NickH

[quote]How do Wizards compare to Fender custom/Seymour Duncan PUs? On Axesrus they have a Fender custon PU for £55 delivered which Ihave my eye on.[/quote] I'm a sucker for Seymour Duncan pickups. There's a lot of variety, they're good value for money, easy to obtain and the sound is always good. The best bit is that it's one of the most searched-for names on eBay, so if you want to try something and don't like it they're very easy to move on again to minimise your loss

[quote name='TRadford' post='595762' date='Sep 11 2009, 03:33 PM']Just had my first bass hand delivered to my door by Nugget (Dave). Its a stunner, has more strings than I know what to do with, but in time hopefully! Its a Dean Rhaposdy 5 stringer, black quilt maple. Mmm nice.. Thanks very much Dave, you are a star, wasnt expecting to get a bass so quick![/quote] If it's your first bass, awesomely good idea to start on a 5. Moving from 4 to 5 once I'd been playing a while was a pain in the balls. Ultimately totally worth it, of course, but starting on a 5 will save you a bit of re-learning time Although of course one could say the same about starting on a 6 in case you want to play a 6 one day. Aaaargh!

[quote]If tapping's your game then why not try... These[/quote] Christ! When that cheesy music started playing I felt like I'd been RickRolled

I'm Nick, 32 year old bassist. I've played in numerous bands before both covers and originals. I ran a live sound system company and worked as the electronics guy at a small custom luthier so I've been around the block in this business we call show Anyone know of any working bands with a vacancy I can fill with my Status? I'm open to most styles within the rock genre. Working full-time in an office 9-5 so looking for evening / weekend fun. Not looking to quit the day job and go off touring. PM me on the froum, or email [email protected] Thanks folks!

Oh - and don't get me started on those finger rests below the G string. Does anyone actually play by putting their fingers on that thing and picking with the thumb? While I'm ranting, Wagon Wheels aren't as chocolatey OR as big as they used to be. And modern music is rubbish, you can't hear the words. And there's too much sex and nudity on TV nowadays! Used to be if you saw an ankle without 5 layers of petticoats it set your heart all a-flutter... <wanders off to find my pills and a nice cool room>

[quote]they are lookalike gimmicks which retro freaks like to have they add weight and get in the way[/quote] +1 Why would you want to put a filthy great bit of metal right in the way of picking over the pickup? Could never understand it. Bridge covers equally daft IMO - less likely to interfere with your technique but why put the extra weight on your bass? You can get nice shiny modern bridges which (unlike the vintage Fender ones ) aren't so hideous to behold that they require hiding from the audience's eyes. I'm in a Shadows tribute band which is just starting up, so I'm going to be looking for a vintage-looking P bass before too long, but damned if I'm going with pup or bridge covers. Authenticity only goes so far!

I'd have it in a shot. Gorgeous shape and finish IMO. I love basses with really long, shapely top horns - both visually and from a balance POV.

[quote name='leonshelley01' post='580467' date='Aug 25 2009, 05:29 PM']A microphones output is tiny compared to a DI, so that's probably the problem. Use the line in instead.[/quote] The problem with that is that you can't run a jack lead from the amp's line out to a far-away desk the way you can with a balanced output. I guess it would depend how far away the sound guy is with the desk - if you're going through the stagebox you'll certainly have to use a balanced output. Lots of DI boxes have an attenuation or pad control - rather than using the amp's XLR straight into the desk, run it into a DI box either from XLR or jack (depending on the box), dial in some cut on the DI and run that into your desk? There was even one I remember reading about (can't remember the brand) which had a huge switchable amount of cut and a lot of current handling in the internal wiring, intended to go between the amp's power output and the speaker cab. Never tried it out though...

I believe Ibanez' EDB / ECD range of basses, plus a few others, are made of a composite they call Luthite in their blurb. No idea what materials go into making it though. I used to own an ECD705 back in the day. I got the feeling they wanted a pretty body and put in some rather <ahem> flavoursome pickups to compensate for the resulting sound. It didn't have a great natural resonance, and sounded pretty dull. I guess caveat emptor - you could spend a lot of time and money crafting a synthetic body only to get a lacklustre result.

As posted above, you could use a mute switch to kill the sound between songs. If you're not keen on changing the look of your bass, you could use a push/pull pot (about a fiver on eBay) in place of one of your existing regular pots. If you go for this, or if you use a regular toggle switch in place of the push-pull, remember to connect the output part of your signal path to the centre tag on the switch. Put the incoming signal on one of the side tags and earth the other. That way your amp is either connected to your bass' signal or it's earthed and silent. If you do it the other way, by putting the incoming signal on the centre tag and the outgoing line to a side tag, when the switch is in the "mute" position your amp's input is basically hanging and will hum like a bitch - the same as leaving a jack lead plugged in and the volume up but no bass connected. *** NINJA EDIT *** OK, my first post had painstakingly drawn-out ASCII art circuit diagrams, which when posted resembled nothing so much as a monkey spamming the O-_I keys while on acid! PM me for wiring diagrams etc.

Took me a little while to get used to a 5 after a 4 but once I did, I've never looked back. One thing to bear in mind for tuning BEAD is scale length - 34" is great for a 4 but (imho) 35" or 35.5" sounds better for a bass with a low B - keeps it tighter and clearer. That's down to presonal preference of course. The bigest problem is when teaching a newbie student who has a 4, and they're studiously copying my finger movements - the extra string can confuse easily. I tend to take it off for the lesson and put it straight back on afterwards

[quote]Doubtful, if you was a member you'd understand. Plus the music...people from different sides enjoy it. Some love the heavy side, others come for the melodic breakdowns...It's the last bands mkII basically. Could not be happier.[/quote] If everything you say is true (and I'm very happy for you if it is, such awesome bondings don't happen often but when they do, damn it's good!) then are you really going to risk it over such a daft issue as clothing? At the very least give it a shot for a while and see if there's any way you can get used to it. I tend to agree it's really important that a band has a cohesive image. We'd all love it to not be the case but there it is. If it's not just a sit-in job but something you really feel the passion for, make the sacrifice. Good luck!

Sweet - I'll go track one down for a playtest. Thanks a lot!

I'd agree with installing an active pup and keeping the circuit in a box either on your belt or on the floor. If there isn't room in the cavity for a battery to power the pickup, install a stereo jack and make up / buy a stereo jack lead. Use the middle ring on the jack to carry the 9V up into the bass. Used this on an electric viola a friend of mine made in his custom instrument shop, for which I used to to the wiring jobs. The under-bridge pickup was essentially a capacitor mic so needed a 9V supply, but the instrument was one of those thin arty "outline of a viola" jobs so had no room for a battery box. I used the stereo jack trick into a shielded belt box holding a Seymour Duncan circuit - worked a treat. PM me if you need help with the wiring.

".. with over 300 custom presets dialed in by some of today's hottest rock stars like Maroon 5, P.O.D., 311, Hoobastank and many more..." Actually I can't complain, I like(d) some of those bands! I checked out that unit, but it's specifically for guitar and there isn't a bass version - I'd be worried that my soon-to-be-arriving 18V circuit Status might run a bit hot for it. Otherwise looks great. Does anyone have experience of using Pocket POD with an active bass?

OK, so what I'm looking for is a battery powered preamp, into which I can plug my bass, my iPod and some headphones, for playing in the garden on the hammock if we keep getting these nice hot summer days. Aditional effects not really necessary as the bass has onboard EQ and it's only for noodling about on. In a similar vein, a portable preamp I can plug into a PA line in at the various open mic nights I go along to with my singer? Putting the bass directly in always sounds rather lifeless - I'm thinking something along the lines of a POD but powered off batteries. Happy for it to sit on the floor, it doesn't have to be pocket size or have a belt clip. Any suggestions / wisdom / personal experience gratefully received!

I went to visit the Status workshop a couple of years ago when I was thinking of ordering a bass. I playtested a few models and they all played superbly - the necks are gorgeous. It's like a whole different feel, very hard to describe the change it made to my playing right there on the spot. Definitely recommend that you at least track down a graphite-necked bass to have a noodle on and experience it for yourself. (I didn't order a bass at the time as the band I was in broke up the week after my factory visit - but now I'm in another, the Status is on order and mid-construction right now... my fingers are already twitching...)