SpondonBassed

Pace yourself bro'. It gets easier to cack things up the nearer you are to completion. It's looking good and that headstock will be a conversation piece. Softly softly catchee monkey

His Dad, Abe Sr, is a cracking bassist too. In a career break while his wife was away from home Abe Sr stopped playing to stay home and raise Abe Jr for a couple of years. He then went back to gigging when his wife was back home to continue the parenting. I like both of them.

Welcome Smudge. I shouldn't worry about the logo issue. It hardly ever gets mentioned here and is in no way controversial whatsoever at all, your honour.

Hungry now.

Linda McCartney in Wings. Having said that; I am not sure if that recording of Linda singing badly is genuine. It was played on the radio a few years ago with the story that the sound engineer had taped it privately off the sound desk. I think they said that she was allowed to believe that her singing was in the mix but in reality the engineer never let it reach FOH. Anyone got a link to it?

That's heading towards a Wootenesque sort of yin yang theme. I can't really contribute more than that. Sorry. I just don't like pickguards.

Thongs but... no.

I have emphasized one of your criteria. For me personally, the feel of an instrument can be the deciding factor as to whether it gets used or whether it is a trophy. Never mind if it has the best pick-ups with the best electronic wizardry making signals from strings made of gold tape bound unicorn pubes. The material needn't be wood but thin composites feel creepy. Acrylic is cool. The density of it does something for me. It's a bit heavy though. I doubt we'll see @Andyjr1515 do one of his ultralight carves on a slab of acrylic however. Andy, if you have any inclinations towards doing that, please let me have first refusal on a build? What about exotic strings? With piezo, any material can be used to make strings within reason as long as it resonates and is stable. I know there have always been non metallic strings of gut and nylon but recently we've seen neoprene becoming popular on uBasses and the like. How many different materials are strings made from these days?

No-one has voted "against" out of 23 members so far.

Not much has changed despite my 35 year break then. I'm not at a stage where I need one just yet. When I do, I think I'd rather drop twenty quid in the first instance and replace the item if I outgrow it. I am appreciative of the recommendation never the less. The simplicity of the BDI21 is attractive. Would the the lack of choice of attenuation be an issue for my either of my 9V active basses; Ibanez SR605 and Hohner B2A?

I'm guessing that that's the sort of thing that only you can see because you know it is there. I have every confidence in you.

That's detailed and explains in some depth, thank you. I would still enjoy seeing it discussed here however. The terminology may not always be technically correct but it is always entertaining reading how some of the BC parishioners describe the electrickery stuff. Ta. Is a hundred and fifty quid fairly representative of a good quality entry level DI box? Radial Pro D2 I remember the sound man in Dublin had a DI box for me in his toolkit. Even if that is the norm, I'd imagine it is a good investment to make for regular gigging.

In case someone decides to do a Joe Cocker treatment on a respected standard, that's why.

Cool. Thanks.

I'm not sure myself. DI boxes provide an interface between instrument and sound desk, right? The abbreviation stands for Direct Injection, I believe. I assume it's to supply signal level that is not too much for the desk. I only used one twice myself and that was about thirty five years ago! The function of the DI box seems to be available as a feature within bundled fx devices these days. I would like to know who makes the simplest and most reliable stand alone DI boxes for FRFR situations should they ever occur. It might serve this topic well if someone in the know provides a brief technical description of the DI box/function for us all.

I was looking at images found with the search string "eminence speaker U shaped magnet" to see what the U shaped magnet looks like. I found very little to clarify the image in my mind's eye. I am assuming that this is the sort of thing. It was very common to see in valve sets back in the day.

Record Store Day is perhaps not the best day to look for a disc to compliment your music collection. The purpose of having it is to celebrate vinyl. It gives those who have no idea what it is about a chance to see it first hand. There are 364 other days in the year and lots of outlets for the medium even with the loss of the big players on the High Street. Derby still has a good shop where you can browse the second hand bins- BPM Records. They're friendly and will spin a disc for you to sample the goods. They do bulk discounts as well.

Although I like a good old knurl with the best of them, I'd favour a knob that has a pointy bit on it purely so that I don't have to look to see where it is set. I like to know where my knobs are at all times. On this instrument the look of the controls is going to take equal priority at least. Are you reproducing any of the T'bird graphics? Sorry, I'll rephrase that... Are you thinking of using original T'Bay graphics? The font in the following image is called Gibson Script. Although it is not really like the headstock logo I'd say it's still near enough to play with.

I watched an episode of How Do They Do That? the other day where they had a fungus based wood substitute pressed and cured into preformed seating. For large scale production it works because it takes days to grow rather than the years taken by trees. Of course, guitar production is a significant consumer of timber but it would not have the same requirement for high volume growth as mass produced furniture. Then again it might be that the tonal qualities of this fungus/hemp composite are worth investigating. Also it would have great credentials for consumers with green tendencies. I was impressed by the use of carbon fibre in the eighties mainly because the aviation industry was embracing composite technology. I wouldn't like to own a bass made of it though. That's purely a personal prejudice. I just don't like the feel of the stuff.

I'm not entirely happy with the notion of feeling up my audience. I don't know where they've been.

Very tidy. I would probably have ended up with wrinkles in the tolex. Did I spot two different drivers?

Cool. The best tool kits are those that are built on a piece by piece basis. You needn't buy a whole set of sockets for example. Your money is best spent on a good ratchet driver and just the extension and sockets specific to the job you want to do at the time. Then on assessment of the next job, buy the socket sizes appropriate to the new challenge. I had a head start as an apprentice aircraft mechanic. The company subsidised tool purchases and we had a Snap-On van on the premises every Wednesday. In addition we were entitled to serious discount at one of Dublin's top tool retail outlets. Some of my peers were a bit completist about it and would trundle around with enormous red cabs stocked with beautifully blingy spanners. I just had a couple of luggable boxes stocked on the as-needed basis I just described and I was jolly glad of it when I was subbing around the South East of England. Two modest boxes of choice Snap-On goodness strapped to the pillion of my fully faired CX500 was all I needed to coin it in. In one of the other facets of the multiverse I do the same with a Hohner B2A and a Hi-Watt combo strapped to the pillion instead while I'm still young enough to enjoy it.

I was lucky enough to live in a place like that from the age of 11 'til 14. We owned a village pub just south of the border in Ireland. On Sundays we'd put on small bands and call it Cèilidh Night. I would usually nosey around during the set-up. I met some real characters and more than a couple of family bands. We had some nights where I would be sent out to collect glasses because the pub was rammed and I was little enough to get around. Then outside of that we had lots of neighbours who would variously play fiddle, bodhrán, tin whistle, guitar at the drop of a hat. Good times.

When you write it like that.. it really does seem that simple. In that you are correct. In actual fact and for someone at my level it is not. I can't afford to turn down anyone who offers to beat the skins and jam with me. Good bad or average, it is all necessary experience. Of course, it's best to get all of this done before taking a performance to the public with an expectation of it getting booked again, never mind wanting it to pay for itself. At this point I should say that the count-in is where I'd expect a metronome to be of value. I don't think that it would be of use once the song is underway. So, keeping time is not at issue. Starting in the correct tempo is.