Matt P

i've had a fair few cables from these guys on Ebay JuiceBitz they are nice quality and offer a decent range of length options and connection options. as a bonus all the ones i've bought have had velcro ties included as well. Matt

i think i'd go for a mustang 5 string, 30" scale, ebony board, blocks and binding, jazz pickups (60's wind) 18mm spacing and a super chunky neck, Nitro Daphne blue and matching headstock and Hipshot ultralite lollypop tuners and Hipshot bridge., as i don't have such a magic pass i'll have to build it myself (albeit as a 4 string) using a Harley benton neck and some Wilkinson pickups and hardware. the custom 5 string that andyjr1515 built me will have to do for my short scale 5 string duties. Matt

I need one of those as well, when they make another appearance can someone post it to this thread please? then we can all nip out and get one. Matt

I'm really liking the idea of being able to use the amp as a preamp for recording or Di into a desk, would it be possible to have 2 switches not a single 3 position one? for me it would limit the chances of accidently switching it to fully on without a cab connected. Matt

excellent news, looking forward to the prototype appearing. Matt

as this pre uses a single gang pot for the blend in theory it's possible to swap the 2 pots for one stacked pot, they might need to be on wires rather than soldered direct to the board but that's not difficult for a competent tech. Is there a value on the volume pot? the balance seems to be 50K. the link that @Passinwindgave above has a couple of options for stacked pots but only 2 that give a 50K option (50k/500k or 50k/50k, whether they have a centre detent on either pot is not stated. the other thing i would check is that the spacing on the other 2 pots (the tone controls) matches the control plate you are wanting to use, I'm not that clued up on Musicman but there might be spacing differences between the 3 and 4 hole plates. Matt

it might be that they've added the additional material at the heel (and i guess maybe at the headstock) in order to give a better thickness to hold the screws? 2mm might well be enough to give the required stiffness to the neck but it's thin compared to the pitch of the screws commonly used to hold on a neck. I'd guess that for the main section of the neck the carbon shell is much thinner (2mm seems about right) Matt

I had mine through Allianz, I never had to claim luckily but they were the first one I found that didn't mind that some of my basses didn't have serial numbers (custom builds) , they were always helpful on the phone and didn't put on the hard sell when I phoned to cancel the policy (everything is on the house insurance which is fine as I'm not gigging at the moment) when I get some gigs booked tean I'll go back to Allianz again.

EDIT- stupidly double posted!

if you do decide to use a seperate bass speaker make sure that the Impedance is matched to the original one, I'd suggest that if it's for home use then the best option would actually be to look for a small cheap bass combo instead, there are plenty of cheap options for home practice amps (although personally i use headphones and a pc interface) compared to the cost of a separate speaker cabinet or a decent bass driver to go in an existing amp then a small bass combo should be able to be found for a similar price. Matt

i've looked at the photo's and i think it is actually copper foil, the join is visible in the first photo, and the next photo shows the foil soldered to another piece of foil that wraps round onto the base (if this was just the windings it would short the pickup out surely?) i've not seen this before, it looks like there is a ground sleeve in the wiring as well as the 2 usual wires for a jazz pickup. Matt

Bought a preamp from Mike, it was packed and in the post the same day and arrived safe and sound the next working day. The perfect deal. Matt

I was one of those that ordered a bass from Jon before it all went t!ts up, I did actually get my bass ( a bit later than promised but i considered myself fortunate that mine was delivered) Mine is a 5 string fretted singlecut through neck with the Letts pickups and it's been my workhorse since I got it. the tone and fit and finish are pretty good, if a fretless popped up secondhand i'd be tempted as iI played one back before the problems and it was very nice. I'm not sure if i'd pay 3k for one of the shortscales he has for sale though, as much as i love short scale basses 27" is too short for me. Matt

according to my bathroom scales a Hiscox Standard case weighs 4.4kg, My '77 P-bass fits nicely Matt

85-65-45-35 would be my starting point ( taking the tensions and diameters from a standard 100-45 set, from a glance at the tension figures for the 6 string D'addario XL set the 32 for the C seems a bit on the low side compared to the others so bumping it up to 35 should help. D'addario used to have a fantastic string tension calculator for this sort of thing but i's been out of action for ages (supposed to be back up this year at some point. one option is to give Newtone a try, they charge about the same for a custom set as a regular set so you could tailor a set to suit. (I haven't tried the Newtone bass strings yet but I've been using the acoustic guitar strings exclusively for about 15 years now and won't buy anything else) Matt

This is very good advice, I only had my bass fretted as it had been fretted from the factory and it was a year of birth bass that I had bought very cheap (with the original paperwork and hard case) so even with the fretting cost it was very good value, I found that as it was a different scale to every other bass I own I was struggling with playing in tune, I'm going to get enother fretless at some point but it will have to be the same scale as my main bass.

I have an aria Cardinal (32" scale) that had been defretted a long while back before it was mine, I had it refretted with stainless fretwire and I think it was under 150 quid, definitely under 200., that was about 3 years ago so i'd expect it to be a bit higher now. i'd definitely suggest andyjr1515 for this, he build me a custom 5 string and his workmanship is excellent (an his charges very reasonable) Matt

not a drummer myself but both my best friends (who are also my bandmates) are drummers, we are very lucky to have the drum shop only a few miles from us, they've always been helpful and the range is very good, they have secondhand gear available and the service and advice when in the shop has been second to none. on one occasion they were very patient whilst my mate James spent 45 minutes going through every cowbell they had (including identical ones from the same manufacturer) to find the one that sounded right. there have been a couple of other trips to try out snare drums which were longer but both successful shopping experiences. in the last couple of months there was also a trip to buy the first kit for a friends son, they were excellent (he is on the autistic spectrum) and they did a great deal with low volume cymbals and threw in some damping pads for free. https://www.drumshop.co.uk/ Matt

i've always bought from Watford Valves, just replaced all the valves in my little Laney LC15 guitar amp, went for the Harma Retro and they sound pretty good, close to the description on the website. on a previous amp i went for the Cryo treated ones, no idea if they were better than the standard but the amp sounded very nice afterwards. Matt

Little Green Bag - George Baker Selection

i've had an Antex xs25 for nearly 20 years now, I think all i've ever changed is the tips, before that I had a Weller iron that only lasted a couple of years before the element failed and it went in the bin, I think my brother's antex iron is about 15 years older than mine. Antex offer a decent range of tip options and the ability to replace the element is great too. I have a couple of gas soldering irons that are handy for working in places without power (installing DMX cables in a church where the plugs had to be fitted in situ) but they seem to break fairly easily and they're not that cheap. Matt

unfortunately Wilkinson's is a fair way from me (north east England) so i'd be buying mail order. I'm slightly envious of the KI sig, especially for £50! the cd63 is a great unit and the sound quality is still very good, but i know how much plastic there is in the mechanism and it's going to start getting brittle at some point so a more recent machine is tempting (current unit is mid 90's so will be 30 yrs old before i know it) when it comes to repair and servicing i'm fairly happy to do most work myself, re-capping etc is within my experience (done an amp and a power supply in the last couple of years) but some of the mechanism parts are getting scarcer than they once were. tI'm only getting the occasional skip and it doesn't seem to occur at the same point in each cd, so i'm going to clean the laser and re-lubricate the laser rails and the drawer, i think i last did it 2 years ago. I only paid £25 for the CD63 in cash converters about 16 years ago so i'm fairly happy that i've had more than my moneys worth from it. Matt

i've bookmarked Wilkinsons too, on the lookout for a cd player to replace my old Marantz cd63 that's starting to skip again (i've cleaned it once which helped for a bit and i'll give it another clean before I give up and retire it) are there any other reliable used hifi places? (I know about 2nd hand hifi in stockport) https://2ndhandhifi.co.uk/ Matt

another thing to check is whether it is the crossover or the tweeter, easily checked by swapping the tweeters from one unit to the other and see if the issue follows the tweeter. Matt