lemmywinks

My parents' have always had awful taste in music (Cher, Michael Bolton, Kenny Loggins....) so car journeys were a nightmare until I got a Gameboy and some headphones for Christmas. I'm making sure my little'un grows up with decent music around her, her favourite song is Peek-a-Boo by Devo and she also likes De La Soul. Although currently she's fixated on Aquabats, no bad thing really.

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1394278733' post='2389787'] Good to see you back. I had hoped you was ok & was just thinking last month that I hadn't seen you on here for some time. [/quote] I have been here off and on, mainly buying stuff! [quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1394279080' post='2389792'] For laptops, there's lots of good things in all budgets. I've got an HP G62 which has the fan in the bottom corner & is prone to clogging up & overheating. To get to it, you have to take the entire laptop apart & it's underneath everything (literally). It takes about 3-4 hours with a map & tools. [/quote] Toshiba did this too (although it looks like they've changed their design now), they used to put their main fan right where it would be covered my someone's right knee. I got given one for repair and as I have a glass lounge table I couldn't reproduce the fault, took me ages to realise what was going on! One of the things I like about AMDs new low clocked APUs is that at their normal clock they are fanless, even in turbo mode they are cold to the touch.

I picked up a little HP Touchsmart 11 for £290 delivered, it's an 11" Windows 8 ultraportable with a nice touchscreen and a low clocked quad core CPU with decent integrated graphics. Does everything I need to as well as some light gaming (PS3 era), the best thing is that even under load it runs completely cold. If you want to spend a bit more you can get a nice full size laptop with a modern i5 (runs cooler) and dedicated Nvidia GPU for under £500 these days. Personally I wouldn't bother with a Chromebook, they offer far less functionality than a netbook and sooner or later you'll need to do something simple and it will come up short. Btw if you get WIndows 8 you'll need this: http://www.classicshell.net/

Just started using the Schaller knockoffs on eBay, £2 a set: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141121590871?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 Seem to be very similar to Schaller ones and available in the usual 3 colours. If you fit Schaller types you'll need a hole punch, guide here: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/70420-schaller-strap-locks-and-how-to-fit-them-properly/page__p__681912__hl__straplock%20guide__fromsearch__1#entry681912

http://guitarz.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/your-guitars-andys-pew-bass-andys-done.html Winner.

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1393332695' post='2378778'] Awesome. [/quote] Make a goat head bass out of a church pew! And then stick a Fender decal on it and stamp it with a '68 serial number...

[quote name='Jazzjames' timestamp='1393331124' post='2378745'] 5'48'' [media]http://youtu.be/xXhhkwG6NTs[/media] [/quote] His opinion is no more valid than anyone's really, perhaps even less so as he has financial (and emotional) investment in old bolted together basses. The thing is that this whole "vintage sounds better" debate is a testable claim - you can easily transplant parts from Fenders and do double blind tests to find out exactly what differences there are (or maybe aren't), in fact if there are any differences you could switch parts around and find out exactly what was causing them. Nobody seems to want to do this though, perhaps the Talkbass tonewood test has made them a bit shy? Probably easier to just keep on prattling about vibrations and resonation on YT videos than actually find out if you're talking bollocks or not. Personally I think there actually is a difference, but not due to some magical harmonic musical relationship developed between two pieces of wood over the last 60 years. The pickups will sound a little different, stick them in a slab of wood, bolt a neck on and I bet nobody would be able to tell. Actually, surely an old reclaimed piece of wood from an 1800s church pew would have more vintage mojo than anything those young upstarts at Fender have produced? All those years of choir singing and repetetive chanting will still resonating through the grain don't you know.........

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRKFb8g_QbM[/media] Low action and some sort of dampening device before the first fret.

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1392930089' post='2374457'] Yeah well it is said he does likes them young..... guitars I mean. [/quote] [quote name='discreet' timestamp='1392931032' post='2374486'] Plenty of YouTube footage featuring him giving them a damn good thrashing, and so on and so forth. [/quote] All in the name of research!

Acoustic instruments will differ as they age though, that is without question as they are reliant on the properties of the wood to produce sound. A Fender plank with a neck bolted on and a pickup wired in? Not so much.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1392911306' post='2374097'] Thanks, Steve. Presumably the 'R' model is a precursor to the 'L', then? Though [size=4]I see that neither cab features on Jorg's website any more. [/size][size=4]What I do know so far from just playing it at home is that it's pumping out a lot of SPL for such a small box...[/size] [/quote] Yeah the R has normal ceramic magnet drivers, it's still quite light and I can lift it with one hand. Tbh it only seems to have gotten heavier since I bought a featherlight mini cab for rehearsals and home use. It's all relative I suppose!

Still using my old 1212r, it's a huge sounding cab. I eq the excess mids out on my LMII and boost the bass a little (never past 1 o'clock), wind in the tweeter just a tad and it's spot on, have never really wanted for anything else apart from an EAD212. Would someday like to A/B it with the neo L version as although the cab sounds as good as the day I bought it 6 years ago it doess seem to have gotten heavier! Congrats on yours though, that's a great price for some quality kit.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1392907553' post='2374030'] In the 70s no one cared less about a bass made in 1960 and most musicians if they could afford it would have bought a brand new shiny 1970s one. All those vintage basses and guitars were left for the poorer musicians and the roadworn ones were placed at the back of the shop or refinished so they could sell them. Where did this mania of 'old is gold' come from? [/quote] +1 Tbh I find the fixation on particular periods of music and the instruments associated with them incredibly boring, I like a nice Jazz bass but the obsession with "vintage" Fender styles is a little weird to me. There's tons of cool basses out there in all different shapes and sizes yet if you have a knackered old plank with a fag burn on the headstock that looks like it's had a tub of paint stripper thrown at it and dropped down a flight of stairs then you get immediate kudos. Still, makes all those unfashionable 80s and 90s basses a little cheaper for everyone else!

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1392857272' post='2373677'] The whole 'old Fenders sound better' thing was more of a reaction to the takeover of the business by CBS than anything else - big corporations just weren't cool. I can remember people stating that '70's strats are sh*t', but 40 years on and people are raving over those same strats. Interestingly, it seems that the majority of people who can 'hear the difference' between an aged Fender and a new one are those who have just spent £14K on an old one... difference or self justification? Not an easy one to answer without p*ss*ng people off. [/quote] That's basically it. It would be interesting to do a similar test to this only with a current MIA Fender and a vintage one, just swapping out the electronics: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/scrap-lumber-bass-vs-alder-bass-can-you-tell-difference-743932/ I think the results would be very telling. Mind you then all the guys who get chubbys over vintage basses would say it isn't a fair test as part of the unique tone is in the 50+ year old lumps of solder..... I also wonder how many of the owners of vintage Fenders who extol their virtues are actually playing fakes. Placebos are indeed funny things!

The detail work is great but I think the back looks way too plain, looks like he's also used a cheapy neck off a VIntage or Aria or something.Still looks cool though, not sure I'd cough up £1.4k for it mind. The pickup placement puzzled me too, I quite like a MM about 2cm from the bridge but that looks almost touching. Wouldn't mind hearing it though.

I don't mind the headstocks, although they make it look like a cash in on the old Japanese ones which I don't like as the later IGBs are good basses in their own right, I really like the more modern styling. It's just that horrible faded red colour - eurgh! There's also a more tasteful dark blue one on there as of today too, offers around £90 so still a good price. Could get a brace of early Korean Integras for not much over a ton!

Dunno if this has been mentioned but I was reminded of this build when I spotted this bass on eBay: [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bass-guitarCustom-Hand-built-Horned-Hell-by-Robin-Jupp-of-Deadlight-Designs-/301101191864"]http://www.ebay.co.u...s-/301101191864[/url] Time to cash in Rich!

Spotted this: http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/aria-pro-ii-bass-action-needs-some-attention-good-strings/1048870220#photo-content Looks like a nice cheapy, think this is an early 90s Korean Aria (may be wrong) so should be a good bass for £50 and would have scored it myself it it weren't for the colour (I hate red basses).

Due to most pubs having an extra hour (or more) of serving time landlords usually ask us to do 9:30 - 10:15 and then 11pm - 12am. Suits us fine, punters seem to stay until the end and the bar is always busy right up until closing time. One recent gig we played we asked the landlord what time he closed and when he wanted us to finish, his reply was "when I feel like it and as late as you want". Seems ok to me, plenty of time for a few jars and a bit of socialising (not that bass players should be doing that last one mind).

A less well dressed version sold for a snip recently: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/aria-pro-2-bass-guitar-/350995653524?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item51b8f8a394&nma=true&si=l5Znottrv8vvdyygOQi4mlaxbLQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

The only bit that confused me was she mentioned the hot wire from the pickup as being grey (which it is), then said connect the capacitor from the 9v feed onto a white wire. I assume she actually means the grey one coming from the pickup. Still not sure what the actual pickup assembly is in one of these, some people say it's a piezo but Soloette say it's a dual mic. Suppose they should know as it's their pickup! Tbh I just really want this bass to be up and running as it's a great little thing.

Also if I was wiring this as in mono rather than stereo would I need different a value resistor and capacitor? Am I right in thinking she means wire the resistor to draw power from the 9v + and then connect this to the hot wire of the pickup, then solder a capacitor to this connection and wire that to the input?

Just had an email from the very helpful Soloette (who Aria licensed the design of the bass and pickup from) and she said the following: [i]"[font="Arial"][size="2"]I apologize for the delayed response. We don't think this preamp will work as is since it doesn't have power going to the pickup. P[/size][/font][font="Arial"][size="2"]ower has to come to the pickup from the 9v battery. You can use 10k resistors from the 9v positive side of the battery to each microphone in the pickup. The gray wires are coming from the microphones in the pickup. Unsolder the white wire from the preamp first. Now that's it's sticking up, you will add the 10k resistor coming from the 9v+. Then add to the same junction a .01uF capacitor leading back to the input of the preamp. T[/size][/font][font="Arial"][size="2"]his will power the microphones. Do you understand? Let me know if you need more details or take this email to a tech for help. "[/size][/font][/i] So the pickup actually needs powering directly before hitting the preamp? Like I said I'm rather clueless with stuff like this so if anyone could explain it in kiddy terms that would be great. Gotta say Soloette have been very helpful while I've been trying to sort this, I messaged them a while ago and they were really god even though they didn't make the bass. Class company I think.

A Markbass with the Compressore, a tuner and a mute switch would get a sale from me straight away.

In fact I have a small mixer I don't use any more as I replaced with an even smaller USB powered one, I got it given to me off here (cheers ahpook!) so I can send it to you for the cost of postage if you like. One of these: It has the power supply and a cloth bag, you'll need a cable to plug your mp3 or whatever in.