Nostromo

Cheers for that, Yes, they seem to do the Quik-Lok A-300 . . .but not the A-504 ? . . . guess there must be some difference between them . . though difficult to see it from the Quik-Lok web site ? Thanks

Happy New Year Everyone, Wishing you all lots of sucessful gigs in 2013 ! I'm gonna take advantage of the new year sale season and buy a couple of new Microphone Stands for my band. Need normal tripod 3 folding feet type stage stands - preferably with 2 stage telescopic boom. We've been using some cheap Studio Spares ones I bought a couple of years ago, but a couple of them have more or less fell to bits where the fittings are crimped to the tubes . . . so was thinking maybe the replacements should be a bit better engineered than the very budget Studio Spares ones, which will now be cannibalised for spare bits for the rest ! Was looking at Beyerdynamic GST500's or K&M 25600's, I've used an old Beyer before, but found the boom clutch quite hard to tighten up on it, have no experiance with the K&M 25600 ? . . . . a mate of mine uses Quik Lok A504's which seem very substantial and quite well engineered but I cant seem to find those for sale anywhere in the UK ? Anyway . . any experiance regarding what is the best mic stand you can buy for about £50 a pop would be very much appreciated. Just needs to be well engineered, probably metal rather then plastic I suspect, reliable, easy to use erganomically and easy to find on line ? Cheers all and happy new year,

Cheers everyone, I got free beer all evening on the strength of the above . . . . another great reason to be on basschat ! ! !

Hi there, Bit of a trivia question here . . . . caused a big debate down the pub the other night ! ! . . so hoping someone may be able to shine a light on the answer ? Having been been watching all the vintage Rolling Stones stuff on the TV over the last couple of weeks we've all noticed that on the really early film clips (63 - 65'ish) Bill Wyman is often seen playing a striking looking bass - with a single cutaway (almost sort of Les Paul Body shape) body only bigger of course and also appears to be a zebra wood top or something similar . . difficult to be sure from the B&W film clips but its definitely got a striped top ? . . . I think it might be a Framus but I'm not sure . . . and several of my mates say otherwise ? Anyway . . . does anyone out there in Basschat land know for certain what that bass was / is ? ? . . ie make / model designation ? There are a few beers riding on this down my local ! ! ! cheers

Hi everyone and thanks to all who have contributed to this topic. Well . . . . . . GOOD NEWS ! . . . . . . my Rumble Bass is fixed and working again. My problem was different to any of the issues mentioned within this thread so here's what my Amp Tech told me in a recent email on the subject:- "Very simple in the end, really - the bias sensing resistors were significantly out of spec, which meant that it was running way too hot when it seemed to be correctly biased. This is actually difficult to check because the resistors are only 1 ohm, which means that you can't meter them directly because a normal multimeter isn't accurate enough. (My test probe error alone is at least .3 to .4 ohms.) I found it by comparing the apparent reading from the sensing resistors to an accurate measurement using the output transformer - after realising that the power valves did seem unusually hot even for 6550s. Being out of spec was almost certainly just caused by heat over the years. So - I've replaced all the bias sensing resistors with wirewound resistors which are immune from this problem. (The originals were cheap carbon comp or carbon film, hard to tell which.)" . . . . "The amp is running fine now after a 6 hour soak test at full volume indicated no overheating or noise problems apparent". So, if any of you guys lucky enough to own a Bruce Zinky Custom Shop Rumble Bass Head run into any overheating problems then do consider the bias sensing resistors as a possible cause of the problem. . . . It was obviously a very cheap fix for me ! Cheers all.

Thanks for that, Yea . . . . . I guess I'd like the fender logo ! . . . dont know why really . . . ? .. . . but over the years I have realized I do really like USA and equally Japananese Fender Jazz necks . . its the neck shape profile I really look out for ? . . . . . . and I like the USA Jap stuff . . . though I've never ever felt the same about the Mexican Jazz basses . . . their necks generally feel hevier and bulkier to me . . . though it may be just the ones I've actually played and not representative . . . who can say ? . . . . . anyway . . . . I'm into fine / thin / narrow / shallow Jazz bass necks so thats what I'm looking for to fit to this Fretless ? . . . . . I do like some of the indonesian Squier necks, they are really fine . . . . but I'm not really thinking of putting a squier neck on a USA body ? . . . . . . . . .

Yea . . . . . guess what . . . . its a Maple fretboard on this one. I really fance the idea of option C) ie, fitting a replacement fretless neck . . . . but I know finding a worthy one is going to be a very very difficult task ? ? ? I found a site on ebaY where they appear to break guitars and sell the parts (reliable fender / the SRTATosphere) but their prices dont seem all that cheap, and then theres the problem that they are in the US so there would be the international postage and import taxes to factor in, so that would be a very expensive way to do it ? Real shame Fender wont sell replacement necks ! ! . . . . ironic really that they wont . . . . since that was why good old Leo designed his instruments with bolt on necks in the first place . . . so they could be easily changed ! ! !

I love the Made in Japan JBS's and the PJBS's . . . . . and I am proud to say I have one of each ! . . . see sig below. Does anyone know the history of why some examples of these models have got varnished maple necks whilst others have got Black painted necks ? ? (the back of the necks I mean not the Headstocks). Both my JBS & PJBS have got maple necks, but a mate of mine has got a JBS with the black painted neck and I used to have a power version with the black neck myself many years ago (another one I should never have sold ! . . . . . . .) My mate reckons its because the UK / Europe ones were imported with Maple necks whilst the USA ones were done with the Black painted neck job ? . . . . Does anyone know if thats right ? ? Cheers ps . . . . the new Duff model by Fender has got a considerably wider nut than the 80's originals so beware before you order one of those . . . the current Duff model neck is more like a P Bass neck than a Jazz neck . . .

[size=5]Hi there, I have a mint condition hardly played Fender USA Standard Jazz Bass (1997 year - Model Number #019 -2400), it’s a 4 string fretted model and I want to convert it to a fretless bass. Wondered what people thought the best option would be between:- a ) Selling the bass and buying a fretless bass – noting that selling & buying usually equals loosing money ? b ) Having the frets removed to convert the neck from fretted to fretless ? c ) Removing the neck and selling it to fund towards buying and fitting a fretless neck ? Any advice on which option might be the best and why ?[/size] [size=5]Cheers,[/size] ps: I've put an add in the for sale section re option C) if anyone is interested ?

Thanks guys . . .I get it now Cheers,

Guess I may have put this iin the wrong Forum ? . . . . not my day today ! Anyway, any advice much appreciated ? . . . maybe one of the moderators might clue me in sometime soon ? Cheers all,

I have a deal of sympathy for you, re the neck profile issue. I tried a Precision and a Jazz before I bought my very first bass (id been playing guitar before I took up bass) and was always, from the first moment, happier with a finer Jazz neck. Like you're now finding, I've always gotten cramps and aches when playing long sets with a Precision whilst I never get any of that stuff when using a Jazz, many might suggest my playing technique is probably wrong, but, my technique is what it is and I'm sort of stuck with it ! . . I've spent a long time over the years searching for a comfortable Precision, closest I got to that holy grail was the Highway Precision you'll see in my Sig Block below . . . only one I've ever bought . . but, to be honest, I've never really been completely comfortable with the Highway, though it does have the skinniest neck of any Precision I've ever picked up - not sure if that’s how they all are or just my particular example ? . . . . So . . . . I went the Frankenstein route . . picked up a nice Made in Japan loaded precision body and put a jazz neck on it . . . it all fitted perfectly . . no woodworking skills needed to set it up . . easy job . . . highly recommend it . . . more recently I've added a SD Antiquity pick up . . and thats the icing on the cake ! So that’s my gigging Precision these days . . . only draw back is it don’t say “Precision” on the headstock - I was gonna get that sorted but haven’t got round to it and maybe never will. Good luck serching for your holy grail "P" ! ! ! Cheers,