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Uh oh

It's not so much smugness as an air of 'Look at me. I'm in control not only of my instrument but also of my life and everything going on in it. That's because - at my core - I'm a stable, well-adjusted person to whom integrity and authenticity are more important than financial gain or transient popularity'. So, basically, the mating signal of the (current) younger generation and one which musos integrate into their recordings and performances the better to engage with their audience. It's the old 'dress and act like your punters only 10% more'. Permit me to expand. Crudely speaking, I am of the second 'rock muso' generation where both musos and male consumers (sometimes) attracted sexual partners through displays of an unbridled, nay, rampant masculinity reminiscent of Vikings on a North Sea cruise. Fast cars, random destruction of property, indiscriminate porking, heavy consumption of recreational narcotics including but not limited to Heineken lager, cheap bourbon, red leb and pills. Girlies liked that sort of (falsified) image or so we thought. Bands sold their records off the back of it. The third generation was all about 'Oh, I'm so sad, I'm crying, everything's all too much, it's all black sheets of rain. I might sometimes play loud, discordant guitar but underneath I'm just a little boy who's grazed his knee and wants mummy to kiss it better then, if possible, work upwards'. That's everyone from Cobain through to the afore-mentioned Sheeran*. The current Gen 4 is all about character and identity and moderation and dressing down and having the latest app, and looking all buttoned-up and extremely unlikely to make a sudden lunge for the jubblies, this on the basis that to do so would be a shameful loss of control and antithetical to the ethical framework of their lives. Basically, it's a way of looking un-threatening and a bit superior to the norm, and those who practice this modus operandi undoubtedly do so in the hope of enhancing their chance of playing 'sink the brisket' with whomsoever may be the object of their interest. Punters do it to get shagged; musos do it to build an audience. It's not a bad tactic though no more likely to succeed than those which preceded it.. One awaits Gen 5 with interest. Will those musos go further down the route of restraint? Will they dress like 1950's Dads, embrace temperance and write letters to The Church Times expressing their disquiet at mounting evidence of moral degradation? Or will they throw caution to the wind, don buttock-less leather trousers, neck meths and sing songs about dining at the Y? I do not know but I think we should be told. * I instance Cobain and Sheeran because they both sit (sat) on the cusp between eras. Cobain started as the wigged-out junkie and ended as the poor little dead boy. Sheeran started as a whiner but has transitioned to self-obsessed, socially-conscious 'entrepreneur'.

How desperately sad. The finest blues guitarist the UK produced. IMHO.

If you’re talking Fenders there’s some info with a little illustration here.

At @Al Krow’s suggestion I thought I’d share a few pics of my first (probably not the last) Ibanez. In this case, an SR1345B... I took it to rehearsal tonight and it’s by far the easiest five string I’ve ever played. I got a little lost on a couple of songs but that was mainly because I was thinking about alternative hand positioning and just lost my place in the song. I think it’ll take a week or so before I’m fully fluent and confident with the extra string but this is just so much easier than any other fiver I’ve tried before. I haven’t played around with the EQ very much - that’s the next thing to try. Tonight was all about getting used to the extra string and to the feel of a different bass. Very pleased indeed....

I recently picked up this Westone Spectrum out of curiosity. Westone seem to have a loyal following with lots of people suggesting they punch way above their weight. To be honest I didn't have massively high expectations, but wow what a bass! The build quality is amazing and it feels really solid, despite only weighing 3.7kg. The tuners look like Gotohs and are really substantial, the painted neck is silky smooth and a joy to play. The two most notable elements for me however are that it sounds amazing acoustically, really resonant and punchy, and secondly is that it almost plays itself. Seriously top notch playability. I always spend ages tweaking the action of a new bass to get it how I like it, but this was totally gig-able straight out of the box! The only two negatives for me are that the standard bridge has really long grub screws on the saddles which I found to be a hindrance as I like to palm mute a fair bit. This was easily rectified by throwing a Wilkinson bridge on, which fitted perfectly. The second, and the reason for this thread, is that when I play over the pickup the sound of my fingers hitting the pickup cover can be heard through my amp. Any ideas how to get around this? I can't imagine there's a drop in replacement as it's a bit of a mad design...

Sad, but not surprised. When I saw him at the Union Chapel about 10 years ago he was then the same age that I am now, i.e. 63. I like to think that I can pass for mid-50s. Peter could have passed even then for mid-70s, barely able to stand up, quite unable to solo. An enormous loss. I'll raise a glass to him this evening.

I need the actual bridge to work out the neck angle - and so it was time to make the bridge. I got hold of a bog-standard 12 string guitar bridge as much to check the peg stagger as anything. The bouzouki bridge will end up around 10mm narrower. I then did a number of sketches of bridge shapes on photos of the top to see if anything jumped out relating to the overall shape. Of all of them, this was the most pleasing - just adding more of a curve at the back to give a passing nod to the rosette shape: And after some stuff with band saws, chisels, microplanes, cabinet scrapers and sandpaper, this is it in the ebony. Bit of tidying up to do when the light's better but I think this will look quite nice:

Sorry, but when the dancers came into shot I genuinely thought it was going to be French & Saunders, I laughed out loud. Probably says a little too much about me, sorry. I like the bass tone, and the drumming is great, but am not getting the current wave of instrumental bands of obviously highly talented musicians playing what sounds to my ear like 1970's lift music. There also seems to be a generic vibe about them all, a certain aesthetic in visual style from the physical surroundings to the body language and facial expressions of the musicians. Perhaps I'm just in bad mood, I'll have to go back to the bit when the dancers come in again

Did you sound like him when he holds it?

An hour ago, I was actually holding Pino's red Precision. Seriously.

Oh yes, just found it. Any thread that starts with "You might wanna go grab a sandwich" has to be good! Thanks!

Updates! Took the clamps off the neck, planed a reference face and then thicknessed the neck flat. Then it was the first squeeky bum time moment... cutting the scarf joint. I have chosen to do a scarf joint on this bass primarily for joint strength and getting a good grain direction within the headstock area, also means my timber stock is half the size. I made a couple of prototypes with the angle cut from a single block... the short grain edge looked awful and the waste was criminal. To make this task easier and more accurate I've made a simple 13 degree jig that runs up against my fence I can clamp the board square to the jigs face and table and slowly guide the neck through... So far so good... To clean up the joint faces I've made this 13 degree router jig, the timber rather than the router sits on a 13 degree angle plane as I found this easier to work, once I have the timber lined up I can clamp it in place and whittle the cut face down with a palm router. The routing leaves a nice level surface ready for sanding. Cleaned up a treat. Repeat the process for the other side and then check the fit, This surfaces closes up nicely under hand pressure so on to the gluing! It's in there somewhere... The biggest worry with the neck was making sure that once I'd flipped the board over for the scarf joint that the timbers still ran parallel to each other, If i'd have made one side of a laminate thicker than the other side then the mirrored pieces wouldn't line up... apart from the Zebra wood grain on the bottom laminate not running through the rest actually look really good. Joint closed up really nicely with no gaps... phew. Next: I've got another squeeky bum day... routing the cavities for the truss rod and carbon rods (probably not needed but hey ho) truss rod access will be on the body end and not the headstock (I don't like truss rod covers). If time allows I'll mark up the neck's tapering angles and prepare it for cutting... luckily it'll be nice and easy to see the cutting line with the white pencil on the Wenge... Thanks for everyone having a read or peak at the pics.

Context; Like a lot of people, lock-down has allowed for a little extra "me" time, and, provided me the opportunity to indulge in my hobbies a little more... I've always loved woodwork, me and my Grandad when I was really little would spend a lot of time in his garage workshop making anything and everything from wood. Recently I have been wanting to buy a new bass, but while looking at loads of options I just couldn't shake the thought that I could just make my own bass? In general I know how things are made, I know how to work wood... I should maybe just give this a go... In may I started working on my design in CAD and subsequently built 6 basses from redwood, refining and working out the design. These redwood basses made me realise just how many things there are to consider while building the instrument and highlighted just how many things can quickly go wrong and destroy a build (Routers anyone?) , I highly recommend to anyone wanting to build an instrument that they start in cheaper and easier to work timbers and work the complicated stuff out before you chip in to your expensive stuff, it took me 6 attempts to get things worked out completely. So with the Redwood stuff done I'm now ready to start the final bass. Build; This is the basic CAD data for the bass I'm looking to build; I'm building this bass at the weekends and most evenings after work so I hope that updates will be pretty rapid and daily. I was keen to use a mix of my favorite woods on this bass, the neck is a 7 piece laminate, an Ovangkol heart, with a Wenge, Zebrano, Wenge sandwich either side. The fingerboard will be Wenge and the body will be Swamp Ash with a Wenge top cap or tone center, haven't decided yet as the swamp ash looks lovely against the neck woods and I'd hate to hide that with a Wenge top, while a Wenge slice in the middle would look lovely. I'll work it out later. First thing I did was rip the timbers down to rough size, giving myself enough tolerance to plane them to final thickness. I flipped the Zebrano strips to mirror each other which gives me, in my opinion, a really cool chevron look, This will be the bass body end so it's not hidden by the fretboard. I got the rip downs pretty accurate with the saw, could probably have cleaned them up with a hand plane, but I'm going to throw these on the planer thicknesser and give my arms a rest. I really love the sandwich, to my eyes it looks great. The Ovangkol heart is the perfect aesthetic compliment to the Zebrano / Wenge pieces. The Swamp ash was cut and planed and looks lovely against the neck woods, hopefully you can see now, why I don't want to cover this with Wenge! But... if I do pop a Wenge top on the Ash, this is the board I have bought for that, It has really lovely grain and is lighter in appearance than the neck timber Wenge so might create a lovely contrast. It'll only be a small top cap however, approx 5mm thick as this plank weighs a bloomin' tonne. This is the Wenge for the fretboard, fantastic grain, Think this will sand up and saw brilliantly, it's a fantastically stable piece. Got all of the neck laminates through the planer thicknesser leaving about 6mm tolerance in max width so I can pass the entire glue up through the thicknesser again to get the final thickness. Glue up of the neck is a bit of a nightmare, boards like to move all over and I had more than a couple of accidents in the redwood basses, so lesson learned here is to leave as much wiggle room as possible and then plane and thickness the whole assembly after. I Put as many clamps as i possibly could on the glue up and used belt clamps to pull the underside of the boards level as they love to move, on the next bass I build I'm going to look to bolt the ends of the boards so no movement can occur, but this glue up is definitely the hardest bit of gluing on the build, my coffee was well and truly cold after I finished gluing up so note to self and others make your coffee after glue up! The boards are sitting pretty well in the glue up, should only need minor work to get this face ready as my reference face and then I can whittle down the thickness tomorrow! So tomorrow, clamps off, quick clean up, plane, thickness, and then depending on how much time I have and how I'm feeling confidence wise I might start the scarf joint. Thank you for looking at the build and having a read.

Mrs Saints bought me an early birthday present, a cheap 3/4 size German bow just to see how I got on. It's like night and day. Previously I was struggling to finish Ex 2 in the Simandl tutor without pain with the French bow. With the German bow, it's much more musical and there's a lot less tension in my hand. It's not perfect, but at least I can practice to make it perfect now. Thanks for all the advice.

Here’s my squier. It’s ace

I do too, but there is no guarantee that it is the same tone. I didn't quote any names of bassists at all, so I think you are talking about someone else. I don't know who Mr Paul Jackson is, I just googled and he appears to be a consultant at sports and exersize medicine for a private health company. I am guessing he can probably afford a good bass then! And if a Squier can provide it to you at say $200, would that not be fantastic? I would get about 4000 different answers. Well, actually about 40 answers, then the thread would veer off into types of cheese, and whether one of the people on the forum was visiting their mother enough. Absolutely, you seem to believe your opinion on a sound or an instrument is something that can be described as a fact, rather than an opinion. In fact you still seem to believe there is such a thing as a fact about a sound or feeling. Round he we don't accept anything as a fact until you end the sentence with FACT. Its the rules.

I know penniless violinists who own £10,000 plus instruments. I know one violinist who has a long term loan from an investment company...don’t really know the ins and outs. I’m not wealthy by any stretch, but I’ve got some nice basses. I work, and I put away and buy what I want when I can. I want to try a Tom Stenback Bass - they’re about £6000, and it’d take a windfall or lottery win to get one. They’re Fender “copies” - really fancy one though. Each to their own. Life is way too short - I’m enjoying my £6.99 bottle of wine. I know some folks won’t spend less than £10 on a bottle and I’ve got mates who drink lambrini. End result is the same. And nobody in my band’s audience gives 2 plops wether I’m playing a Sadowsky (which in reality looks like a Squier p/j) or a banjo.

Out of sheer monkey curiosity, what's the Italian for 'Troll'?

Our guitarist is still using the same plastic mothers pride bread bag ties that he has had since the mid 70's!😜

Well the audition went pretty well as far as I could tell and I got some positive feedback from them afterwards. They're going to wait until after the weekend before they get together to discuss it as I wasn't the only person they saw but will let me know early in the week. It was good fun and I enjoyed playing something different. All seemed like really nice people too. Truthfully, as a band themselves they aren't really up to the standard of my existing band (which I feel very lucky to be part of) but still pretty decent as far as a side project would go. I'll be happy if I get the gig but not devastated if not. 🙂

He sadly wasn't a well man for a very long time. McVie always said he wasn't the same person after being spiked with LSD back in the 60s. I saw him not long after he first resurfaced after being away a long long time. He was rusty and a little confused but could still deliver that distinctive tone. His rhythm section that night in a tiny club was Cozy Powell and Neil Murray. Slightly surreal. RIP Man of the World.

It’s not long enough 😁

One of the greats, for me. Playing, singing, tremendous songs too. And that tone.......

Very sad to hear this. At his peak his playing was sublime and he was a very humble man. RIP Peter.

Yep, I was going to make a reference to Jazz musicians but IMO most of the good ones don;t look smug in the way a lot of modern players appear to (huge generalisation I know). But I felt I've seen the consistent smugness somewhere before. Folk! Bloody folk! Specifically Transatlantic Sessions which we used to watch as a band occasionally and wet ourselves at just how smug a bunch of musicians could look. I remember one set where the DB player was holding down about as rudimentary a root-5th pattern as is possible whilst pulling the sort of faces you've expected of Mingus when pulling out some of the most physically demanding and musically complex DB possible. Very entertaining

Got to add June Tabor to that list.

Yes ... I found his fingers in the gigbag and it was all there.

When the rest of the bass playing world wakes up to the fact of HB's astonishing ability to turn out flawless instruments and flog them at a 5th of the price of the competition, there will be more than a few manufacturers looking nervously over their shoulders. This is another beauty. Not 'good for a beginner' or 'OK considering the price point' or 'will do for a back up' or 'good as a start point for a mod' or 'might be OK once I replace every working part of it'. No. It's just great, straight out of the box, no qualification, no prevarication. It's beautifully finished, plays like a dream balances and sounds like a a P Bass. 42mm at the nut, no sharp edges, no dead spots, beautiful 3ply tort plate, no buzzing, no blemishes. And a laughable price tag. *sigh* in love again. Happens all the time.

Bands are like buses. There will almost always be a passenger.

I shall keep my eyes peeled. Anyone would think I spent all day looking at basses on eBay 😂

Congrats on your new bass day! Its just getting used to it isn't it. Remember you don't have to force yourself to use the other string, just before you know it you will find out certain things become easier, then one day you go to a gig and realise you can't remember how you play it on a 4. That is why I am getting rid of my 4s! I don't tend to use the EQ live unless I need to correct something, like if the building is over boomy I will turn the bass down a bit. It is versatile and functional, just not really that much of a fiddler.

@krispn - seems like using the SY-1 is child's play! Clip posted on the TB SY-1 thread, in organ mode, of one of the guys with his son. Sweet!

Basses are worth what people will pay for them, which reflects multiple factors, just like any consumer good. Jimmy Coppolo has a great reputation as a luthier (even though there has been the odd QC issue, as Paulie noted - in fact I owned one of the basses he mentioned and should note it was a prototype). His basses have a certain cache and strong advocates, as do Ken Smith's, Foderas, Alembics and do on. I mean, is a used Wal really worth £5k? Different strokes for different folks. All of which is stating the obvious! As Jack says, maybe try playing one? They are very nice instruments indeed. I don't own one any more but I would also (like Jack) love to have another play on the antigua KBP5 we each owned at one point (I sold it to pay for a double bass)

This listing was ended by the seller because there was an error in the listing.

And another Jeff Berlin transcription. This is from an 'In The Studio with Jeff Berlin' video off YouTube and features JB recording the head for 'Joe Frazier Round Three'. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/joe-frazier-round-three-jeff-berlin/

He has a lisp? He’s a messiah, I should know, I’ve followed a few

Dear all, here the final design of the EVO-4 Bass Bridge Weight: 145 grams Licensed by Jens Johnsen Patent : USA: 5,295,427 Germany: P4201438.1

Not sure if this helps put your wound and guitarist's incident into perspective; but this is a bad day:

I don’t think there’s anything left to say here. I suggest you two get in the phone and chat instead of sniping via the forum. I hope you manage to find a solution and can both put this to bed. Thanks

Loved this. Lovely bass groove too which is probably why I like it so much.