ThomBassmonkey

[quote name='allighatt0r' post='1048173' date='Dec 5 2010, 01:03 PM']This is him, in a more serious environment, still with his 8 string though: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4zc1GUsqjU"]And here[/url]. The comments say his real name is Hyunmo Kim and it looks his band is called Oriental Express.[/quote] What's the instrument that sounds a bit like a muted trumpet?

[quote name='Johnston' post='1048161' date='Dec 5 2010, 12:50 PM']The Japanese are the main ones I think. Then they went to Korea and then like Epiphone and the like production went out to China. I think the only palce to look is on the tokai uk website. Although there are a few on the Pricelist not on the website which is a bit odd. And searching for the part numbers doesn't show much. all going to plan I'll have more details in the new year and hopefully have a few in my hands Edit whats the EB0 like compared to the EPi? and are you sure its not an EB3?[/quote] Well as a dealer for Tokai you'd expect us to have the full catalogue. We shouldn't really have to check the website. It is pretty bad, I was talking to the owner the other day and he didn't even realise they did J and P type basses, he just assumed the Gibbo copy was the only bass they did (can't remember the specs of it.). We don't actually have it in stock though so I can't tell you how good it is. It's likely to be better than the Epiphone ones though (I'm not a big fan of Epis. ). We're in the process of moving at the moment, when we're in our new shop we should be ordering in some Tokai basses, I'll let you know how it goes if you're sill interested in them then.

[quote name='Johnston' post='1048049' date='Dec 5 2010, 10:45 AM']Where you looking at the Chinese or Japanese versions though. The Jap one RRPS around the £800 mark and the Chinese is more CV territory.[/quote] I've never seen the Japanese ones, I didn't even realise they do them. The problem with Tokai is they don't advertise themselves very well, the shop I work at deals them but they don't even have Jazz sounds listed in the catalogue. In fact I think the only bass the do have is their version of the EB0.

[quote name='munkonthehill' post='1047718' date='Dec 4 2010, 07:56 PM'][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVThmL2u1Ig&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVThmL2u1Ig...feature=related[/url][/quote] Is he really playing that on an 8 string? He's clearly an awesome bassist and having fun while he's doing it. Whatever his reason for dressing the way he does (probably a mix of knowing that in the thumbnail looking like he's a girl wearing a short skirt attracting more viewers and just for shits and giggles), does it matter? I still find watching his videos fun...and makes me jealous of his ability...and his legs..

I've played a couple of conbustions and really liked them, I love the jazz style necks on them and I was GASing heavily for one, there are a couple of things that put me off though. I tried one in Bass Direct a while back and it felt and sounded lovely (through a GB amp), though the 2nd one I tried was through my amp and it didn't quite have the sound I wanted. It might have been the bass (deader strings maybe) and to be fair to it I didn't really play with the EQ, so I've not written them off for that. The other thing is that the B is actually 37", not 36" (on the combustion, I think the higer ranges can be 33-35" scales) which makes the E over 36". While it works and because of the way the frets fan, it doesn't feel as long as you'd expect, it is definitely still harder work than a 34" or 35" if you're riffing on the E or B strings which I don't feel is really needed when there's shorter scale basses that sound and feel brilliant on those low strings. As a result I'm now GASing for something else, maybe a Sandberg but I'm still open to options.

[quote name='LukeFRC' post='1047839' date='Dec 4 2010, 10:55 PM']but not exactly known for making bad rip-offs...[/quote] I've just checked my LP and it's Chinese, not Japanese like I thought, but it's a brilliant guitar, so I know they're not bad rip-offs, trust me. The Fender style basses they do are pretty much limited to the Hardpuncher (P) and Jazzsound (J), both of these are relatively budget priced basses (I've not had a go on either, so I can't comment on quality, I'd imagine them to be around MIM standard though knowing Tokai). If they were to start producing higher quality instruments after just making ones in that price bracket for so long, they'd be lumped together quite quickly by Joe Public instead of having them looked at individually.

It depends on the low end distortion used. I used to agree, but I love the fatness I get from my GK rig using the distortion on the head. It's horses for courses though of course.

I don't know about Futurama and Fender's copyright, Tokai does make cerain models for Fender though. I own a Japanese LP style Tokai guitar, if they are making Fender copies up to a good standard (particularly their basses have always been cheaper copies rather than actually competing with Fender), they'll be formidable. The only reason I can think that they'd change name is that they've been known for decades for making rip-offs, maybe they want to start fresh if they're taking it in a new direction.

I'm not usually a fan of telebasses but I like #4 too, I think it'd look better if the guard came down to meet the top right corner of the pup instead of going over the top.

Most pop-punk songs, there's also quite a nice learning curve with them. You can start off with something like All The Small Things which has a nice simple bassline, only about 4-5 notes in the whole song IIRC then move on to stuff like Longview and Why Don't You Get a Job which are a bit more complex. A lot of pop-punk has very similar patterns on the fretboard too so you can start picking up intervals by thinking "this song sounds a bit like that song but in a different key, so if that song jumps from F to C and this chord change sounds similar but I'm in G, it might go to D." etc.

[quote name='molan' post='1047371' date='Dec 4 2010, 02:55 PM']I managed to get a scan of he signature of the person who'd taken delivery and it turned out to be a neighbour/friend who'd taken it in and hadn't spotted the buyer was home from work yet.[/quote] It's lucky that it showed up that way. The neighbour should've posted a note through the reciever's door really though, but all's well that ends well. The delivery person shouldn't really have delivered it to a neighbour though, as much as people can hope people are trustworthy, they aren't always. I've taken deliveries of expensive items and not had to show ID, they just assume the person answering the door lives at the address, if someone gets the address wrong or teh delivery guy reads the wrong address, it'd be easy to do a fake signature and take the item. This is a good thread to highlight the importance of insurance. I hope that the bass shows up at the buyer's house soon.

Ah ok, that makes sense. Well when I do the body again, I'll skip the neck and see how it is at practice on Tuesday. Thanks for the tips.

Just done it, I'm sure I'll live to regret being lazy and not taking the strings off when they get sticky but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it haha. It seemed to like it and slurped it all up, I'll give it another go over in a few days. I did do the back of the neck, I like the feel of it, I did give it a serious buffing though.

[quote name='mart' post='1046278' date='Dec 3 2010, 01:01 PM']This gets asked at the Warwick forum quite frequently. Have a look at the wiki/faq there for some tips: [url="http://forum.warwick.de/content/110-how-do-i-wax-my-bass.html"]http://forum.warwick.de/content/110-how-do...ax-my-bass.html[/url][/quote] Nice one, I managed to miss that when I did a search on the wick forum. Realised we didn't have any dusters in, so gonna go and get some in a few.

There's no splits or cracks in the wood and it does have a build up of wax around the pups, so I assume it's been done regularly in the past, I've just not got around to doing it yet myself. I'll get on the case this afternoon.

I've had my Thumb for getting on for a year now and haven't waxed it yet, I've only just got around to buying some (had problems with verisign and kept putting it off resulting in not a lot being bought online) but now I finally have some! I've done a search on it, but I can only think up search terms that are quite vague and produce a lot of results simply saying that they need to be waxed. Basically since it's been a long time since it's been done, I assume I need to leave the wax to settle in a lot longer or do more applications. I also intend to do the neck as I can feel ridges along it which I assume as a sign of it drying out a bit, it sits in it's case a lot, so I assume it needs some extra TLC than a bass that's out every day and being sweated over constantly. Also, is a normal duster cloth ok for the job? Any tips are appreciated. Thanks

Gallien Krueger stuff. Their trademark sound is growly so I would (and did) go with them!

[quote name='Chris2112' post='1045904' date='Dec 3 2010, 01:42 AM']I usually don't advocate buying new, but if you're looking for one and can't find any used Guitar Guitar could probably cut you a decent deal on one. Either that, or hit Guitar Guitar Newcastle, where they usually have loads of Sandbergs.[/quote] Looking at the guitarguitar website, Sandbergs aren't even mentioned on there. I've been toying with the idea of a new one, they're so rare and also since they do the semi-custom thing, I could get a nice top on it or choose my paint instead of going for one of the bog standard ones. I'll have to look into it after xmas, can't afford to buy new now. Edit: Brick, if there's still a slight volume dip, you could try lowering the bridge pup too, I know it's not ideal but if it's only a slight dip, it shouldn't be a big problem.

[quote name='AndyTravis' post='1045770' date='Dec 2 2010, 10:41 PM']Ed Friedland gets it right, plays the same Riff 10 times, different pickups, tone settings etc with 3 or 4 techniques.[/quote] His reviews are totally useless though... He could make a tissue box with laggy bands around it sound great.