Leaderboard

Steinberger holes drilled - so time for a gratuitous mock-up When sanded and buffed, the fretboard and headstock plate will polish up to the same sort of satin finish as the ebony on the body. The remaining visible neck laminates will darken with the application of the Tru-oil but will buff up to a similar sheen. They don't do the Steinbergers in nickel but I think they are far enough away from the main body. Only a few jobs left on the basic build and then I can move onto the final sanding and finishing.

For anybody interested, or may stumble across this post in the future, I sent the pickup to Armstrong Pickups for repair. Was returned in just over 1 week working perfectly. The repair cost was extremely reasonable too - highly recommended!

Work on your tone and the volume balance of the instruments. If the derrière drops out of it when the guitar starts playing lead, then the guitar is providing the derrière. The bass needs to be the derrière. I'm a big fan of the power trio kind of sound, but if you don't get the instrument tones right, you get the derrière drop you describe. It can be done well, though, and it's a great sound when you get it right. If you're scooping out mids, don't. The guitar is probably providing much of the mid sound of your band and, when they stop playing rhythm, your overall sound is missing those mids. Spend some time between you and the drummer, just playing without the guitar. Listen to how much the bass and drums are filling out the sound when there is no guitar. Chances are you need a tone you're not going to like in isolation. If you use pedals to try to fill the sound during leads, you just get this lumpy old sound which goes up and down in volume. The bass needs to fill out the sound all the time in order for you to have a consistent sound regardless of what the guitar does. The guitarist might have to take some of their low end and low mid out, too, in order for the bass to be the component which provides those frequencies. You and the guitarist need to sort out your frequencies to compliment each other, even though you might not like the sound of them when you play by yourself. The guitar needs to sit on top of the foundation laid by the bass rather than being the meat of the sound. Listen to some power trios to hear what I mean. The bass needs to be big all the time, it's the only way it works. The likes of Free and Bad Company are a great example. Or this

Bass now ready to have the neck and body carving done, really please with how this is turning out.

As a massive pedal user, don't look at pedals as a way to fill gaps. A couple of people have already mentioned tone, and this is where you need to start. You want a good sound that is full and clear, and fills out the low end without sounding muddy and undefined. Next, look at how you approach playing under the solo. I find that it can often sound better to play a solid, simpler part that sounds full, than to try and be busy. Of course, you can go full Jack Bruce if you want but you need to be comfortable with the harmony and with reacting to the soloist, otherwise it becomes busy for the sake of bring busy. One thing that is often over looked is what register you are playing in. If the guitar goes up the octave for his solo and you stay down in the lower positions, there can be a gap of 2 or 3 octaves between the two of you and it sounds empty in the midrange. In these cases it can sound better if you play more around the middle of neck, especially when you have a good tone.

Wee pic of my 2 Sandbergs

Well, after a few sessions (several hours) of sanding, I pretty much have fully stripped the top, the top of the neck/headstock and the bottom half of the sides. Unfortunately the nicely figured maple on the top is a very thin veneer (VERY thin) and I managed to sand through in a few spots but I think it should look fine once stained, I hope… Hopefully the stain and hardware I have on order isn’t held up by the highway closures and flooding around here as I’m hoping it will be ready by Christmas, for no other reason than as a Christmas gift to myself. Here’s a big photo dump from the last week with a couple of mock ups with hardware.

Wow.. your personal experiences are so similar to those of The Beatles it’s unreal.

Try going the other way for some songs... Play Slow n strong with authority letting the notes ring longer... leaving a bit of room rather than trying to fill it... Like inane conversation to fill an awkward pause... leave a pit of space... There are a lot of 3 piece out there

Kanye?!

Glad you are loving it - it can be a funk machine, an R&B and dub machine or an all out rock machine - it’s a proper bass and a real gem. Old shape for comparison and under lights it pinks a little bit.

Or a skeleton w*nking in a biscuit tin.

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.

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

Found some old bass player (us) clippings.... anybody remember this ad?! Getting perfect pitch wasn't as hard as achieving the facial expressions necessary I thought!

I agree completely Kev. The Dingwall/Darkglass thing is getting very stale. However, as a progressive metal bass player myself, I await claims of "passe" when my bands album comes out next year. "Wal and Tech 21? He must be an agent of the counterculture! Seize him!!" Out of all the Darkglass pedals, the AO to me is the best. I'd certainly be interested to try this one.

A bit more progress! Managed to snag a John East low battery indicator as a last minute addition... soon my pretty... soon...

I am biased, because I don't think you have a problem. You have spaces in your music? Great, IMO that's a good thing. One guitarist is also good. Even in Rock, I hate the "filled up" sound of 2 guitarists pounding power chords at each other!! Embrace the spaces. Filling up the sound with over playing won't sound good (will loose the groove) and hitting a pedal every time there is solo will sound "amateurish" after awhile. If you have locked in with the drummer it doesn't matter what other instruments are playing or if they have stopped. The song carries on riding on the groove that you and the drummer are laying down.

I read he pined after it...

Just listen to good examples of bass playing without rhythm guitar (Tommy Shannon with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pino Paladino with John Mayer, Jack Bruce with Cream…) and listen to what’s going on… In my personal experience you can get away with being a little more busy to fill in the space, maybe experiment with double stops if appropriate. Distortion can help depending on the style. Make sure your playing is tight and in the pocket. Nobody will notice the lack of rhythm guitar if it is 🙂

Embrace to space! Don't always feel the need to fill it. Have a good thick tone as a starting point and go from there. Alot of 'techniques' folk use to fill out sound end up having an opposite effect in live situations - the derrière can fall out the overall sound quite easily if the bass deviates too much!

^^This. listen to as many power trios as possible but live versions. Many, such as Free, ZZ Top etc, overdub for studio work. For example Dusty Hill's bass tone, live, is immense. Gritty, grainy, driven and saturated. Nothing like how he sounds on studio recordings.

A bit if progress this morning... I've picked out the wood that will form the sides of the body. It's part of a garden bench, no idea what species it is but I like the wavey grain, hopefully this will be visible in the finished item. I'm assembling the pieces on the oak board that forms the back. I've already glued the spine in place , it's also part if the bench. Adding the side pieces: I'll trim the outside edge once all of the side bits are glued in place. I'm using bamboo skewers to help keep things in place during the glueing and clamping phase. I don't have enough clamps to do it all in one go so the other side will be glued tomorrow.

I’m one of the resident ‘Ray geeks, and would concur with the USA and 2 band EQ route. I worked my way up from a USA Sub, got *very* lucky with a poorly photographed ‘88 2EQ on eBay and eventually traded up to a USA Stingray Classic (now discontinued) which I got on here. Still kicking myself 6 years later for selling a 2EQ ‘Pino homage’ fretless. Fabulous basses all.

Doesn’t exactly showcase the bass but in love with this shot from a show last month a little 😅

I am very surprised that you had so few problems before now! I find they are very good if absolutely nothing goes wrong, but if it does, then they are beyond terrible.

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.

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 🙄

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.

Time for some Barrington

Very educational - there were a number of players that I didn't know about as well as highlighting some who get lots of hate. Some homework to do....

Billy was such a great player to have on board - the band all seemed to raise their game when he arrived. He didn’t say much, preferring to just sit and watch stuff unfold, whilst adding his genius where necessary.

Made worse as I ended up hating the cab and selling it for a loss a year or so later 🤣

These are my personal experiences, I'm sure like with Bax others have dealt with them no problem at all. A few years ago I bought a cab from them, advertised as having free delivery. They called me up after I placed the order and told me I had to pay delivery. I reluctantly agreed (i shouldn't have), took the day off work waiting for the delivery and unsurprisingly it never showed up. Didn't even respond to my email or return my call complaining about it I just got a delivery schedule notification from the courier for a couple of days later. A year or so later I was selling a bass, no joy on here so I emailed them asking them about selling via their shop and asking for details about commission etc. Didn't even bother responding to me. Appalling customer service from my perspective, once they had my money they couldn't give a shit so as a consumer I avoid them now.

Thanks! That said, it's not for the faint-hearted

I tried to convert to 5ers several times without success before locking away all my 4 string basses and concentrated on the 5ers. Since you are more adept with 4 strings you will almost certainly pick up a 4 string to practice. This will only hold your conversion back. If you are committed to learning on a 5 then lock away the 4s. Oh, BTW do all the repairs that are required to the Ped. Your buyer will appreciate being able to plug and go.

Depends why you want to become a 5 string player. If you're giving up on a 5 string bass because it doesn't feel "normal" then you haven't given it enough time or effort. If you are a 4 string player, a 4 string bass will feel "normal" and the 5 won't. What you have to do (if you are serious) is to put your 4 string basses away and play the 5 until it becomes your new normal. then you can play either with no problem.

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, completely oblivious to the middle-aged mess of a man he was to become 🙂

It all depends if you want to be led by a selfish git. This instance sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. Imagine, if you will, a time in the future when you have 'made it'. There you are miserably hanging about in the background whilst Clapton goes off on an impromptu solo. You mention it afterwards and he flies into a rage. He does this every time you query anything. For five years. Do you want that? Or would you be better finding a band without a lead ego? Bass is what drives any band. It hits the guts of an audience. Without you it is just a lot of noise without heart. If this bloke has no respect for you now then prepare to be further humiliated. Sounds harsh I know, but this stuff is meant to be enjoyable and it doesn't sound as if you are enjoying it right now.

It looked like Mal switched John and George’s Fender amps to standby, and John and George swiftly turned them back on! Can’t believe the sarge bought the ‘weight limit’ line too, fantastic stuff. Think the cops had to be seen to be looking like something was being done after 30 complaints.....😆