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I watch a lot of Queen and bass related videos on You Tube, so it randomly threw this at me today. Did make me laugh....

There is just so much rubbish written about "tone wood" for solid bodied instruments with zero scientific proof to back it up. Simply opinion dressed up as facts. I don't deny that the choice of woods can make a difference to the tone of a solid instrument, although IMO when you factor in all the other things that define the sound of the instrument, their contribution is fairly negligible. What I do dispute is that their properties can be absolutely defined as a constant characteristic. And here is why. Just looking at "Ash" as a body wood. For starters there are over 40 different species of Ash, and the density of the wood can vary from 540kg/m3 to 710kg/m3 which is a lot of variation. The distribution of the trees covers much of the northern hemisphere and soil types, climatic conditions and growing season day length will all contribute to different growth characteristics of the trees and consequently the characteristics of the wood produced from those trees. Do we know exactly which species of Ash is used for guitar bodies? Is it always the same species of Ash? Is a guitar made in the US made from the same species sourced from the same geographical location as one made in Europe, or Asia? I can't see any information from the big manufacturers, and without that information I can only assume that while the manufacturers will have certain specifications for the wood they buy, there is still going to be significant variation from one batch to another. So having added in a lot of variables, here are a lot more. Construction. If solid bodied instruments were made of a single piece of wood for the body, a single piece for the neck and headstock and a single piece for the fingerboard, we might have some consistency between instruments to start making some useful observations about the woods used and the tone of the instrument. But they are not. Most bodies are made from 2 or 3 separate pieces of wood glued together. Glue is not the same as wood. It adds in another variable. If the body is made of 2 equally sized pieces of wood there are 8 different ways they can be glued together, each of which is going to give a potentially different tonal result. As soon as you glue two or more pieces of wood together you change the way the wood behaves compare with a single piece of the same total size. If it didn't there would be no point in multi-laminate necks. And for a two-piece body on a Fender bass is the join always in the same place? From what I have seen the answer is a resounding "no". And on a 3-piece body it is even less consistent. More unaccounted for variables. And of course a Fender style neck with a maple board will sound different to one with a rosewood board, but not because of the board material, but because they are constructed in completely different ways. The neck with the maple board is a single piece of maple with the truss rod inserted from the back of neck and held in place with the "skunk stripe", while the rosewood board is a separate piece of wood glued onto the maple neck, with the truss rod fitted either from behind or underneath the fingerboard. IMO it is these differences in construction and lamination of woods that is going to have an effect on the tone not the actual wood used for the fingerboard. And there's the electrics. Even on passive bass there is lots of potential for variation. Pickups. Do they have the same DC resistance? Have they been wound with the same gauge of wire with the same number of turns in the same way (scatter winding or even winding)? Are the magnets of the same material and magnetic strength? All these factors can change the characteristic of the pickup and the sound it produces. Even the humble potentiometers and capacitors in a passive circuit have lots of potential for variation. A good quality potentiometer like CTS will still have ±20% tolerance which means that a pot specified at 500kΩ can be anywhere between 400 and 600kΩ. The same with capacitors. And these components always have an impact on the sound of the instrument, even at maximum settings - full volume, full tone; as can be demonstrated by connecting the pickup directly to the output jack as opposed to going through the passive volume and tone circuit. With all these variables in play, trying to pin-point tonal characteristics of an instrument to the type of wood used for the body, neck or fingerboard is completely and utterly futile. When people try and do comparisons their methodology is so poor and their sample sizes so small that the results have no means whatsoever.

Well. Long story short. This arrived with me yesterday. I like the way this looks and feels. I love the way it sounds in a band setting (was at rehearsal last night). The purchase wasn’t a pleasant experience, the dealer is someone I’d never use again. I didn’t pay what he was asking for originally, nor did I accept the bass for the price we’d agreed based upon images he’d sent me. Apart from him. The bass for the price, I’m pleased with. If I hadn’t have enjoyed rehearsal so much last night, I might’ve been less polite about the dealer.

So my attempt to abstain from any gear in 2019 purchases has fallen by the wayside (but I'm still sticking to my 'one in, one out' policy). This arrived today while I was out (even though I'd rescheduled the delivery for tomorrow; just left by my front door, out in the open - nice one FedEx 😡). It's a standard Jake L in Pino-alike fiesta red (although it does have non-standard MOP dot inlays, which is why I bought it from Public-Peace). As I already own 2 other Maruszczyks, this already feels like 'home' and is reassuringly a proper P in its output. Now I just need to restring it with my preferred EB Cobalt flatwounds. Happy days.

Brilliant, I have an 8 metre high polystyrene Stonehenge I found round the back of Hammy Odeon once.

Originally I couldn't make it because it clashed with my footie team's last home game. Well, due to Man Utd's involvement in Europe (though I think theyve been knocked out now anyway) they decided to move the fixture to Sunday 5th May instead, which means in theory I'm now available to pop along for a while. Be afraid, be very afraid... So I could bring the MacMillen 12 step along with the kit I hook mine up to if anyone's interested? If there's a PA set up somewhere that would be handy or I could just bring along a bass combo to run it through I guess.

Just an update to this post - I bought a Fender Rumble, only 100w but really portable. The band liked the sound in the rehearsal room, and the final test was at the weekend when we had a gig. Typical set up for us, birthday party, and I was really happy with it, plenty enough power to be honest. I can see it would have limitations if we were a rock band in a bigger venue, but for what I need it for, it's perfect.

Not at all! Trust me, having been in a number of raffles at various bass bashes, the thrill of winning a set of allen keys is just as great as the bigger things! And I'm still using them. All contributions, large or small, I am sure will be gratefully received and excitedly won!

Due to safety certifications and regulations, IcePower modules are not allowed to be repaired. Since the primary circuitry and all of the associated safety components are part of the integrated module, once the module is worked on the manufacturer's safety certification is no longer valid. As part of the manufacturing and testing process, an extensive number of automated tests (including safety certification tests) are performed on the module and the test result data is logged to the serial number of the module. I don't know of any service centers that have the equipment or knowledge to perform and certify these tests with a Nationally Recognized Agency. It turns out that because of the level of complexity and the specialized nature of the equipment and experience required to CORRECTLY diagnose and repair these modules, it's almost always less expensive to replace them than it would be to repair them. Even IcePower themselves doesn't repair defective parts returned to the factory under OEM warranty, it's less expensive to replace even though they have the necessary test equipment, knowledge and ability. The labor cost (including re-certification) is more than it costs to build. I don't like the concept anymore than you guys do, but when it costs more to repair than replace, it's hard to argue with reality so recycling the defective part is really the best solution.

Hissing, especially when it's present on both channels, is unlikely to be the tube (valve). The recommended valve for this amp is a 12AX7A (the AC5 is a selected/graded version, selected for lower noise and lower microphonics). In this circuit, its life expectancy is over 20 years (I designed this amp, so I have a pretty good point of reference here) and I have diagnosed only one defective tube in the last 5 years of the factory service/support program. These amps have a low noise floor, and have been a very reliable with no known issues over the past 10+ years. Before getting too deep into this whole tube thing, the very first thing I would recommend is systematic troubleshooting. Specific things to eliminate as possible causes external to the amp are: 1. Is the amp quiet without using any pedals? The most common cause of noise is from pedals, especially compressor pedals. All of the noise generated internally by pedals gets amplified by the amplifier, so a pedal that generates noise ultimately defines the noise floor because this noise is amplified by the total gain of the amplifier. Compressor pedals are especially suspect because the gain reduction circuit (called the gain cell) in the pedal works by starting out with a higher gain under low signal conditions and then reducing the gain as the signal level increases. For every dB of gain cell reduction, this adds a minimum of 1dB of noise to t he noise floor. It's intrusive because the worst noise floor is when there is no signal. This is why high quality pro audio compressors invest so much cost into lower noise circuitry and VCA's, the results are clearly audible. 2. If you are using a lot of treble boost, or if you have the tweeter attenuator all the way up on a cabinet that has an inefficient woofer section, this can make the noise of all preceding electronics appear noisier than they really are. If you are after a bright, in your face tone than this might be something you have to live with, or invest in a line level noise gate inserted into the effects loop. When using a gate, choosing the least amount of gate attenuation as possible to achieve the necessary noise floor improvement will help it sound and feel more natural. A 6dB gate attenuation will cut the noise power by 75%, so generally there is no need to use very deep cuts. 3. If you are using an active bass, be sure that your battery is good. Some active electronics packages can get very noise as the battery voltage falls. 4. If your active bass has eq built in, excessive treble boost can exaggerate noise within the on-board electronics which is then amplified by the amplifier. 5. Is the amp quieter with the tone shaping switches disengaged? Each filter can add a little bit of noise, especially the attack filter when a high amount of attack used. 6.With nothing plugged into your amp except the speaker, is the amp quiet with the channel gain, channel volume, master volume and eq all set to the 12:00 position? When switching between the tube channel and the FET channel, it's normal for there to be a just couple dB more noise in the tube channel. Where do you typically operate the controls? Hope this helps.

Beginner? prob not but just damn...

This may be a tad trickier to play, but it's fabulous once you get it sorted. Timing needs to to be slick. Love that fretless tone

This arrived today while I was out (fortunately not nicked from my front door where FedEx just left it, pink torpedoes that they are). It's a standard Jake L in Pino-alike fiesta red (although it does have non-standard MOP dot inlays, which is why I bought it from Public-Peace, otherwise Bassfreaks would've had my business). Oh yeah, it's a P and no mistake and as I already own 2 Elwoods, this already feels just right. And then there were 3.

It has been quite some time and yet not a lot of progress. The lid has been glued together, but I need to glue the bottom part at my friend's 'workshop' because I don't have enough clamps etc. Unfortunately he has been very busy, as have I. I did find the time to paint the lid, and I attached the corners and the handle. Hopefully next weekend I can go and glue the rest of the board together so I can finish it

A very faithful rendition, in many ways - perhaps 95% correct. It would be almost impossible for me to play the song all the way through exactly the same as the original, partly because I've played it so often since then, and although I stick closely to the album version, I improvise a little. So well done Troy! I have previously recorded the bass line on its own, sticking almost 100% to the recorded version, but that required many drop-ins! Any video would require the same technique, though obviously I could do slowed-down passages too. He uses all four fingers, whereas I mostly use three, bringing in the little finger only when necessary. This is because I play hard, often with heavy or stiff strings - a compromise between ease off playing and the tone needed to cut through two guitars, keyboards & drums. Having read some of the comments under his video, some are good, but some are the typical American obnoxious haters who are intent on slagging anything and everyone, usually from a position of ignorance, which is another reason why I've been slow to put videos up on there. Bah!

flip it. The song is fosters easy - or at least should be for someone who claims to have played for 30 years. And there is a video that shows the guys hand positions as well, so that deals with any audio quality issues Tabbing it out would take me under an hour. I've been playing as long as the OP has. The OP appears to have spent more time getting upset about this thread than would have taken him to tab it out. I have a day off work and I was considering transcribing it, partly to help and partly for my own practice. Not now.

So, let me get this right: you come on and ask for a (free?) transcription? And when you don’t get it you flounce off? Is that about right?

For some time now I've been keen on the fabulous basses being made by Alan at ACG. The idea of having a bass which was made in your home town was rather appealing, especially when your home town is a tiny wee place like Moffat. The fact that they look amazing and had consistently great reviews also helps. I wouldn't quite have called it GAS, but I was certainly an interested observer. A few years back I had big plans for a 40th birthday commission, but having tried a couple at a Bass Bash, I discovered I really couldn't get to grips with the asymmetric neck carve and flat board. Coupled with the fact that I wasn't playing in a band anymore, and I couldn't honestly justify the outlay. So, back to a watching brief... Until, that is, Alan advertised a couple of stock basses he had, on here recently. Oh dear. A couple of hypothetical "What if..." conversations with the Management; a quick calculation of the finances; and a trip to Moffat under the pretence of visiting my folks so I could try it out... As mentioned in the Gear Abstinence thread, I was kidding no one, least of all myself and was doomed. But in a good way! 😉 I am now the proud owner of an ACG RetroB, J5! - Maple body with an acrylic impregnated spalted maple top, and a Black Walnut accent layer. The spalted maple is just amazing. - 3 piece Wenge/Maple with Wenge headstock and a spalted maple overlay. Fingerboard is the same acrylic impregnated spalted maple as the body and it runs together beautifully. 20" radius board and although it has the asymmetric neck carve, it's a lot subtler than the normal ACG profile. - John East Uni pre-amp, which has such a bewildering array of tones, it'll take me a while to get to grips with. Linky thing to ACG website If anyone has any helpful tips or resources for transitioning from 4 to 5 strings, especially when you haven't played at all for a long while, it would be muh appreciated!

Sounds a good idea...

Awesome tips! Cheers @alyctes! X

Put extra effort into tuning; don't just pick it up and think "oh I tuned it this morning". Otherwise it will mess your head up. Also check your intonation with octaves and harmonics and open strings when you're practicing. Personally, I'm a Mick Karn fan. Much as I love Bakithi Kumalo on 'Graceland', Mick is the man.

Bass and vocal only... even more damn.

Well I failed utterly to keep a build diary, but the 'Deathburger III' is now complete, strung with the four middle strings froma guitar and tuned ADGC for the time being as a sort of 'piccolo bass'. Learnt a lot, chiefly don't trust spray varnish and don't fit your pickup to the scratchplate (or move its pole pieces) before you know where the strings will end up! Still it works, on both magnetic pickup and the piezo one in the bridge.

OK - I'll start off the raffle prizes. I will contribute this: A number of you have already seen it at previous bass bashes and - until the website wiped all of the avatars - this was my avatar since joining Basschat, so it's only fitting It's a Squier Jaguar - the original full scale version. Great to play; hmmm...Seymour Duncan 'designed' p/ups - not the most exciting but eminently upgradable; passive electrics; stacked volume tone for each pup; D'addario Chromes; one of my early veneering jobs; remodelled scratchplate covered in automotive-go-faster-carbon-fibre matting; natural sides and back: Andy

But Lindsey Buckingham's g-word thing is made by Rick Turner, who worked with Ron W., so Alembic. Tobias was Michael Tobias' design and handwork in the first phase before Gibson bought them. Pre-Gibson handcrafted instruments cost quite some. They have some basic lo-Z electronics (bartolini?), but the woodwork is impeccable. The "ergonomic" neck is special, it is thicker under lowest (thick) strings. Their bolt-on version was named as "Killer B".

I think I'm down to do a talk on the progress towards building lightweight guitars and basses and their respective trials, tribulations, considerations and results. What do you reckon - 20 minutes plus questions? All being well, I will have 2 or 3 examples with me and I think @Len_derby is bringing his Swift Lite along too. Raffle sounds good...I'll have a scout if there's anything I can contribute if everyone else can too Cakewise, not sure our former cake-making wonders are able to come this time round so maybe, those folks who can, bring along some biscuits / bought cakes / buns, etc to stave off the hunger pangs?

I should actually post this here as it is related. This is my elwood l24. It has Hausell (?) pickups, for no other reason than apparently those were the best option when I chose them, but tbh, I was never enamoured with the P pickup. It is ok, but nothing special. So I got an open box deal from the states on a nordstrand P pickups for $70, and at the same time put on some tapewound strings as I was impressed by them at the bass bash. The pickup is great, it has a lot more life to it. Obviously it is hard to do a direct comparison as the strings are very different, but I did try it with a metal string to start with, also I can tell based on the back pickup which hasn't changed.

For anyone who, like me, enjoys the nerdy stuff...

Important announcement Bash is coming soon so I've got some questions- Raffle?- Good idea? Cake and food?- Any PA gear requests? Should have a bass rig and a simple PA rig from @AlphaPro Anyone want to give a talk?

I ran out of money...

I get at least a year out of a set of fat beams. I prefer them to hi beam as they don’t seem to hit such a cliff if ok ok ok ok ok argh they are dead

Or you ca be like me - mime the line and pretend it’s you playing - ignorance is bliss

Well she’s a beut. It say she was built something like August or September 1979. My Pro IIE is PB1291 and it’s dated to September. First question is whether the bass is passive or active - both use the same scratchplate so the you’ll need to look under the battery cover and see. The switches have different functions for each. Going through the controls... toggle switch is pick up selector. The top row of knobs going neck to bridge (strings) are Master Vol, Neck Vol and Bridge Vol. each Volume knob has its own tone knob directly below. The little switches have different functions on passive and active variations. Passive: Pro II - two pickups, series/parallel switching under each pickup Active: Pro IIE - two pickups, active tone circuit, pick attack switch in middle, low-mid boost switch for neck pickup, upper-mid boost/bass cut switch for bridge pickup under the pickup surrounds The pick attach adds a small peak in the upper middle range to sort of simulate a pick sound when playing fingerstyle - I think of it as an extra cut through switch in busy mixes. On is towards the neck on the sliders. One thing - The shafts on the knobs can become a bit brittle over time (they are removable and attach into the pots with little plastic tines). Wal replaced mine with fixed shaft pots about 10 years ago. Price wise I’ve seen Pro 2s going for 2k and 2Es going for a bit over 2.5k. Wonderful basses, I love playing mine. If you can, grab it! More info here... http://walbasshistory.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_9226.html

Once any of us understands the interface be that on a bit of hardware or software it will be less of a barrier and while having knobs etc to tweak might seem more intuitive it's not always obvious if there are multi function on the same buttons etc. There's a learning curve with any new kit is gonna be a few hours at least beyond the most basic three knob pedal but given an hour or two messing about tweaking/pushing buttons/trying some thing out and basic trial and error anything which isn't glaringly obvious can quickly be found via a you tube tutorial or a manual. It's like the Alesis SR drum machine - if you've reached the limitation of what it can do or just want an more authentic sound then maybe it is time to upgrade but if you feel like there is still some learning to be done on that unit it feels quite intuitive once you get your head around the quantize and the basic recording function - it's basically the same step to record each sound be that the kick or snare etc but obviously one would need to understand the basic's of how that hardware is set up to work and some rhythm knowledge/terminology too! I'm by no means a master of the software stuff I use but I've used it enough to figure things out on my own or in conjunction with you tube/manual. EZ Drummer is super easy (hence the name right!) and if you want actual, recorded drums (as well as individual samples) plus the ability to make your own beats it's as a good a starting point as any. It opens as a stand alone program and it can also be used in a DAW i.e. you can mess about on you pc without a DAW. I was looking at it when I first got it thinking how do I get the drum samples into my DAW? It was a simple 'Drag and Drop' but it never occurred to me to simply pull the drum loop across D'oh! Some might say it was pretty 'intuitive' - it's so bloody obvious now as to be farcical but there you go! I suppose the debate over drum machines may vary from user to user and what's it's needed for - basic demo's or for live use with a band - but be prepared to put in some time learning the unit. Just because something requires a few solid hours of use (I'd say a good 10-12 hours taken in 2 hour blocks can feel like time well spent on a lot of this stuff) doesn't make it clunky or un-intuitive and in fact most of this type of gear really reveals their potential when the user has taken the time to get to understand what it can really do. As an aside Logic Pro for Dummies has been ordered off Amazon as I know there is so much more available to me in that program which I'm not really making use of!

This appears to be more pertinent information that could have been useful in the original post.

Well said.

I can't really offer help on your main question but I will say don't be nervous about asking questions! I've asked some real no-brainers in my time here and always get helpful responses (usually with some shenanigans mixed in)

We're a really relaxed 'just for fun and charity' band, cover stuff, our style is just whatever we like doing! Female singer does a nice line in stuff like Summertime, Ain't No Sunshine, Landslide.... she shares singing duties with a sax player so of course we do Baker Street, and he sings stuff like Heroes, Come up and see me (make me smile) Sultans of Swing, Friday I'm in Love..... We try and include slightly less obvious things, Crawling up a Hill, (more like Katie Melua version) Stripes (Brandy Clark) Feels Like Rain (John Hyatt) Overkill (men at work).

Additional cost to us. In the US of A they are not that pricey. Spending $19 on a set of Fat Beams is not exactly a hardship. In the UK, it's a different matter, of course. I still buy them because everytime I find something else that seems promising as a substitute, it leaves me disappointed. Considering I probably keep a set for 9 months to a year, I'd rather buy what I know I like even if I spend £10 or even £20 more.

I do have a YouTube channel, though there's very little on it - nothing so far of my playing (just tried to insert a link to it but Basschat didn't appear to allow that) - look for neilmurraybass, or put Neil Murray in the search bar and scroll down until you find me, ignoring the other Neil Murrays! Shooting my own videos, as with recording at home, is not something I'm very comfortable with - would much prefer to play with others, with a great engineer and cameraman looking after the technical side of things. Not that I can't do it, it's just a lot more clinical and unstimulating. Requests for particular songs or aspects you'd like to be covered will hopefully spur met on to actually do it!

Some of Pearl Jam's songs are played on a fretless. Nice and simple, so you can get used to playing a fretless.

Check out some Mick Karn, definitely my main fretless inspiration.

In my experience of fretless playing, the meat of your finger needs to be behind the fretline, so the side of the fretting finger meets the fretline. Because fingers are quite fat, if you play directly over the the fretline, then part of your fat finger will be behind the line and some past the line, and will make the note sharp. You will also find that the further up the neck you play, this finger position will change slightly, due to the physics of fretless.

This is Basschat at its best. Knowledgeable, helpful, friendly, a little bit eccentric and not a snide sarcastic comment in sight. Love it.