chriswareham

There's a brief Bass Direct demo. It's the usual slappy finger picking stuff, but to my ears they sound like politer versions of the Darkglass pedals - nowhere near as aggressive as the B3K that I use, but as I play with a pick that may have something to do with it. The late generation US made B7K board and the 3leaf one shown on the Basstalk thread suggest they are virtually the same, apart from the obvious value changes to alter the EQ and a few components in the middle of the board. Those few additional components (and there are comments that an even later B7K revision also had an extra IC) don't seem to do anything, and the altered EQ would account for the politer sound.

I was going to suggest Guitar Aid, but if it's North London then I'd suggest calling the Gallery. They have a guy they use who has repaired amp stuff for me in the past.

My band's last recording was intended to have that early 70s heavy rock tone, with Sabbath as the obvious comparison. I managed it with a short scale Gibson EB-0 copy, flawound strings drop tuned and an overdriven valve head into an Ampeg fridge.

Is the singer mentally unstable? Does the guitarist use a tuner or does he/she tune "by ear"? Can the drummer read and write? Who carries my bass amp when I've had too much to drink?

I bought an unbadged short scale Gibson EB-3 copy, only to find out it's a long scale EB-3L body that someone's grafted a short scale neck onto. The neck looks like it's from an Avon badged copy judging by the holes where the headstock badge would have been. Impossible to get the intonation right, since the distance from nut to twelfth fret is fa less than distance from twelfth fret to bridge. So no, mixing long scale and short scale necks and bodies doesn't work!

I've got two hollow bodies. The first is a wide bodied Eko that only has a small block down the middle. At high gain levels I accidentally blew up a valve amp with it, but now know the warning sign (a deep throbbing sound). The other one is a Shaftesbury Rickenfaker that looks like a Rick guitar. Never looked inside the body, but perhaps because it's much thinner than the Eko it doesn't suffer feedback problems.

Hadn't realised that Alex had moved on. Always found him easy to get on with, not a hard selling salesman, which I really appreciated. He and Martin have always been helpful and never condescending or snooty about my choice of equipment as someone on here claims to have experienced. They even appeared genuinely interested in my Hondo Rickenfaker when I took it in for a set up. Sadly the cat is now living at home with one of the guys rather than in the shop, but still the best bass store I've ever been to.

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1450541338' post='2933786'] Just let a good technician sort it and enjoy real transistor Watts (rather than D type Watts). How did we ever gig with 100W transistor heads? [/quote] :-) I've read that Acoustic rated their amps according to what is nowadays referred to as "program" levels rather than the "peak" levels of most manufacturers. So when an Acoustic 140 is officially rated for 125W, it's comparatively more powerful than most transistor amps with that rating. At least that's what I've read, but it would explain why so many people find Acoustic amps surprisingly loud.

Many thanks to you all for pitching in with advice, and 3below in particular for finding the schematic. I'll see if the guy who customised my Sound City is up for doing the conversion (Theo Argiriadis http://www.tube-electronics.co.uk/).

Hi folks! I've just acquired an Acoustic Control Corporation 140 amp from the States. It's currently winging its way to me, and I plan on initially using it with a step down transformer. Longer term, I want to replace the internal transformer to work directly from UK mains voltage. Does anyone know how difficult it is to do this properly? I wonder if this is complicated by the difference in frequency (50hz versus 60hz) as well, which I guess is particularly important for audio gear. Not going to attempt any conversion myself, as I don't go near mains level voltages, but would appreciate any advice from those who have converted stuff themselves or has someone do it for them.

No updates for a while, as my wife's puppy chewed through the speaker cone! I left a door open while I went to fetch something and the little horror sneaked into the room. The speaker is now with Wembley Loudspeakers for re-coning

When I was a teenager, no one wanted a keyboard player since everyone wanted to do guitar bands. Most people wanted to be a singer or guitarist, and since a drum kit wasn't a practical proposition I took up bass.

[quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1450033669' post='2929014'] I've never heard of half of these people. [/quote] Well, take the suggestions as a starting point then. If not, then stay in your Jazz/Fusion ghetto. [quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1450033669' post='2929014'] Not sure any truly punk players have contributed vastly to the combined dictionary of electric bass patterns. Maybe Jean Jack Burnell with the riff to Peaches on the Beaches and one or two others (some Oeter Hook parts spring to mind). [/quote] That's because unlike Jazz/Fusion and its ilk, it's not about improvisation (or more accurately being able to apply a bit of theory in order to endlessly noodle over a couple of standard chord progressions). Take the debut album by New Model Army - there's more invention in the bass parts on that than the entire back catalogue of any Jazz/Fusion outfit. [quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1450033669' post='2929014'] Surely punk, perhaps more so than most genres, is all about the overall group sound rather than any of its individual components. [/quote] Quite possibly, but that may be because Jazz/Fusion was about providing a platform to show off with tedious displays of what's then passed of as virtuosity, rather than true invention. Many punk and particularly new wave bands were looking for something new, having tired of the bloated pomposity of coke fuelled mid 70s dross.

[quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1450030782' post='2928950'] I think I'm probably one of these muso bores who noodles around and has had an open enough mind to have been influenced by a vast range of musicians and genres over the years - and thus am able to play a range of styles etc. [/quote] I've got pretty broad tastes, but what I actually play would not be a lot of peoples cup of tea. That's fine, and if what you do floats your boat then that's also fine. But there a a couple of people on this board who seem to take great delight in belittling others with their dick swinging comments. For them the gloves are off. And just for the record I can enjoy a bit of slap and fretless (Bootsy or Mick Karn for instance). Pastorius leaves me cold though.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1450029592' post='2928920'] If your going to bash those of us who chose to play covers that's ok. [/quote] I don't care what they do until they tell me I'm not a "real" bassist because I find Jazz/Fusion boring. Or those like the bassist from a tribute act that supported us recently, who told me I should burn my Greco because it "isn't a real Rickenbacker". [quote name='blue' timestamp='1450029592' post='2928920'] Would you like to here my opinion of most local original music? [/quote] Not really.

[quote name='TKenrick' timestamp='1449499681' post='2924074'] He was our Hendrix - regardless of whether you think he was a genius or a hack you can't deny the fact that he totally reinvented our instrument and that almost every single 'big name' player today takes influence from him in one form or another. [/quote] Bollocks. The vast majority of bass players today don't play Jazz or noodle around, mostly on a fretless, or even play without a pick. I was utterly underwhelmed by Pastorius and in particiular the tedious elevator music of Weather Report. Quite amused by the usual suspects on here who arrogantly claim that someone shouldn't play bass if they can't appreciate Pastorius. They tickle me pink (or possibly blue), since judging by their other posts they're playing in cover or function bands. The typical muso bores who seem to have never written their own material but just mimic others. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH7JBgIHWjs"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH7JBgIHWjs[/url]

[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1449941979' post='2928263'] Tina Weymouth - never played more than was necessary and it always suited the song. [/quote] And didn't play on the early records since she was so bad!

[quote name='Roger2611' timestamp='1449919381' post='2927935'] Stuart Morrow, New Model Army to name but a few [/quote] He was superb on the first two NMA albums. I'll add: Peter Hook of Joy Division David J of Bauhaus Martin "Youth" Glover of Killing Joke Barry from Southern Death Cult Dave Allen and Sara Lee of Gang Of Four Dave Roberts of Sex Gang Children

[quote name='MacDaddy' timestamp='1449782356' post='2926872'] IIRC in an interview with BGM he said no distortion just cranked mids. [/quote] Lemmy's settings are pretty much full gain, full mid, no bass or treble. The result is overdriven, so I guess it's down to the difference between overdrive and distortion.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1449532082' post='2924502'] Mellotron tapes are a hell of a lot longer than a few centimetres. [/quote] Yeah, I was being a bit facetious, but the time it takes the tapes to reset means that sometimes a subsequent press of the same key will restart a note playing with an annoying click.

Loved the bit about how they recorded the "choral" sounds on "Not In Love" (the only song I knew by them before watching the show). Three weeks of recording tape loops for each note, and then playing the mixer like a keyboard. Of course, now it would be trivial to do on a sampler, but incredible imagination to come up with that in the pre-sampler era since even a Mellotron wouldn't be able to do it (no long sustained notes due to the tapes only being a few centimetres long).

Someone has mentioned Primary by The Cure, but it's worth checking out the album Faith which that track was from. Most of the songs are either Fender Precision and Fender VI, or the Precision and some minimal keyboards. The title track in particular features the Fender VI as lead.

[quote name='The-Ox' timestamp='1449019974' post='2920205'] Thanks again! My main concern is whether I'll be able to get the range of tone that a real rick gets. Will it in essence be able to produce the same sounds? [/quote] The pickup placement is the same as a real Rick, so it should sound very similar - I have a Greco (Matsumoku built) copy of a similar age and it has the sound. If it has a capacitor on the treble pickup you'll get what's called the "vintage" tone that pre-1984 Ricks had. On modern 4003 Rick basses you can switch this capacitor in our out to get either the modern or vintage tone. I'd guess that being a 1970s Rick copy the Shaftesbury would have this capacitor. [quote name='The-Ox' timestamp='1449019974' post='2920205'] Also what does the single truss rod mean compared to the dual truss rod? [/quote] In theory, the twin truss rods of a real Rick (and some copies) would allow you to correct a twist in the neck. In practice they just make it more difficult for normal neck relief adjustments.

Bass -> Compressor -> Distortion -> Chorus -> Amp Although I do roughly half of my band's gigs without the pedals if I'm not in the mood to lug the fairly hefty pedalboard case along.

Went to buy some strings from my local music shop (Soundgarden in High Barnet), and had a quick browse around first. They had quite possibly the most ugly "faker" I've ever seen. It's the Stagg BG400, which is clearly supposed to be a Gibson EB0 copy, but with the single pickup up near the bridge rather than the neck. Pictures don't do it justice, as it's a slab with none of the "pointy" edges that make the Gibson look quite elegant - the picture below gives a false impression that it's tapered off quite a lot at the sides of the body. The body and headstock are also much wider than they appears in pictures, which make it look like a something someone knocked up in school woodwork class!