chriswareham

Today was day seven. Then something disastrous happened - I had to speak to one of my neighbours, and it was explained to me by my better half that I look intimidating enough even without the face fungus. So sadly the following picture was just before I razored it all off :-(

More progress! The baffle is now finished in matte black spray paint, the driver is mounted and the baffle fixed in place with black anodised screws and wood glue. The back panel is secured with the same type of antique brass coloured screws and cups as used on original cab. The corners still need rounding off, but no urgency as the Tolex still hasn't arrived from the States.

Until a year ago, it was Stingray with single humbucker and three band active into Ampeg SVT CL, 4X10 and 1x15. I was nostalgic for my old Simms-Watts head, so I bought a similarly designed SoundcCity L120, and it was way punchier than the SVT. I also use a pair of Vox Foundation 18" cabs (one a copy) as I used to couple the Simms-Watts with a Peavey 1820 cab. This is for industrial / Gothic metal.

[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1421940058' post='2666867'] Is that a reverse goatee? [/quote] "Friendly mutton chops" apparently, and pretty much the opposite of the neck beard favoured by many in my line of work (software engineering - although I've never understood how it can be classed as engineering, if civil engineers created buildings like most of the software I see then they'd all fall down).

[quote name='waynepunkdude' timestamp='1421937821' post='2666823'] What did we do so wrong? [/quote] Wait until you see the warts I'm genetically engineering in my [s]garden shed[/s] laboratory.

[quote name='Maude' timestamp='1421883866' post='2666338'] The best I've ever received was a bass from ebay, the seller just put it in a single black bin bag and taped the top shut round the headstock. How it wasn't damaged I'll never know. [/quote] I had a synthesiser sent to me with similar packaging. A sheet of cardboard had been taped to the bottom, then it had been placed in a black bin bag and taped shut.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' timestamp='1421936530' post='2666788'] Put a shirt on. [/quote] Think yourself lucky I cropped the picture, otherwise you'd be able to see my peek-hole bra, PVC mini skirt and stripy pop socks.

I have to remove my wedding ring when playing as I catch it on the strings (particularly with round wounds). I keep on meaning to get a short silver chain so I can hang the ring around my neck when playing.

New Beard Day, although it's got a way to go yet ... And the inspiration :-)

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1421657430' post='2663552'] Bloody hell! [b]Beffnull Gween?[/b] That area really is turning into Hipster Central ... [/quote] Blimey, it must be. Used to rehearse over there at a place in a converted basement garage between 1998 and 2000. Great rehearsal studio owned by a friend of one of the guitarists in the band, although last time I went back a few years ago they had stopped making food :-( No more sausage sandwiches halfway through a marathon session!

Finally made some further progress, thanks to a router owning colleague. The speaker hole is now finished, so I can now move onto spraying the baffle matte black and mounting the speaker. The edges of the cabinet still need rounding off with the router, but then it will be Tolex time! Here's the marked out speaker hole just prior to routing: Here's Dante inspecting the fit and finish: (As suggested by my wife, my next project will be two 1x12 cabinets that I can make into novelty beds for both our cats). And here's what the complete rig looks like so far:

Most expensive bass I've owned is a Musicman Stingray. I loved it, taking great care to clean it after every gig no matter how drunk I was, and it regularly got a setup at a decent music shop. However, for the 50 to 60 minutes I was on stage it got covered in sweat, beer and on one occasion blood while I hacked away at it with a steel tipped pick. After all, that's what it was as designed for.

British made bass from the 1970s. Evolved into the Shergold Marathon, which was a great bass, quite sought after by those who know about them. I had one on loan for a while and absolutely loved it.

Nice of Alice Cooper to pose for that shot. That's a terrible tattoo on his chest though.

[quote name='Jazzneck' timestamp='1421156599' post='2657727'] I could say "Serves you right for not using real live musicians in the band", but I won't......................... Runs away at the speed of light .............. [/quote] They'd need to be able to play at the speed of light to do some of the synth bass parts.

Had a bad experience where the house engineer got blotto the night before we played, and he hadn't noticed that someone had pinched most of the DI boxes. He had a few old DI boxes, but had to reuse them for each band. Come our set, he plugs our rack of synths and samplers into them - only problem is that he left them on the Mic impedance setting rather than switch them over to Line. No line check, and as we start our set I can't hear the drums or keyboards as the engineer yanked their levels down since the output was so distorted. Audience look perplexed as well. I ended up playing the whole set looking at the blinking metronome on the sequencer since the engineer was too useless to realise what he'd done. Thankfully the venue sacked him shortly afterwards.

I briefly used a Gretsch Jet Baritone as a bass. It's the same scale as a Fender VI, and I strung it E to E using La Bella strings. I could get a decent bass sound out of it, and I could also do "twangy" surf style guitar lines on it. Took some getting used to the string spacing versus a conventional four string bass, but it was great fun and sounds great with distortion if you want to play something approximating a lead guitar part.

[quote name='Kev' timestamp='1419806165' post='2642909'] What I find far more incredible is someone paid this, and is now selling it so quickly. [/quote] At this price point you are paying for novelty. No way does that play better than a bass a tenth of its price - it's value is in its exclusivity. I suspect that it was bought by someone with a lot of money that expected a quantum difference in playability to something like a top end Musicman or Fender and are disappointed with the reality. On a subjective note its as fugly as hell as well.

Haven't read much of the thread, so I'm probably doing an AOL style "me too", but my favourite JJ moment is the entire bass part to Nice 'N' Sleazy. It was my party piece when I first learned to play bass, and is invariably the first thing I play when I pick up an unfamiliar bass guitar.

[quote name='Roger2611' timestamp='1420145216' post='2646153'] Roll on the return of the Phillips Laser disc 2000, my mates dad had one, it was the only one I ever saw, actually come to think of it my mate had a mullet at that time [/quote] My school had that Domesday Project thingy that was on a Laser Disc kind of format that could only be read by a specific device for the BBC computer. Much to my amusement there was an article a couple of years ago about how the data was now difficult to access since the format and hardware was so unique. Didn't have that problem with the parchment of the original Domesday Book. Now excuse me while I go and insert a 3.5" floppy into my old sequencer (and no, that's not a euphemism).

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1420020053' post='2644821'] Bargain alert! Westone Thunder 1A version 3 incl. hard case £100 BIN collection only Sutton, Surrey [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/bass-guitar-/261717883775?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3cef99fb7f"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item3cef99fb7f[/url] If I didn't already have one I'd be driving round the M25 at this moment. [/quote] Jaw dropping bargain - if I didn't already have too much gear I'd be pressing the Buy It Now on that right now. I've owned two Thunder 1A basses, and a battered Thunder Jet. Only (slightly silly) reason I don't play one now is that their quite small body looks a bit daft on a bloke who is six foot four and weighs 220 pounds. The early neck through ones were surprisingly heavy though.

This year's surprise Christmas present from my wife was a copy of the recently released biography of Peter Ratajczyk, better known as Peter Steele. Not seen much mention of him on this site, but he was the bassist, lead vocalist and songwriter of several influential bands culminating with Type O Negative. He's been a musical inspiration to me and as a fellow tall gangly, guy the amazing physique he had in his prime was also a spur to me getting into lifting weights in a serious way. That's something that probably saved my life when I suffered a life threatening illness that went undiagnosed for several years - the specialists said it was only my fitness that kept me going for so long before I was ultimately hospitalised. I'm about halfway through the book, and so far it's been a cracking read. Peter absorbed the pop and rock that his five sisters played, but his musical epiphany was when one of them started playing early Black Sabbath albums. He then went on to record a début single with future Type O Negative band mate Josh Silver under the name of Fallout before forming Carnivore. Their early music stood out amongst the other thrash bands of the time thanks to the occasional reflective interludes and unusual lyrics that revolved around a post-apocalyptic theme. Then he started to absorb NYHC (New York Hard Core) influences, which mixed punk with metal. As before, Carnivore stayed distinctive with Peter's unusual lyrics and stentorian vocals. He continued to absorb an eclectic mix of influences such as industrial, metal, goth and pop, but Carnivore ground to a halt. He formed what eventually became Type O Negative, initially using songs he'd intended for a third Carnivore album. The band got into a lot of bother in Europe due to some people taking the cathartic and personal lyrics at face value (despite people saying us Europeans do irony and sarcasm better than the Yanks). Then the band came back with a series of incredible albums that became more and more absorbing before Peter's untimely death in 2010 at the age of 48. There's a lot to like about the book from a music perspective, as Steele was definitely someone who wrote about personal experiences from the heart, and it covers the complex reasons why. It reads like an honest account to me, and I think that's why Peter's sisters have now disowned it despite a lot of involvement - I think the author has done a good job of writing a realistic portrait of the man rather than papering over some of the deep problems he suffered from. As someone with Asperger's Syndrome, I do wonder if Steele had it but was undiagnosed, as I'm finding some surprising parallels with my own outlook on life and resulting experiences. In summary, I'd strongly suggest checking this out - and that's from someone who has found all but two or three biographies or autobiographies of musicians to be a bit of a let down.

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1420155100' post='2646278'] It always tickles me when people slag these sort of shows off. If there's something on telly that you're not enjoying then turning it off (or over) would surely be the sensible thing to do? [/quote] As I point out above, I think a lot of peoples problem with the regular Later... is that it's the only live music show on TV, and it's invariably a bland smug fest. The reason I mentioned The Tube in my comment above, apart from the Jools presenting connection, is that it had a wide range of music on it. I wouldn't like a lot of it, but a bit like the John Peel Show, it would typically have something that I'd like amongst all the variety. Now it's just talent school trained clones and has-beens. [quote name='icastle' timestamp='1420155100' post='2646278'] Of course, if you're [b]intentionally[/b] looking for something to grizzle about, watching the whole thing in abject misery will do the job nicely. I'm sure you can get yourselves nice and wound up by the time it finishes. [/quote] Well, for those of us who were waiting up to see the fireworks on the telly, it was either Jools or a Queen tribute band. I would have stuck a YouTube video on or something, but then ran the risk of missing the chimes.

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1420148706' post='2646193'] I so agree with this. It never ceases to amaze me how many BC'ers seem to revel in having a go at live music on TV. [/quote] I think it gets so much criticism and the threads are so noticeable since it's about the only live music show on TV. Jools was OK as a presenter on the late, lamented Tube back in the 1980s because he didn't have any involvement in the wide ranging selection of music on that show. It was also in an era where independent labels were successful, whereas Later and its offshoots just show us the bland major label manufactured sh*te and has-beens. At least it doesn't have that creepy bearded twunt Bob Harris on it like, but otherwise it's the current version of the Old Grey Whistle Test in its bloated, condescending glory back in the mid 1970s. Wow. Needed to get that off my chest.

Just read this thread in its entirety. I find the Ashdown stuff frustrating to use - it seems to be ubiquitous in London rehearsal studios, but impossible to get a decent sound out of. I've tried a variety of active and passive basses through them, but they always sound too muffled. I have to defend the Carlsbro Stingray 90 combo from the late 1980's though. I had one as my first amp that I bought from a friend when he upgraded to a Peavey stack, and while it was a bit bland with my passive bass it sounded great with his active one. On the "should be good but wasn't" front, I positively loathe Trace Elliot stuff from the early 1990s. Seemed to only be popular with slap players, had no bottom end, and weighed a ton. Hartke amps of that era seemed to be the same just more expensive, although I played my ancient Simm-Watts through a Hartke speaker stack once and the cabinets themselves were fine.