Leaderboard

My bass guitar heaven 😋

Local Man Hears About Edinburgh Tattoo, Misunderstands

It worked out OK in the end, not perfect but a lot lot better, there was four of the things when I checked closely, this id what they looked like before the first dose of thinners but after cutting back along with my mini sanding block (an offcut from a nut ) I left them for most of the day to harden off and continued with other bits, fitting the hardware, making a nut setting the neck. I also fitted the Lull pickup, I have to admit to not opening the bag it was in until today and had a shock when I saw it, it was covered in some sort of thick stuff for want of an idea what it was. I can't imagine it was shipped from Mike's place like that, I assume it got there at the dealers. Thankfully it came off with white spirit At the end of the day I removed everything again and sorted out the repairs and reassembled it all again, soldered in the electrics and gave it a whirl, nice is what it was everything a T bird should be and more. I've still got a few jobs to do, the pickup isn't adjusting in height smoothly and I need to set the intonation and fine tune the bridge but that can wait for a week now for everything to settle down. I was surprised how little I needed to use the truss rod to get the relief low, the carbon rods give quite a bit of stiffness, I'm interested to see how it all is on the other ebony one as that has that super slim neck

Final bit of tidying up before gluing the top on, but that's enough for one day. The top is basically ready to fit. The dark centre line, by the way, will disappear at the final sanding which won't be done until the back is on and the binding too.

Well, this is probably as far as I dare go: It will be a little while before I glue the top on so might have a further tweak but, as I said earlier, I don't really know how far to go - or where - so it's probably best leave it hereabouts. There is a great video here - the first 30 minutes is theory but skip to 31:29 and he demos tapping it at his starting point and then progressively as he mods the braces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei5-DkVTrEE The slightly sobering thing is that I finish, soundwise, basically where he starts! But, I think this is probably pretty much where my previous build was when I halted further tweaking so, hopefully, it will sound the same when it's finished...which was, after all, the purpose of the exercise. The only bit that completely escapes me (and did on the last build) is the flex on the bass side he talks about. I've seen other folks wobble it like an Australian whatever-it's-called showing how flexible it is. I do the same thing and it's as stiff as the proverbial board! Anyway, I'll pick it up in an hour or so and give a tap and, if it's as good as I'm going to get it, then get on with the exiting bit - gluing the top to the sides

Loops to you too!

Please clarify - which went to the charity shop, the album (which hadn’t changed), or the "improved" hi-fi? 😟

Ordered this a few weeks ago from PMT and it finally came today, I've already got a honeyburst one but being in a UFO tribute band I wanted to get the right colour, I know the bridges are different but what the hell. These 760 humbuckers are fantastic, plenty of tone and bags of power, the neck feels to be a slightly different profile to my other one but its still slim, neck dive is negligible and the finish is flawless. Overall I'm very happy with it and tonight is it's first gig.

I respectfully disagree, many of the punk pioneers were very competent musicians and song writers, it almost like Sid Vicious was punk in many peoples eyes, yes there were many bands who lacked even the most basic skills but on the flip side punk also brought us some very talented musicians and song writers who still hold their own today, some 40 years later

I’m not so keen o the farty sound. If you can smell the tone it’s gone too far!

but it will probably still have a novelty random detachable headstock

135 number ten by VTypeV4, on Flickr Love mine - oldskool cool..😀

I've got two of the first Dubsters - with a filter to shove most of the mid/top somewhere else (sep amp & spkrs) - they handle anything I can throw at them - shame Alex de-listed them, but I guess aiming them at the dub market probably didn't help sales. ( Mine are staying, btw ) Everyone I play to reckons they're frightingly good.......... 😎

Thanks for the OP Hobbayne, I don't think I've heard that for 40 years! The Stranglers were always rooted in 60's psychedelia. I saw them live on the "Black & White" tour (Cambridge Corn Exchange) - like many other BC-ers I'm sure, it was JJB who totally inspired me to take up bass. Apart from the stand-out "Hanging around" this one was always my favourite from the "Rattus" album:

I find my BB1025 sounds nothing like my Fender P though. I'd reach for the P every time for this music. Not sure how much of that is down to the strings vs the pickup, probably 50/50! Spark Boost just arrived btw, and just gave it a quick 2 minutes. The clipping sounds extremely similar to the Mojomojo, just brighter and not as fat, more transparent. I like em both!

What I meant was would you have done it for nothing? Because that’s what the Tattoo are wanting... I’m guessing not 😀

I've recently been debating whether or not to buy a bass vi, so in the sport of "budget bass vi" I knocked one up using bits left over from old projects. That's an Encore short scale bass neck with two extra banjo tuners, and a left handed 80s Hondo body (wired direct to jack). The bridge is a cheapo hardtail strat replacement type. The nut is 42mm with "strat spacing". Stings are Ernie Ball 6 String Bass (90-20w). The G is just long enough. The nut spacing seems fine, the bridge spacing could do with being a smidge wider. Obviously access to the dusty end is limited. Sounds OK. The guitarist in my surf band is using it on one song, through a guitar amp, as a "lead bass" kind of thing and it's particularly good for that.

That's actually a very fair point. It is, no question, in the high end price bracket for cabs and getting things like a quality finish sorted should go hand in hand.

Lumping them in with the punks did them a massive disservice IMO

My brother sent Gibson a video of his LP Junior with robot tuners self-removing one of it's strings mid-song.

I remember enjoying this when it came out. Its a Prog tune, as far as I hear it.

I'm so sorry to hear this. 6 weeks or 6 months - it's still not long enough to say goodbye. Thanks for sharing this at what must be a difficult and emotional time. That's a fine looking bass and it will be forever special - play it with pride 'cos the old man will be listening and tapping his feet.

And most of the rest:

And out comes the Go-bar rig again, but this time with the 25 foot radius dish. Lots of careful marking out of the bracing positions and then the all-important X-braces are glued in place first, with the radiused bottoms pressing the top into its spherical shape: It maybe one of those urban myths, but that little hardwood stiffener across the X brace joint is said to make a significant difference to the tone... There's a clip somewhere with a demo of without one and then with one subsequently fitted which is fascinating. I'll try and find it.

Doesn't mean people shouldn't use them - some brilliant players even manage to get by with P basses!

"Super-Squier" build VI So, I picked up a heavily neglected Squier VM 5string Precision today... The action was so high you could do a limbo dance under the strings, but after a few turns on the trussrod and lowering the bridge saddles the bass actually sounded and played pretty good. At this point I decided to put on a set of fresh Elixir strings and Hipshot tuners that I had lying around. Then suddenly a few hours later I realised that it was already past midnight and that I had started a complete rebuild of the bass..🧐 At this point I've already shielded the cavities with copper tape, replaced the stock tuners with Hipshot HB-7's, replaced the stock bridge with a Fender Hi-mass bridge and redid some of the wiring. Since I've done all this already I'm probably going to go all the way on this rebuild and make this my 6th "Super-Squier" build. I'm still not sure if I'm going to make it a fretless or just have the frets leveled, that's something I'll figure out tomorrow. Pickup choices for 5 string precision basses are fairly limited, so I'll probably drop a Seymour Duncan SPB-1 in there or have Carey Nordstrand build me a custom pickup. (Ofcourse the jack, tone cap and pots will be replaced by high quality parts as well.) Any tips on alternative pickup choices are more than welcome. Anyway, I'm going to call it quits for the day and will continue the rest of the modding process tomorrow. I'm planning on getting a double string tree, one for the B-E strings and one for the A-G strings to give the Low B a little more beef and I have some more ideas going through my head, but I'll save those for the next update on this build. That's it for now, keep groovin' me brethren. ✌️😎 ✌️😎

I currently am rocking a Creamery ‘58 with a tonestyler and TI flats Its glorious

@Al Krow You really should get your hands on the TH and give it a go - it has some really useful tones and while it might not replace your current options for live dirt you may find some very usable tones lurking within! How are you finding the Grizzly out in the wild with the bands? Do you notice the low end as remaining quite big and is it over powering on stage? I've edited your comments (added below) to be more in line with how the pedal operates and apologies if this was lifted directly from the marketing/sales dept./advert - it is why Aguilar got grief for the TH as much as praise! Aguilar got a lot of stick that the TH pedal had such a notable volume boost between the two modes but in reality I think they designed the pedal to be 'one of two things' not 'all things to all players'. It has a clean eq and could be used as a tone enhancer or it could be used in AGS mode as an entirely different beast but not for both applications to be foot-switched between mid song which is how many folks initially approached it and they weren't wrong to think that from the marketing of the TH. Our natural reaction to a pedal with the feature set of the TH is that it should do X, Y and Z because of our initial impression of it but in reality it can do X, Y or Z which maybe wasn't entirely clear upon first impressions and again Aguilar have only themselves to blame! The TH has three states so to speak: 'Off' - duh! 'On without AGS engaged' - works as the standard on-board OBP-3 pre-amp with mid freq control. 'On with AGS engaged' - the inherent character of the pedal changes as does the interactivity of all the controls and it is a very different sounding pedal with the AGS engaged. The whole unit becomes more of a tube amp emulator akin to a BDDI for example but possibly more versatile. The post I put up way back, originally created by Eubert on Talk bass, identifies how the TH eq reacts in AGS mode and is incredibly useful in understanding how the pedal can be used to get the best from it. I suppose in the same way any standard pedal which lack's presets can be set up to have different sounds so can the TH it's just that because it can do such a wide variation of sounds from pristine slap tones to old school B-15 ish tones people naturally lament not having them instantly available at the tap of a foot-switch! I'd be keen to hear this first hand in a demo as I'm struggling to understand how the P pick up clean into an amp is doing tube growl unless excessive low end is causing some overloading on the lows? As you know I'm not overly familiar with the Yamaha pick ups in the 10XX models.

Yes, sorry if i wasnt clear. My idea was to have it on all the time giving a nice warming tone, and then hit the switch and get dirtier, but without a noticeable jump in volume. Just flat, or at least to my liking. Just using the Mojomojo for certain songs rather than always on. I don’t find a huge jump in tone when engaging it.

Agreed. You said the reason for your edit was to change 'peeing' to 'peeling', but I think you're still taking the p*iss 😁

Ghost is giving it all the shots possible...

What an amazing bass to play. Stingray PDN Starry Night. More than the sparkles it was the neck that does it for me. Roasted maple with gunstock oil so smooth and silky. Enjoy 😉

I use wet/dry paper whatever it's actually called. Depending on how well I've sprayed I'll start with 400 - 600 grit, sanding with slightly soapy water, just a little then wiping the surface down until it is just flat, then down through the grits, 800, 1200, 2000, and finally 2500/3000. After that and when it's really dust free I have a foam disc I attach to my random orbital sander on direct drive with Farcell's G10 polishing compound (like a fine T-cut). You don't need the sander, you can do it with a cloth by hand just it takes a lot longer. You could try T-cut, I never have so I can't comment on how good it looks, Gibson also sell a small bottle of polishing compound that could be used afterwards Are you seeing spray spots on the surface? If so I'd say start with 800 with a small block of wood as a pad if it's on a flat bit or just fingers if it's on the neck