ForbiddenWytch

I messaged the "Real Magic Queen Tribute" page as I can clearly see him in the photos but either he's used a fake name with the band or he's the admin on the page because this was the reply.

Has anyone on here sent a message to "Real Magic Queen Tribute" about their bass player?

5 minutes ago, Ricky 4000 said:

This makes sense. It didn't sound likely that he'd go to the trouble and expense of sending parcels to himself... so he simply shows his victim tracking details of a random parcel he's received / receiving... deceitful, not very difficult, and not very clever.

Although I (thankfully) don't have a dog in this fight -- thanks for posting up your experience. 👍

 

Nail on the head. Royal Mail confirmed to me that that particular tracking number I'd been given was for a parcel he was receiving. My name and address had never been on it. Caught him out when I used their post code checker so I got straight on the phone. Recorded the call, showed him the video recoding and he said "Yeah, I had it re-routed so it wouldn't go to you" blah blah blah. Lies and more lies. He's thick as pig slew.

5 minutes ago, ped said:

Title updated for max visibility. We’re putting together a post to pin at the start with all the key facts and names of those scammed. 

Well done Ped, that’s a great idea! I’d love to see his face when he finds it 😂😂

20 hours ago, Paddy515 said:

Could this be the fellow's new Fbk profile page.

https://www.facebook.com/mick.mason.583

20 hours ago, Paddy515 said:

Could this be the fellow's new Fbk profile page.

https://www.facebook.com/mick.mason.583

Only has one friend - shame!!!

You’re right, that’s him! Well done on finding it.

44 minutes ago, prowla said:

Well, well; that confirms a number of things. 
I don’t suppose that he’s twigged that the story that you should trust him because he took the fall for the friend means that a. he lied in court (ie. committed perjury) and b. perverted the course of justice (by allowing the real perpetrator to go free). 
Your info could come in handy, if needed. 
Oh, and impersonating a solicitor is an offence too. 

Please do use it all you want. I can provide screen shots and screen recordings of the entire conversation for you.

Any one who’d like any details, I am happy to provide evidence and back up.

I’ve been scammed by Mick Mason recently. Took 3 weeks to get my money back after a barrage of insults and threats from him. Throughout this, I only ever called him a liar, scammer and nut job after the threats, these are more details of the entire episode.

-he told me his daughter posted it 2nd class then gave me a 48hour tracking number for a parcel he was receiving.

-When i raised the subject of his holiday home scam, he told me he did it to cover for a friend with cancer.
-when I provided proof of a recorded phone call with Royal Mail where I’d had it confirmed that the tracking number I’d be given was never scheduled to come to my address, he told me he’d had the parcel re-routed to him as he was scared I would “damage the pedal and try to claim refund”. Again, Royal Mail confirmed he never had it rerouted.

-claimed “Andy Sneap from Judas Priest and Nathan from Inglorious would back him up for not being a liar”

-told me he was starting a slander case against me for calling him a liar, gave me fake screen shots of texts from his solicitor claiming he was “going to clean me out”

-told me he’d give me £50 extra back if I came to his door to collect my money instead. You know which tone that was said in

-after lying to Pablo Rodriguez about when he would refund me, he told me I’d get my money “when he was ready”.

-got called all the names under the sun and he demanded an apology from me for calling him a liar

-threatened to turn up at my door for a “chat” and told me that “the music industry is a small world and I look forward to bumping in to you so we can have a little chat about what you’ve said about me”... lovely.

I believe Pablo Rodriguez is on this forum and it was thanks to him that I eventually got my money back after I raised the subject with him and Mick was then banned from a lot of Facebook groups thanks to the efforts of a Pablo. 

I’ve kept a full screen recording of the entire Facebook conversation between him & myself so if anyone wants it for proof, they’re welcome to it.

There’s an open crime reference number with Leicestershire police that I opened about him. When I mentioned his name I got “oh yeah him” from the officer.

i haven’t read all 17 pages of replies on this thread so I do apologise if this has already been mentioned but again, Pablo deserves a lot of credit.

Hey everyone. 

I'm an idiot. Let me get that out there first.

I thought I could send one of the outputs of my Focusrite 18i20 directly to my pedals and re-amp my guitar and bass signal. That was until this weekend when I realised that's not how it works and that I'm an idiot because the 18i20 outputs are all Balanced which I completely looked over. Lovely clean DI signals recorded in with an amp sim for monitoring then I planned on reamping the guitars through pedals as I prefer that over VSTs. 

So, my question is... what's the cheapest balanced to unbalanced signal reamp box out there? I really don't have much cash spare atm (some sort of pandemic or some stinky poo going on) and because of the aforementioned fact that I'm an idiot, a simple "in and out" device would be great. Less I can fudge up, the better. Because I'm an idiot.

Thanks in advance!

32 minutes ago, itu said:

EMG has a P pickups in soapbar casings. Just check their pages.

I do agree with @Skybone
 that it might be feasible to check the eq. A HPF might also be in order to clear the sound and give more boost to the limited lower end.

Weak output is easily fixed with a simple booster. They are not limited to g-word players.

One of the first lines in the top post was "I've tried a lot of EMG pickups" and that I don't want active pickups thanks dude.

Weak pickups are a bigger problem to me than fixing it with pedals. I'd prefer the basses to sound as good as possible before having to do any pedal tweaking. A good recording can only start with a good signal.

8 hours ago, Skybone said:

Instead of spending on pickups, why not try "rethinking" your EQ?

The styles of music you describe tend to have a tendency to use the mid "scoop" style EQ, loads of bass, no mids, and loads of treble (which without the mids, tends to get lost, especially when combined with downtuned guitars using the same EQ).

Your issue is more that the guitars are EQ'd in a similar fashion, and you're all "competing" for sonic space. The addition of distortion and/or fuzz will also be robbing you of bottom end clout.

Try having a mid-heavy EQ, as this will enable your sound to cut through the wall of guitars. Try using less gain and more volume on your amp, and also turn the distortion / fuzz control down. If your distortion / fuzz pedal has a "mix" control, enabling you to mix your "wet" & "dry" signals, turn it so that you get more "dry" signal through.

What will be more effective in the mix is a mildly overdriven sound, rather than a full on distortion.

Hey man, the stock pickups are notoriously weak in these basses. Very low output and its considerably noticeable when up against the Nordstrand loaded bass.

Thanks for the tips on wet/dry, EQ etc but that’s all stuff I already know and apply to my pedal set up. I’ve run these pickups through EQ analysers and found them to be a lot weaker too. I’ve played these basses for 12 years as well so when comparing, I can notice a huge difference between them and it’s not a good difference.

Hello!

Im looking for recommendations on a set of pickups for one of my basses. Before I do, I’ve tried out a lot of different EMG bass pick ups in it and I’m really not an active pick up fan and I I have a passive preamp bypass on the volume push/pull so I’d rather no active pickups were recommended.

I mainly play metal and am in a death metal band but I also play a lot of doom / stoner rock stuff so I’d like recommendations on pickups that are articulate but really punchy with plenty of low end. A “precision” type coil configuration would be a big bonus but the pickup needs to be EMG40 / 5 string 4 inch soap bar size. The bass it’s self is a 4 string but the pick up cavities are routed for 5 string EMG 40 size cases. Dumb, I know but the basses feel amazing to play so I have 3 of them but want totally different pickups in each.

I have a set of Nordstrand Big Stacks in one of my basses and really like them but want something different in this bass so it sounds different to that. They will be getting used with an EMG BQC double stack on board preamp as well so I can do some tone shaping with that but I still want them to sound great in passive mode for if I’m using certain fuzz pedals or just want a passive sound.

The other reason I don’t want active pickups is because it’s got a jazz bass style series/parallel push/pull on the 2nd volume which would cause problems. 
I have a bass which is getting a set of Fishman Mike Inez Legacy pickups sometime so that covers the “active” sound for me.

Price wise, I’m not rich and there is a pandemic on so I’d say £200 a set would be the rough budget but consider that a flexible budget. Thanks in advance!

Picture below. Bass on the left getting the new pickups and the 5 string in the centre will be getting the Fishman Mike Inez set. Bass on the right has the Nordstrand Big Stacks & EMG BQC.

I have one of these and it's the best chorus I've ever used on bass (and I've used a few) GLWTS!

Arghhhhh why did they have to come available now! I've got a project on the go that these would complete but alas, COVID job cuts have left me skint. Good luck with the sale though. If I manage to shift some unused gear then I will be in contact.

Hi mate, do these come with the connector cables? 

Cheers

On 09/06/2020 at 07:51, AndyTravis said:

off for a refin 

Oooo which colour?

On 09/06/2020 at 15:53, simon88wilson said:

Knowing that you've got a big sentimental attachment would it be worth looking into getting a cheap bass body,  doing the routing adding the pickups to it, fitting the neck from the steve harris? Then trying it out for a bit. If you like the sound enough and think you'll use it, you can then route the steve harris and transfer everything back across?

 

The only reason i say, is the amount of times i've modded (irreversibly sometimes) and then played it just to realise it wasn't what i wanted out of it.

It is a good point and yeah, I’ve had a few of those “why have I done that” ones my self (like routing a Billy Sheehan inspired neck pick up to a passive Spector copy...).

Ill have a trawl of eBay in a bit as I have nothing to do, see if I can bag a body for £20 haha!

On 09/06/2020 at 09:32, robertg43 said:

Like I said before its your bass to do with But if it was me I would see how much its worth now to sell it & the either buy or put together a bass from parts etc to make it what you want . If its cheaper to keep bass & mod it then do that. If its cheaper to buy another bass or parts bass & do what you want in mods well then sell the Signature bass and do the latter part.  

A second hand SPB-3 or 4 would likely be £40-50 and having the routing done would be about the same. That’s what I’d say is the normal situation on it but as it is, I have a spare Precision bass pick up kicking around and a friend of mine does work carving/wood work professionally so providing he can return to work, I’ll be able to get him to do it and pay him what it costs.

On 29/05/2020 at 11:30, mattbass6 said:

Sell it to me, and use the money to go buy a 2nd hand Precision you can experiment on ✌

*** I know you don’t want to sell it, but still worth a try 😉 ***

If you’ve got a Dingwall NG-2 (4/5, doesn’t matter) you want to trade for it, I’d be hard pressed to say no 🤣🤣

On 04/06/2020 at 00:51, AndyTravis said:

I modify things - I’ve just done this to a Marcus Miller.

The pickup polepieces dig in my fingers (Causing blood blisters) and I like the pickups close to the strings.

these covers are £4 a set on eBay.

reversible modifications.

unlike what I’m going to do to my natural miller 😂

 

Great idea on changing the covers. That’s awful that you get blisters off the pole pieces.

that Miller is gorgeous, have always wanted one of those in the same blue as my above P Bass and a “Geddy” neck (maybe next bass...).

Out of interest, what are irreversible mod are you doing to the au natural one? 🤔🤔🤔

On 04/06/2020 at 05:23, Baloney Balderdash said:

Not at all.

To me it would be very much like asking if drawing a mustache with a marker on some famous rock star pictured on a fan poster would be a sacrilege. 

Most signature basses are massed produced products, not exactly works of art, or even just fine craftmanship, if you can make it one though I'd consider it an improvement, actually giving it a soul.

Same goes for by far most vintage basses really, though I guess in special certain cases with really rare basses, unique prototypes as an example, that has a historical significance it could be seen as defiling a historical artifact. 

With boutique basses I guess we are approaching sort of a grey zone for what is acceptable, the luthier definitely does deserve a great deal of credit and respect for his extraordinary crafmanship, still it wouldn't exactly be truly unique, but just a copy of a model he, or, even more likely, his boss invented, and in the end it is still your bass, and I wouldn't consider it an actual piece of true art, just a testament to someone who did a great job.

We are getting very close to sacrilegious proportions modding artfully handmade custom basses though, those should be considered actual works of true art in my opinion and not just fine craftmanship, and it would be showing the creator serious disrespect to mod it, if not even being a quite literal personal attack on them, after all he or she channeled some of their own soul into their creation, and as such has a spiritual link to it, unless of course the creator explicitly has expressed that they are fine with you modding it.   

Where I set the definite indisputable limit would be modifying a bass which belonged to an acclaimed artist before it got into your possession, at very least if it have had an actual significance to music history, that would be defiling a historical artifact, as well as showing disrespect to it's former owner, again they might actually have channeled some of their very own soul into this instrument. 

You know what, there’s nothing I can say to this because I totally agree with all of it. It echoes a lot of the replies in this thread so far but a lot of great added points too. 

On 04/06/2020 at 05:42, merello said:

You bought it,

You got it,

Sod it!

Just mod  it!

Special mention to this, I love a good poem to make a point.

On 04/06/2020 at 05:36, Geek99 said:

This is truth. From the owner’s perspective. I only disagree in that when the last dot and bound jazz remaining Pristine has been re-sprayed neon, then we will have Truly lost something. 

Not gonna lie, i’m a sucker for a neon green finish. Would love to see Leo’s #1 in neon pink 😂😂

1 hour ago, 4000 said:

You say it’s made of alder? FWIW, Steve actual bass was (surprisingly) made of maple. 

Yeah I read in an interview with Michael Kenney (steve’s tech) that they didn’t realise the body was maple until a chunk of the Control cavity fell out and had to be fixed which is why these basses were made of Alder and they switched to Maple for the West Ham Model. 

I don’t think these models are actually that close to Steve’s basses and I know he very rarely uses these particular ones

As a side note, the original blue with red mirror guard signature from 2001 was so far away from Steve’s spec that he never ever used them. Makes you wonder why he signed his name off against them?

Thanks again to everyone for your replies. Again still on just my phone so I can’t replied to each one but I’ll sum up some of the more frequent things here and I’m trying to keep answers brief.

* the cost of having a pickup routed is expensive...?

i know quite a few people who would be able to do it professionally and for a very reasonable price. Less than the cost of a set of pickups so the cost of the route isn’t a problem.

* Buying a new body and transferring the parts...?

I can see why this one has come up but simply, buying a new body isn’t an option. I absolutely love the blue sparkle finish which is why have this one. Other than that, finding a body in the colour I want and that’s made of a decent weight piece of Alder (to be the same as the Harris) that either doesn’t have pickguard screw holes already or has but matches up to the chrome pickguard *then* paying for the bridge pickup route and new pick up to install would put it past the price of what I could pay for a whole new “project” bass. 

* Why don’t you swap the pickups...?

I have done, I’ve had the SPB-1 (originally came with it), SPB-4 (Harris signature pickup), SPB-3 (wanted more grunt but they didn’t work for me in this), old Jackson J50 (had a set from a Charvel/Jackson 3B bass), EMG GZR and DiMarzio Model P... so yeah cool I’ve tried a few pickups. All of which I love on their own but I miss having a bridge pickup to blend in.

* Or try changing the electronics...?

This is one bass I refuse to put active electronics in but I have done other changes to the wiring like switching from 250k to 500k pots or more recently, switching the volume to a push/pull pot which bypasses the tone control in the down position (my preference and Harris has the tone removed from his bass) but pull it up and it engaged a Fender TBX pot which I installed in place of the regular tone. Now, I absolutely love the sound of the P bass but I keep wanting to blend in some bridge pick up for that bite!

So besides active electronics, not much more I can do. 

* A lot of people buy signature products purely based on the name / some people buy products because the spec is up their street...?

This applies on both fronts. Steve Harris is the reason I play bass, the reason I have a scarf of my favourite football team knitted around my strap, the reason i put my foot on the monitor etc etc but as well as that, I’ve always been a fan of the P bass sound, all my basses have had Badass II bridges on them, the sparkle blue finish on this bass is one of the most beautiful finishes I’ve seen (IMO) and apart from the lack of flexibility, I love everything about this bass. I support Leeds United, I’m not going to go buying the West Ham livery bass and be seen playing that on stage but this bass has done * a lot * of gigs and some important gigs too. 

* How do you know this is a sound you will like?

As mentioned in the OP: James LoMenzo & Marko Hietala who are two of my favourite bassists, use basses with the P/reverse P configuration and I really love the thump it gives their basses.

I’ve owned a couple of BC Rich Basses with double P pick ups in them and I always loved the sound of them. As well as that, the 3 Tobias basses i own have 2 soapbar pickups in them which have P positioned coils under the casing (I’ve tested it and opened one up when replacing them). 

* Side note to the above in case some one asks “if you liked that sound why did you replace them/sell them?”

the BC Richs were too heavy and awkward. Had to go. As for replacing the pickups in the Tobiases, the stock pickups in these basses (the Toby Pros in case any one wondered) are notoriously low output and whilst they sound good, I wanted something with more output. One has Nordstrand J coils for a Jazz Bass sound, one has P coils for the double standard P sound and the other is still stock as I’m awaiting the Fishman Mike Inez 5 set.

* The bass is likely to go up in value...?

not planning on selling it though. It’s one of two basses I don’t ever see myself selling (the other being the bass I got for my 18th birthday from my Parents)

* (Not sure if this was mentioned but this is my other option) What about a J pickup?

I have two other basses that have the P/J set up. The only way i’d add a J coil to this bass is if I could get one of the 80s Yamaha J bar pickups from the BB basses as have that installed. Why? Because Thin Lizzy are another one of my biggest influences and Phil Lynott’s Black P bass had a BB J-bar pickup in it (along with a Creme DiMarzio P) but I’d rather leave that for a Lynott project some day.

Finally: * It’s your bass, so you do what you want with it...?

I know, I know... and i suppose I have already made a couple of changes so it’s not strictly a Steve Harris P bass any more so it really shouldn’t be a problem. Just worried I’ll have the police at my door! 😂 

I hope I haven’t left out anyone’s replies/ideas there and I apologies if I have! I hate replying on a phone screen!

This thread has gotten way more replies than I expected and typically my laptop has given up the ghost so replying on my phone will take me a little while haha

I’m really glad it’s gotten so many replies as well. Thanks to everyone who has so far!

Hi everyone, thanks for all the replies, wasn’t expecting so many! Will have a read through and reply to them as well.

Evening all! 

Im wondering what the general opinion on modding signature basses is? As it’s nearly 2am, there’s a long story behind my question below but if you want to ignore that and just leave your opinion, feel free! The gist of it is “bass I need to justify keeping and don’t want to have to sell so need some more variety out of it and buying another bass isn’t an option due to money & adding new pickup would be much cheaper” 

I own one of the Fender Steve Harris Precision basses from the 2010 run of Made In Japan sparkle blue basses but whilst I really do love it and love the P bass sound, to justify keeping a bass of that value I need to use it more so I need some more versatility from it. 

I have a bass with two J pick ups in it and a bass with P/J (Spector style) pick ups in it already so I have the Jazz sound and P/J sounds covered but two of my favourite bassists, Marko Hietala of Nightwish & James LoMenzo of Megadeth/BLS/etc. both have basses with a regular P pick up and a reversed P pick up in the bridge position which is one of my favourite tones I’ve heard and this has got me thinking of adding a reverse P and a mini 3 way toggle switch to my bass to give me extra options. 

I have considered selling the bass quite a few times but ultimately, I have far too much sentimental attachment to it to let it go (i’ve owned it from new, first “new” bass I had, first high end bass etc etc) and there’s a lot to the back story of how I got it/gigs played on it. Also better mention that Steve Harris is the reason I play bass too. This means selling it to get a cheaper bass for modding is out the window. Not just the sentimental reason but I love the spec and finish of the bass.

The bass it’s self isn’t mint but it’s been extremely well looked after so it’s not like i’d be modifying a show piece, this is a workhorse and I have already installed a Hipshot D-tuner & Graphtech black tusq nut when the original broke on it but apart from that, it’s stock! 

I should add, I wouldn’t dare attempt routing the bass myself, I would pay someone to do it properly so it’s a clean rout and likely have the cavity lacquered then I’ll copper tape the cavity like I have shielded the other pickup cavity already. 

Costs wise, i already have a pickup to go in it and copper tape, switches and wire so the only outlay would be the cost of the routing. 

Anyway. Sorry for the essay and interested to know what others think. If you’ve read through that then I congratulate you and apologise again for my late night ramblings! 😂😂

(Pickguard is reflecting an Iron Maiden flag pinned to my ceiling, it’s not artwork on the pickguard)

Please hear me out on this:

I have a bass with a Reverse "Spector" P/EMG DC Soapbar configuration but I've sold the pickups and am replacing it with passive Duncans. already put an SPB-3 in the neck position and was considering the SSB-NYC for the bridge but it's more expensive than I'm wiling to spend so my other option is sticking 2 SJB-3s (as they come up fairly cheap 2nd hand) in a soapbar housing and wiring it up. I find wiring fun so could be a fun project?

I know I'd need the actual SJB-3 set (RW/RP neck pick up) but I was wondering if:-

- Will 2 J pick ups would fit in a soapbar housing?

- (and if so) I plan on having this pickup hooked up to a 3 way series/parallel/single switch (essentially utilising the 4-conductor element to the wiring) so I'd replace the black/white wires on the south "coil" (SJB-3b) with red/green and treat the wiring like a typical 4-con Series/Parallel/Split humbucker wiring method? - side note, I would put a strip of copper tape over the back of the 2 coils and solder on a "bare" earth wire to that (my Nordstrands have that method on so must be alright?)

Here's some pics for reference and thank you in advance to any one who replies (within reason haha):