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My local Aldi has fisherman's scales in the central aisle....obviously not as accurate as your kitchen scales but negates the need for entering "the Forbidden Zone"...

What IS the best bass for metal? I thought I'd better get that one out of the way!

Got some more done on these today and I'm quite pleased with how they are looking so far. I'm also having a variety of thoughts regarding pickups - I'm half thinking of installing just a piezo in the bridge on the burl top. I'm also thinking about making a 30" neck for one of them, though that may follow later. I've done the routing for the neck and bridge on both of these and I've also started rounding the edges. Next task is to route the two neck blanks for truss rods.

Has there ever been a cooler drummer than this?

Just have to say, in response to the Barefaced naysayers on this thread, that my experience with the Barefaced tens runs contrary to the reservations that are expressed here. I am in New Zealand, yet the communication and customer service from Alex has been superb. I have two One 10s and a Four 10 which I combine with anything from a Mesa Subway 800+ to Orange AD200, Fender Super Bassman, Ampeg V4.....so I have a reasonable experience with these speakers. I also own Bergantino, Fender, Ampeg etc cabs for comparison. I do not want to get into a which is best scenario as that has been done to death, but IME and combined with decent amplification the Barefaced 10s far exceed others in volume and the type of tone that I enjoy. Yes, they are coloured but they are designed to be that way and it suits me. They go very loud without farting out and sit nicely in the mix. So light.... Anyway, it does boil down to opinion and we are all entitled to one, but I was surprised to read some of the comments here so looking to balance them from my own experience over 40 plus years of playing.

+1. I love a bit of Indian Yanny.

This is genius! I love it! You've got my vote man, perfection on every level! 🙌🙇‍♂️🙌🙇‍♂️🙌🙇‍♂️🙏 You are a god among mere mortals. 👏

OK I'm in a simple affair this time , nothing too complicated but I am very short on time this month, gigs, work and setting up for Lurksalittles 18th birthday bash next weekend ! Enjoy For some bizzarre reason I cant get the picture to upload this time around , I will try Again in the week

Just a weekend bump, have a great weekend 🙂

Good luck to both of you. Although i've been thru a few bands in past couple of years i've not gigged since early 2017 and current band is in rehearsals at moment. Only half way thru our set list of Glam Rock covers but that's because guys all have other commitments with other successful bands and are trying to slot this project in the gaps but hopefully will pick up once we start gigging. The talk within the band is that this band will take over as the main band for them all so that's nice.

We have a gig tonight to which a couple of people who saw the Stones last night are coming. Someone suggested we should drop our Stones numbers because it would be a bit of a stark comparison for those who’d seen them last night, and we wouldn’t want the band to be shown up for playing sub standard versions of the songs. I said sod that, the Stones have had a good enough run - why should we care if we show them up 😎

So spent quite a bit of time with these ZS10s. Quite a different sound to what I’m used to. Warm, with not a particularly wide soundstage (blocking the port makes this worse) with the recessed upped mids and treble clearly audible. So whilst I don’t particularly dig on them for casual listening of music, this trait could be quite favourable for onstage use as it will keep your ears fresher for longer. Having said that, I do like the warmth of the dynamic but I do find them quite a fatiguing listen generally - but I think that may be down to the mid range bloom. What I will say though, for the money - great. This or a 215? No competition. And if you think that this whole setup is comparable to the cost of an entry level cable from the big boys... not a bad thing to have in the spares bag either!

S'nothing, first gig since 2016 ; we're just about to start loading the truck.

Harsh that, was gonna say buy it a decent suit and get it some singing lessons...

I re-read that but let me just make sure... wink is the correct spelling isn't it? Otherwise I'd say your doctor is extraordinarily friendly, if a little dodgy with it.

At that price point you really need to get down to your local musical instrument retailer and try everything your friend can afford. The usual suspects will be a good starting point but there's always a chance that there will something in stock that you've never heard of before that turns out to be a bit of a hidden gem. Also you'll get a much better guitar at that price if you don't buy one with a built-in pickup/electronics.

That’s James Gadson. He was the guy back then, he certainly did a lot of sessions in the 70’s and 80’s. I think he was still gigging locally in the LA area up until a couple of years ago. A nice little read about his career here. http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/James_Gadson.html

In order to keep my strings fresher for longer I wash my hands before touching my bass, carry a microfibre cloth to wipe the bass and my hands and point a fan at my hands so that they don't sweat and stick to the strings which would inevitably cause skin particles to end up between the winds of the strings. I get around 9 or 10 wedding gigs out of a set before they get noticably dull. My bass is also the last thing to come out at a gig and the first thing to get put away at the end of the night

Just got in from the first of a three gig weekend, two more tomorrow, with not much of a break between them. You know that bit when there is some woman in the audience and all her friends are saying 'oh get her to sing' and you just know they are going to be awful, they are always awful. well, she came up when we were going to do all right now and grabbed the singers microphone (he is good with crowds, not me!), and started singing. OMFG was she good! Honestly I can't remember when I last heard as good a singer, a really strong voice, but not forced, perfect timing, great personality. Can we keep her?? Turned out she was a depping singer on a night out.

Just make sure you don't take it back to the wood - pretty unlikely unless you go mad with a belt sander though. The finish will easily T-Cut back to factory-standard gloss if you want to sell later.

Looks like a Schecter Stiletto Stealth to me:

I was only listening to ‘Tin Drum’ in the car today. Agreed, an exceptionally gifted and original musician.

Mainly a rocky indie kind of thing. Not at all metal. I have an Ibanez Atk 800 bass. Love that thing. Very versatile. P thud type of thing through to a stingray-ish sound. I have an EBS Reidmar 750 and TC Rs210 cabs. Pedal board is Cog Rogue One > Knightfall 66 > TC Vortex > TC Spark Boost. The knightfall really helps get close to that tubey full sound. Sounds terrible played solo... Maybe not terrible but it's not good. Sounds amazing when the band kick in. Took quite a long time to work that out. I don't have any clean mixed in with the blend knob. The rogue one, I don't really use to its full capacity yet. I only really use the one channel in the band, and I've not yet found a home for the octave but I love playing around with them at home. In the band the rogue one soloed doesn't really cut it but with the 66 still engaged it creates a full blown round fuzz sound that dominates the mix but without really over doing it.

I guess you could. I did not try that!

I've got the Beringher B205d monitor which I think has the same dimensions as yours. A Unomat Video Bag fits really well.

You can get your own relic'ed bass by gigging a new one, instead of paying a factory to make it look like you're a well gigged muso

Well I don't seem to be able to get any decent PAT testing kit (which I could get friendly sparky I know, to pop round and use and sign us off on - as he currently doesn't have his own PAT kit) for less than £125 to £150 second hand. I have managed to find a chap via Gumtree who will pop round and test all our gear next weekend for £40 to £50 (£40 for 20 items - where a powered PA and its lead count as 2 items) etc. He's also confirmed that anything < 1 year old doesn't need testing.

Sadly I think I’d pay fifty quid extra for the spaghetti logo alone...

No worries. Pleased that it turned out to be such a worthwhile upgrade.

Hope it goes well and the shoulder doesn't give you too much grief.

Agree with @Golats I've yet to play a bad Yamaha budget instrument.

Great link - didn’t realise James played on so many famous albums, including ‘Let’s get it on’ . Thanks for posting.

Rare I don't ramble, but, SIMPLY EXCEPTIONAL. Can't thank you enough Kev, ecstatic

I am listening to a lot of Faith No More. I like Billy Goulds playing quite a lot. Never really took time to listen to him properly.

Yeah, that's the very chap!! Went by the name of Brian L. Zeebub!

It seems to work really well, especially 'in your face' through an amp. I'm no top recording engineer or producer, I did the audio clips very quickly. There are a few other dual-coil 51-type options available, notably from Lindy Fralin: https://www.fralinpickups.com/product/split-51-p-bass/ It is a lot more expensive that the Loureiro version, though. And the main selling point is noise reduction - the fact you can approximate the sound of a 57-type split-pickup seems to be totally ignored. As a split pup is essentially a humbucker yes, you're going to get less noise in theory, but I've had no problems in that area even with a single coil. My bass is quite heavily shielded with copper tape though and is just as quiet with a single coil or a dual coil.

Managed to sort out the scarf joint today The jobs over the weekend will be: 1. Rout out for the truss rod 2. Start thinning out the neck 3. Cut headstock and taper the neck 4. Cut and glue the wings on (hopefully will get time) 🤔

I've found that 0000-grade wire wool gives a lovely soft satin feel and because it's so fine, the finish polishes up to gloss through hand touch alone after a year or so anyway. I have a not-uncollectable 80s bass and I always keep the neck very lightly wire-wooled. But please use the properly good stuff, eg Liberon brand, not pound shop rubbish, which won't be true 0000-grade.

What chris_b said. If you want to keep it, do whatever you want. However, I'm not sure G&Ls will ever reach the value of Fenders from the same era... no idea why, as they are great basses!

There are some folk who live in terror of their world exploding if the truss rod setting is changed.

In the olden days it was possible to do things with hand tools - and still is You can plane wood to thickness using a number 5 jack plane, a good straight edge and a pencil. It takes a bit longer but can get just as good results, especially if you make yourself a sanding table by gluing 6 sheets of 120 grit to a sheet of mdf

You might be better to route it all out and forget about the forstener. If you're using a flat bit rather than one with 3 or more cutting edges, it's going to be hard work with a hand drill and more likely to lead to accidents. A lot of people remove the bulk with a forstener to save the cutting edges on the router bit. It's perfectly possible to route it all out, as long as you go steady and take it out gradually. Cut with the direction of spin and only take a few mm of depth at a time. Stay a couple of mm away from the final edge as you work your way down to the final depth. Then tidy to the final shape with a finishing pass or two. Make sure your comfortable and in control. If you feel tired then stop. Routers want to maim you! (Sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs btw, but other interested people are watching who may not have handled a router before)

Just finished making the final templates for this so won't be too long before I get building. There are quite a few templates for this build - I haven't included the pickup cut out as that will be done later when the pickup choice is finalised (or I build more than one with different pickups....). So here's the template set for this build all made from mdf

A friend of mine in Seattle owns several WAL basses. He loves them but he has 2 other brands that he also favours, for tone early 90s G&L but for tone and lightness - MIKE LULL. I own a LULL PJ and it would probably deliver what you are looking for.

TBH the relicing thing was a joke

Dammit Owen. Now I am sitting in a puddle of my own drool! Is it any good for metal?

Will post some fancier pics later but here´s proof it´s now actually strung up!

3 to 5 coats in and things are looking satiny