JapanAxe

I've just set up a 'breadboard' to test values in the DIY tone selector. Here's the plan: The current tone pot is modded for no-load at full up. I'll keep volume and tone on the bass maxed and interpose this gubbins between bass and amp. I'll listen to how each setting sounds, and if any are too 'peaky' I can add a resistor in series with the cap to tame the resonant peak. It's gone midnight now so not a good time to be testing bass, I'll get some sleep first.

Postponed to 26 November.

Windsor Fringe Festival has been postponed, and that includes this gig. New date TBA.

What’s the perf board for?

And it all sounds great!

Today I removed the Tone Fusion control. I had thought of leaving the bass like that so that I could try various cap/resistor combinations on an external tone control ‘bread board’ but then I had a better idea. I got a 250k log pot and 47nF pot out of my parts stash but I modified the pot for ‘no load’ when turned up full. I had to widen the hole to 3/8in as the Tone Fusion pot is a little 16mm Alpha with a narrow bushing. While I was in there I noticed the string earth connection was hanging on by a single strand so I fixed that. The tone control now works in the traditional way, with the benefit of unadulterated bright tone when fully clockwise. I still plan to try out the bread board thing though.

Not exactly tonight, in fact a fortnight Saturday (17th September), but it's a ticketed event so it's only fair you all get fair warning! I'm back at the Old Court in Windsor (aka Windsor Arts Centre) with Rebel Heroes Bowie Tribute, hopefully back on guitar now that our bass player's wrist is on the mend. Expect 2 hours of classic Bowie, from sing-along anthems to fan-pleasing deep cuts. Tickets available here. Some pics of recent shows to whet your appetite: Backstage with Woody Woodmansey:

Thanks, that's brilliant, I'll go ahead and order it then

I'm looking to buy a particular kind of guitar stand but it's not available in the UK (or EC for that matter). There are several available from Chinese sellers on eBay but none are in eBay's Global Shipping Programme. The stand costs £54 and I'm concerned I'll get hit for import duties - would that be likely to happen?

Have you had the tech spec and parking details etc yet? Those are the things that tend to worry me, rather than playing the material.

I can sight read quite well on bass but not so well on guitar - for guitar I can work out what the dots mean, but not in real time as it were. It’s something that needs regular practice to maintain at a working level.

Got to grips with this today: (1) Fettled the input jack so that it shunts to earth when no jack is inserted. (2) Replaced the master volume pot. The sudden loud buzz at full volume is gone - let's hope it stays that way! (3) Replaced the tone stack with an enhanced version of a James tone stack (see pic below). The enhancement takes the form of a pot replacing the fixed resistor between the treble and bass pot wipers. At its centre setting it is equal to the Ampeg value, and adjusting the pot either way shifts the frequency centres of the controls. I may never use this, but the alternative would be a blanking plug! The amp seems to be working great now. I will have a living room session with it through my Super Twin tomorrow. For now, time to print some panel labels...

That Ampeg/BF combination is a winner. You’ll struggle to match that sound with anything more compact.

I would be wary of fitting a 12AU7 in place of a 12AX7 as the former ñ draw a lot more current, which can fry your anode resistor.

I prioritise the quality gigs and fill some of the remaining slots with, er, not-so-quality gigs. At a recent pub gig in one of the less desirable areas of Bristol, a rat appeared stage left and ran the length of the bar before disappearing into a cupboard. Will I play there again? Of course I will!

Well done! It would be terrible if a band’s efforts to fix up their banner resulted in accidental damage to the venue’s wallpaper, fixtures or fittings. Of course no band I’ve been in has ever done this. Much.

I tend not to tolerate anything that I can rectify with hand tools or a soldering iron.

A big vote of thanks from me Tom. I have done a shedload of bass and guitar transcriptions myself, but your site is a lifesaver when I have a dep gig at short notice and need dots on the hurry-up!

I’m usually recording covers of intros or solos as a way to demonstrate my playing ability. My DAW of choice is Reaper. I usually start with some form of drum track filched from the Internet. If it’s a MIDI track then I will often edit it to introduce some dynamics! I create a tempo map and align the drum track with it. I create the guitar and bass sounds outside the box using mainly analog kit - I rarely use amp sim or fx plug-ins. Then I record the parts. For reverb I either record a separate wet track from one of my three outboard spring reverbs, or create a send and return. Any tricky keys parts are obtained from MIDI files, otherwise I play them myself. I have no mastering software, I just do a mix that I think sounds ok and render it to a 192kbps mp3 for uploading to SoundCloud. I don’t recommend you follow this procedure btw, it just works for me!

I would be inclined to learn right-handed. You may have to move your left hand further and more often than if you were using your little finger, but that’s no bad thing - if you try to play in fixed left-hand positions (in the way that scales are often presented) you can end up stretching your left hand too much and causing discomfort and/or damage to it.

If I’m gigging on skinny-string guitar then I almost always have my (combo) amp up on a stand. But if I’m gigging on bass I never have my cab on a stand. Most often my cab is a BF Super Twin which has excellent dispersion so no problem.

Yep, the Baxandall is very close to the James.

I do like what I’m hearing from the ToneStyler. As a chap who builds his own amps I think I’ll have a go at making my own though - I’m pretty sure I’ve got all the parts in my stash already!

Welcome BahHumbug, I'm probably not too far from you - I live in the teeming metropolis that is Swin Vegas.