Stub Mandrel

I've been trying out acoustic basses. Ibanez, Tanglewood, Ashbury, Alvarez about seven different ones. It's tough as most shops only stock one or two. Prices have ranged from about £180 to 500. So far to better than the Ibanez at the bottom of the price range, you have to spend 200-300 more, but I don't feel you get £200 worth of better sound and I'm not sure any of the others played better. Trouble is the dark natural finish of the Ibanez feels like textured fablon... there is a 'blonde' version and it's £10 less but the nearest one appears to be in Oxford. As a tightwad, eBay and second hand appeals. Are there any suggestions for ones to look out for secondhand? Has anyone got experience of the Vintage/Harley Benton ones that are out there? Are teh gear4 music ones usable (although I'm not sure my street cred could survive having their logo on the headstock...)

Not unrelated?

They've been found in possession of suspected chain smoker @onehandclapping on the 'How many basses do you own' thread:

Cowboy boots look cool too... you have to suffer to be beautiful 🙂

Try it, it will probably have a lot more output. Pickups usually are made in neck/bridge pairs, the bridge ones have more windings which makes then more powerful but a little less bright. This is balanced by the bridge position be naturally brighter but quieter (less fundamental, more harmonics and less amplitude). This means that a well matched pair of pickups give two contrasting but balanced sounds and also a pleasant balance when both turned up. Swapping neck for bridge will spoil this balance, but there's no absolute reason why any individual pickup won't sound good in either position. Anything goes if mixing unmatched pickups and then you will probably want to play with pickup height to get a good balance.

There is a solution...

That was the weak day... I will confess, it was Black Sabbath with Ian Gillan - I was probably one of the few people who enjoyed that. Steve Ray Vaughan on his first UK tour (the rumour was that he was an excellent Hendrix mimic). Thin Lizzy's last UK gig (I saw the previous one in Gloucester too) Man! Little Stephen! Mama's Boy's! Suzi Quattro! Steel Pulse! Magnum! Marrillion! Ten Years After!!! And most of the rest were good to! And I got to see the Enid play the Dambuster's March with 15,000 people making googles with their thumbs and forefingers. And Anvil!!!!!

My pocket was a bit oversize BUT it wasn't a fender neck - in fact I have no idea where it came from (before the skip where I found it).

Blimey, once you start looking they turn up in all sorts of places!

Indeed, it's not surface area, it's all down to diameter...

No I said you've got to get with the BEAT not the BLEAT!!!

I bought one of these made out of similar 'barrel material' in 2018. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electric-Guitar-Unfinished-Body-Barrel-Material-for-Strat-ST-Guitar-DIY/283051735079?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 IMHO too soft for a decent guitar, although it looks OK.

Obvious answer is to have enough basses that some have them and some don't. I like them because the increase the differences in how my basses feel and the point of having a small collection is that each one makes you play differently. Plus they do look the dogs on a bass with a sunburst and tort scratchplate.

Ill see you and raise you 16 years. This was one of the best festivals of the '80s and the BBC recorded it all:

Oh luke a cuke buke... 🙂

Lose the stickiness.

Or is this for something other than a Jazz bass? In case you cant tell, it's angled. I suupose it's ideal for someone who wants to fit an angled Jazz cover to a split P-pickup.

Scotchbrite looks the same but has aluminium oxide particles in it and can be very aggressive. I would use wire wool or 600 grit wet and dry if I was to do it again, but I would think twice first. Unless you are a speedfreak guitarist most glossy necks will mellow after some use without losing finish.

I never objected to a bit of punk, but as I've grown older I enjoy it al lot more - I love the ramshackle chaos of some of the old live stuff but appreciate that many of the classic punk recordings demonstrate a lot more craft than I realised, even if they sound simple.

Scales, some bits IO've been learning recently, and improvise over various scales, usually in a bluesy vein... main objective is to keep the guitarist on his toes 🤣

Used 600 grit wet and dry on a couple of my guitars and basses. these days I'm not such a thug.

Sad but true story... When I was about eleven I spent ages trying to find the 'Colgate Ring of Confidence' inside a box of toothpaste...

Model of the 4x10 in my Trace Elliot combo (Eminence Beta 15s) with an Eminence Beta 15 in a 'well matched' cab at 150 watts. The 4x10 is quite a bit louder, but the 1x15 fills in the bottom end. Like Ice and Cointreau - they complement one another perfectly 🙂 Must open up my 1x15 and find out what the previous owner had fitted when he had it swapped from 4R to 8R. Any guesses?

But do you find that it still has unwanted overtones because the damping in the bridge cover isn't powerful enough? 🙂 TBH I find that I don't need to tune more often than two or three times a day 🙂