shizznit

The only thing I will leave alone is a refret. Leave that to experienced pros!

I have being doing my own set ups and servicing for years. Once I was shown how to do it by a professional it was a surprise to me to how easy it was. As long as you got the right tools for the job it's very straight forward, albeit a bit time consuming. My soldering still sucks a bit if I am honest! My Shuker order will be arriving soon and Jon asked me last week how I like my basses to be set up. I asked him not to bother wasting time doing that as I can do it myself.

Love em. I have owned a couple of Streamers, Corvettes, a Dolphin and a Thumb (still own that one). Great basses to play and sound awesome. Not the best looking basses ever made, but I have never bought them because of their looks. Comfort and tone comes first for me.

Tone is always subjective and personal approaches and methods to achieve what you want is almost infinitely diverse. There is no law set on how to achieve a desired tones...just very subtle guidelines. Beyond every individual's physical playing technique the choice of bass, amp, strings, leads...even setup plays a significant part in the overall tonal result. Because there are so many assets that contribute to your desired tone it's not always simple to immediately aim at the tone that you want. That's why so many of us here on BC spend a lot of time and money hunting down our 'go to' tone. Above all else, playing technique is the main attribute to getting to that sonic paradise that you want to expect from yourself. All the gear needed to polish off the end result comes later and more than often takes a lot of experimentations/trials and errors. It also takes a lot of time to train your ears and understand how bass frequencies work and the physics that effects them. It's a very difficult sonic spectrum to work within. That takes time and experience to understand and manage. Playing bass requires a lot of thought!

I started with an Encore P bass. Hideous in every way. My next bass was an Aria Pro II Integra which felt and sounded like a £5k Ken Smith in comparison! Then I played a Ken Smith at a shop. My world crumbled before me!

Very nice! Liking this bass more and more as time goes by.

The figuring front and back is jaw droppingly gorgeous!

[quote name='jaydentaku' timestamp='1380552005' post='2226942'] Neck through is hardly niche and as for single cuts being of no use after the 12th fret? [/quote] Bolt on single cut basses are starting to appear on the market quite a lot lately with different carvings around the neck and heel to give a bit more access to the dusty end, but I have never struggled to play either a bolt on or thru neck single cut all the way up to the 24th fret. It depends on your playing technique and hand posture. If you are a player that throws their thumb over the top of the neck whilst playing (not resting your thumb behind the neck and leaving a gap between your palm and the neck) you will always struggle to get up to the higher notes no matter if you play a single or double cut bass.

It's happening in other areas of the musical instrument trade. More so in the brass market. You can now buy saxophones and trumpets that have been relic'd so that they appear that they have been left outside for a couple of weeks. Absolutely daft.

I often play dub, reggae and ska and tens to roll off the treble and boost the mids a bit on my bass. I never touch the bass EQ on the bass or amp in danger of harming my speakers. If you use 10" or 12" speakers you have to respect their usaable range and more bass is not always the best approach

Awesome! Great work Rich! Are you going I have enough time to paint it?

I use Elixirs for both recording and performance. They are awesome strings. But, like any other string brand, they are bright and supple for the first hour or two of use then settle into a more rounded, but still very bright and manageable tone. The tone and intonation from the strings are consistent for a very a long time, which is what you want when recording. I have used other brands in the past whereby the tone of the strings have fallen off dramatically over just two days. The strings on my J are D'Addario half wound and I use those strings for that bass only for sessions whereby I need a bit more classic thump in my tone which I can't get from fresh Elixirs. Plus, there's a little less string squeak with half wounds which some engineers love. Flats are good for a nice warm mid range and work really well for a classic tone. They will last for a very long time, but they will eventually lose their intonation over time. It all depends what approach you take and which result you want. If you want a clean, flat and hi-fi tone...use fresh strings. If you want a more classic and rounded tone...older strings are fine, but half wound strings are becoming quite popular for recording these days. Give them a try. I don't like using old strings for hygiene reasons more than anything else.

EBS (see my signature). Those amps and cabs really work for me. As long as EBS are still in business I can't see myself using anything else. Their prices are a bit of a draw back though. But, if all EBS amps and cabs mysteriously vanished overnight I would go back to Hartke. Quite different to EBS, but I love the Hartke tone.

Spoke to Jon earlier and he explained the hold up with Hiscox. It's out of his control and was very apologetic about it. I was going to go to the workshop today, but I have a performance tonight with a sound check for 4pm. I couldn't risk it.

Hoped to have the bass delivered today as I haven't got the time to drive up to Sheffield to pick up the bass in person, but Jon has run out of cases and won't get a new batch from Hiscox until next week. Dammit! So bloody close now!

The thumb rest has been on the bass for three days now and all is good. The glue did not bleed around the edges of the thumb rest, so it looks pretty clean. I also applied a small strip of frosted acetate above the thumb rest to prevent my thumb marking the wood whilst playing.

Either way, it's good to see the brand at a shop. Jon's completion times for new orders are pretty long to say the least, so it's a good opportunity to grab yourself a quality bass instantly. Mark has had a few 2nd hand Shukers pass through the shop in recent years, but having 4 brand spanking new ones in stock, individually unique and different models at that, is pretty special.

I love the green Überhorn, if it wasn't green!

Is Mark now stocking Shuker basses? Seems to have 4 brand new pieces in the shop at the moment... http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Shuker_stock.html

Aria, Alembic, Music Man and Jaydee basses were very popular in the 80's pop movement. I owned a Jaydee Supernatural which was stunning to play (when the electronics were working)

All their albums are great, but I don't listen to Beneath The Surface and Eleven much. Bluey has found himself the strongest lineup I think he has ever had for Incognito as it stands. I have spoken to Tony Momrelle a couple of times. Very cool guy.

Has anyone tried the Thumpinator through the amps effects loop yet? Does it work better going into the front?

Francis Hylton is the man! My favourite Incognito bassist. Some of his best work is on Surreal.

Okay, the thumb rest is on. I masked the area with tape to the same surface area of the bottom if the thumb rest and lightly sanded it. I glued the thumb rest into place using eproxy resin glue that was knocking about underneath my kitchen sink. I will leave it overnight to set, but it looks very tidy. Looks like it was originally fitted by the factory, so I am delighted with my handy work . By the way...the bass sounds gorgeous! I will try a set of black nylon strings next month to see how the bass responds. Sounds lovely unplugged and a lot louder than I was expecting.