Jean-Luc Pickguard

@cubecolour here!

I'm a big fan of the Behringer XM8500 -similar to an SM58, but under £20. we use them for backing vocals. Cheap doesn't mean shoddy with these - they seem to have a higher output than SM58s and a bit more clarity.

[quote name='MarkNS4' post='1312202' date='Jul 21 2011, 11:32 PM']Does no-one use the neck as a rest?[/quote]

Oh yes - I do that - its the best way to play my danelectro longhorn

I think it looks like this

Short scale 30" - mustang bass, danelectro longhorn
Medium scale - 32" - Daisy Rock Elite, Some unusual Fenders - Stu Hamm (?)
Long scale - 34" - Fender Jazz, Fender Precision, Gibson Thunderbird
Extra Long - 35" - Lakland 5ers

If you go for 32" medium strings on a Precision you *might* get away with it, and then the silks *might* go over the nut.

[quote name='silddx' post='1311923' date='Jul 21 2011, 07:19 PM'] Frank Gambale [/quote]

JB could pick up a few tips about sartorial elegance from Frank

I came to the conclusion that I didn't like thumbrests & prefer a fender chrome pickup cover to rest my hand on (like a cack-handed version of James Jamerson or Marcus Miller). On basses that don't have a cover, I just float my thumb, although I've temporarily blu-taked a jazz cover to my mustang to see whether its worth fitting one properly - not sure yet, but my initial impression is that it seems to be an improvement.

[quote name='bigash' post='1310901' date='Jul 20 2011, 10:12 PM']What should i do regarding the seller, any ideas.[/quote]
Ask a basschatter in his local area to kick him in the nuts?

If it is a short scale, LaBella make a Danelectro-specific set of deep talkin' flats which are supposed to be just like the original 50s. I don;t know what the originals were like, but I bought a set. They fit my Korean danelectro longhorn perfectly and they have a guitar-type ballend which fits into the recess in the bridge better than the crappy rotos I had before.

I tried one (fretless) before getting my CR5M. If I had the money I'd have bought both. If you liked the CR4, but couldn't get on with the scale I think you'll probably love the OmniBass. I can't believe how much the prices have shot up since I got my CR5M.

[quote name='ficelles' post='1307373' date='Jul 18 2011, 02:34 AM']The best ever guy I saw on one of these was a support act for Kevin Bloody Wilson at the Hexagon in Reading some time in the 90s... forget his name but he was an American comic telling the bluest jokes you can imagine while not only riding a unicycle but at the same time juggling an axe, an egg, and a giant dildo. Had to be seen to be believed.

ficelles[/quote]
He was juggling an axe, an egg AND Jeff Berlin?

I use a guitar tuned like a banjo with no low E string - like Keef

Thanks for clearing that up. The dead spot stuff was a red herring, so clamping something to your headstock won't solve your problem.

When you say you "messed around with the truss rod", do you mean you were following any directions on how to adjust it and understand the prinicples of what the truss rod does & how it does it? or were you giving it a tweak to see what happens? If the latter it is unlikely you'll be able to set the optimum amount of relief correctly and in that case it's worth letting someone more experience take a look. where are you based? perhaps there's a BCer local to you who foes his own setups who can have a look?

[quote name='henry norton' post='1302340' date='Jul 13 2011, 01:57 PM']Whoaahh!! Hold on before you go clamping overpriced weights to your headstock (or cheap G clamps for that matter). From the wording in your post it sounds like you're suffering from the string choking because of uneven or worn frets. There's a big difference between that and a tonal dead spot, which is actually quite rare and usually fairly subtle on an electric bass wherein the strings play ok apart from one or two positions when all the life and 'ring' seems to go out of the note. Bad fretting has only one proper cure, that's a proper levelling and set up. Genuine dead spots can be sorted by something as simple as a change of strings as it's to do with resonance but I wouldn't attempt any kind of cure 'til the bass was set up correctly.[/quote]
Good points. It does sound as if the bass needs a setup - we all zoomed in on the words "dead spot", but that could well be a red herring as the sypical symptoms of a dead spot aren't mentioned. The OP doesn't mention setting the truss rod if the relief is incorrect, no amount of setting the height at the bridge will help and messing about with the intonation will only affect how out of tune it is over the neck.

My highway 1 jazz had a deadspot that sucked the life out of playing a C on the 5th fret of the G string. I have a fatfinger on it now & the deadspot disappeared.

There is an easy way to try this in principle if you don't know anyone who can let you try a fatfinger and don't want to shell out for one before knowing if it'll help: Get down to the local poundshop and buy one of their sets of tiny cast-iron mini G-Clamps. Put some blu-tak/rubber/card/felt on the clamping surface to protect the bass and attach it to the headstock - It will work just like a fatfinger to shift the deadspot away from where you'll hear it. Of course the G-Clamp will look fugly & ridiculous, so once you've proved to yourself whether the science works or not, you can decide whether buy a fatfinger with confidence.

He should listen to some bauhaus / love & rockets - David J has his own sound.

[quote name='ped' post='1299850' date='Jul 11 2011, 01:01 PM']Ben mentioned something to me about a kernel issue or something[/quote]

****ing Liberty Basses


Not sure if it was a model or a sub brand, but I think Liberty was a range of budget electric guitars & basses by tanglewood.

Never heard of this happening before - are you sure its the bridge actually bending? What kind of bridge its it? With a standard Fender BBoT or a copy, I'd imagine you'd need a ridiculous amount of string tension to bend it. Are the bridge screws good & tight & holding it on properly? If not, perhaps the screwholes need packing with the old toothpick & glue trick.

Can you post a piccy of it?

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='1298230' date='Jul 9 2011, 02:05 PM']And note the Non-Standard bridge (can't see what it is) and some sort of switching- What do [b]2[/b] switches do on a precision?

Series/parallel, maybe. What's the second? On/Off? [/quote]
Looks like it *might* be a Badass

It looks like its only got a single pickup, so apart from a series/parallel the only other thing I can think of that would use a switch would be some kind of a preamp.

[quote]RRP: £399.99 | SAVE: £160
Chase Price: £127.49[/quote]
I wonder whether its the original price, the discount, or the selling price they've got wrong.

If you don't like the pickups on a squier, you can replace them & still be within budget. I wouldnt need to though as the tone when I tried the jaguar sounded great to my ears even with the stock strings

I know where I'm not wanted

I tried a squier Vintage Modified Jaguar short scale bass recently and I wouldn't hesitate to use one live (I usually use a Fender Mustang).

You can pick one up for £190 which is fantastic value.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='1295768' date='Jul 7 2011, 11:02 AM'][/quote]Nice!

I bet I'm not the only one who this pic made an impact on back in the day...