LITTLEWING

Make sure the bare earth wire is tucked into the little slot in the body before you screw down. I've done exactly that before!

Nearly as mind numbingly sh*te to look at as Windows 10.

True dat, MBA!

Haha!! What I'm saying is, I wouldn't go near a bass with say low rattly action which the owner thinks is fantastic but I'd rather play one with my ideal setup. Happy Sunday!!

This totally. Mate of mine's girl is dog ugly and if she was single I wouldn't do the deed if I was drunk AF but he loves her to bits and she's perfect for him. 😂

Bummer. Just curious, never had flats in my whole life. I'll fiddle with the frets sometime. Cheers ET.

This. Simple and quick to do then sort the nut grooves.

Check out YouTube, there are a couple of vids on there where a guy is plucking strings while moving a pup up and down the body from bridge to neck and even sideways just for good measure. Very interesting.

FWIW, I had a brand new cheapy Epiphone Toby as a gigging spare and even after getting it set how I wanted there was one buzzy fret. Had a fiddle with some fine emery and wire wool and it nearly disappeared but showed up when I was digging in. I don't know what strings it came with but I chucked on a set of Rotosounds when they died and straight away the buzz had totally vanished. Could well be the brand of strings you had fitted.

Got a couple of buzzy frets on one of my herd and looking at flats for a change anyway. Just wondering if they laugh at the odd iffy fret or do they make things worse?

I must admit I'll fiddle for ages to get the sound that's in my head, but as soon as we kick off and I lock in with the drummer it's all immaterial. If I'm watching a band I'm more likely to listen to the overall sound and tightness more than the bass tone which gets lost anyway.

All depends if you're a tribute or a covers band. If you're Green Day, Queen or Chic, those little essential twiddles are 100% important for the song. Covers are simply covers and you can play your own version which is sometimes more satisfying when you put your own slant on things. Basically, relax and be confident and fluent, not anal.

IMHO you can't go wrong quality or price-wise with a Wilkinson bridge with brass saddles. Got them on two Precisions and they enhance the tone and even everything out nicely. (And NO, I have no affiliation with Wilkinson whatsoever before you ask!! They just supply really decent gear at nice prices).

Is it a done thing to search out the band you're supporting at a venue to introduce yourselves? Here's what happened Friday..... Turned up on time at venue before soundcheck. I saw the singer mooching around and said hi to him and had a quick chat to the drummer who appeared next. Had a laugh with both guys about pronouncing Scottish place names where they were due on their 'tour'. Great, friendly and warm. Both disappeared somewhere behind stage/venue while we sound checked. Time soon came, went on and did our 35 minutes. Nice, good reception. Main band eventually went on. Punky Clash/Ramones middle aged bunch, sounded amazing. Towards the end, singer thanked us by name and then amazingly SLATED US ROYALLY in front of everybody for being rude and not going to say hello to them!!!! So what should we have done? Only second time we'd played there, had no idea there was a green room. Suppose we'd burst in to their cosy little snug and be told to F off/who do think you are etc? Apparently the rest of the band were quite embarrassed for him for being a small penis with an inferiority complex. Shame, I thought they were otherwise bloody brilliant, powerful and sounded great.

One more thing to try that a lot of people don't do - when new strings go on you MUST (after tuning to concert pitch) push each string down with moderate pressure immediately after the saddle on the pickup side to create a 'witness point' and a break angle that end. This will complete the nut to saddle singing length. The other thing that kills an E string is inadvertenly running one's thumb up and down filling the windings with crud. Keep that digit behind the neck as much as possible.

Gigging with a preloved Squier PJ Standard with Wilkinson pups and a preloved OLP again with a Wilkinson pup. Total around £250. Sound incredible thru front of house. Bought a brand new Squier VM 5 string for more than that once. Complete bucket of dog p*ss.

I had an Evo II Mag 300 once. Tried over three years and various cabs to get a good sound. Wasn't in there anywhere. Put me off for life. Love to try an ABM with the sliders though. Watching the sale ads for a decent price.

Looks absolutely brilliant, but excuse me for being a killjoy, the only scary thing there is that various compositions of rubbers and foams can very slowly affect the cellulose finish on guitars in close contact over time. A lot of modern man made chemicals and compounds can play havoc with finishes. Somewhere or other I recall someone putting a new lining of some description in their guitar case using a strong glue and a while after storing their beloved wood, wire and metal string second love in there were horrified to find the lacquer crazing and lifting away from the wood......

True, the Fender ones are noisy cheap junk. I've had a VOX curly lead for over a year now and it hasn't lost any of the clear sound quality and is still quiet. Just about to buy another as a gigging spare.

FWIW, I put a replacement pickguard on my 34" scale MM2 OLP and the new 'guard brings the p'up 10mm nearer towards the neck and now sounds totally amazing. The measurement is 29 and 1/2" from the front of the nut to the front (neck side) of the plastic p'up cover.

Rich, are you pressing the string down a little on the p'up side when fitting ?(giving a nice contact angle on the saddle) I used to get strings dying quick too until I learnt this install tip.

Can someone local PLEASE nip round to Highwayman's house and help out. I admire anyone having a go at setting up, but it sounds like he's unfortunately not very knowledgable where essential tweaks are concerned (no offence honestly, I was there once) and the whole very fine guitar is sadly going to be way out and unplayable in no time. Hope it's sweet and dandy very soon Mr H.

Be careful H, if an Elixir Nanoweb price looks too good then the chances are they're fakes, lots of dodgy sellers out there. Stick to popular distributors if you want to be sure of the real deal. Shell out £30 and get shitters when for a few quid more the proper jobbies will last till next Xmas.

FWIW, I put some in a project P bass a while ago, and yes they are very big depth-wise. Various ways around it - dig out the routing deeper or shim the end of the neck pocket to to make the strings lower to raise the saddles thereby increasing the height of the strings off the body and ultimately higher over the pups. Nothing bad about them, very lively and punchy but all I can say is if you want your P bass to sound nothing like a traditional P bass then buy some.

All depends on the guitar colour, gold doesn't go with everything. I personally hate two bits of wood sandwiched together that are a total obvious mis-match and look like someone threw the last couple of bits off the floor together to make a few more quid with a body.