neepheid

I don't do a lot of soldering - I've still got the Draper reel of 60/40 I got soon after my first soldering iron when I was a lad, probably 2mm. I tried to go lead free a few years ago but it was awful and went straight back to the good old stuff

Forget "sacrilege". I have restored 2 "vintage" Gibsons I received in poor condition by stripping them down and having them refinished - even in colours they were never available in when new - a Victory Artist in metallic gold and a Ripper in trans cherry red. Furthermore, I did not use period correct electronics in the Ripper (SD remake pickups and modern pots, and the rotary wired for neck only in place of the daft out of phase setting which is standard). I was not struck down with lightning and I still managed to sell them for decent money when the time came. I would venture that this sacrilege thing is more of a vintage Fender thing, especially pre-CBS ones where Leo himself might have breathed on that lacquer - all 25% of it that's left - don't you dare scrape that off! Also are you looking to resell - is that even the motivation here? If you're looking to just have a nice passive bass to keep then do what you want to it. If authenticity was your goal then you'd need to find the correct preamp and pickups and it sounds like you can't be hooped with that, which is absolutely fair enough. Question arises - what makes it not "comfortable to hold in a playing position"? I don't understand - here's what went through my head. Some of the lacquer cracks are quite jaggy and you play bass naked. Some of the lacquer is so bad that you fear it might slough off if you play it. So you can see why I might need some clarification on that one...

What are you learning bass for? What I mean is - are you learning it purely for its own sake and will be playing solo to yourself, or do you intend to play in bands with other people and other instruments? If it's the former, then knock yourself out getting lost in the minutae of "this bass sounds like that". If it's the latter, then just get a bass you like the sound AND ergonomics of and get playing with others. Once you are creating a whole sound with other people, as long as it sounds bassy then it'll work. I am also of the opinion that most punters won't give a hoot what kind of bass you're playing, it will be mostly other bass players who notice (or care) about that kind of thing. Having played for around 15 years (seriously for 13) and gone through I don't want to know how many basses - it's at least 40, for shame, it has taken me far too long to come around to what I like. Single, central pickup (I find bridge pickups utterly pointless - useless on their own and just suck the mids out of the bass when used in conjunction with a neck pickup - will ignore it for the right 2 pickup bass) Humbucker over single coil Fat, wide (or both) neck Erring towards passive over active (no battery worries, no array of controls I rarely touch) Prefer dark fingerboards (rosewood/ebony) over light ones (maple etc.) but purely as an aesthetic choice as I believe whatever differences in the 5mm thick strip of wood glued over the top of the neck make are so inconsequential in a band setting that I simply do not care. Sounds like I should have a P bass, right?

Nothing wrong with that, it's a classic finish for this bass - I think it's always been available in black since its introduction.

Oh well, f us then.

The only signature bass I have ever owned is the Epiphone Jack Casady signature. The Jack Casady association was not the motivating factor for my acquisitions - it probably helps that it's not a reimagining of a currently available base model - it's the only affordable AND readily available way to own something approaching a Gibson Les Paul Signature bass.

I'll explain what my problem is. I don't like what you're saying and I don't like the way you're saying it. It's coming across to me at least as condescending, dictatorial and superior and it's getting right up my nose. That's what my problem is. I don't expect you to do anything with this information.

I don't need your approval nor to meet any criteria you set in order to play in a covers band. "I'd question any musician..." - what are you, the music police? Just look after where your own fingers are on the fingerboard.

Doubling down I see. Who appointed you the arbiter of my progress? You're telling me what level I should be playing at now? Seriously, just stop.

Pardon? Speak up!

This. It's not blind at all. Also bear in mind that some of us live hundreds of miles away from the nearest decent guitar shop with a bass selection worth a damn. The cost of returning a bass I buy online but don't like would be less than going somewhere to try it. Furthermore if you buy a bass in a physical shop then if I recall correctly they're under no legal obligation to take it back and refund you if you decide within a few days that it's not for you after all. They might do it out of courtesy but they're doing you a favour instead of being legally obligated to take it back.

What is this nonsense? I have had to learn songs I've never listened to before, songs I've heard once or twice and ones I'm intimately famiilar with. All three take more intense study than you suggest to get them to a standard I'd be happy exhibiting in public. I frankly don't care if you think being in a covers band "isn't really for" me on this basis. You just sound condescending here.

Also, you can add me to team G&L in your post above. Currently have a CLF L-1000, in the past had Tribute L-2000, Tribute SB-2, El Toro.

Don't forget the LB-100, if you don't want the heat of the MFD pickup (but why wouldn't you?)

From a covers band perspective, I think there has to be a degree of give and take. Utimately it's all about what the audience want, and I do find myself playing a couple of songs I find pretty boring, but when the audience dance and/or sing along it makes up for it. In our band we do have a veto system but everyone's up for at least giving people's suggestions a go - the only flat out vetos occur when it's too difficult to distill it down for a single guitarist or something's beyond one of us to be able to play it well enough. We cull songs from the set if they don't get a good reaction from the audience rather than because we like/don't like them - although our guitarist will do almost anything to get out of playing an Oasis track I grumble about playing "Don't Stop Believin'" (effing boring song that doesn't go anywhere) and the rest of the lads poke a bit of fun at me as a consequence but it's all good natured. Ultimately, we're there to entertain people not pander to my tastes or preferences, so we try to give the people what they want first and have a private grumble about the ones we'd rather not play in rehearsals.

Maybe a bit too song specific but I don't think that "Tomorrow Never Knows" by the Beatles has dated. I am of the belief that they basically invented The Chemical Brothers. I don't think that "Tomorrow Never Knows" would have sounded out of place on the "Dig Your Own Hole" album, save for the slightly low-fi production values (particularly in the percussion) compared to the shiny, precise nature of today's sound sensibilities. If things go round in predictable cycles, then 60s > 90s > 20s so it's time for this sound again this decade.

As a Gibson man, I'm guessing that translucent cherry red is an obvious choice... So happy with my 20th Anniversary JC Signature, combining cherry red (wine red, technically) with flame maple. Noice. I'm a sucker for all metallics though. Currently got a "Smoked Almond Metallic" (gold, basically) Epiphone Embassy... And a G&L CLF Research L-1000 in Royal Purple Metallic (purple, basi... oh wait, it's not a stupidly named colour) And there's something inherently classy about black with cream binding... As long as there is a colour though (not too keen on natural finishes), I'm happy.

Nailed it! The band's called Nine Lives.

Not last night but Saturday, had a gig with the covers band and the first live outing for the Epiphone Embassy. Was very pleased with it, sounded really good and rorty on 100% neck pickup and it was super lightweight so very comfortable 2 set gig. Wasn't a super busy gig though - I think people are still getting used to the fact that live music is back up and running. Here's a wee vid from the gig - mobile phone so not great but the bass is coming through pretty nicely 10000000_901488457466520_842087986603972956_n.mp4

Glad you got it sorted. I wish I had seen this back in the day - I would have suggested the headphone jack replacement route. A few years ago my amp would regularly and seemingly randomly mute itself (although it happened more when things were loud). Worked out that plugging a jack in and out of there a few times would provide temporary relief. Eventually I replaced the jack socket and the problem was solved. No obvious damage like the one which came out of yours but it was one of these types: When the headphone jack is plugged in, it breaks the contacts shown and sends the signal down the headphone jack instead of passing it through to the speaker and the ground lift is detected by the amp and lights up a mute LED (which was very handy in piecing together what was happening). My guess is that the socket was cheap as chips and the contact(s) had lost their spring and were lifting away causing interruptions in sound and the LED to come on. Haven't had a problem since I replaced the socket.

To be clear I wasn't worried about them physically clashing, was just considering aesthetics.

I used a pillar drill with a forstner bit. Did I cheat?

Anyone still have their Big Trak? Necessary? No, it was a toy. Relevant? Yes, it was a toy, we were kids. Benefit? Kinda - if the act of programming it in a kind of pseudo Logo got you all excited then congratulations, a childhood sparsely populated with friends followed by career in computing beckons! If it got boring after 5 mins, you probably did something else with your life.

While it would have been nice to see the tuners rotated such that their full frontal profile is parallel to the face of the headstock to gauge how close to each other they get, to be fair, that doesn't look as bad as some efforts I've seen. Are Hipshot elephant ears are a bit smaller than some? I could put up with that, nay even like that. I've seen some big eared horrors in the past but those slightly smaller buttons, coupled with the fact that they're not sticking out half a mile on long stalks and that doesn't come anywhere close to that. I thought the disconnect between the small size tuner posts and the elephant ears would have had me cringing like watching someone spread marmalade on a steak but it's not as bad as I had feared. Hell, I would go so far as to say I approve of this configuration (not that it matters what I think). Go forth and fit these machine heads with my blessing Gibson themselves have used the full gamut of possibilites for bass tuners from full on ridiculous sticking out elephant ears on long stalks (which are the ones I think look bloody awful in small headstock 2+2 configuration) through close fitting elephant ears to mini bass tuner buttons to sideways mounted minis (in the slotted headstock EB basses) to fully invisible rear facing banjo tuners. They've thrown everything at it - sometimes changing types and sizes even during a model run (for instance it's possible to see either close fitting elephant ears (Schaller BM) or mini bass buttons (Schaller M4) on a Grabber or G-3 depending upon when it was made). So I guess when the company themselves can't even settle on a style then why should you?

Yeah, yeah