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I had a get together with a band planned for tomorrow, the guitarist sent through a couple of original tunes and asked me to learn a cover. All done, excited. Got a message from the guitarist this morning to say that it's off, the drummer's had to cancel, and that's the final straw as he's been unreliable recently. No band, no get-together. As far as I know this is the third time this has happened - I reply to an ad and the band breaks up Anyone know any bands they don't like that need a bass player ? Maybe another covers band is nicking your regular slot at the Dog & Duck ? Ex-spouse getting somewhere with their Nu-Klezmer band ? Sick of that residency at the Filmore and you want a change ? Email me the band ad, I'll reply with my schedule of services and we can get to work....

Please send your resumé to the 1975...

Well, Ross was never going to introduce him as 'A talentless w**ker you probably thought died years ago. So, a bit like me'.

It's in the nature of acoustics that, even when they LOOK close to being finished, they often AREN'T all that close to being finished. The thing that makes it look pretty close is that the strings are on: and the neck looks OK: But, in spite of me having had 3 or 4 goes at the neck angle - which is a right old b***ache because every time you have to get the neck off (not easy fiddling about with allen keys through the soundhole) and then chisel evenly and at the right angle the shockingly hard rock maple and ebony - nevertheless, it STILL isn't right. It isn't far out - probably a couple of degrees - but the action is far too high with a test saddle sitting at the lowest practical level, and thus the intonation and playability is pretty shocking. A couple of degrees, including the flush fit challenge and the multiple re-assembly to see how close it is (this is essential because overdo it and you have a REAL problem. Getting that right can change the scale length!!!) will take a disproportionate number of hours. I'm tempted to make up a custom sanding block so I can sand both sides and the bottom of the tenon at the same time. However, there is very little left to do beyond that - truss rod cover, tweak of the nut, final polishing up, heel strap lock - and, I have to say, the tone sounds promising So ETA for finish remains end of next week, albeit with allen-key and set-screw shredded fingers.

Class D amp manufacturers on the whole don't believe anyone would want to rackmount or even flightcase their products because they are "made for portability". They are wrong Most Class D users are limited to either carrying them around in a mimsy little nylon bag that will get smashed to bits in the back of the van on the first speed bump, or putting them in a sturdy box for transit then leaving them perched on top of a cab, ready to be squashed by someone elses amp, pulled off by someone tripping on a cable, or worse still, nicked because they are so compact and easy to smuggle out. I am one of those musicians who need their gear to be flightcased as my stuff gets thrown around in vans and in and out of venues a lot, but is also sick of having to lug a 50 pound Ampeg between vehicles and venues/rehearsal rooms, up stairs and onto 8x10 cabs. Apart from the inconvenience, it is too risky on the wrists, one false move and you're sunk. So I decided to take the plunge and buy a Magellan 800 (a beautiful and great sounding little amp, cheers @bassace !) then work out how to incorporate it into the setup without having to spunk more money on a custom flightcase to hold it and my rack tuner. So I thought I'd just post some photos of what I was dreading having to do, but in reality only took an hour to complete. 1) Removed the rubber feet from the amplifier and very carefully measured then copied the hole locations onto a 2u clamping rack tray. 2) Drilled the holes to match the existing holes in the amplifier baseplate, then deburred the edges. 3) Made up a couple of spacers from scrap 6mm plywood and drill matching holes to suit the existing ones. I decided to do this to give a little airflow under the amp, and also just in case a gig gets rowdy (and a lot of mine do!) so if any beer hit the rack, it would run off under the amp, and not soak the baseplate and potentially get in and cause problems. 4) Removed the screws from the original feet and gave them larger washers to spread the load a little on the rack shelf. Used spirit pen to blacken the front edges of the spacers so they are invisible. 5) Screwed the amp to the rack shelf via the spacers. It sits nicely and has loads of airflow. 6) The amp, screwed into the shelf. I measured it so the front of the controls would be just behind level with the front lip so even if the entire lot came crashing down off an 8x10, there is virtually no risk of the controls getting sheared off. 7) Fitting the clamp bars on the rack shelf. This way, the amp is secure sideways and front to back, but if the case gets tipped or dropped, the clamping bars will hold it in place on the up/down so there is no undue strain put on the bottom screws. This is important if I ever wish to re-rack it and revert to freestanding. Small pieces of hard foam sheeting were placed between the bars and the amps surface to stop it getting scratched by the bars. And here's the finished case. Looks a bit gappy but hey, airflow! So there you have it, I wasn't looking forward to this job as I thought it would just be a bit of a bodge, but needs must, and this thing is absolutely bombproof now in my full flight rack case. My rack is now 13 pounds lighter than before, and I have an arguably better amp for my purposes, with a lot more welly if I need to drive it.

You're going to join U2?

I though the accepted way to have your account removed was to post some group-sex porn and get banned. You know...go out with a massive bang.

???? 😁

I agree with Mr. Woss. Liam is the best frontman. Rock and roll is as much about attitude as it is talent. nobody has more swagger and attitude than Liam. There are definitely better singers, but as the whole package, he’s hard to beat. and nobody does more entertaining interviews and sound bites.

Er, that's "wej jej" acsherlly. And no, we is not - we is annoyed that he uses up all de emojicon-fings so dere is none left for no-one else, innit (hey, you started with the urban patois) That and he's a plonker, obvs. That's why we're picking on him..... 😁

Or even the greatest frontman in Oasis.....

Jim Morrison, Ian curtis, and a myriad of others must be doing electro boogie in their graves. Oasis were one of the most rag tag cobbled together overated plagerist rubbish that came out the 90s. How the hell they havent been sued for nicking nearly every song I dont know.

It looks glorious 🙂 The angle/light might make the pick up look of centre but it’s bang on.

I'm starting to wonder...could I have the same effect on things I can't actually do...could I apply to a 5-a-side team and kill that ? Single-handedly bring down a PTA just by phoning up and asking about joining ? I'm just going to ring up the BBC and see if Joolz Holland is hiring, you can thank me....later.

I am informed that a Mr Justin Bieber may be planning a tour. You may wish to contact his management.

And he's just introduced Lliam Gallagher as the greatest frontman ever. Have I missed something?

so no "we'll get you up to speed while we look for a new drummer" then? Maybe it's a guitarist thing. An old originals band of mine spent ages looking for a singer - we'd recorded a demo and played a couple of gigs as a three piece but the vocals were distinctly average (mainly because I let the guitarist do most of it) so we focused all our energies on finding a singer. Which took months without any suitable auditionees and the drummer finally had enough of not gigging, not even rehearsing most weeks unless we had a potential singer lined up, and left for another band. fair enough I asked a mate of mine who is an excellent drummer, he came for an audition and knocked it out of the park - superb. Great, now we can spend the time in between trying out new singers bringing the drummer up to speed. No. The guitarist was bored of playing the same songs and wasn't going to rehearse until we found a singer (and wasn't going to help look for one either). So he'd come back as and when me and the drummer found a singer, and not to bother him in the meantime. Technically he didn't actually break the band up...but when me and the drummer did find a new singer it was for a completely new band because we had no interest in staying in a band with the old guitarist. I do wonder if the guitarist thinks that the band is still a going concern and as soon as we find someone we'll be on the phone to get him back to the studio...he's not played since, and that was about 15 years ago Maybe you can round up a new band from the ashes of the ones you've broken?

I use a RM800 and Barefaced Super Twin, really can't go wrong. Fabulous sound. Horribly loud!!

I think it's because this is a question and individual posts can be voted up or down, moving them up and down the order. You can order by date. And you've probably worked this out already - sorry, I'm so used to having to explain everything to Young Teebs 😁

been re-listening to the albums over the last couple of days. hasn't changed my opinion, but what a fantastic trio of albums they are Nevermind still stands up for me. I can understand the comments about it having been rinsed to death back in the day, but it's still full of great songs, and I don't have an issue with the mix. I probably haven't listened to it for a few years now - I tend to favour In Utero if I'm going to pick a Nirvana album to listen to, and it does sit up there with some "classic" albums like Led Zep IV which are excellent, but seem like an uninspired/cliche'd choice to play as the songs are so well known...and then I listen to them and remember how brilliant they are Badmotorfinger - still my favourite, and as above, the 25th anniversary version sounds excellent BSSM - brilliant...but sooo very long. Having mostly listened to it on CD for the last couple of decades, I'd forgotten that it was a double album. Personal choice, but there are three or four songs that I wouldn't miss that could have been trimmed and made it an easier listen. Plus the vocals...I've heard worse, but I've heard better. It's odd that he sort of inhabits an area somewhere between singing and rapping, and isn't especially good at either. Still, an excellent front man, and not the ugliest looking individual which never hurts a band. But more than made up for by the music - how the bass takes the lead on almost everything, fantastic feel and never overplaying despite it's prominence, and the guitar playing the supporting role with funky chops and lead lines without needing to play big riffs My vote hasn't changed - still Badmotorfinger, but it's been fun revisiting Nevermind and BSSM - thanks @hiram.k.hackenbacker

He's not even the greatest kagoul-wearing frontman ever

Any Metallica album, but with Dave Lombardo on drums

Yes, I like it, but these strings are still too fresh and I need to reduce the top end, which I can't do in passive mode. Once I put a set of Fat Beams, and wait 5-6 months, it'll be ripe for playing in passive mode I have to say that for all my love of on-board active EQ, I don't use it to extremes, but to tweak a tiny bit here or there. I spent £150 or so on the 3-band MMSR preamp for my Stingray and I asked John to install a bypass switch too. The sound I normally go for turns out to be almost identical to what I get when I engage the bypass switch My ideal controls on a bass would be a passive tone control, and a semiparametric mids control like the John East one that covers 100-1000 or 200-2000 Hz. If there's room, ok, an active bass control too, probably centered around 80Hz, but not really necessary. If I were to replace the preamp in the Sandberg, rather than installing the U-Retro I've already got, I think I'd probably go for something like a Tonestyler unit to take care of the basic tone, and a semiparametric mids unit. But to be honest, I'm enjoying it too much at the moment to think seriously about it. Let me get over the honeymoon phase first, and we'll see That P pickup... is really nice. Have I said that before? It's got great definition. A lot of P style pickups can be a bit too bassy by nature and I find myself looking for ways to tame them and get them to sound full and fat without overpowering low end. Reversing the coils does help to some extent (making the half of the pickup covering the E&A strings closer to the bridge and the D&G closer to the neck), but not every bass in that configuration sounds as good as this one.

Hi John. Very kind of you but an allen key is actually the easiest way. There's so little room, the bulk of even the mini ratchets don't really help. I had another bash today having found an allen key with a longer long side and a shorter short side. I now have the basic neck angle where I need it - I now just need to go through (hopefully) one more time to get a gap free joint. The really encouraging thing is that - now I've got the strings at a playable action height - it sounds as good as I'd hoped

Warning... you'll WANT a Tonestyler after playing that bass. In fact, you might want to keep the bass. I borrowed it for a day or two and it was hard to give it back

Yep, 99% of the time. For those not in the know, his Wal was passive. He had an active but didn’t like it as much so sold it. He’s now got 2, both passive. Oh, Rotosound strings too. For anyone who wants to work their chops, try Sexy Eiffel Towers.😉

Blimey, really? I saw them twice and never noticed, then again I was very, very drunk.

Now that I’ve just got the electrics to do on my ‘51 and ‘72 P bass builds it’s time for a new build............ My plan is to build a 5 String P bass The body is going to be Paulownia I’m probably going to buy the body this time as they are on EBay for £23 and it’s going to painted it Gloss Black The neck is going to be Maple/Maple which I’m going to colour match the headstock and add Black block inlays The pickguard is going to be black and all the hardware is going to be Gold/Brass as all my basses have either Black or Chrome hardware so I fancied something a bit different.................😀

and of course... anything could happen along the way. Heeheehee

Yep, definitely had that Time is a great healer though - stuff that used to make me cringe sounds okay to me now a bit of time has passed.

I have the evil twin of your set up. Yellow piping was for when I had a Mark Bass amp. Need to find som black piping now...

One of my favourite albums features very prominent basslines... Hawkwind: Space Ritual Lord of Light is a particular highlight.

The epi eb3 is a no brainer really it looks great got a 34” neck two pups and it’s SO cheap to buy

Well, in a moment of madness I went to the shop last night and bought myself the 4 string Viking!! I love it so far. I will post back here after I rehearse with the band this coming week and see how it sits with other instruments in the room. I'm also going to do some tracking with it in some old projects, replacing some old bass tracks, to see how it sits in a recorded mix compared to my other basses. I'll let you know how it goes! Woohoo!!

Looking at the group-sex porn I've just found then yes. (I do have to say...he's a very healthy looking chap). I'm not 100% it's him, the edge of the ice-cream van is kindof in the way, but I'm pretty sure.

Good point. Chatbot / annoying piece of software has been suggested.

I have one installed in a bass and I’d be happy to let you have a play if you’re wanting to try before you buy.

I use the SKB that came with my Overwater 6 string but both my Fender J & P basses and my Sandberg VM4 seem fine in the SKB. Can't say i've noticed too much movement in there because the top padding pushes down on the strings to keep the bass steady. Dave

👏👏👏 I see what you did there, kudos.

And perhaps Cliff on And Justice, so that we might have heard some bass!

Someone showed me the light

I've gone for lessons on and off over the years. When I did, I went with a good idea of what I wanted. I approached potential teachers with that idea: I'd like to get better at X, or learn Y... and they would tell me what they think they can do to help me achieve my goal. Some have their own ideas and didn't convince me. Others were happy to stick to what I told them. The best ones were able to understand what my goal was, and they were able to explain to me how to get there we may be better off addressing other points I had not mentioned... Then you choose the one that seems to fit the best. It's important that you get along and understand each other well, so don't be afraid to try a few until you find 'the one'. But the main thing, I think, is to have some idea of what you want to achieve and find a way to communicate that to the teacher. Just showing up and saying "teach me" may be ok if you have unlimited time and funds, but may not be the most practical way to get the results you want.

See that ^^^^^? It's not just me asking!

I had to pick up a 2018 when they went on closeout I usually snub my nose at coil splitting, but this one sounds terrific when split. The solid black was boring.

I certainly have, I’ve been a huge fan for many years, I love all their albums up until ‘10’. The Stranglers have been a constant throughout, they hit me at just the right time so their music never ages or diminishes in potency for me, proper. I think Baroque Bordello is possibly my top track from The Raven, I have the record with the prismatic cover, almost as treasured as my copy of Meninblack (my favourite Stranglers album) signed by Hugh Cornwell.