lowlandtrees

Was it easy? Did you treat the wood ? I thought of using danish oil.

I just read somewhere that this instrument does not have individual string adjustments to regulate intonation. Does anyone know if this is true or does it matter or do they have another method of adjustment?

Hi

would like to remove the pain from the neck of my Musicman SUB. Was gonna do it anyway but now it ha started to ‘bubble’.

Can I use paint remover or best done with sandpaper and sweat?

Thanks ppl

I am thinking about importing a bass from the EU (Maruszczyk)Bit confused about the VAT and import duty thing. I notice, for example, that some suppliers include 21% VAT for example. I assume that this is the tax you pay in that country? You have to then pay VAT to get it into this country? I notice that some suppliers (Bass Direct possibly) offer a VAT free price if exporting.....assuming the country that it will be sent to will charge the receiver VAT. I haven’t seen that in other suppliers. Do you also pay VAT on used basses?
All a bit confusing. I last bought something from the US several years a ago and was billed by the PO when I picked the item up but unclear about the EU....particularly with the Brexit stuff.

Has anyone done this recently?

I am 18 months into lessons with German but my teacher is. French player. I bowed open strings for over a year and if I wasn’t so damn old I would probably bow open strings for two years. For me it was all about tension. Start with the back, shoulder and in particular the triceps....a muscle often overlooked. Then the (controlled)limp wrist.....also used in drumming and rhythm guitar playing. I still struggle but worth every practice hour

Gonna check for loose screws before I call.....just in case. It’s a great cab. I bought it cos we did a tour to Amsterdam by public transport. It’s so light with nice warm sound and enough volume for a pub. 2 acoustic guitars, eguitar, cajon and 4 vocalist. On and off trains, ferries, trams etc. One hand lift ...walked miles...be sad if it’s damaged. I have a Greenboy fearless for bigger gigs but miss the one10 for convenience.

7 hours ago, chris_b said:

Ask Alex.

Alex ?

Seemed to manage ok .....it’s essentially an acoustic band with cajon so not loud.

Had my BF one10 from new since November 19. It has started to distort badly only on the low E only. 
Been using a euphonic audio double head and an Empress ParaEQ but never had it past number 4. Changed the battery on my active MM SUB....still distortion . Got another head (Quilter) still distorting. Tried EQing it out...distortion. Tried compression....distortion. Daisy chained a bigger cab onto it...it distorted ...bigger cab ok. Thought it might be the instrument but no distortion using a 12ins speaker. Haven’t tried another bass but had an eguitar through it and that did not distort.

 I love this wee cab and have gigged it with great results but it now distorts in the low end....ideas?

Excellent thread this. Been looking for recommendations. I thought that Scott Whitleys YouTube stuff is the best teaching of anything anywhere. Like the look of SBL as well. Will certainly cast my eye over the others

2 hours ago, ead said:

I can't get the chuffin' thing to work.  Doesn't help that I'm no computer geek and even the videos assume a level of knowledge I don't have.

If I remember right ....I was under the direction of someone...I opened the ASIO settings and changed the buffering.

3 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

I'm a woodworker not a luthier so take this with a large pinch of salt. Anything you do is going to change the tome of your bass, so proceed with caution. Your post got me thinking and I did a little research too. My initial thoughts were what would I do and my solution was shellac and very light natural oils, I'd also keep water away from the wood as any increase in the water content of the wood is probably not going to help. 

That seems to be what the on-line advice is, there are lots of violin varnishes based upon seedlac and plant oils it seems https://www.internationalviolin.com/Shop/varnish-supplies for example. 

Lot's of advice out there just search violin refinishing https://ourpastimes.com/how-to-revarnish-an-old-violin-12556279.html

Well if in the international violin shop don’t have it then it doesn’t exist

1 hour ago, ikay said:

I think the biggest challenge will be finding a way to do it without sanding the existing finish back, at least to some extent, particularly if there's a build up of polish on top of the old finish. Personally I think it looks great in your pic, that sort of naturally aged and well worn look is a beautiful thing!

The top (I think it is called) of the bass is really paper thin. Any amount of pressure on the f-holes will break the ends off. I know what you are saying and if it’s not recommended then I won’t touch it. I have gigged it and probably will again but I guard it with my life. 
I was hoping for something like a wax that may penetrate the finish...which is very thin and matt.... I maybe should not have polished it.....as I really don’t know what I’m doing

my double bass is getting a bit tatty....which I quite like incidentally....but the colour is kinda faded....the pic below is just after I polished it so doesn’t look too bad. I was wondering (must be old guy lockdown mentality) if I could treat it with something that deepen the colour? That is without sanding it down to clean wood. It’s not a top drawer instrument but I like aspects of it. I have a 1901 Hawkes and when they are in the same room this guy looks like he could do with a spa day.
 

Thanks for the replies. I loosened the truss rod by less than a quarter turn. Already a big difference as you said. Think I may have to slightly raise the action of the A string but problem solved. The intonation has also corrected. It was slightly flat .....spot on now without correction. I really like this bass even although the neck/fretboard is not the best...it sounds great and cost me £380 on BC. I took it into a shop and compared it to a few new and old fenders and other brands ...it sounded just as good and better than some.

Thanks again.

On 31/03/2020 at 10:40, Doctor J said:

No, if the new strings are lower tension than the old ones then the neck is pulling back, resulting in a lower action than before. As the OP says, he usually brings it to a tech so we must assume the saddles are at the appropriate height as they will not have moved, just the neck (or specifically, the nut relative to the last fret and bridge saddles). Adjusting the saddles now will just make the right setup more of a moving target than it currently is. Once the neck relief is back where it was, everything else should be in the right place.

@lowlandtrees it sounds like you just need to loosen the truss rod a small amount. If you fret the strings at the first and last frets at the same time, there should be a small gap between the top of the 8th and 9th frets and the bottom of the string above it. This is called the neck relief. Higher tension strings pull the neck forward and the truss rod is adjusted to counter that pull, leaving the neck with an appropriate amount of relief. The amount of relief is down to personal taste, personally I like very little relief, little more than the width of a piece of paper. If the relief is about the same as the thickness as a business card, then you’re in the right area. There are plenty of youtube videos which will bring you through it in detail. You will only need a very small adjustment to get you back to where you were so it’s nothing to be scared of. Take it slowly, don’t force anything, move in small adjustments and you’ll be fine.

Thanks for the help.

The MM truss rod is on the body close to the high end of the neck. I assume to loosen the truss rod it is turned anti clockwise? I also assume that you loosen the strings first?

9 hours ago, Doctor J said:

No, if the new strings are lower tension than the old ones then the neck is pulling back, resulting in a lower action than before. As the OP says, he usually brings it to a tech so we must assume the saddles are at the appropriate height as they will not have moved, just the neck (or specifically, the nut relative to the last fret and bridge saddles). Adjusting the saddles now will just make the right setup more of a moving target than it currently is. Once the neck relief is back where it was, everything else should be in the right place.

@lowlandtrees it sounds like you just need to loosen the truss rod a small amount. If you fret the strings at the first and last frets at the same time, there should be a small gap between the top of the 8th and 9th frets and the bottom of the string above it. This is called the neck relief. Higher tension strings pull the neck forward and the truss rod is adjusted to counter that pull, leaving the neck with an appropriate amount of relief. The amount of relief is down to personal taste, personally I like very little relief, little more than the width of a piece of paper. If the relief is about the same as the thickness as a business card, then you’re in the right area. There are plenty of youtube videos which will bring you through it in detail. You will only need a very small adjustment to get you back to where you were so it’s nothing to be scared of. Take it slowly, don’t force anything, move in small adjustments and you’ll be fine.

Thanks for the help.

The MM truss rod is on the body close to the high end of the neck. I assume to loosen the truss rod it is turned anti clockwise? I also assume that you loosen the strings first?

So loosen strings turn it anti clockwise? Sorry....tend to let my tech do all this stuff but obviously can’t at prez.....truss rod adjustment scares me a bit

I play an MM SUB....love it but changed my strings to Elixir and now when I pluck a string there is a very audible snap/rattle of the string hitting the fretboard. The Elixirs are a lot less tension than the last ones (can’t remember brand). The A and E are worse than the D and G. Even playing close to the bridge the snap is there. Do I change strings to higher tension (I like the strings) raise the action, get used to them...play softer...use the noise as part of the sound (guitarist hates it)?

I have used an Empress para eq for years and love it. It’s the only effect pedal that I use. I must admit that I have no idea what I am doing! I spent ages tweaking and now mainly adjust the middle range and boost to suit the room or band. Tend not to use it on double bass.

Jamakazam. Loads of grief though. I could not have set it up myself. If you can deal with ASIO settings, buffers etc and will to put a couple of hours tweaking in then you should get it working. I would work in tandem with someone who sings and plays acoustic guitar and who knows also know what they are doing. It’s not perfect but it’s not bad.....slight latency and some clipping. We use audio only btw

Got JamKazam set up.....a lot of buggering aboot (almost 2 hours) with ASIO settings and balancing on board and hardware volumes. Minor latency issues and some clipping with the bass but voice and acoustic guitar are ok. Possibly need a bit of compression on the bass (don’t have one) although you can load plug ins into the effects window. We are very happy so far with the overall sound (particularly through headphones) although there are only two of us. Supposed to be able to load 5 players in each session.

Tried a couple of things....set up jamakazam but waiting for my musician buddy to recover from the virus....tried recording myself on the site..sounded sh&t....will keep you posted

Anyone had any experience with this. My bands have stopped practicing for now so I thought about getting a webcam and try jamming over the webcam but I was assuming there might be a latency/lag issue? There used to be a website years ago that facilitated this using midi.