Leaderboard

And it's pretty much finished... @eude is probably going to change the electrics so we opted to just put the old electrics back in. The jack is actually fine, but both pots are shot. I'll order some replacements anyway to fit while the finish is hardening. But, other than the final tweaks on the setup and a final buff up in a few days time, its finished. I've obviously gone heavy on the tru-oil because it's ended up at 8 3/4 lbs rather than the 8 1/2 I was projecting but it sits BEAUTIFULLY on the strap. Even my slippy cheap nylon strap - it rests level and will sit and stay at almost any angle you care to play. It actually feels lighter on the strap than it actually is, presumably for the same reason. The fretboard is just polished - progressive from around 2000 grit paper to 12000 micro-web. The figuring shows up great in real life. I'll probably take a few more fancier shots when the lighting is right, but here it is in the meantime:

Mate of mine is into gypsy jazz (he's a guitarist, obvs). He went over to the big festival they have every year in Holland and joined in with some of the workshops. He realises during said workshops he is sitting in with some of the very best gypsy jazz musicians in the world - 1 being Django Reinhardt's grandson! Later he was due to be on stage for a group performance - playing rhythm guitar (which in gypsy jazz is no calkwalk), but ends up sitting at the front! Ok he thinks, I'll keep my head down and just concentrate on my rhythm work. During the performance all the top guys (remember, these are the best in the world) take turns to solo. He is sat next to Django's grandson who, after finishing ripping out a blinding solo (and if you now anything about gypsy jazz you'll know that everything is played at at least 90 mph) he turns to my mate Andy, (for that is his name) and indicates it's his turn...to take a solo! My mate did his best and 'got through it' as he said. The next day, he's sitting playing in another workshop when the aforementioned Django's grandson turns up with some of the other top performers, joins in with the music and everyone takes a turn soloing, my mate included, not quite so nervous this time and felt he made a better account of himself compared to the previous evenings performance. When the workshop finishes my mate then recounts how nervous he was at the previous evenings show and how he felt like an imposter. The reply of Django's grandson and all the other top players was to tell him that it matters not what you play, but the fact that you do and that everyone has to start somewhere. They were so encouraging and supporting he's booked to go again this year.

So, just to confirm - are Bryan Adams covers back on the table? Too soon?? 😖

My observation - from teaching and talking to an awful lot of bassists - is that the role that magazines played in terms of filling in historical knowledge isn't one that people are using the web for... It's weird, because YouTube is the greatest learning resource that humanity has ever come up with - whether you want to fix the screen on your phone, or work out what Allan Holdsworth was doing with symmetrical scales, there are SO many amazing lessons on there, but because the focus is on 'info that will benefit me right now' rather than the contained, delineated authoritative experience of reading an episodic magazine, it seems that relatively few people are spending time online digging into the history of the instrument. Reading BP cover to cover in the 90s (and reading every bass-related thing in Guitarist in the late 80s) was as much my school as the two years I did at music college. I have things I use every day in my playing that I learned from Rich Appleman's theory column in the 90s. I know about players because instead of, as has been indicated here, worrying that I didn't know who the players were, I read more voraciously when they were musicians I hadn't heard of than when it was ones I knew... So magazines were a way of accumulating knowledge... That was, in many ways, a problem, in that it meant that the writers and editors were the gatekeepers of knowledge, and as they were almost exclusively dudes (in the case of BP editors, all of them ever were men), women got WAY WAY worse coverage, and were often written about in a really shitty way. Likewise, the coverage was overwhelmingly US and Europe-centric. YouTube has its filters which provide similar levels of myopia if you use their algorithms to decide what to watch, but the capacity for learning is huge (I recently went on a Soca binge, and discovered a ton of amazing music and bass playing). ...So, I'm still a fan of magazines - the economics of running a mag is way more perilous than a website, you can get away with more auto-generated content on a website and have zero print costs (hosting doesn't even come close in terms of monthly outgoing per reader), even though mags have a cover price - there's obviously no granularity to the reader spend. You don't get people who give you 5p a month for reading a page or two and some who pay the full price. It's all or nothing... I greatly appreciate what No Treble are doing - particularly their attempts to fill that knowledge gap I suggested above - Ryan Madora's column on players to know is a really useful one, and the video tuition stuff is great - but the factors that drive virality, and therefor ad money, are far more damaging to so much web video content than perceived bias in reviews (there's SO much to say about reviewing, but my one observation would be that there is, objectively VERY little 'bad' gear out there now, above the rebadged absurdly cheap garbage on eBay from no-name manufacturers - the big players can't afford to make bad gear, and CNC means that consistency across instruments is lightyears beyond where it was 20 years ago when I was reviewing stuff for Bassist - I was regularly sent really bogus stuff, gave things mediocre reviews, and even refused to write about some stuff... It was way more useful to fill the pages with reviews of good stuff that I was to write a hit piece on some crappy gear. Ignore it, and it'll go away - at that point, magazines were the lifeblood of companies' ad strategy, so a bad review was actually more coverage than their rubbish gear deserved... But that's a whole other discussion) Anyway, decent journalism is expensive, so expensive that it makes a lot of magazines impossible to fund, and no commercial publisher is going to run a mag at a loss in order to meet readers' desires. The economics are a total mess right now. I'm really glad that we still have any print mags for bass at all, and I hope the people involved find a way to keep them going - my rate for writing in a UK bass mag is lower now than it was 20 years ago. They've cut everything back as far as it'll go, so we'll see if that's enough. I don't know the specifics of what was happening at BP, but I do know they ditched all their offices a while back and went to a remote working model to try and cut costs. I guess it wasn't enough.

Been after an 8x10 for a while to complete the SVT rig. Went today to pick up one I got on eBay. Sounds good, except I can't really crank it at home right now to gig volume to really hear what it sounds like in anger. Pretty angry, I'd imagine. After hearing horror stories about carting them about, I have to say it's actually easier (provided you've got wide enough doors etc) to move than a couple of 4x10s, just because you wheel it about like a trolley. The head is more of a pain in the backside tbh Anyway, i'm delighted & wanted to share in the delight with you

I think its a mixture of poor advertising on here, as in, vague descriptions, shoddy photo's etc, plus competition from Facebook, eBay and a quiet market I advertised a mint Gibson Thunderbird on here - no takers, not even an enquiry. Listed it on eBay at a higher price and sold it within 3 days. Just lucky that a guy who wanted the exact model I had (a 2015 model with the Babicz bridge) was looking at the time I posted it. He pressed the BIN button and off we went. Out of interest after the sale I asked him if he was on BC and he said he'd never heard of it! So in summary Not all bass players use this forum (shock horror!) eBay, Facebook and thefretboard - a guitar forum which also sells basses and where I bought my T-Bird from - are competing places to buy/sell (and that's without mentioning Gumtree) Many of the owners of collections who advertise on here are 'thinning the herd' which naturally reduces the pool of buyers Selling on commission through specialist shops - Bass Direct sold a Sandberg of mine for a very good price to me, which then appeared on eBay for about 6 months and is now back on Bass Direct's books. It's this one btw http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Sandberg_Classic_4.html It's a cracking bass btw! Having said all of the above I'll still use this forum to advertise my gear. I'm a big fan of BC but like most things, it ain't perfect!

Pea Turgh did ask for lots of piccies....... I think you'll all agree, this does not look like a homemade cab. The Ashdown badge probably helps here, but you can buy all kinds of badges on eBay for a few pounds (plenty of Trace Elliot, for example). So if you feel like putting a name on your cab there's nothing to stop you.

That's a bit of a sweeping statement. We have band practice once a week because we are not pro musicians. We have jobs and families, and have band practice so we can be tighter than a very tight thing and give the audience what they paid for, a decent nights entertainment. Being able to busk your way through a set is not the only measure of a musician. Being prepared to the best of your ability, however limited that ability may be, is the very least I expect from any band mate. I have busked through a gig, as a drummer, and I did not enjoy it as I spent all my time watching the other musicians like a hawk and trying to keep up. So much so the dynamics of the gig completely passed me by.

I once played in a band that backed a reggae singer from St Vincent. We were white, he was black. None of us gave a sh 1t about that. It was the best musical experience of my life. Tell me where I went wrong...

Aston Barrett is one of my favourite bassists but he isn't one of your "regular" reggae bassists. His lines are totally unique. If you want to get the feel and learn the style of Reggae I'd listen to others first, then progress to Barrett. For starters, try stuff like : Peter Tosh - Johnny B Goode, Feel No Way, Glass House, Reggae Mylitis etc Toots and the Maytals - Pressure Drop, Monkey Man, Louie Louie, Funky Kingston etc

Might be worth absorbing a live version of the sheriff, as well 👍 Once you can do everything on this thread - if it still doesn't work, then it's probably safe to blame the drummer. 😁

I think that we do need to consider that we have an ageing population in the UK (and the rest of the western world) and the rock and roll generations of the 60s, 70s, 80s and early 90s have now reached various stages of middle age and are not interested in the same things their parents were at that age. Younger people may enjoy live music if they are exposed to it, but it is not the same thing as it used to be and they can't be expected to turn up en mass for a night out to see a band playing a type of music that their parents grew up with. There is still an audience for rock music (or dad rock as some people prefer) and a few years ago there was a pretty vibrant scene in pubs. You could always get a decent audience if the band was good enough. Now you can't help but notice that austerity has taken its toll and it is more difficult to get people away from their TVs and supermarket booze, but I have still been managing to gig pretty regularly for the past few years in decent bands with guys ranging from their late 30s to early 60s playing to audiences of a similar age group. You need to know your audience. These days yoof culture is no longer necessarily king and its the older punters who are more likely to be interested in watching live music, not to mention to have the disposable income to do so...

Check out this vid, at 7 minutes...

Vim Fuego........

@The59Sound do you need to take a break?! How about it, or do you think you can behave like a grown up for a bit? Calm down.

Why are you being rude? What an odd reply. Literally an opinion, a point of view - my 2p. The concept of a cheaper (‘kiddy’) Flea bass in itself was acknowledged by Flea when he brought out the “fleabass” range of instruments and further addressed by the introduction of a lower price point Fleabass (street bass). I was just pointing out that Fender may have missed a trick by only having the one price point which would be out of reach for younger/less affluent fans when they’ve done broader attempts to previously... Mike Dirnt has/had a Fender and a Squier model simultaneously BB King had a Gibson and Epiphone version of Lucille (there are plenty more examples) It just broadens their buying audience somewhat and more buyers means more money. Makes more business sense. And having left the guitar/bass retail industry after 12 years in 2015 - I might have an idea of what people buy into. As a point, the cheap fleabass instruments weren’t that great - but we sold 100’s of them because people bought into the Flea name/image. But what would I know, I’m only a child.

Well I enjoyed it.

I didn't really set out to make something close to the Barefaced. We've equalled the weight of the Barefaced but have got there by a slightly different route. This design is a development of the first one in this thread but the design objective this time was high performance and light weight. The performance is similar to the system with the Beyma 12 and ceramic Celestion 1" compression driver, but it's much lighter - and obviously costs more. In answer to your question, I believe the Barefaced BB2 uses a Faital Pro HF102 compression driver. Both the ceramic and neo version of the Basschat design use compression drivers with a 1.4" diaphragm - twice as much diaphragm area as the Faital. They are much better compression drivers for our purpose, but the neo Celestion we're using costs twice as much as the Faital in the Barefaced.

I am still working on the bender - it's not cooperating however.

It looks awesome - for those who have lost track... which driver is this?

There always were great sounding light-weight basses. My 1969 P bass weighs about 8lbs. I know there were heavy basses that sounded good but there are many well made lighter basses that sound amazing, so the idea that you need a heavy bass in order to make a better sound really was/is a myth.

Since I last posted on this thread, there has been a change of plan on the drivers. I struggled to get the cab sounding right with the original horn and decided to revert to the P. Audio horn I'd used previously. I haven't given up on the asymmetric horn and may revisit it later. However, as the design objective of this particular version of the cab is light weight, I thought that the combination of the P. Audio horn and a Celestion CDX-1415 compression driver would be a good choice. The total weight of the 12" bass driver, the Celestion compression driver and the P. Audio horn is just 3kg. Amazing! So even though we've used 15mm ply for the cab, a proper crossover, and a metal grille, the total weight of the finished product is 13kg. I'd call that a result. It was difficult to get a decent photo of the compression driver with my cheap camera and flash, but it really is dinky - weighing in at just 250 grammes. It's not cheap, but it does have a 1.4" voice coil, and not a 1" coil like cheaper compression drivers.

Great idea. 👍

Great, glad to help, hope you like it

(Also ''Baraka'' - this is I think the first movie from Ron Fricke, the director of ''Samsara'')

I've got quads. Well, actually quintuplets!

That ten times That ten times That ten times That ten times That ten times That ten times That ten times That ten times That ten times That ten times Have i won the prize ?

This was one that took me quite a while to get the timing on ,I had to really break it down 😀

6.0 user here. Use it on all my gigs. It's a very neutral sounding thing. No complaints.

It's more complicated than you might think ... 😉

Try these for size...

Sunburst it should be sunburst, split pickup, jack on the front, maple fingerboard, with LaBella 760F-MUS strings. Why they don't make these anymore I don't know, it's my go-to bass now.

Nothing bass-related, then! Wouldn't mind a maple board/lined fretless J neck off a Sire MM V7, for a project. And whatever kind soul gives it to me can re-shape the headstock to a Tele style, to save me doing it myself, cheers.

I think essentially Flea knows what he likes for live use after all these years. He likes that MM humbucker in the sweet spot and by the looks of it, a Stingray-ish thickness in the neck (not surprising after so many years playing them). He has been seen regularly with his old fender and a couple of other fender jazz basses and a Precision, and it’s pretty well documented that he uses/used a Wal and has recorded recent stuff on a Stingray. Ernie Ball don’t need to pay him a load of money to endorse a bass that is always going to be synonymous with flea that already sells well. From fragments I have read over the years I think Flea was basically being a d*ck about it and I don’t think Sterling Ball takes any crap from anyone. Modulus go out of business, Fender knock on your door offering some money and you say yes to a replica of your trusty 62 and say I also need basses that sound as close to the ones I love to use live, pretty simple really. I think that he’s obviously still peeved that Ernie Ball didn’t bow down to his celebrity, and still won’t use a stingray in public despite it being the bass everyone associated him with, that is essentially the spec and tone he still wants.

Yup. I learned early on that most of the audience, any audience, are actually listening to the song in their head, not what the actual band is playing.

Playing 5-a-side tonight. Head height rule applies so I'll bring my low-pass filter....

Cracking guy to deal with - Cheers fella

Good evening, Stephen , and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

The Gallery are correct, it's a problem with the piezo. I had similar issues with the piezos on my 6 string. Just get a replacement, they are cheap enough and it will save you a load of faff.

Sabbath lots of Sabbath

Spot on RHT has a great feel and his basslines are always tasteful.

I'm hoping for a nice retirement ohm to rest my weary bones.

X32 Rack, RCF 735x2 with a suitcase of XLR cables (do not skimp here, expect to pay at least £20 for a 6m XLR, preferably something like Vandamme, Klotz, Sommer - handmade, as tag machine soldered XLRs will fail), a pair of hotcovers for the cabs, a rack case for the X32, a few DIs (look at Orchid Electronics), a couple of stands, some Behringer P2 wired inear packs all for under 3k should get you quite a formidable, portable wedding rig - with the provision for stereo IEMs too! Those tops will happily have bass and kick through them, as well as the rest of the band. No need for subs unless you stepping up to play some big venues. Just those tops will do 95% of wedding venues without a sweat. Dont forget lots of power leads with lots of sockets on too. You didn't mention mics, but a set of AKG Session Ones (factor in two stands for overheads) for the drums are great, as are D5s for vocals.

You say that as if what an amp sounds like doesn't matter! The loudest noise and most condemnation came from people who had never seen or heard a TC amp. Sadly, what TC didn't say was their amp was equivalent to a 500 watt amp etc. If they'd done that then there wouldn't have been a problem. The assumption most of the people who joined in to the Talkbass thread made was that a 246 watt amp couldn't possibly be as loud as any one else's 500 watt amp. If these people had used their ears rather than what ever else they were using they would have heard 250 watts sounding as loud as 500 watts. The mature response should have been, how are they doing that? Unfortunately the subject quickly descended into abuse and got nowhere. It's still getting nowhere.

Yes, had an 'armchair' bassist address me on stage the other night with 'why are you playing a girls bass?' (referring to my MIJ comp stripe 'stang). I proceeded to play the crap out of it, making the growliest sound come out of a small package.......he left before the end of the first spot.

You lucky, lucky bastard!