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Take 1 x rack of basses, 1 x old wardrobe, 1 x dull afternoon, a selection of hand tools and several cups of coffee.

Hiya Lemonstar The technical side is pixies and magic dust, I assume... (and hard work from the admins / moderators / other technical bods). From a content perspective: - Massive amount of experience and knowledge shared freely; - Kindness; - Humour; - Friendliness; - Silliness.

1/ One of my customers is just learning to play guitar, he's in his mid 50s. His guitar tutor asked what his aim was and the chap said he just wanted to play one gig. The guitar tutor replied that he'd need a better guitar. The guitar in question is an Epiphone Les Paul copy. It's in good condition and very playable. My customer asked me what I thought, I said I thought his tutor was talking out of his rear exhaust pipe. 2/ The music teacher at my son's school told my son that bass players don't play with plectrums, so he should only use fingers when he was playing the bass at school. My son told me this so I suggested next time he 'plays' bass at school and the subject of plectrums comes up he just says Bobby Vega or Carol Kaye. I then told my son, who is learning to play guitar, that anyone who wants to be a well rounded player should try to get to grips with all techniques on their instrument. Being deadly serious, I don't think people, who regard themselves as Music Teachers, and make such nonsense statements should be teaching at all. They're doing a disservice to those they are supposed to be teaching. It may seem minor, however, such narrow minded ridiculousness...well, it boils my waste water!!!

Sometimes you need to give a big hug to the people you hate. That way you'll know how big a hole to dig.

I think I've just had the best photo of me taken ever for any of the bands I've ever been in.

The unscrupulous, the conmen, those hell bent on trickery and skullduggery , are soon dealt with by Ped and a vigilant team. Anything more serious that needs the introduction of a set of stairs to the offender, and my boys will sort it, pronto, because we're watching you too. Sleep well

Well, that went well. 😡 So, just to help some people, I break all my ethical rules and "like" the page of an unknown-to-me band. Then Facebook immediately gives me my receipt: "You probably know Silvia" and "You probably don't know Jack".

I'll chime in first, with my unscientific observations: The site is well designed and uses a very intuitive interface. Try using Thefretboard site and see how frustrating a poor interface can be. Fair bit of chat suggesting here that bassist seem to be more 'reasonable' compared to other instrumentalists. I'd like to think this is the case! The mods do a very good job of responding to feedback, scammers and threads going off the rails. I don't know the stats, but I'd say there is a good core of people who chip in more than most and are happy to help folks.

"What makes this site work?" Elastic bands, bits of chewing gum and the knicker elastic from the last pair of knickers that Valerie Singleton wore on Blue Peter... mainly.

Have you ever shaved collies in the Outer Hebrides?

Sounds familiar. I was in (& managed) a well known tribute for 26 years and shared the social media control with my fellow founding member. We agreed many times that, when either of us decided to call it a day, the band would fold so as not to dilute our hard earned excellent reputation or confuse venues/fans etc. If the other person still wanted to continue then the band could change its name and find a replacement member. Sadly, haven given months of notice, the day after I played my final show I was ejected from the band page & blocked.... and the band continued on with the same name. 26 years of supposed friendship & loyalty gone overnight - and this guy was even Best Man at my wedding. Oh well, seems loyalty counts for nothing.... and his speech was shite tbh! lol! I'm pleased to say that the 2 other (non-founding) band members then jumped ship leaving him having to make replacements for 3 of us. The new version now play to half the audiences and gig reports suggest they aren't anywhere near as good or authentic. Karma is a beach... especially as I'm now out doing bigger and better gigs with superior musicians & singers Onwards and upwards.... living well is the best revenge!

Great idea Chris. About six months too late, but a great idea. I’ll tell you what, ignoring for one moment all the time, effort, cost of fuel, rescheduling of other band and family commitments etc etc that I’ve personally put in for this event (which is the thirteenth by the way), I will match any donation you care to make. Let’s set the cap at the price of the Deacon P bass I had built. Let’s call it a round £1000 shall we?

I suppose it would be invidious to ask who thought it was a good idea to sack the band's social media manager before torturing him for the passwords.

This build might take a while as I'm not really sure what I'm doing but the three main points I'm aiming for, in reverse order are, something that looks good, something that sounds good and last, but certainly not least, not to die! Oh yeah, and if I do you can all blame @rubis as it was his B15 build thread that got my idle mind thinking. 😉 The back story; I was having a clear out and found an old Dynacord amp with the front and back plates and all the knobs missing at the bottom of a chest. It had been given to me years ago and I'd pulled it apart to give it a clean as, from memory, something was noisy. The stripped parts had long since been thrown out and the newly discovered amp was about to go to the tip. At the last minute I thought I'll just put it to one side as it's an old valve amp and who knows, it could be alright. In my shed/workshop I also have my old home built (rediculous) bass rig, a bi-amped set up with a pair of 15" celestions as the bottom end that is just in the way and will most likely never be used again due to size, a pre-amp/crossover, stereo graphic EQ and stereo power amp in a rack with a 2x10 for the high end and two 1x15s for the bottom, it used to have a 4x12 for the high end but that's just silly, right? 😁 Anyway it has virtually no resale value but has to go. So I have this gear in the way when I read Rubis' thread about his Ampeg-esque cab build a light bulb came on. I've always loved the Ashdown Drophead with the Little Bastard head, and the classic Ampeg fliptop, in fact any fliptop but have absolutely no use for one so could never justify buying one just because they're pretty. Then it dawns on me, I have an old valve amp and some lovely sounding celestions. I give the amp the once over inside and all seems OK and plug it into one of the 15" cabs, plug in a Precision and it sounds pretty good, albeit at low volume. So my mind's made up, I'm going to build a fliptop and re-house the amps internals to have the cool (or should that be hot?) bits on display and put it all in a new cabinet, it will hopefully be a nice combo to keep that doesn't take up much storage and won't cost very much, mainly just my time. The amp is a Dynacord Imperator which manages 80watts by putting 750volts through it's pair of EL34 valves, which would normally only produce 50watts. The amp query thread is here if anyone's interested, This is what I started with, and after some careful de-soldering, chassis cutting and most importantly labelling wires, this is where I'm at. I'm planning to build something along the lines of the classic look of the exposed transformers at either end with the valves in the middle all above a housing with the controls on. I'm no electrician, but I'm not stupid either, but as long as everything is wired back to where it came from, what can go wrong. It's only 750 volts after all. 🤪 Both the amp and speaker, from quick research, seem to be early 70s so it's nice to pair them being a similar vintage. Anyway enough rambling, I just thought if I start this thread then I'll have more incentive to carry on, I'm in no hurry so this may take a while though.

My great-niece wanted to learn guitar. She's left-handed and left-footed at everything. I told my niece to get her a lefty guitar. Left-handed guitar arrives. Great-niece insists on playing it right-handed. 😞

Bassists. Cos we are the best.

Add to that the dreaded 3/ Oh you are left-handed? Nah, just learn right-handed, it's always difficult at the start anyway, and there are more right-handed models available on the market. [More or less the equivalent of: 'Oh, you are gay? Nah, only sleep with the opposite sex from now on, it'll make your life easier']

This is where experience really comes into its own. Someone doing this the first time might naively think that the original finish has been removed But not so. The experienced know that there are eons of tortuous sanding sessions after which your fingers have been worn down to stumps and everyone refers to you as The Dust Man in your vain attempt to actually reach bare wood through the fiendish sealing coats that guitar and bass manufacturers put on for the express purpose of deterring maniacs such as Andyjr1515 who wish to attack their beautiful products. Or in short...quite a bit more to do but at least the green is off

If the feet are too short it has the same effect as being too close to the wall with rear ports, although what happens probably isn't what you might think. When the distance is short enough the space between the speaker and the floor/wall becomes an extension of the port, lowering the tuning frequency of the cabinet. That's not a good thing. OTOH a well engineered bottom ported cab would take advantage of this and make the feet the right size so that the length of the port inside the cabinet could be shortened, allowing a reduction in the cabinet size.

This is my favourite photo of me. Mainly because my lovely Shuker is in it but my face isn't.

For me BC is a font of knowledge about basses, amps, pedals, equipment, recording, ohms, etc, I’ve learned so much from here, any questions anyone asks is answered , there’s everyone from bedroom bassists to professionals, it’s a great community, full of great people , where everyone can have their say 🙂

Basschat hasn't been the same since The Big Beef Chief was banned ...

Well, what a morning. Spoke to a guy at Sims (apparently Martin is a bit part-time these days and wasn't there but their paint guy spoke to me). So, bass dismantled but poly finish left on for them to strip, then poly new colour, approx £650. Nitro add 50% to the paint part, comes in about £870... fork a duck. As an aside spoke with Mark at Limelight recently and he will do me a 60s LPB Precision for a grand, so for £130 more than a nitro refin I'd get a whole extra bass - and a right nice one too. SO> spoke (well FB'd) David Wilson - we're on. Around £310-ish for a full strip and nitro refin solid colour (3TSB may be more, dunno). He sounds ace, nice work on FB page. 6 - 8 weeks but I'll get some pics of the body in it's current black and then WIP and back in the LPB - just to share experiences and spread the word. As usual on BC, if you ask for help you get it quick, good and true. Big thanks to all above👍 The Limelight will need to wait... sorely tempting tho'

Why don't you just take some bass lessons and join a band - its the best way to improve your playing and you can learn the rest as you go along.

Mine came through today. Really good fun. Here's a quick demo having spent 5 minutes with it:

So, The Last Resort gig happened last night and we had a blast. The Deacon P sounded fab - not just my opinion, the sound guys thought so too 😀. I'm not quite sure how many thousands we raised. I think they're still counting. Hard to choose a favourite from the 6 songs we played, but this one does have a certain grin factor to it.

Took the tiddler to see Frozen II this morning. It was, of course, a properly good Disney romp and perfectly targeted at its demographic. The big songs are equally bombastic as Let It Go and will be torturing parents for months to come. BUT by far the best thing was that the creators have sneaked the ultimate 1980s rock power ballad video right into the centre of the film. One of the characters, Christoph, sings an “I’ve lost my girl” tear jerker called “Lost In The Woods” which musically and visually pulls out every Total Eclipse Of The Heart, I Wanna Know What Love Is, Against All Odds cliche... from the framing of an opening shot in the forest which has a branch and pine cone in the foreground so it looks like the character is singing into an old valve condenser mic on a boom stand, to the walking in and out of rays of light.... from a close up with the character’s hair blowing just right in the breeze as he stares off into the distance to the silhouette of a lost love in the distance which turns out just to be a shadow... it was all there perfectly done. None of this would possibly resonate with an 8 year old but this middle aged bloke was grinning from ear to ear. And then when the Bo Rhap style choir of reindeer turned up in spotlights around Christoph’s head I nearly wet myself laughing! Well played Disney. I’ve already suggested to @cetera that he should include it in the set list for the Rock Anthems and Power Ballads show, “Leather & Lace”, with which he tours the country!

Liked the FB page

Teachers are as prone to prejudice as anyone. The problem is that they are in a position to influence/affect others with those prejudices. Re comments above about using the stronger hand on the fretboard, I've always understood that the stronger hand should be the one that creates the rhythm/timing. If you're right handed, try holding a solid rhythm with your left. Not easy (unless you play drums/percussion and have already trained both your hands).

Hey Andy, is that THE Eden as in David Eden of amplifier fame? If so then even if the necks are made in China they should be subjected to a pretty good quality control regime in the US before being shipped out to customers. Great to see the body trimmed down btw - exactly as I wanted it! With band-sawing skills like yours you're in the wrong job mate. Ever thought of a career in brain surgery? I think the the trans-black body finish with replacement ebony scratchplate (or even a combination of part ebony/part pearlescent?) will be the game-changer in terms of how the finished bass looks. Yeeee-haaaa 👍

I don't like sleeves, but the folded cardboard 'cases' are pretty cool and give you an opportunity to add a few pictures, messages, whatever. For example, here's the one we did in 2015:

Have you seen his avator animation. I would be too !!

I once had an extended - and heated - argument on this very topic with a fellow tutor (who was a senior figure in the Registry of Guitar Tutors) through the pages of the Registry's monthly newsletter-cum-magazine. In the end the editor had to step in to put a stop to it because he insisted on being a complete d*ck about it. It's bad enough when a jobbing tutor comes out with something that crass, but for a senior figure in the country's primary professional body at the time to be spouting it was - and is - unforgiveable. That was 20 years ago, and one would like to hope that we've become a bit more open-minded about it since then...

Agree, if someone finds an instrument they gel with, and learn to play it, irrespective of make or technique then well done to them. 1 - Nowt wrong with an Epi Les Paul, some of them are great guitars, virtually all of them are good. 2 - Plectrums, add Bruce Foxton & JJ Burnell into the mix, neither are particular slouches in bass, and using a plec doesn’t seem to have held them back.

Some pictures of the process.

Um, try applying the same logic to playing right-handed then. Your right hand is the stronger hand, isn't it? So it should be on the fretboard, shouldn't it? So most guitar or bass players should play what we call left-handed instruments, shouldn't they?

I had a chance to flick through the most popular c4 presets at gig volume today. Mind. Blown. Sounds insane. Incredibly inspiring to play with some of the sounds!

A stock neck. Aw, never mind. That last photo has made up for it.

He's certainly speshul...

Thats the way I regard things. I admire achievement and ability but am never envious of it - in a world full of people who have achieved more and with greater ability my life would filled with envy and negativity 😂.

The plus point is that you have a captive audience and a lot more punters than would normally be in the venue. It happened to us a couple of gigs ago, it was a couples wedding anniversary in the pub/restaurant and we had a great night.

Aah yes! It's tricky. But worth it in the end - you don't want to end up like SkinnyMan, now do you?! ⏪ Skinnyman earlier today

Oops - sorry about that - however looks and sounds great 👍

Yep it's a great cab. Very nearly picked up another at a bargain price but it had some unspecified fault which the bargain price wasn't quite bargain enough to tempt me. A little 4x8 stack with the 250w head would, I fancy, rattle some glass.

Hmmm, was just thinking of moving my sub on. Don’t like the sound of this sellers remorse.

All download codes stickered and sent off for adding to the Vinyl art shrink wrap. So, to use up the rest of the download codes, an experiment is to print up 100 to sell at gigs, like the vinyl inserts, these same download code stickers go on a nice 8” piece of glossy card for that “something to look at/something to take home and stick it on the fridge or in the record collection” totem. These can also be added to press packs and as giveaways. Vistaprint had a 50% off voucher so these cost me about 68p each to produce. which is about what Bandcamp/PayPal takes from every online sale of a £4 EP. PS sorry if this is old hat to some of you, I’m really new to this and sharing the process.