SpondonBassed

Gear snobbery aside... [url="http://www.thatericalper.com/2014/12/11/watch-two-musicians-play-a-guitar-made-from-a-broom-and-bass-made-from-a-shovel/"]http://www.thaterica...-from-a-shovel/[/url] It isn't country but the geezer on the left could cut it. The site itself looks interesting. I'm off to look at this bit now; [url="http://www.thatericalper.com/category/isolated-tracks/"]http://www.thaterica...solated-tracks/[/url]

You're welcome. Thanks for the interest.

I am the only one I know who doesn't have to look at me. How the heck would I know what I don't look like when I don't even know what I do look like?

[quote name='Cato' timestamp='1501013744' post='3341848'] I'm sort of glad I learnt to play by ear before the youtube days. Don't get me wrong, these days if I want to learn someing the 'tube is my first port of call, and it was especially useful when I finally got round to learning to slap properly. But I also like it when I hear something brand new and I can visualise the patterns involved in playing it, even if I may not have the right key, I think that comes from the early days of learning, when I was wearing out tapes, listening to the same few seconds over and over again while working out a part. [/quote] I can still do that (play by ear) from certain YT clips as long as the featured "artist" isn't all about playing [i]TV presenters[/i] and isn't infatuated with the camera. It's also good to be able to look at the neck of the guitarist's axe as he/she plays. I used to do it in our band years ago. Even if I have tab notes, it's useful to see a clip of the piece being played too. No-one wants to play with me now that I'm old and hairy so YT fills the gap where my band mates used to be. Like yourself, I'll hear something interesting and try to work out in my mind what neck positions etc would work before picking up a guitar to try it out. This applies mainly to clips rather than tutorials but I consider them relevant as teaching material all the same.

Thanks. I wanted to get that done before getting into finishes. See my post above; http://basschat.co.u...ost__p__3344392 There is a UK supplier with a similarly styled kit. It might even be sourced from the same place. I think they charge less overall and being domestic there may not be import charges separate from the kit price. I didn't see them before I'd decided on this one. I might look at them for the next build.

Frets dressed and polished.

Welcome Nothingman. Hope it doesn't take you long to find the groove again that you left in the BC sofa upholstery before.

[quote name='TheRev' timestamp='1500999231' post='3341663'] A semi-hollow version of the piezo fretless you had at the south-west bass bash would be amazing..... [/quote] I bet the piezo pickup will really shine with the acoustic properties of this semi hollow body. My mate's waiting for another transducer to be delivered. He only makes ukuleles at the moment but the results he got with his first amplified uke are encouraging. It is like a semi-hollow body just from the sheer weight of it. The resonance of the sound chamber is damped by inertia. He wanted a cylindrical biscuit tin shaped body on this one. To get it he used hardboard to form the outer wall of the cylinder and held the top and back to it with crude kerfing. The bracing is basic in that it has not been whittled back to a nicely sinuous shape profile. Rather it is unplaned wood strip, that was lying around the workshop, cut to sized and clamped up with glue with no worries about precision. It's rough, lets face it. It's massively heavy for a uke, but light enough on the strap. To be honest, it is more of a hack than an instrument but it plays. Acoustically it is weedy sounding as you might expect but plug it in and it's got a serious voice. He put a five band equaliser and tuner package in too. I am hoping we'll get someone who's proper good on uke to put it through its paces one day.

Cheers Alyctes. Just to mention because I forgot in my excitement to pick up the kit from the Parcelforce depot. The import duty on this kit was approx £60 payable on collection. The kit came from Australia and cost about £180 after conversion. The Pit Bull website will give you prices in sterling or your local currency if you are allowing all of the site scripts to run (It's a fairly clean site in that regard). The actual conversion is fixed at the point of purchase and you'll quickly get an email with the confirmation invoice. A day or two later I got the shipping notification. In short it only took a week from purchase to pick-up. That's probably all the information I will share about costs here. Of course if anyone wants to ask how much I paid for something I've used in the build I will answer but after the initial purchase the cost of the build is largely a matter of choice. It would be pointless to include day to day details of how much I spend and I am not keeping tabs on that anyway. In the end I wont be able to say what was spent down to the last penny but I am not interested in pretending I can do accountancy.

[quote name='paulbuzz' timestamp='1501361063' post='3344291'] This may be getting slightly away from the OP's 'what bass' question, but I've recently taken to using a block of foam under the strings near the bridge as a damper, for added thump. (This is with a p-bass with flats.) This has helped greatly in getting a country-ish sound that's the exact opposite of the clangy roundwound sound I've always favoured previously! [/quote] I've wondered if the Stingray's damping system is any good for that...? Any owners use them?

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1501342968' post='3344165'] On a serious note ([size=2][i]badum-tish[/i][/size]) if I ever went back to Country I think I'd string a P up as B-E-A-D. It might make root-fiving in E and G a bit more convincing. [/quote] I have thought about that more than once. Have you tried it and if so what was the effect on the overall set up - did it need much tweakage?

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1501355906' post='3344262'] Slapped fretless, innit? Incidentally, I just got the Hyde Park blu-ray the other day. It's bloody marvellous. [/quote] My poor old Vantage lost some of the black finish on the finger board because of my trying to copy that style with roundwound strings back in the eighties when I was young and had no sense. Today of course I am older and I've less sense than ever before. OP - If you don't want to see that sort of wear on yours, use flats and it should be easier on the wood. I have nylon wrapped RotoSound flats on these days so I'm totally slap-happy with my fretless. Oh yeah, nearly forgot the obvious, I am guessing that the original artist was using flats now that I've had thirty years to think about it.

[quote name='SICbass' timestamp='1501362928' post='3344308'] I've told this story on here before, but hey-ho. I saw Paul Simon live a couple of years ago. When it came to the famous bass-fill Bakithi Kumalo, clearly asleep at the wheel, utterly ballsed it up. He and the whole band just roared laughing and carried on. Now that's the spirit. Yes we're professionals and we want to do our best, but we're also human and nobody dies if there's the occasional cock-up. [/quote] That anecdote should be in the topic that follows if it isn't already; http://basschat.co.uk/topic/308645-punters-dont-know-the-difference/

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1501366981' post='3344337'] Did I read somewhere that his bass at the time was a cheap POS Washburn? If you've not heard this before, it'll give you a good idea of what the bass sounds like in isolation [media]http://youtu.be/OMJbJJldSNw[/media] [/quote] Great clip. Does the OP know how to introduce some [i]heft[/i] into the overall tone of the subject piece - YCCMA?

Dang! You beat me to it!

A good set of lungs and one of these, emptied just in time of course, can get you by at a push. [attachment=250221:WhiskeyJar.png]

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1501324092' post='3344014'] the band I play in (punk covers mostly) did a wedding, my own daughters, she only asked because she knew we wouldn't charge her and much to everyone's surprise it went really well, mind you, we didn't go on till later and it was a free bar all day, I think that's the secret, everybody has got to be well oiled before the band starts, we've done 2 others, one was ok and the other one not so good, it's not something I'd like to do on a regular basis, the trouble with weddings is you've got such a wide age group there, it's impossible to keep everyone happy [/quote] I've seen footage of Verbal Warning and I know it to be the truth. Ha. Seriously though, I liked the way your band engaged with the audience in the clips that I've seen. You couldn't do that at a wedding. That's a cracking little band you have there. Not too precious about suffering for their art by being note perfect every time yet delivering a passionate performance always. That's what the "punters" remember afterwards even if they do notice the odd departure from score during the event.

Welcome back Skank. It's been ever so dour on BC without you regularly teasing us with your wit. The revenge thing is going to occur where ever there is a rival to the offended partner's affections. In this case it's an instrument or instruments. It's painful to hear about but we are talking about inanimate objects, not living things. It would be worse, morally speaking, to maim somebody out of revenge. I think...

[quote name='Nicko' timestamp='1501322673' post='3344002'] Aside from the 4 hour set I dont understand why he would insist on at least 2 lead vocals i a 3 piece. [/quote] Dual redundancy in case of colds or sore throats? I think it's good strategy for a three piece to have two lead capable people even if they don't sing lead at the same time. Just a guess. I wondered about the no keys thing? Is it because of the quick changeover thing or has he something personal against ivory tinklers? Four hours, no breaks. Well it's not an unamerican thing to do I suppose. If I was younger I'd probably like to see what it's like to do a year's worth in those circumstances. Now however, I'd have to insist on a pee break at least twice in that time as I'd be drinking lots of water to keep up my concentration. Crikey you'd lose weight quickly on that regime. My brother used to play guitar for bands at the Hammersmith Palais years ago on the revolving stage. There was a disco and a live band back-to-back on this massive turntable. Every half hour the stage would rotate and there would be a change from the live set to the disco. This went on for the duration of the night alternating between the two acts. It was decided to close the venue in January of 2014. Are there any more venues in the country that have revolving stages in use still? I'd settle for a two hour set broken into half hours for the four hour duration but I'd never get up to four hour gig fitness at my time of life!

[quote name='Les' timestamp='1501292839' post='3343889'] ...[color=#1D2129][font=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif][size=3][font=inherit][font=inherit][font=inherit][size=4][font=inherit][font=inherit][b][font=inherit]covers bands needed[/font][/b][/font] [font=inherit][color=#71A830][font=inherit]£1,010,101[/font][/color] [color=#90949C][font=inherit]Eric's Liverpool[/font][/color][/font][/font]...[/size][/font][/font][/font][/size][/font][/color] [/quote] I am certain that figure is nothing to do with what's paid. I find it interesting that Liverpool is now fostering that work ethic. John, Paul, George, Stuart and Pete had to go to Hamburg for that sort of graft between 1960 and 1962.

I did the mock build last night as suggested by Pit Bull. Not only does it give you a rough idea of how the guitar will eventually look, it helps identify the little bits and pieces that need doing for it all to hang together nicely. Looking at the photo, I am certain now that I want teak oil on the body and danish on the neck and headstock; A preliminary shortlist; Open out Jack socket drilling for a good fit, spot face to recess the socket within the body outline after confirming that there is room in control cavity. Clean out control cavity. Deepen spot face for the pot that isn't sunk deep enough to thread up with washer. Remove ragged fibres from floor of neck pocket to get max surface to surface contact. Identify bumps for sanding out rough with abranet and scraping to flatten. Make smaller Pit Bull transfer to suit headstock as it is too large to go anywhere on the headstock with the machine heads on. Make truss adjustment screw cover in copper, the supplied cover is fine but it's a bit plain and I need to put my own "stamp" on this instrument along with the supplier's.

Yeah. John Wayne Bobbitt was rumoured to have found the missing piece, so to speak, when he heard a frog by the roadside going [i]"mmm Bobbitt! mmm Bobbitt!"[/i] He stopped at the side of the road, made the frog regurgitate and got back what he thought he'd lost forever. [attachment=250134:JWBobbitt.png] Ribbitt now ya toerag!

Right. Now that I've finally got to the bottom of a long running problem with HMRC over my late mum's returns I can devote my full attention to this. I've got some more reading to do to ensure that I learn from the great selection of builders we have here sufficient to guide my hand and I have all the time in the world to enjoy it. I started out thinking that a Tru Oil finish would be nice on the ash body and maple neck. It's possible to get a good gloss with that. I went to Harlows of Derby this morning and had a chat with the helpful chappie at the counter. He is a guitarist learning bass as it happens. They didn't stock Tru Oil but on their shelves was a selection of branded Teak Oils and one brand of Danish Oil. Thinking on the fly, I decided I'd like the satin finish better on a natural wood grain. Thinking further, I went for both Danish and Teak. Teak for the body and Danish for the neck. It has a rosewood fretboard and I think I've settled on the idea that it should look darker from the front but from behind the neck would be lighter. A dab test later on will confirm for me that it is a good look or make me rethink, one or the other.

Cheers. I overheard something along those lines before at a place where I worked. I am even more interested in the challenge now that you've said that. I used to love brazing and acetylene torch welding of mild steel and aluminium alloy back in the day so it is right up my cul de sac.

Why? I haven't tried it yet so I am curious.