Leaderboard

While I'm waiting for the knobs to arrive for Tom's Squier, I've kicked off the initial work for another small job - this time for @Sibob Those of you who follow the Yamaha BB thread will know that he's had a problem with the neck on his BB415. Some kind soul suggested that I might be able to do something with it and so he sent the neck to me a week or so ago. Basically, @Sibob couldn't get enough adjustment on the trussrod to achieve a decent flatness of neck. I love Yamahas, but I'm not keen on the trussrods they tend to use. The love comes from the fact that ALL of their instruments are just, well, right. I play a Yamaha sax - and that is as good as every Yamaha guitar and bass I've ever played. Just look at the carve on this neck: It is as smooth as silk and it feels great! But - the trussrods are single acting and have a relatively small adjustment range. So they rely on the neck being flat with the trussrod loosened and no strings, then the adjustment is enough to counteract the bow resulting from the string tension. So - full loosened, it should be flat This is the centre section against my flat beam of Sibob's - fully loosened and no strings: I checked with some feeler gauges: It's bowed to a gap of 0.7mm. So, yes - the trussrod can be tightened to make it flat...just. But then add the strings and it bows some more and there is no adjustment left in the rod to counteract it. In cases where there is a relatively small amount of extra movement you can sometimes sort it by adding a washer under the trussrod adjuster, or by levelling the frets. But with frets at 1.3mm high and a gap of 0.7mm to flatten, there wouldn't be any fret to speak of left either end once it had been sanded flat. So the action is: Remove the frets Flatten the fretboard itself Refret Level and recrown So that's what I'll be doing over the coming week or so

Hi Just one or two interesting projects some of you might be interested in that I have been fitting in around the present main build (the 'Psilos Phoenix' dreadnought acoustic documented elsewhere in the 'Build Diaries'). Two of them are for @wwcringe and are similar to a couple of small jobs I did for him last year. Tom, like myself, is a great fan of the present-day fantastic base quality of many entry-level brands. With a relatively small amount of tweaking, many of them can be turned into excellent pro-level instruments. Squier and Ibanez are high on this list! This time round, Tom asked me to tweak an Ibanez Talman TBM30 and his trusty Squier Deluxe V Jazz. I finished the Talman a few weeks ago (Tom sent me a Soho Radio 'live lounge' clip playing it with the fantastic singer/songwriter Nyah Grace ) and am on the finishing steps of the Squier V. In both cases, Tom wanted the necks stripping down to wood and 'slurry-and-buffed'. I used Danish Oil this time but using the same method as do for tru-oil. I had a couple of veneer offcuts left from @TheGreek 's recent veneering job and used them on this, adding a MoP swift for good measure. For the Talman, Tom wanted to swop the J-bridge p/up for a humbucker and then move the jazz to a new high neck position. These were the resulting amended routs: Ordinarily, I don't shield the pickup chambers - usually just the control chamber - but I noticed the original p/up chambers were indeed shielded and so I followed suit for the mods. I modded the electrics to Tom's requirements which, interestingly, is 100% rotary switches, and finished with a full setup. Here was how if finished up: And then onto the Squier. Same treatment for the neck, and the last offcuts of @TheGreek 's veneer used up: Tom sent me some Hipshot tuners to fit. Presumably, they are imperial sizes - certainly, Hipshot bushes tend to be just slightly smaller than Squier bushes. Little tip for what it's worth, I use maple veneer, bent round the chamber to produce a snug fit. Maple is hard, too, so won't crush: Again, Tom's preference is rotary switches. So the plan was 4 rotaries, including: 3 position pickup selection; series/parallel; tone on/off; signal/kill. I'm not bad with electrics, but transposition is always a challenge to me - so transposing the logic of DPDT switches to rotaries took some time sitting in the proverbial darkened room! I used a guitar humbucker diagram as the role model and worked my way through in pencil to convert it first to two bass pickups and then from vertical DPDT to multi-pole two way and three way rotaries: And here is the finished result: To my complete astonishment, it all works! Last job before the set-up was to cut a couple of sycamore covers from some offcut from @TheGreek 's Psilos bass (I think you should be charging at least one of us royalties, Mick ), add a few magnets and then slurry and buff those too: When I've done the set up for this, I've got another small job to start for one of our esteemed Basschat members - but more of that anon Andy

Well done all the people who contributed to this project. I'm sure there is plenty more to come when funkle has gigged the cab and we get more impressions of how it is working in practice, plus of course more impressions once the rest of the kits get built. My hope is that this design will go on to be a classic self build classic like the Greenboy designs. I know a lot of basschatters have contributed to the design and development, I applaud them all. This has been a truly cooperative project but of course one person deserves particular thanks. Well done Stevie

For tomorrow's gig I asked my guitard: "Shall I use one or two?" Without hesitation he said "TWO!" That demands an explanation. We are gigging on one of the town's bigger stages, with massive PA support. Massive! Still, it is nice to have a lot of air pressure behind the back, so I go for a twin 810 setup with two tube heads. Necessary? Heck no! Will it feel good and look good? Absolutely! They are not identical, but close enough. I have to work a bit with getting the cabs equally high. Just for visual appearance. The Super Bassman into Bassman 810 Neo, daisy-chained to Bassman 100T into Hughes & Kettner 810, masked as a Fender cab. Jule Amps Monique in front of everything. This is surely the first and last time I do a stupid thing like this, but I can always blame the guitard: "You said I should!!!" 😁😁😁

They’re playing at it, aren’t they. I’d simply say fair enough, when you don’t turn up for a gig that we’ve booked because you’ve decided to go on holiday we accept your resignation at that point.

Cheers :D I wouldn't wanna be a judge here- lots of top quality acts on the night who'll no doubt be chomping at the bit to give it their all. We'll do what we always do- just give it loads of gospel-inspired upbeat R&B goodness. If it goes down well and they like us- so be it. If it's too far removed from what they've looking for- then that's cool too :)

New Bass errr… Month. 🤪 While this isn't exactly meant to be an in depth review , I thought I would share some opinions, observations and some pics. Having recovered from recent bills and the sadness of selling on the weighty beast of a Gibson Les Paul a while ago, I recently picked up a 32" scale Korean made Tokai Love Rock LP Bass in the classic and rather nice Cherry Burst finish. The headstock is very Gibson in shape and style and has Tokai written across the top, with "Love Rock Model" written in gold across the middle. It has a carved top with cream binding with what I would guess is a veneer rather than a thick maple cap. Either way it looks lovely. After a good clean of all parts, lowering of string action to just above frets, intonation set, light gauge medium scale strings added, I am more than impressed with the playability of this for what I paid out, and in some ways I actually prefer it to the Gibson. It is still a fairly heavy animal, something like the equivalent of a baby elephant as opposed to the baby elephant's slightly older fat brother .It's not quite shoulder destroying, and the recent addition of a not-really-very pretty- but functional-slightly over priced-Comfort Strapp helps spread the weight. Seeing as I would make Mr. Bean look like Arnie, I don't exactly have copious amounts of meat on the bone, so really my choice is either fall in love with much lighter instruments, or accept that I just have to put up with a little bit of discomfort to continue playing this style of bass. The Tokai seems to fall just short of causing too much issue. Though I only currently play at home I like to swap between standing while playing and sitting down when I really can't be arsed to stand! The nut width is 40mm which feels just right, and though I loved the chunky baseball bat feel of the Gibson, the slightly less deep neck on the Tokai is still nice and comfortable in the hand. The Love Rock has a set neck, with rosewood fretboard, dot inlays as opposed to the usual trapezoid blocks, and has a "standard" style Hi mass bridge which is sat in a shallow rout in the body. Perfect front to back, though a little of the rout can be seen either side of the bridge, which I suspect is done like this to allow correct positioning of the bridge when fitted. As the neck is not angled back it allows the use of a more standard style bridge as opposed to a tune-o-matic 2 piece or 3 point Gibson style. I am not sure what woods have been used, very possibly mahogany, and you can certainly feel the resonance of the wood against the body. Sustain is not quite on par with the Gibson but I guess could just be to do with the shorter scale length. Sound wise it is very similar, with 2 chrome covered humbuckers providing a good solid low end and decent clarity with a nice bite to the top end. All very typical LP bass. As mentioned this is a medium scale bass at 32", though due to the general design and shunting the bridge up the body somewhat, there is a barely noticeable difference between this and a 34", though enough to feel "just right". The only issue I have found is that when it comes to strings, there is very little in the way of choice with dedicated medium scale sets. Picato at the moment, though there is an equivalent gauge of D'adarrio that I will probably go for next. The components currently in it are *ok* with decent tidy wiring, though it has small sized pots. The 3 way switch feels fairly solid, though I'm not so keen on the switch and 2 vol 2 tone setup, so I have all the gubbins for a rewire on order. The plan is to do away with the 3 way switch and install 4 CTS 500K pots vol-vol-tone-tone for a more traditional look. No doubt I will have to widen the holes to fit these. I will be using 0.022 Orange caps and wiring in a 50' style. I will add a Switchcraft socket, amber bell knobs and some knob pointers to complete the look. Knowing me I will just turn everything up to 10 anyway as I usually do , but it's nice to know that robust and reliable components are fitted inside. So far I have replaced the cheap black plastic nut with a nice off-white bone nut. When finances allow I will be adding a Hipshot bass xtender as I did with my Gibson. Overall, I'm really happy with Tokai, and for the price you can get them used, I would happily recommend to anyone who might be considering trying out the Les Paul style.

I have played gigs with all sorts of Ashdown heads from the LB30, through the RM500 and RM800, via the CTM100 and up to the ABM500 and monstrous BTA200. They all have their merits - the BTA200 for example is probably the amp I’d choose if I ever got to do a serious set of gigs (I won’t!), though finding one isn’t exactly easy, my favourite amp to this day remains the CTM100, etc.. - but I’d be happy with any of them for rehearsals and small gigs with a rock band. The LB30 won’t ever be clean, but with enough speakers and PA support it’ll sound gloriously dirty and in your face on stage. The ABM, RM800 and BTA can do bigger bass extension with more cleanliness to the tone, and along with the CTM100 can all handle bass duties without PA if necessary. The LB30 certainly won’t fill a room with deep pounding bass in the same way so keep your expectations firmly on gnarly stage monitor and you’ll be fine. HTH

I use rechargeable batteries in mine. Change them after every set regardless of how much the indicator says is left. If usually says 5hrs or more but I just like to feel confident.

A bit of early Aswad 🙂

Well, I've booked a ticket for Saturday and looking forward to it, just need to figure out how best to get there now! 😂 I'd also best get practicing some low quality power slap for trying basses out. 😉👌 (joking, obvs)

Here's what it sounds like in the hands of the daughter of probably the most famous sitar player of all time, playing a piece that her father wrote to play as a duet with Yehudi Menuhin. [EDIT - blocked video] Let's see if this one works (it's a different shorter piece) ...

@Andyjr1515 - just quoting from part of your full post as there were a couple of "takeaways" that immediately jumped out at me, which I suspect may well be of interest to other folk, and which I've taken the liberty of highlighting. Have to say that in the over 2,500 posts we've had so far on this thread, I don't think anyone has made these points with such clarity - so thank you!

I wish I could have contributed in a practical way to this incredible project. As it is I have nothing but respect for those who made it possible.

Nice one Ray! Nice one Teebs! It'll be a corker of a night that's for sure. May the best band win!

Well thank you all very much! It's true that a number of Basschatters have provided valuable input that has made it possible to give birth to this cab, and I have tried to mention everyone along the way. However, at this juncture, I think a special vote of thanks is due to Pete (funkle). A cabinet building beginner by his own admission, he has worked under the glare of public scrutiny to draw our attention to the mistakes that lie in wait for the unwary - by making those mistakes on our behalf. Not only that, but the descriptions and photos in this thread provide an excellent guide for those who will follow in his footsteps. Now, about those T-nuts.... 😀

If it were me I would build up the binding first, making a former for the bent bits. Start at the top, cut the mitre on one first, a small disc sander is ideal for making tiny adjustments as you can keep the angles perfect. Once you have the mitre on one side of the top binding do the other in the same way until the insides of both mitres meets with the outside corners of the routing, glue that in place with something like a slow drying superglue (or thin fast drying if you hold it in place and let capillary action take it in). Then do the two sides, getting the mitres with the top perfect first, then do the bottom ones, glue those before fiddling with the curved bits

And Me!!! I have the stink bombs ,flares and police sirens ready to set off at strategic points,during the performance of the ,clearly, inferior acts cluttering up the stage after The Achievers have finished their brilliant set. It's up to you @Teebs to set off the sprinklers if any of the judges show signs of weakness. Should be a good night..

As i don't use a wireless for my bass, then wireless IEMs would not gain anything, so I go wired and have done solidly with a busy band for over two years now. It meant that I could sink more money in to moulded IEMs rather than coughing up for a top spec wireless system. Like above posts I have a headphone amp - the one that Behringer used as a basis for their P2, known as the Fischer Stick. I use this for gigs when i'm not with my usual band. However, we the band do have a Behringer XR18 mixer, which allows me to use a Behringer P16m, which I love and is a dead easy way to get a stereo mix to my ears that I can adjust whilst I'm playing. All sounds complicated, but when set up, no one has been able to give me a better sounding mix than our own (yet)! Yup, we don't need a monitor mix engineer and now we have everything set up, we don't need a seperate FOH engineer either!

KZ ZS10 and a Behringer P2 belt pack, it's the default bass chat setup.

The only time I have had to miss a gig was when I was involved in a bike accident and was in a wheel chair for a month or more. I missed two gigs, but it impossible for me to leave the hospital for the first one, and the house the day after discharge but still in the chair and with my right arm in plaster from above the elbow to the fingers for the second. Last week I postponed a planned & booked trip to Devon with my wife to celebrate my birthday because we got offered a gig for the same weekend. I didn't even consider letting the band down, just moved the holiday to the next weekend instead. If we get a gig for that weekend as well, then I'll cancel the holiday. Just what your priorities are.

So much ukulele hate here, I didn’t realise ukelelism of this sort would be tolerated on this forum, moderators! Some of my best friends play the ukulele imagine their poor bare laps once we leave the EU... 😁

That is James Finnegan. I bought his Vigier Arpege from him back in the day: oddly enough, he bought a nice vintage Fender Jazz from me!

The sickness of the height adjuster grip which will eventually lead to the plastic disintegrating, is AFAICS completely down to Hercules using the wrong, or a dodgy batch of plastic for some their stands and has nothing to do with how the stands have been stored, or used/abused. If the plastic is wrong the grips will eventually become sticky and then the mechanism will fail irrespective of how you look after the stands. The good news is that Hercules and their distributors have acknowledged that there is a problem and have been putting it right. The replacement stands I got 2 years ago for my sticky ones are still fine and have no problems at all.

My go-to gigging bass is a Squier Classic Vibe P bass - one of the early ones The neck is superb. Of course, matters such as dimensions; depth, width, radius are all subject to personal preference But I like the C shape of the neck - the fact that it's not overly chunky, or too slim (somewhere in between) As others have said, it's a lovely finish to the edges and frets too. The stock pickup sounds superb. I had a CV Precision in Fiesta Red, and foolishly sold that. Which is a move I am now regretting.... even though I already have too many Keep an eye out for one of the earlier ones, second-hand on here But also try the new CV range, and the VM series too - especially as you liked the one you tried

Here’s the Lag bass I was thinking of. Looks the same shape, just this one has binding. http://forum.laboitenoiredumusicien.com/viewtopic.php?t=2913

New Cab Day I was originally looking for a 15" cab to pair with the Lil' Stubby but this VS-212 popped up on eBay this weekend and the seller let it go for £140. I was seduced by the vintage looks but it actually sounds really great with the head. A bit weighty at 30kg but manageable.

We're even closer... Eude

In the spare room, with my imaginary bandmates. The drummer's always late.

I bought myself a Squier VM70s bass a few years ago because I fancied a go at modding. It's a great feeling instrument, I changed out the loom, bridge and pickups because that's what I got it for, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with the bass just as stock before that. I've got a couple of more expensive basses but I've never noticed myself thinking that the Squier is in any way inferior to them when I decide to pick it up.

They say that the best teachers are the ones that never stop being students.

Yes ^ MrsAndyjr1515 got fed up hearing about such things years ago and so now we just don't speak. As I say, I love this hobby

So, I recently acquired a Darkglass X ultra for my studio. I'm using my Tech 21 Dug Pedal in one of my bands. I'm sure some people I'm sure will be interested in the comparison? I sat down the other day with my Rick 4003 and set to work. Firstly, both pedals are brilliant. There is no denying that. Now, let's get down to the meat. The Dug is obviously based on achieving his own tone. Now, not everyone wants that. I don't. However, despite it having a fixed crossover it's amazingly versatile and even at more extreme gain settings is still musical. Now for the downside. The mid scoop. It's there where the problem lies with this. Even with fiddling you can't get it back as the pedal eq just isn't voiced that way. Most of the time this isn't a problem though. The clean tone is a bit so-so and it's impossible to switch from clean to dirty with settings that are workable for either. This then brings me to the Darkglass. It has both a filter for the lows to keep them clean and one for how much frequency wise of the signal gets distorted. Sharp bite to brutal fuzz is possible. The 7 band eq is great as well, so a clean tone is easy enough to achieve. This brings me on to the distortion. It has a different character than the Dug. The only way I could describe it is "Darkglass." It's just what it is. So, can you get the same sounds out of each? Yes, but it takes some effort. At harsher settings the Darkglass fizzes a bit and at higher low end settings the bass turns a bit mushy in my view. However, unless you're mental, you're not going to do that. So which is better? Depends on your point of view. The Dug is £150 cheaper give or take. But it's less flexible. The Darkglass has more things to get used to, but is much more agile to change on the fly. Is that worth the price difference? Depends. On a personal note, I'd use the Dug live as I know it better. However, I feel that more can be wrung out of the X ultra if you choose to try to. The fact it has switchable cab emulation is another bonus. Maybe the inherent "Darkglassness" of it might put people off, but in many ways it's better than the Dug. Possibly, the Dug has a more musical distortion, but that is a very personal choice for the player. I'm a Tech 21 person for life, but always like trying new stuff. Take your pick. I doubt either would disappoint anyone.

Today I welcomed into my fold a brand new Fender Duff McKagan Signature Deluxe bass guitar. I’ve been thinking about getting a PJ configuration bass for a while. I had one a while back and it filled the gaps very nicely in my rock covers trio. I saw the Duff in a store last week and thought it looked awesome. Lots of online research, followed by a return visit to try it out and the deal was done. It’s a beauty, finished in a lovely pearlescent champagne colour. It’s not quite white, but it’s close enough to tick my Paul Simonon fanboy boxes. I’m not usually a fan of black hardware but it looks great on this bass. You can find all the specs online if you’re interested. The neck is substantial but not overly chunky. Nut width is 41mm I’d guess, it feels similar to my EBMM Stingray. Despite the Jazz Bass Special name on the headstock it’s definitely got more Precision DNA in it than Jazz. Despite being a Signature instrument there is no trace of Duff’s name anywhere on it, only a ‘skull’ motif pressed into the neck plate. It’s slightly neck heavy, more noticeable when playing seated but strapped on it balances well. I love the fact that I have master volume and master tone (that’s how I’ve always had my J basses re-wired) and a pickup selector. All three positions give very individual, useable tones. The secret weapon is the TBX tone control which I’m looking forward to experimenting with. Very useful to me is the factory fitted Hipshot D-tuner. It’s not properly set up though so it will need fine tuning, which I hear is a bit of a faff... The set up was ok: intonation and action all good, although the relaxed tension on the E when the Hipshot is engaged results in a lot of buzz, so that will need tweaking too. General fit and finish is excellent, as you’d expect from a £1000+ bass. It comes with a Fender gig bag which they describe as ‘deluxe’: it’s anything but - thin and fairly useless, so I’ll be using one of the excellent Mayones gig bags I own, which are very heavy duty. It’s definitely a ‘rock’ bass, and as the man himself plays almost exclusively with a pick it’s easy to get a punchy rock tone by doing likewise, with both pickups on. But I think the Duff is more versatile than that. The Seymour Duncan J pickup in isolation is honky and funky but not thin and weedy, and the P pickup in isolation is warm and full, especially played finger style. I like it very much. I’m looking forward to giving it a proper high volume workout tomorrow at rehearsal. Nice!

For me natural with a satin finish If it has to be a particular colour then probably aged OW is right up there:

I'd still go with the lob it on a lathe method, but mostly because I've never heard of anyone doing that way and it's sounds like fun. Go with the sensible option is my recommendation to you though 😁

A couple of years back I depped with a soul group who had a particularly unpleasant keyboard player who was also incapable of holding his drink - after a week or two we were all thoroughly fed up with him and only one of the eight of us was still willing to bunk with him. On the last night of the tour we were booked into four doubles at a Travelodge, so we finally get in at 2am and discover to our delight that the hotel have given me and the guitarist two double beds in our room. After a fortnight in a van this was sheer luxury! We did the usual hotel room appreciation things (sink vs. kettle game, hotel olympics, spot the naked neighbour, etc) and then nipped back out to the van for the spare bags only to find the keyboardist and his unlucky roommate sat glumly in the foyer. "They've given our room away somehow. They've booked us a taxi to the next place down the road and we'll get a room each, but it'll be at least half an hour drive each way and we'll have to be up at 5 to book a taxi and make van call..." They looked so miserable that I actually felt obliged to offer them our spare double, but before I could open my mouth the guitarist looked over at me and right then I understood how people could believe in psychic communion, as our understanding was both instant and complete. "That sucks mate. See you in the morning." Slept like a baby.

+1 to the 'plucking the octave note' suggestion. Talkingbass.net has a lesson on "disco octave" basslines that would be well worth a look.

I'm not totally sure I understand what you mean by this, is it that the octave note isn't loud enough? If that is the case, there are a couple of non-technique related things you could try that may (or may not) help; First, how are you EQ'ing your sound? Try adding some upper mids to help give some extra definition to the octaves to help them stand out. Are you using a compressor? If not, they are an invaluable tool to help even out all notes from across the fret board. Are you popping the note as in the slap sense? Maybe try plucking it instead? The octave pull/pop thing will give you a bright snap but plucking the note will give it more body. Other than that, as you say it's just a case of keep working away at it until you get it right.

An update for me. Happy to have Inertia back on my board 😀

Will you be playing original music, and gigging on the circuit that caters to original bands, or will you be playing covers? Where will you rehearse, in a commercial rehearsal facility or will you be rehearsing in an environment where you have to provide everything yourselves? Where will you be storing your gear? Where are the venues you are most likely to end up playing, and are they easily accessible by vehicle for loading? If for instance you are playing all original material in a big city, you might not need an amp at all and putting your money to a high quality DI solution that gives the sound you want and can be fed into the efx return on practice room/shared backline or direct to the PA on larger gigs might be a better solution than an amp.

You need one of these.......https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/P-bass-by-PCGC-a-two-tone-bass-with-custom-refinements/193032406165?hash=item2cf1a0c495:g:EtcAAOSwsU5dSFsq And it will be the only one in India! - You will be famous!!

TOTAL BASS MAYHEM !! You've so gotta get a decent video done of the gig.

I think Fender Japan has a better rep than USA Fender. Ive owned an American Standard J and it felt cheap, I took the neck off and all the paint to bare wood cracked on the underside of the neck/body and eventually came off. . I owned a Masterbuilt CS LTD 1970 Jazz Bass. Nothing special and had a gap in the neck pocket.This just should not be the case with a £3000 + instrument. Swapped it for a Modulus JV4 with an awesome quilted maple top in cherry red.. Worlds apart in terms of quality. But the MIJ 1975 non export Jazz bass was superb in every way for £600. £2000 less than a CS Fender at the time. A bit weighty but very well made and sounded amazing. I wouldn't pay over a grand for any Fender.

Side by side, a new configuration for me. Both cabs have wheels which makes living with them a lot easier.

It's no coincidence that 10% of the UK was left without power when I was testing my amp...