Big_Stu

[quote name='jake_tenfloors' post='895083' date='Jul 14 2010, 09:04 PM']But seriously, i hope that wasn't verging onto a homophobic comment as i really have no tolerance for that.[/quote] What I have no tolerance for is the homophobic bandwagon being jumped on when the fact that someone who's entire "talent" is to emphasise to the point of pastiche their gaydom is highlighted. Step into the frame "Alan Carr" and "Graham Norton". [i]Cue the pro-homo line any minute now - that if you don't find them funny you must be homo-phobic.[/i] Having said that, I would say that Dale Winton has the balance just right & does a cracking job, closely followed (resisting strongly the opportunity for an "oo-er missus" there) by Paul O'Grady. Handbags at the ready ............ 4, 3, 2, 1, ................

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='893901' date='Jul 13 2010, 04:40 PM']I have a plan to shoehorn a Precision neck onto an Epiphone body one day for a cheapo Entwistle style Fenderbird.[/quote] Damn! So I wasn't the first person to think of that???

Don't know if you're aware, but a Marshall dealer is only endorsed by them to sell the amps, not to fix them. I got caught the hard way with that, spoke to Marshall & they have a very friendly, very good service dept who not only fix your problem but overhaul the amp top to bottom to check for anything else. They were even cheaper than the shop who had done a botched job on a combo I had, which coincidentally was a crackly pot. You're not that far from them to either take it yourself for a day out or for a courier to take it. I'd never go anywhere else with a Marshall now. I was given the full tour last year around the factory & was shown the service area with the amps waiting to be fixed - from world-wide........ If you look closely, yes that is Gary Moore's name on the water damaged cardboard box near the back. "NO preferential treatment HERE" they said.

My first bass was a s/h Gibson EB3, (SN. 907469 - now THAT'S anal!!!) bought for £165 from JSG in Bingley W. Yorks. After a lot of research & window staring I discovered it was a badly adapted EB0. The bridge pup was a Gibson engraved guitar humbucker which I had swopped out to a Schaller twin-pole job, & was ripped off in the process at "Mary's Music" in Accrington. That's something which I think happened a lot more back then, kids getting ripped by the shops, there's a lot of ways, that weren't about back then, to read up on gear now to stop rip-offs. I sold it when I got married, & it turned up years later in a junk shop that was a front for a fence in Edinburgh, I would have bought it back but it was a wreck by then & the price was too high. My first amp was a 100watt Marshall PA with eight inputs. Bought s/h with a 150watt cab made by TVM of Manchester, in was huge with a single 18" speaker. £125 for both.

[quote name='Ian Savage' post='887917' date='Jul 6 2010, 11:10 PM']Haven't been into GuitarGuitar yet, but shall at some stage - it looks a bit flash from the outside, mind.[/quote] The one in Edinburgh is excellent, if that's anything to go by. Decent staff that know their gear, good mix of new & used, vintage stuff on occasion & as I've said before it was the place where some tw@t (ie. ME) saw a Rockinbetter Rick just out for £299 ...... and passed on it!

[quote name='matski' post='878081' date='Jun 26 2010, 12:25 PM']Check out this link: [url="http://www.bassmatters.nl/"]http://www.bassmatters.nl/[/url][/quote] Excellent site, well designed. I'll pass the info on - thanks!

[quote name='TomNicoBassman' post='878269' date='Jun 26 2010, 04:49 PM']Though always open to recommendations. Any hints on finding a good, reasonably cheap bass?[/quote] Keep a regular eye on the 2nd hand shop at the corner of Queen Street & Frederick St. They regularly get some good gear in there. Not cheap always, but that's why you keep looking back. Last time I looked about 2 months ago they had a Gibson 70's EB3, can't remember how much & a Musicman for £690. Always plenty of Fender copies too. Scayles on Patrick Sq along Clerk Street is a great shop, especially now they have a used gear shop round the corner in West Crosscauseway. Tell Vince I said "Hi". Guitar Guitar down near Murrayfield was the first place I saw a Rockinbetter Rick copy, it was only £299 - I could kick myself I didn't snatch their hand off at the time. Edinburgh has some excellent venues for bands of any description, you should do well. Just watch out for the ones that ask you to do free gigs & promise they'll help you out in the future if you do. It's a lie.

[quote name='witterth' post='875500' date='Jun 23 2010, 03:24 PM']I gave away a trace 2x18 not long ago. it had lain unused for ages,Think is being used now (hope so ,cos thats agood home)[/quote] I know a guy who auditioned a Hiwatt 400 with one of those and a Trace 4 x 12", you could have heard it in the next town before it was half volume. BUT it did need two pairs of hands to get the head on top of the stack.

[quote name='hopkinsgm' post='455972' date='Apr 6 2009, 11:26 PM']An alternative to the Grolsch bottle rubber washers (and one I've used on a few guitars over the years) is to use the round disc string retainers as found on Fender basses instead of regular strap buttons. Makes it a PITA to take the strap off, but it does make "strap popping over the strap button" type accidents less likely. Cheers, G[/quote] Now THAT is one of the best ideas I've heard in a very long time!

You were exactly correct with exchange rate! I've always said that the English you have over there is far better than 99% of our Dutch speaking here. Though when I tried my Dutch in a cafe I was told I was very good by the waitress ........ and she was VERY cute! I tried looking for old guitars at street markets too, one in Domburg, the other in Ieper. But there was nothing, plenty of porcelain & old records.

Whirlwind cables are excellent, last you for years. I also have a 8m lead made of Klotz instrument cable & a couple of Neutriks from Maplins, less than £2 each. The whole lead was less than £10! Soldering doesn't take long to learn, & before you know it you'll be putting new pickups in your guiatrs & everything, wondering why you didn't sound like that years ago.

Depends what you expect to do with the band? If you're going to go for the whole thing, become big & successful etc then you need to have people with you that will stick it as a band thru good times and bad, which they obviously ain't. If it's just something to do for beer money & it beats hanging on street corners then it really don't matter too much does it? Either way, you got to ask them [b]all[/b] the question of what they're exspecting out of the band, cos it seems like only you that has a passion for it, which you really need if you're going for it.

[quote name='Baskesman' post='874236' date='Jun 22 2010, 10:50 AM']Yes as an european I'd say buy in the UK if you can! Mind you mailing amps cost a fortune... [/quote] Sounds much like I found it to be then, when my friends son wanted the Tele we found it was cheaper for me to fly over with it than to ship it. So long as you don't fly RyanAir I did the same with an old practise amp I didn't need too!

[quote name='aznbass' post='873697' date='Jun 21 2010, 06:04 PM']Hello! Following a sting of robberies in my area, my parents have begun looking at the home insurance. They have reciepts for pretty much everything they own of value, However my bass doesnt have one, as i didnt buy it new. in the event of a robbery, would i be screwed?, is there any way i could get it covered under the home insurance? how do they know i had it? do i just need pictures of it etc? They all are worth under £900 easily if that is of relevance.[/quote] On normal household insurance you can have the items "named" on the policy, sometimes it costs extra - sometimes not. It just means that anything of special value or special risk (like jewellry it's something a robber would look for specially) is listed on the policy documents. If you start to take it out to gigs on a regular basis that goes into the territory of higher risk so they'd probably not want to do it, if you get specific musical instrument insurance it goes a lot higher from household up to gigging cover; though it is very reasonable when you consider how much gets robbed or stolen at gigs. I had musical insurance on my bass, the last quote they gave me put it at £4600 for £82 a year, houshold only (they wouldn't do it for gigging) but it was so impossible to get through to them to take it up that I let it lapse. I tried Music Guard, but it's a very rare instrument so MG want a valuation from a recognised dealer, though they wouldn't say who. I'm still waiting for over a year for "Vintage & Rare" to get back to me, so for now I'm running a big risk.

[quote name='Cloff' post='873624' date='Jun 21 2010, 04:44 PM']Any questions? Ask them! Cheers, Gerben[/quote] OK, here's a question for you. I have friends with a son at your age getting into guitars. They are in the Maastricht area, when I've been there to visit in the past he told me that it's difficult for you there to buy "good" gear, and I didn't see many shops for modern stuff, just plenty of accordians etc. When he decided he wanted a Tele I bought one here & took it over, it was that difficult. So the question is, how do you find getting good equipment, both in having a choice & paying a good price? I've recommended them using Thomann in Germany for future things.

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='865047' date='Jun 12 2010, 11:44 AM']Maplins is just down the road so i was hoping i could pick something up from them. I had thought about copper tape (and i do have a roll) but not sure if it will stick to the walls of the cavity. Anything i need to watch out for etc? Cheers.[/quote] I've used the Maplins conductive paint (the bottle is TINY!) with good results before; depends what you're doing. My custom bass has an all-over back scratchplate, but it wasn't earthed so it used to build up static very quickly, when playing which crackled thru the amp. I painted a good coat of the paint all over where the control cavity is on the inside of the scratchplate & then joined a wire from the paint to the bass earth, perfect! I've also used their copper S/A sheet to line the inside of a control cavity on a guitar which is also perfect, but it means you have to strip the guitar controls down a fair bit to get the stuff in if you want to do a tidy job.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='855513' date='Jun 2 2010, 10:45 PM']Its a shame most of their prices across the whole bass range is quite high.[/quote] Oh I dunno; I still kick myself often that I passed on one of the first Rockinbetter Rick copies I saw at their Edinburgh shop for £299!!! I want one of those babies & I know justy how I'll get it customised & who by. I just refuse to pay double that original price for something to be modded up to the hilt.

Of course with John the sky's the limit, or your imagination is; you could go for any classic shape you want .........

Dunlop 3mm for me, don't give me any problems for speed. Where are you guys getting your Hercos from? I was told they weren't available by a few shops I tried.

Surprised you didn't see anything you liked at Scayles, they always did me well & I'd say it's the best gear shop in Edinburgh now that they have two shops again. I always asked for and got discount for cash off them for gear, ask Vince or Adam they'll tell you, hee hee, but it extends your price range & they're happy to do it. Their 2nd shop in W crosscauseway does used gear too now. Guitar, Guitar way down the west end is well worth the trek out too, surprisingly big shop and good range of stuff. Rikki's down leith walk is a crock so I wouldn't bother going back there. Course this is all hindsight cos you got fixed up. I would have recommended a Crate amp that I have & got discount for which came down to £115. It has a "live" setting which is just fizz if you don't set it up right but as a practise level amp on the other channel I've never heard better.

[quote name='Sarah5string' post='788438' date='Mar 28 2010, 12:15 PM']Varsity, Wolverhampton [/quote] You could try speaking to Dave Donovan at Donovan's in Amblecote? Can't guarantee he'll have an amp to hire, but this time last year he had a half-stack Hiwatt 200, ex-Noddy Holder of Slade (before your time) that would have done the job. But he's a really helpful guy & if he can help he will. Just one thought that crosses my mind is that depending on how soon you can get a new amp; you'll be going some to get new speakers "run in" before your gig, so if you loan out the use of it you may end up with a damaged speaker or two if someone clogs it. I'd deffo go for a hired amp for this one.

[quote name='4 Strings' post='787727' date='Mar 27 2010, 11:14 AM']For your original question, you should allow £800- 1000 for a decent bass. ................. For this Jaydee will make one for you and it will be uniquely yours[/quote] Unfortunately for the past few years he's had a constant 18 month waiting list I was in Edinburgh a few weeks ago & a junk shop there had a few basses including a MusicMan at £400, I don't think he knew what he had. There was also an unpriced mid 70's EB3, but they only look good in cherry IMHO.

It might matter to you what you intend playing on it? Do you have an image in mind, what kind of sound do you want to have? Not much point in having a HM pointy-all-over-bass if you want to play jazz for eg. Personally I don't like Fenders or Fender derivatives, because everybody & their auntie has one it seems, so I do like something that stands out, but not to the point where I'd look a knob. (well, no more than usual )

[quote name='RussFM' post='778144' date='Mar 17 2010, 11:43 PM']We had some done recently, turned out quite well considering it was 9am on a Sunday morning after a heavy Saturday night! [/quote] Black Country Museum, Walsall??

[quote name='benebass' post='771006' date='Mar 10 2010, 10:15 PM']Bought a Status Groove bass through a postal deal & there's really dodgy-looking ding on the neck bolt area - it looks like someone's tried to shove a screwdriver through the finish.[/quote] Looks to me like someone started trying to move a strap button, thought better of it when the finish started to crack & left it. It won't weaken anything but yeah, I'd run s'glue into the crack & forget it.