Leaderboard

We all do gigs that after a while just blend one into the other, but last night was an evening I'll never forget. The band has set up and were relaxing in a side room when the drummer looked through the window and shot out of his chair like a rocket. We all followed him to the front door and met Clem Cattini and his wife, Clem was the drummer of the Tornados, the group that recorded Telestar, one of the sound tracks of my childhood Clem was the complete gentleman, he signed the drummer's Ludwig drum and talked with us for ages. Clem recorded Shaking All Over, No milk today (Hermans Hermits), early Kinks tracks and dozens of other famous songs in the 60's. He introduced John Lennon to BIlly Fury when the Beatles were the Silver Beatles, the list goes on and on. It was his birthday the day before, so we sang happy birthday for him, he looked genuinely pleased. At the end of the night Clem thanked us for playing and said how much he enjoyed the band, I'll never forget how friendly he is how he just talked with us all as if he was one of the gang. He's written a book about his career which I've ordered this morning God bless you Clem, thank you for a memorable evening which I'll never forget

That’s an impressive achievement. Although Carol Kaye will probably claim some of those were her😃

It's a personal choice. I choose not to wear or use it.

This is a thread I started a few months ago as a NBD, but as usual it's turned into something more suited to the Build Diaries section. So here it is 😁. I bought an Epiphone acoustic guitar today for a workmates daughter, and while I was chatting to the seller he said he had an old 80s bass that needed some sorting. We'd spoke about fixing up cheap old gear and he thought it would be right up my street, and I was welcome to it if I wanted it, as it was just in the way. We met at his workplace (a really cool place that makes vintage pressed number plates, full of really old machinery BTW 😎) so he didn't have it with him but he said he send some pictures. Well he just has and it's an old Kay version of the 80s Aria SB/Westone Thunder type of bass. Natural wood, neck through PJ, active electrics by the look of the switching. I've been after a bass in this style for a while and am over the moon with his offer. I'll pick it up in the week hopefully, and give him something for it anyway. Bored yet? Yes? OK, pictures then. Any info about these basses gratefully received. Plywood wings and presumably heavy as hell. I'll update when I've got it. 🙂👍

Mostly good now. With a 470R cathode resistor, plate dissipation is now just over 46% of max. This is somewhat on the cool side but I'm not hearing any crossover distortion. I'm going to order some 330R and 390R 10W resistors in case I need to warm it up a bit. Having read that current production rectifier valves don't cope as well as they might with reverse voltages, I tried installing some SS diodes in series to protect the GZ34, but the amp didn't seem to like that so I took them out again. Still might try a choke in place of the first dropping resistor, and/or a small dropping resistor before the first node... Here's some nice pictures of the completed amp with its BF playmate.

Just to prove how these threads can turn your head, today I bought a RM 500 from Musik Produktiv for the rather decent price of £254. Should pair up ok with my ABM Mini 2 x 10 running at 4 ohms. Always fancied one of those heads, just need some gigs now!

Yesterday I spent 13 hours in a pub. This was due to me being part of the organising team for a multi-act day raising money for two food banks. I arrived at 11 to help setup and left at 1am after gear breakdown. I played in four different bands during the day, not all of them planned, due to the inevitable no-shows. The photo is from one of the pre-planned slots, the Daz Kelly Band. I’m playing my wonderful Swift Lite made by our own @Andyjr1515. Sadly, Daz is one of those musicians who thinks wearing a hat indoors looks cool. 😉

I played an outdoor festival locally that was very well attended. The whole band are great players and we were very rehearsed - I still surprised myself with how good it sounded on the clips I have seen. Negative LF test today too, so win win!

Hey! This is what I was looking for while shopping for a Special, and couldn't found anything similar at the time. Now I had a chance to made one which can maybe help someone decide between ''old'' Ray or Special. No talk, no procrastination just a sound test. I hope you enjoy it 😉.

Bit more progress. First, I made a mod to my thickness callipers. They had flat pads and that made it pretty much impossible to check the thickness across the area of the back or sides because the slightest angle would open up the jaws and give a false reading. I had a rummage in my 'general bits' box and found these caps from some old mirror fixing screws: Out with the dremel to cut away the screw, in with the 30 minute epoxy and now the calipers work perfectly And to thinning the back and sides from the supplied 3.5mm to the planned final thickness of 1.9mm. I'm sure there are better ways but, in the absence of a sander thicknesser, this is the best way for me. My little block plane: Then, once it was within 0.1mm or so of the target, smoothed out with the Mirka: Next was bending the first side and end: And, after lots of checking, using the long reach clamps to force the back into the radius- dish shape to glue it and the similarly shaped braces. Finally a reinforcement block for the florentine and we have a self-supporting curved back and the basic components done waiting for some kerfed (slotted) internal linings and the ebony top And, as I'm waiting for the kerfed strip, no excuse, I suppose, for starting the whole process again for the other side

Guilty! I bought the bass in January 2011 from Bass Direct (I haven't checked the neck pocket for an inscription...). I remember playing another Nordy that didn't feel as good, and I still haven't found any other 5-string with a neck that's anywhere near as comfortable. The bridge pickup became faulty a few years ago, Nordstrand were amazingly helpful; they rewired the pickups and sent me a new set of Big Splits to try for free. Great company to deal with and it's a shame that Carey doesn't seem to be making these basses any more. @NJE Thank you for the kind words, glad to hear that people like the stuff I hurl at the internet!

Plywood? Looks like pine. I'd say it's passive, 2 vols, 2 tones and a switch like a Les Paul. It reminds me of some Ekos from that era. Nice catch.

Oh well. We’re now the proud owners of a baritone. I had a band get together at the house yesterday. Drank my body weight in Elvis Juice and agreed to buy one from A local Facebook seller

Well that seems to be sorted. Conclusion - the rectifier valve was the problem. I've now binned it. I've done a quick playing test and confirmed it still sounds just as good. The hum/buzz is still there and persists when the PI valve is pulled, so I'm going to try altering the lead dress around the 6L6s. I'm also going to dial the bias down a bit with a higher-value cathode resistor.

The BL12-200x are about as flat as you're going to get in that enclosure. What you call very warm I'd call a weak low end, as its response is -10dB at 55Hz. That's not the fault of the drivers, it's what you're going to get from a sealed enclosure that small. If what you're after is stronger lows you've got to go larger. If I had to use that enclosure I'd load it with one Eminence BP122. It would be -10dB at 36Hz, and one BP122 in that enclosure would be capable of more output than two BL12-200x.

Interesting idea.

Their arrangement of Midnight at the Oasis was sublime -a really essential cover to learn for any aspiring bass player 🙂

I think I'm also fed up with being caught up on frequency wars with guitarists! I've just become more interested in the low end, rather that the treble bite I've always chased. I've always been guilty of 'attacking the instrument.....rather than less is more. Playing 1000 notes a minute. Another aspect has been my learning to re-appreciate the groove....bass on Miles' 'Jack Johnson', for example. Really solid. Made me re-evaluate where I was, and wanted to go as a player.

"Can I have the strings a bit earlier in my headphones....". I think that was a Clem retort to an engineer back in the day. A session legend. A two part interview below...

They're very concerned about others trying to steal their intellectual property. 🤨

It has begun. I almost changed my mind and left it as it was... but then I had a gin and changed my mind again. The finish was thick and not easy to remove, but I'm happy with what I found underneath! If you need me I'll be sanding on the balcony.

Or not - China is the biggest exporter of leather, and get through an average of 2 million cats and dogs to produce it as you can't tell the difference anyway. And in that case is the primary source then, any meat is a byproduct. And even without that, the opposite, if you don't buy leather it will reduce the value of leather and reduce the value in killing cows. I am not vegan, or even vegetarian, but if there is a choice where both options are as good, I will go for the vegan option.

My Neptune Blue and the Starry Night now with the matte black pick guards on them.

They aren’t ply, and yours still has the truss rod cover which is normally missing , solid brass nut and brass dot markers ,not sure if the knobs are original, nice 👍

Think @Reggaebass had something similar a while back... thru neck... and those fret markers jog my memmory - brass? Found It...

I picked up the Epiphone acoustic today and have just finished setting it up for my mate's daughter. Tidied the fret ends and rounded the binding edge slightly, polished all the frets and burnished the binding so it's all silky smooth. Took the saddle and nut down a touch and took some relief out of the neck so it's a bit easier on little fingers. It now plays so easily and feels really comfy. Sin of all sins I oiled the fretboard 😉, polished the body and fitted the new strings that came with it. For £80 it's a magnificent guitar and really looks like new, well it was only 12 months old anyway. Hopefully she'll be over the moon with it. And just to prove karma is out there, after chatting with the seller and saying I was a bassist (after displaying my embarrassing guitar playing) he said he had an old 80s bass that needs some fixing, but I was welcome to it if I wanted it. He's just sent me some pictures of it and it's an old Kay (here we go again 😆). It's a natural wood, neck through PJ in the Aria SB, Westone Thunder style. Another fun project awaits.

I've got that strap. It's so good I got two more. Mansons have been great at getting me whichever I fancied off the RightOn website, whether they stock it or not. As for the vegan aspect.... I'm not vegan, I wear leather shoes etc. But it's just a very good strap. And if it's in some way, environmentally or ethically "better" than I'm OK with that.

It’s a bit bigger than that. 27” scale B-b it’s like a super jumbo jumbo

Of course it does. Especially since it has to be done as well on the basses I mentioned which are at 3 to 4x as much as this price point. Single coils do hum. In any instrument. Musicman solves this by adding a dummy pickup in their HS models that does nothing but cancel out hum.

You are @Leonard Smalls and I claim my £5..! ...

Not my favorite cover and certainly not my favorite Shakespeare bass line Grace Jones - Love is the drug | Robbie Shakespeare

I don’t have the focusrite, I have a pretty basic old M-Audio interface (M-Audio Fast Track, the original version), and I run bass -> BDI -> interface using the guitar in rather than XLR in. I then have my headphones plugged into direct monitoring on the interface rather than monitoring through GarageBand which always has enough of a lag to mess with my head when I’m playing 😂

it might be worth splashing out a paltry £20 and getting one of these , they come in handy in loads of situations anyway (amp failure during a gig for example). It will also boost your passive signal. https://www.dv247.com/en_GB/GBP/Behringer-BDI21-V-TONE-BASS-/art-GIT0007406-000?campaign=GShopping/GB&ProgramUUID=5G_AqJarZwoAAAFl0FZyjI8V&gclid=CjwKCAjw64eJBhAGEiwABr9o2BUwkzk5BLaz_DpkbPpUm1DWN3MRd8oJPMqtD1ufg5SvUbklyTIGJhoC_MsQAvD_BwE

Hey wad if you haven’t already listen to this one, there’s a nice track by jimmy London called , let them give you the money, I’m learning that one today, you might like it 🙂 it’s this one

It's a really interesting grain isn't it! Decided on oil, to showcase the grain

If I do , it's TC spectracomp.

you’ve heard me play then waddo 😁

Venetian Divorce ～ Steely Dän

Cheap, certainly but in no way nasty. I've been using Behringer stuff for years and have genuinely lost track of how many different bits of kit I've had. My bad experiences are limited to a BX3000 head (Ashdown clone) that developed a random cutting-out issue and some bargain basement headphones that were about as good as you'd expect £10 cans to be. I currently have & regularly use for various purposes: BD121 pedal, V-Amp pod clone, V-Amp Pro bass, micro headphone amp, powered monitors, X-Touch control surface, USB micro-mixer, Virtualizer rack multi-FX, UMC404 interface - and probably a few things I've forgotten. A lot of of it's here: It all does what it says on the label - I could have paid 40% or so more for 'proper' brands that did exactly the same things I suppose - but all I'd have would be less money for pies.

Bonkers.

I think it’s the imperfections that help to make the songs be as good as they are, as I’m sure there are similar in the guitars & drums. Sometimes being too perfect sterilises a song imo.

leave it... especialy the neck... it looks played..