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Was I polite enough?

Thought I should give him the benefit of that on his Ebay listing:

Not sound engineered for a gig in years, but from memory: Band listens to what they're being told (near impossibility from previous experience); Band does what they're told, when they're told (again, virtually unheard of); Dont play over your band mates individual line check - wait your turn; While you're waiting for your level check, stand where the audience will be and give some feedback to the SE / musician; When sound check is finished, DO NOT change levels / EQ on pedals / amp etc. (guitarists I'm particularly looking at you!) ; Buy SE pint - he/she can make you sound awful (worse than you can even manage yourself!).

Play exactly as you would during the set, make sure they see what your loudest bit will sound like. That's it really.

Got home just before one last night, after a 17 1/2 hour drive* - mostly as a passenger as keyboard player drove us from Plauen to Calais, then I collected my car in Folkestone and completed the journey. Great week, starting from our Hebden Bridge gig on the Bank Holiday Sunday and finishing the following Saturday with our third consecutive night in Plauen. Back to normal life today, though. * In Grateful Dead terms - that's at least three Dark Stars AND a Playing in the Band!

It’s almost finished! We’ve been having fun with the switching of the pickup, the original 5-way rotary switch turned out to be a bad idea so we’ve gone to two toggle switches. I can’t remember what they actually do so will let you know once I have the bass... Today Phil has basically finished her in terms of doing an initial stringing to let everything settle and acclimatise. In about a week he’ll give it the final intonation, truss rod and action tweaks. So we’re nearly there. And to celebrate...:

As you wish: Proper Road To Damascus sh!t right there...

Set the action to what fits your hands. There is no right action across the board as dictated in a manual, it's what is right for your playing style and your hands. Set it to what feels best for you. I find it hard to believe people give their instrument to a stranger, who has never heard them play, to configure and then accept what they get back without personalising it in some way. It's easy to do once you think about what tweaks to each adjustable part does to the instrument as a whole. It's as personal as setting a driving position in your car, you've got to go with what feels most comfortable to you. I don't measure anything but I know that I set my action lower than most. It suits me that way. My general setup is like this: Start with the neck. I like the neck quite straight so it's a big deal to set the tension on the truss rod correctly. Neck relief is good when I can see a tiny bit of a gap between the bottom of the string and the top of 8th and 9th frets, when holding the string down at the first and last fret. I need to be able to push the string down at the 8th fret like that and it has enough space to perceive it move down to the fret - but it's a tiny gap, the width of a piece of paper. I really like the neck straight. A slightly bowed neck just feels messy from the 5th fret on and crappy higher up the neck. Nut action is very important to me. I like the action at the first fret to be as if there was a zero fret, or the action at the second fret when you hold the string down on the first fret. I hate a high nut, it serves no purpose other than to make playing harder. Depending on how the nut is installed, I either file down the string slots or, preferably, take the nut out and sand down the base of the nut. This is something you do slowly and check frequently. The only way to undo is to replace the nut so do a little and then check a lot. It is, however, something you only ever need to do once. Once the neck is set, move to the bridge. I like to hear a bit of fret grit when I play hard so I set the action of each string accordingly. I generally set the action slightly higher on the bass side than I do the treble side, I don't strictly follow the radius of the neck. It's done by feel. I don't like the notes to choke, they need to ring clear and true when I play gently, but a bit of grind when I dig in is a sound I love, so I take a bit of time to do this. Again, it's how I like it set up, not what the manual says. Then I set the intonation, adjusting as required, then revisit the bridge action again to make sure everything is in order. After that, pickup height. I start with the bridge pickup (if there is one) and set that to a height where it doesn't get in my way when playing and isn't so high that it's not being pushed up against the screws by whatever springs or foam are underneath. I do like the pickup to be reasonably close, though. There's a bit of funk to be had by the string really violating the magnetic field which is nice to my ears, so I usually have the bridge pickup close enough to the strings to get this, not so close that the magnetic pull is affecting the string's vibration. I then set the height of the neck pickup so that, if I switch from bridge to neck and back, there is no perceivable volume drop. The bridge pickup is a naturally thinner sound and the vibration pattern of the string isn't as great as over the neck pickup, so the neck pickup is almost always further away from the string than the bridge pickup. An even volume balance across the strings is important too, so the pickups might be slightly closer to the strings on the treble side than the bass side. It's important not to adjust pickups visually, you've got to go with what sounds best, not what looks right when holding a ruler. Most people don't factor in pickup height into a setup but, to me, it's as important a step as any other. Then I play for a while and see how it all feels and sounds. If a string is hitting a pickup, the pickups get set lower. If the action is too low, it goes up, too high and it goes down. It's all down to how it plays and sounds to me. It's not to everyone's taste but we all come in different shapes and sizes and one size does not fit all. You don't play the bass exactly the same way as anyone else so why would I be set up the same as everyone else's? The best it is, once you get it right, if you use the same strings the only thing you'll ever need to set again is the truss rod as the neck moves, usually in Autumn and Spring. It is easy. You just have to think about one tweak at a time and what that means to the rest of the instrument.

I love this thread. I went back on Amazon and bought it for £20. It's amazing. It has to be the heaviest book I own and the pictures are beautiful. The book to end all books on bass!

The biker bar gig at the Road House was good. Our band leader did a great job on guitar, vocals and fronting. We played through the set we're going to use for our gig with The Charlie Daniels Band next month. Great weather, great crowd lots of alcohol sales. Now only if I had remembered the changes in " Crazy Little Thing Called Love" Blue

Tokai Jazz Sound c.1981/2. I bought this as a fretted bass around 10 or so years ago and most of the mojo was already there. I had it converted to fretless by the chap at GuitarAvenue when I wanted to get a truss-rod issue sorted. Now has a nice Indian Rosewood board.

Yup, I do the same, emphasising any notes that may be overly loud in the room which need attention from the desk to rectify. Think it’s worth mentioning what a sometimes seemingly futile job soundchecking in an empty room can be for the band and engineer. When you get the audience ( or as he calls them ‘meat baffles’ ) in, it must be so hard if the settings need altering a lot from the sound check.

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!

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

None, unless something's off. Every couple of years I might scrape the gunk off the fretboard. That's if there's nothing on the telly.

The good people at Ishibashi sent me this old Bacchus Grooveline. I reckon it’s early to mid-2000’s. I’ve been looking for a Stingray with a J neck size for a while and this really fits the bill. It’s a dinky J ash body, weight is a sweet 3.5kg. Maple neck with with blocks and binding is always a winner. It’s a fixer upper and that was reflected in the price, but these Handmade logo’d Bacchii are always superbly built and the pickups are amazing. Such is the case here, it’s a really good player, even with a duff fret job, old strings and that criminal bbot bridge in place of the Deviser Tune-o-matic. What were they thinking? I will sort out that crack and replace the bridge and broken tuner. I’m thinking of stripping what is left of the finish and refinishing in an emerald green stain. The previous owner had fingernails like Wolverine, by the looks of it. I’ll also sort out the frets, a level, crown and dress awaits. Anyone know where a man can buy Gotoh tuner buttons?

Blatant self-plug but our band "The Achievers" have been chosen as a finalist in the UK BLUES CHALLENGE Whoop, etc! It's essentially an audition - with an emphasis on originality. Whoever does the right set on the night will go on to represent the UK in the European Blues Challenge (Netherlands 🇳🇱) and International Blues Challenge (Memphis, Tennessee 🇺🇸). We're excited. And encouraged! Gig is at the Bluefunk Club, Poynton (Stockport) Cheshire, on the 14th Sept. 2019. EDIT: Typo in title changed. Oops!

Might be crap, might be a rarity, might be both. Doesn't immediately look appalling. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Schmucker-Wotan-E-Bass-fur-Liebhaber/173921357101?hash=item287e854d2d:g:YvIAAOSwccFc9BKS

Dursol Shine - marvellous stuff. It's like a sort of creamy paste in a fetching shade of pink. Put a tiny dab on a clean cloth and polish away. Done in seconds. Tip: get two post-it notes and butt the sticky edges up either side of the fret. Replace with clean post-it notes every so often as you work up the neck. Much less faff than a full masking tape job, though less durable so no good for wire wool or fret-dressing.

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?

I’ve just bashed one out...nowt mini... that top is ace

The previous picture was pretty nice but these new ones are kool! I think that dark fretboards are the koolest there are and unlined has the best looks.

Stick a marshmallow to each button on the waistcoat, that should do the job.

Something happened on the road from the bootsale to Damascus? 😀

Yes, I realise that - but I thought I'd message the guy first - give him the chance to take it down.... he responded very quickly, telling me he was going to take it down And thanking me for getting in touch to let him know. He took it down shortly afterwards.

Got my Duality back from being checked over and all is well. Phantom fault that hopefully I won’t see again. New PT2 and Voodoo lab 4x4 power supply with Neutrik jack plugs and Van Damme cable. Finished for now at least 🤘😜🤘

The ‘Poly’ bit of the TC Polytune is erratic and inaccurate at best, so get a Unitune which is cheaper and just as good in single string mode. I swear by them.

Maybe if you laugh at the dude hard enough the fake fender decal will fly off and hit him in the forehead...

"Faker than the tits on a stripper" - pure class! Anyway - if you think Mateyboy would benefit from more info, I can not only confirm that it's not a Fender, but I can in fact tell you what it is - it's a Musima, made during the Cold War era in what was then East Germany. These are easily identified by the wheel-type truss adjuster (which as any fule kno, never appeared on any vintage Fender) and the use of nice quality Gotoh Res-o-lite tuners. There are loads of unbranded examples, most sellers assume/pretend they're Japanese. Never seen one masquerading as a Fender before. So as copies go, it's an interesting curiosity but not even that collectable as a knock-off - these tend to go for under £150. Nice tuners, though.

" Would consider exchange for a small diesel automatic car but no rubbish please." I've got a genuine low mileage Aston Martin small diesel automatic car I could swap for that 😂

Well, he’s not going to post it so I’m not bidding! 😂

A couple of hints and tips for anyone considering stripping down and veneering: First is that all finishes darken the wood to some extent - some (and I'm talking 'clear' finishes) even additionally tint the wood against the freshly sanded. So how do you tell what colour it's going to end up before you commit before putting varnish or oil all over your masterpiece? Well I just wet it with a damp cloth. This will pretty much be the colour it's going to be with completely clear varnish or oil. You can see the difference on @TheGreek 's Nanyo body. I've just given this a single wipe of a wet but well squeezed out cloth: Some stains may change the colour...but all stains and tints are going to further darken the wood. So the trick to get particular colours and shades is knowing what parts of the colour spectrum to add to this base colour to change it. So, for example, if I wanted to make this classic amber, I would NOT use amber stain - that would turn the wood dark orange - I would probably, instead, add pure yellow. The added challenge is that it wholly depends on the wood. A maple neck, for example, doesn't darken nearly as much and has a naturally yellow tinge when clear finish is applied. So the golden rule is always do trials where it doesn't matter. So back to my earlier comment that the body wood may not need stain to meet Mick's desired look, this is the edge just dampened with water and is representative of a clear finish being applied: The other hint and tip also uses the wipe of a damp cloth... It is essential when veneering this particular way that any stray PVA or overlap is removed before you start staining or finishing. The PVA - invisible when dry - shows white when you apply the finish. So how do you find any missed bits? Same technique - just wipe with a damp cloth. Here's some of the bits still to sand off: Back to the project My own view is that the unstained tone of the body wood compliments the top nicely and is probably a similar depth of colour to some of Mick's examples above. But, as Mick says, we'll be kicking that around offline. The neck, however, will be a different matter and will definitely need staining...and for which I might have just the thing

I've never done it professionally, but I've done the sounds for a good few amateur productions and band gigs over the years. You ask people to play at "normal" and then "peak" volume so you can get their input gain set properly. You then carefully balance all the instruments against each other so that everything is audible, boosting and lowering specific frequencies as needed to stop feedback and allow each instrument to be heard. Once all that's been done I can guarantee that the guitarist will sidle over to his amp and turn the flipping thing up. Or you discover that between the soundcheck and the performance he's found another inch of travel on his volume pedal. It doesn't help that drummers only work properly with adrenalin buzzing through their system so their volume and speed goes up accordingly when the gig starts. That's the point that volume wars break out. I think I've just persuaded myself that soundchecks are basically pointless. The levels we all agree then are not the levels at which the band will actually play.

With regards to listening to the sound person: In smaller venues, they may sometimes ask the bass player to turn down a bit. It can be a drag as it can compromise your own monitoring (often your amplifier onstage IS your monitor). I found that generally it's not the overall volume but the amount of low end that becomes bothersome. Offering to turn down the low end instead to see if that works generally does the trick. Onstage I don't need masses of low end to hear myself. Since I got the D800+ with its built-in adjustable HPF I can turn up the HPF until the sound person gives me the thumbs up and I still hear myself plenty. It doesn't happen often, but worth remembering that. On Saturday I had that very situation. My girlfriend was in the audience and has seen us many times in many venues, and she said we had the best sound she's heard in years, in any venue by any band: Trust the sound engineer and work with them, not against them. edit: the HPF only affected my onstage sound

@Jus Lukin is now owned and maintained by BAE Sound Ltd and is a prototype half man half walking studio compressor unit with two line inputs (one at each end). He is available for live work and can be booked to come to you so you can record the perfect bass sound from the comfort of your own home, all for the price of a Basschat Approved English Bassist Breakfast

Was just about to say the very same thing. Nice presentation @HughRichardson I like your relaxed, natural style. Not enough of that on Youtube reviews in my opinion. However, the comparison needed to be much clearer. Same line played, pickups soloed for both sets, settings all the same.

I always thought Fender’s guide was pretty good: https://support.fender.com/hc/en-us/articles/214343843-How-do-I-set-up-my-bass-guitar-properly-

You can get a roll of sticky back plastic (Blue Peter?) from places like B&Q for about £5.00. Goes on easily, and should peel off as well. Might need to clean off any glue residue, but this shouldn't take too long.

Wedding gig last night. Great venue and lovely hosts, but a 900km round trip so also had to rent an Air BnB for the band. Probably going to knock these gigs on the head as we've got back home 32 hours after starting out. Great money but just too tiring. Luckily for me and our singer, we don't have day jobs to worry about but the guitarist and drummer do and I imagine they'll be shattered tomorrow at work.

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.

You get gunk on your telly....?

Ta Merton. I am too skint for any other Status. I keep turning the bedroom light on to look at it.. Mrs Dandy does not understand.. 😜😜

Well, finally it had to happen. Here's my newly acquired Gibson 335. Fat neck model, made in 2008. Only just got it, but already feel it's a keeper.