fretmeister

Ah - I don't have any of their products. I suppose it will give me a day to think about if I want to do London on a work night.

How does the Artist Presale work?

Good question. 1: NeuralDSP's Mantra all-in-one vocal plugin. I tried the demo and found it very useful and easy and as someone who often gives up at the vocal stages of writing it got me to finish a few in the 14 day trial period. 2: A good random orbit sander and polisher as I have 2 bodies to do. 3: A set of good Filtertron type guitar pickups. Lollartrons or Oil City or something like that. Nice and twangy and dirty. 4: Some good fretwork tools. Fret rocker, files, that sort of thing. 5: The "never gonna happen" prezzie - I'd love a shed big enough to be a little workshop, with power and lighting and so on. At the moment I use my work desk to work on instruments so I can't leave anything overnight on a weekday as I need the desk to earn money. It's very frustrating. A big shed would be ace. Alternatively my kids could move out and I could use a bedroom!

That feature really appeals to me - would massively increase the amount of strings that would fit - particularly flats. The Ibanez Mezzo 4 string (32 scale) had the E string tuner relatively far from the nut so could take a wide variety of strings, but it was a small post so long scale flats would still break. Had to get specific medium scale ones. The 5 string mezzo was actually worse for string availability. I used Dunlop medium scale flats on that exclusively. Really lovely strings - but at about £90 they'd have to be! Reverse headstock is a very easy solution to the problem. If I ever ordered a second Lionel I'd spec a reverse headstock for that reason.

Every fender ever built is a bitsa.

I've had a few breaks. I quit my last band about 14 months ago as it was becoming very stale - I couldn't influence it was organised by the local educational music trust. The new arrangements were dull and kind of were a reflection on the band leader rather than what everyone actually wanted to play. It started to kill my desire to play at all so I knew I had to go. I didn't play at all for at least 3 months, didn't even get a bass out of a gigbag. Then I started noodling a bit and playing along to CDs but that wasn't really doing it for me either. But now I find myself writing original stuff again and that is definitely flexing a different set of mental muscles. I play bass, guitar, a bit of sax and I can sing (although painfully out of practice) so I'm doing that. I have no desire to gig at the moment, but I'm enjoying the creative process. My favourite band format is the power trio, or maybe the usual guitar,bass,drums with a singer who can occasionally join in with another instrument so I'm writing with that approach. I like the space and the easy dynamic changes that come from having fewer instruments. A change has definitely been as good as a rest for me.

I love my MB head and Energy 210 but I’m thinking of moving to that combo just so it’s a 1 thing carry. I’m not gigging at the mo and I doubt I will for a while so something more convenient for the odd jam appeals to me.

Mr Wailer bought my Mark Bass Vintage Preamp. Very quick payment and let me know the minute it arrived safely - that's always welcome with the too-often terrible service we get from couriers and so on these days. Hope you enjoy it!

I have never regretted buying one. My biggest problem with it is that I like flats and rounds on it and I can't afford to get another one so I don't have to keep changing strings!

Yes - either a Sandberg Lionel PJ or a Jim Deacon P. I play them a lot more than my long scale basses at the moment.

Balls. Prices back up. Wish I'd spotted this earlier.

I had a P bass from that series and it was a very nice instrument. The bodies are a little thinner than on a full USA one, but that means a slightly lower weight and I really like that. The necks on the Precision version were also a little thinner front to back. I only sold mine because at the time I was almost always playing a J type so it was gathering dust. The only think I'd upgrade on them would be the tuning heads - they are the same as a MIM and although serviceable, improvements are available. I put Hipshot Ultralites on mine and got the weight down further in the process.

Just checking - is your bass active and have you swapped the battery? What else is in your signal chain?

Mark Bass Vintage Preamp is lovely.

Mine are all shorties! Two just P, and one PJ. One P and the PJ have flats, and the other has rounds.

If you want one then yes. If you don't then no. I find a J more versatile overall but sometimes, for my ears, only a P will do. I doubt the audience cares though!

There is something called "Feet Finder" but I'm not sure shoes are involved much!

If I buy something it is mine and I can do what I like with it and that includes selling it for double or burning it in the garden for BBQ fuel - but I am not a hypocrite so that must be the other way as well: if I sell a thing and the next person manages to sell it for double - that is their good fortune and I am pleased for them. I'm an adult and I did a deal I was happy with at the time. Hindsight is a waste of energy. Once I've sold a thing I no longer care about it. Perhaps the next owner will sell it for a loss, or maybe for a profit. Either way it is not mine anymore and it leaves my mind. It's not an "anti-community" stance, it's a really "Why on earth should I get a say when it's not mine?" Stance. What next? Should I be upset if the 3rd owner after me makes a profit? Or only if it's the next owner? Advertising something at a higher price does not mean it will sell, and if it does, good luck to them. There are many reasons for a bass selling for more and for less. Perhaps the market improved / got worse. Perhaps there was a bidding war by people who only just discovered the item was available. Perhaps the model has somehow been associated with a recently exposed nonce and now nobody wants them so the value tanked. Perhaps the original seller really needed money and had made the decision to sell undervalue for a quick sale. Irrespective of the reasons why the buyer bought it they assisted the seller. They cannot be expected to offer a higher sum "just because" and they shouldn't be expected to sell at an undervalue themselves. Even if they bought it with the intention to sell at normal market value (or higher) they still did a deal with another adult who made the decision to sell in a way that suited them at the time. Slagging someone for later selling at a higher price is no more or less silly than slagging the original seller for selling at an undervalue and making others of the same model harder to shift at market value. Inflation and depreciation and simple desirability can change quickly. Several years ago I sold / part-x a very nice bass on here and the person buying it gigged it extensively and then decided to get a new one built with slightly different specs so he put "my" one up for sale. Another member of this "community" sent me multiple messages demanding to know exactly what I had sold it for (with the part-x value etc) and seemed to be demanding that I feel outraged that it was for sale at a price that might have been higher than I got. I pretty much got a lecture that me not caring about something that I no longer owned was a problem and that my refusal to tell him the details of a private transaction was against the community. It was a level of pathetic entitlement unworthy of anything claiming to be a community. Most amusingly that member has advertised many items way above market value / used sales on here and ebay etc. This happened again when I sold a pair of Mark Bass cabs donkeys ago and a different member actually had the balls to ask me for a breakdown including the shipping as I had sent them to mainland europe. He wanted to work out the cab price from the postage included price. I promise: if you buy a £100 pedal from me and manage to sell it for £300 I will be thrilled for you. Me being happy with the sale at £100 will not be affected by you managing to sell for £300.

That thud is technique and because the fingers are coming to rest on the B string the thud is lower pitched. Many B strings tend to be a bit floppy and that means they move more when a finger comes to rest on them. More movement = more signal. A tighter B string may well help but avoiding coming to rest on a string at all is a good thing to practice. It will be there on your 4 strings too - but probably at a frequency and volume you are not noticing at the moment.

Nige bought my Strat neck - all good, quick payment.