BigRedX

The problem with a telephone conversation is that there is no record of it having taken place unless both parties record it (which has its own separate set of privacy problems). That's the last thing you want when trying to resolve a problem. Form personal experience with BD I would want a full record of everything that has been done for any order over £25.00. I certainly wouldn't want to buy a bass (or have a problem with one resolved) from just a phone call. As someone who runs their own business my position has always been (and most of you on here will probably be sick of me saying this) that if you are not prepared to deal with your customers by a particular means of communication, then DON'T PUBLICISE IT! All my customer's emails get answered within 24 hours of them sending it, and usually a lot sooner; even if all I am able to say to a particularly complicated request, is that I am currently working on it and will be back in touch as soon as I have the required information to answer them in full. I have no sympathy, no time, and no business to give to companies who cannot respond in a timely manner using a method of communication that they have published.

There you go. agedhorse has answered your question perfectly.

As I said in another thread, unless you are strictly a solo player, what makes the bass guitar (or any instrument for that matter) sound good, is how well it works in the overall mix with the other instruments. That sound when solo'd is rarely the sort of sound you would want to spend listening to on its own, but put back all the other instruments and everything sounds fantastic. Science, if you understand it fully can get you to roughly the right sonic space, but ultimately getting the perfect sound for a band/song will require someone with great ears at the controls. Many of my favourite bands feature a musician with an unconventional sound or style and the other instruments often have to be completely re-balanced to make the overall band sound work. And finally from a personal PoV, I play in two bands with different instrumental line-ups. The sounds I use on my Helix for each band are very different, and not at all interchangeable.

It's strange how we tend to spend a lot of time effort and money chasing that "perfect" tone, but if you listen to the many isolated bass guitar tracks from great recordings, you'll rarely hear it. What makes the bass sound good is not how brilliant it sounds on its own but how well the mix engineer has blended it with the other instruments, usually making the solo'd track sound very different to the original recorded sound.

If you do anything "creative" and want to be able to make a living out of it, then unless you are very lucky, you will need to supply what your customers/clients want. Music is no different. I earn my living in a another creative area doing print graphics, and because I want to get paid, I will produce whatever my clients ask for. If I really think that they are wrong I will have one attempt at trying to gently persuade them to go for what I consider to be a better option. However, ultimately I'm not precious about it, and if they are determined then I will give them exactly what they ask for and take their money with a smile and a thank you. If you can do that as a musician, then all power to you. I can't. I find that music is too important for me to produce something I don't believe completely in. I've had a go at it and didn't enjoy it enough for the money I was getting be a suitable substitute. That's just me.

Every bass amp has a baked-in sound. Otherwise there wouldn't be any point in having multiple makes of amp. You pick one with a baked-in sound that you find pleasing.

No backline, everything through the PA and IEMs for the band.

I don't think I've ever seen Humbuckers wired in series in anything. However single coils in roughly the J-Bass positions work very well in series configuration.

More than one pickup is fine (pickup position is one of the few things that can't be accurately replicated with EQ IMO), just don't expect to be able to get a sound that doesn't disappear in the band mix with more than one active at any one time (unless you are running them in series).

And this is exactly the problem with just posting quotes because we don't exactly what you are quoting and what previous post it refers to. It's just lazy arguing. It doesn't show that you have really understood what you are quoting, just you have learned how to copy and paste. Ultimately it adds nothing to the thread and undermines your credibility as someone who is worth listening to. And with that I am done listening to you. You're blocked, so bye bye...

Maybe Basschat should ask Mr Chomsky if he's like to become member?

On the whole the reasons why power attenuators never mention the use with bass amps, is that most of them can't handle the output of a typical bass amp. They are generally designed for guitarists with all-valve 50-100W amps who don't need the ridiculous volume that they produce but do want the sound of the overdriven valves in the power-amp. We'll conveniently ignore the fact that speaker break-up which is also usually associated with this type of overdriven sound is at best reduced when a power attenuator is used. To give you an idea of how hard power attenuators have to work when used with relatively low wattage amps here's a real-life example from my personal experience. I also play guitar and have a very nice Hughes & Kettner 50W all-valve combo, which I am able to run at sensible volumes using a Marshall Power-Break between the power amp and the speaker. The Power-Break is a large heavy device full of high-power resistors and inductors and a big temperature-controlled fan to cool them. Any sound with more than gentle overdrive (especially when I use either a phaser or flanger) will cause this fan to go into overdrive. Remember that this fan is powered completely by the output of the amplifier - nothing else. At the end of a typical 45 minute set the Power-Brake is close to being too hot to touch and has to be left until last so that it is cool enough to pack away. That's just from attenuating a 50W valve amp down to the same level of something around 20W. Now try and imagine what you would need for your typical bass amp. And as has already been said the only benefit from having a power attenuator is to be able to run the output valves hotter than your normal playing volume would allow. Since the amp in question has a class D output stage you'll get no benefit from it. The JHS Black Box is designed to be used with valve amps that don't have a master volume control. It is not a power attenuator. I can't help but feel that if you ain't able to get a suitable overdriven sound out of your amp at low volumes, then you haven't set it up correctly. Maybe @agedhorse can help?

Even the "mighty" Bass Bros aren't immune to supplying the wrong information. This 8-string Kramer is listed as having 20 frets and being 34" scale, when you can clearly see that it has 24 frets and which means that it is 30" scale.

Unless you are regularly playing outdoors where the power is being supplied by a generator, in which case you would probably be better off with a UPS, there is no benefit to having a power conditioner in the UK.

Actually it is - the origin is from a R4 comedy program.

Nut width is a bit of a red herring, because it gives little indication of how close together the strings actually are at the nut. I discovered this in a major way in my quest for a playable Bass VI, where several instruments with what looked on paper like suitably wide nuts, actually had the two E-strings set in quite a way from the edges of the fingerboard. IME if these things matter to you then you really need the following measurements before making any decisions: 1. The width of the neck at the nut 2. The string spacing at the nut 3. The width of the neck at the last fret along with what fret number that is 4. The string spacing at the bridge 5. The scale length Because in reality there is no set distance between the edge of the neck and the outermost strings and this distance isn't even constant along the whole length of the neck. And close string spacing at the nut does not automatically lead to close string spacing at the bridge as well.

Why? That looks fantastic, although somewhat overpriced.

Regarding signatures, I always hide any user's signature that is larger than their average post length. Once hidden, signatures are rarely re-instated, so AFAIAC your signature is gone forever. TBH unless a signature contains either a link to the user's music or to items they have for sale, I'm probably unlikely to be interested in what it contains.

Paging @Bassassin

Looking again it has got a bit of a Mosrite/Bigsby vibe, which is maybe where the notion of it being late 60s comes from. Also has the control plate been broken at the top?

Could be A-A 30" baritone on the 6-string neck. I think we need some more information like scale length and photos of the neck joints and whatever is under the control cavity cover. If it is a 4 and 6 string bass the reason for both will be string spacing and therefore the playing technique each neck lends itself to.

BTW the pickups are probably single coils despite having two sets of "pole-piece" screws with the coil between them. This is how they were on the Burns/Balwin 12-string I used to own.

Probably something custom made. Despite the Baldwin pick-ups the vibe of the rest of the hardware is mid-70s at the earliest. Especially the machine heads and mini-toggle switches. Is there any information lurking under the control cavity covers?

On a Firebird with banjo tuners they all turn in the same direction, but that is 6 in-line. To me it would feel natural to have all 4 machine heads turn the same way to tune even on a 2+2 arrangement. Is that possible with the mechanisms used? Also with it being Gibson, what is logical isn't necessarily what was produced...

Exactly. And how hard is it to make a P-Bass? It's an instrument designed to be made originally by relatively unskilled labour using 1940s (at best) technology. The design is tried and tested, hasn't changed in over 60 years, and now the far east can churn out perfectly acceptable copies for next to nothing. Given this, anything built to this design with the words "Custom Shop" in the name should be absolutely perfect in every way.