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Drop my bass at home after playing two small festivals in one day, then head off for the pub my missus is working in for what feels like a well-earned pint. There’s a lady sat at the bar and she starts talking to me about what a hard day I must have had, playing two gigs in one afternoon. I tell her it was a bit hectic, but worth it. She tells me her brother plays in a band and works really hard at it, but it’s worth the effort. I ask her what band he plays in, just in case I’ve heard of them or even shared a bill with them. “Oh” she says, “they’re called Iron Maiden”.

I visited an old buddy today. In the early eighties I sold him my first ever bass - a Westone Thunder II. I regretted it ever since, but at least it quickly found it's forever home. Sadly he doesn't play anymore but won't sell it back to me. I visited him today and played it for the first time in 30 odd years! That's him in the pic, not me!

Just a thought, but I wonder what the total asking price of gear for sale on here is at any given time. For example, at 9pm tonight (1st of August 2019) the total asking price value of basses for sale on page 1 of the ‘basses for sale’ forum totalled £38,000 and included some real high end exotic basses. I believe that accepted logic is a preowned bass sells for around 2/3 of original purchase price (subject to condition of course) so just how much money are we ‘wasting’ in depreciation in pursuit of our hobby? Please note: if anyone has the answer to this question, please do not share the results with my wife 😂

Wasting money on guitars ? I'm sorry, I understand each word, but when you put them together like that...you've lost me.

Joined 4 hours ago, drags a dead thread up 1 hour later. As WOT said, move on

The real reason for this nonsense is to keep prices high. A lot of companies do it - destroying last year's stock, less popular models and so on - because people won't buy current stuff if they can pick up older stuff at a bargain price. "Unsafe" my foot. Unsafe for Gibson's margins is what it is.

They couldn't have salvaged anything? Necks? Bridges? Tuners? Knobs? Nothing?

Gibson no-longer make guitars. They now just make gaffes. Anyway, I'm surprised that they needed that machine to destroy those guitars - normally you just have to look at the neck on a Gibson & the head voluntarily separates from the neck...

Kryptonite trussrod, atomic capacitors

Finally someone has pointed out the pointlessness of having a forum, on any subject. Moderators, shut down Basschat immediately! 😁

I wanted to just say publicly how much I enjoy this forum. I may not be a very active member at the moment, but I thoroughly enjoy the content on here, and especially the people. Indeed, a huge thank you to forum member Raymundo who, about 18 months ago now, saw my post on here that, due to financial difficulties, I had to sell my beloved Brook acoustic bass. Ray immediately got in touch and offered to lend me an acoustic bass to tide me over. I have just given the bass back to Ray (I still hope to be able to buy back my Brook shortly) but this lovely act of kindness will never be forgotten. I truly think bass players are the loveliest of musicians- humble, extremely musical, empathetic, and without any delusions of grandeur! An example of this is the thread on Depression. Such a thread is unheard of on other forums. Indeed, on a guitar forum I belong to, discussions of people’s mental health is positively frowned upon! The way people help and support each other in that thread is really quite beautiful. Anyway, just wanted to get that all off my chest. Hopefully, at some stage in the next few months I will have my bass back and continue with my project of exploring solo folk bass!! Robbie

Shim shimmery, shim shimmery, shim shim sheroo.......

Hardware update, Installed new tailpiece and bridge assembly from Winfield. Looks 1000% better, corrected the string spacing as well.

In the greater scheme of things that people spend vast amounts of money on, bass gear is definitely towards the more harmless end of the spectrum.

That non-slip rubber grip mat stuff would do it. I had a similar problem with some of those very light D class heads, this solved it.

To be fair to Bass Direct, at the time of my order, they did tell me that the Hipshot bridge I had ordered wasn't in stock and they would need to order it for me from Hipshot in the US, as it would be build to order. They gave me a delivery estimate of around 10 weeks from the date of order, which was 30th April - which took us up to 09th July. I have emailed them today again, the 3rd consecutive Thursday in three weeks, for an update and been told they reckon another three weeks from now...which, if is indeed the date, will take the delivery up to week 16...!! It's a "Hipshot B-Style Bridge, Aluminium, Chrome, 19mm spacing - FM2 American Delux String Thru" I've ordered, which is clearly labelled on the BD website for sale, retailing at £70.00, and even today it is still not saying they are out of stock. It could be ordered directly from the US, however the average starting cost I've found so far is around £80.00 and that's before postage and customs costs are added. I'm thon way, that I feel I've waited so long, I think to cancel now would just be cutting my nose off to spite my face...!

OK - so onto JIGS AND FIXTURES NEEDED BUT WHICH CAN EASILY BE MADE 1 Top and Back Radius Dishes Messy job, but relatively easily made with a couple of MDF or plywood boards, a router and a swan-neck scraper: Bit of schoolboy maths will allow calculation of the depths of the routed steps. Usually the back is dished to around 15 feet and the top to around 25 feet 2 Go-bar rig Easy to make with a couple of stout boards (I used chipboard but it's not really strong enough - 20mm ply would be better). 4 threaded rods, some nuts and wingnuts and you have the rig, then dowels or fibreglass rods to apply the pressure. I think I got the fibreglass rods from a kite parts supplier. 3 Mould Various ways of making these from solid wood sections to this lightweight 'does-the-job' version 4 Routing rig for tenon and mortice or dovetails I modded an old workmate and fitted it with some G&W templates 5 Jig for applying pressure to bridge wings when clamping I'm sure there's stuff I've forgotten. I'll highlight if I come across more in the build

That'll be just their normal quality control procedure before they get sent out surely? 😏

How exactly could a guitar be unsafe unless that was the special edition with the hidden bear trap and headstock that shoots poisoned darts at the audience?

Gibson have made a statement: “The Firebird X destruction video was an isolated batch of Firebird X models built in 2009-2011 which were unsalvageable and damaged with unsafe components. This isolated group of Firebird X models were unable to be donated for any purpose and were destroyed accordingly.” If the components were unsafe, what about the components in the ones that suckers people actually shelled out $3K for?

I always get home from gigs having played for free and paid for transport, food, beer, and any other related expenses like batteries and strings as well as a per-gig share of the yearly cost of instrument and liability insurance. But we're an originals band and we all have jobs that pay the bills, so it's a hobby and if our songs are good enough to have complete strangers reacting positively then that's all the payment we need from music right there. A personal 'loss' of maybe £60 a gig in the name of enjoying myself is perfectly acceptable to me, but I totally understand that it may not be to many others. My own view is that the different ways of approaching gigging shouldn't have to hurt each other; if you need money from music to support yourself and/or your family I actively want you to have it; have the money that they didn't pay me for my originals gig on Thursday night for your covers or tribute gig on Saturday night, but please do something for it that I didn't because I was too busy at work and too tired when I got home. Advertise it better, do the social media thing and hype it up, fill the place, drink the bar dry, make them some real money and keep the venue open with a better reputation for good bands as that's all to my advantage as well. It just seems to be that from talking to a few venue owners over the years, they offer very little because it's the amount that they can afford to lose if a band turns up having done no promotion, draws no punters and scares away half the regulars. Instead of saying it's disgusting that they're paying a pittance, maybe take the gig, do the promo, absolutely storm the place with the full-on lights and smoke package and then say "we'll come back x times a year and do that every time, guaranteed, but our normal fee is higher - we took this one as a bit of a promo to show you we're worth hiring and can help your business".

Sure there are plenty of music schools who would have been grateful if Gibson (or whoever mashed them up) donated them instead. Better publicity too.

By the way , I’m not a full time musician . I’m actually a plumber

The PJ pickups still look comically large against the smaller body The smaller, original sized pickups look more natural. It's like the bass version of this:

Just had Magic Soul on the radio, and they played this. I've never noticed the nearly 2 minute long solo on the end - maybe it's because DJ's always talk over it or maybe just an extended version. Solo kicks in around 4mins 55 sec. Produced by Barry White around 1972. Enjoy.

I'm sure there's been a few threads about this but oh my god, this kind of hyperactive attention whore-ishness represents everything I hate about the internet. I see that annoying face and the awful clickbait every time I look at YouTube, there is just no getting away from it. You search for anything to do with bass, and bang, there he is, with 4 thousand novelty party trick videos, pulling stupid YouTube faces and pointing at 12 string novelty basses. "Finally, a funky fretless 19 string slap bass jam! Leave a comment, like and subscribe LOL etc smiley face" ad infinitum. Jesus christ. Yes I'm sure these guys are all very talented and special, but when I see this stuff, all I see is a bunch of ballerinas prancing around for attention. Anyone remember a time when people got laughed at for being attention-seeking show-offs? Those days are long gone. Now I know this is a rant and I'm being rude, and I'm obviously in the minority, because 1 million followers blah blah, and I know it's a 'business model' blah blah.. but it annoys the living crap out of me personally. Stock Aitken Waterman was also a business model, and their pinnacle was 'The Reynolds Girls'. Just because something is a 'business model' it does not mean it's good. There are people like Adam Neely out there who also have a trillion followers, and they're not resorting to this stuff. No disrespect to anyone who loves it obvs, just my personal view. /end rant (I also hate 'Remco Hendrix', and that german guy with the ridiculous massive beard, and every other o.c.d. novelty internet show-off out there).

People . Just read an ad on gumtree via basschat . Band looking for a bassist to gig every Wednesday night . Three x 45 minute sets .either a three or four piece band . The pay was £120 - divided amongst all the band members . So you travel to this cocktail bar , paying your tube/ train fare , play three sets , then travel home again . You will get 30 or 40 quid for your trouble . By the time you’ve paid travel costs , you won’t have enough money to buy a set of strings . Especially if you use a five string . Before you respond , yes I know all gigs are good experience - but why should the venue be allowed to obtain your services for the same money that a plumber makes in half an hour ? I’m sorry people but this stinks . Am I the only person thinking like this ?

That's what they sound like in my hands chaps. I stop giving my opinion and start playing at about 3 mins. Any subs much appreciated as I'm trying to reach 1k by the end of the year!

Three possibilities: They didn't play authentic enough. Someone fitted the strings in the wrong order. They took advice from John Hall and he said "destroy any guitars that aren't genuine Rickenbackers!"

Sorry to hear that, Stew. I'll send you a pm with the costs. Bear in mind that you can actually build the cab in two stages to spread the cost if you prefer. Stage one would be to fit the Faital Pro driver only. That'll give you a working cab. You'd just have to fit a blanking piece of wood behind the horn cutout - not a very difficult job. The Faital driver works well on its own. Stage two would be to fit the horn, compression driver and crossover. That would give you the complete cab. Don't feel you are committed to spending money you don't have.

I usually just put the amp on the floor next to the cab when this happens.

Here's an update. Mike aka Chimike has now produced some really nice CNC drawings for us. I used these to approach a number of suppliers for quotes (again). I've now selected a company and ordered a single cab, which I'll check thoroughly before ordering the first batch ot ten. I'm not expecting any problems, as Mike has managed to produce a cab from the drawings on his own mini-CNC machine and tells me it goes together perfectly. If he sees this, perhaps he'll post a few photos on the thread. I'm about to go on holiday for ten days, but the cab will be delivered when I get back, i.e. around 12 August. I'm therefore expecting to send the first cab kit, complete with all the parts that I can supply, to Funkle by the end of week beginning 12 August. If everything goes to plan, I'll be sending the first batch of ten out at the beginning of September. Orders for a second batch are building up, and I'd expect those to go out at the beginning of October. I've spent some time trying to sort a grille out for everyone. I managed to find some very nice expanded metal, which is fairly lightweight, but I've been struggling to cut it to size. My tin snips aren't good enough and a jigsaw proved useless. So my next step is either to get a local engineering company to cut them up, or to do the job myself with an angle grinder. I'm not a big fan of angle grinders, as I value my body parts, but I'll be looking into it when I get back from my hols. I really appreciate everyone's patience.

I Second That Emotion. Nicely done.

Satisfied my unhealthy semi-acoustic urges with an Ibanez, cheap as chips, but souped up with a Gretsch bridge pickup, DiMarzio neck pickup (with covers), genuine ex-Gibson small head Klusons (after this pic) and £3.50 scratchplate of the 'bay 🙂 One day I will end up getting a Gretsch White Falcon...

Yes - one of the few things that makes my blood boil. In my case, a different but equally well-known supplier - gave the misleading implication that they stock the products, but they only order from their own UK non-stocking supply chain partner for them to order from the States once they receive your paid order. 5 weeks later, after many phone calls and emails it arrives, States to handler, handler to well-known UK supplier, UK supplier to me. Had I known, I would have ordered direct and got it cheaper and in less than a week, including customs clearance. When I was in the supply industries, I'm sure there was a name for this type of business model. Oh yes, I remember now...."shoddy"

My Cliff Bordwell 32" 'Ball bass' plus short scale dog

From what I understand, it was found that faulty flux capacitors were delivering several jiggawatts of electric shock to anyone who attempted to play Stairway To Heaven on them.

I have no need for the battery pack, and yes it is expensive. I'm really impressed with the quality of both the amp & combo so far. They both get used all the time. I'll probably get the extension speaker at some point to unlock the full 200W. A friend of mine plugged his guitar & Helix into my 06B400 bass amp and it sounded wonderful. Loud too. Before I got the GSS bass combo my practise cab at home was my trusty Bergantino HD112. I did an A/B test with the GSS combo and the Berg/Baby Sumo, and I could hardly tell the difference in sound quality & tone. Of course, the GSS can only go so loud as it's only using one of its two 100W amplifiers, but at equal volume levels it was stunning.

I couldn't watch more than 20 seconds of that. Horrid, disgraceful waste. Unsafe my arrse. My opinion of Gibson, which was low to start with, has hit rockbottom and started to dig.

That's pretty sickening. Surely it would have been better to recycle the parts, donate or give them away rather than just smash them up.

Very much so ! Or Fizzbin, if you're a fan of Captain Kirk's nefarious card sharkery. Ahhh, Soundcloud is it ? OK, I'll see if I can let that through my TinFoilHat browser setup.. which I do believe is indeed set to Samizdat mode

It's not the surface area, it's the volume. That is, the area multiplied by the cone excursion (Xmax). So a 12" with a big Xmax could be louder than a 15" with a smaller Xmax. Any advance on volume? We'd have to go to four dimensions...

Someone has been on the glue....

Get in the sea.

I’d make him an offer he couldn’t refuse if I was you, that’s lovely, and it’s aged really nicely 🙂

I did two double bass gigs on the same day yesterday. Four one hour sets and three set ups and tear downs. No pain, no strain - all perfectly comfortable. We get there in the end, don't we?

So the strings, strap locks and pickup cover came this morning. All fitted and stringed up and set up. Played it and realised I haven’t removed the lacquer from the frets yet. So I’ll have to do that before this is fully complete. I’ve only given it a quick play to make sure everything feels right and works as it should. Initial impressions is that it’s good., although playing with a pickup cover is difficult. So next step is fret polishing. After that I’ll put up a recording of how it sounds. So pickup cover on and get used to it? Or remove?