Leaderboard

Had this made by James Mitchell in Electric Relic Co in Bath Lot of thought went into what i wanted - aftermarket natural 54 contour body in alder not ash, chunky neck no fake logo, hand wound Fralin pickup, cloth wiring, 0.10 orange drop capacitor, old bridge, low tension La Bella flats and then let James do his thing - had to tweak it a bit since getting it and had one proper rehearsal but love the thing already - took 8 weeks from order to delivery approx and sold 2 basses to pay for it - inc one PB that I loved - but I'm happy - it's fairly lightweight and sounds like the 70s - I doubt i'd have the money if this was original - it wasn't cheap but it's a lovely thing

Incoming next week. Hotter-than-hell Serek Midwestern in capri orange with competition stripes and Aguilar ceramic P pickup. Phwoarrr

Next jobs will be the neck carve and headstock plate. Neck profile will be a pretty much standard 'C' shape. I will rough it out with some templates and then fine-tune it by feel - plenty of air-bass coming up For the headstock plate, I'm going to do an inset/flush truss rod cover in the same ilk as my recent ebony 6-string electric build, where the cover is fine-saw cut from the blank itself. It creates a really neat and clean looking solution: And this morning, we have shavings! Most builders will tell you that the most satisfying part of a guitar or bass build is carving the neck. Trouble is, it's usually over the quickest too! I use a variety of tools. First, I take the corners off the volute with a block plane: And that lets the spokeshave, that comes next, to take full-length sweeps from heel to headstock to rough out the shape. The spine is pencil marked as all of the carving will be up to this point to preserve the planned neck depth: And that gets a rough oversize shape ready for the micro plane that will take less material away at a time and allow me to guard against going too far at any one stroke - which is easy to do with a spokeshave...this is after less than 15 minutes spokeshaving! :

This might be of interest to some here. This is very decent. Kim and Matt from Soundgarden, Krist from Nirvana, Bubba from Void and a couple a really good singers. The riffs are pure Soundgarden, never a bad thing, and it has received quite a few listens from me. Very good indeed. It's nice to see Novoselic playing again, I have to say.

Building myself a 4 string PJ. 34” scale Gotoh hardware (chrome) Quartersawn Bubinga neck with graphite rods Kaya Mahogany body, Ambrosia Maple top EMG Geezer pups Passive Wenge fretboard Stainless Steel frets Pics to follow.

I'm diggin' my short scale.

i gig in covers bands, tribute shows and write, record and perform in originals bands I am basically a musical prostitute and will play wherever someone pays me to

That line-up at The Roundhouse on Sunday is insane

Anybody off to Desertfest next week? Been bit of a rollercoaster with the lineup chopping and changing but seems like it’s actually going ahead!

So do I with my Big Band. But that doesn't affect the comedy of it. To be honest it really annoys me.... I play jazz because I don't like crowds but the sods turn up anyway.

I used to say this to my band mates all the time. We had one guy who was our acoustic guitar player who was the most miserable bugger ever when he was playing. I used to say try to at least look like you are enjoying yourself. We stopped short at dressing a certain way but I honestly think a band that looks like they are enjoying playing rubs off onto the punters.

If that is your audience then that's what you have to do. What's the point in playing complicated musical pieces of original material if no one is going to bother coming? Lots of people slag off cover bands for doing certain songs but sometimes they are forced to. We started playing music WE wanted to play and soon found out the hard way that we had to play what THEY wanted to hear. I happen to think we were good at it too as we were not short of bookings. This snobbery at cover bands gets right up me.

Good spot, it's always the little details the forgeries can't get right. On further inspection it seems like the neck and body might even be from the same bass which definitely rules it out as the genuine article

All the control knobs are the same colour so I don't think this a genuine PCGC unfortunately, probably one of those cheap copies from AliExpress.

she’s in parties - bauhaus

I wasn't sure which box to tick, as I play in a blues band which is 90% covers plus a couple of originals, and a band which only plays the music of the Grateful Dead, who were themselves at least 50% a covers band. I have only played one wedding, and despite reading about how much wading bands get paid, it actually cost me money as I had to pay the rest of the band. Still, I can't really complain as it was my daughter's wedding.

I had a second-hand 2-pickup Combustion over a decade ago, and although I loved how it played, I could never get it to sound the way I liked, despite pickup upgrades etc. I bought this 5/3 new a couple of months ago, and it's a very different animal. I upgraded the FD-3N pickups to a set of Super Fatty II's, which gave a subtle lift in the mids and overall warmth of tone, and my other basses (Lakland, Bogart, Status) don't seem to get a look-in now. After going to hear Sheldon Dingwall speak at guitarguitar in Epsom a couple of weeks ago I'm considering a Canadian build, but they're well beyond my budget for now. There's a very nice AB1 on eBay at the moment though...

NBD. 2006 CIJ Mustang in the very rare sunburst paint scheme (most are oly white or fiesta red). I bought this before the Easter bank holiday, only for a dream s/s bass to appear (see next post) so may have to sell this on quickly even though its fab 😬

People put themselves forward to serve. Not all of them have the correct skillset. Sometimes that can be nipped in the bud and they can be told "yeah, but let us walk through techniques etc for a couple of months before we let you loose on a Sunday morning". Teaching that skillset is time consuming. Time is not what a lot of us have. This means that people slip through the net and as we play we are thinking "is that ok?" and "why would you play that there?". Not every week, but some weeks. The beauty of it is that a lot of it goes over most people's heads. It is SUPER frustrating for those of us who have put the hours in. But I guess it is a mentoring situation - a bit like Brass Banding. The tricky bit is the "you are not doing that right, let me help you" and the finding time. But being in community is costly. I would prefer to have one acoustic played well and one vocal and leave it at that. It is leading, not performing. Sometimes that is a difficult convesation. As long as the congregation have a cue to start singing in the right place, everything else is secondary. If we are relying on a stellar band rocking it out to whip up something, then there is a problem right there. I very certainly do not look to playing in church to get my musical jollies. It is to serve - like stacking the chairs, and no more than that.

Great basses. I have a beautiful ‘BB1024 Tobacco Brown Sunburst’ for sale at the moment if anyone is interested. It needs a good home. Check out the ad here...

During lockdown I stepped down from a Bon Jovi tribute band for a cocktail of reasons that resulted in my heart just not being in it. So I'm in just one band now, a blues/rock trio covering stuff from Hendrix, Cream, ZZ Top, Jeff Healey, Freddie King etc. Most usually we 'interpret' songs our own way. There's some rumblings about chucking in the odd original but I'm not convinced. We're not busy, nor do we want to be - this year we have 9 gigs in the diary, two now done. Coming up is a support slot for a pro touring blues band, a slot at the Dereham Blues Festival and the rest pub gigs. Hopefully we'll also get a slot at the Ipswich Maritime festival this year but that has yet to be announced. I've been in quite a few bands over the years but this one resonates with my soul more than any other, playing music I love that I grew up with and is part of my DNA

It's about 5 years since I left the 'jeans and T shirt' approach. Not that there's anything wrong with that but, certainly for a band or genre tribute, you have to at least look and act the part. I think that's the difference between 10 and 50 gigs a year.

Is the problem that they copy another design or that they copy another *cheap* design? I don't hear so many complaints about, say, Jazz style basses

I think another consideration is the effort that needs to be put into tribute bands outside of the music. We probably spend as much, if not more time on the marketing, choreography and 'the look' of the stage and band members as we do on the music. This level of attention to detail has probably made the difference in terms of getting in work as we get lots of positive comments and generally no problems on the forward bookings.

Building a Baritone, commissioned by a friend. Brief: 28” scale, but keep overall length same as a normal scale guitar, inspired by the Jazzmaster design. Just dropping some pics, as I haven’t been on the forum much. Alder Body 28” Maple neck Wenge fretboard Decent but budget black hardware Double humbuckers

I'm in. This months entry into basschat comp, using picture supplied by last months winner Skankdelvar. A simple ditty really. The poor chap hears all the twaddle the world and it's media have to offer. Used Fender tele and squire guitars (with free amplitude,G rig 5) , mustang bass, lpk 25 keyboard and my vocals. MT drums try to keep us all in time...ish !

I could only tick one box, so chose covers as that includes both bands. We didn't rehearse for the wedding at all. It was a cool wedding, they basically held a private festival on a field for all their friends and family, and we were the band. Probably the best gig I'll ever play!

That is beautiful 😍 I don’t really need one but, oh lord I’d certainly love one!

Pasties and a G String (At The 2 O'clock Club ) Tom Waits

NBD. 2006 CIJ Mustang in the very rare sunburst paint scheme (most are oly white or fiesta red)

We have all been in bands down the local pub where not everyone is pulling their weight. Church is no different. It is just people.

Thanks to everyone for their input. I have ordered some bits and pieces to try and will send back what we don't like (or more likely order more) I never thought I would have lighting GAS.

Are you sure the drummer can hear the guitar?

Sounds like a P bass with valve o/d from the look of the videos I saw he’s using a Marshall super bass

We all start small, a few more years and you may see one in Andy Baxter 😂🤣

That works so well it took me ages to even see it in the first pic!

I’m in love with the look of this.

I can’t think of anything more boring than playing everything identically to a record. Most bands who wrote the originals don’t even do that.

When I first joined Basschat, in 2009, I had one bass. That didn't last long.

Got it back with a replacement drive pot and a clean bill of health from the amp tech today. Apparently in surprisingly good nick inside, looks like I landed an absolute steal.