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100% Duck Down Pillow - seriously - all those years with shitty cheap nasty things!

Oh no, it's her again! Time to move on to the next builds, very much in the planning stage but this is where I'm at: Broadly they will be based on the Gibson Thunderbird which is as we'll all agree the sexiest bass on the planet, and that statement is beyond contestation, Moses had it as the 11th commandment but that bit broke off when the stone tablet toppled over and.. yeah well, it's a popular myth like many others Through neck with the traditional Gibson Vee joint to the wings. Neck angle will be 4'5 degrees. Trussrod, probably a double action again but this time with a spoke wheel adjustment at the heel to save weight and strength at the headstock Fretboards will be Rocklite Ebano but there is a possibility one might be made from Satinwood as a treat for me Pickups, one Mike Lull neck pickup ala Thunderbird II Bridge looks like being a Warwick again but with a different tail piece/stopbar, a screw in one not one held by inserts. I'm having difficulty finding one at the moment so I mat well end up making my own and getting it chromed. Headstock, well I think it will be a modified version of the one on the twins but with features of the Thunderbird standard. Tuners? Probably Hipshot Ultralites again but possibly with the modern Y shape rather than the clover leave given the probable shape of the headstock. Wood will be African Mahogany again, it's already sat in the workshop waiting. So there we have it, I'm just waiting for my foot to get better as I've damaged it again then I'll be on it but I shall probably get it all drawn out early next week and hopefully the neck laminate ripped up to settle. I have a few ideas to hopefully improve on the original design slightly, not easy because the original was so good despite the knocking it gets Oh and as you may have guessed from the title, I'm building three of them

A mate sent me this yesterday, it's allegedly the original running order for Lateralus, but the band (for some reason) changed it before the album was released. God knows why they did that, this tracklisting makes so much more sense. I always thought Lateralus was a brilliant album, but it fell off a cliff after the title track, with this running order the whole album feels different and the intermission-like tracks fit really well into the flow of the record. I wish they were on Spotify so I could put this into a playlist 6. Parabol 0:00 7. Parabola 3:04 5. Schism 9:01 8. Ticks & Leeches 15:44 4. Mantra* 23:48 9. Lateralus* 23:48 13. Faaip de Oiad 33:07 1. The Grudge 35:44 12. Triad 44:15 2. Eon Blue Apocalypse* 50:56 11. Reflection* 50:46 3. The Patient 61:02 10. Disposition 67:23

It's a bit of a sad day, on a par with the day David Bowie left us, we lost Aretha Franklin today one of the greatest voices of the 20th century. A bit daft maybe but I think I'm going to inlay a small AF into one of these, somewhere out of the way. Now could someone remind me about this when I'm cutting Mother of pearl in a few weeks please? Anyone or everyone Thanks

* Young people in bands tend vocally to reject new or diverging initiatives straight off. Old blokes tend to let it fester then suddenly explode when triggered by an entirely unconnected issue * Young people gig in skimpy t-shirts and unfeasibly tight trousers. Old blokes gig in waistcoats and Australian bush hats with corks on. * Young people miss rehearsals because they are (i) off their faces on a lethal cocktail of drugs or (ii) putting the brisket to some sweet young thing. Old blokes miss rehearsals because (i) its their brother-in-law's birthday or (ii) they've got a proctologist's appointment the following week. * Young people play too loud on cheap, generic gear. Old blokes play too loud on exotic and very expensive gear * Young people obsess about being friends with their bandmates. Old blokes obsess about suppressing their hatred for their bandmates. * Young people want to make exciting new sounds. Old blokes want to get exactly the tone that Jimmy Page had at the Albert Hall on the evening of 9th Jan 1970. ... and so forth.

Bit more progress in between the distractions of normal life! The second side of kerfing strips was completed: ...and then back to the top to get it down from just over 3mm to closer to its final thickness. My hand arthritis is causing me gyp at the moment so I brought out the Stanley No80 scraper plane into action. I'd forgotten what a useful plane this is! It made short but controllable work of the final thinning. After each pass, I picked up the top from an edge and rapped it with my knuckle. It had passed from drum thump to drum thump with one harmonic to drum thump and multiple harmonics - probably just going from 3mm to 2.8/2.9mm ish. Then one last pass and a change again - now even running my hand across the grain was making it ring out. So I've stopped. It's probably just under 2.8mm. Now I must stress I don't fully know what I'm doing on this sort of thing - I reckon to do that you have to sacrifice at least one top (or guitar) by taking it up to the 'oops - too far' - but I know from my last build that this is going to be strong enough and will be capable - if I get everything else right - of producing a nice sounding guitar. Here it is laying on top of the 25' radius dish: I was worried that the top might still be a little too stiff (and therefore too thick) but it presses into the dish no problem - the go-bar deck certainly won't have difficulties. What is nice is that for the last dreadnought I built, I marked the brace positions on the radius dish so that I could sand them to the correct radius for each position. One less job this time around Next task is the sound hole - but before you can cut the sound hole out you have to sort the rosette! A Tasmanian member of one of the other forums on a visit to UK a year or so back presented me with a few nice sample pieces of local Tasmanian wood and the challenge 'to incorporate this onto one of your builds.' Well - I reckon a book matched pair might do for the rosette! First I thicknessed it on my bodge-home-made-job thicknesser jig: That's gluing, then I can see if it will work OK as the rosette feature ring

Hi there Sorry for the delay in replying. We have been busy this last week delivering our first line of amplifiers to retailers. Yes, the BPA-1 has the same compressor as the Squeezer. It's designed to be run into the A900 power amp and function as a single unit, with absolute quality from point to point. Tell you what - how would you like to try a Squeezer pedal? I'll have one sent to you to try, in return for a bit of a review. Afterwards, you can pass it on to another member. @ped can we get a list together?

Change of heart: if a purely originals bassist wants to slag me off as a covers musician 'cos he's "so much better", he's welcome to; I'll happily settle for having a lot of fun with great bandmates, audiences loving our sets and my annual expenditure on gear and rehearsals being fully met from gig monies 😎

Or one person buying twelve (which isn’t beyond some of you 😂)

I couldn't find a suitable case for my Ibanez Artcore AGBV 200. It is semi acoustic, so quite wide, and short scale. Bought some 3.6 ply, and some 95 x 12 pine and some 44 x 12 pine. I got this from a local timber merchant, but it's still bent and twisted, as you can see from the photos. I can't straighten it, so used the best bits and will sand off the worst bits at the end. Drew around the bass, allowing for adding some foam. I had to plane down the 95 to 62 so the case wasn't too deep. Cut the ply, stuck on the sides to make the bottom half.

Well bugger, Aretha Franklin has died. I might do something on one of them with her in mind, I was a fan

I dont have instaled the tuners yet. The "last fret" is missing because there will be no fret,is just the point i will sand the fretboard to give an angleso it will be lower as it goes near the pickup

Just bought this for £50 Made In Japan Hohner P bass, all original apart from the screws on the scratchplate! Any Info On these chaps? Really plays well!

Another happy afternoon spent with the pedal. I'm tending to stay around the suggested Chris Squire settings. It's a tone I've been chasing for over 20 years, and here it is in a tiny little box. I'm laughing at how wonderful it is! As much as I love Dug's tone - and this pedal certainly nails it - it isn't a sound I would ever really use. This pedal is far more versatile than most Youtube demos suggest. There are a lot of variations of tone in this thing. I'm seriously considering selling my EBS Billy Sheehan pedal. @Tech21NYC - bravo!

I was at Rush's gig at the NEC Birmingham on the 'Show of Hands' video. I think it was the 'Hold Your Fire' tour. Great gig it was too.

I know she'd been ill for quite a while but nevertheless still such a shock - am so saddened by the news. Aretha was THE female soul voice of our time, and she leaves behind a legacy of simply wonderful music. RIP Aretha.

mmmmmmm sitting down! Almost as good as knowing there's a toilet nearby

Pretty cool! I'll send you a PM soon to facilitate.

Last year, when I still was 60, I applied for the vacant keys job with the Rolling Stones. "Sorry, mate!", Keith said with a kind and considerate voice. "We think you're just too old for rock and roll! We mean: we're going to South-America again in a fortnight. How do you imagine carrying that huge church organ with you everywhere? If only you'd exchange it with a MIDI keyboard and some modules, we'd have you right away!" I declined.

Interested, but feel that agreeing a common spec might be the biggest challenge of them all.

I am in a band with 2 other guys in their late 50's - I am 59 (the drummer is a bit younger, although he has only been with us about 5 years) We formed the band 18 years ago and named it OGMAN..... at the time, it was an acronym for Old Gits Making A Noise.... That was 18 years ago... !! Should we re-name the band FOGMAN ?? You are never too old !!

I dunno, I prefer just playing the original album and just hitting stop after Lateralus, unless I'm really feeling in the mood to listen to the rest. With the alternate track listing I would just be skipping through lots of tracks, after Lateralus I would skip to The Grudge, then to The Patient. Faaip de Oiad, Triad, Eon Blue Apocalypse, Reflection and Disposition are all skip-worthy for me, no matter where they sit in the track listing. I do like Tool, but have never been into the whole 'hidden meanings', Fibonacci sequences, rewording lyrics to find hidden messages etc. The band have a wicked sense of humour (being friends with Bill Hicks probably helped) and might be planting those ideas purely to see if people will waste their time and look for something that isn't actually there.

I quite like the K-200 bass (it's a bit like a cheaper Serek Midwestern), but the Eastwood logo and the tuners make it look cheap and nasty IMO. More 'vintagey' logo, a more rounded headstock and plop some elephant-ear (Fender) style tuners on it and I might be interested, especially if there was a cool single pickup innit like the Serek B90. Basically I want a Serek, which are wonderful, but too expensive for what I'd invest in a short scale....for now anyway. Si

Quit two bands, been fired once. everything else just seems to lose momentum for one reason or another, usually when one key member quits/gets fired and can't be replaced, or where life gets in the way and nobody is too fussed about continuing. I think I'm still notionally in at least two bands that haven't actually got together for some years. For the two I quit: Originals band, the guitarist (& BL) was digging his heels in over a subtle change of direction that the rest of us wanted to make. So I quit, and the rest of the band followed. All very civil, shook hands after the last gig we had booked. Covers band, the lead guitarist was a complete tool bag, and a few of us had been discussing how unhappy we were and should we fire him? Then he spat his dummy out at me in an e-mail to the whole band when I was completely in the right, and my point of view had been discussed with the rest of the band and agreed with. I politely declined to continue to be in a band with him as my other (originals) band was a lot more fun and free of stress. I actually regret not rising to it and telling him exactly what I thought of him - to this day he probably believes that he was in the right and that I just preferred being in my other band (which was doing a lot better than the covers lot) In answer to Blue's original question: Why? The only thing guaranteed to make me start hating rehearsals enough to quit is if one of the band is such a massive c#nt that I can't put up with them any more, and as above, when the band isn't going to do anything about it. The only other instance I can think of is if life gets in the way and there is no way to continue in the band When? As soon as I've made my mind up to quit. In person if there's a rehearsal or gig booked, by e-mail or whatever social media the band are using if there isn't. Usually I'll have discussed it (well, more like complained about the person in question) for some time beforehand so it won't be a shock to anybody else. If it's a "life's got in the way" scenario, let everybody know what's happening as things develop and that there's a chance that I may have to leave the band How? As civilly as possible. I may well not care about upsetting the offending band mate, but I'll try and stay on good terms with everybody else - you never know when you might cross paths again, and usually I'm quite good mates with them. I'll do any gigs that are in the diary if they want me to, and am happy to help out with any new bass player that they can find (provide tabs for originals, etc)

Do you really want to hang around with a bunch of kids? I can't imagine anything worse! I'm playing better now than I ever have and very much enjoying my latest band, who are the best musicians I've ever played with in 40-odd years. it's true, if you think you're past it then you probably are. I think my finest hour is still ahead of me. Deluded? Possibly. But I'm enjoying every minute - and that's what it's all about.

Haha awesome thanks Dood. Might just buy the splitting tool, my wife hasn't touched her bike in 9 years so doubt she'd notice.

I'm currently playing with 2 bands who are playing approx 80% originals and 20% covers. It varies on the night and the gig. The other 2 only play covers. They are all good bands with great players and playing very good songs. IMO there is no difference to originals or covers, playing both is the best approach to being a good bass player. It's always disappointing to see the originals guys dissing the covers players. Blinkers are never a good accessory for any musician.

I've been playing nothing but Warwicks since I bought my Corvette in 1999, and that was a peach and was my main bass for about 15 years. In that time I have had no major problems at all until last year when I had the nut and the battery connector replaced, but for an 18 year old bass that's not bad. In recent years I have owned a few different Wick's including a 2005 Streamer Stage 1 fiver which was a great bass, well built, no problems, nice low action, but it did have the chunky neck, it was a great sounding bass but I just didn't get on with the neck so it got moved on for a 2008 Corvette $$. That was a great bass but ultimately I found it lacked the mid range and the growl I wanted. So next came a Thumb which was great but that got traded with @Kev for another $$ this time with a 3 band EQ which just brings the thing to life, I've hardly touched any of my other basses since I got it. I think the point I am trying to make is that personally I have never had any major problems with any of the Warwicks I have owned apart from the sound and the ergonomics of specific instruments, and thats down to my personal taste not anything being wrong with the instruments themselves. As ever if you can try before you buy. The baseball bat necks are truly horrible in my opinion but you may like them.

It's worth remembering that at different times in their lives people have different reasons for being in bands. Some interesting research:

I've just auditioned for a band where drummer is in his 30's, the guitarist is 27, and the singer is 29 and she has the most amazing voice I've ever heard (think Joplin, Beth Hart, etc), when I applied, I did mention that I might be too old for them, but they offered me the gig after the audition even though I am 66, they said that they are not bothered at all by my age, they felt I fitted in well and liked the way I played, so don't be put off at such a tender age of 39, you've got many years left to rock! 😊

OT, you think you've got a problem? As soon as I'm fit again I'll be looking for another band.

Too many bum notes otherwise.

If you don't try you'll never know. DO IT!!! 👍

So yeah, i bought one of the thunderbirds yesterday from Dawsons in liverpool. It was my birthday and id played it for half an hour, it wasn't the first time i'd played it either (It looks like they'd taken the time to set it up so it played beautifully), and i also got it discounted to £450. Its beautiful. Ill post pictures soon, but i just love everything about it. My only issue/gripe, is how light the fretboard is, so i may look at ways of darkening it. It may just need oiling, but i think its just the wood colour.

One time I was in a band, we're auditioning for a guitarist and the best one was 60. Our drummer says: 'He's too old. It would look wrong'. I said 'FFS, you're - what? - 46 and no spring chicken yourself' at which he sort of curled up like an autumn leaf and sulked for the rest of the night. I think some people are remarkably stupid when it comes to age. Sure, if they're a bunch of bibbity-bobbity teens looking to get signed, that's one thing; but a klatsch of tubby, greying, (usually hobbyist) dadz banging on about 'too old' is a step beyond reason.

Everyone has something to contribute, its just a matter of finding the right context. The OP is going to be the best bassist for the right band. The hard part is finding THAT band. It will happen, I'm sure 🍀

That's a fitting tribute to a legend! 👍

It's probably the knot in your stomach as you drive through

Aretha was the greatest female Soul / Rhythm & Blues vocalist of our time. When they made the likes of Aretha & Otis Redding, they broke the mould...

A knot is something you put into rope / string etc., and it's also a bird. You mean 'not '

that's very kind of you to say so - does that mean i can now wear my special pointy hat in public now ? ☺️☺️

my Corvette has some serious growl and balances as well as any Jazz or Precision. It is heavy. Recently I picked up a used Corvette 5 and it is a back breaker. That bubinga wood comes from Africa and surely it must be getting scarce ?? The store owner loves Fender and just wanted to be rid of this brownie ! I bought it a hard case.

I am 66 and I find it is more likely bands are more mature in age, the exception seems to be originals bands and that's what I would expect. Kids should be angry, outsiders, have something to say, and music is one way to get it out. Me? I am just angry that I did not have a better private pension in place when I retired.

I'll be 39 next week. I've never been told I'm "too old," but there are loads of adverts which are 20-30 only. Fair enough, it's their band. I generally don't mention my age as I look about 5 years younger than I really am. I generally find that as long as I don't get into a situation where war stories are being told, nobody will know. As someone who plays in the progressive metal genre, it's quite niche anyway so limiting by age in adverts may and does exist, it's generally not mentioned overtly.

Closed because "there was an error in the listing". Yup, indeed there was... Good work

I’m 49. My other two band mates are 45 and 35. Most people my age are playing blues and classic rock. I don’t want to play that, I want to play modern stuff, which we do. I’m lucky that I look ten years younger than I am. My age was never asked when I auditioned and I got the job, obviously. Had I offered my age when I first contacted them (I was 46 then) without having met them they may have dismissed me as being too old. Age is irrelevant really, but I can understand why it’s an issue for many bands. Are bands you’re looking to join actually asking your age? You probably don’t want to lie about your age but maybe just, well, lie?

Surely if they want you to organise courier , they should pack it & give you the weight & dimensions 🤔

The compressor is already there so that they can game the wattage ratings.