Beer of the Bass

I've never boiled them - I've found cleaning with isopropyl alcohol is effective if they need freshening up a little. Some people soak them, but just slackening them off a bit and wiping up and down them with an alcohol dunked cloth does about as well IMO. Though once they're really on their way out, nothing will buy you very long. Though my current TI Jazz flatwound are coming up for 4 years without more than a simple wipe down, and I feel they're doing fine!

Was Holger Csukay's bass with Can a Musicmaster, or one of the other short scale Fenders?

That low-C mandocello range is fun to have, especially as it's a different sound to an open tuned guitar. I have my 10 string cittern (made by my classical guitar luthier brother) in unison CGDAD at the moment, so it's in mandocello/Irish bouzouki range. And these are my two mandolins The bowlback I've had since I was a teenager, it sounds sweet but I struggle with the tiny and V shaped neck. The other is a Sears catalogue model made by Harmony in Chicago, which is cheaply made, but the endearing, funky kind of cheap!

They just dampen the section of string behind the bridge that can otherwise ring annoyingly - especially noticeable recording with a close mic or amplified with a piezo pickup. On my mandolin I just have a strip of felt under the tailpiece cover to do the same job.

Looks smart! I really enjoy mandolin, though I tend towards more of a folky direction with it. Oh, and about those grommets - are they any different from the ones from electronics suppliers? I've been using those (seen here on my cittern) and I've never been sure if "mandolin grommets" are just the same thing in a packet.

Though it's obviously not a mandolin, there are a few people on the Mandolin Cafe forum who have some knowledge of the various Catania makers, so they might have some insights. And regarding the inlay, apparently many of the inlay designs used on these instruments were stock items from an inlay supplier's trade catalogue, so the same inlay as another instrument might only indicate the same inlay supplier rather than the same luthier.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he was doing exactly that. He comes across as the sort these days!

We've been holding off from doing a proper launch gig for our album until we're sure the vinyl will have arrived. With the current supply issues, that keeps being pushed back too.

Yep, it's happened with my Hogmanay gig too. Seems there aren't hard restrictions saying they can't have live music, but once smaller venues have implemented all the guidelines it becomes unworkable to run the gigs.

I really like the older, curvier version of the Aria headstock, for some reason.

I've been experimenting with an LPF recently (a Schalltechnik Vong HPF +LPF pedal) to tame the extreme highs from a fuzz pedal I use. The fuzz sounds great through a tweeterless cab, but with a bass rig with a tweeter or through a DI, it's hard to manage. Though the Markbass VLE control also does that quite effectively the times I've used them.

I remember there was a tune dedicated to him on John Mclaughlin's Extrapolation, and the sleeve notes described him as "unjustly jailed with his brother Bunny". Though given the release date of the album, that must have been referring to the earlier drug possession charge.

It's downright silly applying the concept to bass playing too. If being a good bassist (or any other performer, or indeed any role) was a simple mechanical test of strength, then it would make sense. Otherwise we're just taking a very specific use of the word "strong" and conflating it with much more nebulous, cultural concepts associated with the word.

I just view it as Clayton having been a bit of a gobsh!te, and if you're going to respond to that at all, you clap back in kind as Shah did rather than writing a thesis. All business as usual in the pop world.

The concept reminds me of this weird old thing found in a vintage tenor banjo case. It's some kind of early plastic (I think), maybe bakelite or similar, with a thick leather handle part that flexes slightly. It's interestingly loud and plunky on banjo or archtop guitar, and almost useless on anything else.

Because with the neck tilted back slightly, the bridge has to be set higher to achieve a given height relative to the fretboard.

For me, that's the main thing I'll pick up a pick for on bass. I'm habitually a finger player and I reckon I get a better feel with fingers on most things, but that muted clicky thunk is such a unique sound that I can't get any other way.

I have 3 basses - my homebuilt 5 string, an older homebuilt 4 string that's fretless these days, and my double bass. The fretless gets very little use, the double bass and the 5 string are the ones I actually play. I could imagine adding about two more; I could use a little rootsy sounding short scale for certain casual jams and sofa use, and another 5 so that I could have one with rounds on.

I think there really is a difference with acoustic instruments. It shows up specifically in solo recording or minimally amplified performance settings, and it's often more than a subtle nuance thing. I sometimes go to folk club gigs, where you can often hear world class performers in intimate settings, and I've noticed that experienced performers with things like high end or vintage Martins, Fylde guitars and small luthier instruments just have a power and projection that fills the room in a way that the local opening acts with mid-range instruments didn't. You'll notice the same in small classical recitals too.

I do wonder if there's still a difference between performing the basics adequately when new, and continuing to do so under prolonged, heavy use like touring. There are a lot of individually small aspects (like the quality of pots and tuners, the hardness of fretwire, a truss rod that works smoothly without the nut stripping, etc) that aren't very noticeable with a new instrument that has an easy life, but which might still make the less budget offerings good value for some use cases.

My default (on a passive bass with J pickups) is 100% on the tone, and usually neck 100% with bridge rolled down a tad. On certain songs I like to favour the bridge pickup and roll the tone off for a tight, midrangey fingerstyle tone, or roll it back when favouring the neck pickup for a mellower thing. I think I go down to about 4/10 in both instances.

I've seen people using the QTX battery PA speakers to busk, and I think there are a couple of threads on them. They're probably not the most high-end solution, but should have more oomph than the smaller battery bass combos, and they're a neat, all-in-one unit rather than having to cobble together something with modules.

I don't have a lot of brand loyalty - there are definitely flavours and styles of instruments and gear that I like, but there are usually multiple ways to get in the ballpark of those. I suppose the place where I do have some attachment to one brand is with my Thomastik Spirocore double bass strings. They're an industry standard for that style of string (and used by several of my bass inspirations), nothing else does their particular thing quite as well, and every time I've tried others I've come back to them.

I'm curious, is it far enough off the mark that you'd be allowed to sell one on the BC classifieds?