Leaderboard

So now we have the veneer covering the largest area that it physically can (basically, veneer generally can't do compound curves so it covers the flat areas and just round the edges a couple of mm), it is then time to make it look a little less like veneer-just-stuck-on. Mick and I bounced a few ideas off each other and came with cutting away the veneer and blending it into the body a bit like this: So this morning, out came the sanding block The nice thing about having such a defined grain, is that - even though this is only 0.6mm thick - the grain STILL follows the curves at the edges, adding the illusion of depth and giving the illusion that it is a solid top skin rather than a veneer: Next job is the prepare the headstock for the same veneer

So, using some already glued offcut from the body: ...I gave the headstock a coating of PVA, let it dry, then ironed it on. And THIS is why I love this hobby!

And more shaping - the heel end this time. Takes a bit more time to do this as I'm blending the curves into an existing, finished body so I don't want to scratch the lacquer. Lots of sand a bit, check the fit. Sand a bit, check the fit etc. A little more to do but nearly there!

I was tidying up my summerhouse and gave my old Ashdown mag 300 and TE15 a blast , I had forgot how good this sounds, with the volume about 12oc and the bass button in it rattled the glasses on the bar, so deep 😀

More progress (and another side project) The original T800 body was largely made by routing out a solid body, a face will be added later to close the chamber. This is the next generation where the central layer of the body is made up of edge pieces that form the hollow chamber. Glueing/clamping: The next generation body above will probably end up as one of those things with six skinny strings. Meanwhile the T800 marches on.... Back of the now profiled neck showing original veneer on the back of the headstock and heel: Trial assembly. I've put it together so I can try out different pickup regimes before making the front.

My mini rig for smaller stages. Trace Elliot ELF 1x10 Cab, Boss TU-3 and an EWS Tri-logic ii going into a Markbass LM3. Compact, easy to transport and sounds lovely!

My Sadowsky Satin Deluxe Bora Blueburst

You get gunk on your telly....?

So I’ve helped out by designing logo and labels for the kit, fair to say Ive been Stevie back and forth a fair bit... what he isn’t letting on is how much time and energy he’s putting into designing the kit, crossover and working with CNC companies... and trying to work our every detail of parts and grills etc to try and make it as simple as possible for folk. Stevie - it really is appreciated!

The originals band I'm in, Gasfoodlodging, released a CD a couple of weeks back. It's just had a review by Ryan's Gig Guide, a Birmingham/Black Country monthly that has replaced Brum Beat. Modesty forbids me from quoting it but it can be found here: https://ryansgigguide.com/2019/June/8-9/ No bribes were involved in the production of this review, and the reviewer is not known to any member of the band.

As far as progress is concerned, it's been a case of two steps forward and one step back. The good news is that I've assembled a CNC cabinet and taken photos showing how to fit it out. It's relatively straightforward and I'll list all the parts you'll need. I'm working all of today and tomorrow, but will post the photos in a few days' time. Next week, I'll also finalise the port tuning, fine tune the crossover (the PCB is already laid out) and send the final changes to Richard so that he can produce a final technical drawing. The step back (and the reason why it's taking so long) is that my CNC person has proved to be less than reliable on a number of fronts. Which is a shame, because he was within a short driving distance. Without going into too much gory detail, I'm going to have to find another CNC company. That's another job for next week. On the positive side, we do have a CNC file that (hopefully) just needs a bit of tweaking to get us back in business again. I'm sorry it's not progressing as quickly as we'd all like - but we will get there in the end. The last thing I want is for everyone to receive a cabinet kit that cannot be assembled because the CNC company was sloppy - or because the design wasn't checked properly before putting it into production.

Only if you can 100% guarantee it’s not a belt sander job 😂

My early 80s 62RI in uber-rare surf green

Back in 1978,I bought my first,and far from last,(not got there yet!) bass. It was a sunburst jazz copy sporting 'Maya Electric Bass' on the headstock. I've still got it, after a fashion, as its now got Schaller tuners, Di Marzio pickups, and(as far as I remember) a Fender bridge - not forgetting the Triumph Dolomite yellow paint job! forty years later, another bass became available -a fretless sunburst precision, again with 'Maya Electric Bass' on the head. I had to buy it- the necks are great, and the pickups not bad either. Needless to say, this one is staying stock. anyone else got one?

Only Muse song I ever played live was New Born. Seem to recall it was a bit of a tongue twister for the fingers. ({minor thread hi-jack} @HazBeen was it you I met in the Vic in Swindon to buy a Trace head years ago?)

I love a CAR guitar. Which makes it seriously uncool, of course You should get rid. I'll take it off your hands if you like. No, no, don't thank me...

Done just a little more on this. I've trimmed the body to the template so it is ready to have the neck pocket and control cavities cut. I've found a bridge that I think will look nice on this and follow on from the headless version; this bridge will require the body routing for it to mount correctly. That should be here in a couple of days so I can size it up and make a template for it.

What is this 'changing the strings' you speak of?

My vote would go for Honey if you wanted to have the back lighter than the top or a nice Meduim cherry........... 😀

You’re far too kind! It had its first flight, trouble free with me to the Mediterranean this week...! T

Oh my giddy aunt! You’d think after following a number of @Andyjr1515‘s builds and fixes that one would become inured to his level of talent, but this is not the case. Every project leaves me slack jawed in appreciation of his talents - and this one isn’t even finished! Well done, sir, well done 👏👏👏.

Or the GASinator.....😂

The more or less standard Jazzes, ESP 400 Series and Bacchus Standard 5. I've had the ESP for almost 30 years and it's the one which always feels like home. I recently installed a Noll TCM3 preamp which gives B,M,T cut and boost as well as a passive circuit with a tone control. It's a beast. The Bacchus arrived second hand about 15 years ago. It was a real eye-opener, amazing bass. The hybrids, J body but pickup deviations, Charvel JP and a homemade JPJ. The Charvel has a slim neck like a Soundgear but with a P width nut. It had a fretboard replacement before I got it, the 21-fretted rosewood board replaced with a fretless two-octave ebony board. I had it fretted and replaced the V,V,T Reflex active electronics. It now has Loureiro pickups and a Vol, Blend, Tone with a push-pull volume control which runs the pickups in series for Angry Bear mode. The JPJ is a Mightymite neck and one-piece ash body with EMG pickups and electronics. The neck J and P are routed to a three-way mini-switch and the output of that goes into a blend control with the bridge J so I can run any combination of the pickups with bass and treble cut and boost controls. The distant cousins, modified J shape and pickup deviants, Bacchus 24 and Grooveline. The 24 was the lightest bass I owned, a really nice and comfortable modern take on the Jazz. The Grooveline arrived last week and is even lighter. It's needs a bit of work, it has clearly had a hard life, but I really, really like it already. I'm confident it will be really amazing when the work is done on it.

Thanks Ped, I was just wondering whether my relatively short ownership of a 50-odd year old bass qaulifies

Bargains have been around £400 s/h for the CMD121

We have 3:00- 7:00 biker bar gig tomorrow. First time we've played live since St. Patrick's Day. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. Blue

Well your wife has the right idea and you are very lucky that way.Go for it!😉 Not particularly good pics but this is me with the Stagg I had and my Engelhardt Swingmaster ES9, not a very well regarded bass by some, but it looks great and sounds good for the music I play.

My 62RI , but not as old as yours 🙂

Some updates! Th700 for small clubs

And cut and carved That dark natural grain mark heading towards the back is useful because it distracts your eye to the actual join line which is here: I'm pleased how the grain lines seem to join up - at the back too: Again, that natural dark patch takes the eye away from the join.

Saturday was Bearded Theory. It's a big one and a load of my friends and family had got me over excited and pretty nervous about it. I woke up at 5AM and couldn't get back to sleep. I only had to go to the studio, pack up my drums, bring them home, and wait for the van to arrive at 11:30, but it seemed like such a big task. So after lying there for an hour I decided to forget trying to sleep and get my sh*t together. They picked me up at 11:30 and we got to the Woodland Stage an hour later. A couple of hours nervously hanging around and soaking in the atmosphere (and passively smoking some very pungent skunk!) and we were on. The adrenaline kicked in and all my fatigue was washed away by the hundreds (maybe more than 1000?) people singing our songs back at us and cheering us on. 45 minutes later, soaked with sweat, I couldn't stop grinning as I packed away my drums. Best gig for ages!!! A bit of a crap photo bit I don't have a lot of time between songs to have a drink of water, grab a photo, and count in the next one After that we had to hang around until we played a small tent at 10PM. I crashed pretty hard in between so went for a lie down in the van for an hour or two and that seemed to sort me out. The tent was absolutely packed with people. We were parked right next to a side door in the tent, but the staff wouldn't let us load through that door. We had to go right around, through a fence, and then fight our way through 200 people to the stage. They seemed really anal about the rules for a bunch of crusty types smoking massive joints. Maybe the hi-vis vests gave them a power trip? Or maybe there was a real safety concern. Anyway the gig was OK. Their bass drum was seriously lacking in volume, and although I could see a mic in it, I couldn't hear it, so to get the mix right I was kicking at full power. Unfortunately this meant the beater went right through the head during the penultimate song. Ooooops! Still, the reception was great Early Sunday morning I got a call - "Are you OK to play Nice 'n' Sleazy Festival in Morcambe tonight? It's good money". We'd already got a slot at Strummercamp in Oldham that afternoon so it'd be another 2 gig day, but I was still buzzing from Bearded Theory so I agreed, as did the others. Strummercamp was good but I don't think we impressed the crowd. There were a lot more in the main tent for the ska band (very good btw) on before us. I guess we weren't their cup of tea? Nice 'n' Sleazy was another belter though. Packed room, great reception, and some great banter with some well oiled punks.

It must be powerful, it's blown you right out of your shoes! 🤣

Newly arrived Zoom B1X-4 on the 'creative' home use board and can be easily 'whipped off' for rehearsals and gigs as a solo pedal. Drive pedals currently under review and I suspect one of them may be for the chop as I'm starting to manage to get some decent drive patches on the Zoom multi! That would then potentially free up space for a bitcrusher. The Zoom has already paid for itself several times over

Please welcome “Stormbringer” to the family. I can’t tell you how happy I am with this beautiful, custom colour order, Vigier Excess 5. As soon as I opened the case, my heart skipped a beat. As soon as I played it, my fingers just fell in to place. I really have found my "home". Lina and the team are simply amazing, just like their basses. They are so helpful, friendly, patient and supportive. A truly wonderful company. My original Excess 5 “Wrathchild” now has, the perfect companion. Happy days. So worth the wait. Can't wait to record with it and play it, live 😍⭐

Setting off shortly to collect @bigmuff69‘s Fender Urge Bass. This fills a few gaps for me, it’s mega lightweight and has 24 frets meaning I can resurrect a few ideas I used to play on my Warwick. It’s also 32” so like the Kingbass I loved to play on but hated playing in other ways...headless basses sit wrong on me. More pics to follow, but here’s the one which swung it for me... Looking forward to this.

Whenever I change strings I tighten all screws/nuts on bridge, tuners, neck, strap buttons. I also clean the fretboard making sure there’s no gunk left on it.

Could rig it to a car battery so when you pick it up...... that may cure it. 😂😂

Yeah, right! Even if you do make a mistake, it'll be seamlessly rectified and invisible. Then you'll add that to your knowledge database and share with us so that we can learn (or in my case go, "What, how did he do that?"). In the words of Wayne Campbell to Alice Cooper, "We're not worthy, we're not worthy."

My local Aldi was doing perfectly serviceable looking big clamps with deep jaws at £3.99 a go last week.

We’re working on it! He’s got a massive Boss pedal which apparently has good amp sims. He’s agreed to try it through the PA at a rehearsal instead of an amp.

Please excuse the threadjacking, but any excuse to play some Ian Dury (especially with the Nutty Boys).

Another very happy UE6 user here. The other guys in my band all use universals and you'll regularly see them with one in and one out. I use a decent wireless system and have never once felt the urge to remove a monitor mid gig. I had UE900s to start with but custom moulds are a massive step up. I also would recommend using the custom iem company. Paul will make sure everything is just right for you.

On the wall...it’s diddy

I may be able to offer some insight on this as I am something of an obsessive on the Jeff Berlin sound. It's always been a sound that I loved and since returning to bass full time in 2015 after a couple of years off, it has been the sound that I craved and sought to recreate in my playing. Of course, there are different eras of Jeff's sound but the key ingredients in getting his basic tone remain the same. Essentially, it's 15" cabs with no tweeters, an alder bodied bass with Bartolini pickups and a high mass bridge. Sometimes, but not always using a bit of chorus and almost exclusively using the bridge pickup with the tone rolled slightly back (it's worth noting that his 'blonde' bass had the neck pickup disconnected for many years before it was stolen). For reference, my rig is the Markbass CMD151P Jeff Berlin combo, with a Cort Rithimic 4 string and Peavey Palaedium in amber, as per what Jeff played from the early 90's until he signed with Dean Guitars. I also use a TC Electronic Corona Chorus pedal, I am reliably informed that this was Jeff's chorus pedal for years, although Jeff now uses an EBS Unichorus. You can read interviews where Jeff talks about why he no longer endorses the brand, though he never names TC Electronic directly. It boils down to a dispute over loaning a pedal at a trade show where Jeff was demonstrating for them, and I do not propose to expand on this matter here. I will note the varying eras by which I define Jeff's tone: Bruford era - black Jazz bass and 'Blonde' bass. Due to the production techniques of the late 70's, the early Bruford tones aren't massively defined. The black jazz bass was retired at some stage and by the early 80's Jeff was recording almost exclusively with what I call the 'blonde' bass. This was an alder precision body with two Bartolini humbuckers. The neck pickup became static at some point and was disconnected and in later years, the control knobs for this pickup were removed from the bass. The neck was a Fender Jazz neck reprofiled by Michael Tobias (Jeff used a Tobias bass for the live shows with AWBH band). The Bartolini humbuckers were wound by Bill Bartolini to Jeff's specification and sounded tremendous. The tone was middy, but the recordings of the day don't capture the 'nasal' upper mid quality which later records did. This same bass was used on Jeff's first two solo records. Around this time, Jeff was playing Yamaha amps and appeared in some promotional material with Billy Sheehan. The 90's - Peavey years - Jeff signed with Peavey and had the Palaedium signature bass made. The earlier basses used a different logo to the later instrument - look for the difference in a cursive, scrolled 'Palaedium' script against a more angular font. it is still unclear as to whether or not the pickups inside the basses are Bartolini. It is my belief that they are Peavey pickups. They are rather brighter and clearer than the Barts, with a little less warmth and a bump in the upper-mid character. For 1997's 'Taking Notes', Jeff noted that the bridge pickup was a little too close to the strings and created some interference on the record, though this is barely perceptible. By the end of this era, Jeff was getting more heavily into chorus. For whatever reason, by the end of 90's his Peavey basses had black tape over the Peavey logo. The 00's - Dean Guitars - The Dean instruments sounded very bight and nasally. They had an ebony board (like the Palaedium) but also Bartolini pickups. They had a beautiful singing quality to them. I understand that Jeff's instruments were made at Dean Guitars in Florida by someone called 'Mike', but I have been unable to find further info on this to date. There was a 'Grinch' bass, which had a slightly thicker than normal body. This had a top compromised of many different exotic woods. One ended up being sold to a TB'er in Florida (this was an early prototype) and another was sold by Jeff as part of his fundraising for the Jack Bruce project. Current day - Jeff now uses the Cort Rithimic. This includes Bartolini pickups wound to the original specifications of the pickup he designed with Bill Bartolini, after the original schematic for the pickups was recovered after many years being lost. The BadAss II bridge was replaced with a Babicz. It hangs on the body more like a traditonal jazz bass whereas the Palaedium and Dean tend to sit a little more in-board on the body. If you listen to 'Joe Frazier Round 3' you'll note that the bass sound is a little darker and punchier in the low mids. The Cort sound has serious balls, with a little more 'thump' than the earlier Palaedium and Dean. I think it sounds more like the 'blonde' bass and so it suits me to have both. One notes that Jeff does set his tone rolled back slightly, as in the instructional videos for his reading course, he has purple tape on the bass to keep the tone knob in the right place (ie, neither fully open nor closed). Over years of owning many, many basses, I am convinced that the Rithimic and the Palaedium are the best basses I have ever played and I would struggle to choose a favourite between the two. The trick is to use hand positioning to modulate your sound. When Jeff walks, he plays closer to the neck and returns to the bridge for superior control over the length and tone of the note. Jeff has always played with a low action and light strings (DR DDT .40 - .100). I recall a post from a Talkbass user who had played one of Jeff's Palaediums at a trade show and recalled that the action was so low he struggled to get a clean note out of it, but Jeff was able to make it sing with his controlled touch. I note that his touch these days is more refined than it has ever been. The bridge pickup is absolutely key.