BigRedX

What you diagram fails to take into account is that the action of the strings on the whole length of the neck is far, far greater than that of the screws acting against two almost insignificant pivot points approximately 50mm apart. For ski-jump to be caused by the presence of a shim it would have to occur between the neck bolts, yet all the anecdotal evidence I have seen points to it happening elsewhere - somewhere between the centre point of the neck and the heel. So while ski-jump might possibly be a thing, it's not being caused by fitting a shim.

What part of the neck is being shown? Is it along the neck or across the neck? What are the forces pushing up from below and what are the force pushing down from above? Because if they are the strings and the screws, the strings pull at an angle with respect to the neck and not vertically What's the curved dotted line? And what are the two triangles above them? Pivot points? Because if so that's not how a shim would act. This could probably be the most useless diagram ever drawn to show a physics problem solution.

I used to own a 5-string Overwater Original that according to Chris May was made in 1983. My other Overwater original 5-string which was my main bass for most of the 90s was made in 1985 or 86.

When I was playing dad rock covers I could have got away with a two string bass with E and A strings for a substantial part of the set. I once took my fretless Atlansia Solitaire 1-string bass to a rehearsal. The fact that it was fretless was more of a hinderance then the fact it only had a single string. These days I only play 5-string basses and Bass VIs. I sold my last 4-string bass during the COVID pandemic.

The bridge design had been carried over from Fender's Jazzmaster and Jaguar Guitars, where the wobbly bridge was an advantage when used in conjunction with the vibrato mechanism, and later used to great effect by bands like My Bloody Valentine. On the Bass VI is of less use since the vibrato has significantly limited effect even with the lighter Bass Vi strings fitted at the factory. You are best off finding some way of stopping the wobble either by changing the bridge for a 3rd party version or adding sleeves to the posts.

Or like the DX7 it suffers from pre-set over-use. There's probably lots of DX7 sounds on records that you never spot as being DX7 because it's not one of the common presets like the Electric Piano. Of course it's far from the only one. Jump by Van Halen is the first preset on the OBXA and Wonderful Christmas time by Macca is a very slightly modified version of one of the CS80 presets to name just two. Producers like SAW used to be in a race to get new synths on their recordings so that they had used all the "best" sounds before anyone else could.

The problem IMO with a lot of these complicated sound generation synths is that the subtleties that sound great when played solo quickly disappear once you start adding other instruments to the mix, and all that programming complexity becomes a distraction and hinderance to getting sounds that work in the context of the song. In my case for the last two years the vast majority of synth sounds created for my band have been done using the very simple Retro Synth plug-in that comes with Logic. Most of the time I can get something close to what I need within 5 minutes and a further 10 minutes at a later date fine tuning it once the rest of the arrangement is in place.

In the past a band I played in got around the problem of having a guitarist who thought he could be multiple bands by booking gigs for every Friday and Saturday as far into the future as possible. When his other bands realised that he wouldn't be available to play for them for the next 3-4 months they quickly dispensed with his services.

I know that this is at least slightly tongue in cheek, but it is already perfectly possible to make an audio file auto play with standard html code.

That to me suggests that there is something fundamentally wrong with the piece of wood chosen for the neck. One trick I have seen is to slacken off the truss rod and then apply downward force to each end of the neck with your knee behind the neck at the point where "ski-jump" is. Then while maintaining this pressure re-tighten the truss rod. You will either need a second person to help or a build a jig to do this. You need to apply the reverse force at the problem point in the neck or the truss rod will tend act at its centre point, which won't produce the desired result.

Surely the whole point of buying a synth is that you create your own sounds? I don't think that in the 40+ years I've been playing synths that I ever used a sound that wan't programmed by myself or another musician in my band. Sure there are plenty of impressive sounding patches that come ready loaded since user programmable memories first appeared, but no a single one of them has ever been of any use for any music I have created. For ever synth I have ever owned after noodling through the factory supplied sounds then next thing I have done is to set a patch up with a basic sound that I can use as a starting point for my own creations.

Only reason for this is if you are essentially a dep player, and find yourself in situations that require different amplification solutions. If my no backline band was to come to and end I would only be interested in joining another with a similar outlook to amplification.

I do physics. Can you please produce a diagram showing the various forces at work prove they cause ski-jump.

Not necessarily. Unless the neck is bowed and needs straightening with the truss rod, you will need to add a shim to get a sensible action. Therefore if shims have the potential to cause ski-jump it becomes relevant.

Do you have photos showing it?

Wood, especially that used to make guitars and basses, is incredibly strong, despite the fact that lots of musicians appear to think their instrument is made out of twigs or balsa. I've yet to see any direct evidence that ski-jump exists and the anecdotal evidence appears to point to the fact that if it does it occurs elsewhere than in the location that would be caused by a shim. My suspicion is that is most likely cause by poor selection of lumber for the neck blank, in which case it will occur whether or not a shim has been added.

I thought that the reason Fender abandoned the micro-tilt mechanism is that at the time (in the late 70s) they were incapable to building instruments to the tolerances required for it to work properly which was doubly compounded by the fact that their worn router templates were producing over-sized neck pockets. The net result was that as well as changing the vertical neck angle the micro-tilt was also pushing the neck sideways in the pocket. In these days of CNC machined necks and bodies a shim shouldn't be necessary. Just cut the neck pocket and heel at the correct angles so that it is possible to get a suitably low action before the saddles bottom out. After all you only need to do the maths once and then the machines will create every instrument perfectly.

I suspect that most people only take the strings off a guitar or bass when they are going to fit a brand new set. The fingerboard gets cleaned, if required, when that occurs.

I'm disputing it. I've never encountered it in over 50 years of owning and playing guitars and basses No-one has risen to my challenge earlier in the thread to produce actual evidence of their own instrument that exhibits this and furthermore has adversely affected the performance of said instrument. I call bullshit.

For what I recall of interviews with him in the 80s he was content to be in the background writing the hit tunes.

I have found the best way to work with any programmable musical device is to completely ignore the presets and make your own from scratch. When I bought my Helix I didn't even bother auditioning what was already on there as I knew from past experience that at best there would only be a couple that would be even close to suiting what I needed. Instead I wiped the first Preset and built up my own basic sound one module at a time - EQ, compressor, distortion, chorus, delay. Once I had something I was happy with I used this Preset at the next band rehearsal tweaking the parameters (mostly EQ and distortion drive levels) until I had a sound that worked for the majority of the songs. I then made a copy of this preset for each song appropriately named. At the next rehearsal I would adjust the version for reach song until it fitted with the other instruments and made notes of any variations that would be needed for different sections and which I created as Snapshots. These were then adjusted to fit. I think the whole process from original purchase to having something I was happy using at a gig took about 4 practices to get right. If you or your band don't have the patience for this kind of process then programmable devices are probably not for you.

I bought my first 5-string bass in 1989. Apart from a couple of years when I was playing quite a bit of fretless and hadn't been able to find a 5-string version that I liked, I haven't played a 4-string bass since then.

I can't see how the neck is going to warp because of the presence of something less than a 1mm in thickness occupying about a quarter of the length of the neck pocket, unless there was a problem with the neck already in which case the shim is unlikely to be the catalyst. I think one of the reasons why the small card shim is popular, is because it is completely invisible on most basses and guitars when installed, whereas a shim occupying the full area of the neck pocket will definitely be visible. I wonder how many people were completely unaware that their instrument had a shimmed neck until they had need to remove it? Also a full-size flat or angled shim will need to be exactly the same size as the neck pocket for it not to look terrible. You would be surprised by how thick a flat shim needs to be to have the same effect as small piece of card. An effective card shim can be made by anyone who can wield a pair of scissors.

That's what I'd heard from another source, although that was last year and since then it's gone very quiet with regards to further information.

It depends on the people. There are musicians who I've played with in several different bands and who I would have no hesitation in playing with again. I've only had one bad experience (unsurprisingly with a drummer) who quit the same band twice, initially after falling out with the original singer and then later after begging to be allowed to rejoin, with her replacement.