Al Heeley

I remember Jim Fleeting (excellent N. Yorks Luthier) exclaiming at the Harrogate bass bash a couple of years ago that sustain was not altogether a desirable quality, it needs not to be sounding muffled or damped but a lot of bass technique is about muting notes and huge sustain is not always a good thing. Most good and bad basses can sustain long enough for most styles of music.

Just played an amazing gig to a packed crowd of 500 at the Holmfirth Picturedrome to raise money for the Huw Thatcher trust - brilliant crowd, brilliant night, massive mosh pit and 500 happy singing faces bouncing up and down.

I had same issue with putting together a P-bass project once - just shimmed the neck pocket with 1/2mm maple sliver to fill the gap, sand it flush and you get a nice snug neck joint again which is barely visible. It doesn't even need fixing in place, just the pressure of the neck in the pocket holds it firm.

I don't want to reopen the debate , but that's not really a very strong argument, you're making a pretty big assumption that most people are swayed by one (or more) posts from opinionated people. The internet is full of opinionated people, some of who are wrong. You have to make your own mind up and if it's an item you want and you think the price is fair then you will pay it. If it doesn't sell, then obviously the community deem the price to be too high. In that case you drop your price or try elsewhere. You are making the assumption that people are easily swayed - well some are and some are not. I don't think it's right to judge all forum members as subsersives or sheep, they should have the right to their own opinions and judge for themselves accordingly. I'm quite cool about adhering to the rules of the forum that I enjoy being a member of, I was just curious as to the reasoning behind the zero tolerance attitude to this subject. I reserve my right to think I've not heard a very good reason for it yet

There ya go - market sets the price, not the seller!

[edit]I was wrong and I've learnt summit!

Fair enough, I missed all the debate - probably out playing bass somewhere....

I do not want to be contentious but why is the forum strict about comments questioning prices? If someone comes on with a price which is thought to be high, what is the problem with airing an opinion about it? The poster can either ignore it, sell it to someone who is happy to pay the asking price, or they may take the advice and lower it to be more realistic? It seems to hit a bit of a nerve with the mods yet I don't think there's anything inflammatory about saying "You can buy one new for that sort of price", etc. You are just expressing your own opinion, which is kind of one of the driving points of a forum.

[b]Doss Performer[/b] This is for our lead guitarist. It doesn't do anything, just the red LED flashes randomly for a bit when someone stomps on it. He seems to like it though.

I think derelicing is the way forwards, I'm gonna try selling my next ebay guitar as specially dereliced, ie: good condition, only I think a lot of people might just read it as derelict.

Yours looks quite hot Chris

I've moved over to building BB Pre-amp clones as well now! It has a second op-amp chip to give active bass and treble controls but as danny says its essentially the same circuit as the tubescreamer. Its a lovely pedal but I've not stuck a bass thru it yet, or tried any mods. The active tone circuit gives it the edge over the tubescreamer's tone pot.

it's in the post. was toying with the chrome scratchplate idea - i have a black mex tele (thats a sort of small higher pitched bass with 2 more strings) that got a chrome scratch facelift, looks great but i've exceeded my wife's spend limit now so went for the cheaper option.

I've built a few tubescreamers and fitted a toggle switch to convert them to bass, does that count?

Settling into playing the ultrathin neck quite well now, its been very stable and takes a great low setup. Decided to swap out the stock white scratchplate for a black one. Is this sacrilege for a Geddy Jazz or altogether meaner?

WOW! Fab bubbly quilty maple veneer. What a nice looking build

When I was working in Saudi the guys over there bought a new car and left the plastic on the seats and the export documents stuck to the side windows as a sort of status thing, us euro ex pats scoffed at them - it saved their kids spoiling the seats with dropped chocolate and shwarmas but it looked crazy, you couldn't see out of the side window due to a big sticky doc folder and shipping numbers printed on em. I digress.

You need a Q-tron or similar envelope filter, they are fun with bass. And definitely an EHX bass synth. That's essential.

rip it off, throw it away and start playing!!

No not much, 250k pots are normal for single coil, there is a difference in the ramp when u use 500k pots but you have to have great ears to tell any real difference on a bass. 500k are supposed to be a bit brighter - traditionally used with gibson humbuckers while single coil fender strats traditionally used 250k.

No bass collection is ever complete without: 1) Fender jazz 2) Fender precision 3) MusicMan Thingray 4) Rickenbacker 4001/3 5) Decent Yamaha workhorse 6) Custom Fodera 5-string. Now its just a question of which order you get them in.

MusicMan ThingRay gets my vote

GLX bass eq here as well, only £34 new, sturdy, reliable (about 1.5 yrs old now I think) and lots of rumours about them being built in the same factory as Boss, just rebranded as lower cost range. It does all I need it to do at a very acceptable price. Not tried any of the other GLX pedals, but then I build my own chorus and overdrives. [quote name='xgsjx' post='1284569' date='Jun 27 2011, 08:27 PM']+1 Get the Boss. Or save a little more & get a multi fx pedal.[/quote] Multi-fx unit for graphic eq = P.I.T.A. Bit of a sledgehammer to crack a nut isn't it?

[quote name='Ed_S' post='1283341' date='Jun 26 2011, 08:47 PM']Heh, aye! I rang up to ask what they'd charge for a USA Fender Precision when I was buying mine, and the guy quoted me about £400 too much. I asked why it was so expensive compared to anyone else, and he told me that he had a contact at Fender in the US who would go to the warehouse, unbox a few, pick me the best one, set it up and ship it over. I said that was impressive service... considering their warehouse is in the Netherlands! He put the phone down on me [/quote] Looking at the prices they are quoting for Epiphone Les Pauls, Jap strats and squier strats, I'd say they look to be a bit on the pricey side. Do they do much trade at these price levels?

I knda like the yellow paint job though!