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Time to share my shorties here. Gibson LP DC Tribute and 1973 Fender Musicmaster Bass

I have been having pain in my left hand third finger for a while now on & off, so I have gone back to using my 1964 Hofner 500/1 bass as my main player. I've owned this bass for the past 35 years and the neck is pencil thin & feels so nice to play in comparison to my, Hofner HCT 500/1 which has a 42mm nut width & thicker neck and feels totally different to the '64 500/1.

It's been an absolute pleasure opening for these guys every night 🙏😊 A dream come true. Cannot say enough good things about Mark and his crew, they're just the best!! Even got to hold Mark's original "ol' girl" on his 65th birthday. It felt like my own birthday!! 😂

My latest bit of Heath Robinsoning....

It's not too expensive. 1kg of PETG or PLA is around £20. However special filaments can be a lot more. Simple things are cheap and easy. Ceiling roses are trivial to design and print. These modules are the most complex I have ever designed as: 1. There's a lot of them that have to fit together and each way they fit is unique. 2. How they bolt together is important. I don't want any screws or nuts to show. I keep saying I don't have OCD but I do wonder at times 😊 3. Access to the countersink screws using an Allen key is difficult. You have to think how long the Allen key is and how much rotation you can do. A 22mm long bolt will take a long time to screw in with a 30 degree movement. You only really find this out when you assemble things. I may have to put access holes in as it's so tricky and I don't want to do that. 4. I have a lot of embedded nuts that need to be put in. This requires every hole to be carefully designed to hold the nut. This means I have to stop the printer at certain layers to put the nuts in. If I leave it too long, the material cools down and this was probably the reason for the head crash. 5. It could also be because I'm using hardened steel nozzles as opposed to brass. Different thermal characteristics of temperature expansion of brass hot ends with steel Nozzles mean the nozzle can come loose. First job today is to replace the steel Nozzles back to brass. Then recalibrate the head level and start again. 6. The 3d design program is basically 3d maths. You build-up 2d sketches and then extrude the designs into 3d space. Some of the designs I have to 'manufacture' in the program. So you have to design and extrude and cut in a specific order to get the part you need. If you accidentally change something before these steps, it may go dramatically wrong or it might be a subtle error that you don't notice until you print or assemble. 7. I make mistakes. I forgot to put holes in to hold the pick guard so the work was useless anyway. There's a lot to remember. It's complicated at first but you learn as you go and build up the skills. I started at the beginning of lockdown and knew nothing. I had a cheap Ender 3 Pro off Amazon and built a CNC machine as pretty much my first project. All the hard design work had been done by somebody else. All I could design were simple cubes. I just kept learning and designing new stuff that got more and more complicated. It helps that I have a maths background and can think in 3 dimensions, probably due to the pure maths I did years ago. However you don't need to have these traits (not sure if they are skills), just practise and learn and except things will go wrong. I lost 16 hours of printing yesterday. That's across two printers, I'll lose more this week getting it right without a doubt. At first it's so frustrating, now I learn what went wrong, shrug my shoulders and start the following day. Hope this gives some clarity Rob

Spotted this on Gumtree a few days ago, picked it up this eve. £30 with a straight neck - what could possibly go wrong?! I’m planning on stripping it back (or probably just sanding for a refinish as it’s probably ply-bodied). Maybe oly white with a mint guard? We’ll see…

I'm not much cop at bass. I'm just there as eye candy to be honest, something to keep the ladies entertained.

So I took a drive from Bromley up to Cambridge to a meet up and buy from Mike. Lovely chap. I am now the proud owner of my 2nd Walsh Bitsa P bass! What an amazing bass. Thanks Mike!

You would have thought they'd have a bunch of great stuff hanging around that was never put on an album, because after all, they were all geniuses. But it appears they only have the scrapings at the bottom of the barrel. This track probably wouldn't even get on a Rutles album (or an Oasis one for that matter).

Currently at three blue basses (of which two are already on this very page), added this Belgrado Z-lectro to the collection. The colour is Avatar Blue and is originally a Peugeot car colour.

There's still room on there for a couple of PAR cans and a Zoom Q2n 4K. Just saying ...

Anybody in a band that covers All Right Now. That's been me since around 1970 folks 😎

Thanks so much mate 🙏🙂 Yes, using my trusty Yamaha TRB1005J - it really cuts through

He's stopped using that Shure wireless pedal for the last five gigs or so. He's now using a Shure rack mounted unit, which, according to his tech and sound crew sounds a million times better. You can see it here, under his Caveman preamp (which he absolutely swears by, apparently)

If anyone wishes to have a go at building one of @stevie and @Phil Starr excellent cabs designs on an entry level budget I have a couple of used ( but in great condition) Bayma SM212 drives FOC. These were used in the Mk1 & Mk2 cabs and are very fine drivers, pay the shipping and they are yours. PM me. I have enjoyed great fun following and building cabs that @stevie and @Phil Starr have freely shared to Basschaters.

A close run challenge for October, but rising to the top in the final throws came @SH73 with a great entry. As is his privilege, nay, honour, he has offered up the following for your inspiration. "Something futuristic....." Simple rules ✔️ Entries must be <5 minutes and recorded between now and the deadline. ✖️ No illegal samples, copyright infringements or other snide goings-on ✖️ No Bagpipes/panpipes , everyone had the chance last month , so there! ✖️ No voting for your own entry. We'll know. And we'll shame you.. Deadline wise , we will go for Midnight on the 23rd as I will be away for the weekend and leaving it till the 26th only leaves 4 voting days. A line or two of blurb as usual for the vote thread will be lovely. Have fun

Not sure if this will work as its a Facebook photo. Someone is selling this bass, an F bass BN5 in matte black. Love it! Yup, facebook link died. Here's two new pix.

"Early in ZZ Top's career, Billy [Gibbons] and I drove up from Houston to Dallas - this is one of those stories you always hear, but this really happened, and we went to a pawn shop called Rocky's Pawn shop and on the wall was a Fender bass guitar and this guy truly had no idea what he had, and I get Billy to make the deal because he's better at that than I am. Anyway, he worked him and worked him and I got the bass for $70. We're leaving and Billy goes 'Nope, wait a minute, no deal. You have to throw in the case.' So he actually threw the case in, and it was close to an original case, for $70" For an all original 1953 P, serial 970.

That sounds similar to what I read about the grain direction. Its not just cosmetic. I think the inserts are an easy fix. Other people seem to sell them as well, so it does appear to be a genuine solution https://graingerguitarparts.com/t/neck-ferrules--screws Thanks Rob

A good drummer makes the whole band better and the reverse is equally true. Which is why the good ones are so busy/hard to get.

Just had a quick hour or so messing around with my EBMM Sterling and some headphones, very pleased with first impressions! Stock cab IRs will do me nicely and the SVT and B15 both sound great. SGT is a bit harsh but if you go easy with the Grit it it's definitely useable - the Sterling's a rather bright and lively instrument already so that will be a big factor here too. I imagine you could bump the grit up with a passive bass and get better results. It'll mainly be used as a (rather extravagant) practice tool for me but it'll definitely get a spin if I play live again in the future, or if I ever get the time rattle out a few covers for the 'gram. Cheers guys!

I was thinking how I would describe it, then I read Upside Downers post, exactly Jingly Jangly but not in a good way like the Birds. The vocals were pretty average, no real stand out features. IMO, the first track on an album should be one of the strongest and grab your attention from the off, unfortunately this one failed with me.

Very true. The reverse is same I'm led to believe. For the most part, I think bass players are quite self deprecating and are their own worst critics. I'm no different in this respect. Hence my complete surprise when I was ask to provide bass on an upcoming session, by a recording artist (more details to follow, if all goes well).

Hey Pete, Great video, and thanks for the kind words. It was great fun making your body and I must say how nice the assembled bass looks! Definitely a great color scheme and a killer tone. Ian

I've played it a couple of times at jam sessions back in 80's but not recently. I've not even heard a covers band do that one in many years. I always found the first verse bassline very tricky 😁 Dave

"If you know how good you are, nobody else has to." Wise words from trumpeter Don Cherry.

I think it embodies the spirit of the beatles really nicely. It certainly wouldn't have been released as a single but a good album track. Technology.

The sign of a good bass player is being able to play those fills - but knowing not to play them.

Put it in whichever position sounds better. If you can't tell the difference set it at 8 ohms, for minimum current draw from the amp.

The angle is perfect - 90° off the top of the pedal board and the rake of the board sends it a good foot out from the pedals

I really like that idea. I will offer you five pounds for ninety five percent of your company.

Crusoe. - Art of noise aaaand relax! https://youtu.be/aUN44kw2W1E?si=E9Fc934zhTkgAlXw

I'm having a bit of classic thrash / punk crossover this morning with Hellbastard. They make an excellent racket. Too heavy for punk, too punk for metal. They've asked us to support them in a couple weeks so I thought I should get a bit more familiar with their music and I'm really enjoying it.

Day jobs pay the bills to allow me to play these sort of 3d printing games. If I relied on music to live, I'd be dead of cold and famine within two weeks Rob

Here's an example of how things can wrong. This is the bridge module that will hold a bridge (doh). It's designed for a Telecaster bridge and so it has three large holes in the recess to allow the bridge pickup screws to seat. That's all fine. However the back of the bridge (that's the blue area) doesn't go down to the very bottom of the module. It goes down 29mm and it should go down 44mm. There should be two rows of three screw holes for mounting purposes, however there is only one row. The module that connects to here has two rows and when I designed it, the bridge had two rows. Somewhere when I changed something, the back of the bridge 'lost' 15mm. It's trivial to just add 15mm back in, but I've got to go back and undo the screw holes (with embedded nuts in), and fix them OR I backtrack and workout what went wrong and fix it from some N steps ago, where N could be a very large number. The screw holes are important as this fixes everything together. I've gone over the top with screw holes as this is the first version and it's easier to remove them as it's too strong rather than go back and add them in. Thats my view anyway. These lost three screws may be wholly unimportant OR they may be critical. At this point in time. I've no idea so I err on the side of caution. 3D design is about telling a story and you have to get the steps in all the right place in the the right order. I seem to have a lost of page of the narrative and now have to work out how to recreate it. It could take me 10 mins or 2-3 hours to fix it. I alos have a day job to do which is nothing to do with this, so time is precious.

I do like the look; silver with tort, maple neck and pearloid inlays. They shouldn't all go well together but the end result looks quite classy. Congrats.

@Risk101 As much as it would be good to meet up, I work nowhere near the City. I'm fine, it's just that sometimes I naively assume that others will have the same passion, focus, enthusiasm, drive and commitment as myself, talk about setting myself up for disappointment LOL. I just needed to have a rant to likeminded musicians to get it out of my system. I initially joined the worship team as a bass player but now, I play bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, I sing lead vocals and I lead worship. I suppose it's because I fill a lot of different roles that more gets asked of me. I LOVE playing in the worship team and I'm going to focus on the fact that I'm playing more music now at 55 than I ever did when I was in my teens and 20's. I will continue to serve God and my church, I will continue to "praise him with the strings." Psalm 150:4 😃

Personally I've had digital stuff (Line 6 HX stomp, Hotone Ampero II Stomp, various zoom iterations, Ampeg SGT DI with digital IR loader, source audio aftershock and bass OFD, TC Spectracomp etc) and they always lack a certain body and harmonic content. That being said, I may love it if I try it; I know local players who are far better than me who have this and love what it does... I currently use a Source Audio Ultrawave and C4, so am not 100% anti digital; I just think it lends itself to certain application, and this is one of those where I can't understand why they haven't stayed true or closer to the source material.

Sally James on t'other side FTW 🤘