Doctor J

Cool looking beast. What options does the switch give you?

Dunlop supply huge screws with theirs, the biggest I've seen used for strap buttons.

Might as well put up these two. Got them cheap enough, Ibanez are such an underrated brand for the quality of bass they make. First up, a 1980 Roadster RS924. It needed a bit of work - fret levelling and the like and a sorely needed a good setup. The extra switch wasn't wired up to anything and someone had fooled around with the factory wiring too. I brought it back to factory spec, aside from using that extra switch as a serial/parallel selector for the bridge pickup. It's heavy, but it's worth it. Next up, an 89 SR800LE I picked up recently. I'll need to do a little work on the frets soon but it's ok for now. I really like the Lo-Z pickups, It sounds quite like my Streamer, quite Warwick-growlish with a little extra low end. I used to have a 94 SR1300PM which was in a sorry state when I picked it up. I spent a bit of time cleaning it up and it looked quite spectacular when I was done. I ended up selling it on as the wenge neck was too thin for me. Lovely looker, though.

I bought it for the missus at xmas and, as a result, have heard it a lot since. She's a fine singer, no doubt, but the production is so full-on all the time, even when it's trying to be subdued, leaves me worn out. It's like a Tufnel amp stuck on 11. If they just reined it in a little every now and then it wkuld work wonders. A break from the crushing sentimentality would be nice too. Sonically and emotionally it's just so one dimensional but that appears to be what the kids want in most genres so I'll leave them to it. I'd just love to hear her work with a production team who understand the value of subtlety, she could be phenomenal.

There's a guy who has several target audiences in mind for a gigging band

We once had a drummer who showed up for an audition with his girlfriend who sat in the corner chain-smoking beside him. That didn't really work out. I hate when the player doesn't match the brochure. A guitarist auditioned once, had emailed us a couple of instrumental tracks, really technically superb stuff. He showed up, looked the part, but then took a bottom rung starter guitar from the case. First alarm. He then set up his amp with that horrible "wasp trapped in a tin" kind of tone. Second alarm. He told us he had learned our songs, originals, We asked him which one he wanted to play first. "The first one" he said. He didn't know the names of the songs. Third alarm. He then struggled his way through a very basic riff which starts the song, so we all joined in. When, after for bars, we switched to the verse he kept playing the same riff. Even when we went to the chorus, yep, he kept playing the intro. That was the only riff of ours which he knew and even then he couldn't actually play it. Our drummer, at this stage, had buckled up in laughter and had to pretend he ripped his bass drum skin to put an end to the madness.

Strings go dead when the gunk and crud from your fingers gets into the winds and inhibits the free vibration of the string. Boiling and meths breaks down that crud and cleans the crap out giving you something approaching a new string sound. For coated strings, the only ones I found any use at all were Elixirs. They're the only one who coat the string as a whole and own that idea, as far as I'm aware. The rest coat the outer layer of wire and are essentially useless, in my experience - certainly D'Addario snd Warwick's were- as they don't stop the string absorbing crud. I don't see the logic in trying to boil a coated sring. If the coating has been compromised boiling isn't going to put it back together.

I'm really enjoying this. I've never tried to write a song in this way before, with the random/surreal imagery as a starting point. It's quite fun and the deadline is the kick in the hole I tend to need. I have most of the music done. I'm going to try lyrics and singing on this. It may backfire, but I reckon it's worth a try, see how it goes. There's a while to go before a desperate rush to turn it into an instrumental begins

Protest And Survive - Discharge The Right Stuff - NKOTB Informer - Snow As The Worm Turns - FNM

[quote name='lojo' timestamp='1451650076' post='2942037'] I don't think I have explained it well, but question is, has anyone done this, started up a project knowing it wont have an easy audience to target, but just for the music and fun of doing something different (different for those involved at least) [/quote] As I read the first post all I could think was "[i]This is what it's like for every original band[/i]" - maybe that's not what you're after but it might be worth considering? The thrills, both high and lows, are seldom equalled when you're living and dying on the strength of music you've pulled from the ether. Plus, your direction is entirely up to you, the policy is what you make it.

Repeat listening. Actually listening, paying attention, not just having the music on while your mind travels other dimensions. Find details in the songs, fills or words or melodies and amticipate them each listen. You'll get better at recognising scales and pitch changes by ear with time and, once you genuinely know the song in general, it'll all start falling into place.

I have the basis of something down, may even try singing. Then again, that might not be nice at all.

11. Could be worse. I didn't bring shame to my village.

Are you sure they're not giant butterflies but, instead, tiny people? Ahhhhhh.

Why don't they just fly on the backs of the butterflies? It makes no sense.

Looks like the beeb is having trouble again this morning

Amazing looking bass, hope your brother is alright.

With any PJ setup, I find I always have to have the bridge J a lot closer to the strings than the P. Set the height according to the output, not with your eyes. Were it me, I'd go with a volume-blend-tone setup, I prefer that to VVT or Volume-Tone and a three-way switch.

That's really nice, you don't see too many four string version of that bass.

Put them in with the recycling material

One thing about the neck dive when sitting down, do you play with the bass lower when you stand? The best bit of advice I ever heard was in a Billy Sheehan video from the 80's where he said that he set the strap length so that the bass was at the same height whether he sat or stood. I've done that ever since and leave the strap on whether I'm sitting or standing so you get the benefit of the strap stopping neck dive even while you're sitting.

Very cool. I really like the truss rod cover. As you said, it's the little details.

2015 was a bit of a surprise year, all things considered. I had given up on bands and gigging and was quite content just recording music at home. To end the year in a band, gigging on guitar has shifted the goalposts somewhat. For 2016 I have a few goals, primary among them is to write some new material for the band and get recoding with them. I have about 50 non-band related songs in various stages of composition and recording. I want to finish a lot of them. My work ethic for the last couple of years has been, frankly, shameful. I started recording some of them seven or eight years ago and then drift onto something else, never completing a lot of them. To that end, I want to participate in every month's composition challenge, get back into the habit of writing and completing sings. Other thsn that, the goal is to have a good time all of the time.

Well, that's rather tasteful. Nicely done.

He was one of a kind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91QIMu9CVrI