Matt P

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

i've not done this with Mourdant short but i have a pair of JPW minims that had blown tweeters and they seemed to be unobtainable, but it turned out that the front plate and the driver were 2 parts that clipped together so i was able to find the correct driver on the wrong faceplate and still fix them without any issues (and they sounded fab when working properly) post some pics of the tweeters and hopefully someone will recognise them. Matt

I moved to the North East when I was 16 then Newcastle uni, I'm still here and no intention of moving away, I'm about a mile further out of the city centre than @dodge_bass it's a great place to live, plenty of great venues, pubs to suit all tastes, every type of cuisine you can think of. Definately worth checking out Tynemouth Market one weekend too (I'm off there in the morning for a bit of a browse) Matt

i have to admit that i didn't actually know about buffers and had to google the manual, i just took it out of the box and plugged it straight into the board!

the Polytune 2 mini doesn't have a buffer it's true bypass only.

I use a SB-2 on my tiny church pedalboard, the chain is Polytune->spectracomp->Mini HP vong->ENO eq7->Bass soul food->corona chorus->Radial sb2 the pedalboard is a mildly modified Mooer M5 with all of the power distribution under the board. this works perfectly for me with all of my basses (all passive as that's my preference) I'd expect that it will work fine for you as well, the Radial Di's are great bits of kit. i don't have to use the Pad or the ground lift and run it straight into the desk with no eq or effects on the desk. It seems to work perfectly with all of the pedals off as well as with them active. Matt

i'm one of the small group that own and play short scale 5 strings, i'll have to look at the numbers later (i have a HB shorty as well that i'm planning to re-body as a jazz when i get round to it) as an alternative option that you might not have considered, one of my short scale 4 strings is an Aria Integra, they have used an interesting build method with this, the neck blank is actually the same as a 34" scale 21 fret neck but with a 30" scale 24 fret board, combined with a small body this makes for an excellent bass. (as an aside this bass is small enough to fit in a standard electric guitar hard case) If you could find a cheap 21 fret 5 string then with a new or modified body and a fretboard it would be possible to build a great 5 string (this was my plan before i chickened out and commissioned my 5 string from Andy) If i get a chance i'll take some photo's and measurements tonight Matt

good choice with the Pacifica, If the plan is to mainly be using headphones then skipping the amp and going for a multi-effects unit (like a zoom) might be a better option, they have loads of useful sounds, amp simulations and if you get the right one a looper as well, not to mention a good tuner all built into a ready to go unit. that should keep him happy for a bit and shouldn't sound bad run into the bass amp (set fairly flat i'd guess) i helped a friend source a cheap Zoom unit a while back and before dropping it over i gave it a reset and a test, i was mightily impressed with the quality of the sounds. then if he sticks with it you can scour the local classifieds for a decent amp. Matt

You can just see the word piano on the handles of the bahco cutters, I've just given them a quick check and the cutting edges are still in good shape, Matt