Beer of the Bass

The neck looks on the narrow side for a five string. Has it been converted from a four? I'm sure I've seen that red and black binding before on a black finished bass, but I can't remember what it was...

Hypothetically, if I borrowed the steel mesh from the front of my speaker cabinet and used it to support food on top of my barbecue, would it be both a grille and a grill?

I'm not sure how close the single coil sized humbuckers get to the real thing - they'll certainly be thicker and louder though. If you do rout for a full size humbucker or P90 at the bridge, you could always use a new scratchplate and retain the original one so that it could be put back easily if he wants to go back to the classic strat setup later. No-one would see the extra routing under a pickguard anyway!

[quote name='eddiehoffmann' timestamp='1385126957' post='2284752'] Unfortunately I have to agree with you regarding the Status strings. I used to absolutely love their strings, specially the halfwounds, but the last couple of sets I bought seem a bit dead from the beginning. Even the roundwounds. Come one Status! Up your game!!! [/quote] Aww, don't tell me that while I'm waiting for mine to arrive!

I have some Status half rounds on order, but they're out of stock at the minute. When they do come back in, I'll see how I get on with those.

I think he's trying to divide opinions here. He's ditching the more produced sound he used to have and going for something more raw that sounds almost hastily flung together. You could argue that that makes it less bland and boring than some of his other singles. It doesn't do anything for me, but there will be listeners out there who get a kick out of that.

Are you going with some sort of magnetic pickup on this? A piezo might be sort of "interesting" sounding with the roundwounds.

How long do you give it?

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1384900473' post='2282199'] Absolutely not! I would never let anyone wearing a tea cosy on their head join any band I was a member of. Man up or grow some hair. [/quote] I have a friend who wore an actual tea cosy as a hat for several years, complete with the word "teapot" stitched into it. This was usually accompanied by massive bell bottoms and lots of brightly coloured fake fur. If she'd been a musician, she would have looked great in a band, provided the band sounded something like Gong circa 1973!

The other danger is that the 1x15" is likely to handle less power (excursion limited) than the 6x10", but is also likely to be less efficient. So if you reach levels of power that could fart out and damage the 1x15", you may not notice as it will be drowned out by the louder 6x10". If you try it, put the 1x15" on top so you can hear it if it protests! Though with a 200 watt amp, you may be OK.

They would sell very well indeed, and if they used some of the better Korean factories they could be excellent instruments. It's not going to happen under the current ownership and management of the company, however. That's just not their business model.

I don't own one, and given my current financial situation I'm unlikely to in the next few years, but my first bass was one of the similarly styled Ibanezes mentioned in the other concurrent thread - it was a very close copy in many respects and I miss that bass! I may be one of the few people who actively likes the narrow string spacing and minimal taper to the neck, but I did find the bridge annoying as I like to palm mute. Mine had already had the bridge pickup surround replaced with a flat metal ring, but I suspect that would annoy me too. But with a pickup bezel and Hipshot bridge, I think I'd be very happy with one.

Mojo in the States have them, with no holes but the usual ears. Their minimum order and shipping charges make them a pain in the bum when ordering small items from the UK though. [url="http://www.mojotone.com/guitar-parts/pickup-covers-bass/Mojotone-Music-Man-Bass-Pickup-Cover-Black-NO-HOLES-5-String#.UodsYeIvY98"]http://www.mojotone.com/guitar-parts/pickup-covers-bass/Mojotone-Music-Man-Bass-Pickup-Cover-Black-NO-HOLES-5-String#.UodsYeIvY98[/url]

Rather than having to shape wooden ones, I made bumpers for my bass out of short lengths of very thick leather strap (the sort of thing used in saddlery) attached with contact adhesive. I realise this might mark the finish on the bass if they are ever removed, but the finish on my bass is a bit of a disaster anyway and I consider it more important to protect the wooden edges. I used a dark brown leather so they're not too obvious looking.

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1384098257' post='2272701'] Yep I agree (I've used them myself) but I refer you to BRX's post above. This is a reasonable process to recreate what a vintage instrument sounds like now.... but what made them sound vintage when they were new? I'm still gonna say it's in the fingers. [/quote] Yes, I'd agree with you there. The artists we still listen to from the 60s sound great playing 50s/60s Fenders and Gibsons, but I'm sure at the time there would have been a whole load of also-rans playing the same instruments and sounding like nothing special.

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1384086829' post='2272537'] So to nail the vintage sound we just need to use weaker magnets. Seems a far more pragmatic approach than spending thousands. [/quote] A few of the pickup companies have tried this approach already, and it can indeed make for a slightly mellower "old sounding" guitar. I had a guitar for a while with Seymour Duncan Alnico II pickups. Alnico II even when new is weaker than the standard alnico V magnets, approximating an older partly demagnetised pickup.

I had a bass with a non-removable spike, but found that if I removed the whole endpin assembly I could pull out the little retaining pin that prevented me from taking the spike out.

I use one of these, primarily because it was cheaper than getting an Onyx wheel from the states. [url="http://www.mehr-als-werkzeug.de/product/433070/Bass-Wheel-Shaft-Diameter-8-mm.htm"]http://www.mehr-als-werkzeug.de/product/433070/Bass-Wheel-Shaft-Diameter-8-mm.htm[/url] It's good for covering some distance when walking, but I usually take it off if I'm entering a building or train as it makes the bass taller. The inflatable tyre is a good thing, as I tend to keep it quite soft to absorb shocks. Mine must have done a fair few miles by now as I use it to get around Edinburgh when busking in the summer.

I also did an Oxjam gig a few weeks ago where the promised bass amp didn't materialise! It seems to be endemic to that sort of gig. Fortunately, I was playing guitar for that one, and our bassist had his Markbass combo in the car.

I was disappointed at the lack of Syd Barret era material in the miscellany. While I like a lot of the later stuff with Gilmour, the early whimsical stuff appeals to me more for whatever reason.

A friend of mine has one of the hybrid Stentor Student basses, and I feel like it's not bad for the price. He shares a flat with some old musical friends of mine, so I've played it a fair bit. His is about five years old and has held together so far. It doesn't have the volume or fullness of my old German bass, but I wouldn't expect it to. Stentor's 3/4 size seems to be at the small end of 3/4 though - I'm about 6'1" and I can't get the spike high enough on my friend's bass.

Looking at the Talkbass thread, it looks like SGD had one hell of a business model, where the cashflow from new orders placed is used to buy materials to build the previous round of backlogged orders. That seems precarious to say the least. I don't know much about running a small manufacturing business, but surely that's not normal? It's shame in a way, as Mr Schwab comes across as a nice, helpful guy online in non-business situations (for example, in the Ampage pickup makers forum) but seems not to have managed the business side too well.

[quote name='henrywillard' timestamp='1383874111' post='2270389'] Although still not perfect, the Primavera rockabilly basses are in the same sort of price-range and I always found the build quality to be far better than the Stentor. Well worth checking out as an alternative. Hope that helps! [/quote] I had one of the blonde Primavera basses and was not mightily impressed with the build quality. Though this was around 10 years ago and I suppose they might have improved since then.

Right now my absolute favourite fretless track is this: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIgzP4Rj0Ns[/media] The rest of the album is great too, if you get on with the whole space rock gnomes & pixies shtick. I have to presume that Francois Moze's approach to fretless playing was entirely original, as a French bassist in the early 70s would be unlikely to have heard Jaco Pastorious. Also (on a very different tack), if he doesn't mind being plugged, I've got to mention Kev Hopper (Spoombung on BC). He doesn't really sound like anyone else on fretless bass!