uncle psychosis

[quote name='6v6' timestamp='1378979733' post='2207225'] This is completely wrong - if the strings were properly grounded then touching them would make no difference, as they'd already be at ground potential. Touching them is proving an (indirect and high resistance) path to ground, via your body, which is enough to attenuate the noise, which is probably induced noise from electromagnetic interference (TV, lights etc) on the strings and other metal parts of the bass. An earth must've fallen off inside the bass, or possibly the cable has a dodgy shield so I'd try a new cable first. [/quote] Not this again. Noise goes away when you touch the strings because you're grounding *yourself* not because you are grounding the strings. The human body is a massive antenna for unwanted electrical noise. This noise is picked up by poorly shielded pickups and so you can hear it. When you touch the strings you ground yourself and the noise goes away.

I'd put the screws back in---you won't lose them, the holes won't get full of dirt and other crap, and there's no danger of somehow snagging the hole and damaging the paintwork. The fact it looks nicer is a bonus!

[quote name='6v6' timestamp='1378887202' post='2205914'] The LMB-3 is actually a compressor though, despite the name, since it's got an adjustable ratio (making it a limiter with the ratio at infinity, but a compressor elsewhere in the range) [/quote] Some genius marketing from Boss right there

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1378816802' post='2204969'] What do these actually do? Not being sarcastic, I really don't know! [/quote] [quote name='Jack Cahalane' timestamp='1378819114' post='2205041'] Me neither! [/quote] Limiting is a specific form of Compression. More on both here: [url="http://www.ovnilab.com/articles/limiter.shtml"]http://www.ovnilab.com/articles/limiter.shtml[/url]

Blue Bossa is a great audition piece. Nice and simple, great chords for soloing over, and its not a blues (everyone will play the blues!)

I bet they're really handy bits of kit but I've just never been able to justify the price. For the size of stages most of us play on it just seems like overkill...

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1378823271' post='2205123'] I suspect that the shim has always been considered to be part of the factory adjustment procedure in bolt-on basses. If the pocket is designed to give the correct neck angle and elevation with a small shim in place, there is scope to adjust the angle in both directions (either by using a larger shim or removing the shim) to correct for manufacturing tolerances. If it was designed for the perfect angle without a shim, adjustment would only be possible in one direction and any instruments that needed to be adjusted for less neck angle would have to be rejected. Viewed this way, it seems like a smart bit of design for production line instruments. [/quote] ^^ this.

My mate has one of these. Annoyingly he's left handed so I haven't been able to have a proper play of it. It certainly sounds alright.

Are there really people out there who think that being deceitful about purchases worth hundreds or thousands is a good way to behave in a committed relationship? Or who think so little of their wife that they reckon she can't tell one red bass from another? I really hope that it's just tongue in cheek jokey bravado, otherwise it's little wonder the divorce rate is so high.

I don't really think its surprising that in a country with a population of 60-something million people that advertising gigs to a few thousand bassists isn't going to result in all that much interest.

I'm not sure the bass guitar will go through many more major changes. Once instruments become widely adopted they tend not to change all that much, because musicians on the whole are a fairly conservative (small c) bunch.

Recently I've been learning finger style having played with only a pick for years. I've noticed that my timing is definitely much better with a plectrum. Something I really need to work on with my right hand I guess.

[quote name='rodacademy' timestamp='1378369876' post='2199142'] Thoughts? [/quote] I can't say I'm very big on self-congratulation and bassists seem to enjoy slagging off other musicians too much for my liking---see the ubiquitous use of the word "guitard" on this forum. To have a great band you need all of the musicians to be on the ball and you need mutual trust and respect. I certainly don't see myself as the guy that holds it all together. We're all responsible for that.

[quote name='geoffbyrne' timestamp='1378244240' post='2197739'] Mark Knopfler. That is all. [/quote] Good point. If there's any danger at all of you sounding like Mark Knopfler you should definitely be changing your technique.

[quote name='mikeh' timestamp='1378227419' post='2197373'] Struggled with this myself, but then realised if you press the small blue circle on the far left of the thread title it does just that. [/quote] That seems to take you to the last post you read in the thread, not the last page. I'd love a "last page" and "first page" feature please mods

For those of you who have multiples of them...can I ask why? Do they sound different or is it just a collectors thing?

£1200 (maybe £1150) sounds reasonable to me. Yeah, you might be able to pick up another one for a *bit* (not much) cheaper but you wouldn't be as sure of the history and with this one you know exactly what you're getting playing, sound, and feel wise.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1378069654' post='2195574'] How on earth does a capacitor "break off"? [/quote] That was my first thought...

Grolsch washers are great, so long as you don't regularly take your strap off. Then they're a bit of a pain.

If you're playing even semi regularly then a good strap is an essential investment. Makes playing more comfortable and there's less chance of damaging your back. Basses come and go but a good strap can last decades. "Bass straps" tend to be a bit wider than the guitar equivalents. I've got a Neotech Mega Bass Strap. It's made of really thick neoprene and is really wide, so it makes my bass seem really light. Definitely recommended.

A few years ago I went on a tour of the Becks factory in Bremen. In Germany, Becks make quite a few different variants of Lager, and one in particular, Becks Gold, was most delicious. I asked them if they had any plans to sell it in the UK and the response I got was "no, the only people who would buy it drink Becks anyway, so there's no point...". Perhaps there's something similar with these brands/basses?

I would offer to do one practice to help them out, but only because you say they're decent guys. After that they should be practicing with the new bass player anyway!

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1377859965' post='2192835'] The title of this thread is three words too long... ;-) [/quote] Kids learn slapbass from this man? Never thought I'd hear you advocating that BRX!

[quote name='D.I. Joe' timestamp='1377857758' post='2192779'] Or Status Half rounds maybe? I've not tried them myself but they get a lot of love on these pages. [/quote] Someone (whose opinion I trust) told me that they couldn't find much difference between the status flats (what I'm currently using) and their half rounds. Thanks for the recommendations guys. Irritatingly it seems that getting half-round strings for a 35" five string bass is not cheap. I may just need to go back to roundwounds...(especially because I have a set of DRs with plenty play left in them lying around doing nothing)...

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1377851216' post='2192627'] It's posts like this that serve to remind me just how little I understand about electrickery. Increasingly, I give up on trying to understand WHY things sound better or worse (cos I can't, see?) and focus instead on how they sound to my ears, using nothing more sophisticated than trial & error. I really would love to know what I'm doing, but I spend enough time learning to play bass without starting Electronics 101 at the same time ... [/quote] This is definitely a good attitude to have! Most people's favourite records were all recorded by artists using gear that was riddled with electrical imperfections. Much better to spend your time practicing and writing music than worrying about whether or not the bypass on some boutique overdrive is buffered or not... However, the basic principles of electical impedance aren't *that* complicated. Impedance is basically resistance, but for AC current. When you connect two electronic circuits together (eg an amp to a cab, or a guitar to an amp) you really want to match (confusingly this doesn't always mean "equal" either, but that doesn't matter) the impedances of the two circuits---if you don't then the signal doesn't pass as efficiently as it could (other things happen too, but I'm simplifying). This is why you need to be careful when matching cabs and amps. To think of an analogy thats easy to visualise---imagine light travelling through the air (circuit 1) and then striking a window (circuit 2). The impedance matching (or mismatching) between the window and the air govern how much light is reflected by the window and how much passes straight through. Simples