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Proof of concept:-

The way i look at it, and I know this sounds morbid, we may not get many more chances to actually see these great bass players in the flesh. Phil Lynott and John Entwhistle are gone, Bruce Thomas seems to have virtually retired. Bruce Foxton, Jean-Jaques and Norman enriched my life from when I first started out. These are the guys who inspired and motivated me to play bass. I'd hate to miss any opportunity to see them play.

There's a simple answer to all this. Don't buy an item if you don't like the seller's terms or don't want to collect it. Too many entitled people about, expecting everything to be delivered to their door.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the compliments. 😁😍 They're definitely premature though. I've learned not to count my guitar making chickens till they are well and truly hatched. The process of finishing, in my experience, is fraught with danger! The plan for the body is an epoxy grainfill followed by a hand applied polyurethane varnish, probably to a low gloss finish. The neck will be wipe on poly again, satin. i've tried all sorts of grain fill methods and not enjoyed any of them. So I'm returning to epoxy, which I thnink is the best of a bad bunch. I'm using West Systems and tinted it with Mixol dark brown and a bit of black to make it darker still. Ive done two coats on the back and it is smoooooth.....one more on the front and I'm done. This time it's gone pretty well. The thing that's really made the difference is using a razor blade to spread a tiny amount of epoxy. For the entire back of the body I probably used about two pea-sized drops, maybe less. The razor blade is really effective at spreading the epoxy around without pulling it out of the pores. I rounded off the edges of the blade slighly so there was no chance of them digging in, and slightly dulled the blade using 400 paper on a very flat surface. It worked really really well. These are the type blades I used: Here's a photo of mid fill, I love the way you can see the difference between grain that hasn't been filled, and the grain with the brown epoxy. It does a great job of highlighting....

A great track. I reckon there's three bass tracks on this - first is pretty straight fretless which you can hear on the verse parts and right at the very end where he's noodling about. Then there's two tracks with heavy delay and maybe other treatments on - first is very Pino - ish and quite straightforward, the second is pretty extreme. You can hear places where the bass tracks sit on top of each other - 3.46, 4.57, and 5.50.. That's how I hear it, anyway! Have fun.

So I may have refinished the bass in Sherwood green...

Here's another one!

Cheers 00Stephen Ian Powerfix is a very metal name🤘😉

About 6 or 7 have come and gone but my best purchase this year has to be my Sandberg California TT custom, after a few emails holger got it spot on , ash body, ebony fingerboard and no fret markers , black hardware, and the action is 1mm at the 12th fret , super low , now fitted with labella LTFs 🙂. Next on the list is a limelight.

I'd tell them to get bent, with 3 possible responses... You entered into a contract to move parcel of ABC size. If they then collected a parcel of XYZ size without referring back to you then that's their problem for making an unsolicited co,election and delivery. Or... The parcel was the correct size, and their records are faulty. It's up to them to prove otherwise. Or... If you din't sign anything when it was delivered just deny all knowledge any any oversized parcel.

You come to my funeral and I'll go to yours.

This was the state of my ‘64 Precision when I got her. This is her now. Life’s too short to own a bass you don’t play because you want to preserve its value. The crass analogy is that it’s like remaining celibate from your supermodel wife to keep her pristine for the next guy...

Looks like my ex-wife having a polite conversation.

Unprofessional is good,, it stands out in a sea of po-faced wannabe professionals taking everything too damn seriously. I put my fursona/basschat icon on a download card and people say she’s cute and looks a little bit like me.

I'm a simple guy. I just want more of your posts . . . . and your wallet.

I once had a call telling me I had been selected to have a half-price Conservatory fitted. I told them I was over the moon and could we arrange an appointment ASAP. You could hear the dollar signs rolling around the caller's head. She asked for my address and I took great delight in telling her I was in a second floor flat. At least she had the decency to apologise.

Action shot of the home made thicknesser jig. Really pleased with it. And the end result.

I love this kind of thing! I've been using suitcases from charity shops for a while now. My favourite is styled like an oversized school satchel and holds a square pedal board perfectly. Into the flap/pocket on the front I slid some big airwrap packaging so my pedals are protected from bumps. My most recent purchase came from Lidl middle aisle. It's a four socket extension lead designed with Christmas light enthusiasts in mind. Instead of one block of four sockets these are daisy chained a metre or so apart. Now when rocking up at awkward pub venues with only one bloody socket instead of plugging in a 4 gang which everyone else must then try to get to, I can lay out my lidl lead and sockets can be found at easy to access intervals.

Mostly pics today. The neck is pretty much finished. It ended up with an interesting scarf joint - I'm not sure I've seen one like it before! Other than that, it's mostly just little jobs before finishing. There was bit of a chip in the binding so I repaired it using epoxy and black furniture powder. It seemed to work pretty well. I may use it to grain fill....time to do a few more experiments. Finally I did the pickup routs. Me being me I decided to rout the neck heel at the same time. So I double sided taped the neck in, cut the side off the template, and whizzed away, praying the tape didn't fail! A test fit and the pickup ring was right up against the end of the neck. Perfect!

As title says, I’ve had to leave my band due to health reasons. Nothing serious or life-threatening, I’ve just realised that I can’t hack the gigging all over the country/in Europe whilst holding down a full time job, it’s just taking its toll on me. I don’t sleep well due to a back injury and the long hours travelling means I feel stinky poo virtually all the time when regularly gigging due to being knackered all the time. As I suffer with depression at times I’ve come to the realisation that my moods are linked very much to how I’m feeling physically, and when I’m not gigging/exhausted and going to the gym regularly I feel great. I can’t do this during periods of regular gigging due to needing rest, so when regularly gigging I pretty much do nothing apart from work/rest/gig. And we gig pretty much all the time. The annoying thing is is that when I’m feeling exhausted through gigging the only time I feel good is when I’m on stage - the very thing that is causing me to feel bad, a real chicken & egg situation. So I’ve decided to leave, in fact the decision was made a few months back and the guys were told then, I don’t feel great about it but for the sake of my physical and mental health, plus the sake of the band - we signed up with a German record company this year who have put out our 4th album, meaning more European work - it was a decision I had to take. I’ve done almost everything I’ve ever dreamed of musically in this band, other than play in the USA, and it means the world to me so to say I’m gutted is a real understatement. To get through it I’m looking at it along the same lines of a footballer whose legs have gone and can no longer play at the same level, age has finally caught up with me.

Old bass day? New old bass day? But either way I’ve now got an old friend back in my hands... back at the SE Bass Bash last month I was chatting to @cetera about my old Frankenjazz and he asked why I never brought it to the Bass Bashes? I explained that about 7 or 8 years ago I’d loaned it to a producer chum for a project and he loved it so much he kept asking to hold onto it for a bit longer. He really loved it and used it on a lot of projects. Months turned into years and I never had the heart to ask for it back. “But it’s YOUR bass, man!” Was Gary’s comment. Well from then on I kept hankering to get it back... more and more... so the other week I dropped him a line and on Monday we met up and swapped it back. I got the bass off eBay about 12 or more years ago from a web shop called Build-a-bass with the idea that it would be the basis for customising. It was back when you could get 2 dollars to the pound so it really was a steal! The story goes that Goerdt from Build-a-bass bought up a load of bankrupt/lawsuit stock from a small builder in Rhode Island (I think) who was building slightly too good Jazz bass copies back in the early 90s and has since been selling the fully loaded bodies and necks as parts. It all sounds a bit suss but, to be fair, the build quality is really good - including the quality of the ash body, the finish and the maple in the neck. Plus when I popped off the scratch plate the whole cavity was fully copper foil shielded and there was a “Sept 91” QA sticker... The neck isn’t as narrow as some Jazzes at the first fret with a bit more meat - which I really love. I like a “proper” Jazz neck, but I like this more! The plan was to change the tuners which were not the best quality, throw on a Badass II, swap the pickups and add a preamp. Of those I only put on some Hipshot tuners, added some Graphtech saddles and put in an Audere Jazz plate. The pickups sounded great and I never had the feeling I needed to change them. Keeping the BBOT bridge also retained the through body stringing. It’s great to have it back. It still feels and plays great and sounds fabulous to my ears. Can’t wait for an opportunity to properly put it through its paces...

Transmission by Joy Division, Spiritwalker by The Cult spring to my total beginner mind

I remember seeing a great, but not very well known band in the seventies called Glenco. Found out a few years later that a few of them became The Blockheads including Norman.

🤦‍♂️

We played immediately before Martin at the Acoustic Festival of Britain last year. I got to talk to him at length and had a good look at his current Ric, a ‘72 Burgundyglo 4001. The action was literally about 3 times as high as mine. It was the opposite of low! Can’t speak for his TBird as he didn’t have it with him. He was using a Hartke head and an Ashdown Mag 2x10; I helped him carry his rig onstage. I think his full rig includes an ABM head as well as the Hartke; not sure about the cabs. Have to say he was an absolute gent, extremely warm and generous and extremely funny. In fact the whole experience of chatting to him, playing, then getting to watch his (blinding) set, - Argus heavy, obviously - then chatting to him some more, was my most memorable gigging experience ever. I just wish I hadn’t been quite so embarrassing a fanboy! Got him to sign my Warwick Alien, which I used for the gig. Watching him made me feel a lot better about my style too, which is very similar.

The tag says "Do not connect two or more extension leads together in a chain" I might have to pretend I didn't see that. 🤔

I really like Normans playing, I see them back in the day, they were great, and he also played an Alembic 🙂

THEY'RE CALLED IAN!!!

That’s Midsomer Norton for you! 😆

Well I have to say that aside from the low low stuff requiring a low B the Squier VM77 Jazz can do a great deal, just with the pickups and tone control, I can make it fit most of the genres I play along to, from Oi to Motown.

If You Want Me To Stay by Sly & The Family Stone, although the version I learned it from was by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The riff itself is a little complicated, and there is a bit of variety in how it's played, but it is the same riff repeated, and a good win once you've nailed it

I bought a GK NEO 410 off of Douglas. Was a swift transaction and a pleasure to do business with. Thanks!

My Sandberg Alnico 5s in my passive TT4 sound very P like in the neck position. I've had DiMarzio Model J's in the past and while the neck pickup sounds P like it wasn't to my taste. The large pole Delano I had in my old active TT4 also sounded P like but the Sandberg Alnicos sound fantastic.

Don't panic, you have grasped it perfectly. The primary purpose of an HPF is to stop erroneous low frequencies from reaching the amp and especially the speaker. This is exactly what Thumpinator was designed for and it helps clean up your sound and increases the real life headroom of both amp and speaker. However in the event that you have an unruly room (not talking about the punters now) you can use a variable HPF* to help tame the room resonance. One of my old practice haunts had a horrible resonance at 44Hz. Yes I could use the bass control but the slope of a bass control is usually much less severe than that of an HPF**. So I could take out some of the 44Hz (low E) but not alter my sound too much. *Thumpinator is a fixed frequency HPF ** in technical terms most bass controls will have a slope of 6-12dB per octave whereas a good HPF should have 24dB per octave.

Never mind. Perhaps we could find an image of a professional donkey to paste over the cowboy's a s s but I hear they charge consultancy fees just for answering the 'phone.

MT has always had a great tone. The bass on "Argus" sounds amazing.

Same here, I'm more interested in their policies and voting record.

To be honest, she's doing lead vocals here as well. Awesome thrash trio from Brasil!

Aye. The keys/synth fruitcake, like every keys/synth fruitcake, is brilliant, as of course is SpondonBassed. 🙂

Of course people listen and care about lyrics " I like small speakers, I like tall speakers If they've music, they're wired for sound " Good ole Cliff

So the courier company/or driver took their time and buyer thinks that was your fault ? Blimey guv. You must be a bloody nice guy stew. I would have told the oik to stop bitchin' like a schoolgirl and to foxtrot oscar.

Sam Wilkes.

We now have a neck and functioning electronics. All it needs now is a fret job and a nut and it's good to go.

Played the Morecambe Punk Festival yesterday. We were on at 8:45 so a good time-slot, before the audience got too hammered, lol. Sound out front for all bands was great, really powerful and very importantly they made sure the vocals were loud. On stage sound was good too as we gave over our printed monitor specs to the engineer (professional huh) so he could make sure we had what was needed. I was using some form of Peavey stack (210 combo plus 410 cab) and it was really nice and solid sounding, with my trusty Para Driver doing the eq/FOH. The gig itself was great, audience really into it, the sound of them singing along to almost every word was amazing, lots of dancing/moshing going on, and a few crowd-surfers as well. For some reason the North West has really taken to us “cockneykunts” as they call us, we just love the gigs up there, just a shame it’s so far away!

Controversial, but I think Este Haim looks absolutely ridiculous when she pulls those faces. I saw her play live years ago before I knew who she was and thought she was taking the fosters before I realised it was just her thing.

Myself and a few other Tyneside-based BC'ers did this recently... More here.

Just realized I haven't posted the pic of my latest Cobia on here, oh well here goes. Might as well put them both on for good measure.