TheRinser

Hello everyone! I now have my stagg Went to Croydon last night to pick it up on the way to my girlfriend's. Got about 20 minutes to play it all told, loving it so far, as linus said, very different to a bass guitar. Had my fretless for about a year before I gigged it, I can see this being at least a year and half, bearing in mind the amount of time I get to practice... Firstly though, it looks amazing, I got metallic black, looks very sleek, feels nice and solid. Nice smooth neck and fingerboard. Cheeky blue LED too. From what linus had said about the action I was worried it was going to be a real beast, but it's not too bad. I haven't tried adjusting the action or anything yet, so it may go up or down. It's definitely doable and I can see myself doing some damage during handshakes with my vice like grip in 6 months time. I only had it plugged in for about 3 minutes through my trace and it sounded great, not as woody as a double bass but the lower register seemed to have that fat 'bloom' when a note is plucked. The midrange seemed a bit lacking in this, but don't hold me to that, it may just be technique... The upper register is still a mystery to me, having barely been able to fret (as it were) the notes above the 14th. Intend to get my head around the whole shift in position thing, but feels very awkward at the moment... Anyway, that's enough for now, I'll get some pics up soon, and give you guys an update when I feel I've made some progress/had an epiphany/started crying because my hands hurt. Cheers, Tom

Didn't Jaco once say 'I know where I stole every note'? Not that that makes him any less of a unique genius talent on bass, or off it... Just lots of influences. And practice.

tried to youtube it but no luck, i know it's a longshot, but any chance of a link?

Good programme, I've downloaded a few of the best ones off emule. Laser eye surgery is a bit grim, also downloaded the amp one, and acoustic guitar one... Gettin' the cello one now. I'm a geek. :| no sign of the bass one on there... It's on one of the discovery channels or something like that? Don't have cable at the mo, but that and Walker Texas Ranger (and a couple of cheeky joints) was a classic mix at the end of a long sainsbury's night shift back at uni.

Cheers chaps! Cjac, that's your good deeds done for a whole week, feel free to stay seated when pregnant women and old people get on public transport

Thanks guys! Much appreciated I've never been to Austria but if we do get to go it'll be amazing, looking forward to all the things you mentioned Mart, even the music'll be good hopefully not a lederhosen or oompah band in sight...

Oh yeah, FJ1200, awesome story! And I think the little rubber string bass you're talking about is the DeArmond Ashbory?

I had no idea about that side of John Giblin's playing! I asked him to play some bass and he wouldn't I'd downloaded some of the Simple Minds stuff he'd played on and it just grooved nicely... Downloading that fish album now.

I bought my Trace Elliot along with a trace 1248 cab off ebay for the princely sum of £415. Missioned it pretty much to Wales to get it with my mum (couldn't get insured on the people carrier at the time). Get there and start chatting to the guy, turns out it's John Giblin, the ex Simple Minds bassist. Great guy, really friendly and chatty and he gave me a Yamaha 5 string which he'd mistakenly bought off ebay. True legend, gave me a big hug on the way out and told me to keep playing and keep in touch. Paul Turner would have been more my sort of thing musically, but was awesome hanging out with John for a bit.

I saw oxblood mentioned further up this thread. Where is he? Haven't seen any of his informative posts lately. I miss them...

beautiful finish on that mike!

Hello Bass Ferret, I try to wrap the strings as low as possible on the tuner, but the posts are hourglass shaped, so they tend to migrate towards the middle, with the last wrap as low as I can get it. It definitely helps but without the string tree it's just not low enough...

Just a quick update, managed to screw the tree back into the old holes, well, one old and one new(er), so it's at an angle, with the treble side closer to the nut, and a little more room for the B and E to break at a slightly shallower angle. Seems to be holding ok at the moment but will call Mike tomorrow anyway and see what he says... Think I want a solution that will cover all string, the more I think about it the less I like the idea of the Hipshot... Hmm. We'll see.

Yeah that's the problem I had with it when I put it back in. The wood seemed to splinter a lot. Tis a shame, it held fine until I put the flats on but they definitely felt like they were exerting abnormal pressure on it. And now with my slightly bodged repair it's made it significantly worse. The problem with those hipshot retainers is how far down they'd pull the strings. The headstock are looking like the best option, but it'd be really ugly... Hmm, I'll give Mike a call and see what he suggests... Lfalex, that's exactly the setup of mine. Seems like kind of a half arsed way of doing it eh? Especially with the tension of all five strings on it...

Yeah that looks like the kind of thing I'd be after! I will investigate What's wrong with leaning basses on walls?

Tuning is standard, I've actually taken the flats off and got some nickel roundwounds on there. The flats lasted about a week, was taking the bass to a practice, opened up the gigbag which it had been in for a couple of days to find the G string had snapped at the point where the string tree was. So the flats came off then... Shame really... Then woke up this morning to find it how it is now. Had a jam with my flatmate last night and it had been leaning against the wall in my room overnight. I'm thinking it may be temperature fluctuations causing the strings to contract. The flat is pretty cold but my room is kept reasonably warm with a little electric heater (not pointed at it or anything). The through the headstock thing is definitely an idea, but like you said not particularly elegant... Maybe one of those Fender 5 (i think?) style trees where the screw goes all the way into the wood rather than sticking halfway out. You know the wide U shaped thing?

Thing is I bought it off here, from Geoff, the shop manager at bass merchant. He'd made it out of Iceni bits, defretted it and then sold it to me. Dunno if I'd get the same warranty as for a normal Zootbass... Apart from this problem it's a lovely bass... I will try to give them a call. Any other advice as to how to fix it? Got practices and gigs coming up and I'd like to be able to play fretless for 'em.

Haha, set yourself up to be a right bastard for the whole the week, vote 7 times Cheers guys, much appreciated! Keep 'em coming please And if you come to one of our more local gigs I'll buy you a pint

Hello everyone, Here's my problem... I put flatwounds on my fretless and it decided it wasn't having any of it and the G string side of the string tree pulled itself out of the wood. I removed it completely and screwed it into a slightly different position. Unfortunately I woke up this morning and the same thing has happened again, this time on the B string side. The new holes and the old ones have decided to become two big holes, what do you suggest I do? I was thinking of re-screwing it in as far away from the old holes as possible but not sure this is viable. If so, which way? Towards the nut or towards the tuners? Cheers, Tom

Muchos gracias (running out of ways to say thanks). If we get through it'll be amazing, so cheers for the votes! What were you doing out there woodenshirt? Skiing?

Thanks guys, really appreciate this! Don't stop now! Cheers, Tom

I've had some crap service and some alright service from the bass centre, I've only dealt with the Bass Gallery once but felt that their service was pretty crap too. Spent a couple of hundred quid in there and they treated me a bit like I'd come in and sh*t in their till.