Jackroadkill

Think you may be missing a letter. I don't fear for music; folk have been fearing for it all my life (remember how "home taping is killing music"?) and it's still here. Yes, lots of it is shite, but that's what the skip button is for.

We used to play there 20-odd years ago! A blast from the past for sure - glad you had fun.

"Commensurate with age". Swallowed a dictionary, have we? Used gear is used gear.

That's a superb analogy. I find that technical playing (of any sort, not just bass) usually turns me off, as I prefer the music to serve the song rather than just show the skill of the players. I'd rather hear one note that really makes you sit up and pay attention to a hundred that are all icing and no cake.

They'd be brave lads to start on the chap with a four-foot lump of wood in his hands!

Yeah, man - what a great way to spend sixty nicker! I'll bet you're well chuffed!

I'm just wondering if it isn't the material that's letting you down here. Instead of a single lengthways aluminium bar, what about four or five stringers that are arranged parallel with the alignment of the neck and "up on edge", so to speak?. There'll be more stiffness and less weight - but it would necessitate redesigning the central part of the bass to accommodate these. Potentially the bridge could be bolted to these, too.

A proof-of-life post for this build; I have a scratchplate (cream / manky white), a BBOT bridge (although this may get subbed for a high mass one later), machine heads and a very nice set of high-output Toltec pickups now. The pickups might have too much output, but I'll worry about that later, as they can always be moved on once the build is complete. As the weather is finally starting to show signs of getting above 5 degrees Centigrade I'm planning to buy the paint next month. I'll be using this paint: https://perfectpearlsandpigments.co.uk/products/candy-apple-red/ with the appropriate primer and silver coat. I'm tempted to go for a metal-flake silver coat but this might be a bit much.... What do the BC hive mind think? I'm not saying I'll go with the advice, of course....! If I can summon the enthusiasm I may even paint the front of the headstock, decals permitting. Obviously I won't be spraying it until it's a lot warmer. I think the next jobs are to do a bit of fret work and get a nut blank sorted, and then rub down and possibly fill the two rough patches I created whilst stripping the sunburst off the body. Cheers, JRK

Opera; The Habanera, from Bizet's sublime Carmen: Another perhaps obvious choice; The Queen of the Night's Aria from Mozart's The Magic Flute. And lastly, the maestro himself: Not to everyone's taste, granted, but opera gives me something that I don't get elsewhere.

I didn't know Nick but he was always kind and supportive to me on Basschat. Reading through these posts it's clear he was a man very much loved.

We're learning Die, Die, My Darling; I was quite excited by the Misfits' bass line and was looking forward to learning it. Then I get told "No, we're doing the Metallica version". A quick Google later and the only tabs for their version are dead simple roots, fifths etc. Am hoping I can kung fu the original version in there instead.

You can stick that up yer bum, for starters!

Are AI bassists any good for metal?

I love Paul Simonon's tones full stop, but his tones on the London Calling album really do it for me.

In my last band the bass player used my plywood Squier Jazz, tuned to C, for some very heavy, very dirty stoner metal and it sounded the mutt's nuts. He tried a bass that was more typical in the metal arena (active circuitry, pointier shape, etc etc) and it just didn't have the punch of that Jazz bass. I still play it now for nasty downtuned noise.

The Horners need to raise some funds, maybe?

I'm going to use it out of the bag, I think. All the jacks are side-mounted, so no issues there, although I have to say I hadn't thought about that when I laid it out!

I've finally got my effects properly sorted, mounted on the board and the board is now in a Gator bag (£15 used on eBay). The board's pretty conservative but I don't need much in the way of synths, envelope filters, arpeggiators etc; you'll notice that there's room for an always-on compressor, though, which is probably my next purchase. Cheers, JRK

I've got two Fender Player P's and a MIK Squier Jazz (made of toneply); if it wasn't for the fact that my band plays currently in three tunings I'd just use one P. That said I recently played an American Vintage Jazz and it was really nice...

That's not very cool, especially if any sort of payment (part or full) has been made.

Stoner rock: Bringing the "go big or go home" vibes, let's start with Kyuss and the superb Demon Cleaner. From the sublime to the ridiculous (but fun), with Monster Magnet's Space Lord And let's finish with the mighty Clutch, and Electric Worry.

Woah!!!!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/380872735724?var=651036108065 I use one of these with each of my two main basses, one of which is black and the other white. The straps are both black - because black goes with everything. The straps are decent quality, functional and pretty reasonably priced.

What an arrsel. I mean, who the hell takes a V to a serious rehearsal? In the interests of transparency I have a pump-action 12-bore, but I've never taken it to rehearsal.

I was hoping for a bit more bass action, if I'm honest, but it was fun to get out and see what's out there. And, as you can see, I had a chance to practise my jazz pose, which was nice.