HowieBass

Reading this online about why heating can help: "Heat- If you paid attention in chemistry class you would have learned that when you heat and cool metal it expands and contracts. The way that I have used in the past is to heat the head/body of the bolt until it is almost red hot. By doing this the bolt expands due to the heat, and when it cools it will contract thus breaking the corrosion in between the threads. A similar method is to heat the area around the bolt to make the hole it is threaded into actually expand and open up a little bit so that the bolt fits a bit looser and can be threaded out."

"People used to look at me like I was crazy!" and now they only look 'cos of the new weird hairdo...

Looks like the defect has been filled with something (wood glue and sawdust?). I wonder if it could be tinted dark to match the nearby figuring and then you wouldn't need much of a stain to hide it?

I think the vinegar solution does the same as cola (converting/dissolving rust). I've seen stuff on TV where people heat up stuck bolts (usually on old cars) to get them out but I don't know if that's practical in this case. You'll obviously need a new grub screw so I wonder if it might be easier to just replace the whole saddle assembly?

Of five basses that moved from a damp house to a dry house the only one that suffered any significant change was my Squier VM Precision (strung with flats) and that developed a significant forward bow over the period of a few weeks - once I'd adjusted the truss rod it's remained stable. I reckon that bass has the thickest neck too. If the bass were to move back to a damper environment I'd therefore expect it to develop a back bow.

I don't like the font at all and the apostrophe pedant in me wants you to get rid of 80's, 90's and 00's and instead use 80s, 90s and 00s - though with your font the weird zeroes would look odd against the 's' or perhaps you can use 'eighties, nineties and the noughties' instead. The Gallery page has a rogue leading underscore that shouldn't be there. Be consistent with capitalisation for headers on the individual pages ('ABOUT THE BAND' vs 'Gallery'). There's nothing appearing in the Media section for me. This is all viewed using Firefox on a Windows 10 laptop.

I can't see the photo either! I've got a Cort B4FL and they're nice basses

I think wood veneer gets used as it won't compress the same way cardboard could. I've used thin plastic sheet (cut to size with ordinary kitchen scissors and with holes drilled for the neck screws when I needed to shim the full neck pocket).

[quote name='Manton Customs' timestamp='1466974077' post='3080201'] As it's been defretted it's most likely that the board needs dressing, there's probably a bump in there somewhere. Basically the fretless equivalent of needing fretwork! To check: first slacken the strings, then set relief to zero (flat neck) then check the board with a straight edge a long the string paths. My bet would be one of the filled fret slots is proud. [/quote] I think this seems quite likely and that unwanted sizzle you're getting is the string making more contact with the fingerboard than it should.

They sounded a bit 'thin' to me and I agree about them performing at the level of a tribute band, more like a Zzzzzz Top

Sound transmission through air is affected by temperature and humidity (basically how dense the transmitting medium is) but I don't know if the short distance from ear to speaker cone (or ear to vibrating string/instrument body) is enough for this to have much effect on tone... there are quite a number of discussions about this particular topic if you search online.

Basschat scores again! http://youtu.be/K7gDP3vIKdU

[quote name='lefrash' timestamp='1466624938' post='3077410'] It might just be a better bridge due to its quality rather than the mass? [/quote] Agreed; I would think it's about how well the bridge supports the strings... the original bridge might have been a poor performer in terms of stability - to my mind you want to keep as much energy in a string for it to continue vibrating (sustain) and saddle construction probably influences this as much as anything else with regard to bridge design (including its mass).

There are schematics for current preamps on the Noll website but the colour coding looks to have changed from when your bass was constructed. Have you tried asking for help directly from Noll? http://noll-electronic.de/

If there's more tension on the neck after changing to flats you'd need to tighten the truss rod a little in order to get the neck back to the same degree of relief - check what the relief is and don't change anything unless you really need to. I've got Fender flats on two of my basses and I like them a lot.

I've always put 'Shoplifters of the World Unite' up there with 'How Soon is Now?' - both having a similar vibe for me (and I've great memories of listening to my personal Smiths mixtape on headphones whilst crossing the Oakland Bay Bridge on holiday back in the 80s).

P with flats, Jazz with rounds...

Always found DPD to be excellent for deliveries. Had my new turntable delivered by them yesterday; early morning email and messages via the DPD app gave me a one hour time slot and they turned up right in the middle of it. I usually spot the van before they make it to the front door but I've invested in a wireless doorbell with chime units both upstairs and down so I've yet to miss anybody calling at my house.

He's missed a trick in forgetting to offer an optional string retainer available at a mere £20 extra...

This article might help; it talks about compression and a whole lot more: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep12/articles/mixing-bass.htm

I think I'm right in saying that two drivers with a combined load of 4 ohms will be louder than a single driver of 4 ohms because you're moving twice as much air; so don't expect the new 600W speaker to give you the volume increase you'd hear with an extension cab.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1464337235' post='3058493'] Rather a nice-looking Grantson: [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Grantson-semi-acoustic-bass-guitar-early-70s-made-in-Japan-fabulous-/291752186912?hash=item43edc91420:g:96EAAOSwZAtXJOia"]http://www.ebay.co.u...6EAAOSwZAtXJOia[/url] It's our old friend priscillasnake which perhaps explains the ballistic price. [/quote] It's expensive 'cos it's a bass for a supreme being... “Amazingly good condition, and in very god working order.”

Could you angle the saddle block back about say 30 degrees so that there's clear access to the intonation screws?

I've been listening to music more often through my old system (since moving to a house that's better sound insulated) and I too have the Rotel RA-930AX - mine's teamed with Mission 760i bookshelf speakers. The speakers sit on Atacama Nexus 6 stands (the current equivalent seems to be the 6i stands) and I'm very happy with the stability and look of the stands (mine are in the black finish). The 6 designation refers to the stand height of 60cm so they're quite tall. The stands are spiked which sit on small aluminium spike cups on a laminate floor. I fortunately haven't had any problems with fuses blowing in the Rotel amp though I have had some intermittent issues (as in once or twice) with losing sound on the right channel (which seems connected with the pots and switches - as in the source selector and maybe the speaker direct switch too). I've read that these amps do benefit from having all the pots and switches cleaned so I might well open it up and take a look some time.

Well if you don't love the sound you get from flats then maybe some nickels might be in order... I haven't tried that many but I really like La Bella nickel plated 'Slappers'.