spinynorman

Anyone with big hair, get in quick. Must be worth £100 surely? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ibanez-destroyer-vintage-bass-guitar-/220914102209

I've got a Mackie SRM350 that we use as an active monitor for the singer. It has a single XLR input and a push button switch between mic and line mode. It's taking one channel out from a powered mixer and a DBX equalizer. At last night's gig I set it up as usual in line mode, but was getting nothing like the usual volume. In the end I reduced the signal from the EQ and switched the SRM350 to mic mode, which worked ok, although with more noise than ideal. So, looks like something's gone wrong, I'm just surprised it's only one mode, not both. Has anyone come across this before - is it a sign of big problems, or easy to fix?

I didn't pick mine, it chose me. It was sitting on eBay one Monday lunchtime with an hour to go, £200 start and no bids. I won it by a margin of about 35p from one other bidder who also thought they could get a bargain. It plays better than anything I've had before or since, which is nice in a way, but I'd quite like a change.

[quote name='martin8708' timestamp='1323803992' post='1467361'] My practice is to switch the radio on and just try to play along to each song , it sounds awful at first, but it will slowly get better as your ear develops and starts to recognise chords and different styles of music . Try and get into a band, you learn alot quicker with a good drummer and generally guitarists are happy to help with chords , etc . Most of all , have fun . [/quote] Radio, or MP3 player on shuffle. Another thing I do is just pick the bass up, don't even plug it in, and just play whatever comes under my fingers, without thinking about it too much. At first it either sounded like 12-bar blues or Velvet Underground on a really bad night, but over the years I've got more and more usable bass lines out of it.

[quote name='Beefyeggo' timestamp='1323867026' post='1467920'] Finally..... the reprise. thank you to all for your various suggestions. I have finally bought the Squier Jaguar SS bass in black - got it from DV247.com for £160 delivered which is exactly £89 less than a local music shop quoted me....... I've given it a try and rather like the guitar. The scale suits me better than the 34" scale of my Cort action bass and it certainly seems well put together. It's difficult to comment on the tone as I am only using it through a small practice amp and my limited experience is a factor, but it's acceptable to me, anyway. The strings, however, are poor quality. I think some cost-sutting has gone on here...... I also think the black pick guard would look much better replaced by a tortoiseshell finish jobbie, which I might just do in future if I can find a supplier.... So... Can anyone recommend some reasonably priced strings? - I rather fancy tryiing flatwound strings and on that point do I really need to buy strings specifically for short scale basses? Is there really that much of a difference? - they are certainly more expensive than 34" scale strings.... Pleased to hear Rob [/quote] If you put long scale strings on a short scale bass, the speaking length (thick part) of the string will be wound round the post and there is a risk the strain will cause it to break. Having said that, plenty of people, me included, have done it and survived Rotosound short and medium scale flats are the same price on stringsdirect.co.uk as long scale. Tends to be flats that are more expensive than rounds. EDIT: But the Status Graphites are much cheaper - £13.99 vs £25 for Rotos.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1323254691' post='1461002'] I can't help feeling that those who prefer the Epiphone (non-Pro) Thunderbirds are Fender players who happen to like the shape. [/quote] Not sure who would be insulted more by that comment: Fender players, or people who like Epi Tbirds.

Thomann give a 3-year warranty on everything, regardless of what the manufacturer does. So when one of our PA speakers croaked after 2 years they arranged a courier, took it back to Germany, repaired it and sent it back. Took a couple of weeks, but it was free. That's something to take account of if there's not much difference on price.

It's all a lot nicer to use now. Only problem I have is it's not keeping me logged in from one session to the next and Firefox doesn't recognise the password screen, so it doesn't fill it in. I'm on Firefox 3.6 with updates turned off, cos I hate what they did to it after that.

The opposite happens with me. I get a sound I like and then a load of people come in and ruin it.

Patti Smith's Because The Night. I can play it with a crib sheet, but can't remember the chord sequence.

So obviously it isn't a bass guitar, maybe for once it really is a base guitar, whatever that is. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BASE-GUITAR-HOHNER-/120810717400

P-bass pickup screwed into the body of an acoustic. Isn't that going to squeal like a stuck pig?

Nobody's commented on that? maybe needs a straight on picture to get the full effect. Looks like an amazing bit of art there.

I only use it on a couple of songs, the first of which starts with solo bass, so I don't think band mix is the issue, though it's a problem I'm aware of. It's ok in rehearsal, but then there's more opportunity to adjust the settings and there's no audience to affect things. We're typically not on a stage, so I think the room filling up changes things. Also I wonder if I just play with more attack in the gig than I do before.

Could there be a reason why this has never been used? I wonder .....

In the past I've tried several effect pedals, didn't really get on with any of them and got rid. More recently I bought a Big Muff (green), but it's still not working out. The problem is, I set the pedal and amp up before we sound check, it all sounds great. In sound check, it's fine. But when I come to use it in the gig, it sounds completely different and I don't like it at all. The problem then is there isn't an opportunity to change the settings - it's on the floor and I'm concentrating on playing - so I never find out what would work. We play a lot of quite small places and I suppose there's a difference in acoustic between the half empty room when we set up and the full one when we play. So I need to compensate when I set up. Does anyone else have this? How do you deal with it?

I got one recently too. I agree the yellow plastic isn't great, it's ok on the gold top, but just looks cheap against the black. Jeannie's Pickguards on ebay does a black replacement pg for the JCS, which might look better. Not sure it's worth it, though, compared to just taking it off. I did see a JCS with a black pickup cover on Talkbass, but I think that was probably painted, as it didn't look that good. I've been meaning to get inside mine to have a look round, but just haven't had the time or motivation. Even if you could get the guts out, I don't think it's a standard size cover that you could easily replace.

I get put off most signature basses because the association doesn't work for me. But I did seriously consider the Fender Dirnt, because it seems like a useful variation on the 50s P theme and it doesn't have Dirnt scrawled all over it. The one I've bought, however, is the black Epi Jack Casady. I can't really explain why I don't mind Jack's signature on it, but I don't.

Odd year. Over the summer the landlord of a pub we've had regular gigs from for over 2 years announced he was giving up the trade and was canceling the bands he'd booked for the rest of the year. However, we've since found out he's still in business and other bands are playing there, so it seems like that was just an excuse to dump us. Rather a lousy end to a previously good relationship. Since then we've added two new regular venues and hooked up with a booking agent, so it's on the up again.

You need 1 to play, one to take to gigs as a backup and one to do setups, mods and other maintenance on. Never, ever do a set up on your playing bass, you'll ruin it. And if anyone else tries to set it up for you, poke them in the eye with an allen key.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1319753563' post='1418366'] He's only got a feedback of 1 as a seller, so obviously doesn't know what he's doing. He'll learn! 'You can't beat the system on the Bay,' as my dad never said. [/quote] As he's already sold this once, and two other items using the same technique, he's not doing so bad.

I can't see any obvious charity connection, but bizarrely he has bids on some of his junk. http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/idonthaveyourmarbles/m.html?hash=item2eb885402b&item=200664236075&pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&_trksid=p4340.l2562

[quote name='Len_derby' timestamp='1319527821' post='1415101'] Anyone heard a drum solo that was more than just an opportunity for a fag/toilet break? Just wondered. [/quote] Generally I'd agree with you, but there is one drummer who can do all the solos he likes as far as I'm concerned. Much better live though. http://www.drummerworld.com/Videos/jonhisemandrumsolo.html

Headless hanger http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Headless-Hanger-/200664236075?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2eb885402b