Lfalex v1.1

All basses covered! 1997 Streamer LX VI from new... 2002 Infinity Sn4 from new... 1997 Fortress MM V from BigJim (recently) I've wanted a Fortress for ages..... All German. All good! And when I want retro; 2004 MIA s1 Jazz with an Ash body... A MII Squier VMJ with a BadAss and FatBeams... Don't sell. Just save and buy MORE!!!!

[quote name='Chris2112' post='1188193' date='Apr 4 2011, 07:38 PM']By the way, if anyone wants to sell anything with a bit of graphite in it (or a headless bass), please let me know! [/quote] Wanna buy a genuine 1973 roadworn Pencil?

[quote name='Jigster' post='1188159' date='Apr 4 2011, 07:16 PM']what [b]DOES [/b]SN stand for? [/quote] i) Serial Number [b]ii) Set Neck- It was a Warwick Dolphin Bubinga SN4, after all[/b] iii) Stupid Nonsense Take yer pick!!

[quote name='Doctor J' post='1187638' date='Apr 4 2011, 12:16 PM']I've come into possession of a 91 Streamer Stage1 NT which needs a refret. Never refretted a wenge board before, do I need to treat wenge any differently from rosewood? And, yes, I've ordered brass frets, I'm not a criminal [/quote] G'wan, put stainless steel ones in it... It'll be unique. Charic is right. Wenge dust (and Paduak) is not good for you...

Only sold three in total. One on here, and that was a bit hit-and-miss One via Ebay and that was fine One via Ebay, then the buyer dropped out. Then, out of the blue, another bidder contacted me directly. Sold for £200 more than similar ones on here (mine was virtually perfect, though) Both of us were happy. Really Nice guy. Cash on collection, too. Bought one on here. Excellent transaction (Thanks BigJim!) The vendor let me put a deposit on it and pay the balance on collection. Went very smoothly for me, hopefully for Jim, too. There was a little bit of "PM Tennis" to finalise everything, but nothing too excessive. I think the tyre-kicking/time-wasting/low offering syndrome as perceived by sellers is caused by money being so tight right now. Buyers want an absolute bargain, "Bass X", or nothing. No half measures, no in-betweens. No-one can afford to take a chance at the moment. I held a bass on deposit for a BCer. BigJim did it for me. I genuinely think that this compromise represents the way forward for us. Mike at Iceni let me walk out with £200 owing on a bass. I paid him the very instant I had the funds. I did the same (albeit via a credit agreement) at PMT on a Warwick Infinity SN4. That cost £900 in all, and was a bargain. Buyers on here know exactly what they want and what they should be getting. I understand and respect that. It IS depressing trying to sell at the moment, primarily because prices are rock-bottom (Cheap Warwick, anyone?) There's more luck to be had on Ebay/Gumtree/Preloved when selling. There's more luck to be had on BassChat when buying. That's the Status Quo right now, but it will re-balance itself in time. I know that doesn't help those selling multiple items to finance Smiths/Statii/Sados/Celinders/Alembics/Wals/Vigiers and so on, but it might be better to sit back, enjoy your collections and wait out this recession......

Might as well sell this, then, seeing as it sounds really bassy with no character. Except it isn't overly so, and has bags of character.

Interesting reading; [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium_magnet"]Wikipedia Neo Magnet Page[/url]

[quote name='chris_b' post='1186562' date='Apr 3 2011, 10:25 AM']China is buying up sources of many raw materials so this problem will be more common in the future![/quote] China already had the bulk of global supplies of Neodymium anyway. It didn't need to buy them, just mine them. Samarium Cobalt anyone?!

[quote name='Highfox' post='1186180' date='Apr 2 2011, 08:41 PM']I bought it brand new like that from the bass center in Wapping in 89. I think it was some kind of custom model, and may of been just a one-off. Even the Guys at Warwick couldn't find out a lot of info about it. I liked it a lot and it was the only bass I used for 20 odd years. Great sound with a lot of punch. Weighed a ton tho. It went off to a guy in Norway in the end.[/quote] (Sighs) Ah... Wapping Bass Centre. Those were the days.......

[quote name='Highfox' post='1185965' date='Apr 2 2011, 05:12 PM']Interesting thread My old Warwick Streamer had 3.[/quote] Much more interesting than I expected! What happened to the Streamer? Looks like someone took out the bridge "J", invented a new position for it further up than the original neck pick-up. I think the Bridge rout has been extended, such that the front coil of the MMHB sits where the old single-coil was. If the HHHB had a tap, that could give a lot of differing tones. If done as explained above, the cost isn't even that great (assuming it had J/J Barts in the first place) I like it. Very clever. Ticks a lot of boxes without too much messing about.

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='1178247' date='Mar 27 2011, 01:32 PM']I play a lot of opens, my main bass has a 0 fret though which sorts out tonal inconsistencies.[/quote] Kerching! +1 Three of my basses have a Zero Fret (two because they're headless), and 2 are Warwicks with Brass Just-a-nuts on them. I've always thought that the tonality these exhibit on open strings quite closely matches fretted notes. Perhaps it's the fret material they use? So "no" I don't really dodge open strings..

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='1183341' date='Mar 31 2011, 02:10 PM']+1. The appeal of isobarics is smaller size. But with heavy ceramic magnet drivers that size is arrived at via much higher weight. Neo drivers gets us around that, and the size benefit is real, so there is some method to the Orange price madness. You will get the low end output of a much larger cab. If size is a paramount consideration, as in you schlep your gear on the tube or have to carry the entire band in a mini, then the high cost may be worth it to you.[/quote] Perhaps they're looking forward to the implementation of an EU concept that would ban combustion-engined vehicles from town centres, then we'll all be stuck with using public transport. As if gigging wasn't hard enough as it is. I sincerely hope it was an April Fools Day type prank, but the fact it's EU related means anything's possible...

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='1184743' date='Apr 1 2011, 02:11 PM']The source of this is rising oil prices. They've resulted in the surge of hybrid autos, which use most of the neo produced....[/quote] Apparently, Neodymium is also used in wind turbine generators also. The real issue at stake here is not electricity, but GAS. How many times do you need to change a cabinet (or, more pertinently, the Neodymium using bits, the drivers)? Alright, maybe you need to change your cabs due to weight issues, but once you've done that, do you [i]have[/i] to change/replace cabs until one malfunctions?

[quote name='lee650' post='1181631' date='Mar 29 2011, 11:05 PM']OH!! and of course the fender urge with a J/P/J setup now i'd love to try one of those, sadly discontinued!![/quote] It is at this point that I would like to apologise for lying in my original post. :'( I did play an Urge II many moons ago. And liked that, too. I think I'd prefer the variety that different types of pick-up used by different manufacturers in different places would give. The Urge, for example is too Fender-centric.

[quote name='LukeFRC' post='1182540' date='Mar 30 2011, 06:19 PM']buy off here from a regular user. most folk are pretty sound and will not only sell you a bass honesty but ask nice they can set it up for you too probably...[/quote] +1, and maybe get your teacher to go along and try it. He/She ought to have [i]plenty[/i] of experience in such matters... If not, do you have any friends who know what to look at/for? Take them along. Do remember that the instrument is for [u]you[/u], and you get the casting vote...

Some interesting stuff coming through here. I still think I'd go for a DiMarzio Model one at the neck, some sort of "P" in the mid-position, and either a MMHB or JJ (with coil tap) at the bridge. Gives; P P/J Neck +P like the Attitude P + JJ (sort of Sandberg-ish) Neck alone like a Tele Neck + J Neck +JJ All Three I'd probably opt for passive, 3Vol/tone (stacked) and some sort of selector- maybe buttons rather than switches for each pick-up? There's got to be some good noises in there somewhere!

Awesome! Do you think that 3 pick-ups' worth of magnetic field "drag" on the strings kills sustain too much? That's one of my major concerns...

I really like my Yamaha Attitude. Great bass in many ways, but it never "sings" in the way that a bass with a bridge pick-up does. I've often wondered what a bridge pick-up would sound like, but I'm not about to butcher the Attitude. In the future, I may well try and acquire a used BB414 and add something like a DiMarzio Model 1 at the neck. I could be persuaded to remove the "J" at the bridge and replace it with a Bartolini MM or Humbucking soapbar. (Barts because they're available with bladed polepieces, and pick-up alignment won't suffer if it's in an odd place) Then it came to my attention that I've only ever played one bass with 3 pick-ups. A Burns Bison (And liked it) Who else has or has had a 3 pick-up bass? What did you like about it? What was didn't you like about it? How did the controls work? (Just for guidance' sake, a P=1, MMHB=1, J=2, J/JJ=2. It's about [i]discrete[/i] pick-ups, not individual coils in one housing- so all the post 1992 'Ray5 and Sterling owners, Status Groove owners and Original T bass owners don't get to count as 3!!)

No shifty necks in this household. The basses are stored in cases/bags inside a brick (!) built-in wardrobe. All the cases/bags have silica gel sachets in, too Otherwise, The Streamline doesn't care, nor does the Vigier. The Fender's got graphite rods in it, and has never been a problem. The Wenge-necked Warwicks seem very stable, and the Ovangkol-necked Warwick has a moderately high action because it sounds better that way. Without any specific design, I seem to have sold on the two that needed the odd tweak (Ibanez SRX700, Zoot Chaser) [quote name='Clarky' post='977783' date='Oct 4 2010, 10:36 PM']But where's the fun in an entirely stable neck? I thought we bassists love to tweak truss rods and, er, other things? I imagine Status owners have carefully manicured lawns and quartz watches that are accurate to 1 picosecond per millennium. Chaos, entropy (killer word), wild times, thats what life's about ... and slightly shifting bass necks[/quote] Pfft. My lawn's a mess. Rather play bass than; a)Tweak Truss rods b)Mow lawns

If it was the original player, it'd be one Graham Maby. He's an awesome player and criminally underrated/overlooked . On "Look Sharp" and "I'm The Man" (the first 2 albums) he played an Ibanez Roadster, I believe. Last Bass I saw him playing was a US Spector, though that was a while ago. He could well be playing something else by now...

They [i]nearly[/i] got it right! If I subjected it to my "de-crassifier", the following changes would be made; BLACK hardware. Natural neck, but body-colour matched headstock front face Lose the scratchplate!

I browsed BGM in WHSmith, specifically to look at this article. My eyes fell on the Vigier section (was it #48?) for the Excess. Nothing against Excesses, but the Arpege and Passion are more original. According to BGM they; 1) Do the Excess with a Delta Metal 'board in fretless 2) Do the Excess with a Delta Metal 'board in fretted. Both of which are news to me, although I haven't checked the Vigier site recently... Then I flicked through to see what was in 1st. And lost the will to live. Is a Ricky what we all really most want to play before we die? In summary, there's more point to this thread than the article, and I'll warrant that it's more varied and better informed, too. Nice idea, but it was overpopulated with basses that would fall into one of 4 categories for most of the members on here; 1) I've got one of those 2) I've had one of those 3) I Know a BCer who could let me try one of those 4) I have no interest in one of those whatsoever! Obvious exceptions being stuff like Ritters and BassLab etc. Fender, EBMM, Ricky and the other major manufacturers' mainstream output may be worthy of being played, but most of us could at least try one (at a Bash?!) before we croaked. They'd be better off having a monthly collumn hosted by Big Red X on a bass you'd never heard of and why it was worthy of interest...

Fender Bass V is a good choice. I could make good use of one. Fender Roscoe Beck. Still haven't got hold of one yet. Basslab L-bow. Because it's a bit different. Something Short Scale. Something tuned to low F# or whatever.

[quote name='nash' post='1173496' date='Mar 23 2011, 04:37 PM']i'm a traditional guy. i can't get on with class D power amps.[/quote] My old(ish) QSC is class A/B. [b]Only[/b]1200Wrms into 4 ohms, though.

[quote name='drewm' post='1174835' date='Mar 24 2011, 04:07 PM']Fortunately, I think I could pick up a backup Warwick for about a fiver at the moment [/quote] I bought a 14 year-old Fortress MasterMan V as a gigging machine for dives. It's excellent. As for back-ups... No. It's one more expensive "asset" to have to keep an eye on, and the distraction it generates outweighs its worth. I've not broken a string live since I started playing... about 14 years ago. I give whatever bass I'm using a pre-gig once over, maybe swap out the battery in an active, but that's it. BTW, I never gig brand new strings. I'll always make sure they're at least "played in".