Stub Mandrel

Do you have a link? His sound on 'Beastie' is exactly the one I want to have. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhZMmyLqHHM Incidentally this is probably the bass before the Riverhead Unicorn in the show us your headless bass thread, anyone know what it is? Looks different from a standard Jazz.

Just an observation for the hopelessly lost... While distortion and signal processing pedals often sound good with one or more setting 'dialled', the typical compressor pedal is usually designed to give a usable general purpose result with all the knobs set at 12 o'clock so this makes an obvious place to start.

Why not? https://www.waterstones.com/book/geddy-lees-big-beautiful-book-of-bass/geddy-lee/9780062747839 " Your local Waterstones may have stock of this item. Please check by using Click & Collect " (Available from Picadilly and Cambridge at the least).

It seem (but I can't be sure) they went straight in with a clear amber lacquer, then a reddy-brown one, then blacc for a standard tobacco sunburst. Where it's flaked it's left the wood clean as a whistle. There are a couple of spots (the first to go) where I glued the chips (big ones) back on, hopefully I just used white PVA. Happy with it as it is for the moment, but the rate seems to have sped up (the bit by the lower horn only 'burst open' this month) perhaps by me keeping it indoors. Here's a recent pic, but even more unseen chipping around the edges). An alternative would be to stabilise it (white PVA under where it's lifting?) then sand the edges smooth. That would be more or less reversible. The going rate for one in good condition is about £300 and TBH I'm more interested in playing it than using it as an investment.

A Warlock! Don't see many people fessing up to having one of those on here 🙂

Which is incredibly difficult because its so sparse and there's no accent on the percussion! So easy to slip a beat ahead, and I HATE counting.

Hmm, that's pretty much me when I have all my effects switched out. But I think the question wasn't about incidental compression but about deliberately introducing it; there's a big difference between the compression inherent in the system and controllable compression you add on purpose. A bit like saying don't use filters on your camera, as without them it won't replicate colours perfectly anyway. If you have, for example, a valve amp driven hard, then you might decide there's no benefit. For me with a solid state combo that only lights the light in Can't Stop it makes a very noticeable difference to add compression. My old Laney head has a cheap IC in it (NE571) that I always assumed was wired up just as a 2:1 range compressor. Having compared the datasheet and the schematic it's not conventional as the reference voltage is derived from the power amp output, a bit hard to decide exactly what is happening but I think it combines range compression and limiting (by increasing the compression as the power amp output rises). They only use half the IC. If anyone can figure it out from the attached.... ProBassPreamp.pdf NE570 compander.pdf

I've found some prices £175 - £300 is a pretty broad range. Is it worth paying more? Alternatively there are some unfinished Zebrano bodies on eBay for abut £45. They could look the dog's with a few coats of Danish oil.

Could be poly, I suppose I could set fire to chip and see if it burns gently or goes whoosh. Stripping wouldn't be hard, I suspect I could chip most of it off with a scalpel which is what I've done with sticky-up bits because I don't want them getting stuck under a fingernail.

My mid-70s Maya fretless has a weird problem. I stored it in an unheated garage for many years but instead of 'checking' the nitro finish is flaking off in chunks. It's OK at the moment, although the 'holes' are a bit hard-edged, but light relic has become a medium, one and if it carries on it could end up in the Rory Gallagher territory. Wouldn't be so bad but under the sunburst it's a 'blockboard' body. One option is a refin, I love the checked vintage cream/ivory finish on my brother's '62 SG junior, but it was done before he got it (to hide where a Bigsby had been fitted and removed). Can anyone suggest what this might cost? I realise this isn't a super valuable bass so I'm not worried about recreating the authentic finish.

AKA 'Kelly Enema' 🙂 It's a stained fingerboard, not sure what type of wood, it's just worn through the surface. Think it's due for its first fret dress...

First time round I did about ten years and was never happy that we any of the bands I was in ever relied on more than a random mate or partner to feed back on whether or not we 'sounded OK'. Even with minimal PA and pub gigs I'm aware that some bands have rich, full sounds without blowing the windows out and others sound either muddy or thin as a rake. I'm determined that we have someone who will not only be honest about how we sound but also be able to offer advice on how to sound better. I'm no longer confident that each band member (including myself) can choose the most appropriate settings for themselves.

Nice one 🙂 I've scavenged all the black keys off a piano. Cut in half and bevelled/polished on the cut end that's, err... lots of posh 'tug bars'.

The legendary Riverhead Unicorn, a bass so good it had a song named after it.

Not many other sketches still come up in conversation forty plus years later! Almost there with the parrot sketch...

Drool. is that a Jupiter? I had one of these in mind:

Before we go out, one guitarist has a mate who's a sound engineer and we are going to ask him to help us get our basic sound dialled.

That means the bottom E would be two tones ABOVE a standard cello's low C, the A one tone above the G, the D being the same on both and the G being a tone below the A. These are pretty small differences, I would have imagined the tension difference would be no greater than between some different types/gauges of standard strings?

One of the perils of relying on badly mangled sound on YouTube 🙂

It depends on how much you use string bending. Can't say I've worn the fingerboards of any of my basses except the fretless, which I use roundwounds on that has 'witness marks'

Shame Tufty only services Rics...

That is a guitar I've had for over 36 years...

Very glad I took Stews recommendation for this. You can get some amazing sounds with the modulation, just a shame you can't vary the speed of it, from Mellotron to Theremin (think old Dr Who theme). With just the sub-octave it's very old school, with the octave up its getting into Royal Blood territory. Polyphonic too, even copes with polyphonic harmonics.

I've played quite a few different basses in a few different shops over the last year. From the great to the horrific. One memorable experience was trying a £1,400 Warwick which had a horribly feel, poor fret ends and you could feel the unevenness of the neck laminations, then tried a £220 Squier Jag with a spotless neck, smooth as silk with beautifully rolled edges. This wasn't a case of setup, but rather poor QC by a high-end manufacturer. That said, I think the setup and fret finish probably make the biggest difference to your perceptions of an instrument, along with whether you can get the sound you want. It's pretty obvious from a cursory examination whether a shop is setup one or a 'don't touch them' one, and shops that fail to do at least a rudimentary check of the action give me an impression of probably not having any regard for their customers. I suspect some shops are terrified of dropping the action so far that they get fret buzz, others may assume if they set up the cheap guitars they will show up the better more expensive ones. In my experience, the best shops for setting up guitar are actually the ones that have guitar techs in house; rather than looking to make an extra buck I think they realise well set up guitars can lead to impulse purchases! I tried out lots of acoustic basses, most had awful setups, the worst were always the Tanglewoods. I think shops are more reluctant to adjust plain saddles because it's irreversible. The irony is that Tanglewoods are shipped with shimmed saddles, but I reckon most need 1-2mm shaving off the saddle. One shop I mentioned this in took it off me and brought it back ten minutes later set up much better, I think it was just truss rod. I ended up buying a s/h Tanglewood for £70, the action was awful but after rather more than ten minutes on the nut and saddle as well as Truss rod, it was also set up nicely (how did some poor soul cope with it being like that for 13 years?) In another shop, I commented on the sound I wanted and they swapped the amp I was using for one more like my own, which made a big difference. A s/h Squier Jazz bass was quite nice in the shop, but after a few weeks the action had become far too high; this one needed a washer on the truss rod which had run out adjustment. A reminder that guitars set up nicely might not stay that way if they are on the rack for months. My Flea Jazz felt good, but after a week I did drop the action a touch and tweak the truss rod, but that was about personal preference.