week, and feel weird. Volume pot was spinning so went to take the knob off and tighten it up, and it turned out the knob wasn't glued to it's plastic base properly. So swapped it out, job done. Will hopefully find time to plug in tonight. Might be a nice base to learn how to refret properly....

White tele got here at lunchtime. Seems alright, setup was not as way off as you'd expect. Came with "lead" and allen keys, no case, no strap. Fine by me, seems pretty well put together after 5 minutes of strumming before coming back to work. Will report later after plugging it into the vox and seeing what comes out.