NancyJohnson

I've only been a handful of Guitar Center stores...visited one in Las Vegas about three or four years back and concur with your experience. High ceilings, basses stacked three high and definitely an attitude of [i]here you are and off you go[/i]. I was with a mate of mine...I could hear him over in the drum section thumping away, so I joined in, me on a Geddy through a nice Hartke setup then a guitarist started jamming over what we were doing elsewhere in the store. Quite surreal.

I know people will diss GC, but for what they are (the musical instrument equivalent of Sainburys) there's nothing not to like.
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Despite the comment in the final paragraph as to whether I'd buy them again, some three years on, I did invest in a second set, but this time for Thunderbird.

The wrap/windings now go the entire length of the E & A strings (which caused a small issue as the E-string machine head post on the TB was barely wide enough to take the string), but otherwise, all good. They sound very nice.

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Get down to Halfords...couldn't find what I needed at Homebase/B&Q. It's not expensive...I bought three cans of red and a clearcoat and it was around £20.00 for the lot.
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Daz
They've very nice...I did a couple of gigs with them and a couple of very long rehearsals before my layoff and they didn't appear to lose any zing. I did use some Fast Fret on them initially as they seemed to suck the moisture out of my fingers (maybe something to do with the coating). Jammed with them last week and just decided to change for tomorrow night. I'd recommend them.
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Four string set. Been on my Thunderbird for a few weeks but about three weeks inactivity due to thumb-op. Still reasonably zingy, but changed due to gig on Tuesday. PM and I'll send them Monday.
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I read (most of) the TB thread. Interestingly, the designs by the guy who says David/Probass/Retrovibe stole [i]his [/i]design initially struck me, with a small bit of chamferring (how do you spell this?? ) under the right forearm position, as bearing somewhat of a resemblance to Cort's T-bass series:


Z-Bass guy:


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I just added a photo of the black one. How hot would an all black model look?

Well look, if David wants to send me one, I'll do a review. I'm gigging on 13th and supposed to be recording the week after that.

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I've seen the tantalising remark on the Probass site and have been wondering for a while what the Vantage is going to look like. Skimming through eBay and here it is:





...I have to say I quite like it in a Ricky-Fenderish style.

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Don't drill dead centre on the heel. You may drill into the truss rod.
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I bought a fretted/sunburst one of these last weekend through Gumtree, Reading (in fact it was a job lot, a bass, two guitars and a Park practice amp for £50...yup, £50).

Aside from the faults...it's got dings a plenty, was badly set up, dead strings, broken volume pot...once I'd given the truss rod a tweak, put on some new strings and given it a set up, it was surprisingly nice. The output is off the scale, so high. It has aftermarket Schaller machines on it as well. I've put on Dunlop Straploks and I'm just waiting for new pots and a couple of knurled control knobs and I can screw it back together again.

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Sansamp BDDI, Gumtree Reading. £129 (not mine).
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[url="http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/sansamp-bass-driver-bdi-vgc-inc-box-and-manual/97336639"]http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/sansamp-bass-driver-bdi-vgc-inc-box-and-manual/97336639[/url]

This is mine. I was enamored/enamoured with the finish on Wolfgang Van Halen's bass from the first comeback tour. I already had the neck and then started sourcing the rest of the bits. It did literally take about two hours to do the paint job (not allowing for overnight drying periods) and I sprayed it in my garden.

I've run three or four pickups through it and at present there's a Wilkinson P-Bass style unit under the cover which is wired into the volume control on the guard. The MM at the bridge is dead.
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Don't know whether this qualifies as porn or a lucky purchase. Last night (at about 10.30pm), I was trawling the web looking for a project to paint up and spotted a Gumtree advert, 'Three guitars and an amp' for £50.00. It was local, still available etc. Did a little online detective work. Deal done.

I'll give the guitars (an Encore and a Nevada Strat) and the amp (a small Park combo) to my nephew, but the bass is a keeper. The neck had a slight front bow, but tapping the neck I could hear the truss rod rattling. Neck off, adjust, repeat, lovely. Oh, did I mention it's got a set of Schaller machine heads? A ten minute set up and done. I need a couple of chrome knobs and that's sorted.

It sounds the nuts to be honest. Very pleased.

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I was looking for some Slinkys and spotted a set for £9.00 with a Buy It Now option. On closer inspection the seller (new/zero feedback) only has one set on there for £9.00 (Baritone)...the price changes considerably for other sets...buyer beware! Never seen this before. It's like dangling a sign for free doughnuts only to find out that they only have one sort that you don't want, but we have these gold-plated ones over here.

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trkparms=65%253A16%257C66%253A4%257C39%253A1&rt=nc&_nkw=ernie+ball+bass+strings&_dmpt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_sop=2&_sc=1"]http://www.ebay.co.u...14&_sop=2&_sc=1[/url]

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You know what that reminds me of? Those old starter basses from the 60/70s...Jedsons. That's pretty nasty.
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[quote name='Johnston' timestamp='1330114433' post='1553088']
Got this in my email box tonight

[url="http://www.fender.com/en-GB/products/blacktop/models.php/?prodNo=0148700&EDID=D4HFTZV-PRWQ2-3O24I2-Z6XLF-RBRV-v1"]http://www.fender.co...2-Z6XLF-RBRV-v1[/url]
[/quote]

Travis Bean 2000 Series #222.

I should add that our guitarist has got a close approximation of the [i]Donny [/i]sound with this pitch shifter pedal he has, but that only leaves him free to do [i]that [/i]sound.
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I looked at that Korg machine a few minutes before I posted up here. It's a stupid price...£40 or something. I think where it hits the spot is that it's just tiny...paperback book size. Small enough for our singer to use it, although I'd probably need to put some dots on the 'keys'!!

Cheers
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We're covering Crazy Horses...would like to try and get a cheap/small synth to handle Donny's part and some general droning elsewhere in the set. Realistically something about the size of one of those little 25 key USB/midi ones.
Cheers
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Apologies for the tardy response.

I bought a Gretsch Electromatic Baritone from an eBay seller around a year ago, black sparkle, cream binding, bolt on neck, Bigsby tremolo. £250 I think. It's currently tuned B-B although I have a set of Fender strings that came with it which I think I can put on and tune E-E.

I quite like it...had this vision of me on one side of the stage thundering away and my guitarist on the other doing, well, what it is that he does, but this hasn't happened and it's been limited to home use. It does sound great; I put it through a Line 6 Spider IV 75w combo and tend to prefer playing on some of the more ethereal/haunting presets. It's got a nice tone, stays in tune, tremolo is nice. The only thing I don't like is the strap lock mechanism...the straps lock, but it's not easy to do a quick release.
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[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1329390883' post='1541624']
I went to school with Gary Numan.
And my cousin went to school with Jimmy Pursey.
[/quote]

I went to school with a guy who played both guitar for Gary Numan and keyboards on Sham 69's [i]The Game[/i] album!
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Thank you for the get wells.

I had a trigger thumb with ligament complication...the pulley at the base of the thumb was calloused and the ligament inflamed (if I'd got it looked at sooner rather than putting it down to a [i]man strain[/i] it wouldn't have been so bad). To compound this I also had two small lipomas removed as well in a separate procedure on the same day (one on each arm).

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Woke up one morning with pain in my thumb...stiff, achy, clicky. I just put it down to a strain. Wore a support for a while. No improvement. As time went on, I'd wake up in the morning (or the odd afternoon) with my thumb rigid and hooked around towards my palm, but it would loosen up, so I put off seeing a doctor. Playing was a bit of a nightmare as I couldn't bend my thumb backwards behind the neck, so more recently I've had to adapt how I play (more roots, heh).

Saw a consultant last month (after much moaning from my wife) and had a forty minute surgery this afternoon. Lovely. I've just popped a couple of painkillers but it hurts like f2ck. I have a gig on 13th March as well.

I haven't read a book this year so far...I have a huge pile to start going through!
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..get it seen to otherwise this might be the result. No bass for me for a few weeks.
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I remember Boy George making some off the cuff remark about the word hideous. The pronounciation [i]hid-e-ous[/i] just meant plain old horrible. Then there was [i]hid-juss[/i] which alluded to something a whole lot worse that just plain horrible. This falls into the latter! It's only good for burnin'.
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