JPJ

I always find its a balance between neck relief and bridge saddle height. Too much relief will make the bass difficult to play in the 'money' area around the 5th & 7th frets. As the buzzing is only at the first and second frets, I'd leave the relief alone and try raising the bridge saddles a quarter tun at a time.

Having just scaled out a Thunderbird plan I know that the stock bass is long, but 20% extra?

[quote name='Muppet' timestamp='1422097994' post='2668631'] That's shocking. You got me worried so I checked inside my BG250 combo. Happy to report that theres some damping in there. It's the same white 'fluffy' stuff that's also inside my Markbass combo so I assume it's ok. Next step, check the RS cabs...... [/quote] Pleased to hear that!

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1422036957' post='2668117'] Outstanding presentation from the man from Orange [/quote] He only needed to add that 'this one goes up to eleven' and he'd have had the job in Spinal Tap

First off, I'd say 'performance' follows practice and regular gigging. Once you get comfortable with the material, your band mates and playing in front of an audience, you'll find you have more mental time to think about your moves and facial expressions. Secondly, most places we play have such small playing areas that as a five piece, movement is strictly as required and co-ordinated. Thirdly, if you all enjoy what you are doing, then just smiles and silly faces between band members allows more audience 'contact' than playing with your bass behind your head whilst doing the splits ever will. If you don't enjoy what your doing, no amount of sharp moves will disguise the fact that your just doing your job.

Having just had a look inside my BG500 combo, I hope they've remembered to fit some damping in these new cabs

So having lived with her for a couple of weeks, I was finding it nigh on impossible to dial in 'my sound'. Every combination of settings seemed to come with an inherent hard edgy midrange sound that try as I might, I couldn't dial out. Remembering the thread on here about cabinet damping, I decided to have a look behind the speakers to see whether there was any damping fitted as standard. [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]So today, I whipped out the speakers and had a look inside. Surprise surprise, when I got the speakers out, I found myself staring into a big empty mdf box with not a shred of damping material anywhere. Having some left over from an earlier project, I set to with the scissors and staple gun covering the back, sides, top and the top of the shelf port. Having reinstalled the speakers and refitted the sturdy grill, I fired up the combo and WOW what a massive difference. The response of the cab is much deeper sounding and very 'natural' with no harshness or brittleness to the tone whatsoever. The difference is so huge I initially thought I must have dialled up the bass control by accident.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] [/font][/color][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Then I got to thinking, this combo wasn't cheap when it was originally purchased, yet a respectable brand like TC Electronics hadn't taken the time to fit 50p's worth of acoustic damping in the cabinet. I hope they were a little more careful with their flagship RS cabs? [/font][/color]

I recently picked up a secondhand TC Electronics BG500 combo off this here forum. I was initially very impressed with this combo (see my other thread) but the more I got to know the amp, the less I liked the sound coming out of the cabinet. To describe my issues, firstly, it didn't matter how I adjusted the tone controls, I couldn't get rid of that hard edgy mid range sound that really didn't suit my style of playing at all. Secondly, minor tweaks of the tone controls had huge impact on the tone and the overall volume. So today, remembering this thread, I decided to whip the speakers out and have a look inside to see whether there was any damping material in there. Surprise surprise, when I got the speakers out, I found myself staring into a big empty mdf box with not a shred of damping material anywhere. Having some left over from an earlier project, I set to with the scissors and staple gun covering the back, sides, top and the top of the shelf port. Having reinstalled the speakers and refitted the sturdy grill, I fired up the combo and WOW what a massive difference. The response of the cab is much deeper sounding and very 'natural' with no harshness or brittleness to the tone whatsoever. The difference is so huge I initially thought I must have dialled up the bass control by accident. Then I got to thinking, this combo wasn't cheap when it was originally purchased, yet a respectable brand like TC Electronics hadn't taken the time to fit 50p's worth of acoustic damping in the cabinet. I hope they were a little more careful with their flagship RS cabs.

When I blew two of the four PAS speakers in my Goliath II 4x10, I took a punt on a set of four Eminence Deltalite's. They have made the cab slightly different sounding (a bit more low mid at the cost of a bit of bottom end girth) but in a very useable way to my ears. I opted for the Deltalites based on advice received from the lads at www.lean-business.co.uk who supplied said speakers next day.

I use the Studiospares one, great bit of kit and saves hours when fault finding 'that' bundle of dead XLR leads :-)

[quote name='thebrig' timestamp='1421961461' post='2667255'] I am thinking of getting a Gibson Thunderbird because I think will be well suited to the new band I am in, we play mainly southern rock which includes many Skynyrd songs as you would expect. [/quote] Remember that Leon Wilkeson is as often pictured using a Fender Jazz as he is with a Thunderbird, and he is a famous user of the Fenderbird which he allegedly got from John Entwistle. In the later years (post plane crash) he mainly used the Jazz, or a Pedulla and only really used the Thunderbird on Freebird. I've not owned a Thunderbird so I can't answer your specific questions but I have owned a Spector Rex and found the neck dive and forward flip too annoying. BTW, my main gig is a southern rock band covering a lot of Skynyrd stuff. Having said all that, I've spent today scaling up a full scale plan for my own Fenderbird project :-)

No problems here either. Wedding ring in usual position and what was my engagement ring on my little finger. Can't for the life of me remember whether it felt strange at first, but I've been playing for nigh on 28 years like this and don't plan on changing it anytime soon :-)

I was suffering from a very weak E string and after a bit of investigation, I found the bass side piezo was dead. These Artec one's cost only £12 each so I took a gamble on them and so far its paid off. As I said in the earlier post, they are much better quality than the original Stagg ones and the Piezo element is longer too, allowing me to loop them round in the bridge recess which seems to have the effect of giving a much warmer sound.

[quote name='Erik' timestamp='1421941148' post='2666890'] Are the new piezo cables a direct replacement? I mean, do they have little jack plugs that fit the Stagg electronics? Or does the soldering iron need to come out the closet? [/quote] No soldering required, they come fitted with the same size mini-jack plugs

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1420416165' post='2649251'] I bought a replacement Stagg Piezo for an EUB I made having damaged the ones that they kindly gave me when I replaced a 'thirsty' active circuit on my own Stagg. I went into a local dealer of Stagg things and just got them to order it. The stock Basses had 2, I only needed one so it was around £15 plus VAT 4 years ago. When I looked at the time, I could not find a contact on the Stagg website so just went through a shop I knew dealt with Stag but was not an EUB seller. [/quote] So having given up on the local dealer ever getting around to obtaining a replacement Piezo, I ordered two new Artec ones from CH Guitars (on the web, but local to me). They turned up last week and today I got time to fit them. They are a much better quality item than the original Stagg fitted ones as you can see from the picture below (Stagg on left, Artec on the right). [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/IMG_1301_zpsaubwpvzq.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1301_zpsaubwpvzq.jpg[/IMG][/URL] They are also a lot more powerful than the stock Stagg Piezo's but they sound much better too, more thump and less 'ping'. Whilst i had the control cavities open, I also carried out the shielding mods recommended by most Stagg owners. To be honest, this hasn't had much effect but mine wasn't particularly noisy to start off with. Now I just need to get a better setup that I'm happy with and it'll be back to Geoff's lessons for 2015

That's about as severe a twist as I've seen. The only reliable way to have that straightened will be to split the fretboard from the neck, level the neck then reapply the fretboard (or more likely, a new one). Downsides is the neck will probably be thinner or need a more slab-like fretboard. It's not a job for an amateur though, this is heavy duty luthier work.

I'd go with wire wool rather than sandpaper, just takes the shine off with no danger of sanding through

For flatting primer, I use 600 grit from Rothko & Frost. It's always best to use it 'wet' as it stops the clogging up and you can roll the wet sandpaper to get the little lines and dots of paint off. I normally find I use about half a sheet to flat a whole body. For your topcoats, I'd recommend starting with 1000 grit, followed by 1500 and finally 2000 grit. Some people I know like to go to 2500 or 3000 grit, but I find that 2000 grit followed by using good burnishing creams does the job, although if I'm doing another black body, I would try 2500 before burnishing to try to reduce the amount of elbow grease used (I hand burnish/polish).

[quote name='bertbass' timestamp='1420892172' post='2654629'] Got this on my iphone, [url="https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/rta/id298839433?mt=8"]https://itunes.apple...d298839433?mt=8[/url] Quite like it. [/quote] I use that one to tweak the PA in a live sound situation. Works great and doesn't cost a lot of money :-)

[quote name='88reaper88' timestamp='1420907538' post='2654876'] Ram a match or two in the hole and screw them back in, works a treat [/quote] What he said, add a little PVA glue for a 'pro job'

Cheers Steve, Yes it does do a bit more than a standard L Pad but the main benefit for me is having it upfront rather than round the back of the cab. I forgot to mention that there are also two preset eq's in there as well (a bit like the old Trace Elliott presets). Quite a lot going on for very little money and putting its full output into the built-in speakers. As I said before, I can't wait to try her in a band situation to see how she fairs.

I've just picked up this little (well not little, but small compared to my main rig) combo from Basschat member Davy last night. [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/IMG_1297_zps6ae628a4.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1297_zps6ae628a4.jpg[/IMG][/URL] First off, I should say that I'm not a fan of the new fangled class D amps and switch mode power supplies etc. as I feel they rob you of the authentic thump of a big old valve or transistor amp with big heavy transformers. This combo tips the scales at 32kgs or 72lbs so its a bit of a stretch to say its lightweight. I decided to go for this as I need an alternative to the 'big' rig for rehearsals and smaller pub gigs and I was intrigued to try a newer combo, having cut my bass playing teeth using combos such as the Custom Sound Trucker, the Laney G120, and the SWR Black Beauty. Sometime ago, I also discovered that I preferred 10" speakers to the normal 15" used in bass combos and I loved my old SWR Redhead but she was a big old girl for her rated 240w. The TC is rated at 500w into the internal speakers (no extension speaker option, so I'm guessing the internal speakers are a combined 4 ohms) and its LOUD. At first, I thought it was going to be one of those master volumes where everything happens in the first third of a turn, but this appears to continue to get louder the further to the right you twist the master. I only got to five on the dial before things started rearranging themselves in the man cave and I had to turn down to preserve my hearing. EQ wise, its a five band setup and again its powerful, requiring only the smallest of tweaks to influence the overall sound. There is a single knob compressor which does a good job of either smoothing things out or compressing the hell out of everything and my early experimentation seems to suggest that this is usable up to about 4 on the dial without your tone suffering too much. There is a separate tweeter tone control that controls the tweeter (no sh1t sherlock) and its nice to have this on the front panel rather than around the back where its inaccessible at most gigs. The control set also includes a Tubetone which does a good range of subtle drives through to 'wasp in a jam jar' distortion, so something to suit most tastes. The control set is topped off with three memory locations for storing everything but the master volume setting, and a built-in tuner with a mute control. You also get aux in on RCA jacks and a headphone out with speaker defeat and a DI with pre/post eq switch. Plugging in my Overwater Jazz for the first time revealed a good fundamental tone with everything set flat. As I said above, the tone controls are powerful, requiring only small adjustments to radically affect the sound. The spectracomp is ok, not as good as either a fully featured compressor or Phil Jones Bass single knob compressor, and to be honest, I can't tell whether the claimed multi band compression is adding anything new to the mix. The Tubetone will probably live in the off position, as I'm not a fan of this. There is no effects loop (not a problem for me) and the built-in tuner doesn't seem to be as accurate as my trusty Boss TU-2 but its a nice to have for those quick in-house practices. I probably won't make much use of the memory slots either, as I tend to play with one 'signature' sound, but its nice to have them there and they may get used when swapping between active and passive basses as the position of the gain is stored, or between fretted and fretless for coaxing out maximum mwaah. The one overarching impression of my first days with this combo is its volume. This is a loud beast, and I can't wait to get it into a rehearsal room with the band and give it a good thrashing. Thanks again to Davy for selling this at such a reasonable price.

Bought Dave's TC BG500 combo yesterday. Combo as described in the add (perfect condition actually), good friendly communications throughout and a good chat when I collected the combo. I'd have no problem recommending Davy, deal with him with confidence.

I owned one for about three years. Bought secondhand from Basschat member 'Toasted' and gigged regularly, I didn't experience any reliability issues. Eventually traded it with Basschat member BGTAndy in part-ex for his SM1500 that I still use to this day. These seem to sell for ridiculously little money these days and I would recommend this amp to anyone.