KingBollock

Yesterday I suddenly had the urge to listen to The Dickies, for the first time in ages. I haven’t stopped. I needed something uplifting. Always loved that film, too.

I really want to try these, but I don’t want to have to buy a five string set to get the .120 for D standard tuning. The highest the four string sets go is .110. I’d be happy with .115, I think. However, I don’t know what the tension on the Black Beauties is like. Would their heavy: 50 70 90 110 set work for D standard? There’s a taper option for that gauge, too. What would be the advantage? I did struggle to get the .120 into the bridge, but some gentle persuasion with a pair of pliers did the trick.

Nope. I have never actually been able to get all the way through that film. I have tried several times, but I just find it incredibly dull (now comes the roasting!). I don’t know when I started using the Mudflap Girl image, or where I first saw it. When I first started getting tattoos, I decided that I wasn’t going to get a load of skulls and dragons, because it was just going to be a phase that I would grow out of and I’d end up regretting it. One thing I knew I would never grow out of, was scantily clad ladies… I am covered in boobies! I have a Mudflap Girl just above my right wrist, where it can be seen when I am playing. Unfortunately, I actually regret not going full on skulls and dragons ( mostly skulls). I do have a couple of dragons and skulls. However, over thirty years later, I am still skull mad. I have quite a collection of skulls, from tiny pin badges to a huge (though not full size, sadly) Tyrannosaurus skull. Most of them are resin, but I do have a couple of real fox skulls and one from a rat. I do still like scantily clad ladies, though, so I was right about that.

Another question… The mudflap Girl that is on the scratchplate. I did it in white because that is the colour usually used on the original plates, both the Goth and the Gibson one (which came installed on this bass, with the Goth plate also included). Originally it was the only thing I was going to do to the bass (other than changing the machine heads), but I got carried away… Like I said, my life seems to have a black and red aesthetic, so when I started thinking of other things to add, I went for red. So, should I change the Mudflap Girl to red, too? The people that have seen it, that I have asked, have said to leave it white. But I’m not sure… Also, would either of these be just that bit too much? I already have the card suits on Gloomborn (my Cort 5 string). I will try to get a better photo of the truss rod cover, which is cut like tribal style flames. I did try to do the flames with the scratchplate as well, but my scroll saw died half way through. I fixed the saw (it was a dodgy motor brush) but I didn’t have a lot of acrylic left and didn’t want to bugger it up (which I did do a couple of times because the screw holes are quite close to the edge of the plate and the acrylic is very brittle. I had to be very, very careful how tight I screwed the screws in) so kept it simple.

Thanks. I only asked because I think I remember someone saying they had tried it but ran into difficulty. It may have been that the dye was rubbing off or something, I can’t remember the details. Why I think it would be any different to work with than any other wood, I don’t know. Unless it’s a lacquered fretboard, which this isn’t.

There’s one scene in the second book, The Cold Commands, that would make even that bunch queasy… And that’s ignoring all the gay, alien bum sex!

Anyone got any advice on the best way to go about (or the best ways to not go about) staining (dyeing?) the fretboard ebony?

You should be aware that they are very, very Grimdark. They are very graphic and can be rather uncomfortable. Richard K Morgan usually does sci-fi, which I also love. He wrote the Altered Carbon books that the TV series is based on. On a lighter side, I have started reading Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series. I have temporarily put those on hold because a sci-if novel that I have been waiting a long time for, just came out (Jack McDevitt’s A Village In The Sky). Another fantasy series, a new one (just the one book so far) that is interesting, is Clay Harmon’s Flames Of Mira. Which I enjoyed a lot. I can’t wait for the second book. Other favourites, more traditional, have been Dragonlance and Death Gate Saga series from Weiss and Hickman.

That has been, and continues to be, considered. It is very tempting. My Warlock (Ravensfriend) has an ebony fretboard and it looks great. The bass came with black tape wound strings on it, which looked very cool. But I need to keep this bass tuned to D standard, so I had to change them. I might see if I can find some other black ones in the right gauge. Though the bridge really didn’t like the .120 string!

Well, I stole two of them, so go for it! Ravensfriend is a sword from my favourite fantasy trilogy A Land Fit For Heroes by Richard K Morgan. The sword’s full name is: “I am Welcomed in the Home of Ravens and Other Scavengers in the Wake of Warriors, I am Friend to Carrion Crows and Wolves. I am Carry Me and Kill with Me, and Die with Me Where the Road Ends. I am not the Honeyed Promise of Length of Life in Years to Come, I am the Iron Promise of Never Being a Slave.” Mourneblade is another fantasy sword from the Elric of Melniboné books by Michael Moorcock. One of my PCs and it’s drives is also named after mythical swords from books and games. (My main PC and it’s drives is named after ships and stations from the Alien franchise) Gloomborn is just something that popped into my head while looking at the bass. It’s finish puts in my mind the image of beetles with iridescent, shiny carapaces, that live in the dark.

The bass now has a name, too: Angelbane. I have a habit of naming my instruments. I don’t force it, though, it has to come naturally, some of them don’t have names because they don’t have the right personality. How pretentious does that sound?! She joins the ranks along side Ravensfriend, Gloomborn and Mourneblade.

Thank you! I thought I’d get well and truly roasted… All the additions are removable. I made the scratch plate and truss rod cover myself, so I still have the original parts. Just in case anyone is worried…

Finally ready to show off my Thunderbird. It’s cheesy and I love it!

I actually received this bass at the beginning of the year but I had some plans for it, so it has taken a while to get around to photographing it. Please keep in mind that I bought this for a Hair Metal (mostly Motley Crue if the drummer has his way) style covers band... When I play, you can see on my picking forearm tattoos of a Mudflap Girl, playing cards and flaming dice. I have represented these on the bass. I have also made a truss rod cover in the shape of tribal style flames (the photo of it didn't come out very well). Also, my lair and PC are themed in black with red accents. I am thinking of making a t-shirt (probably a vest) with "I Ate Vince Neil" on it, because I ain't no Nikki Sixx!

I remember when I was a kid an had started mucking about with electronics, I had an idea… I had been given a pair of 1x12 speaker cabs. They were huge, something like 24”x18”x18”. I assume they were PA cabs or something, they weighed a lot, too. Anyway. Each had a port along the front bottom (haha!) of the cab, and I had the bright idea (pun totally intended!) of wiring a painted (by me) car light bulb in series with the speaker. The idea being to give me a kind of disco light effect shining from the port. Surprisingly it worked! But I had no idea, at the time, that I was actually making the cabs better! (Although, they didn’t actually have tweeters).

You could try detuning the bass to something like D standard (D C G F instead of E A D G). This would loosen the tension from the neck but still be playable while you do some research to decide if you’d be confident enough to have a crack at setting the neck relief yourself (often, confidence is key). I find this site useful: https://www.studybass.com/gear/bass-setup/adjusting-neck-relief/

As long as one end of the capacitor goes from the correct lug on the tone pot, and the other end goes to ground, it will work. In the left hand diagram, you can just make out that the lug that the capacitor is connected to on the volume pot is also connected to the back of the pot, which is grounded via the foil shielding on the pickguard. Both options rely on that shielding for ground. I would go for the right hand option but run a wire connecting the backs of both pots together, for no other reason than an abundance of caution. Having said that, if I am mucking about with wiring, it is because I am doing something like adding a push/pull (or push/push) pot for coil splitting, series/parallel switching or a blend knob (I don’t own a bass with only one pick-up). And, despite going to college to learn electronics, I still always follow a diagram because I never quite trust my ability to see/grasp exactly what’s going on. So I know how you feel. And I only really do this because I enjoy tinkering, I rarely need those options.

Thank you!

What sort of gauge do they go up to? I’ve got a bass I’d like to make a bone nut for. I’d like to have a crack at a stainless Steel nut, too. That should be fun. I have alternative tools and plans for that, though.

Habe you got a link? I’m too lazy to troll through trying to find the correct set!

Though I don’t know why because it makes me feel so utterly, utterly, painfully alone. It’s an amazing song.

I have unusually warm hands, this can cause problems with many things. I find picks warp on me quite quickly. This can be a double edged sword, because while they can be more comfortable to hold, you can only use them the same way up from then on.

Well no, the best part is there’s nothing to be disappointed about! Knowing my luck, I’ll be reincarnated and have to start all over again… Sod that for a game of soldiers!

For the run where the pick-up wires go through the body (assuming it’s a rear style control plated cavity), I like to use the metal shielding from Gibson style wire. I just strip the inner wire out and use the metal sheath.