lowregisterhead

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1434186325' post='2797380'] I'd want that back, too. Is that a Wal pickup? [/quote] No, it's the original MM pickup, only I had the scratchplate removed and a surrounding ring made out of mirror arylic fitted when it was refinished from its original sunburst. When I found the bass in a run down music shop in Edinburgh in 1981, the original bridge was way out of alignment and it was virtually unplayable. To this day I don't know how it found its way out of the Musicman factory and over here in that condition - the neck, body and pocket were all fine, just the bridge was about 5mm south of where it should have been. The shop owner wanted rid of it, so he let me have it for £250 IIRC. As part of the refinish, I had a Schaller bridge and a brass nut fitted. It was an amazing bass, but I couldn't pay the rent one month, and I had to let it go. I regret it to this day!

I keep a detailed list of all the basses I've owned over the last 40 years of playing (jeez, is it really [i]that[/i] long??) and I'm amazed/ashamed to admit it's just hit triple figures... not showing off, as I clearly have a bit of an issue with buying instruments, but despite being a complete bass tart, one that's stuck with me is an early Lakland DJ5 I picked up second hand about 5 years ago. It was comfy, played beautifully, and everything was in the right place, so I fitted a John East J-Retro and Delano pickups, and it's just fabulous. I still continue to buy basses and move them on, but keeping and going back to one bass for this long is exceptional, for me anyway! The one I wish I still had is this - I sold to a guy called Phil Winter in 1985. If anyone knows him or its whereabouts, please do let me know! [URL=http://s1141.photobucket.com/user/lowwregisterhead/media/WhitePEBStingray2_zpsfdx9ybah.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/n588/lowwregisterhead/WhitePEBStingray2_zpsfdx9ybah.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[quote name='Norris' timestamp='1433227506' post='2788982'] You could rest the head of your bass on your music stand [/quote] ...or on the drummer's head...

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1432466234' post='2781671'] That's what I said to the current mrs discreet. [/quote] I thought Trolls lived under brid... oh, I see.

I don't have a particular problem with relicing in itself, as long as there's some logic to it. The top horn, fair enough. The centre and end top edges, OK. Behind the pickups, fine. But WTF happened under the bridge??

Despite the spelling mistakes, it's a lovely bass, and I like his patter! Somebody should buy this. The bus fare home for me could be rather expensive, so I'll do him a favour and pass... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kieth-Roskoe-5-string-bass-/291473882762?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

Someone will love them. My first ever amp and cab were re-covered with yellow padded vinyl, and they were ace! For a while, anyway...

That's always the chance you take... lend some gear out, and it comes back sounding better. Result!

Sorry, but that is utterly grotesque! Real blood? I wonder if he had to get a special import licence for animal products??

Nice clear photographs - but why didn't he take 5 minutes to give it a quick clean??

Thanks for all the input, folks. Perhaps the nut material isn't such a big issue after all! I personally like the look of brass, but what do I know?

As a follow-up to my recent thread about dead spots, what do the BC readership think is the difference, if any, of different types of nut material? Does it matter if its plastic, bone, brass, aluminium or graphite? Does it affect the tone, sustain etc., and if so how? Does it affect just the open strings, or does it go further than that? I'd appreciate any input!

Great advice, thanks for all the input. I shall put my jigsaw away for the moment and try cleaning, shimming and re-bolting. Once I get the headstock out of the door.

[quote name='Machines' timestamp='1430131826' post='2758172'] I think the only solution is to change the mass of the bass. Prove this by clamping on something (FatFinger) or a G-clamp, but this generally just moves the deadspot a fret or two. Or just hold your head stock against a wall when playing (or corner of a door frame) and instant no dead spots AND extra sustain. Perfectly practical for gigging too. [/quote] Sounds interesting, but I've a feeling adopting that stance would reduce my already wafer-thin stage presence to virtually zero. I'll give it a go!

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1430126591' post='2758101'] In that case I'd try some lighter machine heads first. You can always sell them on an refit the old ones if it doesn't have the desired effect. [/quote] It already has Hipshot Ultralites with small posts, so nowhere to go with that one, I'm afraid.

[quote name='ikay' timestamp='1430120969' post='2758030'] What bass is it? Knowing this may suggest a few different options. If it has old style heavyweight tuners then swapping in ultralights will lose a few ounces at the headstock and shift the resonant frequency up a few steps. If it's a bolt-on then a trick that may be worth trying is to rest the bass face down on a (padded) flat surface and EVER SO SLIGHTLY loosen the neck bolts while the strings are under tension. Idea is that the pull of the strings will bring the heel into more solid contact with the end of the pocket and improve neck/body coupling. Don't forget to tighten them up again! (disclaimer - I've read this but not actually tried it myself). Installing threaded inserts and machine bolts instead of wood screws for a bolt-on also improves neck/body coupling. Lightweight strings can help to reduce the severity of dead spots as less energy is being transferred into the neck and therefore less neck resonance. Shaving the neck would probably lower the resonant frequency as the neck would be less rigid (the stiffer the neck the higher the resonant freq) so that's probably not such a good idea. [/quote] It's a custom 5-string with a bolt-on neck, and I've just tried the looseing/tightening of the neck screws which did seem to help a little. I was interested in the idea of reducing the headstock mass (as a Fat Finger seemed to move the dead spot down) as logic would seem to suggest that trimming a bit off the tip (which I'm thinking of doing for aesthetic reasons anyway) might move it up? Obviously there's no way back from that kind of mod, so I wondered if anyone had tried it!

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1430119742' post='2758016'] I started a thread on this recently (possibly in the Technical Issues forum) as a friend was having this issue. It turned out that loosening and retightening the neck screws did the trick. Edit: Found it ☺ [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/254993-dead-spot/page__fromsearch__1"]http://basschat.co.u...__fromsearch__1[/url] [/quote] Very interesting, thanks for that. I just tried it, and it did seem to help a little, but didn't solve the problem unfortunately. Any other suggestions?