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I always think that if you like your gear you are inspired to play more and have more fun doing it, so yes I think it matters from that point of view. As mentioned elsewhere, I buy gear for me and my enjoyment, not for the audience, my band, or anyone else - though everyone benefits when I feel comfortable with what I'm playing. That said, it has little to do with how much that piece of equipment cost.

I expressed the following sentiment in a thread about my Trace combo and thought it may be fun to start a new topic on the subject... "...All these decades spent chasing a 'sound' when in fact it's all in your head - how you sound live is largely down to how everyone else in your band sounds and how good they are at what they do. You can get chronic GAS, spend thousands on gear and attempt to get the 'best' bass tone in the world, but it's all for nothing if your drummer can't play in time, your singer's falling-down drunk, or your guitarist routinely deafens everyone in the room. If your drummer is really on it and they and the other members of the band know how to play quietly and tastefully and listen to each other, you've got half a chance - and what's more, it won't matter if you're playing a Harley Benton Jazz through a Behringer combo, you will sound great..." So what do you think? Is the fact that you (and your band) can actually play more important than your choice of bass and amp? Have you (like me) been largely wasting your time and a huge sum of cash on searching for 'that' bass sound, when the whole enterprise is really a fool's errand and a wild goose chase? Should you have been concentrating on your playing instead of trawling the internet for bass guitar porn and spending time on BassChat pontificating about strings and what's good for metal..?

To be honest, I`m not really looking for "a sound" when I buy a bass. I usually just go "ooohhh shiny thing!" and it`s done usually.

on the front under the strings seems to work for most builders.

Yep. That song sounded like cats being tortured by Yoko Ono screaming at them whilst scraping her nails on a blackboard but the bass players tone was epic and the bubinga really made a difference said no one ever.* *Apart from a few BCers of course

I'd agree about the strings - often overlooked - string type and gauge have the single most profound bearing on what a bass can sound like, IMHO. More so than body wood, pickups or electrics. They can even make amps sound different. Many is the time I've moved a bass on when I could simply have tried changing the strings, first. And buying lots of different strings is of course way cheaper than buying basses...

OK. I'm feeling very pleased with myself, surprised and, well, maybe just a little bit smug? Having done my pondering, I came to the conclusion that a hardwood biscuit at the heel was, from a strength of the neck joint point of view, the most effective way of preventing the front edge of the neck lifting or distorting from the neck pocket. But, looking at every tool I had, I couldn't think for my life how on earth I could cut a 3mm slot, accurately following the angle cut into the neck joint, and in EXACTLY the same position on both sides. In fact, I couldn't see - because of the 50mm tenon on the neck, how I could cut a slot at all!! Now, those who have a Dremel. You know that flexi-drive they give you with the Dremel kit that you think, 'wow, that's cool' then NEVER use... ...well, if you take a scalpel and a bl**dy great big file to it you get this! : Ok - it's not pretty, but it's actually flat. So...if you lie that on the angled face of the neck tenon, and move it from side to side while routing into the heel, you can get this: And that slot - about 10mm deep - parallel to the tenon face which has the neck angle routed into it. So if you push a length of 3mm ebony into it: ...and then say a little prayer, then it should be parallel to the angled face: Which surprised and delighted me in equal measure So then, if you clamp the flat face of the Dremel now onto the workbench: ...and then put the body flat on the workbench, and adjust the height by putting a couple of sheets of veneer and a sheet of cartridge paper to get the height exactly right, then offer the body up to the Dremel, you can cut another slot like this: Then, saying another little prayer, slide the neck tenon into the neck pocket and get a joint like THIS!!! And that was straight off - dry fit and no fettling. Before I drill the holes for the machine screws, I'll close the vertical joint nice and tight with a bit of judicious sanding - but even that is easier now there's the tab holding it in the correct position in the other plane. The shock of this working has left me so exhausted I'm going for a 36 hour lie down - but now I know what I'll be doing at the weekend

Pretty much any Precision works for me. My faves are the US Standards, 2012 - 2016 Series, but I’ve gigged with Squiers and been fine. I’ve been through the journey - ahhh, X-Factor speak - of replacement pickups/bridges, high-end cabs etc only to realise that a stock Fender Precision and my Tech21 Para Driver are all I really need for me to be happy (along with fresh steel roundwound strings). Amp-wise I’ve been through many makes and realised that Ashdown are the brand for me, they’re a lot more affordable than many others but are great sounding, hard wearing, a good company to deal with, and an hours drive if I need something repaired. I’m glad I’ve bought/sold loads of gear, it was great fun, but I don’t need to go looking anymore, my current gear is what works for me. Additionally I have been surprised to see that many pros are happy with much lesser instruments than we would expect. A good deal on the Punk/Oi circuit seem happy with Mex Fenders or Squiers, Epiphone guitars etc and a great many are happy to use any amp that is provided, confident that they’ll get a sound that works for their band.

I think i would have killed someone by now if I did not have Basschat and nurding about bass as my thing. I agree with your comments completely @discreetbut for the safety of the public and those close to me i will continue my endeavor to spend money on stuff that makes me then want other stuff.

Precisely this. Most of the audience won't even be able to distinguish a Precision's tone from a Jazz's tone so it doesn't really matter to them what you play. HOWEVER, I play much much better when I actually enjoy my tone and I like hearing the sounds I make. It may be a psychological issue but if I'm enjoying the sound I put out then I'm more likely to play better and enjoy the experience. That happens with most, if not all, musicians - unless they're completely oblivious.

😂😂

If it's Đàn tứ dây, no need to do it tomorrow. I'll get my coat...

The headstock shape must be traditional. This fella turns up in a few Google photo searches playing the " Đàn tứ dây " (Vietnamese bass guitar)

Playing bass in a band makes me happy, bottom line. If I don't like how I sound, I'm not happy, and that leaks into how I play. When I use backline, the amp and cab are a practical compromise between how I want to sound and what is practical for me to gig with (I'm never gonna own another 810 or 70lb all-valve head, for example) and yeah, I've bought lots of gear to get to this point, but then again I've sold anything which didn't work. Basses are a completely different thing to me: they're things of beauty in the eye of the beholder, and I'll pay whatever I can afford for something I consider beautiful in look and feel. Like Shukers. Everyone else can, in the words of Bungedit Din: Fakir. Off. 😀

For me - and I am sure an awful lot of us on this forum - the words 'need' and 'want' are very different things. The way I look at it - if I want something nice, have the money to spend on it and the space to keep it, then I will get it. The fact that I might not actually need it is largely irrelevant.

I don't like having to search for a good sound. I just want to plug in and it's there. IME it's easier to do that with good, well matched, gear. Getting a good bass sound isn't about obsessing about the "sound in your head". Depending on how good your imagination is "the sound in your head" has an equal chance of making you sound completely crap as it has of making you sound good. Self delusion is a dangerous thing. I've seen players who think they're getting the best sound ever, who actually sound terrible. It's important that we sound good to others, which means we have to listen to the sound we are actually making in conjunction with the sound they are making. If you want an "extreme" bass sound then you have made a very small target for yourself. For a more traditional bass sound just focus on not sounding bad and you'll sound great in a band. You'll get more gigs by being a good player. So what you play is always more important than how you sound.

My perception regards gear changed a few years ago. I had loads of gear and was constantly tone chasing. That was until I borrowed a Behringer head and beaten up 1x12 cab. It sounded fine and had done hundreds of gigs. I just thought “what am I doing?” So I sold all the big gear, the rack mount compressor and other stuff and bought a Rumble...which sounded superb, and I had a few quid left over. A comfortable feeling bass is number one priority then an amp that can be heard, neither of which need to cost a lot. But most importantly, a good band.

Some pictures of wood! Basically it’s just the body blank being stuck together and one pic shows the template with the pickup positions too. Mike has done all the internal work on this as well now so all the wiring cavities and control cavity are carved

Here's a bass being offered as an alder-bodied Squier Mustang bass with a BIN of £245. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Squier-Mustang-Relic-Bass-short-scale-30-Included-Vox-mini-Amp/123469702860 Even my missus would be able to tell you its an agathis-bodied bronco bass worth about £80-£100 on a good day with the wind behind it.

Double-bass purists look away now - After spending ages looking for an EUB for rehearsals and the occasional tiny-gig where the big guy is too much hassle, I happened upon one of these Ibanez hollow bodied electric basses in my local music shop, and ended up buying a fretless four string. After tweaking the truss rod and raising the saddle height for the E and A string to that I can dig in, and adding a bit of sponge to dampen the sustain, I'm getting a very usuable tone that does a good impression of my amplified acoustic upright. It even growls on the E string. I found this clip in YT that shows a nice example of what it can do.

One thing I've learnt from home recording is that you can't always predict how different sounds, effects and textures on different instruments are going to interact with each other when you put them together. The other day I recorded what I thought was quite an overdriven guitar part, but after I listened back to it in the context of the rest of the track it sounded much cleaner than the sound I was going for. I've had similar experiences with what I thought was a great bass tone not really coming through when combined with the rest of the track. So in a way, (imo of course) , the search for 'that' perfect sound is a bit of a wild goose chase in as far as there is no sound that's going to fit perfectly in every context. Having said that there's absolutely no harm or shame in having the nicest gear you can afford. An instrument which you genuinely enjoy playing is inspirational in it's own right, almost regardless of the noises coming out of it.

At the recent of being flamed I have to say I think gear makes a huge difference to the sound. It depends on the music , obviously. But my choice of bass, strings, cab and head has a much bigger influence on what I sound like than how I twang the strings - and the EQ too. But then I like to play higher up , where the sound is more clearly defined than playing below fret 5 all the time. I have gone through 35+ basses and 10+ rigs to find 'my sound' and now I know exactly what will give me what sound. I am totally accepting if I was Jaco Devine or any of 100 members on here I could probably do it with my fingers. But I'm a kaka player so I lean on my kit to do as much for me as possible.

After more than 30 years of playing and gigging I'm starting to come to the conclusion that all the many thousands of pounds I have spent on bass gear in that time (I daredn't even begin to total it up ) has largely been akin to chasing rainbows. As has already been pointed out, there is a lot of very good, cheap gear about these days, far removed from my first bass with a body made from a soggy bit of bread that I started on in the mid 80's. I'm currently happily gigging a short scale Ibanez Talman, cost me £150 used (yes you can get them for that new but this has had the pickups, bridge, jack and pots upgraded) alongside a couple of other basses that I paid 10 times as much for. And the diddy Ibanez holds its own against them. That's not to say that it as well built, indeed if you care to scrutinise it you can see where costs have been saved - but that does not automatically make is a pile of 💩. It plays well, it is comfortable - and most of all it sounds great. It sounds like me. As do its considerably more expensive peers. And it also means that I don't get too precious about it when the walking dead take to the stage at about 11.30 each gig. There isn't much gear that I've played over the years that I haven't been able to get a good, usable sound out of. Yes, sure I could name a couple of names but that's not the point. The point is getting a solid, usable sound. As someone said earlier the key factor is getting a sound that locks in and compliments the other sounds going on around you, whatever they are. That often means a sound that isn't particularly pleasing in isolation, but works as part of the whole. The cost of, and the badge on your bass/amp/cab/pedals is utterly irrelevant. If it works for you then it's the right tool for your job regardless of the RRP.

More pics! Mike said he needs the Nordstrand pickups in the next fortnight or so, so I’ve chased Bass Direct (I did a big order because of two other projects I’ll show off next year!) - here’s hoping they get them soon...

I also have a PJB flightcase for my double bass and electric. My pickup is a realist sound clamp, but I also have a shadow "slot into the bridge" type which is similar to an Underwood (though less good I'm told). With the amps gain switch to passive, I have its gain knob to about 50%-75% and it is fine with either pickup (the realist has a volume control and I have that to a bout 75% too). However, I found that one of my leads had a small fault in it which doesn't affect the active electric basses but severely attenuates the output of the high impedance piezo pickup (I haven't found the fault yet - it's just that lead doesn't work with the realist), the result being that I can't get a high enough input into the flightcase - even with max gain the red lamp won't flicker. What I'm saying is, are you sure your lead is OK. Try some different leads. Failing that, see if you can borrow someone else's pickup - or someone else's amp and try the pickup into that. The flightcase is a great amp for double basses and its input impedance is nice and high, it should work with any working piezo pickup and lead combination and without any pre-amp. I've only tried a pre-amp once and a) it didn't improve the sound b) it was an extra thing in the chain to stop working (flat batteries in the case of that one). Incidentally, I have never used the "active" input switch on the PJB - even my 9V active basses can't make enough input for that. I conclude that they do like a nice fat input voltage and that the "active" input is probably for active basses with two batteries (ie the 18V ones), also I think mine sounds nicer if the red input lamp is just on the point of flashing - ie it also wants a big output from the input stage into the EQ too. PS: I presume you're in Yorkshire - but if that's South Yorkshire you could always drop down to Derby and try swapping around with my near identical kit.

For me... the bottom line is this... If you're comfortable with your gear..... if you're comfortable with how it sounds, feels and looks, that's it, period. Chris (Ped) is right, you should feel inspired to pick it up and use it..... but..... to me.... cost and origin of manufacture are irrelevant. If you dig it, it works, regardless of the fact that it might be a Squier or a Fodera...... a Behringer or a Markbass.... it doesn't matter at all.... If it works for you, sorted #justplay

Keeping up with the Phil Joneses?

Unless one is playing only 'open' strings, the 'sweet spot' and 'string node' positions will change as the string length gets shortened. There is no one spot for every note, so it's a matter of best compromise. One option is to provide for a movable pick-up (s'been done before, on sliding rails...). If you're building from scratch, I'd suggest doing a 'plank' mock-up, and moving a pick-up around until you find the spot that pleases most for the styles of music to be played. Shouldn't be too difficult; worth a shot..? Hope this helps.

I remember many moons ago I was gigging with a beat up old 90w Carlsboro Combo and an old Encore P Bass which was surprisingly nice to play cost me £100 for both amp and bass....a good friend and fellow bassist was gigging with his band with a £1000 Ampeg stack and a Musicman Bass of about a grand and he would often compliment me on my sound and say he had all this expensive gear and mine was cheapo budget second hand crap but sounded better than him lol.....I would say its all in the fingers....feel is everything.

Maybe it depends on how old you are as to how much you appreciate having the things you want. Growing up in the 50's, teenager in the 60's. I think all my clothes were hand-me-downs until my teens. I can remember jeans coming into fashion and wanting a pair of shoes that weren't for school. I envied the kids who had a new bike, mine was a bitsa. The guitar shop in Brum had 1 Stratocaster on the wall that you were allowed to stare at. Bass cabs were all self built monstrosities. Bass guitars were mostly cheap European models. So now I really do appreciate having decent gear. I look after it and enjoy it daily.

If you’re half decent, you should be able to make any old piece of crap sound okayish. Nobody is home so I thought I’d make a noise. Plugged in a cheap tanglewood les Paul type thing into an old knackered Marshall combo and cranked it up, sounded great!

Youre only as good as the combined total sound of your band. What equipment you use to get that total sound will have an effect if used and implemented correctly.

One could use the same 'reasoning' over one's transportation ('spensive cars, raucous motorbikes..?). Hifi systems, for the television, even, whilst sounding off about how rubbish the programmes are..? Coffee machines, anyone..? Diminishing returns, probably, and very far from the stuff, in any of these 'genres' enjoyed in the '50s, where folks had exactly the same concerns about their apparat, but didn't know what was to become 'indispensable' a few decades later. T'will all change in a year/decade/generation from now, as other stuff comes to the fore as being 'indispensable'. A lot of it is, it seems, to me, the 'grass is greener' effect, and emperor's new clothes. Maybe folks, despite 'austerity', have too much disposable income..?

Shhhh, I was going to wait till he glues the fingerboard down before changing the spec Eude

Must admit I hadn't thought of that eventuality. Spend money. Buy stuff. Stay out of national news bulletins. Good luck.

Gotta spend our time and hard earned cash on something. Might as well be something we love doing / having.

Also agree. We (myself included) spend far too long agonizing over our gear, instead of putting that time and effort into improving the band. I remember someone telling me years ago that when you get a new instrument / amp etc, you then spend 6 months trying to get it to sound like your old one. A guy I know in the guitar business told me that sooner or later you reach the age of enlightenment - the point when you realise that chasing after different bits of gear in an effort to sound like something kicks in. At that point, you then realise what a waste of time it's been, and how much better you could play. The guitarist in my country band has many lovely instruments, but on our gigs he uses a £100 Telecaster replica, and it sounds just wonderful through a Fender Deluxe 112 Plus solid state combo. Has loads of people coming up and asking him where he got the Tele made too!

Agree wholeheartedly.

It's probably best to think of them as modern small valve heads, with elements of various older Ampegs informing the design. The midrange EQ circuit is closer to some of their larger amps, and the power amps are designed quite differently to the B15n. So while they sound recognisably "Ampeg", they're not recreating any specific vintage model.

So recently I`ve had 2 dead A strings in packs of Warwick Red Label Steel Roundwounds. Contacted them as although I buy in bulk and had other sets which I could nick the A from, this left me short on full sets. This was on Sunday btw. Sunday evening I received a reply stating they would send out 2 replacement packs - I would have been more than satisfied with just 2 A strings alone - which arrived today. Quality customer service imo, and the fact that my message was read and replied to late on Sunday really adds to it, a company that looks after its customers.

You all know what they say in guitar building circles: "If you haven't got anything else to say, then just do a quick mock-up" Here it is in better light. Once the tru-oil finish has been done properly, the surface will be silky smooth satin but the colour tones will be pretty close to this. In real life the red hue comes out a touch more (Canon CCDs are notoriously poor for accurate red shades) but it's starting to look like a bass: Today is all about the neck joint. I'm going for stainless steel allen-head machine-screws and inserts with set-in ferrules rather than the plate shown in this shot here. I'm going to plug and re-drill all the existing holes first so that they are an accurate 4mm dia. I have some machined ferrules - slimmer than the 'normal' ones - on their way from Kay's Fasteners and I MIGHT add a couple more, angled inset from the front two in order to prevent any movement resulting from the string pull. It I was clever enough and skilled enough, I would put a hardwood biscuit joint in the heel area - but I don't think I am Once I've got the joint sorted, I can start carving the neck and heel transition. This is definitely one of the 'measure 14 times, drill once' days...

With more than 3 decades of playing and gigging behind me I've started to come to the exact same conclusion myself over the past couple of years. And I dread to think how much I've blew on bass gear in that time too But let's keep this to ourselves, eh? Otherwise Basschat will implode within minutes

Yeah, it really makes you wonder, doesn't it? All these decades chasing a 'sound' when in fact it's all in your head - how you sound live is largely down to how everyone else sounds and how good they are at what they do. You can get chronic GAS, spend thousands on gear and attempt to get the 'best' bass tone in the world, but it's all for nothing if your drummer can't play in time, your singer's falling-down drunk, or your guitarist routinely deafens everyone in the room. If your drummer is really on it and they and the other members of the band know how to play quietly and tastefully and listen to each other, you've got half a chance - and what's more, it won't matter if you're playing a Harley Benton Jazz through a Behringer combo, you will sound great.

My guilty secret is... I'm quite partial to guitar straps, and 'accidentally' keep aquiring them *blushes* A small sample...

Yep, brilliant mics, and not just for the price. I find them crisper and less nasal sounding than SM58s.

I started off with just one bass when I was 12. A couple of my friends were doing it, and I thought I could enjoy bass in moderation. But over the years it spiralled into gigging, recording blah blah and costing me thousands etc etc....

Welcome. I did a similar switch, although a lot earlier on in my musical journey. The only problem I found was I kept getting invited to join bands that needed both a drummer and bass player, and often ended up back on the drums as it was much easier to find bass players (not good ones might I add) than drummers. I do try to keep my feet (and hands) in both camps as much as I can though!

Yup - semi hollow piezo only bass would be the way to go. Check out Scojack's and Jabba the Guts' piezo basses in the Build Diaries forum.