Matt P

these are the acoustics From Left to right - McIlroy AS25, bought exactly 12 years ago today, Handbuilt cedar/walnut acoustic, retrofitted with an AER Pickup/mic system. the best acoustic i have ever played, all solid woods and just the most glorious sounding guitar, quite folky sounding but just an all round wonderful instrument strung up with Newtone Heritage 12's which are the only strings i will use on this guitar. this is the most expensive instrument i have ever bought and on the day i bought it the most money i had ever paid for a single item but one of the best purchases i have ever made. Yamaha DW105c my first acoustic, has a pickup/preamp and a solid spruce top, currently fitted with nashville strings and tuned a whole step low (d-d) for use with my band. Gretsch Jim Dandy, 24" scale all laminate small body guitar, bought to get a good bluesy sound for playing in the band, it's got 13's on it and is tuned d-d to compensate, this is a great bluesy sounding guitar and was really cheap from a local facebook group. Matt

I started out as a guitarist so i've got a few, these are the electrics the Tele is a mex one, i've done a 4 way switch conversion and recently swapped out the scratchplate for a black one, it's a great guitar, i stupidly sold it to a friend a few years ago but bought it back last year, the Les Paul was bought mildly butchered and now has Seymour Duncan pickups (JB and a Jazz) and a V/T/Split setup as i'm not a fan of 2 volumes on a guitar. Next is a custom Superstrat made by Paul Richardson, i bought it very cheap secondhand, it's got an early Floyd rose and a JB Seymour Duncan at the bridge, the body is one piece across the back with a Burr walnut top, it's heavy but sounds glorious, i've had it for nearly 20 years and i'll not part with it. the red Aria superstrat was my first guitar, it's a surprisingly good guitar, quite versatile. the semi is an early Tanglewood, and was bought sight unseen from our guitarists dad (who bought it new) again its a great guitar. I'll see if i can get a pic of my Acoustics together, today is the 12th anniversary of me purchasing my main acoustic guitar so i need to get some playing done today anyway. Matt

Personally I would be wary of a full set of strings that cost the same as a single string from one of the big string makers, places like strings direct have options that start under 20 quid or there was a set of short scale ernie ball slinkys in the marketplace last time I looked. Matt

Thank you @Beer of the Bass and @Pow_22 that seems to be fairly conclusive, the comment about them sounding more modern is a bit of a contradiction to me as this bass has the most classic/vintage sound of anything i have played, it's probably because the strings are so old or possibly because it is an older bass (1977 or thereabouts) I'm going to have to keep an eye on the classifieds for a used set of Ernie ball flatwounds by the sound of it Thank you again. Matt

I've just thought of something else, if you ever decide to sell this or part it out then you might find it more difficult to sell than if it had more "normal" fretwire. Matt

the main thing to check is the width of the tang of the fretwire, i think that most frets are all pretty much the same in the width of the tang, might be worth checking that the slots are deep enough but apart from that the profile of the fretwire are more of a personal preference. one of my favorite basses has almost completely worn out frets, it's pretty much fretless but with a set of flats it's one of the best sounding basses i own (i just wish it didn't weigh so much!) Matt

I would start by checking that power is getting to the preamp, then I'd investigate the jack socket as this is acting as the on-off switch, you should be able to check each of the pots as well, I'd suggest that as soon as you have checked the power it would be sensible to remove the battery and maybe unplug the preamp as it is a sealed unit so it won't be possible to fix anything inside of it, if all the other connections are solid then it will be new preamp time.

make sure it is the right adapter, the sort most uk people take abroad is for plugging a uk plug into a euro socket, you need the opposite, for plugging the euro plug into a uk socket, i wouldn't worry about using an adaptor as that is what thomann supply if they sell you something with a hardwired euro plug. Matt

Hello, do you have a multimeter? It's likely to just be a bad connection somewhere shouldn't be too much work to find the issue (I am a huge fan of aria integra basses, had one of the passive ones as a first bass and have a short scale one sitting next to me right now. They are far better basses than the price tag would have you believe. Matt

i believe that quite a few people have been fitting the uke bass strings to their ashbory basses, they are supposed to be a bit more useable than the originals (and there is quite a range available now) i have thunder reds fitted to my Kala U-bass. (i also have fond memories of the bass place on Nun street, it was part of my weekly trawl round Newcastle, usually just after a browse in Spenders across the road.) Matt

@fleabagas the fans are blowing into the amp you might want to consider a couple of dust filters to help keep it nice and clean (as you have gone to the effort of cleaning it) most computer places sell very cheap magnetic dust filters, i think they are a couple of quid each, might be worth it (or for anyone else with a inward facing fan) https://www.google.com/search?q=magnetic+dust+filter Matt

As there seems to be a fair amount of talk about strings at the moment, and i've got very little else to do i have finally taken some (hopefully) clear photos of the strings on my precision bass. I bought this bass almost 10 years ago and the previous owner had fitted a set of used flats that they found in a cupboard, these most likely came off a bass that they bought then strung up with something else so he has no idea what they are, the gentleman who set up the bass didn't know either. they have a great sound and i have adjusted nothing on this bass since i bought it, it just sounds and feels right so i have left it alone. does anyone have any idea what these strings are? I'd love to be able to fit the same ones to another bass or just to be able to have a spare set if the unthinkable happens and i break a string. Thanks in advance Matt

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