martindupras

It's not noticeably heavier than the 3-ply plastic pickguard that I had. The metal is quite thin too, I'd guess about the same thickness as 1-ply pickguard. I'd left a marker in the garden. Besides, my wife rightly pointed out that "I might forget" so she wrote PICKGUARD in enormous letters on the whiteboard in the kitchen. I didn't forget. - martin

I was a bit bored with the pickguard on my MusicMan Bongo. I went to a metal fabrication company and brought the old pickguard and asked them to duplicate it in metal. Total cost: £20. It didn't fit perfectly first time but they were very kind and tweaked it a bit for me at no charge. Fits great now. I buried it in the garden for a few days to rust a little. Then I piled dead leaves and left it for another couple of days. Below is the result. What do you guys think? Success? Abysmal failure? - martin [attachment=63488:rustpickguard.JPG]

I've bought a full set of Allen keys today, and they wouldn't fit. Argh. Eventually, I removed the pickguard, and found that one of the S-shaped Allen keys that I had already worked perfectly. At long last. Incidentally, since I was in Halfords yesterday I got some feeler gauges, and I've used them to adjust the relief. I had always done my setups with just rulers and visual estimates before, but using the feeler gauges sped things up considerably. Not only that, but I feel that my setup is better and more precise and even than ever before. Certainly better (for my taste) than some of the setups I've had pros do for me in the past. - martin [quote name='dave_bass5' post='958241' date='Sep 16 2010, 01:02 PM']No problem and good luck. It should be pretty easy to find something. Ive always done my own set ups but on my current bass (HW-one) i found i needed to take the PG off as i couldn't get a good grip in the nut with the Fender tool, so i needed to use the flat end of the Allen key anyway. This is the first time ive had to do this and it was because the nut was slightly stripped already (its brand new). No idea why or how this happened but i got Fender to send me a couple of spare TR nuts. It might be worth giving them a call as they might send you the correct tool if you ask nicely.[/quote]

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='958147' date='Sep 16 2010, 11:12 AM']Yes, its a 3/16 fit. Current Fenders come with the tool ikay posted to, but you can also get allen key sets that have a normal flat end and a ball end at the other. I got a set frorm B&Q a couple of years ago. These do help as you can normally do the adjustment without taking the pick guard off, although i believe its possible to damage the PG a bit if your not careful, ive not found this....yet. If you cant get one your welcome to borrow my Fender one for a few weeks if it helps.[/quote] Thanks, that's really useful. I'll swing by a few more DIY stores this afternoon and see what I can find. I'm sure I can find something suitable, but thanks for the offer! - martin

[quote name='ikay' post='957975' date='Sep 16 2010, 08:16 AM']You need one of these - [url="http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Fender-316-TShaped-Truss-Rod-Tool?sku=360804"]http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/pro...Tool?sku=360804[/url] It's got a hex ball-end and goes in at a shallow angle so you can adjust without removing the pickguard.[/quote] Ah, that makes sense now. Thanks for that. - martin

I want to adjust the truss rod on my Jazz Bass. It's the kind that's adjusted with (I think) a 3/16" Allen key, at the body end of the neck. I've adjusted truss rods at the headstock all my life but funnily enough never one on that side. I would have thought it was straightforward, but I'm struggling a bit. What do people usually do? Remove the pickguard? Do it with the pickguard on but with a short Allen Key? I have tens of Allen Keys around but none where the short leg is short enough to go in the hole in the pickguard, and anything longer doesn't get in the hole. And I've been around shops today and it's getting difficult to get imperial measurement Allen keys. Any advice? - martin

I'd be up for a few of those on occasions when I'm not already gigging. When and where are they happening? - martin

[quote name='Machines' post='948284' date='Sep 7 2010, 01:44 PM']You are correct, pickups are passive and preamp is active. Any passive pickups should do you fine..[/quote] Cool. Thanks for that. - martin

I have an American Deluxe Jazz Bass V from ca. 1999 (5-in-a-row headstock) which has active electronics. Am I right in thinking that the pickups are passive, and only the EQ is actually active? That's what I understand from the little information I could find. If that is the case, am I right in thinking that I could swap the pickups for any other passive 5-string Jazz pickups? The new [url="http://www.aguilaramp.com/products_pickups_AG5J60.htm"]Aguilar AG 5J-60[/url] pickups look pretty cool, and I was wondering if perhaps that would be a good choice. On a related note (assuming I'm right about the above), has anyone attempted using a push-pull volume pot to disable the EQ? Don't get me wrong, I think it sounds ace, but I just thought it would be nice occasionally to be in completely passive mode. (And I do understand that I would then have no tone knobs. That's OK.) - martin

Lovely photos. Thanks John. The acoustic 4-string with the tapewound strings (can't remember the handle of the owner, remind me?) sounded really lovely. The drums, 8/6-string bass and drums jam was truly memorable. Did anyone record it by chance? It was gert lush, it was. - martin

That rig of doom wasn't all my doing. Captain Rumble (if memory serves, my memory for names is terrible) lent his Barefaced Compact. The rig of doom was the bass signal split in two, going into the Traynor YBA-200 200 watt all-valve head (3 12ax7 in the pre, 4xKT88 in the power section) into the Hartke 2x10 and the Eden 1x15, and the GK Fusion 550 going in Barefaced Compact. 'Twas very nice indeed. - martin

This was great. I had a blast. Many thanks to John for organising it. It was well worth the trip. - martin

I'll try my best. I've lent it to someone in the mean time but I'll see if I can swing by theirs on Sunday. I'd be curious to hear the Compact with my Fusion. And I've never played an Eden head before, I'm very curious to hear what an Eden head sounds like in an Eden cab. - martin

Is there anyone who is interested in seeing/hearing/trying out my Traynor YBA-200 valve head? It's not for sale, but I figured that since they're not that common in this country someone might like to have a go. If there's no interest, I won't bring it, though. - martin

That reminds me of something that happened to me. Years ago, when I was in my first year of jazz school (it was a sort of 2-year NVQ-type course in Canada) we had "combo" classes, which were really just about learning to play as a small jazz ensemble playing jazz standards. We were supposed to create our own groups but of course all the ones who were experienced knew one another from somewhere else and gravitated towards one another. Which left all the really inexperienced newbies (me included) to group haphazardly. Many of us, I imagine, had not had that much contact with jazz by that point so we didn't quite know what the standards were supposed to sound like, even. (This predates YouTube and the like by... let's just say a while.) Now the combo I ended up with consisted of drums, bass, three guitars and flute. I was playing guitar. The teacher we got was a keyboard player, who was very active professionally and often touring with the likes of Celine Dion, from what I gather. He didn't particularly seem too enthralled having to coach a bunch of newbies. And because he thought Real Book standards were "boring" he'd bring us lead sheets from the likes of Lyle Mays and Herbie Hancock. So, we turn up, he gives us the charts, and asks us to learn two numbers a week. We do, laboriously, and we have to play them the week after. After about 6 weeks, he listens to us, shakes his head vigorously and says: "Man, you guys suck even more than you did in the first week." My heart sank, and I thought "hmmm, the next 54 weeks are really going to be fun." I can't remember if he quit or he got on tour or what, but several weeks later he was replaced by one of the most incredibly inspiring musicians I've ever met, Jean-Pierre Zanella, who's also a fantastic saxophone player. The difference between the two teachers was a blinding revelation. He played with us. He'd take what someone had played and re-play it, explain to us what was good about it, what directions it could be taken in, and whenever he heard something good, he'd smile, or say "yeah!" and he was just overall encouraging. The truth is that we did suck before and after, no doubt; but one teacher nearly made us all give up, and the other encouraged and inspired us. - martin

Unless there is a catastrophe, I'll definitely be there on the 11th. By the way, is anyone bringing interesting cabs to the bash? I'm asking because I'm not 100% satisfied with my cabs (they sound ace, but I'm still getting some unwanted distortion/farting on loud low notes at gigs) so I'd be very interested to hear or try out good quality, lightweight, loud cabs. - martin

I hope I understand correctly, in which case I'll try to give you a very cheap option. Your DJ mixer will have at the minimum two pairs of line inputs (probably labelled input 1 L and R, and input 2 L and R.) You'll probably also have phono inputs, which we won't be using. Line inputs are stereo inputs designed to take the output of consumer audio equipment. If you have a standalone CD player, plug it straight into input 1 L and R. If you're coming out of a headphone output, you can connect a minijack to stereo phono lead too, but check that the headphones level is not too hot. Now to get the bass into the second input, you need some kind of preamp that will take the pickup signal from the bass and bring it to line level. If you have any bass amp (or even a little guitar practice amp) with a line out, you can use that. It won't necessarily sound brilliant, but it will do the job. Same goes for any Line 6 pod, Behringer V-amps, Korg Pandoras, etc. If you don't have any preamp, the cheapest that I have found and works brilliantly well for me is the Behringer PB100, which is a preamp booster pedal; mine cost £9. It's not terribly robust because of the plastic housing, but you're not gigging it, just using it to get a line level signal. Now the pedal comes out standard 1/4" mono; I'd go to Maplin and get this: [url="http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=28111&ForceUpdate=Y"]http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Module...p;ForceUpdate=Y[/url] You plug that in input 2 L and R of the mixer, Bob's your uncle, and Fanny's your aunt. - martin (£6 is expensive for that adaptor. You could make your own, or buy different adapters that go into one another to create the 1/4" mono to twin phono that you need. Ask the nice Maplin people.) [quote name='No1skewenjack' post='883230' date='Jul 1 2010, 05:43 PM']What the best and CHEAPEST way to listen to a recording say on CD and play along with it BUT listening to both through my headphones. I have got a old mixer I used to use in my DJing days. Its a mixer which use with decks if that helps. I've tried running my bass through the microphone input and getting some leads that go from microphone input to red and white outputs (sorry cant remember the correct terms so I'll just explain what they look like) but cant seem to hear either. Whould i have to use a studio type mixer to give my bass more power for the DJ mixer to hear it so to speak (my bass is passive). Would the cheapest option be to buy a programe for my Laptop which will be able to do this?[/quote]

So... Who's coming then? - martin

I was exactly in the same situation as you twenty years ago. I wanted to apply to a music college course which was a three-year "vocational course." I was equally torn between bass and guitar. In the end I chose guitar over bass. My reasoning, after much advice from friends, was this: - the guitar being a more chordal instrument, I would likely get more theoretical knowledge from a harmony and composition point of view - there would be more work for a guitar player, in the long run [b]As it turns out, neither was particularly true. [/b] With what I know now, would I make a different choice? Maybe, but then again maybe not. In my view, the most important thing is that you choose something you'll be happy practicing every day diligently for several years. And I agree with everyone else: ultimately, what plank you spank is irrelevant; what is relevant is being a well-rounded musician, being professional, and playing as much as you can. - martin

Sounds well cool. If it's alright, I'll bring my full rig then. Music Man Bongo 5 HH+piezo Fender American Jazz V Deluxe GK Fusion 550 head into Hartke 2.5XL and Eden D115XLT. I've got a number of pedals, listed below. I probably won't bring them all but if anyone just wants to have a go with one, just let me know and I'll bring it. GK Diesel Dawg Demeter Compulator Bass Big Muff Pi EHX Enigma: Q-Balls MXR M188 Bass Auto-Q Moog MoogerFooger Low-Pass filter Sonic Research ST-200 Strobe Tuner (in my estimation, the best, fastest pedal tuner there is, bar none.) Akai Unibass UB-1 Digitech Bass Driver (and several more than I can't remember off the top of my head; if I find anything particularly exotic I'll just bring it along.) I've also got a Traynor YBA-200 valve head, if anyone wants to see/hear/try that. - martin [quote name='oldslapper' post='876155' date='Jun 24 2010, 09:25 AM']Hi Martin, I've never been to one before, but thought it would be fun to get together, so went ahead and booked a venue on the basis that the least we could do would be put a face to a name, chat about music, life and the universe and ogle each others gear. From the threads of other bashes it looks like you bring whatever you fancy bringing along. I've booked a drummer for some "jam" time, and I'm waiting for some replies from reps about odds and sods for fund raising prize draw, etc. Hopefully a local tech will be coming too to offer advice on general guitar care and set ups. I might be the only one there, so I get all the goodies! .......for the price of several tickets. John[/quote]

I'll try to come. It's a bit of a trek from Bristol (1h15 apparently) but sounds like good fun. How does it work, do people usually bring their whole rig to set up? - martin