mcnach

wow!

[quote name='fiatcoupe432' timestamp='1483345673' post='3206292'] Hi all , after 12 years living in the uk me my wife and our 2 yo son we thinking of relocating to Wroclaw in Poland . I'm italian and my wife is polish but we have been living in uk since 2005. Now...... I love the uk and I have a very good job , not good money but a job everyone would def love. I work on one of the most amazing place in uk Bantham . I work 6 month of the year full time 3 month only 2 days a week (weather permitting ) and 3 month off of course paid all year around around £18000 a year before tax . This job give me lots of time on concentrating on music . In 2013 me and my band realised our first album which sold over 80000 copies been voted iTunes best of 2013 , let's say I had axing experience and lucky to achieved this , played amazing shows tour America couple of times etc. then lots happened we took 2 years break and started writing again . However this is the part where my wife decided to move and i do feel a bit i need to supported me in this as she supported me in the last 5 years and i also could do with a scenery change btw we both 34 . Any polish people here know about Poland music scene?is it easy to find job , i speak English Italian Spanish a bit of French and still learning polish.I be been in Wroclaw lot of times and amaze me every time. Thanks for your advice [/quote] Sorry, I have nothing helpful to add... but my girlfriend is from Wroclaw and I love the place too. I never miss a visit (or five) to Spiz everytime I'm there Make sure you post here when you're settled in Wroclaw and gigging there, and I'll come and say hi

Sorry I cannot help... lovely basslines on that album 'though. Voulez Vous, the album and the song, are favourites of mine.

Oh no! I never met him personally, and my only contact with him was a few emails when I wanted to order a pair of TKS S112 in blue tolex... it was close to Xmas and he was so helpful and generally nice... Way too young to go.

[quote name='TrevorR' timestamp='1483314374' post='3206189'] That configuration has a really great look to it. Nicely proportioned - which given how far the pickup has moved is a real surprise. Nice! [/quote] Thanks! I thought it might look a bit off, but it seems it works alright visually. I think having both pickups equidistant from the pickguard edge makes it look balanced.

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1483306652' post='3206138'] Next mod - triple pickups! [/quote] Ha ha! no, I think I'm done with this one now although it could be cool to have three pickups and a 5-way pickup switch like a Stratocaster where you can also get the two outer pickups on, for 'Jazz' sounds... Maybe next Xmas if I spend too much time at home without anything else to do

[quote name='Fisheth' timestamp='1483302310' post='3206081'] Nice one, I'll have to hear you play it sometime! [/quote] If we play near you I'll let you know! I'm really liking it, so much so that I'm thinking I should have maybe left this one as 'Jazz' and have the Maruszczyk be the JJ... ah well! I do want a 'nice' Jazz, which the Maruszczyk will surely be.

[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1483282457' post='3205873'] I can understand the guitarist wanting more top end but unless you are slap-happy, as a bassist I'd imagine it isn't such a problem. Let us know what you think? I like the idea that you aren't injecting sound into your ear with those. Additionally, taking the eardrum out of the process altogether might turn out to be advantageous in my case. [/quote] Well, I want to hear everything, not just myself ;)It's an issue for everyone in the band, not just the guitarist, if it means he ends up turning his amp or his monitor higher. Las gig was at a place with a very bad stage, very boomy box type of stage... I turn down the low end in my bass a lot onstage and we generally avoid a lot of bass frequencies onstage or everything becomes mush. If you have high volume onstage there you have the same effect. It's just not ideal. As for hearing the bass better... I don't know about you but what I need to hear from my bass is something that gives me a good pitch recognition, not masses of low end. Pitch recognition is all on the midrange. It may sound bassier overall, but if the pitch recognition is not improved...

Two gigs now with the bass in this configuration... and it's a winner. I ended up just leaving the two pickups on (parallel) and it has enough oomph and enough definition and sounds very good. A very different sound from a Stingray or a Jazz. Nice slap tone and fingerstyle. Success! It'll stay as it is

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1483194099' post='3205346'] [media]http://youtu.be/3vmPwZT-9zY[/media] [/quote] After Cato's message, that's the song I had in my mind, yes... thank you soooo much

Flare earplugs... my guitarist last night admitted he's not liking them after the initial honeymoon period. He says he cannot hear his guitar as clearly as he needs and that's the reason for extra loud guitar in his monitors, which is starting to throw us off.. Apparently they are very comfy, that's true... and they look great.

[quote name='Cato' timestamp='1483120231' post='3204882'] The P-Sting? Sounds a bit like an STD. [/quote] I hate you! Now I can't 'unsee' that... I was going to go with P-Ray but I didn't want it to be mistaken with a religious message. I'll do my best to forget what you said... but the bass is already ruined for me

As I said, I didn't want a Fender logo or anything like it, but I didn't want an empty headstock so I had to come up with something. I'm no graphic designer and my ability is very limited, so I just made something very simple and sent it away: At least it indicates its provenance, and what it tries to be Not the prettiest logo but it'll do.

[u][size=5][b]Background:[/b][/size][/u] I bought a Matt Freeman precision a while ago, as backup to my Fender Classic 50s, which was my 'goto' bass for a while. It was a lovely bass. It looked like this: I played a few gigs with it, but lovely as this bass is, its role as 'backup' was not really required, as I soon had my Maruszczyk Jake P/JJ which was a fine bass indeed and between the Classic 50 and the Jake I really didn't need three Precisions. However, I liked the idea of a Jazz with a Precision type neck. A lot. It led to my briefly owning a Roadworn Jazz with a RW series maple Precision neck... but I really prefer the smaller Precision body. So I converted the Matt Freeman to Jazz. There's a thread about it here: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/289660-not-quite-nbd-matt-freeman-precision-to-jazz-conversion/page__hl__matt%20freeman"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/289660-not-quite-nbd-matt-freeman-precision-to-jazz-conversion/page__hl__matt%20freeman[/url] It essentially ended up looking like this: I later changed those Nordstrand NJ4SE pickups for a set of my favourite DiMarzio Area J with cream covers, and since I was at it I put cream coloured knobs too: I used the bass in this configuration in most of my gigs in the past couple of months or so. For some reason it does not have that Jazz tone. I'm very familiar with those pickups, and they were placed at the correct positions... I checked and double checked... but it sounds nothing like my Squier Jazz with Area J pickups. The bridge pickup was very nice, the neck was also very very nice, but both together had a weird resonance that was not very Jazzy... I can't understand it. Still, it had a lovely spot where I turned the blend knob slightly to the bridge, just where it changes from the "two pickups full on" but without getting to bridge alone sound... and luckily that position was achieved by aligning the knob marker to one of the pickguard screws, so I could get the sound easily everytime. It was lovely. But I have a Maruszczyk Jake with Jazz configuration coming soon and I have time in my hands right now... so I decided to go for something different here. [size=5][u][b]Episode IV: A new hope[/b][/u][/size] I had a new pickguard made by SIMS and I'd move the neck pickup closer towards the bridge. My experiments with an old OLP suggested this could be quite cool. It may get a bit of a Stingray-ish vibe, but pretty distinct from it, and a very focussed type of sound. Let's see. The mod would also be quickly reversible in under 10 minutes: loosen strings, swap pickguard, move pickup, screw back on and tighten strings. Ok, so I removed the pickguard to reveal the routing underneath: I placed the new pickguard on top so that I could mark the new pickup position and know where to hack away... and I mean hack, I'm not a subtle wood worker A lot of the space needed was already empty as the original P pickup routing overlapped with the new position. I started chiselling softly with a wide chisel to mark the boundary. I used masking tape to help me avoid chipping the finish too much (note: use VERY SHARP chisels!!! mine weren't that sharp anymore and I didn't do great). I marked also the edge of the pickguard to make sure I don't make the hole too big: And with the help of two smaller chisels, I started to carefully remove wood... Ok, it is not a very elegant job, but I didn't remove much more wood than needed and the bottom was reasonably flat and level with the existing route... that would do! Time to reassemble it! And the Matt Freeman JJ LIVES!!!! Sounds? Well, the neck pickup in its new location has a lot of midrange bark that reminds me of a Precision, but it does not sound like a Precision... In its original location it sounded fat and was reminiscent of a P, here the sound is a lot more define, a lot less bottom end, but that Precision midrange 'bark' is there... it's a different sound. Panning between the two pickups is almost like having a wide peak mid-range semiparametric EQ control. Both pickups sound very different, but they're both two flavours of the same type of sound, if that makes any sense... With both pickups on there's a slight mid scoop, but nothing like on a Jazz. I found a sweet spot where I turn the pan slightly towards the neck pickup, where I get a very defined tight bass sound with just enough low end and the right amount of mids... It doesn't sound like anything else. Does it have anything in common with a Stingray? The line between the pickups is pretty much where the middle of a Stingray pickup would be, just a fraction higher towards the neck, and the pickups are wired in parallel, as the two coils in a Stingray. The area covered is a bit wider than that covered by a Stingray pickup. So does it remind me of a Stingray? Absolutely not. Nothing like it whatsoever. I'm surprised just how different it is. When I played in the OLP I could get sounds that had some 'Stingray spirit' in them, but this doesn't. It's true I never placed the two coils so far apart as in this example. Well, I put new steel strings on, and I'll be using this bass at tonight's gig. Let's see how it behaves live!

[quote name='blablas' timestamp='1482948475' post='3203713'] The sellers store name was louyuan yan, but his store is not active anymore. [/quote] thank you. I chose my seller based on the feedback and reviews. The only one thing that made me a bit nervous was that there were a couple of reports of damage in transit... but the seller seemed to act quite fast to correct the issue either through replacement or repair/parts... we'll see

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1482943323' post='3203666'] [...] the Chinese instruments are built to deceive. I think the key difference is that the Japanese manufacturers were trying to score sales by producing a good quality product, whereas the Chinese builders on Aliexpress are deceiving the buyer and hoping to win sales by simply offering a Gibson Les Paul for sub-Epiphone money. You are buying into a scam, ultimately. [/quote] It depends. Some instruments attempt to look like Fender, Gibson etc instruments. I don't think they try to deceive the customer. The customer knows full well what they're buying: a counterfeit, of lower quality, which may look the part. I'm not a fan of that kind of business. Some builders offer you options that just are not available in bona fide instruments, or are willing to build something that does not resemble another manufacturer's instrument. They're generally build cheaply, but again, the buyer has a good idea of what they're buying. There may be someone who thinks their left-handed Les Paul in a completely unseen before colour is a real Les Paul despite costing only $200... but that's not going to be the average customer and that person is simply deceiving himself. A while ago I bought a Sue Ryder Precision. I did not expect it to be as good as a Fender, for example, and it wasn't. But it's an instrument that with some minor attention works well and I still use it. I turned it into a fretless and it's an instrument that does its job well. Sue Ryder did not attempt to deceive anybody, and the headstock shape and name reflected that. You can get the same sort of treatment from many builders in Aliexpress. Counterfeiting is not what they're about. They're about sales and will sell anything you want if they can make it... You want a cheap custom spec bass... you can certainly order that. [quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1482943323' post='3203666'] Chinese luthiers can, and will, produce brilliant faultless instruments, but that is a different market to Aliexpress.[/quote] Not at $200, of course not. It would be ridiculous to expect that. Some sellers do give indication that they can, if asked, built something of quality. They don't charge $200 for those, 'though. I think the problem is too many people have been blinded by greed and somehow convinced themselves that they can get a $2000 worth of instrument at $200 because it's China, and it just doesn't work that way. [quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1482943323' post='3203666'] From what I've read from people who have gone to the effort of commissioning Chinese-built products, you basically have to watch them like hawks and communicate clearly about every aspect of the build you want included. They may try and swap out components with inferior equivalents, or simply install the pickups in the wrong place or finish in the wrong colour.[/quote] Having dealt with Chinese businesses at my job, I'm very aware of communication issues. It can be a real nightmare. It pays to write concise and clear instructions... but even then misunderstandings do arise, it's true, ha! Still, they are not stupid and they want you to be happy so that you give them your money. They will work with you, you just need to remain focused, feed information in bite size chunks, and remain polite. Trying to give you lower spec components than specified? There are crooks in every country. If I commissioned a serious instrument I would have researched the builder and I'd be satisfied they are genuine. If you commission a budget instrument, there are no such issues, yes, of course you will get cheap components. You can see on eBay pretty much what kind of components you'll get. They will work. But if you buy a budget instrument with view to upgrade and modify it, that fits the bill perfectly. Wrong colour or pickup in the wrong place? They don't get paid. Simple. The seller I'm dealing with asked me for colour examples, he saw them, and was happy they can get something close enough and his words were something like "I'll send you pictures after staining. If not happy, we will change it". Aliexpress does not release the funds to them until I receive the item and I confirm it's ok. [quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1482943323' post='3203666'] However there is no reason for you not to get a good instrument from China at the end of the day; it just simply isn't the same as getting a British luthier to build a custom bass at a fraction of the cost. [/quote] Absolutely. Nobody suggested otherwise. There's a reason why I have an active order with Maruszczyk right now and I didn't think of going to Aliexpress for that one: I wanted a *good* serious instrument on that one. I also paid quite a bit more (although I still think it's a steal, those guys make superb instruments). There are many reasons you may buy say a VM Squier bass. Usually you don't buy it because it's the best you can buy. You buy it because for whatever reason you don't want to spend more than X and you are happy with the quality of that instrument even if it's not the best. However the selection is limited. If all you want is a Jazz or a Precision and you like the available colours, you're in luck. What if you would like a budget instrument in another configuration, colour, whatever? Well, if you're one of these people who enjoy taking instruments apart and doing work on them, some sellers in Aliexpress may just give you that possibility. That's my approach, anyway. I could be wrong! Time will tell.

[quote name='blablas' timestamp='1482937630' post='3203624'] Something like this? Been there - done that. However I needed to do some work on it before it was a player. - Aligned the pickups to the strings, the bridge pu was moved over by 3 millimeters, the neck pu by 1 millimeter. - Due to the moving of the pickups I also had to move the pickguard. - Reshaped the nut, they just put on a right handed one so this needed to be seriously modified. - Gave the tuner bushings a few knocks on their head, they were mounted crooked. - The fingerboard had several less good looking and finished spots, re-finished these. - Crowned the frets where needed and polished them, they were level but rough finished in a lot spots. I just can't and won't cope with this reversed crap! - Done a full shielding of the controls cavity, there was none whatsoever. - Made a thumb rest. - Made a new truss rod cover. - Replaced the strap holders, what was on there was mounted with very thin and short screws, to leave those would have been waiting for an accident to happen. - Checked if all the screws and bolts were tightened and if they weren't tightened them (more often than not they were loose!). - Did a full and thorough setup. Rebuild diary can be found [url="http://theharleybentonclub.proboards.com/thread/669/lefty-rickenfaker-4005-aliexpress"]here[/url]. [/quote] very interesting read! and those truss rod covers are fantastic!!! well done!!! ah, I wish I had access to that kind of technology! Glad all the misaligned parts were easy to realign. My pickup will be routed onto the body, no pickguard, so no much room for misalignments there! Although it would be easy to create a pickguard for it afterwards if needed. Hey, I bought a Retrovibe that had its bridge pickup misaligned with a slightly enlarged pickup route, meaning that it fit nicely on one end and left an unsightly gap on the other. Fortunately it was easy to fix by modifying the pickguard so that it was a bit larger, and David from Retrovibe was happy to pay for it. It's the kind of work I am well prepared to do. It doesn't scare me... heh, in fact right now I am taking a rest before I tidy up my Matt Freeman Squier Precision... I had it converted to Jazz configuration, and now I just moved the neck pickup towards the bridge. I got a new pickguard done, and I've been chiselling away making room for the pickup where I want it. You can't leave tools near me when I'm not at work or gigging... I'll have to do something I had to laugh at the nut, 'though. Really? A right handed nut? It does show how little the person(s) making that guitar knew or cared. Do you remember what seller was that?

Mark bought my Seymour Duncan SMB4A pickup. Great communication, easy transaction, great guy to deal with.

[quote name='Sibob' timestamp='1482920518' post='3203480'] Mike Newell on here bought a Fodera copy from Ali Express and it was a heap of junk, so will be interesting to see how this pans out. It's a little difficult, as many people want to 'try a 5 string' (or whatever feature it is you're exploring), but understandably not spend a lot of money to do so. However, judging it on a £170 plank thrown together may not give you the best experience......so consider something else before giving up on 5s if this experience fails Si [/quote] You're right about the trying out something on a substandard example. Over the years I've experienced that at various levels! I do have experience with 5 strings 'though. My favourites were a USA MusicMan SUB5 and a Lakland 5502. I had others by Crafter, Squier, Peavey, G&L... They ranged from meh to pretty cool. The Lakland is probably the one bass I could use as my only bass, if I had to choose a 5-string. But I sold them all as I just don't use them and it's hard to bring yourself to use an instrument when you don't seem to find enough use in what it brings to the table, and miss what a couple of other very good 4-string basses give you. I haven't given up on 5 strings. I just haven't needed one enough, and I haven't found one that I like as much as my 4-strings. But I do like playing on one at times and I'd like to be comfortable enough on either. Years ago I went for an audition for a new starting band playing a funk/hip-hop mix... and it went ok but I was not their first choice. However, it turns out their first choice didn't work out, they had a couple of gigs coming up and no bass player. They called me to see if I was still interested and up for the challenge (first gig in 6 days). I said yes. We'd get in a couple of practices at the band leader's place and I'd bring my recorder to record everything (all original songs and nothing recorded, written out, nothing at all... in fact the songs were pretty much evolving and there was a degree of improvisation on the spot every time ). The guy says "don't bring anything, I have a very good acoustic bass and you should use that, keep the volume down in the flat...". In those days I had no transport and as he insisted so much about the acoustic bass and it was my first real experience with the band I decided to do as told. As I arrive he hands me this beautiful thing "here, this is for you". It was a 5-string fretless. I had barely played any fretless at that stage and I had never played a 5 string either. I sweated a lot For my second practice I brought a small combo and my Warwick Corvette, with 4 strings and nicely fitted frets But that ledt a mark and I wanted to be able to play any instrument reasonably well (well, reasonably well for my standard... I'm far from a being a pro). So I kind of miss having a 5-string bass whose sound and feel I like enough, but I'm not willing to spend several hundred in a great instrument. A squier quality instrument will do me just fine. Same with fretless. I've owned a few good ones... but you know which one I kept after selling all the others? You'll be horrified/amused. A Sue Ryder Precision. Yup! I removed the frets and had the fingerboard planed nicely by a luthier I knew in Edinburgh. Put a decent pickup on it and nylon tapewound strings. It is not the best fretless bass, I guarantee you that But it's nice enough to play and it makes the right noises for my purpose. Some people have more refined tastes but I have a couple of lowly Squier basses that work very well and I'm happy to use. That's kind of the point I'm aiming to reach with this 'experiment'. It's never going to be the bass to kill all basses, but it may just be ok for me to use and have around for not much money. A bass that's going to be a little unique, and that's also exciting. And if that fails, it looks like I'd have bought a wall decoration for £160

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1482868890' post='3203231'] I'm now watching this thread too. Remember back in the 70s when "Made in Japan" meant "junk"? We now know that it wasn't true. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes for the Chinese to get QC under control. I reckon that for £150, even if you only get the bare bones, spending another £50 or so to get it set up to your liking, all the rough woodworking put right and for it to be "refined" might still make it VFM. Hoping it works out for you (and the rest of us afterwards). [/quote] Thank you, I hope so too! That's exactly my thinking/hope. It;s not going to be an amazing instrument, but I'd be more than happy with a VM Squier if they came in the configuration I want. I'm hoping I can turn it into something close to the VM series quality or thereabouts.

[quote name='miles'tone' timestamp='1482794259' post='3202803'] Yes I've used them at practice but not at a gig of my own I might add. They worked brilliantly for me. I could hear everything fine. Very loud guitars and drums.. And me! Much higher quality experience than any of the "rubber Christmas tree" plugs I've been through which usually do cut alot of top end and give a swampy tone to everything I've found. [/quote] Interesting. I don't see how it could work so well, from the description and graphs... but it clearly works for some! One of the guitarists in my band bought them recently and he really likes them. What I don't like is that I feel he turns himself in his monitor louder than he used to, more shrill... which maybe is a reflection of the decrease in high mids/treble... but I can deal with it, and as long as his tone doesn't become more bassy, then it's actually better for me. I was not very happy with the "xmas tree" ones. I used them because I wanted protection but the sound was not great. I am actually waiting on ACS Pro17 custom plugs. Let's see how those go. I'd like to try the metal ones despite my scepticism (I've been wrong once or twice in my life before ) but they're a bit pricey for an experiment, so I'll definitely wait to see what the ACS ones are like.

[quote name='Downdown' timestamp='1482797300' post='3202820'] Is the headline 'vinyl outsells digital downloads' really so surprising in these days of music streaming? Does a spotify subscription, for example, count towards the 'digital downloads' number? Might just be that few and fewer people are actually buying music in any 'collectable' format. Fighting over the dregs of a market doesn't seem like great business to me. [/quote] I think you hit it in the head. People like me still buy the odd CD, but mostly buy digital format music, because I like to own the file and not depend on connection to a service. But I am increasingly finding I am a little 'old-fashioned' among my peers (generally a bit younger than me, I guess because I'm immature so I fit there better ). Then, my girlfriend (who is one notch) never buys any music anymore, and relies on Spotify and some other service entirely. Her friends are the same. I think streaming is not only attractive because it allows you to access almost anything almost anywhere, but because it's interactive and can suggest new music based on what you are generally playing. That leads to discovering new music. It's something I like a lot and even I are started to feel I want to start streaming (as well as buying)... There's been quite a few bands that my gf is playing and I go "how did you find that?" and the reply is "oh, Spotify suggested it". I thought I was enough of a dinosaur when I kept buying CDs (I mostly stopped now, too much space and I rarely use a CD player), but with all the streaming stuff I feel like a grandpa. THEN, the new thing becomes vinyl? Give me a break!