Green Alsatian

It is - someone posted the link to the auction in here at the time and I downloaded the pics. I'd love to know how much it sold for.

Here are the rest of the pics!

Aye, it's an XLR output - someone posted a link to an auction for Bruce's P-Bass in here some time ago. Here are some of the pics:

I'd never seen that 'Owner...' vid before. I can imagine when they turned up to the shoot... "Jon, we said LEATHER trousers, not LEISURE trousers!!!"

Genuine. I don't remember the last set of Fender rounds (in the black packaging) I bought having silks. I remember some people asking if they were actually D'Addario strings (also without silks) under Fender branding. https://shop.fender.com/en-GB/accessoriesstrings/7250-bass-strings/0737250405.html#rl=en_US&start=1

Hello folks - be cautious of eBay user tullythecat. I sold my Epiphone Embassy Pro around 10:15am today and received an instant message giving their 'zip' with a London address. I looked at the confirmed Paypal address and it was a mashup of a London and Aberdeen address (the London address inserted into the middle), so I asked for a contact number that I could provide to the courier. At 1:38pm, I received a mail fro Paypal informing me of a reversal as the payment was 'unauthorised'. Believing this to be a scam email, I logged into Paypal to check and found that a reversal had indeed taken place at the buyer's request due to being 'unauthorised'. As I wasn't shipping the bass until I was satisfied I was dealing with a genuine buyer, I issued a refund as per the resolution centre. I contacted the buyer via eBay to ask if the purchase had been a mistake (in the instance their eBay account hadn't been hacked) and have received no further communication since this morning's mail. As I have my bass still, no harm done other than time wasted, but a warning of caution for anyone from whom this eBay user makes a purchase - could be a hacked account.

RIP Eddie. I've liked all the incarnations of Motorhead, but loved the Lem, Phil and Eddie lineup. I love Eddie's anecdotes that are up on YouTube - particularly the one he's in a lift with the NY police after Phil did himself an injury in a hotel and Eddie was whizzing! Think he used to have a Special Brew to come down from it.

They sound like Rotosound Rotobass strings - no silks, but carry the red/white/blue ball ends of other Rotosound strings. http://www.rotosound.com/rotobass/

I've just bought Andy's Roland Cube Bass 20X and it's quite possibly the smoothest transaction I've made to date. Excellent communication and a very friendly fellow. He even took time out of his day to drop it off while I was in work. You can have absolute confidence when dealing with Andy - thank you, sir!

RIP Lemmy. The afterlife has just got a lot louder! The first time I saw Motorhead was on The Young Ones episode 'Bambi' in 1984, performing Ace of Spades and loved it! Saw them live (finally!) in 1998 and my ears were ringing for two days afterwards. This daft gag he told in Lemmy: The Movie always cracked me up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r24k22lBfNo

I had a similar issue with a bass a couple of years ago so I bought a hollow drill bit like this: http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/hollowscrewextractor516.aspx I drilled deep enough to catch the section of screw that had embedded to avoid breaching the back and then wiggled the wood containing the screw out with needle-nose pliers. I then glued in some dowel and drilled the pilot hole.

Regarding the built-in mute, two thumbscrews either side of the bridge saddles control the height of the mute but even if you removed it, along with the two thumb screws, it still isn't possible (or at least very difficult!) to palm mute over the bridge as the strings are lower than the dividers between each saddle. I took my bridge apart to replace the long-perished foam on the bridge mute and it's just a plate with a rubber/foam layer held in place by the two thumbscrews with springs. If memory serves, there was also a ground wire attached to it. You can palm mute just in front of the bridge (what I did), but depending on the size of your hands, you may find the bridge pickup cover gets in the way, but it's removeable.

Revenge of the Pink Panther theme? [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp9-1qQM49M"]https://www.youtube....h?v=mp9-1qQM49M[/url]

Spector Legend Classic 5? £594 from Meteor Music: http://www.meteormusic.co.uk/spector-legend-5-classic-bass-guitar-slate-grey Contrary to the info, it's a 35" scale not a 34". Features the active Tonepump Jr. preamp.

I've owned one and I couldn't fault it (also had a fretted version a few years ago). I do think unmarked fingerboards look nicer and there were no issues with unwanted buzz across all four strings, even at the 'dusty' end. I bought mine from Gear4Music and it came setup to my liking out of the box - low enough for the 'mwah' sound. The hardware was good - tuners did what they were supposed to and operated smoothly, holding tuning. Nice chunky high mass bridge. The pickups were good too - the P sounded as you'd expect and the J did the expected burpy stuff if you're so inclined. Tone control made a noticeable top end cut - my favourite sound was with the P up full, J rolled off a little and the tone knocked down halfway. I sold it a few months ago during a monstrous clearout, but if I was in the market for another affordable fretless to embarrass myself again, I'd happily have another.

I've used Mighty Mite necks on both the bitsa Precision and Jazz basses I built many moons ago. I bought the pair of them for around £70 each at the time, so prices will have inflated a bit since. As the Precision body I bought was also Mighty Mite, I had no issues fitting it with either the P or J neck. Luckily, the first Jazz body I bought (a cheap non-branded one) also accommodated the Mighty Mite without issue and I eventually bought a Mighty Mite Jazz body also, having been impressed with the body on the P.

Thanks folks! I'd better comply with the unwritten forum rules...

My turn. I haven't taken any pictures as I have the same model as Discreet - Alder-4 AWH and his pictures do an excellent job of showing off this instrument. I was due to report on this bass last Thursday (26th March) but sadly, my first one arrived from Thomann with a fault. The volume/passive tone control was loose and the nut had stripped, so tightening it just loosened it again. Plugging the bass in, the tone control wasn't functioning properly - it sounded like it was mostly rolled off already and turning it fully down muted the instrument, so I sent it back for a refund. As I was impressed with the rest of the bass and wanted another, I reordered another straight away last Friday and it arrived yesterday. This time, I have an autographed neck plate - number 913. The first one had no autograph and the plate was different - completely plain, rather than the 'border' indented into it, so I did wonder if I'd been sent a return by accident. For comparison, over the years, I've owned a 1998 Fender American Vintage '62 Reissue (the best Jazz I've owned), a MIM Fender Jazz V, a MIM Fender Jazz Deluxe, 2 Squier Vintage Modified Jazzes (at different times) and a Farida FJB-6. Although the Sire doesn't trump the '62 Reissue for looks, feel and sound, it is easily the second best Jazz I've owned. Put it this way, if Danny Baker knocked on my door and offered me my old '62 Reissue back in exchange for the Sire, I'd take the '62 Reissue, sell it and get another Sire, pocketing the change. Here are my thoughts on the replacement. [b]Fit & Finish [/b]- like Discreet, I also noticed the unfinished truss access recess and it doesn't bother me. Other than this, flawless - no imperfections in the paint, tight neck joint with no gaps and all hardware tightened with nothing loose. The cut on the scratchplate is a little rough, but not something that bothers me. I love the finish on the neck - I'm a fan of glossy necks and this just feels like it is from a far more expensive instrument. The nut has been cut well and I didn't need to lower the nut action at the first fret. Speaking of the frets, all very neat with no sharp edges or high frets. [b]Hardware[/b] - the tuners do their job and have held the bass in tune so far. The action on them is okay - not 'gritty' like some cheap tuners are and I will not be changing them. The neck pickup cover arrived too flat, such that the two screw points weren't level, pointing away from the body and the A string was hitting it when plucked. I also gently bent it into more of a curve and will fit it over the weekend as I think it looks nice and I don't play over the neck pickup, either closer to the neck, or nearer the bridge pickup. The bridge does its job and I can't help but think that the saddles are too long as when intonated correctly, the break angle to string through the body would be near 90 degrees. I won't be stringing through the body, but I think this is a design flaw - even if the saddles were 5mm shorter, there would still be plenty of string contact with them, as can be seen in the comparison pictures between the 5 and 4 string Sires. The pots and the pickup selector switch feel solid and although I feel the outer ring controls are a little fiddly for my sausage fingers, they do work well and don't interfere with the inner knob. [b]Pickups/Electronics[/b] - this is another area where the Sire shines. The pickups are great and will not be getting changed - they are more modern-sounding than vintage and have a decent output on them. The passive tones are a little brighter than the other Jazzes I've owned but it's still a great sound. The passive tone control rolls off enough highs to make it useful, luckily. One thing I did appreciate, was that there is no volume boost when engaging the active circuit when it is set flat and the passive tone still works in active mode, giving further treble roll off in addition to the dedicated treble boost/cut control. As others have indicated, it's not a system where you boost everything to the max - subtle changes bring instant results allowing you finer control over your tone. I've never known a bass at this price to have sweepable mids, so this is very welcome and really helps to dial in a Precision-like tone with the neck pickup soloed and naturally providing a wider array of tones on hand. Be careful with the bass boost control as it quickly can become 'too much' when cranked. I boosted it fully with my headphones and it was causing them to clip! The treble control when boosted adds enough top end but without sounding brittle and rolls off enough to warm up the sound nicely. A very powerful preamp. [b]Playability[/b] - this isn't a light bass - definitely one of the heavier Jazz basses I've owned. I don't find it unusably heavy, but it is noticeable and is something to consider if you suffer from back/neck issues on longer gigs. The neck feels really comfortable in the hand - it's still a 38mm width, but it's a bit thicker from front to back - presumably to match 70s Jazz Basses as I recall similar comments about the Fender 70s Classic Jazz Bass. Out of the box, it was set up pretty close to how I set up basses myself and as I like the D'Addario Nickel roundwound strings, I'm not tinkering with the setup, which is testimony to Sire's quality control/setup as I hardly ever leave a bass as it was out of the box. Unpack it, tune it and play. [b]Overall[/b] - this bass gets a massive two-thumbs-fresh from me. I expect a bass costing around £300 to be good as the bar has been raised at this price point by many companies. The Sire exceeds this on every level - aesthetics, ergonomics and sound. There is nothing I feel needs to be done to the bass to improve it in any of the three key areas - even the 'English Bull Terrier' headstock has grown on me from when I first saw these basses. It might seem an exaggeration, but this bass would still be worth it at the £600-£700 mark - for the £283 I paid, there is nothing as feature-rich to compare as it easily beats the Squier Vintage Modified basses (which I loved) and I would pick the Sire over the Classic Vibe Jazz without hesitation. I think someone else mentioned in here that if Sire did a Precision, I'd also be around £300 worse off!

I did this to a bitsa P that I put together 10 years ago, adding the MM pickup (a leftover from a modified Vintage V96 I tinkered with). I didn't want to add it to the Stingray sweet spot but to provide me with a bridge pickup with a bit more substance than a single coil. I wired up the bass VVT and had a 3-way switch on the MM pickup for Series/Parallel/Split, for extra tone variation. The demo I recorded when I sold it was just to demonstrate the pickup combinations, so it's not very good quality. I don't know how useful the demo will be as it was wearing a 2-year old set of TI flats at the time: [url="https://youtu.be/a6ic5Aq0qXc"]https://youtu.be/a6ic5Aq0qXc[/url]

The whole Band on the Run album has some fantastic basslines from Macca. This is my favourite: [media]http://youtu.be/nt_IVOSMAA4[/media]

I'm going to suggest 'The Man Machine' by Kraftwerk. [media]http://youtu.be/69xUOO9Dyus[/media]

I'd like to see Kanye wearing a t-shirt with 'Soy un Perdedor' on it.

I bought Shaun's Charvel 1B and it has been an absolute pleasure dealing with him. Not only is he a pleasant and helpful fellow, the bass is exactly as described and was well-packaged. A quick and smooth deal from start to finish with no issues - deal with Shaun in absolute confidence. Thanks Shaun!

You can request that they collect the bass from you. When I wanted to return a defective bass last year, they provided me with the shipping labels with instructions to take it to the post office. However, the post office were unable to process it and the bar code wasn't scanning. I contacted Thomann and asked if they could collect and they arranged this. As others have said, if the instrument is defective, you won't pay for return shipping. If returning because you don't like it, you have the option to pay upfront for return shipping or for them to arrange it, collect and then deduct the £15 (or so) shipping from your refund, which is easier.

I've lurked for a few months, but this is a subject that interests me and I certainly appreciate the effort people put into running, taking part and voting in them. It shows how much they care for the BC community. On the subject of a lack of people voting, it's been that way on several forums I've participated and entered, so I don't think it's indigenous to BC. It's difficult to listen to music that you don't particularly like. There's also how people are digest BC - phones and tablets might not be convenient for listening to entries, as they are on a laptop or desktop. The answers in the poll above don't really cover my experience with the competitions, so I list my thoughts on it here: 1. I'm aware of the challenges, but often forget about them. I tend to visit BC for numerous short 'hits' rather than lengthy visits. I've also been in lurker mode for several months. 2. I'm often reminded of the challenges by clicking on 'disguised' threads in General Discussion. I understand this ticks people off, but I find it amusing and has led to me voting in the past. 3. I've voted in two competitions in the past and this month. I haven't voted in all competitions as I feel it's not something one can quickly judge. Listening to the entries and then offering feedback/deciding which is my favourite isn't a quick process. To put it in context, I don't listen to music much at home these days, it's mostly when on the move, so to take in a selection and evaluate a quantity of new and unheard music requires me to the right frame of mind to invest the time. When voting, I listen to all entries, note down songs that stand out, listen again and then whittle them down, which usually takes me an hour. That's not to say the entries aren't deserving of my time - they are and I think it'd be nice for more of the community to listen to and vote, but I think people need to [i]want to[/i]. I think most of you know how hard it is to get others to listen to your music - there is so much of it about and it can be disheartening when it isn't being heard. I'd say a large proportion of members just want to drop in, browse and chat rather than listen to each other's music. 4. I think the best way to encourage more voting is better visibility - I suggested a sticky with a link to the entries at the top of each sub-forum in a previous discussion. This successfully increased visibility in other forums, including one I moderated in the past. 5. I'd like to enter and was a regular contributor to a monthly 'cover' challenge on a synth forum and on a friend's band forum 6 or so years ago. I'm currently stuck in what's been a 5-year (to date) period of absolute writer's block. I mostly noodle these days, but it's not enough to reignite the creative 'spark'. Perhaps entering a competition will help one month but we'll see. Suggestions for the competition: - a sticky at the head of each sub-forum. It can be ignore by people who aren't interested in the competition, but it will certainly increase visibility and possibly attract a wider audience. - someone has already mentioned this, but having the entries as a playlist on a Basschat Soundcloud page. - make the entries anonymous until the voting has ended. We did this on another forum as there was the perception that people were voting for friends/popular members rather than their real favourite. - explore themes other than pictures - video, animation, literature, a genre or specific rule like a 1 minute composition. Still allow the winner to decide. - as a 'prize', a sticky featuring the winning entry left up in at the top of all sub-forums until voting begins on the following month's competition. - don't force the competition on people. Promote and make the community aware of it, but it's still their choice if they participate - I don't think brow-beating or attempting to guilt people into listening if they're not into it is productive. Hope this helps.