spinynorman

Blues is great for finding radically different interpretations, which you can plunder to make your own - eg "Stop Breaking Down": Robert Johnson, Jeff Healey, White Stripes. "Killing Floor": Muddy Waters, Electric Flag, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin (Lemon Song), Dr Feelgood. For sheer energy and fun it's hard to top Foghat's "Road Cases" album.

[quote name='mcnach' post='1120834' date='Feb 8 2011, 11:46 PM']beauty!!! Mine buzzes a bit when I touch the polepieces. I had that before and can be sorted by grounding the polepieces (from below!). Although I suspect these pickups won't have polepieces accessible from underneath, I bet. In that case... transparent nail varnish is wonderful. I prefer Rimmel 60-seconds (can't believe I can actually recomment a brand of nail varnish... but we used it in the lab to seal coverslips on microscope slieds, honest!!! ) Colourless, dries really fast. One can apply 3 coats in no time. No pole-piece buzzing. You can buy other interesting colours if interested. I personally have black, silver, and metallic purple. Only for guitars, I swear Not sure if you have that particular issue, butjust in case you or someone else comes across this (not uncommon, unfortunately, at any price range).[/quote] Black nylons, nail varnish, what's next?

What's all this about putting Black Nylons on Sue Ryder?

I've got some Rotosound Extra Long Scale which are about 100cm ball-end to silk, and probably were 130cm total length before I trimmed them. So you'd need Extra Extra Long and I haven't seen any of those.

The seller says the case has been used to store the bass and is included in the sale. If there isn't some further description, for example saying the case is "tatty but servicable", then surely the buyer is entitled to assume the case is in good condition and fit to be used as long term storage for the base. Like they're entitled to assume the bass is in good, playable condition unless stated otherwise. Buyers usually bid more for a bass that includes a case than one that doesn't, so it's not a nice bonus, it's part of the sale.

[quote name='Truckstop' post='1115626' date='Feb 4 2011, 05:24 PM']New strings? Truckstop[/quote] As the problem or the solution?

I wasn't really happy with any of the settings. Position 3 had no bass or volume. 1 had heavy E and A, very harsh trebly D and G. 2 was muddy and boomy, 4 was the closest to ok, but very dark. As a result of all the things I've done, playing with EQ on the amp, changing pickup heights and angles, taking out the earth wires and padding, it does seem to be getting better - 1 and 3 are now closer to being usable. I've got a gig tonight and am trying flat wound strings on the bridge, not through the body, hoping this will take out some of the resonance. I'll get as much playing time as I can with it - the band's getting slightly impatient with my experiment, especially as I have a Precision that they like. But I can only really tell if it's working if I play it with the band. Neck pickup is 6.38K, I thought that was about standard. The KA rebuild at the bridge is hotter, 7.78K. So it could be they're not a good match.

And what do you do when your tat doesn't sell at the original outrageous price? That's right, Perikans Minor, [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260732012918"]you put the price up 500 quid[/url]. Go to the top of the class.

Looks like a cross between a Westone Thunder, a Guild B301 and something that's been hit very hard with an ugly stick.

I had one of these, I think it's a great amp and actually I'm wondering if I was sensible to sell it. I used it with an Ashdown MAG 210T and an Ashdown MAG 115T. This worked really well and you can often pick these up pretty cheap on eBay or here. They're also light, which is something to think about if you don't have roadies. In terms of volume, I used both cabs on larger gigs, which gives you a 4ohm load, and never got the master volume beyond 10 o'clock. No problem being heard over a Marshall powered guitarist and drummer with a big kit. On smaller gigs and rehearsals I used whichever cab I felt like and never had problem with volume. I had the HA3500 with solid state and tube gain both set at about 12 o'clock. The main thing that put me off a 4x10 is having all that weight to lift in 1 cab. Also if you went for a Mag 4x10, it's rated 8ohms, so I guess you'd only be getting 250W out of it.

[quote name='evilLordJuju' post='1111541' date='Feb 1 2011, 08:12 PM']Some real lazy, pointless, and cliched replies here. I just don't know why people say things like this. Gibson have made so many basses using different woods, pickups and construction techniques. Some have few sounds, some have very very many.[/quote] yes, I thought I'd wandered into Talkbass for a minute. I wouldn't bother with it if I didn't think it had potential. Neck suits me fine, action is great, and it shouldn't sound like it does. [quote name='evilLordJuju' post='1111541' date='Feb 1 2011, 08:12 PM']My Rippers sound great - I do use mostly old amps, but sometimes modern ones. Is your Ripper working ok? The out of phase sound will require an even output from both pickups. If one is set too high or low, these positions won't give the sound it is supposed to. See the control descriptions here [url="http://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/Ripper_controls.php"]Gibson Ripper controls[/url]. You might be able to work out the problem by working out which position is the one that sounds ok. Try playing with your set up maybe? Even doing this some settings may be less useful than others, but probably not to the extent you describe. Also Ripper pickups have VERY fiddly wire connections inside, and do damage easily. If a set up doesn't help, maybe measure their resistances. Are both pups giving a good output?[/quote] The bridge pickup is a Kent Armstrong relacement and is 7.78K on my meter. The neck pickup is original afaik, it's 6.38K. But the back of it was shielded with copper tape, and earthed. I've just removed that and under it was an acetate cover over foam padding. There was another earth wire added from the back of one of the pots to the control cavity. So I've taken all that out. Certainly not any noisier without it. I played it through an Ampeg B-2RE last week into a GK 4x10. Sounded bad through that too This is how it was ... Neck pickup with extra stuff removed ... KA Bridge pickup ...

I'm wresting with a rather strange problem and wondering if anyone else has had anything similar. I have a 1978 Gibson Ripper. At home I have a Crate BT50 combo, and through that the Ripper sounds like it should. For band rehearsals and gigs I use a Markbass CMD121H and through that it sounds terrible. 3 of the 4 varitone positions on the Ripper are unusably harsh and grindy, position 3 just has no volume or tone worth speaking of. I've tried the vintage filter, but that just makes it sound muffled. My MIJ Precision sounds great through either amp, though now I come to think about it, my 51 RI P was quite harsh through the Markbass, though not as bad as the Ripper. I'm assuming the Crate is a less "modern" design than the MB, or at least there's something different about the MB that doesn't suit the older bass. Can anyone shed any kind of light on this?

Use the money to learn how to play the stock market, make a fortune and then you can buy your own luthier.

I bought an SX on here, maple neck, finish was like bright orange goo. I changed the neck and it's ok, but it's still not very exciting bass. The new ones you get from Rondo now have a different headstock, which a lot of people don't like. A radical alternative is [url="http://www.bachmusik.com/en/music-instruments/bass-guitars"]BaCH[/url], which avoids massive shipping and customs charges, and they make nice basses pretty cheap.

My wife got a malware thing called My Disk which attaches itself to programs and pops up every 5 seconds saying the disk is knackered and the memory is about to explode. She claims she got it on a site selling curtains, and when she got warnings from the firewall, of course she clicked the Block button. Not hard to get rid of, fortunately, just a registry hack and delete a few files.

[quote name='Bassassin' post='1107518' date='Jan 29 2011, 07:04 PM']They must've exported a f*ck of a lot of it to Japan in the 70s, then! J.[/quote] The stuff the Japanese used was fake plywood. Not from Plymouth at all. It's covered by EU laws now, like champagne.

I briefly had one of these. Even by my low standards it was horrid.

I tried some Black Beauties and some of the black came off pretty quickly with a pick, though not enough to make a difference visually. Haven't tried Neons though. The BBs didn't seem that different to standard roundwounds, but then I mostly use flats.

A lot of prices seem to have wound up recently, even Rotosound is a bit of a deep breath before buying, and I used to find their prices reasonably painless. My worry with the Galli blacks is I'll put them on and the pick will wreck the coating in five minutes. Guess I'll just have to try and see. I tried some DR Black Beauties, and the pick took some black off the G pretty quickly. They don't seem that much different to rounds, at least in feel, and I'm too used to flats.

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='1098198' date='Jan 21 2011, 11:03 PM']I've just bought an old 60s copy of his vinyl album "How to Play Electric Bass", an interesting curiosity piece if nothing else[/quote] There must be some good learning on there surely, if only how to make a 12-bar sound interesting. I expect you know already.