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Paolo85

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Everything posted by Paolo85

  1. Right, I have had this bass since I was 18 so selling it is big deal for me. Still, as I have started playing guitar as well I have decided to try shortscale and cut my bass "collection" to the bone. This is a lovely Stingray-inspired active Cort bass. I tried it in a shop and fell in love with it. It has 40mm nut width. The neck is not slim but to me it feels supernice and fast. Preamp is low and treble. There is a push-pull knob to go passive. It is slightly battered (I have tried to capture all the issues with picture, have a look in the post below). Also, I am sure it will be a dealbreaker for many, there is an issue with the preamp. If you boost the treble to 100%, it resets (that is, it sounds as if it was centered). In practice this is irrelevant to me as one can boost to 90% and I bet you would never need 100%. But still, be aware of that. I am not sure how to price it. I paid I believe 275 euros 20 years ago which I believe woud be £340 in today's money but I may be wrong. I am open to sensible offers but I have history with it, I won't go down too much. Puckup from Bromley or I can meet in central London
  2. Right, so I really wanted to give an honest attempt to play upright but it did not work out. I have decided I do not want to work that hard. Still, I wanted to make sure I had an EUB with a great fingerboard. Why? Because I wanted to make sure that if I failed, the problem was me and not the instrument. If I hear the string buzzing when I play, is it me lacking the strenght and technique, or is it the EUB having a lumpy fingerboard, as it is usually the case with a cheap EUB? Should I try to press harder, or am I wasting time and I'll just injure myself because the EUB is to blame? This is why I bought an old Stagg EUB on eBay, and then I spent £300 in a professional fingerbord dressing at London luthier Bridgewood & Neitzert. They have removed that odd resin that Stagg puts on their EUBs, gone back to the wood and then stained. You can see a photo of the wood underneath - sent me by the luthier - below. Their work also included reshaping bridge and nut. I can provide proof that they did the work. If you buy a Stagg new, you are very very unlikely to get a fingerboard as good as this (I have tried two, they certainly were not great). With the Stagg I give you the stand, the gigbag (not in amazing conditions), and a Behringer Acoustic ADI pedal that helps a lot in getting a bit closer to an acoustic bass sound (no power supply though). Even with the fingerhoard shooting, this is still a Stagg, so you'll have to contend with some endpin rattle. If you play around with it you'll find an angle that keeps it quiet though. Pickup only from Bromley See post below for photos Thanks
  3. Hi all, I wanted to save a basschat oage to my home screen of my Samsung phone I selected the options in my browser "save to home screen" And I got a message asking me to install the basschat app. I clicked yes without really reading it. And then a basschat app installed in my phone. Is there such a thing as a basschat app? I cannot find it in the play store? I am a bit concerned
  4. Well, yes, it is fairly basic technology I guess. But different choices can be made and different P pickps can sound very different from one another IMO, without necessarily being better or worse. I am not familiar with the Delanos though I guess the brand is mostly popular for an hi-fi sound than for vintage growl? Maybe I am wrong Still, I agree with @Cato I would look at the small things first. - work on pickup height -are the strings the same you were using in the old bass? This can make all the difference -is the P pickup in your newly built bass exactly where it was (relative to the nut) in the RH bass, to the mm? -is this lack of growl something than you feel even when you record yourself? If the acoustic sound is part of it there could be a million factors that affect it
  5. Well, from what you have said so far it seems it's not like you hate everything about being a bass player. It seems you hate a very specific thing that spoils something you otherwise love or at least like. I'd say it is ok to have doubts
  6. Still in but I won't be in for long, I am afraid. I have started playing guitar as well, and after experiencing the joy if noodling for hours without any trace of pain, I think I am going to sell my EUB and buy a short scale bass. Still, I may not buy for a while as I do not like the looks of most cheap short scale basses. It may take a while to chose.
  7. I stand corrected. What more than doubled was average earnings, as per point 3 here https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/averageweeklyearningsingreatbritain/december2023#:~:text=Average weekly earnings (AWE) were,increased over the long term. With growing inequality, median wages would have grown less. Still, without having read the footnotes, from the table here it looks to me growth for those was 87% (85% for full time employees) https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/ashe1997to2015selectedestimates
  8. A few things that may or may not be if interest here. UK median wages have more than doubled since 2000. Adjusting for that, a £2000 bass in November last year would have been equivalent to paying £915 in January 2000. That is, if my calculations are right, which they may not be. I was not in this country in 2000 but I understand inequalities have increased since. Still, £2000 basses are not aimed at those left behind given that probably 98% of the people who spend £2000 for a bass are not professionals and even most professionals would not be able to tell the difference between an expensive bass and my cheap PJ bitsa in the mix. If we look at inflation, a £2000 bass in 2023 was equivalent to a £1100 bass in 2000, a £490 bass in 1980 and a £150 bass in 1970. According to this website https://www.vintageguitarandbass.com/fender/bass/Precision_timeline_1970s.php a Fender Precision in 1970 would cost around 300 dollars Which I believe would have been around £120, though actual prices in the UK might have been way different from the US. So I guess basses may not be extraordinarily expensive now even if we do not consider how good a £350 Squier can be these days. Obviously, if somebody wants to buy a bass from 1970 or from a dead luthier that is not in production anymore instead of buying the current-day equivalent basses, then it becomes a matter of vintage erc.. we are basically talking luxury goods which like most luxury goods do not make much sense to me and the sky is the limit in terms of prices. I personally do not understand the market for luxury goods very well. But I agree with those that say it is not a great investment. Fads come and go, ome may end up having to sell in a decade when people go back to thinking new=cool old=uncool. I mean, they may be a good investment as a very small part of a diversified portfolio, if one has resources. I don't know. Not sure they are good as in "let's put half of our savings in suspiciously expensive basses instead ofpension funds or a mortgage downpayments." That is not to say that buying a fancy used bass thinking it may keep its value is not a good idea. I'd do it if I was longing for the bass and if the price was such that some losses would not put me into troule. IMHO and all
  9. I did the six-hour + thing for a couple of years. I ended up with tendinitis and stopped playing. Arguably there would have been clever ways to do that and avoid tendinitis. If I knew then what I know now. Which I didn't. Still, I did that because I felt like doing it. It came natural. If it hadn't, playing hours every day would have felt like a chore and I would have stopped playing anyway. Either way, if you have been playing continuously for 37 years, you certainly got more out of music than I did.
  10. Mi daughter got a suprano Ukulele as a present. I started noodling with it and had lots of fun playing chords. The problem was that I play at night when everybody is asleep. My wife made it clear that it was too noisy. I started looking online for cheap electric solid body ukukeles. I saw the Harley Benton one, but from online reviews I really was not impressed with the sound. Plus it was cheap but not exactly for free. Long story short I ended up buying a guitar instead. Still, the ukulele is great. I found a couple of good ukulele recordings in the process https://youtu.be/VCMWIXADJj0?si=-lddoWJMiWv-Xd28
  11. Ibhad a couple of instances in which it was the machine heads themselves that were rattling. Try touching/holding the machin heads in various ways and see if it changes. It may not be the one attached to the A
  12. I am ashamed to say it will be guitar lessons!
  13. Right, I have got another one for you then An audio interface. Bought for the purpose of online lessons. Tier 1 failure? Tier 2 failure? Does it change if it is used for something else?
  14. Strangely, I do not really have bass players of which I like/want to have every recording. Still, my favourite work is from -Jaco, Gary Willis, Mark Egan -Jamerson/Tommy Cogbill/Jerry Jemmott -Stu Hamm, though I have found album of his that I love only recently, and it may be too early to say if he's one of my favourites -George Porter Jr -I agree Berthoud is truly amazing and has written some great songs, but I get lost with youtubers. Hope at some point he will take a break and work on a few albums -If we extend to doublebass, probably Charlie Haden, Ron Carter, Scott Lafaro, Ray Brown. Those might be my favourite in general
  15. Thought I'd share a nice post from a guy on another forum (for people who play extra-short scale six-string piccolo bass) "Back in my bar band, weekend warrior days, I finally realized buying another piece of gear wasn't going to improve my playing. So when I needed some retail therapy, I would buy a book or video lesson instead. Over time I collected a decent library of materials. Trying to decipher the information laid out in some of the 'must have' tomes [...] I thought I would never get much out of a lot of the material, save for a few basic concepts and ideas that I already understood. But perserverance has won out. Nowadays, I will often realize a concept has worked it's way into my playing "
  16. Well, there is one, it's called "Basschat" And looking at success rates on past abstinence challenges, this thread should also work well for us
  17. EDIT: on second read, the question is different than I thought
  18. Sorry to hear that. I can imagine recording originals, promoting them and sharing stage with bands you live and admire could be nerve wrecking. Could it make sense to change band, join one that is less busy, less good, playing music you care less about (maybe simple covers), all just for fun? That could be a temporary thing or a permanent thing, depending what you'll find makes you happiest
  19. I am in. No doubt I'll fail but I don't "need" anything so no harm in trying!
  20. Technically the best purchase was a Squier VM Jazz bought for a very good price. But for as playable as it was, it seems I am not a J person and I have sold it already. Of the four bass guitars bought this year, three have been sold already. The remaining one is a Fazley fretless PJ paid £85 new which I guess was the most useful (best?) purchase. I feel bad I have butchered it as I was experimenting on it. Excluding basses, the best purchase was a Gruvgear Duostrap. Worst purchase may be my Stagg EUB, but it is too early to say. Ideally I would love to work toward playing the doublebass. I have bought a used Stagg for cheap but I was struggling. So I have spent more than the cost of the EUB in a professional fingerboard shooting. I am still struggling. It seems I will either have to spend even more money - in lessons, low tension strings, or both - or cut my losses and sell.
  21. Tonerider for lots of bottom end, Wilkinson (thr alnico one) for a brighter ("normal" bright, not oddly bright) sound
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