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Well, after some humming and ahhhing... My 50th birthday present turned up last Friday. Fender Precision Professional in Candy Apple Red, from PMT in Manchester. Initially I was wanting a Precision Active Deluxe (in surf pearl) but after trying one in Dawsons and comparing to the American Pro they had it was clear that the American version for far superior – to me anyway. Possibly just down to the string through body, but it just literally sang, felt so much more alive and I thought the quality of ‘heft’ was particularly telling – it felt more solid. Then after spending an hour or so on my birthday (with an unusually attentive wife...!!!) trying their American Pro (which actually didn’t feel brilliantly set-up compared to the one at Dawsons) I picked up a Nat Mandel Precision. flip, I wish I hadn’t!!! Immediately the output of its Quarter Pounders was so marked – quite a bit louder and with a more pronounced growl – also I think the neck was more appealing, very familiar to my Yamaha BB424 so that was probably the reason it felt good. But, the Pro won out for me. It’s a special thing to me this – I can’t see me spunking this much money again on a guitar – I know, I know it’s only a bloody mid range bass, but as I say it’s a special purchase this so it had to be the American Pro – plus you get a lovely case too Ordered it last Wednesday and it arrived on Tuesday, but could only pick it last Friday due to work commitments. Picked it up and its perfect!! I’m a fussy git, but couldn’t find a single thing wrong with it – both in how it plays and cosmetically. The boys and PMT were awesome too – unknown to me, my Mum and Dad had nipped in 4 days earlier to pay off the remainder after my deposit and they played along with it right up until the end when I was about to pay when they then gave me an invoice saying nothing to pay! They also chucked in guitar stand too. Played it on Saturday night at a gig and it was brilliant - the neck is definetley different to what I'm used to, but it's by no means a negative. The action is so much better, more easier to play and it’s tone is unmistakably P-bass, plus got lots of comments on the colour from the ladies too – really, really pleased with it. ...Just need to learn to play proper now.

I got the gig!

Hope they don't take any flack, they have been informative and played with a straight bat. I think that's all we can ask for, as well as good customer service

I think it`s the difference between Jazzes & Precisions in general. I`ve found this, and to be honest, as a die-hard Precision player my ears are tuned to the P-bass, so setting up a Jazz eq in the mix just never sounds right to me, I can`t seem to coax those great tones out of one as I`m just expecting the Precision sound when I play - that might be part of the problem here maybe? The Jazz tone is much thinner in comparison, I did find that the Seymour Duncan Hot Stack was a good Jazz pickup, didn`t change the sound, just bulked it out and gave more of the same.

Who knows what engineers can do knowadays?? I mean they put a time machine in an Delorian in 1985 for goodness sake 😱

Interestingly the main thing they were worried about was me being in other bands, the things most in my favour were the drummer felt he and I clicked (I agree) and the shitty amp we used (provided by the rehearsal room) sounded horrible and I was the only one who tried to get a decent sound out of it. The others seemed not to notice or care. So what I take from this is: obviously be thorough and do your homework, but more importantly pay attention to any and every detail, you never know what might sway someone.

If your jazz sounds too thin, stick some flats on it. You can thank me later

At home, I can get a Jazz to sound just the way I want it but have never quite got it nailed in a band situation. I've stopped trying in recent years and stick with my P basses.

Not really a gig, just the first band get-together for two years, and it went rather well..! I've not been playing at all in that time, what with one thing and another, so it was with some trepidation that I sat behind my drums again. No, it's not quite like riding a bike, but it does come back quite enough for our rehearsals. A dozen songs from our past repertoires (deUs, Bashung, Radiohead, REM, RHCP, Noir Désir, Chris Cornell and more..) Altogether two hours; we'll do another session next week. Tired, now, but it's worth it.

I can see how megastars like Adele have to put a 'no contact' clause up. First couple of times people want to chat to you it's fine - but after the fifteenth person wanting you to ring their mum and do a verse of Chasing Pavements down the phone you're probably pretty tired of it so you say no, and then they get upset because you were OK with the previous fourteen people asking you for it and go tell everyone you're a beach. Eventually you figure you may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb and institute the "no speaky unless spoken to" ban so they'll leave you alone. Then you go slowly mad through isolation, build a theme park in your back garden, invite a bunch of pre-teens for sleepovers, and your nose falls off. It's a weird business.

No

You practice?

Did you try to favour the neck pup over the bridge pup and set the tone control to 50%? It works for me.

If there;s no phase issue, wiring in a series/parallel switch to be able to switch the pickups in series (like the Fender S1 switch) might help make it sound more beefy.

I did three auditions last year for the first time in about 15 years, I always find them a very surreal experience, I managed to get two out of the three gigs so I was pleased with that. Just remember they are musicians, making quick decisions is not what they are good at Best of luck.

Just remember, sometimes who they pick has nothing to do with who's the best player. Good for you getting out there. Good luck.

Ah, so you were the t1t the guys were talking about when I went in! :-)

Wired parallel two 98dB/w 8 ohm speakers will have 104dB/2.83v voltage sensitivity, but the halved impedance makes 2.83v 2 watts. Their 1 watt sensitivity is 101dB. One way manufacturers fudge the numbers is to quote a 4 ohm speaker at 2.83v sensitivity while making no mention that's 2 watts. If you could wire four speakers parallel the 1 watt sensitivity would go up to 104dB, but unless your amp is 2 ohm capable you have to wire the two pairs series/parallel. In that case the cab will be 8 ohms, and the 2.83v and 1w sensitivity is 101dB. Taking the math backwards, if the Eden and DNS 410s had 106dB/w sensitivity then the sensitivity of each driver would be 103dB. No ten inch driver that is useful below 100Hz has 103dB sensitivity.

You can't beat having new screws to put the bass together. Somewhere that's really good for buying screws and other parts is WD Music. http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/hardware-parts-c1 They also sell some really good necks. Not the cheapest, but they are good and no import duty to be paid on your purchase either.

New update is out. 2.50 Loads more stuff including all the M series legacy fx.

So your initial idea was a slap bass solo then ?

Clive bought a pedal form me recently. I had forgotten to include some important information in the advert and when I contacted Clive to correct it (after purchase) he was extremely understanding. A great BCer and highly recommended. Tobie

I look forward to it mate!

My questions about the 30 keys idea would be: Bach wrote two pieces as examples of each key for Well Tempered Klavier. Why are there 48 pieces, not 60? If an examiner asked me to play a C# major scale, which I did and then, when she asked me to play a different major scale, I played the same thing, but called it Db major, would I get a mark?

The notes A-G have to be named in each key. For example in D major: D, E, F#,G, not: D, E, Gb, G, as then you would not have mentioned F.

True, but it's how you consider it. If I see an F# major chord I'm not going to think Gb, it's F#. It's also how you write it, one's written with flats the other with sharps. And it's also contextual thing, one is Gb the other is F#. Just one of the confusions in music.

There are 30 keys??

I shall be using this technique at our gig on Friday to play 'Blitzkrieg Bop'. It's what Dee Dee would've wanted.

Oh yes, it needs setting up, the action is way to heavy. I could try getting it stoned, and I am sure we would both enjoy it but then I would end up playing blues for a few hours Anyway, love it, now looking for a 12 string to go with it

Really like the look of that. Looks like a decent case too. Great choice.

I'm sure they will, but ill advisedly. The OP wants a cab that's both small and efficient. That's possible, but only if you toss the third component of Hoffman's Iron Law, which is low frequency extension. Barefaced has a decided advantage over most cabs in that the long xmax drivers they use allow them to go low and loud, but that loudness is realized by their being able to take a lot of power, not via higher sensitivity. With only 100 watts if the OP wants to go both low and loud then the cab must be large. Of the 210/112/115 options the highest sensitivity will come from a 210. The brand doesn't matter so much as the size, the smaller the box the less low end it will have. The thermal rating of a cab has no relationship with how much power it can actually make use of, or how much power it requires to give a desired result. As to cabs rated at higher than 97dB/watt, beware of specsmanship. For instance, any claim for a single driver cab at more than 98dB/watt is probably false. Claims for more than 101dB from multiple drivers are probably false. Eden, and now DNS, has long claimed 106dB/watt from a 410. How do they get such a high rating? By lying. Caveat emptor.

To throw my hat in the ring I would say £800 is overpriced... GAK tend to (again in my opinion) overprice all of their second hand stock. For comparision I just picked up a 2001 German made 6 string bolt on Thumb bass for £860, you would be best having a hunt on the second hand market where you are buying direct from the previous owner and not a shop as a shop will always take a 20% (give or take) cut so you are paying at least that much more. Negotiating with the actual seller is always a better option!

After going through many different basses over the years, its the precision tone I like and settled on, I've owned a few jazzes as well, but to me, they sounded thin, and I guess I just didn't like the tone, but on a whim, I recently purchased a road worn jazz from a fellow B/C'er, and I'm blown away at the playability and tone, it certainly isn't lacking in depth, and the output is comparable with all my P's, I've gigged it and the drummer complimented me on how great it sounded throughout the set which was mainly classic rock. Maybe as others have suggested, could it be down to dodgy wiring/pots etc?

That's because you weren't ;-)

Welcome, and glad to have you aboard! I play a Warwick too, great instruments.

Bigwan, you're a better man than me. As a service delivery manager in a related technology discipline, I'd have been extremely unhappy if one of my team took the mickey out of and patronised a customer with a genuine concern. But hey, it's banter, right? With this and the response I saw in the B-Social thread, I think that's the last I'll be buying from Ashdown (and I've owned my fair share/defended it enough in the past). All my opinion of course, if you like your companies to treat you like an idiot, then ignore me. *Cue some handbag memes, stinging patronisation and an attempt to cover it off as humour by talking about beer or coffee from Ashdown....

Chromes are flats though.

Hello and welcome. Id say if your happy with the feel Of the bass, just pop in a new set of pickups. Sounds easy! This is where the fun starts. I’ve used Delano, Aguilar, Bartolini, Fender custom, and Lindy Fralin. I like them all. It takes a bit of research. The other option is to fit a new preamp. The John East preamps are excellent. Enjoy the search!

Given that a string that's made as an "E" string, on a bass of 34" scale length, needs to achieve a pre-determined tension for it to put out a note that will be an "E". I find it hard to see how this can happen, unless the string is faulty, or you're tuning it to an E an octave lower than the actual E that it's meant to be putting out. Either that, or the tuning head isn't keeping the string to tension.

Thanks, Charlie. I find that using a good compression driver (with the right horn) in a bass cab makes a huge difference. Unfortunately, good ones cost nearly as much as the bass drivers themselves. On the rare occasion that I pop over to the dark side, I am always impressed by what Duke is getting up to. He's virtually the only person in the business who continues to push the envelope and provide practical solutions to the problems bassists have with their cabs. The particular problems that this new design tries to address are: 1. Hearing yourself clearly in front of your compact cab without having to raise it, tilt it or stick another cab on top of it. 2. Hearing the same sound you are sending to the audience (how else can you balance your sound properly?). 3. Producing a sound that does not change when you move around the cab. 4. Producing a sound that is balanced without needing a second cabinet to boost the bottom end. 5. Producing a sound that "throws" into the audience and retains clarity (i.e. doesn't become boomy) at a distance. 5. Having a flat frequency response cabinet that doesn't need endless fiddling with your amp's midrange controls before it sounds right. I can see that these are the kinds of things that Duke is also takes into consideration in his designs - so I feel that I'm, in good company.

Soapbars in the bass world are a bit of a misnomer since, unlike guitar soapbars that are nearly always P90 style fat single coil pickups, they tell you nothing about the actual pickup contained within the housing, just the size of the housing itself. Therefore depending on the size of the soapbar housing the pickup contained within can be anything from a J-style single coil to a MM style humbucker and any variation between that will fit. If you want a PJ type sound then buy soapbars that contain a P and J style pickup inside.

Excellent. Well if you can come up with something that covers what the Broughton does and also delivers a 24dB cut, then you're onto a winner. If you can go one further and shrink it to the size of a COG T16 (with all the connections on the same side) you know you've already won and you'd better start gearing up for orders from the US, Europe and Japan

Hi All! Just got a Realist copperhead fitted to my upright. It sounds nice, if a bit like an electric fretless! I would like to add a mic and blend the two (possibly using a Headway 2 channel pre) to hopefully achieve a woodier, more natural tone. Looked at options from Schertler and DPA but interested in hearing some opinions! What do you think? Cheers! D

Bass heaven: Listening to a great bass player Bass hell: Listening to me try and play the bass