Beer of the Bass

I rummaged around in my drawers and found a tapered reamer to do the job, so at least I've got the string on now.

I bought one of these bridges on eBay to use on a 5 string I am building.
[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200258838414&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT"]5 string bass bridge[/url]
I tried to string it up today and discovered that the holes in the back of the bridge are too small for the last inch or so of my B-string to pass through. This seems like very poor design. I'm using 45-130 gauge Dunlops, nothing outrageous. I doubt I'll be able to return the bridge as I bought it several weeks ago and have already posted feedback. I'm not really equipped to drill out the hole neatly as I don't have a pillar drill, though I guess I could have a go. Are there any other inexpensive, 17mm spaced 5-string bridges out there? I guess I'm just posting this as a heads-up really, as a 5-string bridge which can't handle a B-string is not much use to anyone.

I do it on a couple of songs my band play, usually combined with some palm muting. Occasionally I'll play harmonics with my fingers and a thumbed bass note underneath too, but I don't use that much outside the house.

[quote name='chrisd24' post='1313566' date='Jul 23 2011, 09:39 AM']Hmm you may be right,also these pickups attract each other,aren't they meant to repel?[/quote]
Depends which way round you hold them! Most jazz sets have one pickup reverse wound and reverse polarity, so like faces will attract each other.

That looks like it has ceramic magnets on the bottom. I thought the US Fender pickups (the standard ones, at least) were all alnico magnets. I could be wrong about that though, as I'm not a fender expert.

That's not a bad point. My old defretted Westone had worn roundwounds for years when I got it, and [i]looked[/i] pretty badly worn, but I was surprised how shallow the wear actually was. It was a fairly quick job with a sanding block to get the board looking good again, and didn't lose much board thickness, so it could be done every few years for quite a long time before the board would need replacing. Although I prefer Thomastik Jazz flats for their sound, so it wasn't something I had to worry about after the first board dressing.

And what about basschat's own Spoombung? I can't hear the slightest resemblance to Pastorius in his stuff!

I've been down to my brother's workshop, where we set about it using a bandsaw and a router, plus assorted hand tools. Now it needs the contours rounding in with sandpaper, finish sanding and finishing. The control cavity was drilled and chiselled (rather than routed) as I felt that neatness was less important there and it was quicker than making another template. There are some scorch marks from the router which I'm hoping will sand out, but on the whole I feel it's going well so far.

I'll be cutting out and routing the body over the weekend - pictures to follow. I've decided to go with the second approach, but i've rethought the body shape a little - it's now slighty elongated compared to the picture above, which gives a little more space behind the bridge and improves the control spacing. The control plate will be single ply tortoiseshell acrylic, backed with copper foil to make the swirl stand out. I'm going to experiment with finishing on scrap, but I'm thinking of some kind of oil finish, maybe with some grain filling if it needs it.

BUMP for price drop - UK delivery now included for £120, or £100 collected. I need the cash to fund my new DIY amp build!

I've never quite got it. In any "hip" musical genre, those who play exactly what they want to play without caring what anyone thinks are considered to be the epitome of integrity and authenticity. Yet to do the same in a less fashion driven genre like jazz is considered self indulgence.

[quote name='silddx' post='1275882' date='Jun 20 2011, 01:50 PM']A question for those who get to gigs on public transport and have to take an amp and cab of some sort.

How do you do it? Use a trolley of some sort?[/quote]


I drive, but don't own a car at the moment. If the gig pays enough to cover it, and we need to move a lot of gear, I'll use a rental or city car club car. For public transport gigs, I have an EA Wizzy 10 cab and AI Clarus head which fit in to a cajon bag with a shoulder strap. I find I mostly use my larger amp in pubs and small venues where we're using our own vocal PA, otherwise I'll use the small rig (or house amp where applicable) and DI through an OLC Flipster preamp. I like using my bigger setup where I can, but realistically, it doesn't sound better than DI-ing into a good PA through the Flipster.

If you'd be willing to box it up and send it by courier, I'd be interested. I like my little WEM clubman, but need something louder and this would be perfect.

Is it just the tailpiece cable that's snapped, or is there other damage? If it's just the cable, that should be an easy and cheap repair. As long as the soundpost is still in place, you may not even need to visit a luthier.

I reckon it's one of these:
[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JOHNNY-BROOK-BASS-GUITAR-RED-/120738536738?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item1c1c93dd22"]Johnny Brook[/url]
Which makes it a less than amazing price.

Boss OC2 Octave, bought new in about 2002 if I remember correctly. In very good condition, as it has spent most of the time in it's box and only had fairly light use. For the Boss geeks, it's a Taiwan model with a silver label on the bottom, and comes with the original box and manual. It's a classic pedal, and every bassist should try one, but it's not a sound I can find a place for in any of my current projects, so off it goes!
I'm looking for £55, including UK postage.

NOW SOLD...

Here's that internal shot. I realised that I needed to prune my old attachments before I could post any new ones!

Up for sale is my WEM Clubman valve combo, which dates from around 1974 (based on speaker and capacitor dates). It's a singled ended amp of around 5-6 watts using an ECC83 in the preamp and an EL84 for the power amp, with a 10" speaker. The valves currently fitted are an old Pinnacle ECC83 and a newer Harma E84L. The speaker has no makers label, but it looks to me like an alnico magnet ELAC. All electrolytic capacitors and the volume pot have been replaced, so it's ready to go. It's in used rather than showroom condition - the grille cloth is a bit saggy and the aluminium panel with the control names is missing, but it's still quite tidy looking.
It has surprising volume for 5 watts, and is useful at rehearsal or small room volumes with a band if your drummer is not a full-on rock dude. It would also be fantastic in the studio. It has nice sparkly cleans at lower volumes, and breaks up in the classic fashion when turned up. It stops some way short of a modern rock sound, but sounds great for older styles.

SOLD

Yeah, fair enough, Pete, and the input of MM collectors is probably useful in this case. I just found a few of the responses in this thread a bit ugly considering that the guy appears to have been going on the information he had available and has been willing to alter the listing as new information came to his attention.

Has anyone considered that the seller might genuinely have received that email from EBMM, and that somebody at EBMM made a mistake or didn't give the pictures more than a cursory glance? It is unlikely that every individual employee of EBMM will be fully versed in the minor details of basses that may have been made long before they joined the company. Answering queries from people who are neither existing nor potential customers is probably not high on any companies list of priorities, so perhaps someone in the office at EBMM just had a quick look at the photo, sent a reply along the lines of "yeah, looks like one of ours", before going on to the next task?

The pickups do look like Ibanez. If he was to list it as an Ibanez, with no mention of the R-word he could probably get a decent price, though less than the starting bid at the moment.

[quote name='lettsguitars' post='1253298' date='Jun 1 2011, 11:02 PM']looks like he's havin fun to me. what was he using?[/quote]

I think it's a Yamaha DX7, atop some sort of grand piano.

That [i]was[/i] what you meant, wasn't it?

Not sure about the John McLaughlin comment though. Early on (i.e. the Extrapolation album) he definitely swung, and if his rythmic feel changed later on it was probably a stylistic choice rather than a deficiency.

A friend of mine had one which used to hang around our rehearsal space. This one had been partly stripped, seemingly using a chisel (!), and was very definitely solid wood. It looked a bit like the rubberwood they use for chopping boards and cheap furniture, so I presume it's a mystery Asian hardwood. It was nice and light though, and sounded like a respectable p-bass once we'd put in a decent pickup.

Even with the same amp, it could have been down to that bassist's technique, strings or EQ rather than any specific property of the Kay bass. So you're unlikely to nail that sound just by finding the same model, but you might get close by playing with the variables above on pretty much any Precision style bass.

Edit: i've just googled the K1-B, and it's the short scale, SG shaped one, right? So looking at other short scale basses might be a good start if that's the sound you're after.