Paul S

I own quite a lot of basses - I think around a dozen or so. I always take 2 basses to a gig. I'm in 3 bands, for which I like to use slightly different sounding basses as they are different genres. For one band I use a Stagg EUB if space permits, so that's an extra one! We are working on an acoustic set, too, so that's my Uke bass and/or semi-acoustic too... I am absolutely sure I could make do with a single Precision bass for all of them

A pleasure to deal with Ian again, who bought a MIJ 32" scale bass (not our one, Ted) from me after I answered his 'wanted' post. Totally smooth transaction, great comms, friendly guy, instant payment etc etc.

I think he is still largely to blame. I agree - someone, somehow squeezed the bass neck into the guitar body even though not all the screw holes lined up - as is plain. Any reasonable person, upon coming across the result of unholy union, would have acted differently. Throw it in a skip or, preferably, set fire to it. No, he compounded the aberrant alchemy by putting another guitar pickup and shabby non-adjustable bridge on it. Then sticks it on ebay and ask a mind boggling £257 for it.

I know it is an offering from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named but nevertheless.... [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TeleSG-MIJ-short-scale-bass-Shaftesbury-Columbus-/191771417980?hash=item2ca6779d7c:g:sAkAAOSwU~FWDZHK"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TeleSG-MIJ-short-scale-bass-Shaftesbury-Columbus-/191771417980?hash=item2ca6779d7c:g:sAkAAOSwU~FWDZHK[/url]

Or... get cheaper strings. Legacy strings are re-badged nickel Rotos ( I asked at Strings Direct and he confirmed it but asked me not to tell anyone) (oops) but only £9.99. Or £30-99 for a 4 pack.

Re pickups and bridge. (stuck record alert) I have recently acquired a Squier Musicmaster bass 'Vista Series' that has a 4 pole 'proper' bass pickup in it and also a 'proper' adjustable bridge fitted into a plate that is the same as the Fender Musicmaster. Both are significant improvements over the Fender ones. I haven't searched but am sure that these could be had as separate components. FWIW I did what you are doing - pimped a tatty old Fender Musicmaster. Eventually I had someone (The Bass Doc - is he still doing it?) rout a bigger pup cavity to fit a Wizard Trad Precision pickup, new scratchplate, new Kiogon loom. It sounded MUCH better. But the Vista sounds better The pickup from that, if it or an equivalent can be bought on its own, would be where I would look I think.

Easiest course would be to get a new loom from Kiogon here and a new Hot (or Cool) Rails pickup. Doesn't involve any soldering, just screwing the pup wires into the screw terminals of the junction box. Maybe look at replacing the bridge, too, which is about as elementary as a bridge can be.

I wondered if that might be the case. Bad timing again. My old one had the same thing - an ex-Hayman neck.

Relisted [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Shergold-Marathon-4-string-bass-guitar-Big-Plate-Mk1-pre-1980-/221984897737?hash=item33af54bac9:g:KLAAAOSwaA5WiUFa"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Shergold-Marathon-4-string-bass-guitar-Big-Plate-Mk1-pre-1980-/221984897737?hash=item33af54bac9:g:KLAAAOSwaA5WiUFa[/url]

To be fair, bar staff aren't standing next to the snare drum. At least, not at any of the gigs I play.

Amazing what you can do a recycled child's trampoline isn't it.

Possibly the most skewed logic I have read this year. Well, it is only 3rd.

Sold a pickup to Ash in a totally smooth transaction. Great fellow to deal with!

Fender Precision Lyte has a very slim and shallow neck, along the lines of the Geddy Lee Jazz or Jaguar necks. Mine didn't quite sound exactly like a Precision, but near enough. Not the Duff signature, but the one I'd look for is that model that was based on - mid 80s MIJ Fender Jazz Bass Special. P body, J neck, PJ pickups. Or an active variant, the Power Jazz Bass Special. These change hands for silly low prices given the quality at £400 +/-

Something worth mentioning, maybe. I have in recent months bought a couple of basses from Japan. Both were sent via DHL, which was a little bit more expensive than other methods but not much. It took 2 days, door to door, from Tokyo - shipped on a Monday, paid the duty online on Tuesday, delivered Wednesday. The duty they calculated was less than the amount I had worked out and there was no handling fee. Not only was it delivered to my door, it was 're-delivered' as I was out when they tried first time - I got a phone call in the afternoon asking if I was in to receive it. Although I guess that was down to the individual driver. Compare and contrast with Parcelforce worldwide who handled an earlier purchase from Japan. Tokyo to Coventry took 3 days. Coventry hung onto it for 10 days before rubber-stamping the paperwork. I then had to drive 30 mins to my local depot to collect it where I had to pay, in cash as they had no facility for card payments, the 20% VAT, 3% import duty plus £13 handling fee. If I ever import a bass again I will make sure it is handled by DHL.

I have two BF Supercompacts. TBH I can't imagine many occasions when I would 'need' both although I do use both sometimes just, you know, because I can One is plenty loud enough. Currently use a Trace Elliot 300W head, which is louder than my TC Electronic RH750, and one of my bands is a very loud rock covers band with a particularly loud drummer. For using one cab I bought one of these to raise it up by 39cm. It is by far the easiest thing to use that I have tried - a folding step-stool. It kind of formalises the old beer crate idea. I think mine was £8.99 on eBay but you can get them all over the place.

Well, people are always confusing me (left) with Morten Harket...

[quote name='cameltoe' timestamp='1451744251' post='2943008'] also avoid check or patterns and go for solid colours. [/quote] Aha!

I also use repeat listening. Especially after I have learnt how to play it. Most mornings i go for a walk for around 2hrs so I stick earbuds in and just listen - visualising and miming the fingering as it is playing - that really helps to get it stuck into my muscle memory. Luckily the footpaths I walk along aren't that well patronised so I don't get too many curious looks.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1451687984' post='2942579'] Really..? Oh, right. I'd never do that, of course... it would be very wrong. And weird. [/quote] I don't know about re-licked but if I were Steve Dawson's bass I would certainly be distressed. Thanks for the link. Dimwit that I am, it had never occurred to me that there might be play-a-long bassless tracks on YouTube

Mark - what is the backing track on that rather tasty sound bite, please?

I meant when used as a verb, not when it is a noun. So 'reliced' or 'relicing'. Ugly words. Looks like someone took away the lice then put them back again.

That is astonishingly good. As a few have said, mostly I don't like reliced basses as they look fake. That is a time machine job, not a relicing. And why does the word relic look so wrong when used as a verb?