DoesThisBassLookBigOnMe

Regarding PMT in Bristol: Although now trading as a PMT store, they are basically the same bunch of people who's business has gone under many times in recent years (I'm not so certain this has anything to do with the recession either!) and each time the store returns like a phoenix from the ashes. They have an OK selection of equipment (not so much for bass players though) but never once have I been satisfied with the staff at their store. To be fair I have noticed a slight improvement in attitudes since they have become PMT though I recognise many of the faces from previous incarnations and I guess this may be where things are going wrong. In a previous incarnation of their store I asked to try some equipment out and was told they don't allow demos anymore because people try their equipment out and then go home and buy it online. Never once have I personally done this to them - instead I have spent thousands in their store on equipment for a home studio. Recently I parked near their entrance with the intention of nipping in and literally spending about £1000 in their store as I knew they had something I wanted. Unwittingly I contravened some unsigned rule about health and safety by parking near their entrance. The manager came out and asked me to park elsewhere. Lucky for him he gave me a b****y good discount so retained my custom. I go there regularly enough to know that there is basically no parking space in their store and most of the spaces that exist are taken up by their staff. In short, not a very professional bunch.

Heh, I was leaning toward the same solution. Thanks for the input, Lawrence. As an update to this I was out visiting a few music stores on the weekend and noticed the Sandberg basses make use of Hipshot's triple string tree gizmos thereby overcoming this problem straight out of the factory. Fender really ought to update their current crop of guitars or at least put out a thoroughly modern rethink of their basses as an option. By modern I'm not talking about fancy figured woods just embuing their products with some actual science that improves the standard instead of perpetuating silly falsehoods and then charging extra for them - such as the nitrocellulose vs poly finish story. I guess I'll have to look to Sandberg and others to lead the charge instead for now.

Just wanted to say thanks for this review. In my opinion, although the end result of anyone's tweaking of an instrument is always subjective, I really appreciate how you've shared the technical aspects of the installation so clearly. It's far more useful than the regurgitated marketing weasel speak usually associated with things like pickup reviews (and a very large portion of other musical products!).

Hopefully a duff string could be ruled out by me swapping in different strings. Unfortunately I only have the one bass so can't try the strings on another. To add to the body of knowledge on this problem I have felt for vibration behind the nut on each of the strings and the A string vibrates very noticeably behind the nut. Not visibly like it does between nut and bridge, of course, but certainly quite strongly to touch. No other string vibrates nearly as much. If they do it's barely perceptable to touch aside from the usual headstock resonance.

Hmm. OK Thanks for that anecdote. Unfortunately it kind of backs up the route I least want to take. I think I'll be best off having it checked out at a luthier but in the meanwhile I've unwound the A string and put just the smallest amount of it into the hole in the string post so that I can have even more of a wind on the tuning post. This has quietened the buzz slightly but not completely eliminated it. I'll probably try put the roundwounds back on and see what happens before I give up and take it to someone who knows what they're doing and might be able to cut a new nut or install a retainer for me though if it's the case that the bass dislikes flatwounds then I'd rather go back to rounds before defacing it. A good excuse to get a bass that can handle the flats I think!

Having just negotiated a little deal with Anth. on a bridge I was selling, I concur with everyone else on this thread. He's really a pleasure to deal with. Thanks

Hi everyone, I have a 2009 model fender standard jazz bass which I bought new and which has been trouble free up until now. I decided to give flatwounds a chance and ordered myself some d'addario chromes in the same gauge as the roundwounds that were on it previously. I did this specifically to avoid any problems with the fit at the nut. I installed the new strings so that they come off the tuning pegs as close to the headstock as possible before they go to the nut and did not cut the strings short at all to maximise this effect. I know that this helps create a good break angle over the nut. Unfortunately my precautions about the nut haven't kept the problems at bay. When I strike the open A string in a downstroke it buzzes. If I hold light pressure on it behind the nut and strike it with a downstroke I can prevent it from buzzing. Funny thing is I can strike it with an upstroke as much as I like and get no buzz. Investigating this on the web it seems to be quite a common problem but usually comes down to people cutting their strings too short to give adequate windings on the tuning peg which leaves them without a good break angle over the nut. In my case I used the entire string. It could still be the break angle I guess since this seems to be a common weakpoint of the fender headstock design and I see that hipshot make a 3 string retainer which might be a solution albeit not in any way inkeeping with the original fender look. The other culprit might be the nut itself, though I'm confused as to how it works just fine with roundwounds of the same gauge but has trouble only with the flatwound A string. Having said that I would be happiest if it was as simple as a new nut because this won't be change the look of the bass. Thanks in advance for any tips

I don't play live so can't speak on that. I agree that Moog's animoog is one of the better synths on the iPad. Instead of simulating a hardware keyboard they spent some effort exploiting the flexibility of being on the iPad. It's good for making sounds that vary dramatically over time. Unfortunately not so cheap anymore. Most users probably bought it during the introductory pricing period. For synths in general on the iPad I check synthtopia.org As for bass use, if you desire something more interesting than a metronome for practice I recommend you look into one of the drum machine apps. Most are much easier to use than a hardware drum machine. I use fingerlabs DM-1 which comes with a fairly comprehensive library of samples from old drum machines, a few acoustic kits and their own, quite modern, sounding dance kits. Using this app I can literally whip together a beat in seconds. I tried garageband for iPad and while it was novel for a while, I find it a pain to use compared to it's full size cousin on my actual mac. I thought it still had use as a practice tool but fatigued quickly of wearing headphones and programming a quantised backing drum beat did not seem possible. It now languishes unused except for friends who come over and use it's built in sampling keyboard to play farting songs. Hope this was of some help

Well heck guys The bass must have really rubbed off on you lot because this is one hell of a warm, woolly, fuzzy welcome. Thanks again.

Friendly place this is! Thanks for the welcome guys.

Hey daz, thanks for the welcome. Made me laugh out loud. Farmer61, thanks to you too. I checked out your band's website. Really like your taste in covers. It's right up my street. Will have see about popping into one of your gigs this weekend.

Hi basschatter's, I'm a 31yr old hobbyist musician. I grew up in South Africa where my dad was a semi pro / part time / acoustic guitarist / singer / one man band. He bought me my first guitar, an MDF knockoff of a Fender Strat in 1994. I think this was to keep my inexperienced but eagre hands off of his own guitar. I now live in Wiltshire. My parents are originally English anyway so moving here was more like a generational return to England. In 2009 my dad passed away and I started playing the ol' MDF strat hard as a way to see myself through things. At some stage I said to my fiance I'd really like a bass to record some backing tracks for me to jam along to. She decided that for my birthday that year, and as a way to commemorate my dad, we would visit some local music shops to check out the basses. I was just about ready to call it quits when we found one last store and I laid my hands on my one and only bass, a Fender Mexican Standard Jazz in Candy Apple Red. Nothing too special but it really spoke to me. Looking back at the receipt for the bass it is clear that the shop assistant easily recognized my instant love for this bass. I paid perhaps a little too much for it despite making a small, unsuccessful, attempt at negotiating a small discount. These days the bass actually gets played more than my old MDF strat. I have an odd setup in that I play the Jazz bass through a Tech 21 VT bass pedal into some Yamaha studio monitors. I prefer it that way as it's very flexible and allows me to play our keyboard, the strat and the bass through the same set of speakers in preference to having a dedicated noise box for each instrument. I have occasionally searched the net for answers to various bass questions I have had and your forum, alongside the more American focused talkbass, has regularly come up with the goods for me. So I thought I'd sign up today and introduce myself. Cheers for having me, DoesThisBassLookBigOnMe (DTBLBOM)