Jean-Luc Pickguard

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.

In case anyone's after one of these, a new batch of these Frey Bentos uke basses seems to be available at Thomann: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_kahuna_clu_bass.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_kahuna_clu_bass.htm[/url]

My epiphone pro-v is wearing a set of thomastik jf345 flats - its just a bass nothing special about it that would prevent flats working

ik multimedia are having a half price sale at the moment on all the amplitube stuff. I use the ampeg svx package as my home practice amp and its the best bass sound I've ever got when plugged into a laptop. I also have guitar rig, but after I upgraded the HDD on my macbook by cloning the old one & also upgraded the OS to mavericks, guitar rig thinks I'm trying to pull a fast one, and whenever I try to use it, it outputs a sine wave after a few minutes and flashes up a message falsely accusing me of using an unlicensed copy. I will probably need to totally uninstall it & set it up again from scratch. I probably won't bother reinstalling it though as amplitube sounds a lot better to my ears.

The only basses that I have taken out of the house recently for gigs, recording, rehearsals & jams have been my CIJ mustang, Squier VM SS jaguar & danelectro longhorn — all 30" scale, plus the harley benton uke bass. My long scales haven't been getting much action lately.

This looks interesting but pointless http://www.youtube.com/v/PJCRBPY_bJ0 Shame that the resultant sound as awful as is the choice of song to demo it

It looks like the current batch is sold out. The bass is showing on the Thomann site as "not part of the current product range anymore." http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_kahuna_clu_bass.htm so I guess the slightly weird neck profile isn't enough to return it - I'll live with it for now & maybe reshape it sometime later. I had heard reports that on the previous batch the response was not even across the strings - some people were saying the E string was very quiet. On mine it seems perfect. The output is fairly low compared to magnetic pickups or how I remember the preamp was in my old Ashbory, but that isn't a problem. Turning the eq knob to the treble side sounds scratchy and not very pleasant but turning to the bass side sounds full & punchy. The tuner is pretty useless & doesn't help much. Regarding the talc: I don't think that the oils in fragranced talc will do the strings any good which is why I use 'simple' talc, but the plastic containers simple comes in is quite large and it dumps too much out at a time - I refilled an empty 100ml travel pack of 'johnson's' with 'simple' which can sprinkle just a tiny amount into your hand and fits neatly into a gigbag.

I've had a chance to play with my HB kahuna bass now. The strings seem to be much more like that original ashbory silicone strings than the black kala/roadtoad pahoehoes. They are too grabby to play comfortably — at least when they are new. A tiny amount of unscented 'simple' talc helps a lot. The bass sounds good plugged in as long as the eq is turned all the way to the bass side, but the profile of the back of the neck is a little weird on mine — its very square and chunky around the first fret position, which feels strange and a little uncomfortable on the thumb. I wonder whether they're all like that?

Looks very nice highfox. Mine was delivered yesterday, but I'm 200 miles away so I'll only get to unbox it tomorrow evening. I might try a bit of unscented talc on the strings - like I used to use on my ashbory.

fyi - you can use two vouchers on a single order - the second can be pasted into the 'comments' text field with a note and they'll adjust it as required. I actually emailed to ask whether my second voucher which I received the day after I placed the order could be applied, expecting a 'no' but instead I got a 'no problem'

a ukulele – eg: http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_kahuna_clu_40s.htm

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' timestamp='1405508119' post='2502484'] I reviewed the other half of my previous purchases last night and got another voucher this morning - this time for €30. It looks like the order I placed hasn't been processed yet so I've been cheeky & asked whether this voucher can also be applied to my order... [/quote] Got a reply back yesterday saying "no problem"and the order dispatched shortly after so I've now saved €55 - just over £40 - on the cost of the order by writing a bunch of reviews. Now I'm realy looking forward to having some fun with the uke bass or the 'little kahuna' as it will probably be referred to.

I reviewed the other half of my previous purchases last night and got another voucher this morning - this time for €30. It looks like the order I placed hasn't been processed yet so I've been cheeky & asked whether this voucher can also be applied to my order. If not I'll have until the end of October to use it. I'm sure I'll need to get hold of some aquila thundergut strings to keep as spares before then so not a problem if I can't apply the discount to the current order.

I was looking at the Thomann website last week and happened upon a page suggesting I review some of the stuff I had bought previously. I must have been feeling accomodating, so I left a few short reviews to say what I liked about various bits of gear & accessories. Yesterday I received a €25 voucher as a thank you which was totally unexpected and very welcome as it means the Harley Benton bass ukulele I was planning to order anyway is now only costing me a little over £80. Why didn't anyone tell me earlier that Thomann have a policy of rewarding people who leave reviews?

I bet this chap wished he was picking Victor Wooten up from the airport rather than a Thrash Metal band

I have just launched a new mobile-first responsive single-page site for my band. [url="http://junkyardrocket.co.uk"]http://junkyardrocket.co.uk[/url] I normally use WordPress for everything, however once I decided that I wanted to maximise usablility by stripping out anything that wasn't important, it was clear that a CMS probably wasn't required. I used bootstrap with a custom stylesheet, some jQuery plugins & a bit of custom scripting. I'm thinking of turning the template into a WordPress theme aimed at bands with the contact form / audio / scroller functionality included as custom plugins with customisable colour schemes, but alternatively it might be better to add in some flat file functionality system to keep it lightweight and keep the admin overhead as minimal as possible.

I think it is an original version (c2003-2008) honey blond highway 1 precision with a changed pickguard. The 60th anniversary badge identifies it as being made in 2006

I initially used springs on the screws instead of neoprene when I built my Fretless 'P' bitzer. It made the pickup microphonic. I then chopped up a cheapo ikea mousemat and used a few layers under the pickup instead & it was much better

Cheers for the replies chaps. I'd already tried cleaning the old strings with planet waves string cleaner & fast fret but it made no difference. I've not used nylon wrapped strings for a while so I might look into investing in a set. I put the old set of JF324s on & they sound & feel pretty good - I'll need to find the tool to give the truss rod a tweak but its not far out.

I hardly play my Tanglewood (Rosewood Reserve) acoustic bass as the Thomastik Acousticore AB324 Phosrphor Bronze strings feel 'grabby' and make my hands stink after playing. I'm thinking of putting on an old set of JF-324 flats as I love the feel of those on my short scale solid basses & I expect they'll give me a deep thump on the acoustic rather than the zingy twang of a new set of bronze acoustic roundwounds. Is it just me, just these strings or does everyone get this with bronze acoustic strings?

At least its not coldplay. Its probably a gimmick done for BS reasons like when Alicia Keys was blackberry's global creative director.

The batteries in my P were still good after a couple of years, but i don't use that one much so that isn't much of an indication. The test will be the jaguar which is my main rehearsal & gigging bass, but EMGs need very little power and I've only put the batteries in recently so I doubt they'll need replacing for a while. I'll post an update to this thread when I do change them — if I remember. If your basses can already fit a pair of 9v batteries I don't think you'd need the 24v mod thing as there's no difference sound-wise between 18v & 24v as far as I can tell and I expect the battery life will be shorter.

[attachment=163309:24v.jpg] My Squier Jag SS VM bass has a set of EMG PJX pickups. I wouldn't be able to use a harness made from three battery clips to add a second battery for the essential 18v mod as it hardly has room for a single 9v battery. Instead I made this little fella to hold a pair of 23A 12V batteries (car alarm plipper type). The battery holders and battery clips came from ebay sellers in China. Not done much of a sound test to see how much if any improvement there is in the sound, but I didn't kill the pickups - the important thing to remember when soldering the battery holder to the clip is that the red wire on the holder needs to be soldered to the black wire on the clip & vice-versa. I have the parts to make another but I'm waiting for some more batteries so I'll make another for my '81 precision which also has an EMG but is currently powered by 18 volts using an AAA battery holder full of the button cells you find inside 23A batteries.

A heads-up for anyone with an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch who likes free stuff & needs another tuner - IK's UltraTuner is currently free as a free in-app purchase within amplitube IOS & also free as a stand-alone app