EliasMooseblaster

[quote name='No. 8 Wire' timestamp='1510309876' post='3405452'] Its done the trick though, generated loads of hits from people who wouldn't normally hit evening standard clickbait. Got to pay Osbornes fat cat salary somehow... [/quote] Years ago, back on another forum, a lot of people used to know of a proxy server which allowed them to link indirectly to Daily Mail articles in such a way that we could all have a good chuckle at the rubbish they were printing without them getting the ad revenue...I wonder if anything similar exists for the Evening Blandard?

[quote name='AndyTravis' timestamp='1510168990' post='3404475'] Yeah, I liked these basses, can't believe they weren't more successful. As ever, not an overnight success and people were getting used to them when Gibson (marketing genius' obvs) put an Inlay on every model rather than just making a commemorative model and sales for the year dropped off a cliff face (not just the EB). So they scrapped it and brought out the ESP beginner bass lookalike version out. I love their instruments, but my god they're morons. [/quote] ^ +1! I really feel like they missed a trick by not making more of these. We opened for a band in Derby a whose bassist had one; sounded superb and looked the business.

The Who all the way down at number 15? Utter tosh, I tell thee! But then I wouldn't have had Zeppelin in the top 20. Or T.Rex...or the Stone Roses...christ, Oasis? Don't get me started on bloody Oasis...

Interesting question! I've certainly found myself playing in bands where I didn't like the music - needless to say, I didn't stick around for long. But with Cherry White, it's a lot more nuanced. There's certainly no disconnect, but maybe a bit of a gap. Our guitarist has historically written most of the songs, though as I've contributed more, I feel I've had more of a steer over things. So there's quite a lot of overlap between what our guitarist likes - and therefore models his own writing on - and what I enjoy. I suppose this is going to be true for a lot of people, because a lot of us listen to a far wider range of genres than one band is ever going to play. I'm fortunate in that the band doesn't just play "rock," but happily takes in elements of blues and prog-rock, which help to keep things fresh and interesting. They're never going to play jazz, but they've also not put an embargo on me bringing songs with "jazz chords" in them (i.e., anything more complicated than a dominant 7th). Of course, if it were entirely up to me, I'd have dragged us down a bluesy prog-rock rabbit hole that would probably have driven the others to resign in frustration, so it's probably for the best that I've not become the main writer. I can keep all that for my solo side project and then everyone's happy.

I think, looking back on my years of scepticism, that part of the problem is the cheap/half-arsed nature of a lot of the compressors built into bass amps. The ones in my old solid state combos, and the ones I've more recently tried using in practice rooms, always made everything sound a bit brittle, and gave me very little control over the compression. This is almost certainly why I stopped using them. Now that I've moved over to valve amps, the gentle compression that they apply naturally seems to be enough for my needs. If I hadn't made this transition, I think I'd now be happy for somebody who understood them to pop a decent compressor pedal into my signal chain and show me how to get the best out of it.

I bought a Precision kit from Brandoni about sixteen years ago and it's been a reliable part of my setup ever since. For about seven or eight years it was my main gigging bass, and there was a brief window of a few months in which it was (gasp!) my only bass. Obviously they won't rival a custom build from a good luthier, but you can get a lot of bass for your buck.

[quote name='Barking Spiders' timestamp='1509701824' post='3400927'] + 1 for The Hamsters here too. Way back in the mists of time when I lived in London I saw them quite a few times at venues like the Half Moon in Putney . Excellent band . An excellent guitar player as I recall who also had a nice line in witty patter [/quote] + 1 here too! Back when I was still a student they were playing the Half Moon on a monthly basis and it became a bit of a ritual with some of my friends. They did a pretty good line in ZZ Top covers too, and their own material was always entertaining.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1510049330' post='3403441'] Depends on the type of rotary switch. Some (especially the plastic-bodied type that you would get from electronics hobby shops) have a collar the sets how many positions the it will click through (up to 12 IIRC). If there is one it will be accessible when you unbolt the switch. You will need a multimeter to determine what all the currently un-used contacts do. [/quote] That's good to know - I'm just contemplating the balance of sound options vs my wiring skills, as if nothing else it seems a shame not to make the coil tap available. Then of course I've got series/parallel options plus the stock bridge pickup to think about, though at least that's fewer options still than... [quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1510050307' post='3403458'] Having once built a guitar that had 125 sound options, I'm one to talk - BUT, if you are still going to rig up a varitone circuit, I would personally just go for standard series humbucking mode for the DiMarzio. You can always change it later if it really isn't giving you what you want. [/quote] ...this! (125? I presume this must have required a few microchips somewhere along the way?) I'm actually moving away from the varitone idea, having looked at the DiMarzio manual and seen how many different things I can do with just four wires. I have a push/pull pot of the right impedance going spare, and obviously I might be able to free up positions on the rotary switch, so I'm mostly thinking about what I might be able to switch in or out without cutting any extra holes in the guitar!

Thought I might reheat this thread as I have an update and a question! Update: I've bought the DiMarzio. Hoping to get that wired up tonight in the most basic manner to test it out. Question: there are approximately ten million different ways I can wire it, for series/parallel, coil tap, and permutations of those. Unfortunately all the wiring diagrams in the manual assume I'm wiring to a three-way toggle switch. My options for switching are: swapping out the volume pot for a push-pull to enable a coil tap; or fiddling around with the rotary pickup switch to see if I can get more settings out of it. It currently clicks through three different positions, but I see it has a lot more terminals - is it possible to 'unlock' more positions and make use of these?

[quote name='CameronJ' timestamp='1509791972' post='3401651'] Ah, I think that might be "Westside" or something similar, a couple of shops along from Wunjo. They're the only shop on Denmark Street who stock pedaltrain and MXR as well I believe. [/quote] [quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1509957351' post='3402783'] I had a Schecter Model T a while back. I believe it was a continuation of the Rob Deleo signature. Came standard with Seymour Duncan pickups and pretty decent hardware. It was quite a nice bass. Nothing amazing, but did most things well. [/quote] I still have a Model T - and, as coincidence would have it, I bought it from Westside. At the time, I was considering pulling the trigger on a Fender but wasn't sure I could spare the readies for a US Std P. The Model T knocked the Fender Mex Std into a cocked hat, and didn't set me back very much more. If you can get on with the idea of a P-J bass with a Jazz-like neck then I'd heartily recommend trying one. (Sounds great through an Ashdown valve amp!)

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Putting a couple more pics in the replies due to a bit of a Barney with file uploader...

This was my first proper bass amp, acquired second-hand about 16 years ago. 40W solid-state, 12" Fane speaker. As the photos hopefully show, it's seen better days. [attachment=256872:FrontSmall.jpg] I'm hoping to pass this on a refurbishment project to somebody, as it's been gathering dust for a couple of years now. A quick test just before posting this confirmed that it still works, and sounds alright. There's a fair bit of crackling, and the parametric gain control has a tendency to make squealing noises (dust/moisture in the pot, I think). There's a fairly frank account of my last serious repair attempt at https://ralphbeeby.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/amp-repairs-laney-session-40-bassman/ Free to anyone who's got the time and patience to give it the TLC it requires. I can meet people in central London during the week, feel free to come and collect from SW London/Surrey sort of way, or I can arrange postage if you don't mind covering that cost.

Sort of. For now... My Thunderbird is the best bass for the music I'm currently playing. Something about the combination of our guitarist's sound and a strong female vocal has made a darker, Gibson-type bass sound the best fit. I've used quite a range of different basses in the studio, but the majority of tracks we recorded were either played on an Epiphone EB-3 or the Gibson T-bird. Ditto for most of our live appearances. Trouble is, as you may have guessed, it's dependent on the setting. Back when I was fronting a blues-rock trio, we had a much gnarlier sound and so a Precision was the best thing for the job. Back in those days, my "dream bass" would probably have been a Fender US Std if I'd got my hands on one. On the other hand, I may have found my dream amp/cab combination. An Ashdown valve head into a Berg 2x12 has sounded absolutely wonderful, irrespective of which bass I've plugged into it!

[url="https://www.thoughtco.com/drum-recording-the-glyn-johns-method-1817865"]https://www.thoughtc...-method-1817865[/url] I don't know how Elbow recorded theirs, but the so-called "Glyn Johns Method" is usually a good starting point - especially as Elbow's drummer doesn't take extended rambles through a Neil Peart-esque jungle of toms, from what I've heard! The article above explains Paul's very important point about getting the overheads in phase (and how to do it), but also nods to discreet's equally important point about having a drummer who knows his/her stuff!

Have you seen this on the FS section, speaking of the ABM series? http://basschat.co.uk/topic/314239-ashdown-abm600-evo-iv-new-condition-cover-rack-kit/page__fromsearch__1

A good ear training exercise I found early on was to try and play a familiar scale that "pedals" the open string as a pitch reference between each note, e.g., --0-2-0-4-0-5-0-7-0-9-11-0-12-- ...on a single string of your choice for a basic major scale.

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1509533811' post='3399633'] ok - they say they are alder but could be wrong. I assume you could just put sanding sealer on it and you're good to go ? I'm thinking of transparent blonde in nitro with some celluloid tort [/quote] I'll happily hold up my hands and admit to being no good at identifying wood types - if they say alder, I'd defer to them! Re sanding sealer: almost certainly. Probably a lot less faff than sealing the grain with pumice and alcohol as per the early steps in a French polish / shellac job!

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1509470009' post='3399223'] thank you Contemplating a jazz bass kit What's the word good enough for natural finish? How realistic was the febder haead stock? [/quote] The body wood is quite light - both in mass and colour. My guess is ash, but in any case I decided to stain it a darker shade of brown before I finished it. It's still wearing the original coat of Ronseal from 16 years ago, and that was perfect for building up a natural finish (shellac is great for this, though I'm sure some more durable and less labour-intensive options would do the job similarly well). The headstock is a standard Fender bass shape, though there's no decal - I'm sure you could add your own easily enough!

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1509456887' post='3399042'] They don't list the necks anymore sadly but do list the kits What did you get in the kit and what did you need to replace ? [/quote] The kit I bought back in 2001 (Jesus wept...) contained everything to assemble a functioning Precision bass. Bare neck and body, four tuners, BBOT bridge, neck plate and screws, set of strings, and a scratchplate with the pickup and pots all wired up and ready to go. I finished the wood on mine with wood stain and shellac. Other than strings, I didn't replace any of the parts until around 2012, when I decided some nicer pots might breathe some new life into the tone. I gave it more of a complete overhaul a couple of years later, when I re-did the French-polished finish, replaced the pickup with a Fender '62 CS-RI, and decided a black scratchplate would look better. (Though I have since put the stock pickup into another project, and I must admit it still sounds pretty good!)

[quote name='Al Krow' timestamp='1509449307' post='3398956'] That's a shocker! Really sorry to hear that. What details if any were the mods able to get off the guy when he paid his ad listing sub? @Mods (if this has not already been discussed - and apologies if this is old ground) please have a think about getting insurance for the forum to cover such circumstances to protect both the reputation of the site and the 99.99% of members who are genuine? If folk know they can deal with certainty and are protected from harm on this site, it should pay for itself in terms of increased traffic? Even if it doesn't it would still be a good thing to do - agreed? [/quote] I should probably clarify that it wasn't strictly a BC'er! This chap joined BC specifically to drop me a message (as far as we can tell) and led me over to his Gumtree listing, where the deed was done. I contacted the mods as this chap had obviously made an account on here, and they were very helpful as far as they could be. Thankfully this guy hadn't been trying to shaft any other users in the meantime.

Looking back, I think I've only bought one bit of bass equipment this year: a DiMarzio Model One pickup to replace the stock mudbucker in my SG bass. I haven't had a chance to install it yet, so I can't really rate it as best/worst/good value just yet! I have, however, invested in some better recording equipment this year. [b]Best purchase[/b] is probably the Focusrite 2i2, which connected to my Linux PC without any complaints, and has massively improved the basic sound quality of my home recordings. [b]Best value[/b] were the two Behringer C-1s I bought to go with it. Even though they're cheap to buy new, I got a couple of good second-hand deals which threw in some peripheral bits, including a little phantom power unit, a shock mount and pop shield, and an XLR-XLR cable, all for about the same price as buying new. Most of the product reviews online said these were really good for the money, and I can't disagree - they've been excellent. [b]Worst purchase[/b], I guess, was the acoustic guitar that didn't exist. As a couple of the mods already know, some ne'er-do-well has diddled me out a couple of hundred quid with a fake advert. We'll see if the police can offer any help on that one.

[quote name='Cato' timestamp='1509388109' post='3398553'] Has no one ever tried a bit of toweling stuck to the back of the bass combined with a pair of velcro trousers? [/quote] If I put the towelling towards the bridge end of the bass, I kill two birds with one stone, as my trousers also no longer fall down.

[quote name='timhiggins' timestamp='1509306721' post='3397969'] Isn't there a famous comedic character with a pen collection ? i've already googled Alan Partridge ,and Arthur Dent and the Royston Vasey shop owner but no luck so far... [/quote] It's Pauline - you were very close with the Royston Vasey Local Shop!

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1509374835' post='3398409'] Also, if the RD they're planning on releasing is really an Artist (ie. with active electronics and Moog compression/expansion/bright shenanigans) instead of a funny shaped T-Bird with TB+ pickups then I'll be pleasantly surprised! [/quote] +1 - from what I've read, it sounds like it was an ambitious design that was let down by unreliable electronics. Now that the technology's more commonplace, I'd have thought they could make a better fist of it.