Leaderboard

OK - I think we are on the final furlong With grandparenting duties done for a few weeks I have a fairly uninterrupted run to finish this off. Jack and I have been doing some work on the headstock arrangement and he has come up with a shape that I think works beautifully. It gives a respectful nod to the original but is its very own. This is a mockup, but later today I will be cutting and gluing on the actual ebony plate. At the same time, I've been experimenting with some ebony offcuts from the top wood to see how well a 'no finish, just sanding & buffing' approach (think violin fretboard) works. The trials went well and so I did a quick and nasty to see how it works on the whole top. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder but...I reckon it works

It's funny, isn't it. There is no doubt that manufacturing tolerances are better now. There will always be a market for "things which were cool when I was young but I could not afford them then so I will have it now". And what those things are will change with time. But does older = better? For me? No. When I were a lad anything that was after 1965 was uncool. Now anything from the 70's is considered exciting. I have a 66J from Jan the 5th (so very nearly 65!) and a neck and body from a 73P. Both function very nicely and the sniffiness which I would have met had I been championing the 73 in the 80s has completely dissipated. I would not have been championing it in the early 80s anyway, because I knew that anything from the 70s sucked badly. The only real difference I can see apart from the actual wood is finishes. The wood they were using was probably better quality lumber because that was what they had and it had been drying for longer. That was how they did it. None of it was deliberately fancy. It was just what was at the local lumber yard. So there is an argument for the wood - but I am not going to go there. Do I prefer a nitro finish to a poly finish? Yes, I do. For THE TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!!!!!!!!? Not really, I just like the tactile nature of it. I like the aesthetic. And the aesthetic is a very important part. I have been through 3 Bravewoods in my time. For me they have that aesthetic in spades. And they sounded great (and were not using that old wood). Just not enough strings. But they totally ticked that box. If I were to A/B one of theses Bravewoods against my 66 then they would be different. Not better, or worse, just different. Two different flavours of great. And as soon as we subjected either to Guitarmageddon and a Drummer then any of the subtleties would disappear without a trace. And I suspect that working out which was which in a blind test would be virtually impossible. Two 66Js from Jan the 5th would be different from each other. The infamous Bass Bash where someone played 17 gazillion basses behind a curtain and virtually no one could tell the difference between them was very telling. On a straight up plugging in and recording or playing metric, my newer basses are better instruments. And I have played/owned the good, old stuff so am at least entitled to an opinion. Of course, there are other metrics in play here. It is arguable that 1 bass which can do ALL the tones will have the owner spending more time sorting the tone than they would actually writing and playing that killer song/riff. There is a discipline created by limitations which means that the creativity has to be directed in a different direction. Any bass you can buy now, once it is set up will do all we need. We would do well to get over ourselves and actually write music. I am talking to myself here more than anyone else. This stream of consciousness rambling has been brought to you by an empty staff room during my lunch hour.

I literally stumbled across an interview with Peter Jackson regards his making of this, and it really does explain the film's length and other things. I think it gives the film a lot of perspective. If you watch that with Ringo talking to Jimmy Kimmel it really puts a different spin on it. I'm half way through part 2. I'm liking it, maybe not loving it, but there is something important in all of it. In many ways The Beatles were just like millions of other bands, the writing, the boredom, the pranks, all that. What's different is to see how the most influential band went through the motions. I'll watch all of it. It's fascinating to see how McCartney plays his bass, it looks like it picks really hard, and all that strumming. Don't Let Me Down is one of my favourite Beatles/ all time songs, love the song, love the bass playing, I just find it mind boggling that it was never on the album! Billy Preston though, he really made the songs he played on...and just like bands do, he drops in to say hello and gets invited to sit in and play. It's an important piece of film for The Beatles story.

Bit of a spurt on this weekend. The grill was done on Saturday and Sunday I got the centre section covered. Yesterday I re glued some edges that I deliberately left light on glue to stop to much squeezing out. I collected the corners from the nickel platers today and put those on. It’s all finished, baring some excess glue around some joints which needs rubbing off and I’ve bought some black bumper epoxy to build up the gap on the broken input plate.

Bwahaha!

I definitely try and reduce the impact by…mainly buying used basses! 🤣

I was going to say similar. The Inevitable Teaspoons are 5 lovely, humble, even tempered chaps (well, 4 and me ) and it's a pretty harmonious scene. The biggest "argument" we've had recently is about capitalisation of track names on the cover of our soon to be released album. Of course there's a downside to all this peace, love and harmony - things don't move very fast because everything happens by concensus and there's a lot of niceness inertia. That's the only problem with it - sometimes you need a bit of ego to get stuff done. We are TERRIBLE at self promotion because of all being doubtful of our own merits - we know we're good at what we do, we're just terrible at saying it out loud for fear of seeming gauche. As for Nine Lives, the covers band, it's a pretty relaxed scene - the guitarist is good at getting gigs so must have the front to tell people how good we (think we) are, but he's a good guy who I think needs to turn up sometimes (!). We all have veto rights on song choices but rarely use them, everyone mucks in for loading in/setting up/loading out, we have a laugh, drink only water during the gig (rock and roll! but also, driving - lot of rural gigs) so no people being too pished to perform. I really have landed on my feet. If I can manage this in the semi-rural rugged outpost of civilisation that is the NE of Scotland, then I'm sure you can find some good people too, Peter. You've just been unlucky.

I’ve had better relationships with some amps than with some previous girlfriends, none of them had such a variety of interesting sockets round the back.

My favourite description seen here on BC was 'The sound of a crowd of angry squirrels hurling nuts at a tin roof'. Whoever came up with that deserves a medal or something.

It's not the complete history unless there's two hours of footage of walking into guitar shops throughout the last 40 years and hearing relentless and merciless clicketty-clacketty coming from the bass section.

Oh this is easy* Musicman Musicman Stingray: The original Musicman Sterling: The smaller bodied version of the above Musicman SUB: US made budget Stingray Sterling by Musicman SUB: Cheapest version, now known as the Sterling Ray4/5 Ray 34/35: Top spec non-US model Ray 24/25: Middle spec none cutaway 2 band EQ Subway: Freshly made sandwiches Rayman: a franchise of platform video games, created by video game designer Michel Ancel for Ubisoft *List may or may not be complete as they change these bloody things every other week

And so to the headstock plate. Before gluing, a vital thing not to be missed - cutting the access to the trussrod: The cunning plan is to use the cut out above as the cover, fitted flush with magnets: There will be a shallow scoop at the apex as a finger-nail access (this will be a snug fit!) And no, you can't have too many clamps! The plate is presently oversize at the edges and will be sanded flush with the headstock once the glue has fully cured.

As an environmentalist, the logical end-point of such discussions is that the planet would be better off if we were all dead. One philosophical way to approach the issue is 'what number of basses maximises the well being of current and future generations' ? This brings in things like the joy brought to you and others by owning basses and possibility that owning them stops you doing something more (or less) sustainable instead. I suspect that if everybody had a creative hobby, like making music, the world would be a better place now and in the future.

Basic board but it works for me!

No. They really don't have to be. There are a lot of egotistical knobs out there, but there are also nice people too. You just have to find them

I don't know about that, I'm 56 & I've yet to be wrong about anything.

It's all in the anagram: Fender Precision = Reinforced Penis.

Recently posted on YouTube: tight band with a tasty bass solo on a vintage BT 5

Its all about Covers No not drain covers No not motor bike covers Not even duvet covers Yes, its song/tune covers just like last December , I knew this was coming all year (as I suspect many others did ) but I still don't know what to do just yet If I recall correctly this can be a piece of work that you have done during This year , so the entry is open a little further afield I guess. Simple rules ✔️ Entries must be <5 minutes and recorded this year. X No illegal samples, copyright infringements or other snide goings-on X Bagpipes. please no bagpipes, the Thanksgiving truce now Expired. panpipes only if you have too. X No voting for your own entry. We'll know. And we'll shame you. A line or two offering an insight to your inspiration/track choice will be good as well , it works nicely on the voting thread. Deadline wise , we will go for midnight on 'Christmas Day ' 👍, though you probably have till my head is together on the 26th, ( the clue given here is that 'Christmas day' is the 25th ). I might extend the voting a day or so depending on the entry count , but we can still start January on the dot Go get inspired, play it straight or mangle something up but mostly have some fun

So it was my big boy 50th birthday this year and thought I would put together a decent bass as I couldn’t afford a 1980 walnut precision special (£3000) and didn’t feel confident enough skill wise that a self build course would give me the quality instrument I wanted. So I decided to put together a tribute, rather than a copy of said bass. I asked Walshy to build me a custom body (which in the end never happened), so in the end I bought one he had made previously from Chris/beedster. The neck is a roasted maple jazz neck with chrome hipshot tuners. The pickup is a fender custom shop 62 precision pick up going through a Kiogon cloth wired cts, top of the range loom. Currently has a fender bbot bridge but I have got a hipshot A style bridge to go on it a later date (possibly, but I quite like the look of this one). These parts were all bought from people off of BC. Needs a pro set up but even now sounds great to me. Think she might be a keeper. Thanks Basschat!

Yeah you're right. They're definitely sh#t! Having watched the documentary, I can honestly say, I highly doubt their music will ever catch on.

It's official get covering

The US SUB offers great value for money. They are a kind of a no-thrills Stingray (built in the same factory in Cal with the same electronics and hardware). I got one yesterday for £600. These basses are built like a tank. Super solid but also super heavy. Admittedly, the chunky slap body is not everybody's cup of tea either. Finally, the pickguard has an industrial "chic" but that can easily be fixed as seen in the photo below.

I want to highlight the most startling moment in the footage: McCartney sits down, bass in hand, without anything to work with. He just starts playing anything. Starts singing any random words and melody. Slowly. Slowly. Something starts to take shape. Like an amorphous blob of clay on a potters wheel. Suddenly its the harmony and structure to Get Back. Like how the hell? Now if anyone of us can do that, I will come round and clean your car for you. Just using my face 🙄

Sorry but that really does read like a trade! Seriously though I can see why, they really are great basses.

It's a Fodera right?

It's a weird thing. I've played an upright twice before today; this is like going from a tricycle to a bicycle. It's kind of like familiar, but different. Despite how well I play regular basses (*subjective), I was quite shocked how bad I was on this when I first started playing it earlier. If the bass itself, can't fault it. Charging the power cell takes 60 seconds for 16 hours active (why aren't all active circuits like this?). In active mode it sounds gorgeous, thundersome. Right now I'm just sticking it through the Ged/Darkglass set up I use generally, there's no dirt. More later!

I've discovered one of the quirks of my new church worship setup is that it's the bassist who is responsible for directing the band to repeat choruses etc. So the power is all mine mwhahahaha 😁

I think all of the manufacturer's 'core' ranges are much of a muchness - clear/coating single/twin ply. It's when they go for their proprietary stuff it gets interesting. My preference has been for Aquarian over Remo for coated single ply, but recently had a head 'let go' between the flesh hoop and bearing edge on an Aquarian Texture Coated - I've never had that happen before. Remo and Evans are much easier to find though. I tend to use coated single-ply heads on the rack toms and coated double ply heads on the floor toms. The key point is to know what sort of sound you want and choose the heads accordingly. Open, bright, lots of attack - single ply. That 70's studio 'thwub' sound - twin-ply coated or even oil-filled. You can then tweak with damping and tuning from there. My absolute fave head was Remo Vintage Ambassadors and Emperors - a bit thicker than the 'normal' ones with a heavier coating. Lovely heads, but really difficult to get hold of and REALLY expensive. I always tend to use coated heads - I don't like the plasticy 'thwack' you get with clear heads. My 'go to' snare batter is a coated reverse dot - CS Dot in Remo parlance, and Power Center [sic] Reverse Dot in Evansspeak. Recently I got a snare with an Evans Genera HD Dry head on it and liked it a lot - so much so I bought some more for other drums. Edit: and some of the best heads I ever used were Evans G-Plus etched heads - a cross between a clear and coated, with a thicker single ply. Absolutely lovely heads those were. They don't do them now and I don't know what replaced them.

I went to a gig by Ministry of Wolves. One of the members is Alexander Hacke from Einstürzende Neubauten, he's not a small guy. During a quiet part of a song you could hear a guy talking in the crowd. Whilst still playing the guitar Alex got off the stage, walked over to the guy and told him to STFU and calmly walked back. For most of the rest of the show he just stared at the guy in the crowd, almost daring him to talk again.

Finished watching episode 3 last night. Loved the rooftop shenanigans, and the way the two coppers were continually being stalled by the Apple staff and Mal Evans. The ‘interviews’ with the people listening in the street were a great bit of social history too, absolutely brilliant.

The best musicians play jazz. When people use jazz as an excuse for not knowing how to count, that's ridiculous. They're just doubling down on their own ignorance. I mean listen to Miles Davis and tell me he doesn't know exactly when and where he's playing every single note. Some tosser cutting the verse short has no business putting himself on the same continent as that.

Unlikely that the tubes/valves have anything to do with the amp going into protect, the tubes/valves have nothing to do with the protect circuit. Most likely cause is an intermittent short in the speaker cable/connectors, a defect in the speaker/crossover like a damaged tweeter or a tweeter that was removed leaving the crossover filters in place, a poorly designed crossover, or serious power issues. The protection circuits are very comprehensive. I rarely see bad stock tubes/valves in the Streamliners, the parts were selected for low noise, low microphonics, middle of the road balanced tone and long life. They are very robust in that circuit and my calculations along with experience now that the amps are over 10 years old are that 7,500 - 10,000 hours is a very reasonable expectation. I have seen amps come through the factory service program with a LOT of hours and 50-75% tube life remaining. I generally recommend leaving stock tubes/valves alone in well engineered products, a lot of effort, evaluation criteria and math modeling/statistics go into the selection of parts used in products that have a long manufacturer's warranty... we (Genz Benz) typically warranted tubes/valves in our bass products for ~1 year and almost never had to replace any after the first 30 day infant mortality period (and even then it was rare). Mesa also warranties their tubes/valves longer than most companies at 6 months. The typical wattanty period for tubes is 30 - 90 days.

If playing rock and metal Ambassadors won’t last. Look for two-ply heads - plain Remo Emperors, Evans G2s, Aquarian Response 2s etc. If want a deader sound try heavier twin ply such as Pinstripes, or Evans Hydraulics. There’s a really good comparison chart here which shows the comparable heads for each brand: https://www.aquariandrumheads.com/drumhead-guide-comparison-chart

Nice to see this lil thread of mine is still going Took the QSC over to a Jam last week and shoved the Helix Floor into it. There were at least 4 or 5 loud guitar amps to compete with, and it did a sterling job.

Got his priorities straight, then. I've always been lucky in this respect. The Missus, while supportive, evinces scant interest in the minutiae of my musical odyssey. The main thing is that she doesn't jib at me spending money on stuff. 'If that's what you want,' she says. Unlike a friend of mine; about thirty years ago he came home with one of those huge old HH 1x15 bass combos the size of a washing machine. His GF got hammered one night and pushed the combo out of a second storey window into the street. HH VS Bass Combo: Death from above

I have a TE 115 combo and 1153 extension cab. The 1153 has the same basic tone as the combo but with more extended lows (as you'd expect). The combo is great on its own with a surprisingly punchy tone. It's when you connect the 1153 you realise how much lower it's tuned.

I've just sent the seller the below message. It really infuriates me when people hide under a guise of ignorance in order to con people. "I see you're still selling this as a Fender when you know it isn't, so unless you've cancelled the auction or amended it to be truthful within 24 hours, I'm going to bid £1000 on it to ensure I win it, then if you post it to me, once it arrives I shall open a dispute with eBay that it isn't a Fender and get my money back, as per eBay rules, you'll be responsible for covering return postage. Or if I win and you don't send it, then I'll lodge a complaint that you've not sent me the item I've won. So be a decent human and either withdraw the bass and relist with a truthful description, or I'll bid, and win, and we'll go through the motions laid out above. Thanks."

Just let everyone know that in order for it to work, the drummer brings everyone in and out of parts. That way, the improv bobbins hes trying wont work, and the drummer will have a better idea of structure, bars, and feel of the song, but if a solo (where the bass doesnt change) is allowed to continue, you can play along happily until the drummer gives cues in his playing to bring you all back in. It should never be a guitarist, especially a guitarist who clearly doesnt listen to whatever anyone else is playing, that is in control of the structure of the songs imo. Then, hopefully, that will force him to turn down as he'll have to be able to hear everyone else to know where his cues are.