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My neice keeps saying she wants to play bass everytime she visits and sees my collection. I felt that the right thing to do was to buy a cheap bass and amp for her 13th birthday and see what happens. In particular she wanted a pink bass. Careful scrutiny of eBay for pink basses lead me to Swift basses who do a 32-inch scale P-bass for £59 new. Eventually I found a used one for £41. It needed a good set-up, the fret ends filing and a better set of strings (a discarded set of DRs) and now it plays really well - see pic of Dood with it at the Northampton Bash. Ebay also delivered a Stagg practice amp with line in and headphone out for £10. Total outlay £51 plus a bit of my time. If she really gets into it then we'll see about something better. If it's a 5-minute fad then no real loss.

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='202463' date='May 19 2008, 10:06 PM']Am I right in saying that they're built in the same Cort factory as the Squier VMJs?[/quote] The Skylines are machined and painted in Korea. Electrics and final set-up are done in Chicago. BTW. I once had an MM Sterling and that didn't feel like an £1150 bass.

The OLP copy of the SR5 is narrower at the nut and the bridge than the SR5. In a rash moment I once bought a Westfield fiver that was also very narrow.

Not sure where to start. I've had mine for about a year during which I have had an on/off relationship with it. The build quality is flawless and the neck is starting to mellow nicely and at around 10lbs it's hardly light. The bit that makes it different to a Fender P is undoubtedly the neck. Same profile as the Joe Osborn Jazz. I never got on with a standard Precision neck and string spacing but the DD is great for small hands/short fingers. I have a '78 P which was factory made with a Jazz neck. Unfortunately it's like playing a broom handle, but the tone is to die for. I must confess to have struggled to get a similar tone from the DD. Mine was born with a Dark Star, not the stock Lindy Fralin, in fact I've never tried a Lindy fitted one. I tried a Thumper and now have a Wizard '64 installed. It came from the previous owner with TI Flats, which I dislike, and is now strung with DR 45-105 Sunbeams. I'm finally getting there. Jazz profile neck, very low action and classic P tone - it ticks all the boxes for me now. Set-up is a very personal thing and I would never judge a bass by what I find in a shop. In fact I haven't bought a bass from a shop in over 10 years. BBC you are welcome to try mine.

[quote name='carlosfandango' post='200174' date='May 16 2008, 09:35 AM']I need to get out more! [/quote] No, I'm the one who should get out more.

I have a Sony F780. Sony provided the wireless mics for one of the Rolling Stones world tours and produced a capsule for Jagger which had the same characteristics as the SM58. I have the same. I think it's better and clearer. Keep an eye on ebay as they come up sometimes and are great value.

It's been there for several months. They even tried to auction it at BIN for £2000 a while ago.

I've got some 6-metre IEC (kettle) to UK 13-Amp leads if you are going to buy a new one.

Jack, firstly, and I'm not jokin, but if others were wincing and you couldn't hear it then I seriously recommend that you get your hearing tested. As those who know me know I have a serious hearing deficiency and overcome the problem by boosting the mids on the bass. I don't know what bass you play but I usually use a jazz bass with a J-Retro and use the mid sweep on the Retro to boost the low mid frequencies. I recently used a P and couldn't hear a damn thing. BTW it's good to hear that the speaker cables are working well.

I've got one. Always take it and use it whenever playing on a hollow stage. Cuts out the boom and helps keep a nice tight sound.

A very nice guy. Always a pleasure to deal with.

Your rack case and the Warwick are certainly standard. It's the MESA that at first sight appears not to be. What is the distance between hole centres on the MESA?

[quote name='spider' post='195017' date='May 8 2008, 09:35 PM']Which is pretty much what I was saying, to the best of my knowledge the easiest way to achieve this is to wire a log pot backwards... Or am I missing something ? Probably.[/quote] It'll operate in the opposite direction to taht which is normally acceptable. Blend pots usually comprise a log and an antilog track. As one pick-up goes up so the other comes down.

[quote name='spider' post='194957' date='May 8 2008, 08:07 PM']So you're saying my information and advice is no use then...?[/quote] I can't for one minute see how you can jump to that conclusion from the four words that I wrote. Reverse log pots are exactly that, a reverse log scale. Also known as Anti-log. I believe John uses them so he will know where to source one which was Joe's original question I believe.

Joe, Ask John East.

[quote name='umph' post='194921' date='May 8 2008, 07:23 PM']thinking of getting one of these was wondering if it'd be any good on bass? just looking for something that would be loud and have that valve warmth. also the seller says the speaker impedences are 3.75, 7.5 and 15ohms this seems a bit wierd would it be fine to use a 4ohm cab with it on the 3.75 ohm setting and i guess using 2 4 ohm cabs would be out of the question?[/quote] That's not weird at all for equipment of that age. It was made at a time when the standard speaker impedance was 15-ohms and 1, 2 or 4 of them gives you those numbers. Because of the way valve amps work the speaker impedance has a direct effect on the circuitry of the output stage and it is important that the speakers match the tranformer tap as near as possible. A 4-ohm cab will work fine on the 3.75-ohm tap, likewise an 8-ohm will work with the 7.5-ohm. 2.4-ohms is a no-no. Unlike solid-state amps however a valve amp will deliver its full output into whatever speakers you have connected as long as the output transformer tap is set correctly.