My Crap Bass

[mcnach]

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1347620270' post='1803089']
By the way Jose, I was thinking last night, did you ever get that pickup fixed? I think I had half a dream of you and loads and loads of wire everywhere. Why I was dreaming that I don't know!
[/quote]


I'm not sure if I want to know more details about that dream... so, moving swiftly on...

Nordstrand said they'd send me a replacement... then said they were out of NJ4SE pickups, but they'd have a new batch by the end of this week and then they'd send it to me. So I haven't got it yet. I asked them whether they'd like me to mail teh dead one to them, and they replied "yes please", so I did.
I will ask them later, and see whether they tell me where the break was (only one of the two coils were dead, as I tested them with a multimeter).

[tauzero]

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1347592601' post='1802866']
I hated Latin in high school... and it was the subject in which I got the highest mark ever.
[/quote]

I quite liked it, I was just rubbish at it. Finished up getting a grade 6 in it at O level (the equivalent of an A*** at GCSE, I think). Although I did make the sig up all on my own, Mrs Zero is the real Latin expert as she actually did an A-level in it.

[mcnach]

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1347635787' post='1803425']
I quite liked it, I was just rubbish at it. Finished up getting a grade 6 in it at O level (the equivalent of an A*** at GCSE, I think). Although I did make the sig up all on my own, Mrs Zero is the real Latin expert as she actually did an A-level in it.
[/quote]


so it is your own!!!

I'll make a point of attributing it correctly to you, everytime I use it

[wishface]

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1347547065' post='1802277']
My point was that while it is entirely possible that you are in possession of one bass Spector made that lacks in many respects... that seems to be a not very convincing explanation.

Why?

because the sort of "problems" you describe can be attributed to other reasons than "build quality".

The thing is that these days it's hard to find an instrument that is truly terrible. When you said in one of your first posts that you adjusted teh action to x level and, ah well, not as low as you'd like but it's what you can expect from a cheap bass (or something loosely along those lines)... that comment made me join in and write. Because I routinely take cheap basses and make them play nice. I don't accept the limitation you imply. As long as the neck is straight, etc... an electric bass, especially a bolt-on one, is a ridiculously simple object (although tricky to set up just right, in some ways). It's the kind of object that you don't need ultra high precision manufacturing to make right.

But if it makes you feel better, I'll just say you are right and that your bass is crap and that's all you can do about it. I have nothing to gain either way.
[/quote]

You didn't answer the questions at all. Telling me you've played gigs on cheap guitars is irrelevant if none of them are the same as this bass. I also asked you what was not set up correctly and you didn't answer, you just repeated what the problem was. I know what the problem is. What I don't know is what cuases it. Frankly the signal to noise ratio in this thread has become impossible.

[wishface]

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1347548084' post='1802306']
As far as I understand, we've never established whether the neck is slightly twisted or is irregular. Have we?
Since I'm a newbie, I can't delve into this, but my Axl's neck was twisted, and no choice of action would make it silent. Many decades ago, I was also trying to play a guitar that had a bump on the fretboard.
Thought it better to mention it and be wrong than leaving it unmentioned.

best,
bert
[/quote]

The neck wasn't really twisted at all. Certainly not to the naked eye.

[wishface]

[quote name='nottswarwick' timestamp='1347567939' post='1802644']
Absolutely. Mods, lock it.
[/quote]

If you don't like it, why not leave?

[nottswarwick]

[quote name='wishface' timestamp='1347694571' post='1804020']
If you don't like it, why not leave?
[/quote]

To be fair, I have no idea....

Hope you get it sorted anyway.....

[brensabre79]

[quote name='wishface' timestamp='1347694333' post='1804017']
You didn't answer the questions at all. Telling me you've played gigs on cheap guitars is irrelevant if none of them are the same as this bass. I also asked you what was not set up correctly and you didn't answer, you just repeated what the problem was. I know what the problem is. What I don't know is what cuases it. Frankly the signal to noise ratio in this thread has become impossible.
[/quote]
Lots of people have tried to help wishface, and answered your questions, myself included. You're right about the signal to noise ratio but I can't help feeling you have exacerbated this by retorting. I said earlier that all this "you said this .. I said that.." isn't helping at all.

This is not a technical support service, and if you don't like the answers you get there is no line manager to complain to I'm afraid. No refunds or compensation. We are just a bunch of bass players trying to get along and help each other out when we can. I think after 13 pages and 146 posts on the matter my patience and generosity have waned.

You have a new set of strings and I think there is more than enough info on this thread to help you set up your bass. If you don't understand the step by step guides both on here and in the step by step links then you will need to get someone to look at your bass. Thanks to the way this thread has descended I don't think you'll get any more offers from here so you should probably look at the list of guitar techs/luthiers in the repairs forum and take your bass to one of them.

In the words of Duncan Bannatine... This is completely ridiculous. I'm out.

[Evil Undead]

I'm out too, and I'm sorry to say that any offers I've made to sort your bass out for you no longer stand.

We don't get paid for helping, we don't get brownie points or anything in return, we do this simply because this is like a brotherhood and we want to help a fellow player get the best from their instrument.

We have all tried our best to help and been met with ungrateful retorts, negativity, criticism and unpleasantness.

Even if you were a paying customer of mine I think I would have told you where to get off by now, and since you're not... buh-bye.

[LukeFRC]

[quote name='wishface' timestamp='1347694431' post='1804018']


The neck wasn't really twisted at all. Certainly not to the naked eye.
[/quote] then it is your lack of ability that stops you setting it up correctly. By now you will have realised that you are out of your depth. Save up 30 or so it takes and pay a tech. Its a 30 min job

[wishface]

Unbelievable.

The amount of trolling, rudenes, misrepresentation and bullshit from people who then, in spite of being corrected multiple tiems, then chuck their toys out the pram is pathetic.

[wishface]

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1347700677' post='1804097']
then it is your lack of ability that stops you setting it up correctly. By now you will have realised that you are out of your depth. Save up 30 or so it  takes and pay a tech. Its a 30 min job
[/quote]

I was advised to adjust the truss rod by people that knew full well i was not an expert in technicl matters. I made that f***ing clear by explaing it multiple times - and got criticised for not following advice. Advice I had actually already followed. I expressed reticence in certain activities and then get told im not following the advice of people who feel, somehow, that they should be listened to above all esle just because they think, however misguidedly, they are trying to help. Absolute bullshit; that's emotional blackmail.

[wishface]

[quote]It starts of with a fellow Basschatter asking for help and advice, nothing unusual in that, and in true Basschatter's fashion, the replies come flooding in, all offering sound advice, and even offers of going to the OP's residence to fix the bass personally.[/quote]

And yet despite claiming to be an expert, you cannot for one second understand that might not be appropriate. Nor, even then, can you respect my feelings in the matter and continue to push the issue to score points.

[quote]And yet we find that twelve pages later, the bass is still [b]unplayable[/b], [/quote]

You've not read even the first post I made. Either that or the point of that post escaped you completely and you lack the courtesy to ask for clarification. I cannot discuss things with people that wilfully miss the point and then use their ignorance to criticise and castigate.

[quote]it has a [b]cheap[/b] and [b]nasty pickup[/b], [/quote]
That's your inferrance. I didn't use the word nasty.

I said it was a cheap pickup. Of course it is. There is no way a cheap bass is going to have more expensive parts. Since the sound comes from the pickup it is entireluy reasonable to assume that, failing all else, that is the source of th eproblem.
Instead of even considering this, you again use it as a means to throw your 'help' back in my face. Your attitude is a joke. I had been nothing but polite, friendly, courteous and grateful until now, and at each turn as this thread has gone on (as if there's some unspoken limit to how long a thread should be), that has increasingly been thrown back in my face with greater opprobrium.

[quote]it has [b]fret buzz[/b], [/quote]

fret buzz that didn't exist until I adjusted the truss rod, on the advice of people here that knew I had never adjusted a truss rod before.

[quote]the[b] bridge [/b]can't be adjusted properly, [/quote]
I didn't say anything of the kind. I said that the saddles didn't move when screwed and that the screw wound through instead.

[quote]the [b]truss rod[/b] can't be adjusted properly either, [/quote]
Didn't say that either. I did say that it was stiff.

[quote]the bass is [b]too heavy[/b], [/quote]

Nope, that would assume an objective standard I didn't make. I said it was a heavy instrument which it is, something that you are in no position to disagree with as you aren't me and don't own this instrument.

[quote]

the neck is [b]too wide[/b], [i](I've copied and pasted the next line, just so I don't get accused, like so many others have, of misquoting him)[/i],
[/quote]

The neck is wide, and I qualified that statement quite reasonably. Something you fail, again, to address. So instead we get more crap.

[quote][b]E string isn't just it's disproportionate volume. It's that the entire string just feels disproportionate: heavier, harder to play, higher than the action allow[/b]

At first, some thought that maybe he had a duff E string (which does occasionally happen), but he's now fitted a new E string, ([i]which was kindly donated to him[/i]), and yet he still thinks it's not right.[/quote]

'kindly donated' - a charming way to snipe at my character. Why don't you ask the person that donated the strings about my level of gratitude and whether he, the only person who's opinion matters here, felt I had displayed an appropriate level of gratitude, bearing in mind that private messages, that you will not have seen, were sent. I think it's pretty piss poor to make this kind of snide and cheap comment.

I explained how the E string felt; either counter the argument or don't. Anything else is just cheap abuse from someone that should know better.

[quote]If I had a bass that bad,[i] (although we all know that it's not really, and can easily be fixed)[/i], I would sell it, buy a ready made replacement for less money than he would get for the [b]"cheap"[/b] Spector, and get on with actually playing the thing![/quote]

Fortunately this discussion forum isn't predicated on what you think other people should do. YOu are now making base assumptions and using them as a means to criticise. Saying 'oh i would just sell it', as if that itself were a simple matter, is ridicdulous. Even if i were to sell it that would leave me with potentially out of pocket with not enough money to buy something better, and what would I buy? Wouild I have to beg you for your opinion as to what constitutes a good bass even though you don't have the first clue about this one? What is gained by participating in an economy of loss? How does that help me? Swap one cheap bass for another and hope I get a decent deal? Who's to say i'd even get half what I paid for this? So what next; suggesting i just give this away?

'get on with playing the thing' just says it all really. A remarkably crass, stupid and wholly ignorant comment not worth addressing. If you don't understand why this is a ridiculous comment then I can't explain it to you. Don't bother responding to this thread anymore, I shan't be reading your comments.

[Talon]

After reading through this thread it seems people are bending over backwards to help you....you seem to have an answer to everything.
Take it to a luthier, get them to sort it...buy an amp..a PC will not give you any real sort of sound....then in your own words

[quote name='wishface' timestamp='1347694571' post='1804020']
If you don't like it, why not leave?
[/quote]

[wishface]

[quote name='Talon' timestamp='1347711219' post='1804216']
After reading through this thread it seems people are bending over backwards to help you....you seem to have an answer to everything.

[/quote]What on earth is this supposed to mean: 'i have an answer to everything'?

[wishface]

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1347712983' post='1804250']
If you really believe that, then there is no hope.

From your very first post, you have spread
- negativity,
- your defeatism,
- a total lack of friendliness,
- short and stiff politeness, as if it hurts you to even have to say thanks
- ditto for gratefulness.
- extreme stubborness and a will to have arguments


Best case scenario:
You have no idea about style and how people respond to it
You are very ill or gravely disabled and lead an isolated, sad life with virtually no social contact with people. Each time you enter a forum, after a short time everybody is wrong and an asshole, and makes you feel unwelcome.
End best case scenario.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
bert
[/quote]Provide one example of any such thing. THis is just pure character assassination.

[wishface]

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1347713890' post='1804262']
I will not give examples. They are everywhere.

[/quote]Of course you won't. This is what happens; you resort to ad hom attacks and then decide that the standards you want to apply to me don't apply to you. You criticise my behaviour, using ridiculous and nasty hyperbole such as accusing me of calling people 'assholes', but not once do you criticise anyone else for theirs. It's ok then to fill a thread with silly provocative nonsense like popcorn emotes, or silly internet meme pictures, or whatever else people want to use to troll threads they obviously don't like but can't stop involving themselves with? Nice standards you have.

[LukeFRC]

This is so funny. The guy gets good advice, true to follow it and for whatever reason it doesn't work as expected, but pointing out that this may be through lack of experience is "emotional blackmail" and gets me sworn at.
I can't play drums, man you can decribe how to do it all you want and I follow that advice to the letter, but that doesn't mean its wrong for a drummer to suggest i could improve my technique.


Flabberggasted

[Johngh]

OK, that's enough guy's


Decent advice has been given, but folk have to understand that not everyone is comfortable fiddling with setting a bass up.


Also, sound advice was given by folk who know their stuff, no need to sling it back at them

No need for a slanging match though. Obsurd.