tauzero

Guitar - a few months before joining a school band playing Glenn Miller covers to play rhythm guitar. Bass - started playing bass after we put the band together at university and I was voted bass player. Played for a few months, did a practice gig and then the hall of residence end of year do (and got paid too!) and then dropped out of university and didn't play bass again for a few years.

My house. Well, my house without the bitch-spawn from hell in it anyway.

My experience may well be coloured by the fact that I've been going to Musical Exchange (as it was then) in Brum since it was in Broad Street, which was mid-70s. Since then it's moved halfway across town, and more recently, changed to being a Sound Control. Obviously, over the years, I've got to know the staff a little bit, and as I occasionally spend money in there, they'll humour me. PMT in Brum is AFAIK run by Gary, who is a former Musical Exchange man (I think he owned it), and there seems to be the old ethos of Musical Exchange to the place, helpful enough and also not pushy. What I miss is the second-hand instruments. Musical Exchange used to be mainly second-hand instruments (or "pre-enjoyed" if they're something like Parker Flys). Now it's all new, with a little corner for slightly injured or unloved instruments. Hmmm, I feel another visit to Bob at Stirchley Musical Exchange (which is a second-hand shop) coming on.

I've been a multiple bass owner for much of my bass playing life - nowadays I tend to restrict myself to one bass per category, so I would have to have a particular reason to buy either a 4- or 5-string fretted, or a 4-string fretless, as I have now got the best of each of those categories that I have encountered. I still have to make a decision on the 5-string fretless Tsai but will probably be keeping it, and the 7-string will be staying too. I don't want to burn bridges by going to 5 strings to the exclusion of 4s, hence I will have at least three and probably at least five basses for the foreseeable future. Wouldn't mind a 5-string headless like an XZ-25 too, for entirely practical reasons.

[quote name='Dazzlovski' post='99243' date='Dec 4 2007, 10:16 PM']All that remains is to pick the right unit. Tascam or Pandora?, CD or Mp3 ? [/quote] Digitech BP-200, Aiwa combined CD/MP3 player (as long as you've got a CD burner to burn MP3s to CD)

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='101671' date='Dec 9 2007, 12:33 PM']Or if you're a cheapskate like me, get a 50p neoprene mousemat, cut up & stick some slices together with double-sided tape or glue.[/quote] Oh good, it's not just me then...

Is he related to Steve Irwin by any chance? Just wondered if he wanted to fsck a stingray in revenge...

Both of my Warwick Thumbs have stacked treble and bass controls with centre detentes. On one of them (the young 'un, in fact), the centre detente isn't - there's a vague hint of a click but it's not exactly noticable. A replacement would cost a bit over a tenner from warwick.de (assuming that the ones that they have are suitable) - just wondered if there was a quick fix that would enable me to keep more money for beer and avoid having to desolder and resolder six tags. I imagine there's some springy thing which has lost its, er, spring. Anyone know of such a fix?

[quote name='simon1964' post='98648' date='Dec 4 2007, 10:28 AM']Not many places in the Midlands I'm afraid. Fairdeal Music in Birmingham had several combos in stock when I was there last week. I got mine from Music Scene in Mansfield, at a very good price, but their stock is small so it would be worth checking before making a trip. Otherwise, your best bet is probably Electro Music in Doncaster - a bit of a trek if you're in the Midlands, but they hold a decent stock, and are a very helpful bunch.[/quote] Turns out that Flightcase Warehouse (a few miles from me) are now running an amps and effects business too, and are stocking Markbass, so I shall see if there's one to try out when I take the hardcaseless Tsai up there to check for size with one of their £40 hard cases (probably £35 over the counter if my experience with rack cases and keyboard bags from them is anything to go by). Their price is £620 (inc VAT and delivery so I could probably get a few bob off for collecting it myself) - I see somewhere in Bedford has them at £609 but that's a lot more travelling, how does £620 seem in relation to other places?

I tune my basses once a month, whether they need it or not. Basses are so stable compared to guitars that there just seems no need for a bass version of this. Even guitars don't necessarily need tuning more than once a gig.

I'm playing all the right notes. Not necessarily in the right order. - Eric Morecambe

[quote name='Cantdosleepy' post='98821' date='Dec 4 2007, 01:59 PM']And either way, swearing at the little mites is probably not the best way to broaden their minds.[/quote] Quite, it's far more effective to take one ear in each hand and pull outwards.

I don't use one, but that's not because I think they're the instrument of the devil, I just never think to use one. Come to think of it, I never practice. Oops. I can see a major use for them, and that is if a band has no drummer. I've seen the consequence of a band of very inexperienced youths learning a set with no drummer and no metronome, and then recruiting a drummer (a very good one) and playing a gig shortly afterwards - the drummer had to try and keep time with what the band were doing as they were incapable of listening to her. However, with experienced musicians that should be less of a problem.

Another faint possibility - I've just had to open up my elderly Nady which was cutting out occasionally. The side of the jack socket had cracked so I think the spring contacts are loose as they're not being held against the jack plug - just need to find another of these wretched enclosed jack sockets...

(Planet Waves springy jack plugs) [quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='95965' date='Nov 29 2007, 08:50 AM']Dreadful? Not in my experience, in fact just the opposite. Whilst I have experienced a noisy and unreliable connection on one of my basses, this was due to using a cable with standard plugs and was caused by the socket.[/quote] The guitar I was using it on was a brand new Variax - for some reason, a Planet Waves stereo lead was supplied (it runs power up from the splitter box as well as taking the signal). Crackled dreadfully. Used a stereo lead with standard plugs, problem solved. After that, I won't touch the things.

Being a bit strapped for cash at the moment, and tempted by a Markbass CMD 121P or H, I wondered if any of the shops involved in [url="http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/takeitaway/index.php"]the Arts Council's "take it away" scheme[/url] were stockists of Markbass - I did try hunting through the West and East Midlands shops but couldn't find one, but there's no list of Markbass dealers that I can find. Does anyone happen to know? Where did you all get your Markbasses from? And just how annoying is it that Guitar Center in the US is selling the CMD 121P for $850?

Schallers on the Warwicks (as was OE when they were made), Bostons on the Tsais, and the Axl before them, and the Variax 300. The only solid-body I've got which doesn't have them is the fretless Squier Strat, and that's because I don't [s]play[/s] gig it.

I periodically went to 5-strings from 4 but always finished up going back - not because of the number of strings [i]per se[/i] but because the fretted 4-string was (and is) the JD Thumb and no other bass could touch it for playability. Surprisingly, when I bought the Antoniotsai on a whim, I found that it was comparably playable and the most playable 5-string I'd encountered and so I started using it as my gigging bass with the covers band. It's not so much for the notes below E as for being able to move across rather than up and down [1], and being able to use left-hand damping when playing bottom E. Having become stable with 5-strings (still using 4 as well), I thought I'd try enlarging my horizons and got the Antoniotsai 7-string which has had a bit of a rocky start - now that the pickups are sorted, I can play it properly (for some values of properly), and I've found that the neck is so good that I can play it for extended periods. I had an Axl Tiger 6-string for a while (which I compared with other 6-strings and found to have a comparatively good neck) and I found I was getting pain in the back of my left hand after playing it for a while. I've only got ickle hands which doesn't help (glove size 9). So I must conclude that despite 17mm string spacing and my small hands, the fact I can play it like a regular bass means it's not actually an ERB. [1] which reminds me of the motto "Down, not across" - anyone else geek enough to have encountered it?

[quote name='Bassassin' post='97114' date='Dec 1 2007, 10:14 AM']That seller has some absolutely bonkers stuff - this one's comparatively sane: [url="http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-LEFT-HANEDED-DOUBLE-NECK-HEADLESS-BASS-5-4-FRETLESS_W0QQitemZ190122088384"]http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-LEFT-HANEDED-DOUBL...emZ190122088384[/url] If it was right-handed, with a lined fretless 5 & fretted four, and had the fretless neck on top, I'd be interested! As it is, I guess I'll just have to build my own! [/quote] Just start with one of these: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270173689997"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=270173689997[/url] and swap the frets from the 5-string to the 4-string neck. Easy.

[quote name='lobematt' post='96733' date='Nov 30 2007, 03:23 PM']Thanks for that, I'll post him on there now. Thank god one of us has a heart![/quote] What, you're shipping him out in bits now?

Bought a couple of bass books off Paul_C - good communications and speedy delivery.

[quote name='Machines' post='96582' date='Nov 30 2007, 11:41 AM']Passive EQ = tone control on any passive bass. It in theory can only cut not boost. However Villex appear to be doing very clever things .[/quote] The Baxandall tone control system is passive but gives cut and boost, in a way - but to obey whichever of Newton's laws says you can't increase the total energy in a closed system, the signal coming out is reduced in amplitude compared to the signal coming in (-20dB) so it needs either a big signal coming in or an amplifier at the back-end. A passive system with equivalent EQ to the original that could drop in in place of an active system could be handy. Is there much associated circuitry? If not, it might make room in the control cavity for a wireless transmitter...

First owned (and possibly first played, it's a long time ago) - some hideous green sunburst semi-acoustic stylee thing with a body seemingly made from papier-mache. A Rosetti Bass 7 IIRC, which cost me about two quid (a lot of money to a schoolboy in 1971 or so). It was a truly dreadful instrument which I sold fairly soon, but to whom and for how much I have no recollection. It took me a good couple of years to get over the trauma of owning the thing...

[quote name='john_the_bass' post='96189' date='Nov 29 2007, 04:01 PM']I know the same can be said for basses, but why do you need so many bikes? At least i can keep all my guitars/basses in a cupboard upstairs![/quote] Well, I've just sort of accumulated them... None of them are currently on the road - mainly because for the last two years I've been living with the girlfriend while sorting out my divorce, and they're at my house (where my future-ex-wife is) and I've avoided going over there to work on them. Trivial stuff for some of them (sorting out a horn on the Tiger, mirror for the Daytona 900), less trivial for others (like complete assembly being needed for four of the older ones). As for oil leaks, the older ones don't have any oil in them...

While I could only be bothered with watching ten or 15 seconds of Victor Wooten at top slap speed, when he's not going frenetic he can be very impressive - check YouTube for the Flecktones doing "Big Country", where he plays some beautifully fluid fretless. I see the main role as a binding force which ties together the rhythm and the melody, but that's not to say that I think it should be purely supportive or that the binding force should be devoid of embellishment.