Beer of the Bass

Several times now I've seen people reselling Deko instruments and necks (not on basschat), describing the stamp marks as small dents but failing to mention that they were sold as unplayable seconds for less than the price the resellers are asking. Is anyone else a bit uncomfortable with that?

Schecter something-or-other? I don't know the model name, but a friend has one the same shape as this.

If the volume of the box does decrease, that would potentially make the design more attractive to me, not so much for portability (as we've finally sorted out a decent sized car) but for easy stowing in my pokey little house! Right now I'm not doing many gigs outside of very small acoustic things, but if any louder projects get off the ground I'll probably look into one of these. Regarding the midrange response, I recently put together a little cab for practice, low volume jazz and acoustic gigs using a Faital 10FE200/4. It's a medium-duty driver at best but the midrange response is quite similar to the SM212 with a gentle rise from just below 1k without pronounced peaks and top end extending to somewhere around 4-5k. As it turns out, I really enjoy that voicing for bass guitar, it seems clear and open but not harsh even when adding some upper mid with EQ.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1440086596' post='2848197'] At the othe end of the spectrum, 50kHz response is useless. Not only can you not hear above 18khz or so, there's nothing to be gained from an electric bass cab that goes above 8kHz except hiss. [/quote] Yes, I've wondered about that with regard to the signal most magnetic pickups produce. I was reading Erno Zwaan's book (the Q-tuners guy), and it would appear that most high impedance pickups start to roll off above their resonant peak, which is much lower than 18KHz. So presumably anything going on up there is likely to be either distortion artifacts or noise. Do we really want to hear that?

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1439994258' post='2847365'] [i]Some[/i] people will tell you that having a second pickup will affect the tone, even if that pickup is totally disconnected electronically, because the magnetic field from it will affect the vibration of the strings. Whether or not you think that that would make any meaningful difference is probably best decided by an angry four hundred page thread. [/quote] I think the main difference would come from having a second volume control in circuit. If you use 250K pots wired up like a Jazz and solo the P-pickup, it will see a load of 125K ohms from the pots, rather than the 250K it would see on a single pickup bass. The difference would be fairly subtle (it may lose some brightness) and could be got around by using higher value pots or a toggle switch.

Rotosound flats are quite textured feeling for flatwounds, maybe not quite in round territory but I'd say they don't really have that polished, slippery feel that most flats do. I found this picture on a czech bass forum which illustrates this quite well:

[quote name='JellyKnees' timestamp='1439982256' post='2847198'] Do they owe us a living? [/quote] 'Course they do!

How much is the fish? How much is the fish? How much is the chips? Does the fish have chips?

It's odd that this is happening repeatedly. Are you using any sort of preamp with the double bass? I don't know whether this could be the cause of your problem, but some piezo pickups have a lot of sub-sonic output which can be hard on amps and speakers and using a preamp with a highpass filter built in can clean this up.

Glad I didn't buy one then! I wonder if I could make my bit of foam a bit more user-friendly by attaching it to a stiff backing with felt underneath, so it's a bit quicker to slide into place.

I would pay the extra for one of the European models. While I've not played the Thomann basses, I gather that those are made by Strunal, whose basses have been quite decent whenever I've encountered one.

[quote name='kodiakblair' timestamp='1439710380' post='2845079'] It always says " £ price is a guideline " below the Euro price. This no doubt is to cover the cache issue Mornats mentioned. Exchange rates change by the minute. [/quote] The Euro price was changing too, so it doesn't look like an exchange rate issue.

I think the lack of left-handed violin family instruments is down to attitudes in orchestras more than any other factor. Rightly or wrongly, I'm told that there is a perception that one left-handed violinist/cellist/bassist would stick out visually and potentially mess up their seating plan. In less formalised musical contexts these things are less of an issue, though I do know a right handed bassist who re-learned it left handed for a Beatles tribute!

Yes, the price was different again when I added things to the basket. I'm not sure what's going on there - I guess their product range must be large enough that keeping the website consistent and up to date becomes difficult. Still, I had a 20 Euro voucher for reviewing some strings and a gigbag from my last order, so I was still quite happy with the final price.

Now if they would just do a 100 watter for just a little less in a slightly smaller box, that would be very appealing indeed.

TBH I can only think of a couple of occasions where a GK MB200 has seemed underpowered for me, so my main priorities in choosing an amp would be whether it was solidly built, dependable and had a pleasing voicing with the EQ centres in useful places.

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1439494191' post='2843418'] I had a Warmoth neck with CFR's and it was as solid and as stable as could be with no dead spots. My Spector has them too and it's the same story. Think what you like, but I think they're a boon. [/quote] My Fender with the "Posiflex" rods had the classic Fender dead spot on the G-string at the 7th fret, so I wouldn't say that they rule out the possibility of dead spots entirely. Although I gather that the Fender rods are an unusual design intended to be more flexible in the middle, which might not help with that particular spot as much as a simple carbon fibre rod. I wonder if Fender found that too much stiffening changed the tone away from what people expected of a Fender?

[quote name='scojack' timestamp='1439479637' post='2843253'] Interesting thoughts from everyone, not everyone seems convinced on how effective these really are...i always kinda suspected they were a load of bullsh1ttery myself especially for a 5'er .... but if XXXXX does it so should I cause in MUST be better etc etc etc Ian [/quote] They are a bit stiffer than the same section of maple would be and don't add much weight, but I guess there is more than one way of acheiving a stiff neck, especially if you take a more modern approach to building necks (laminates, alternative woods etc). I will probably use them in my next build which I'll be starting soon, simply because I can't find a compelling reason not to! Fender are using them in most of their USA 4-strings now and I couldn't detect any difference in tone on the Jazz I owned, so they could either be doing it as a selling point or in the hope of reducing their warranty returns.

I used some in a 5-string neck last year, they were 6mm square solid rods from these guys: [url="http://robotbirds.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=292_123_512"]http://robotbirds.co...ath=292_123_512[/url] I don't know whether they were entirely necessary, but I was building this neck as a replacement for one which was stuck with too much relief beyond the scope of truss rod adjustment, so I think I really used them for reassurance. I chose 6mm square out of convenience, as it meant I could use the same router bit as I used for the truss rod channel. Also, some people suggest that a stiff neck makes for a good B-string and as I wanted my neck to look like a Fender/Musicman style rather than a multi-piece laminate it seemed like a simple way of adding a little extra stiffness.

Sean, if you're feeling confident in your product might be a good idea to offer one to Bass Gear magazine for review and testing, as they regularly publish bench test results alongside their reviews. While their testing is probably not done to certified standards, they are at least consistent and transparent about their process and incorporate burst testing. It would allow prospective buyers to compare the output to other popular amps on a more level playing field and I for one would be quite interested in seeing that. [url="http://www.bassgearmag.com/"]http://www.bassgearmag.com/[/url]

I've heard of people making a single-use screw extractor by notching the end of a piece of thin metal tubing (the hobby shop sort) with a hacksaw blade, using it in a hand drill and taking out just enough wood around the screw to get a grip on the end.

I've used both D'Addario Chromes and Sadowsky Black Label flatwound B-strings and liked them (I've stuck with the Sadowskys). Both are tight and pleasant sounding in the lower range, and I would say it's actually higher up the neck that the sound becomes a bit of an acquired taste. From about the 9th fret upwards the sound gets a lot of thump to it and is a bit less clear in a way that reminds me of how a flatwound E sounds on certain short-scale basses. Depending on your tastes this could actually be a useful extra tonal option on those notes. The only B-string I could not live with at all was on D'Addario black nylon tapewounds, and I ended up using a roundwound DR Black Beauty B-string with those.

I'm looking at some parts on the Thomann website and noticing something odd about their pricing. The prices shown in the list view are different from the prices when I click on individual items. For example; [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/misc_bass_tuning_machines.html"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/misc_bass_tuning_machines.html[/url] Warwick Bass Chrome Tuner Left is 5.90 Euro or £4.18. [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/warwick_bass_tuner_machine_chrome_left.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/warwick_bass_tuner_machine_chrome_left.htm [/url]The same part is now 8.50 Euro or £6.00. It can't be a conversion issue as the Euro prices are different too. Has anyone else come across this? I've no idea which price is the one I'd end up paying! A couple of other items are doing it too, some changing upwards and some downwards when viewing the individual item.

OK, maybe the labelling of power consumption isn't as standardised as I'd thought!

Playing devil's advocate for a moment, I think I'd prefer to hear a musician dabbling on a second instrument in a genre they understand and appreciate than an accomplished instrumentalist playing a genre they don't care for just for the paycheck. So a "bored guitarist" who had a feel for the blues-rock thing and decided to try their hand at the bass might well do a decent job even if there was a bit of a learning curve.