paul_5

I did something similar last year - looks nowhere near as nice as your lovely basses, but plays well and sounds great. Pics to follow. Oh, and I spent £104 in total: body, neck, PUPs, bridge, scratchplate. I went slightly over budget, as I'd set myself a limit of £100, but still, got a new bass for a ton! [attachment=74192:P3070698.JPG] [attachment=74193:P3070700.JPG The body was a Hondo P bass copy from the '80s (which sounded fine) but I'm more of a J player, so I took a chisel to it and 'made room' for the J pickup. There wasn't really room for the wiring for this extra PUP, so it's being run across the body for now. The main thing was de-fretting the Yamato fingerboard - silky smooth now.

yet another +1 for Watford Valves.

I've got one too, and they're grand! I run mine from a one-spot that does my Boss stuff too, they're fine sharing PSUs with other kit, standard Boss style power socket.

in today's market, about £8

+1 for the two octave approach. really helps in learning all of the note positions on the bass.

16 tracks simultaneously into a laptop is a pretty tall order, are you sure that you nee to everything all at once? I've never recorded more than 9 at once, and that was with a VERY picky drummer. As long as people don't mind playing to a click, then overdubbing is the way forward. It might seem like a lot of money up front, but the only alternatives are a) book studio time and pay a similar figure for a single lot of recording, or buy an old tape machine - which will cost less initially, but at roughly £50 for 20 minutes (and all the outboard kit like compressors and a mixer) it's really expensive, this is why computer recording is the most popular option. Plus it's sooooo much easier to edit on a big screen than start splicing tape etc...

Same here, I use non-branded stuff from a local market. Beats the 3M stuff that comes with most pedal boards hands-down. Cheaper too.

Don't worry about the audition, just have fun and enjoy the experience. That way even if you don't make the grade, you've had a positive experience. If you get the gig, then that's a bonus. All the best. Paul.

If you're going down (no pun intended) the '70s 'porn' route, then why not consider ridiculously oversized fake moustaches and / or over-the-top chest wigs (or 'merkins' as they are known in the trade)? There - I've used the word 'Merkin' in context. someone owes me £10.

Nice idea - questionable RH technique though. Just let me consult my Alexander technique manuals for the optimum position for this sort of thing.....oh, there isn't one. There IS one for having a poo though, what are the odds?

That's just beautiful, I really fancy a Nordy now!

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='1148216' date='Mar 3 2011, 11:44 AM'][url="http://www.rockandrollconfidential.com/hall/"]Bad band promo shots[/url] I have to share this for anyone who missed it last time I posted it.[/quote] Thanks for posting this again, I just cried laughing.

When I read the thread subtitle (strange noise) I thought you were showing off! Hope you get this sorted.

I pimped (well, rebuilt) a cheap P bass last year. The single best thing I bought for it was a GFS pickup. overwound Alnico split P that was punchy, loud and clean. They're about £30 ish and worth every penny. A friend of mine has eve replaced his USA strat pickups with GFS ones, as they sound better, ad cost peanuts. [url="http://www.guitarfetish.com/GFS-PB-Pro-PLUS-OVERWOUND-Alnico-P-Bass-style-VERY-hot_p_334.html"]GFS bass pickups.[/url] currently out of stock though

I've worked with loads of covers bands who all talk a good game, but are actually fairly dire, sounds like you've had a lucky escape. Keep hold of your kit, put it away for a while and spend some time with family and friends. Maybe one day soon you'll be listening to music and remember what it was that inspired you to play in the first place. At that point you can open a cupboard and fall in love with it again. If you sell your kit then it will be too much of a hassle to start again, and you'll start making excuses for not getting back into it (shop's closed, no petrol etc...).I know a couple of players who have sold up, and they really regret it. Also, who says you need a band? what about simply enjoying playing for your own entertainment? Maybe the thread should read 'Paroled again"? Chin up mucker.

what about a bass limiter pedal set to trim the peaks off the attack part of the wave - my old LM2B gave a very 'pick' like attack when set just right, wasn't too fussy about playing with other boxes either.

I had the same problem years ago. the 'vibrato' that we use on fretted basses isn't anywhere near as subtle as can be achieved on a fretless. Vbrato on fretted instruments is very quick, small changes in pitch around a fixed point. The only way to fake true vibrato on fretted basses is to wobble the fretted note up and down (vertically), although o matter whether you push the string towards or away from you (again, vertically) you're only [i]sharpening[\i] the pitch (albeit very slightly). On a fretless I try to keep my finger in the right position for the note to be in tune, then wobble my hand from side to side (different from the vertical technique on fretted basses). This is violin / cello technique, and has the advantage of being able to flatten and sharpen the note, as the movement is latitudinal (along the neck i.e. headstock to bridge), rather than across it. Subtle difference, but enough to matter. Should also eliminate massive grooves in the fingerboard too - bonus. Hope this helps.

Cheers for this. I googled the same question the other day and got nowhere. That magazine looks really techy/geeky (for these words, read 'brilliant'). Hmm, now to play with my EQ.....

[quote name='Quoth'd' post='1147967' date='Mar 3 2011, 07:34 AM']I think I have to hold my hand up and say that I'm guilty of this. Way back when . . . I was 16, I decided to treat myself after I passed my GCSEs and decided that I'd like to learn an instrument & wanted it to be something different - so I walked into my local music store and took a look around. I settled on a bass that I liked the look of & after waiting half an hour whilst the owner creamed over a punter who just walked in to play albatros before walking out again, I finally got served. I picked my new instrument some metallic blue thing by a company I'd never heard of called Fender, paid my £70 & took it home. After playing with it a while I got together with some friends & we started a band - I picked it up fairly quickly & was soon looking for a better instrument as I didn't want to be seen with a bass made by a company called Fender - surely they had something to do with cars & wouldn't know anything about quality musical instruments. Oh and the 2 long pickups looked cheap as you could see the metal bits of the poles - whilst all my mates had cool guitars which were all black or looked like BC Rich / Les Paul etc. I ended up doing lots of nasty things with that instrument that ranged from numerous resprays to planing a chunk off the body (by accident) to deciding to take it fretless (lets not even talk about nearly frying the pickups when trying to tinker with the electronics). I finally took it apart & it was left in my wardrobe for years until finally found a new home at the local tip. It wasn't till years later that I actually came across a picture in google, did some research & found out that my first bass was an original, late 60's metallic blue, Fender Jazz bass. The shame Perhaps there should be a test that you have to pass before your allowed to buy instruments - if your too young or dumb - to prevent you harming innocent instruments lol[/quote] I never bought Fenders as a youngster (with lots more disposable income), as I saw them as an 'old man's' instrument. Wish I'd bought one now, ah well, we live and learn. I went for anything that felt good that specifically wasn't a Fender. What have I ended up with - a very good Jazz copy. Seems that age finally caught up with me ( or should that be taste?).