Leaderboard

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.

Well done Pete, a great improvement! Frequency response is looking good. Very good for an untreated room. There’s still the weird ‘scoop’ starting at 9kHz which has me puzzled… but not overly concerned (some thoughts on that in my email). Reverb time looks fine. Notice the sudden jump in the reverb time around 70Hz in comparison to your previous measurements. That’s almost certainly due to the new measurements being taken at a higher SPL level, which always shows up details you don’t see with quieter measurements. Again, no cause for concern here. Acoustic treatment will help. Decay times are actually fine - it’s just that your waterfall graphs are showing more of the ‘Y’ axis than they need to! Bear in mind that the background noise in the room is probably around 30dB, so much of what you’re seeing in your graphs that looks horrendous is actually just inaudible guff. Here’s a more realistic interpretation… note that the ringing at 50Hz is perfectly normal; lower frequencies naturally have longer decay times and what we're seeing here isn't problematic. I’ve also checked the impulse response and it’s very similar to the original position - i.e. showing lots of early reflections that acoustic treatment will improve on. Again, nothing that leaps out as being troubling. Off to a great start! Keep us posted only your next steps… 👍

Ooh, got mine done. I'd tried a few things & never got anywhere that I liked. Then on Sunday I was playing my Seaboard & looked at this pic again. I came up with the chords & hook, so played them to a metronome, then tonight I added more strings, some bass and what I think might just be an appropriate drum pattern. ⛱️

I just received a lovely Yamaha THR5A from Dave. It’s the second time l’ve bought from him and again the transaction was flawless. Excellent little amp perfectly described. Excellent price and comms. You can certainly deal with Dave confidently. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Did John Entwhistle play one of them? ☺️

Have a look at this for ideas....SBL - Bass Position

“I’m black and I’m proud.” ** I’m also “suitbale” ** the commitments movie

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.

I still think the Genz Benz 2x12 is the best vertical neo 2x12 when you consider the price and weight.

You can easily control the mids by making the adjustments I suggested. MarkBass amps of my experience do tend to honk a bit, but sound great live and loud. But I don't like honk either, so cut as suggested above.

Saw this on Facebook earlier - Rock&Roll killers are hard to kill! *strong language alert*

This my be my naivety talking but I find Papa was a rolling stone is good for getting me to focus on the groove..... It's so simple to play, which is great when you are at my level, but soooo hard to remain focused through the 11 minutes of the song. There's also nowhere to hide when you fluff a note

The neck without the blocks looks better to me as it’s a bit lighter but overall it’s looking fab👍

I’ll have to take the boxing gloves off first

+ 1 for Hit me with your rhythm stick. Too shy by Kajagoogoo - deceptively tricky to get just right . very melodic and low on repetition and box patterns Club Country by the Associates for pick style. Cant think of a better bassline played with a pick Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder - IMO the best for getting used to moving up and down the fretboard and using all fingers on your fretting hand Love games by Level 42 - great for 'machine gun' technique slap n' pop

My Streamer LX5 is from 2003, and I bought it used and unseen. It has the proper baseball bat neck, with an almost flat rear. It almost feels square when moving higher up the neck, but still feels comfortable to my big hands. It scared the hell out of me when it came out of the shipping carton with a broken Just-a-nut II and an action of nearly half an inch at the 12th fret! But after a good cleaning and a set of new Elixirs I must say I was very impressed with the adjustability of the bass and with how quickly it settled after the setup! The neck is not as stable as some of my other basses, but other than a small tweak of the truss rod twice a year it has served me well and has been a reliable gigging bass in the 3 years that I used it extensively. It's a great bass!

Wierd because Stingrays been used successfully in probably every genre of music and are extremely versatile in skilled hands - there is a vast range of skills out there but it is usually up to the skill of the player to fit their sound in - there is an adage - a bad workman always blames his ........ in this case how would a Stingray be passive unless modified or a very very rare example of one with switchable passive/active?? But of course the OP and others asked which Musicman (and contrary to popular myth they have and do make a range of basses). The most versatile IMHO would be an HH version of a Stingray 4 or 5. You could get a used one for just over 50% of your budget. Or you could go a little higher on your budget and buy one of the new Stingray Specials. Other factors you will get will be excellent build quality and unlike at least one other make of active two pick up bass, no undue hiss and hum from the electronics (dependent on the era) - along with a whole range of usable tones which will fit in most music settings.

I'm selling my Fender combo which had a snapped logo so Mark kindly sent a new logo as a replacement completely free of charge! People like this make Basschat such a great place!

Another update.. Gig on Saturday night - it was a pub having a festival. Pub Car park job. Sounded like it was going to be average at first, but it was a decent size setup and there were loads of people there! We did the main closing slot from 9.30 to 11.00 Took the FRFR and the new Dave Hall Preamp. DI out from FRFR to FOH which was really well set up and sounded glorious. The FRFR did a great job of giving over the fullness and "authority" of the DH Preamp and it's valve goodness. Plenty of volume and saved a load of space. Once again, did it's job well. Turned out to be the most enjoyable gig of the year so far..!

I've been quite busy in the last month or so. Started a new job, been on holiday for a couple of weeks and been having to keep the two small inhabitants of the house occupied during the school holidays. I have got a few tasks completed on these two builds though. Firstly I decided to make the bridges. As usual, I stated off by making some templates. The template I made for the original semi-hollow build was okay for the bridge outline but the piezo will be a different size so a new template for the slot needed to be made. Small pieces like these bridges can be a bit trickier with a router and need to be well clamped to prevent them being ripped to bits and thrown across the room when the router is angry.... Firstly, the ebony for the bridges was cut roughly to size and the mounting holes drilled. These holes will also be used to hold these still whilst they are being routed. The bridge blank was then clamped under the template and a surround made to support the router whilst cutting to size and rounding the edges. The edges were then trimmed to make the blank the size of the template. I then cut a slot the size of the piezo into some more mdf to use as the slot template. The bridge was then mounted behind the slot template and the slot was cut. The blank was then put back on the original template and the edges were rounded. A bit of filing to slope the long edge a bit and some sanding and that's the bridges made.

STICK! My Mk 1 Custom Series Wal is going nowhere!