Delberthot

Ta da No, I never get tired of posting pictures of it

The strings that come on Rickenbackers feel like rubber bands to me but they're something silly like 45,55,75,95

Full body shot One problem I knew I'd have is that the Badass sits quite high so I've used a couple of piecces of worktop end stuff to shim the neck but clearly its not enough I changed the nut and its sitting too high but I have a Graphtech one that I am going to use but that's all for today. I was amazed that the E string didn't snap as the thick part just past the nut is beginning to wind round the tuning post. I may try a set of rounds instead edit - now that I've had a look at it, I don't think that the Badass goes so I may just take it back off again and work out something with the original bridge

Started to put her together today. First on go the tuners. i can't believe how well they turned out. remember that these were practically yellow with cigarette tar. One touch meant that you stank like an old jakey. They look brand new now. The bridge didn't quite clean up as well as the restof it but it wasn't chrome like the rest unfortunately one of the adjustment screws was broken meaning that I couldn't easily adjust the height of the strings so I have to make do with one of these instead I also solved the problem with the warped scratchplate by putting in an extra screw. The pickup was black but the paint was peeling off it. I took a kitchen scourer to it to get the rest of the paint of and finished it of with some steel wool and its come up really well. Strung Up

I think it is a maple body. there's certainly little difference between the body and the neck. The original ones, apart from a couple of years had maple bodies. I've just emailed Alan at Pickguardian for a quote for a custom guard. I have thought about a darkstar before but I want to keep the cost down and can't imagine having a use for it on another bass if I sell this one in the future. I have to think of these things cos I have a tendency to sell stuff on the spur of the moment.

[quote name='Huggy and the Bears' post='231163' date='Jul 2 2008, 10:33 AM']I change a standard Duracell battery in my Stingray about [b]once per month[/b] and have never had reliability problems. Simon. [/quote] I've owned a lot of Stingray's and gig regularly and maybe have had to change a duracell battery maybe [b]once a year[/b] or longer a lot of the time. Do you keep your bass plugged in all the time?

The hardware has been soaking in cheap cola all afternoon and its now clean. I'm going to leave the bridge in overnight cos its really dirty I've found this site full of all kinds of crazy crap but can't see this bass at all. [url="http://www.fetishguitars.com/"]http://www.fetishguitars.com/[/url]

The one on Ebay has a different logo to mine and the tuners look a lot cheaper. Mine are more like Schaller type ones. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Melody-70s-lawsuit-Gibson-Grabber-G3-vintage_W0QQitemZ110387245696QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item110387245696&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A4|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A200"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Melody-70s-lawsuit-G...3%3A1|294%3A200[/url] Its also a lot more expensive than what I paid - either that or i got a really good deal on mine

Just finished cleaning it and its come up not bad actually My TV is a rear projection and the sun is shining right in the window so I've probably over exposed these on photoshop. I've given the maple board a going over with 000 grade steel wool but haven't got all the marks off. I don't want to go too hard on it in case I introduce any dead spots

Now I have a fantastic idea - The scratchplate is warped nearest the bridge so I'm going to have to get one made. I'm thing about putting something else in there instead of the original pickup. There's a huge gap so pretty much anything else will go in there. I don't want to spend a lot of money but i would really like to do something. I may put a single coil P pickup in there as its my favourite but may go for something else. I'm going to give it a good clean and see how well it scrubs up and that will decide whether or not I'm going to paint it as well. More pics to follow as this progresses.

lovely. Off comes the scratchplate complete with pickup And I'm left with this

I treated myself to this fine Italian copy as i quite liked the look of it. Call it mojo, character, funk, whatever - this bugger is filthy and smells like a 60 a day smoker who's not washed their clothes in 30 years so I've decided to strip it down and clean it. First off are the tuners this reveals a hairline crack Not too much to worry about - I'll probably fire some clear glue down that to make sure it doesn't get any worse. Just as i thought - someone has taken the E tuner apart and put it back the wrong way round so now it slips when you're tuning it. The E is on the left and should be like the one on the right Check out the funk That's 30 years of mojo, or dirt as i would call it.

And replied

I bought prosteels for a Rickenbacker once. I got my usual 45 gauge but they were mental high tension. amazingly I didn't have to adjust the neck. I'm actually enjoying my Hartke strings just now - about £15 delivered for 3 sets. Makes a change from £35 for a set of my gold Optimas.

It it wasn't live I would've said the jack socket but the only place I can think of down there it between an intonation screw and a string on the bridge. Certainly a bit different than the usual place under the E string at the headstock

I began playing when I was 12 and until I was 14 I only used the E string and fretted with my thumb cos i had no clue that i was doing anything wrong. It wasn't until I got into my first band at 14 that i began to change to the conventional way of playing. When I was 15, 2 things happened: I began getting lessons from James Finnegan, formerly of Hue & Cry and before Stiltskin. The other thing being that I discovered Eric Clapton's 24 Nights album. Getting the lessons enabled me to learn about scales and that album showed me how they could be used. The version of White Room on there was absolutely phenomenal. Nathan East's playing on this just blew me away. So much so that I learned it note for note until I perfected it then did something that you can't do anymore - I flicked the lever from 33 1/3 rpm to 45 and played it like that until I got that as well. I did get some double bass lessons when i was 16 but didn't stick at it long enough to get any good at reading until i joined a big band at 17. I called the band leader up and he asked me if I could read so I lied and said that I could. When I got to rehearsal, I realised that i would be taking over from my old double bass teacher who was leaving. Before I knew it, a gig came up and I was still rubbish so one day I stood in the middle of the living room with my music and taught myself to read properly. It took the best part of a week but I was able to learn the basics and enough to get me throught that first gig. I ended up spending 2 years with that band and did get a lot better at reading but somethings I still learned by memory rather than reading. Since then I've only ever not been in a band for about 6 months and that was when I was 19. I've been fortunate to have been playing constantly for over 13 years without a break. I would say that lessons helped. The only things I've ever learned from an instructional video are Popeye from the Nathan East video and a couple of Lary Graham tunes from the Paul Westwood video. Its a bit like driving a car - when you get lessons, you're being taught the basics and the theory behind it but you only really learn properly when you are yourself and able to put those lessons into practice for yourself. Sometimes with an instructor/teacher/etc you may hold back through lack of confidence but on your own you can give it everything without fear of someone telling you you are wrong or whatever. I would say that I am for the most part self-taught with maybe 9 months of lessons out of 22 years of playing. The lessons definitely helped me to an extent but most of the work I've done myself by playing at every opportunity, absorbing as much music as I can and always trying to be in a band that allows me to try new things. There's definitely value in having lessons if you learn something that you can use and expand on - with me it was major and minor scales. 22 years on and I still find myself playing stuff and having no idea what it is that I actualy played but it fitted into the song.

Thanks. I've tried to describe the actual sound that you get with it other than the usual term of 'mud'. It does require you to tweek the controls of your amp but most basses will, especially ones where the pickup is in a position that is either close to the neck or bridge.

I've decided that this bass just isn't for me so I've listed it on Ebay. I don't have a price that I'd like to get for it but if anyone here is after one and would like to offer me a price I'm happy to end it provided there are no bids, just let me know. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=140319984792&Category=4713&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26its%3DI%26otn%3D1"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...s%3DI%26otn%3D1[/url]

Found this thread so no need to create a new one for my review:- I had a gig last night so decided to take along the Squier for its first gig. I know that these things can be very powerful so I set it up prior to going and dropped the pickup all the way down so that it was flush with the body. When I got it plugged in I only really had to increase the top end and reduce the lower frequencies a bit to get a really good sound. I was expecting indistinct mud but was very surprised at the clarity Iwas able to get. For anyone who doesn't know, I play through a Shuttle 6.0 and Schroeder 1212L. The best way to describe the sound would be deep, rich and overdriven to the point just before distortion kicks in. Could be something to do with me having the preamp valve set to clip on my Shuttle but a very nice sound none the less. I was expecting the Schroeder to begin farting with this bass but it didn't even seem to be working that hard to produce sound. I found the sound to be very even over the whole fretboard and was overall very impressed. The bass is very light - probably a lot to do with having a basswood body with ash front and back. The maple neck looks good and not cheap like some lower end maple necks look. Its actually quite surprising to find a maple fretboard on a relatively inexpensive bass such as this. Other touches like the string through body bridge and my personal favourite headstock shape make this a very appealing bass for those who want something a bit different to the usual P & J clones. After about a dozen songs, I decided to plug the gold one in and that was that really. I don't know what it is but the gold bass is my sound and I haven't been able to find anything better than it. I'm not saying that the Squier is a bad bass - far from it, the Squier feels really good to play and feels about half the weight of the Warmoth. The parts on the Squier are gong to be cheaper than what I have on the gold bass but they still feel solid enough to take everything in their stride. If i didn't have the gold bass, I'd probably be keeping this as my main bass but I love the gold bass for so many reasons which means that the Squier is surplus to requirments and will be for sale shortly I also agree with Telebass that the single coil P basses have such a fantastic sound. I've had 2 '51 reissues - 2 tone sunburst and mustard yellow, another Warmoth '57 spec single coil bass, an original 1973 Telecaster bass and my current gold '54 one and personally nothing can touch the gold one in terms of playability, comfort and range of sounds available

What about this? [url="http://www.bugera-amps.com/EN/products/BVP5500.aspx"]http://www.bugera-amps.com/EN/products/BVP5500.aspx[/url] can 4 valves really put out 550 clean watts?

Big jessies the lot of you. One of the best ways to learn is to practice with your eyes closed. Sometimes looking at the neck can make you hyper conscious about where you are fretting. This is what i had to do when I was about 19 and having to sight read big band scores while playing a fretless

I've always had to have my action really high as well as I do play really hard a lot of the time. I noticed this one night especially when I got the E string trapped under the top section of my single coil P pickup and its not particularly close to the strings. By accident, I've stumbled on my perfect setup. When I play 'normally' it gives me a lovely warm fat P bass sound but when I dig in, its closer to a Rickenbacker and has plenty of what i would call good rattle off the frets. No one has ever been able to set up a bass for me which is why I've been doing it myself for the best part of 20 years.

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' post='483034' date='May 8 2009, 04:06 PM']My first ever bass was a fretted version of this!!! A friend of mine had a defretted one which was pretty good too. The pickup was quite microphonic and made an almighty clunk when you slid it back and forth, but the tone was pretty good for what was a very cheap bass at the time. DiMarzio did a nice humbucker which drops in as a nice replacement too. I'd be fascinated to know what they fetch these days, I think I paid £70 for mine in '78....[/quote] 31 years inflation on £70 should bring the current value up to around £5,000,000 This fine beast cost me the princely sum of £67

I think that there were some 80s MIJ Fenders with nitro paint jobs. It is still possible to buy but, yes, it is very dangerous to use if you don't have the proper equipment and ventilation. I have some nitro in a spray can that I bought for a bass that I no longer own. Since I was only going to be finishing the one bass with it, I was going to do it outside but for anyone doing it regularly, you have to make yourself a booth with ventilation and all the other safety stuff that goes with it. Fender originally used nitro as that was what the car companies of the day were using. They got their paint from DuPont, same as the car companies. You can imagine what nitro painted cars would look like after a few years. They changed to poly when car makers changed AFAIK - it was a lot more durable than the nitro. Most, if not all people who want a guitar finished in nitro do so because they want their guitar to age just like the old ones.

I was a huge fan of active electronics for a number of years but got fed up turning controls constantly to try and get a decent sound so I went back to a single passive pickup with a simple volume and tone control and let the amp do the work. Active EQ can be a problem with active EQ, EQ type pedals and amps - you can end up boosting a frequency on your bass, cutting it on a pedal and then boosting it on your amp when simply using one control on your amp would suffice. Why do you think a sound engineer wants a DI, directly from the bass when he can? its so he can take the sound and tailor it to the room without it going through 10 processors before getting to his.