guyl

Conklin Sidewinder 7 was the best bass I ever owned. If it had one or two less strings, I'd still have it. If I ever become rich, I'll be over the pond to order a bespoke Conklin without hesitation. Bill Conklin is a pleasure to speak with. I had the impression he really cares. I wonder why he has problems with his "value" range. Overwater seem to be making the effort to control the quality of theirs.... Would love to see a UK dealer for Conklin.

"Folkies" tend to be the most appreciative and non-judgemental people you'll ever meet. Not met many competitive folk musos - they tend to love to pass on new tunes and ideas in the "traditional" way - ie over a real ale rather than through books. I'm sure you'll meet lots of people that will help you in the right direction and without any competitve pressure, you'll develop really quickly! Good luck with the beard growing - that's the bit that takes a while to reach proper folk size!

[quote name='BB3000S' post='1143034' date='Feb 27 2011, 08:54 AM']Thanks for the uploads guys, good stuff. [/quote] +1

Sold 2 EA cabs to Headofire. Supersmooth transaction. Lovely bloke - could have stood in that hotel carpark talking about bass all night! Thanks Graeme.

Does it always matter whether you've "seen" the bass before buying? Gear always sounds different in a live musical situation than in a music shop or living room. I'm a big fan of buying and gigging gear before deciding if it's a "keeper". As long as you don't pay over the odds in the first place, you can always put back on Basschat if it doesn't work out! Having said that, I once bought a 5-string double bass off ebay that was virtually unplayable. Before I had chance to do anything about it the neck broke off. Still managed to sell the bits as a project and didn't loose too much though.

I had a white faced iAmp 600. Bought from Overwater around 1999. I'm pretty certain they were reasonably new at the time - certainly not around in the 80's or early 90's. It was extremely clean. I never found it warm or punchy with electric bass, but paired with EA cabs the double bass sound was awesome. It was uber-funtional - mute switch, input monitor, front mounted DI with level control, built in tuner, excellent and useable EQ. It was clearly designed with some common sense and practical musical situations in mind. It never felt as loud as its 600watt rating. I suppose thats something to do with it being so clean. Also, the EA cabs that I tended to use it with were quite power hungry. I did consider the black 800 when it came out for its higher output. (It was also lighter being class D) Never took the plunge though. The only downside was reliability. Not obvious things breaking, but those gremlin faults where the amp would just die on a gig for no clear reason. Gary at EA in America was brilliant. Fab customer service. Everything was circuit board mounted, and he just sent replacement boards. In the end, it let me down on one gig too many. Dave Lunt is our local amp repairer (and a fellow bassist). He loved it (when it worked) so I just left it with him. Don't know if he had the patience to bring it back to life or whether he binned it!

Pops has worked for me too. I'm no expert, but I think the important factor was "fresh" - as opposed to crusty and rock-solid which is what I had for ages before investing in a new tubs of Pops last year. BTW - people talk about Pops being liquid, but I think this is only an issue in hotter countries.

Yes please

Yeah - cheapy Maplins job with a switchable output works fine for me

The best thing about Wham - very funky, very cool and very musical

Whilst it would be great to travel the world and play with mega-stars, writing/recording/playing on hit records would be the best job for me. Imagine being in Tesco and hearing your hit over the tannoy. You'd be itching to shout - "everyone listen to me!"

[quote name='lettsguitars' post='1046265' date='Dec 3 2010, 12:53 PM']i had a corvette pro back in the day. warwick supplied the wax. what i found was, the light coloured wood (not sure what it was, i was just a nipper) tended to get a little grimy, and then i would wax over the top of old grime and start the process again. not sure, but maybe clean up with wire wool before waxing? any opinions?[/quote] I've never waxed my natural Streamer since I bought it around 15 years ago. It has got some grimy marks - eg around the knobs and where my right thumb rests against the pickup. I'm scared of using wire wool though!

Everything sounds great in your bedroom or music shop. You need to get it into a musical situation to really assess it. Sometimes that means buying and road testing for a few months. This is one of the great things about basschat - the ability to have a dabble and move it on !

If stopping playing isn't an option due to gig commitments, can you lower the action on your bass? Maybe you could experiment with altering tunings between songs to use more open strings. Or maybe string your bass down a 4th so you are playing low stuff higher up the neck. You dont need a bass in your arms to learn/nail a song - you could sing along, or transcribe. good luck!

I bought a new Streamer around that time and it didn't come with a gig bag or case. On a slightly unrelated - I also have owned 2 Warwick Rockbags. Straps have come off on both after a while. They were nice and cheap and seemed good value, but the sound of your bass hitting the pavement as it "breaks" away from your shoulder is pretty sickening. I won't be buying another!

+1 for the wide strap. Also moving whilst playing. (I don't mean starjumps - just not standing/sitting still or slouching) Careful moving your amp/speaker. You may be straining your back it when you unload and set up, but only realising after strapping a bass on. I have started exercising a couple of times a week - esp swimming. Pretty amazed what a difference it has made to my back - wish I'd started 10 years ago!