James Nada

My surf/instrumental band does in 14 "songs" in 45 mins. A typical gig is 28 songs, plus one or two encores.

The Shadows did it in '65. That's Hank Marvin on lead bass.

I've always been intrigued by the possibility of a "guitar" scale length bass. What guage strings are on that?

You'll need to fit a piezo pickup too, unless your intention is to play it acoustically. I've thought about going something similar to your plan, so I'll be interested in seeing how this works out. Good luck.

That's a cool looking bass! Good luck sorting out a jack.

A quick Google tells me that's a 6x10 cab. On the assumption that as most production bass drivers are 4 or 8 ohms, each driver is wired to get equal power, and as your cab is 6ohms, I'd guess you have 4 ohm drivers. (Thats each "pair" of drivers wired in parallel to give 2 ohms, and the three "pairs" are in series to give 6 ohms). So, that means you could wire the speakers to give 2.66 ohms, which is in the ballpark you need. (That's wiring "pairs" of drivers in series to give 8 ohms, and wiring all those in parallel to give 2.66 ohms). You'd need to be sure of each drivers impedance though, best trying to look at the back of one. Probably best if someone checksy maths and assumptions though - I've had a couple of beers!

My first thoughts exactly. The J pickup ruins it for me

I use an bicycle inner tube, cut down and tied into a kind of nest. Works very well

Was having the P pick-up the 'wrong' way-round for tonal reasons or fashion?

I'm no expert, but I be surprised if there was any difference in performance or sound. I expect manufacturers choose 4 or 16 ohms depending on which is cheapest, which itself will probably be determined by the most commonly used in their other products or which the speaker manufacturer sells most of. The only way to be sure is to take your combo apart and see what the label says.

Yes. Either that, or the two internal speakers are 16 ohms each and wired in parallel.

Thanks for all the replies. I've actually managed to use two "normal" knobs with grub screws - just wrapped a fair bit of plumbers tape around them. The neck is currently in s g-clamp in an attempt to fix the bow. Oh, and I'm going to ignore the huge cracks in the body and call it road wear! What I didn't mention is that this is actually the bass I learned on, and was my Christmas present in 1989! It's been at a mates house for years in less than perfect conditions.

I've recently required an old Marlin Slammer bass which had some unusually shaped, small pot shafts. I need a couple of knobs for it, can anyone point me in the right direction for some suitable new knobs?

What's the scale length on that? You could probably use the BEAD strings off a five string set and tune to EADG. Nice - I'd like one of those to keep in the car as an emergency bass

It's a lovely bass sound on that album. A Burns Sonic I believe. According to Wikipedia, the bass parts were played by Alex Turner on a number of tracks.

I've got an Ignition Club bass, which is identical to the violin bass other than the shape. It needed a decent set up (intonating it was tricky*) and I put on some (expensive) La Bella flat wounds on it for extra sixtiesness. It does 60s Garage Rock, 'Beatles' and folky/acoustic very well. My main bass is a Precision - the Horner serves really well as something quite different to that. Is it versitile? No. Do I like it? Yes, a lot. *If you get one, I'd be happy to pass on what I learned about intonating these. Drop me PM

I like it a lot. I'd be interested to know how the string tension feels on such a scale.

I've been listening to this band a lot over summer. Great stuff. They're touring the UK in Autumn.

Dead Roundwounds is a good band name.

Do any dead roundwound lovers have tips for reading new strings in the event of snapping or buying a new bass?

And it's a scratchplate not a pickguard. I'll accept plecguard though.

Looks great!

x2 I have one of these as part my "emergency' kit. Used it yesterday as I had to go direct to a PA- perfectly decent for tweaking the tone.

I've had no luck with Roland at all - they just don't respond! I thought I'd ask the good people of BC again... I have a Roland Bass Cube RX, the one with four 4" speakers. Unfortunately, one of the speakers has developed a blown speaker "fart", so I would like to replace it. Can anyone recommend a suitable replacement speaker - a Google search offers no joy.

The drummer I play with says plastic tipped sticks are quieter than wooden sticks. I'm not convinced it'd make a huge difference, but there you go. Might be worth a go though if your drummer is reluctant to use some of the other solutions offered.