Recent content by donn

That sounds all right for the Gretsch - my 5123B is audible a yard or two away without amplifier, so maybe loosely semi-acoustic. But not so as it would be useful - I mean, the nominal acoustic bass guitar, e.g. Fender Kingman, I would classify as a semi-successful acoustic bass, where our...

I have a B-Drive, like it but am not really the guy to ask as I don't normally use effects much. I'm here to say that mileage varies a lot depending on the pickups, as you might imagine - it was interesting on my old bass, doesn't seem to do much of anything with the new one. I see on the...

It isn't full hollow? I haven't broken the top off my G5123B for the sake of science yet, but on casual inspection it looks pretty empty in there, just a 3/4 inch or so soundpost, and I assumed the G5440LS was the same. What would you expect to gain? I'm somewhat ignorant in these matters...

Well, it's that or my old Matsumoku hollowbody, and I like the Gretsch a lot better. The gigs aren't the big time stadium jobs you're probably thinking - in a week or so we'll be at a chiropractor office party, yeah! and it's essentially an acoustic band. If you want a hollowbody for looks but...

Stickiness is a phase in polymerization ("drying".) Compared to commonly available ("boiled") linseed oil, vegetable oils take a long time to completely "dry", and they're sticky and rancid in the process. I didn't notice any mention of neatsfoot oil, but some people use that. For me, the sum...

I just noticed this post from back in December. The problem turned out to be, a string was buzzing on the bridge - on its way from the saddle to the tailpiece, the string was laying against the bridge at just the right pressure to buzz on certain notes. I believe it was the G string.

I'm kind of surprised everyone takes for granted that widening the slot is out of the question. Minor alterations of the nut seem like a normal part of setup to me. If you'd rather take your instrument to someone to do these things, that's fine, but one way or the other. Of course, once...

I'm with you on that, but I wouldn't guess they're rare. I think there were a couple of production runs, and Guitar Center still has them. If there's a big demand for them, I expect they'll continue to make them.

hm. Fender's flatwound strings have their own sound, but some people compare them to Chromes. Meanwhile, La Bella's 760M set, "Original 1954 Fender Style Flat Wound", "heard on nearly every Motown album from the '60s" might sound more like old school Fender flats than you would think.

I assume they're flats (the "Deep Talkin'" label shows up on most of their bass strings - roundwound, etc.) Are those red silks? I can't see.

Is it possible that you're hearing more or less the same thing here, but attenuated by recording and the low bandwidth video? I think this is a great video, but it's hard for me to reliably pick out the differences between strings; if I were right there playing the bass those differences would...

I would be pleased to recommend flatwound strings. Past that, you'd have to listen to some and see what you think. Every flatwound is the best, for someone, and I think we're kidding ourselves if we think we can reliably communicate about bass strings with words like "rich" and "woody."...

Yours are purple? My Ernie flat wounds are a light blue.

What kind of "compact" are you looking for? Smaller body, shorter scale, ... thinner case? I don't know, just never thought about compactness as an issue, they're all pretty tiny compared to an upright!

If it's a good player, fixing it makes sense I think. The thing I didn't like about my Japanese 5120 style was unstable and poorly defined pitches on the low strings, mainly E. I never really was sure why, likely the fault of the strings anyway, but the tuners didn't stay put very well. I'd...