Gottastopbuyinggear

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!

[quote name='SICbass' timestamp='1474811888' post='3140680'] Popped his gig cherry, yayyyyy! Well done matey. It's amazing how much, by the way of clangers dropped, punters (and for that matter bandmates) don't notice, isn't it ? [/quote] What do you mean, we're always note perfect! Yeah, we had a couple of interesting ones, but nobody seemed to bat an eyelid.

Thanks all! I can certainly see how it could be addictive. [quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1474799170' post='3140539'] Well done! Sounds like a good start. Has your band got any clips to download yet? [/quote] Nothing yet, though we're hoping that the drummer's mate got some video with reasonable audio on his iPhone - if so I'll post some.

Played my first ever gig last night, at The Plough in Aberdare as part of the Cwmaman music festival. Debut gig for the whole band (we've been going since early this year), stepping in to fill the last slot after a band pulled out a couple of weeks ago. So it may be stretching the point a bit, but we're claiming our debut gig was the Saturday night headline slot on a stage at a music festival... I say stage, but there was no stage - precious little room at all, but we are a six piece (drums, bass, 2 x guitar, keys and vocals) and the keys player has a full width 88 key keyboard. No sound check, just set up and go. I was stood immediately in front of my cab, and couldn't so much hear it as feel it - now I know what people mean by trouser flapping. Our singer is very energetic, and how he missed jumping on my pedalboard I don't know. Didn't make any howling mistakes, other than one technical one - I used my new VT Bass Deluxe, which I set up the same way as I've always had my BDDI programmable - 1 for thump, 2 for clank and 3 for grind. Now, the VT bass has a fourth switch, which gets you to presets 4, 5 and 6. The factory setting for 6, which is what you get when your great big feet accidentally hit the two end switches at the same time, is "Fuzzed Out". Took me a few seconds to work out what I'd done, and those few seconds were the fist time I've had feedback from a bass... Interesting crowd. Quite a lot of alcohol had been consumed by quite a few. Had a few people dancing, one request to "play something we know - Stereophonics - don't you know where you are?" (we play 60s and 70s R&B and rockier soul stuff, so it wasn't going to happen), and one slightly worrying episode where a lass grabbed one of the guitarists' strat from it's stand mid song to pose for a few photos. Oh, and we did have to stop between songs at one point while a fight was stopped. Rock and Roll! All in all a pretty good night, rounded off with a very welcome (and free!) pint. Now I just need to prize my share of the fee out of our drummer, which will cover about half the cost of the equipment insurance I decided at the last moment might be a clever thing to have...

Could this just be another name change? Wasn't it the "American Standard" for a while, then "American Series", then back to "American Standard"?

John bought my VT Bass pedal. Good communication, paid quickly, responded to all my update messages and let me know as soon as he'd received it. What more can you ask! I'd happily do business with him again.

There are always bands and musicians at all levels of ability looking for each other, so I think it pays for both sides to try and be fairly honest and objective about what level they're at to minimise the chance of people (on both sides of the search) wasting their time. That said I did once use the phrase "I'm no Pino Palladino" when responding to an ad placed by a drummer, and the response I got was "Good, last time I looked I wasn't John Bonham either". Made me smile!

As the big-kid-at-heart owner of a (full size) candy apple red, rosewood board, precision, all I can say is WAAAANT!

Laptop, audio interface and amp modeller - I use Amplitube, which I got relatively cheaply when they were doing one of their frequent sales, but there are alternatives. The biggest advantage for me is the ability to play along to tracks on iTunes (or whatever media player you choose) which has all my music and backing tracks, without having to worry about plugging some form of physical media player into another physical device. It's also great if you want to check out stuff on YouTube, etc., while playing. I'd also guess that you probably already have a laptop and may well have an audio interface already too, in which case the additional outlay for an amp modeller is relatively small.

Something I found out recently when I asked for suggestions for a similar purpose (splitting up a single MP3 file of a rehearsal into individual songs) is that you can label a bunch of selections in Audacity (just click and drag to select a portion of the file and then Ctrl-B, or Cmd-B on a Mac, and type in a label) and then do a batch export of them using File - Export Multiple, with each file named according to the label. You can definitely adjust the overall volume and do a fade out, but I can't remember off the top of my head how you do that - Google will tell you pretty quickly.

I may be wrong but I think the issue with MP3 encoders being bundled with software is that there's a licence fee to be paid for the encoder. If you're buying software then the provider is paying a small amount on to whoever holds the rights for the MP3 technology. If you're going for free or open source then, assuming the provider wants to stay on the right side of the law, they can't bundle the encoder.

[quote name='Ghost Rider' timestamp='1471964423' post='3117294'] [font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][size=4]Thanks for all that info, its really appreciated. Does the PF50t come with any kind of case or is it meant to go into the cab? Reason I ask is that after looking at the two portaflex 15 cabs, one being the [/size][/font][font="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"][color="#000000"]PF-115LF & the other being the PF-115HE the only main difference I can see is 50 watts of power & the fliptop is 50 quid more. I'm thinking would the sealed cab be better that the fliptop cab? [/color][/font] [font="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"][color="#000000"]Cheers[/color][/font] [font="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"][color="#000000"] [/color][/font][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][size=4] [/size][/font] [/quote] Probably giving you the benefit of my O level in the bleedin' obvious here, but the 115HE has a horn, so covers a little more ground if you want some highs. Having said that, I have one and have the horn turned off all the time, so I could understand if you didn't think you'd need it.