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TobyB

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  1. I might be interested if you still have it ... not sure about the price ... but ... Cheers Toby
  2. More details please ... pictures etc ... potentially interested ... but ... Cheers Toby
  3. (Pissed off that this is my 4th attempt at replying - as long replies seem to get dropped/lost whilst being written ... but going for one more try, backing up text as a Word document meanwhile ...) I came to this thread looking for specific advice ... but interesting ideas raised ... Seriously high-end kit might not be good to start learning on ... a world-competition-spec race car is not something to lean to drive in, any more than a factory-kitted race-bike is a something to learn to ride on ... positively NOT! But crap kit is no way to start with either ... my first "beginners" acoustic 6-string was an Eastern European plywood box with a neck so thick and wide you could land aircraft on it, and an action so high it was probably akin to suspension bridge engineering ... I struggled and almost gave up as 3-finger open chords were a massive struggle and bar chords where impossible ... but wondered if a lesson or three might help ... a teacher showed and then lent me a reasonably decent guitar ... I ditched the box and spent a moderate amount on a decent Takamine ... and carried on playing! An impulse buy of a £10 mandolin hanging in the window of a pawn shop (I was a New Model Army fan who'd just heard the Levellers!) raised my enthusiasm ... but I went and bought a hand-made instrument more than 10x what I'd paid for the first ... it was beautiful to look at, felt wonderful in my hands, sounded fantastic, and was encouragingly playable ... so I did play, and practice, a lot ... really stimulating! In the DIY/hobbyist/craftsmen world, when buying tools, there's an axiom that says "buy cheap, buy twice". Cheap hand tools from DIY sheds are rubbish and don't work. Similarly cheap "Chaiwanese" power tools don't work well, and don't last. So you are back looking for more. Buy quality hand-tools and they'll last longer than your lifetime. Similar quality well-engineered power tools last a long time too. And they have re-sale value ... if they are too big/small/powerful/delicate/whatever ... you can sell/trade them for something more appropriate to your skills or demands. The cheap tools have no value now ... so you are buying twice ... So - lots of good advice offered in this thread I'm sure ... but a lot focused on the idea that big-budget-beginner-kit is ridiculous ... there may be some sense in this ... "amazing-in-the-right-pair-of-skilled-hands-but-bloody-difficult-to-get-the-best-out-of" instruments are not for beginners ... but "looks-beautiful-feels-wonderful-sounds-brilliant-so-easy-to-play-I-don't-want-to-put-it-down-and-I'm-going-to-sleep-with-it" certainly is (OK, the latter point is pushing it a bit!) ... and a lot of "low-end", "beginners" instruments are OK for what they are, but don't sit in the second category. "Good quality" kit, that has a decent re-sale option, might be a bit more expensive initially ... but much better value in the long-term? Cheers Toby PS: The whole reason I looked at this thread was that I'm looking for a decent, but moderately priced 5-string ... I used to lust after Warwick through-neck natural bits of lovely wood ... skimming net pages things like the Ibanez BTB675, the Washburn T25 or the Peavey Grind Bass NTB 5 look as if they could be what I'm after ... but that's just pictures ... what's a sensible, well-made, playable instrument to consider (I have a Toby Pro currently, used to have a Yamaha TRX 4-string)?
  4. Interested in the opinions about a 5th's set-up .. chime with my playing to a great extent ... I mostly play rhythm/chords on a 6-string, and mostly play single-note tunes on the mando's (some chords, but not so much) ... I love how many notes you get under your fingers without shifting too much. Clearly going to be moving a lot more on the bass (just as I move more on the octave mandola than on the mandolin) ... but the lack of familiar guitar chords isn't an issue to me as I've never used that much on my 4-string ... but the double-stops familiar to any 5th's scale instrument player could work well on a bass (a finger and thumb pinch across 2 strings or a pluck with index and middle?), especially as many are open-stringed or very closely fretted so the reach of your left fingers isn't going to be too much ... The suggestion for contacting Newtone was excellent ... they got back to me last night and again this morning ... they've suggested ... "the CGDAE should be possible if you are going up from standard tuning i.e. .115 B string tuned up to C miss out an E string .080 A string tuned up to G .060 D string .040 G string up to A and something like an .018 for the E" No wonder I was struggling with the E ... not seen a bass string that light! They are sending me a couple of sets, with options of an .018 and a .020 for the E as he admitted it's a bit of guesswork ... GREAT service advice ... bought some more mandolin strings from him too! When I've got the thing set up I'll report back ... Cheers Toby
  5. Thanks for that link Mart ... with "standard" bass tuning and string gauges to input, and lefttybassman's guidelines, I might be able to get somewhere ... equally, if Newtone hand the answer to me on a plate I'll be interested. When I posted this, I thought I'd be told that anyone who was anyone already knew this, and I'd be directed to the standard (much read/repeated) replies ... delighted to stimulate such interest! Cheers Toby
  6. Thanks for this Charic - it arrived while I was composing the other reply ... I've used Newtone for mandolin strings, very nice ... I'll drop them a line if they offer such a service? FANTASTIC! Cheers Toby
  7. Thanks for these thoughts Good basic ideas on gauges Leftybassman ... will look those out. Thanks Bassbuss for a good source of individual strings. Is there any "proper" or "clever" way of working out what gauge string you need? Did skim the net for such a calculator, but if it exists, was choosing the wrong keywords! 130 suggested for the bottom C ... would there be any advantage going even heavier for a 135 (since it apparently exists)? What about the top E? If a 40 would be about right for the A, would a 30 be right, or even lighter at a 25 or 20? Realise I may well need to mess about with the nut, as well as with the saddle, to get it set up OK ... but being reminded of this is GOOD! Realise my hands will move longer distances (Mart) ... like shifting from the mandolin to the octave mandola ... but since I'll probably be playing single or paired strings (I imagine) I thought it'd be worth giving a go ... Cheers Toby
  8. Hi Looking for some help - don't know if this is a familiar issue or completely bizarre! I play bass & 6-string guitar a bit ... but more recently have been playing the mandolin and mandola much more. I recently got given a 5 string bass - a Toby Pro ... my 4-string is a Yamaha RBX ... so we're not talking high-end kit ... but my playing isn't either! Anyhow ... I'd like to have this tuned in 5th's like my mando's ... CGDAE or GDAEB (instead of the conventional EADG 4th's on the 4-string) as I've got very used to? Tried ... but ended up with snapped B strings or floppy C's. Am I just using the wrong strings as they are intended for 4th's - I have tried mixtures of lighter and heavier sets, but it's been guesswork rather than informed choice! Is it a matter of getting the right gauges for the strings ... if so ... can anyone suggest what strings I should be using? Or is this technically/physically/acoustically not possible/realistic on an 87 cms scale-length instrument (or if I do achieve it, will I just break the neck off for instance)? Would it be more sensible to set up the 5-string in a conventional BEADG 4ths' arrangement and put the 4-string in 5ths as GDAE (I'd prefer this, but I suppose a "cello tuning" in CGDA might be OK if the former isn't realistic and this was) ... again ... if I was to do this, what string gauges should I use? Or am I trying to ask too much of these instruments? Cheers Toby
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