Skinnyman

Jon bought an Aguilar Tone Hammer from me and proved to be a real gent to do business with. Lightning fast payment, prompt comms and just an all-round gent.

A pleasure to deal with and highly recommended!

Thanks Jon - enjoy the little Aggie

It sounds like there’s nothing to choose between them musically so they’ve both “passed” that part of the audition.

It’s now a question of who fits best Into the “band”. You’re a group of individuals who have to work together as a cohesive unit so you need someone who can support and help build that.

Maybe ask them both back for a full rehearsal (each) and try to get a sense of how they fit in. Assuming you do covers, ask them to suggest a song that they know and that you can all work on together and see how they approach the arrangement and being in the driving seat?

If it’s that close to call then I think you owe it to both of them and yourselves to take the time to get this right. As already suggested, is there space for them both? Plenty of bands with twin lead guitarists....

Having said all that, if it was me, I’d go with whichever was the quietest.

Good luck - it’s a nice problem to have 😁 

Just ordered a copy of the GW book.

Arrives tomorrow.

Past experience suggests I will probably open it in 2025.

Unless we get locked down again. Then I'll be all over it like a tramp on chips.

On 30/07/2020 at 14:11, Cosmo Valdemar said:

As for the current 'official' Yes, well... a quick look at Geoff Downes attempting to play Wakeman and Moraz's parts tells you everything. 

Last time I saw them I thought they sounded like a tribute band. Steve Howe still has it but he’s carrying them now.

I saw ARW in London (must get the DVD) and thought they were superb - and I agree with the comments here, Mr Pomeroy was a joy to watch

Another one for Ruby Baby. Gorgeous bass line. 

I also love the flow of the bass line in Don’t Stop Believing. It’s not hard but really nice to play along with.

Like you, I used to busk a lot of lines but this year I finally got round to learning Living On A Prayer properly. Great fun

1 hour ago, tom1946 said:

are you now.....

You want to pm me with a proposal?

PM sent

13 minutes ago, tom1946 said:

Oh man! Hank comes to town! Beautiful, my favourite colour and neck.

Going to check the piggy bank....

I think it looks nicer in the flesh than in the pictures.... and I’m always willing to negotiate 😁

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

 

@Skinnyman a week in, how are you finding it?

 

I’m loving it, thanks! 😁

I think the previous attempts and the BEAD exercise all allowed me to get my head round the extra string so getting a nice, slim comfy neck has just brought everything together nicely. 

Rehearsal last week was really good and I’ve been practising every day just to make sure my head and my fingers get used to the new layout. I will keep swapping back to a four so that I can play either (I don’t want to play fives exclusively) but I’ve taken to this so well that I can see a few fours going up for sale and another five (or two) being added....

I’m really glad that you responded to my original post and opened my eyes to the ease and comfort of the narrow spacing*
 

*(IMHO, obvs, YMMV. Other opinions are available and are equally valid)

We recently got a local removal firm (with piano-moving experience) to collect a piano which we’d just bought. It was a 50 mile move and because we were flexible on dates and able to tie it in to a trip they were already making, it cost us £75. 
 

If you can find such a firm locally, maybe advertise the piano as “free local delivery” and build the cost into your price?

Sophie Lloyd - guitarist, plays with Marissa and the Moths but also has loads of metal/shred covers on her YT channel. She also did a spot in Yolanda’s Band Jam which might be more age appropriate.

At @Al Krow’s suggestion I thought I’d share a few pics of my first (probably not the last) Ibanez. In this case, an SR1345B...

I took it to rehearsal tonight and it’s by far the easiest five string I’ve ever played. I got a little lost on a couple of songs but that was mainly because I was thinking about alternative hand positioning and just lost my place in the song. I think it’ll take a week or so before I’m fully fluent and confident with the extra string but this is just so much easier than any other fiver I’ve tried before.

I haven’t played around with the EQ very much - that’s the next thing to try. Tonight was all about getting used to the extra string and to the feel of a different bass. 
 

Very pleased indeed....

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

 

 

So you went to a shop to get the cheapest budget Ibanez SR and then it turned out you wanted a SR premium? That worked out well then!

It’s worse than that.

I started this whole journey trying to not buy a five string at all and use a four string tuned as a five.

And that worked quite nicely.

But then the GAS kicked in and so cheap, budget fives were on the cards.

Then I started looking at reviews and decided that I’d be better off going up slightly to the entry-level Yamaha TRBX.

But the dearer 605 looks sooo nice in the redburst.... oh, but there’s the Cort Artiisan series and that’s worth the extra over the Action series and the B5 isn’t that much more than the C5 but there isn’t one to try but there’s a funky looking Ibby in Cerulean blue or something which has the same neck profile so I can try that and see if I like the narrow string spacing, which I do so I can order a B5 by mail order but wow, that one looks nice - and that one, and that....and can I try that one up there please, I can’t see the price ticket? How much? Oh well, you’ve got it down now so I might as well play it.....well hello, gorgeous.....wanna move in with me?

So the moral of this story is twofold. 
 

1) BEAD tuning works perfectly well and means that in many cases you don’t actually need a five string

2) If you’ve discovered (1) above and you’re happy with the finding, don’t go on BassChat ever again.

Keep an eye on the Marketplace for a rather fine Sandberg California 4 string which I now need to sell to fund my habit....

On 28/06/2020 at 21:18, Al Krow said:

In which case the Ibby SR Premium range with 16.5mm spacing was designed with you in mind! An incredibly playable neck for a 5 string. And IMO a pretty tasty rest of the bass too!

Thank you, by the way, for resisting the temptation to go “told ya so!” 😁

Turns out, I should have listened to you nearly a month ago.

I can’t get over what a difference the slim neck makes!

Just now, Silvia Bluejay said:

My OCD is intrigued by the headstock - the bass has the B and E tuners on one side and the A, D and G ones on the other

I know. Weird, right? I’ve been trying to tune the A string to E all evening. 
 

BEAD is a great tuning but this whole discussion made me want to go try out a Yam TRBX or a Cort Artisan B5.

Today I delivered Mrs S to meet a friend of hers in York. First time they’ve met since lockdown began so I offered to make myself scarce and let them have some proper catching-up time. What to do with a few hours to kill in York? Zip out to Gear4music, that’s what...

I tried the Yam. Very nice but didn’t really excite me. No Corts in stock so I had a little go on an Ibanez SR305 (similar weight, same string spacing) thinking that if I like it I might take a punt on a Cort mail order.

And very nice it was too. So nice that I started trying some of the other Ibbys. All very nice but the one that just spoke to me as soon as I picked it up, the one that absolutely sang when I played it was this one...

SR1345B Premium

Nordstrand pickups, narrow spacing, reasonably light weight, bloody lovely

Hence, this is now a NBD thread.

18 minutes ago, ped said:

Or throw some cash at ped and see his jugs as part of the deal

I’m in for some of that

I’m in. 

Just bought my Les Paul. Paid straight away, even booked the courier for me - a lovely guy who’s been a pleasure to deal with.

People like Nick are what make BassChat such a great place to buy and sell - deal with confidence folks!

Thanks Nick, enjoy the guitar!

Price reduced to £750 collected/meet within 90 mins.

Up for sale is my Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster in Faded Cherry burst with a replacement pick guard loaded with Kinman AVn series noiseless pickups and new controls. Price also includes hard case and the original pick guard which contains the standard controls and the Fender N3 pickups that were originally on the guitar. It’s a simple job to swap back to the original - just two wires to connect.

I bought this new from Coda Music in 2013. It’s a beautiful guitar and has the compound radius neck which is a joy to play. It also comes with locking tuners (labelled as Fender but they look very much like Gotohs), a good quality hard case, all the usual case candy (lead, Allen keys, setup manual, etc) and the aforementioned N3 pickups.

I found the N3s to be a little lacking in “character” (whatever that is!) and so I built up a new (white) pickguard with the Kinman AVn noiseless pickups. I really like these as they give the guitar a real “bite”, particularly on the bridge pickup. More information about the Kinman pickups can be found here; https://www.mobile.kinman.com/products/stratocaster-pickups.php. As mentioned above, I’ll include the original “parchment” ‘guard and pickups in the price so the guitar can be put back to original spec if required.

The guitar is immaculate with no marks, scratches or dings that I can see. The rear plate still has the factory plastic wrap on it.There are a couple of small marks on the case (see pics).

I’d prefer a direct sale but if you have a trade let me know. There’s nothing I’m really looking for so I’ll probably decline but you never know....

I’d prefer not to ship this if possible and would rather hand over the guitar in person. PM me with your location and let’s discuss options. In any event, I would only consider shipping within the UK to long-standing forum members with positive feedback.

Let me know if you have any questions.

13 hours ago, Hellzero said:

My favourite Yes album has always been Drama. I can listen to it endlessly. For those who hate it because Trevor Horn is singing, remember that the guy is also a real terrific bass player and also Chris Squire biggest fan. He was also the producer of 90125...

I loved Drama when it came out but when I listened to it recently I just felt it had dated a bit.

I do, however, really like Fly From Here, particularly the later version with Trevor Horn singing.

I wouldn’t call it a true Yes album though.

I also thought The Ladder had some decent stuff on it - but if I could only have one album of theirs it would be Yessongs - my favourite live version of And You And 
I.

I just did a trade with Ben; my Genzler Magellan 800 for his Mesa Subway. Great bloke top deal with, good communication throughout and drove some distance out of his way so that we could do the swap in one of those shady-looking car park meetings.

A real gent and a pleasure to meet. Thanks Ben, enjoy the Genzler!

If this had been a five I’d have been on it like a tramp on chips. 

Beautiful bass - GLWTS

3 minutes ago, andytoad said:

@SkinnymanI've just had those Nord big singles off the classifieds, so I might end up going back to the cort for a while!

Nice...

Although the standard barts sound okay on the videos I’ve watched. 
 

But those Nords do look nice

2 minutes ago, andytoad said:

😃

Nut width is about 43mm @Skinnyman

Brilliant, thanks!

On 30/05/2020 at 12:07, andytoad said:

I have a cort B5(?), it's by far my easiest playing bass,  the one I feel most at home with. Just right on the neck spec, string spacing and body design/weight. Sadly, I'm not getting on with the electronics, I swapped out the pickups and preamp to change the sound, but still not right for me.

If I were to have a bass custom made, it would be with the neck and string specs of this bass.

I’m seriously looking at getting one of these - I know they’re a 16.5mm string spacing at the bridge but I can’t find anything anywhere that tells me what the nut width is.

This may sound like a personal question but do you happen to know what your nut width is? 😁