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Gonna have some fun with this 👌

Well the bass has just arrived, nicely packed from R&T in Barrow-in-Furness (dead easy to deal with btw). Initial inspection revealed nothing to be concerned about at all and the gold finish is really deep and lush. The strings align well with the pickup pole pieces, the action has been set quite low and the bass weighs in at just a few grams over 4kgs, so a very decent weight. There is a nice thick slab of rosewood for the fretboard and there are no sharp fret edges. The neck pocket is also nice and tight. The bone nut may be cut slightly too deep but we will see if that's an issue when I give the bass some TLC after work tonight. Overall a great job by Jet Guitars' manufacturing partner. I'll give it a good play over the next couple of days and report back. Token bass pic.

One more QC here 😆 It’s been fun with this setup. I connected the QC and H9 with a MIDI cable. Now I can change presets on the H9 with the QC.

1975: 1978: 1982: 1986: 1997: 2000: 2014 2021: 2024:

Ah I’ve been playing with it. It might be back soon or there’s a chance we might make it visible to supporting members only to stop people trying to scam people (we have found a couple of people who have messaged saying ‘hey I have that thing you want’ then used pictures from the internet (I.e not their own)). Watch this space, it might be up and down whilst we discuss it. Making it for supporting members only would also mean we can allow replies to posts, which will make it much more useful.

I needed a simple lightweight and compact tilt back stand for my 1 x 10" Combo so that I could hear myself better. After a bit of thought, I made the stand shown in the photos from a piece of scrap 10mm MDF. The "v" is offset to provide 2 different tilt back angles to suit the stage layout - which is usually very cramped in a 20 piece big band or the corner of the bar for a jazz gig so my amp is usually tucked quite close to my side. It fits easily into my cable bag when dismantled and is stable when in use. The finish is furniture wax applied with fine wire wool.

So, my 15 year old lad revealed last night that he has a strong desire to learn bass, much to my delight. He's tried 6 string guitar before and couldn't really gel with it, but he's been playing violin / fiddle since the age of two. He's also highly proficient when it comes to reading music. He's so familiar with the sound of bass, as the house / shed has been filled with my own rumblings on the instrument since I started playing 5 years ago. Maybe it's a comforting sound to him, although I hasten to dive too deep into his thought process as to the reasons for this new desire. I don't feel that I would be a very good teacher, as much as I'm keen to share thoughts on what has / hasn't worked for me over the years, so the question is this: Which online course would perhaps be best suited to him? I've had a few tries with SBL, but I couldn't get on with the content and teaching style at all. To that end, I'm mainly self taught. I see Bassbuzz could be a good starting point for him. I've quite warmed to Josh's goofy way of teaching from the online videos I've seen. Gear isn't a problem, as we've a house full of exactly what he needs to get going. Any thoughts are much appreciated. Cheers, G

I'm sat in a queue with some thinking time... having just worked out that (based on mass alone), my skeleton could supply material for over 5000 bone nuts, I'm wondering what other resources I could be mined for. Is there a better, more musical use for bones? Perhaps I could be turned into a xylophone.

As I’ve said before, a guitar shop owner told me the used market is “a lot of people which not very desirable items trying to charge shop prices then getting upset when they don’t sell…” The whole used market is due a reset. Too many people trying to charge what shops do with none of the benefits. The stuff that hangs around (there are some listings here that get bumped every week with no change to price) are pretty much all over-priced items that are common.

I am the walnuts - The Beatles

Having owned one I can confirm two things. 1) Probably the best sounding amp I’ve ever used. 2) So heavy I couldn’t be bothered to lug it about. 😅

I certainly think so 😀

Don't forget your skin. Perhaps you could skin a banjo...

I teach my daughter guitar. I get to play bass whilst helping her keep time and she’s genuinely happy to play along with someone, it’s what I lacked when learning If you can avoid puking, why not play chords for him to play along with. ?

We had a brief debate about the encore last gig. I wanted something dancy (Let's Stick Together) Al wanted purple rain. He said Let's do both and it worked (but lasted 15 minutes... 🤣)

Back in my day.... I started at 15 with a book (accompanying CD was missing) and not even a tuner. The book was full of tunes I'd never heard of and it was really slow going. What got me really learning was getting tabs for my favourite songs, finding the easier ones and playing them constantly. Then reading shed loads of bass player interviews and absorbing information from there. Having you in the house as someone who already plays will help start with some pace unlike my months of de-tuned plodding.

Done it a couple of times. One time they knew exactly what we were up to, got a nod from them on their way out

In my experience, a blended approach is best. I like to have a set list, and it's carefully thought out and curated. I'm not afraid to change it on the night depending on what happens though. If the police enter the venue for an inspection and we're away to start a new song, you can bet your life that we'll just jump straight into "Breaking the Law", for instance... Also, no-one wants to wait for a committee meeting to come to agreement on the next song. Seen that happen before with bands without set list, cringe.

I've spent a lot of time with the Meatball over the last few days and I'm really getting to know it. It's great being able to control the attack and decay. You can get bubbly sounds or more swelling sounds by adjusting how close together they are. I have found that a tiny bit of attack (up to 9:00) with a decay at about 2:00 gives a really deep filter sound where dynamics control the filter in a really 3D way. I think compared to the Mutron the band is wider and means you can use it more dynamically. The other observation is how differently it behaves with battery, 9V or 12V supply. Using a fresh 9V battery it sounded great but there was some distortion at higher colour settings. I wasn't sure if that was due to the peak overloading my interface or preamp but this is almost gone on a 9v supply. Switching to a supply cleans up the already minimal noise that the pedal introduces, just a slight hum in bypass (this could be a peculiarity of my setup/location). Otherwise the frequency response seemed to shift to bring everything up slightly. Changing to 12V from my Cioks, it's absolutely silent, so much so that I couldn't detect any difference when it's on or off. This was especially pleasing to me because I like a super quiet noise floor, something which the TC Spectracomp has helped with a lot. In contrast the Haz Mutron has a fairly noisy floor when engaged, but it's never that noticeable as it's quite smooth sounding, but it's there. In bypass, the pedal seems to leave the signal untouched - it certainly doesn't buffer it (the pedals after have an impedance control which still works) but I'm not sure if it's true bypass or not (I guess it must be, but the input signal light still works in bypass, so?) I'm getting to know the controls well so that I can quite quickly adjust the pedal to suit what I want, so that the decay fits in perfectly with the groove. I particularly like playing with a muted groove and letting occasional notes pop out. You can't help but make a face when that happens. I haven't explored down mode much yet, but I did put an octave and fuzz through it quickly yesterday and made a really doom sounding synth. So yeah it's fantastic. Although it can get wild, or not respond at all if you set things wrong, it is never harsh or brittle sounding. I'll do a video this weekend, hopefully.

So my mini precision arrived yesterday and I have to say it’s a great little thing, it sounds exactly as a P should, I don’t think the pickups need changing, I’ll probably order another pickguard as I’m not keen on the white one on a black bass, and I need to source some flats for it as rounds aren’t my thing , I’ll have a look through my string box

+1 for talking bass. I've never done a whole course with them but I found Mark's free videos the absolute pick of the YouTube crop when I finaly got round to learning how to slap a few years back. His teaching style really clicked with me.

No, he was from Yorkshire. Hence the Fender Tadcaster and the Doncaster. He later crossed the Pennines and came up with a new guitar, but unfortunately sales of the Fender Lancaster bombed.

Couldn’t you just show him and get him going, it sounds like your son already has a good knowledge of music, the rest will come, if not I would suggest maybe have a look at Mark on talkingbass, I like his no nonsense approach, good luck

I've now printed a dummy version of the guitar to check fittings and how it assembles. None of the parts have any strength or are finished properly, but its to check how things fit and what I have missed in the design. The black in the centre will be a single metal plate, this is a plastic version to check different pickups. Also to check that the hole depths are correct, that I actually have holes where they are supposed to be and none where they aren't supposed to be. For instance there are holes missing the in the black plates. Whilst this can be done in Fusion 360, it's a lot easier to print it and visually check. What is clear is that the outer frame fits together well, ignore join lines, these parts are just laid down and not tightened up.

Limestone cowboy. Glenn Campbell

'Real Rock'..... run the riddim!

Just arrived today, totally looking forward to using it and trying it with my Cranborne Camden EC1!

After work I took a few bits off to have a poke around. The fretboard looked a little dry so a light rub with some lemon oil was in order. The electrics are not of the highest quality but do work well are are not simply "on/off" switches. The cavity was unshielded (unsurprisingly) and a bit dusty as others have noticed, but again easily sorted. It is also wide enough to comfortably take a 9v battery... The strings felt a little dead but I'm leaving them on until after band practice next week. The bass plays really nicely out of the box and has clearly had a very good set up by R&T. The roasted neck is amazing and so nice to move around on with the lovely satin finish. A great bass, certainly excellent VFM and as good as many Fenders. Can't wait to try it with the band. A couple more pics for you.

Guten Denken! Also to be used as frets on the Homatone da gamba.

Gut strings for miles !

My vote is for turning you into an osteophone. 😉

Generally if in the break it looks like we might run long we agree on songs to be dropped in readiness. What does bug me sometimes is one guitarists inability to look up during an encore to agree with nods & mouthing across stage a follow up from the 3 or 4 available on the list. I can be looking across trying to catch his eye for an eternity, before the inevitable debate at the end of the first song to pick a second, instead of keeping the flow going. Our sets have got a lot slicker in recent months. Years ago in originals bands we would always have the first two or three songs of each set queued. In recent years doing covers that had become far less so, but we now have the first 3 or 4 ready to go for each set, but the rest also run pretty tight - to the extent that I normally have a couple of pints of water on stage and used to get through them, but in recent times have been lucky to get a quarter of the way into the first glass

Yes that is right, the gain control is, as I understand it, simply raising and lowering the input signal going into the capture, and the 3 band EQ is at fixed frequencies, at least for the time being. I envisage that will change in a future development as the tech is all there. Last night I actually did some captures of a Darkglass Alpha Omega pedal, went a little overboard and did 16 altogether covering various switch positions and gain/mod positions, captures are perfect, and I'm fairly confident now that I can get any useable sound that pedal is capable of getting through a mix of using one of those captures and other bits and bobs on the QC as appropriate. A £330 pedal cloned just like that, would only take 4 or 5 pedals captured like that and the value of the QC is paid for! But that aside, the QC of course has a range of full drive/fuzz models, guitar and bass, and loads of amps to play with as well. Not as much as the Helix of course, but relatively speaking this is still a new product and ever expanding. I can't imagine ever hearing or wanting a drive sound and not being able to recreate it on the QC by one way or another. Its the other stuff the QC needs to improve at, modulations, delays, anything remotely synthy etc.

I'm pleased to say that there is a happy ending to this tale. I replaced the driver with a Faital 4FE32. I was having difficulty sourcing capacitors for a reasonable price so I ended up going with an 800Hz crossover from Blue Aran. The difference is like night and day - not only has the annoying buzz gone, but the sound is much improved and there is much more clarity in the higher frequency. Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I did recieve an email from Eich, asking me to send photos of the driver because "we are unsure what is in there." No response so far to the email I sent back.

I learned basics through apps. Some of them are genuinely great for learning the pragmatics (well, the putting your fingers in places), none of them are any good at e.g. learning the fretboard or what notes you're playing AND WHY. They can be immensely rewarding; they gamify playing in a way that e.g. buying 'The Jaco Pastorius Method' (Jaco's method turns out to be playing lots and lots of arpeggios and scales without any real explanation) just did not. Am I stating the obvious here? Ultimate Guitar has a pretty good range of tabs, and can now (in principle) listen to and grade your playing. The backing tracks for pro tabs are autogenerated, no singing, but aren't bad for getting you going. It encourages a degree of independent exploration. I ran through fender's 'play' app very quickly, though it does at least do bass, and does at least have some enjoyable tracks and a passable learning curve. It's gamified reasonably well; it kept me coming back. A fair bit. Yousician is incredibly gamified, has a few more tracks and a bit more free roaming, idk I was probably through everything Fender had to offer in 4 weeks (?) and Yousician lasted another month or three. Or four. All of these may be absolutely toxic to anyone who already plays bass 😂 I have been breaking out and doing much more independent learning / exploration in the last year or two, but regularly said to my partner that I need to find a proper tutor. I can't do videos. That said. May be an autism thing. Someone talking at me, god no. Which is one reason I've resorted to apps. Would gladly recommend alongside other things, if not as an exclusive path to whatever.

wow, I came to the bass after the violin too. I was 13. (1981) No lessons, I just worked it out really. I wished I'd kept up the violin now. As Reggaebass suggested, show him some stuff and see how he goes. If he's good on the violin and has good theory it's very transferable

Sick Times - Boards Of Canada

Another Serial Reworker is Paul Simon. Here, his bluegrass version of Gone at Last. And the original recorded version. So difficult, that even his live bands can't manage it!

Saw this on Irish TV a couple of weeks ago. Its a must see for any Gallagher fan, or those who might have a passing interest. An incredible talent.

One tuner: TC Electronic Polytune 3 One drive: Ampeg Scrambler One fuzz/distortion: Aguilar Fuzzistor One envelope filter: I've never had one proper envelope filter. I have always used a Line 6 M5. I f I had to get one, I'd go MXR or Source Audio. One octave: MXR Octave Deluxe One modulation: Mooer Ensemble Queen One preamp (doesn't have to have DI out): Aguilar Tone Hammer One pedal that does reverb or delay (or both): I have a Dr Green Waiting Room but I don't use it much. and one wildcard...: this one is tricky. My first thought would be a DCX Bass and I'd pick that probably. However, when I didn't have the Helix, I paired the Tone Hammer with a MXR Microamp. With the AGS always one on the limit of breakup, I had the Microamp to give it a little boost before the Tone Hammer to drive it when I needed an overdrive.

gotcha. Such a shame we still have these kind of people around.

Dammit Granite — The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Well this proves that when people say "yes but can he play in a band?"... well yes he can and better than the rest of us! Quite an interesting video just to hear his thought process: "when there's fewer chords there's more riding on your bassline ability... it's just Am to D and a bridge..."

Great ska gig on Saturday night, as per usual the PA was vocal/guitar/keys/kick/snare only so my Genz/Barefaced stack of doom was roaring away at the back. I love it when I have to crank it up a bit. Using the Spector, as per usual on the ska gigs, I experimented with a couple of sounds... usually for 'Time Bomb' I use a slightly grubby SVT model on my Zoom MS60B, but this time I also stamped on the Wine Cellar for an extra bit of grit and oh my god it was HUGE. Without a doubt the best pick sound I've ever had.

Eric Clapton, Layla. And the awful acoustic version.