BigRedX

He has his own signature version made by Eastwood. When I saw him last he was using the Eastwood, although judging from recent gig photos he's gone back to the Shergold Back in the early 80s there were plenty of bass players influenced by him. Have a listen to early Section 25, the first Modern English album, Modern Eon and some Dancing Did to name but four. Nowadays? Me:

Search has most definitely been broken by a recent update to the forum software. I've just done a search for "PRS". as well as PRS it also brings up results for PR and words starting with "pr" that have an s in them. This needs to get fixed ASAP, because I have been able to do a search for "PRS" in the past and only get results with the actual combination of letters PRS.

If you need a second cab the best advice is to get another one the same as the cab you already have.

I get that this is somewhat sarcastic, but now that we have almost all the information about everything ever at our fingertips, why wouldn't you spend a few minutes looking up some musician who people on here think is significant and having a listen to what they have played on? Then you can make up your own mind whether it's worth listening to more or depart with knowledge that what they do is not for you.

@ those who didn't like what I said in my last post: I'm a musician and therefore I have at least a passing interest in other musicians, and like to know about the music they play so I can either find more to hear or to know to avoid them in the future. I've just looked back through this thread and there are only one or two bass players mentioned that I hadn't heard the names of before, but when I checked out who they'd played with I found I was aware of at least some of their work. I have to admit that the late 70s and early 80s is my era for musical influences and therefore I'm well-aware of Peter Hook and what he has done. Conversely I have very little interest in post-grunge American rock (the sort of thing that is called "alt-rock" despite that fact that most of it is completely mainstream these days), but at least I know who Melissa Auf der Maur and Nate Mandel are and have heard some songs that they have played on (and have listened to enough to know that it's not to my taste). What I don't like is wilful ignorance on the part of other musicians. I don't expect people to like everything; after all what each of us finds interesting about musical styles is completely subjective, but when we all have the internet at our fingertips to claim that you don't know who a particular musician is and be proud of the fact is just stupid.

The only musical people I am interested in are those who make music I enjoy, or those who make equipment or instruments that I want to use. Mr Sapko appears to do none of those things so as far as I am concerned he's an irrelevance.

I'll probably be gigging until I'm physically no longer able to do it, and after that making and releasing weird industrial music from my home studio until I am mentally unable. I've been very lucky with my health and fitness. In my current band I'm by far the oldest, but probably also the healthiest and fittest.

I can understand that Peter Hook's playing (or that of any bass player) may not be to your taste, but to claim that you have never heard of them is just being ignorant. I have little interest in the other two bass players in the series, but at least I know who they are and what they have played on. It may be that my lack of interest in their playing is that I don't much like (from a musical PoV) anything they have played on.

Unfortunately we weren't able to play last night as our synth player had picked up some lurgy from his kids and was too ill to play. A pity not only because the gig was sold out, but because we'd spent the last few weeks learning how to play our "Christmas Song" as a band. The recorded version had been assembled in the studio, and I think that before we started practicing in order to play it live I'd never played the Bass VI part all the way through in one go. Still the other four bands played and Social Youth Cult who headlined were enough of a draw to have sold most of the tickets, so I don't think we let too many people down. It appears from our social media comments over the last few weeks, that most of the people who wanted to come and see us play had left it too late to buy tickets anyway. Unless something really good comes in at the last minute, we don't have any more gigs until 2026 now. December Snow will have to wait until this time next year.

Back when this thread started the Gardiner Houlgate bass wasn't known. However we still only have the previous and the current seller's word that this bass is actually by John Birch. There's no logo on the headstock as there is in the example in the 70s catalogue and no documentation. The Hyperflux pickups that were in the bass when Gardiner Houlgate were selling it have been removed which IMO seriously impacts on this instrument's worth, and the wiring installed in both versions of this bass are very conventional by John Birch standards. All that can be said for sure is that the bridge is a John Birch bridge. Everything else is heresy and speculation.

And we made a more "traditional" music video too...

I don't know. I suppose it depends on how like the action of your keys? Traditionally an acoustic piano would have a fully weighted action, and organ no weights. Synths would be either the same as an organ or semi weighted, but then it would also depend on what each player was used to. In my very limited experience with my very limited technical ability the action of the keyboard can completely change how I play.

IME the less serious the band is the worse the band politics are.

With a multimeter or continuity tester. TBH, If you don't have at least one of those you probably shouldn't be doing your own wiring as you have no way of checking what you have done wrong if it's not working properly.

2.4 has a better range and is slightly less worse in poor line of sight transmission situations. However it has to compete for bandwidth with far more devices especially at crowded gigs, which at the moment makes it far less reliable than 5.8. However that advantage may disappear in the future. IME if you are going to be suffering from range issues with a 5.8 device you probably need to be looking at seriously pro wireless systems and not ones based on WiFi.

It was discussed in this thread back in August. The general consensus then was that the bridge is by John Birch, and the rest could be anything. If it was a genuine JB it would have had John Birch pickups on it when it was originally made, and I can't think of any sensible reason to replace them.

If any of them are on the Mu:zines wanted list they will be more than grateful to receive them.

This came up on another forum, and the advice from several experienced electrical engineers was that a better and more permanent contact between the screw terminal and the wire conductor was achieved if you did not tin the wires, because the copper strands can compress and essentially cold weld to the terminal under the pressure from the screw.

You only need to worry about the core slipping on strings with a round core. Unless it specifically states on the strings that they are round core you can safely assume that they are hex core and it's OK to cut the strings to length before bending them.

Since all my old photos in this thread were on Photobucket, here's a more recent one of me that you'll actually be able to see:

IME scale length on its own has little effect on the sound and feel of low B. It is all down to the construction of the bass and the right choice of strings. If I was in the OP's position I would first try another set of strings, maybe one with a taper-wound B string. Remember that strings that work with one bass will not necessarily be the best choice for another. All my basses are fitted with different strings because each has a set that suits that particular bass the best. If the problem persists look first at the neck joint. With the strings fitted but not tuned to pitch very slightly loosen the neck bolts - about half a turn is normally sufficient. Then tune the bass to pitch and leave for a few hours to settle. Then tighten the neck bolts up again. What this does is to use the tension of the strings to pull the neck tightly into the neck pocket which makes the joint as strong as possible. If you are still getting dead spot problems then try a Fat Finger as suggested although be aware that this works by moving the position of the dead spot to somewhere where it is hopefully less obvious rather than removing it.

But it was way better than the finishes that followed - that partially see-through white that looked as though they'd run out of rattle can and couldn't be bothered to get another one to complete the job, or sh!t brown.

The break angle over the nut needs to be sufficient to hold the string in place whilst not reducing the compliance of the string. If you look at the first photo in the OP you'll see that the G and D strings pass under a string retainer and therefore their break angle is fixed by the position of the string retainer. Since this is obviously a sufficient angle, it follows that ideally the E and A strings should have the same break angle. That means the A string should probably have one more turn around the post and the E one less.

It was an auction so it would have probably reached a realistic price by the end. If it does re-appear with a significantly higher start price that might actually put some bidders off. I tried to buy a Shaftesbury-badged guitar version back in about 1976, but I couldn't persuade my parents to lend me the rest of the money I needed. IIRC although it was second hand, it was in immaculate condition and the shop only wanted £45 for it!

Unfortunately that interface has had to compromised in order to maintain the overall playability.