Eight

Steve Harris is God. Good to know the signature bass is as good as you'd expect.

If I remember rightly, Ox plays a BTB. That's a selling point right there...

[quote name='The Bass Doc' post='798020' date='Apr 6 2010, 09:01 PM']Truss rod tweak? Can be done 'on board' but crucial to use the right allen key. Replacement t/r nuts again readily available.[/quote] Cool. I resisted the urge to start poking allens in there. Methinks I showed remarkable uncharacteristic restraint. But I did take the neck off, and binned the strings and the machine heads. Kept the bridge in an airtight bag for now - to stop the filth escaping - just in case I need to match the size or whatever later. The other thing I've noticed from looking at those photos... carpet could use a hoover.

Some pictures. Not sure you can tell from this photo just how minging the bridge is. Something missing...? Something else missing...? The electrics work, thankfully. But I'm a bit concerned about the truss rod so might hang on until I can get the Doc to take a peek before doing much else to this bass. Does the neck need to be screwed to the body to check that the rod turns? Maybe a dumb question. Can't quite tell whether the allen key socket part is broken or not, but then the light isn't great in here tonight. Every single screw on this bass is rusted and filthy - I don't know exactly what's happened between a problem developing and me getting hold of it, but I suspect this bass has been in a few sheds.

I use a Behringer Xenyx mixer for this when using the cab would be too noisey. No battery but otherwise works well. Line out from Ashdown head into one channel on the mixer. iPod/Netbook to the Tape-In RCAs (mixer switched to add "tape-in" to mix) I think the 3.5mm->RCA cable cost me about three quid. Sennheiser headpones (have their own 1/4" adaptor to plug into the phones socket on the mixer) or other headphones + 59p 3.5mm->1/4" adaptor.

As a non-gigging player, I'm covered through the AA with the Vampyre as a named extra since it exceeds the standard single item limit. Edit: They know it's a musical instrument. Can't remember what the advisor said about the cover outside of the home EXCEPT that if you're in any way paid for a gig during which your gear is damaged then they'd probably argue it's in a professional capacity and wouldn't be covered. She advised me to look away from home contents insurance if damage outside of the home was a real possibility. Edit: and they don't do specialist stuff so was actually suggesting I use a different company. But in the end their price was so good I took it and thought I'd join the MU if I could ever get gigging. Although I am covered if a bass gets wrecked on the way to e.g. a lesson.

[quote]I'm on the lookout for other Schecter flavours[/quote] I was very impressed with the Damien when I first got it. For what is really quite a low-spec instrument with some EMGs thrown in, it has an incredibly fat low end, good build quality and has become the bass I play every day. My mate also swears by his Schecter gu*tar. Edit: same EMG-Hz pickups as in the Stiletto actually.

Got a strange urge to try and fit a Warwick height-adjustable Just-A-Nut III to this thing. But when the nut is half the value of the instrument, you know you're being daft.

[quote name='The Bass Doc' post='797617' date='Apr 6 2010, 02:53 PM']And I think you know where to come for cheapie parts. [/quote] Ah good call!!! I'll peruse your offerings when I bring the Vampyre and Curbow down. And I'll make a list of things to ask you hahahah.

It is the Jazz, ja. I was actually quite impressed when I first picked it up. I can imagine these being great basses for that end of the market. Oh and thank you very much for the link to your project there - useful info for a newb like me.

A guitar playing friend of mine was given this Peavey International Series Milestone I to "fix". It needs a little more work than he first thought and unfortunately, being a guitar player, he doesn't have the attention span or work ethic so has passed it on to me. The one string (of the two that are present) that can actually be tuned tells me that it could be quite a playable instrument, plus I've wanted to do something along these lines for a while. And so... here begins my first adventure into bass restoration and building. :-) Will get some pics together but here's what I've worked out needs doing so far. [list] [*]New bridge - current one is filthy, and so cheap it's not worth cleaning [*]New machine heads - only has two. [*]Nut might need changing [*]Body needs filling and redrilling since the strap pins have both dethreaded their holes [*]Respray - body is battered to hell. Not even in a cool way. [/list] Then I'm adding on [list] [*]Black scratchguard - white one not my cup of tea. [*]Chrome pickguard cover - Fender Marcus Miller style. [/list] Fun fun fun. And with the summer months approaching, I might even be able to do the spraying myself. The best bits about this project are that the owner doesn't really care about getting the bass back, and short of burning it, there's no way I can make it any worse. Plus there's no point buying expensive parts since I doubt a Milestone I is worth more than £70. So even thought I know very little about these sorts of things, I might as well take the opportunity to learn. Edit: See post further down about the pickguard poll.

[quote name='charic' post='796495' date='Apr 5 2010, 01:11 PM']I thought I would see if I'm alone on this planet in preferring good ol' Dave.[/quote] Dave+1. Great player, and from the brief clips I've seen of his dvds and workshops - a good teacher too.

[quote name='basskiller' post='796418' date='Apr 5 2010, 11:42 AM']How do you think about this?[/quote] Very interesting. What an amazing shop - I'd kill my granny to go there.

Ooh - could be fun trying to manage this with five books in one thread. I wouldn't mind a read of the Ozzy book actually.

Ok folks, I'm done. Not a bad read actually. Were AndyMartin and juannycerveza awol then? Failing that, I think Hamster and RichValentine are the next prospects?

[quote name='Stan_da_man' post='786709' date='Mar 26 2010, 11:36 AM']but is anyone going to buy those Warwick's/Esh's? The Warwick's are £3k each aren't they?![/quote] The Esh Stinger II is next on my list... so I was looking forward to reading the review. Which wasn't quite as useful as I'd hoped... But fair point on the featured Warwick's... is anyone going to spend nearly SIX grand on a Streamer decorated with a kid's painting??? Although we'd complain if they weren't in BGM, and I guess it's interesting to see what's out there. Oddly, all the basses this month got 4 out of 5 stars. Which must mean that the TM Warwick is amazing and justifies it's silly price tag???

[quote name='hagguy' post='794809' date='Apr 3 2010, 04:14 AM']i've never really tried to get into a band or anything, so looking for some advice on how to get things going, for myself and how to go about it?[/quote] Currently trying to get some kind of jam thing moving (for the second time) since I'd like a bit more experience of playing with other people before joining a real band where they want to gig etc. Anyway, it seems to me you just have to put ads on the web sites (like joinmyband.co.uk etc.), respond to ads, make arrangements, wait for people to drop out, get angry and frustrated, rinse and repeat... After a hundred times maybe you find some people who aren't tw@ts and you actually get to the stage of playing something. Whoever said music was fun!?!

Just wanted to say, great idea. Really interested to see what people post - and if you're putting up MySpace links etc. then I'll definitely be checking them out. Unfortunately, I'm not in a band. So that's as far as I go here.

This thread <- sponsored by Wrigley's. Or Hubba Bubba if you're a big kid like me.

Something to gawp over... [url="http://www.gear4music.com/Recording-and-Computers/Alesis-ProTrack-Handheld-Stereo-Recorder-for-iPod-and-iPhone/AR6"]http://www.gear4music.com/Recording-and-Co...-and-iPhone/AR6[/url] The Peterson adapter cable stops you then using headphones while recording, so if that's an issue then you can also look at PRS's solution - [url="http://www.prscables.com/guitarbud"]http://www.prscables.com/guitarbud[/url] However, PRS didn't get back to me on how well it copes with lower frequencies.

How objective a person are you? Criticism is your best friend in most walks of life - if you're honest enough with yourself to know when it's true. If you don't believe it applies, just ignore it and crack on. Doesn't really matter why they're writing it if you don't think it's valid.

I've just noticed I'm pouting a lot while playing... Which wouldn't be so bad if I looked like Sarah5... going to try the gum thing. Although I don't think that's a great look either.

[quote name='crez5150' post='784909' date='Mar 24 2010, 05:24 PM']I was thinking about this the other day...... this would be kool on the new ipad..... saves carrying loads of sheet music around with you.[/quote] Have you seen these? [url="http://corporate.freehandmusic.com/products-musicpadpro.php"]http://corporate.freehandmusic.com/products-musicpadpro.php[/url]

[quote name='andyjingram' post='784774' date='Mar 24 2010, 04:11 PM']It wouldn't cause a problem- you would just have wasted space at the back. If you aren't going to fill either case, you might as well not fill the slightly smaller, slightly lighter one! [/quote] Hahahaha cool. And it gives me somewhere to hide my wallet. Cheers Andy, and everyone actually. I think I'm good to get my order in... and have learned a bit in the process. Thank you. (Good job I asked as well or this could have gone quite wrong. )