Velarian

I had a thought about this kind of thing. If I was buying an expensive bass from a private seller and couldn’t collect it personally, I’d be tempted to get an Apple AirTag (or similar), register it with my phone, send it to the seller and ask them to include it in the package. That way I’d have a reasonable chance of tracking its location if it was delayed or went missing.

Just an observation (and I really don’t have much clue), with the headstock block right up against the nut, will you be able to achieve the right break angle over the nut? From the picture, it looks like the front edge of the block might be a tad higher than the back edge of the string slots and, for example, a thick E string might not bend sufficiently.

What are you using to drive the 600s?

32ohm headphones would work for most use cases. Phones, tablets, laptops, hi-fi etc. I recently bought some Beyer Dynamic DT990s which are 250ohm and whilst they do work for general use the output level is generally set at 70-90%. I use a separate headphone amp connected to my audio interface for more critical applications. I believe 600 ohm units would generally be for studio use.

Count me in this year.

I think it was quite common to use tape echo in the 60’s. This article: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/doubling-thicker-sounds?amp , contains the following: - “The traditional option is known as 'artificial double tracking', or simply 'ADT'. This was essentially an extension of the simpler 'slapback delay' effect heard on countless Elvis and rockabilly records, whereby a delayed version of a vocal was added to the original. The shorter the distance between the tape machine's record and playback heads and the higher the tape speed, the shorter the delay time was, and the more it began to resemble a double-track. Unless the machine suffered from excessive wow and flutter, though, it didn't emulate the natural pitch variations between tracks. The engineers at Abbey Road created the more familiar ADT effect (favoured by John Lennon in particular, and heard on many Beatles records) by making manual varispeed adjustments to short tape delays. The speed changes resulted in the small pitch and time variations that made this effect sound much fuller and richer. And by hooking up two tape machines so that the relative delay between the two could be adjusted down to zero or even be reversed, tape phasing or flanging was produced, with more extreme speed variations creating a more trippy ADT effect.”

Beautiful!

I bought my oldest P-Bass unseen from Exchange and Mart back in 80/81. The description matched what I was looking for, I spoke to bloke about it and then drove all the way from Yorkshire to Luton to buy it. A bit risky In hindsight but it worked out ok.

A seasonally appropriate Paddy McAloon.

No longer available but I would love to have this (especially at the price originally offered).

It must be difficult typing one-fingered on such a small keyboard. 😉

She reacted to a few of the initial replies so I’m guessing that she found her answer and off she went! 🤷‍♂️

Why not take a road trip then write a song about it: A night in Tadley. 😉

Yeah, but nobody butchers a nut quite like Mr P. 😉

Is it likely that this started life as a sunburst then received a Selmer refinish in Fiesta Red before being stripped back to natural? If so refinishing as a sunburst would be really cool. How much would it cost to do a quality refinish?

A couple of things come to mind. Firstly, what amp and headphones have you been using? When you say it sounds horrendous, why is that? Is it because it’s distorted, or perhaps not loud enough? It seems a bit odd that they don’t play nicely together but It could be an issue with the an impedance mismatch between the amp output and the headphones. Can you try borrowing some other headphones to see if that solves the issue? Alternatively, the jack plug adapter you’re using could be faulty, I’ve had a dodgy one before but a few quid could fix the problem if that’s the case. Secondly, you mention the Vox Amplug and worry that it’s battery powered. The batteries do actually last a reasonable time. However, the Amplug is a bit basic and limited in capability. They’re currently £38 on Amazon but for £58 you can get a Nu-X Mighty Plug which is like the Amplug on steroids. It’s rechargeable via USB and has built in effects and a good selection of drum loops. To get the most out of it it needs to be used with the accompanying free smartphone app which connects via Bluetooth to allow control all the settings and also stream backing tracks to play along to. Because the only cable is from the plug (in the bass) to the headphones, it allows you freedom to move around and not be tied to other devices on the floor. Good value IMHO. As others have mentioned the Boss Waza Air is like the Rolls Royce of headphone systems but at around £350 a tad expensive.

I’ve just bought a pair of Beyer DT990s which are a step up from the previous cheap closed-back headphones I was using. I definitely prefer open back headphones. One thing to watch with studio quality headphones is their resistance (250 ohms in the case of the DT990s) as some consumer devices may struggle to drive them at sufficient volume. Having said that, the headphone output on my Fender Rumble is more than adequate and capable of delivering levels that are probably too loud to be sensible.

I watched this on iPlayer last night. It’s available for the next 29 days. Well worth watching. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0008k8q

Here you go. The control plate was cut from a ‘Phil Lynott’ style mirrored scratchplate. Ideally I would have preferred a chromed metal one but couldn’t source one that looked like I wanted. I had intended to get one custom made but never got around to it. A word of warning if you go for the MusicMan style plate like the Leland Sklar bass it won’t fit in the right place with opening up the control cavity routing. This is mentioned in my build thread.

I have Rumble LT25 which has a stereo 3.5mm aux in jack so, assuming the Rumble 40 is the same, it should work just fine. It will depend on which iPad you have, if it has a conventional headphone socket then you’ll just need a cable with a stereo 3.5mm Jack at each end. Just plug it in and off you go. If your iPad only has a lightning connector then you’ll need a lightning to 3.5mm jack adaptor. I’ve just tried this with my iPad/Rumble and it works just fine, in fact I nearly blew my head off with the volume! 😂

Not exactly what you asked but, just for reference, on my ‘77 Precision which has a sans serif font, it’s about 6.5mm

Thanks, that is sensible.

I’ve noticed recently that my post count doesn’t seem to change every time I make a post. So, for the past three days I tried an experiment where I’ve only posted once a day (on the Wordle thread), so just three posts in three days. My post count hasn’t changed over that time and is still the same as it was on Monday. I’m not particularly bothered as it’s not like I’m in a race or anything but just thought I’d report that it looks to be broken. Edit: It’s just gone up by 1, presumably as a result of this post. Does that mean some threads (like the Wordle thread) don’t contribute to the post count?

429 (this of course ignores the obvious loss of at least 66 basses earlier in the thread, which I did read in full before posting 😉)