stewblack

This isn't, technically speaking, a reliced bass. It's a chunk of old wood from a barn (or something like that anyway) so it's grown old naturally

I've used them if I want to share an interesting auditory experience and writing it down wouldn't cut it. You know, like I'm texting "you should hear this pillock at work, in fact you can!" then I secretly record my boss telling me something or other.

It says I can't answer that.

That is the most magical thing ever. Thanks everyone for advice and offers of help. The manual was about as useful as any English manual, but it did tell me the SUSTAIN control works the opposite way around from what I thought!

It's on paper unfortunately AHA!

Need translation assistance please. I could type it into Google but it would take days. I don't type Cyrillic

A few other of his basses, one bass based on my bass, basically, is not a bass. (try saying that with a mouthful of sherbert lemons)

That's nice! We aren't a million miles away shape wise, but in the end we opted for a more simple look. The thing evolved over time, had a lot more going on at one point. It was then I realised that if I micromanaged the process we would end up with Homer's car in guitar form. It was then I resolved to let the builder make the decisions from there on in. I know some people couldn't commission a build and not have the final say - after all that would be the whole point. But for me, with fairly limited knowledge and catholic tastes, I like having something to look forward to. Don't get me wrong Stu and I made sure we were on the same page before he broke out the tools. But I chose him because I believe he has a good eye and a creative mind, I don't want to get in the way of that. I won't know if I like it until its hanging around my neck, but that's almost always true. Apart from three of my basses I have never played any of them prior to the unboxing and things generally turn out OK.

It's a Retrovibe. I wanted to shop local!

Nice!

I like it. It's quite versatile inasmuch as it has two settings; fuzz, and booze! I'll do a little demo irt's hard to describe fuzzes, they're all similar but different.

we pay UK vat, customs and handling charge on top. So not worth it.

Metallic Smoked Almond has to be one of the most bewildering colour description ever given to a bass.

Oh God. Been free of bass gas for a while, but that floats my boat.

me too!

So... my build has suffered from the lockdowns - home schooling quite rightly taking precedence over bass making. Not a problem for me, I'm far from impatient. I gave Stu at Impure Guitars full discretion once we'd agreed on a shape and a thematic idea. I don't believe in commissioning an artist and then telling him how to paint (as it were), so I've left him to get on with it. My only stipulation was he had to be happy with the result. The finish was applied but it just didn't float his boat like he'd hoped it might. So he stripped it and started again, going this time for a nitro seafoam green, and it's perfect 👌. In the interim he stripped some bakelite from an old radio and polished it up for the pickguard. The pics are a bit shaky but give a pretty good idea of where we're heading. Waiting on the dual concentric pot and a whatever else has to happen paint wise, then it all comes together.

I don't feel at all stupid 🤦🏼‍♂️

Guess what? Darwin award goes to Stew. Turns out the software had 'forgotten' about the midi interface I use. The reason changing the output levels made no discernable difference to the sound was.... they were making no difference to the pedal. I assumed once paired to the pedal, my desktop wouldn't need telling again to use the interface. So now my output levels are much better.

For those who might not be familiar, SCS is a system employed by Russian pedal manufacturer Yerasov. They produce three sizes of board (4, 6, and 8 pedals) which are equipped with a cunning method for fixing and connecting their stomp boxes. Each pedal has two sockets underneath, one looks like a phone or ethernet socket, the other a simple threaded hole. Remove the bottom of the board with three thumb screws and you find the plugs and bolts for those sockets. The bolt secures the pedal to the board, no velcro required, and the plug carries both audio and power. So you need no patch cables, there is no gap between pedals and one 9v plug powers the whole board. The pedals are well made and very effective and have jack sockets so can also be used on any traditional set up. At present they offer bass overdrive, chorus, compressor and a parametric eq pedal. There are many other options available which are aimed at the guitarist but seem to work just fine for the bass. They don't yet make an envelope filter so my board has a Fwonkbeta on there which spoils the elegance a little, and takes more than one space. But it works just fine and shows just how neatly the SCS pedals fit. I bought the stomps over a few months from a really nice guy based in Essex. He is the uk distributor for the brand. So no need to worry about buying from Russia, they all came via the post office a day after ordering. http://yerasov.co.uk/products.html#EFFECTS 1

Great thread, I spent a happy hour playing It Ain't No Use by the Meters last night. The joy of it is the bit that sounds complicated actually isn't and there's plenty of space around the main groove to improvise

The best song ender I ever saw was Frank from Hot Dog Jackson. Any Somerset Basschatters remember him? Every song finished in a long rousing chord. He would remove his trilby, fling it high, and the band stopped as it hit the stage. It was mesmerising!

We have another trick we use to make us sound decent without really putting any work in. Dynamics, aka playing some bits louder than others. Rather than go insane trying to remember dynamic drops and builds for 40 different songs, we always take it down after an instrumental section or solo. So we only have one thing to remember. But as not all songs have a solo and some have several it creates the illusion of a set peppered with carefully constructed dynamics. Utter genius if I say it myself.

Our singer points upwards, to signal the end is nigh. If its a rehearsed ending that is essentially a 'last time through this bit' signal If we're just jamming a song out her signal is the alert and the drummer cues the end with an obvious fill.

Hi. Is there an easy way to correct the simplest of problems i.e. when a created patch or sound or whatever is quieter than the clean bass sound? I have a great effect that's taken a very long time to create but the volume drops away whenevr |I engage it. Yes I am aware of the output level control on the unit itself, but imagine the day when I manage to programme a second useable sound, and mnaybe even a third. I would want them all to balance against the clean sound and not need to be changing them all to correct volume spikes and dips.