KingBollock

I absolutely adore Wasp and Blackie is in my top three favourite vocalists. I wish they'd remix Electric Circus, though, I think it's a cracking album but the sound quality really lets it down. The trouble is that I can't stand Blackie, he's nasty piece of work, and after he renounced their earlier stuff and said that he'll never play them live again, I refuse to go see them live ever again, especially as their first album is my favourite. Fortunately I don't let that stuff stop me enjoying the music, otherwise there'd be a ton of stuff I couldn't listen to.

[quote name='solo4652' timestamp='1380190205' post='2221996'] I tried the bass with a different cable and that's complicated the picture. With the old cable, I was getting a lot of popping noises and the occasional cut-out. With the new cable, there's hardly any of this, although I get some crackling if I jiggle the jack in the socket. Old cable has a straight jack, new one has a right-angled one. No problems with either cable with any of my other basses. I'm going to have a look under the scratchplate to see if I can spot any problems. Might as well replace the old jack socket I suppose. Watch this space. I have Manchester's Fire Service phone number handy. Oh, hang on - I think they're on strike. [/quote] You might find you just need to squeeze the parts that touch the plug a bit. I wonder if the second lead has a slightly thicker plug? I think that might explain the problems you're having.

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1380114596' post='2220983'] Good god! I haven't heard the Macc Lads for about 20 odd years!! Saw them live a couple of times. One gig the air was so thick with weed the entire crowd must have been stoned! [/quote] I still listen to them quite regularly. I only got to see them the once. Winter of 1994, right towards the end. The air there was thick with spit, it was absolutely vile, I stood at the back. The floor in the Wulfrun Hall is very hard and the band were two hours late coming on, I got my first ever case of piles. The Macc Lads gave me piles, I'll always have that to remember them by...

Thanks guys, my curiosity is now soothed.

I hate to put this here but it's been bugging me for years. I don't know if you know about the Macc Lads, they were rather vulgar and rude, and used very naughty words, so if you don't like that kind of stuff please don't press play. http://youtu.be/dvVtSFm_-_o What Bass is Mutley playing?

The usual recommendation is 25w. Any less and it's supposed to damage delicate stuff because you have to hold it in place for longer. But I've been using the same 18w Antex since I was in college, where I did electronics, over 20 years ago, and it's always been good for me. Definitely get a stand with a sponge, being able to clean the tip while it's hot will help it last longer. And as has been said, the old 60/40 tin/lead solder is the way to go. If you end up wanting to do more soldering, having different iron tips and different thicknesses of solder to match the job, will help a lot. A set of helping hands is fairly essencial, though for heavier/ thicker pieces I use a miniature, 1", vise.

[quote name='spud19870' timestamp='1379261811' post='2210517'] Hi everyone, I am looking at maybe purchasing a new bass. I have looked at the usual suspects (fender and gibson) and thought about ESP. Has anyone owned or currently own one? These are the 4 I have looked at; [url="http://www.gak.co.uk/en/esp-ltd-ec-414-fm-see-thru-black/23270"]http://www.gak.co.uk...hru-black/23270[/url] [url="http://www.gak.co.uk/en/esp-ltd-surveyor-4-blk-black-rosewood/58945"]http://www.gak.co.uk...-rosewood/58945[/url] [url="http://www.gak.co.uk/en/esp-ltd-f-414-fm-stblk-see-thru-black/23299"]http://www.gak.co.uk...hru-black/23299[/url] [url="http://www.gak.co.uk/en/esp-ltd-viper-414-blk-black/23322"]http://www.gak.co.uk...blk-black/23322[/url] Also while I remember, what do people make of the Fender Deluxe Active Jazz Basses? I am running an SVT3 Head and 410HLF Cab and play hard rock in my band Any help/opinions will be appreciated [/quote] That first one is gorgeous and I've been gassing for one for years. Never played one, though.

Or you could do both at the same time... I was recently playing a tune that required the root and octave to be played at the same time. Actually root, then root and octave. I am very much a pick player. While holding the pick between thumb and forefinger, I down stroked the root and then on the upstroke I plucked the octave with my middle finger at the same time and it worked a treat. I use a very thick pick and tend to play quite softly, so there wasn't even much, obvious, difference in sound. I was well chuffed. After messing around with that style for a while I found it incredibly useful with many possibilities. I also started including my ring finger for playing stuff like (please excuse my current inability to work out the intervals, or whatever you call 'em...) 4th string 12th fret, 2nd string 14th fret and 1st string 13th fret (I really do know the name for this, I'm sure of it, but it just won't come). I basically used the pick instead of my thumb, and it allowed me to play everything else without having to retrieve my pick from my gob. Dead handy.

The only thing I have bought because of BassChat, that I otherwise wouldn't have, is a 4x10 cab. I had always been a 15" kind of guy (not bragging or anything...) and wasn't even really aware of 4x10s, it had always been 15s or 12s in my mind. So I ended up buying a Peavey tx410 off eBay, from a local seller, for £40. Glad I did, too.

I adore the Dr Feelgood album and still listen to it now and then, but I have never been able to get into any of their other stuff. I guess it was just that it was the first album of theirs that I heard, it was massively popular in the guitar shop I was working in at the time.

Start with a kitchen scouring pad, the green stuff, and if that isn't enough try increasingly courser grades of wire wool, before resorting to wet and dry glasspaper.

I'd give each pickup it's own volume and tone knob. That would seem to be the most versatile choice that gets you your four pots. Edit: Am I right in thinking those pickups can be coil tapped? If they can I'd use push pull pots for the tone knobs and use them for tapping the coils. I did this in my Dean Cadillac (sorry it's not a bass) and it's the best, most versatile/useful, mod I've ever done.

Until I joined a proper band I spent the first year either making stuff up or playing blues patterns from a book I had. Once I joined a band I had to learn a few songs, obviously, but the first would be either Metallica - Seek & Destroy, Megadeth - Peace Sells or a song by Zodiac Mindwarp that I don't think I ever learned the name of. Oh! Or it could have been Dressed in White by King Diamond. Gah! I can't remember for sure, one of those. The trouble was that they didn't play any songs that I had ever even heard before. Those first couple of weeks were tricky, while trying to keep them impressed enough to keep me as they were all 18+ and I was only 13.

[quote name='sunhound' timestamp='1378300005' post='2198318'] Just been listening to the originally titled 'Heavy metal music' by Newstead, but do like the witching hour thing above [/quote] I absolutely adore The Vision Bleak. They're like an aural version of a Hammer House of Horror film.

http://youtu.be/VZ2CgqaMJK8 I can't wait for the album! There's a proper video for it in this page. http://www.metal-hammer.de/video-audio/premieren/article470501/seht-das-neue-the-vision-bleak-video-the-wood-hag-zuerst-bei-uns.html

I was working in a guitar shop right at the back end of the 80s, everyone banged on about how Trace Elliot stuff was the ultimate gear for a Bass player. Oddly the only Bass player working there was me and I had never tried any to have an opinion either way. The only good thing I can say about my hated Carlsboro Stingray head is that I swapped it with a mate for my first ever PC, a 286 that couldn't even do colour.

How dare people like a different kind of music than me!? It's disgraceful!

I really like the look of that. I'm glad they don't do it as fretless because then I'd be very, very tempted.

[quote name='clauster' timestamp='1378049889' post='2195101'] The neighbour whose lounge I can see usually has gentleman's fine art movies on [/quote] That reminds me of when I lived in a bedsit. The couple living in the room nextdoor knocked on my door, very excited to show me something... I got in there and there's porn on the telly... Turns out they were picking it up from the telly of the weird bloke who lived downstairs. I know that things that receive can often become low power repeat transmitters but I'd never seen it happen like that from a video player.

I must admit that on the rare occasions I actually see it I do get a bit caught up in the pointing and laughing at the crap ones that get angry when they're told they're crap. Mind you, they probably have a right to be kind of angry because they will have already passed an audition to even get to that point. Imagine finding out that the only reason they let you through to the live auditions is so that people can point and laugh at you.

What? No mention of Laney? Also, another vote for the dreaded (in the case of the Stingray at least) Carlsboro.

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1377888213' post='2193345'] King bollocks. 90% of my bass playing (a percentage that increases annually) is testament to the fact that it worked for me. [/quote] I didn't say it wouldn't work, there's a very well recognised mechanism behind the way it works when it does. But there are other, cheaper/free, treatments that work using the same mechanism.

[quote name='nottswarwick' timestamp='1377812315' post='2192376'] Think I might try acupuncture actually. It's the only thing barring steroid injection or surgery that I've not tried. [/quote] Save your money. I'm sure you can find other imaginary treatments for free that would be just as effective.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1377870877' post='2193052'] [/quote] I almost suggested them but I am biased because just looking at one makes me be a little bit sick in the back of my mouth.

I had one of these for my first bass, got it in 1987. I loved that thing more than my own family, it was a very, very sad day when I had to sell it. It just screams 80s.