Matt P

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.

That matches up with the lengths I saw quoted here: https://www.bassstringsonline.com/Bass-String-Lengths-by-Manufacturer_ep_47-1.html Most of the other manufacturers seem to be at 32" from ballend to silk, I find it odd that 35.5" is classed as a short scale string, most makers use 34" for medium scale.

i looked at these but the length from ballend to taper/silk was quoted as something huge like 35.5" any chance you could measure the set you have as i wouldn't mind trying some but anything over 32.5" from all end to taper wouldn't really fit on my tiny Aria bass (it's small enough to easily fit in a strat hardcase) Matt

I've just ordered a set of GHS precisions for my new 30" scale Aria, will report back once I've got them fitted, I've been using Chromes for years and really love them but had heard quite a few people raving about the GHS strings and thought i'd take a punt as they're a bit cheaper than the Chromes (buying from Thomann so about 28 quid +p&p)

I can't comment on the Clarett but i do own the first gen Scarlett 18i8 and am very pleased with the results (using reaper as our preferred DAW), the only negative that i can come up with (and it's a very minor point) is that there isn't a simple way to rack mount it, i sorted it with a rack shelf and some home-made adapters but if there had been an off the shelf option i would have certainly bought it. i've got mine mounted in a 4U rack with an octopre mk2 and a headphone amp and it's great, i have bought a 2i4 to have permanently setup on my desk for overdubs and mixing as the rack tends to live at our favoured recording venue (guitarists kitchen/dining room) Matt

@pete.young it might be worth trying the Newtone heritage strings on your guitar of advanced age, they have a much lower total tension than most of the strings on the market (i seem to remember that the 12's have a total tension lower than a D'addario 11's set) the lower tension is of importance to me as my beloved cedar-top McIlroy came with a note stating that fitting anything heavier than standard 12's invalidates the warranty. Matt

for about 10 years i only used D'addario EJ26, which are 11's, i then went to EJ16's which are 12's on the advice of a couple of friends, but for the last 10 years i've exclusively used Newtone Heritage 12's, they're lower tension, balanced and have a fantastic tone as well as the perfect feel. as a bonus they seem to last longer than the D'addario's which more than offsets the higher cost. https://www.newtonestrings.com/shop/heritage-series-acoustic-6-string/ I've introduced a few friends to these strings and they've always had compliments and many have switched to them (i buy 12 sets at a time and share the order with our guitarist)

i've just done a bit of a search as i was considering ordering some of the stainless La Bella flatwounds and most places state that all the La Bella short scale strings are 32" from ball end to silk, any ideas what is up with this set? have they gone overboard with the silk?

i've just thrown a tape measure against my bass and i think they might be too short for my bass as well, it's a 30" scale but i think i need 32" between the ball end and the start of the silk to ensure proper fitment as it's just over an inch behind the saddle to the end of the BBOT bridge.

i'm guessing i'm too late to this?

i'm a huge fan of Hiscox hard cases, they're pretty light and very strong and can usually be picked up secondhand for decent prices if you don't want to pay £100 new. they make 2 different ones and have a good detailed dimensions on the website. https://www.hiscoxcases.com/our-cases/bass-cases/ i have about 8 of their cases in total with 3 of them being the standard bass case, some of my instruments came with them as standard, the rest i bought new or secondhand depending on how skint i was at the time. Matt

i can't believe that this question has had all these replies and no-one has mentioned OBBM ! he is our resident cable merchant and renown for his excellent high grade and sensibly priced cables. He trades as rock-wire and his wares are available here - http://www.rock-wire.co.uk/ i have no connection to him other than using his speaker cables for the past 5 years at least (as do a large proportion of members of this forum i believe) EDIT - ive just had a quick look at the cable in the link and it doesn't look like their using very large cable, the standard plugs will only accept cables up to about 7mm ish (going by my shaky memory here might be a little more) the 2.5mm sq and larger cables that i've used have all required the oversized neutrik plugs. if the OP's amp will take Speakon connectors i'd always recommend them as they mean that the cable is dedicated to amp-cab duty (i've come across people "borrowing" speaker jack-jack cables for short runs between pedals before) Matt

In the north east i'd suggest getting in touch with these guys http://www.masfix.co.uk/ they're the most likely to have the correct fasteners (they were the default supplier of fasteners at my old job in an engineering company) they're not too far from you either. Matt (the happy new owner of your old Zoom ms-60B)