Unknown_User

A/S/L?

Haha! He'd need to play with broom handles to reach half of those cymbals!

The drummer that was just kicked out of one of the bands I'm in would love that set up. He has kind of a budget version of it. He had two cowbells if that tells you anything.

Definitely. You should use a bass amp rather than a guitar amp for playing bass through. I've never used the Fender Rumble ones but I have used an old Fender Bassman at a gig once and I loved the sound out of it. If you can trade in your guitar one then even better. I reckon a 15W amp will be perfect for playing at home. Unless you're only taking it up to upset the neighbours!

Yes they do. You can use a guitar amp, but I think that long term you might knacker it and it certainly won't give you the right sound for a bass.

I love the look of the Explorers as guitars, but I'm not sure if that shape works for me as a bass for some reason. Although I think that part of it may be the colour. The cranks we bought our house off must have had a job lot of paint in that exact colour because they'd put it all over the inside and outside of the house. Now when I see it it brings back bad memories of evenings and weekends spent decorating and fixing half-arsed workmanship while thinking "why the hell did they do that?!?!" Glad you're happy with your new bass though!

Good stuff, TripleB67! I endorse Grangur's endorsement of Scott's Bass Lessons on You Tube. Daric Bennett is pretty good too. If you've never studied music before then don't worry about the stuff that makes no sense and watch the stuff that does and slowly you'll work up to understanding more and more. I'm self taught and have gone from knowing nothing to knowing next to nothing, but enough to get me started at least just from guys like that on You Tube. Also sites like Songsterr are good for learning songs. There are also a million bass lessons or bass covers for songs on You Tube where you can learn from. Just search for the song name followed by "bass cover" or "bass tab". It's good to learn theory and such but sometimes you just want to play along with something for fun. If you want something dead easy to play, maybe try Get Back by the Beatles or Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams, which are two I can think of off the top of my head which are easy ones to start off with. Don't be afraid to learn different songs to what you usually listen to either. I've come on loads and found loads of songs that I wouldn't have listened to but actually now like from having to learn them for rehearsals. The main thing is to have fun with it. It's all about the journey!

Thanks everyone!

I'm currently making a J Bass from a kit I got off the Internet. At the moment I'm a bit stuck as to how to finish the neck and fretboard. I'm not sure what varnish to use for the back of the neck. I was thinking maybe a satin varnish hoping that it might be a little easier to get up and down the neck with that than a gloss one. Does anyone have any recommendations? Also the rosewood fretboard looks a little light coloured and maybe dry. With a new rosewood fretboard should I rub some linseed oil or something into it or is this something that will fix itself over time as it ages? I've read conflicting reports over whether you should oil them or not. Happy to benefit from anyone's experience with this!

Signed. Best of luck.

As I understand it (and I'm not necessarily sure I do, so someone please correct me if the following is a load of nonsense), smaller capacitor values block more of the bass frequencies. With that in mind: 1. The capacitor on the bridge pickup has the smaller value, so will pass less of the bass frequencies through to the output. Whereas you'll get more low end allowed from the neck pickup through the 100nF capacitor. Which makes sense I reckon. 2. If these 10nF capacitors are there to bleed high frequencies to ground, then wouldn't you need low value capacitors here otherwise they'd be letting more of the low frequencies out to ground too? 3. I guess that means that the potentiometer acts to cut the output from that pickup, rather than boost it? If you were going to boost it instead then wouldn't you need some sort of active component, by which I mean a separate DC voltage going into a transistor with the AC from the pickup? So cutting the sound from the pickup makes more sense than boosting it from a "how much do you need to throw at it to get it working" perspective. I'm still very much in the early stages of learning all this, so I would appreciate any corrections to that!

Haha! I've been accused of many things in my time, but taking something too seriously is a first!

I think there's a lot of truth in this. Definitely what shaped the music I listen to now is more stuff from my late teens and early twenties. I went through a ten year "modern music is rubbish" doldrums (with the exception of about two bands) but I got out of that a couple of years ago and it turns out there's loads of new stuff I like. I have to say online streaming has really helped me to find it. I think for that ten years out of it was partly because the rock and metal music I liked had been taken over by boy band types of lads in their thirties wearing eyeliner non-ironically and whinging about not having a date for the prom and partly because growing up and having more responsibilities meant I couldn't stay up until 2 am listening to the radio shows where they put the more alternative music on any more.

My point more was that comprehensive schools, or at least the one I went to, are so far removed from any boarding school I've seen or heard about that saying they're the "same thing" is like saying the super expensive new bass you're lusting after is the "same thing" as a cheap copy of it made from plywood you found at a car boot sale for £2.37.

Absolutely this. I hate going to gigs where people aren't actually watching the band. What's the point being there and paying your ticket money if you're just chatting, moshing, etc.? Especially people nowadays who watch the whole gig through the screen of their phone. Just enjoy it rather than taping it for your Faceberk wall or whatever it is!!! Thankfully I've always been that miserable, so I don't see it as a sign of ageing!

You might be confusing "boarding school" with "borstal" there!

I can't think of any real catastrophes, but there was the one where we played to what was by our standards a big venue. A club with a proper stage rather than just a pub. We'd seen a bit of a band's set there on a Saturday in December when we were playing a smaller venue over the road and it was heaving. 200+ there and great. Cut to a Friday night in January and it's empty apart from the barmaid's grandad who shouts up his opinions to us in between songs and tells me in the interval that he used to play piano but can't any more because of his lungs. Halfway through the first set a couple of lads turn up and keep nipping to the bogs every ten minutes, I assume to powder their noses, and on the way back each time leap to the front of the stage and scream "YEEESSSS!!!" at us while double fist pumping. Similarly, another one where everyone had turned up for the disco afterwards and the place was crammed while we were playing, but with everyone totally silent and sat down, with an entirely empty floor stretching out in front of us. We finish and straight away the disco pipes up and the floor is immediately full of happy dancing people. Ooof. Then there was the one where we turned up at this rough pub to find out they were showing the boxing. It was full of angry boxing heads who all looked at us like we were idiots for turning up when the boxing was on. We get through it and with five songs to go with mostly being ignored, other than a few hard glares, we're told the ring walk was starting and we have to stop until the fight's finished. It's ok though; Joshua defending his title against a sub called in at very short notice before the fight. Should be over quickly and we can finish up and leave. It goes 12 rounds obviously while we sit there like idiots wondering when it's going to end. Finally we get back on stage for the last five numbers as the pub empties. Although a couple of women did turn up for the last songs and had a dance, but one of them kept coming on stage (which was built for one and had a full four piece crammed onto it - I was half leaning over the drums) to shout in my ear and demand songs we didn't know in the middle of the songs we were playing.

Thanks. I've just checked that on You Tube and funnily enough before logging on here I'd just finished gluing a printout to a piece of scrap wood using the exact same technique but just with PVA glue. I didn't realise you could do it onto metal too. I'll have to see tomorrow how the transfer onto wood turns out.

That looks awesome. Mind if I ask how you got the picture over the front of the enclosure like that? I'm struggling to get the boxes I do to look anything other than daft!

I was confused when I saw the title of this thread. Why would you put it in drop D? I've twigged it now! My confession: we've been playing this for a few months now in my covers band and when I learnt it, I just searched for some tab online and went from that without actually playing along to the original, because I didn't want to have to listen to it over and over because it's so simple and boring. So far, I think I've gotten away with it and no one has noticed....

+1 for the Thunderbird crush clique. I've been resisting manfully for a few years, but this thread isn't helping! 😀

Cor! Thank you both! I'll have to have a crack at those.

Thanks for your response. I will see if I can give him a call after work tomorrow. I'll be honest though having not used it for 15 years it's not something I particularly want to throw much money at!

I'm pretty new to using pedals, but I recently started making my own for a bit of a challenge and I'm looking for my next project. So far I've done a fuzz pedal (copy of a Woolly Mammoth) and am just about to box up an envelope filter (copy of a DOD FX 25). So what should I go for next? Preferably something suitable for either a rock'n'roll covers band or a heavy rock band. I thought maybe an octave pedal but I'm struggling to find a schematic/layout for a bass octave. If anyone has any recommendations for any type of pedal that might be appropriate to add, especially if there's a link to a verified DIY build of one, then I'd be very interested to hear them.

I do plenty of that as well! I just try to wait until there's a throw in or something. 😀