Matt P

GHS Precisions only have silks at the headstock end (black) i have a set fitted to my short scale and they are lovely! Matt

and for super nerdiness i think that Fender colour the ball ends on their strings too (at least the last set of Fender g****r strings i bought had coloured ends)

i have Chromes on my 5 string and do really like them, however i fitted GHS precision flats o n my shortscale and they are lovely too (just the right tension for me) as a bonus they have no silk at the ball end and a nice low-key black silk at the headstock. Matt

i've not had this, my suspicion would be that the maybe part of the bridge/string retainer has broken? does it look like any bits are missing? As it's a polished bridge it should be easy to see the broken area as it will be a rough casting surface (probably grey?) not a smooth gold finish. a bent part might also have allowed the string to slip out, compare the d string bridge with the other 4. Matt

strings direct seem to have some stock, i have fitted Picato flats and rounds in the past and really liked them, as far as i can remember the overwater flats were by picato as well. as an aside, strings direct now list the distance from ballend to silk as well as the silk colour on their website! Picato flats at strings direct Matt

there are actually 2 different sizes of these switches, the ones made i the usa are bigger than the ones from the far east, from the picture i think you might need the usa version, they are fairly easy to get hold of, some have a cross shaped slot with both sizes available in one tip. the USA ones are sometimes described as imperial and the far east ones as Metric. i don't know which size gear4music are selling but they are pretty cheap so probably not the end of the world if it's the wrong size. https://chguitars.co.uk/product/k13a-s-style-switch-cap-metric-3/ i have used this seller many times and always been happy with them. they have an ebay shop as well. Matt

for me it would depend how far through the build process they are (what routing/drilling has been done) also do they need the fretboard removed and carbon reinforcement put in? personally the earlier they have been removed from the build process the more likely i'd want one (different pickups maybe and passive rather than active) as an aside, what string spacing does the NT5 have at the nut and bridge? your website gives 38mm as the nut which looks like a typo as the nt4 has a 38mm nut as well (standard jazz dimension) the idea of a customised 32" 5 string is quite appealing. Matt

Yeah, same for me, I've even got an amazon voucher that needs spending, I'd have to modify the saddle to keep the spacing at 18mm though. Matt

@Painy I really shouldn't be asking this but what is the string spacing at the bridge? I've already got a kala acoustic u-bass but a 5 string solid body is very tempting! Matt

i tried one of these a few years ago whilst looking for a backup 5-er, they have a fretboard you could land a jet liner on, and 19mm spacing at the bridge as well i think, a totally different beast to the more recent squier vm p-5 (which is what i ended up buying) i think it would be a good starting point if you wanted to build a 6 string with narrowish spacing though! matt

That's good news, keep us updated on how it goes with the new fan, I have an ah250 of a similar vintage so I'll need to do the same swap at some point.

RS throws up these as the right size and voltage, i would check the flow and pressure numbers though to make sure it has enough puff/heft https://uk.rs-online.com/web/c/hvac-fans-thermal-management/fans/axial-fans/?applied-dimensions=4294472758,4291947769,4294572386,4294378374,4294380154 Matt

a bit of googling has given this as the new equivalent (i occasionally spec papst fans at work) https://www.ebmpapst.com/en/products/product_search/productdetailaxialcompact.php?pID=53843 available at farnell https://uk.farnell.com/ebm-papst/9906/fan-slim-119mm-115vac/dp/9600949 i would suggest a bit of a search using the size and voltage specs to see if there is a cheaper alternative (the papst fans are pretty robust though, we spec them for industrial use) Matt

I'd go for the rega carbon, if you read through the reviews they struggle to find much bad to say against it, from my own experience of fitting them to a few different turntables I have to agree, I fitted one to a 70's trio turntable as a stopgap solution whilst the owner saved for a new turntable and 4 years later he is still using the trio/rega set up and loving it, the money he was saving has been spent on more records. Matt

I would suggest that a new cartridge would be the best bet, the main question is how much you want to spend now. Matt

You say that it's the original cartridge, do you know the make and model, there are still very good quality styli being made for certain cartridges. (the Jico SAS ones are supposed to be excellent) if a quality stylus is not available then I would suggest a new cartridge, modern ones have come a fair way since the 70's. what would you class as not too expensive? personally i'm running a Ortofon 2M red on one turntable and a Rega Carbon on the other, the Ortofon is around the 100 quid mark and many enthusiasts would class that as budget, the rega is under 30 quid and it is my first choice for resurrecting old turntables as it has surprisingly good performance. i am interested in the new grado E cartridges as well, the E3 is quite tempting. https://www.hifix.co.uk/ortofon-2m-red-moving-magnet-cartridge https://www.hifix.co.uk/rega-carbon-cartridge https://www.juno.co.uk/products/goldring-e3-moving-magnet-cartridge-stylus-eu/661196-01/?currency=GBP&flt=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA4NTxBRDxARIsAHyp6gDfhIwI_GVpDb8ewxTPw1JA11cdlOi7YL5MwSV0LcTOOTL7lIcZgtAaArqUEALw_wcB Matt

Yes the Hiscox cases aren't cheap compared to most gigbags but if the bass is wearing through them then the initial outlay will pay off, i bought my first Hiscox about 20 years ago and it's still in very good condition, i have bought about 12 of them now for various instruments and all but 3 of them secondhand and have rarely paid more than 50 quid (some have been as cheap as 30 quid!) unfortunately the EBP is one of the less common ones but does still pop up secondhand. If you compare to a Mono M80 (as suggested very early on) then the Hiscox is actually cheap, £127 for the Hiscox vs about 170 for a M80 gigbag or 120 for the M80 bass sleeve. Matt

I know that you asked for gig bag recommendations but has he considered a hard case? The hiscox std-ebp is 49" long inside so would easily take the bass and they are about as light as they come for hard cases and very long lasting, and if you compare the prices to bags from mono etc they're very good value. Matt

I bought Chris' LIne6 wireless, a totally painless and pleasant experience, it was posted very quickly and was better than described as he had included an upgraded cable, definitely someone you can have confidence dealing with. Matt

that's a lovely looking bass, the big plus point for me is that it was assembled by the bass doc, i have had a few of my basses setup by him and they all came back playing perfectly, he really does know how to build a "fender" bass (even a bitsa that i threw together out of 50 quids worth of bits came back from his surgery playing superbly) the top spec components of this build should make it a tone monster. Matt

I might be able to help if you want a neo Celestion, think i have a BN10-200X sitting in a box at home barely used (bought a couple of neo Celestions about 10 years ago to build some cabs but never actually got round to it) (if any kind of deal is made i will make sure pay my subs to BC obvs) M

@owen Has it nailed here, I think i have played more hours in church bands than i am ever likely to manage at "secular" gigs, one thing that i would suggest is that if you have a 5 string (and are comfortable with it) then that would be my choice, the most common bass that i take along on a Sunday morning is a 5 string singlecut with chrome flatwounds on it, this covers 99% of what i need. (although i have used ukebass, EUB, P-Bass, and fretless on different occasions when i felt like it) quite a lot of the music will have been originally written on a keyboard instrument so Eb is sometimes the key of choice. don't expect to have the music in the right key for every song, and it might be anything from proper sheet music right across to a handwritten chord sheet (quite often with 2 different sets of chords depending on who used it last and what fret they like to capo at on their guitar. i played with one worship leader who only really knew the chords for the key of g so they just stuck a capo on wherever they needed to to be able to sing. some songs might ot have any written music at all but these tend to be 3 chord songs and easy to busk. the ability to transpose on the fly is probably the most useful thing i ever learnt, sometimes the leader will forget to take the capo off so launch into a song in a different key to the one agreed upon. and if they have kids songs then i have been known to kick in an effects pedal or two (the bassballs was especially good for this) making friends with the PA team is worthwhile too, the church that i attend doesn't run the bass through the PA at the moment so i control the level on stage, i always have a word with the PA operator after the pre-service run through and make sure I'm at a sensible level, often i'm told to turn it up a bit! (I've taken ownership of the house rig as i've paid for all the servicing etc over the last 10 years, a lovely Trace Elliot GP11 AH250 head with a Peavey 4x10 and a slightly cobbled together but nice sounding 1x15) Matt

i can't comment on playing Skiffle but i can recommend the book that Billy Bragg wrote a couple of years ago https://www.amazon.co.uk/Roots-Radicals-Rockers-Skiffle-Changed/dp/0571327745 a really enjoyable history of how skiffle developed and where it led. Matt

great review! these look really interesting, what is the string spacing at the bridge please? i had a rockbass 5 string a few years ago and couldn't get on with the 16.5mm string spacing no matter how much i tried, just too tight for me. if this is more like 18mm then i might have to get searching for one! Matt