NancyJohnson

I've tried EB Cobalts; they did last a bit better.. In all my years, I've never tried Elixirs. Next month! P

I'm getting a little tired of spending a fortune on strings each month...especially considering my D&Gs rarely get played and come off my basses relatively fresh, so I've been giving some thought to just buying E&A singles. Anyone doing this? eBay cheapest? I tend to favour either Slinkys or D'Addario XLs. P

I've got an Aria Primary Bass. I got it as part of a stupid cheap Gumtree deal ('Three guitars and a practice amp for £50'). On the downside, the pots were broken (those knobs were resting on there for the photo), and while it sounded OK, the pickup was quite low output. A previous owner had fitted a set of Schaller machines. I swapped out the pickup for a Wilkinson unit that I had about the house, put in new pots and chrome knobs, Dunlop Straploks. It's a very, very nice bass. P

OK, what do you want to know? It's back from the tech...bad pots, bad wiring. Pots were 300K (which I'm assured elsewhere are what Gibson are currently using), so these have been upped to 500K units, and the wiring all new. Now it sounds fanblummingtastic; hotter than my others, so I'll do some adjusting in a live setting. All good! P

Well, a minor update here. I'd been using the NR almost exclusively since it arrived and had set up my gear accordingly. You'll see that I used the term 'muddier' in my original post. Following my surgery, my band got back together for a low key jam earlier in the week and clearly something is awry. I swapped basses mid-rehearsal, going back to my '04 TB. It was a shock realisation - all I'm getting from the NR is a horrible mid-low tone, no mids/highs. I spoke to the guy who does my soldering...he asked for a comparison. If the '04 had a tonal output of 1-100, where would the NR sit in this? I guessed at 20-40. I desoldered the tone control and that made little difference, so it's going over to the tech on Tuesday for a rewire. Hopefully this'll sort things out. I'm obviously somewhat disappointed! P

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1361711959' post='1989560'] Very nice indeed.. Most Thunderous! How's John working out? [/quote] I just had a half-time noodle and dropped the neck pickup a couple of mm. Better! P

[quote name='cetera' timestamp='1361713448' post='1989583'] Ah, the lovely Hamer..... [/quote] Still not for sale, Gary. Still not for sale! P

Just an update of where I'm at. And yes, they all have names in order or acquisition. The Gibson basses (left to right on stands); white 2004 (Scott), black 1997 (Alan), a 2000 Gothic (Gordon), 2013 Non-Reverse in vintage sunburst (John). The interloper (reclining in comfort at the front) is a super rare stay at home Hamer FBIV (Virgil)...no idea of the year but best estimate mid-eighties. All the Gibsons are fitted with Hipshot Supertone bridges. Of the lot, my go to bass is the whitey. Light, slim neck, fast action, gritty tone. As I've posted previously it turns me from a slightly overweight guy in my 40s into a lithe slip of a lad in my 20s. It's like magic. Close second the Gothic. I haven't had the 2013 long enough to give full judgment; it still needs some adjustment and I'm sidelined for a few days following hand-surgery. They're all different. Rigwise, everything gets pushed through a Sansamp BDDI into the effects return of a UK made Ashdown ABM, into a pair of Hartke Hydrives. P

Superb stuff. Well done!

I used it last week...a four hour jam without a break. Two concerns. I need to find the correct sweet spot for the pickup height; I adjusted a couple of times during the rehearsal - I suppose once I'm there, I'll leave it set at that. Second, when my hands are dry and the back of the neck is dry, I get a slight static crackle when I got up and down the neck, but this disappears when I get a bit sweaty. I checked it out on some other forums and it seems quite common with mahogany and whatever formula Gibson use to nitro the guitar. I'm not going to be doing much playing for the next week or so as I have to endure another hand operation (seconds out round three) on Thursday to correct another trigger finger problem. Boo. P

Here's my newly arrived 2013 Gibson Thunderbird Non-Reverse. I have done a couple of tweaks...I have no love of the Gibson three-point bridge, so that's a Hipshot Supertone bridge. I've installed Dunlop Straploks and swapped the output jack/tone control around so the controls are in one line. Plays nicely enough. I'd say muddier and less aggressive than any of my regular Thunderbirds, but that may be down to the current setup (which I'll tweak during the upcoming days). P

Well, after a frustrating delay, I should finally have the bass on Monday. I'll be installing a Hipshot Supertone bridge pretty much immediately and will post up some snaps shortly after. P