Skol303

[quote name='PauBass' timestamp='1390857607' post='2350610']I don't even know where to start! I'm fine recording bass but that's about as far I go How do you go around drums, guitars? Do you record them yourselves?... and other instruments I hear on some of the recordings? [/quote] Easiest way to start is to use a pre-written drum loop and record something over the top of it. Which reminds me that the 'getting started at recording' thread that we've been promising is long overdue! I'll make a start on drafting something ASAP which will answer exactly these sorts of questions...

BUMP! Five tracks. Approximately fifteen minutes. Go listen and vote. Please

Interesting article in this month's Sound On Sound magazine about 'loudness normalisation' in broadcast media (radio, TV, online), which seems set to make the loudness war a thing of the past. Snippet here: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb14/articles/leader-0214.htm So the days of heavy limiting on the master bus may soon be over? Thank goodness for that

Some really great...err... 'interpretations' of the genre right here: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/227997-january-composition-competition-voting/ ...in case you hadn't stumbled across this already

[quote name='AL-the-Bassman' timestamp='1390740948' post='2348813'] i agree, we need to try and make this Thread more popular, and sociable. after all, its just a bit of fun, and gets you thinking outside of your normal boxes which i like . [/quote] We do our best Trouble is, many people just aren't interested in other people's music. Which seems counter-intuitive for a community of musicians, but that's how it is. It's something I've encountered on every music community I've ever belonged to, so it's certainly not unique to Basschat. In fact Basschat has one of the most active community of musicians that I've come across, which is why I decided to linger here. I think a lot of people just know what they like, like what they know, and aren't interested in much beyond that. They come here for a chinwag rather than anything musical per se. Which is of course very welcome and in many ways the backbone of the community. I think the expression is "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink".

I think I know the exact body... black spray job, right? If it's the same one it looked ok for the money. Not great but workable. Let us know how you get on with it. And yeah, post some pics!

I've taken a similar dalliance into fretless recently and am also loving it (the difference being I play with roundwound strings, so the tone is a lot different to flats - more 'mwah'). I find fretless very liberating and - corny as it sounds - it's made me look at playing in a totally different way. I find myself putting things together that I wouldn't think of doing on a fretted bass. The downside being that my intonation sucks So lots of practice required... I personally don't intend to get rid of my fretted. I'm just pleasantly surprised at how different an instrument a fretless bass can be.

Thanks as always Sylvia! Much appreciated

[quote name='oggiesnr' timestamp='1389655156' post='2336737']Open G tuning and a bottleneck! Three chord trick sorted in about sixty seconds[/quote] I almost did exactly that for this month's composition competition! I'm actually thinking of trying some slide guitar... love the sound of it. [quote name='Immo' timestamp='1390520900' post='2346518']Once again surprised how great effect can be achieved by using a can spray, even if it's designed for guitars. I have a P-Bass body needing a nice refin, now I'm tempted even more, however I'm afraid I won't be able to buy "Manchester Guitar Tech" canned nitro lacquer in Poland [/quote] I just has a quick check and unfortunately Steve (Manchester Guitar Tech) doesn't post overseas - there are tight regulations about shipping spray paint. He does however suggest this supplier in Sweden offering similar products - and they might be able to ship across Europe? http://gitarrdelar.se Otherwise you could try nitrocellulose car lacquer. I've heard good things from other people who've used it. Good luck!

Well we made it… through the first month of the year (almost) and all its persistent wet weather, SAD-inducing darkness, mounting utility bills and with many days hard toil stretching out ahead of us for another year. Yeah ok, I'll stop now No better way to cast of the January blues than with some new music inspired by Burt Reynolds and M.C. Escher [i](yes, you read that right)[/i]. Just five tracks this month, so a perfect accompaniment to any tea break. Pour yourself a cuppa and head here for the hoedown: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/227997-january-composition-competition-voting/"]CLICKY HERE[/url] Well done to everyone who entered and thanks in advance for any votes. Always hugely appreciated! Cheers

Voting thread is now up! [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/227997-january-composition-competition-voting/"][size=5]Go, go, go...[/size][/url]

[b][color=#b22222][size=5]Voting has now started on January's Composition Competition![/size][/color][/b] Here's the inspiration for this first competition of the new year, chosen by our previous joint winners [b]Dad3353[/b] and [b]AL-the-Bassman[/b]: And here are the compositions. Please listen to each track and pick your favourite: [b]Dad3353[/b] https://soundcloud.com/dad3353/progression-of-the-omnibus [b]AL-the-Bassman[/b] https://soundcloud.com/al-the-bassman/theres-a-hoedown-upstairs [b]lurksalot[/b] https://soundcloud.com/lurksalot/toke-on-my-stogie [b]Bilbo[/b] https://soundcloud.com/robert-palmer-1/up-the-downs [b]Skol303[/b] https://soundcloud.com/skollob/drugstore-cowboys [color=#b22222][size=5][b]Voting ends on Friday 31st January at midnight.[/b][/size][/color] Well done to everyone who took part this month! Sterling work, as ever.

[quote name='bobbass4k' timestamp='1390606527' post='2347630'] Bah, didn't get finished. I blame Justin Bieber. [/quote] I can add you to the running order at any time! You might lose a couple of votes for being late to the party, but drop me a PM if you manage to get something finished over the weekend

Ok, I'm done! A definite country theme emerging this month (with the exception of Bilbo and good on him for bucking the trend), which mine certainly falls into. The Burt Reynolds image won the battle of setting the genre for me - there was no other way I could see of tackling it. So I took inspiration from the Escher picture in writing the lyrical theme of the track, it being an ode to my psychoactive student days (and an old book of Escher drawings that a mate of mine used to bring out whenever knocking on the doors of perception, so to speak). Days long gone, but plenty of colourful memories Anyway, yeah, it's a country track! Had lots of fun writing it. Ended up having to sing it in a pseudo-Yankee accent, as I realised that country songs just don't work otherwise. Or work even less, should I say. All of the parts are my own apart from the drums, which were written by chopping up audio loops of a live kit and re-arranging them (rather than programming MIDI). More laborious, but I think it sounds more natural. Fretless bass again and still lots of work to do on my intonation. The guitars are a thoroughly knackered old acoustic that my wife bought at a jumble sale and an old 70s Strat copy, recently restored by me ([url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/211966-just-bought-a-vintage-fake-now-refurbished/"]this one[/url]). Enough guff, here's the track: https://soundcloud.com/skollob/drugstore-cowboys Comments welcome as always. I'll be back around midnight to kick-start the voting thread...

Damn you all! You're right... and I'm now a few notes lighter in my wallet, but I have a 73/74 p'up on its way to me. It was the right decision and it would have bugged me had I not got this crucial part of the P-bass jigsaw. Many thanks for the input.

Cheers Mark... that's what my gut is telling me (well actually right now it's saying "you forgot breakfast!" but that's another topic). I think I'm only hesitating because of the cost of old 70s p'ups. I have a mate in the US who's currently tempting me with one, so I may well cave in eventually.

I'm sure this has been asked before, but bear with me... I'm slowly sourcing parts for a mid-70s P-bass 'bitsa' project. So far I've found some great bargains and made a bunch of new friends along the way. All good. I'm currently chewing over different options for the pickups, those being: - Finding an original 70s Fender split pickup (expensive but obviously authentic) - Fitting a brand new Fender 'original' pickup (much less expensive and naturally P-bass sounding) - Fitting a Lindy Fralin or Nordstrand pickup (not authentic... but sound great and a popular choice) This is proving to be e real 'heart vs head' decision for me. My heart says buy Fender, maybe even going so far as to buy a 70s p'up (so far every other part I've sourced is original 73/74). My head says buy what is going to give the best sound, which may well be the Lindy or Nordstrand (I know that's probably blasphemy!). Thoughts/comments very welcome. Cheers.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1390515608' post='2346431']Conversational example: 'The f***ing soundman shot 48v back up the DI line and borked my rig'[/quote] LOL

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1390403212' post='2345020'] I find him smug and unconvincing in every role he plays, like one of those guys who is the only person in the room that finds his own jokes funny. I cannot name a single film he is in that I didn't hate. [/quote] I'm not much of a fan either. He comes across as being very 'punchable' ...but I did enjoy Smoky and the Bandit as a kid. Guilty pleasures. Reynolds was addicted to painkillers for years (yeah, I Googled him). That and the psychedelic nature of Escher's work helped to inspire my effort this month. Well, sort of. I could be making that up. Should have it finished sometime on Friday night... Looking forward to listen to them all, y'all!

[quote name='the boy' timestamp='1390330677' post='2344165'] I found some but they are about £80 and not £30. What else do you reckon. [/quote] Weird... mine definitely cost around £30 (new) and that was a couple of years ago. I must have got lucky! Or maybe prices have gone up. £80 sounds steep. Here are a couple of options for C-3s at around £50... http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B000KUA8EI http://www.gak.co.uk/en/behringer-c-3-studio-condenser/1066

[quote name='the boy' timestamp='1390312653' post='2343876']Anybody recommend an affordable but deasent condenser microphone. [/quote] Behringer C-3. Cheap and very cheerful for around £30

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1390230388' post='2342869'] Got something. Will upload to soundcloud later!! [/quote] Good to hear! I've still got to record parts of mine, but should have it done before too long. To anyone else who's beavering away... note that the deadline is this Friday.

Met them and interviewed them in the late 90s/early noughties. Nice people. Their music is a bit pedestrian - a kind of sanitized Massive Attack - but they rode the wave of 'trip hop' and probably garnered a lot of fans along the way. But whatever. Nice to have a bass with a story behind it

Thanks guys! I've been checking the neck daily since I got it (on Wednesday last week) and so far it seems pretty much stable. It had a very slight back bow when I first checked it - maybe just over 1mm or so towards the nut end when laying a metal ruler along its length; the bow starting around the 3rd or 4th fret. The truss rod seemed quite tight, almost maxed but then I didn't dare give it a good twist to test it I've since loosened the truss gradually by 1.25 full turns (loosening it by 1/4 turn each time) and the back bow has relaxed to maybe 0.5mm at the nut. But to be honest it's not hugely different to when I first checked it. I'm going to give it a final 1/4 turn tomorrow for good luck and then leave it be. I bought the neck off a friend of mine in the US who builds vintage Fenders as a hobby (he has four 70s 'bitsa' basses himself). The neck came off a '74 bass - he kept the body and I got the neck and tuners, which are currently detached. It's 4cm at the nut, so I think that makes it an A neck? Seems nice and slim for a Precision. I've since wrapped the neck in a towel and bubble wrap, which is how it will now lay mummified until further notice. One quick question: what's the deal with keeping it flat? I'd previously kept it propped upright... is that a bad idea and if so, why? Thanks again for your input. I know I'm being incredibly anal about all this! But with it being such an old neck I'm feeling extra cautious. Cheers, Paul

I've bought plenty of parts from the US (but never a whole bass) without any problems whatsoever. But then I've never bought an item shipped by GPP; it's always been USPS Priority Mail or similar. The US Parcel Service itself is great in my experience. Super fast, reliable, regularly updated tracking... It's a state run operation and very well organised. The delays start when things reach the UK. Which is no different to sending/receiving stuff on home turf.