Jean-Luc Pickguard

I've taken a set of ancient Rotosound short scale jazz flats off my daphne blue '72 musicmaster as the intonation was all over the place and the tone was a bit indistinct. Had a look through a huge box of bags of removed strings to see if I have anything suitable and in better condition to replace them with and found some that looked practically new, although out of the original packet so I can't be sure of what they are. I think they might be LaBella deep talking flats (short scale) which I may have put on my mustang for a short while before I discovered that a Thomastic JF 324 set of 32" flats was available, although they could also be a set of short scale GHS 3020 L Precision Flats I remember having on my squier jag shortie briefly before putting on a set of TI JF324. The bass has a cool rails strat sized humbucker fitted so it doesn't sound like a standard musicmaster, but these still have a lovely deep punch. They are not as floppy as the thomastics I normally use on other basses. They fit the musicmaster's 30" scale perfectly and have orange silks. I'm enjoying how the musicmaster plays and sounds with them, so if anyone can suggest what set they actually are that would be good to know. Is there a resource online where strings can be identified by their silk colours, or does anyone know which sets of short scale flatwounds have orange silks at the headstock end? - no silk at the bridge end and brass ball-ends.

PM sent - I can do a tracing of mine

It would appear that Adam Clayton takes a similar approach to designing his signature basses as Homer Simpson did to designing a Car.

It doesn't look like the same shape - the top horn is longer on the old version and it has a 2+2 headstock. I think the name was reused rather than the current dimension being any kind of continuation of the old design.

Eastwood did a version of the eko rokes a while ago: [url="https://airline-guitars.netfirms.com/rocket_bass.html"]https://airline-guitars.netfirms.com/rocket_bass.html[/url]

buy a new bass

I'd agree to it but not show up so they'll learn that no payment means no contract and they might decide to treat musicians with a bit more respect in future. F'kem.

When I had my Ashborys (a black one & a blue one both Korean-made with 'Ashbory' logo) the only strings that snapped were the Gs - once I opened the gigbag to find one of the strings had snapped for no good reason at all. I did aquire a set of Pahoehoes at the time to replace the stock strings on the black one & it was a massive improvement once they'd settled in. Wouldn't entertain the idea of trying fender ashbory silicone strings on my U-bass. It is interesting that the Bass centre has reerrected the ashbory name for their own-brand u-bass copies which appear to use aquila thunderguts: http://www.basscentre.com/bass-centre-ashbory-bass.html

its a waste of everyone's time & effort if 1. Any band members don't understand that there's a difference between practice & rehearsal 2. The drummer can't keep a beat and never practices

I’ve recently acquired a secondhand kala ubass which still has its original black pahoehoe strings - it is totally different to the crappy harley benton cheapo as it records beautifully and it is difficult to get a bad tone out of it whereas I struggled to get the HB to sound good. This is probably at least partly due to the u-bass’s shadow pickup/preamp rather than just the strings though. I’d like to try the aquila red strings as the red low G I use on a tenor uke is much better than a standard wound low G, but I’m wary of spending £40 to discover that i still prefer the stock pahoehoe set.

I have heard of Mexican Squiers previously, but I've never actually seen one & I don't know whether they were every officially available in the UK.

They also have Les Paul & strat versions for sale. They all look like they're either cheap instruments stripped & ruined with something hot or assembled from cheapo kits which have been ruined with something hot. Either way they look like a failed experiment that wasn't worth the effort. Decorating the back of the neck like that is not the kind of idea you'd get when sober.

The grolsch ones work so well that Fender decided to get in on the action

I don't use any metal ones since I had a schaller diconnect itself and drop my first Fender bass onto the floor during a rehearsal in the early 80s. Since then I've only used grolsch stopper seals and rubber shower hose washers

It depends - A band can sound exciting with an average singer, keyboardist, guitarist etc but playing with a drummer who can't keep a beat is unbearable..

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSxzBxuRte0"]https://www.youtube....h?v=zSxzBxuRte0[/url] This looks just like the polytune clip, but tuning one note at a time & should be a bit cheaper - its currently available to preorder for £30 at g4m. No mention of one with a black casing, but if one is available I will be getting one. I use my polytune clip all the time & was planning to get another one in black, but the unitune will be more approriate for me on bass & uke.

yup - I got the 'shipped' email today

I put a kent armstrong enclosed cool rails strat pickup in my '72 musicmaster which sounds much better (dark & punchy like a mustang) than the original bronco 6 pole pickup or the 'exposed' hot rails pickup I put in another early 70's musicmaster. Every squier I've owned has had crappy mini pots & socket, so making a new CTS & switchcraft loom is worthwhile.

Cheers - I just ordered one. Not expecting it to replace my trusty polytune clip but it should come in handy.

band of gold - especially when played at a wedding

The Rock/Americana band I was in for many years split up a few years ago so I retired the CMS site I built, and hand-coded a single page responsive static site that requires no ongoing maintanance. http://o5b.bandrocks.co.uk/ I also made one using much of the same code but with a different design for the blues band I was in after that: http://junkyardrocket.bandrocks.co.uk/

I wouldn't agree to do a gig at a pub if we knew it to be frequented by a-holes or p-heads.

Looks fantastic. These are great basses for modding. It looks like you swapped out the control plate as well - is that a single volume & tone? I have the same bass in candy apple red with black headstock. I added a hi-mass bridge as I had one in my bits box and swapped out the pickups & electronics for an EMG PJX set which I'm running at 24v off a pair of car keyfob 'plipper' batteries for additional headroom. The EMG pots have solid shafts so I used a set of USA vintage style knobs which add a bit of class. Unusually for a squier, the neck on mine is made from a really nice looking bit of flame maple.

If you just want to even out the level of your playing you might actually prefer a limiter. I like my green behringer BLE100 pedal a lot for this & normally just set all four controls to twelve o'clock & forget about it. The current model, the BLE400 looks to be functionally identical & can be found new for about £20.