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So the brown note is (very likely) a myth, but if anyone's feeling particularly mischevious, I am assured that the same effect can be achieved by pressing a certain nerve ending on the body. I used to know a karate instructor who took a voracious interest in the Eastern philosophies around the martial arts (mainly, we suspect, as a means to further his similarly-enthusiastic-and-possibly-not-entirely-healthy interest in Asian ladies...), and his studies had led him to a lot of theories and teachings about pressure points. Apparently he spent an afternoon with his brother (also a martial arts enthusiast) working through the points described in one book. Upon testing one point, his brother had told him to stop quite urgently, because he could suddenly feel his sphincters relaxing. He steadfastly refused to tell us where it was...

Totally unpredictable! Sometimes you can play a supposedly great venue which has an excellent reputation, and it just doesn't work out. Could be the band members, the audience, the equipment... On the other hand, you can end up playing somewhere that nobody really wants to play, maybe on a bad night (weather-wise, or a clash with some big event...) and everything just comes together to make an outstanding time! For me, it is not about money (although that is not to say that I don't want or need to be paid!), but the enjoyment comes from the buzz. Where does the buzz come from? Well, usually rapport with your bandmates and playing the songs well, a receptive audience who are genuinely enjoying themselves, a good sounding room with plenty of feedback (of the right kind!), an appreciative venue owner/manager, good lighting, the correct temperature.... I could go on, but it is very difficult to quantify. Mostly, I think, it is about the audience. The problem is, if you turn up expecting all that - it rarely happens. Most of my "great" gigs have been surprises!

Well technically it’s NTMBASHBD (New To Me But Actually Second Hand Bass Day). Alright, this was Wednesday but as close as damn it. I posted a while back asking for recommendations for a short scale lined fretless bass, @ikay was kind enough to point out that two fretless Rob Allen Mouse (should this be mice) basses were for sale on here. I feel very lucky to have purchased one of these from the scholar and gentleman @WishIcouldplay. Anyway, I had never tried an RA Mouse before, never seen one or heard one (apart from online, obv.) but I love the look of them from pics so With a pocket full of wonga I headed off to try it out. Just seeing it on its stand was enough, what a beautiful thing. I tried it as in slid one note up a tone on the G and I was in love. I dropped in on my musical collaborator on the way home and played our latest song using it, glorious. Yesterday I got home from work about 6 and went straight to the study, plugged it in and started noodling, when I looked up again I was surprised to see it was dark, a look at the clock, 10:44! I have never owned a hand made instrument before, what a thing, it’s like playing a work of art, bass lines and tunes are falling out of it, I am actually smitten... ...now I need a fretted one.

I am not a big fan of Moondance.

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At The Drive In's performance of One Armed Scissor on Jules seems to have disappeared off YouTube, which is a shame as its brilliant

A good gig is the band playing well and the audience enjoying it. A GREAT gig is when the magic happens. That all too rare night when everyone in the band is "On" and the musicians are almost telepathic. When everything you touch turns to musical gold and the components of the band fit together like a Swiss watch. When even one or two of the songs you have played for years, and are not that fussed about, just take off. The audience picks up on this and you can feel the energy flowing back onto the stage, adding more fuel to the bands fire and lifting things even higher. It can be in the local pub or the local arena, whatever, the feeling is the same, emotion and energy. That is a great gig.

Right, the Dunlop Flatwounds are on! Thought I’d give the fretboard a bit of a clean between string sets but it didn’t seem to need it. Really loving the added low mid thump the flats are giving me at every pickup setting. And of course they’re nice and easy on the fingers compared to the Roto Steels - not that the Rotos were particularly harsh but you get smooth comfort for free with flats, obviously. The tension isn’t vastly different from the Rotos and they have a decent amount of high end, giving me a nice clank when switching the preamp to active with the treble boosted. Very, very nice. So, at present my bass lineup is: Sandberg VM5 with Dunlop Stainless Steel Flats MTD Super 5 with Dunlop Superbright Nickel Rounds Sanberg Electra VS4 with LaBella 750N Black Nylon Tapes A lovely trifecta of tone machines!

Discovered a great big hole, and the exposed edge of the photo flame paper. I made a video about that too... ...and today I lacquered the neck with amber tint nitrocellulose, sprayed the scratchplate white, and ordered the headstock decal.

True, they had to quickly run out and buy a rock music record to cover the dreary wailing noise, good point

No, and no. Simply because the vast proportion of the sound of a bass (5 string or otherwise) which we enjoy lies well above 30-40hz in the frequency spectrum. Have a listen to the following videos and let us know if you still think the liberal addition of this to your bass guitar sound is of benefit to you in any playing situation. Take note that they are sine waves, meaning these tones have pretty much zero harmonic content or overtones. Note how, despite the volume of your speakers/headphones being set at a perfectly enjoyable and audible level for listening to other things (music, videos etc), these sine wave tones are relatively much more difficult to hear. “Why is that?” I hear you cry. I invite you to reread the thread and again take note of the several BCers who have attempted in vain to make clear the necessity of overtones relative to the fundamental in making notes audible. Especially the lowest notes. Yes, as a 5 string bassist we are losing something by not playing through a rig which can handle 30hz at gig volume. We’re losing a portion of our sound which not only makes mixing us more difficult but at the same time fails to increase our ability to be heard.

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This is what I'm using with my Wal. Front pickup on 10, bridge pickup pulled and on 7.

For me, a great gig is one where the band is working well together and the audience 'gets is'. My first gig with the Grateful Dudes last Easter was a good example, everything slotted together well on stage, plenty of Dead-style jamming, audience dancing like dervishes, people queuing to buy shirts and shake our hands, that was a great gig. The 4 hour drive home was less great, but didn't take away the buss the gig left me with.

I would not worry about that. It's merely a pad switch. The label seems to imply active = higher output, which is simply not true. Active and passive basses come in all sorts of outputs and there's no hard rule about it. For example, my Stingray is not particularly high output, it matches a passive Precision / Jazz quite well... G&L L2000 in passive mode is one of the loudest things on Earth,, louder than any active bass I've ever owned. Neodymium Entwistle pickups make any passive bass scream... etc. Of course, if you boost the low end control to max on active basses, you're probably going to overload a normal input... In other words, it's not active/passive... but down to individual designs and what you do with them too. I always try the passive option first, and only if it overloads the input I switch to 'active' input. Engaging the 'active' input never sounds as nice, if the amp can take your bass in the 'passive' input, in my experience. I prefer amps with simply an input gain control (many these days)... then you simply adjust the input gain to suit.

I'm doing this remembering repairing kit back in the very early 70's, well 1970 actually. My memory may be a bit iffy at that distance. Compression is something valve amps do naturally partly down to the valves themselves but also due to the saturation of the output transformer. Basically they just peter out as the output rises giving a nice soft sounding distortion as they over loaded. Guitarists used this to create all the sounds of early rock music. Combined with the feedback you get at ridiculously high levels it also gave them a lot of sustain to play with. Everyone forgets that most of these amps were pretty unreliable and a band running four valve amps on stage plus often valve PA amps was experiencing a lot of technical failures. Plus back problems from carrying the amps. Having 20 KT88's on stage was a nightmare to be honest. Transistor amps were coming in by then WEM (not much more reliable) and later HH for PA followed by early guitar and bass versions. They were certainly cheaper and quickly became more reliable but transistor amps really distort unpleasantly when overloaded so we looked for a way of getting that gentle overload that the old amps gave. Compression was what was needed so compression on instrument amps started as an effect to give 'valve sound' The first compressors I encountered used ordinary car bulbs to compress the sound. At high power they get hot and their resistance goes up, put the signal through a bulb pick it up with a photocell and bingo, compression. The next stage was a voltage controlled amplifier. Take the output and use it to control the volume or gain of the amp and you get compression. These were often adapted from tape recorder automatic volume circuits and used FET's as the controlling element. By about 1974 integrated circuits took over thousands of components in a single package. You could get undistorted compression at will but you wouldn't do that complexity with valves. So you wouldn't simulate valve sound with valves for obvious reasons. They still make optical compressors as an effect but with VCA's you can get completely controllable compression which is largely done digitally nowadays anyway. Valve based computer anyone? If anyone is interested https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advice/q-what-optical-compression

That sums it up pretty much perfectly

Well, I haven't any specific plans, but I am pretty sure I will do by the time I finished! It is very enjoyable to do so it would seem unlikely that there wouldn't be.

No wall, but ready to hit the road in my trusted transit ( long base, double wheel btw) Happy days

I don't - holding a grudge is an important thing in life

Gentlemen, I can't help but admire your brickwork! I'm 2nd left circa 1994.

I am really enjoying the Wal tone on this video I did what just appeared on YouTube. It was di'd so this is the 'studio' sound.

Never seen the words 'stunning' and 'Bongo' in the same sentence before. However that does look rather pretty. The headstock shape does still remind me of Peppa Pig's head, though.

In my view, the best of the three is the Rendez Vous. Basically they are like this: Déja Vu has 2 LFOs (and NO envelope control). LFO is continuously variable between ramp, saw and triangle or skinny pulse, square and wide pulse. It has a modulation gate so that the LFO doesn’t bleed when in the audio range; Rendez Vous has 1 LFO and 1 envelope follower. LFO is same above pedal. It has the same modulation gate; Avant Garde has 2 envelope followers. It has NO modulation gate. Instead it has an LFO which can be used at the same time as both envelopes and can be routed to both sides of the pedal simultaneously. However it has a fixed shape and does not go to the extreme fast and slow speeds capable on the other two pedals so is of limited use (especially with the phaser). I rented the Rendez Vous for a week and loved it. The last time there was a sale on I bought the Avant Garde as I thought I’d prefer two envelopes but I didn’t think it was as versatile and sent it back. I really missed having the slow LFO to direct at the phaser (or filter) and having the two envelopes wasn’t really that useful given that even with the one envelope version, you can direct it to both sides of the pedal anyway. Same goes for the Déja Vous - having two LFOs is pointless because in the Rendez Vous you can direct the one LFO to both sides of the pedal. If you’re at all unsure, get the Rendez Vous

I had a Bolin NS bass and the piezo pickup was just sublime. I still miss it

Just that feeling when the band are ON. Those moments when you make eye contact with one another and your face breaks out in an unstoppable ‘sh#t-eating grin’ and the audience are singing along or dancing or both. Thar’s a great gig!

I squared up the neck assembly with a jack plane and then put it through the thicknesser to slim it down to 62mm width (the width of the neck at the point the furthest end meets the body). I also thinned down the swamp ash back pieces to the 40mm outlined in the drawing above. Note that the steel fret/blocks template also arrived today! Giving the outline a decent amount of wiggle room, I marked the sides out ready for cutting: ...and duly cut them: The bridge and lightweight tuners, both in black, are on order. For the bridge, I've ordered a Schaller 2000. I'm pretty sure it's one of those on @Chris Sharman 's gorgeous 5 string Shuker that I was lucky to temporarily get my mitts on last week. I was very impressed with the design and quality of the bridge I can't cut the neck side profile until I've worked out the neck angle, and I always get hold physically of the bridge before I work that out (I draw the neck joint position and angle full size, including the saddle lowest and highest setting points) so won't be doing that yet. Instead, I'll turn my attention to the fretboard. I've got just the piece of maple for that As always, thanks for looking!

Yeh - not a fan on that. DId one gig with the last group that did that. Opened with it, as always. Group after us, opened with it. Group after them. Opened with it. To be fair, if we had been the second or third group we wouldn't have done it if the first group had.

Respectfulness is nice - I'll vouch for mine, whilst seconding the "that's bollocks" line. Having said that, about 50% of our current set is indeed pre-1985 - which is about when our singer was born so not sure of the relevance, really. I guess an underlying point, though, is that the band who've been peddling the same set for decades evidently have a singer who's learned the songs (though it may have taken him 30 years). It kind of relates to the old memes about "rehearsals aren't there for learning the songs, do that at home before you get there". Similarly, gigs certainly aren't for learning the words - you should be well past that stage by the time you're setting up down the pub.

Ooh Helix stationery: it’s like school woodwork class again!

Got Muse at their peak.

Three beautiful pieces of timber came through this morning from David Dyke - glued up and clamped in my meaty bench clamps and their metal friends, two pieces of maple with a centre walnut splice: Next job will be to thickness the swamp ash back timber. This needs to allow for the concave curve of the back and so, even though the bass body, including the top, will be sub 30mm, the back blanks alone will need to start off at 40mm: In the meantime, the fretboard fretslot and block inlay template is due today so I suppose I'd better get on and work out just how I'm going to use it!

I'm just gonna leave this here...

Agreed, you can never predict a great gig. You never know when it's going to happen, when the band, the crowd all come together. Yes, it's always a surprise for me when it happens. Blue

Are you therefore telling us that your mighty Markbass combo is unable to handle the low B on your 5 string basses? 🤔🧐

Dean Friedman , lucky stars . The only reason to thank them would be if the radio wasn't in a thousand pieces after a kicking off the scaffold if it got played !

No need to be respectful, you're welcome to your opinion. My personal experience from local bands that comment on stands has always come from bands that have been playing the same set for years on end, there's not that many words in Freebird anyway, lol.

Yes, had a lot of physio last year and went back a couple of weeks ago as it’s still not right. Thanks for the sensible advice though 😉

Reminds me of the Ibanez Musician series basses.

Certainly yes I agree, as I said earlier I think most of the people (musicians) that have an issue with music stands are those that haven't got anything in their set dating from 1985 onwards.

My little band, Illegal Tender. I like this picture.

I like the rustic look of this and like the idea of the rope look. Personally if I were going for the aged/rustic look I'd think about a burnished finish to maximise the grain effect. You could go the whole hog and find branches which could be used for a fully organic look.

This whole tribute act argument bores me to death, what's the problem? If you don't like it move on to something you do like; if I stopped to add comment to everything I didn't like I'd be typing for the rest of my like and never get off page one, the sooner you grow up and get on with life the better. We're all different, accept it, don't make yourself look inadequate by trashing everything you don't like. Like it or lump it, the market for bands is driven by audience demand, if they don't want to see it they won't pay and hence you don't get the booking. The universal truth for any group of musicians is; if you want to get on you have to give the audience want to hear what you have to offer or make the audience want to hear what you have to offer and no amount of whining or whinging will ever change that Very sorry about that, one of the few things that annoy me are people who like to put others down in any way, why not try and make them smile for a change?

My current faker projects: 1. A Hondo II. 2. A CMI.

I don’t actually have much personal experience of Rays first hand so as far as the tone of the Solo’d MM pickup I don’t have a particular frame of reference. What I will say though is that it isn’t only useful as a blending option with the P - it’s actually an incredibly useful sound in its own right. I’ve found myself playing along to tracks with a dense mix of instruments and soloing the MM has given me the perfect starting tone that cuts through the mix better than any other pup setting.

heres a better pic of the strange beast.