Skinnyman

I’m loathe to spend a lot on another five string that I may well end up selling (again!) but the GIO GSR205 looks decent for not a lot of money. There’s something about the orange metallic that keeps calling me. I’m sure the premium range is a much better bass but it’s also a lot more money and I’m really not sure I can justify it. I’d rejected a lot of entry-level fives because of the weight and the neck width but the Ibbys all seem to have the 16.5mm spacing. The hunt is on....

It’s time to start watching the YouTube reviews 😁

I’ll check them out, thanks Checked them out - I think I’d need to find a used one! Nice looking basses though

I think it’s the overall width of the neck. I’ve had a couple of Dingwalls and a Yamaha and I can play them and I adjust to them quite quickly - it’s just that they feel clumsy, particularly from the eighth fret upwards. No matter how much I’ve persevered, I can never “gel” with them.

One small, nit-picky point... People talk about bank to bank transfers and use the term “BACS” but, for consumer to consumer transfers such as we now do using online banking, the payments go through the Faster Payments System (FPS). It’s a small point but there is a significant difference. A BACS transfer can (theoretically) be cancelled before the money gets to you. An FPS transfer can’t. In most cases a Faster Payments transfer hits your account immediately and is non-repudiable. If the sender wants to cancel they have to get their bank to raise a request from your bank and is a load of protracted hassle that a scammer wouldn’t want to get into. Sometimes - and I had this recently - a payment can take up to two hours to be credited by the receiving bank. Up to that point, it could be rejected. In my case, we figured that a large amount of money from the buyer’s account to a new payee (me) had flagged up on the bank’s fraud/AML systems and the transaction had ended up on somebody’s queue to check on. As it was a BC member with good feedback I was, in this case, prepared to let him take the bass but be aware that a payment that has been sent can still be rejected (if the banks suspect fraud for example). Only once it’s received into your account is it safe. The latest version of FPS being rolled out insists on a verification of the account holders name before it makes the transfer which adds an extra level of verification. Sorry. Just realised I’ve been rambling. It’s an age thing. Has the drinks trolley been round yet?

In this case the buyer was - allegedly - proposing to pay using PayPal’s credit terms so it’s not an issue. This is the approach that’s being taken by a BC colleague in another thread that’s been active recently - He bought a bass which has never turned up but because he (at the seller’s request) used F&F, PayPal have refused to cover him. The question is now whether the CC company will reimburse him. I have my doubts. In the case of PayPal, you use your CC to add to your PP balance. The CC company can claim that they have no interest or liability for what you bought with that balance. If PayPal refused to honour the balance for some reason, you could claim against the CC but they won’t cover anything you bought using PP as the payment method. I don’t know for sure but I’m guessing that this will be the argument put forward. I am waiting to see how the other case plays out....

I should have been more precise..., ...This is what I need. And I should have done a search for “BEAD” - apologies I think that would be my preference - that said, there are plenty of 34” fivers out there and many of them seem to have a perfectly usable B. All of the above suggests that it’s worth an experiment. I have a 5 set of strings so I’ll nick four of them and try it out on one of the basses I don’t use very often. Thanks all!

Right, don’t laugh. This is probably a stupid question but humour me.... I need a five string. Problem is, I’ve tried them over the years and don’t really get on with them. I was thinking about this earlier and found myself saying “Oh, if only they made a five string with four strings, that would solve all my problems!”. What I mean, of course, is a four string bass but strung BEAD. I’m sure this must have been done before and the fact that it isn’t a “thing” makes me think that perhaps it just doesn’t work for some reason. So what are the issues and why aren’t more four string basses strung BEAD? Obvs, you lose the G string - but I can probably live with that for a lot of songs. And you’d need a new nut. But what else?

Or, given the discussion about PayPal elsewhere on here recently, ask the buyer to pay it as a Friends & Family payment (I believe this means the buyer has no protection from PayPal - but worth checking this). Also, ask the buyer to bring proof of identity and proof of address with them. I would then draw up a Bill of Sale saying that the buyer has inspected the goods and has taken them on an as-seen basis with no warranty. They sign to say that they have accepted the goods, you sign to say you have received the payment. Have two copies, each sign both of them and each take one and make sure they’re signed and dated along with full name and address of both parties. Take photos of both of you holding your (legible) IDs and copy of the Bill of Sale. Take photos of the buyer with the bass. So you now know that the buyer is who he claims to be, lives where he claims to live, has paid you by PayPal Friends & Family (a non-reversible transaction). He has also confirmed your identity and has your agreement that you have received the funds. I’m sure that there’s probably a way to scam even this set up but I can’t think what it is. So long as PP Friends/Family is as non-reversible as I believe it to be. The only other issue may be that he can only pay over 12 months if it goes through PayPal as a business transaction- which you definitely don’t want because that can be reversed and, as discussed above, even having photos of the handover may not be sufficient to prevent a chargeback.....

As I understand it, a V model is a Precision whereas the T is Jazz and M is Musicman. Now I think about it, these may all just refer to the pickups (VM having a Precision/Musicman pairing, TT being Jazz pups at neck and bridge and, though I’ve never seen it, VT for a P/J setup. So I reckon that e.g. California indicates the body shape (Precision-like) and the letters the pickup configuration.

That’s my issue with it. The songs and singers were okay - just the production that made it all sound the same

I’m in an eighties cover band. Before I joined I would have taken the view that (largely because of Stock, Aitken and Waterman and my own prejudice) the 80s was a decade full of absolute dross. Turns out that - not for the first time in my life - I was completely wrong. Once you get past S, A & W, there are some cracking songs and some superb bass parts. And this thread has given me a bunch of good suggestions to give to the band...thanks, everyone

No we’re not.... 😀

Could it have had the phase reversed for some reason? So the tip of one plug goes to the sleeve of the other and vice versa? Edit: just realised that it tests fine with a cable tester so forget I said anything....

Especially those with the confidence to show the bloopers at the end. Nice touch, that. 😁

I have a business account as the limits on a personal account were too restrictive given that I was quite active on eBay at the time. IIRC the verification process was a bit more involved but it can’t have been that onerous as I managed to complete it and I have a very limited supply of patience. Once it’s setup (I was trading as a Sole trader so there was no requirement to have an actual business registration or such like) then the account itself works just like a personal account. The setup process may have changed in the last ten years or so but I’ve had no issues since I set mine up.

Very good. Better than I could manage after less than three months. Who am I kidding. Probably better than I could manage now. You seem to be one of those annoyingly talented people. The bass sounds lovely.

I'm not sure how I feel about doing this as most of the stuff I've written and recorded has been restricted to a very limited audience (and for good reason). This one may be a bit more tolerable so here you go. There's a lot of things I want to do to improve it but if I do them all I'll never actually "finish" so here's the current version... Be gentle 🙂

Fantastic! Thanks for the link, Jack. Despite what Steve Howe says in the interviews, I thought the mix was pretty good - Chris Squire sounds epic. The standout for me, though, is Steve Howe’s solo in Yours Is No Disgrace. Really enjoyed the whole thing 🤓

I just got the Steven Wilson remix of this... ...which I am thoroughly enjoying. Free Hand will be next...

And there we differ. The sound of a high gain pickup plugged into a big valve amp with the gain turned up - that hiss of expectation before the first chord is struck - that’s the sound of rock. A sound to make a grown man, well..., grow Pickup hum from a P90 is just the sound of my fluorescent lights.

My only issue with P90s is the inherent hum from them. I fitted a set of Kinman noiseless P90s in my K Line and love them. Same sound as the standard P90 but completely hum-free. Great pickups

Hiya!

She turned me into a newt. Oh, hang on. Sorry. Wrong film. D’oh!