7string

I had one of the Fender '51 RI's, but I suppose that your Warmoth is much better than that. I was so impressed by how such an outwardly simple bass and produce such great sounds

Great project and it's looks fantastic.

Best of luck for the op.

One of the great bass players. "Country Music" anyone (Love the "Hey, play a polka..". shout right at the end of the track). I met him years ago at a Clinic in Wapping (could have been the 1996 one but I can't remember) and I was playing a Sherwood Green Urge Mk1 at the time. I put my hand up and told him that I play an Urge because it's a damn good bass and not because it had his name on it. He was so pleased to here it that I got 2 backstage passes for the Satriani gig the following night. Had a beer with him after the show, chatted with the rest of the band and got to meet Joe Satriani. Great player, great bloke.

Wow

I wonder why the shape changed so drastically from the guitar to bass? The bass has a great neck, but the body got beaten with the ugly stick :wacko:

STICKER My wife's coming with me as well as it's too much for me to drive there and back! Easily recognisable as I'm the guy with the stick. Looking forward to it! Mark & Jen

Shows that the delicate lower horn can be done though

I saw that MarkBass have a modular amp system coming out. You buy a chassis which contains the power amp (different wattages available) then choose which pre, eq and output section you want. Say you want a graphic eq instead of parametric, you just take the graphic out and put the other one in. There are 6 or so choices from each category, so loads of possible combinations. You can even switch modules when the amp is on. I did see a You Tube clip about this, but can't find it again!!

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='389480' date='Jan 23 2009, 12:09 PM']I think there is room here for some sort of advocacy strategy. Or an anti-tab campaign! Dots are good, numbers on lines are bad!![/quote] TAB is not a new thing introduced for electric guitarists but was used 16th/17th century lute players. I know nowadays that TAB is viewed as a shortcut and in some ways it is. However, when I've taught people who have brought TAB in, I try to encourage them to question it if the fingering feels awkward or it just doesn't sound right. Sometimes in TAB there are large physical jumps from one phrase to another when you could just play on a higher string and not jump up the fingerboard. IMO, being able to read both TAB and music is the ideal scenario as you never know if a band you want to join actually use it. It may be the difference between getting the gig and just being in the audience. If you can read TAB, it's only a short hop to reading the lines and the blobs. If you study TAB and change the fingering where necessary to fit your hand size or style of technique, then it's an even shorter distance to reading music as you're developing the skill of working out where the best places to play particular phrases. Reading music is not difficult to understand and the more you do it, the better you get.

Great job I can't even saw straight ([size=1]that's not a joke, I REALLY can't saw straight )[/size]

Nope. I'm more interested in how the bass feels, is it in tune, are the controls working, is the hardware OK and is the amp set flat. I used to be concerned about what the staff in the shop think about what I'm playing, but as the older I've got the less I've cared about that

I used to be really happy gigging with my 4 string Jackson basses and Boogie/Trace rig. Looking back, it was the band I was in that shaped my bass choices. It was a progressive rock thing where I sang lead and also had some spots to duel with the guitar player as well. I heard some 6 string fretless rock playing and the guys in that band liked the sound and so I bought a Yamaha TRB6 II and had it de-fretted. Same thing with the 7 string. I had a use for all the strings, so getting the bass made great sense. I still had my 4 strings as well though. I'm not the greatest bass player in the world, but I enjoy the freedom of the 7 string. I can play 'normal' bass lines, chords and solo stuff if I want to. A couple of years ago I had the great fortune to be in a position to order my Sei and nowadays 7 strings is where I feel at home So the music has always dictated the bass that I play and/or the bass that I want to buy. There is one exception...to that though....the 9. It took me a lot of time to actually decide on going for the 9 and it's a leap of faith. Not in the luthier (Alan at ACG) but in myself. I have thoughts on how I can use the 9 and I can imagine how it could sound and how great it would be. But can I turn the ideas I have into musical reality?? So the 9 string is the reverse of how I got my other basses. Before, the music I was actually playing dictated the bass. Now, I only have a concept of what things might sound like and I now have to prove to myself that I can turn concept into music that makes me smile.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='389003' date='Jan 22 2009, 08:41 PM']The audience reaction rewards this mediocrity; the more sophisticated the music, the more the punters struggle. Not their fault but its a fact.[/quote] Can't say I agree with this equation as it depends on the venue and the audience. If you're in a pub band (where your job is to get people in the pub and get them to stay there and buy drinks), playing something with complicated rhythmic and harmonic structures wouldn't go down too well. However, if you're in a jazz club the expectant audience probably wouldn't appreciate another rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama". But back to the OP.... I learnt violin at school and did Grade 5 theory. Theory has been a great help when I've been writing or having to create basslines as I know what the chords are. O only on the very odd occasion have I had to read music, the majority of the time has been from chord diagrams. I still look out the lines and blobs every now and again so I don't lose the ability to read music. I've taught theory to quite a few people though. When they've found out that it's not the difficult, dark art they thought it was, they've found that it has helped their bass playing as they understand the key and the chords of the song. To be honest, I enjoy music theory and understanding how chords and harmony fit together.

Doing my usual trawl through the bass forums, I found this and it reminded me of the Spoombung bass. Couldn't save the picture though [url="http://www.ledbellibass.com/2008%20Gallery.htm"]http://www.ledbellibass.com/2008%20Gallery.htm[/url]

While trying to be good and tidy up my e-mail account, I found myself going through the folder which contains all the e-mails, sent and received, to do with the 9 string. I was astonished to find it contains [b]237 e-mails[/b] and has my initial e-mails to and replies from luthiers, questions and answers to/from parts companies as well as advice from friends who are also musicians. The vast majority of the e-mails though, are messages to and from Alan at ACG, discussing every aspect of the build from first enquiry through materials, specifications, electronics and so on. We've only spoken on the phone about this build on a couple of occasions, nearly everything has been through e-mail. I also found a pic which I hadn't posted before. For someone who thought that mahogany was a dark, plain wood it was quite a shock. Straight after seeing this, I sent and e-mail to Alan saying that I wanted this for my bass I've put a lot of effort into the 9, but I don't have other customers to deal with and basses to build in the meantime. Just shows how much work Alan (and all the other luthiers) does in addition to the sawing, sanding and spraying. I have to post these pic which was put on the thread for the ACG 9 on another forum. The poster thought that the board [b]"looks as though there's a sonic boom coming outa the pickups on the fingerboard!![/b] My wife and I also saw a devil in the fingerboard !

I've really enjoyed reading the design process for this bass. Be great to see this develop into the final instrument

I thought that some of your drawings looked a bit Brian Moore-ish

Just for a bit more info, Alan built a prototype bass which had 1 magnetic p/u with a piezo bridge and ran these into the 2 inputs of the ACG pre. With my 9 (and some other ACG's now) it's 2 magnetic p/u's and piezo bridge. A switch selects either the bridge p/u or the piezo so you can shape the piezo tone. On most of the other basses I have seen, you can only blend in a piezo signal, so if you don't like the sound of the piezo, that's tough luck. This way you can shape the piezo tone and mix it with the neck magnetic p/u.

When I was putting together the spec for my ACG 9, I decided to throw the whole kitchen sink at it and include piezo and MIDI. With a change in my recording setup, I ended up dropping the MIDI. Ghost (Graphtec) make a piezo preamp onto which fits the MIDI preamp, so no extra wiring is necessary. They also make replacement saddles which have the piezo element in them and these plug into the preamp. No soldering thank goodness! Hipshot make a bridge with the piezo element already in them. [url="http://www.graphtech.com/products.html?SubCategoryID=14"]http://www.graphtech.com/products.html?SubCategoryID=14[/url]

[quote name='Spoombung' post='384496' date='Jan 18 2009, 11:09 PM']I [i]really[/i] want to play one of those ACG basses![/quote] If you arrange a time to visit Alan and can grab a flight to Glasgow, I wouldn't mind driving you down to ACG.

Very smart

Many thanks I always wanted a Sei and I chose the lacewood as I have a Jackson bass made out of the stuff. My wife named the Sei "Jezebel" as she jokingly said it was "the other woman"

Sounds like a promising start with the new 5 string. The gap between pickups drives me mad as well, so a ramp is the way to go. Jon Shuker made a ramp for my Conklin and it's a great piece of work. Reminds me that I must see about getting one for my Tyler bass.

Great rig (and I saw last night that MarkBass are bringing out a 800w Little Mark head). Rattling the room is what you're supposed to do