nilebodgers

I've never seen that either. There's a facebook group for people owning old yamaha basses, can't remember the name off hand, but there is interesting info posted there.

It's a good point, I wouldn't generally consider a modified instrument anyway (unless it was something trivial that could easily be returned to stock, or a genuine fix to a common problem).

Could do with the Bass higher in the mix :-) I'm not a massive blues fan, but I liked the jazzier Robben Ford track. Your vocalist can actually sing too which is a big plus.

Ouch - new nut required. Not difficult, but not really a DIY job unless you have suitable nut files and know how. Victor is in Nottingham: https://www.facebook.com/ngoneseven/ (I don't know him, but he does interesting youtube videos of his work.)

Yes, the tuners are the weak spot - at least in terms of feel. They work ok though, they just don't feel as nice as expensive ones. For levelling and dressing I used a 400mm levelling beam (from GMI in Greece - ebay) with 320 grit sandpaper and then a Stewmac diamond crowning file (300 grit - the double-sided offset one). I have tried lots of different crowning files. The absolute best results I think are with an 8in triangle smooth or 2nd cut file with the edges ground safe (I made that myself), but this is slow and takes practice. The fastest results are with the diamond profile file I used as it cuts both ways and leaves no chatter marks/scratches so it is easy to proceed on with the rest of the polish steps. It's expensive, but easy to see why pros use them. I have had no success with the non-diamond profile files, they are quite coarse and seem to really chew the fret up. [I haven't tried the more expensive Hosco ones that are available in different widths - may be better/finer?] Beyond the crowning, I masked up the fingerboard (low tack masking tape) and polished up through the grits from 400 to 2500. I didn't bother with an extreme final mirror-finish polish as I will do that when I change the strings next.

Timely thread. I also need a small cab to go with a TC RH450 I was given. Needs to sit unobtrusively in the corner of the living room at home, but be useful enough for low-key gigs (probably acoustic guitar/keys, no drums).

e.g. the attached pic

Quick work! Just a few scripts trying to pull content via non-https sources to fix & job's a good 'un.

Using "Let's Encrypt" to get free auto-renewing SSL certificates is very easy these days, so there is no excuse for a HTTP-only site.

Interesting - £42 is very cheap for an active DI with a quality transformer. High quality passive-only boxes are more than that.

After a long lay off from playing Bass and never owning a Fender P-Bass I just had to find myself one. Being both a bit stingy and not liking owning brand new things (leave the pain of the first scratch to someone else) I went looking for something s/h in the £300-£375 bracket and found a very nice 2012 MIM in Candy-Apple Red with a rosewood neck. I prefer rosewood and really like that colour, so was keen. I managed to get a good deal at a decent price so here it is: It was essentially unplayed and had never been set up (massive relief and high action) so there was a bit of work to do. I adjusted the relief, action and intonation and then played it for a couple of weeks to see how I liked it and work out what really needed doing. Turns out I really like P-basses :-) Hmmm... slightly rough fret ends, a couple of high frets up the dusty end (not enough to buzz at my preferred action, but high none the less) and first fret action a touch high on the D and G. Nothing that was a big deal. So - In to the shed, on to the workbench and get out the toolshop... This is the everything laid-out-nicely-at-the-end shot :-) Glosses over the tedium of fret end filing, levelling, crowning and polishing. I'm pleased with the result, play-ability is excellent now and the edge of the fretboard and fret ends feel lovely. The MIM Fenders seem to get a lot of flak, but I don't really see why at the price point. Mine played fine before I did any work and the fret ends could have been done quickly with something cheap like a fine emery board nail file. I'm quite critical and like to get the best out of an instrument, so I put a lot more effort in, but I'd always expect any mass-produced instrument to need some work. (my USA Tele did too) If I was being hyper-critical I'd upgrade the tuners, they work fine but are a touch agricultural-feeling. Got to keep something to do when mod fever strikes!

This is true, to get maximum fidelity you need an active DI as that will present a high impedance input. Passive DIs always introduce some loading due to the transformer - typically a 12:1 ratio is used so a 1.5k loading mic preamp looks like a ~200k load to the instrument (the mic preamp easily makes up the loss of level in the transformer). The snag with inexpensive active DIs like the Orchid one is that they don't have true galvanic isolation so can be prone to hum loops (no transformer so the earth lift switch only has partial effect in these). Truly isolated active DIs (e.g. BSS AR133, KT DN100 or the Radial DIs) are pretty expensive as they have both active circuitry and a transformer to give a true earth lift (and are rugged pro-level products). The Behringer DI is a cheap lookalike of the AR133 and is often perfectly ok for amateur/semi-pro applications. It falls down for pro use as the cheap transformer isn't properly shielded so can pick up a load of hum/buzz.

When clicking on a post I am finding the two announcements at the top of the page ("Welcome to your NEW Basschat!" etc.) are displaying in full then immediately collapsing to truncated (presumably as the javascript loads & runs). It's really annoying! It's on both PC and iPad, so not a platform thing. It's odd as the announcement appears to load in full and then be truncated in-situ after the page has loaded.

If you don't have subs then don't bother going through the desk, you aren't going to gain anything as your amp will still have to carry all the bottom end. (the only exception would be if you are making a recording and then you'd go in to the desk either via a DI box or your amp DI out so you could be in the recording mix, but your channel wouldn't be routed to the desk out)

[quote name='chrisanthony1211' timestamp='1510310526' post='3405458'] Ah, so using a standard unbalanced XLR cable, but using the pad on the desk to reduce the input signal? And what advantage does the DI box give you over using the DI from the Amp? [/quote] A proper DI box will have galvanic isolation and a ground lift switch so you can break any hum loops and it will be pre-eq and any signal processing so it is as faithful to the true bass tone as possible. (that may or may not be the thing that is required though - sometimes the post-processing signal is needed instead - depends if fx are being used)

[quote name='roman_sub' timestamp='1510231752' post='3404806'] ... 2) check nut is not cut too high. ... [/quote] I'd suspect that, it's certainly a common problem on guitars.

Well, it's probably either 250k or 500k - you'd struggle to spend more than £5 on parts to fix it if you can solder. About 10-15mins work.

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1510051028' post='3403464'] ... If you can use a soldering iron you can save yourself some wodge. It's really not that hard. .... [/quote] Plus several to that. The only trick is to remember that most of the dedicated instrument cables have a semi-conducting sleeve (usually black) around the inner conductor insulation (this cuts down on cable handling noise when it is flexed). That black sleeve needs to be cut back at the ends or the cable will attenuate the signal as it will have a signal-to-ground resistance of a few kohms if it touches the inner conductor. I have seen someone make that mistake!

Neutrik jacks and VDC (XKE) or Klotz (AC104) cable are as good as it gets and as much as needs to be paid - ever.

Look on YouTube for "Cambridge bass lessons", there is a chap in Cambridge that has a channel.

Dave is great, I have followed his videos since 2013. He is quite opinionated and does take the pi55 constantly though, so he is an acquired taste. He doesn't show everything in every video, so there are often jumps in the sequence of work - after you watch quite a few you'll see it all.

Interesting, although one person's "right" will be another person's "wrong" - there is no universal correct answer to "which sounds better". The green pickup appears to have less fundamental bass level and also less higher harmonics. The purple pickup has relatively more bass and more high end. I couldn't say which sounds better (to me) by looking at the spectra though - I'd guess the purple one based on the apparently wider range?

[quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1508873429' post='3395076'] .... I've been trying to fix up the basses at my son's school. They're Encore E4 p basses mainly. The lowest I can get the action on them is 3.5mm. Any lower and even the lightest of playing they buzz, rattle and choke. I don't rate them at all, there are so many issues with them. I find the 3.5mm almost unplayable. [/quote] They probably need some degree of fret levelling, but having that done commercially will cost more than a brand new Encore given they are under £100 new!