Paolo85

Just bought P from Gerry. Quick delivery, great communication, a pleasure to deal with him!

I cannot help but I can say I had experiences similar to yours last year and I got into my head that next time I'll go outside London

That's rather cool! You only measure the relief under the E string so you go on the neck for some 3mm or less but I guess a bit of curve would help even then

Right, I am officially out. I am a weak person, I know. But how is this my fault? I was drooling over this bass the first time it went for sale. Then the second. At least, I thought, ot will go to a good home. But then I saw this!! 😁

Ha! That's a beautiful thing! If you can print gauges that's amazing. I tjink I bought a set on Amazon for some £15 but I cannot tell hiw precise they are. As said, Fender measurements are a starting point, then everything is adjusted based on preference and what the bass allows, so being spot on matters bit to a point

If this helps, this is Fender's setup guide https://support.fender.com/en-us/knowledgebase/article/KA-01903 I am not an expert so when I do a first setup, I pretty much follow the guide to the letter (setting shimming aside unless it turns out there is a problem there). Once I get to those measurements for everything, then I adjust further. If the bass has very good fretwork it may allow for lower action (so less relief, or lower string heith at the bridge - less relief is my preference). If the bass has bumpy frets and it buzzes, then it is a balancing act. If it buzzes at the first five frets then you need to add relief. If it buzzes after that you need to raise the strings. Sometimes, if there are one of two spots where it buzzes indicating that there is a significant bump, I'd consider keeping a bit of buzz rather than having to set action extremely high. EDIT: note that things can spiral down, if you add relief the neck is more bowed so implicitly requires more string height to avoid buzz around the 9th-12th frets, so I found myself going up a lot with both relief and string height to run after specific bumps. Even better, frets can be filed, I was quite scared about doing it at first but now I do it regularly on cheap basses if needed. If done with care and decent tools doing damage is unlikely. One can argue that if there is a significant bump the bass is already "damaged" to start with and will only get better.

So your previous strings were also flats? They weren't more rugged? A lot of people are happy with the Rotos, so if they work for you that's great. If at some point they start feeling like hard work (eg your hands get tired easily) or you try a different bass somewhere else and like the feeling of other strings then you can look for more info. Yes Roto 40-100 refers to the gauge of the rotosound. Still, you have no guarantee that the truss rod would not need adjustment with thinner strings. The old bass may have had strings with completely different tension regardless of the gauge. All strings are different. EDIT: Besides, basses need setup every now and then anyway as necks move over time and with temperature/humidity changes For the setup you would need an allen key for the truss rod, one for the bridge (a set is better value for money IMO as you can use, on multiple instruments) a gauge feeler, a small metal ruler that can measure mm or less (some people do without these last two items but I think they are totally worth the little money) a screwdriver for the bridge saddles, ine for the pickup height and a capo. All that cost me around £40. All those things need adjustment together though, they rarely work in isolation

Welcome! Do not worry at all about the neck. Clearly you got higher eension strings so the neck is bent. There is an adjustable metal bar inside called truss rod which can straighten it out. Setup is very important so 40 pounds or so spent at a good tech (a recommended one, I was quite unhappy with a tech in a shop so they are not all the same) are totally worth it. You want your bass to have a nice comfortable action. Longer term, it is even more worth it to buy the tools and learn how to do a setup, which also applies to guitar. Before doing that though, have a think if you like the feel of the strings. I never tried them but I think rotosound flats are notoriously high tension. Also, I am a big fan of flatwounds but I think they would have not be my choice for somebody starting out on bass given that 90% of bass players use roundwounds which tend to be less stiff, come out more easily in the mix, and be less sticky. I say that because strings are extremely important in terms of enjoyment of the instrument. Maybe you would like to try again and buy something more "neutral" (say some D'Addario roundwounds, they are not too expensive). Or if you want flats, there are other options with lower tension

Cheers. I was thinking, do not underestimate fretting hand technique. As you deal with bigger strings, longer scale and higher action than on a guitar, you may need adjustments to prevent injuries. I started on guitar and then moved to bass, and I had a few problems with that. I would say being careful is especially important because, as an experience guitar player, you may find yourself playing relatively advanced stuff early on without building your muscles slowly over time. When you fret, use as many fingers as possible. I mean, if you fret with the pinky, all other three fingers should also push the string gently toward the fretboard (not too hard, you don't want unnecessary use of energy, but enough to relief the pinky). If you fret with the ring finger, you also have index and middle down and so on. On guitar, right or wrong, I was only thought to do that for bends. Also, I would suggest you look into the Simandl technique whereas instead of playing one fret per finger, you just use index, middle and pinky. Never the ring finger. So your hand covers an area of three frets and you move more sideways and adjust fingering based on that. This reduces effort dramatically and is used extensively by bass players to play near the neck (first five frets or so), but not only.

https://youtu.be/CR8yQCZX2HQ https://youtu.be/b2HBaiTgOxE https://youtu.be/VS0nUyMKYBQ These 3 videos should do. The guy in the videos is good. There isn't really an agreed "proper" way. I imagine the first video would touch on it but note that the sound changes a lot whether you pluck near the neck or near the bridge (or anywhere in between) so you may want to play with that deliberately (and in this case, using techniques that do not require resting the thumb on something helps)

Just bought two straps for £11. Technically I am out I am still not going to buy big toys

Just bought two straps for £11. Technically I am out I am still not going to buy big toys

I say a LowEndLobster review on the Harley Benton 5 string. He was saying there was plenty of neck dive. The bass has 24 frets, as opposed to the passive HB Stingray copy with one pickup, which has 21. Because of that the body is squeezed a bit and on his bass this did not work in terms of balance. You could be lucky though

Great! How is it in terms of weigh and balance?

While these were mentioned in the "Thoman tease" thread, that was mostly about the "Gotoh" basses and I think these deserve their own thread. Despite all the hype around the Gotoh basses, which came out pretty much at the same time, I see that the cheaper JB-62 are doing rather well in terms of sales. The picture is Thoman's ranking of their best selling J basses. If I read this correctly, the sunburst "Gotoh" is the only one in the top 20. It is followed by a JB-62, and there are another three JB-62 in the list. Are any of the JB-62 owners on Basschat? How do you find them? There's an online review on Youtube (in Polish, with translation) and the guy says it is less than 4kg - thanks I would gess to the poplar body. Same wood used in much more expensive basses such as some Squier CV or Sterling Ray4. I feel that the JB-62 has on paper much more potential to revolutionise the low-end market. At ~£150, one can live with cheap tuners. And replacing them is not too hard or expensive if needed, with total costs remaning below or close to a Squier Affinity. The Roswell pickups are good. I do not have an opinion on tone wood yet but I do know for sure that some poplar basses can be very good, and poplar can be a good trade off if the HB's alder Js easily go over 5kg. But then, this is all on paper. Are they built to the same quality of the JB-75? With that lighter body, are they massive neck divers? Any other issues?

Thanks for the kind offer! Though I was thinking more of the sort of stuff made by people in white lab coats, wearing gloves and not putting them in their nose

I would buy it. Seriously. It would probably be hand cream under a different name and at double the price

I have tried Eucerine cream. It works. I have no way of saying whether the resulting sound is worse/better than it would have been with natural aging though

"fatter necks actually are better suited for proper playing technique (thumb in the middle of the neck, playing with tip of curved fingers). "<-- this is just the main statement, no argument in here to refute " "The distance from the pushing fingers gets smaller to the string" <-- here we get into the argument. And maybe ehe reason nobody "refuted" is because it is not very clear. There is also the possibility that it does not make sense. If you have the thumb in the middle of the neck (the tip of the thumb, obviously), and the other fingers bent, this doed not per se determine a distance between fingers and string. That distance is adjusted by changing the angle between the thumb and the neck. Which in turn liks to many other variables includings the ergonomics of the bass, strap length, and lenght of the person's arm. "and the hand gets a better grip or “strength” thanks to a more solid contact to the actual neck." <-- that should probably need to be rephrased at the very least. If you look at hand position as thought in music schools (at least my old music school) the only things in contact with the neck are the tip of the fingers. What does "solid" mean? "Less “air playing” equals less distance, more strength, less movement with the resulting increased control." <-- you may find yourself playing air with a shallow neck, but whether you keep the tip of your fingers constantly at a fraction of a mm from the strings or you lift them by a few cm any time tou release from a note has nothing to do with the neck depth "Believe me: thin necks are not “faster” or “smoother” or “better” for anyone but someone with REALLY small hands aka: children”." <-- this seems like a pure provocation but in fact you are implicitly saying there is a direct relation between hand size and comfortable neck depth. Do you have a range in mind for the size of the hand of people that should stop liking a shallow neck? As we are st it, what do you mean by shallow? And deep? Is 5cm deep fast? Edit. Yes I know, do not feed the trolls. Weirdly I enjoy doing this stuff!

Fair enough I guess/imagine that the issue with me is that the muscles around my thumb are rather weak and vulnerable, so there is no such thing as "resting" them. But there are so many factor involved that I did not mean to say that shallower necks are "better" full stop. As it happens btw, of my 4 basses only one has has a shallow neck. It has tapes on, medium action, and I never play fast on it!

Even setting aside preferences, to me it does not make sense the idea that if one compares necks that differ in depth by normally some 1-3 mm and hands that differ in lenght and shape by more than that, one can argue that "bigger is better" in absolute terms. Besides, I am sure one can achieve "correct" technique on a violin.. I tried to think of my own experience. I would indeed agree that I do not find shallow necks "faster". In fact, I would agree that with shallow necks I tend to bend my fingers less, which puts them in a more relaxed position and makes it more likely that I won't play with the tip of my finger (note: I tend to, I don't have to, nothing in them prevents bending my fingers). So while I certainly do not find deeper necks slower, I notice that my thumb gets tired earlier. Looking into it I believe the reason is that, the deeper the neck, the more the "base" of the thumb (metacarpal, according to google) is necessarely more perpendicular to the forharm. That is just a geometrical necessity, assuming the position of the other fingers is the same and that the tumb rests on the neck in the same place. Hence, the thumb makes more of its work through muscles. Again, to me this looks like basic phisics. If you push it to the opposite extreme, and assume an implausible situation with the metacarpal parallel to the foreharm with a straight thumb, and perpendicular to the fretboard, there would be almost no hand muscles involved, much of the resistance would come from the bones. Because of that, especially given my background of tendinitis at the thumb, I can definitely say that a deep neck would not be my optimal neck for sustained fast playing. On a similar note: as I am experimenting a bit with learning some funk stuff (I have no background with it) I find that I am constantly using barre-like fretting to play notes on different strings and the same fret in sequence. Because of that, my fingers are obviously often straight. Moreover, my fingers are mostly flat on the fretboard most of the time when I slap as I cannot mute with the plucking hand's thumb. Judging by videos on youtube, this is quite common and maybe not wrong for the style? If there is a need to keep fingers straight a lot of the time to play in a certain style, then I would think the faster neck for that style would be a neck that allows to keep that "incorrect" position with minimal strain Edit: just thought of Rocco Prestia. I doubt one can play his music with "correct" hand position as he's muting all the time

Well done them. I had a problem with a delivery last year. Accidentally ordered a pickup to my old addres from an eBay seller. But I have Royal Mail redirection (which I paid for) so it should have all been ok. Except Royal Mail then claimed to have delivered to my old address. It was a tracked parcel but somebody signed it (except I really doubt my old neighbours would do it without telling me anyting... and I asked. And in those days I happened to receive tracked parcels from the letter box without being asked to sign...). The eBay seller (stringslingers) was totally uninterested in my case. eBay wanted confirmation from RM that they screwed up before doing anything. RM was busy with issues other than looking into my case. Lost the money..

I remember some quite enthusiastic reviews to be honest (Squier Paranormal, quite a few HB quite a few Sires...) From my point of view, I can understand why, in an attempt to make exact replicas of vintage instruments, they decide to sell expensive basses without direct access to the truss rod. I would never pay even 250 pounds for a bass like that but I understand (I mean, I would buy for 250 pounds but then resell immediately :)). But at the end of the day, this bass is new. it is as vintage as a Classic Vibe. So in my opinion, having features that are objectively annoying (having to remove the neck for a setup, neck dive) is not necessarily a great idea.

That's no doubt true but I imagine there is quite a bit of nuance there. Obviously, with sub-500 basses made mostly in Certain Asian countries and 1000+ basses made more often in 'The West', one should certainly expect the 1000+ basses to be way better on average. However, watching an Andertons video with some comments on the issue I got the impression that cost of labour is a even for industrially made basses a key variable. In that sense, building in the USA at higher costs than in Indonesia does not, per se, ensure than more or better trained people do the job. Obviously, if you look within companies like Fender, with production in very different places, it is exactly as you say. They tend put more "value added" production in the USA, and the most basic offering in China - although you get situations like this one. But if you look across companies, in terms of construction, how does a Sire V10 compares to an USA Fender? Personally I don't know but I would not necessarily bet on the USA Fender. My experience with the Ibanez SR line, for example, is that QC is excellent regardless of where a bass has been made.