Jean-Luc Pickguard

I've never enjoyed 'acoustic guitar style' bronze bass strings - new ones are far too zingy for my taste. I did try the Thomastik acoustic bass set on my tanglewood acoustic bass, but they went manky very quickly and made my hands feel stickly and smell weird. I put on a worn-in set of TI 324 flats from my mustang instead and much prefer the feel & sound (& not having weird smelling hands). Not as loud by an acoustic bass by is that important if it needs to be amped anyway?

It is probably a good idea to try a few different ones - both unplugged and through an amp, but if you like the tanglewood go for it. I have a Tanglewood Rosewood Reserve Acoustic bass & it is lovely. The only problem I have with it is that the preamp has tiny lettering on it so I can't read the labels on the various controls without my specs.

[quote name='hubrad' timestamp='1436115963' post='2815094'] Dunno really, seems practical to me. Just get a fretless - no zero fret either way! [/quote] I do have a fretless - a 'bitzer' precision I put together many years ago. The maple/ebony neck didn't come with a nut fitted so I made one by cutting/filing a 'synthetic ivory' chopstick.

Almost every new bass/guitar/ukulele I have bought, has had to have the nut adjusted before it was properly playable. One notable exception was the hohner B2A 'licensed by steinberger' cricket bat bass which I bought new in 1986. This has a zero fret, so the height of the nut does not need adjustment. Just wondering why more instruments don't have a zero fret. Is it because most of the popular brands traditionally don't have zero frets? does it make the fabrication of the neck more hassle? or is there likely to be some other reason?

Mine works well with my NS CR-5M electric upright, but I no longer own a 'proper' DB

Squier & other 'budget' instruments tend to have crappy cheapo pots that eventually go scratchy & sockets that lose their spring so I always swap them out for CTS & switchcraft* so they're less likely to fail during or just before a gig. A bent shaft on the original pot of a squier wouldn't worry me as it won't be staying on the bass for long. * except my squier VM SS jag bass which has all EMG gubbins now.

I think a lot more people that this would affect would sign the [url="https://www.change.org/p/vince-cable-mp-uphold-the-vat-exemption-threshold-for-businesses-supplying-digital-products"]petition[/url] if they knew it would affect them, but anyone selling a few cost MP3s on their own web site - or ebooks, knitting patterns etc using WordPress with Easy Digital Downloads or any other self-hosted system is unlikely to have checked EU VAT regulation so will only find out about the changes and realise that this flustercluck applies to them if they come across something about it on a forum or social media.

The change in legislation is that from 1st January 2015 when you sell digital services such as mp3s, videos, ebooks, downloadable software in the EU etc the VAT that applies is that in the country of the buyer, not the seller. The £81K threshold we enjoy here in the UK that means anyone selling their stuff perhaps as a sole trader as a side gig will now have to register for VAT in the UK and also register in every EU state they sell to or signup for called the Mini One Stop Shop service (MOSS) that helps them sort out the EU VAT. If you're selling downloads on your own site and someone in Germany buys a 99p MP3 you're stuffed unless you ignore the VAT aspect and risk an unlimited fine. Rachel Andrew expains what's going on at [url="http://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2014/10/13/the-horrible-implications-of-the-eu-vat-place-of-supply-change/"]http://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2014/10/13/the-horrible-implications-of-the-eu-vat-place-of-supply-change/[/url] Isabel Zinaburg has started a petition to call for Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, to intervene and uphold the existing VAT Exemption Threshold for businesses supplying digital products. Please sign it if you think the changes are a bad idea. [url="https://www.change.org/p/vince-cable-mp-uphold-the-vat-exemption-threshold-for-businesses-supplying-digital-products"]https://www.change.org/p/vince-cable-mp-uphold-the-vat-exemption-threshold-for-businesses-supplying-digital-products[/url] You need to keep detailed records on each purchaser including a billing address and IP address and check that the geographical location matches before making the sale. The records need to be stored for up to eleven years and this may mean that businesses need to register with the Data Protection Commissioner. HMRC held a twitter Q&A which is archived at: [url="http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/hm-revenue-customs-hmrc/blog_posts/eu-vat-changes-twitter-q-a-31555"]http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/hm-revenue-customs-hmrc/blog_posts/eu-vat-changes-twitter-q-a-31555[/url] I though a possible solution for me might be to block non-uk EU sales, however the Q&A flagged up that this may fall foul of anti-discriminatory laws. This nonsense was brought in to stop companies charging 15% luxembourg VAT in countries where the VAT can be as high as 27%, but it is affecting many thousands of sole traders and small companies who can no longer sell on their own websites and will need to use a 3rd party site who will take care of all the VAT - like amazon. The VATMOSS portal has been tested by four people and after completing thir assessment we have concluded the VAT Mini One Stop Shop service should not be given approval to be a live service on the HMRC portal: [url="https://gdsdata.blog.gov.uk/vat-mini-one-stop-shop-service-assessment/"]https://gdsdata.blog.gov.uk/vat-mini-one-stop-shop-service-assessment/[/url]

I had one for a while as a 'spare' amp. It had a decent tone and was loud enough for a rehearsal or small gig but had trouble keeping up when the drummer and two guitarists got a bit heavy-handed. I recall it being a lot heavier than I'd expect it to be for its size & the volume it pumped out.

I had a couple of bass in a big name storage facility for a while when I finally them out of storage the strings were corroded and the frets were green. Luckily they were OK after a good clean, new strings, and a setup. I'd never put a bass in storage again. Instead I'd probably look for a trustworthy friend who'd be able to keep them in a spare room. I'd love to know why a luthier would recommend detuning. The function of the truss rod is to counter the tension of the strings, but when it no longer has the strings pulling against it, surely it can only do more harm than good.

Well, I got an email back back from thomann in reply to the one about my rusty nuts. Pleased that there's no attempt to fob me off with a 'they're all like that' this time & they also sent another prepaid return label to print off so my second Little Kahuna Bass is now boxed up & will be going to the post office later. It'll take another two weeks before I receive a replacement - if they have a replacement to send as the lead-time is now listed as 'ordered on request' whatever that means. Oh well.

[quote name='stingraybassman' timestamp='1411804276' post='2562880'] Did I miss anything... [/quote] Some say you can tell a lot about a person by their answer to the question on Danny Baker's sausage sandwich game: You've just been handed a sausage sandwich do you ask for Red Sauce or Brown? Robert Plant went right down in my estimation with his answer [spoiler]Salad Cream[/spoiler]

I've sent thomann some pics - I wonder whether the guitar dept will tell the customer services dept that this is normal for this model & they're all like that - like they initially did for the issues on the first one.

I sent my HB Kahuna bass back for a replacement due to the weird asymmetrical chunky neck profile & some visible tooling marks on the neck. The replacement arrived this morning. The neck profile is still slightly asymmetrical, but nowhere near as bad as the original and not chunky either, so it is much more comfortable to play. Also I've not noticed any tooling marks on the neck & the nut is fitted better as the original had a 3mm (ish) gap under the nut which had been filled with glue. I don't want to be picky about such a cheap bass - especially after its been replaced once already, but on this new one, all four nuts & washers on the tuners are actually rusty. I've never seen anything like that on black hardware before - surely no one would fit rusty hardware to a bass - the packaging shows no indication of having been damp, but unlike the previous one I didn't notice any silica gel bags in the packaging, so maybe this occured in storage or transit. Has anyone else noticed rusty nuts on their little kahuna?

I visited a town during the summer where a 99p store opened up undercutting poundland and taking away their monopoly of cheap crap, so poundland dropped their prices to 98p leading to the 99p store reacting by dropping to 97p. At the end of the week when I left, one of the shops was pricing everything at 95p, but I don't know how low they eventually got.

If there's a poundland near you they often have decent belkin ones. I'm not sure how much they cost though.

I did a Sunday afternoon one at the now defunct Grove Tavern in South Wimbledon & my car was broken into while I was playing. Another that band played in Guildford, it was plainly obvious that the 'charity gig' was really an excuse to get the mayor to cut the ribbon when they reopened under a different name and get publicity in the local paper and a bunch of goodwill from the locals. The promised free pints for the band and petrol money never materialised. My opinion these days to not play 'em for free unless the bar & security staff are also working for free. Its a ripoff - even if the pub makes a song & dance about donating a few hundred quid from the takings, I doubt they're likely to be out of pocket if the beer has been flowing from lunchtime to closing.

Could be worse - I've just seen on twitter that people with blackberries are getting a Nickleback album sent to their phones

I put a kent armstong hot rails humbucker into a 71 musicmaster and a kent armstong enclosed cool rails humbucker into a 72 musicmaster. The cool rails sounds a lot better to me darker & punchier where the hotrails has more mids and less bass. The enclosed cool rails I used looks just like a stock musicmaster pickup as well. I don't know how the KAs compare to the SDs though

Yellow with an S8 serial (or S9) would most likely be a 1980/81 'Monaco Yellow' as part of the 'international' colour range. This range also included capri orange, Maui Blue and cherry sunburst. The cherry sunburst Precision I bought new in '82 & still own is could probably be used as an anchor for the QE2, as could the others in the international range I tried at the time. I believe the weight is due to the heavy northern 'baseball bat' Ash of the body which weighs a lot more than Alder or southern Swamp Ash

Dunno about U2, but something that sounds like a coldplay album and labelled as a U2 one seems to have appeared in my iTunes library

a set or two of these thomann own brand ones might be worth looking at http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_valuestrings_bassguitar_medium.htm you'd need to order 48 sets to get free shipping though

I found a Burns B3 theremin in the Local Trash converters for £50 last year. I sold it on ebay a couple of weeks later for £138.

This sorry episode seems to be due to a lack of communication being built into the business model. No one wants any surprises when they pay such a large sum for a bespoke article. Using weird & wonderful names to describe something so visual even with the samples alongside is never going to work as you'll never have the same piece of tort twice and as the pattern is so random that the way it can be described will aleays be subjective. In this case the description of the samples and what was supplied do not seem to correspond well. The obvious way around the issue to prevent this from reoccurring in future is for the vendor to take a photo of the piece of tort he initially selects to fulfil the order with a clear overlay on top to show the outline of how the pg will look once cut & email a pic to the customer for approval. if it isnt what the customer had in mind, he still has the uncut material and a better idea of what the customer requires. Based on the feedback received he'd then either cut the pickguard or similarly send another pic using that until the customer does say "yes thats the one".

I've had mine a couple of weeks & it still needs tuning every time I pick it up, but it has seemed to settle down a bit since it was brand new. I'll probably try some kala/aquila Rumber silver strings (once I've checked they'll fit) which may help improve tuning stability, but compared to my (now sold) Ashbory bass the uke bass seem a lot better behaved. I think some smoothing of the nut slots and application of graphite may help with the stings catching when tuning, but if its possible to make some kind of roller nut that would be ideal. For now I just raise & lower the string from the nut to even the tension when tuning - which seems to work as the strings are so stretchy.