Matt P

what bout one of the tiny Mixers that are available? something like this, not much bigger than the Art but about half the price, https://www.thomann.de/gb/kustom_pa4ex.htm it has a 2 band eq on each channel as well. the smaller Behringer mixers add in some stereo channels as well, perfect for adding a Mp3 player or a laptop. (they also double up as great little headphone practice units, i used one for years before swapping to a Focusrite Scarlett and a PC) Matt

Hiscox every time for me, i've got 3 of the bass ones, a standard acoustic case, a pro-ii acoustic case, a 335 case, a strat case and a les paul case. my music room looks like an advert for Hiscox! (i've had to label the cases to make it easier to grab the right instrument) it's the strength of them that i like, when i bought the first one (the standard acoustic case) the guitar shop owner put my guitar in, closed the case then stood on it, that convinced me of their strength, this was reinforced a couple of months later when the guitar was in a caravan that suffereed a blowout, it got hit by a rather large gas bottle and came away with a small scuff on the case, if it had been a traditional plywood case then I have no doubt that the guitar would have been reduced to firewood. I think there is a video on the Hiscox website that shows the construction method and demonstrates the strength of the case, as well as plenty of user testimonials to the protective qualities of the cases. - https://www.hiscoxcases.com/build-quality/ Matt

A solid body u-bass might be a good option, as a bonus they work great for travel or to get a more double bass sound, I've got the acoustic u-bass and get way more use from it than I thought I would, the solid body has the bonus of being just like a scaled down "regular" bass

Have a search on here for pingray, there are a few mentions of it and a build thread somewhere (I'm on mobile so linking is a pain) I think that @Ou7shined built it and in my opinion it's the way to go. Matt

If you open the plug at the headphone end (one screw to unplug from the headphones and then a smaller screw to open up the plug) you should be able to see the colour coding, the plug has 4 pins and then a small gap to the other 2 pins, that should allow you to orientate yourself for wiring up the other end, I think the stereo plug will be left to tip, right to ring and ground to sleeve. Unfortunately I'm currently on my mobile so links and stuff are a bit tricky.

the dt250 uses the same connector as the dt100, i've replaced a few leads on these, there is a wiring diagram here, ignore pins 5 and 6, these are used for the models with a boom mic. you need to remove the screw on the connector to get it out but they're easy to re-wire, i've bought replacement ones and re-used old ones with no issues, i actually have a couple of different ones for my headphones with different lengths and different connectors (short for use when tracking at home and much longer for when i'm with the full band.) Matt p.s, if you decide to give up on the DT250's i might buy them from you as i could do with another pair.

it's mainly for recording TBH,the cajon was quite expensive if i remember rightly, our drummer buys kit incredibly rarely (he owns one drum kit that he bought in about 1999) but when he buys stuff he goes for the best he can afford, hence the overkill mics, as an indicator he spent over an hour to buy a cowbell, playing every one in stock (including identical models) until he found the one that sounded the way he wanted. this is the cajon - LInky Matt

I know i'm a little late to this and it's not a cheap option but we use an audix d6 on a bracket inside and then an audix i5 on the front face for some snap, you might get good results with an sm57 on the front and a cheapish bass drum mic on the soundhole/inside (the red5audio mics are supposed to be pretty good, certainly the rv8 i have is fantastic for the money) the d6 then is deployed as a bass drum mic when we're using a full kit (cajon is for acoustic stuff only) Matt

you got a fantastic deal there! quarter pounders are at least £60 each, a pair is about 115 if you shop around, great pickups but not really in the same price bracket as wilkinsons and entwhistles Matt

i'm currently using a set of the Soundmagic E10's, and i've got a set of the super cheap es18's for work radio use, previously i was a sennheiser guy (a couple of sets of cx300's in row i think), then i tried some RHA ones which were great sounding but when it came to replace them the soundmagics were available off the shelf in Richer Sounds and the reviews were great so i gave them a try, i've been very impressed so far (about 2 years). they came with a good little case as a bonus. Matt

I believe that Wilkinson make 5 string jazz pickups, watch out for the overall size and the string spacing though as fender 5 strings are usually 18mm string to string but from memory these basses are more like 19-20mm.

I have the 10mm punch, and the strap is still a bit too thick, I can just about get the nut on, I made a thinner washer as well but it's a tight squeeze. I think they must have gone a little overboard with the leather thickness and the padding on this strap, it's very comfortable though! Matt

i've been using them for about 17 years ever since a guitar i bought secondhand had them fitted, having found the guide that EBS_Freak has linked above the only issue i have come across is that one extra padded leather strap is a bit of a tight fit, i'll probably get a set of the new ones for that strap but as far as i can see the new system is compatible with the old system so my stash of old type strap buttons is still useful. Matt

have you got another speaker cabinet to run a power amp into? if you try and connect a stand alone power amp (which will be at least 100W and most likely considerably higher) into the combo's speaker than you have a very high risk of blowing it into small bits as it is likely only rated to about 40w maximum (it might have a power rating marked somewhere on the magnet) Matt

I should also point out that most CAD packages require a fairly good Graphics card and a healthy amount of RAM, as guide my company workstation has 16Gb of ram and a 2GB Nvidia Quattro graphics card, it's worth checking the recommended spec from the CAD package websites. you might also find that you need to upgrade to a higher level of windows as many of them require a professional or enterprise version. the Laptops that are used at work are about £2.8k each (15" screens and standard screens) the pc I had at Uni was £1400 not including software and that was ok for about 3 years of CAD before it needed upgrading. Matt

there is also the Heil "the fin" I can't give any advice on it but I know that there are plenty of people who love heil mics, they also come in black or silver and light up either red or blue (depending on version) when fed with phantom power. https://www.studiospares.com/Microphones/Mics-Dynamic/Heil-The-Fin-Dynamic-Mic-Chrome--Blue_318070.htm Matt

I use CAD as a large part of my day job (design engineer) i'd suggest trying to find out which package your course will be using and then getting a copy as soon as you have official student status, i believe that most of the major CAD packages offer free versions for students, for me it was Autodesk Inventor and mechanical desktop at uni and then the same for my first 8 years in industry, for the last 2 it has been Creo (pro engineer) all the packages are slowly converging to have the same functionality and a very similar look, it's not that difficult to transition from one package to another (although i do miss one or two of the functions that Inventor had) you should feel lucky that the CAD software companies have started offering free versions to students, i had to pay £120 for my 3 year student licence and that printed a black text border on every drawing clearly staing that it was a student version and not for commercial use! and as an additional kick in the teeth within 3 months of buying my software the Uni upgraded to a newer version and my copy was already out of date. i have used CAD for tiny bits of Bass designing but am yet to build anything, mostly i find it useful for calculating positions and angles as everything can be drawn full scale and the package will usually do all the inch to millimeter conversions automatically. Matt

i've just fitted a set to my short scale Aria (with a bart p-pup) they feel and sound fantastic, even though the scale is short they have enough tension to not feel all floppy, i've got chromes on my 5 string, the tension is pretty high but i can't remember what they sound like new as it was 4 years ago that i fitted them! i think i paid 28 quid for my short scale set but that was from Thomann so unless you can split the order with someone or buy lots of other stuff you end up paying 10 euro's postage on top of that.

It's going to be a while before I get round to this, need to find a cheap enough donor bass that I can cannibalise and I've got a guitar build to do for a friend first as well (which also involves replacing a fretboard so will be good practice) all the cheap 5 strings I've seen have either had narrow spacing or 24 fret necks so getting a donor bass might take some time (provided that what I'm looking for actually exists!) Matt

That is actually my plan, I've just bought an aria 30" scale bass and the neck is the same length as a 34" 21 fret neck but they've fretted it with 24 frets for a 30 scale, my plan was to replace the fretboard on a 34" neck with a new one at the right scale and then make a new body to suit. Hopefully I've explained that well enough! It seems wrong but I've been over this bass with a tape measure and the neck blank they have used is the same size as a 34" scale bass just with a tiny body Matt

I believe that there are a few short scale 5 strings available but they aren't that common. Ibanez make a mikro one which is 28.something inches, and there's birdsong who have made some 31" i think. Maruszczyk have made one or two as well. I've got a vague plan to build a 30.5" 5 string but it depends on finding the right donor neck (34" scale, 5 string, 22 or 21 fret and 19mm spacing at the bridge) there are a few sets of strings available if you like roundwounds but the only short scale 5 string flats i can find are La Bella's this is what i found when i googled the question a few months ago https://www.talkbass.com/threads/tight-b-string-on-short-scale-5-string.1248784/ Matt

a quick update on the GHS Precision flats, the are indeed the length quoted at 32.5" from ballend to silk, they fit perfectly on my aria, the feel is actually quite good, there is no hint of floppiness, the tension is very similar to 34" scale flats even though the gauges are quite light. they have a good even sound from string to string and a lovely smooth feel. I cant comment on the tone yet as i've only tried them through headphones, i should get to try them through an amp in the next few days. Matt

I've got a guitar with a Seymour Duncan fat cat at the neck and a SD JB at the bridge, not a suggested combo from seymour but it works surprisingly well (i'm a total JB addict though, got them in 2 guitars and another one in the drawer for the next guitar.) i've had my eye on a Phat Moggy for a while now, if the fat cat hadn't popped up cheap on ebay then that would be what i bought, the catswhisker pickups are very tempting, have you considered emailing him and asking what he'd suggest? it might be worth having a coil tap switch as well for the humbucker (you might be able to coil tap the current pickup if it's got the right wiring.)

are you taking this cab home after each service or could it live in situ? i play at church and we've got a 4x10+1x15 rig (with a trace head) and it lives in position and is only moved occasionally for weddings etc. i substitute my markbass head when i'm playing as it's in my case and it saves adjusting the settings on the trace (we have other bass players who use the house rig) if you can leave a cab at the church then weight doesn't become an isuue, and a cheap but solid cab can be bought for peanuts. (i think we've got a peavey 4x10 megabass? and the 1x15 is a behringer cab with a replacement eminence speaker that i got for 20 quid) Matt

I'll echo the yamaha recommendations, also worth looking at aria and freshman, and definitely go for a straight acoustic with no electronics, you'll get far more for your money. Secondhand is the way forward too.