Lfalex v1.1

[quote name='steve-soar' post='910552' date='Jul 30 2010, 07:17 PM']No problems here. [/quote] Maybe they got it right with the lefties? My Ray 5 is fine. But it's a 5. And post EB, so it doesn't really count, does it? Is the issue with the original pick-up OR the alignment? Does a Pick-up swap for an SD or Bart (which have blade pole-pieces IIRC) make any difference?

Modern cases are quite good, even in the process of being damaged or destroyed, they often absorb a lot of energy that might otherwise have damaged the bass. If everything looks okay- no cracks or obvious neck damage and no evidence of bridges/frets being compressed into woodwork, then I'd plump for the strings being damaged in such a way as to ruin the intonation/tuning. If the strings are roundwound with hex cores, then it's likely that the force has not only distorted the outer windings but crimped or kinked the core too. That would definitely prevent the strings from ringing true. Re-string it first, and see what gives from there. Good advice from everyone else, esp. Grand Wazoo, but not necessarily for the novice bass mechanic. If after new strings (and possibly a rod tweak and definitely intonation) it's still off, it's time for a visit to a luthier or tech..

I got a cracking sound from this; Warwick Infinity SN4 (elixir strings) > Hartke HA3500 > Hartke 4.5 XL Unfortunately, only the bass was mine. The rig was the venue's backline. I was pleasantly surprised. Otherwise, I find plugging any pre-amp with a short signal path / minimal EQ into the FX return of my Trace SMX to be rather good. The SMX pre is overly complicated, but the power stage is just fine.

I thought of that pic of Tony Levin with his burnt-out Trace and MM when I read the thread title! Note the mention of a "Ball Family Reserve" Inlay. I'm guessing that the new burnt necks will only be used on the BFR instruments. Sounds potentially expensive!

Just about the only useful application for neck-dive has just been discovered! He really ought to fret the neck from above (in the way one traditionally would when cross-handed tapping) to complete the package...

I don't actually mind what you care to call our instrument of choice. I think that the slight vaguery over its identity (rather than the role it fulfils) has actually liberated manufacturers and luthiers alike, which, in turn have produced innovations in construction, electronics and pick-up systems. These are not necessarily exclusive to bass (some being common to guitar) but they seem more readily accepted by bass players than guitarists. Consider; Fanned frets, Piezo and magnetic systems combined, Graphite necks, Through Necks, longer and shorter scale lengths, active pick-ups, active EQs, fretless, half-fretless, optical pick-ups, headless designs, timber choices and so on. It wouldn't be unusual to find a few of these on one bass instrument. One of them in a guitar would render it an oddity that many players might ignore without even trying it. Long live the confusion!

True. Some of that is down to the Carbon Graphite Neck/Phenolic Fretboard. I think the rest is down to Rob's stringent QC and the use of a tried and tested combination of materials. I also own an Vigier Passion (S3). They're very consistent, too, and share some concepts with Statii- Excellent QC being one of them. That said, neither are cheap instruments, so I'd expect them to be good!

I [i]think[/i] the cores of the Graphite-skinned models are some sort of foamed epoxy resin. That'd expand to fill all of the cavity, it's strong, would bond well, and could be injected into the finished skin. The consistency and rate at which it was injected could be used to determine the overall mass of the instrument and it's resonant characteristics. Okay, you'd have to experiment a bit to get it right, but once perfected, it would deliver good consistency as it's a controllable manufacturing process rather than a growing tree that will need drying before use and give variable results. I think we'd all agree that is exactly what Rob makes. Consistently excellent instruments that give consistently superb performance. And whilst I've been contemplating this reply, I think I've hit upon the formula for my 40th Birthday bass... But that's a good way away yet!

My 1990 Fretless 'Ray 5 is Poplar, which was used at the time under some solid colours. Alder is the more common alternative. I've never seen a Translucent or Natural bass that wasn't ash.. Special/Limited editions have been made from other woods, such as Mahogany or sport Maple tops etc.

Nice, BUT.... I bet it's got the awful Fender Pre-amp in it, rather than an East or Sadowsky, and that they haven't included the wiring mods (as found online) to make it sound better. And for £2.3K, I'd want morev attention to that sort of detai.l

DR Sunbeams here, too. Smooth and warm (for roundwounds), so great on fretless.

It might also be worth considering a Fender Roscoe Beck IV or V, too. Damn good basses, but with plenty of other tricks up their sleeves.

I got sacked from a band who were very interested in the "pulling power of being in a band" thing (I wasn't) Second gig, after mucho practice, I was quite comfortable with the material, cranked the Trace, and went at it. By all accounts, I played out of my shoes. Lots of people said "Where'd you get him from?" Then I got the boot!(and promptly joined a much better band!) I think I inadvertently bruised a few insecure egos that night. Which is odd, because normally everyone ignores me!

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='892441' date='Jul 12 2010, 12:40 AM']I don't use compression personally but it gets used in the studio mainly because it's used on anything, I don't use it as an effect, my GK is more than punchy enough and I like the dynamics without it.[/quote] More or less what I'd have said. The only environments in which you have complete control over your signal are during practise or rehearsal, and what comes out of your bcakline or rig on stage or in the studio. Once it's hit a desk, it's subject to the whims of the soundman/engineer, who may apply compression to both individual instruments and the mix as a whole. Not forgetting the way in which radio stations use crushing compression ratios. So.. No, I don't use it as a creative tool. Yes, I do use a smidge to prevent speaker damage at high levels using the built-in unit on my Trace. After that, it's out of my hands to a greater or lesser degree.

I've mixed sets before (by necessity) and have found the main difference tto be in tone, with a bit of volume drop. Some of my basses are morre sensitive to this than others. I assume your Alleva Coppolo to belong to this category. I never mix & match strings on revealing basses (Vigier, Status & Warwick Infinity in particular)

A professional repair, methinks. I don't think I'd tackle that myself. Not insurmountable, though. A bit of glue, a couple of days in some clamps and a quick tidy up and it'll be right as rain again. WTF happened? Did it get dropped? Strap fall off of a strap button?

[conspiracy theory] Can't you see it? It's the techs and sales staff! They're all in cahoots! Set the cheap basses up well, so they sell through and the shop continues to thrive and their jobs are safe. Set the superb, expensive basses up poorly so they just keep getting hung back up on the wall. Eventually, discounts get applied to shift the expensive ones. The staff get first dibs because they're always there. Add in staff discount, and BINGO! Low-cost super-basses in abundance! I reckon they take it in turns to buy them, too. Fantastic basses stay in the personal collections, anything less than utterly perfect goes on the 'bay with enough reserve to guarantee a profit. Profits get put back into the scheme to garner more instruments and better returns. [/conspiracy theory]

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='888133' date='Jul 7 2010, 09:53 AM']The nitro finish on these makes a huge difference to the sound. I compared the one I had to an American Standard and the US bass sounded almost choked by it's poly gloss finish. Perhaps the 'holes' in the finish let more sound out or something? [/quote] You're not as far out as you think, there! I actually DO think that there's a difference between thick/thin/no/nitro/poly and even satin/gloss finishes with regard to tone. My satin finished Zoot is a superb example in this respect. My unfinished/natural Zebrano Warwick also. I also think that the fact that my MIA Jazz has a decent, 2 piece ash body with a (thinner) trans finish contributes to it being as good as it is. I've played Highway 1 Jazzes that I thought were very good for the price, and attributed [i]part[/i] of that to the nitro finish.

I played my [i]extremely common[/i] Fender Jazz last night. I'll have to check the serial number to let you know what year it is! My lesser-spotted Vigier was lurking in its case, sleeping! On a more serious note, people will [i]try[/i] to charge what they [i]think[/i] the market will bear. They may be right, they may be wrong. It's only the eventual purchaser who will make the real value judgment as they're the one prepared to part with the agreed amount of hard cash for the item. If someone wants to pay £3.5k for a Vigier, it's up to them. Do bear in mind that the last run of Series3 basses had a list price of £2.5k. If it's an absolutely mint Series1, it [i]could[/i] fetch that much. Too much for me, though! It depends what you want, too. Do you want a collector's item or a cracking bass (or one that's both) What is a pity is that far too many potentially excellent instruments end up hanging on the walls of various "Hard Rock Cafes" where they'll never see any action again.

Welcome to BassChat! Unfortunately, UK-produced basses aren't necessarily cheap. Fortunately, there ARE some excellent Luthiers and Manufacturers out there. Shuker Iceni/Zoot ACG RIM GB Status Wal Enfield Fret-King Gus Sei Overwater and so on. Light? British? Status Streamline all the way, provided you can live with lots of carbon graphite and headlessness! If you do approach a Luthier, expalin that you'll be wanting a lighter weight bass. Might limit your timber choices a little - Maple bodies might be out, for example.

[quote name='Mikey R' post='802815' date='Apr 11 2010, 05:51 PM']Hi gents, do you know what the maximum peak to peak voltage of a passive pickup normally is? I thought it was in the range of tens of millivolts but Im guessing this is wrong. Just having a quick think about this, it may be that the op amps have a higher gain bandwidth product when driven by a higher voltage, so this would mean better high frequency response? EDIT: A quick google shows the active EMG pickups put out around 0.7v to 1.4v RMS, so that would be 1v to 2v peak, if we were talking about steady sine waves. Which we're not. Hmm, not getting any closer to finding this out.[/quote] I tried plugging a bass into the "line level" input on a regular stereo hifi amp once. Nothing of any great volume came out. In desparation, I plugged it into a Moving Magnet phono stage.. With the exception of excess equalization from the RIAA curve applied to the signal, it worked fine. This was using a Passive 80's Westone with "P" pick-ups. IIRC, MM phono cartridges make around 30mV peak to peak, so I'd guess it'd be in that region (millivolts, as you suggested) assuming that there's no active jiggery-pokery going on! It's difficult to isolate whether or not 18v(+) pre-amps are better, as they frequently surface on superb basses, so of course they sound good. Only the switching of 2 9v batteries (as suggested in an earlier post (nice idea, BTW)) from series to parallel into a pre-amp designed to take either will yield a definitive answer, and even that assumes optimum operation on both types of power source. It's not all about absolute output level either. I have actives with 18v power which are not as hot as my Yamaha Attitude (passive, and evilly hot). It is all about transient headroom without clipping the wave form. The overall output is just as dependent on the pick-ups in use. That said, My Zoot has a single SD MM-style Humbucker with an East E-Pro @ 18v. Switch it (the pick-up) into Series, and see your amp's input stage [i]melt[/i] Perhaps that's why it's buffered (etc) on the Sterling and 'Ray 5 switcing!!

[quote name='Dave_MuadDib' post='885746' date='Jul 4 2010, 07:54 PM']It's the only book in the series that i haven't read - I've even read the Dune Encyclopedia! As much as I really did like the new dune novels, i'm not entirely sure that i can forgive the authors for crowbarring their robot characters into the series finale as marty and daniel - who were very clearly described as face dancers in chapterhouse! - and then quite literally dropping a deus ex machina final ending on us :-/ How are you finding Paul so far? I will have to give it a read at some point...[/quote] It's okay, pretty much in keeping with the other Herbert/ Anderson novels. There's another one out, too- it's set between "Paul" and "Dune Messiah". I think I liked the Prequels (Houses Atreides/Harkonnen/Corrino) best of the new stuff. The Butlerian Jihad ones were alright, too. [quote name='DaveMuadDib' post='885887' date='Jul 4 2010, 10:14 PM']I once read here (I think) that tubes start to degrade almost immediately, but I don't know if this was after production or after they're installed. Children of Dune is a great novel, a fantastic end to the trilogy. Admittedly, God Emperor of Dune is a little bit long-winded, and this is where most people get lost and give up. But stick with it, it gets good towards the end, and it all makes sense with Heretics of Dune after that (my favourite book in the entire series, if not EVER) and Chapter House Dune is excellent too. Apparently they ARE making a new movie, but I'm not holding my breath for it to be any good. I love the Lynch movie so much, even if it is a bit :wacko:[/quote] I like "God Emperor of Dune". Heavy going, but the whole Leto II / Idaho ghola piece is good. I like the Lynch movie, even if it does take a few liberties. It's stylistically, visually and musically excellent (thanks to Toto and Brian Eno, IIRC)

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='885326' date='Jul 4 2010, 11:21 AM']All graphite necks should be manufactured with truss rods unless the manufacturing is perfect and the necks come with a life time guarantee against warping. Graphite necks warp - I know because I've owned 3 early 80s Cutlass basses and a 95 Modulus Quantum all with necks like bananas.[/quote] I was surprised to discover that Statii have truss-rods, especially as my Vigier does not (it's an s3- so a 10/90 neck) I assume that rod-less necks are either relief-less or have the relief machined/sanded in before the fretboard goes on. I've never seen or heard of a wonky Vigier neck be it s1, s2, s3 or s4. Perhaps Patrice Vigier knows something we don't!

This topic also has some bearing on these issues; [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=93403"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=93403[/url]

No matter where I've played, I never get a look-in in the monitor mix. I generally size my rig according to the size of the stage, and keep the on-stage volume as low as possible without the drummer dominating everything (sometimes he'll play a bit softer to keep it all in check). I've got a really long lead and often hop off the stage while the whole band play to have a listen to what FOH is doing, and remember to allow for the fact that there'll be an audience along later. At least that way the band have some reassurance that we sound okay out front, whatever the stage sound is like. As a rule of thumb, the lower the overall on-stage volume, the better. Not very Rock 'n' Roll. Sorry.