Woodinblack

There is no standard, when configuring your bass it is there as an option to what preamp you want.

OK, now a bit more reading and I find out that all of that information was pre-1984 truss rods. Post 1984 truss rods work like any other truss rod, except there being two of them, so back to a bit more of a comfort zone, except for not having any imperial sockets!

Well, that is sort of what I thought, but this is a 4004L which is anything but vintage, but sure enough it does have twin truss rods that look just like the ones in the 4003. Luckily with the bridge drop and nut reduction, it is much lower than it was, so it isn't so much of an issue, other than there is nowhere to go if it was wrong, and I do need to change the strings, so my current dilemma is that I have a pack of 40-125s, and a pack of 45-130s!

OK, so I need to do the strings on my 5 string ric, but the nut is too high and the action is too high, so tonight is the night to sort it out. Was really worried about filing the nut down as it always goes wrong, but for whatever reason, today it didn't, I filed the nut down and it is mostly ok (I could have probably gone further but its close enough). So next job the action, might as well adjust the truss rod, take off the TRC and.. oh, two truss rods, I thought that was just a 4003 thing, rather than a ric thing. Still, how hard can it be, head to youtube to see what needs doing. First video, guy loosens the truss rods, bends the neck back manually, does them up and says thats fine. OK, that can't be right, second video, have to skip half of it as hes just spending his time time talking, drinking and smoking, but then he undoes the truss rods and bends the neck down. hmm.. then I tried the 3rd, same thing. So at this point it is either a global conspiracy by bass manufacturers to break rics or is that is actually how you adjust a ric neck?

Yet on their website they are announcing the new range of cases?

One of the nordstrand Ibanezes has a lot of top end with the treble turned up

For me, any active 5 string bass with the treble turned up and new strings. The bongo is pretty good, but they all are really until the strings go dull

Any form of calendar works if people remember to update it, if they don't, then nothing works.

Mine were refunded on eBay, so it didn't cause me an issue.

Wow - they still going? Haven't seen them since the mid 90s!

Seems like you still can't order from them in general though, but the site is at least still there. I imagine they have a lot of stuff to work through

Played my green one on saturday night and realised it is a better bass in natural light, because under green light it looks a bit sickly, whereas under sunlight it glows - should have swapped the order this weekend!

Had that on one song on saturday, I was convinced the bass was out of tune as it seemed really off. Checked at the end of the song, it was spot on and I was playing the right thing - no idea what was going on there.

Two gig weekend this weekend. First was an evening gig at a local working mens club that we do a few times a year. Better than it sounds, it has a good stage, easy load in through the back door and a generally attentive crowd. I think numbers were a bit down on normal, but with quite a lot on that weekend around here, its not really that surprising, but the crowd were good, sound was good playing the spector for the first half and the #1 ibanez for the second half (to give my shoulder a break, the spector weighs a bit!). Went back to stereo IEM, and after taking my X18 in the house and going through it I found that the reason it didnt work well the last time I tried, Aux 5&6 that I was using for the IEM output was tied (for some reason) to the main output rather than bus 5&6, which is why adjusting them made no difference. Also I had fed the output from a multitrack I had recorded another time through the mixer again so I could offline concentrate on what I could do with the vocals of the singer - people have always complained he sounds muffled. I think I got it a lot better and he was really happy with how it sounded this weekend, in fact for the first time he said maybe it was too loud and clear! Noone complained they couldn't hear him. Sundays gig was an ourdoor pavillion, one of those venues that in the sun is fantastic, and in the rain is cramped and not so good. It was sunny so loads of space and everyone was in the mood for music. Setting up was easy, the cars are parked just on the left of the building on the grass, the bar part on the right and the crowd goes on a long way to the right in front of the bar. However setting up there was a panic as the original Evox PA on the left of this photo wouldn't switch on - we fiddled around, swapped leads etc, and nothing. In the end while I was looking elsewhere the guitarist and drummer noticed that when you rocked the pa forwards the power came on, and went off when it went back. so we moved it to be on one slab and put beer mats to make sure it was level and it stayed on for the whole gig. That si this weeks job. Didn't want to do the whole gig with just one evox 8 and there wasn't enough time to get home and get something else. Tried the soundcheck, my bass sounded terrible.Playing my Orange OLP, it was a summer day, that is a summer bass. Unfortunately there was no bass and it sounded weedy. I know it wasn't the battery as I had tested it during the week. Fiddle round, boosted the bass on the bass, and it sounded a little better, figuring that maybe a 10" speaker and Bam200 into the PA wasn't good enough for an open air (this is what I use all the time now), then I spotted it - the Bam200 as it is so small it lives in the gig bag, the bass and middle were fully anticlockwise, the treble fully clockwise, they just move in the bag. Put them all at 12 and suddenly I had a bass again (too much, turned the bass on the OLP down) The audience were in party mode and despite us doing exactly the same set list as saturday night and quite a few people from the previous night in attendance, they were really enjoying it, as did we. We have introduced 3 new songs in the last gigs, and they went well, I only messed up on some of the ones we have been playing for ever! So for info on the photo, that is my position on the right, microphone stand with iPad and sample pad (for pianos for 'In the End'), pedal board - mod dwarf, 12 step, critical mass vocals, going to the bam200 on the gnome 10" feeding through that line of wires to the PA (xlr from bam to mixer and jacks from the sampler and keyboard output of the dwarf to the mixer). The other leads are right speaker and ethernet from the mixer to the X-Control surface on the stand. This morning I woke up and feel like I lost a boxing match - too old for this shit!

No, probably a long way from that. I have two, one is the newer plastic one, one is the original wood one. The plastic one I bought new (B-Stock) not too long ago, which would have been the third edition, but the one that went wrong is the original V1 wooden one, I got that second hand three years ago!

Not last night but today, I set up my two Evox 8 speakers, then thought I would play some music on them while we were setting up, one side not working, had a look, no lights.. hmm, maybe the power at that side of the stage not good, no, the guitarists pedalboard from the same power strip is on. Get another power lead, still nothing, plug it into another socket, still nothing. No time to get home to get another speaker, and doesn't look promising, one evox 8 at an open air gig isn't going to do much, The drummer and guitarist were looking at it while I was checking something else and found when it rocked forward the power went on and back it went off. so we moved it so it was on a level paving slab, and it seemed to stay on. Went for it and it survived the gig, but that is this weeks investigation started!

We did an speaker shootout at one of the bass bashes, they all sounded very similar apart from the MarkBass which was so heavily tuned.

The packaging on these looked spot on. I complained, eBay refunded me, but seems odd really to fake strings, they have actually seemed just like normal strings, if they are fake they are pretty good.

As like mine on the previous page and pretty well every post of that tour!

Last time I bought some strings (not amazon, ebay), i put the number in and it said they were already registered.

Yeh, would love one of those.

There are quite a few L2000s, wouldn't call them rare at all. an M2000/2500, now they are rare I am sure all these basses are common compared to chapman sticks!

Would love to get another japanese Rick copy but they are so stupidly priced everywhere you see them these days. The one I got stolen cost me £25 in 1981, so at the time just slightly less than a standard boss effect pedal.

So I assume you are going to play them left handed for authenticity?

I am currently leaning on one. Well, its under my seat until i find somewhere else for it to be. Not new though, and they don't come up used often. Its a small. Small is actually pretty big in your living room!