wrinkleygit

still looking for the holy grail fretless 5 & considering de fretting my spare bass which is described above, however the presence of a zero fret close to the headless string retainer may prevent getting a decent action/ set up, anyone ever come across a factory produced fretless version of one of these or anyone else gone down the same route, mike b.

eddie bought my old warwick fna, top man to deal with good communicator, turned up on time & was a great guy to deal with, mike b.

just bought an amp from alex, transaction couldn't have been easier, top bloke to deal with, mike b.

if your close to mid devon you're welcome to try out my warwick fna 5 (german built) well within the budget, from all the headed basses I have owned I think warwicks are my personal favourites, mike b

That was the lovely Rita or the bass chat bike as was sometimes known, fixed the wiring & she was my main bass untilI I moved on to 5 strings & went headless, sold on here & last I heard had gone back to warwickhunt, great bass, merry christmas, mike b.

in my younger fitter guitar playing days, fender twins were always my amp of choice, even the frowned upon red knobbed twin had a special place in my heart, always used this on the low power setting & it sang like a bird, these don't fetch the high prices of other versions so buy one now before people wake up to how good they really were. These days I use a roland cube 30x on the black face setting it's about the only thing I can lift with one hand & carry to the car without falling over !!!!! merry christmas , mike b.

For any old wrinkleys like me out there or anyone having tendon or carpel tunnel problems struggling to play there old acoustic guitars, I have just discovered Newtone Strings Heritage Series, they string up at less tension when tuned to pitch,( they publish the poundage figures on there website) I have just restrung my old resonator with a set of 13's & the difference between the old national set & the newtones is a big improvement in playability, Newtone should also be commended on their customer service & email response, putting many of the "name" brands to shame, the last email I had ended with the words " let us know if there is anything special you need & we will make a set for you", definitely a small UK company that deserves our support, mike b.

Hi bilbo, did you ever finish writing your jazz standards book, mike b

Couple of tunes I play have 16 bars with no chord change on the sheet, miles davis , so what & milestones,, look at playing 2 x 4 bar phrases or 4 x 2bar walks as a suggestion, depends on the number you are playing, listen to what else is going on, remember sometimes less is more & it can be good to leave space for other instruments, check out scott devines lessons as I think he may have covered something like this, mike b.

think you have misread my post you need to check the relief at the mid point between the first fret & the point where the neck joins the body, on most instruments this would be around the 7-9th fret

As the truss rod runs for more or less the length of the fretboard, this would be it's effective working length, in reality any movement the truss rod will make will occur between the point that the neck joins the body & the first fret position,check the neck relief by fretting at 1st & wherever neck joins the body,look at gap between top of fret & underside of string at mid point & decide how low or high you want your playing action, for realy low, gap should be the thickness of a business card but for correct playing action there always needs to be a gap, this method has worked for me for over 40 years on guitars & basses, mike b.

I moved on to 5 strings after joining up with a jazz quartet, I found the low 5th string ideal for low d's against the g (3rd fret 4th string) also useful to have a low e flat against the a flat on the 4th string. Also I have hand & wrist problems & find as we play a fair bit in f I use 6fret on low b string to give my fingers less of a stretch. Headless basses have always been a favourite of mine (these are usualy 34" scale) Sei's are light as a feather but not cheap, steinberger spirit's are excellent value if you can find a 5 string, the downside of the steiny is the way they hang on a strap, they need a bracket fabricated to put the top strap button somewhere over the 12-14th fret, not difficult to sort out & that improves playability no end. If you fancy something headed I have a warwick fna 5'er going spare as I really don't need 3 basses any more. Moving from 4 - 5strings is not that difficult, initially I gigged my Sei as a four string & gradually added in notes from the 5th string, now I have become so reliant on those low notes & options of other playing positions I could never go back to 4, give it a go, all the best, mike b.