MoonBassAlpha

2 hours ago, stewblack said:

This isn't, technically speaking, a reliced bass. It's a chunk of old wood from a barn (or something like that anyway) so it's grown old naturally 

I like the consciously utilitarian control plate. The whole hangs together really well. 

Only just seen this thread. I did wonder if you were heading in this direction: 

https://eastwoodcustoms.com/projects/backlund-100-bass/

Another tip to get good contact in the neck pocket is to slightly loosen the neck screws when strung up to tension. The string tension will pull the neck tightly into the body, then jus tighten the screws again and retune.

Needless to say, you don't need to loosen the neck screws very much at all!

Have you concealed the strap buttons?

@BigRedX @Bassassin are these things ridiculously heavy? 

My first bass was a Melody Grabber copy. Was actually pretty good,  though I recall that the sliding pickup was quite microphonic. Probably nothing that a good wax potting wouldn't fix though. The body did look more like a pine kitchen table than any other wood too.

On 01/12/2020 at 21:17, TheLowDown said:

Because there's a market for them. They have quite a unique tone that people like, and they're really easy to handle and play, less chance of neck dive, generally lighter. There's not much not to like.

I can't agree with the neck dive comment as a generalisation . The 2 shorties I've played recently,  a Squier jag ss and my Mustang PJ  both head south. With a suede strap the Mustang is just about horizontal but the Jaguar wasn't. 

Ooh, yeah, Iforgot about the Hofner, how's it coming along? 

I'm kinda surprised you don't see a kind of light waveguide up the edge of a fingerboard. One led at one end and notches or small conical indentation at the marker positions. I  could picture a gentle glow along the fingerboard edge with small points of light. 

Thanks! I wasn't always a big fan, but had a lot of time for In the Village of the Apple Sun, and got to play Guru 7 live, which was nice!

On 28/12/2020 at 12:06, Grahambythesea said:

I found flats on my Hofner too dead. Switched to GHS Brite Flats and got a bit of zing, can always get the thump sound by adjusting the amp tone, you can’t of course really adjust tone on a Hofner as there are no tone controls just the pickup switches.

You might want to try half rounds. I  got some from Status on my new Mustang and they are brighter than flats with almost the same feel. Not expensive either. 

7 hours ago, rushbo said:

He’s consistently ace. There’s some fantastic stuff on this record. 

Cool, he's still quite a niche artist and not all that well known over here. I was lucky enough to play as part of his backing band in UK gigs, and was on half of his previous album, Kenny vs Thrust (in the band "Thrust", which is really my 3-piece, Charms Against the Evil Eye)

I'm still thinking pickup height too. If it is, this will probably sound worse if you fret the low strings high up the neck. 

Haven't heard all of this yet, but Anton Barbeau's Manbird is good, so far! It's a double album too, didn't think that was a thing any more!

Disclaimer: I'm part of the small choir doing backing vocals on the track Space Force!

P.S. good to see Spygenius getting a mention earlier,  they're lovely folks.

Or the Parker one? Not a huge surprise, if it's not here 6 pages in....

Just out of curiosity, how much weight do those Hipshot tuners save over the regular Fender ones?

I found the Vox bass amplug and earbuds more than adequate for hearing yourself when practicing. There's input from your phone for playing along and even 3 built in drum patterns 

Nice one Mr. D! 

Voted. Some interesting choices this year,  mostly more left-field than I expected, ;which is great!

Might be worth getting it re wound. Shouldn't cost too much, and they are great sounding pickups! 

Dan Armstrong bass too, and that Gibson one, to a lesser extent.

Thanks chaps, kinda what I thought initially, but then had a moment of doubt. I just hate keeping guitars in a case as it's yet another barrier to picking up and playing, so I guess it's the price you pay with older instruments.

Have you tried bypassing the preamp section,  plugging straight into the effects return? I'm thinking the valvein the preamp is a likely candidate.  Did your tech try swapping it out? 

My 74 SG Special which was a lovely deep red wine colour in its youth is now entirely brown. Is this because the clear lacquer has turned yellow, or the stain itself has faded?

Any news @Baloney Balderdash on this problem? I'm intrigued to find out what it was.