mcnach

[quote name='4stringslow' timestamp='1469718727' post='3100621'] Zip drives were something of a revolution given that they stored 100MB when launched compared to the 3.5 inch 1.44MB 'floppy' disks of the day. They connected to the PC parallel port as well (pre-usb days!). I used to back up PCs onto Zip disks in the early 90s. They were later updated to 250MB but died a natural death when external hard drives and memory sticks became available with higher capacities. A 100MB Zip disk would only store about 10 pictures from a decent DSLR these days! [/quote] Back in 1998 my '95 Olivetti laptop had a 500Mb hard drive. I was looking to buy an external drive, thinking about the Zip drive. Instead I ended up with a SyQuest drive that used 1Gb cartridges! I still have the laptop, and the Syquest drive with 4 cartridges. Parallel port... not the fastest way to backup even 100Mb.

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1469633989' post='3099933'] Not sure unfortunately. My American Standard has the normal USA Standard pickups from before 2012. The 64's just seem very 'organic' and 'full' to me. [/quote] I may go to Guitar Guitar to try one of those pink wonders... but I'll leave my credit card at home, just in case!

[quote name='Sound&Fury' timestamp='1469629640' post='3099882'] Mine arrived yesterday. Was a bit frightened at first as Guitar Guitar had packaged it in a box that was a bit too small. One of the sides of the box had a clear hump where the headstock was located, albeit in the gig bag and with some extra bubble wrap outside the gig bag... After tuning and having a first inspection and test there seems to be no harm done. The pick guard is less aged than what I've seen from other owners, though. Did anybody else already see this? Somebody in Germany took the relicing a step further... [url="https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/fender-flea-signature-roadworn-jazzbass-fsp-heavy-aged-/499438020-74-4761"]https://www.ebay-kle...9438020-74-4761[/url] [/quote] urgh!

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1469623908' post='3099804'] Fender Pure Vintage 64 Jazz Pickups [url="http://intl.fender.com/en-GB/guitar-bass-parts/pickups-and-preamps/pure-vintage-64-jazz-bass-pickup-set-black-2/"]http://intl.fender.c...up-set-black-2/[/url] [/quote] ah, thanks! any idea how they compared to the Custom Shop 60s? I was thinking of those for my bass...

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1469611927' post='3099670'] They really are. I have a 2009/10 American Standard Jazz which is lovely and well built bass, but I'd rather play this Flea bass...the pickups just seem to be the perfect Jazz tone I've always wanted. [/quote] what are the pickups on this bass? I have a 75RI Jazz to reassemble and needs pickups (it came with Nordstrands which I am using elsewhere now)... I might try these and see.

[quote name='Machines' timestamp='1469615727' post='3099702'] It's generally not worth upgrading the pickups on a cheap bass unless you REALLY plan on keeping it, £150 of pickups in a £150 bass won't get you much of a price increase if you sell it, maybe £50 if you are lucky. [/quote] True, 'upgrades' rarely add much value to teh bass when selling. Worth keeping the original pickups and putting them back before selling the bass.

[quote name='wishface' timestamp='1469546480' post='3099258'] Thanks, but I'm not sure 5 strings are for me (mainly because of the cost of a set of strings - they're already dear enough for 4). [/quote] But strings last a LONG time, especially if you don't require that they sound ultra bright all the time. I keep mine on months at a time.

[quote name='Roger2611' timestamp='1469558046' post='3099381'] I still have a box full of cassettes under the stairs, not played any of them in twenty years, I think I still have a really nice Marantz twin cassette deck wrapped and boxed in the loft, I know I have a few songs I really ought to transfer to computer but I can't be bothered to dig it all out and see if it still works. My mate still has the first imported Tascam 8 track cassette recorder, I doubt it has ever had more than 5 hours use since he brought it, from memory you had to use top range chrome c90 cassettes and it ran at 4 times the speed of a normal cassette player so you didn't get many songs on an expensive (at the time) tape [/quote] That's another thing: speed. I had a tape Tascam recorder with multiple speed settings, and the sound was noticeable better when running it 2x faster than normal... The whole consumer tape technology was riddled with compromises. It could have sounded a lot better than it did.

I found the pictures on some thread on Talkbass about "the flawed pickup orientation of the Precision"... let me find it... Ah, it's here on page 1, but unfortunately the link is just to the picture and it does not give any clues as to the origin: [url="https://www.talkbass.com/threads/leos-one-significant-design-flaw-imho.1234566/"]https://www.talkbass.com/threads/leos-one-significant-design-flaw-imho.1234566/[/url]

[quote name='leschirons' timestamp='1469474810' post='3098643'] I guess it'll be the "it's not a Jazz and it's not a Precision and certainly not a Stingray" line of thought that will kill off this bass commercially. However, I was impressed by the design and Fender having a go at something that ISN'T a Jazz or Precision. [/quote] Well, the Ibanez ATK, the G&L L2000 and the PJ basses are alive and well, so hopefully the Dimension will have a long life too! It was refreshing seeing Fender producing something that it's not a rehashed version of another old model of theirs. I've been resisting trying them because if they're half decent I'll buy one: I already love their look!

[quote name='bonzodog' timestamp='1469558737' post='3099385'] Lol apologies if i confused things. As the cab says they are both inputs i didnt know you can send the signal out of an input. [/quote] yeah, when you have cabs with two sockets, regardless whether they're both identical or not, they're linked. So you can just daisy-chain the two cabs.

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1469461505' post='3098491'] I like the fat one's OBBM does. Feels good in my hand. [/quote] I can't believe discreet didn't comment...

[quote name='4stringslow' timestamp='1469458822' post='3098458'] As well as the wire gauge, you need to make sure the conductors are made of oxygen-free, mono-crystalline, unobtainium otherwise your tone will be completely ruined. [/quote] And don't forget to use directional cable.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1469447256' post='3098309'] Hi Wal! I use 4mm high-capacity Klotz bass speaker cable as supplied by obbm of this parish. Whether it's absolutely necessary or not from a technical viewpoint I don't know, but I believe speaker cable is all about current handling, so it makes sense to my small brain to use the chunkiest cable possible. How are you doing, by the way? [/quote] I use the same cables supplied by OBMM. They're chunky. Probably more than necessary, but I find that reassuring. The plugs are also very good quality unlike some others I had before. Yours look like proper Neutrik and should be ok if not fake (I could not believe it either, but apparently there are fake Neutrik plugs out there but that seller looks legit) In general, the OBMM one is a very robust cable and I like that. Not very helpful, I know, as you already bought another, but maybe something to bear in mind in the future. However, in the past I had the same gauge you just bought and I had no issues whatsoever and they never felt they were overheating or anything, so I *think* 1.5mm is probably just fine. I'd pay attention to the connector when you're using them, as I think that might sometimes be the weak link. Check it's not overheating the first few times you're using it in anger. If it is, replace the plugs.

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1469546515' post='3099260'] I had one that just stopped working and Dave replaced the jack without issue, this was four or five years ago, since then no issues. Unless you enjoy the sound your amp makes when you plug it in with the volume up, these are the jacks! [/quote] I don't like that noise... so I always make sure I hit mute first (either at the amp -if I use the GB- or at the tuner). Despite apparently not really needing the fancy Neutrik plugs, I liked the idea. But the failure reports put me off enough and I haven't tried them. I think I'll stick to using the mute button as I have been doing, and standard Neutrik plugs. I hope it's a temporary construction issue that gets rectified in the future.

So this is apparently a Stingray prototype, with a very Precision type of pickup (although closer to the bridge, as on a Stingray, so it would sound pretty close to what we know as a Stingray today)... I had never seen this before.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1469536336' post='3099074'] Back in the day the main purpose of audio cassettes for me was to record personalised mix tapes for girls in the hope of boffing them. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Girls weren't so high-maintenance back then. Today I look upon Audio cassettes as dead-format shag-bait. It actually seems quite cute and romantic now, compared with today's methods - i.e. texting her a picture of your cock. [/quote] excellent post Ah... the hours I spent making mix tapes!

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1469527490' post='3098967'] Me neither. I had a bin-liner full of them, which I gave/threw away as they were just taking up space. Vinyl is a different kettle of fish, of course. I [i]love[/i] vinyl. Off topic: I was once in a band called AGFA, which 'borrowed' its branding from the once popular make of audio cassette. Only we perverted the acronym to: "A Good F*** Aches". Ah, those were the days Back on topic: magnetic tape - as in reel to reel - is still very much in use by professional studios, mostly I assume for its famed saturation/warmth and compression-like qualities. So in some arenas, tape is far from dead as a medium for music. [/quote] Yes. I still have my vinyl at my parents' (I don't have a record player). Many had a warmth in the mix that I hope to enjoy again sometime. Although I will probably give up after one listen. But the whole object: large artwork, notes, photographs... I loved all that. And the little noises the vinyl develops... you start associating them with the music, so that when you hear the CD version, at times I still expect that little crackle between song X and song Y I know several small studios in Edinburgh that record on tape and the tape is simultaneously played back into a DAW, to take advantage of the "pleasant limitations" of the tape. That's on thing. But the consumer cassettes... urgh. Especially the "original" ones you could buy prerecorded in shops. Their build quality was terrible. They were much more likely to fail than any decent blank tape.

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1469527382' post='3098966'] Yeah, it was quite interesting, and I certainly didn't know about the four distinct species of cassette, but if I were being cynical the video could be summarised as "cassette tapes can sound amazing if you're prepared to sink large amounts of money into it." [/quote] I knew about the different quality tapes as a teenager. They were pricey compared to the standard ones, so I saved them for albums that sounded particularly nice on vinyl. I always made copies of my vinyl records, and play the tape normally. When the tape gets knackered, make another copy, thus saving the vinyl from dust and wear. It wasn't THAT expensive to have good sounding tapes. Just about any decent tape deck would do a good job. When CD players came out they were a LOT more expensive than standard tape decks.

[quote name='gary mac' timestamp='1469526417' post='3098955'] I've recently sold a couple of old tape decks on Ebay, both buyers were very enthusiastic and happy to pay [/quote] I must take this opportunity then! This weekend, I will take the deck from its box and test it You know, I assumed I'd pretty much have to just throw it away of give it to someone who still has a few tapes around... and it's such a nice deck I didn't want to give it to just anybody. Cool that it can sell. I can use some new strings

[quote name='pmjos' timestamp='1469538317' post='3099123'] Please don;t forget - what ever you buy get it set up - a set up makes all the difference. [/quote] this +1000

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1469535163' post='3099053'] Good point! Likewise, if somebody has a different opinion that would seemingly go against the grain, accept that people do have different opinions/experiences that may not adhere to your experience/opinion/liking. [/quote] stop being reasonable! this is an internet forum!

He is right about the chrome & metal tapes: they sounded so much better than the standard ones (assuming the source was good quality)... But, portability? Yeah, smaller than a CD, but you can put a lot more music in a CD these days. And let's not start with digital media players that can hold gigabytes of data... Durability? Unless you only use them in your high quality deck, you will get them chewed sooner or later, and your high quality deck won't be the 'portable' one, rendering the portability argument invalid. Who wants to listen to tapes these days, really? long rewind/forward, can't skip/find tracks, takes long to record... When our singer said tapes were 'cool' and he was going to look into issuing a tape version of our last album I thought he was joking! But one thing I see in common among all these tape enthusiasts: they weren't around when tapes were what we used everyday as it was the only really portable medium, and the only way to make your own compilations... I don't miss tapes at all. I still have a very nice Sony deck from 1995-1996. Maybe I should clean the heads and ensure the belts are in good condition and sell it to some crazy person who prefers tapes. I also have a VCR in great condition

Interesting video but... this guy wasn't around when we used tapes everyday, which explains his enthusiasm [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wwaj4HvhyU[/media]

[quote name='synthaside' timestamp='1469520092' post='3098887'] Well since going Mark-bass which my car's boot and back love me for , my hidden behind the living room door rig is , Trace Elliot SMC 715 GP7 plus a 15inch Trace Elliot 1153T >.< probably need to do something about this thing. [/quote] That would double as a nice paperweight too