Cygnus x-1

Hello, I'm putting together a 'Bitza' Squier Jazz for a friend for his son, most of the bits are there and just need a good clean up and new strings. A problem i'm having is locating a string tree with string spacing of 10mm, I have a tree in my spares box but the spacing is 12mm, probably off a P type bass with wider spacing. I've had a look on eBay and most of the tree's on there are either same as the one i've got, or no sizes given, I know what i'm after exists as I have a Squier Jazz of my own. There is one the correct size on eBay, but it's from Hong Kong with 11 -24 days delivery. So does anyone know where I can get a jazz size tree in the UK please?

Sold some strings to Will, top guy to deal with.

I bought a lovely bass from Chris, everthing was easy and straight forward, bass was just as described and delivery was fast and efficient. Highly recommended. Thanks.

[quote name='Macklaud' post='1145224' date='Feb 28 2011, 11:10 PM']Hi guys I'm looking for a new 4 strings so here is a simple question for a not that simple answer: Whats the best bass that i can get for 500€? (its around 425£) Right now the [url="http://www.thomann.de/pt/spector_performer_4_classic_sg.htm"]Spector performer[/url] is winning the run as my favorite. Do you guys think that i can get better with that money?[/quote] I have that same Spector bass and i'm really happy with it, I think it's a hell of a bass for the money, if you like the feel and sound of it you'll be pleased with it, BUT, the best thing is to try them all in your price range and decide from there. If then you still like the Spector best, go for it, IMO of course.

[quote name='radansey' post='1134028' date='Feb 20 2011, 08:30 AM']I have the chance of first refusal on a Vintage Stringray 5-stringer maple board for £50. Are these any cop? For £50 is this a no-brainer? PS. I don't wish to start a cheap 'Sue Ryder' bass flame war though. JTUK take note![/quote] That IMO is a very good deal, I got one on the bay for £75 a few years back and I thought that was a bargain. If you like it, i'd say you can't go wrong.

Now that the're all sold out, does anyone know anything about the origins of this particular P copy? I doubt very much that these basses were built exclusive for SR. The factory that built them surely must build for other company's aswell? I think there are basses out there of good quality for not much money but these seemed to be very good value evan at the £119 full price, nevermind half price at £60. Any opinions?

[quote name='drewm' post='1120478' date='Feb 8 2011, 07:36 PM']My Low Ryder is coming together. Fitted the tortoise shell plate (inexpertly, but that's the point of messing with a cheap bass!) and added some Warwick straplocks. Currently seasick steved with one string while I debug an electrical buzz. I think it's earthing, as the buzz stops as soon as I touch the strings or bridge. Also: need some more screws for the plate. Looked in Homebase but they had nothing that matched. Any suggestions?[/quote] you can get s/plate screws cheaply on ebay, Nick

er, a question i've often thought.....i've not tried one but, a Futurama perhaps, a few nice ones have sold on ebay, I may have to dip my toe in the water if a colour combo comes up for sale that I struggle to resist.

[quote name='Johnston' post='1118917' date='Feb 7 2011, 02:22 PM']Parcel force over I think £150 . Even if you pay for the extra insurance in the small print musical instruments are exempt from the extra insurance.[/quote] will have to check out and bear in mind for future, I didn't know that.

[quote name='silddx' post='1118739' date='Feb 7 2011, 11:44 AM']Dude, I hear you, but you are missing the point, and [color="#FF0000"]it's also only your unique personal experience of your mate. [/color] It has nothing to do with the humans involved in the process. It's the machinery they use to sort the parcels, they can be pretty brutal.[/quote] ...sure I accept your point, BUT, how many of the thousands of succesfull deliveries do we hear about, we usually only get personal experience from people who have bad experiences, whoever is the courier. People tell of a bad deal but rarely big up a good deal IMO. I used to work at a busy industrial unit and every morning in the carpark a very well known courier used to bring a big wagon and offload parcels into vans for distribution. You should have seen them throwing the parcels off the wagon to the vans!! .....There is probably not much difference whoever the courier is. [quote name='lemmywinks' post='1118749' date='Feb 7 2011, 11:54 AM']Well there ARE good staff who work for PF, we used to use them at work and our local guy was excellent. Lovely bloke who i was dedicated to his job, we always chatted and still do when i see him about. However despite this we had to stop using them as they couldn't deliver on time. We paid for time specific services (9am, 12hr etc.) and they were consistently late. When you pay extra for 24hr delivery and it arrives 3 days later on a number of occaisions. When you ring to get a refund they make it very difficult, basically putting you off trying to claim. Their helpline is awful. We stopped using them and now use TNT who have been great. No late deliveries, no excuses and very helpful staff both in the vans and on the phone. However all that is irrelevant as this is a bass forum and [color="#FF0000"]they don't usually insure musical instruments[/color] - so there's absolutely no reason why anybody here should be using them. They will take as much money as you throw at them for insurance but your chances of a successful claim are slim. For that reason alone they are of no use to musicians.[/quote] for future reference, which courier doesn't insure musical instruments please?

Having skimmed the 4 pages of this thread, I think IMO some people are unfair on Parcel Force. Probably most couriers have horror story's and I guess most couriers will have a very similar percentages of parcels that get to their destiations undamaged. I have a mate who is a PF driver and on countless occasions I have chatted with him while he's loading/unloading the van, never once have I seen him treat a parcel in a way that I would be unhappy about if it was my (bass) in the parcel. I have sent and received probably 12 to 15 basses by PF any never had a hint of a problem. As an aside, I once received a (cheapish) bass won on ebay, can't remember the courier as it was 4 or 5 years ago and it was just wrapped in one layer of bubble wrap and a couple of black bin bags over it, luckily that survived unscaithed!! Just my two penneth.

[quote name='robocorpse' post='1114213' date='Feb 3 2011, 05:51 PM']Yes I know, but the thread is "cheapest bass in most expensive situation" and it seems odd that such high profile players as Bernie and John are not only using £100 axes at live shows, they are endorsed too.[/quote] just curious, do you think these will be the bog standard ones that are in the shops or pimped up Vintage axes?

Would anybody whose already got one care to please measure the neck pocket width, I would be interested to find out if it's standard 2 1/2 inches (63.5mm) regarding the use of relacement necks, many thanks, NJ

[quote name='tom1946' post='1106965' date='Jan 29 2011, 07:59 AM']Aye 3 days ago. My pots are fine, very gradual as I said in my report, if you change the pickguard you'll need extra holes and some trimming. The neck joint is quite tight on both of mine too.[/quote] [quote name='drewm' post='1107081' date='Jan 29 2011, 11:39 AM']Ok, I'm in too. Just ordered the white one... now off to evilbay to look for a tortoise shell pickguard.[/quote] Anybody know which model P scratchplate might/will fit without buying one, won't fit, buy another one and so on?, neck pocket & pick up dimension are fairly critical, not too bothered about extra screw holes, NJ

Just bought a Spector Legend from Russ and he's a great guy to deal with, bass was as described and well packed, good communication and an easy friendly transaction. Thanks very much Russ, Nick.

[quote name='Peter Train' post='1073863' date='Dec 31 2010, 05:31 PM']Hi I have an Ashdown Five Fifteen that I've been using for about 3 years and recetly all the fuses on the circuit board blew. When I replaced them they blew again. I have spoken to a local engineer who tells me that it's probably a transformer that's gone and needs replacing and he estimates a total bill of about £50 for the repair. Not a bad price but!....... I have been considering changing this for a few months now and I plan to buy a Roland CB100 which can drive an external cab as wel as the internal speaker. As the Ashdown would only be worth aboth £80 as a sale item on basschat I wondered if it would be possible to convert the old combo into a cab and run it from my new combo when I get it? Would this give me a better sound? [u][i][b]The Roland needs an external cab with a minimum of 100W capacity at 8 Ohms.[/b][/i] [/u] The Ashdown is sold as a 100 watt amp and required and 8 ohm extension cab but on the Ashdown website its only shown as 100w at 4 ohms. Any thoughts? Thanks Pete[/quote] I stumbled on this thread by chance and i'm really interested. As I have a Roland cb100 combo I have been thinking of using an extra external speaker cab, but I too am confused about ohms, the Roland manual says use a cab with a maximum of 8 ohms, but does not specify whether a 4 or 8 ohm external cab would be better in this set up. How do you find out which to use? Also would adding a 2 x 12 or 1 x 15 external cab of the correct ohmage? produce a louder sound or just a sound with more umph? Any help/advice greatly appreciated, thanks, Nick.

[quote name='Bassmurf' post='1080493' date='Jan 6 2011, 09:48 PM']Will do, I'm getting my camera back tomorrow so will post them on here as soon as![/quote] Hi, i've just bought a Spector Legend Custom 4 used from this forum, hasn't arrived yet, would just like to know what new strings you put on yours & how you find them on this bass. I was thinking if putting Elixiers on mine when it arrives, as a guy I knew had a Spector told me these were good. Also would like to see pics of yours, cheers, Nick.

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' post='1075567' date='Jan 2 2011, 06:30 PM']Hmmmm.. Am I allowed to disagree politely with a moderator? I'll keep it clean though my feelings and reservations with the above statement are angrier than what I am writing here. [b]Yes a Squier will always be a Squier[/b], I give you that. Is a name really that important? Lets see... : I can consider myself lucky not to be short of cash when it comes to toys, hence among some 5 or 6 top of the range Music Man basses which I've bought and sold between 2009-2010, I've also bought all 3 CV Squiers, and a Fender Japan 51 reissue, two Dingwalls, one here already, the other one on the way. I like to mod my Squier with good components so that they are up to the task because Squier puts cheap stuff under the pickguard. By doing so, some of them have even exceeded quality and sound of the average Fender MIM. I kid you not. Now the fact remains I have sold ALL the Music Man, the Japan reissue Fender and 2 of the CV Squiers just because I am onto different projects however there is one Squier CV I just couldn't let go and that is the Fiesta Red 60's Precision, an instrument which plays, feels and sound like a bass worth at least 5 times more than the £299 I paid for it. Ok I've spent about £60 on mods including the pickup but even though it will always be the Squier and not the Fender it makes no bloody difference to me and I am not deluded that this doesn't say Fender on the headstock, I could by all means get a decal and fake it but it's not in my nature to do so and least of all to shoot some statements like that one up there. It might not be Fender but by God it is better than some Fender I have tried in shops, and for that reason alone a name on the headstock means absolutely jack s**t. Unless of course you buy gear for the sole purpose that one day these would be regarded as high value collection items and fetch over £10'000 in Sotheby's[/quote] As a Squier cv owner, I would say this post is IMHO correct.

Looks cool, thought about a fretted for my VMJ fretless, how did you find the extra nut width? was it just an un-screw...screw new neck in or did it take a bit of setting up, also what sort of price/quality tuners did you fit? I see you can get jazz type tuners on ebay for twenty quid or so. cheers Nick

[quote name='Jamesemt' post='1047786' date='Dec 4 2010, 09:24 PM']Well I've done it...I've ordered an ermmm 1024 [/quote] was it from a certain German company? let us know how you like it, quite fancy one myself.

[quote name='Thepurepower' post='1041831' date='Nov 29 2010, 11:44 PM']I've got the tourbus10, and have it around 1/4 when practicing alone usually. I'd happily recommend it, not too many fancy features to get bogged down with as while I'm sure there's something better out there I enjoy the simplicity of being able to plug in, tweaking very rarely. Amazingly portable, I've carried it miles by hand with a bass strapped to my back, (very jealous of these car owning people). Should keep up fine in most situations, you will eventually distort it when trying to be heard over a drummer, guitarist should be fine though. All the best, hope this helps! Cal[/quote] thanks