tauzero

Our drummer was ill so she couldn't make it, but the keyboard/singer and I went ahead. Went over most of the existing songs and I realised I should have done more practicing while we've not been rehearsing, and also did a couple of run-throughs of two new songs, one of which he'd written years ago and the other that he'd just written. Both went pretty well, which was nice.

Finally got round to plugging it in. Total silence. Twiddle the knobs, nothing, then I remember about the mute switch on my John East equipped Sei Jazz and switched the bottom switch - sound! The other two switches are parallel-series-single coil switches for the two pickups. Knobs are volume, blend, stacked treble/bass, stacked mid-sweep and boost/cut, and a pull for passive control that is also the passive treble cut control. A real variety of sounds available, and I may even be tempted to use the passive option on occasion. Despite the close pickup spacing, there's a fair difference between the tones on each of them (rather like the Warwick Thumb 5 with its two closely spaced J pickups). The treble and bass controls give a very powerful boost and cut but it's nicely progressive rather than all or nothing.

A Double Six was just sold at the Gardiner Holgate auction. £550 plus 25% or so fees. https://auctions.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/catalogue/lot/af9fe3e054d9552ea0fd7eb82ba5736b/63b778f7668dabe928d3800924a99077/the-guitar-sale-five-day-auction-including-the-gord-lot-187/ Fixed bridge though.

I meant to also say that I intended to drop into the Birmingham PMT at some point - they moved to just inside the CAZ from just outside it, so as we didn't have a ULEZ compliant car I didn't, and after we finally got a compliant one I never got round to going there. They did have the occasional slightly interesting instrument in there, and in fact I bought my Crafter acoustic guitar from there.

That would be a problem for any music store, keeping 4000 Precisions and 6000 Jazzes in stock before they've even considered stocking Squiers too.

I don't know about that, there are plenty on here with a Fender obsession.

I was also going to suggest having an own brand budget line, like Thomann and Harley Benton or G4M and their own brand, which might have worked for PMT but probably isn't best suited to @Bass Direct 😁

I use bolts and threaded inserts, they work very well. Alternatively, with your pillar drill for accuracy, you could recess the ferrules into the body, giving you an extra ferrule's thickness of thread in the neck. Or buy longer screws, you cheapskate.

Lekato - I have WS-50s and WS-90s. The WS-50s are smaller but have a bit less battery life (4 hours or so versus 6+ hours for the WS-90s). Available for £40-£45 from Ebay, £35-£40 from AliExpress. I use them for everything - rehearsals, open mics, and gigs. Both of them are switchable between channels in case someone else's dongles interfere with yours.

Their track record includes Variaxes, and those of us owning them weren't exactly inundated with updates once they were taken out of production.

I did impose a 10kg per item limit on all my gear, PA included. I have breached that though, got a GR Bass AT212 which weighs a back-breaking 11.5kg, or about the same as a Trace Elliott handle.

You just need the URL of the JPG (the bit inside the [img][/img] tags:

The starting bid was lower than the estimate (applies to most if not all GH auction items) - I did see one auction for a very expensive guitar where the auctioneer started at £18k but had to drop that as there were no takers, eventually went for £17k+. They will courier - £55 + VAT for a bass. My time is my own, my diesel I have to pay for, so I saved a few quid by doing that and saved our guitarist £50 + VAT by picking up his Ibanez at the same time.

I hope "possible" =/= "we could be arsed".

As Line 6 have kept the Helix nomenclature, I would make the (perhaps rash) assumption that HX Edit will also be used for the Stadium, which means an updated version will be coming on the Stadium's release. Also, the release of the Stadium might mean a firmware update to the older members of the family. Presumably Line 6 don't think that this announcement will cause sales of the top end Helices to drop off while people wait for this, as there's such a pricing gulf. Of course, if they've got a few Stadium Junior devices lined up to replace the Stomp sub-family, they won't want to announce that until they're ready for release.

I haven't weighed it - I play sitting down so weight isn't quite so important for me (except when carrying it in and out of venues). It's definitely on the heavy side though. The mod to put the MM pickup in was quite well done but not perfect, and the original MM used was for a narrower string spacing but an Aguilar came up on Ebay for a good price so that got put in instead.

Ashbory Mk 2. About 80 black ones were made, at least two of them owned by BC members (me being one of them). There was then a run of ten made by Clive Cherry with Brazilian mahogany bodies, and bookmatched flame maple tops and headstock facing. I managed to get one of those a few months ago. No more were ever made.

My Squier Vintage Modified Modified is partway there - passive but with a MM pickup (and a tarty control plate).

I had one. I never really noticed the sound, I was too busy recovering from carrying the bastard thing into the venue.

Tempted by a 6-string fretless on the Gardiner Holgate, I put in a low bid (below the lowest estimate) and won it. Went down to their auction house today to pick it up, and also picked up a guitar that one of my guitarists had bought - saved him a 5 hour round trip which would have been difficult as he works in the week, so it was just me with a 5 hour round trip (a different 5 hour round trip to his). Anyroadup, it came in a rather nice Gator case (£150 quid). Description for the auction: 2018 Greg Barcus Custom six string fretless bass guitar, made in USA; Body: chambered mahogany body with figured maple top and figured myrtle back; Neck: seven-ply maple and bubinga neck through; Fingerboard: ebony; Electric: working, Bartolini quad-coil pickups, John East five knob preamp; Hardware: good; Case: Gator hard case; Overall condition: very good. As some may have noticed from the photos, it's a single cut. I never thought I'd buy one but my tolerance to the looks has increased gradually. It's also got a headstock. Well, there's no such thing as the perfect bass. On taking it out of the case, at first I thought the neck was a bit thick, then I realised it's an asymmetric cut which works really well for me - more perceptibly asymmetric than my Sei Original 5-string. It's lined with faint lines (if it's got to be lined, I far prefer these) and also, admirably, with the dot markers on the fret positions. Action was a bit high for my liking but a small tweak to the twin truss rods and adjustment of the bridge saddles has it nice and low. Strings are roundwounds with colour-coded ball ends - I guess D'Addarios. As I like rounds on fretlesses, they're staying. I'm pretty sure the strap buttons are Schaller, I'll check that with a strap or two tomorrow. I haven't yet plugged it in - the five knob (two of them stacked, two of them push-pull) preamp will provide hours of amusement, and I have to find out the functions of the three switches. This will be tomorrow's fun. The logic behind getting it is that with the originals band, I'm using a fretless as it's the most flexible for me. Currently a 5-string but I'm wondering whether I can push myself into more exploration with a 6-string.

Mine got used at a few gigs, notably at a Christmas one - it's a bit heavy to lug around though.

To be pedantic, PAT stands for Portable Appliance Testing, so PAT test isn't the same RAS syndrome as PIN number (or ATM machine).