EliasMooseblaster

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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.

My longest-serving/suffering bass is a Precision copy that I bought as a kit from Brandoni about 16 years ago: http://www.brandoniguitars.co.uk/ They shipped the kits as bare wood - if you're prepared to hunt down a can of nitro in Daphne Blue then spraying the body yourself could always be an option!

Simple answer: don't avoid them! I love my Ashdowns. Their cheaper line seems to have become a staple for rehearsal studios as the old TE combos gradually give up the ghost and become more scarce. I initially never warmed to them, but I found out that the secret is to cut the bass frequencies - they tend to pump out more deep bass than you really know what to do with in a small room, but if you back it off then you can achieve a lot more clarity. I own two of their all-valve heads (a Little Bastard 30 and a CTM-100) and, especially since I paired them with a Berg 2x12, I might have actually found my tonal holy grail. I did also use someone else's ABM-something-something at a gig in Derby a couple of years ago, and was very impressed with the tone of that. Obviously, try a couple if you can (they also do a CTM-300 if you fancy going all-valve and could stand to drop a couple of hundred watts...) but I reckon you'll notice quite a difference between their higher-end lines and the cheaper ones that get kicked around rehearsal rooms!

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1509063062' post='3396435'] oh wait... you mean first name or surname? The surname might just fit! Can't be... 5 letter first name, 6 letter surname? [/quote] Ah, not quite - the geographical feature was his first name. Was five letters though. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I ever knew his surname...usually it was enough to mention him by his first name, and other jammers would roll their eyes!

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1509020621' post='3396071'] Well, the guy is English and has travelled a bit... it could still be him. He certainly favours blues... Ian Siegal!!! I met him when he was playing in a small bar in Madrid many years agom and loved it! Not many people (it's a curious bar which closes the doors to customers when the tables are full, so it's never crazy busy and makes for a nice cozy atmosphere, almost personal)... My brother and I were one of the very few who could speak/understand English fluently, and when he realised that his chat went over the heads of most people but us, it was like having him playing just for the two of us. Cool guy. Chatted a bit afterwards. If Ian almost punched him... I lean towards Ian's side [/quote] His name isn't the same as a geographical feature which might be found above a beach or coastline, is it? Yeah, the Ian Siegal story should be taken with a pinch of salt as I got it second-hand from a friend, who'd was already hanging around the London blues jam circuit back when Ian was still hosting one of the more popular ones. Apparently this guitarist (let's call him Geographical Feature) was a regular and notorious over-player at this jam. One night, Ian put a new punter up to play guitar alongside Geographical, and the new punter assumed that the other players might be as polite as he was, and would solo for one or two turnarounds before passing over to somebody else. Not Geographical. In the time it took for the V7 chord to resolve to the root, his face apparently went from full-on lead guitar gurn to shocked and appalled as this greenhorn started to play - didn't he realise that Geographical was entitled to at least four turnarounds to fully express his musical vision? After the set, Geographical dragged this poor chap outside to remonstrate with him. Word got around to Ian that things seemed to be kicking off, and he thought it best to come to the new punter's aid. My friend happened to be near the door when Ian stormed back in. "You will not BELIEVE what that ***** said to me." Ian fumed to him. My friend invited Ian to indulge his curiosity. "He said, 'all these new people are just tourists. I'm a bluesman.'" Geographical nipped back in, avoiding any eye contact, packed up his guitar and scarpered. My friend believed that Ian had told the guy to sling his hook before he thumped him. So yeah, even though I wasn't there to witness things first-hand, I found myself on Ian's side too. Especially any time I bumped into Geographical playing at another blues jam.

The above quote is the kind of explanation that makes a lot more sense when you're sitting in front of a piano! What they perhaps should have added is something to the effect of, "run from D to D, playing the same notes as you would for C." The point is that that you take the same run of notes, but you shift the start (and end) point so that although the notes are still the same, the intervals have changed. Consider the white keys on a piano (which C Major conveniently sticks to): Note C D E F G A B C Degree I II III IV V VI VII I Interval T T st T T T st Note D E F G A B C D Degree I II III IV V VI VII I Interval T st T T T st T (T = tone, st = semitone) See that the two semitone intervals have shifted, even though the notes are all the same. This is enough to change the sound of the scale very noticeably. Similarly, you can shift the scale again to run from E to E, F to F, etc, and find more changes in character; some more obvious than others

That is a shame; I always liked them as well. Perhaps it's time to give Strings Direct a try.

Anyone have any further news to report? I'm getting to the point where I need to order several sets of new strings...are SB back up and running or should I think about looking elsewhere?

[quote name='Jus Lukin' timestamp='1509011157' post='3395959'] Dress like The Corrs and play Cannibal Corpse. CANNIBAL CORRS!!! [/quote] ^ This has made my morning. Thank you.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1508967768' post='3395759'] Drummer writes a simple message to him along the lines of "thank you, but we think you're not what we're after, good luck, etc". Nothing offensive or anything. [b]Then the guy just went on and on about how we feel threatened because he is better, and he's got so much experience, etc etc.[/b] He sounded insane. He was a little odd in person, but after I saw that... I was very glad we didn't waste any more time with him. Seven or eight messages later, he disappeared. I hope for good. [/quote] When I read this bit, I had to stop and check the location under your picture - I know a guy who used to respond in exactly this way to any perceived slight against his playing, but he lives in North London, last I heard! Before this chap got himself banned from most of the blues jams in the centre of town, he did approach a singer I knew and asked if she wanted to work with him. When she politely declined, he apparently told her she was turning down "the opportunity of a lifetime"! I've also heard that his greatest claim to fame is almost being punched by blues impresario Ian Siegal.

For additional peace of mind, I can assure you that nobody's noticed that my fretless has Tony Franklin's name engraved on it. Just as well, because my own fretless playing wouldn't fare well in a comparison with Mr Franklin. That said, most people don't even seem to notice that I'm playing a fretless, so I think you're quite safe having Mr Miller's name written discreetly on the headstock!