tauzero

The neck pickup seems to have been installed with minimal regard to string coverage. Or maybe it's just my OCD.

As the experience of playing a real German-made Hofner is a rather unpleasant one (IMO IME HTH HAND and bar), are these a more or less pleasant experience?

There was a lovely Stradi that cropped up several times on Ebay - fretless with a full-length unfretboard and a bottom horn that was just a hook formed of a piece of bent brass plate. A more exotically-wooded (IIRC) version of [url="http://www.stradi.pl/stalion.html"]http://www.stradi.pl/stalion.html[/url]

Um. Yes. I think you've just re-made my point.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1422984545' post='2679165'] Dating a musician? Cut him in half and count the rings ... [/quote] For keyboard players, just cut the left hand off and kill two birds with one stone.

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1423230817' post='2682537'] I always think that slagging off Fender because they keep making the same old stuff is a bit like slagging off Heinz because they keep making Baked Beans. [/quote] Why this strange belief that a company can only produce the same old stuff or produce new stuff? Heinz have come up with new products, after all, not just baked beans with basil or baked beans with chilli sauce or baked beans with bananas. But they still produce baked beans, which is a Good Thing.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1423226213' post='2682430'][b]TRUE FACT:[/b] None of these have, or will, sell very well. So hats off to them for even trying. [/quote] But will they just abandon them, or will they try and find out what to do with them to make them sell better (other than "take out all the active bits and anything else that looks as if it was made later than 1960"?). I have previously cited the example of Harley Davidson - they had two basic families of bike based on the same engine layout they'd used since 1928. They kept with the V-twin but changed the cylinder angle, and came up with a genuinely new bike from the ground up. And then they persisted with it.

[quote name='tommorichards' timestamp='1423191878' post='2682101'] You mean like the Marcus Miller sig, American deluxe, Deluxe active okoume, deluxe jazz IV active? That sort of thing? [/quote] You mean those aren't just the same old bass with different go-faster stripes on?

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1423144922' post='2681358'] People give them crap for trying new stuff. People give them crap for sticking with the same old safe stuff. Can't win. [/quote] They never have a convincing go at trying new stuff. It's always a bit half-hearted, try something a bit different (not too radical, stick an active preamp in a Jazz for example) then if it doesn't take off in six months, ditch it.

"Hotel California". Not because it's a terribly complex bassline, but as it's just me who's backing the guitar, when he goes into the solo at the end, I'm arpeggioing R-5-8 constantly (using my right hand in a classical guitar stylee) so I'm keeping them pressed down (unlike the vocal parts where I left-hand damp so I'm relaxing my left hand quite a bit) and that gets absolutely knackering. Fortunately we only go through three iterations of the chords, not four.

[quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1413294993' post='2576804'] Though you may want to solder an earth wire onto the shielding at some point! [/quote] If the control pots are in contact with the shielding, odds are they'll have a ground wire soldered to the bodies so the shielding will be grounded through that route.

I'm not sure how much overlap between worlds there is, TBH. A pro might say you should always have a P available because you never know when it'll be wanted on a session, but that would be of sublime indifference to me. A trolley to pull a bass cab across a carp ark, or whether to use active PA speakers, will be subjects of sublime indifference to a pro playing at levels somewhere above Dog and Duck. I would say that newcomers to bass could find them of value if deciding whether to try to go pro or to stay as hobbyist, but if they've already selected the appropriate trouserleg of fate then little from the other trouserleg will be of great significance. This shouldn't be assumed to be in any way me belittling pros, their accomplishment, or their knowledge, and it would be nice to see some more of them on here.

That's presumably the Traben Bigger Bridge featured in the description and the sticky label on the flame on the lower side.

That's improved the trussrod access.

Don't like the white binding on the top. Our old guitarist had an actual '57 (I think) Gold Top and the binding doesn't wrap right round the edge like that:

I've not seen anyone launching into similar diatribes against GK for selling their MB150 combo for £550. It's not as if they're still absorbing the development costs, it's been around for 30+ years. Although one point that Ashdown may wish to consider is that as well as the premium-priced MB150, GK do a second range which are half the price.

I had the neck on my '00 Thumb shaved down to the same proportions as my '87 JD Thumb. Local luthier did it, and made a jolly good job of it.

[quote name='lonestar' timestamp='1422743298' post='2676455'] Id like to be able to do nuts but the files are a bit prcicey [/quote] Adjustable nuts from Thomann are a lot cheaper. Of course, you'll then get lots of BCers telling you not to use them, but it's worth it. [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/abm_6240_webster_nut_bass.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/abm_6240_webster_nut_bass.htm[/url] If it was good enough for Warwick, it's good enough for me.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1422632607' post='2674934'] My influences when taking up playing bass were guys like Jaco, using bass in a melodic way. [/quote] Who's Jaco?

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1422637605' post='2675030'] Smile politely. I'm very much in the John Entwistle school of stage presence (which, I hasten to add, is subtly different from the Bill Wyman school) [/quote] I thought the Bill Wyman school was where he got his girlfriends.

I already knew how to solder when I got my first bass, so that wouldn't have been an issue. As I bought it as effectively a kit of parts (Fender Soundhouse had had a fire and Hayman had just got bust, so they were flogging off all the parts one needed to make a 40/40 - other instruments were available), I probably did more work on a bass before I got to play my first note on it than most bassists would do in a lifetime.

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1422648754' post='2675237'] Nice Jack, always fancied one, particularly the J/J variant. [/quote] You should get one. Everybody should. That or a B2. 4-string Jacks, like 4-string B2s, have quite slim necks - oddly, the 5-strings are rather chunky.

[quote name='JJW' timestamp='1422643708' post='2675146'] Someone on here probally knows, is it a factory customisation or one he has done [url="http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=2&pub=5575090229&toolid=10001&campid=5337531593&customid=&icep_item=191353834476&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229508&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg"]http://rover.ebay.co...&mtid=824&kw=lg[/url] [/quote] Reading the description often helps in cases like this. Unusual as it's normally a J pickup in the bridge position. In 30 years time, when this comes back onto Ebay, the BCers of the future will be whinging about someone vandalising a Noughties P with an extra pickup.

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1422269785' post='2670411'] That could almost be cool, if it wasn't for the B&Q emulsion paintjob. [/quote] Indeed. Smooth it off, spray it a less offensive colour, and get that sh*te yellow paint off the resonator, then the worst thing about it would be the unbranded Jazz neck (because they're so boring).

[quote name='walbassist' timestamp='1422648282' post='2675226'] Maybe make one fretless and then join a prog rock band? [/quote] I did part 1 of that with my identical 5/4 (made the 4 fretless). However, what I really wanted was a twin-neck headless 5/5 so I sold it.