thebrig

I am thinking of getting a Gibson Thunderbird because I think will be well suited to the new band I am in, we play mainly southern rock which includes many Skynyrd songs as you would expect. But on researching the Thunderbird, I find that it gets a lot of negative reviews, particularly here on Basschat. So can you BCer's who play, or have played one, answer a few questions I have please? [b]1. How bad is the neck dive?[/b] [b]2. I've read that because of the neck strap button being on the back of the bass, it tends to lean away from the body,[/b] [b] can this be cured by hooking the strap at the bottom over the front of the body, so as to pull the bass back towards the body?[/b] [b]3. Is it as one-dimensional sound wise, as many people say?[/b] [b]4. Is it a very long stretch to the lower frets?[/b] [b]5. What is the nut width?[/b] Thanks

+1 for Lemonrock. I have just moved from the St Albans area to Bridgnorth, which is sort of under the west midlands area, but the coverage up here is virtually zero. I have spoken to Lemonrock about the lack of coverage, and they have asked me to continue my membership so as to try and get things going up here, but it needs more bands and artists to come on board as well, it really is a great site, it advertises gigs, bands, allows you to put ads on there, but the best thing for me is that it is very localized, meaning it includes all the pub bands and pub venues in your area, but it also covers the more prestigious gigs as well, providing the bands and venues sign up to it. Have a look at Lemonrock in Hertfordshire for instance to see the potential of this site. http://www.lemonrock.com/

I have to agree with stingrayPete on this. I think most of us do put a lot of thought into our equipment, ie: what might work best with what etc.. I have a great bass, and a great rig that most people think works well together for the type music I play, and I do get the occasional compliment, but I lent my gear to a bass playing mate at a gig where both our bands were playing on the same night, he sounded amazing, whereas, I sounded average Yes, I'm ok, but he is a much better player than me!

WOW!!! I would rather have yours, it just looks like it should do for a bass of that age.

Me too, thats why I thought I would post it to see what other BC's think.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1957-FENDER-PRECISION-BASS-ALL-ORIGINAL-WOW-/391024527747?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5b0ae0c983

I love the song and the bass line, I like a little bit of the imperfect! although its perfect for my ears. It takes me back to when bands went into a studio and recorded a song after a couple of takes, warts & all!

St Albans is only a short drive around the M25 from Chorelywood (J18 to J22), about 10 minutes at 3am in the morning, but could take a couple of hours any other time but there are alternative routes avoiding the M25 Seriously though, St Albans is worth seeking out, its a fantastic place with lots of history, great pubs, and a great music scene. Find yourself a good band in need of a bassist locally to St Albans, and I'm sure at least one of the band members will have the necessary contacts.

St Albans is a fantastic place for live music, there are so many venues, but as TimR says, you do have to be good, the quality of the bands is top notch, and it's not easy to get gigs for new bands if you don't already have contacts on the circuit. The Horn Reborn is the busiest and has live music virtually every night of the week. Just down the road at London Colney, there are also a few venues despite still only being classed as a "village". Watford is pretty good too, with The Horns being the best venue by far, and has two or three bands one after the other from Sunday lunchtime onwards. The Sportsman at Croxley Green is small but used to have some of the best bands in the area, but will be stopping live music in the near future. Barnet which borders Hertfordshire is also a great place for live music, and of course, London itself is only 30/45 minutes or so on the train from most places in Herts. These are two luthiers that I would recommend, Tery Chapman http://www.tjcguitars.com/ LA Guitars https://www.laguitars.com/ Despite being a great area for music, I recently moved to Bridgnorth, Shropshire, and the music scene is great here too, its a small town, but has over 30 pubs with most selling real ale and cider, lots of them have live music of all genres, and it's just so friendly, I'm in heaven now! Good luck with your move Skinnyman.

First of all, I can't stress enough just how big a fan I am of Wilko and NWR, I've seen them both many times from the 70's to present, but I have to say that I thought that they were dreadful on Jools Hootananny. Apart from being out of tune, they were also out of time, Norman was all over the place, Wilko's guitar sounded awful, and the drummer wasn't exactly helping much either, maybe they were a bit inebriated I don't know, but if they played that badly at a pub gig, I don't think that they would not be asked back for another one. Having read the other thread about the show, I know that some people don't agree with criticising artists or the show, but as I stated, I am a massive fan of Wilko and Norman, but if they weren't who they are, I'm sure they would not have got through an audition had there been one. So is it just me? I know Wilko has been through a lot recently, but the whole band was awful in my opinion. I would be interested to know what others thought of their performance. Here's the link to the show, and they can be found at around 9 mins 50 secs into the show, try listening through headphones and you will hear just how bad they were. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04wlgks/jools-annual-hootenanny-2014

[quote name='Mark Dyer' timestamp='1391423729' post='2356861'] I've used HipShot on all my basses and not had a problem, although there is a little trick to tuning it correctly. [/quote]I use a HipShot too, so come on, don't keep it to yourself, what's the "trick"?

A while back, I was emailed 17 MP3's on a Sunday afternoon, by a band that claimed to be “gig Ready” but they just need a bass player to complete the line up. The guy I spoke to said, just learn about 3 or 4 of them to run through the following evening. But I thought that I would try to impress them by learning as many as I can, and I ended up learning all 17 songs, almost note perfect to the samples I was sent. I turned up feeling really proud of myself, only to find that they only knew about 3 of them all the way through, and I ended up showing [u]them[/u] how to play them, and they even had the cheek to ask me for my share of the studio cost at the end, and yes, I walked! Then two weeks ago, I auditioned for another band that have been together seven months, so I assumed that they would be well rehearsed, they sent me a list of twelve songs they have been working on, again I learnt the lot, and again, it turned out that they only knew about half of them, and I was told by the lead guitarist that Whitesnake's [i]Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City[/i], would take him at least [u]six weeks[/u] to learn on its own, so I said, at that rate, we can expect to be gigging sometime in 2015 then? And now, I am auditioning on Wednesday with a band who are established, they gig on average twice a month, and have plenty of gigs lined up starting next Friday week, so I am a bit more hopeful that they will know the songs well. I started on the songs two days ago, and I have already learnt their first set, and most of their second set for the audition, although I still have this feeling that the same might happen. I’m quite happy to rehearse for as long as it takes to “top and tail” the songs, and sort out the BV’s etc. but I really do get the hump if anyone turns up not knowing the material. And just to finish up, about three years ago, the band I was in at the time, auditioned a vocalist who had to play every song on his iPod first to give him a clue as to how the song went, he didn’t know the lyrics, and didn’t even print any off to bring with him, and he had two weeks’ notice of the six songs we wanted him to sing on the night. I am not the greatest bass player around by any means, but I am a competent one, because like Diablo, I put a lot of effort into learning the material, and I am well prepared, but I have found over the past couple of years where I have played with well over thirty different musos’ when trying to get a band together, [b]turning up not having done any homework, is common place I’m afraid! [/b]

Yep, my best wishes to everyone too!

I've searched everywhere for months now and still can't find one, so does anyone know where I can download a template for the tuners on recent Fender American Standard basses. I'm fitting them to a new neck, and it's critical that I get the two peg holes correct, as they fit in the holes really tight. Any help would be much appreciated. I've tried putting this in Accessories and Misc, which is where it should go, but it's only had 20 views so far, and whenever I look, there's never been more than three people in there at a time, and that includes me, so I thought I would try here as I desperately need to get the template.

I've searched everywhere for months now and still can't find one, so does anyone know where I can download a template for the tuners on recent Fender American Standard basses. I'm fitting them to a new neck, and it's critical that I get the two peg holes correct, as they fit in the holes really tight. Any help would be much appreciated.

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1384567626' post='2278363'] Christ. Some people are never happy are they. Any titchy pathetic niggle about Basschat pales exponentially next to the information, support and affection members give each other, not just with music, with their personal lives too. I know a good few people on here who have received real help with their suffering and troubles from other members - I am one of them. The way this place is run is a paragon of excellence, you have the mods' and owners' balanced and fair judgement to thank for that. It's a real, tangible, important community, not just a place to sell f***ing basses n sh*t. [/quote]Blimey! I only started this thread because I was curious about being contacted ([i]which I am extremely grateful for[/i]) by BC'ers regarding my wanted ads, even though the stats were saying [u]no[/u] one has viewed my ads, it was [u]not[/u] a moan, just an [u]observation[/u]. I have already stated that my gripe is with the [u]members who are abusing the system[/u], not the people who do a great job in running the forum, and I fully understand why they have put a restriction on the "items wanted" section now that the reason for it has been explained. I'm fully aware that it's [i]"not just a place to sell f***ing basses n sh*t[/i]", and I personally have only sold a couple of items over many years. I have also stated that I was happy to pay the annual fee of £20 to sell just one item a few weeks ago, I have no intention of selling anything else at the moment, so I don't think I fall into the category of taking what I can from the forum, without being prepared to contribute a little back. I agree with your opinions about the forum being "[i]a real, tangible, important community[/i]", but you shouldn't assume that no one else thinks that way too, because I think that most of us do. BTW, until it was pointed out to me, I didn't even realise that we cannot reply in the "items wanted" section, but now through discussion, myself, and probably a few others as well, now understand and appreciate why certain things are done.

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1384544215' post='2278057'] This has been discussed and explained in several threads, but essentially we simply don't have a mechanism within the forum software to allow that degree of differentiation at present. Despite the claims by those who make out that they know what they are talking about, the lockdown of the Wanted section wasn't something that we wanted to do. Moving forward, we will find a way of managing the Wanted section with more flexibility. Until we can find and implement that solution, I'd urge forum members to lay the blame where it is actually deserved - firmly at the feet of those who decided that freeloading at the expense of the rest of you was acceptable. [/quote]I agree, and do lay the blame with the members who are abusing it.

I think that most of us appreciate what a great job the people who run this site do. But I do think it's a pity that a few people who have abused the "items wanted" section, have spoilt it for the majority of us. As I said, I have paid the annual fee to sell items, even though I have only sold one so far, and may not put anything else up for some time, so I may end up paying far more for selling one item, than what most people would pay, but my point is, if someone has paid an annual fee, I just think it would be good to allow those people the chance give their "wanted" ads a little boost when needed.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' timestamp='1384524494' post='2277715'] Because due to the 'unique' way this site is now funded, you cannot reply to wanted ads on the board as that might be seen as [s]helpful[/s] breaching the rules of paying to advertise so you won't get any reply stats in that forum. [/quote] You're right, I've just read the restrictions. So that means you can't bump your ad every three days, which will encourage people to create new ads to get back on page one, which in turn will clog up the "items wanted" section. BTW, I pay the annual fee to sell on BC, so maybe people who do pay, should be able to bump on their "items wanted" ads. Just my opinion of course.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' timestamp='1384524494' post='2277715'] Because due to the 'unique' way this site is now funded, you cannot reply to wanted ads on the board as that might be seen as [s]helpful[/s] breaching the rules of paying to advertise so you won't get any reply stats in that forum. [/quote] But what about the view stats? they are saying no one has even viewed the ads.