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An update and a question…

shai-ga said:

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I was contemplating getting a Hipshot vintage bridge for my jazz bass and was curious how it would look. This sold me on it.

Its a very rare gig where I can't hear the nuance of what I'm playing..so our stage mix is good.
If I couldn't hear..that means our front would be poor and their would be a major post mortem.

I brought a scale and just weighed a used one today, that I might buy. 47 pounds. I'd never heard of Epifani; does anyone have one, or have used one? How'd it stack up against a Mark or GK? - Paul.

I may be totaly wrong I am only an amature but here is what I did .I wanted lowest action possible,no fret noise or no buzz or no mwah from 3 experimental basses I built myself,to try multiple things.I wanted the deep low sound of a plucked double bass lots of sustain and no mwah sitar sound.I have acomplished that this way.First,is technique,Finger and dynamics hand control is very important.I installed marker lines on all my basses.I used D Adderio black tape wounds.My fret board is perfectly straight and flat but radiused to 9.5 inches The nut is extremely low. Since the truss rod only gives releif between the 1st and 12 th fret I radius some fall off between the 11 th fret and heal end of the neck to stop any mwah from the higher register.I found this works perfectly.since fretless is an intonating instrument you need to train your ears to position your fingers to hit the notes cleanly.I tune the open strings normally, and set my intonation as close as I can on the 12th fret line.Any thing in the upper register is fine tuned by your ear.With lots of practice you can do it.It takes time to feel comfortable on fretless.I use the lines only as refrence points for finger position.I finally get to play an electric bass that sounds like a double bass.once I got a taste of fretless with the beauty of noisless slides and vibrato I never went back to fretted.

I found some more info on the cab, 150 lbs with the installed 100w amp. Active cabs have come a long way in 50 years.

Some info on the woofers from my testing:
7.1 ohm dcr
Fs 27hz
Qts seems similar to the Eminence Alpha 15 (qts 1.26) based on observed cone movement, so it's good for low power open cab usage.
Efficiency seem similar to the Alpha 15 when measured at 70hz and 40hz. The Alpha 15 plays higher into the midrange though.
Power handling at 41hz low E is around 21 watts or 13 volts assuming a nominal impedance of 8 ohms in free air use with a peak to peak cone movement around 11mm. Or 15 watts or 10 volts at 31hz low B. At 16hz for organ fans it's like 7or 8 volts. After p-p cone movement increases past11mm the distortion rises the mechanical limit around 15mm p-p.

so, origin aside, it seems that the best option for the OP is to get a genuine (blue) Neutrik to Neutrik cable and just use the Neutrik jack on the Mesa cabs you have. I understand there have been some issues with a newer (brown or green ?) Neutrik version, but the older Blue ones should work fine, and will be better than Neutrik to 1/4".

good luck OP

A Rock said:

You did what I was thinking about doing to solve the 30in E string issue. Glad it worked!

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/the-squier-mini-precision-bass-club.1444244/post-29455040

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Yes, I have heard the old Fender Mini P's and J's are string-thru, which would solve the E string issue !!
I also do this to my 32" scale basses (Squier Affinity Jaguar, Ibanez Mezzo 5, previous Warmoth Z bass @ 32" scale.... and soon-to-be completed Warmoth Z bass !! ). I can run a lot of standard scale strings without the wrap issue (not all, though). This new Z bass build, however, is a reverse 4-inline headstock, so the E string (or B string, if I so choose) will have a lot more length.

Hi awesome people of the Tapewound club!!!

So I have experience with Tapewound strings, specifically Labella, but I have a question for all of you with D'Addario Tapes.

If anybody has their tapewound set in a 5 string can you tell me if the Low B has a taper at the ball end?

I am looking for a set for my new Warwick Alien 6 and I could buy their 5 string set and then buy a separate .035 tapewound from their site, but I have the Alien with the 2 part bridge and you need a tapered B with that setup.

My other option would be getting a set of Labellas and then getting that Daddario on their own since the High C isn't going to get a majority of the playing time, but I'd like to keep it all under one brand if possible.

Thanks in advance!!!

MartinB said:

Thanks! I don't really do it justice, but it's Ain't No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell. One of the legendary James Jamerson's greatest basslines!

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Oh shoot I should have known that one.

I knew it was familiar. I've worked on that one before...

dazmond said:

So this is where all the missing church bass goes? Everyone BUT the congregation hears it! Or it's fake news and indeed the church players are turned down too quiet to hear. On a serious note, I wonder if there is a solution to this? I assume most normal size churches are in a somewhat residential setting?

MSN

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Are you sure they didn't just want it lower? maybe he's playing a 4 string but the neighbors want a five string for the low "B".

tb-player said:

I might have bought that version

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Looks like it would come with puppies. A half dozen smaller F Basses follow it around until you could find homes for them.

Amazing. I'd buy that!

Following this thread closely as I am currently waiting on (another) replacement UB805. This one coming directly from the factory...so I won't see it until mid September.

I was really falling in love with that bass. But there was an issue with the mount, and replacement had this unfortunate neck issue.

Pretty determined that one way or another, the next replacement will work out.

In the meantime, I'm considering a second hand Stagg. Hoping to see and hear it soon.

Any thoughts on how these two basses might compare with each other?

A shim is much easier, quicker, & cheaper than a PLEK job and will be just as effective at solving the range adjustment problem with the bridge saddles. Unless the PLEK setup guy thinks it’s OK to mill off about 50% of your fret height, you’ll have the same problem after the PLEK; saddles at max height is still not high enough.

Where you need to shim the neck can be done without taking the neck off. Just loosen the strings off, loosen the neck screws, back the top two screws all the way out of the neck and tilt the neck out of the pocket. Put your shim in place and poke the top screws through the shim, then re-attach the neck. Unless the PLEK guy is less than 10 miles away, you can finish the neck shim and have the bass back in tune before you can drive there.

I keep a note in my phone with interesting or profound quotes I've heard. I just opened it and saw the very first quote was from Glen Hansard:

"Those who were the victors wrote history. Those who suffered wrote the songs." -Glen Hansard

So I've spent the last couple of weeks toying with my NST Pearl maybe an hour every day and am absolutely amazed at all the doors that one can open just by casually using this tuning.

Definitely not for everyone but extremely inspiring for silly old me.

YMMV and then some for sure.

I had an '87 2-door Jeep, the back seat was tiny. I do not think that has improved with newer models.

Is the double bass you are renting going to be in a cushioned bass bag? If so, that will help.

I'd suggest 1 of 3 methods... I don't know if I would do method 1 or 2 if the double bass is not in a cushioned bag because the bag will help protect the instrument, plus it will have hand-hold straps that you can use with accessory straps or bungee chords to strap the instrument in.

1) Put the back seat down flat, and put the double bass body flat on its back resting on the back of that little seat, with the neck hanging out the back of the Jeep... Then strap or bungee chord it to the roll bars so the double bass doesn't move and it stays there safe. Don't forget to put a red-flag on the part of the neck that is hanging out, and pray that no driver tailgates.

2) Put the double bass standing up in the back seat, with the neck up in the air, and strap or bungee chord it to the roll bars so it won't move, and pray for no low-hanging trees or low-hanging structures and for no heavy winds.

3) Uber or Lyft a van or an SUV and fit the instrument properly and safely inside. Cushion it with pillows and blankets so it doesn't get damaged while on the road. This is definitely what I would do with a double bass I was renting and that I did not know if I wanted to buy.

Best of luck with this!

We humans don't want gap free butts in our bodies either, for reasons I shouldn't have enumerate.

Hello all!
I read all the posts in this thread several times in deciding to buy the Headway VAP. Thanks for all your informative comments!

I have had it for about a week now, plugging a Krivo p/u and an Audio-Technica 35 condenser mic into it. It sounds amazing. However, on 2 occasions now, I have found that the audio turns off when there is a loop connected to the send/return jacks. The first time it happened was when I first connected a second loop to the channel 2 TRS loop. Unplug the loop, and it works fine. Again yesterday, I was rehearsing, both effects loops in use, took a break to eat lunch so switched to standby, and, when I returned, the channel 1 audio was gone. After flipping all the switches, it finally came back. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a particular sequence of switches that must be engaged before plugging in the effects loops? I need this to work for a live performance board, leaving everything plugged in and just switching on the power before playing, so I’m hoping to not have to faf about with some finicky setup. TIA.

bassbrad said:

You might certainly ask. I certainly would miss the Akai UniBass if it stopped working. I have a shelf of treasures that no longer work or can be repaired within reason.

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I had my Unibass repaired once, and fortunately it's still working. I hope it never breaks again.
I love those big, heavy boxes.

2026 revisit to this topic:

Are the Mighty Mite fretless necks now available a relatively new product? The ebony looks real, not like ebanol version available years ago, and they even have a nitro finish option

Curious to know if the truss rod nuts are 4mm like previous MM necks (Squier spec, as opposed to 3/16 Fender spec). And just curious in general how these fretless necks are. They look good, and have some nice options.

tb-player said:

How do you like it?

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Feels great. I haven’t been able to plug it in and hear it yet.

Does anybody pay attention to bug reports?

In defense of the old pickguard, I will say that this is about as "clean" a fix of this nature as I have seen.