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Or it's plectrum, or pick, or flatpick ... you can call it what you like. 'Hey Charlie, I've forgotten mine, can I borrow a pick?' 'Sorry I've only got plectrums.' 'You're a tosser ... just lend me one of your plectra.'

I'm having one of those mornings remembering friends departed that you get from time to time. The post above about the white spirit soaking into the rosewood reminded me of my favourite oil finish that was explained to me by a Devon cabinet maker called Alan Peters and I thought I'd share it here. This oil finish isn't for the light hearted, impatient or fretboards, it is best suited to darker solid timbers, Walnut being a perfect example. Many people might well just slap on four or five coats of Danish oil and call the job done, well yes that has it's place and can be more that adequate for many applications but it lacks that little something and lacks a lot in durability especially on furniture but less so on guitar bodies So why bother mentioning this, well if you see the two side by side there is no comparison at all visually, the depth of colour is really brought out by this method and after time (several years) the colours and subtleties of the wood explodes with life whereas the four or five coats of Danish oil will just have faded a little. So what is it and how do we do it: Well you finish sand your piece, then with a damp cloth wipe the surface to raise the grain, then with 240 - 320 paper sand it smooth again, do that again three or four times until the wood remains smooth after wetting leaving a good hour between goes. Your piece is now ready for the first part of the oiling. In a jar of some sort mix 50:50 white spirit and RAW linseed oil, now wet the surface of the wood, almost flood it if you can, every time the surface has soaked up the oil re flood it and keep doing this until the wood will absorb no more, give it a wipe between coats to remove any dust with a clean rag with white spirit on it. That process may well take a good week, sometimes even longer until it has become saturated. The wood now has to be left to evaporate out the with spirit, so a warmish room for maybe two weeks with good air circulation. Once the smell of white spirit have gone and it feels dry the next stage is a two stage process using BOILED Linseed oil. The first part is with the oil diluted as above with white spirit, once a day flood the surface, let it stand for 20 minutes then wipe dry and leave for 24 hours and do it again. If the surface stays wet looking after the 20 minutes let it rest for a couple of days then move on the the part two stage which is exactly the same but with undiluted boiled linseed oil, you need four or five coats of this until the surface layers are totally saturated and won't absorb any more. Now you need to let that fully dry for about a week before moving onto the final stage. Lightly sand the surface with 320 grit paper then wipe the dust off with a clean rag dampened with white spirit then wipe it dry. With a clean cloth apply the first layer of Danish oil, wet the surface, leave it for about 20 minutes then with the same cloth wipe the surface dry, leave it 24 hours to fully set then lightly sand with 320 grit. Do that again the next day. On the third day we change our technique slightly, we apply the oil and wait 20 minutes (or so depending on how quickly it dries), then with the same cloth rub the wet slightly sticky oil in circular and figure of eight patterns as in French polishing until your left with a swirl free finish, the oil will thicken during this and get pushed into the pores of the wood. The next day if the wood feels perfectly smooth then do the same again, if it feels slightly rough cut the surface back slightly with 0000 wire wool first. You might need four or five applications like that until you feel the surface is as you want it. Once the last coat is on leave it overnight then have a good look at it in the morning, it should be perfect, if not then with a very clean soft duster buff the surface in the same patterns as you did with the oil then it should be 100% perfect and with a high sheen. Once we're there we again set the wood aside for a week to fully set and become durable. If you want a satin finish then at this stage just cut the surface back with 0000 wire wool That's about it, ongoing maintenance would be an occasional wipe with Teak oil as needed. Your surfaces should now be deep and full of lustre and be ultra hard wearing. Whether or not you want to do that on a bass body is up to you obviously, it's a long process but if you have a nice piece of wood it may be worth it. Lastly a word of caution, those rags with oil on, dispose of them after every use either by laying out flat to dry before binning them or by burning them, oily rags can and often do spontaneously combust. I once did a job fitting out the local church with new fittings (alter etc.), I needed to do a little oiling there for some reason I forget but rather than take the rag back to the workshop I threw it into a public dustbin outside the church, four or five hours later that bin caught fire Whoops!

Dear Basschat, meet Thunderblackstone.....

My Stingray only does one thing. I tried it as a toaster, a car jack, a ladder, a cheese slicer and a hammer... but it was totally useless so now I only use it to play bass.

Stingray and Telecaster only do one thing? !!!!!!!!!! sure thing... love it!

There, I've said it. Les

What’s wrong with 'guitar luthier'? A luthier someone who makes/repairs stringed instruments, which usually consist of a sound box and a neck. Derived from the Latin (?) for Lute. Seems logical to me then that a guitar luthier is one who makes/repairs guitars. (Similarly 'driver' is generic, but 'bus driver' is specific) Back on topic, isn’t "pick" yet another Americanism? It’s a fairly recent change, it’s always been 'plectrum' for the 50+ years I’ve been playing guitars of one sort or another.

No. Not at all. I really, really wouldn't. I have absolutely zero interest in a £2000 wonder-bass that plays like butter and sounds superb, and for which I have no justifiable need.

If somebody was looking for an argument they've plecked the right topic.

And it's a scratchplate not a pickguard. I'll accept plecguard though.

More feedback. Dug made its first appearance with an electro project featuring no guitars and loads of keyboards last night. They band noticed a difference straight away in my bass sound. "I can hear you more clearly. But there also seems to be more space for my keys". - The keyboard player This non-bassist's feedback speaks volumes. I have found myself being more judicious with the bass settings on this unit. Much more so than on any other Tech 21 produced I've used. But, so what? It's a very different beast and I love the fact that it has a very distinctive voice. And one that just 'sits' really well in the mix.

But which topic is best for metal?

I agree - where would be on basschat if we ever did a topic here more than once? 😂

But your spelling has never been the same since

OK - a bit more info for anyone who might want to build an acoustic. Why all this fuss about the kerfing strip joint line? Well - for a start, remember that the top is spheroidal. Therefore, the kerfed strip surface isn't going to be square to the sides - it's going to be at a slight upward angle from the edge of the guitar sides. Wouldn't just sanding it flat be OK? Well - no. Remember that this will have binding fitted. And therefore after gluing the top or back, this much (dashed blue line) is going to be routed away! So it is just as important that the inner surface of the kerfed strip is flush with the (curved) top edge as the edge. In fact, arguably, more so. What you are after, as well as a closed joint at the outside, is for the inside to be also tight like this: Note, by the way, that the structural braces on the right - the X brace and the front cross brace - go through the kerfed strip to the inside edge of the sides and form part of the structural integrity of the sound box. The tone bar braces peter out at or before the join. The other tip is to not glue the top until you've done the same fit job on the back - otherwise it's impossible to see if you've got a decent internal fit! And so with the top now fitting internally and externally: ...it's time to tidy up and brace the back (this will be a 15 foot spheroidal radius) before I go through the fitting process - which is actually more complicated because the depth of the sound box slims as it approaches the neck joint. But while I've got a flat piece of joined back wood to work with, I need to put in the decorative strip hiding the join line. I use a Dremel and precision router base. Normal stuff - always try out the set up with some scrap: ...and next job is doing the full length rout on the back and gluing in the strip.

I'm with Reggaebass the lighter neck looks better! Add some blocks and that will look awesome!! 😁

you rally shouldn't have a problem. Amps and speakers are rated by completely differet techniques so their power ratings bear little relationship. Amps are really simple beasts. They amplify the voltage until they reach the voltage of the power supply and this is their upper limit and the rating of the amp is worked out from there. That's the loudest sound an amp can make Speakers break in two ways, put too much power in and they will overheat and eventually fry. Alternatively put too much bass through them and they will over extend the cone moving the voice coil out of the magnetic field and maybe even banging it against the back of the magnet. Their testing is simple enough, pass a signal through the speaker increasing the power and eventually it burns out. just below that is it's power rating. When you play music however you don't pass a continuously high signal through the speaker. You play a note and it decays before you play the next, sometimes you play the notequietly sometimes louder and sometimes there are breaks. All this means that your average power to the speaker is way less than you think. Your loudest sound might need 100W to be clean but the average power for your speakers will be only 2W, they won't over heat. The main threat is bass over extension. The other way o looking at it is the sound levels. You say you play at modest levels. Well even in a rock band going flat out you won't need to be louder than the drums. You'll usually get something like 99dB/W out of a couple of 12's so 150W will be loud enough to do almost anything other than massive bass boost or drown out the est of the band. In reality your quietish on stage sound means you won't be running at 800W ever. There's no protection against idiots thrashing their gear with no respect for everyone else on stage or their gear but I don't think you need to worry, just be aware. I'll use the car analogy. Your car may rev up to 5000 revs but if you thrash it round Brands Hatch never letting the revs drop below 3000 then it won't last long, drive it normally and you'll probably never get anywhere near 5000 revs and never need to worry about the limits.

Many people see music school like ordinary school. They want to be told stuff and do the tasks outlined - which is what happens at school. SBL is more like university. You train yourself, with the input of a guru. Well, that's how it was in my day anyway. If you took charge of your education you got a first. If you went along to take notes in lectures and hand in the essays on time you got a 2/2. Understandably those who didn't go to college reference their music training needs by what they know - the school model, spoon feeding. Monkey see, monkey do. Scott himself is self taught. He worked out what he needed to know and then scoured the world (quite literally) for the bassist who could help him do that. Didn't he travel to Barcelona to learn from Gary Willis? It's that extraordinary - almost nerdy - focus and self discipline is why he's where he is. It reflects in the way SBL is.

This. My teacher does push me and teach me new good things during lessons, but even more important is that I know that I have to remember what he's taught me, and make progress between lessons, or I'll be letting him down and wasting his time. There have been many dull days when the only reason I've picked up my bass was that I needed to be able to look him in the eye at my next lesson.

Agreed, If you play as many bar gigs as me and you've been around for a few summers, you don't come in like "rock stars". It should be clear you are part of what we call " the help ". Your no different than the bar staff or those washing dishes. Blue

Learn to play Smile by Lily Allen. Don't stray, noodle or embellish. Get the dynamics and the rhythm spot on. Understand how the bass line groove works against the drums on paper. This is an exercise in restraint, focus and time to concentrate on technique. The first person to say 'oh that's easy, it's 4 notes' has totally missed the point of my post. K.I.S.S for a reason.

My main is a six string P, a six string Jazz and a six string Stingray with a 35" low B like nothing I've ever heard. I can't think of anything that could replace it that isn't a custom with the same custom pickups and preamp. Maybe I'd trade it for a 35" US Spector but I'd be losing some versatility and the B might not be as solid. I think the B is a combination of the scale and the staggering mass of the bass. On the downside it's not exactly ideal for long sessions standing. My old Spector was better in thst respect but I'm thankful to have a decent back so weight is the least important criterion for a bass - my #2 bass is a 5 string Thumb!

Lovely job!! That's the next job I've got to do on my build I'm thinking of using the rocklite ebano fretboard like you did on your les paul 😀

Today I cut the fret slots on the three fretboards. I also inlaid the Rosewood blocks and fitted them, being wood they could be radiused the same time as the fretboard without worry. I've included a sequence photo of my marking procedure as a reminder but a full description can be found on the Les Paul Twins thread. After that I dimensioned the board and bound it. Once that was all dry I started to radius it, initially I was going to use my jig for the router but I was out of other things to do today so I thought I'd have a go with the radius sanding block. It took 15 minuted to shape but I actually preferred that method, I felt a lot more in control of the amount of wood removed and it was easy to keep putting the straight edge on to check it was flat. I don't think it was an awful lot quicker either. Anyway, it was sanded down to 320 grit and thoroughly cleaned before slapping a bit of Teak oil on it. I have tried to photograph the figuring of the Satinwood, it's very difficult but it is truly stunning in the flesh, you can see how it got it's name.

Did John Entwhistle play one of them? ☺️

I would persevere with trying to get a good technique as it will help you long term. Something doesn't sound right to me about you not having the strength to fret a string when you've got your thumb behind the neck. It shouldn't take much pressure to hold a string down. Is your bass hung too low and your wrist is bent? With your max 30 deg bend in your wrist it will cause problems if you don't have the bass neck reasonably high. As you're learning, do you have a tutor who could check this out for you?

I signed up a couple of years ago after the 14 day trial. Like some have said for it can be difficult to have a regular tutor but being able to 'dip' into the academy when time allows is a god send. I also find that being able to recap and replay the lessons when it suits is a boon. Eventually took the full subscription offer and with retirement on the horizon I will be (hopefully) using it to the full.

Ha ha, want the Barefaced 610 as well 😂

What Bigwan says then give me your 751 on trial indefinitely 😂😂

Noon for the EQ controls on all the Markbass heads I'm aware of is nominally flat. The VLE and VPF filters should be fully counter clockwise for nominally flat. You may be thinking of amps that have passive tone stacks where the noon position for bass, middle and high gives a mid scoop.

I hear what you're saying. What I care most about is becoming a better bass player. If I don't practice I'm letting myself down... and my band.. and my teacher. But there are many times when the motivation of playing better for them or for him tips me over into practicing when I wouldn't just for myself. I work in disability support with university students, and I've long ago lost count of the times when one of them has come to see me and said "I only motivated myself to get this assignment done because I knew I had to come to see you and tell you about it." I think of it as like the difference between having a gym membership and a personal trainer. (Not that I have either!) You could, in theory, go and work out every day, but nobody else will know if you don't. Or you could have someone to talk to every week, who will know, and who will help you when you falter. Imho - ymmv 🙂

There are 3 sides to SBL - 1. The Social Media (youtube), 2. The Campus (bass forum). 3. The Courses (academy). 1. Scott's social media has become really atrocious, really horrible clickbait stuff and as has been said, often doesn't even reveal what the answer to the click bait title is. Avoid unless you can win something. I don't know if there is some formula out there that makes it compulsory to treat the entire public like tools, but the majority do it so it must work. To my mind youtube really undersells the academy, the academy really is the opposite of the latter day youtube material. 2. The campus (bass forum). Yes, there are fan boys in there but in the main it works for what it is for - helping each other learn - not so much chat about the minutia of bass gear etc - that's what basschat is great for. There are women, men, teenagers, children, all nationalities, all religions, many different first languages (but English is mostly used) so yes politeness and staying on topic are the order of the day. 3. The Courses! This is what you actually pay for! I'm constantly amazed at how many people pay good money and then only ever do numbers 1 and 2 above, its odd! Then again an equal number join and then just get into the courses not wasting time on the clickbait or the forum - probably the best way to go if you can be that disciplined, I can't and I find the forum does help to keep me moving. The courses I've done so far have been extremely high quality and useful and not at all like the youtube stuff. In my first year there I had a bit of time (30 min a day approx) to do some practice and I found I made a lot of technique and theory gains in that first year. Since then I just haven't had the time to apply myself properly but I'm happy to know I can get straight back onto the courses when time and inclination allow. If you are doing a free trial, make sure you start it when you have enough time to really dig into the courses and get a good feel for all the different instructors and the courses in the pipeline. Avoid getting lost in the free content and forum in the first days - I didn't post anything in the forum there until 2 months after I joined.

A note to anyone who uses the computer editor for their Helix and not the controls on the unit itself, at some point in the last year Line6 changed the name of the editor program from "Helix" to "HX Edit". So when you download the latest version, it doesn't over-write the differently named older one, and if like me you've made a shortcut to the editor, using it will continue to bring up the wrong version which is missing a lot of the new functionality including the ability to assign parameters to the Snapshot functions. I spent a very frustrating couple of hours at the weekend wondering why my version of the editor didn't correspond to the instructions in the "Pilot's Guide", and ended up downloading and applying all the components again (Updater, Firmware and Editor). This brought up the right (newer) version of the editor and suddenly everything seemed to make sense! However the next day when I called up the editor from my shortcut it had gone back to the old version! It wasn't until I spotted that I now had two versions of the editor and the shortcut was pointing at the old one that I realised what was going on. So check your Line6 folder in Applications and make sure you only have the most recent version of the editor program or you could be in for a nasty surprise!

Have never understood this assumption. It’s like people automatically assume that if you play with a pick you must have a right hand like Lemmy. I use a pick & play really, really lightly, unless I’m digging in on purpose. In fact I think all of the 100% fingerstyle players I know play way harder than me.

There are no transparent sounding bass guitar cabs.

My good friend (who’s a guitarist) bought me this.....bar-steward.....it’s pretty much true though 😄

I prefer using my fingers. OK, I'll get me coat...

I really can’t see what I would change this for (USA Geddy Lee) The neck is incredible, body is nice and light and it sounds good. If push came to shove, a 60s Jazz maybe, but I prefer modern radius boards and frets. The sound I always have in my head is a P bass though, so maybe, just maybe ...

Love the idea of a little PF-20T for recording... if only I ever did any recording! 😁 £299 seems like a good price (https://www.kennysmusic.co.uk/ampeg-portaflex-pf-20t-20w-bass-amplifier-head), though "Available to order" might mean "no chance".