redstriper

I had the same problem on my Ashbory with it's piezo, but touching the strings didn't help because they are rubber. It was fixed by a friend of mine and he described the modification in a post on the Ashbory forum. I don't know if it's of any help to you, but here's a copy of his post: [quote]I recently modified an Ashbory bass to fix the hum problem. These basses are mass-produced, and it seems many others suffer from the same problem. It is not an earth loop, as some people suspect (that is something quite different) but is caused by poor screening of the electronics. When I looked inside the bass, it was clear that Ashbory had gone some way towards proper screening, but had not finished the job. The instrument had conductive paint in the battery compartment (this is good) and thin foil under the plastic back plate (also good). Unfortunately neither of these were connected to earth. The conductive paint extended under the foil-covered back plate, and was supposed to make contact with it, but didn’t (this is bad). Even if it had done, none of this screening was earthed (also bad). Having areas of screening material ‘floating’ un-earthed near audio circuitry like this is actually worse than having no screening at all. Anyway, here’s the modification. Follow these instructions at your own risk – it’s not a difficult modification, but I can’t be held responsible if you damage your bass. If in any doubt, consult an instrument repairer or a tame electronics geek. Parts 5” x 1” strip of self-adhesive foil (or kitchen foil and some glue) 8” length of thin, insulated wire Small solder tag (not essential, but a very good idea) Tools Phillips screwdriver Soldering iron Scissors Long-nosed pliers or 9/16” spanner (only necessary if the jack socket earth tag is difficult to access) Procedure 1. Remove the back plate (four screws). 2. Remove the battery. 3. Unscrew the battery clip (two screws, but yours may have four, depending on how the person who assembled it was feeling at the time!). 4. Attach the self-adhesive foil as shown (run it from the upper surface of the rear of the body to under the where the battery clip attaches). If you are using kitchen foil you should glue it in place. 5. Solder one end of your new length of wire to the solder tag (if you have one). 6. Re-attach the battery clip, fastening the solder tag with one of the screws at the bridge end of the battery cavity (as shown). If you are not using a solder tag, ensure that you firmly trap a bared end of the wire under the battery clip base plate. 7. Thread the wire through the hole between the battery and circuit board cavities. 8. Next is the only potentially tricky bit. There are three tags on the jack socket, each with a wire connected. One wire (black) goes directly to the battery cavity – don’t use this tag. Another wire (yellow, on the bass I modified) goes to the front of the circuit board – don’t use this ‘inner’ tag either. The tag you want is the ‘outer-most’ one, and protrudes from the main (threaded) body of the jack socket. This had a green wire attached on the bass I modified, but the wire may be a different colour on yours). The wire from this outer tag also goes to the front of the circuit board. The pliers or spanner may be useful at this point. I had to loosen the nut of the jack socket in order to rotate the socket into a position where I could solder onto this outer tag. You may not need to do this. Solder the free end of your new piece of wire to this outer tag, as shown. I used green wire, for consistency. You should now have two wires soldered to this outer tag. 9. Replace the battery, and plug the bass into an amplifier to check that it still works. If you have used the correct tag on the jack socket, the bass will sound pretty much as it did - some hum will probably still be noticeable, but will disappear if you touch the metal of the jack socket. If it hums really loudly (worse than it did originally), you have probably selected the wrong tag on the jack socket. 10. If all is well, replace the back plate. The hum should now be gone (or at least greatly reduced). 11. Celebrate with some liquid refreshment of your choice. I had a cup of tea.[/quote] Hope this helps, I have some pics of his work too, if anyone's interested. Steve.

The wisdom Band are a long established reggae band formed in the early 80s in London and it's a great opportunity to join them - I would jump at the chance. Their latest single 'Migration Season' is a superb slice of horns driven rockers riddim: Discography here: [url="http://www.facebook.com/discography/?id=154325311249059"]http://www.facebook.com/discography/?id=154325311249059[/url]

[quote name='fryer' post='1091130' date='Jan 16 2011, 10:03 AM']I may have a chance to tour with my mate's reggae band, in JAMAICA.[/quote] What is the name of the band, are they on myspace ?

[quote name='Fat Rich' post='1089956' date='Jan 14 2011, 10:44 PM']How would you describe the difference in sound (unplugged or neck pickup only) between a stock Jazz vs stock Precision bass? And what causes this difference given that they're both made from the same type of woods, bolt on construction and passive single coils?[/quote] Neck pup jazz = smooth, clean, hollow. Precision = rough, dirty, solid. Reason = different pups.

I play an old jazz bass (neck pup only) with heavy GHS flats and I like an old school sound for reggae, jazz and soul music. I don't like distortion or valve overdrive, just clean, deep, smooth bass with a strong fundamental and no treble or upper mid. If that's anything like the sound you want, I recommend a Markbass LM2 or similar MB amp. I use mine with a 15" cab similar to the barefaced compact, but with a different driver - I have the Eminence 3015LF instead of the 3015. This driver is a sub woofer, very deep and warm without the treble response of the 3015. Alex at Barefaced recommended the 3015LF when I told him the sound I was looking for and it's a fantastic driver that weighs almost nothing. Hope this helps.

[quote name='lowdown' post='1085729' date='Jan 11 2011, 05:11 PM']So can the Alesis firewire multimix run as low as 64 [or 128] sample buffers [I presume you record at 24 bit/44.100 khz] on the Toshiba with no pops and clicks at that latency? Because thats pretty good [excellent] if you can. Garry[/quote] I use 256 buffer rate because lower or higher values result in higher latency. Sometimes there are pops and clicks when using over 20 tracks with too many live plug ins, but it's generally very stable.

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' post='1085150' date='Jan 11 2011, 08:49 AM']Before even looking at softwares and peripherals, I would be concerned about the latency issue of a laptop due to the restricted quality of their sound cards being able to handle recording software, unless it's one of the latest iMac, usually windows based laptop are a lot of grief. So check with the minimum requirements from the software you are intending to buy before you do.[/quote] The quality of the sound card in the laptop doesn't matter if you are using an external sound card as you suggest. I use an Alesis firewire multimix with an old Toshiba Satellite windows laptop and get very low latency - the sound card in the laptop is disabled and the one in the Multimix is excellent. I have recorded up to 16 tracks at once with no problem and overdubs have a 0.008 ms. latency, which is hardly audible and easily compensated for post recording.

[quote name='Fiorenza2' post='1083230' date='Jan 9 2011, 03:56 PM']I've been looking at the Multimix's, and apparently the lower end USB models, which are all I can afford in the senses of price and space, seem to suffer from excessive noise problems. But the mixer's built in USB connection seems a far more elegant solution than the mixer and phono-USB dongle option.[/quote] A friend of mine has the USB 16 channel model and he gets no problem with noise. I have seen the firewire models quite cheap, but can't remember where - try google. BUT you need a full size firewire connector, not the mini one that comes on most laptops - I had to get a PCI card adaptor. I think the main difference is that the firewire model allows simultaneous multi track recording, while the USB only lets you record one or two tracks at once. If you don't need the multi track facility, I would go for the USB model with as few channels as possible - like [url="http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?hl=en&expIds=17259,17291,17315,23628,25646,26761,26849,27084,27520,27613,27889&xhr=t&q=alesis+multimix&cp=7&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=7287288394209279696&ei=UtwpTauDLM22hAfut5mTAg&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=3&sqi=2&ved=0CEEQ8wIwAg#"]this[/url].

I like the Alesis multimix and I've used a 16 channel firewire version for 4 years with no problems.

Download real player free version, it allows you to download vids from youtube, (or it used to) if you enable that option. Or get one of those new fangled gadgets called cassette decks

You should be able to download the drivers from the Alesis website.

I went through the same search for lightweight gear when I joined this forum. I would advise you to be cautious because it can be hard finding a rig that has the sound you are used to. My old rig is an 80s Trace Elliot and I had become used to the sound, but the weight was taking the fun out of gigging. My new rig is a Markbass LM2 and 2 Flite neo 15" cabs and I am absolutely delighted with it. But I went through quite a few amps and cabs before finding what suited me. The LM2 is superb with 500 watts of clean and smooth power that fits in a laptop bag, while the Flite cabs are even lighter than the barefaced ones, but hard to find in the UK and the barefaced compact is very well respected. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=105913&hl="]This[/url] looks interesting. Now all I want is a lightweight jazz bass to replace my heavy old one...............

[quote name='keeptrying' post='1076762' date='Jan 3 2011, 08:51 PM']tried reaper out with just my bass into the mixer,all seems to work fine, the track appears to record, but cant get any sound on playback. ive set both record and speakers in the laptop to usb codec any ideas what im doing wrong?? ive tried to get sound from the alesis and from speakers plugged into the laptop. also if i try to play music already on the laptop with the mixer connected theres no sound even from the laptops built in speakers.[/quote] Do the level meters on the multimix move when you play audio on the laptop ? Do you get any sound at all eg. windows sounds or audio from a media player etc ? Is the multimix set as the default device in the audio settings on the laptop ?

Get a grip man and think positive - we'll all be dead soon.

PS: Forget all that rot I was on about before, what I really meant to say was................................. [b]Squiers are for losers.[/b]

The only way to answer your question is for you to buy one and compare it with your CV in various situations. No one else can answer this for you, because we all have different tastes and opinions and every bass is different, regardless of it's maker. The most important aspect is the player, not the instrument and great players often spend a long time building a relationship with their instrument. But not many great players use Squiers compared to Fenders and that must have an influence. What is it about the Squier that you think the Fender might do better? If you do buy one, please post a comparative review on here.

It shows the value of the brand name - lots of punters just want Fender on the headstock, regardless of the sound or feel of the instrument. If you're happy with your bass, keep it and grow with it, you could always sand the headstock and stick a Fender logo on if it makes you feel better, (you wouldn't be the first or last). And what if basses had no maker's name or logo ? Would you be able to tell the difference between a Fender and a Squier in a blind test ? Too much choice leads to dissatisfaction and it might be better if we all spent more time playing and less time lusting after new toys............

What kind of strings are those? The E looks different to the others.

[quote name='thinman' post='1075486' date='Jan 2 2011, 05:11 PM']I don't think the stock pickups are at all bad and that's comparing them with Wizard 84s on my Jazz.[/quote] How do the wizards compare to the original pups on the jazz bass?

[quote name='Circle_of_Fifths' post='1075471' date='Jan 2 2011, 05:00 PM']If I saw you one the street, the first thought in my mind would be: "That guy's NOT a reggae bass-player"[/quote] Mi locks are under mi tam man .................. [url="http://myspace.com/redstriper"][color="#FF0000"][b]Hear[/b][/color] [color="#FFFF00"][b]me[/b][/color] [color="#2E8B57"][b]now[/b][/color] [b]![/b][/url]