Jean-Luc Pickguard

If anyone asks about the finish when you're playing it you could tell them its an x-ray bass and is currently displaying your stomach contents

'Lick my love pump' in D minor, the saddest of all keys?

It looks like something Barney Rubble might play

I agree, they look great on the bass. I was pleased about how much smoother they are than the stock Wilkinsons. A nice touch is that there's an allen screw at the bottom end of each tuner's shaft to adjust the tension. I'm sure you'll do a better job of lining them up than I did with mine - I carefully aligned the top row of screws which resulted in the lower row being slightly stepped. I guess the trick is to make a pen mark on masking tape between each pair of holes on the left & right sides of each tuner & keep those marks in a straight line. I'll fill & redrill to fix this sometime, but I'm not in a hurry as its not too bad. I'd never heard of Duralumin Alloy before, but I have found out one of its uses was for the frame of Zeppelins including the LZ 129 Hindenberg.

I'd be worried about dislocating my thumb if I played like that, but if he had done that at least he would have been able to listen to this track in the hospital's elevator.

I bought a set of Gotoh GB640 res-o-lite twiddlers for my thunderbird and got around to fitting them today. In my haste I think I could have fitted them a little straighter so I'll probably refit them at some point but I'm very happy with the classic vintage-cool 'long stem' look. The stock Wilkinsons were OK but in addition of look much better these are lighter and smoother. This GB640 set tunes the standard way, but there's also a GBR640 set which have reverse gearing like vintage Klusons and other modern versions that look like Klusons. Another difference common to the GB640 & GBR640 is that the baseplate fits flat without needing to drill dimples like you would for original vintage & vintage replica versions. They are made from something called duralumin alloy and weigh just 67g each.

I have owned a Zoom H1 for many years and it has never let me down. I am still frequently surprised by the high quality gig recordings I can capture with it, however in the rehearsal studio it is difficult to get a balanced recording as the vocal PA speakers are positioned as monitors pointing into the room - ie in the opposite direction to how they'd point for a gig, so the vocals aren't picked up as well as everything else if the H1 is at the front of the room. I can compensate for this by setting up the H1 to one side of the room rather than the front, which picks up more of the vocals but results in the stereo field being less balanced. A workaround might be to set up a additional monitor for the PA and set it up to point towards the H1, however it is not my rehearsal room so I'd prefer not to rearrange the gear, and there would probably need to be some trial & error in setting levels and/or distance for best results. I've been looking into the spec of the Zoom H2n as a possible replacement for the H1. It has five mics which can be set for four different recording modes and has inbuilt fx including compression, limiting & low cut filtering which sounds handy. I'm wondering whether using one of the recording modes with the H2n in the centre of the room would enable me to capture a more balanced stereo recording of rehearsals. Does anyone have any experience of the H2n or a similar 'surround-capable' recorder for recording like this? if so any insights would be useful.

It was a pleasure to buy Tom's EHX B9 Organ Machine Pedal. Fast friendly communication and the pedal arrived the next day, well packed and in mint condition.

I can vouch for your Aguilar amp & barefaced cabs - they sounded fantastic at Robin's jam night a couple of weeks ago. I've just thought of another piece of kit which exceeded my expectations - I bought a secondhand Roland MicroCube bass RX to have something battery powered which is loud enough for quiet acoustic jams with my Kala U-bass, but It is not only a lot more powerful than the specs would suggest, but the amp sims, particularly the fliptop & SVT are excellent and very inspiring so I now use it as my everyday practice amp and keep it set up next to my desk.

Have you ever bought any bass gear which you expected to be good, but turned out to far exceed expectations? For me this would be my Epiphone vintage pro bass. I've owned a bolt-on epiphone thunderbird before and still have a pro-v 5 string, and I expected the vintage pro to be prettier version of something between the two. I've not used roundwounds since the last century, but after receiving the bass I played it for a few weeks with the stock strings and apart from the abrasive roundwounds on my fingertips I loved the feel of the bass - the 'oval' narrow neck with a slightly rounded fingerboard edge and the well finished fret-ends make it very comfortable to play. I was not prepared for how good it sounded though - the pro-bucker pickups sound huge and are dripping with tone. It is possible to a massive range of usable tones with just the three knobs and it is sometimes hard to believe it is a passive bass. The roundwounds had a little too much zing for my taste when they wrre new, the bridge pickup was on and the tone pot was open. I didn't enjoy the feel of the strings as much as I enjoyed the sound so I decided to get some La Bella 750T white nylons, hoping for a brighter variation on flatwounds, but not really knowing what kind of tone to expect from them. Once I had the strings on the bass, the smooth feel was even better than my previous favourite strings Thomastik TI-344, but what I liked about the bass's tone with the stock strings on was preserved, perhaps with a little more low end punch and without the excess brittle zing. I don't know whether the La Bellas would work this well on every bass, but they are perfect for me on this one. So this bass which cost me £450 (b-stock for a near-invisible minor cosmetic issue) and a set of £30 strings (it pays to shop around) which I originally bought mainly due to the super-cool vintage looks rather than for it to become my main bass, has replaced my CIJ mustang as my go-to bass for rehearsals and recording, it's the first one I grab to play at home, and I used it on my only gig since I bought it. What has anyone else bought - perhaps a combination of bass/amp/strings/fx/etc which was expected to be good, but far exeeded those expectations?

I'd put the Jazz neck on the precision body and hide the Jazz body & Precision neck from the missus in the loft.

The line “Aside from the paint job it looks all original with the split pick ups and elephant ear tuners.” looks pretty meaningless when the honking great badass II stands out as much as the nasty refinish but isnt even mentioned.

I’d just slap a bit of gaffer tape over it

I use a Schroeder 1212L (the one with one of the drivers at an angle) with a MarkBass LM II. Excellent sound and can be very loud if needed.

That sounds like a lame excuse. If he was told it was an alder body and the indication is that it is basswood or agathis, that has been misrepresented. He should turn up and tell the vendor he wants to reverse the trade for both that reason and that the strat is not fit for purpose as it cannot be set up properly.

With no pay there's no Contract. I wouldn't play

Cowpoke was a nickname given to this model of precision bass by members of a US forum - possibly the long-gone dudepit. My understanding is that the nickname was due to the shape of the pickguard resembling the yokes of a western/cowboy shirt. I really liked the look of these back in the day but was underwhelmed when I tried the MIM one they had at Rockbottom in Croydon.

Just under two miles

I got a thunderbird vintage pro a few weeks ago just after they leapt in price everywhere. I was initially after a white one but when I saw this sunbust one in stock & advertised as new/B-stock at a bargain price it would have been rude not to. The reason for the reduction is a tiny area of rub-through of the black finish at the far edge of the headstock which is only noticable when you look for it. It'll probably pick up dents in that area before too long if it collides with cymbals on a cramped stage. I normally use thomastik, La Bella or fender flats on my other basses but I wanted to get a brighter tone from this bass so I kept the stock roundwounds on until today when a couple of sets of La Bella 750T white nylon tapes arrived. I've just fitted a set to the t-bird and I'm knocked out by how well they work for me on this bass. They have a similar tension to Thomastik JF344 jazz flats so I can play with a lighter touch like I can with TIs, but the sound seems to lean more towards rounds more than flats & the ultra smooth surface feels perfect for me. Changing the strings showed the tuners as being less smooth than ones on my other basses, although they work fine for tuning up. If I do replace them I'll probably get a set of Gotoh GB-640 res-o-lites, but they aren't cheap. I can live with the existing ones though. Looking forward to my first rehearsal with the La Bellas next week and my gig with the bass next weekend.

Send an enquiry to Roland at https://www.roland.co.uk/spares/ select microcube bass rx on the drop-down menu

Weird that the dodgy listings remain visible when amazon knows that the account has been hacked.

I'd be tempted by the Gibson Thunderbird for £480 but if something looks too good to be true it usually is. There's no way they can be selling it at that price and have four in stock. The shop's negative feedback has jumped up to 13% in the last 30 days

My epiphone pro-v went totaly dead a couple of weeks ago after I tightened up one of the pots. I initialy wondered whether there was a problem with the active circuit but it turned out that the pot had rotated so one of the terminals was touching the shielding paint. Once it was straightened out it was fine, so check that nothing is shorting out. Also when the socket was replaced was it replaced with a switchcraft one? I've found that the cheapo (eg from maplins) can lose their springiness after a while & often start to crackle & lose contact before too long.