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ThomBassmonkey

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Everything posted by ThomBassmonkey

  1. ThomBassmonkey
    [quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1071340' date='Dec 28 2010, 10:33 PM']Not as well as pickup pan but like standard jazz volume for each pup maybe a stacked bass / treble pot then the active/passive blend on a separate knob that pulls out for fully passive, That setup I'm certain I have used.[/quote] Aha, that makes more sense. Never seen it though. What bass was it on, if you remember?
  2. ThomBassmonkey
    I've never seen a bass that has an active/passive mixed in with the pickup pan, it wouldn't let you have full access to all the options. My Sandy and Thumb both have push/pull active/passive on the blend or vol pot though.
  3. ThomBassmonkey
    [quote name='patch006' post='1071271' date='Dec 28 2010, 09:08 PM']I find these negative posts a bit much some times, if they are rubbish then they will ulitmately pay for that. The coment the other day about the bass direct guy should ever have been posted. Come on guys we all have good and bad experiences but it might be an idea in dealing with them directly instead of possibly badly affecting someones lively hood. And no I don't work at the bass cellar! On the other hand, cheers guys I don't think I will bother popping into the bass cellar when next in the big smoke! [/quote] Why's that? If someone's had a negative experience of somewhere, other people should know. That thread the other day on BD may have looked bad in the first post, but it's actually a showcase of the good service Mark has given people. The couple of negative points in there (one of them mine) were obviously shown to be in the minority. Anyone who thinks that every shop should have perfect customer service 100% of the time with no errors needs to get their heads out of the clouds. It's far better that a post like that comes up and the shop's proven instead of the OP continuing to harbour a misconception.
  4. ThomBassmonkey
    This is my first expensive bass, but the sound of the Sandberg is better to my ears and although this has the slightly lower action, there's very little in it and the Sandy's still more than playable. This is a 2002 model, it has the thinner neck (it's no Jazz, but it's no club either) that some have. Sounds great, just like you'd want a Warwick to sound. There's various live videos on youtube of my band, the James Warner Prophecies where you can hear it in a band context. (the Breathe In video, despite it being in the video, it was my Ibanez being played on the actual song). When I got it, it did have problems with the neck, but it's had several hundred pounds worth of work on it and it's stunning now. I play very hard and I struggle to get fret buzz, even when I specifically try. The action height at the 12th is about a pound coin. The only other notable negative is that the just-a-nut tabs were broken by the luthier when he did the work on the neck, annoying but only in a perfectionist kinda way. It doesn't affect anything about the bass, it's not even really visible unless you look closely and it's a very common problem with them. It also needs some new strings due to a waxing incident. To be honest, I do love this bass, I've just got VGAS (I'm coining that to mean Vague GAS. I don't know what I want, I just want something ). I know I'm going to regret this, so there's no rush to get rid of it. I've spent nearly £1000 on this with buying it and repairs, I'd stick about £850 value on it for trades, I also have a proper Warwick Rock Case for it which I'd consider throwing in if the deal was right and I'd consider trading a little down. I'm prepared to look at offers with cash my way too. For trades, I'm interested in pretty much anything. Preferably 5+ strings with MM pups, but I'm pretty open to suggestions if it's something nice. Something like a ray 5 would hit the spot. Feel free to PM me with any questions, those pics are a bit old but it looks exactly the same, even after fairly extensive gigging in the year I've had it. If anyone is seriously interested and wants more detailed photos, let me know. I'm not in any serious rush to get rid of this bass, so no, I won't accept £500 for it or do a straight swap for your mint condition VMJ. Thom p.s. Feedback thread in my sig, it's a bit new though so not much going on yet hehe.
  5. ThomBassmonkey
    [quote name='BTS_Spacebass' post='1070863' date='Dec 28 2010, 11:51 AM']I think the problem with most instrument shops is the staff know best. Better than you anyway lol [/quote] Having worked in an instrument shop, there's two sides to knowing best. The staff in the shop (especially in small shops) probably do know their stock better than you do, they spend all day with it. They also (probably) have more contact with musicians in relation to gear than you do. What's important to remember though (as a member of staff in a shop) is that instruments are horses for courses and just because I think Thumbs make great rock basses, it doesn't mean the next person wants that sound. Giving someone advice when they ask for it or nudging someone to at least look at something else before they buy expensive gear is the responsible thing to do IMO. Letting someone spend thousands without looking at other options is a bit silly. Though if someone has their heart set on something, it's equally stupid to try and talk them out of it (from a business perspective, probably stupider).
  6. ThomBassmonkey
    I picked up a Sandberg JJ5 a week or two ago as an xmas present to myself, Stunning bass.
  7. ThomBassmonkey
    [quote name='EssentialTension' post='1068338' date='Dec 23 2010, 10:55 PM']I can't see why tuning differently would make someone an idiot to any degree - people can tune their instrument how they like, and indeed they do. However, I can't see what's creative about a band [i]insisting[/i] (as the OP puts it) that the bassist tunes in a particular way - they are demanding he sticks to their standards.[/quote] Note the /sarcasm. There's a few people suggesting in this thread that people are just doing it for the sake of copying people like SRV (or others) and who cares, says I? People should be left to make music how they want. Without knowing what the music's like, it's a bit tough to really comment. If I was a guitarist and I was doing a lot of open-3rd-open-5th-open etc style riffing in Eb, I'd want the bassist to be in Eb too to keep up. If there's no songs like that, then maybe the last bassist had a poor 5er or amp that couldn't handle the low frequencies and they have bad experiences of that lower string. Another thing could be that they've never worked with a bassist with a B string and don't know what it's capable of and just assume that the bass needs to be tuned down. There's a lot of reasons that people might want a tuned down bass instead of a B string, it's impossible to say without knowing the situation. I'd be annoyed though if I was perfectly capable of playing something in standard and they forced me to tune down.
  8. ThomBassmonkey
    I played Piano when I was 5 for a couple of years, then gave up because I didn't like the teacher, then did keyboard at 11, gave up because I liked my playstation more. Started bass when I was 16. My early memories are either of being dragged to a local folk club by my parents or going to Cajun or Zydeco gigs and finding it funny how my ears rang after standing next to the PA speakers (wish I knew then what I know now...).
  9. ThomBassmonkey
    Obviously if someone tunes differently to the standard, that makes them idiots to one degree or another. It's not like it's a creative art forum we're on, we should all stick to the standards. /sarcasm. Ok, now that's out of the way: There's loads of reasions people might want to tune differently. Vocal range, different feel of the strings, different sound they make. Saying "why would you tune down to have that song in C?" is silly, because why would you have it in G when you could do it in E? Or F#? Or C etc etc. The bass in music is the real meat of what's going on, lots of guitarists want to tune down to tap into that a bit (though I doubt that's the reason for a semi-tone tune down) but why shouldn't they? Assuming the bass set-up is strong enough to be able to take the bass even lower. I used to tune A-A# (6er down a tone) and I was always fine. Our rhythm guitarist played and wrote in drop D and I tuned down so I could join in with the fast open D riffs.
  10. ThomBassmonkey
    [quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1068155' date='Dec 23 2010, 07:43 PM']Santa has only just brought me a Stingray 5 last week so I dont want to be too greedy just yet. [/quote] Don't be silly, I've only had my Sandberg 8 days.
  11. ThomBassmonkey
    So this year I've had two amps and about 4 new basses. Unfotunately, because I'm a GASoholic, that's not going to keep me sorted for next year, so through next year I'll be after these: Gallien MB500 and 2 Neo 112 cabs (my 2001RB and 410RBH is back breaking and pointless in rehearsals and small gigs). EUB (depending on budget, maybe an NS or a Stagg). A wireless system (still need to look into them). I'm really loving my Sandy, so I'm gonna see if I'm still as entheusastic about it in a few months, if so, I might be looking to get myself a PM5 as a bit of variation to my JJ5. Otherwise I might go for a custom build (ACG maybe) and have something a bit special.
  12. ThomBassmonkey
    Thanks chaps! I think I'll try out that Italia Straps, Owen. They look reasonable prices with the BOGOF deal.
  13. ThomBassmonkey
    [quote name='dbass' post='1066568' date='Dec 22 2010, 11:00 AM']Thom - When Mark leaves you on your own in the shop it equals play as many basses as you can time ;-) Although you do feel like not wanting to touch anything in case you drop it >.<[/quote] It's not so much that I'm likely to drop it (I have the same chance of dropping stuff if I ask first), I just know from my own experience in shops that people go in and go "ooh, that's pretty, I fancy a go on that" with no intentions of buying and it really winds me up (especially when they start dropping them). I'm sure that's something that Mark (and anyone else that works in instrument shops) has to deal with, you just have to grin and bear it though because sometimes even the most unlikely person can pull out a wad of cash (or at least come back with their parents' and their card ). Considering that (especially in a small shop) you're basically asking someone if you can have a play on instruments they own, it's polite to ask before you start noodling. Anyway, there's no hard feelings, I understand that this kinda thing can happen every so often and when so many people have had good dealings with Mark it sounds like it was just unlucky, it just left a bit of a bitter taste at the time after such a long drive. I'm sure if I ever go down again, I'll get better service (and a cuppa ).
  14. ThomBassmonkey
    [quote name='brick' post='1066461' date='Dec 22 2010, 09:16 AM']how u liking the Sandberg JM5?[/quote] It's a JJ5, I wanted a JM5, but the JJ5 came up and I took that. It's stunning though, I'm glad I went for it. Only done a couple of gigs with it so far (had it less than a week) but it sounded great at both.
  15. ThomBassmonkey
    I'm VERY critical of bands (as a whole, not just bassists), I have a knack for spotting mistakes and I honestly believe that if I tell a crap band that they were amazing, they'll continue to be crap because they don't know that they are. We played with a band on Saturday who played well but tuned to each other instead of a tuner and their singer couldn't stay in key. After the gig they asked what I thought of it and I told them. Now they're going to start using tuners and working through scales and other excersises with their singer so they benefitted from my honesty. The thing about bassists specifically is that because I'm in the rock scene, the vast majority of bassists just play root notes. I would never tell someone that what they're writing is wrong as that comes down to opinion. I rarely listen to specific instruments anyway, I enjoy music much more if there's a good groove to it.
  16. ThomBassmonkey
    Whereabouts are you? There's a shop in Nottingham that carries Sandbergs. From what I've heard about them, they're pretty consistant, so I'd be a bit less wary about buying blind than certain other brands. I've only played this one though, but the others I've seen look very nifty too.
  17. ThomBassmonkey
    My Warwick is brilliant and sounds great, but it gives me a quite dark tone, which can be useful but it's a very one trick pony for it. I'm already umming and ahhing about moving it on, even though I love it. The action on my JJ5 is a little higher than my Warwick (it's still only around 2.5mm at 12th) and it annoys me, which is stupid because it's still fairly low and I'm a hard player, so I doubt even the lowest action basses could get much lower.
  18. ThomBassmonkey
    Find a good teacher and have lessons. It sounds like you're at the point where you need to be given guidance on what to do next, on a forum like this people could suggest the next step for you, but without seeing you playing and knowing what you know/don't know, it's hard to really help.
  19. ThomBassmonkey
    Sandberg JJ5, mine's lovely
  20. ThomBassmonkey
    [code][img]http://basschat.co.uk/style_images/basschat/logotext.jpg[/img][/code] would give you the basschat logo.
  21. ThomBassmonkey
    In the same way you do it in posts, with the [-i-m-g-] tags (without the hyphons, of course)
  22. ThomBassmonkey
    I don't want to seem rude, but a 2 hour drive is a big price (in time and petrol) to pay for a cup of tea (not to mention it'd be the second time, meaning 4 hours of driving for a cuppa and a noodle on a Dingwall). Next time I have GAS, if there's something you have in that I fancy, I might pop in, but it's a long way for general curiosity now that I have the Sandberg.
  23. ThomBassmonkey
    I went down to BD a while back and although Mark seemed nice, he quickly disappeared into his office for a phone call for over 20 minutes leaving me stuck in the shop holding a bass. I work in a guitar shop sometimes and I know how annoying it is when people help themselves to gear, especially expensive stuff, so in the end I just felt very uncomfortable and left. I very much doubt that it was deliberate, but it was an hour drive each way resulting in me getting to try out one bass and feel very awkward. The frustrating part was that there was a Lakland JO in at the time (that is on this forum now) that I was considering buying on the day, I ended up waiting and getting a Sandberg instead.
  24. ThomBassmonkey
    [quote name='dbass' post='1065779' date='Dec 21 2010, 03:33 PM']THOM - love the santa mate!!![/quote] He's there for tone, the top of the head vibrates in a certain way, after it's gone through the air inside him (much like a valve), it goes back through the head to the cab and helps boost the bass frequencies without making it muddy.
  25. ThomBassmonkey
    I've done a full upgrade again since I started this thread hehe. Here's my new gear:
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