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A small rant because sometimes you just have to. I frequently look through the sale thread here and Gumtree/eBay and various other selling platforms, and keep an eye out for certain things I would like to own again or like to try. Recently a few things have popped up and I have got all excited until I see photos or the description which basically outlines how the owner has done loads of (unnecessary in my opinion) modifications to the instrument to 'make it better' and now they want basically what the instrument cost new, or close to it, or even in some cases, more than it was in the first place. I am sorry, but this seriously p*sses me off, why would you badly fit a load of hardware, damage the bass, sand or refinish it yourself and then expect to get so much money for the thing?? Worst of all is that most of the time they don't even keep the original parts to put it back to how you actually want it. I have seen tuners fitted wonky and the person didn't even go to the effort of buying tuners that retrofitted, botched logo changes (seriously who are you trying to kid) huge amounts of damage through use and low and behold its £20 less than I could buy new one with a years warranty! That is all, I am in a bad mood today.

Trying to buy basses 'without' an Adam Clayton signature is becoming difficult, I think the ones without will be worth a few quid in years to come!

Said Constable Yawn....

Fretting hand....(you need to be playing through your amp for this). Just spend 10-20 minutes putting gradual fretting pressure with fretting hand and hear when notes play/sound cleanly. Start with no or very little pressure and add pressure until note sounds. This is all the fretting pressure you need...any more is wasting muscle energy and may cause fatigue and badly intonated notes. The thing is to be constantly aware of this (minimal fretting pressure) when playing. Unfortunately, when people start concentrating on what they are doing with their non fretting hand that the fretting technique goes pearshape and they start to overpress again.

Ok. Well I got mine the other day but so far have only been able to give it the briefest five minutes check over. Bear in mind that I'm learning the bass at the moment so don't really have a wealth of experience to fall on. What I would say is that almost certainly this is designed for guitarists, not bassists. Yes it will work with a bass - it doesn't need to hear chords in learn mode to work out a rhythm, it will respond to a bass line and then you can turn the bass down completely to just hear the drums but as a drum machine alone it's not that brilliant. They are not that convincing and as Al points out the rhythms it produces are random so for my needs as a practise tool it has limited value. What I need is something that will produce a consistent rhythm every time I practise the same piece, not a different rhythm each time to keep me on my toes. Would I have ever paid full price for one of these? Hell no, but for the £40 I splashed on it its an OK bit of fun. A dedicated drum machine would be much more useful though.

My phone has auto-corrected to worse things than that in the past!!!

I'm amazed this is a thing! ha ha ha! It's a bit like saying that an able bodied person prefers walking with their left leg rather than the right.

Well, you never know. There might be new BC members that don't know my position. Plus the whole "Proud B List Bar Band Player" is sort of a new tag phrase for me. (: Blue

So - lots of fun today First of all, I had to get that silly vertical cable to lie down. You wouldn't think Schaller mainly deal in guitars and basses...how many 3" - 4" deep basses do you know that could have a control chamber that would accommodate this design 'feature'? And the only way of doing that is to invalidate the warranty on what is a very expensive bit of kit by taking off the very stiff, very thick sealed rubber boot: And while we're on the subject of 'I love Schaller, but...', if I turn round the guitar to see the other side, let me give you a quick quiz... Question: Between the two types of knob: nicely powder coated solid brass knurled, allen-key secured, standard 6mm shaft beauties push on, plastic, non-standard 3mm shaft, small top hat ...which is the dirt cheap Harley Benton offering and which is part of the Schaller flagShip top of the range (and very expensive) piezo pre-amp mixer offering? Yes - the nice knobs are the Harley Benton ones. Honestly, I DO love Schaller - great service and some great, great products but, if you're looking, fellas...come on...you are better than this! So, I found this in my bits box: And the bottom left hand bit has an i.d. of 3mm ...and when you put it on the sanding wheel, you can get this - a 6mm o.d. (you make knobs, Schaller - yes, 6mm...the standard size of the knobs you supply to millions of us!): And that fits on the non-standard 3mm shaft of the three way rotary: On which the nasty cheap Harley Benton knob itself fits: Call me uncouth, but I think that looks better : And then came the rest of the day (pretty much 12 hours) with the myriad of tweaks, and drills, and earthing and tinning and checking and planning, until: And - knock me down with a feather - it all bloody works! And the hatch still fits. And I'm going to go and have a long sit down....

The original bassist in Saxon, played open as much as possible, so the other hand could be held aloft in rock salute! \m/ ?

There is negligible difference in tone between open or fingered note. The reason to avoid open strings is when it comes to transposing: Far easier to transpose a riff/lick/line etc if all notes are fingered.

Sold a pedal to Clive. Prompt payment and solid communication throughout. Good chap to deal with.

Feedback for Kev's great bass gear exchange, please let me know how it was for you!

Hello from Geordieland. Just learning to play despite being a Granddad. Been told it's never too late.......

It should be getting a rehearsal outing soon, so I shall report back..

Well OK, but don't leave it too long! It's part of the learning process!

The preamp and pickups are the same on Jazzman models. They both use the MEC BECIII-2 3way electronics. The difference is the body either Streamer or FNA/Corvette shape. The choice is down to personal preference really.

What an excellent vid " what if the small luthiers prices are the norm, and all the big factories getting their axes made wherever, are too cheap " Quite right

Sorry I missed that you had posted already.

They can wear out quicker tho - specially if they are the same material as your other frets, and you use rounds. Over time you will get little ruts. I looked at a 60s bass with a zero fret and it's intonation was all over the shop - the zero feet looked like the Lake District..

There is one on my Hayman 4040. I like them, they eliminate any possible nut problems and faffing about with nut files, etc.

Anything by AC/DC

That's a great finish for a Mustang! Congrats on the new bass. Si

Quite right. I nearly laughed too

I get more irked by people asking almost the new cost of used gear that happens to be flavour of the month, and then wonder why they have no interest. Some people need to learn not to buy new if they are not prepared to lose money when selling!

i use them to my advantage to fill my sound out if need be,that ringing on is handy when a guitar goes onto solo leaving you and drums The Tool stuff is a great example,you get some cool stuff on the G string while ringing the A i never use them in a run at the bottom of the neck,i find it really odd if i do

As far as learning goes, this may sound a bit mad but you should try to join a band as soon as possible. It's the quickest way to learn an instrument. If everyone in the band is better than you (not always a given, actually!) then you tend to play up to their level very quickly, and learn much more quickly than sitting at home practising. You're not only learning the bass, but how to play with other musicians and how to do gigs. Getting out there and doing it isn't practising, you're already flying!

Further to Rik's comments, the watts are Class H

I've never ever been as deluded as to consider myself any sort of genius, but there's an immense satisfaction for me in doing the very very best job I can in whatever situation I'm in: I'm lucky to play regularly with some very good musicians, and whether I'm skipping to keep up with them, or being able to improve the representation of a song, be it a 'cheesy' old (or new) cover or an original song, I always enjoy myself, and I'm a better player after every gig...actually after every time I pick a bass up. That seems to me to be the whole point from a personal point of view.

I bought my Le Bass second hand at a ridiculously low price from the first owner. I've read in the thread about noise issues, but mine is nice, clean and slient, except for my bass tone. I won't use it for overdriven tones, but more like a mixer between my "hi tech" Dingwall basses and my "low tech" passive basses. My fear was that it would be very mid scooped - as it is - but it is east to tweak: just set bass and treble on 8-9 o'clock and get a "flat" response on the clean channel. The preamp does a good work flavouring a dry bass tone in a nice manner, especially for rock, blues etc. Maybe not for jazz gigs. I have used it in front of a bass rig - a hyper clean EBS rig - as well as through my PJB Double Four and for pushing my old tube bass amp, but also with different headphones: my studio phones and my "phone phones". The unit sounds equally good in any environment. No hiss, no hum, no noise from power supply. I'll mount it on my big overkill pedalboard.

Hey I was 57 when I started, n that wor 6 year ago come next Michaelmas. Not a problem. Make allowances for yourself learning a bit more slowly, but if you ain't got arthritis there's nothing else to hold you back. Talking of which, be kind to your back. Buy a lightweight bass, ditto amp: my 500w 210 cab weighs so little I have to weigh it down with beer glasses to stop it blowing away. And discover Scott's Bass Lessons and Talkingbass.net as the teaching is top notch and far cheaper than 121 learning. And start playing with others as soon as you can. There, my two penn'orth from an ol 'un, so just you pay heed young lad...

Thanks for that, appreciated. Have another on me, too...

They come from people liking your comments basically they're there for a bit of fun

The most notable difference seems to be the pickup, with any luck it's routed in a P config and that will alleviate all doubt

Haven't seen close up photos but from what I've seen the Mikey Way Mustang seems to have a silver finish with a black fleck. OP's bass certainly isn't that... Edit: reasonably good pics here of the Mikey Way finish: https://www.andertons.co.uk/bass-dept/bass-guitars/retro-bass-guitars/squier-mikey-way-mustang-bass-rosewood-fretboard-large-flake-silver-sparkle Doesn't look the same to me.

It's Broad Bass - they even used the name in full on some models:

If you don’t feel confident with a hand or electric plane then you could always use a router with a straight flute cutter in it? Measure the distance from the outside edge of the router bed to the inside edge of the cutting blade Clamp a straight edge on your timber a couple of mm moure than the distance you’ve just measured making sure it’s parallel Carefully rout the timber making sure you keep the router bed flat on the face of the timber (because you are only taking off a couple of mm you should be able to do it in one pass but if the router starts labouring then do the passes in stages lowering down the router after each pass) Then you will have a 90 degree edge do the other piece of timber and hey presto 2 perfectly square edges to glue together and as Norris said use as many sash clamps as you can making sure you clamp from the top and bottom of the timber so to limit the amount of deflection Or the other option is go out and buy a jointer planer and that would make your life a lot easier

Just thought I'd add here that I've found my O/D sounds very different on different amps - I know that sounds fairly obvious, but it's worth a mention. For example, I quite like my Budda Om O/D - has a useful tone control I find, to help get a balance between cut and weediness. Also not very expensive for a cool looking/sounding pedal. However, it always sounds somehow better going through my SWR Studio 220 than it does through an immaculate Trace SMX I get to use regularly, both with flat EQ. Now, I appreciate there's no real mystery here - different pre-amps, different baked-in natural tones - but I thought that it was worth mentioning. It probably wasn't...

Pretty much every second of this album. This too

It’s never too late, I started playing 13 months ago at 45, started gigging 11.5months ago! Loving it.

Surely no-one still using XP should be on the internet in the first place?

G# (13th fret), open E = Double stop. A lovely sound. Then add a D at the 12th fret on the D string, a nice D7 shell. Then of course, all the variations. Open strings are gorgeous for chordal pieces. Fast chromatic runs down low, the open strings can be invaluable and at high tempo, the difference in tone wouldn’t be noticeable. What about tunes played on a four string when a low E is needed? You have no other option, unless you retune. Open strings are part of the Bass gig. At some point in your life, for some reason, there will be a need for an open string, even if it is just for tuning up.

There is a mistaken tendency for musicians to think that technical ability is more important than putting on a good performance. Obviously you need a certain amount of technical ability to be able to play the music competently, but anything above that is IMO purely for your own personal satisfaction and nothing more. In fact these days where the live performance is the product and the recording is simply the promotional item (and besides all but the most dire of takes in the studio can be fixed in production) it is far more important to look right and have the passion for putting on a show your audience will enjoy, rather than simply standing there concentrating on playing the right notes perfectly.

I've run one amp for probably 95% of the time I've been playing, but the old swing-o-meter for basses has gone from 1 to a perhaps a dozen or more at any given time over the years. Thing is, I find that gear in shops distinctly underwhelming. Doesn't matter where either, the small/large standalones (GAK/Andertons), the chains (GuitarGuitar, and obviously the bit US ones, Guitar Center/Sam Ash), it's all a bit meh. It was like shopping for clothes at Gap. I just took a look at the Bass Gallery in stocks. There wasn't one thing that I'd buy (but the Normandy Archtop looked quite nice...). The big brands tend to bore me stupid now, hence I'm going with someone who can make what I want that doesn't resemble a coffee table. Anti-gas is good.

Steve bought my Barefaced cab. Super easy chap to deal with, really good comms and sorted everything out really quickly. Would be more than happy to deal with again - tops bass-chatter! Thanks very much Steve, hope you enjoy the cab

Sold my amp to his mate, thanks for the reference!

Sold a bass to Stephen. Nice guy, quick, decisive, no fuss. Would happily deal with again. Thanks Stephen