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Bryan Adams explains why Summer of 69 flopped in the UK "coz it's sh!t "

Not sure about being a musician. But I do consider myself a 'pro' as I play a P Bass.

And - at last - the first coat of the proper finishing: Still might do a bit more carving on the 'nose' - I think a modest concave might work better than the present convex? The great thing about the Osmo is that you can do those kinds of things even while the rest of the body is having the coats fully curing. I'm using the Osmo Polyx 3044 RAW. It is designed to specifically minimise the darkening and 'yellowing' of lighter woods that most other finishes result in which, for this particular walnut, enhances it rather than it going too brown. It's the same finish I put on @TheGreek 's Psilos bass where I wanted to keep the white poplar white: This was the Psilos with tru-oil. I think you can see the orangey yellow tint. I love tru-oil - and the tru-oil tends to bring out the figuring more - but this particular Osmo formula is sometimes better for those lighter woods. It all depends on the woods and the design: Next job is a quick rescue of our band's vocalists acoustic I made him for his 70th (yes - it's an old-man's band!) that was knocked over recently and squashed the zero fret a touch: And then - probably over the weekend - it's sanding down the neck and out with the inks to try to match the purpleheart. Haven't had the inks out for a LONG time

I don’t do Twitter very well. I tried to find the account for Andy Mooney, the Fender CEO, and failed. I almost gave up, then found the feed for Flea, so I tagged him in instead 😀. ‘Here’s a question for @flea333 - how long is the neck on a Fender ‘61 Flea Bass supposed to last? Answer: 12 months according to @FenderGBI. Neck on mine went & 5 months down the line I’m still waiting. It’s a known issue with your Sig Model. Thought ‘You Oughta Know’.’

For a bit of fun, thought it may interest some people doing these videos with a few of my basses, this is my 1978 Mustang bass that i picked up from Chicago Music Exchange last year, i really dig the pick on this thing, but the fingerstyle records beautifully and has a lot of thump!

I was on here years ago but having left the music scene for a while tried to log on only to find my original “I’d” been nicked. Much to the wife’s annoyance I kept all the gear “just in case,you never know”. And one phone call and I’m depping for a mates band who’s bass player seems to be in more bands than I’ve had hot dinners. A bit of blues and soul etc. The gear consists of 70’s Jazz Bass, a GB 5string and a very old and battered Burns Artiste. Trace 250 SMX combo, which I can’t lift anymore. Trace 12 SMX preamp driving the power section of Mark King Ashdown, which I can just about lift and Hartke 5000 amp. Cabs are Hartke 4*10 Transporter and Mark Bass 2*10. What I have noticed in trying to catch-up is the amps and cabs getting lighter and able to push out more power. Perhaps the wife’s right for once, time to get rid of all this. And sneak in some lighter stuff.

The body is all glued up and I've started to shape it,ive still got to glue on the raised centre and fill the body but it's coming along nicely............ 😀 There's going to be a slight change of plan in not going to do this one yellow (as I really want to do a Yellow 5 string P) so I've decided this one is going to be satin Black with Maple fretboard and probably matching headstock...........

I dread to think what 'Come On Eileen' is about 😲

Yup, that works for me. In fact, you don't need to pick up an instrument. By the time I was 11 I was singing in three choirs and a choral society. I was a musician. People tend to over-think this.

To me it’s a way of describing sound that you not only hear on stage but which you also feel. Doesn’t have to be bass heavy - the way I have amps set is anything but - but you feel the notes resonate within you.

It's actually meaningless as is any phrase to describe a sound. At best it's a metaphor. We're all guilty of using certain words to try and describe something tonal but in reality is actually nonsense when you think about it. You could say for example "fat" "rich" or "heavy" which are equally meaningless yet somehow convey what we're taking about. As the tones we hear are totally subjective It's like trying to describe a colour to a blind person.

I once signed on to the forum formerly known as KazooChat. I left sharpish like when I found it was really a secret meeting place for recreational Shewee TM users.

Yes. I hardly ever mention it. I even like one on a headless neck (assuming that's still called a volute). I shall bring it up more often now that you've pointed that out to me. Thank you. Sur la photo de gauche, on voit l'angle de la tête de manche, ici un angle de 17 degrés. Sur la deuxième photo, on voit une tête de manche avec une volute qui n'a servi à rien. Sur la photo au milieu à droite, on voit bien la volute sur une gibson Flying V2 de 1980, la volute est plus ou moins élevée et son angle varie d'un modèle à l'autre à l'image ici de la SG I de 1972 dont la volute est particulièrement haute. From JerRock Translated: In the photo on the left, we see the angle of the head of the neck, here an angle of 17 degrees. On the second picture, we see a head of the neck with a volute that was useless. On the photo in the middle right, we can see the volute on a gibson Flying V2 1980, the volute is more or less high and its angle varies from one model to another in the image here of the SG I of 1972 whose volute is particularly high. And of course, almost no-one has heard of the big Gibson volute controversy before... I now have Tutti Frutti by Little Richard going off in my head only he keeps going "Tutti Frutti, vol-utey"! I hope you're satisfied young man!

If you become a retired musician, does that mean you used to be a musician but you're not anymore? Or does it mean you weren't, but you are since you retired? A truely pointless question. TBH I'm just trying out a new keyboard.

Can it be any coincidence that I have today received an e-mail from Fender UK, an unsolicited one this time, rather than a reply to me chasing them? Good news - they have a neck for me. Bad news - the nut is uncut and they want me to either send the bass to them or they’ll ship it straight out to me and I can get it done myself. Mmm 🤔

I think you're getting your Fodera and Fedora confused too.

Well, the acoustic's fixed but it's a bit late to start stripping the neck. But never too late for a quick mock-up:

Heft - heft is very much like making love to a beautiful woman. You've got to feel it in your gentleman's region. Breathe softly and gently. And give every inch of it your loving thrust. And make sure you've got a nice wet sponge. Swiss Toni

If you put it down as your occupation on a car insurance policy, you'll see what it costs to be a musician. 😬

So another analogy to add Skinnyman's torque is that just as a painter or photographer can (rightly) seek a certain quality in the "light", similarly musicians can surely seek a certain timbre from their instruments? A Stradivarious will have a richer tone than a £500 violin. They can certainly both play the same notes at similar volumes. Heft is just one aspect and a label that many of us commonly apply to a certain quality of the sound that our amps and cabs deliver.

Surely it’s all down to your principal/sole source of income. I’ve been playing bass for 55 years and not once in that time have I called myself a musician - although I’ve done and still do a heap of gigs. I’ve called myself a civil engineer or a builder and now I say I’m retired. But never a musician. Conversely there are plenty around who probably don’t come up to a very high musical standard but because music is where they make their living can justifiably call themselves a musician.

I agree with Jack: people do overthink it. I guess part of the problem lies with the word we generally want to put in front of it. My musical activities were my primary - indeed only - source of income for nearly 15 years so I thought of myself as a professional musician, but really it's just an adjective. Anyone who plays any instrument at any level could justifiably call themselves a musician in my book. I know people who are, frankly, a bit up themselves about this kind of thing and like to crow on about the years of study and the hours of practice, and about how anybody who hasn't done the same can't really be a 'proper' musician. It's a valid perspective I guess, but in truth you could say much the same about speaking a foreign language, working with wood, cooking or even driving.

I was disappointed to find out that Don McLean's most famous song, American Pie, had nothing to do with pastry.

This is Basschat. It's the main thing. 😁

🤣 (Though I didn't click on that link. Why? Didn't need to. Still have them in stock, five years after closing my kayaking firm. Very practical product, but nobody ever bought one - not online and not even from my wife, who to some degree resembled a woman.) As to GuitarChat, I think it would be a good idea if we all were to post there often, and show a particular interest in the B-string, especially when talking about fingering. ...which brings us nicely back to KazooChat.

what you should've done, is stand in the bass section with a bass in hand, and yell out "excuse me, can you come and give me a price on this?" when the salesguy returns to his counter after giving you a price, grab another bass and rinse and repeat. They'll soon put price tags on hehe

It would look good hanging in my bar. Then again, so would Boris Johnson. Both are massively overvalued.

That is totally irrelevant, the fact you had to shell out to replace their defect makes it worse. Unfortunately at that point, having been in similar places, you have to turn into a bit of an a*se to get stuff done. Fender are very big on social media with their 'fender play' adverts and the like on twitter and facebook. On all of those adverts you see like that, reply to the post with 'How can I play this as my 2 year old £900 fender flea bass neck warped and it appears they aren't expected to last over a year' and similar. And on their page, comment on any post where people ask about their basses with things like 'Be careful, the necks are only supposed to last a year until they break' and the like. do that and you will find that their response speeds up drastically. For some reason (and I think it is a shame), customer service of many modern companies is entirely driven by their social media profile, the person who waits and shows them respect appears to get nothing. I hate doing it, but it works very well.

It'll take time. I'm happy for it to grow naturally, rather than push it. When Basschat first started we had about one post a day and I used to check it with my WAP phone. Obviously today things are different but I still think it'll get there - but I do need to pull my finger out and do some promotion/advertising. If you play guitar, feel free to post on the forum and get some topics going, and invite others to do so. We're very close to finding out what guitar is best for metal.

I do. Lower is more better.

I used to be a pick player as for me it suited the music and was the most natural way to play. Today I play both fingers and pick. The picking hand should be the most automatic process possible and follow the feel of the bass line and song. You don't limit yourself to up/down/up/down as the most efficient process, that's just utter rubbish. It should be what the bass line dictates. As an example, this is an old video (2008) of me playing pick to one of my own songs. The intro is all down strokes, it's the only way it works to give the desired effect. Then the verse is up and down and a mix of both, again, because it's what works. Its all about flow rather than technique. There is also no conection to what the fretting hand is doing. They are both seperate processes. The other thing to notice is if you listen with the volume off, my movement of my picking hand is consistent. This is what I mean by it being an automatic process. My wrist or arm is not changing or moving in different ways. I guess its similar to constantly strumming a guitar. Finally, most of the movement/strokes is in the wrist. So much so that my wrist used to lay against the top of my bass and rub the skin away on my wrist.

Its long time since last posted here,but,the time has come to start a new build. Actually 3 bass build together. I am in the searching for the wood supplies now,so in 2-3 week i (think) will start them. They will be 4string and 5string basses in the 40.433" scale.One of them it will be available for sale,so,if any of you is intrigued about it,please,keep an eye on this build. The 40.433 is a common 34" scale bass,but bigger 3 frets. The headstock design it will be like this in the foto,and i don't know if i will do it angled or scalooped (that's why i also made the poll,feel free to help me choose) The things they will be for sure are 3-piece maple neck carbon reinforcement humbucker pickups passive circuit. PS. I started the topic to early before the build,just to help me with the headstock design,so,please,be patient and not in hurry

Whoa! You don’t think you’re getting away with that, do you? Don’t think you can wander in with your contentious questions and then swan off, satisfied, while the debate’s still raging. We’ll get another week out of this at least. Right then. You asked us to help define heft and you’re going to bloody well sit there while we define it for you at least three hundred different ways. Then you can ask your follow up. And that better be “and is ‘heft’ any good for metal?”.... Lol 😆

Well there’s no use posting that here! Over to GC with you!

I didn't realise you liked a Volute! I can't believe you haven't mentioned it before!! 😜

This description has an element of truth to the broadly interpreted description of heft IMO. When I try to translate the term heft into an amp design, I think it's in part a combination of texture and voicing combined with the particular tastes of the individual user. This is why some players will say (for the same amp) that it has "heft" while other players will say it doesn't. Everything needs to be taken in the context of the player's entire rig, speakers, instrument, pick-up system/set-up, playing style and the music style that the rig is being used with. It's much more complicated than a simple black and white description IMO.

As was pointed out above somewhere, people really are overthinking this. If you can pick up a musical instrument and make it do what it's supposed to, then, at that moment you are a musician. At other times you could be a parent or an IT guy or a total wombler. and Barking Spiders - I really don't think you need to have sight reading skills to be a musician unless yo want to play in some sort of orchestral ensemble. Plenty of folk that make a living at paying tunes have never learnt to read the dots. edit . "wombler" hah! what teenage boys get up to in their quiet moments

I’ve just remembered. The very first song I could play all the way though, was All right now by Free. Myself and my guitar playing mate tried to impress two girls by playing it to them. Just playing. No singing. They must have wondered when I was going to come in! 😂

Er, that's Ricky's, not mine. Mine's here, in my hands, look

Heft is a description of bass "sound" that makes those, who think they have it, feel superior. Having it or not is largely an argument had by those who would better spend their time improving their playing.

As a matter of interest (or not) I run a clothing shop - if our window display stuff is clearly priced, we get more walk-in sales than if it's not - (I know because we've deliberately tried not pricing it, to see......) 😎

Well, i just went and posted some stuff on GC. A query about the new BF guitar cab, a comment on a topic about flatwound strings, a rant about a Pat Metheny album and a reply to a query about wireless systems. I'll go back in a few days and see if anyone has read any of them.

Imagine if it was your first visit to BanjoBanter™ - you sign in hoping to discuss whatever it is banjoists talk about, excited, nervous & expectant... ... so you arrive & everyone stops & just stares at you. Then from somewhere, the Deliverance theme starts... waaaaaa!

Something is quite clearly not right when you might find a straighter neck on an actual '61 Jazz.

Yes all the time and all the way up the neck. It makes finger positioning much more efficient, playing ‘Master Blaster’, for example, is much easier using the B string

…. and more sanding! I'm quite pleased with how this is going and the joint between the two halves is looking really nice: I'm now at a point where I need to dismantle the walnut bass so I can transfer the neck to the spalted beech body. I need to do this to ensure the carve on the heel will blend into its new body and so I can get on with making progress on the new short scale neck.