Count Bassy

[quote name='Bassassin' post='468141' date='Apr 21 2009, 09:54 AM']Any remaining sticky residue (ooer mrs, etc) will come off easily with some acetone (nail varnish remover, ladies!), which won't damage the finish.[/quote] Actually I'd be very careful with acetone - it's one of the more aggressive solvents around, and will dissolve some plastics. It's actually used to glue perspex. IPA (isopropyl alcohol) is a much more benign solvent but will still shift most residues. I have also found that WD40 is very good as a residue solvent without damaging the paint. Some of the orange smelling label removers are very good, but they can affect some plastics - for example it can 'fog' the clear plastic of a CD case. As they say 'Always test on a small unobtrusive patch before use'

[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='465033' date='Apr 17 2009, 02:10 PM']Just received mine in the post from another member - bought as a back up for my Ashdown ABM RC500 EVOII. I dashed home at lunchtime and had a 20 minute plonk at bedroom volume and I have to say I'm very impressed with the sound - so much so that I think the Ashdown will end up being my back up head. Bit surprised that there's no speakon connectors though - had to use instrument cable to connect my cabs.[/quote] Be careful. Instrument cables are not rated to be used as speaker cables, though you might get away with it at very low volumes.

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='466060' date='Apr 18 2009, 12:47 PM']It may be worth having a trawl around the stores and a phone around, as the Korean made Fender jazz 24 has now been deleted. You may get a bargain somewhere! The other option is John Shuker. If memory serves, his jazzes start at around £800 & I'm sure he could do one with a 24 fret neck. Haha! Just looked at the discontinued products on the Dawson's Music page... Look at the price [url="http://www.dawsons.co.uk/acatalog/info_00070739.html"]http://www.dawsons.co.uk/acatalog/info_00070739.html[/url][/quote] I'll take two!

[quote name='JJTee' post='465350' date='Apr 17 2009, 06:27 PM']Not true I'm afraid on either count. Action can be taken under nuisance even if there is only one complainant - however, they probably won't take a single [b][u]complaint[/u][/b] too seriously. Regarding the windows, an assessment is likely to be carried out with both the windows open and closed - after all, people are perfectly entitled to have their windows open for fresh air and ventilation, particularly in the summer. It's all a question of what is "reasonable", and it's not always clear-cut - there are always borderline cases.[/quote] I'll bow to your knowledge on that, but that's what they told us on the phone. Re the open window: Does this mean that we are entitled to practise with the windows open? - practices can get a bit hot and sweaty?

We've had a very similar letter from the council. It was particularly annoying because according to the complainant there was 'regular loud music coming from our house late at night', which is rubbish - our practises always ended by 9.30, and were, at most, every three weeks or so. As far as I'm concerned thay have lost my respect because they have blatently exagerated the situation. Anyway, on contacting the council they wouldn't give us any guidance as to what was reasonable. However they did say that they'd have to have more that one complainant before that took it seriously. Also it is only considered a problem if the complainant has their windows closed. I take the point that some you should consider your neighbours, (and our practises generally end up around 9pm, or sometimes 9.30pm) but people living in a community cannot expect to live in total silence - they'll have plenty of that when they're dead. To my mind them insisting on total silence 24/7 is as much an imposition on me as it would be on them if we practised every week and late at night. It all needs a bit of give and take, which I'm happy to do, but the complainers generally want it all their own way. We think we know who it is who complained and it is not an immediate neighbour, all of whom we have asked and have said that its not been a problem. The old woman in question is the one who, on the day we moved in (10 years ago), came over to complain that the removal men had left the radio on in their lorry!. Some of these people haven't got enough to do with their lives. On a more practical note, for some early evening practises, we have sometimes resorted to leaving the lawn mower running in the garden, so taht it masks the practise noise.

[quote name='OldGit' post='463186' date='Apr 15 2009, 05:28 PM']Ah .. I need a couple of neutricks and my local Maplins only had these in .. How do you tell the old ones from the new better ones?[/quote] I didn't ask that question, but I'll compare them when I get the new ones their sending me, and report any obvious differences. I agree with what others have said about beta testing by the public. There's no real excuse for it - after all its not like one in a thousand failing, from my experience with the right angle ones it's three in three.! Perhaps the prototypes were made on different machines to the production parts, or perhaps it's a quality control problem, perhaps tahy made the prototypes and 'outsourced' the production. Who knows? At least they seem to be doing the right thing now.

The subject of 'silent' plugs has come up in several threads so I thought I'd post this as new thread here, for everyone to see, rather than add to all those threads separately. Anyway, as many of you will be aware, the Neutrik silent plugs (the newer red ones with the reed switch) have had a few problems with the sliding sleeve jamming, especially on the right angled ones. I raised this with Neutrik (as many obviously have) and have had a reply which I copy below: "I can confirm that we have made improvements to both the Straight & R/A Silent jacks, the moving magnet sleeve now moves a lot smoother on both. These improvements only come about from feed-back once the product is in use. Please send me your contact details & I will arrange for a couple of the new versions to be sent to you. All the best & thanks for using our connectors." Personally, and apart from the occassional jamming, I found them great, so I'll be very happy if the problem has been solved.

My basses are generally better than my playing warrants, my combo is probably about right. The problem with having nice kit is that it raises peoples expectations as to what they're going to hear.

[quote name='phsycoandy' post='460820' date='Apr 12 2009, 09:50 PM'] I'M 50........... I know i dont look it![/quote] Didn't I see you battling Robin Hood last weekend?

[quote name='PauBass' post='457251' date='Apr 8 2009, 12:10 PM'] Always black or natural for me, thanks.[/quote] +1, I didn't vote as I can't decide between the two

[quote name='Prosebass' post='453507' date='Apr 3 2009, 04:50 PM']The Germans brought the scheme in a while ago , which is why VW had their best Feb sales figures ever and our guys are either redundant or on short time.... British Politicians.......useless.[/quote] Fine, but remember where that £2.5K would be coming from, i.e. our pockets!

I've had strings off them. They have a good range, and seem to actually keep them in stock (unlike some others), and the prices don't seem too bad. The second time I ordered they rang me to say that there would be a delay as they were all tied up at one of the big music shows. OK it was still a delay, but they did ring me to apologise and explain, rather than leave me hanging. No complaints here.

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='444054' date='Mar 24 2009, 06:18 PM']I can feel this thread decending into a British electricity vs American electricity debate.[/quote] No debate required, everyone knows that British electricity is the best in the world.

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='444051' date='Mar 24 2009, 06:17 PM']So why didn't the British amps sound good on British electricity? Do the British amps require American electricity?[/quote] [Bullshit alert/] Because the American amps were designed for 60 Hz, and British electricity at 50 hz is just that more laid back, if you powered a British amp on 40 Hz it would sound awesome. [/Bullshit alert]

Make a point of playing at least 15 -30 minutes a day, whenever you possibly can, but stop when your fingers start to get sore. (I realise that this is not particulary useful in a gig situation). Don't carry on until they blister - If you do then the skin underneath is all soft and you'll have to start building up the thicker skin again. Give it a few months and the problem will probably go away. When I started I used to get blisters on both hands, but I now can't remember the last time I had any trouble - even after a 4 hour rehearsal, and I rarely get to play the 15 minutes a day that I should. On the plucking hand I used to find masking tape quite good - you still know its there, and you'll have to replace it every two or three tunes, but the feel on the strings is still realtively close to your own skin, and it doesn't degenerate into a sticky mess like elastoplast. Not ideal, but it might allow you to carry on when your fingers are begging you to stop. The one thing said here that I disagree with is the idea of turning up the amp and playing more lightly. Its OK to an extent, but to me a string played lightly and amplified a lot does not sound the same as a string played hard and amplified less! The timbre and attack are quite different. If you like the sound of a lightly plucked string then fine, but if not then it really doesn't help. I tend to play with fairly percussively (NOT Slapping/popping) with a lot of attack play, and I can't get that affect playing lightly (perhaps I need to practise more). Having said that its probably true to say that I generally play more lightly that I used to.

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='443797' date='Mar 24 2009, 02:19 PM']I can feel this thread decending into a Marshall vs Fender debate. American amps win for me I am afraid...[/quote] But the only reason they sound any good is because your running them on British electricity!

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='442828' date='Mar 23 2009, 06:30 PM']There's also some vintage German electricity stored on the sea-bed at Scapa Flow. Not a lot of people know that.[/quote] But German electricity would sound different.

[quote name='josh3184' post='443301' date='Mar 24 2009, 12:08 AM']I agree actually, if there's no slight variation in speed its too robotic in my view.[/quote] Me too. When its a bassist we have whole threads about people being all technique with no feel/groove/soul (which IMHO comes down to subtle variations in timing and dynamics), yet when it comes to drummers it seems we want them to be metronomic. Give me a real drummer anyday.

That Giraffe stand is the one I've got and it works really well, but then I've got a combo, so the amp sliding off is not a problem.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='443125' date='Mar 23 2009, 09:18 PM']I've seen a couple of foldable cab-tilter wedge-type designs which look like a good idea on the face of it but what stops your head from sliding off the top when the cab is tilted back?[/quote] If its a combo then the stand has stand ups at the back that stops it falling off. If you've got a separate head then I guess the easy option is that the head doesn't have to be on top the cab.

I currently only have a small 65watt combo (Marshall B65), which has served me fairly well, and so far I have got away with DI'ing when I've needed extra umph. In anticipation of playing out more, however, I am now thinking about upgrading to a stack system, or a much pokier combo with extension cab, possibly with a 1 x15 and a 2 x 10. Sound wise I obviously need to go out and try stuff, but have done some initial looking into possibilities and prices on the interweb. I get the impression that most systems in my target range are based around 8 ohm cabs, thus dropping to 4 ohms if you have two cabs, but that some are based around 4 ohm cabs dropping to 2 ohms with two cabinets. Given that I'd be getting a matching amplifier, is there any inherent advantage in going for 8/4 ohms over the 4/2 ohms, or vic versa? One of my concerns is that if I go for 4/2 ohms it will make it harder to "mix and match" at a later date if required (on the basis that an 8/4 amp might not like driving into 2 ohms, where as a 2/4 ohhm amp would still drive an 8 ohm cab if required, albeit with some loss of volume) Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

I have a Colt 100, which is a full range/keyboard/acoustic combo, rather than a bass specific combo, and it's been great.

Never heard of this lady before, but I (personally, IMHO, etc) would put her playing well above Walkenfeld's.

[quote name='Jase' post='438827' date='Mar 19 2009, 12:38 AM']Talking of Hendrix [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F9bBAqb0o8"]Billy/Hendrix[/url][/quote] Good job he took up bass rather than singing though.

Something I mentioned in another thread: Fender stating that the jazz bass 24 is their first 24 fret bass, which it isn't. Both the Stu Hamm Urge models have 24 frets. The Mk1 has been around for at least 10 years, and the Mk2 is still listed on the Fender site.