Painy

7 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

Q-tuners have a good rep but it’s still a mag pickup - I just think if he takes his ethos and uses piezos he’s making something that fits into his ethos as stated and also fits into a section of the bass buying public in the uk... Your friend would be competing against rob Allen and the other guys who make that kind of bass... (who in the uk) rather than every uk luthier who makes basses... it fits with the guys ethos, it would be a different product due to the woods used and I have a suspicion there would be a gap in the market ... otherwise my question would be why would I buy that bass over a Alpher/ACG/Overwater...? 

Fair point. 

How about including both a piezo and a Q-tuner with the option to switch (or possibly even blend) between the 2?

7 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

I would be looking at rob Allen type basses with piezoelectric elements and an acoustic type sound- but obv with his concepts applied 

The pickup he uses as has an incredibly acoustic-like sound (the clean sound on his guitars is genuinely breathtaking) and because it has a hugely wide frequency range it's suitable for both guitar and bass but without the feedback issues that you can often get with piezo type pickups.

Rob Allen basses are definitely stunning instruments though and certainly worth looking at for some inspiration! 

2 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Some nice features....I like the way the strings go under the "nut"..

More detailed info:

https://www.halflightguitars.com/new-page-1/

 

 

 

Yeah, it's basically a string retainer that holds the strings over the zero-fret but apparently there was an awful lot of work that went into getting the perfect break-angle that gets the minimum amount of pressure possible to avoid wearing the fret but still enough contact to work. 

A luthier friend of mine has asked me to collaborate with him to design a bass but based on the styling and design principles of his existing guitars. 

His builds exclusively use UK grown woods and aim to be as organic as possible both in construction and tone so, for example, the pickup is direct wired to the output and everything (bar the frets, electronics, tuners and straplocks) is handmade by him. 

I'd appreciate your thoughts on how these guitars might translate into bass form (or indeed any suggestions as to what might need to be changed to make it work). 

Link to the photo gallery on his website here:-

https://www.halflightguitars.com/

Thanks. 

And a video - although I've not had a chance to watch it myself as I'm at work right now. 

Looks very much like it I'd say, yes. 

Just seen this on Facebook! 

It's my always on drive and it's a really important part of my sound. I use it fairy subtly really but it adds a nice growl and really livens up the harmonics.

7 hours ago, therealting said:

Those Modern Player Jazzes are great aren’t they? I had one with a J Retro Deluxe that I only sold to upgrade to a Dingwall Super J as it was too heavy for me. I had a tort guard on it, was a beautiful thing. 

Yeah it's nice to play and plenty of tones available from the coil-taps. I did have to shim the neck on mine though to get the action down as even with the g string saddle bottomed out it still wasn't low enough for me (although I do use an extremely low action). 

7 hours ago, stingrayPete1977 said:

White Black white looks much nicer than just white. 

With a black plate it will look just like my classic 5 but with a rose wood board and a bit cheaper than the £2400 you'd pay for one now! 

Bargain! 

Tech21 Programmable Bass Driver DI. 

Not as cheap an option as the Behringer but allows you to save an EQ setting (and volume level if there's any difference in volume between the basses) for each instrument. 

The only thing I'd say is that both this and the BDI21 have very much their own particular sound (they're very similar as the BDI21 is a very good budget copy of the standard Tech21 Bass Driver DI) so although it would allow you to set up 2 different tones, they may not actually be the tones that you're looking for. Plenty of demo's on YouTube to o give you an idea what they sound like though. 

1 hour ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

I'd stick with the white one! Like John Deacon's.

As much as I'm a fan of John Deacon (and Queen in general) there's something about a plain white scratchplate that always makes me think a guitar looks kinda cheap - like it's just been cut out of an old ice-cream tub. 

1 hour ago, KevB said:

Technically I have 5 but the cheapo semi acoustic is pretty much an ornament these days so realistically giggable basses, 4. Ric 4003 plus these fellas

Currently the P bass is in Eb tuning, the jazz is in Eb but with a dropped Db which leaves the tele bass and ric in normal tuning for jam sessions and any other music projects that might come up. The tele has flats on for thuddy stuff, the ric can do the twangy stuff.

The Ric wouldn't happen to be in mapleglo would it? 

Well I managed to intercept the delivery driver before he could make his getaway. 🙂

NBD thread here:

I've anyways thought of the Holy Trinity of bass as being Fender Precision, Fender Jazz and Musicman Stingray (Honorable mention to Saint Gibson of Thunderbird). 

Today's new arrival has completed what I'm now thinking of as my UNholy Trinity. 

Unholy? Well firstly - as you might notice - they're all five strings. Secondly because the Precision is a (much modified) Squier rather than an actual Fender, the Jazz is a real (albeit Chinese made) Fender but has coil tappable Humbuckers rather than the traditional single coils and now the newest addition is a Sterling by Musicman Ray CA25. 

Anyway, not had much time with it yet other than to give it a good set-up with a nice low action and to temporarily stick a bit of black adhesive vinyl over the (in my opinion) cheap looking white scratchplate but so far it's looking good. Sounds like a Stingray. Plays nicely. Looks pretty good to me. Now looking forward to giving it a run out at Saturday night's gig. 

Also, any help choosing between these three scratchplate materials I've narrowed it down to to permanently replace the white plate with would be appreciated. 🙂

50 minutes ago, josie said:

Could be worse. A couple of years ago my GMR single-cut 5 was delivered the day after I had fallen downstairs and completely mashed up my left side (3 broken ribs). I somehow got it out of the box and then stared at it for several days before I had enough use of my left arm to even pick it up, and several more days before I could reach the headstock to tune it. 

That's it then. I'm going to spend my whole day tomorrow avoiding anything remotely likely to cause any kind of physical injury! 

I think I'd have been an absolute mental and emotional wreck by the second day if I'd been in that situation. 

8 minutes ago, ped said:

Don’t bother with the ‘leave in a safe place’ option either (which you have to register to be able to use) because they ignore it. 

Fortunately I'm on holiday this week and will be at home anyway. My wife would have signed for it anyway if I wasn't home but that would have run the risk of her seeing the total value on the invoice before I got a chance to make it vanish. 🤪

😄😄😄

Blimey! That's better travelled than I am! 

10 minutes ago, Teebs said:

Gutted! I feel your pain! 

Not relevant, but my in-laws live in Fakenham.

Small world! 

This is so frustrating! 

My package from Thomann has made it all the way from Germany to Norwich which is less than 30 miles from my home but because UPS don't deliver on a Saturday it's been sat there since 5:48 this morning and won't be with me until Monday. 

It's torture I tells ya, torture! 

1 hour ago, GuyR said:

I have a fretless sunburst '79 pre EB Stingray I bought off Pino and it enables me to play just like him.

Not all listeners agree.

My Squier VM P5 has been fitted with original the pickup from Dave Swift's white Sadowsky P5. 

My Aguilar DB112 cabs were previously owned by Paul Turner. 

I now sound like some bloke called Dave Turner (who Google tells me is a science fiction, fantasy and comedy author and not a bass player at all). 

It's all very confusing 🤪

Want!!!

I am however sadly unable to afford to buy this at the moment 😩. 

Unless of course you'd be prepared to accept a weekly payment of £1.50 over the next 634 weeks? (that actually adds up to £951 so in just a little over 12 years you could make yourself the tidy additional sum of £1 on your asking price). Just something to consider... 🤔

Just bought a bridge from John. Really couldn't have been an easier process. Top notch! 

6 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

Ironic as ThevMusic Group ( Bugera, Behringer etc) bought TC last year.

 

Some say it is more like the Genz Benz Streamliner

 

 

 

1 minute ago, Bridgehouse said:

Serious? That’s really kind of you. In return I can “look after” that £2k for you as well 

Touche 😉