Maude

I've had a 424x and 1024x, I still own the 424x. In fairness I had already done a reverse P mod on the 424 so would probably lesson it's resale value against the 1024, but I genuinely prefer the tone of the 424 over the 1024. It sounds slightly more aggressive compared to the more sedate 1024. At the time I remember likening them to a gobby teenager and an elder gentleman. I couldn't really campare fairly though as one had halfrounds and a reverse P, the other coated rounds and a standard P. I think if I could have two again I'd have a 414 and a 1024, a 2024 would be great but out of my price range I think. As for your dilemma, I think if they weren't too far apart in price I'd have the 1025, if you struggled to justify the extra for the 1025 then I'd be perfectly happy with the 425. I have several Yamahas and every one is an excellent bass.

Hourglass - Squeeze

I've had a HW 4005 for about 6 years (in my profile picture), bought secondhand but only a year old. I don't know how long Harry has been making them, and whether he hadn't mastered finishing then, but the paint finish wasn't great. It's a mapleglo and the clearcoat was very orange peely. It wasn't horrendous and the previous owner was happy with/hadn't noticed it, but it bothered me. I flatted and polished it and it was fine then. Everything else is fantastic, the woodwork and attention to detail is exceptional, checker binding, crushed pearl inlays, the fretboard colour, everything, perfect. I've seen many other finishes of his which are great so maybe mine was a bad day, who knows. It was my main gigging bass in my Mod/Northern Soul/Ska band, which has now folded but I can't see me selling it any time soon. It's a beautiful bass and after a couple of little changes to suit me better it's a one off.

Who Are You? - The Who

I know. It was a joke about their slightly odd scale length, not being a 'standard' 34". Hence the laughing emoji after.

I know Ric bashing is a sport but I love a good Ricky. But if, and it is only if, the body size and neck length are the same as a normal 4003, then I can't see the point in this short scale. Yes it'll sound slightly different but with a full size body and neck then you've lost a lot of the appeal of a short scale. Just move that bridge back, put a horseshoe in the space created and make it sound like a real Ricky should. Unless the body and neck are shorter, then ignore me, I'm talking shite. 😁

A standard Ric is shortscale isn't it? 😁 Seriously though, are the necks on these a standard neck but with the bridge moved up a few inches? To me, the whole point of of a short scale is to move the fretting hand towards the plucking hand, not the other way round.

I know we've moved on from sliding pickups, but the discussion is now placement and I've had an idea. It's probably not a very good idea and I'm just thinking out loud really but bear with me, and maybe it doesn't belong in this thread but there we go and here we are. If the area between bridge and neck was filled with single coil jazz pickups, or similar slim pickups, and wired via a rotary switch then you'd have the largest range of tones. But, that's a lot of complicated wiring and the pull of the magnets would choke the strings, not to mention the shear weight of it all. Which made me think. If a pickup with no magnet doesn't produce a sound(?) then could a huge pickup the length of bridge to neck be constructed with multiple coils inside, each the width of all strings, permanently wired to an output (via tone if wanted) and a sliding magnet be used to 'activate' each coil in turn. There's various easy ways a lightweight sliding magnet mech could be produced, and there's no moving electrical contacts to sort out. I assume you'd get 'bleed' from the coils either side of the activated coil as it magnetises the string, but it could be interesting. Or am I an idiot? 😁

It now says 'comments are turned off'

Cheapo plywood or multi laminate? It's all in the wording.

I know. Late 80s to late 90s TV and film largely passed me by as that was my serious drinking period. No time for frivolities like TV. 😁

I've just realised that somehow I've ended up with three Kay basses. One infinitely inferior to these, one of these and one infinitely superior to these. I don't half own some shite! 😂

The yellow one is £151 at the moment, a lot of bass for that money!

Is this a good time to admit I've never seen 'This Is Spinal Tap'? 😬

E=mc² - Big Audio Dynamite

Hole in my Shoe - Traffic

Bela Lugosi's Dead - Bauhaus

Chop Suey - SOAD

I can't see that radius should have any bearing on anything (other than personal preference) as the strings plane along the neck will be the same regardless. A typical upright bass has a much tighter radius and still produces that characteristic mwah if adjusted properly.

Well have been down a deep rabbit hole. Sitar bridge design, javari, the gotoh buzz bridge, mohan veenas. All very interesting. And to think some folks complain about the complexities of setting up a bass bridge.

I didn’t know that. You learn something new everyday. 👍

My guess would be as he slid the bridge pieces back a flat plate came into contact (or very, very close contact) with the string to emulate the mwah produced by a true fretless string vibrating on the fretboard. Instead of the mwah being produced just in front of the finger itself is produced just in front of the saddle. It sounds surprisingly effective. Slides obviously won't work but no intonation issues as with actual fretless.

You Talk Too Much - Sultans of Ping

I actually interviewed Rod for a local newspaper while he was on site. It was hard getting him to open up about the work, when quizzed he said he didn't want to talk about it. Then he said he was only joking and proceeded to explain the house building process. Foundations to begin with and apparently the first cut is the deepest. He said they were making good progress due to the dry weather, I asked if he'd ever seen the rain, to which he replied he'd had to start wearing shorts as his legs were always hot, some guys have all the luck I thought. He asked if I thought his hi-vis vest made him look sexy, ooh la la. I told him he wears it well. I had to leave it there as Rod had to wake up a co worker called Maggie to catch a train downtown to get supplies.

The only way I can see that any fretted/fretless combo board can work satisfactorily is to have the tops of the frets and the fretless board at the same height. If you simply remove the frets, from say the 6th fret upwards to create a fretted low end, fretless high end board, then the fretless part would have far too high an action to be useful. Therefore, the simplest way I see to create a fretted low/fretless high board is to use an already fretless neck, then use a radius jig and router to lower the board from which fret you choose, saw and install frets in that routed down section and then level and crown those new frets to be the same height as the fretless section. Both sections should then play as normal. This should be possible to do with as many fretted or fretless sections as you wish as long as the tops of the frets and the fretless boards are all level.