dave_bass5

My boss asked me to pass on her thanks for letting me do half a days work yesterday. Ive just told her normal service has now been resumed and to shut the door on the way out. Good work guys.

Years ago i was in some sort of new wave/punk/crap band, not my cup of tea but ti was something to do. Singer wasnt great, me on bass with about 7 FX boxes and young drummer who was madly in love with Killing Joke. We needed a guitarist and after seeing a couple of good players (who i would have loved to work with outside that band) in walks a guy that had the image down 100%. Punk hair, make-up, clothes the lot. He pulls out this strange looking angular guitar, plugs in and there was this noise, not too dissimilar from a KJ riff but not in tune in any way. All he was doing was making this barking noise by muting all the strings and whacking them. Our songs did have tunes but after about 5mins we stopped playing and i asked him if he was actually in tune, and if not did he want to borrow my tuner. This was met with a very vacant stare. He then explained he had never tuned the guitar up since he had it, he only got it because it looked the part and that he cant actually play the guitar. The drummer, who by this time had decided this was THE guitarist for us proceeded to show him how to tune the guitar up. One by one each tuning peg was turned, and each was met with a twang and a rusty string breaking. This was a god send as it gave us our excuse to say "we will give you a call" and get rid of him. We ended up getting a mate in as we all knew him and his playing style fitted in. Funny thing is, two weeks later the drummer left the band to form a new one, you can guess who with lol. Never seen again.

Sims would be my first port of call if I couldn't find something off the shelf.

I use a DELL laptop bag for my MB F1.Its got very thick padding at both ends of the main compartment and also along the bottom. I can get the head, radio system and all leads in it. I dont like bags that are bigger than needed, or with straps and pockets hanging off the side etc. It cost me £10 from PC World from their bargain bucket and its very compact.

[quote name='Spoombung' timestamp='1336732581' post='1650077'] complained with refined, casual resignation about having "17 bloody guitars at home" and now "he had one more of the bloody things". [/quote] some people just get dealt an unlucky hand. Poor sod.

[quote name='WalMan' timestamp='1336686266' post='1649653'] Ta. I actually quite like them. Used in anger at a gig last Friday doing classic rocky stuff, and Sunday at a r/h with the Country/Americana band mainly using the P pup in the Tanglewater and the basic rig with no effects (ie bass, lead, GB STM 6.0 & Barefaced Super12T) and the whole thing was sounding pretty damn good and got a load of compliments at the gig, including "it's better than the red one, solid & well defined" (the red one being the US G&L L2500 with an older set of Elixirs on). It'll be interesting to see what the longevity is like, but if it is as good as the Elixirs, and the price was right (ie around £30 for a 4 string set not the near £50 quoted in some places) I could be tempted to try them on the L2500's as well. [/quote] Cheers. Ive used Elixirs in the past but found them to sound a tiny bit scooped and rough feeling. I did like them though but something that lasts as long, doesn't feel quite as rough would be good, i find my Black Beauties to be too rough so i dont use them. They do seem to be priced just a little higher than the Elixirs so not too bad if they last a good few months of regular gigging.

I also think strings will play a bit part of it, maybe a very big part. So many variables its fun finding the right combo.

[quote name='JimBobTTD' timestamp='1336724739' post='1649910'] 4) Fender will never feel the need to improve their quality control (or just their quality...) if customers accept faults in their product. [/quote] Is it really a fault though? I dont think ive seen a specification sheet that says how tight the neck pocket should be, and i doubt it effects tone or playability. Im sure there are loads of people that wouldn't worry about it, or even notice it. Its a bit shoddy i agree, but these are production line basses, not hand made and you cant expect every bass to come off the production line perfect. Thats my thinking anyway.

Im with the rest, send it back because you are not happy, but this is the only reason. I dont think its a real world issues, as already said, loads of basses have worse than this. It wont make any difference to the tone or playing. I sent 3 MIA Jazz basses back a couple of years ago because i wasnt happy with paying almost £900 for something that had issues my Squiers didnt, but in hindsight i was being a little too fussy (IMO) as they were all lovely basses, with issues i could and should have lived with as they realyl were minor issues, and i do now regret sending them back.

PM'ed :-)

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1336666955' post='1649231'] The Fralin is quite pricey though. [/quote] And thats the reason i have the Fender pup :-) The Fralin i brought (new) cost me about £125 for the USA. I recently sold my Wizard Thumper. As nice as it was i felt it wasnt quite as Fender sounding as i hoped.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1336666375' post='1649217'] Got one of those in my 62RI - it does do the trick. [/quote] Ive got one in my P but would love another Fralin. I think the Fender has a more woody tone but i loved the Fralin P i had (2 in fact)

[quote name='WalMan' timestamp='1335993166' post='1639336'] In a bit of a thread resurection I have just put a set of EB Cobalt Hybrids (45-105) onto the Tanglewater ClassicJ and added some "After" clips with the Cobalts on to compare to the "Before" with the strings it came with, which I believe were 38-98. Clips are on my Soundcloud account [url="http://soundcloud.com/aka_walman/sets/overwater-by-tanglewood"]HERE[/url] hopefully. Just a set of rough noodles but a slight comparison perhaps. [/quote] Nice playing and tone. What's your opinion of them? The P clip seems to have a nice top end to it.

If there are handles either side of the cab what about Bungee cords?

Fender 62RI Original should do the trick.

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1336662625' post='1649136'] , but I'll forward your comments if you wish [/quote] Well you could tell them its spelt Bass and not Base in the review box filter

[quote name='bluejay' timestamp='1336597425' post='1648322'] That sounds lovely and i'm totally up for it! [/quote] Cool, Its something we can sort out once we have some regular sun. Fingers crossed we have some on the 26th.

Maybe we could have a more localised meet one evening in a central area for us locals at some point. Its beautiful down along the river late evening in the summer (thats summer with sun and not rain). when we moved here last year we spent quite a few evenings on the small beach by the OXO tower with a few bottles of wine. Just like being at the seaside.

Yeah, i remember why we went for that day. I hope the train lines are fine as my singer has to come up from Hastings.

Its a shame you cant make it Steve, would be good to put a face to a name. Im still in but as i have a 3pm sound check im not sure if ill stay too long. Its a shame its on a Sat as i can imagine a lot of us will be working that night. Im sure we could make it a semi regular thing though.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1336208406' post='1642425'] I find that I love Chromes or Ernie Balls for the first 3 months, then they get a touch darker than I want. They still sound good after this, but it becomes more of a classic flatwound sound than the flat/round hybrid other players describe. This experience has been repeated over several sets. For those three months, they have plenty of growl for my needs. I don't know if this happens for everyone else or if my body chemistry just knackers them! [/quote] I dont have the same issue but the end result is the same. After the past 4 gigs using Chromes they are coming off this week and a set of EXL's are going back on. I really dont know what it is about flats that always forces me to do this. I like them when i put them on, and as its the same set i dont think its the tone changing, I could be that after a few gigs i realise im missing something.

[quote name='debwilliams' timestamp='1336322992' post='1644007'] Here's mine - recently bought off this forum and looking very much like Dave's old HW. If it is, I guess it's a small world! Deb [/quote] Its is my old one, and one of the best looking basses ive owned. I really wish they would come with a black PG as stock. Ive had 3 HW's now and all have been fantastic basses.

[quote name='Blink' timestamp='1336307416' post='1643725'] If we don't support the only specialist UK bass mag then it will disappear for ever and we will threads complaining that there is no specialist UK bass mag. [/quote] If it does go under (and i really hope it doesn't) then i think that shows that its not really wanted anyway. I cant see many people who find nothing of interest in it buying it, and these are bass players, the people this mag is aimed at.

I just spent almost an hour reading the May edition on my iPad. I was surprised at how long I spent with it, and i didnt bother reading any of the reviews. Other than the odd looking P and Jazz basses all the others were way out of my price range and had either too many strings or not enough frets. I can see how these reviews might be nice for those who can't afford them, a bit like window shopping but I don't think for the average reader they hold any interest. I'm in too minds about the fact that they all get good reviews but I see it as why bother wasting space with rubbish. I guess they are just giving us the good stuff. Not a bad thing really. I feel like this about most Mags so it's not aimed directly at BGM, I also subscribe to the electronic version of T3 and I don't think I've ever found something I can afford in that mag.