untune

Hi all... Unusual request, but I'm wondering if anybody owns both a Jaguar bass and a '51 Precision, who might be willing to take a picture of both next to each other. I'm trying to get the 51 P control plate scale in relation to a jaguar body! Cheers

[quote name='TRBboy' post='1145016' date='Feb 28 2011, 09:18 PM']U What model do you have? In my experience, a very shallow profile can cause more discomfort, tension, and cramp than a chunky neck. I definitely find that if my hand isn't 'anchored' well enough and the distance between the thumb and first finger is small when fretting, I get cramping in the meaty muscle between the knuckle of thumb and first finger. I used to have a warwick thumb 5 that caused me discomfort due to a pretty slim, narrow neck, and the fact that first fret felt like it was at full arms length away![/quote] It's a GSR200, from the serial it's from 2001 I believe. I'm not sure if the more recent versions of the 200 have the same profile but I'd assume they do. It's smooth and fast to play but I do think a bit more depth would be better, hence why I think a jazz would be more my thing.

[quote name='TRBboy' post='1144499' date='Feb 28 2011, 02:26 PM']I'm about 185mm from wrist to tip of middle, almost 170mm span from index to pinkie. I always thought I had small hands, but maybe they're about average after all! Definitely prefer a slimmer neck, but not too slim - Jazz good, ibanez sdgr not so good. I always feel like a fuller profile seems to inhibit my playing and I find it hard to be as articulate and quick. Just feels like hard work. Anyway, my wife always says technique is more important than size.......[/quote] The SDGR is practically the same as mine I assume, I've been noticing a bit of fatigue and discomfort when playing on lower frets lately and I'm wondering if whether the shallow profile is the culprit.

What do all the grades actually involve? Likewise I've no idea where I am on that scale. I decided I wanted to have a crack at bass back in summer 2009 as guitar just wasn't sticking at all. I bought one in June and didn't do much with it until October until I was watching Flight of the Conchords, heard a simple bassline and then snatched my bass up and tried to figure it out, which I did! Big pat on the back for me, and since then I've loved that rewarding aspect of working something out by ear. So overall been at it about a year an a half? Very much a beginner!

[quote name='tomb' post='1144069' date='Feb 28 2011, 12:16 AM']i played with a very old Jazz Bass (seed avatar) a few days ago and it felt it was made for my hand to fit perfectly, never played a Precision but I do feel that if the neck is any bigger it might not feel as good untune, what do you play at the moment?[/quote] At the moment I'm still on the Ibanez, it's a GSR200 (an older one from 2001ish) and it's been great for developing on, but thought it was about time to invest something new as I have stuck with bass and really do enjoy it

[quote name='lemmywinks' post='1144025' date='Feb 27 2011, 11:19 PM']22cm or 8 1/2 inches, i have big palms and short fingers though so not as useful for bass playing as you'd think! My keys player has the same sized hands but with really long ET fingers, he makes really long note stretches look easy which makes me a bit jealous! Pantherairsoft has it right though, it doesn't really matter.[/quote] I agree with what Pantherairsoft says too, I was curious if perhaps there was some correlation. My first bass was a P copy and after that, an Ibanez. I think the Ibby has a P width at the nut, but a very slim profile. My project in the works will have a jazz neck - never properly played a jazz before but I thought it'd be fun to try it out!

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1143919' date='Feb 27 2011, 10:01 PM']I will get it out the way then, You know what they say about big hands?...... Big Gloves! No idea how long mine are though I will check later....[/quote] Haha and so it begins

[quote name='tomb' post='1143920' date='Feb 27 2011, 10:01 PM']having no idea how much those measure are, my hands are 18cm, so now you can sort of compare[/quote] So between 7", and 7 1/2" roughly. It'll be interesting to hear what kind of necks people prefer too!

Just curious on this one... I hear people saying all the time 'I play a precision because I have big hands etc etc' and I'm curious just how big are big hands?? Haha... I read a forum post somewhere where somebody said his hands measured 7.5" from wrist to the end of his middle finger, and he said his were small... so I measured mine and they're pretty much the same, 7 and a half. Now if anyone can resist the onslaught of jokes about measuring yourself, just how big are big hands exactly?

I know it's guitar and not bass, but a mate of mine told me one of the guitarists from Gallows plays Squiers, but sticks decent pickups in them. When they get battered and beaten or whatever (Gallows being a pretty extreme British Punk band) he just whips the pups out and puts them in the next one.

I was actually going to PM you about the same thing earlier but thought it might not be possible. But I agree with what stevie says - I'll be in need of a chrome pickup surround shortly to fit around an SSB-4 style soapbar. I assume this is what he means [url="http://www.fretsonthenet.com/MusicMan_PoldAlum.jpg"]MM Surrounds[/url] That is pretty much what I'd be after too, only like I said, for a different kind of pickup. The only option I've found is to have them made by the guy who runs that site in the states, but it'd be more logical to get them from over here.

I used Reason a good few years ago, maybe 2003-2004 ish? It was good but eventually I found it to feel a bit limiting so moved on. I've tried a lot of stuff over the years. Cubase has a pretty poor audio engine but has worked for getting some stuff recorded. I had a crack at Sonar a few years ago and found that to be pretty good, but never really explored it much further... Ableton I liked but found it a little bit harder to get into a flow with, so I never really carried on using it. Same with Tracktion, deceptively simple in appearance but actually a decent bit of software if you know what you're doing. I've used Pro Tools and some stuff on Mac at uni but in all honesty don't find Macs to be anything special, and Pro Tools is decent but again - I don't really see what all the fuss is about! At the moment I use REAPER for recording as I think it's the simplest, most straightforward, has an incredble range of features and technology for a very low price - and it just has the greatest 'wow' factor of anything I've used so far. I also like using FL Studio to get ideas down quickly, but that's more of a programming thing than a recording thing. Gear wise I've got a MOTU Ultralite 10 in/14 out firewire interface and that's always been great.

I don't know if anybody will remember the Alden TV Cruiser I put up for sale a fair bit back when I first joined this site... there was a string alignment problem on that. Having imported it from Germany, and myself being somewhat shall we say... 'inexperienced' at the time, I thought that it was a construction problem. Knowing what I know now, it turns out that the problem is simpler than that. The design was a mishmash of Fender and Gibson ideas, being a telecaster style appearance but with the pickups of an EB-3. Big mudbucker at the neck and a mini humbucker near the bridge. Middle two strings were fine, but the outer strings missed the pole pieces by a fair few mm on each side, obviously being much worse at the bridge. Result = incredible difference in volume on outer strings. Anyways, the problem is that the pickups have been produced to Gibson specs, which use a slightly reduced string spacing on their bridges as far as I can tell. The Alden, however, is fitted with a Fender-style high mass, meaning that the string spread is too wide for the pickups. Anyways, nobody wanted it, I thought for a while about modding it in a few ways and keeping it but then eventually decided I want rid of it as I don't play it, it's always in my way and I'm building a new project anyway. I'm currently gathering the bits - it'll soon have a '51 P pickup in the neck position and if I can track one down hopefully, a blade magnet mini humbucker in the bridge. Then it'll probably be making another appearance in the 'For Sale' board!

Bought a pickup from Howard, arrived far more quickly than I was expecting! Absolutely great guy to deal with! Thanks