HowieBass

[quote name='planer' timestamp='1403647823' post='2485007'] If you can figure out that there is some benefit to making your own, then fill your boots. I can't see one myself, and the chances of it improving your sound are 2/10ths of nowt to be honest. As long as your existing cables are half-reasonable and working, that is. Also I can't find anything better for holding bits of electrickery together than good old soldering. [/quote] +1 I'd only advise solderless if you desperately want to make up your own cables and don't know how to solder. The solderless plugs where you have screw terminal connections are in my opinion more reliable than the fancy new design plugs where a spike is supposed to push into the central core because you cannot confirm by eye whether the connection is good once the plug's been attached.

The only thing that a bedded-in set of strings might have compared to a new set is that they'll likely have a more definite witness point where they sit on the bridge saddle but when you know this then it becomes second nature to push the string down where it breaks over the saddle, in much the same way you'll pull on the strings to get the initial stretch out of them when new.

I'd expect to check the intonation after changing strings as there might be slight changes in string characteristics from one set to another even of the same gauge from the same manufacturer and obviously if changing gauge or manufacturer then I'd definitely expect to tweak the setup of a bass as appropriate to the strings it carries.

I advocate sacrificing looks for sound and playability; what's the point of having an instrument looking 'flash' if it sounds dire? You can do a lot with customising an instrument either with body graphics or fancy scratchplates - remember Phil Lynott's black Fender Precision with the mirror scratchplate? If you want to cover a lot of different musical styles then pretty much every time you'll probably find a stand out bassist in that genre having used a P bass, and having a decent selection of effects (a few stomp boxes or a multi-fx unit like a Zoom B3) will allow you to tailor your sound to the song.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1403551965' post='2483868'] That is our tongue in cheek bit of fun as the band is made of judases (judi judass judas'?) Lol [/quote] You need to make an album called 'Sell Out'...

Is it my eyes or does the front of the kick drum say 'Judas Trio'? Divine retribution? Nice basses by the way!

Welcome to Basschat! I have many happy memories of holidays in Portugal, had great times in Estoril/Cascais when you had the F1 GP races there

Better diagram here:

There's a lot of stuff online regarding VBT wiring for Jazz basses; chose a 500K blend pot to keep the tone the same as the current VVT wiring; here's a schematic The control plate pictured above is clearly arse-about-tit but I think the wiring is correct and obviously you can have the pots in whatever order you prefer (the above shows BVT).

The only regular music event in the Wigan borough is the annual International Jazz Festival which, presumably due to cutbacks in funding, has dwindled somewhat in terms of duration and scope - previously there was a healthy fringe festival running alongside the main festival which offered a wider scope of musical styles but this has been absent for quite some years - there used to be many free and also outdoor events but sadly these seem to be rarer now. http://www.wlct.org/wigan/whats-on/jazz/ The Wigan International Jazz Festival runs from Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 July 2014. I was also involved in running an annual arts festival in the borough and that also featured a lot of music events but again, sadly, lack of funding has put an end to it.

The Squier Classic Vibe Precision (60s version) has a rosewood fingerboard so I'm wondering if you mean the 50s style Classic Vibe which does have a maple board but it doesn't have the well-loved split P bass pickup... if you want a maple board with the traditional split P pickup then the Squier Vintage Modified P bass in amber/maple has both and it's a great bass (I've got one). The VM P bass in amber has a 'soft' maple body which is very similar to alder in weight/hardness (and Fender use a LOT of alder in their basses).

I think the consensus will be that a dedicated stomp box compressor will be better than most integrated compressors found within a multi-effects unit, HOWEVER if you like what you hear and the B3 in-built compressor you're using adds rather than detracts from the sound of your bass then I say just carry on using it...

The Gotoh 203 B bridge is the one I think I'd choose if I were thinking of upgrading the BBOT bridge on my Squier P bass - it looks a bit chunkier than the stock bridge (but not excessively so; I'd not expect much change in tone or sustain) and it has the shallow channels for the saddle adjustment height screws to sit in which makes it a bit more stable and it still looks a lot like the original bridge (though with additional mounting holes). There's this place that sells them http://www.cdguitars.co.uk/gotoh-203b-4-bass-bridge-chrome-cd6936ch-249-p.asp

If both head and cab are very neutral sounding maybe you could borrow an amp/cabinet modelling pedal or valve pre-amp pedal if possible and see how that fits in with your rig; if you're close to a decent store (PMT?) then maybe give them a ring, ask if you can take your gear in and try what they've got - at least you ought to be able to play pretty loud in there at approximate gig volume.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1403194601' post='2480726'] I'm now thinking Daleks carrying basses going: "[i][b]Expedite!!! Expedite!!![/b][/i]" [/quote]

And £49 'economy' delivery, f**k knows what expedited is...

I have to confess that up until about 5 minutes ago I'd never heard of John Jowitt...

[quote name='hairychris' timestamp='1403000607' post='2478646'] I think that it's the other way round. If the body/neck don't vibrate then they are absorbing or damping the vibrations. The body vibration feeds back to the strings. [/quote] If the body and neck don't vibrate then they don't vibrate; you can't have it both ways where something both absorbs energy but doesn't vibrate. You can't get more energy out of a system than you put in - the string can't vibrate any harder than when you first strike it so there's isn't any amplification going on with a string somehow collecting vibrational energy from the body - as I said if an instrument couples at a particular frequency (and it's usually the neck) it will suck energy from a vibrating string and that's where a dead spot occurs. It's known that adding mass to a headstock shift's the resonant frequency lower because you make the system stiffer/less compliant (so it's harder to make it vibrate).

If I didn't already have my Genz Benz Contour 500 2x10 I'd be looking at a Fender Rumble 500 V3 for a powerful and reasonably small lightweight combo...

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1402953333' post='2478314'] Have you seen this It's a gadget made to "open up the wood" by vibrating it to get it moving and open up the sound. I can see it "possibly" working on an instrument with a sound board, but with an electric bass..? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsRhNzdB-g8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VwBzplLz8Y [/quote] I know that some materials, I think mainly metal, can undergo a process called work hardening where there's a definite change in internal structure (and obviously the phenomenom of metal fatigue) whereas I can only imagine timber becoming somehow a little more compliant as it ages (loses stiffness) which presumably is what's supposed to be going on with played in instruments. Tests have been made where professional violinists were asked in a double blind trial to rate violins where some were modern and others were vintage Stradivarius instruments and there was little preference for one over another - in fact most of the players chose a modern instrument for one that they'd take home, based on playability and sound alone - you'd imagine that a Stradivarius would have benefitted more than any other in terms of being 'broken in' through vibration. The thing that's always puzzled me is why some people claim that an instrument which sounds good acoustically (not plugged in) is going to be better (when played through an amp) than one that sounds dead or quieter as I've always thought that to hear it in this way means the instrument is robbing the strings of energy in order to radiate it through the neck and body (and wouldn't you want as much energy as possible to be seen by the pickup?) - maybe subtracting energy through sympathetic resonance makes other frequencies stand out more which is what they like to hear through their amp though of course take too much energy away from a vibrating string and that's where a dead spot arises...

Do you think he needs the cash? Can't get any gigs?

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1402941996' post='2478148'] Wunjos will defrett an SR300. They did mine. Plays like a dream and well within your budget. [/quote] The Ibanez SR370F fretless is only £269 new so unless a defret can be done cheaply on a new or used SR300 it'll probably end up costing more...

If you like the single coil sounds of a Jazz then the Squier VM fretless is definitely one to consider as all but the most basic Squiers these days are well regarded. The Ibanez SR370F that you're probably thinking about is probably going to be decently screwed together as well (as I'd bet that it's made in the same Cort factory as the Squier) and has a 3 band eq but you'll not get the single coil sound.

Is that a real PSW-2500? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pure-sine-off-grid-power-2500w-5000W-peak-inverter-12v-DC-to-mains-NO-TAX-/201103513006?pt=UK_Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM&hash=item2ed2b415ae

The Squier VM P bass in amber/maple has a 'soft' maple body which is still quite a hard and dense wood; it's harder/denser than red alder. Agathis (or kauri) is also harder/denser than red alder.