HowieBass

An 'x' is used to denote a ghost note, in bass playing where you play a muted note http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_note

Looks like a bargain to me assuming everything works the way it should. Enjoy it!

... and roll off the treble and play with a pick as well?

... but we are talking about what it's made out of rather than how well it's made and how nice it looks... so keep that Fodera order in the pipeline...

Wow, I've never seen one of those before - very interesting - I like the adjustable pole pieces

Just watched the second episode on Sky Arts 1 catch up, featuring The Stranglers with JJ Burnel playing a green burst/rosewood P bass, a young Elvis Costello playing with Nick Lowe's band, then Elvis Costello in his own right, The Clash with Paul Simonon on his Rickenbacker, Ian Dury with 'The Bus Driver's Prayer' and of course 'The Bard of Salford' John Cooper Clarke... oh yeah and Tony Wilson

[quote name='PlungerModerno' timestamp='1413193729' post='2575576'] The evidence I have seen strongly suggests body wood may affect tuning stability, sustain (and dead spots / irregularities in sustain) - but the rigidity, total mass, shape, and temperature of the body may all affect it too. The irregularity of wood means no two bodies (blanks or the finished article) are exactly the same - even if they come from the same plank. [/quote] I reckon neck/fingerboard wood has more of an effect on matters such as tuning stability, sustain and dead spots than body wood - and talking about dead spots that's why people sometimes attach weights to a headstock to add mass to the neck (not the body). A bass body isn't going to be as susceptible to change as the neck and let's not forget that when people think that adding a high mass bridge benefits sustain they never seem to consider the fact that replacing tuners with lightweight machines might affect tone/sustain/dead spots. What I do wonder about is whether there's much audible difference between a chunky necked and a skinny necked bass.

I'd say 'no'.

You must have liked them earlier on else why did you buy their albums in the first place? Our tastes change as we get older. I doubt I'd want to spend much time listening to Slade these days but their singles were about the first records I ever bought.

No mention of the Matsumoku factory which is where the Japanese Westones were made? Aria too for that matter. Having said that, if the list was published around 1989, Westone production had moved to Korea after production ended in Japan in about 1988.

[quote name='simon1964' timestamp='1413030216' post='2574325'] According to my PM exchange with Ki0gon the cap is a [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Vintage Sprague 0.1. Have to say that that doesn't mean a lot to me, save that Ki0gon advised it would give a "vintage old school" tone - which it does! [/font][/color] [/quote] A larger value capacitor, in your case roughly double the value of what's often found inside a P bass (0.047uF), will cut a lot more treble when you close the tone control.

You won't know what that veneer is hiding - might be some fairly large 'faults' in the wood (cracks/knots?) but if you do go down the route of adding a new veneer top you can make it more visually pleasing (grain direction and inherent figuring). According to the Westone site the Thunder jet basses are solid alder. http://www.westone.info/thunderjetbass.html

One thing I would warn about is leaving a bass on a stand in the sun where you get a fair bit of light hitting the neck because over time the neck will probably darken a little (almost like a sun tan) but the part of the stand that holds the neck steady will remain pale so you'll have a lighter stripe there.

Yeah if the finish was like my Spectrum LX it would have been satin black on the neck and headstock; subsequent wear on mine has left a gloss finish on the back of the neck. The body on mine was a two-tone finish; a gloss black body with a satin/matt central stripe which again has glossed up over the years with handling wear - though I think this only appeared on the Spectrum LX. Westone also stained the rosewood fingerboards on some models, using a deep purple colour to take the fingerboard to an almost black tone - this tends to come off over time whenever you apply anything to the rosewood such as linseed oil.

Check with the manufacturer of your bass and/or tell us what you have (exact make/model/year) as others here might well have the same instrument and will know. I think you only get nitro finishes on higher end basses these days.

The neck has some but not as much effect on the tone as you seem to imagine. Rosewood fingerboards seem to give a warmer, darker sound than a maple board which is a point in your favour. You have gone from (probably) steel roundwounds to nickel roundwounds and nickel offers a warmer, slightly darker tone than steel with a roundwound string. From what I've seen in your previous thread on this, the suggestion has been made to put some flats on your P bass which you've yet to try. Get some steel flats on before you try swapping anything else around.

You could do with checking it's not your cable that might have a shielding issue first (unless of course you've already tried a few decent quality cables and have noticed the problem with them all).

I think the onboard mid control is supposed to replicate the NE-1 outboard parametric mid-range equaliser box that Yamaha used to make... http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical-instruments/guitars-basses/amps/ne1/

I've listened to the clip twice and to be honest I'm not sure I'm hearing what you're hearing. It doesn't sound at all noisy to me. There's maybe a very slight background hiss but my hearing's less than perfect so you and others may notice it more.

Also, depending on the amp, if you're pushing it into overdrive that can add warmth.

Looking forward to this - I'm always really happy to see a Westone getting some attention.

I think a few BCers have tried the Harley Benton BB210T cab (250 watt 8 ohm cab) and been pleasantly surprised with it for the price. Just in case you're considering another cab and can't afford to spend much... http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_bb210t.htm

Looks to me like the strings are fairly high compliance/low tension so it's just a consequence of using the string as a thumb rest, nothing more than that.

Maybe your bass guitar doesn't have that high a signal coming from the pickup(s)? Is it a passive or active bass and are you putting it into the right input jack on the amp? I notice the LH500 doesn't have an input gain control so in a way your pedal is making up for that. As 'discreet' says, if everything sounds sweet then you should be fine.

Try this http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/ which should allow you to downsize the frame size (and hence total file size) and try 720 frame height which is still excellent video quality and it should be under half the file size (and even less when converting to a compressed file format).