leftybassman392

I've had a guitar built to my personal spec by Rob Williams in 2013. Took about 4 months and several visits to his workshop deep in the Welsh valleys, but although I didn't have a specific purpose for it (with apologies to @Happy Jack), I was delighted with the finished product. One minor gripe was that he couldn't get the electrics to work exactly the way I wanted, but that apart it's a beautiful and extremely versatile instrument that is going nowhere any time soon. Before the build started we talked through the spec in considerable detail so he knew exactly what I wanted. I agree with those who say that if you're having a custom build, make sure it's built to your exact requirements as far as possible. I've had other instruments over the years that were either custom builds for somebody else that I happened to like, pre-built instruments that I bought on spec from a a small- scale American luthier, or factory- built models that the manufacturer modified slightly to my taste. Aside from the two US pre-builds (which were beautiful basses but which I never really got on with - not the builder's fault I hasten to add) and one of the secondhand custom builds, I still have all of them.

I can't match @Bassassin's expertise, but I've had quite a few Japanese Fender guitars and basses (including 2 jazzes IIRC). They were all superb instruments: beautifully built and fantastic sound. If you can get your hands on one at anything like a decent price I would buy it. Even if you wind up not liking it, somebody else surely will.

Again (and this will be the last time I comment on this), I was comparing one musical icon (The Beatles), with another (Clapton). Speculating about what the Beatles might have achieved had they stayed together is IMHO utterly pointless since they didn't. The Beatles were of their era. Clapton was of his era - although he's hung around a lot longer stinking the place up (as some would contend). I know what I was comparing thanks very much, but you of course are free to express your opinion on the matter as are we all.

I know; I was there. Serious point; with due respect, the point you’re suggesting is not quite the point I was making. The key phrase in my previous post was’... of their era...’.

Dunno if anybody's said this yet so apologies if they have (I read the first two pages of comments and didn't hear anything I haven't heard a hundred times before about Clapton and others of his era). Sorry if that offends anybody but there it is. His early style was a huge influence on my adolescent guitar playing but I don't believe he's done anything remotely groundbreaking or even particularly interesting for a very long time now, so I guess wannabees like Phoebe Whatsername probably have a point when their comments are taken at face value. 'Twas ever thus in the music business IME. By way of illustration of my take on the man and his history, I recall a thread on this forum a few years ago in connection with the Beatles. One poster expressed the opinion that they sounded like 'just another '60s pop band'... Like The Beatles, Clapton was of his era and the rest is mostly cashing in. Asking these people to remain edgy and groundbreaking for 50 years - or even 20 years - is a bit rich; popular music isn't supposed to work like that IMHO. I wonder what Phoebe Whosit will be doing 50 years hence.

Around 10 years ago I started a thread on tonewoods that I expected to last a few hours (I was young, new to the forum, naive,...). Last time I looked (around 6 or 7 years later), it was still going. (The numbers above are off the top of my head and at some remove from the original topic, but you get the general idea.) Just so you know... FWIW, when you pluck a string on a bass (or indeed any other stringed instrument), everything on the instrument vibrates to varying degrees and in extremely complex interactive ways. The pressure wave (read as: sound) emanating from the string is the sum of these individuals parts. If the bass is amplified, the pressure wave from the cabinet further influences the vibration pattern of the string (and hence the character of the pressure wave emanating from the cabinet...). All these separate factors contribute to a greater or lesser extent to the pressure wave that hits your ears. Furthermore, moving the cabinet to a different location within a room alters the room reflection characteristics in various ways, all of which can impact on the vibration characteristics of the string. And so on... These are scientifically verifiable facts. Anybody sufficiently short of something more interesting to do might care to do a bit of Googling on subjects such as: Resonance Sympathetic resonance Harmonic series Fourier series Plenty more for the terminally curious, but this'll do for starters. (I've been a bit of a lazy tart and just linked to various Wiki articles, but I promise you there's lots more out there.) What happens when said pressure wave hits your ears is another matter entirely. So much so that it actually becomes a different area of study: Psychoacoustics There is a lot of hoodoo around this subject, but the physics is there for anyone to see. The extent to which an individual can: a) hear the effect of substituting one or more components with alternatives; b) give a toss even if they can is down - at least in part - to said individual (as has been made abundantly clear on these here pages). Just so I've said it...

Nice try, but I'm not going back to the DoIT any time soon.

No worries. I'm almost past caring about TLRTs TBH (although if you, y'know, happen to have any to, y'know, spare at any time... Be nice to get to 3,000 at some point. Looks so much better than 2,999...)

I do like a firm conclusion.

👍 I was asked to do that once. Had to turn the guy down though: the rest of the band were good with it but the tympanist let us down; dozy w*nker.

Quick question: why are we judging musical creativity purely in terms of improvisational capability? (Yes I know many people judge it in those terms - especially if they're coming from a rock/blues/jazz perspective - but if you read between the lines a wee bit you might see that this is not quite the question I'm asking... )

I had an item missing from a multi-part order a couple of weeks ago. I emailed the designated contact they always put on their order confirmations. I had a reply within 24 hours letting me know that the part would be forwarded as soon as it was in stock again. (They hadn't actually told me it was out of stock when i ordered it, but hey!). Thereafter they kept me informed what was going on, and the part duly arrived a few days later. Their response team can seem a bit stilted, but if you bear in mind that they're German (and are therefore talking to you in what for them is a foreign language), and communicate your issues/queries in clear, simple English I've always found they get it sorted in a fairly timely manner. Also worth checking the conditions of sale just to be sure your complaint is covered. I can only speak for myself of course, but you did ask...

Update: in order to explain why speakers are required to be able to produce many frequencies simultaneously, it might also be of use to have a look at this article, which explains how musical notes consist of a series of pitches sounding at the same time in order to produce the character of the instrument being played. Also, it's a bit less technical than the Fourier Analysis article I referenced earlier.

Might be an idea to have the tea and biscuit first. Just a thought...

Speaker cones are very complex transducers, which are required to produce many frequencies simultaneously all the time. (as any hifi speaker maker will be only too happy to explain to you at length). Given the nature of the OP's question, how they do that is probably beyond the scope of this thread since it would involve an exercise in waveform analysis that would in all likelihood raise more questions than it would answer, but the simple fact is that they do. If anybody is interested, they might want to cast their eyes over this article, which will serve as an introduction to the topic. Fair warning though, it is highly mathematical in nature. The picture of a loudspeaker producing a single frequency at any one time that appears to lie behind the OP's question is just plain wrong I'm afraid. With no offence intended, it simply doesn't work like that.

Well it’s tomorrow, and I have a useable guitar. It still needs work; Setup; fret dress; pickup balancing. I’ll do the setup & balancing later in the week. The fret dress is a bit above my pay grade so I’ll leave that until I can get it done professionally and put up with a couple of slightly iffy frets in the meantime. if I had the inclination I would tinker with the electrics a bit (cap values and maybe antilog pots for the tone controls) but I don’t, so I won’t - at least not right now. Soundwise it’s early days as my main objective today was to get it working, but I like it already. It’s a properly distinct sound, noticeably different from any of my other guitars, which is pretty much exactly what I wanted. On one level it feels a bit weird hearing a pumped-up single coil sound from a Les Paul (yes I know early models had P90s, but it sounds nothing like the 80s LP Custom I used to have), but then again I did it to get a different sound so I’m happy. The Fender Blues Junior IV has a very bright sound which is impossible to control with the current tone pots so I may need to tailor it a bit with my graphic pedal. So far so good.

I'll let you know when I've finished. I've been working on it today. Pickups are in but I've wired up the neck pup wrong so I'm going to have to unpick it. Not now though as I'm still a bit annoyed that I did something so stupid. I used to do this stuff quite a lot at one time (I did basic guitar repairs and maintenance as a side line to my tuition) but haven't done it for around 10 years now. Despite the mishap with the wiring I'm actually enjoying it and finding it very therapeutic. Hopefully I'll finish it tomorrow, and will report back as and when.

Thank you one and all for the many helpful and insightful replies. Basschat at its very best. As a bit of an update, you may want to know that I've gone with a matched pair of Seymour Duncan Phat Cats at a whisker under £180 (with due apologies to my good friend @skankdelvar for going somewhat against his suggestions on cost ). In a different situation I would do a build - or in this case rebuild - diary, but since the only thing I actually need to do beyond screwing it all back together and setting it up is installing the pickups I don't really see the point. An earlier plan to pimp it a bit has been abandoned: to a casual glance it will look exactly as it did. I will however take a couple of shots of the finished article (and possibly do a couple of sound samples if I can get some half-decent recording facilities organised). Later.

Nice thought, but it's P 90s or nothing. Sydney or the Bush, Shlt or bust, etc. Hum is a function of what's near enough to cause it. If I still had a recording studio to record in or a band to play in I'd need to give it consideration. As it is, it's not something I need to worry about.

I first put this topic up over in Guitarchat, and got a very helpful reply from the inestimable @ezbass. I'd now like to expand the discussion a bit, at the same time as exposing it to a (hopefully) wider audience. Preamble: I have an Epiphone Les Paul Standard circa 2000 (give or take a bit) set neck model that I've inherited from my nephew. Unfortunately it came to me partially stripped down (electrics are mostly intact though). After a year or two of prevaricating I've decided to do a (sort of) custom rebuild. Finish is red sunburst (which I have no plans to change). Hardware is chrome with cream plastics. Plan: As part of the rebuild I'm going to take the opportunity to replace the standard Epiphone humbuckers with a set of P-90s. On advice from the aforesaid @ezbass I've decided to go with a humbucker-sized alternative, and am at this point looking at Gibson original units available from Thomann. If anybody thinks they have a better idea about this though, please feel free to say so (but bear in mind that I do like the retro look of the Gibsons). Aside from knowing about the general design parameters I'm a bit clueless about P-90s (I just fancy something a bit different from the standard layout with a bit of a different sound), so am happy to consider alternatives. I'm aware that there are different schools of thought about pots and caps for use with P-90s, but at this stage Ive decided to keep things simple and retain the current electrics (although again I'd be very happy to hear people's thoughts on the matter). In similar vein I'm keeping the current hardware and plastics pro tem but may go to black for a starker look. If it looks stupid as a result then that'll be down to me. I'd particularly like to hear from anyone who has done something similar on a HB-equipped instrument, and/or anyone who can speak to the specifics of P-90s. Over to the Basschat Collective...

Hysteria?

Playing lefthanded would seem to be your best option. There's a number of ways to pick the strings, but there's really only one way to fret them. The injury you've sustained to your left hand makes it unrealistic to use it to fret strings if I've understood the nature of the injuries correctly. Over the years on these forums I've been a fairly vocal advocate of playing the way that comes naturally to you, but your circumstances appear to dictate otherwise. The good news is that being totally one-handed is rare; most people can do things with either hand at need even if they have a strong preference one way or the other, and the human brain is remarkably good at adapting to its situation. Hope this helps.