Geejay

We compramise on things. My wife suggested I bought my Status as she knew I wanted a good quality bass. Money is not the issue. The difficulty is space and clutter. The suggestion from my wife was rather than having one good bass, one OK bass and one no-name fender copy why not sell all three and buy one high quality bass. I liked the idea but have not been able to sell the others at a reasonable price so I will upgrade one de-fret another and decide what to do with the no-name. My wife listens to what i say as well. I know quite a few divorced guys who take great pride in staying 'their own man'.



Geejay

Hi Rufus
Nice to have another oldie along.
Have answered your question.
Geejay

Good to see somone else the right side of 50. I sometimes think I'm the only one on here.

Try Stringbusters.com Elites are typically £12 plus post (£1 per order I think)

Nice to meet you here.

Geejay

Thanks Si,
Much as I thought.
I'll get a few quotes and put them on the thread in case others are interested.

Geejay

I bought some Schaller which were fine standing up.
But rattled when I played sitting down in my big band.
So I took them off. Drank two bottles of Grolsch and am now much happier.
Oh, and I fitted the rubber bottle seals which I've been using for years but are now becoming harder to find. Whenever I find the right bottle of Grolsch I have to buy it and drink the contents. I've always thought it a pity they only come in red and then a couple of nights ago I found a restaurant with blue ones on its bottles of water.

Geejay

Hi,
Has anyone got an idea of the cost of a professional de-fret or a replacement (fretless) fingerboard?

Just wondering so i don't get ripped off.

Geejay

[quote name='bottomfeed' post='34800' date='Jul 20 2007, 04:55 PM']sounds pretty interesting..... gis a look?![/quote]

I've found the pics. I took slides as was hoping to publish. Unfortunately I'll have to dig out my slide scanner to put the pics up. Two guitars and one bass.

Geejay

Bruce Thomas - great.
Pump It Up - Very good
I've only discovered Motown in my advanced years. Didn't really enjoy it the first time round although it was good singalong stuff. Appreciate the bass now. Often appreciate the bass on other styles I don't really like. It's amazing how often the bass player will put a familiar bass style into what seems an odd genre but it works.
Tesco do sell instruments online btw. Sadly no bass but they do a Squier Strat and a Fender drumkit! Used to do a good range of acoustic guitars and other instruments too.

Geejay

Hi
It looks good.
What about my Status Energy plus cash?

Geejay

Definately go for a used bass unless you happen to find THE ONE in a shop. You should get a much better bass for your money used.

Geejay

Hi all,
I don't have any specifics about a WEM bass but I did interview Charlie Watkins a few years ago but never published it. Whilst at his house I photographed a WEM guitar (or bass). I'll try and find the pic. If I've still got the interview on a disk I'll put it up on a suitable area of Basschat. It's more to do with his experiences in the music business in the 60's and 70's providing sound systems for venues and the early festivals but some may find it interesting.

Geejay

Hi all,
It's good to see this thread up and running again. I thought I had contributed to the old one but might not have/ might have missed my words above.

I have built two speakers: one a tuned port 1x15 using an EV speaker (beta I think as it was cheap) and a 1x12 vented built to match the size of my combo so that my combo could sit on top. Both work well but could do with better drivers. They were built when I wanted better/ extra speakers at little cost. They both met those requirements with room to spare. They enabled me to turn my 1x12 75W combo firstly into 100W 1x12 plus 1x12 extension and then with a cheap 100W power amp I was given they became a 100W 1x12 plus 1x12 with a 100W 1x15. So much better than the original 75 W.

I used WEM plans and took the 1x15 up to Charlie's house for him to check out. A really interesting guy with many stories to tell. Cost of the 1x15 was about £100 ( it will handle 300W at 8ohm) and I built it freehand i.e. without a vice to hold the wood. It still came out square and is properly sealed. The theory of the tuned port fascinated me. I like motorbikes and knew a fair bit about tuned exhausts on the old racing two strokes and the tuned pipe on a bass cab works in a similar way. All to do with stading waves set up in the pipe reinforcing the speaker movement a a particular (resonant) frequency.
Not sure what to build next as I chickened out and bought my last two cabs. I quite like the iedea of a sealed 2x12in cab to use in conjunction with my 1x15. The problem I have is the impedence of the drivers. I need either 4ohm or 16ohm drivers which seem hard to find at a sensible price in 12 inch. Alternatively an active, wedge floor monitor using the 100w power amp could be good.

Geejay

bigash


Mine is indeed a right hander.

Have you tried statii.com yet?

Geejay

Hi,
It just so happens I have one for sale! They vary a bit. Mine is a headed 4 string from early to mid 90's. It has an ash body with a rock maple graphite reinforced neck (with a truss rod as well). It has 2 x 'J' pickups, a 9v active circuit with tone, pu blend and volume. Most headed Status basses have a 34.75 inch scale, Energy's had a 34 inch scale. The RRP was about £699 when new. They always seem very good value to me. I also recommend you try Statii.com.

Geejay

Well done for sorting out a venue. Much better than the school hall I might have been able to get.

Sadly I am away on holiday and won't be able to be there.

Graham

Thanks to everyone.
I'm trying to avoid buying the wrong one. The Akai Headrush gets good reviews on the 'Loopers Delight' website. The Jamman has some very mixed reviews on Harmony Central. Some have had very poor reliability and even dead on arrival with very poor back up by Digitech.

Geejay

I got some cheap ones years ago in a drum shop between Soho and Regents Street. Will try and remember its name. They had a good range there at the time and did better quality ones as well.

Geejay

Hi,
Have a good trip.
Possibly Ivor Mairants (mainly guitars but he used to have a few basses). Chappels (no longer on Bond Street now Wardour Street Soho) mainly Yamaha basses but a good selection of sheet music, books etc. Foyles bookshop has a good selection of music books, Turnkey on Charing Cross Road, Soundcontrol on Oxford Street, and a couple of other seond hand instrument shops near Denmark Street but I can't remember their names. I used to take my daughter to London every Saturday and walk round them all. Happy to give directions if required. They are all within a few minutes walk of each other and Denmark Street.


Geejay

[quote name='steve-norris' post='13615' date='Jun 7 2007, 02:49 PM']I had one, very good bass, p-bass punch and 18v active preamp, sounds killer active and passive also has a drop d tuner, and USA pickups including a noiseless jazz in the rear. Can't think of any downsides, wish i still had it[/quote]
Looks to be just what I'm after. It seems there are two models though, the standard and the custom. Does the standard have 18v pre amp as well? The standard looks to be about £550 and the custom about £1900 is it that much better? Can anyone help?

Hi,
There's a used one for sale in my local Friday Ad (Reigate, Surrey). Quoting new price as £279 they are after £200. Would probably come down. I don't have the number on me but will dig it out if anyone is interested.

hi,
I'm still anguishing over it. I got a bit confused by the thread.
PM will follow later when i have time.
Geejay

Thanks for the help guys
I've been watching the 'bay and checked out the cost of a new Midi Mouse. Went into town shopping this morning with my wife and after the fifth clothes shop managed to escape and not only found a copy of Bass Player in Smiths but a used Midi Mouse in the local music shop. Got it home and it works a treat on the amp and uses a power supply I had spare.
Great. It's simple and straightforward to use, seems well built and does the job. Now I'll just have to program in a few mean sounds into the amp.

Geejay

Is it me or does this thread keep changing? I thought I saw it down to £850 a few days ago.

Geejay

Go for it. I joined one just to be the number 2 bass player in an effort to improve my reading and play some different music. It's been great and I've played a lot big band arrangements of standard 60's and 70's function band stuff as well as jazz standards. It has given me a new perspective on bass parts.

Once I finally get my reading up to speed I know there will be gigs a-plenty with other bands who nead a reader to dep. Upright (electric upright is OK) would be an asset but is not essential.

Graham

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm watching the 'bay for something suitable. I like the Midimouse too.