Musky

Wierd. Seams to be working absolutley perfictly for me.

I met Mark this morning to pick up his pristine and obviously well cared for Protection Racket case. It was a real pleasure to meet up and Mark was every inch the gent he is on these forums. Next time I'll have to make time for that cuppa! Cheers!

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1413973053' post='2584161'] According to that there is no import duty - I wonder why? [/quote] The threshold on import duty is £135, with no charges if the duty amounts to less than £9. [quote name='inthedoghouse' timestamp='1413984867' post='2584404'] If you have a friend in the USA PayPal them the money and ask them to buy the pickups for you and send them to you as a 'gift'. I've done that many times. [/quote] This only works if the gift has a declared value of £36 or less.

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1413972882' post='2584156'] The difference between 4 ohm & 8 ohm cabs (if they're the same, such as 2 MarkBass 2x10s), is @ 3 decibels. [/quote] Realistically it's not even going 3dB. Most amps produce about 50-60% more power when dropping from 8 to 4 ohms, so about 2dB or less increase in volume. Relying on a drop in impedance to get more volume is a poor way of achieving the goal.

The subject of liability in the event of an amp failure came up a couple of years ago. http://basschat.co.uk/topic/193392-liability-for-damage You've got good reason to make a claim for the cabs, and hopefully Orange will be as obliging as Ashdown/Andertons.

He's listed it as 'New Other', exactly the same as an item he recently received negative feedback for. [quote] very used condition listed as new other [/quote] I wonder if he's got a knackered Spector he's trtying to pass off as "A new, unused item with absolutely no signs of wear"? In any case I would contact Ebay for infringement of the copyright in your pictures (against Ebay rules) and pointing out that as the previous owner this in no way is unused and is likely a fraudulent auction.

[quote name='Roger2611' timestamp='1413827079' post='2582465'] The seller is fully aware that it is a fake by now yet has chosen to leave the listing in place, Ebay are also fully aware it is a fake yet they seem happy to let the listing run...a lawsuit waiting to happen [/quote] Probably not a lawsuit, but certainly a claim against Ebay's buyer protection scheme. And in the past they've instructed the buyer to keep the item [i]and[/i] refunded them on counterfeit goods. If anyone's interested I did a Precision bass timeline for seventies Fenders to make it a bit easier to spot fake or mis-described Precisions on Ebay. It's buried away in the Ebay forum somewhere.

On the BDDI the presence works as a shelving treble control whilst also cutting the bass. http://www.talkbass.com/threads/semi-scientific-sansamp-bddi-analysis.394187/page-2#post-5129983 The images are long gone from that thread, but you can get the idea.

Very interesting, I'd not seen your for sale ad. That firmly puts paid to my 'end of run theory'. Seems like they were dropping in MDF bodies for quite a few years. Really can't believe you couldn't shift it at £120.

Actually the Silver Series sold for almost twice that amount. Are you sure you're not thinking of the MIK Squiers, which were introduced to compete with the likes of Encore and Marlin? The Silver Series were introduced to address the perceived drop in quality of the MIKs, as Yamaha were giving them a bit of a battering with ads showing a dissected Squier in all it's plywood glory. I'm quite shocked to hear about that E series Paul. I never realised they had used MDF for any of them. Perhaps it was used as a cost cutting measure towards the end of the run, which may have been what was going on with the Silver Series?

Sorry to hear that Pete. Hope things pan out for you.

[quote name='spacey' timestamp='1413322993' post='2577244'] They also used MDF for a period on these for the body. They were cheap basses designed to regain some of the copy market. [/quote] Yeah. I've seen two MDF bodies both with '96 serials, so maybe this was something late in production. I did wonder how this might have come about until I remembered the original Ibanez Talmans were made with MDF (or resoncast as Ibanez called it). So this stuff was floating around the factory.

No, I just happen to have a Silver Series as well.

Very nice. Some of the Silver Series didn't have the logo on the ball of the headstock, but the tight radius near the E tuner is always a giveaway. Three ply pickguard instead of the usual single ply is a bit of a bonus too.

It's a Silver Series bass! Lucky sod... these usually sell for £200 odd.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to denigrate your purchase. After my first one went I bought another, and quite honestly it gets more use than the one which folds up but has fixed wheels. It's so compact that I keep it permanently stowed in the van.

Bear in mind that a drop of around 2" will double the load on the trolley (less any give in the tyres, which isn't much). So careful if bumping it off a kerb. My experience with that type of trolley is that first the wheels won't flip out, requiring you to hold both wheels out while using a foot to lower the plate. Then the plate will start bending down from the horizontal. I obviously wasn't careful enough on those kerbs. Unless storage space is a real issue I feel the ones you can pick up from Aldi/Lidl without retractable wheels are a better bet. Twice the load handling as well. And if space really isn't an issue one of those stores (can't remember which) is currently doing a good non-folding sack trolley for a very good price.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1412980152' post='2573933'] I would imagine that Page was introduced to a lot of what was happening music wise in the US at the time (mid 60s) through his relationship with Jackie DeShannon while she was here in the UK writing and recording. She had written numerous songs for groups at that time, also produced many recording sessions and had a great knowledge on what was happening stateside. She probably showed him a few licks on the 12-string as well. [media]http://youtu.be/ZsvVjrNNmRI[/media] [/quote] It's quite hard to imagine now how difficult it must have been to be exposed to new music in the UK prior to 1964. Radio Luxembourg was about it as far as radio went, anything everything else must have involved word of mouth or hanging around record stores.

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1409645395' post='2541734'] Yeah, but if you're aiming to change once a week, that's almost a year's supply! If I may veer off-topic slightly: as a Roto devotee to a former Roto endorsee, did you ever get to try the "piano bass" strings (that I've only recently blundered across)? As I normally go for nickel Swing Bass, they sound like the kind of thing I might go for, though as you rightly point out, at £15+ a pop it's potentially quite an expensive experiment! [/quote] I used to use Superwounds all the time. Very bright and piano like when new, in fact too bright as I had to roll off the treble to tame them down a touch. When they've worn in a little while some of that brightness disappears and you're left with strings that are bright enough (for me anyway) for ages. Nowadays I'm at the other end of the spectrum and go for a totally dead strings, so I've not used them for over 15 years. One thing to bear in mind though is that the strings need to match your bridge, as you need to have the correct length of the core passing over the bridge before the windings start. They used to do the strings with the ball end already fixed and marked as suitable for particular bridges/basses, but also sets where you have to fix the ball ends in position yourself. It's a bit of a faff, but not something you have to repeat too often. Towards the end of the time I was using them it I could only find this latter type in the shops, so I'm not sure what the position is now but it's something worth bearing in mind.

Isn't the jury (almost literally) still out on how he wrote that song? http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/may/19/led-zeppelin-accused-stealing-stairway-to-heaven-opening Seems a little weird now but Page was a big garage fan, ? and the Mysterians being a favourite of his.

Of the three Ricks I've had, two of them had second slots in the saddles. The third needed them. I've seen plenty of older models with extra slots cut, although I've not really looked at any new Ricks for a good ten years so I've no idea whether this is something that still happens.

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' timestamp='1399716807' post='2446901'] Whereas all the parts from the JV were original American Fender parts sent to Japan to be assembled there.[/quote] Are you sure about that? AFAIAA the only US parts known to have been fitted to JVs were the pickups on the very first Strats.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1399720348' post='2446954'] Tuning BEAD usually means less tension than EADG because a B string is commonly less tense than a G string. [/quote] Good point actually. The lack of tension on the B string was why it only stayed on briefly.

How heavy are we talking here? I've never had a problem using .110s with standard tuning on any bass including a Rick, In fact thinking about it, I briefly tried stringing the Rick with .130s (I think) and tuning to B, like the bottom 4 strings of a 5 string. No problems there either, although obviously it need setting up for the extra tension.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1399220461' post='2442175'] £75? That's very reasonable. Does it include the materials? Or just the labour? [/quote] I don't know to be honest, I just noticed that someone had asked about covering a bass on his facebook page and he quoted £75.