icastle

Although the original bass player used a pick, it [b]is[/b] doable without. It's just practice. Get the tune sorted in your head and don't try playing along with the original track. Start it off slowly, get the timing right and then slowly increase the speed. The other solution is to cheat and drop some of the notes out of riff (so play 9 notes instead of the original 11). Unless you're playing in a Jam tribute band, nobody will notice.

Yep. Connect two 8Ω cabs to the amp and you'll get the full 500W into 4Ω. It doesn't matter if you daisy chain them or run two seperate cables - the two sockets are wired in parallel for those people whose cabs only have 1 socket.

[quote name='Prime_BASS' post='1338697' date='Aug 13 2011, 01:15 PM']The bands first ever song: I wrote a nice root and octave line with measures ending with a scale run backwards. It was ace, it was my thing for that song and was a nice subtle transition between different parts of the song. Then the guitarist thought it'd be great to "harmonise" with me..,.. He has his god damn solo god dammit !!! Now I hate playing the song as it sound terrible and messy, since he can't ever remember when the run comes in and plays it wrong.[/quote] Reach over and twist one of his machine heads before he starts?

I'm a J fan and am not overly keen on P's, but if I had only the choice of a P or a J, it'd have to be the P. The P has a much healthier 'thump' (spot the technical term ) to it.

Only ever happened to me once. So I made sure I was playing my 6 during 'Come Up And See Me' and stole the lead solo off the guitarist. It's never happened since.

[quote name='PaulWarning' post='1337977' date='Aug 12 2011, 06:06 PM']It cleans the wire or whatever you're soldering I believe, all I can say is I use the rosin cored solder and it's a lot easier to get the solder to take with a bit of flux on there, maybe it's just me doing something else wrong, wouldn't be without it myself[/quote] Wow - Bakers Fluid! Didn't know that brand still existed - must be a good 30 years since I've seen a tin of that and the tin must have been 10 years old even then! If the surface(s) you are soldering are clean and you heat the joint up with a well tinned bit then the solder should flow quite happily. What usually causes a problem is pot casings - they often look clean and shiny because they are laquered and need a quick scrape with a bit of wet and dry to allow the solder to flow nicely. Nothing particularly wrong in using a liquid flux but you do need to be careful if you use it on a pcb as any excess flux can bridge tracks and cause a partial short circuit.

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1338058' date='Aug 12 2011, 07:13 PM']Haha I've not used flux since I used to solder mini-projects back in school nearly... er... 30 years ago. Thanks for the memory. [/quote] 30 years ago? Wow - not many 2 year olds can handle a soldering iron... [size=1][b]P.S. - You definately owe me one for that![/b] [/size]

[quote name='BottomE' post='1337964' date='Aug 12 2011, 05:56 PM']Wait a sec. Flux i hear you say. What is this substance?[/quote] It's a chemical that allows the solder to flow smoothly over a surface. It's not generally used these days for the sort of work you're doing as you'll being using rosin cored solder.

[quote name='Marvin' post='1337801' date='Aug 12 2011, 03:48 PM']I find I can be quite lazy on the Ibanez.[/quote] Funny you should say that actually. In another thread about the SR series I did actually consider mentioning that they encourage 'sloppy' playing, but decided it was probably just me, and didn't. When I got my 505 I played it for absolutely everything for a couple of months and really had to make a concious effort to get back to a more disciplined approach when I picked up my JB again. Once you've realised you've become sloppy and tightened up again it's not a problem, but my 505 certainly enticed me for a little while...

[quote name='lemmywinks' post='1337567' date='Aug 12 2011, 01:05 PM']I never got the hang of the desolder pump and use braided wick instead. Are there any drawbacks to using that? Everybody seems to use the pumps.[/quote] I use both. The desolder pump is great at removing 'large' areas of solder but has a tendency to leave enough residue to retain the joint (although mechanically unsound). Once I've removed the bulk of the solder then I tend to use braid to remove the last of it. Another problem with the pumps is that they do sometimes have the tendency to lift very delicate copper track off of the pcb along with the solder - so I use braid there as a matter of course.

The feet are there just to make the thing surface friendly if you're not using a case/rack. No problem taking them off at all - they'll either be self tappers or bolts running into captive nuts\coldserts so nothing flops around inside after removing them.

[quote name='BottomE' post='1336708' date='Aug 11 2011, 05:03 PM']Thanks. I sort of know about tinning but not sure what you mean by desoldering with a pump? I do have a pump (i think) which came with the soldering kit but am not sure how to use it...[/quote] It's an aluminium tube with a spring loaded 'plunger' that pushes down and clicks into place. There will be a button on the side that allows the 'plunger' to fly back to it's starting position. On the other end you will find a little nozzle. Heat up the solder you want to remove and, when it's liquid, push the little nozzle into the molten solder and press the button. As the 'plunger' flies back up the tube it creates a vacuum that will suck the molten solder into the aluminium tube. When you've finished cleaning the joint, just pull the nozzle off of the end of the tube and shake out the unwanted solder.

This is a rather good example of various soldering techniques. Ignore the drag soldering at the beginning - the interesting stuff for you starts at about 1.30 and goes on to about 3.20. Have a few practise runs on some old scrap cable and parts before you start. Something that's not plainly obvious on this clip is that once you have flowed solder over the joint - keep it totally still until it 'sets' and don't be tempted to cool it down quicker by blowing on the joint.

[quote name='Old Horse Murphy' post='1334909' date='Aug 10 2011, 01:01 PM']I've decided to fit the chrome pickup covers to one o fmy 51 P basses and need a bit of advice on placement (are there any templates or measurements available?) and also how to stop the painwork getting damaged when I drill the hole.[/quote] Placement can probably be done 'by eye' - I've not seen any templates floating around. If I'm drilling into a guitar I tend to use a strip of masking tape and mark the precise placement on that - the matt surface removes all risk of the drill bit scooting off in an unwanted direction when it hits a shiny surface.

[quote name='Marvin' post='1333914' date='Aug 9 2011, 06:16 PM']Damage to retailers and home-owners should be paid for by Police Authorities under the 1886 act.[/quote] By my reckoning, tonight is already going to cost the Met well in excess of £3M and will probably have to go back to central government to beg for money just to maintain the standard service after all this is finished. They aren't going to have enough money left to start compensating people caught in the crossfire.

If Steve Harris (who?) and I swapped basses and tweaked our EQ to suit, I'd still sound predominantly like me and he'd still sound predominantly like himself.

[quote name='Kes' post='1333067' date='Aug 9 2011, 12:52 AM']I've only played these basses on my knee in the shops. while i love them all the lightness of the ash body got me thinking. especially as i'm looking for a 5 string (coming from playing a 4) what is the neckdive like on these or for that matter other 5 stringers?[/quote] Absolutely none on my 505 - I just position it where I want it to be and it stays there.

[quote name='AsterL' post='1331723' date='Aug 8 2011, 09:28 AM']Most likely this if i use piezos; [url="http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=SKT900207&browsemode=category"]http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=SKT...semode=category[/url] And this is i a regular one, [url="http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=FANFPT150&browsemode=category"]http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=FAN...semode=category[/url] Whats the deal with wiring it as a bright box? (ie more than one tweeter)[/quote] Well if you stick two of those piezo's in series that'll cope with the power and you won't need to worry about impedance or crossovers (piezo's aren't seen as a resistive load). If you use the Fane FPT150 you're also going to need a 3.5KHz 2 way crossover and the resultant impedance of the cab is going to be 2.6Ω - so to get a 4Ω total load you'll need to use an 8Ω speaker. Nothing to stop you putting more than one tweeter in a cab but the important question has to be whether you really need that amount of top end?

[quote name='joe_bass' post='1333011' date='Aug 9 2011, 12:04 AM']Yeah that's fair enough. From a point of having worked in insurance claims though it's not a nice feeling to tell someone they've lost everything.[/quote] I'm quite used to giving people bad news but I have to say that I certainly wouldn't want to have to do that.

[quote name='Blademan_98' post='1333008' date='Aug 9 2011, 12:02 AM']It was a riot because the police had riot gear on [/quote] Oh you mean the new Anti Organised Theft gear?

[quote name='Blademan_98' post='1332999' date='Aug 8 2011, 11:55 PM']This is all a backlash from poor management of the banking systems around the world. I'm unemployed but don't feel the need to riot and loot. Seems like I'm a minority [/quote] I thought it stemmed from a bloke getting shot dead after he tried to shoot a police officer? I understand it spread to Birmingham this afternoon as well. Like you, I don't have any urge to riot and loot - although my neighbours are on holiday so I practised with my amp on '3' this afternoon so I guess I'm pretty close to the revolutionary edge...

[quote name='joe_bass' post='1332987' date='Aug 8 2011, 11:44 PM']I gotta say I agree they seem to cough up money for various things. I'm joining icastle on the cynical side though. & yep the insurers are sure likely to drag their heals.[/quote] As much as I dislike the delaying and avoidance tactics of many insurance companies, I have to say that I agree with them on this occasion. If riot and looting are excluded from the insurance policy then the insurer has every right to query the expedient usage of the 'organised theft' description that has been rolled out by the government spindoctors.

[quote name='Blademan_98' post='1332979' date='Aug 8 2011, 11:39 PM']The government are classing it as organised theft so the insurance should pay out. Insurers say it's looting and it's not covered. The shops will have gone bust before it's all sorted. Sad state of affairs [/quote] Yep. Both sides using semantics to get their own way. Government won't use the word 'looting' as it portrays an image of lawlessness and loss of control over the populace. Insurance companies are saying that this is looting and not 'organised theft'. I have to say that on the balance of things I agree with the insurance companies on this one. Just because a bunch of scumbags are using twitter to tell people where they are attacking it doesn't make it 'organised' in the sense that 'organised theft' is generally understood to mean.

[quote name='dc2009' post='1332958' date='Aug 8 2011, 11:29 PM']I didn't know the first point, and the government will quite often help people out in situations such as this...[/quote] Hmm. I'm probably just a tad too cynical Not saying it shouldn't happen, but I reckon the chances of government throwing its hands in the air and saying 'here's some money for you' whilst maintaining its stance on law and order is pretty unlikely.

[quote name='dc2009' post='1332943' date='Aug 8 2011, 11:21 PM']Surely this is classed as theft and they'll all get paid out? And if not, government compensation goes some way to cover the costs in this kind of event.[/quote] Riots and looting are usually exemptions on insurance policies. As for government compensation... not sure where you got that from...