Obrienp

As usual I’m about 10 posts behind the game here but on the topic of being paid for gigs: I came back to playing guitar and then bass in my mid 50s, after a break caused by life, kids, work, etc. Strictly speaking I don’t need to be paid because I do it mainly for enjoyment and to keep active in retirement but apart from charity gigs, I insist on being paid. Why? Because there are people who do this for a living. If amateur bands play for nothing, it further devalues live music and musicians. Heaven knows, music is already ridiculously undervalued these days and we mustn’t encourage venues to believe they can pay little, or nothing for live acts. Obviously we shouldn’t charge so much that small venues don’t make a profit from putting on live music but we should charge something, even if it is just £50 per person (seems to be about the average for music pubs around my neck of the woods).

As usual I am probably catching up with what everyone else has known for years but Thomann are listing a fretless version of the Sire U5 shorty. Bizarrely, it is about 40 quid more expensive than the fretless version, which seems illogical to me. You pay more for having less! Perhaps it requires more work to slip bits of plastic into the CNCed fret slots, than fit frets. Anyway, gripes about the sale price apart, has anybody tried one? What’s it like? I can’t think of any other reasonably priced fretless shorties, apart from the Harley Benton Beatles Bass.

Thanks for those suggestions @Andyjr1515. Yes it is a total b*st*rd, isn’t it. I think you and Tony are definitely on the same page. He has marked the neck up with tape as his starting point for narrowing it. He did talk about taking a rasp to it with the frets in but he was swithering on that. He said once he has taken it down to our tape markings, he will then get me to come over and fit it more to my hand. I will remember what you said about taking the shoulders off first. My inclination is that the Jazz profile is better for me and that definitely does not have the shoulders of the P bass profile. I also agree about the depth: I sometimes get twinges from the base of my thumb when playing the Nordstrand Acinonyx that has a pretty shallow neck. The thing that makes me nervous is that I don’t really get a feel for an instrument until I have played it a lot. Several times I have bought a guitar or bass, having played it in the shop and thought it was great, only to find later that I can’t live with the neck. A classic expensive mistake was a Martin D28 with performance neck that seemed fantastic at the dealer (I like a 45mm nut on an acoustic) but turned out to be just too chunky overall. I think I’m going to ask Tony not to refinish it until I am really certain we have found the Goldilocks profile.

OK a little update on this: the luthier has returned from his holiday and we had a couple of hours looking at options. After some deliberation, he suggested to me that the “problem” I am experiencing with my left hand arthritis is the P bass chunk and width of the current neck. I get on better with a Jazz style neck and therefore width and depth are the important comfort attributes. Increasing the scale length was a bit illogical given my arthritis. In his view something between standard Jazz and the super-thin Nordstrand Acinonyx might be ideal for me. I had to agree with his logic. In which case we were left with two options: make a new 30” super-Jazz style neck, or re-profile the current neck. He said the latter would come in under £200, whereas we were still looking at around £350 for a new neck. Suffice it to say the lower cost option won out. He also said that if it didn’t work out, he would start all over; implying that he would just swallow the additional cost of materials. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I left the bass with him and he said he might make a start on pulling the frets over the weekend, if he has time. It sounds as though I might have a rejuvenated bass quite soon! 🤞

A little update; I got to use the Monza at a rehearsal for the blues band I play in. For rehearsal it was the Monza/Warwick Gnome iPro/Flyrig 2 combination with my Boss wireless. To say I was pleased with the Monza’s performance is an understatement. Although this is the loudest band I play in, we tend to avoid ear-ringing volume at rehearsal. Still loud enough for a small pub. Anyway, I had the Gnome with Gain around 11 o’clock and Master between 9 and 10 o’clock, with the EQ settings following @Phil Starr’s recommendations. I could hear myself so clearly that I thought I must be too loud but I took a wander around the room and the balance was perfect, with the bass cutting through clearly. What really impressed me was the amount of low end coming through. I play a Maruszczyk Elwood 32” with this band and the Monza was really letting it shine. Unfortunately, both the bands I play in are currently suffering a gig drought. We haven’t got anything booked until June 😭, so it is going to be a long time until I can hear what the Monza is like at a gig. On current form though, I think it is going to be brilliant. The only thing is my rig looks comically small alongside the guitarists’ 2 x 12 combos. That will be their hernia though 😀!

I don’t think anybody has yet mentioned the effect of getting old on a person’s bass collection.. I would have been quite happy with the long scale basses I had until I started to develop arthritis in my hands and got a bad back. This forced me to change to much lighter, shorter scale instruments. I think of this as a forced change, rather than simple GAS (self delusion probably). I think I have just about settled on the instruments that will see me to the end of my playing career. I am trying to avoid looking at the basses for sale section on BC, especially that Mensinger Cazpar medium scale fretless!

Doesn’t it somewhat depend on the project/band you are working on? I play a Maruszczyk Elwood (Jazz) with the blues band I’m in and primarily a custom made P/J with the covers band but for the latter we mostly play tuned down half a tone and the guitarists then capo for other tunings, so I also have to have a bass in standard tuning for quick changes during gigs. Plus, I always take a spare bass to gigs, having had one fail on me (jack socket). I’ve already justified owning four basses, just for those two bands 😀👍. I can’t really defend the other two though and I think at least one will have to go.

@Mariner72 If that involves CTS pots, cloth covered wire, Switchcraft or Puretone jack socket, etc, that’s a really good price. It’s not going to cost you a huge amount less to do it yourself and you are going to have to solder onto the back of pots (my personal bugbear). WRT pickups: I recently put a Tonerider P bass set in my Ibanez Mezzo and (to my surprise) I am finding the E string response a little weak compared to the A and D in passive mode but I’ve put a Glockenlang replacement preamp in it and the pots are pretty small: fine when in active mode but maybe not so great in passive. This is with flats as well. I guess like anything, there is some variation between Tonerider pickups. The last one I had sounded strong across the board but then I did use full size CTS pots in that bass. Just one point regarding the 0.1uF capacitor: it will give you a really deep cut in the higher frequencies but it is not going to increase the amount of bass. If it’s not there in the signal from the pickup, pots, etc, it’s not there. That’s why it is quite important to have a pickup that gives you a good starting point for the tone you are after. However, as others have said: start off with a decent wiring loom and take it from there. You never know; the standard pickup might produce the goods given decent electronics.

I’ll keep you posted how it goes folks. The luthier has been away on holiday but is back next week. He said first step would be to mock it up to make sure I am happy with the appearance. He is worried it might look a bit unbalanced with the SS sized body and a longer neck. I’m not too bothered really. I guess it is going to mean a bit more of a reach with the extra 2 inches all in the neck but I can’t afford to commission a whole new build, so I am going to have to live with that. I don’t want to move the bridge back, because I want to have the option to put the SS neck back on, if my left hand arthritis gets worse. WRT appearance. I’m not a great one for fancy inlays but I might ask him to do something a bit different at the 12th fret, even if it is just his standard headstock emblem. There is no emblem on the bass at the moment because he doesn’t normally put it on custom builds. I’m conscious here that the more work he has to do, the more it will cost, so I want to keep it simple and concentrate on playability.

Thanks for the comments folks. Looking at replacement Fender necks online for £280-320, I guess a custom made 32” for £350 isn’t bad at all.

Hi Folks, Just want to see what the hive thinks of a ball park price I have been given (by my local luthier) for making a neck. The price is £350. A bit of background: he made me a custom short scale P/J on a 51 P Bass theme (see photo) but with a split P pickup and some contouring (belly cut and arm cut out). I have since decided that I am happier with a medium scale Jazz style neck, so I asked him for a quote to make one. He gave me a ball park figure of £350, which is more than half what I paid for the original bass (he gave me a big discount because he wasn’t happy with the finish). Does that sound reasonable? It would be fretted with a maple board and probably just a 12th fret marker and side dots. He is a friend, so I don’t want to quibble too much but at the same time I don’t want to pay hugely over the odds. Obviously this is going to a bit of a compromise because he scaled the body down to make it look in proportion to the short scale neck. I don’t want to be moving the bridge and pickup locations: I may as well get him to make a whole new bass in that case. This means that the neck is going to be two frets longer, or so. I can’t just go and get a pattern medium scale neck (not that I can find one in the UK) because it needs to be made to accommodate the body dimensions (neck pocket, end of pocket to bridge, etc). What do you folks think? Reasonable price? Suggestions for alternative sources also gratefully received.

Struggling to think how we can help you here, because we all play in different bands, with different drummers and guitarists. Our views are bound to be subjective. Do you know what DB level your current rig is putting out? Alex lists the max levels for all the Barefaced cabinets. The Two10 is 125 DB. At least that is some kind of objective measure for comparison. How reliable it is, I don’t know. I’m sure others on here will be able to give chapter and verse on that subject.

Probably going to do exactly that, so apologies but I will turn it round: I would be worried about hearing damage, if I played in a band where my Two10 was not loud enough to keep up.

I put the same question on Talk Bass a little while back and somebody who had actually owned one of these said it was a real dog. I forget what the issues were now but I lost interest in it at that point. I think the Warwick Star Bass would be a better bet for this kind of money but obviously, not for those who don’t get on with medium scale.

We probably should take this conversation to the Monza thread but at the risk of sounding like an LFSys fanboy, you can get that vintage sound out of the Monza. It will give you whatever you put in. What it won’t necessarily give you is a predetermined coloured sound. I have discovered that I can get it to do vintage by using the VLE control on my Markbass LMIII but it will also do a really hi-if slappy sound if you want it to and everything in between.

Please let us know how they perform, when you use the two of them together. I am guessing loud and clear!

That’s reassuring to hear about the Monza, as I just got one as well (as you know from the Monza thread). I can’t wait to gig mine and find out how it performs live. Unfortunately, both the the bands I play in are currently suffering a gig drought. Nice bass BTW!

I do that with my Warwick Gnome. Knowing my luck, it would be the cabinet and not the amp that develops a fault and then I’m stuffed 🥴.

That’s about the long and short of it unfortunately.

All the LaBella flats I have tried (except the nylon covered) have had a weird stickiness about them. I don’t know whether it is a reaction to my skin, or a generic problem. I’ve tried cleaning them with lighter fluid, rubbing alcohol, string lube, etc to no avail. I always end up taking them off (with the exception of the Hofner Violin bass I had) and regretting the considerable sunk cost. Perhaps the low tensions are different. I have been using Maruszczyk flats on my Mezzo and find them to have a really good smooth feel to them. They are also about 2/3 the price of LaBellas. However, they only just fit. They are designated short/medium and the G only just makes it over the nut before the silk starts, so they might not fit some basses.

Thanks for the explanations folks. I will know to watch out for this in the future. The lesson I take from this is to post/courier it yourself but even better: just sell through BC.

Being a bit thick, I can’t actually understand what the scammer is trying to get you to do. Are they trying to get you to send the gear before you receive payment, or what? On a related topic; I never understand what people mean by “PayPal scams”. If you get the money in your account, it’s good isn’t it? Or can they withdraw it after it has hit your account?

Yeah; trust me. I thought it would be an upgrade compared to my Valeton Dapper, which I have now sold. TBH it is in many ways. I haven’t yet tried the DI out into a PA. Fingers crossed it is quieter than the amp out (clutching at straws here). Returning to the subject of the Monza; I spent another hour or so with the it today but at very low volume (about 1 click on the master volume of the Gnome iPro). I was really impressed at how well it projected at such a low volume, with great clarity and note separation. This will be great for one of the bands I play in, because we use a very low stage volume and DI everything. This makes it pretty difficult to hear yourself, especially when you are right on top of the cabinet and have nowhere to put a wedge monitor (many pubs).

Basic question: what are the characteristics that define a good B string? Are we talking sound, or feel, or a combination of both? I have had an Ibanez TMB35 and I didn’t think the B string was any better or worse than on the Ibanez AFR Affirma 5 that I had. It was a lot easier to play though, because of the shorter scale and narrower neck. Perhaps I don’t understand what a good B string is though…… BTW, if we are talking sound/tone, I would suggest the rig you are playing it through could make a huge difference. Looking at specs for bass speaker cabinets, I am amazed at how many have a frequency range that starts above 40 hertz, which is about an open E string. I know that doesn’t mean they can’t reproduce that frequency but there will be a fall off in DB. Apparently low B is around 31 Hz, so many cabs are going to struggle to reproduce that at the same SPL, which I am guessing could make a B string sound weak in comparison to the other strings. Explain to me why I am wrong.

Further update: so I tried the EQ settings suggested by @Phil Starr and (subjectively) I did seem to be getting a more neutral sound out of the Gnome/Monza. Having tried the bass rolled off a bit, I then put it back because I like quite a lot of low end. I will keep the treble control rolled off in future as suggested. The Gnome + Monza combination is still exposing that the Flyrig V2 is quite noisy. Using the compressor and amp modelling is really generating a lot of high frequency buzz. I guess it is like turning up a traditional valve amp, which to be fair to the Flyrig , is what it is modelling. No excuse for a noisy compressor though. Suffice it to say that I had not noticed this when using the BF Two10, especially when using the Markbass LMIII. The Monza literally gives you what you put into it. I guess an analogy is the old computing maxim: “garbage in, garbage out”. I am finding the LMIII with the Monza much more balanced than the Gnome at flat EQ but to contradict that last statement, the LMIII has an overall warmer tone out of the box. It also doesn’t seem to be as loud as the Gnome at the same Gain and Master settings. This seems a bit weird as the Gnome must be giving around 160 watts at 8 ohms and LMIII almost 300! I think the Gnome is more aggressive early: a case of showroom appeal? More reports after using in a band situation and hopefully a gig.