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Is September 24th 1991 the greatest day in music history? No. I have almost no interest in any of those bands or records.

So now we can start looking forward to the next one 😊 The hall is booked for Sunday, October 9th, 2022 - so get that date in your diaries! Mike and the Scrumpettes

Poor Kurt. If only he'd been more entertaining and technically competent... he might have left some sort of legacy behind.

This is a very interesting observation. I agree that the NS design is so distinct and well though out that it is (and was) hard for Spector to veer away from it. I happen to love it more than any other bass designs and have currently 7 of them (US and Euros) and to be honest I never cared anything else Spector have or had like the X - sorry Gary- or Rex for example and when they introduced the Fender copy Coda I was just shaking my head. What I do believe is that unlike Fender Spector with its NS design has a lot more market potential as it is a lot less market share than the classic Fender and look-a-likes but once a player gets to play a NS in many instnces will be won over. The NS design is one of Spectors main strenghts and I think Korg is now able to have a lot bigger market penetration than what the limited means of Stuart and PJ had, even if the import lines already weren't handled by them. So for me it makes sense to concentrate on this as maby the die-hard Spector players will get tired but there is such a room to grow by reaching and convincing other players. The brand is strong, the heritage is strong so if the quality is kept with clever marketing and wider distribution this can be a new and succesful era.

Found this in my archives, its my home built pedal board from circa 1982. I built this from plywood and installed a power brick under the top panel to supply the Boss units and the Amdek distortion unit. The MXR comp limiter was mains powered and fed from an IEC on the back panel. The in/out jacks were XLR connectors. I ran it into a pair of 100w Marshall bass heads, and two 4x12's at the time.

Hi folks, I thought I'd post this up to track progress over the coming months. After far too long flirting with the idea, I finally pulled the plug on an ACG. I've had a lust for one since selling (and regretting it) my custom 32" scale Roscoe some years ago. These days, the cost of getting a Roscoe made to the spec of my old bass and shipping it to the UK is... astronomical. Something about 32" scale just works for me so well and despite trying to get back to playing 34-35" scale basses, it just wasn't working out for me. As such, I needed to turn my eye to other 32" scale options the wouldn't disappoint, so of course, I instantly turned to ACG. I'm a big fan of single cut shapes, so when Alan told me he had a Salace E Type currently in production that wasn't yet claimed I got quite excited. Add to this that he called it a 'test to see just how light that body shape could be'... colour me very interested. After exchanging some thoughts and spec discussion, I pulled the trigger. So, here is the spec... Salace E Type Headless 5 string (strung E-C) Paulownia body with Indian Cedar top 5 piece Ash/Purpleheart bolt on neck Wenge fingerboard with 30" radius Hipshot hardware (18mm string spacing) East Uni-Pre 4k preamp 2x ACG FB pickups, with a Wenge (to match the fretboard) ramp between them The body is well along and looking stunning. This body is currently sub 3lbs, meaning the final weight of the bass likely to come in far lighter than most basses I've ever played. As someone who has long term neck and shoulder issues, this is nothing short of exciting. Here is a pic. Note that it is the bottom of the 4 fretboards that I'm going with (the Wenge one). I'll post more updates and images as I have them over the coming weeks and months.

Interesting article about Flatwound strings.

Again the usual interesting assortment of tinny, scratchy, driven, fret-buzzing bass-lines that end up sounding so good in the mix. I don’t think I’ll ever be not amazed by this.

OK, here it is. Blurb: The image bought to mind the saying that kids at school used to say if they thought someone was looking at them - "do you want a picture?". As I was falling asleep the musical idea came. I decided to do something different - and recorded real drums, including my home-made suitcase bass-drum. Technical stuff Daw: Studio One Drums: Un-named car-boot snare, Gear-4-music floor tom, suitcase bass drum. Played with thunder rods. Bass: Vantage Guitars: Squier Tele, Vox Standard 25 Vox: Shure SM58

I have used Northwest Guitars' water-based denim blue stain. They suggest waiting 'a few weeks' for it to dry before over spraying with nitro lacquer. This seems excessive to me - I had no issues overspraying a body I first sprayed using blue ink with polyurethane after just a day or two. I realise the stain (applied with a sponge) will take a bit longer to dry as it soaks in deeper, but do I really need to wait that long? The stain works really well, BTW:

Well , 'twould appear the nights are drawing in and we have limped through to just past the autumn equinox and that means just one thing ... its the September Composition Challenge voting thread The compositions are based on this picture , chosen by last months winner @Doctor J The entries are as follows 1 @Dad3353 I'm in a sombre mood, and it reflects in the result. A bit dark; more 'black' than 'white', I'm afraid. Despite this, no kittens were hurt in the making of this piece. 2 @Nicko Pigeons. Dirty, Dirty things. I hate them. The death of Lee Scratch Perry was in my mind when I started this, so you'll be pleased or not to discover an attempt at Dub Poetry in the comp. 3 @Leonard Smalls Pigeons? They're Funky! So here's a bit of Old Skool rap/rock to reflect this 4 Lurksalot I googled the photo and found all the fodder I needed , of course this is Alain Delon , this led to a veritable mine of information, which I mostly ignored and took liberties ! 5 @Doctor J I have no specific ill will toward pigeons, unlike some of the other lads here, though I'd never fully trust one. From the perspective of the young gentleman looking through the lens, that pigeon would seem quite large. I thought of a conversation between Ted and Dougal about some cows. 6 @Nail Soup The image bought to mind the saying that kids at school used to say if they thought someone was looking at them - "do you want a picture?". As I was falling asleep the musical idea came. I decided to do something different - and recorded real drums, including my home-made suitcase bass-drum. 7 @upside downer I struggled to get a handle on this one. I went with a pop rock tune for a busy bunch of black and white birds and a bemused bloke. I for one really enjoyed listening through those , the production is getting better and better and I reckon some of those toons are worth real money ! Anyway if you just want to listen, rank them and offer 3 ticks in the appropriate boxes, I am sure it will be reward enough. the votes will close at midnight on 30th September Good luck and enjoy the toons

Just stumbled across this cracking selection of isolated original basslines. Interesting to hear the original recorded tones and playing behind some iconic lines: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEsDszgMi-LZBRKgKUeS6vg/search?query=bass Click on the 'Videos' tab to hear ALL the other isolated vocal, guitar, keys, etc etc audio files

Voting thread is go go go

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Hi! ESP 400 series are my favourite basses. I have 3 of them😊

It's strange how any discussion of HiFi especially when it comes to playing vinyl descends into some weird "willy-waving" one-upmanship of ever more ridiculous cost and complexity. It is in my nature to be suspicious of anything that requires massive amounts of money spent on it in order to be "properly" enjoyed. Ultimately it is the music and not the delivery medium or playback system that is important. For many years my music listening was done on a Dansette purchased from a junk shop in the mid 70s for £7, and which played one side of the stereo image considerably louder than the other, to the point that when I did finally get a decent hifi system it revealed all sorts of additional instruments I hadn't previously been aware of in the mix, and not always to the improvement of the music IMO, which all goes to show that we end up liking the sounds we are used to, and not necessarily those that are technically the best. These days I own reasonably decent Project turntable that is used for one purpose - to transfer recordings only available on vinyl to my computer. Then I can remove all the pops, clicks and other unwanted artefacts that will detract from my listening enjoyment. However this is not a simple or straight-foward process, and therefore I have found it more effective to buy the CD or digital download copy of anything I have only on vinyl and rip that instead.

And we've all failed to mention the most important thing about a 5 string which comes for free...that fantastic thumb rest (aka the B string) 😁

RHCP and Pixies both released their last good albums on the same day? It doesn't feel like 30 years.

An entirely rational and very reasonable explanation. Please proceed.

I noticed the copy of Up-Tight. The book about Velvet underground. I have a copy downstairs

I thought on the late Mark Sandman's birthday today, it would be appropriate to share the link to this excellent documentary. I came across Morphine in the early 90s and was really taken by this unique combination of a 2 string slide bass, two saxophones and drums. The documentary is really worth watching and I have to admit that I did not know much about Mark's story. Well, be warned, it is a pretty dark and sad story. It also features some talking heads, including Mike Watt who tells us what the role of the bassist in a band used to be in the old days (from 28:15). Check it out!

I haven't used the Hipshot drop D tuner, but for me down-tuning the E string to D makes it far to slack for my playing style. Therefore I've stuck with 5-strings with an extra-heavy low-B. You can try this for yourself by simply doing what I did which was to change the tuning of the E string and see if you can get on with the feel. I couldn't, nor could I find a compromise by going slightly heavier on the E (tuned to E it was too stiff and tuned to D to slack, but I am very particular about my string tensions/compliances and even when playing guitar, I have a separate instrument permanently tuned to drop D with an extra-heavy E string). Bear in mind that on a standard bass guitar string set, every 5 semi-tones of down tuning is handled by a string 20-25 thou heavier, so it shouldn't be surprising that using a single string to handle tunings two semi-tones apart is always going to be a bit of a compromise.

At the time, it felt like Nirvana had saved rock music.

If only Kurt had played a blazing Phrygian/Mixolydian hybrid picked lead line over Pennyroyal Tea instead of some 3 note feedback I'd have had way more respect for him! On a serious note, for kids my age in the late 80s/early 90s Nirvana were a revelation and opened up my eyes and ears to a whole new world of music I hadn't really been exposed to in the UK. People can argue the toss and compare Richard size about how they knew punk before it was punk or whatever, but to me punk rock was/is more about a mindset rather than a sound. Nirvana/Kurt had a huge range of musical influences and that melting pot created some stunning music and turned loads of people like me onto some truly great music. It was almost certainly the success that killed Kurt - he just wanted to be in a cool band who made music for people who loved music like he did. Sounds like he really hated all of the hangers on, the legions of new fans who really didn't know anything about them apart from what they saw on MTV/News channels, especially the frat boy fans who were proclaiming to be fans when a few years earlier would have been calling him names in the street. Some of their live shows were seismic shifts, some of them not great but that's the nature of the beast. But as far as not being able to hear a word he's singing, to paraphrase Wesley Snipes in White Men Can't Jump... "Look man, you can listen to Jimi but you can’t hear him. There’s a difference. Just because you’re listening to him doesn’t mean you’re hearing him."

It's a ridiculous argument... Both have merits, and both have problems. If you're looking for ultimate faithful-ness to the original recording, a 192KHz 24 bit digital medium is probably better than decent vinyl. But most folks are looking for what sounds nicest; that's why companies like Bosendorfer make speakers with sounding boards like their pianos in order to give a sound with pleasing resonances. And a good vinyl pressing played on a well-executed and set-up deck sounds at least as subjectively good and musical as any digital set-up. Some people may prefer one over the other, but to say vinyl doesn't sound good usually means that the person has never actually heard good vinyl, or is just reliving old memories of dirty crackly records humming with feedback and a filthy worn out cartridge. When I worked in BBC sound transfer one of our managers declared that "vinyl was not a broadcast medium". The entire department rounded on him, especially the two staff members who are now Trilogy Audio and Leema, made him listen to proper vinyl and as a result we actually got our knackered old Garard decks serviced ( or replaced with Technics), put into more isolating plinths, arms were set-up and Stanton DJ carts replaced. He didn't whinge about vinyl quality again, just made sure that decks were on the maintenance schedule...

Thanks! Why a Euro X? Well because I want some more , and more affordable versions of this bass in other colours lol!

Dan’s a very effective teacher I find. He’s expanded my still limited knowledge of musicianship no end. He adds lots of tidbits about stuff like that into the main idea of the lessons. Brown Mark (played with Prince) has a YouTube channel and his lessons are great because he’s a good laugh and teacher:

Those BC members old enough will remember similar goings on listening to the famous ‘The Troggs Tapes’.

Where the joint at the cone neck fails, if you do an analysis of the failure you will find that the glue itself was fine but the paper of the cone neck itself fails. This was before the industry recognized the need for reinforcing the cone necks in higher powered speakers, especially those with shallow cone profiles. Other manufacturers encountered the same thing, and one of my projects was the development of revised cones with reinforced necks for drivers that we had originally used throughout the company I worked for at the time. The surround separating from the basket is more likely a production problem rather than a glue problem, this is also something that every manufacturer has to deal with. The dust cap separating from the cone is also likely a production problem since the glue used for that bond was completely different from the other glues. Back then, there were 3 different adhesives used. There were also issues with the aluminum dust cap fatiguing and actually fracturing around the glue line because the MEK glue was so hard and there was too aggressive heat treatment of the aluminum. This too was an industry wide issue, and one reason why manufacturers moved away from aluminum dust caps. They must be very thin (IIRC it's about 0.003" (0.07mm) aluminum and it must be very stiff, therefore it must be heat treated to a high degree which makes it vulnerable to stress cracking. Even JBL had some issues over the years, and they were the first to successfully perfect the process.

BTW, @cetera, why do you want a Euro X Spectorbird? You already have one of the most stunning looking Spector(bird) basses of all time! 🤩

Kind of defeats the point of a kit but I jhave replaced the knobs with used ones and added nickle plated tuners and vintage bridge. Now I've gone and got a quilted maple body (a second, but I can't see the fault). Stained it blue today. Waiting for a Wilkinson j pup, and will be able to use the aged mint green scratchplate that wouldn't fit the original body.

JEDSON TELE.... the worlds worse bass, short scale or otherwise, and I love it! Barely a bass at a 24" scale! Jedson took it's tele guitar and just slapped on some bass hardware. The body is plywood and the neck looks like oak but I'm sure it can't be. Swapped a cheap Ibanez I wasn't getting on with for this just for a laugh as it was so different. It's such a bonkers thing to play that I find myself inventing new lines on it everytime I pick it up, it's quite the inspiration machine. However, looking at it critically for it's craftsmanship, it is truly appalling! I'm not sure what strings were supposed to be on this but the only way to make it work is to use either short scale nylon or baritone bass six strings, then run the strings through the body or there's too much to go on the tuning peg (the original string anchor was a hideous piece of bent tin). And because of the scale length it has a solo tuning of F# or there's not enough tension. The pickups were knackered but I had a EMG MM pickup lying around. The resultant tone actually massive! And having said all this it's great fun to play!

Its something I just noticed, since I was administrator I get the bump option but i am pretty sure you don't see it otherwise (and obviously as admin you get bump on everything so that isn't ideal!), so I assume it is a group feature. I will have a look tonight and see if I can enable it on the wanted forum

I made my amp more disgruntled Yorkshireman

I've used Hipshot detuners for years and found the tuning to be very accurate. There is a knack to the initial setup with a new string, and some graphite in the nut slot helps too. There's a video from Hipshot on Youtube that explains it all

I actually had an email conversation with Billy Sheehan about this very point and he advised me on how to get around it. The reason that the string comes back off pitch after you have flicked the switch back to the starting position to bring the string back up to the E, is because it will get slightly caught in the slot in the nut. All you have to do is get in the habit of lifting the string slightly out of the nut slot once you have returned to the higher pitch and the problem disappears. There you have it, a tip straight from King Billy! Of course it also helps if you have the D tuner properly set-up / installed and ensure that there is plenty of graphite / nut sauce or whatever in the E string slot on the nut.

I've got D-tuners fitted to two of my basses, they're not something that I'd be entirely happy flipping on and off during songs, I'd sooner just flip it off to a D for convenience and just leave it there. Alternatively, I'd just tune the E down a tone and get on with things. Just on the topic of these, while they're useful, they never really stay on point; the tuning does waver with every use - the string never pops back to an E, it's always predominantly flat. It's a pity that the little threaded nut/spring mechanism couldn't be stabilised - I'm unsure whether losing the spring and simply installing a threaded nut would solve things or whether the issue is caused by a combination of the string slackening/retightening or it getting stuck on the nut.

An old Garard TT, going through an Ongaku phono and 10W SET amp into Tannoy Westminsters is a very pleasurable experience; for those who listen to breathy female vocal music this is audio nirvana. But at the opposite end of the spectrum, my Clearaudio Revolution with SME arm and Audionote cart de-phono-ed by an EAR 834 deluxe and amplified by a Bow Technology pre and Bryston 14bsst power into either my Leema Xaviers or Ditton 66/2s is capable of surprisingly accurate fidelity as well as extraordinary scale and power. I'd defy any listener to actually be able to spot any actual lack compared to my Advantage cd player (which is also a pretty serious piece of kit - a bit of a Wadia-beater!). Both do an excellent job - and comparing to the original tape master is a) absolutely irrelevant wot with it not being available b) absolutely irrelevant wot with it having been produced in a completely different acoustic environment from my listening room. What I really don't understand is folks who continually diss vinyl; after all it's great at producing music, as is digital! Ultimately listening to music is subjective - those who enjoy death metal will swear blind their choice is better than, say Scarlatti, and vice versa. Similarly, some will say that music sounds appalling unless its source is sitting on at least 14 layers of Mana tables. Others will violently uphold that this sucks out the life and you need a pneumatic platform. And among these sub-sects folks will fight about whether to stick a Linn LP12 on top of their Mana skyscraper, or an SME 10. But really, all those groups are just justifying purchases when they should just listen to their choice of music on whatever playback device they want to and not tell everyone else all their choices are sh!t!

Today I got the parcel from @steve-bbb. Again can I say many thanks. Every bit will be used whether it is this week or in a couple of years time Thank you Jon

During the first lockdown last year i started playing around with a demo of a program called Spectrlayers. I have the cut down version now, but the full version has presets for extracting different instruments from a mix (drums/guitars/bass/vocals etc). Its very clever and can even keep effects like reverb intact with vocals etc. I used it to get bass lines from songs i couldn't quite hear clearly. I could then listen to them in isolation, or boost the level to bring them out of the mix (or lower the rest of the mix). Quite clever and for a laugh i took Paul Weller’s vocals off his recording of Town Called Malice and put it on our recording of it.

I think you'll find that Gary has dozens and dozens and dozens of some of the most stunning looking Spectors; I'm sure that if they bought out five different derivatives he's end up with all of them at some point (possibly making alternative delivery arrangements, to boot! lol)

Reaction videos... *sigh*.