chrkelly

Unfortunately not, out of tune is out of tune on any instrument.

Looking back through my diary it turns out I've only had 2 fretless gigs in the past 10 years, so I'm offering this glorious instrument up for sale.

Very early Stingray 5 from 1988

Birdseye maple neck

Unlined Pau Ferro fingerboard (side dots on the 'fret lines')

Tulipwood body

Very lightweight (c.9lbs)

Hands down the best fretless I've ever played, very responsive & even sounding, instant early Pino vibes. Unfortunately as is quite common for the era, the black finish has perished & turned quite matt, especially on the back of the bass. Numerous dings & player wear as there should be on a bass of this age.

£1600 ono

Available to try out in London SE6

No postage & no trades please

Tried out on a recent purchase but didn't like it on that instrument. Only on a bass for 2 weeks so pretty much as new condition.

£65 posted

String clearout time!

Spiro weich A 4/4 - tried out briefly on my spare bass, pretty much as new.

SOLD

String clearout time!

Spiro weich E 4/4 - tried out briefly on my spare bass, pretty much as new.

SOLD

String clearout time!

Belcanto G/D/A/C extension set. Well used but plenty of life in them yet. In typical Thomastik fashion the pegbox windings are all quite worn, the cores are all still intact.

£50

String clearout time!

Evah weich G/D/A/C extension set. Well used but plenty of life in them yet.

£50

20 hours ago, Bloopdad1 said:

Hiya

What's the story with the Belcanto E.. I might be interested. 

Has it seen much work? 

Hi, it's been on a spare bass for about a month so not much use at all. It bows incredibly well & has a good old school pizz sound. 

Thomastik Spirocore weich 4/4 A string - only a couple of days use (will sound as new) - £30 including postage

Thomastik Belcanto E string - about a month old - *SOLD*

Order the Spiros from Thomann, best price by far & they'll last for decades. I've used Corelli 370 TX in the past and remember liking them as a good hybrid string, bright sounding arco with a good amount of pizz sustain. 

Excellent hardly played condition, not even broken in yet. These came off a Stingray 5 that I've since sold. 45/65/80/100/130, standard long scale, cut for a 4+1 headstock. 

£30, no trades please

For brand new, get in touch with Laurence Dixon at Bass Place in London. I'm not sure of the current pricing but would highly recommend looking at a Lovaszi Luna bass (https://www.laurencedixonbassplace.com/the-lovaszi-bass). I've had a Stella model for over 5 years now it's a great instrument. I wouldn't ordinarily recommend buying brand new in that price range but those Lovaszis are really good value for money & very well made.

Don't worry about having the fingerboard shaved, it's a perfectly standard procedure & part of any proper bass MOT. It'll play a million times better as a result. Get it to Thwaites and they'll tell you exactly what's happened & what's needed to put it right. It could be that the fingerboard has detached ever so slightly from the neck. It needs full contact with the fingerboard in order to be stiff enough to withstand the string tension. If there's a slight lift anywhere, the strings will bow the neck forward.

Don't risk it as is, could be very costly. If you're dead set on trying them, get the bass to a luthier & see if you could get a longer tail wire installed to reduce the after length. 

Are they 3/4 Thomastiks? It shouldn't be a problem with the 4/4's or Pirastros unless there's some setup issue below the bridge, such as the tailpiece position/size. 

This was in the case of a bass I recently bought. Decent bow for anyone new to bowing who doesn't want to spend a lot. Could do with a rehair but there's enough to work with.

Old French pattern double bass bow.  Made in Germany. 71.5cm long, weighs 132g using kitchen scales

What's the music, instrumentation? What do you want it to sound like? 

For the AI aspect how about something like Sonible Smart eq? I've not used it myself though.

I like to keep things pretty simple, I only do jazz & classical - After checking all the phase, panning etc, I use mainly subtractive eq (if you can't hear something, it's usually because something else is masking it. Find the offending frequencies in the competing instrument & dip it slightly). The same with volumes, usually turn down, not up. Mainly wide EQ curves & usually never more than 3-4db max, I quite often find myself working in 0.25db increments. Don't solo channels often, there's usually little point eq'ing something when it's outside the mix. I usually record instruments in the same space so have to take into account the mic spill too. A good analyser will help you see what's going on. I don't compress unless it's for colour. I can keep volumes in check by fader riding, it sounds way more dynamic that way. I have a Varimu in the rack for mastering but it's usually for colour, set so the needles are barely moving. Reverb is your friend, learn how to use it properly.

If your room is crap, I'd highly recommend some quality open back headphones combined with a good crossfeed plugin like Aspen Virtuoso. You'll make better decisions without your room acoustics fighting you. Always have a reference track loaded up to check with. Your ears become accustomed to small changes very quickly so have many many tea breaks to reset your ears!

On hold

Very true, I've fooled most engineers into thinking it's from 63. You can only tell the difference when it's side by side with my real 66 p bass.

Anyway, looks like this is on hold pending the usual...

3.55 kg on the kitchen scales, not too sure how accurate those are but it feels like a toy compared to my long scales. How's your hand doing Clarky? 

Brilliant little Mustang in great condition for its 50 year age. All original & everything works as it should. Strung with La Bella flats & sounds fatter than a P bass. Will be sad to see it go but I've got a rather large double bass shaped purchase coming up. Straight sale only please, absolutely no trades.

£2750

Collection only from Catford, London SE6 

Incredible Jazz bass from one of the best vintage luthiers around. Incredible relic job, the nitro checking looks spectacular in the right light. It's a 'proper' vintage instrument with none of the downsides a 60 year old bass. 4.2 kg, pickups are Bare Knuckle single coils. I've got a rather large double bass shaped purchase coming up so this is a straight sale only, absolutely no trades.

£1750 firm

I don't have a spare case for this so collection only from Catford, London SE6 

This really is a stunning instrument & if I had the dosh I'd buy it back in a heartbeat. Easily competes with basses 2 to 3 times the price in todays market!

Really surprised there's not been more interest in this. I bought this alongside the much loved W&C Tall Font Russian and preferred the Stomp Under Foot by quite some margin, ended up sending the TFR back. Only selling as I now have a Dwarfcraft Silver Rose which covers the muff sound and them some!

Excellent tiny passive studio monitors. Classic PMC transmission line design so they go very deep for their size. These have lived in my home hifi setup for a number of years but fancied a change & have moved over to something else. Plenty of marks here & there on the cabinets but they're in good working order. No original jumper bars but will include some Van Damme Blue jumper cables. Original box so can post within UK. Based in London SE6 for collection.

SOLD