itu

...during April 1st?

"Suitable for piano string" are the cutters in need. Steel is real. Other pliers work for copper or thin iron only. I have small needle-nose pliers in my bass bag. Instead of cutting, I bend the string a few times to cut it to length with the help of the pliers.

Because even octavers track they way they track, have you considered a capo? I mean really, g-word players have used them for ages.

I am sorry if my answer was considered sarcastic, or offensive. I tried to open up the topic slightly more. I studied acoustics years ago, and spent time in four anechoic rooms. Measuring took time, and as there were lots of parametres to consider. The results could be manipulated very easily, starting from microphone or speaker distance and placement. Anechoic rooms were very practical, because they helped to remove room effects from measurements. In the university I saw lots of mic and speaker measurements made (and I made some myself, too), but that took nearly a year and the results were something like tens of speakers: frequency response, sensitivity, etc. It was clearly lots of work, and the university sold (note: money was involved!) the results to a local hifi magazine. But that was very long ago.

Play in front of a big mirror so you can see your playing position. May help quite a lot while learning comfortable and ergonomic posture (including hands etc.).

As our grand old amp/speaker man @Bill Fitzmaurice told you, the amount of parametres, out of which most are not published by manufacturers (because they probably aren't even measured), are needed to make even a faint guess. Check wikipedia or any source that describes T/S parametres (Thiele/Small, not theile or anything else). That's a good starting point to understand this mess. An anechoic room (measurement system included) would be your friend, as well as the possibility to measure the individual cabs/components, i.e. the cabs. If the combination would work with the same loudness, we might start from sensitivity. If you could measure the system's sensitivity, you could find components that work together in a similar way. Then another area could possibly be the frequency response. But these already require quite a lot of equipment, as well as the ability and knowledge to use them. And that anechoic room would help. I know some hifi components have been measured, but the requirements differ very much. They are after flat response while PA (which include bass) systems start from high sensitivity and loudness. Companies want specific sound from different points of view, and that also limits the functional comparison: "Bad" response, respected sound? OK, if this has been slightly rough, let's start from an easy specification: Impedance is usually qualified as one number, but it actually changes while the frequency rises. Can you mix different impedances? If you say "No", please explain. If you say "Yes", we want to hear your educated comments.

If you do some searching, you will find a thread about British bass builders / luthiers. There are quite many excellent, and quite a few which are simply very good...

True, DBG was everywhere at the time. Talkbass group may have been active, and some newer/younger players have found a wider selection of instruments. I still didn't see any bigger happening at the stores, be it used or a new bass. What I have seen during the years is the crave for "the bass I couldn't afford, then". The bass that was impossible to buy when money was tight, may be an option after years of work. Probably this is a sudden interest, like when old friends meet - or whatever. Quite many basses have been reasonably priced. Those higher end, but not so rare instruments are affordable today compared to the times when pasta&ketchup was close to special after weeks of dry bread and porridge. At least I remember such times while studying. A red Status in the music shop window was cute, but downright impossible to buy. (Well, the situation is nearly the same again, as Dawn and Rob, and, you know.)

But Streamer is known as an exact copy of the Spector NS-2, and NS-2 was introduced in 1978 or so. The talks about boutique and 2000 sound slightly soft to me. Smith, Suhr, Surine, Vigier, Modulus Graphite, Tobias et al. started late 70's or 1980's, just like Fodera. I did see that era, and I think it was clearly earlier than 00's. When these "Mustang is a great bass" guys (read: Nirvana) came out in 90's, all cheapo bass prices rose to incredible levels. Friend of mine was in the States and wanted a reasonably priced and good instrument. He commented, that every Fender was overpriced, and even lousy instruments were considered as vintage. He bought a very nice G&L, because no one connected George & Leo to Gruhn - and Fender. A specific instrument is pretty tough to connect to music overall to these latest decades. If we think about genres, maybe Wartburg can be connected to metal. Jazz and boutique may be somewhat connected, although Fender is amazingly strong there. Yes, the Fender bass thing is still going strong, and from this standpoint it is understandable that Fender is hesitant to introduce anything new. They can sell the same instrument made in China, Korea, Japan or Mexico (or Mexican parts crafted in the US) and put whatever price tag to it. Updates are simply few "new" colours. So boring, but they sell well. Custom Shop is for those who can not choose wrong name like Suhr. Sadowsky, Lull et al. As basses are somewhat complicated, how about amps, or accessories? 1970's Peavey and acoustic, 1980's Trace, GK and SWR, 1990's D-class, 2010's lighter cabs, effects...

Gamba is a 7-string instrument. There were also models with less and more strings. Check the works of Marin Marais and de Sainte-Colombe from the movie Tous les matins du monde. Domenico Dragonetti was a double bass virtuoso who played 3-string bass among others, and has composed some very tricky stuff. Electric 4-string virtuosos are quite numerous, Stanley Clarke being one of the earlier fretted masters. His instrument is a short scale tenor bass (A, D, G, C). Fretless composer and player is naturally Jaco Pastorius. Jimmy Johnson is behind the idea of the five string electric bass. Gary Willis and Bunny Brunel are 5-string fretless masters. John Patitucci is known for his work with 6-string bass. Of course there are multistring basses, as well as The Stick. From this I actually think that the best solo bass instrument is the one with which you produce/compose/play the best program you ever can. We can go into technical details starting from strings, string spacings, electronics, fret & fretboard materials, pickups and their positions... and when everything is ready, we could find your optimal instrument. But we are on thin ice, if the instrument does not talk to you. Specs is one thing, but playability and personality can only be found by trying and playing many different basses.

A van with a selection of headphones to your door? Phone your phones?

Wasn't he making new pages? I cannot believe he wouldn't be lurking somewhere around there and putting together some amazing stuff. Maybe we need to wait a bit.

This topic again and once more. Should there be a sticky here, maybe? Go to a store that has several models. Use some music you know very well. Take the priciest headphones and start listening. Come down the price level step by step, and the first time you hear a difference (except volume), you need to step back one level upwards. There you are. There you have your headphones. I have a pair of special hifi headphones which response surely is everything but flat. But they are ergonomic, because they fit me, and me only. I would not suggest to buy something that fits me: you need to find the ones you want to wear on a daily basis.

Very kool red back. What's the weight, and string spacing?

I think that the resistor in charge of the LED brightness could have a trimmer after it (in series). Then the current (i.e. the brightness) could be adjusted. Nearly all LEDs I have seen have tried to blind my old eyes. Even much less could be enough on a dark stage.

The P/P-pot has probably the series resistor limiting current to LEDs. I might try a fresh battery, just in case. Opamps may still be functional while LEDs are not.

External crossover may be pretty cheap. Older ones cost tenners. Even a cab built by Mediocrates can be tamed with a powerful eq (X-over, that is). Probably the end result isn't like Genelec but decent. Any ideas to use a tweeter?

There was a Ken Smith for sale here few days ago. If that isn't a solo machine, nothing is.

This solid thing is hopefully slightly flexible, because when the attachment to the board is not rigid enough, flexing units will try to break each other. There are models where the plugs are not on the straight line. The allow some movement. I still prefer soldering cables to angled plugs.

At the moment I would like to see some comments on bad tuners, as everything seems to be as great as America (for those who didn't get my last words, it really was sarcasm). I had a Peterson Stomp that died. Pedal versions seem to be bulky and the form factor do not support the possibility to carry it to backstage without tearing the pedal board to parts. And a fresh battery should be there, too. My choice was a cheapo Ibanez with tap tempo metronome (actually two for both gig bags). Small and reliable. At home I have a bigger handheld Korg and Peterson. They are powerful, but on the other hand so big that they stay at home.

I bought mine in 1986, and it cost £400. Today price for a 1974 black Ric is probably £2400, and I do not understand why. It's not that good an instrument. Well, if I still had it, the comparison between my Vigiers, Modulus Genesis, and Ibanez Affirma would be unfair. Ric is rock, but that's all folks.