velvetkevorkian

1) What kind of maintenance do you carry out on your instruments at home/gigs? Nothing at gigs. At home I'll do action tweaks including truss rod, the occasional home-brew fret dress and a bit of cack-handed soldering. 2) What position is it easiest to have the instrument in for these actions? (vertical, horizontal, at an angle?) I generally lie the bass flat on a carpeted floor with a pillow to support the neck. 3) Are there any tasks you currently carry out where you find it hard to securely orientate the instrument in an ideal working position? Not that I can think of.

Try [url="http://earachenews.blogspot.com/2009/10/evile-statement-mike-alexander.html"]here[/url]. Very sad news

[quote name='Spoombung' post='619087' date='Oct 6 2009, 10:17 PM']Oh, I can't help it now, you've got me going. The Wal website looks like some sort of Ikea/Habitat generic abomination made by a team of 6th formers on a Dreamweaver course. There's tiny little pictures that you click on ... only to bring up more tiny pictures. Their website puts me off ordering a new Wal even more than the actual price.[/quote] From their website: "We design with the following browsers in mind: Internet Explorer 5+, Netscape 6+, and Mozilla 1+. This covers just about the entire range of browsers currently in use out there."

[quote name='Kev' post='619068' date='Oct 6 2009, 09:59 PM']at that kind of starting price, you are paying for the brand. You could get a superb bass for half the likely final price from the likes of Shuker or similar, and i doubt the quality difference would be noticible. Great to see them in production though, just a shame they have followed the trend of needing to make such a large profit margin. No different from anyone else though i guess, tis the nature of the business these days[/quote] Surely that's the [i]entire point[/i] of running a business? If someone asked me whether I wanted to do the same job for £50k a year that I was doing for £15k before, I would jump at it.

Excellent stuff. Tone and playing both very nice

I guess its possible that Gary Willis has never bothered to adjust the intonation of his bass? The behaviour he describes sounds similar to when a fretted bass is not intonated correctly, and as we've seen a lot of folk don't really bother with setting up fretless intonation in the same way as a fretted.

If money really is no object, you'll be after a [url="http://www.looperlative.com/"]Looperlative[/url]. Failing that, you might also consider the Digitech Hardwire DL-8 which has a decent, if not exactly feature rich, looping function.

I don't think those amps will fit on stage at Stereo...

There are indeed two purple blobs. Its easy to tell them apart- one can play chords and one can't

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='616963' date='Oct 4 2009, 10:47 PM']Any! What about a major chord - all three notes of it.[/quote] How high is your action? It may just be a matter of repetition- it took me ages to get guitar chord shapes down but one day it just clicked.

What chords are you trying to play?

Having a sell out crowd erupt into massive applause as we finished Brahms' 2nd symphony at a concert hall in Aberdeen with NYOS. Even sitting at the very back of a bass section that was a pretty spine tingling moment.

The [url="http://www.bigjohnmusic.com/effect.html"]Big John Hairy Balls and Granny Puker[/url].

NS Design site says black rosewood.

Was it [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=58886&st=60&start=60"]this one[/url]?

Also, if you're having trouble with strict alternation, number your fingers (in your head!) and say the numbers out loud as you play. Makes you feel like a tit but it does work.

I've been using three fingers (Ring, middle index) for a few years now. I could never get the pinky consistent enough with the other fingers, although I've recently been working on using the thumb. As far as practice exercises go, all I can say is start slowly, use a metronome and just play what you play normally. Make sure you can play it perfectly slow before speeding up.

I've never paid for a setup on a fretted instrument- start with just string height and intonation if required- dead easy to do and very difficult to screw up permanently. The truss rod is a little more intimidating, but if you're careful its very difficult to do permanent damage. Just don't overtighten (don't try and force it to move) and use the correct size tool. The beauty of this is you save a lot of cash and you can set your instruments up the way you want. You can also experiment with different setups. I'm an incessant tweaker with a low action fixation, and recently started doing my own DIY fret dressing- as long as your careful, you can make a huge difference. The Gary Willis link above is one of the best guides IMO.

They're [i]perceived[/i] as being naff and tasteless by a lot of people. It is, of course, a matter of opinion

If you're unsure I would go with whichever is cheaper We have a tendency to get very anal about tone when the difference in real life is probably minimal. I would only go for a change if you're really unhappy with the Ampeg.

Thanks Glad someone got some use out of them. Unfortunately that's all I have at in that regard.

Do you mean why does slap bass get a bad rep all the time? For a lot of people it relates to lots things they'd rather suppress (the 80s, Level 42, etc)- not helped by its excessive deployment in guitar shops, on youtube, etc. They just associate it with being naff and tasteless.

I hated the f**kers. Glad you had a good time though

[quote name='v8bass' post='607578' date='Sep 24 2009, 12:13 PM']As im taking pics of all my bits bobs odds n ends Thought i should get a pic of my Voyager up Headless and aluminium allmost fit for Dusty Hill ! Enormous player capable of very low action Meaty tappable schaller double J pickup and phenolic fingerboard and oh chunky profile neck too Had this since the Romans came my way and its only ever been transported in a bin bag ( doh ) Currently strung as a tenor bass but normally with 30 -90 [attachment=33413:PICT0131.JPG] [attachment=33414:PICT0158.JPG] Gary v8 Kramer lover[/quote] Headless Explorer style- I think this is cool as f**k. Very nice.

Fantastic! Like it a lot.