NancyJohnson

Over the last few years I've done my bit in ridding six or seven Gibsons of their wretched three pointers. Initially, I swapped them for Hipshot Supertones, but to be honest the Babicz replacement is better by a country mile and well worth the investment. It installs in a few minutes and while I have little love for the three pointer, the Babicz just looks like it's part of the original lineage. It feels comfortable to play against.

Honestly couldn't tell you how long it took for the neck to arrive...it was a while back.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1478889657' post='3172548'] Very few musicians have the ability or resources to start a rock band. It's why 95℅ of all start ups fail. Blue [/quote] This is a bit of a strange and all-sweeping statement. If you're in it simply for the money and trying to make a living off it, then I'd say the success rate thereof would be in the fractions of a percent. In the main though, what qualifies as failure? Four guys making noise in a room who decide not to take things past a second jam session? Insofar as ability and resources go, I'd refute that anyone can do it irrespective of ability. You use the term 'start up' out of context too; it's not a business, it's supposed to be fun.

[quote name='Basvarken' timestamp='1478947399' post='3172863'] He calls himself a completist. Uwe strives to own every model that Gibson ever built. So when Gibson introduces a new model, he buys it. But Uwe does not collect for color differences in finish. It needs to be structurally different (different wood, different pickups, different shape, etc) [/quote] He dislikes chrome hardware with a passion and welcomed me to the dark side when I said I'd never go chrome.

[quote name='Basvarken' timestamp='1478899940' post='3172649'] Absolutely! I was going to call the book The Uwe H collection. But he wouldn't have it. Uwe was a tremendous help throughout the entire project. [/quote] I have no idea how many he owns...there just seems to be racks and racks of them! Does he just buy every one each year or something?

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1478776273' post='3171507'] Cool, in time for Christmas [/quote] Yes, yes!

Did you lean on Uwe for any of the content?

When I first saw those two new MusicMan basses the first thing I thought was that designwise they aped the LG body shape.

I've bought a couple of things from that place, most recently a Mustang bass neck. No issues, smooth transaction etc. Needs must, as they say. Gotta say though, while I understand why they're doing what they do, it does leave a particularly bad taste in my mouth when they start selling off stuff that is going to cost a small fortune to resurrect, things like the Gibson set neck stuff.

Mental trying to import one, especially a used one. The one currently on eBay (Sam Ash seller) will set you back £1,230, plus shipping and then you'd need to factor in duty and so forth. And a transformer. You could save a few hundred by contacting Tech 21 direct and ask them to ship you a 240v version direct.

[quote name='Cuzzie' timestamp='1478596362' post='3170079'] ...still wonder whether this would cure all my 'dirt' needs and could offload a bunch of pedals to finance it, or whether it's just too much amp unless you are realistically playing big areas and often. [/quote] Part of my current setup is a two channel floorboard running a Sansamp BDDI for low end and for the treble side I can choose from a Boss ODB3, Sansamp VTBASSDI or Sansamp GT2 (the GT2 is a guitar emulator, so it's low on bass output), this goes into a stereo poweramp and a pair of cabinets. Tonally, I'm very close to the dUg tone just using the BDDI and the GT2, but it's just missing something. It's a lot of money for an amp (c.£2.5K).

I saw dUg at The Cutting Room in New York last year (a double header with Corey Glover) and we swung by the venue mid-afternoon to get our tickets. Crew were doing the load in while we were having a cheeky beer and I had the opportunity to get a good look at the prototype head with Corey's bass player and a guy from Tech 21. I've posted up somewhere else on this thread about that experience. From a live aspect, we were in the VIP seating (waitress service!) about ten feet from the stage and dUg sounded incredible.

There's a quite excellent series of videos on the Crimson Guitars You Tube channel where they build and partially re-spec a kit guitar. The videos show a guy who, let's face it, is a fairly experienced luthier, struggling to work with bad wood, poor routing, awful fretwork etc etc. I wouldn't be lying if I said that when I was broke I didn't give some consideration in building a kit, even if it was only going to be a used as a backup instrument, but my sensibility told me to steer well clear. I suppose if you're a competent woodworker and have the tools, time and patience to turn one of these around, then go for it, but remember these kits are far from the dreamy 'just paint it and screw it together' ethic that they purport to be. Personally, I'd just save up buy a Gibson or a Fender.

[quote name='amnesia' timestamp='1478461541' post='3169208'] Skin? [/quote] Thank you, that's them! I've been trying to remember who it was...I thought the band was called Rage for some reason. Brilliant. I think it was on a CD

Years ago I saw a metalesque band who covered Madonna's 'Express Yourself'...it was done so well, it just fit seamlessly into their set. Brilliant and clever.

Anyone know whether the scratchplate from the Mark Hoppus bass would fit on a regular Jazz body and cover the control panel routing?

Well, here we are full circle. A set of Elixir Nanoweb 45/105 (14077) arrived about an hour ago. Fitted to the Lull and intonation is spot on again. I've also (re)adjusted the pickups up a bit and may drop the bridge a bit later to get things nice and rattly. I still don't really get how bad strings occur or more to the point how you'd get two in one set. Anyhow, as I said earlier, I think I'm done with buying Dunlops, at least the Elixirs have been consistent for me and they last forever. Not all lost either; the E&A from the offending Dunlop set were fine and given they were only on the Lull for a few days were still fresh, so I just put them on one of my Thunderbirds.

Oh, my expectations for pretty much anything have rarely been high, so don't worry about that. Aim low!

I was sitting in the extension this morning and my white Gibson Thunderbird was just propped up against one of the sofas in there. It just looked lovely... P

Well amazingly, it's been listened to and I'm onto the next stage. P

Pre-stretched? Good-f*cking-grief! Seriously? Honestly, what a bunch of nonsense. [Edit] What sort of regimin are these mysterious 'techs' going through? Stretching takes a couple of seconds. World gone crazy. Sigh.

I guess Leo Fender was head of a company that was lucky enough to get some momentum behind it. No idea whether the Fender headstocks are right or wrong, but I suppose it just works. Of Fender headstock design, I prefer the early Precision/Telecaster bass design over the more current/traditional Jazz/Precision design. Moving along, I adore the Spector NS headstock...reckon you could put that on anything and it would work. On the familiarity comment, Status; I loved the headless design, but the headstock on the other models just lacks the dynacism of the body design. Finally, bad design. I've never seen a Cort bass that I didn't hate, but man, that headstock looks like someone took a bite out of it. Wrong. Symmetry.

[quote name='LZD56' timestamp='1477499342' post='3162634'] Where are you based? [/quote] Crowthorne, Berkshire. A few miles east of Reading.

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1478026400' post='3166169'] Paul, I know you have your action set pretty low, but have you tried setting the intonation using harmonics, rather than fretting the note? Just thinking it might eliminate the matter of string stretch as you fret and test for other issues. [/quote] Hey Rich Tuning on the D and G is spot on when the string is both open and the harmonic is pinched. It's only when you fret that it's out.