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You can only improve by practice, not by buying more and more gear. Pure nonsense.

This bass is definitely a keeper!

Playing bass in a band will get you girls.

Tonewood

Well, overnight I've actually had someone else make a better offer on the Warwick and wants to collect today and pay via BACS transfer... I'm a whole lot more comfortable with this arrangement. Much safer for me. I do feel a shade of guilt if I pull out from the other sale, but being paid via PayPal for a collection just doesn't sit right, as per confirmation from all of yourselves.

First one's true though. A fact often missed is that necks come from trees that have the strings already attached.

@Quatschmacher as a former FI user, I think I would be right in saying that a lot of us are massively grateful for the time and skill you've put into this pedal and in devising and sharing so many excellent patches for free. But also taking the time to be a goto resource for anyone who has sought your help. Bravo mate, you're a hero.

ooooh... I was doing it the wrong way around!

“It’s all in the fingers”

I always take stool samples from anyone buying anything from me... doesn't everyone??

“You only need to buy one set of strings in your life, as long as you regularly boil them”. I tried it once and it was like cooking angry spaghetti, boiling hot strings flying everywhere on the stove. Sounded like spaghetti, too...

It is a myth that anyone who refers to their bass as 'she' isn't a complete w4nk3r.

Funny you should say that... Start with a length of metal. Metal I understand, it doesn't do weird things like splitting or randomly bending. It's dimensionally stable, you mill it, drill it or cut it and it stays in the same shape as when you left it. No idea what it is, normal mild I'd guess. Those who were paying attention, or have done their research, which excludes me at the moment, will know that as this cross thing slides in the channels it doesn't need to be fully rounded on the end. That, plus laziness, brings this. Hopefully it'll be enough, TIM will tell. Hole at one end to hang it, hole in the middle to spin it. Voila, le croix de St. Pierre. Or St. Andrew, or a scissor mechanism. It's symmetrical in length both ways, which means I got the hole in the middle in the right place Temporary installation to show off. Closed. There may need to be a little relief for the bolt to go into the recess, but it'll never be fully closed simply because the ends don't line up when the vice is shut.

All dry, so this morning I got to add the neck and tail blocks: Although it will become much stiffer once the kerfed strips are put all the way round the edges top and bottom (these are the strips that the top and the back of the body will eventually glue onto), it's already holding its shape pretty well:

"plays like butter" … no, no it doesn't, it plays like someone playing a bass guitar.

Well that can’t be right because it would imply that.... Oh, wait...

Same here! I guess it just doesn't work for ugly bass players 😛

This, this, and a thousand times this. I can't think of anything more soul destroying for a beginner than having to fight a poor instrument, on top of the inherent difficulties of the learning process. And yes, sure, cheap does not mean bad, but when you look at those starter packages and in general guitars aimed at beginners, you're not usually getting something nice to play straight from the box and very few beginners understand about setups.

I've officially told the buyer that I'm removing myself from the deal, they seem to have taken it fairly graciously. I think it's for the best, I don't like leaving myself open to issues wherever possible so alls well that ends well!

Just a question really, why do you want a 15? I'm not one of those that thinks you can never mix speakers, but it's an unpredictable business. It's not just the ohms that need to match, the speakers need to have the same loudness or sensitivity. Otherwise one will just dominate the sound. Mixing cabs isn't a predictable thing either, you can't just add a 15 for 'more bass' as some 2x10's can have more bass than some 15's. Some don't of course but how will you know until you've tried them? The other thing is that you might expect mixing speakers will give you a blend of both, it rarely does. If you just want extra volume getting a matching 2x10 makes more sense. It'll also give you more headroom so you can boost your bass eq a bit more if that's what you want to achieve. Of course buying a 15 gives you three options both speakers separately and together. That'll give you three different set ups and sounds which is fun. the other thing is that 15's are unfashionable and therefore cheap on the used market. I couldn't give away my old Peavey 15 a couple of years ago and stripped it down for spares. Looking out for a Hydrive at the right price might be your best bet, you keep the all Hartke look and end up with what you want not a compromise.. The only way to get a good mixed cab system is to go out with your 2x10 and amp and to try them together, some will sound horrible, some combinations lovely and most a bit meh. Is this a good time to trail around shopping or visiting socially distancing strangers? It could be a good time to keep an eye on the used ads and maybe put up a wanted ad for that Hydrive.

Far from perfect but it sounds and feels good - a few quirks for the OCD lot out there, but we’ll let them past between friends

Jamulus is a reasonable way to continue to interact with fellow musicians and actually broaden the network. I've been using it to play with the jazz band that I had recently joined just before Covid-19. It's kept some of us going - learning new stuff, even. Last week, I had a jam on sax, blowing through some standards with a bunch of complete strangers and we all said we would do that again this week. A couple of us (kb and sax) started it off in a 'room' and when other people saw that there was something going on, they joined us so that we ended up with a full band. Delay and sound quality issues could put some people off. I found on occasions, playing busier riffs, that the sound coming back to my ears late made it almost impossible. The drummer in our jazz band doesn't listen to himself through the system, for this reason, though that is not advised. I've noticed that he tends to slow down through a number, because we're coming through late in his ears. Apparently the brain does eventually adjust as long as the delay isn't too high. My set-up operates at between 40 - 50ms which isn't great but it's not terrible. 20ms is good. If you lower the buffer size, you get a lower delay, but the sound quality goes, so it's a juggling act. Every week, there's a group who hold an online streamed 'WorldJam' which is often excellent and involves random musicians from all over. I joined last week briefly on sax and again this week. Because they had technical hitches this week, they were pushed for time and didn't talk to each of the jammers. That's why I was called by the wrong name and missed the start of my solo and also why I hadn't noticed I had my 'mute myself' box checked and therefore couldn't be heard anyway! What an idiot! Still, I noticed that the eminent professors in the iSage conference kept forgetting to turn on their mics, so I'm not alone. It's worth a try if you're missing playing with others. There is a preponderance of bassists, apparently. I wonder why that is.

I built a '57 using Warmoth parts and a Lollar pickup when it was still feasible to do so. The exchange rate means that you're into brand new US Fender money for the cost of neck and body alone

Lined fretless is cheating.

How it is at the moment next to how it should look when done.

A 4 string tuned BEAD will not sound the same as a 5 string, the extra wood makes a difference.

"Active output is so much louder..." Yes, yes... "These quality pots" ...with carbon tracks. "This (put here any single component) is the key to the (descriptive word) sound." "It does not have (put here any single component), so..." Any magical ingredient, that makes the part of the setup exceptional. Psychoacoustic events, that are considered as electric or mechanic superiority of the instrument. Wattage = loudness. Well, it is related, but similar like car's horsepower would equal speed. Not that simple. Most sound comparisons are not made in suitable surroundings.

Cut to the chase, you either need a 5 string or you don't. If you really do need a 5 string, find the one you like and get it.

Down to the nitty gritty here. Their problems are not your problems. Cash in the claw, or tell them to foxtrot oscar. That way you wont lose a bass

And also no confusion with any WWE wrestlers:

You mean it's BACS tomorrow?

Seems appropriate: There are 2 hard problems in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-1 errors.

I just got one of these. Highly recommended. Well put together and very unusual for a 1960s bass (200 made 1963-64). Has a more modern tone due to the combination of 35" scale (has to be the first production instrument with this) and the very unusual pickup placement for that era - further back than a P-bass and almost getting to the Stingray position giving it a pretty pronounced midrange. Wonderful slim neck profile. The bridge is crazy and unlike any other I've seen but still fully adjustable. I just finished doing a bit of fret work on it and it plays perfectly with quite low action. Also light and very comfortable - does neck dive a bit - more that it likes to sit horizontally - doesn't go to the floor. Not a big deal to me and worth the compromise though I know that's a deal breaker for some.

Oh go on then, seeing as you asked nicely... Only a short list so far but these were just a few off the top of my head. XTC Generals and Majors XTC Senses Working Overtime Wonder Stuff Don't Let Me Down, Gently Julian Cope World Shut Your Mouth The Passions I'm In Love With A German Film Star Joe Jackson Is She Really Going Out With Him Joe Jackson It's Different For Girls Squeeze Pulling Mussels Squeeze Another Nail In My Heart The Cure In Between Days Simple Minds Don't You Forget About Me Crowded House Don't Dream It's Over Danny Wilson Mary's Prayer

Just picking up on Pea Turgh's question. The control cavity is indeed designed "for but not with" a retrofit John East 3 band UNI Pre, one of my favourite circuits. The cavity is not so massive though. I deliberately left mass there by only routing down 10mm. Just enough to get a bearing cutter to follow the cavity profile with a manual router later down the line. As it happens, the client having been an ardent fan of passive circuits for years, experienced a MM 18V active two band circuit recently and was suitably impressed. He pressed the button on a retrofit active circuit a couple of weeks ago. He picked the John East MMSR 2 Band EQ instead of the UNI Pre 3 band, but it all went in perfectly. If it was not for the copper shielding work, he could have waited whilst the work was done! The devil is in the detail folks! PS: The EQ on this circuit is something else! Fabulous wallop of bass boost is available but it's really musical and the treble boost just sizzles! Leo Fender got this one absolutely right.

“The MusicMan Stingray’s a one-trick pony”

Don’t apologise, a question us never bad nor irrelevant. And you don’t need 35” scale either. I have had good B’s on 33” and bad on 35”.

I once had a buyer complain that removing the neck broke the “factory seal”, that once the neck had been removed it could never be put back on with the same mojo sorcery as they do in the factory. Were it neck-through, I would have agreed with him but this was a standard bolt-on instrument out of Fujigen and I was slightly concerned for his mental wellbeing.

Not a gear myth, but on the role of bass: "Bass should be felt and not heard" I actually thought this had been consigned to the history books, but it has it's own modern day realization when live sound engineers give the bass a kind of sub-sonic feel and you can't hear the note choice.

Thanks for that. Sparks aren't really my kind of music, but are always intelligent and articulate, so that will be worth listening to. And it lead me to the link with all the available episodes on. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zw9nx/episodes/player

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I should have been more precise..., ...This is what I need. And I should have done a search for “BEAD” - apologies I think that would be my preference - that said, there are plenty of 34” fivers out there and many of them seem to have a perfectly usable B. All of the above suggests that it’s worth an experiment. I have a 5 set of strings so I’ll nick four of them and try it out on one of the basses I don’t use very often. Thanks all!

So you don't need a five-string, you need a low 'B'. BEAD will work, no problem. The nut may (or may not...) need fettling, and maybe the truss-rod, but that's all. You'll have to adapt to the new tuning, of course, which may cause as many issues as having a five-string, but...

In two months time, Britain will be full of people who travelled on a crowded plane (with recirculatory air supply) to Spain, spent two weeks partying in pubs & clubs (mainly with other Brits), travelled back to the UK on another crowded plane (with recirculatory air supply), there to be greeted by reminders that it is awfully awfully unsafe to go and see a band play at their local. The sooner we abandon this hypocritical sham, the better. Will there be a second peak? Yup. And a third and a fourth. Get used to it. It's now part of your life, my life, and everybody else's life.

Yeah of course, it’s a guy on eBay blackstar-guitars https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303518152681 on message comms with him he says they are made in the same Japan factory as Allparts necks. It feels and looks very similar to an Allparts neck I have so I can only take him on face value and he was quick and efficient with comms and delivery. Its not the fattest P neck you will see, it’s defo a P and fatter than a jazz and seems to hit the right spots, but will let you know when it’s hooked up I have done some rear relic, which I know is not everyone’s taste, but I will leave the finger board alone despite wanting to get the acetone out and see! I like a more bare wood feel anyway. Fret work is good, you’ll see in the pics the nut I fitted is slightly too small, but I only had a jazz nut sitting around, and couldn’t be bothered to order another - heel access truss rod.