geoham

Much of Scotland has been like this since October. Pubs & restaurants either closed or allowed to open until 6 with no booze across much of the country.

A wee anecdote of an experience that changed my view on gear... I remember my old originals band managed to get a support slot with the Pat McManus Band. I had no idea who they were, but Pat was a proper hero to our guitarist. What was surprising was that they used budget gear - With a Vintage (brand) Les Paul and a Pino style Squire P Bass doing most of the work. I had a chat with their bassist Marty about his gear. He had tried a proper Pino signature model in the past. There was a definite difference in quality - but nothing to justify a ten-fold increase in price. Overall, their ‘cheap’ gear was perfectly sufficient to gig with, played well and sounded great. Also less to worry about when chucked in the back of a van. From a whole other perspective, a friend of mine will happily drop £2k+ on a Gibson Les Paul to play at home. Folk will play the gear that’s right for them - who are we to judge?

I ended up coming to the same conclusion a few months ago. I'd have ended up putting vintage voiced pickups on it and changing for a tortoiseshell scratch plate anyway, so saved myself the bother. There's also the fact it looked rather like the bass had recently been stolen from me. And was then recovered a couple of months later.... leaving me with two blue Jazz Basses with similar sounding pickups! It's a really nice sounding and looking bass, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

I done a little digging on this exact topic when I got a six-string equipped with dual truss rods. It seems the concensus is to keep them even, no need to put more tension in one side or the other. (My inquisitive brain makes me think that this makes sense if the strings have the same overall tension on each half of the neck - but does this really happen, and how to we measure it?)

100% agree. I like a bit of vintage styling and tone, but no need to make things difficult for users unnecessarily. It’s compounded by the fact that - in my case at least - it was shipped with no tension in it at all. I must have had the neck off six times initially. I spent much less time setting up a Harley Benton costing a fraction of the price.

I have a Vintera 60s, and I'm really happy with it. The pickups sound very similar to the Custom 60s I put on my other Jazz a few years ago. I've not used a Player Series, but my other Jazz is an early 2000's Standard (i.e. - Mexican) and the pickups on that were definitely lacking to my ears. The neck is really nice on it, I think much of the other differences relate to style - I much prefer the tortoiseshell pickguard for example. There are a few annoyances on it though. For example, you need a tiny flat screwdriver to adjust the saddle height - compared to hex nuts on all my other basses. I didn''t have one quite small enough in my set up tool kit. The worst for me though, is that you need to remove the neck to adjust the truss rod. It was supplied with basically no tension in the truss rod, and drove me crazy getting is set up initially. I'd go as far to say it was unplayable before doing this, so make sure you're comfortable doing this type of work, particularly if you are ordering online and can't try before you buy. The Player series truss rod looks much more accessible, at the headstock. Don't get me wrong, now I've set it up - it's probably my favourite bass. Looks great and sounds great. I just dread a significant change of strings requiring me to remove the neck multiple times again. George

While some of John's advice may defy logic - like why would moving to another room have an impact if it's only one bass - it's always worth a bash to narrow things down as much as possible. I was getting some weird noises on my Lakland, not on other basses. I moved to another room and they were gone. I eventually discovered that I'd get the noises if a Powerline adapter was plugged in within the same room. (They use electrical wiring to extend ethernet networks) Regarding the buzz - assuming you have indeed isolated the fault to the bass - I'd suggest checking all the earth points are connected, particularly at the volume pot. Turning the volume down should bleed a part of your signal to earth - if it's not earthed properly it may lead to this problem. A visual inspection is a good start, but if you have access to a multi-meter, then use it to check continuity between earth points. (off the top of my head - black wires from pickups, back of pots, bridge, sleeve connection point at jack socket) I'd also be interested in finding out whether touching the strings impact this at all. I hope this helps - let us know how you get on. George

Just before lockdown, I had a Helix LT and Fender Jazz nicked. So I replaced those. Then I got the Jazz back, so I'm up one bass! Other than that, just some strings and stuff. Giving a lack of gigs and business travel, I find myself at home a lot more - so I've invested in upgrading my homebrew equipment. I can now pour a cold draught pint from my keg, in my office / studio / gym / bar / spare room.

Great news, and kudos to the cops acting so quickly. In my case, it took them nine days and a nudge from my MSP to recover my bass from Cash Generator!

I remember thinking back at the start, Pfizer or someone is going to make a lot of money from this. If only my foresight extended to buying some shares! Assuming this vaccine is as effective as we hope, It'll be interesting to see how things pans out. Pfizer are a business and their main goal should be making money - and they should rightly be compensated for their efforts. From that perspective, I can see them wanting to retain tight control over its production. However, can they produce enough of it? Would they share the formula with competitors for the sake of the greater good? How will hugely populated countries like India or China deal with it? For example, generic equivalents are popular in India and drug patents are largely ignored. What about the USA, a wealthy country - but many folk unable to afford medical treatment? I'd like to think that Pfizer's management would like to be seen as the company that ended the pandemic, rather than one the profited from it. I can see things going one of two ways - sufficient numbers globally are vaccinated to end the pandemic, or we end up with an even more divided world. Rich countries have widespread vaccination, while the poorer ones continue to suffer. I imagine that international travellers will need to prove vaccination as a condition of entry. Interesting times ahead... hopefully be gigging soon! George

Hopefully the OP gets this back. I'd also be interested to see how the cops handle it. I had a Helix and Jazz Bass stolen in March. The Jazz turned up in Cash Generator, the cops eventually recovered it - but indicated they probably wouldn't even speak to person who sold it to them. Simply - they'd expect the seller to have claimed to have bought it from someone in a pub and not much they could do without any other evidence. I'd have wanted to check out anything else that they'd sold to Cash Generator, to see if anything else had been reported stolen. When I suggested a warrant to search the seller's house for the Helix, they said it'd be laughed out of court. I got the Jazz back, so I'm happy overall - though really disappointed with the cops' response. Best of luck! George

Love the song! My own tale... My dad was a guitarist and we had a couple of guitars at home. Naturally I wanted to follow in his footsteps. At secondary school, I really enjoyed the generic music lesson - things like glockenspiels and keyboard. Eventually, there was some space for one on one lessons in other instruments, and I put my name down for guitar - but I was offered bass instead. I spent the next few years learning bass, doing the exam pieces etc. while simultaneously self-teaching guitar. I was a perfectly good guitarist, as good as most of my guitarist friends. I started a few bands with me on guitar - and always had terrible bassists. The school's music department were great, always putting on interesting performances. But I almost always ended up on bass, with them favouring school-taught guitarists. There were a few exceptions when my own bands were allowed to perform at Christmas shows. By the time I was 18, the penny dropped that I was a better bassist than a guitarist (who'd have thought formal teaching would do that??), and if I'd pursued a career as a guitarist I'd probably get frustrated with sub-standard bassists (common in many teenage bands!). It also let me be in bands with my guitarist friends. George

Very nice! It looks very much at home on your wall. Hopefully it's the right bass for you - have fun!

Love it... trying to convince our keyboard player to get one now!

The only tapered B I've ever encountered was the one factory fitted to my Lakland 5501 and I think it was the clearest sounding B ever. I should really find somewhere to buy those strings.

Beautiful! I've got an itch for something similar... I've got one Jazz to many after a stolen one was recovered, and no Precisions. I'd love to trade it for something like this. Have fun, there's something about the simplicity of a P that just can't be beaten. George

There are exemptions in discrimination legislation, for example in acting where gender is essential for authenticity of the role. Whether this would apply to band is another matter for someone more knowledgable than me. Regarding why I'd be less than pleased at a female fronted band turning up at my wedding, when I'd booked a male fronted band... For my own wedding, I spent weeks selecting the band. I saw them live, I watched YouTube videos, checked out their typical setlist. I went with the band that I enjoyed the most and thought would be most entertaining to my guests. I'd haved considered a change of vocalist hugely significant, but a vocalist of a different gender may be a fundamentally different band and setlist. In any case, I'd like to be made aware of it in advance of the big day. George

It's a bit of a tough one. You've got your existing bookings to consider first - if I'd booked a male fronted band for my wedding and a female turned up, I wouldn't be best pleased. I'd actually be more sensitive to any change in singer, much more than any other band member. However, thinking longer term, my own experience is that a female vocalist can generally cover a wider range of material. I've played in bands with female singers doing AC/DC, The Cult, and Stereophonics etc. and done a really good job of it. The same singers would also do material from the likes of Katy Perry, Jessie J and Tina Turner - not the type of thing a bloke can generally pull off. Personally, I wouldn't rule anyone out with the initial ad. Try to get a feel for a good fit via phone, email etc, then audition the top contenders. Also keep in mind that you'll be spending a lot of time with this person, so consider more than just the musical ability. In any case - good luck - I've always found singers the most difficult to audition. Most likely to be delusional (or simply bonkers), to call off an audition last minute or not show up at all. I even had a girl bring her 'own guitarist' along to an audition once...

+1 for Lakland. My 5501 was my 3rd five string. The first was something really cheap from Ebay, just terrible. The second was an Ibanez SR305 (or maybe a SR405..) - I couldn't get on with the narrow string spacing, and this seemed a common theme through other five strings I've tried. The Lakland just feels right to me. While the fingerboard is quite wide, it allows similar string spacing to a regular four string bass. George

How I understand it, is that you don't boost of cut at a single frequency - it could be an octave or two each way from the centre point for example. But the boost or cut peaks at this centre frequency.

On a side note, I quite like the EQ on my TC Electronic BH550 head - it boosts and cuts at different frequencies. The bass boosts at 80, but cuts at 50. It'd be interesting to see this type of thing on an on-board preamp.

I've got a Bartolini NTMB in my Lakland 5501, and the bass on that is centred at 30hz. I've never found a need to boost it - it does seem a little muddy. However, I often cut it a little - particularly when I boost the mids at 250hz.

I bought a Lakland 55-01 from GuitarGuitar around five years ago and I was very happy with the quality. It was delivered well setup, and I could detect no problems at all. Although, it was a solid colour so I've no idea what's under the paint.

Thanks - this makes sense. My action is already rather low, but I've not touched since adjusting the saddle, so it's feasible it could still come down another bit. On one hand, I've used loads of brands 130 guage strings on this bass - so I'm having trouble getting my head round the concept that the GHS tension would have a such an impact. This leads me to think it's a duff string. But no idea how it could be faulty in such a way. So, I'll wait for the 125 string to arrive and take it from there. George

I dropped GHS an email and they got back to me really quickly. They have suggested that their strings are a higher tension than the DRs that were on it before, and have suggested trying a lighter gauge. They have offered to send me a 125 gauge string to try. I'm not entirely convinced, I've used the same gauge across a few brands - but I'm happy to give it a try.