mcnach

[quote name='Old Man Riva' timestamp='1486678211' post='3233860'] Thanks so much, really appreciate it. Nice bass, btw... [/quote] thank you, it's my new 'baby'... any excuse to show it

So here I was... with a bass that did not look the way I wanted it... yet, it was quite pretty. The colour is... odd. In natural light it can show a much more purplish colour, in other lights it looks more reddish... Using a whiteish LED lamp: with flash: and one morning, with daylight from the nearby window: It's an odd colour that can look like a pretty boring old furniture like maroon-like or a pretty cool purpleish shade... BUT... colours, colours... how does it play? Well, let's say that at first I started thinking that I could always refinish it some time. I thought I could contact Adrian and explain the situation and send it back to try to get it right (even if I'd have to pay a bunch... it was kind of special that I got THAT particular colour. But that was before I played it. The bass weights next to nothing. It's about 7.8lbs. It balances really well. The neck feels amazing. The dimensions are just right, as specified, and the whole body resonates beautifully. It has a nice 'snap' when I slap it and I feel the vibrations when it's on my lap. The action was very very low and I altered it a tiny bit. It's not 100% perfect but pretty much. It's really smooth to play, and if I dig in I get a very "Fleaesque" fret clank that sounds great when playing RHCP songs. The pickups are fantastic. It's got the classic Jazz sound, very well balanced, and with both pickups on it's got enough of that trademark scooped Jazz sound but also enough clarity to retain its presence. It's a lovely Jazz bass sound, but it feels (to me) nothing like a Jazz, and I love it. I can't put it down. So the colour may not be what I wanted but it's an amazing bass and if it were snot-green I'd keep it it just as it is and would not mess with it. It is, simply, my dream Jazz bass. The two previous Maruszczyk basses I bought were both very good, but this one... this one is just superb. I think, in the future, if I want any particular kind of bass, I'm just going straight to Maruszczyk. The ability to specify so many details about the instrument is amazing, and ends up costing what a US Fender would. Just make sure you know exactly what you want and make sure you indicate it very clearly

The actual NBD was exactly a week ago... but I've been busy, which is a good thing for a NBD as it's not all about the excitement of the new arrival as I've put a few hours on it already, although it's still pretty new, of course If you're bored already: IT's AMAAAAAAZING!!!! If you want to be bored, then keep reading. For I'll tell you all about it, and show you how NOT to make a custom order. The idea for this bass started a while ago, when I realised I really like the Jazz bass sound but not the big body, its weight, and the thin neck. I've owned more Jazz basses than any other type, so I guess I tried to like them, and I did like them... but they're never quite right. At the beginning of 2016 I started thinking about doing something about this. Maruszczyk came to mind, as I already had two superb basses from them, but I was in a more budget-conscious period than usual so I ended up converting my Matt Freeman Squier Precision into a Jazz: First I did this: Then I did this: Originally it had a pair of Nordstrand NJ4SE humbuckers that I had in my drawer. Nice pickups but not quite what I wanted, which is a more traditional Jazz sound but with more 'balls'. So I got a pair of cream-covered DiMarzio Area J humbuckers. I have this in a beater Squier Jazz and sound pretty good. The Matt Freeman was a fun bass to play, and now I got a lot of the Jazz bass 'thing' in it in my preferred Precision body, with a lovely Precision neck (a bit slim for a Precision, but still good). The controls are V-Blend-T, whether this has something to do with the fact that it's the least Jazzy Jazz bass I've had, I don't know. The pickups are in the correct place. Anyway... then Prince died. I can't say I'm a huge fan... but I always enjoyed watching him play. What an amazing musician. I thought "that's it... my custom Jazz, when it happens, will be purple with white pickguard and maple neck, loosely based on his Jazz". The months passed. The year was nearly over. I came across Hammersmith basses who made some beautiful red Precision type basses with Jazz pickups, and without realising almost I was chatting with them. Then the communication dried up when they failed to give me a few details... and in that time I came to my senses: "let's go to Maruszczyk and get that Jazz done, as I know he will make a great instrument". As I'm familiar with the process by now, I filled in all the relevant details for the order. Essentially it was going to be a Jake (precision style), with a number of customisations. - I went with their standard hardware, black, as it is just fine. - I chose Haeussel pickups as they seemed on paper the right choice, and WoT's bass sounds great with them - maple fingerboard, with no front markers and big 3mm diameter side dots. - yellow 'vintage' tint lacquered neck - ash body, chambered for reduced weight - 42-43mm wide at the nut, and 21-22mm deep at the first fret - purple translucent body, showing off the grain. - white pickguard. Initially I could not decide between flat purple finish or sparkly. In the end I went for the translucent one. And once the order was placed I further converted the Matt Freeman as it was pointless having another Precision/Jazz hybrid... and moved the neck pickup closer to the bridge. The result is the two pickups are roughly where a MM pickup would be on a Stingray but with a wider spacing... and it does not sound at all like a Stingray but it sounds pretty damn good And I waited for the new Jake to arrive. And it arrived last week. This is the famous 'sofa shot' that we get when the bass is completed, prior to shipping: It was not exactly what I was after... colour-wise, but it looked close enough. However, when it arrived and I opened it, I saw this: Which was... beautiful. Just beautiful. The grain, the feel, fantastic... just... nothing like the colour I had in mind! And then, the neck... again nothing like the colour I wanted. It was pretty dark amber. Beautiful (much like the Matt Freeman) but not what I had in mind... And it became clear that while I had been careful about the basic parameters of the bass, I had done a poor job at describing the finish I wanted... I wanted the yellowish tint... like in my red Jake. But that time I chatted with Adrian and we made sure we understood the exact tint. As a result what I got was just what I wanted. This time I simply stated 'vintage tint'... doh! So that's what I got. As for the colour... I sent a couple of examples. Adrian wrote back with a picture of one of his basses for comparison. It was very very close. I said yes, but a bit redder and a bit darker. I also sent an hexadecimal and an RGB code for the shade of purple I had in mind, and a jpeg. So what went wrong? Well... what went wrong is that I used my laptop to choose the colour. It seems it's boosting the blues and when I asked for more red, it wasn't actually needed. In hindsight, I should have spent a bit more time on it, maybe posting a physical example [1] and/or actually mentioning "you know Prince's bass? THAT purple!" dolt...

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1486647096' post='3233506'] How would you reach the knobs on an ampeg head on top of an ampeg 8x10 all the way up there? [/quote] There's a trampoline next to the cab for that purpose. It's also entertaining for the audience.

[quote name='funkydario' timestamp='1486626306' post='3233280'] When your writing goes faster than your thinking....sh*t happen !! [/quote] I was quite curious to see what Dave was up to these days experimenting with bass synth pedals

[quote name='funkydario' timestamp='1486577511' post='3232981'] Dave NAVARRO [url="https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=62xdDpV9T7c"]https://www.youtube....?ci=62xdDpV9T7c[/url] [/quote] NATHAN not Dave!

[quote name='Old Man Riva' timestamp='1486591113' post='3233157'] Do the sites listed above allow you to copy and paste pics into a thread (if that makes sense?). I'm looking to list a bass for sale and I'm dreading trying to get images into the ad - would like the ad to show the images rather than links (unless someone tells me that's not the correct way to do it!) but know nothing about this type of thing at all... [/quote] I right-click on a picture within my Dropbox folder and select "Copy Dropbox link". Then I come here and click on the little "image" icon on the editor, which prompts me to enter a link, so I paste the link I copied before, click ok... and you get this:

[quote name='largo' timestamp='1486573679' post='3232932'] I have a pair of One10 cabs & went with the Roqsolid Cajon bags. Not a perfect fit, but they protect all sides of the One10 cabs and have a zip & carry handles. Every time I carry the cabs, I hear shouts of "pizza delivery"... [/quote]

[quote name='radiophonic' timestamp='1486558254' post='3232730'] I've not waded through the whole thread, but the pickup height issue is certainly something I'll be playing with in the near future. I play f/less so the front pickup is usually backed off to maximise the mwah, but I find it sounds a bit puny. I've never been a fan of the 'both pickups on full' scooped sound (I can imagine it working in trio with a horn/reed player though) and I really want that cutting rear pickup sound with some low end support. Playing style must more into it too - I'm a finger style player and I tend to inadvertantly anchor on the front pickup, which is probably costing me some definition. [/quote] do have a play with that, it's incredible just how different the same bass can sound by tweaking both the absolute and relative pickup heights.

[quote name='alexclaber' timestamp='1486557584' post='3232723'] Glad to hear it! These are our new Barefaced covers, not the Roqsolid ones we used to supply. Thicker padding, neater seams. We like them a lot! [/quote] ah! I had no idea you switched. Have you switched for the whole range? I've always gone to Roqsolid for the various cabs and combos I've owned as they've been alright. The cover for my old MarkBass CMD121P combo was slightly long (maybe they gave me the extra inch that they removed from the BB2 earlier ) but I had no issues. I always went for their thicker grade, but something a bit more solid would not be a bad idea so that's good to know. I bought a Two10 a few months ago and ordered a cover from Roqsolid instead of directly from you because I thought they were the same and I wanted a couple of extras (like covering the bottom and fastened with velcro, as I sometimes end up carrying several things with a hand-truck and it protects the bottom from damage)... I'll remember this for next time 'though, as I'm pretty sure I'll get another Two10 later in the year.

[quote name='machinehead' timestamp='1486554643' post='3232666'] My Barefaced branded (Roqsolid) cover is well made and gives good protection to my BB2 but... it's about an inch too short! How that happened I have no idea? Frank. [/quote] I guess you had a very new BB2 and it just grew a bit ...

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1486547879' post='3232593'] It would be awesome though! hahaha A purple metalflake Jazz bass, but with all the traditional Fender trimmings. MMMMM! Or just a nice green....like Sherwood Green! [/quote] I was going to order a purple flake Jazz bass in a precision-like package from Maruszczyk but I ended up going for a more subdued transpurple... so I still have room for a purple flake in my life...

[quote name='Jack' timestamp='1486545081' post='3232566'] I bought two Roqsolid ones for the cabs that I bought, they're great. I then bought another Barefaced (used) that came wit a Roqsolid cover and it's nowhere near as good. Odd. [/quote] they do make at least three different grades

[quote name='petetexas' timestamp='1486469164' post='3232022'] Hi All, Can anyone please tell me an easy way to upload pics from your desktop into this forum ? I am fed up with waiting for PHOTOBUCKET to do something ! Pete [/quote] I prefer Dropbox. Easy to set. Just drag anything you want to make available into your dropbox folder (or upload on the webpage if you don't want to install the app) and the link is just a right-click away. Fast.

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1485857543' post='3227172'] They just need to have a few exciting colours in the range. Like, every year, introduce one off the wall colour and one classic pastel. E.g. Off the wall - Purple metalflake [/quote] NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really hope not, because I'd just might end up buying one mesmerised by its colour

[quote name='phil.c60' timestamp='1486493803' post='3232287'] So did an ex-navy friend of mine when he'd had a few. "Minesweeping" he called it. Announced by him looking at me and announcing "Three Green Balls!" which is apparently the flag they fly when carrying out said activity. Did I ever join in - you betcha! Can't leave a guy on his own now, can you. [/quote] still... UGH!

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1486503290' post='3232388'] Nice one, that`s very encouraging to hear, the ones on mine seem pretty ok so far. [/quote] They are! Even if they were made of softer metal, it's a pretty solid design with little that can go wrong probably in decades. I've had basses with that design of tuners that they may feel a little wobbly, but once in tension nothing rattles and stays in place. Most rattles tend to be around the collar anyway and is easily fixed. It would be really strange for a tuner of that design to slip; it would have to have seriously worn gears which is nothing to even consider in a newish bass. I've only replaced tuners for aesthetics or due to accidents (two damaged tuners in my SUB, bent... still working but their Daliesque nature was disturbing ) I can see someone wanting to replace the bridge because the string spacing, or the looks... but tuners, nah, you're alright.

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1486542954' post='3232545'] IMO, and I've only got a Squire VM Jazz compared to a MIA P, the Jazz sounds great on it's own but in a rock band situation because it's a lot more scooped sound it doesn't cut through,the P has loads of grunt around 200Hz, which the Jazz just doesn't seem to have, unless I put the pick ups in series mode [/quote] You don't need to use both pickups full. And even if you do, you can play a lot with the pickup heights (both absolute, and relative to each other) to get a 'sweet spot' that is not entirely devoid of 'meat'. But that series mod is a really cool one, I'll give you that. I should do that to mine. I had it on my first Jazz bass and it was a really good sound. I've owned more Jazz basses than is reasonable, and the extent of that midscoop when both pickups are on is extremely variable. I used to think it was mostly the pickups, and the pickups indeed are a huge factor. But long ago I realised that you can alter dramatically the sound by bringing the pickups up or down, and also playing with the relative heights too. I may sacrifice slightly the neck pickup so it has a bit less volume but because it's fatter it really doesn't show, yet the mix is a lot clearer and sits better. But pickup balance is not the full story. Even with the same relative heights, bringing both pickups up or down changes a LOT the final sound. It seems kind of obvious when you spend a little time thinking about it... but it took me years to go at it in a systematic way, and I was very surprised with the results. It's well worth spending a morning experimenting. But don't do it in a hurry. Take measurements and notes, record clips, and then listen back. If you have a band recording without the bass (or a backing track, if you don't), even better... You may just discover your bass can sound a lot better than it already does.

[quote name='Sarlscharisma' timestamp='1486509160' post='3232442'] There's a lot of the JB being thin sounding. Anyone heard the Dead Kennedys live or other end of the spectrum Denny Lane in Wings. I don't buy the thin sound stuff. [/quote] But it doesn't need to sound thin. Just like it doesn't need to sound scooped and lost in the mix. However, it's true, we hear a lof of that kind of sound. Blegh. My current 'Jazz' (it doesn't look like a Jazz, but it *is* a Jazz in everything else) is certainly not thin nor ultra scooped, at least not the way I use it.

I think I'd feel a bit bad for the guy, but it has nothing to do with me so if the band asks me to join and I'm interested, I'd learn the songs ahead of time. Why not? As others said: someone else is going to get the spot, so why not me? However, the way the band is handling is not great. I can see how they want to minimise their down time, but they're really just expanding their 'suffering' time. If they have decided they bass player has to do, the sooner the better, be done with it, get a new person in and make sure you're ready for the new gigs with the new material. If you have to cancel a handful of gigs, well, tough. But I think that's how I'd approach it. I'd talk to the guy and just be frank about it, and ask him whether he'd be willing to play a few more gigs while the search for a new guy goes on. He may well say no, and you have to cancel some gigs. So be it. But he may say yes and then everything is easy. The way they're going about it now is stressful and inefficient and they should 'man up' a bit. It would have nothing to do with me, as the decision to fire the other guy is theirs entirely, so from that point of view I would not let it bother me (even if I do feel a bit sad for the guy, I'm just human). But I'd really want the band to make the situation clear and talk to the guy first. I would hate to do sneaky rehearsals with them. The bass player is likely to find out and I would not want to be in the middle of an ugly moment like that. It does say a bit about the temperament of the guys of the band. It's not great, but I wouldn't make a big deal out of it... although I would not forget it and always keep it in the back of my mind. I don't see it so much as a sign of them being deceitful in nature but just a bit... maybe immature and lazy. We've all seen that behaviour before, even been guilty of it at some point, where by trying to postpone a bad experience we just make life harder for an unnecessarily long period. If it's got to be done... do it, and then deal with the consequences. It's not life or death we're talking about here.

[quote name='Marty Forrer' timestamp='1486521804' post='3232477'] Barefaced. [/quote] Roqsolid actually

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1486487269' post='3232216'] Which tuners Dan, I`ve not had an issue with mine but like to spec up on these things before the event so to speak, as not tried mine in a band environment yet. [/quote] I've gigged mine a few months and I have no issue whatsoever with the tuners, quite frankly.

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1486471197' post='3232045'] Routine pub gigs last weekend, both Sat & Sun happened to be in tiny pubs with very small playing areas, not very comfortable but thought I gave it my best shot. Funny moment, the playing area was so small on Sun I had to leave my interval shandy (half drunk) on a shelf in a public area couple of foot away from me as there was nowhere onstage to put it. Glanced over during 2nd song of second set to see some local old boiler finishing it off, obviously thought it had been left and was therefore up for grabs. Had a streaming cold so she might be equally under the weather by now, glass must have been well contaminated. [/quote] ugh... who does that? going around drinking other people's abandoned drinks...? well, my old singer in the RHCP tribute band did he was a character

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1486468766' post='3232017'] Muffled and distant does not sound right at all. Defo check that you have the right buds and no ear wax in them, which can mess with things. [/quote] Yes, that's why I haven't yet really 'reported' anything. I only tried it relatively quickly with one set of buds that 'looked' about right. I'll have to experiment to find the best fit. The UE900 came with a variety of buds, plus I have a bunch of others in various shapes too that are compatible, so when I have the chance I'll sit down and find the right ones for me. When I first tried the Xiaomi I was disappointed and I even set up an EQ preset on my phone (testing them with music I know well on my phone) so that they sounded ok. With a different set of buds no EQ curve was applied and sounded nice and clear. I guess I should try those very buds on the UE900. Soon...