JapanAxe

Barrie is your house made from bits of the old Bassgear shop?

Yeah I have the Lost Highway phaser on my main guitar ‘board. Trouble is those blue LEDs are so bright that I can’t make out which way they’re pointing!

Come on Stew, surely the (optional) light-up knobs are cooler!

On previous builds I have re-used and recycled ‘old iron’, not least to save on cost. This is a new build from scratch and after researching the topic I decided to go for these transformers from Primary Windings. I am currently reading Merlin Blencowe’s excellent book and have just read the section on heater supplies. He suggests running just the first stage heaters on DC as DC doubles the current requirement compared to AC. I have never had problems with noisy heaters on previous builds (5 valve amps and a 6G15-style standalone spring reverb). If it turns out to be a problem I have various options - humdinger, elevated heater voltage, and DC as a last resort! Yeah it was a fairly weighty package! Fortunately the head will just sit on top of my BF One 10 in my music room and I won’t have to schlepp it around too much...

Look for open mic nights in your area - they often have a Facebook group. Get talking to some of the other participants.

No, ischial tendonitis. Trying not to aggravate it at the moment, and unfortunately sitting in an office chair does just that! Weirdly, cycling is fine. Also I can still play guitar or bass if I sit on a high stool and find the right position.

When I say ‘medical condition’ it’s nothing you can die from, just a pain in the ar$e - literally!

The iron is here! It might be a while before I get much done though, as currently a medical condition is making it impossible for me to sit at a desk or workbench for more than a few minutes at a time.

Not I. As with most things, it depends on the circumstances.

I play have played, and still do play, in single-guitar/bass/drums lineups - some on guitar, some on bass. When I’m on guitar I consider it my job to maintain a suitably ‘big’ sound during guitar solos. Some of this comes from what I play e.g. chord stabs between notes, playing lines an octave lower, letting open strings ring; some from the guitar sound e.g. echo, fat drive/fuzz, volume boost. Some guitarists make the mistake of adding too much gain and not enough extra volume come solo time - what sounds great at home playing along with the original recording may be inadequate in a live situation. When I play bass in such a setup I rarely play differently during a guitar solo unless that is what happens in the original recorded version.

I have played this live quite a few times (including in a Bowie tribute) and always went for the brightest tone. I’ve invariably done it fingerstyle though, never thought to use a plectrum.

Q: Can I play your bass? A: Sorry, our equipment is only insured for us.

Yeah but are we talking TONE PAINT?

Prince’s symbol looks like it should be pronounced ‘sex trumpet’.

Would it be fair to say that you're quite fond of the Grateful Dead then?

Yes, add Gillian Welch to my list!

A friend of mine who is a garage mechanic uses WD40 liberally as a kind of ‘fast fret’ treatment on his guitars. On his early 90s maple-board Strat you can see dark marks running from each fret where it has wicked into the wood grain. I would imagine lemon oil is much less likely to penetrate the wood though.

Rodney Crowell Dwight Yoakam Steve Earle

You’re never going to enjoy playing with that band as long as you’re aware the singer is out of tune. Just say ‘Sorry I don’t think this is the band for me’ and walk away.

Yes I’m sure the Dingwall would do a grand job. A fair portion of the enthusiast-run county music circuit is fixated on the Civil War era, despite fact that even the oldest music thought of as ‘country’ dates from the middle of the 20th century. I therefore take the homely conventional-looking P rather than the more outlandish-looking Dingwall.

Hmmm... I probably wouldn’t take my Dingwall on a country gig though - my natural finish P looks suitably rustic!

I came to bass from guitar, and my assumption was that more pickups would equate to more versatility. I had also briefly owned an old Encore P copy, which I need hardly tell you was not a great instrument! My first few basses were therefore twin-pickup models, mainly mid-priced and active. One day I was in Denmark St and tried a CIJ Jazz, which was lovely but not quite there. Then I picked up a CIJ Precision and it instantly clicked - everything I wanted from just two controls. Sold. A well-sorted P is a thing of joy. It’s worth trying a few because they are not all created equal. If it’s not for you, cool, play the stuff that makes you happy. EDIT: I played a gig on guitar last night and the bass player was using a Jazz. It sounded great.

Super Twin and either Demeter or EBS head (see sig) according to my preference. They both have DI outs - job done (mainly by the sound guy/gal).

Probably time for me to clarify! Why I never ‘got’ ramps - because I never found myself thinking, ‘It would really help if there was a surface a small distance under the strings beneath my picking fingers.’ Why I thought it looked like a crutch for technique - I assumed it was to ensure that the player is always contacting the string with the same part of the picking finger; and to aid fast playing by preventing the fingers from going too far below the strings. I hadn’t considered the fact that it would make the playing area feel more like that of a double bass. My anti-gear-snobbery mantra (to myself principally!) is: Use what works for you. So my bad for casting aspersions on ramps in general, crack on and ignore my ill-judged comment.

I never got the whole ramp thing - it always looked like a crutch for players who haven’t sorted their finger-style technique. 👀