Count Bassy

As far as I can tell (some) bass prices are dropping faster than house prices! I was watching a couple of Hohner Jacks on t'bay last week. Not mind blowing basses, but perfectly good instrument. 6 months ago you'd be looking at £180 - 240 ish, but neither of these two went above £80, and neither reached the reserve.

Not quite clear why you'd want to isolate the poles. I would have thought that having the poles earthed would add a degree of screening to the front. As someone else pointed out the screening does not affect the magnetic field, only the electric field. What do others think?

[quote name='gary mac' post='301910' date='Oct 8 2008, 09:03 AM']I've been trying to persuade the band I'm in, to do the Alex Harvey Band version of Delilah. Falling on deaf ears at the moment, cos it's not a twelve bar [/quote] The definitive version IMHO! TO paraphrase the old Marstons pedigree advert "If you can't get the band you're in to do the Alex Harvey Band version of Delilah change bands!"

I am currently having a problem with several bluesy numbers. The problem is that the base lines are very similar, and in some cases pretty well interchangeable (but different), and I sometimes forget which pattern goes with which song. You could argue that if they are that similar then it doesn't really matter as long as it sounds alright, but the guitard doesn't see it that way.

[quote name='rmorris' post='288550' date='Sep 21 2008, 03:32 PM']A mono jack will generally have a sprung contact to the sleeve ( 'earth' ) anyway. ie it'll have two sprung contacts whereas a stereo jack socket will have three sprung contacts. But it would be as well to wire a passive bass as suggested anyway for even better reliability / lower contact resistance on the sleeve contact.[/quote] It depends on the style of the jack I think. The more modern plastic bodied ones with the 'flatish' sprung fingers have a spring contact on the earth (have to as the hole itself is made of plastic), but I've found that most of the more traditional ones built from metal parts with insulating washers between don't, hence my comment. On the plus side I generally find that the plug is more securely retained by the traditional style.

[quote name='7string' post='286366' date='Sep 18 2008, 12:36 AM']I had a Fender Urge Mk1 and really loved it's 32" scale as well as it's awesome electronics.[/quote] Me too!

I'm trying to do the same thing at the moment. Two I'm working on are: 'Jail Bait' by Wishbone Ash - while you're singing is the bass is pretty straight forward, but with more complicated (but not difficult)bits when your not singing. '16 Tons' (merle travers?): simple bass line which doesn't cut accross the vocal line too much. These may not be to your taste, but the trick is (IMHO), as with many things, to start simple and get the idea established before you go for the complicated stuff. ie make sure you can walk before trying to run

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='281110' date='Sep 10 2008, 02:24 PM']Fretless - got to be unlined man![/quote] Why?

[quote name='BOD2' post='271420' date='Aug 27 2008, 11:27 PM']But remember - they work by cutting frequencies, so your sound will suffer from the lost frequencies to some extent.[/quote] Yes, but they are cutting frequencies at which the room tends to resonate anyway, so you could argue that they actually give you a more balanced sound and that without it those resonant frequecies would come over excessively loud. A bigger problem is that if you 'ring out' when you're setting up, ie with the room empty, the response will be totally different once the room is full of sweaty bodies.

I always thought that Active bases should (at the cost of an extra pound or two) have headphone amps built in. You'd probably want a separate socket and a discrete switch to turn it on.

If it's a passive bass and you have a stereo jack then I would personally wire the 'ring' to the earth contact. That way you get a spring contact on the earth rather than relying on the the unsprung contact between the plug sleeve and the outer ring of the socket.

Fair comment on the neck length, I get around that by playing a 32". On the fret spacing I wouldn't have thought it mattered if you weren't going to use them anyway.

[quote name='Doctor J' post='276003' date='Sep 3 2008, 08:26 AM']A lot of players like to play their J bass with the scratchplate removed. Could you imagine Jaco's 62 with that? It may not make a difference to the sound but I don't think that's the point. It's misguided penny pinching, and basses that expensive shouldn't have such blatant penny pinching. If they've cut corners there, what else are they skimping and compromising on?[/quote] On point 1: Then why not buy a Jazz copy that isn't factory fitted with a scratch plate? On point 2: Hopefully they've saved money here because it doesn't make any difference! I've heard a rumour that if you take the truss rod out of an Alembic, and then put a tiny camera down the hole, it looks terrible, not sanded or varnished or anything! Disgraceful I call it.

Out of interest, why do you hate 24 frets. From your description of what you do I'd have thought 24 frets would be ideal. After all you don't have to use the last 4 frets ifyou don't want to!

You can't really (IMHO) slag off Fender (or anyone else) for the quality of a route that is covered by the scratch plate, which, after all, is a standard part of the instrument. It's a bit like buying a car, taking the bonnet off and then complaining thet the engine isn't very pretty.

I used to live in Walcot but that was about 40 years ago. Rumour had it in those days that they kept 'the bomb' at Digby.

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Stay with me (The Faces). What a cracking song.

My teacher has has got me doing the major scale, but doing all the modes which you run up and down in sequence. Ie you start with the normal C major scale (ionian mode) going up, then move up to C major dorian mode (ie starting on D) -coming down, then up on the phrygian (E start), and so on all the way up to the Ionian mode an octave higher.etc then down all the way doing each scale in the different direction. When I started this it looks pretty daunting, but its actually a lot easier than it looks, certainly teaches you the patterns for each mode, and gets the left hand fingers moving. Mind you, I find that knowing it as an exercise is not the same as being able to use it in a tune! And as others have said the beauty is that on a bass you can start at any fret and it gives you a different key. Also, for one octave scale, you can start on the E, A, (or string to give you different scales. Edit: I tried to say, or B, but it put a smiley in

I have a small problem with with my Ibanez GWB35 that I bought second hand a few months ago. Specifically one of the saddle height adjusting grub screws on the G string unscrews itself over a couple of weeks playing, so the action keeps lowering itself. Has anyone else had this problem, and how did thay solve it? I've thought of using one of the proprietry thread locking fluids (loctite etc), but there's such a range I don't know which to go for. Its still got to be adjustable with the allen key when I want to it to move, but not to move on its own. I've also thought of deliberately damaging the thread a bit to make it stiffer, but I don't want the damage to transfer to the saddle itself. Any ideas anyone?

As he's had the neck off at least once (for the photos) is it possible that the neck hasn't gone back on quite square, hence the string alignment?

[quote name='Oscar South' post='252003' date='Jul 31 2008, 01:02 PM']Another thing is that this 'X player has accomplished so much more than you so you can't critisise him/her' thing has to stop, anyone can have an opinion and voice it about anyone, theres no pre-requisite requirement to meet.[/quote] Spot on! To suggest that someone has to be proficient, or be better at something, in order to hold and express an opinion is ridiculous and ultimately dangerous. before long we would not be able to: Dislike a particular beer (as we couldn't brew it ourself) Express a preference for a football team (unless you could do better yourself) Make a choice about which restaurant to go to Fancy a member of the opposite sex (i'm not a woman, so how could I possibly have an opinion about one) " " " " " Vote!

[quote name='thebeat' post='249034' date='Jul 27 2008, 06:31 PM']I do prefer arse though.[/quote] Careful!

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='251642' date='Jul 30 2008, 08:58 PM']This is why people like Victor Wooten & Jeff Berlin are so important. They inspire us to be better bass players. Period.[/quote] Well, that particular example didn't inspire me to do anything other than turn it off. After thought: Perhaps it did inspire me never to try to play like that, so that probably will make me a better bass player! As they say 'no-one is useless, even the worse of us can act as a bad example' Ducking quickly as I press the 'add reply' button.

[quote name='Clarky' post='247112' date='Jul 24 2008, 06:24 PM']don't fancy yours much[/quote] I don't fancy yours or mine!