Dan Dare

I intend to "do my own research" about this earthing thingy tonight by sleeping in the garden on the ground. It's raining here at the moment. not exactly balmy out and I'm almost 70. If I don't croak as a result of hypothermia, I shall report back in the morning.

Pretty much anything from Stax or Motown. Just as well as I'm playing in a soul band these days...

VJ74 is a J bass copy, so any Fender-style bridge should do it. Gotoh 201 if you want chunky and 203 if you prefer a more vintage look. Both around £30 and excellent quality.

K&M stands are very good. They do amp stands. If you do angle the rig back, ensure the amp is secured in place so it doesn't "walk" off the cab with the vibrations. Guess how I know this can happen...

Agreed. Japanese manufacturers care about getting things right. Which is why I drive a Toyota.

And as for bass players...

I've found that MB gear doesn't sound particularly special in isolation or when you're stood next to it. As you say, it's a bit coloured and rather "thick" sounding (for want of a better term). However, in a band context, it works extremely well - fat and punchy with a nice warmth.

That's the 203. It looks like a BBOT, but is chromed brass and a bit beefier but still vintage looking. Very nice bridge and a snip at under £30.

This isn't about you. Jim was asking our advice. If you have none to offer, why comment at all?

Oh yes. "I'm Julian and this is my friend, Sandy". "Ooh, hallo, Mr 'Orne". I'm 70 this year and was (and am) a fan of classic radio comedy. I read somewhere that a lot of Beeb commissioning editors in the early post-war years were ex-forces officers (I think it was Spike Milligan who referred to them as "bomber pilots"), who, fortunately, didn't understand the argot.

Thanks. I knew Little Richard was gay, but didn't put two and two together. Makes one wonder how much seemingly whimsical or even nonsensical language - literary or musical - is code.

Agreed. Using words for their sound or rhythmic qualities, rather than their meaning, together with onomatopoeia and other devices are long-established literary traditions. Poets have been doing it for centuries. Pop music follows in the tradition and has done so for a long time. How about "Tutti Frutti. Aw Rooty. A Wop Bop A Loo Bop, A Wop Bam Boo" from the 1950s? And Little Richard was following in the footsteps of artists like Slim and Slam before him. Poetry, music and literature doesn't HAVE to mean something/anything. Sometimes, it's just pleasing to the eye or ear.

If you like the instrument but just want to tame the output a little, this is good advice. Find a pre that doesn't require alteration to the instrument and that you can remove and replace with the original should you sell and you're good to go.

Absolutely. As they say, opinions are like *rseholes. Everybody has one. You're correct. It is shite.

MB stuff always sounds good in the room, in my experience. Just seems to fill the place better than many.

You're being too kind. Much too kind. Featuring Liz Truss on vocals...

You'd need to look for the most efficient driver you can find and use an efficient cab design with only 10W to play with. That would most likely mean a larger cab, which would defeat the object of having something very small and portable. A direct radiating cab - even a reflex design - is unlikely to cut it for anything other than home practice at low volume when driven by 10W. At the extreme end of the scale, some of the hi-fi horn designs produce tremendous output from 5 or 10 watt amps, but they are massive. They also do not produce a lot of low frequencies, which you would need in a bass cab.

Same power amp module (ICEpower) and different preamp. AG700 overdrives more subtly. I like my AG, but if you want a thicker sound, go for a TH.

What springs to mind? The gas and lekky bill...

This. A longer scale length makes a big difference at the low end.

This. If seeing a few ad's means I can use and benefit from this site for free, I'm perfectly OK with that. You can't expect to get something for nothing.

I'll have a pint of whatever you're been drinking.

Aguilar are excellent (I use an AG700), but I've heard that getting them fixed is not necessarily easy or cheap, either, although I haven't had to find out as yet. For us in the UK, Ashdown are renowned for backup. I'd suggest looking at Laney, too. Another UK based company and their newer bass amps are very good.

Eh? My point was that materials of good but not outstanding quality, used correctly, are what is important, rather than exotic materials. It seems you are trying to pick an argument for the sake of it. As for "tone woods", they matter in an acoustic instrument because the instrument alone produces the sound you hear. The sound you hear from a solid electric instrument is entirely the product of a signal produced by a piece of wire vibrating in a magnetic field, which is then amplified and reproduced by a loudspeaker. It is a purely electrical/electronic process. A pickup is not a microphone. It does not respond to vibrations of air molecules. So by your own logic, the material a solid instrument is constructed from has no bearing on the sound produced.

As a tightwad who views instruments as tools to do a job, I don't understand throwing money at exotic materials, unless there is a performance benefit that makes the cost difference worthwhile. In the case of necks, good old plain maple has been found to do the job perfectly, so why change what ain't broke? Quality of build trumps materials every time. I'd rather have an instrument that has been well made from plain (but suitable, ofc) materials any day. That way, I can afford more toys. Interestingly, Stradivari is reckoned to have used ordinary lumber he bought from local timber merchants to build instruments. If it was good enough for him...