SpondonBassed

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1503649197' post='3359884'] Quite amazing that someone has put time, some thought (ok not much) and effort into that! [/quote] Not wanting to distract from the real build in this topic but I want to know the back story to that. I suppose that's the attraction for relics right there. The relic look is not something I'd pay for but it's hooky none the less. Then, I'd never pay for pre-washed, worn look jeans either. I get enjoyment out of actually wearing out jeans from new. Same with my basses. I'd feel I was cheating otherwise. I fully support projects like Bridghouse's P builds "next door" having said all of that. I have to admire the amount of care that goes into looking like nobody cared that much. 'Nuff OT chatter. I'm going back to twiddling my thumbs whilst waiting to see Luke's latest photos.

I can advise you on getting full contact at the mating surfaces. PM me if you are interested. Sanding is not good for keeping surfaces flat and it might be why you are seeing the glue solidifying in a gap.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1503627331' post='3359809'] ... as could be done with tab, could it not..? Again, I'm not attacking dots, just suggesting that many folks use tab well (and many not...), and it's not always necessary nor useful to learn Latin terms for many modern idioms that will have to be written up as annotations in any case. If jazzers can get by with just a few scribbled Nashville numbers, surely a tab score could be accepted as being sometimes, at least, legitimate..? It's the 'there is only one true path' that grates. As has been admitted already, some annotations are diagrams, or coloured forms for certain compositions. Why not just accept tab for what it does; limited, certainly, but fit for purpose for many musicians the world over..? [/quote] I [i]am[/i] attacking dots as a sight impaired player. Dots are THE problem, not the ledger lines and not the tails. You probably look at a dot and see whether it is solid or empty, whether it is on a line or between lines, whether it has a sharp or a flat to take it out of the key signature for a moment. I see a blur sometimes. Other times I get a double image. Numbers are less ambiguous and I can read them a lot faster than the pre-school pace that score reduces me to. Score is a handicap for me. With score I have to sit down with a cup of tea and study like I was back in school. Knackers to that! I just want to get on and play. I am not the perpetual student. If I have offended anyone I am sorry. I say as I find.

[quote name='TCsBass' timestamp='1503618526' post='3359798'] Tablature isn't necessarily evil, but it does limit you as a player to one person's idea of fingerings and only one way of doing things... [/quote] Rubbish! You limit yourself. It isn't the tab's fault. You can get badly written score and all you know. I look at many sources of tab, not just one. I never rely on just one interpretation of a song. It would be daft to do so. Another point. All you folk who are poo-pooing tab because it has no meter are living in the past. Tab can be written with tails on the numbers just the same as you can with dots. Cuh! Sorry for unloading on you TCsBass but I see a lot of pretentious crap being said by die-hard score users so it is important to redress the balance. There is a choice of ways to read and write music and they both work. That is all.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1503608466' post='3359714'] If it works as you want, there is absolutely no reason to update any computer software. If the applications you are using don't run under the next version of the operating system then [b]DON'T UPDATE IT[/b]. I still run Logic 9 under El Capitan. Both do everything In need, and therefore I see no reason to muck about with updates to either. [/quote] I agree. It's not always in the consumer's interest to update. Of course no-one will back you up if you don't but it is always your choice. Keeping a machine or two offline always is a good way of managing the risks of using older yet perfectly good software. You have to keep your older hardware though. Also, you have to work without a network. It isn't difficult like the waftier wifi bunnies would have you believe. I say this having the luxury of space to use it all. You may not have that luxury so you get my sympathy as poor consolation.

One of the promises that was made to our generation when PCs were being pushed at the consumer in general was [i]backward compatibility[/i] to prevent just this sort of thing. That promise was a pie crust to launch a major sales drive getting folk to buy a chunk of IT pie for the first time. Maybe that promise was an idealistic claim to start with but it was a significant selling point for IT. It helped to persuade people into hardware ownership. Lots of companies were giving out loans to put customers on their books. You have to remember that the costs of IT ownership were huge to start with. My first IT system cost in the region of three thousand pounds when all of the licensing was added up! From there dependency on IT systems developed amongst the population at large. When it was demonstrated that people would fork out time and time again for the same stuff, the concept of backwards compatibility was lost forever. To suggest that it's part of the business model to make customers pay twice for the same product is difficult to prove however. We all know it happens but what part of the whole industry can you actually point a finger of blame at? Most of the blame lies with consumers for going along with it. The industry is just supplying a demand from its customer base. BTW, MS users are quite used to this. Why would Apple developers not want to compete on the same terms? It's the way of commerce.

It's nice not to have to drop D for those odd numbers and Stevie Wonder lines are just not the same unless played in Eb. The low B on this build makes me smile. Much more meat in the lower notes than my Steiny five. You'll like yours I reckon.

Car crash chic. Where did you find that specimen?

Cool. It's a player then? Looking at search images it looks similar to mine in that it has four pots and two humbuckers.

No need. I didn't even have to buzz the wires. It occurred to me that the hot wire to the plug might not belong on the "short pin" quoted in the wiring instructions so I swapped it. It's a passive bass so I am not sure why it was supplied with a stereo jack socket. Also, it is the barrel type where you can't tell which tag is which contact easily. That fixed I had a noisy connection that seemed to be due to the plug going a bit further into the socket than it likes. I fixed that temporarily by using a washer as a spacer. I will upgrade that to a good quality purpose made socket soon. It tuned well and after I played one song I had to change those ruddy awful strings because they had gone beyond just giving me the ache. The D'Addarios are nicer but for one dead string in the set. Strange because it was a factory sealed packet. I am not that fussy because they will all sound like that with use eventually and the dead one sounds fine despite not having the top-end twang. I ain't that sort of slapper so it makes no odds. The odd thing was that the D'addario low B would not fit the bridge hole for the last inch where the windings are thickest. The seemingly heavier roundwounds were fine. Looking closely, it was just a couple of windings that were oversize. I opened out the low B bridge hole by about a quarter mil and it was fine. This photo is essentially the same as the previous one except that it has new strings and it works. I will see if I can get a sound bite up somehow.

[quote name='NickB' timestamp='1503556840' post='3359058'] Hi, just bought a bass. Haven't played any instrument for a very, very long time. Any advice or help appreciated. [/quote] First things first. Welcome to the forum. What were you playing before?

[quote name='honza992' timestamp='1503519188' post='3358932'] ...The neck & fretboard is a different matter. I'm told you can heat up a butter knife to take off a glued fretboard, but that sounds complicated and painful. So let us say a short prayer to god of invisible glue lines...... Thanks for reading. [/quote] I was reading about that on another build. I think the chap used a lot of steam to get the timber hot and pliable too. I am not brave enough. I had seriously considered it as a way to convert a standard neck to a 35 inch scale. It's a bit beyond my limits of patience, that sort of thing. I might have a neck job to put out to tender soon. I hear you re: creeping joints. I had a set neck to do on a ukulele build that my house-mate was struggling with. It had a butt joint with a biscuit to locate and secure it. I scraped back the high spots on the mating surface of the neck to get near 100 percent surface contact between the root of the neck and the very slightly curved body whilst leaving a true surface for the fretboard to be bonded across the body and the neck later. Even with that clamped up to a flatted steel beam it was challenging to keep the alignment in two planes simultaneously as the glue squeezed out and contracted due to drying. Looking forward to your next instalment.

Cheers rOB. I like your use of the word temporary. Just the optimistic approach I need, thanks. I have converted frustration into GAS and will fork out for a new multi-meter later today. I set it up for intonation, neck-relief, nut and saddle height last thing yesterday. Well, I went to bed this morning if I'm honest. It was one of those days yesterday where every thing I did proved fruitless due to unforeseen snags. I'd been up from about five and it was just a series of failed attempts to do seemingly trivial day-to-day things from then on. I was exhausted at the end of it all and this morning I am feeling it. It does sit nicely in my lap though. Years of playing paddle basses taught me to play standing up always. Mine have the pull-out leg for playing whilst sat but I don't use it. Without the weight hanging off the strap the bass wants to fall forward and there is no forearm engagement with its body to prevent it. I never felt comfortable with that. I am having to sit more these days so practice is an easier proposition for me now. Although it wants to be played, the standard strings supplied with the kit are remarkably hard on my fingers. I am used to flats but I think these are serrated like junior hacksaw blades. They also seem a lot higher in tension. I was surprised as some folk here say they find flats need more tension than roundwounds generally. Roundwounds are so zizzy anyway. They're coming off pretty soon I can tell you. I have used this kit as a muse to keep me from quitting bass altogether. I hadn't played for over a month! A recent disappointment had made me question why I was putting in the time practising at all and I just stopped. My juices are flowing once more with this bass and already I have put in a bit of silent practice with it. Maybe I'll come into fashion next week and get hooked up with some playmates.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1503518163' post='3358922'] [size=3][b]Deceased On The Buses actor releases statement: 'I deeply regret use of Nazi symbol'[/b][/size] [/quote] [i]"I'm going to get you Hitler!"[/i] He said.

I put the bass together and strung it. No output. Now I have to troubleshoot. I was getting a headache and I couldn't remember where my multi-meter was so I quit for the day. Still, there's a promising twang from it unplugged. It's got the strings supplied loose with the kit. I'll play it in on those but I am going to restring it with a set of half rounds that I won at Midlands BB4. I'll look for my multi-meter tomorrow.

[quote name='dlloyd' timestamp='1503485575' post='3358578'] I missed the 5 albums bit, so to expand: 1 - The Four Tops: Reach Out 2 - Marvin Gaye: What's Going On 3 - The Supremes: Supremes a Go Go 4 - Martha and the Vandellas: Dance Party 5 - Stevie Wonder: I Was Made to Love Her [/quote] I think I would have been glad if my dad had suggested these but his collection of LPs were all classical. Beethoven, Handel, Bach, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, that sort of thing. Granddad bought me LPs of Handel's Water Music and The Tijuana Sound of Brass. I am lucky to have had the benefit of those to listen to even though it was because I had little else. I wouldn't have had the exposure otherwise. Dad would buy me the occasional 45 or two when I was small but they were random choices from chart and film music. One that was particularly memorable was Disney's Jungle Book [i]The Bare Necessities/I Wanna be Like You[/i]. I still love the cartoony vocal delivery on both of those. They've both got a good stodgy rhythm to them also. I still have that seven inch 33rpm disc somewhere. My favourites were a handful of Beatles singles that were being changed out of a cafe jukebox in London when he was there on a visit once. I think he might have got them for free too. They were the ones that tickled my bass buds first.

[quote name='BristolBass' timestamp='1503435676' post='3358302'] If I ever did a few 'twiddly' bits and got a bit of applause our singer was prone to saying 'what are you clapping for? He's only got 4 strings...' - took the wind right out of my sails! [/quote] I've seen this happen with a local band. The bass player was above responding to the remark but I thought it was one of those "in" jokes that is wasted on the audience and is best kept to the back stage area. It suggests that the band are in-fighting. Maybe that sells tickets though...? Whatcha reckon? PS: Welcome to the forum.

What choices would your boys make if asked? That might help you in your guidance.

Ta. Have you got this in tab? [runs away cackling]

[quote name='honza992' timestamp='1503428815' post='3358196'] Couple of quick things. First, I should say that I don't advise you to take any of my advice. Or least not until you've double checked with someone who actually knows what they are doing. Second, let me know if there's anything you want to see in more detail. Or if I've bored you senseless let me know and I'll have single word updates from now on [/quote] The updates are fine as they are. I'm enjoying them.

I stopped applying coats after yesterday's, the sixth. I noticed that the older coats were softening with the solvent in the latest coat. It needs time to go off fully before introducing the solvent again so I've finished early. It looks like four would have been the optimum number of coats with 24 hours between each. I got to install the rest of the gubbins a day early. Cheap thrill. I needed to mod my pups to allow the bridge cable to run out the side and through the neck pup to exit together with the neck cable cleanly into the drilling leading off to the control cavity. I did my C&G in Fitting and Turning way back before Joy Division had to reform as New Order. Nice and easy does it. With that done I am able to thread the cables to clear the pup screws with their springs. It's all going together and ready for the final soldering. Soldering done. What a lovely mess. I put some sticky-back felt on the cavity lip just for fun. I raided it out of Valerie Singleton's drawers when Peter Purvis wasn't looking. Down Shep! Before anyone asks, no, I haven't got a Blue Peter badge. I've always been far too lazy to earn one. Mmmm. I'm feeling it now. Must not get too exited. There is the neck assembly and snagging period yet.

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1503400958' post='3357868'] and .... ? [/quote] Gimme a chance... I don't read score remember so that slows me down. I [i]have[/i] to read the score first because it's written above the tab. Heeheehee. I can tell you that it smells all right but I've only read the foreword so far. I'm building a bass in the back room and that is taking up my time. I have promised myself that I'll learn some of the lines on the new bass to break it in.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1503388326' post='3357698'] That's my boy, that's my boy Hoisted by my own petard, then, I wait patiently with only a soft drumming of fingers on the table.... [/quote] Er, who's doing the bass solo when the drumming stops?

I was trying to put my finger on what it was I liked about Fagen way back in the eighties. Steely Dan's Ricky' was playing on late night radio once and I woke up to it. It was one of those tunes that would not quit doing the rounds in my head, so to speak. It was released in '74 but I was 12 then. When I heard it in the eighties I was just old enough to vote. I didn't know who the band was or anything. It was one of those blasts from the past and I wasn't to hear it for months after. The next time it was played on the radio, I immediately turned the volume up and sat by the set to make sure I got the details this time. Then I put Steely Dan on my shortlist for LPs to buy when I had a bit of cash. As it happened I found a couple of LPs in a second-hand shop that were well loved and cared for. Thinking back on all of that it was the sort of music that suits late night listening best. I mean those evenings when you haven't anyone around to chat with and you can indulge in a good long listening session. Nightfly was instantly bought when it came out because the radio had been promoting it with the single IGY (International Geophysical Year). Somehow that lyric floating between semi-sarcasm and optimism got me. I don't like all of Fagen's stuff but it's all done well. I like the high production values. If I listened at any other time of day I might not notice them but when I'm alone and totally relaxed of a quiet evening, they work.