BigRedX

Thanks for that info. Sei basses are also finished before any of the holes for controls or fittings are drilled, so I'm familiar with the concept of doing this but hadn't really thought about why it was done. Also makes sense why you would drill one of them. Thinking about it a bit more I'd have drilled the one for the varitone switch since it will have the large surround with the position makers on it which might help disguise any finish blemishes around the hole.

I know a little bit of theory, but can someone who knows a lot more please explain to me how theory helps you pick the right notes to use depending on the style of music you are playing. For instance given two songs with exactly the same chord sequences, the notes I would use for a bass line (especially those notes I use to get from one chord to another) would be completely different depending on the style of music I am playing.

Get a good large external hard drive for your audio files. Probably Thunderbolt for your Mac (or FireWire) but definitely not USB.

That finish is looking amazing. I see you have drilled a single hole through the top from the control cavity. Why just the one at this stage? And why that particular one?

Forgive for being a bit cynical what exactly does this achieve? It say "At 10,000 signatures, government will respond to this petition" What sort of response? Thank you we'll have a look at it, meaning Now f*** off so we can make some money with our property development friends... And "At 100,000 signatures, this petition will be considered for debate in Parliament". That doesn't actually mean it will get debated, and you can be sure that even if it does it will be by and handful of backbench MPs late on a Tuesday evening when everyone is ready to go home...

Having been an enthusiastic home recordist since the 70s when it was considerably harder to do that it is now, I would like to offer the following advice: It's never been easier or cheaper to make your own recordings at home - all you need to get you started is a computer (nearly everyone has one of those), some software (it's far cheaper now than it has ever been and Reaper is essentially free) and some means of getting audio into your computer (an audio interface and some microphones). However despite the initial investment being low, if you get into it, you'll soon find yourself wanting or needing to spend more on all sorts of add on from 3rd-party plug-ins or a better interface/microphones/monitor speakers. And if you thought to bass playing was a potential bottomless money pit, then think again because it's completely insignificant compared to what you can spend on even a modest home studio set up. In my case having got some very reasonable results with hardly any gear (and certainly nothing that could really have been considered "professional" standard at the time), I came into some money in the early 90s and went out and bought myself a decent home studio set up based around an 8-track recorder and a load of outboard hardware effects and instruments. Over the next ten years I spent several tens of thousands of pounds upgrading and expanding this to a computer based digital system and a load of plug-in instruments and effects. And I made some pretty good recordings along the way. Quite a few of them got released on CDs - some that I financed myself and some that were paid for by various small record companies. However despite the fact that my recordings were sounding better than ever, they still didn't have that certain magic that recordings by my favourite signed artists did. I don't think the source material was at fault. There were certainly plenty of music industry people who seemed to like the songs that my bands were producing for them to want to get involved, it just seemed to me that there was something lacking with the recordings themselves. When I joined The Terrortones and we came to record our first single there was never any question that we would do it ourselves. We wanted to play live and all my recordings since the early 80s had been done by building the performances one or two instruments at a time. I didn't have either space or the microphones to record a real drum kit. So we booked a local studio that had a sufficiently large live room to comfortably get the whole band in and went to record there. That was certainly an ear and eye opener! The audio engineer got excellent results very quickly and everything was sounding fantastic almost straight away, and certainly far better than I had ever achieved at home, and that was before we started mixing the tracks properly. The whole process including mixing and mastering 3 songs took about 24 hours, spread over 4 days. It was a massive change from my previous recording experience with my last band where I had spent well over a year working almost every evening on tracks for an album in my home studio; and in the end all I had to show for it was three quarters of the album done but not sounding as good as I wanted it to, and the rest unfinished recordings that would remain that way since the band had split. In hind-sight based on my experiences recording with The Terrortones, I can't help but think that all the money I had spent on home recording equipment might have been better put to use hiring a decent studio and a name producer for a few weeks. At the end of it I would have had a finished album recorded and there is a good chance that I would also have had enough money left over to press up our own CD, if none of the people who had shown and interest in the band had come through. After all that, it's not to say that you won't turn out to be a fantastic engineer and producer once you figure out how to make the equipment work. However IME just because you are a decent musician doesn't automatically mean that you can make decent recordings. And sometime the presence of an impartial person at the recording/mixing session can be exactly what you need. However I've sold nearly all my home recording gear, and I'm unlikely to be using what I have left for anything more than getting my ideas in a form where I can play them to the rest of my band to show them how I envisage the songs I am writing turning out.

Formation Audio in Nottingham did the last three Terrortones releases, and IMO did an excellent job on all of them. Price was reasonable and we were able to get two sets of changes made to the masters included in the price. IME £25 per track is about the bottom limit for any one who is going to do a decent job.

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1475655621' post='3147619'] Yeah the original stems came very wet and heavy with FX, so I was pretty much stuck with the 'telephone voice'. I'll post up the original mix (pre-master) in this thread once the competition has ended, otherwise I'd be breaching the T&Cs. To my ears the master copy generally sounds very similar, but with a bit more 'thud' in the low end (esp. around the kick drum) and some more 'air' on top. The biggest difference is that it's a lot louder without losing too much of its musicality. By comparison I tried producing my own 'master' using a limiter plug-in and also using the LANDR online service (free trial): both sounded much more harsh and aggressive. [/quote] I'll look forward to hearing the un-mastered (and if you are willing, your own version of the mastering) when you are able to upload them. It will be interesting to hear just how much you get for your £90 + VAT. I paid about £450 to get The Terrortones album mastered by Formation Audio here in Nottingham, which was expensive but ultimately worth it. I wonder how much of the Abbey Road charge is for the name, the London location and how much for an excellent mastering engineer and equipment? I still haven't found a mastering plug-in (or set of plugins) that does as good a job or is as simple to use as the TC Finalizer.

Where are you? If you can go to some music shops and play as many fretless basses (including those over your price limit) so you can get an idea of what you like and what you don't. Also if you are intending to play standing up make sure that you try what ever you like on a strap first before parting with any money. I made the mistake of buying a Squier VM Fretless jazz after 45 minutes trying it sitting down in the shop and only discovered when i got it home and put a strap on it I couldn't easily reach the G string machine head.

Sing what you want. The work out how to play what you have just sung.

Cool stuff. Pity though you weren't able to use the vocal without that horrible band-pass filter effect on it. What would be interesting for us would be to hear the track as it was before it was mastered so we could see how much the mastering process has changed it?

[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1475580660' post='3147032'] I'll post pedals, but anything bigger I'm willing to pack it for the buyer's courier to collect, but wont ship it myself. This is from dealing with couriers in a professional capacity, I don't want ultimate responsibility for the way a third party might (miss)treat a shipment. [/quote] From a prospective buyers PoV that is very off putting. IME organising a courier is easy, it's the packing bit that's difficult. A seller who isn't prepared to organise a courier in my mind probably won't have packed the item sufficiently. I send all sorts of stuff that I sell (and not just musical equipment) all over the world and have only had problems twice, once when a courier lost one part of a two parcel shipment somewhere between here and Japan, and another time when it was obvious that the parcel had been dropped in a very deep puddle. On both occasions the insurance claim was dealt with promptly and paid in full without quibble.

I don't really have a problem with music shops. My tastes are too esoteric and I'm not in the slightest bit interested in walls of Fenders and Gibsons, so (apart from specialist shops like The Gallery or Bass Direct) I'm hardly part of their target demographic. It's not really music shops fault. They need to stock stuff that they can sell to the average punter and here on Basschat I would imagine that very few of us regular posters fit that description. In a way the internet has spoiled us all. 25 years ago I was perfectly happy with Rotosound or Elites strings. Now I'm looking for TI Flats, LaBella Steels, Pedulla Nickels and Warwick Black Label, and it's hardly fair to expect the average music shop to be stocking stuff that isn't popular. And eBay (and this site) has all but killed the market for interesting non-mainstream second-hand instruments in the stores. Also here on Basschat we are hardly representative, Most of the bass players in the bands that I gig with have never even heard of this place, and they are exactly the sort of people that most music store cater for. They want a bass that looks like the one their hero plays, some round-wound strings and a strap to put on it, and some form of reliable amplification, and that's exactly what they can pick up at most music shops. I haven't ever come across the sorts of problem staff that some people here describe, mainly because in the days when I was still buying stuff from music shops I took the time to build up good relationships with the staff who dealt with whatever instruments I was interested in at the time, be it guitar, bass synthesisers or recording gear. That meant that I could spend hours trying stuff out in times when I had no money because those people knew that when I did have some I would be back to spend it with them.

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1460743016' post='3028457'] I think the carlsbro amps were just so bland that they got a bad rep. It had one and if it had a better cab it might not of been so bad. But in combo form it was boomy and no matter what I did with the eq I couldn't make it sound right. In its defence while being a bit rubbish and not having the best tone it wasn't the worst thing I've heard. I once opened it up was so simple inside but was fairly well put together and used nearly all British parts and the transistors were USA made. Does that make it a boutique amp or future classic!? [/quote] But what else was there in the late 70s/early 80s when these were new? The only place I saw Ampeg rigs was on stage with bands who had a record contract. My local music shop in the 70s was an Acoustic amps dealer but the only person I ever saw saw using one was the bass player who worked there. For the rest of us HH and Carlsbro were pretty much the only real choices, and based on personal experience I'd have picked a Carlsbro amp every time. It was certainly way better than the no-name generic 100W transistor head I was using back then.

[quote name='ahpook' timestamp='1475530296' post='3146759'] Are we due a little Sisters revival ? [/quote] They are headlining at WGW this year.

[quote name='Skybone' timestamp='1475529985' post='3146752'] Always remember him using Thunderbird's. [/quote] He's using a 5-string Schecter in SoD at the moment.

Vox AC30. Been in a couple of bands with guitarists that used them. Always sounds completely pants until it reaches a volume where everything else is drowned out including the drums.

Just wanted to post with a very impressive resolution to my problem from Alex at Strings And Things. 4 brand new Hercules stands arrived this afternoon to replace mine with sticky grips. Excellent customer service that cannot be faulted. Many thanks to Strings And Things!

Which ever one you decide on go and try with your bass and everything else you want to put in it first. I have a Mono M80. It's a fantastic case from a protection PoV (although only a bit lighter and not a lot smaller than a Hiscox LiteFlite hard case), but it is probably the most uncomfortable gig bag I've ever worn. Fine if you're only going to need it for a couple of minutes walk to and from the car, but horrible for carrying your bass any distance. However whether or no you have a problem very much varies from person to person, which is why I recommend that you try before you buy. I certainly wouldn't get another £30+ gig bag without being able to try it first. Also the zip on mine has developed a fault on the bottom edge despite having less use than normal (due to being so uncomfortable to wear) which means I can no longer fully open it just in case I can't get it closed again - I've had one tricky moment when it looked as though the zipper wasn't going to pass over the damaged teeth at a recent rehearsal. On the basis of this I couldn't really recommend a Mono case.

He's doing a pretty good job on bass with Spear Of Destiny too.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1475237677' post='3144279'] I'm the same, once I'd reached a certain level of competency I just started just noodling around & coming up with my own stuff rather than learning other peoples stuff. I'm the same with guitar, I can play very few songs by other people, I just don't have the interest in doing it. [/quote] Apart from a few bass lines that I can half-remember from playing in a covers band a few years ago I doubt whether I could play anything that I hadn't written myself. It doesn't look very impressive when someone asks me to "give them a tune" but TBH I'd rather play them a recording of my band than perform something on the guitar or bass in that situation.

[quote name='matski' timestamp='1475237535' post='3144277'] I disagree. A Fender Precision sounds different to a Musicman Stingray which sounds different to a Rickenbacker - this is the very reason why I own different types of bass and regularly record specific basslines with specific basses: for their individual sounds. [/quote] I too have lots a different basses which all sound different when I play them on their own. However when I play them with my band, the way I play them and the way I EQ them to fit into the band mix means that ultimately those differences become virtually negligible. I find that the same happens when I play the guitar too. I tend to pick my instruments because of how they look, because they all play exactly how I want them too, and by the time I've adjusted my technique and a little tweak of the amp and effects settings and they all sound essentially right.

John Birch's take on the Rickenbacker 4001.

IME all basses sound essentially the same in a given style of music once they have been tweaked to sit properly in the mix.

I came from playing the guitar, and by the time I got my first bass I was also dabbling with mandolin and balalaika, so for me it was just another stringed instrument to play. I went to basic folk guitar evening class lessons when I was 13. For the first year I could barely play anything, and then something clicked over the summer so when I came back the following year I was better than everyone there except the teacher. After that I was completely self taught. I learnt the bass by listening to what other bass players were doing and then applying it to the songs that I was writing. It was the time of post-punk and there were plenty of tuneful bass lines up front in the mix of the records that I liked, so it wasn't very difficult. Once I'd mastered being able to change chords on the guitar I don't think I ever seriously sat down to work out how to play songs off records or sheet music as I was too busy writing my own.