3below

I accept no responsibility for any domestic consequences of using the oven for bass fixing 🥺 Good luck!

"To remove high strength Loctite thread locker you will need heat, up to 250° C. The heat will soften the thread locker, allowing the bolt to come loose. The bolt will not be damaged. A bolt fixed with medium strength thread locker (such as Loctite 243) can usually be removed with hand tools." and "Apply heat to the head of the fastener. Warm it up for 3-4 minutes while simultaneously using the wrench to slacken the fastener. The heat will soften the thermoset plastic of the threadlocker. If the fastener begins to loosen up, apply more heat and keep working the wrench side-by-side" Assuming the saddles can be removed from the bridge you might try heating them up in the oven (you need a Spinal Tap oven that goes to 11), or gas torch, cooker gas flame, large soldering iron, lighter?. When hot grab the saddle with mole grips and try to wind the adjuster screws out. It may take several goes as the saddle cools down and the thread lock hardens again. The saddles look like 'standard' BBOT saddles which will hopefully make replacement cheap if this is required.

Depends on how much string noise irritates you....

Engaging in this thread has had a deleterious effect on my bass playing (some might say I do not actually play the bass, however I will not digress further). I started to think about my right hand technique and subsequently things that previously had automaticity have become challenging. Sartre, although in a different epistemological context, provides a transferable existentialist insight on the matter of right (and left) hand technique "No finite point has meaning without an infinite reference point". A pragmatic simpler approach may be found by paraphrasing Sartre - "Bass playing is a question of absorbing other people's techniques and adding some of your own experience". Anyway, I have had a good lunch, it is time to take my medication and lie down.

.....Apologies to those who already know, Audacity (open source, free,and all platforms) has tempo change with the same pitch feature. This combined with looping has really helped with the prog jazz rock originals I am working on in my current band. https://www.mazmazika.com/chordanalyzer workds well, it has pretty good accuracy even with the interesting chords my compatriots choose to use.

Accidental double post - ignore this.

In 13 years on BC I have only just found that useful feature in settings,never had the need to.

I have a bass with a G string to board edge clearance of 1.5 - 2mm (from memory, the bass is in the bass cave at the moment). It is all too easy to drop the string off the fret bevel edge with any vibrato / bending. B8??## annoying to the point that at some point I must get the nut and string spacing reduced. I would go for 3mm both sides. This would give you (72.76 -6 - 1.5)/4 = 16.28mm string spacing. 17mm spacing easily playable on one of my basses, 13.5mm on my 'licence plate' build at the limit for me.

I am getting one, I totally see the purpose. It will improve my technique by forcing me to never look again at the fretboard whilst playing. Absolute bargain for raising my playing ability. I must crack on now and book an opticians appointment, my vision seems not quite right after looking at those fretboard images.

^ This, so true.

Found my current band through JMB about two months ago. They tell me they were about to give up with the ad, lack of replies. Then again we are in the depths of Mid Wales so more sheep than people.

+1 for Yamaha Pacifica, I bought a used one for £60, replaced the machine heads with some s/h Grovers and it is really good. Action, fit and finish are on a par with my USA strat, body contours on the strat are rather nicer.

If you ever visit Mid Wales you are most welcome to experience neck dive with my Kramer DMZ 4001. A great bass but best used sitting down these days for me, neck dive and weight were easier to manage in my younger days

Ditto, string resistance is futile, they also work really well on bike cables, particularly the outer wound housing. Facom tools - high quality and indispensable in my youth when running various Citroens.

A good result, playing with a tone that you really like is one of life's pleasures, it makes you want to play.

I am having the frets out of that asap, solves my need/want for a short scale fretless. Not using roundwounds so the board being laurel would not be an issue.

Very tempting, if it is the blue one on *bay, it did not attract any bids the previous time. Starting price now £100 lower than previous time. I am resisting.

Roto Trubass 88 on my fretless capture a really nice DB vibe, approaching some of the 'airiness' of the 1/4 size Presto Balance strings on my Clifton EUB. I have now settled on Labella black tapewounds (760N) as I find these more responsive in the fast prog jazz funk numbers we do. @Woodwind makes a very good point, what kind of classic sound are you aiming at? Plenty of used strings crop up on BC, a good way to explore and get most of your money back in the journey.

I really did use my Barefaced Dubster and Peavey Tour 700 with my DB (when I had one). Gage Realist pickup or Schaller magnetic and it seemed to work ok in blues rock contexts. I have used the same with my Clifton EUB. The Peavey graphic is useful for dealing with 'boominess'. It is all about to be used again in the prog jazz/rock originals band I have recently joined.

What was/is the plan/outcome?

Bough some Uke bass machine heads from Jez. Rapid arrival, well packed and excellent communication. Perfectly smooth transaction

One big plus in this situation is the pre-amp is on a board with 'real' size components which makes any repairs / modifications much simpler (and possible). Two things I would follow up: Check the continuity on the dead xformer, you might get lucky and be able to identify whether it is the HT (B+) or heater windings that have failed. This would give a pointer where to start fault finding. Detach the preamp from any follow on circuits and test it in isolation - is it a preamp issue or something further in the circuit.