Fat Rich

Bah! Good luck trying to learn anything from that fat idiot, he's two thirds halfwit

[quote name='timmo' timestamp='1407273168' post='2519126'] The treatment is called Anti-TNF...................... [/quote] Many thanks for the information and link, I'll definitely print that out and show it to my doctor. Looks like heavy duty stuff, I doubt they'll consider it for me yet as it's quite early days and is only affecting my left hand badly and my knees somewhat. But I'll certainly push and see if they'll consider it. [quote name='timmo' timestamp='1407273168' post='2519126'] Before i had it, i was on the verge of giving up work. Since i have been on it, around 5 years ago, all the swelling in my knees has gone, which was there for around 10 years./ The pain in my neck is not too bad at all, and i can actually pick myself up of the floor now, which was virtually impossible without having something to lean on. It has stopped any more damage so far. I can also play the bass, although badly, which is something i couldn`t even contemplate 6 years ago. I have it for psoriatic arthritis. [/quote] Yikes, sounds like you've had a really tough time of it Glad to hear you're playing bass and moving about better, hope the progress continues

[quote name='timmo' timestamp='1407086418' post='2517197'] That is not good. I started the guitar root when i was 12, and wasn`t too bad at it. At 19 i had arthiritis, and i had to stop. About 6 years a go, i got a great treatment that has made everything so much more managable................. [/quote] Can I ask what the treatment was? I've lost the use of my left hand to arthritis and it seems I'm allergic to the anti-inflammatories I've been prescribed, I swelled up like the Elephant Man and had severe breathing difficulties Basically I'd try anything to get back to a normal life.

[quote name='ped' timestamp='1390501052' post='2346144'] My vigier series 2 has a graphite neck with no truss rod. I love it because there's hardly any relief. I've had later series 3 basses also sans truss rod but they were built with a bit more relief (still not much by normal standards) but I preferred the older neck. I remember someone saying how not having a truss rod helped the sound if the bass, too. Not sure how important that is in the grander scheme of things but I guess it all goes into the mix. [/quote] It's all subjective I guess. I prefer the sound of the newer Status necks (with truss rod), they give the bass a slightly more complex tone and there's less fret noise. For me they fit into the mix better as a backing instrument (I'm a groove player, definitely not a soloist). But there are people on Basschat who like the purity of the older fully rigid necks and the aggressive note attack that gives, it can put the bass much more centre stage.

Newer Status basses have truss rods but are still very stable necks, never needed to adjust one unless drastically changing string gauge. My older ones have no truss rod and are completely rigid, I can take 4 strings off the bass and the remaining one is still in tune, no movement at all. My feeling is they're a little too flat and could have done with a little more relief built in, but I use fairly heavy strings and like to dig in when I play. A lot of Status players seem to like ultra light strings and super low action.

[quote name='AndyTravis' timestamp='1389488380' post='2334822'] I've just seen a blue retroglide. Game over. I'm going for one... Now...need to raise £2500. Hmm. Anyone know the build time on a status? [/quote] 16 to 20 weeks, it's a small team of geniuses so occasionally they're struck by illness but they almost always stick to their estimates. Might be worth a trip down to see them so you can discuss options, choose finishes etc. Plus there's the Gear Porn section here and the Statii forum which will probably give you some ideas.

[quote name='JPJ' timestamp='1389353465' post='2333124'] That sounds like what I'm experiencing - food for thought! [/quote] Generally I'd say that swapping bridges makes less of a change to the tone than you'd expect, but single piece versus multiple bridge pieces seems to be the exception. I was lucky to be able to directly swap the ABM monorails for an ABM single bridge I had on another similar bass (even the holes were in the right place so no drilling required). Swapping them around, whichever bass had the single piece sounded ballsier, whichever bass had the monorails sounded a bit too polite. You might need to do some research to find a bridge that'll either reuse the holes you've got, or one that needs holes drilled in completely different places.

[quote name='Grassie' timestamp='1387914904' post='2317236'] Sounds OK (apart from that odd ringing, similar to the sound you get when you tap a scaffold pole), but looks like a gardening implement. Terrible aesthetics. Not for me I'm afraid. Daft Punk might be interested though... [/quote] I agree about the metallic ringing, really irritating. I couldn't live with that, and I play all graphite basses so it's not like I'm stuck in 1962. There's been plenty of innovation in the guitar world right from the 70s through to today. But most guitarists and bass players would rather have two bits of wood roughly nailed together with some 1950s styling So the future of basses was Leo Fender and always will has been

Status use individual bridge pieces a lot these days, I had an S2 Classic 5 string headed bass that had a slightly "floaty" sort of tone and lacked that sort of grand piano oooomph I was expecting. So I put an ABM high mass bridge and it fixed it, gave it a little more sustain too.

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1388741971' post='2325391'] They want a duet with Marvin Gaye and Karen Carpenter, backed by God Speed You Black Emperor with James Jamerson on bass. It's the only thing that will satisfy them. [/quote] Bah! Worst show ever!

Was ill over new year so only just got round to watching this, thought it was much much better than usual. The sound seems to be better too now they've moved to their new studio. Surprised at all the negativity on here really, what do you people actually want from a New Years show?

Better posture and a shorter bass strap will probably help most situations, if it's back pain or PITA then it might be the chair that's a problem. I have a bad habit of resting the weight of my right arm / shoulder on the top of the bass which transfers through the bass body to my right leg, maybe you're having a similar problem if it's your leg that hurts. Or you could play lying on your back like Bob Babbitt

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1387401431' post='2311661'] ? so you've got one - and you can set your amp to make it sound nice.... but because your other basses need a different amp setting you're going to sell the stingray? did I understand that correctly? ... [/quote] Yup, I can get a good Stingray sound if I adjust my amps, but I don't need a Stingray sound enough to go through the hassle when other basses just plug in and work for me. I fixed the common quiet G problem though so it's much better than it was. Also I prefer Jazz profile necks so the Stingray doesn't feel particularly comfortable, and the truss rod always seems to need adjusting as the neck is very unstable. My other basses are hassle free and feel just right. Stingray is definitely not for me.

Yup, can't get on with mine either. I can twiddle the controls on my amps to make it sound nice but then all my other basses sound rubbish, it just doesn't seem to fit in. I'm 100% certain mine's gotta go, but if you're not sure I'd say keep yours if you can.

Great player: [url="http://www.stsanders.com/www/pages/videos/guitar-shreds/yngwie-malmsteen-shreds.php"]http://www.stsanders.com/www/pages/videos/guitar-shreds/yngwie-malmsteen-shreds.php[/url]

I've only heard of a couple of graphite necks that have had problems, one had been left out in the sun for a whole day at a California open air gig (if I remember correctly) and the fingerboard had come unstuck from the neck. The other is someone on here whose sweat seems to have had some kind of reaction with the phenolic fingerboard, I've not seen pictures so don't know any details. I have several Status basses, some from the early '92 and they're as good as new, seen plenty of older ones all with no problems. Status necks look like the carbon fibre weave you find in the motorsport / aerospace industries but they're described by Rob Green as graphite, other graphite necks I've seen don't seem to have the weave visible and are probably constructed differently. All these manufacturers seem a bit secretive about their production techniques. Refrets are probably a bit tricky, I think it can sometimes involve fitting a new fingerboard so probably pricey.

[quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1384176168' post='2273532'] My first bass had a ply body...and so did my second. So I upgraded to a Jaydee and never looked back because the ply bodies dampened a lot of the lows and didn't sustain anywhere near as well as the Jaydee. I've not tried the multi-hued ritter in RR's post above but generally I would take a solid body of super cheap meranti over "birch ply" any day. The Kubicki necks are laminated but the laminates are a lot thicker than those in ply wood. It's probably not doing the design any justice to call the neck plywood any more than calling it is to call a steinberger 'plastic'. [/quote] True enough, I get the whole dismissive "plastic" thing a lot with my Status basses. Usually till they actually try one of them I just wonder if with some experimentation with different types of engineered timber has been done, by keeping the glue content down and aiming for a fairly light weight (with chambering probably) I wouldn't be surprised if they could get some good results. But probably not with standard types of ply that's available at the moment.

When I bought my first bass I asked "Is it ply?" The reply "No, It's laminated Birch" Was a good bass as it goes but I always wanted a "proper" bass, even though it turned out that the alder bodied replacement sounded pretty much the same. I would say decent quality ply maybe with some clever chambering to manage the weight could be made to sound good with some experimentation. The Kubicki ply neck was good and I'm surprised more manufacturers didn't try it. It would maybe allow guitar builders to make more consistent instruments, but I think it's unlikely that a great sounding ply bass would ever sound have that "something special" about it like maybe a great vintage bass or a handbuilt mega pound bass.

I find the standard phenolic fingerboards a bit too clacky so Rob has put rosewood boards on mine. You still get the stability and note definition of the graphite neck but with some warmth from the wooden board, the perfect combination to my ears. I've never seen one but Rob could probably do a wooden board on a Stingray neck, but it would make a fairly costly neck even more expensive.

Pearl on maple with white bindings looks great, a "must have" I reckon. It'll go nicely with pearl on rosewood with white bindings, next on the "must have" list if you've not got one already.

[quote name='Si600' timestamp='1382802495' post='2256744'] Do you? I hadn't thought of that aspect to it. So basically we're looking at a quality kit plus a quality PA to get the best out of it? [/quote] A cheap kit through a great PA will probably work better than a top of the range TD-30 through an underpowered PA. But a quality kit will feel fetter to play, have better dynamics and have more sounds and settings to play with. [quote name='Bloc Riff Nut' timestamp='1382809062' post='2256860'] Our current drummer uses an electric kit and I think it sounds great. I dont think it looks very rock n roll but the pros outweigh the cons hands down. Lighter, smaller, easier/faster to set up,easier to transport, more variety in sound, dont detune(lots of drummers dont pay enough attention to tuning) but most of all, you can vary the volume. We played in a hotel foyer last week and having the kit volume reduced helped lots. [/quote] There are people like Jobeky and Diamond who make cool looking electronic triggers that look like real drums. Often cheaper than Roland or Yammy ones too: [url="http://www.jobekydrums.co.uk/"]http://www.jobekydrums.co.uk/[/url] [url="http://www.diamondelectronicdrums.com/"]http://www.diamondelectronicdrums.com/[/url]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1382791697' post='2256596'] I think Rotosound are great-sounding strings , but it's just everything else that goes with them that puts me off . The actual tone fresh out of the packet is fabulous , but ... we all know it doesn't last long enough and the fret wear is frightening . I used to like Elites Stadium Series , but I'm sure that they aren't the same as they used to be because they seem to die off much quicker and don't sound as good as they used to . Back in the 1990's they used to last for ages and sound great, but now they sound so-so and die off quickly. [/quote] Exactly, love the sound of them for a couple of days but too many dead strings straight out the packet, too many breakages. Shame

The best and most expensive vdrum kit won't work through an under powered PA, you need lots of watts to recreate the earsplitting crack of a real snare.

[quote name='Dom in Somerset' timestamp='1382780821' post='2256446'] The most interesting thing uncovered in this thread so far is that Rotosounds aren't too popular. [/quote] I've had a few conversations where I've asked: "Why do you use Rotosounds?" "I've always used Rotosounds" "You've never tried anything else?" "Nope" A few people have said because Billy Sheehan or John Entwistle or some other player uses them. I'm often surprised at how little bass players are prepared to experiment with different strings.

I've had earthing problems with every coated set of strings I've tried, a sort of quiet crackle accompanying every slide I make. Every breakage I've had has been with Rotosounds, never had a string break from any other manufacturer. Plus they go dead really quickly, and not a usable kind of deadness. Recently tried some Fodera strings and was surprised how much of the Fodera sound is in the strings. However it's not a sound I want, they're good enough strings and cheap but they're really not for me.