Gottastopbuyinggear

[quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1484606860' post='3216873']
I've got an artec active pedal that does exactly this.. it's a little tone sucky (but then I'm really fussy)..

Yours for £30 posted if interested ?
[/quote]

Thanks for the offer, but I'll pass for now.

I've had a think about it and I'm going to hold off on a volume pedal for the moment. It's occurred to me that I use a VT Bass Deluxe on which I only have three presets set up, so I think I'll set the other three up with the tone I need, and increasing volume levels, so I can tap dance a little to get the changes in volume I need through the relevant songs.

The main thing I'm trying to get over is the feeling of "bloody hell I'm loud, and you can hear every mistake in dynamics" when it's only me playing or the rest of the band are very quiet. I think it's partly a nerves thing as well, and it'll get easier as I get more gigs under my belt (a grand total of 3 so far!).

...actually the Ernie Ball MVP looks about right, but it's twice what I'm looking to pay.

Perhaps the VP Jr. with the heel chocked with a lump of wood!

Only £85 on Amazon, but I couldn't tell whether it fits the bill or not - mentions a micro switch to control the volume swell rate, but not sure exactly what that means.

Boss FV500L looks like it might be what I'm after.

I play a couple of songs where I need to start quite quietly and increase volume as the song progresses, but there's no time to be using the volume knob, or at least it's not an option if I want to keep things flowing with my relatively agricultural technique. An example would be We Gotta Get Out Of This Place by The Animals - there's no let up until the end of the first chorus. I know I should be able to control the volume with my fingers, but frankly that's not going to be consistent enough with my, again, relatively agricultural style.

So ideally I'm looking for a volume pedal where I can set the volume at each end of the pedals travel so I have relatively fine control over the volume in between - i.e. I want pedal down to be full volume, pedal up to be just a bit less volume. I'm not looking to spend too much either - somewhere between £50 and £100 would be okay, preferably towards the lower end.

Can the Basschat collective let me know whether such a thing exists?

I have recently regained my Thunder 1, which I'd given to a friend a few years ago but he wasn't using so asked if I wanted it back. I've kept it for nostalgia, and as a backup bass - I can leave it in the boot of the car and not worry about it being stolen.

Plays well enough to my ears, and doesn't have any neck dive that I can feel, though I do use a Levys suede strap which is quite grippy, so that might be helping.

I had something like this happen after I'd filed the nut slots on my Jazz. Took ages to work out what had happened, but it was the string vibrating side to side in the nut slot. As said above, a thin piece of card or plastic in the side of the slot will cure it, though it's perhaps not the most elegant of solutions. Either that or a string retainer to increase the angle. I also wondered whether filing a small amount off the top of the nut, equal to the amount I'd deepened the slots, would do it, but I've not tried that in case the problem is that I've inadvertently widened the slot.

£415 does seem a lot for a squier, but I think I'm a bit desensitised by having looked at the 70's CV a few times and that's up near the £400 mark, and MIM P's are almost £600 now. I've not owner a Squier before, but the CV and VM series get so much praise I think it might be worth a go.

To be honest I'd not noticed the fact that these weren't actually in stock, as I'm not ready to push the button yet. I think I'll sit tight for a while and see what happens towards the end of January - if it's a new line coming that gear4music have some how got early sight of then perhaps the prices will be a bit lower when there's some competition.

There's also my lust for one of the Sire V7s to factor in, and the price on those doesn't seem to be inflating as rapidly as on other stuff. Stupidly I put flats on my current Jazz as well as my P, so now I need another of those with rounds on too!

While I was idly cruising the internet looking for stuff that I don't need but might want, as one does, I came across this:

[url="http://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Squier-by-Fender-Classic-Vibe-60s-P-Bass-Guitar-Olympic-White/1OB8?origin=product-ads&campaign=PLA+Shop+-+GENERIC&adgroup=GENERIC&medium=vertical_search&network=google&merchant_id=1279443&product_id=78164d1&product_country=GB&product_partition_id=119007674959&gclid=CjwKEAiAyanCBRDkiO6M_rDroH0SJAAfZ4KLxHx2cMDJQQLsOnkyz5ug4cWrZtgY4zPhVgFu7cRC7BoCd4Dw_wcB"]http://www.gear4musi...cRC7BoCd4Dw_wcB[/url]


They don't seem to be listed anywhere else, and they don't appear on the Fender website (another topic perhaps, but what on earth has happened to that recently?).

Anyone got any idea about these? I know the previous classic vibe Precisions had a really good reputation, and I'm considering buying a second P in the next few months - because I absolutely have to have one with flats and one with rounds...

At my first rehearsal after taking up bass again a few years ago I'm pretty sure I did some damage to my hearing - my tinnitus has certainly been worse since. Since then, if there's been an acoustic drum kit involved, and hence the volume to keep up with that, I have never played without ear plugs. The straw that broke the camel's back when I left my last band was the two guitarists and their 100 watt valve combos - so loud that I couldn't hear the drums properly despite being so close to the hi hat I was in danger of getting something caught in it...

Frustratingly the best actual sound I've experienced in a band was the second one I joined, where the drummer played an electronic kit. Nice low volume, and no need for earplugs. Pity we were sh*t !

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1480952120' post='3188343']
... and that's why it's necessary to try them and decide for oneself.
[/quote]

Aha! I'm normally pretty good at reading threads before I reply to them, but I'd missed your comment on finding them substantially different. I wasn't trying to contradict you, and I don't think you took it the wrong way anyway, but I've seen wars start over on TalkBass for less!

I checked and the Rotosounds I tried were 45-105s, and I can definitely say that both the FS and FL sets feel much easier to play than they did. To be fair, though, my playing style is pretty agricultural and I'm not particularly discerning!

[quote name='mike 110' timestamp='1481036364' post='3189181']
Thanks everybody , for all info and opinions , good stuff as usual seeing as Ive decided to restring 2 basses - 1 TB and 1 TL I'll try them both …..
[/quote]

Let us know how you get on. It's not a particularly cheap experiment at the best part of 40 quid a pop, so I hope you like them!

Having just responded to a thread about flat wound string gauges I thought I'd get around to asking a question that's been bugging me for a while. I put some La Bella 760 FLs on my 2015 MIM precision a few months ago, and whilst I did manage to adjust the truss rod to get the relief I wanted it felt very stiff, so I have a suspicion it's right at the end of its travel, i.e. the nut is right to the end of the truss rod thread. I know in theory I could put a spacer in, but it's not clear whether the nut will come out in order for me to do that, or whether the plastic "tube" that's in the entrance to the slot will stop it coming out.

Of course I may never need to adjust it further, though I might want to put some slightly heavier gauge flats on in the future, but in the main it's just something that's niggling me a bit.

Anybody ever tried or successfully done this?

Edit: Just to add, I don't think the problem is with the nut being seized or anything - I've tried slackening the nut off a little and it seems to move okay, and the bass is less than two years old so I'd not expect it to be a fault like that.

The first flats I tried were Rotosounds, and I was quite surprised at how different they were to similar gauge D'Addario rounds I normally use, though I do tend to go for medium or light gauge. I spent quite a bit of time trying to find info on relative tensions and feels of flats and eventually settled on a set of FLs for my precision, and they've been great. I've since put FSs on my jazz and can't really tell any difference to the FLs. The only problem now is that I need two more basses for when I fancy playing rounds...

Just a quick addition to say I'm still happy with the version I built from the information/specs in this thread, and using the new version of the Beyma driver. In fact I'm twice as happy now as I was last time I posted, as I've finally finished the second cab, and used it at a practice the other day.

I was taken aback by the difference the second cab makes. I wasn't really sure what to expect, and was anticipating perhaps a bit more volume. What I actually got was oodles more bass than I expected - I usually run my Ampeg PF500 with all the EQ at 12:00, but by the end of the evening I'd backed the bass off to about 09:00. I can safely say that there is absolutely nothing lacking in bottom end for a four string player, and I think I understand some of the comments from others who've played your prototypes, Phil, that the flat response might sound odd to people who are used to a bit of a mid hump from many commercial cabinets.

Two questions I'd ask are why you took it to a luthier in the first place - were there particular problems that you felt needed to be fixed, or was it just that it needed a bit of a set up, and whether this luthier is someone you know (and trust) - I note you said "my" luthier?

The reason I ask is that it sounds a little bit like the classic "[sharp intake of breath through clenched teeth] - could be expensive, guv!". Of course, if you know them this is unlikely to be the case.

Apologies if I'm being a cynical old git!

Oddly enough I was thinking of posting the very same question, this being a song we currently play. I'd assumed it was some form of filter effect, though I have no experience of such effects at all. There was a thread on here recently about filter effects that go down rather than up - in my mind that sounded like the sort of thing it needs, but that's a wild guess!

Dark Side of the Moon for me. Seems to be a family thing - my elder brothers got me into Pink Floyd, and they were lucky enough to go to the Earls Court concert in '73. My late mum was a massive classical music fan, with hundreds (possibly thousands) of records in her collection. Only one was not classical - DSOTM.

It's the only album that I will still occasionally sit down in a darkened room with a glass of something warming and listen to from start to finish.

Not actually last night but Sunday. Third outing for Fortunate Sons, playing a mix of mainly 60s and 70s R&B and Soul covers.

Our first two gigs were in pubs and space was very limited. This was in a fitness club, though not one that any of us knew. We were told it was "quite a big space", and I think we were envisaging an aerobics studio type of room. Bit of a surprise when we turned up and found this:

[url="https://flic.kr/p/NjWWH3"][/url]

The car (!) you can see is about half way down and beyond that are weight machines, free weights etc. There's another bit to the right of us which is about the same size again as the area between us and the weights machines.

Bear in mind we were only putting vocals and keys through the PA (no subs) and I was playing through an Ampeg PF500 and single 1x15 cab. Fortunately I have a relatively short guitar lead and no wireless, so I've no idea how it sounded out front, though we were told that it was actually okay. Bit of an echo though!

I reckon the space could comfortably take several thousand people. We played to about two dozen. They all stood quite close to us...

I might have to post this over on the "Gigging without a PA" thread - should cause a bit of a stir.

It's quite a laugh, this gigging game!

I like to know each song well enough to play it solo. One of the things I've got into the habit of doing is writing out the structure of each new song we learn (all covers, and we agree on a version as a base) and circulating it to the rest of the band, but I'm beginning to realise it would be better to make everyone do it as it often seems like it's just me that really knows the songs properly.

[quote name='petetexas' timestamp='1476372118' post='3153748']
Width at the deepest part of the neck pocket is 62mm on my Bitsa .

[/quote]

Thanks, Pete. According to my trusty digital vernier calipers the width of my MIM Jazz at the very end is 63.8mm, which ties in quite well with the quoted 2.5" I've seen for Fender necks - that would be 63.5mm, so that's pretty close.

That's almost 2mm more that your neck from Northwest, so I'm not sure that it would be a good solution for a replacement neck. But the main driver for that is just aesthetics - I fancy a maple board, so it's not exactly urgent. Still thinking of doing a bitsa with both neck and body from them, though...

It's a long time since I've been to Dave Dearnley's, but I'd suggest it's a much more interesting visit than Nobles. Not that there's anything wrong with Nobles, but Dave's workshop was a bit of an eye opener. He consistently gets good recommendations too.

[quote name='petetexas' timestamp='1476174444' post='3151891']
Hi Gottastopbuyinggear,
The neck to body fit was ok, but had to shim the neck angle to get enough clearance of pups and height of bridge . It did take quite a bit of extra work to get the neck aligned to body .
The nut was not cut , had to do that myself ( being an ex guitar teck of some 20 years - was no problem )
The fretting is OK ,but for the first few months , I was continually dressing fret ends ( I think the wood used was not seasoned correctly and was shrinking , making the fret ends stick out - but its ok now .
I will measure up the width later on today for you , and also dig out the posting I did on the build of this .
I have used her now for about 12 months gigging , and would not change her .
Pete
[/quote]

Thanks, Pete. I'm not afraid of a bit of nut fettling, or fret dressing, so I'll probably give it a go. I've never shimmed a neck before, but I can't see that being too difficult - I might check how much it'd cost to get some of the pre made shims that StewMac have started selling if needed.

I'll have a search for your build thread too.

This may be stating the obvious but storing the board flat helps, if you're not already doing that. I used to store my pedaltrain on its side in the bag, and the pedals would gradually slip off the Velcro.

[quote name='petetexas' timestamp='1475496564' post='3146340']
... Both from Nortwest Guitars ...
[/quote]

That looks fantastic - classic combination, white and tort.

I'm quite interested in doing a bitsa with a body and neck from Northwest Guitars myself, and/or replacing the neck on my MIM jazz. Could I ask you to do me a favour and confirm the heel width is 62mm? The Northwest site quotes 62mm for the Jazz, and 63mm for the precision neck, but I always thought they would be the same width and be completely interchangeable. Also, can I ask was the neck a good fit to the body or did it need any adjustment, and what was the fretwork like? I assume the nut was uncut? Sorry, that's quite a few questions, but grateful for your experience!

Oh great, thanks a bunch. I have severe gas for this exact model, and now you come along with these great photos and a really positive review. Not fair! 😎

Seriously, you can't tell much from the photos on the Thomann site, and in deference to my bank balance I've not sought out any better photos, but they're excellent shots and that bass does look really nice. The only thing saving me now is that I do really like the sunburst and rosewood model too, so indecision will keep me gassed up but Sire free for a little while longer.

Had one since early 2014. Not gigged but used in rehearsal rooms about once a week on average and has never given any problems. Sounds great too!