lownote

Edited - I decided I was being a trolly dolly.

Reduced

Cut up an old plastic rail card.  About .5 mm ish. Done the trick enough to serve, although I doubt I'll be offered a job with Fodera.  I could have sent it back but I'm fed up with returning stuff to Thomann.

Just bought a Harley Benton B550FL which arrived with its neck apparently cocked up at the bridge end. There’s no shim under the heel currently and I reckon I need a shim in the order of 1/2 millimetre at the machine head end of the heel to drop the bridge saddles to their proper height. What’s the best and easiest material to use for a shim? 

EDIT  Now I'm on my PC I have caught up with previous threads on this subject so mods feel free to delete.

What's good?  I took up bass at 56 and was amazingly awful at it for a long while.  But for the last few years I've held down the bass chair in two good local blues/rock bands and had a few very gratifying complements from people with 5x my exerience. So maybe I'm 'good' in a workaday way.  And I'm now approaching 69. The age, not position.

Your budget is very very tight for both bass and amp. Assuming you spend around £160 ish on the bass (HB) I really don't see how you're going to get any amp that will do more than bedroom practice.  Anything's possible but you're setting yourself quite a challenge. 

I have the fretless Harley Benton B550, which represents astonishing value for money but can't speak for the fretted versions.  The reason this makes a difference is because fretting is a fiddly process and it's easy for the finishing to be scimped (skimped?) on ultra low price instruments.

The general consensus is that starting off on 5 string is perfectly doable but 4s are just that bit easier to get your head round at first and most teaching material is 4 focused.

My personal experience and IMHO face to face teaching (proper lessons) is an expensive waste of time.  We live in a  golden age of online learning with loads of high quality free videos.  Yes, there's some awful rubbish out there too but you'll soon get a feel for what's good and what's not. The go-to source of quality teaching is SBL (Scotts Bass Lessons).  This costs money but you can take a 14 day free trial to see if you like the content and if you google there;'s a fair bit of quality free archive material from Scott too.

Hope that helps.  

6 hours ago, roblpm said:

So tell me what the ethics are on being interested in beautiful bass gear when just an intermediate player.

Obviously I could be an amazing player on a £300 squire bass.

But is there such a thing as a bass hobby that doesn't have to do with skill??

Of course. I learned early on (12 years ago) that I would be a rubbish bass player.  So I focused on what I was good at and enjoyed - packing, sending and receiving cardboard boxes and selling gear at a loss.  I could probably be as happy just sending myself empty boxes to open.

G'day Mate

luvly!

Did have but using it again - they're not that dear new

I know this is a bass forum, but just wondered if anyone else was a sax doubler and had thoughts on a small but useful amp/cab rig for mic'd up saxes and gigging.  I rerally don't think my MB410 and LM3 are appropriate. 

We once summoned a local electrician to diagnose an electric oven that had gone over to slow heating up.  Said skilled operative placed a thermometer in the oven, switched it on and then spent the next 30 minutes mardling (Norfolk for gossip) and drinking our tea.  He then extracted the thermometer, looked at it and pronounced his judgement: "Thought so," he said "You've got slow electrons. That's because you're out here in the country." 

Moving towards sax and only playing bass at jams where back line is provided so I no longer need these bad boys.

Markbass Little Mark 3 head.  Secondhand but really good condition.  Output power: 500W RMS @ 4 ohms / 300W RMS @ 8 ohms. Weighs 2.5 kg. All works perfectly.

With MB LM bag, also in good nick. Speakon cable and kettle lead included.  Now £300. 

Markbass STD 104HR rear ported cab.  8 ohm 800w.  With my old pub gig rock band of two guitars and a drummer this cab handled any normal size venue space with gain set on 9 or 9.30, and importantly actually works outdoors, where most cabs give up the ghost.  Secondhand but excellent condition. Pet and smoke free home.  Carpet's in pretty good nick. A previous owner tried to fit wheels with ordinary wood screws which weren't man enough so I've taken them off, leaving the screw holes but they're invisible, obv, unless you upend the cab! Actually you don't need wheels really - the cab weighs about 22kg but thanks to great handles and balance it's surprisingly portable.
Quality RoqSolid cover in matching colours, no rips or tears, and Markbass ramp/ stand thingy thrown in. Those two are worth over £100 on their own! £350.
 

Try out and collection only from mid East Anglia (near Diss). Possibly with the usual tea and biscuits if you give me enough warning.

No trades, thanks.

D'accord.  I get a buzz from chancing upon or tracking down good but cheap gear.  My goto bass for some years has been a Revelation fretless that cost me less than £150.  My sax is an immaculate and very playable Sakkusu worth £550 that I got for £300.

Don't play rounds, simples.  Flats will last for ever.  I believe Danny Mo Morris is still playing an 18 year old set on one of his P basses.

La Bella RX roundwound series, blissful.  Bass Direct.

That is a very good price, esp with the extras.

Edited

hooray!

I have no control over the process.  First thing I know is when a bass or sax shaped parcel turns up.

I still can't quite justify it but it haunts my dreams

My only thought is that mwah is a result of multipoint contact between string and fingerboard. That is, the fingerboard is pretty much flat and the string height above it is minimal.  Ergo, the D string space up and down the 'board must be flatter and closer to the string than its neighbours. Cheap bass may though not always mean skimping on the fret dressing. Maybe you have multiple high spots on the frets?  Although that would more likely lead to problems in an area across the board, not up and down one string.   Pull the other frets out and have done I say.

1 hour ago, SumOne said:

Personally, I don't like the sticky feel of flats

 

Que? Disappears in a matter of days from new and then you get super slippy instead.   IME/HO

I only play flats on fretless for blues and RnB. Haven't played rounds for years. But then I have custom EQ setting that makes anything sound like dark nut chocolate (whatever that is). Always played Chromes until I dicovered Picato.

I had a One10 and although well temperered it was just too tiddly even for my little country band, espcially outside in the summer.  But then so was the Two10 I replaced it with.  It took a MB 410 to meet all my needs.