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Wasn't it the original bassist in Saxon who said open notes were vital to rock music... If there were no open notes he couldn't point while he was playing!!

Got my bass from the local builder yesterday, Love at first sight Anyone else got a Tractor-style bass?

Assuming all goes to plan we`ll do our 45th gig of the year next Saturday. Might not seem that many but they include Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, North West, North East, Norfolk, South Coast & London, with Belgium & Germany thrown in for good measure. Playing highlights have been playing the Scotland Calling Festival in the O2 Academy in Glasgow at short notice (we played Gateshead Fri night, Glasgow Sat lunchtime, Blackpool Sat night), our 2nd mini-tour of Germany, and filling the Winter Gardens Arena Stage to capacity at this years Rebellion Festival. Other highlights have been recording and releasing our 3rd album, which has come out jointly on Step1 Records in the UK/Europe and Longshot Records (a subsidiary of Pirates Press) in the USA, on vinyl. And securing festivals in Athens, Stockholm and Amsterdam already for next year is also pretty much up there for me.

Just joined this club... although still waiting for my Elwood to arrive! Would have preferred a passive model, but this one was available at a very good price, so daft not to! It had a 2-band Glockenklang preamp, but I like a bit more control over my mids so I asked if it could be swapped for a 3-band. For an extra 50 euros, a 3-band Delano pre was installed (which will hopefully pair well with the Delano pickups)

More pics This the woods for control panel, I placed a Padauk layer under Rosewood Here is the shaped control panel Knobs layout, on the right a killerswitch This is the jig to route the fretboard end Then I placed a Wenge cover on the end of the neck White plastic dots inside an aluminum pipe Fretting job, I use a fret tang nipper found on Ebay, I needed to modify it to fit the fret. It works well for what it costs. And as you can see I use superglue in the slot. On the right the self made jig for filing the fret ends The headstock with magnetic TR cover made out of Rosewood with Padauk accent Control panel on the body The whole bass ready for the hardware

I never really saw this as an either/or thing ...

Hi Basschat - i played on The Late Late show with James Corden earlier this year and was really happy with how the mix came out on my Elite Jazz 5! no pedals or effects, just jazz bass straight into a Bassman 800 Head and Cab, let me know what you think :-) Regards! Bill.

When I watched some of it before, it seemed like he was trying to convince people that it's more ethical to pay a lot of money to someone to build a bass than buy one from a company who may not pay their workers as much. Apart from not agreeing with his political opinion, it made it sound like he was almost admitting the Asian factory instruments are actually on par with his, hence having to introduce this other incentive to buy his. Couldn't watch it all though, it was too long and I wasn't liking what he had said so far. It's a shame it wasn't a textual article that I could read a lot faster.

The price entered when creating an ad is Forever; it cannot be changed, as it's used by the System. To indicate a change in price, put the current price in the title, perhaps..? Hope this helps.

First practice last night. Set the eq up as Orange suggests on it's website for Rock/Punk, turned the compressor up to 12 o'clock, plugged all my pedals in and turned it up to what would roughly 2. This is by far the loudest amp I have ever owned, it's mental. I should of bought the 300 watt (never going happen lol). I didn't get chance to fiddle with the eq and didn't need to tweak any of the controls on my bass... now that is a real first. Bite, punch, clarity... It just works, to the point where I wasn't thinking about my sound. Last amp that did that was my Trace Elliot 1225v back in the early nineties. If you get the chance try one. I'm very impressed.

Wilton Felder played a lot of the Jackson 5 bass lines, I'm not sure if that one is him though.

Good Lord! Just reading that is making my scrotum ache. And not in a good way.

If this is any kind of gauge for you, the two switches on my combo, the shape and graphic, needed replacing. Apparently they do give up the ghost on TE amps I also wanted to keep the original TE green switch buttons , but transferring them to the new switches behind the buttons was a right faff, but the tech managed it in the end. He also did a service and PAT test. This all cost me about £100. He wasn't a friend - this is his business But the TE combo is singing nicely

The better bass is the one that you like the feel/sound of best. Both are probably decent instruments at least, so it comes to personal preference in the end.

Ooh, nice. That is a very smart looking bass.

I jumped on an L2000 two years ago when Thomanns took in an overmake of blueburst and with a favourable exchange rate paid just £325!!! Really tidy bass with a multitude of passive and active sounds to shape.

Thankfully, it's been pulled....scammist got their fair dues. Season of Good Will to all men my derrière!! (Cor, look at that..I speak French!!)

Sounds steep to me. I had one fully serviced and repaired (don't ask me what) for about £40. Tech is retired though and just does it as a favour to other musicians - shops will have a different attitude I suspect.

So that`s 59 kebabs this year Les, pretty good going.

I would say I've done about 40, but I left the band I started six years ago a few weeks back, so that total isn't going up. There were a few high-points, Dublin Castle, Camden, an insane show at The Fighting C*cks, Kingston and two Italian gigs (in Milan and Turin) despite the Italian shows being the grounds for my subsequent departure; spending a few days with people you honestly don't really like just sped things along a bit. A lot of those gigs were good, but there was direct correlation to how the enjoyment waned and how playing became a chore as the year went on. It just wasn't fun [with them] any more and I believe the throwing of my bass across the stage at the end of the last gig I did with them reflected just how unhappy I was. Anyhoo, moving along, new band is up and running, initial home demos are promising, a little different to the old act, so we'll see where things go.

Doug is one of the loveliest people I've ever met..... and having played his old Spector I know it to be one of the most fantastic feeling, played in, instruments I've ever got my hands on.... However, his pedal-filled, dusty end of the neck playing does nothing for me either. All very well at a clinic but otherwise leaves me cold... The first 2 (Muzz) Living Colour albums were the ones for me too..... super solid playing and grooves. Loved them!

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Yep, imagine the sales Rickenbacker could make with a cheaper Euro or high quality Far-Eastern version of their classic design, as Spector have done with their Czech and Korean models..... Definitely a missed opportunity! I prefer my Japanese made Fender & Tokai P's & J's over any US made ones I've tried..... and the Euro Spector is a fantastically built/sounding instrument at half the price of a full US custom shop.

"If I hadn't seen such riches, I could live with being poor" Sit Down by James. Never a truer word. "With.....Without. Who'l deny its what the fighting's all about." Dark Side by Pink Floyd. As above.

Outstanding! Flawless deal and such a nice guy, it's daft but you can really tell the measure of a person by their communications and the small things they do to go that wee bit further. Thank you Dan!

That's an amazing rig! How about sharing a clip of you playing through it with your band?

Saw Rag n Bone Man on the last leg, lovely, soulful arrangement of 'human'. Great set of pipes on that man and I enjoyed the bass playing too!👏👍

"And the man that you once loved, is bald and fat, and seldom in, he's working late as usual, You're interest has waned , you feel the strain, the bedsprings snap, On the occasions he lies upon you, close your eyes and think of nothing but Private Hell"

I had a change of heart and thought I’d give it a go!?! It’s a bit different!?! Just got to get a new bone nut and drill out for the controls then string it up

p.s. the bass in the link is rather lovely!!

Rough rounding of body done. Bit of shaping required then lots of sanding.....

A commendable attitude, but the majority of audience members don't know what a bass is, or what it sounds like. Therefore they'll hardly notice a 'mistake' that lasts for a fraction of a second. You know this, of course. I play in the hope that there will be at least one person present who appreciates my efforts, but generally audiences are just a bunch of randoms with bad hair who've had too much to drink. They shuffle about uncertainly and bump into things. *Sigh*

Free - Fire and Water Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride

what a great bassline on Living in the Past, LEGENDARY MELODIC BASS I'll add Yes - Fragile it is the album that made me ask "what is making THAT sound?" That's the bass. "Then I wanna learn bass"

Ones that stand out for me are: School Days - Stanley Clarke Quadrophenia - The Who No Parlez - Paul Young

They both have their own sound and you'll probably like one more than the other. Great bass work has been recorded with both. That being said I don't think I could ever own a Ricky. I find the owner far too objectionable. If I did find one I really wanted I'd have to buy used to make sure he didn't get any money. And then I'd probably change the logo to make it look like a copy.

My current crop

If it's not good enough for Mani, it's not good enough for me.

Last week:

So here is part of my stuff

Interesting piece here which supports the view that Ringo was a talented and innovative drummer who played for the song. As evidence it analyses his parts on Ticket to Ride and In My Life. IMO, Ringo was by no means the Beatles' weakest link; Lennon was a very basic rhythm guitarist and - it has been suggested - frequently prone to error. Great frontman, though.

I was a Stones fan but still had all the Beatles albums, singles and EP's. As a musician you had to, they were the source of most new ideas at the time. The Beatles started as a live Rock and Roll act, went through being a backing band and came out the other end as the biggest original band in the world. No one's ever likely to like all their output (even they didn't), as it stretches from I Saw Her Standing There to I Am The Walrus, through Yellow Submarine (!), but they constantly changed what was possible with every new song and record they put out. Lennon and McCartney were musical giants. Very few bands have survived to the first album with two such original talents on board. They had to fight each other for their space in the band and certainly weren't interested in giving George Harrison a fair crack. He got his token song on each album and as he said he was writing songs but not bringing them to the band. He did manage to write one of their most famous songs. As Frank Sinatra said, "Something is the best song Lennon and McCartney ever wrote!" Forget the inaccuracy, that's some complement. While Lennon and McCartney were busy re writing the rule book for popular music Ringo was redefining what was possible for a drummer to play. Earl Palmer changed the drum world in 1949 by starting the 2 and 4 snare drum pattern. Now you can't imagine music without that simple beat, but 2 and 4 didn't cut it in so many of the Beatles songs that Ringo had to come up with something that did and in so doing opened the door to creative drum patterns that have spread into every drummers repertoire. Neal Peart, Buddy Rich and Jon Bonham are all great drummers, they brought something to the table but they didn't change the world of drumming. Ringo did and for that he needs recognition. There might be "better" drummers but Earl Palmer and Ringo Starr are the two most influential drummers in the last 70 years.

Open string notes are four notes (or more) that are available in all positions. I don't understand why one would never use them.

So then it has been on with the finish, wait, sand a little and repeat several times! The final holes have been drilled for the neck and string retainers (just enlarging / changing depths) so I can put the bass together to ensure everything is right before getting on with the final finish.

OK - here's where we began: ....and this is where we ended up:

Shame we don't have a 'like' button!

[quote name='John Schoen' timestamp='1422611174' post='2674525'] Ulas is new here. There is a group culture or herding instinct on Talkbass that we luckily don't have here. Please give him a break, he is just very enthusiastic about Maruszczyk basses. [/quote] This is the UK - we treat enthusiasm with suspicion.