NancyJohnson

Isn't it about what you can make it do/sound like when plugged in that's important?

Formed a band with a mate about 15 years ago, we'd have periods of stability then someone would jack it in and we'd find someone else. This went on for about ten or eleven years. Gigging regularly and recording. It was a little like one if those Pete Frame Family Tree things. New vocalist came in. Great pipes, superb lyrics, but clearly saw us as a work in progress. Guitarist left. Drummer left. I found replacements. Vocalist pretty much took MY band and shaped it to his vision. Things went political lyrically (sorry, but no. We weren't The Clash). Suddenly, all members were expendable and despite having an online calender if any of us were unavailable he'd say it's easy enough to find a dep because booking gigs is hard. Individually, all the band were reasonable blokes - even the singer - but collectively it was always 3 Vs 1 or band comes first, even if gigs were booked on birthdays, anniversaries, funerals. Final straw was pretty much being read the riot act the day my father-in-law died, when I said I really couldn't play some basement sh*thole that same night. Amazingly my heartbroken mother-in-law, who'd just lost her husband of 60 years, said I should actually go out and play said gig. Post me they carried on with four different bass players and somehow limped through the pandemic before folding about a year ago. None of the final lineup are doing anything of merit musically (which makes me exceedingly happy as I am).

Afternoon lads. Thread resurrection, eh. Despite the age of this thread and the time since my procedures, my hands are issue free and in great shape. I'll pass on the same advice. Always decline the steroid shot and opt/push for the operation in all instances.

If you know me, you'll know that I've tended to convert my passive basses to active via the addition of John East circuits; I reckon I'll installed maybe ten Uni-Pres in total (not all mine). About three years ago I put a Uni-Pre 3 in one of my Lulls (the JAX/NRT); the installation wasn't that straightforward to be honest, just problematic. John and I had a loooong conversation over the phone; he gave me a diagnosis that proved 100% correct (it was unrelated to the Uni-Pre and was actually a ground-wire issue on one of the pickups) and I fired up the soldering iron and repaired it while we were speaking. Oddly, the bass itself was generally fine, there was an intermittent issue where if I fiddled with the stacked mid controls too much the bass would make a noise not dissimilar to a theremin until I tapped the mid-pot a few times. Given the reliability issues, I tended to lean on other basses and left the Lull at home, thinking that at some point I'd just get another Uni-Pre and just swap it out. I decided to give John a shout. We exchanged emails, he advised me to take the mid-pot out of the circuit (there's a little jumper that allows this), remove it and send it off to him. I did this and a couple of days later I got the pot back (with a clean bill of health) and a new wiring loom. All fitted. Fantastic. I'd wager the bass actually sounds a little different too. I'd just like to convey that John's customer service here is off the chart. Legendary. I really have no doubt that had the issue been with one of the bigger manufacturers (ie EMG/Aguilar), I wouldn't even have got a reply from their service teams given the age of the part, but John seems to thrive on this stuff. He's all over Talkbass threads. 100% legend. What a bloke.

Went to a barbecue yesterday, guy hosting has a ton of guitars, ranging from his early purchase copies through to the current crop of Gibsons and Fenders. He's not a brilliant player and plays - by his own admission - in a terrible cover band, but has disposable income and loves guitars. Interestingly, he needed/wanted an acoustic bass for something and picked up a used G4M acoustic bass locally for £90.00. He asked me for an opinion. I think I must have played it for over an hour. Genuinely surprised at how wonderful it was. Only criticisms were that there were some sharp fret ends up the dusty end and the action could have been a mm or two lower, but it was just brilliant. Played acoustically, tonally it was full and rich, amazingly so. Zero fret buzz, neck straight, no high frets. Neck profile was quite shallow. Very playable. Do I need an acoustic bass? Well do I?

Dual truss-rods aren't particularly unusual - certainly I'd expect a wider necked instrument (ie a 6-string+ bass) to have two as a necessity. Rickenbacker basses have them (which I've always thought was overkill). The honourable member for Tamworth has answered how they're used quite succinctly. Tweaking the truss rod(s) is easy enough and if done with a bit of patience and care, it shouldn't be an issue. Just do little 1/8 or 1/4 turns tops and remember the rule or righty-tighy and lefty-loosey. Results are generally instantaneous and in all honesty there's no real need to leave the neck overnight; detune the bass, adjust, tune up, repeat. The woods/glues/construction of modern basses will allow for tweakage. Remember also that the truss rods are only one element in the chain to achieve buzz free playing - doesn't matter how straight your neck is if you have a high fret.

No, not in Scotland. My parents used to go to Burn's Night dinner dances. It was a kind of let loose the shackles of the New Year doldrums. Can't say that this kind of thing (or dinner dances in general) appeals to me in the slightest, but each to their own.

I have a mate who says his NFI for December and New Year gigs (10+) swells his coffers significantly until the next big hit which is Burns Night weekenders. What about registering interest with local studios (session rates) or just joining another working band? Dependent on how you may be from a numeracy basis, you could contact doing office work outside of music three days a week.

I saw a video on this earlier...Peach Guitars. Either the guy playing it is a giant or it's a tiny instrument. It looks absolutely diddly.

Last count I'm at is seven. Two Lulls, two Hamers, a Spector, a '70s Aria Precision and an Ibanez Roadster project thing. Reckon I've owned pretty much everything I've desired over the last four decades, wouldn't have minded a Stingray 4HH, but probably wouldn't have hung onto it. No idea why I bought several Fenders as I disliked them all immensely. Wish I'd hung on to the white Gibson Thunderbird that I sold to @police squad, but I needed the swag for one of the Lulls. I'd like to get a Lull T4 at some point.

There was an active circuit too. Ridiculous value for money at the time, I think I paid about £190 new. Nothing but happy memories...I ran it through a Carlsboro Stingray combo at the time; I have some desk-audio from a biggish gig I did a few days after that top photo, just a microphone in front of the cab, and it sounds really nice. Quite full and modern. (Of course it's the polar opposite to how I tend to sound now.)

I know there's a ton of information out there about wood stains, but my go to for a flat colour would always be Fiebings Leather Dye. Used it to stain/colour fingerboards and my old Ibanez body. Apply/rub in with lint-free kitchen towels (Bounty or similar). Goes on great, very forgiving, gets everywhere.

Back when all this was fields, my first non-copy bass was an Ibanez Roadster. Here's a photo of me mid-flight from 1981/82: About two years ago, I bought another one, it was just a sunburst body, neck, bridge and machines. Stripped it back, refinished it, dropped in a Warman P/J set and just wired these through two volumes and a pickup selector switch. Who needs tone controls, eh? It plays nicely. I might get a proper respray at some point (perhaps with a bit of glitter in it), no rush.

I'll wager this is something that you will probably not have seen or heard before. I'm a big powerpop fan and for some time have loved a Californian band called Tsar (who have spawned a few other bands, despite them still being more or less together). First album came out in 2000 and contained the song 'Kathy Fong Is The Bomb'. A couple of days ago I had Spotify going at it threw up a track called Baby Talk by a band from Massachusetts called Loose Lips. Pretty much identical musically [EDIT here] and while the lyrics are different, the delivery of the lines thereon is also pretty much identical. The Loose Lips album was released in October 1999, the Tsar album mid-2000, but Jeff Whalen (Tsar front man) said the song was about 'a cool Japanese woman [I] worked with before Tsar got signed'. Have a listen!

I'm old enough to remember when members here were going nutso about Sue Ryder basses.

In SSS, he used a Roland G-707: In Generation X, he was pretty synonymous with a Rickenbacker 4001/4003 (which he still uses): There's a couple of photos of him using a Thunderbird (this is with Sham69):

It is interesting reading the comments here. The audio character varies from amp to amp; for years I just used a rack set up (Tech21 RBI into a Matrix power amp), while it was a two stage system Tech21 used to make the Landmark amp that would deliver the same result. The Darkglass AO900 head I'm using now will do more or less the same in one unit. I used a Hartke combo in a studio last week and found it extremely ponky; same goes those that I'm forced to use in gig places where the backline is already there. I just need a tone with a bit of grit in it.

Me! Me! Me! I just plug into a Darkglass AO900. I was forced into using a studio combo last week. God it was awful. *Edit. If we're only talking about a one box amp solution, does a separate pre-amp and power amp count? If so, then realistically me! me! me! for years. I've never liked chorus/flange/octaver etc.

Following an almost catastrophic hard drive failure, I felt it might be a decent opportunity to rip all my XTC stuff to FLAC, CDs and the BluRay content. Spent a very enjoyable hour listening to Andy Partridge's work tapes for Skylarking.

I had a sunburst one. £65.00 Adam Music, Staines. 1978. Nothing but happy memories.

As detailed elsewhere here, I was lucky enough to pick up an Aria Pro II Primary Bass via Gumtree about ten years ago. It was part of a job lot of three guitars and a practice amp. £50. The bass was non-functioning and bits were broken/missing, so I'll admit I threw a little bit of swag at it to get it up and running. New bridge, used Delano pickup, I had pots and an old black scratch plate. The finish on the back of the neck was was very unpleasant and sticky, so I sanded that back. Every time I take her out, I put a new ding in her. Here she is in all her beauty.

There's just too much focus on Thunderbird shaped instruments suffering from neck dive. I've been playing 'birds for about 15 years (Gibson, Hamer, Lull and now the Spector) and while yes it's inevitable, I use both hands while I'm playing so it isn't really a problem per se.

I'm loving mine. The Spector/Darkglass AO900 set up just seems to work very well with each other, so much so that I haven't used any of my Tech21 (DI-2112 and a dUg DP-3X) outboard kit for a while now. Desired tone is an odd thing; when I got the dUg pedal I described it as a DI-2112 on steroids and it pretty much is - it'll do pretty much what the DI-2112 and then expand on that. The AO900 is kind of like the DP-3X on steroids; never really bonded with it until the Euro-X arrived and I took a bit of time to actually dial in what I wanted tonally. (With minimal tweakage my Lull has also come alive.)

I suppose you could also look at it by saying the circuit was designed to tolerate 18v and should be 18v, but operates okay at 9v and is sold as such. Oddly - and swerving the thread a little - I have a Geddy Lee Tech21 thing - the DI-2112. It works fine off a 9v PSU, but it sounds better/fuller with an 18v supply (to quote Tech21 'for increased headroom and clarity').