brensabre79

Yeah I think I tried a bad one, otherwise they wouldn't be so popular with those who can afford them. The pickups were way down on that one too and the strings really close to the body...

[quote name='wishface' timestamp='1347550193' post='1802340'] A gap that's less than half a mm will be problematic as the string vibrates furtgher than that when it's plucked so it will come into contact with the fret. [/quote] The half mm I talked about is the neck RELIEF gap - when the string is pressed down at the first and last fret, not the distance between the strings and the fretboard when the string is plucked. What you're talking about is the ACTION height and it should be 2 - 3mm at least If you have a RELIEF gap of 2mm you will have a banana shaped neck and it will make the bass difficult to play. Also if you go for a low action you will definitely get fret buzz. [url="http://www.fender.com/en-GB/support/articles/bass-guitar-setup-guide/"]Here[/url] is a link to a very useful setup guide which explains everything I've said. I know its for Fender but the same applies for your bass.

I have never used feeler gauges or anything so technical. If you have a ruler with millimeters you can pretty easily see a gap that is roughly 1/4 to 1/2 a mm - that's as accurate as you need to be at this stage. We'll get on to perfecting the set-up to your tastes once we've established that your bass isn't crap, it's just set up badly or faulty. If you can follow all the instructions (the ones left by me are pretty similar to the ones left by other people so pick whichever you can follow most easily) and get rid of the buzz then we can move on to the pickup issue. I have to say though, as someone trying to help (I know I'm not the only one), I'm getting tired of all the argumentative posting on here (by all parties) it makes a step by step process very difficult when you have to scroll through pages of "you said this.." "I said that..." " you don't know sh*t..." etc. I'm not picking a fight here or inviting a plethora of comments as to why what I've said is wrong or offensive in any way. Let's just get this bloody bass sorted eh?

I don't know if it helps, I wanted one for years and years, finally I got to play on one at a jam session, this one was natural with a plastic black scratchplate, two pickups, it was horrid, really horrid, almost unplayable - the neck felt like it was warped, the action was incredibly high and it still buzzed and farted all over. I handed it back with glee as my battered old Fender copy was returned to me... I still want one though - even though the one I tried was so utterly crap, the sound was like nothing else I have played since!

Don't get me started on the Burns Bison what a huge letdown that was. Almost as much as the Russian Big Muff I ordered online.

Not all paint is good on guitars and a lot of paints will react with your sweat and the heat from your hand when playing, it will ruin the feel of the neck on the back and clog up the strings on the front as it comes off. Nitro and poly varnish used for guitars sets extremely hard, most paint doesn't. Look around at custom paint jobs on guitars they all leave the neck alone for a reason... The only one you might find with a painted neck is Jack Bruce's Fender VI - which was never used after it was painted except for tv shows where he was miming! Its your bass though, you can paint the neck if you like. But don't say nobody warned you not to do it

Hi Solomon, welcome to BC You're right LOG pots are usually used for volume. And the reason for the unlinear response is probably down to cheap pots (you get what you pay for eh?) Luckily its a simple upgrade and not too expensive. I would recommend you look for CTS or Alpha brand pots - these are really smooth. Also, the pot value will determine the smoothness of the sweep and if you have the wrong value it can also make 90% of the turn do bugger all! Generally speaking 250K LOG pots are used for single coil volume and 500K LOG pots for humbuckers. As you have one of each its likely you might need one of each value - Stellah probably have used the same type for both as its cheaper. You can put a blend pot in, these are usually stacked volume pots (i.e. one on top of the other operated by the same dial). They are wired just like a volume pot except that one is reversed so as one turns down the other turns up. There are pots specifically designed for this purpose and again, a good brand will get the best results. You might well need a stacked 250k / 500k for this bass though which are harder to find. As for the extra hole... you could put a rotary switch in there that puts the two pickups in series (huge sound with a slight volume boost), or out of phase (thin, nasal sound that can be good for solos up at the dusty end), or both!.. Or you could have a tone control for each pickup - but beware that with both pickups on even turning the tone down for just one pickup may well make the other pickup lose treble too. You could go active, Artec make a cheap 2 band EQ thats actually not bad. So you could have VOL. BLEND. TREBLE. BASS. controls. There's loads of possibilities to be honest! And loads of wiring info on here!

The key thing is NOT to paint the neck! Also, if you paint the body, sand it first to get a good grip for the new paint and laquer over the paint or it will chip off in no time. Most importantly, don't paint the neck!!!

[quote name='wishface' timestamp='1347529633' post='1801959'] There is fret buzz that only seems to have appeared after I adjusted the truss rod (which isn't easy when the strings are on) on the 1st fret at the E and A strings. This wasn't there before. [/quote] OK We've ruled out crappy strings, next we need to establish what exactly is wrong with your setup. Step by step. Fretbuzz occurs for a number of reasons, often the truss-rod, but as you are only experiencing the buzz at the lower frets (is that right?) its more likely that the nut has worn down just enough that it is slightly lower than the first couple of frets. So adjusting the truss rod to flatten the curve of the neck (although correct) will make this seem worse. SO, ignoring the buzz for a minute, check that you have adjusted the truss rod correctly (press down the string at the first fret, and at the last fret at the same time with your thumb on the other hand) and look at the gap between the string and the 12th fret. If there is no relief gap your truss rod is too tight, if there is a huge gap its too loose. Aim for between .25mm and .5mm relief gap. NEXT, after you've got the relief gap right (and not before) check the action height - distance between the string and 12th fret without touching the strings. On the E string aim for 2.5mm to 3mm gap between the string and the 12th fret. If its less than this you're probably going to get some buzz and you'll have to play very light. on the G string 2mm to 2.5mm is a good action. Adjust the small vertical screws on the bridge saddles until the strings are the right distance from the 12th fret. If the gap is larger than this and the bridge is screwed down as far as it will go, then the neck angle needs adjusting - this is complex so we can talk about this later if necessary! OK, once you have set the relief and action correctly if you have any fret buzz, its going to be the nut. It may be blown or just worn down over the years - this happens especially on basses where they use plastic for the nut, but happens to all eventually. A cheap way to fix this is to pack the nut with paper (and superglue) to raise the string a tiny amount at the nut, its not a permanent fix as it will wear down again eventually. cut some tiny pieces of paper and place them in the nut beneath the string. We are talking fractions of a millimeter here so go sparingly with thin paper and build up a few layers until the buzz stops. Then superglue the paper in (or leave it but it will fall out each time you change strings). Ultimately a new Nut is the answer to this, but this will require a luthier to do it properly, so for now I would do the paper option to see if it works.

If you get the MU involved they will probably want to know why you agreed to do this gig for less than MU rates anyway! I wouldn't make a big deal out of it. Promoters are c**ts, period. If you rant at him, demand money from him etc. it can only go one way, the promoter will never book you again, may bad mouth you to the local community and generally nothing good will come from it. If you're nice and understanding, but let him know that you are a little P'd off as you have promoted it/cancelled other opportunities to do it etc., he'll probably feel a bit guilty and want to do you guys a favour in future. Always remember, in the ladder of your life/music career, if you have sh*t on your shoes on the way up, you'll have sh*t on your hands on the way down. This has happened to most of us at some point, it is a major pain, but there it is, be gracious - We actually turned up to a gig 30 miles away before we found out we'd been double booked. The promoter gave us petrol money, and we went home annoyed. 1 week later he phoned and booked us for an outside event he was doing at 4x the usual fee. Now he gets us regular gigs actually, because we were gracious when he'd f'd up.

Nice one Billy, I have to say its the first valve pedal I've had that I haven't changed the valve in! A glowing recommendation indeed

[quote name='fatback' timestamp='1347457759' post='1801075'] Don't forget you can experiment with different valves in the DHA. [/quote] Has anyone done this with various ECC83s? I'd be interested to hear the difference it makes...

Actually naming the band and album might help identify the bass!

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1347380302' post='1800015'] Why don't you want to tell us wich town you live in? There's a lot of members trying to see if they can pass near you to help you out FOR FREE!!! What the hell are you waiting for?!! [/quote] Some people don't like the idea of publishing their address on a public forum for the world to see, it is understandable. I don't suffer this particular paranoia myself, but I can understand the logic I guess.

Awesome I only heard of this course recently, definitely want to go and try - its gotta be better than the cut and shut Fenders I've been making!

Its all very well if you have lived in an area for ages, and grown into the music scene there, but if you move somewhere new or are just getting started it can be quite hard to find a good band to play with! I used to live in Manchester and had no trouble getting in bands and getting gigs around the city, I had a little black book full of numbers if I needed someone too. but then I moved down to brighton and after 3 years I'm just starting to get connected with a few people. Gumtree has been good, but turning up to jam nights even just to watch at first before joining in (when you're confident enough) can work well to get you known. Lots of people turn up to these things when they need a bass player.. drummer etc. There seems to be a larger percentage of muppets down here, or maybe I was just lucky in manchester...

Oh man, this brings back a whole load of deja vu! I went to audition for a long-established band with gigs booked... They sent me a set list of over 30 songs, I agreed to learn 5 for the audition, as they were part of their regular set I didn't think it would matter which 5. I arrived only to find out that the only member of the 'long-established' crew was the drummer, the singer was auditioning the same night as me and the guitard had joined a week ago, the rest of the band had left about a month ago. It turns out that the singer had learnt 3 songs from the list, different ones to me, and didn't know ANY others. The guitarist didn't like the old setlist and didn't want to do any of them. The drummer needed to listen to his iPod to refresh himself on the tunes as it had 'been a while'. So we played tunes that weren't on the list, after listening to the iPod once and muddling through, that nobody knew. The singer and I were then informed that we would have to buy out the PA from the old band if we were to join. The singer was then told she was in. I was told that they had another bass player to see. I said "Good!' and left. Its all too common I'm afraid, there are so many muppets with instruments out there.

Strings on their way to you fella.

Hartke amp going here in Sussex if you're interested... you'd need to get a speaker cab though. I think you should maybe get something fairly ordinary solid and reliable to start with, your rig is so much a part of your sound and its really down to personal taste. As you're just making the transition to bass it might take a little while for you to work out what you like and dislike. Hartke, Trace Elliot, Ashdown, Ampeg all good solid stuff - but they each have their own sound - like Marshall, Vox and Fender amps for guitar.

http://www.necx-guitars.co.uk/ hmmm, can't seem to see any guitars on here though, or information as to who the heck tyronesnooplove is.

+1 You can tell by the quality of that plate on the headstock alone that he didn't build that guitar! Awful awful way for a mediocre bass to be completely ruined!

I use Musicguard, haven't had to make a claim (touch wood) but I never had to provide any professional valuations for my stuff. Although I did have to provide photographs and a serial number for my Barefaced Cab (which don't have serials usually), fortunately Alex was very accommodating with a marker pen on the inside of mine so now it has one Not had any problems with them, usually very helpful (I change gear alot!) but like I said, until you have made a claim you don't know! I would avoid Adrian Flux like the plague after they gave me £4,000 for my 'agreed value of £15,000' classic car write off! Still paying for that!

Its at £27 at the moment, a fair price for that colour I would say. Definitely Vomitburst.

Yep long established brands, Fender, Gibson, (also R*ck*nb*ck*r to some extent although they seem to charge collectors prices for new ones), but you've got to have an old one in pristine condition usually, or with some providence (i.e. the buckle rash on the back is from some famous guy). As a guide, in the 80s the cost of pre CBS 60s Fender guitars rocketed to astronomical levels, whereas the CBS 70s ones were compared to poor quality firewood. Now CBS 70s ones are going for a lot of money (nothing like the 60s ones though - I think that ship has sailed), they haven't got any better in time, perhaps a few of the really sh*t ones have been burned. In another 10 years people will probably pay a premium for one of those 1980s Fenders where they cut so many corners pretty much everyone used an Ibanez or a Wal instead!