Leaderboard

My NYE gig was in sunny Scarbados on the Yorkshire coast. Fairly standard dinner dance type do, in a nice hotel. Good to play with my pal Gary Gillyett, along with a singer and pianist. Played for ages - started at 8pm, and finished around 12.30am with barely any breaks, so a bit of a slog. Hotel manager and staff were great though, and really looked after us and our ladies. I was pretty knackered the next day, it's been a while since I've done such a marathon. (Forgot to add - used my lightweight Jazz bitsa into Fender Rumble 100 - proper portable old gimmer's rig!) No beach babes around, but there was Thor, the magnificent walrus you may have seen in the news. Scarborough Council very wisely decided to cancel their midnight fireworks display in case of scaring Thor, but I reckon someone tipped him off as he slid back into the harbour at around 11.55pm to continue his journey North. Happy New Year to all you BC folk! (PS Thor is the one in the last pic.)

I’ve been on the fence for a UniVox HighFlier Mosrite copy for over a week now and took the plunge. It’s the Phase 11 model from the early 70’s. Looks to be clean and in good shape. It will be a week or so before it arrives. I didn’t buy any basses last year so I’m off to a good start.

Well this is embarrassing... I'm out! 😳

Here’s a couple of photos of my Mensinger Cazpar 30” scale 5 string. I’ve decided to put it in the classifieds as it’s not getting much use and it’s a shame to be just sitting here so these might whet someone’s appetite 🥰

One measures string height..?

Might as well get in there quickly... You're all wrong, completely wrong, never heard such dangerous drivel. My way is right and you won't see any professional players doing it any way but mine, except for the professional players that don't but I conveniently won't mention them. You'll all suffer repetitive strain injuries, and Leo Fender will rise from the grave and haunt you. Anyone who doesn't do it my way is clearly impotent and cheats at monopoly. I think that covered most points.

British power...

Our drummer is trying to find an app on his phone to work his kit remotely!

Fancied something to play with so was looking for something to provide a fun fretless having been getting back into fretless after many years. I found a bitza fretless on BC that fitted the bill a short while ago for £60. Vintage Icon fretless jazz neck fitted to an unknown knocked about bright red body. I expected fun and games and was not disappointed. The string saddles were at maximum height and the action was fit to use as a wire slide but it was all wrong. Having taken it apart I was able to turn to the USA Jazz I recently bought for advice. Comparing measurements of body thickness, neck pocket, neck, fretboard height, string saddles, etc of the two it indicated that the neck was going to need a 2mm shim adding to it's heel to achieve a playable angle as close as possible to the USA Jazz. Pictures of that I need to get from here somewhere as I took some for another thead they are not on this tablet. Turning to the body. It has been sanded right back. Using a random orbit sander with dust extraction. Followed by hand sanding or scrapping all the little nagery curvey bits and as of yesterday now stained. I wanted to keep the grain showing but not have the stark white fresh timber look. So to yellow it down somewhat to match the headstock a little experiment had to happen. Enter fresh Turmeric root. The pieces used cost about 50 pence! My experiment to use natural colour rather than stains from a bottle. I expected it to get duller as it dried but it actually dried brighter. It looks drastic at first but I am sure the finishing oil is going to tone it down a bit. More to come later Test sample

Pete - Please tell me you did ‘I Am The Walrus’… 😂

Nuclear device. Stranglers

I'm another who just lowers them til they rattle like old windows, but I leave 'em there and play the b'stard like that....

Only posting now, as I've only just recovered, but we had great fun on New Year's Eve. It was the first time I've played my new Tokai Hardpuncher live, and I loved it! I was allowed a turn on sax, too, which is a rare event (probably for good reason...) Our band is called The Enrichments. Happy New Year everyone! Signed Sealed Delivered.mp4 Hold On.mp4

I bet it does. I just asked Andy to make me a neck as close as we could to a Wal one whilst still being comfortable yet deep. I left the truss rod up to him, but specified no inserts, as most Wals don’t have them. The Luthier’s Roundtable links I posted on previous pages talked about neck inserts and truss rods quite specifically. There is a noticeable effect on tone reported from the material used (carbon, steel, titanium, none) and amount. It’s a great read. https://www.bassgearmag.com/luthiers-round-table-5/ Heiko Hoepfinger (the chap who owns Basslab) is a physicist as well as a musician and has published some really interesting articles on neck stiffness/resonance. The whole series he did in Premier Guitar is well worth a read. https://www.premierguitar.com/amp/bass-bench-neck-joints-science-and-sound-opinions-2651066838 https://www.premierguitar.com/bass-necks-adjustability-and-resonance The second article in particular has a very interesting conclusion. For bolt-on necks, he concludes the sonic impact of the body is significantly over-rated.

Get a screen and stick the 2 guitarists in there together maybe?

Mandolin was my lockdown project too - meant as a bit of a joke, but thanks to a good instrument (Ashburys, £250 on eBay) and an excellent teacher, much to my surprise, I've fallen in love with it. The tuning in even 5ths makes a lot of the shapes more logical (as noted above) and a wider range easier to reach than on a bass. I struggled to pick out some simple Bach cello pieces on bass, but on mandolin they just fall into place under your hand (which makes perfect sense as the cello is also tuned in 5ths). The shapes are upside down and back to front (as also noted) but the thing I still find hardest to remember is that the you sometimes need to play notes on the 6th frets. It's wonderfully versatile in genre, even just picked rather than strummed. There's the whole lute repertoire, some lovely Baroque stuff, Celtic dance tunes, folk songs, through to Grateful Dead, Rod Stewart, R.E.M. ... It is technically much harder to play than bass. One of the first things my teacher said to me was "It's a difficult instrument to play", and the better I get the more I realise how true that is. The slightest variation in pick grip or wrist angle comes through in the sound. I could never have learned from videos - ymmv of course, but I need Patrick watching me and suggesting tiny subtle improvements. And then I spotted an Irish bouzouki in Johnny Roadhouse - a relatively recent hybrid of a mandolin and Greek bouzouki, usually tuned GDAD. Filthy and battered, but still with a beautiful tone. I cleaned it, had a new nut and bridge made, and set it up in mandolin tuning with the G and D strings in octave tuning, A and E in unison - so the low notes have a rich resonance and the high notes are clear and pure. The wider fret spacing is easier than the mandolin, I agree, but the most important difference for me is that its tone range is perfect to sing with. A whole new world 🙂

Fantastic interview with the master. This is up for debate as usual of course. I really do love this guys manner and the way he comes across. Then you get to his playing.

Finally got this in my hands yesterday. The sale was agreed a week ago, but we needed to arrange a meet up. 2016 American Vintage ‘63 Reissue in faded sonic blue. The tort guard is a Fender guard but not the original, however the original is included. 8lbs 15 oz. It had La Bellas on it, but really heavy ones, so I’ve swapped those for some La Bella 760FLs. It needed a truss rod tweak to reduce the relief even after fitting lighter strings, some saddle adjustments and the pickup height. It’s now playing really well, very low action with no fret buzz, and sounding great. It has a piano like clarity unplugged which is really noticeable compared with my other basses, very resonant. I’m get used to the wider nut width and I think it will be fine. I’m really looking forward to taking it to rehearsal next week. Cheers, Rob

Been there, done that many times over....never again, LOL!!

As a FoH engineer, if someone presented me with a single DI for both bass guitar and synth bass (which admittedly doesn't happen that often!), it wouldn't be that much of a problem especially if the levels were balanced. However, unless there was a peculiar reason doing otherwise, a dedicated DI for each would be preferably. Certainly if I was running any compression the settings would be different for both.

'A' Bomb in Wardour Street - The Jam

The fret one uses depends on which Imperial unit you measure in. For furlongs, it's fret 8, for feet it's fret 12, for pounds it's fret 14, and for ounces fret 16. I would advise avoiding fathoms at fret 6 and shillings at fret 20. Personally, I also use the drop 'em till they buzz then go back up a little bit, after having set up the relief.

When is the gig ? Let's all go.

Hi, Si A few pictures are worth a thousand Andyjr1515 words. For Happy Jack's Lull, I checked the bolt length and insert length first to make sure that the bolt would use all the threads in the insert: So that also gives me how deep a hole in the neck heel I need so that the bolt doesn't bottom before it's fully tight. Machine bolts don't have the 'flex' that wood screws have - the inserts have to be fully in line with the hole. I use a brad point of the body/ferrule hole size as a centre punch with the neck clamped in the correct position to mark where the centre point of the ferrule brad-point drill needs to be: The drill hole in the neck heel should be the same diameter as the widest part of the inner (usually tapered) cylinder of the insert's external thread. They should be inserted using a bolt and couple of nuts used as locknuts and a spanner. Even if the inserts have a hex slot DO NOT use an Allen key to insert them. Only use an Allen key if you need to take them out again: These above happen to be flanged inserts. Because the join needs to be flush, there is the added complication of having to create a rebate. Normally, I would use the flangeless ones...but still only insert them to the flush depth. You can go deeper, but need to allow for the longer bolts you will need to use to ensure that all of the internal thread is utilised. Hope this helps

No plans for any purchases this year, but that's "famous last words" isn't it? I do solemnly swear I will not actively seek out new gear this year.* * Subject to change without prior notice.

Every time I pick up my JMJ mustang, I smile. I've had it a couple of years now. I would try a vintera but for me, there's no need. P bass player for 33+ years. now, mustang all the way

So today I was asked to join a punk covers band on the skinny stringed instrument, lead guitar no less. I of course said yes, I’ve known the guys in the band for years, they only do something like 10 or 12 gigs a year and all local so nice & easy. Just gotta learn how to play lead guitar I suppose….

Strings... not Underpants...

Last year was the first time I put a proper, thought out board together. Before that I didn't use effects much. I've thoroughly enjoyed the process. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I've been putting the 'final version' of my board together for several months (see above for the latest 'final version') and none have survived more than a couple of gigs. 😃 (To be fair, I've played with 4 bands this year, each with different sound requirements). I've learnt much from this thread but I've also been given GAS from many of the photos of boards shown here. Be warned! 😂

Saw this on another thread and it so deserves to be here. Really funny! 👌 Beware of The GASman...

Well, obviously this is the best advice that anyone is going to give in this thread. I once "went rogue" and ignored this sage proclamation and my Fender P bass turned into a two headed viper which ate my entire family. Or... There is some good advice on the Fender site: https://support.fender.com/en-us/knowledgebase/article/KA-01903 If I'm setting up a bass for someone else, this is what I use as it's a good, basic starting point. When I set up my own instruments, I drop the string height until it starts to rattle under normal playing conditions, then pull it back in tiny increments until it stops. Your mileage may vary, as they say on The Interweb.

I agree with the view that in a perfect world 2 feeds probably is the ideal but I gigged all of last year sending 1 x DI to FOH carrying both my Sub25 and bass signal (plugged into the two inputs of a HX Stomp and then either through an Orchid DI or if using backline the amp’s DI out), so long as instrument levels are balanced at the start it’s unlikely to be a major issue and makes for a quick simple setup which on the bigger shows we play is usually what matters!

It’s a recipe. I guess best I can say so far is I’m clearly documenting which bits I’m following and which ingredients I’m varying, and that allows us to make our own judgements as to what is key. I am continuously eating humble pie. The fretboard wood made a huge difference, and the neck build obviously as well. I thought I’d get away with maple fretboard; I was wrong. I will I think need a proper mahogany body to get that last bit of sonic detail right. Alder isn’t quite right. Though it’s not as much of the signature as perhaps others would have said. Pickups/placement seem vital; you can’t have pickups with a strong built in resonant peak. Looks like Chris’ ( @slowburnaz) pickups fit the bill, even if they’re not quite exact Wal build clones. And it turns out rosewood boards can sound very bright with the right pickup sensing their output; that was news to me. And of course the pre with some built in grit/authentic sounding shaping. Nuno doing his work here.

It's not new year until someone puts up the annual moan-a-thon thread about the Hootenanny! Happy New Year!