Leaderboard

Hey! It's @Dad3353's first kiloWatt! Powerful stuff!

Oh...and couldn't resist a quick mock-up

Well, this is a special build for a special birthday for a special guy...so I reckon it needs a special inlay. How about some New Zealand Paua? My normal method - cut the inlays, then draw round them: Then use a Dremel with a precision router base to cut out the chambers: Then glue them in and sand them flush, then slurry and wipe with tru-oil to fill any gaps: And that deserves another mock-up, followed by a Pimms in the garden. Here's the mock-up. You'll have to use your imagination for the Pimms

Valve or SS, when you turn down the volume control on a passive bass you change the tone, because the pickups get loaded down by the relatively low impedance of the volume control, which affects the highs more than the lows. That doesn't happen with actives, as the pickups see a constant high impedance load by the on-board pre, while the volume control being placed on the pre output, which is low impedance, doesn't affect the tone. Wanting the ability to use the instrument volume control without affecting tone is why I went active long before you could buy active basses.

I would say "kill it with fire" but it looks like someone's already tried that.

My greatest bugbear, apart from people who, when they do show up clearly haven't looked at what we are planning to rehearse. I understand people are busy and sometimes things come up which we can't control especially with young families but in the end if you can't rehearse you can't be in a band. If breaks between rehearsals get too great then you lose the advances you made last time and end up constantly rehearsing the same songs over and over. Most of us are just weekend warriors and family/relationships and work usually have to come first but then there are other priorities and being in a band is quite a commitment. For us music is a team sport and there has to be at least some sense of not letting the team/band down. I still play cricket from time to time and if I commit to playing on a Sat I know I am letting 21 other people down if I don't show, 21 people who have arranged their weekend and their families weekends around the game. If I fail to show or cancel at the last minute for a Tues rehearsal it's the same thing multiplied by the fact that four other people have spent the weekend finding time to practice/learn whatever we are going to rehearse. Generally it's the same people each time and what they are basically thinking is that their busy lives are more important than other people's busy lives. You can tell this is a recent experience Anyway, a couple of practical suggestions: In the end the only way I've ever known bands to work is to have a regular practice day. In the end there is always someone who cant do Mon, Tue, ….. or weekends. If you pick a day which suits the majority it is surprising how people rearrange if the alternative is leaving the band. Once you've settled on a day they'll book their pilates class another day and all will be fine, the band stop booking things in on a practice night because they know Tues is the day we all meet. Moveable days don't usually work as people forget and book something in, or their partners do. Bands work best IME when two people form an engine room driving the band. If you turn up and two people have been quietly working away together at new material it generally goes well. It's relatively easy to jam along if two people at least are solid, they'll end up sorting out chord sheets and the like and will generally pick up on most of the organisation and drive the band. If those core members get together maybe with a singer or guitarist as well it can be really productive. a random meeting of three musicians out of five less so. It takes organisation and a decent musical brain to isolate little bits of a set or song to work on, not three people who have all either not picked up their guitar or put the kit together in the intervening fortnight. Only 12 bar hell can emerge from that. If you are working with band members missing an acoustic workout sometimes goes well IME, sitting down where everyone can hear each other can really give you a different insight into songs and your role in them, and people get to talk when they aren't competing with a kit or a guitarist widdling away in the corner through a 4x12. Bitter, me????

I only ever get to practice on my own. Sometimes even I don't turn up for that.

OK, "Gig" is perhaps not the right word as I was playing in our church band today with a 100+ congregation belting out the songs. A quick bit of background; I'm 67 years old. About 15 years ago I was part of a Christian music band that had around 15 members. There was a brass/horn section, drums, guitars, keyboards, clarinet, oboe, bass and sometimes a violin. I was more sound guy and backing vocals until the bass player moved away so I stepped in - having never played bass before. I just learned the bass parts by rote and didn't try anything more than root and fifth with the occasional third and chromatic approach. With so many members it was inevitable that people would drop out and leave the band so eventually we called it a day and my Tanglewood copy of the Hofner violin bass was retired to its case. Ten years on and attending a new church I let slip that I once played bass. The next thing I know I'm on the music rota! I took delivery of a Chowny SWB-1 in January and have been getting to grips with it (off and on) since then. My playing is basic and I'm still trying to get my fingers to do what my brain wants them to do. I'm left handed but play right handed and have a limited finger spread, which means one finger per fret is not on. The church has a pool of musicians and singers who are on a rota to provide the music each week. The rota means that you don't always play with the same people each time. Rehearsal is about an hour before the service on a Sunday morning where we run through the five songs we will be playing. There is no set band and no mid-week get together so I was in at the deep end today! I'd been practicing the songs to backing tracks using chord charts with the lyrics but today was the first time I had played with other band members. So there I was in the corner on bass, crammed between the keyboard and drum kit. The drummer forgot he was on the list to play so we had no drums! That was a relief because I was so close to the kit if the drummer had hit the cymbal it would have chopped my arm off! The rest of the band was; keyboard, flute, semi-acoustic guitar (band leader) and two female vocalists. I was sticking to root notes and the odd fifth or third except for one song for which I had the sheet music and bass line that was for the bass guitar as opposed to the keyboard player's left hand. Band leader decided to change the tempo of one song which made life interesting as I'd practiced it in standard 4/4! I think I did OK. There was the odd fumble for notes but, on the whole, I was fairly pleased with how it went. I was caught out on one song when BL decided to repeat a chorus causing me to have an Eric Morecambe moment for a couple of bars - playing all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order! Afterwards a "senior" member of the congregation came up and congratulated me on my playing and said how good it was to hear a solid bass line. Then a young lady (17 years old - half a century younger than me!) came across and said "Hey Mr cool bass player!" I wish I'd had that effect on 17 year old girls when I was young enough to do something about it! My next "gig" will be at the beginning of August with a different line up and no drummer. I can't wait!

F Fuzzy blue blobs are where it's at dude and my ditty is sketched out and recorded as a draft , it needs plenty of additions that I will have to negotiate , but I'm hopeful that the 'simplistic' nature of the picture will be reflected by my simplistic idea

Weirdly, I think it looks alright. And I don’t usually like relics. Or Warwicks. But I’d never spend 5k on any bass!

I think I'd rather take a turn in the apple barrel then walk the plank.

Oh the Irony I shouldn't have voted for him lol. 'Discreet' great track mate, well done, loved it.🤘 As for me second by one vote on my first try is not bad at all, I'm feeling quite pleased with myself, especially seeing how good the competition was, great efforts all round... Right lets have another go...

Are those schaller straplock buttons? Wouldn't want to damage the finish.

Lucky Len.

Still got to drill the location prong holes at the back, but the tuner holes are positioned and drilled: Next...

Gained a bit of time over the past few days with a visit by MrsAndyjr1515's sister, which=the two of them going for trips out, which=building time for Andyjr1515 And so, it was an opportunity for starting the headstock. I sliced a 3mm plate from some poplar offcut and veneered the back with the redwood veneer, then added a couple of wings to the headstock cut from some neckwood offcut then, after carefully checking and double checking for straight string runs and room for each of the tuner blocks, finalised the shape: I've done the slight cutaway at the top, similar to some of the other recent builds: This afternoon, all being well, I'll drill the tuner holes and then work out where best to put a brace of swifts

Thanks folks, congratulations all round I think. It was actually a very close call!

It's now all filled and sanded, I like to put a coat of primer on so I can if there's any slumpage (I think that's a word 🤔 if it's not it should be !?!) But it looks like this had come out OK?

IMO the coolest bass gadget ever is. . . the chromatic tuner. I started out at a time when you either had a tuning fork, pitch pipes or you had to tune up to a trumpet, if you had a brass section, or an organ. Trying to stop the others making a noise when you needed to tune up was a nightmare. And forget it in a noisy night club. I just don't know how we managed to get a whole band in tune back then! Silent tuning is a wonderful evolution.

Bloody hell,it went for £175 !!! If someone stuck a new preamp in that they'd have a killer bass. @MoJo I know what I said about the electrics but the build quality is great. My first bout of GAS was for the Tune Maniac,back in the mid 80's, so I've a long term interest in them 🙂 Here's my take on TuneBasses. The Korean/Japanese thing is kind of muddled and not helped by folk on the various clubs/FB pages. Tune Guitar Technology started the ball rolling in Japan. Kawai,SGC Nanyo,Washburn and Ibanez quickly started with their takes on the Maniac. Late 80's Tune Guitar Tech got the contract for the Levinson Blades so started importing necks and bodies from Korea. This gave them more time for Levinson. At the end complete basses were imported from Korea. Then Tune goes tits up. The Koreans keep building under the Tune Guitar Technology name. Some luthiers in Japan started using Tune templates and called themselves Tune Guitar Maniac,they claim they own the Tune brand but the Koreans dispute this saying they had a "gentleman's agreement" to produce Tune basses. Said Gentleman being dead nobody knows the truth 😃 Upshot is there's a factory in Korea building Tunes and a luthier custom shop in Japan building Tunes,up until recently the Japanese shop still bought it's hardware from the Koreans. The so-called "bad blood" between the two is mostly the product of owners with Japanese built Tunes. Not surprising, I think Fender Master Built owners would get upset with MIM Fender owners claiming there's no difference between their basses. A basic Tune Maniac from Japan will be built by a small team and maybe fired in their PLEK machine, photos of it featured a lot on their FB page along with fancy inlay work on folk's Strats and LPs. It'll cost you about £1200 before shipping and VAT/import duty. £1500 shouldn't be far of the mark. A basic Korean Tune Maniac can be had from Ned at VSN in Canada for £404. With Shipping/tax etc £650 easy. A few years back Sam Ash over in the USA wanted to buy the brand name for another budget line of theirs. The Koreans said no and SA had a fire sale on Tune products,can't say if that was a deliberate attempt to damage the Tune brand name but that was the effect it had in the US.Both are recovering with the Japanese holding the upper hand,given the fantastic value they are for a hand built bass 👍 Fine basses no matter the flavour. My 30something Japanese fretless is a joy,the Korean parts but Japan assembly 90's Maniac is a cracking bass and if quality of the later Korean TWB-4Z is anything to go by the Japanese version will be outstanding. Best leave a photo after all this waffle.

I use them, you’ll get used to it, try wearing them 20-30mins before you start playing to acclimatise. If you’ve come to using them from nothing, or even crappy foam things etc, they’re a big jump. Ultimately, it’s use them, or ‘get into the atmosphere’ and lose/damage your hearing quicker. Si

My girlfriend has been learning to play bass and I'm convincing her of the usefulness of learning at least the names of the notes on the fretboard and how it can be very handy etc... I thought it would make things 'easier' (or less boring?) if there were an app that would ask for notes (whether random, or within certain scales or whatever) and you could play them on your own bass, and the app would 'listen' and say whether it's right or wrong... that sort of thing. Does anybody know of such thing? I have found many that do something like that but using a 'virtual fretboad' on screen. That has its uses, but I think it would be far more useful if you play your own instrument, as it involves moving your hand to the right place etc... Anything out there? Free is great, obviously, but I'd pay for the right one. I think she's much more likely to make the effort if she can 'play a game' rather than using a more academic approach.

I bought some fender tapewounds a few months back when eBay did a 20% off. Eventually fitted them to my precision this week because with flats on it was getting less and less use in our increasingly funky set. What a revelation!!! Really complex tone, felt great, brilliant all rounders from thumpy to twangy, no zingyness sadly but you can't have it all. I'm a massive believer that strings can make the biggest influence on tone over pickups and amps. I'm a convert. Now you're all going to tell me to buy Status/ La Bella etc!

I can just picture the rider for the contract... ... 2 x 1 litre bottles of water (Evian, Crystal Roc, but not Perrier...) Clean towels Light snacks, fresh fruit, vegetable sticks (carrot, celery etc...) Privet hedge, 2 m x 1 m x 1 m Secure parking for tour bus ...

It's no big deal if the drummer is not present , it gives myself and the guitarist time and space to work out all the nuances of some of the more difficult songs . Without a vocalist or guitarist , not much point in rehearsing .

Apparently I don't need such a gadget...the Shroeders have a pair of inputs/outputs for speakons which are wired in series. I really should have checked.

WHAT?? 5000 Euros!!!??? You may as well just stick your current bass in a garbage truck for a week and flush 5000 notes down the bog!

I carry a pair with me wherever I go. The urban public space is large, loud and very, very stupid.

Mine are not wearing, neither the Labella whites or various other black types I've used over the years. I guess they will one day but they likely last a LONG time. I find them different to halfwounds. They feel different to the touch... very very soft... The labella whites, which are my favourites, are roundwounds with a nylon cover... so yes, they do mellow the roundwound sound, but it's not simply "the sound of a used roundwound". The copper Labella white nylons in particular have very nice prominent low mids, all the growl I want, fat but with great definition... they can sound bright if I want them to, but tame if not... Some sound a little too thumpy with too big lows (I find many flats like that), but these are not that way, they just seem very balanced across the spectrum. They don't get as bright as roundwounds if you're after a Marcus Miller kind of sound... but they will do pretty much anything else. I find the passive tone control is really responsive when using these strings.

How's your hearing normally? Have you lost top end or is your hearing normal? Because I can hear cymbals, hi-hats etc just fine with plugs. Only quieter. I would not be happy with plugs that made me miss hi-hats in particular.

Ezekiel \m/

Have you tried it at different venues? I have a compact and at our gig on Friday could hardly hear a thing, but when I went out front it was full on in there. It could have been the shape of the room as it’s never happened before. I hadn’t taken the midget I pair with it as the room was fairly small and we were asked not to be ‘too loud’ but I wish I had had it to use as a monitor if nothing else.

Well done Discreet! Another great month

A not very common sort of rip off though! Not like the multitude of Fender Precision and Jazz bass rip offs I see on a near daily basis

Yes it would seem so Cameron. Its beautiful music Imo. .Ive seen them live with Cory Henry at the Cheltenham Jazz fest. Had the pleasure to meet both of them at a club in Cheltenham.

I have one set of ACS pros, and used either 17 or 20 db filters depending on how loud the band is. The feeling of detachment from whats going on soon fades, and I am shocked at how loud everything is if someone starts playing before I've got them in. The filters have been used for 4 or 5 years now, probably 200-250 gigs. They are one piece of kit I really would not like to play without.

It's probably only experience that's missing, I'd suggest. Give it a bit of time, have a bit of patience and the gigs will sort themselves out as you become accustomed to the new sensation. Whilst you're waiting (it won't take long...), just reassure yourself that you'll be hearing the gigs (and more...) better, and for far longer, than if you were unprotected. Well done for taking the step; wear 'em systematically and you'll soon be fine. Just my tuppence-worth.

It's a chopped-up Strat copy with home-made string retainers/"tuners" & strung with bass strings. Odd thing is, if they'd used budget headless hardware (the Chinese Hohner copy stuff that's about £30) they'd have saved themselves a lot of metalwork & could have spent that time routing for P/J pups & making a scratchplate. And they'd have had something that worked, too.

must have missed this guitar take over?,i know they had zappas guy in them etc but never noticed a massive lean towards guitar wankery .Had some canny songs in the day and some later ones are okay too.Great bass lines in the early stuff

They are usually roundwound strings with a flatwound nylon tape over the top, IIRC. La Bella white nylons are my go to string on fretless, but they sound equally as good on fretted basses.

Mine are as described on D'Addario's website: I've taken that quote from here.

I shall dip in and out, to be honest I can't stand anything they do currently so any recent live footage will see me switching over , I just don't get why they brought a "widdly widdly" guitarist in to front most of the songs, Duran Duran were never a guitar dominated band, that was the beauty of their sound? It would be like Motorhead reforming with keys as the lead instrument!

Very happy to recommend Tomas. As soon as I had paid, the item was in the post and with me the following morning. Got to say, here's a chap who knows how to package an item for maximum protection.

I used my Sub Phatty in the studio recently on the single for my fusion band Tyranni Flock: And I also recorded some bleeps and blops for another tune of ours, Dive In The Deep, in the EWI solo on our EP. Check it out here :)