Muzz

[color=#333333]Watching Bowie Night on BBC 4 last night confirmed three things 1. Back in the day, he was untouchable 2. He's done nowt worth mentioning for 25 years now and 3. Gail Ann Dorsey is fantastic.[/color] [color=#333333]Nice to see Jim Bowen getting some work as the Spiders drummer, too...[/color]

I've got mine moved to the end of the body, kind of on the end between the neck plate and the neck itself. I've seen them put on an extra-long neck screw through the neck plate, too.

You can get an official date from the serial number off the Ernie Ball website, plus there's [url="http://www.musicmanbass.org/"]http://www.musicmanbass.org/[/url] which has lots of info on serials, too.

Had a couple, never got on with them, didn't like the necks/spacing/string tension*, I'm more than happy using a Hipshot (got one on all my basses) and IMHO it's just not worth the mither for those 3 extra notes, which I've never needed to play. * The best I've tried were Dingwalls, but even then, well, it was still a 5...

Oooo, good fun! 1. Alembic 2. Yamaha 3. Musicman 4. Wal 5. Fender 6. Goodfellow 7. Ibanez 8. Dingwall 9. Ovation 10. Spector

Another factor is something I've heard several times from punters, which is usually along the lines of "You did quite a good version of <enter song here>, I/my son/daughter can play it on Guitar Hero 100%". Errrrrrr yeeeeah...

Just to extend the metaphor slightly, I've got an ABZ4 (don't like 5s at all, despite owning a couple) and it fixes an issue I hadn't been aware existed much at all, or rather it improved something I'd taken for granted for all my bass-playing life. The multi-scale design benefits string tension across the strings - it plays beautifully, and switching back to my 'traditional' basses, excellent as they are, is a step backward. It's a good job Sheldon doesn't make many maple-boarded 4s, or else my bass GAS, which my ABZ has killed off almost completely, would be back with a vengeance. I'd recommend everyone try one, even a 4, even just the once.

While we're on about tonewoods, I've previously seen on the Warmoth site two P-bodies of the same size and wood (Black Korina IIRC) which were wildly different weights, I'm talking 40% heavier (and therefore denser), not just a bit. Taking the earlier points about good luthiers and wood selection, they'd obviously take this into account, but it does rather kibosh the generalised tonewood descriptions we see so much of.

As far as playing them goes, the first couple of frets are a little further apart, and the top half a dozen frets make chording, erm, a new experience, but everyone who's tried mine (and that's just about everyone who's seen it, it's the ultimate "Can I have a go mate?" bass) has been surprised at how unnoticeable the 'wonky' frets are when you're playing.

Fanned frets allow the 'thicker' strings to have a longer scale length, and therefore better tension. My Dingwall has been a revelation; I love it, in fact my other basses get played much less these days. The E is IIRC, 36.25", while the G is a standard 34". I'd recommend everyone try them, you may or may not get on with them (although they look much more unusual than they are to play), but they're certainly extraordinary. It may have something to do with the banjo frets and compound radius of the fretboard, whatever it is, it works for me.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1339676989' post='1692481'] Michael Tobias states his view very clearly. Break out your biggest megaphone. He can't be shouted down as easily. [/quote] You mean a man whose earnings are in part dependent on him using premium, exotic, allegedly tone-changing woods and charging accordingly? Imagine how many more basses he'd sell if he said "Pick a nice colour and pattern guys, the tone's mostly in the electrics"... Yeah, right: no ulterior motives there...

Maple is a harder wood than rosewood? Really? I know it's Wikipedia, but... [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_hardness_test"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_hardness_test[/url] - Rosewood 1780, Hard Maple 1450, Silver Maple 700, Red Maple 950 Makes you wonder about all that "maple is a brighter sounding board" hoohah, too...

Maple all the way. But then I like a maple board on anything.

[quote name='kevin_lindsay' timestamp='1339255815' post='1685985'] Jean-Jacques Burnel from The Stranglers!!!!! I heard that fabulously grungy bass sound and thought "I want to do THAT"!!! [/quote] This, plus a little while earlier me and my mate (we were 13) decided we wanted to form a band, and he said "I want to play guitar, how about you be the bassist?". Yes folks, I was [i]that[/i] close to becoming a guitard...

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1339241662' post='1685746'] Wealthy tin-ears, and there are lots of them about. [/quote] Wasn't he in Noddy?

I think this lot are good for another three or four pages, easy. I managed about half a minute of each one, and apart from the arse-clenching awfulness, the main thing I've come away with is 'Blimey, they've got some money...'

The Supertone is a great bridge, I fitted one to my Epi bird in about 5 minutes, again, EBay from the US worked out about £75. I've got a pair of Seymour Duncan SSB4 pickups in mine, but I'm thinking of going the whole hog and putting some Lulls in there. Still got the original Epi black pups kicking around, too. 'Modify the hell out of it' you say? How about my list: new neck, new nut, new tuners, new wiring, new pots, new straplocks, new knobs, new pickups, new bridge. The wood of the body and the neck plate are original though...

[quote name='Rasta' timestamp='1338581985' post='1676902'] Another 94 slim necked green machine here... Love my Fortress, especially now it's passive with wizards ....great basses [/quote] Yep, the Fortress really suits the Wizards (or maybe I just don't like MECs). I'd say it'll be at least as good as a modern German made one, if not better. The secondhand prices of Warwicks are way below their quality. Dunno why.

My 93 Fortress has the best neck and lowest action of anything I've ever played, period. They're very slim necks, not like any other Warwick I've played. IMHO, YMMV, etc, etc. I should add that mine's an early one, with the non-volute headstock and the odd chamfers in the front of the body either side of the neck joint. It's still a bloody awful colour, mind...

I'd say there's a couple of issues: first, a change in tension will very probably need a tweak of the truss rod on the acoustic, so it depends whether you're happy with this sort of thing, and secondly, if you didn't like the tension on your electric, you won't like it on your acoustic. I just didn't like the response and sound of flats on my electrics, but I do on the acoustic. I'd recommend the flats to you, but I've no idea what they are as they came to me second-hand. One thing which put me off about the phosphor bronzes is the smell when they get older. Ew.