nuno1959 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 (edited) hi guys just thought i'd drop by to introduce myself : my name is Nuno, i'm a 53 years old silversmith/artist/designer from Portugal & some 20 years ago i decided to stop playing bass after the band i was in split - record company pulled the rug, long boring story, i'll spare you... playing in this band was a lot of fun & we lived for playing live every chance we had - what we lacked in chops we made up in energy & enthusiasm during live performances : EVERYBODY danced !! ;-) we were a six piece band & we mixed traditional portuguese folk instrument sounds ( accordeon & cavaquinho - a ''cousin''of the ukelele ?..) with a straightforward rock curious ? have a listen but PLEASE disregard the CD cover, we had absolutely no say in the matter : [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYQJZReY1pM[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8E4iPgfmQI[/media] anyway after we split, disgusted, i sold my bass & gave my rig away to a friend so it could be used & enjoyed instead of dying a slow agonising ''death by dust & oxidation'' : a sweet 1978 Fender Precision, a Seymour Duncan 4000 amp + a 2X15'' cab he still has it & it still sounds AWESOME, in a molten lava, warm & velvety smooth kind of way.... lately since i'm going through some sort of mid-life crisis ( thank goodness.. ) which among other things led me to buy a wicked enduro bike to ride as hard/as often as i possibly can &....you guessed it : a VERY cheap & merry Cort Action 4A & a Zoom B3 effects unit to start playing again, to be joined next week by a Cort GB35 just to have a go at a 5er WITHOUT breaking the bank... **** a little side note : when i tried the Cort 4A, i couldn't believe how good the fit & finish of it is, specially considering it's basically given away !! i mean, ''back in the day'' basses of that price & more, would literally shred your hands while playing or AT LEAST would feel like planks. glad to see things HAVE evolved !!**** so i dusted my old Peavey Combo300 inside & out & i'm back nagging people as much as i can ;-) luckily i live outside town ( Albufeira in the Algarve..) & all my neighbours are out all day at work so i can jack it up all i want, the only limiting factor being when the furniture starts moving around & re-arranging itself, a sure sign to back off a notch...LOL... this has been going on for a few months now & surprisingly, i even managed to get my half-assed chops back AND improved in a jiffy : thanks to so many talented players who graciously post their tutorials on YouTube !! meanwhile when out riding my dirt bike on the hills behind my house, i met a few fellow riders, we got talking & it turns out some of them get together to jam near my place ! they invited me to drop by & join in. needless to say i did & we're having a ball : twice a week we meet around 8 o'clock & jam until 2.30 or 3 AM....loud, viciously, WICKED !! of course a little drama was missing this otherwise VERY rosy picture - the salt & pepper of life, right ?.. - & i posted about it right here if you'd care to have a look : [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/201957-help-peavey-combo300-loud-cracks-pops/"]http://basschat.co.u...ud-cracks-pops/[/url] yup, the Peavey is giving up or so it seems, please take a look see if you've ever come across it's symptoms - or maybe it's just time to get something else ? we'll see ! anyway it feels great to be back, thanks a lot for reading cheers to all Nuno Edited March 10, 2013 by nuno1959 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiOgon Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Great story & intro - big welcome Nuno sorry can't help re the old Peavey but I 'm sure there's someone who can Enjoy - I bet it's not cold & raining most the time either where you are Cheerz, John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjones Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Welcome to basschat I like the music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassTractor Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Hey Nuno, Welcome to BC, and thanks for the great read. Enjoy the site! I'm sure you'll fit right in. best, bert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 When I read the title of this thread I thought of "Dastardly and Muttley" - sorry for the red herring.. Welcome to the Forum, Nuno... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 [size=4] [/size] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuno1959 Posted March 10, 2013 Author Share Posted March 10, 2013 hi guys MANY thanks for the warm welcome KiOgon - glad you enjoyed reading it ! yes, down here it's DEFINITELY milder but hey, 2 years ago i was working a bit further north than you, up in Perth, for a full year & just my luck it was like...the coldest winter in the last gazillion years or something ? i froze my b***s to last me for 3 lifetimes !! Gjones - am glad you liked the music & i must say i LOVED Edinburgh being so close to Perth, had a ball there - just followed my friends wherever they took me, little wonder i don't remember a thing !! Perth is a lovely place but WAYYY too quiet man... BassTractor - if you enjoyed reading it, then it was my pleasure writing it X 2 ! The Greek - don't ever write the word "sorry" next to "Muttley" man !! it just doesn't add up !...LOL... he was a hero of mine growing up, definitely a role model !! ;-) discreet - many thanks man, most appreciated ! now if you'll excuse me i must go to my settings cause i didn't get notified people answered ! :-b must have to tick some box...DAMN, so many things to do & so little time to do them, ain't life grand when we're having fun ? right before i came here to answer i was going through all the adds here & if my Peavey's repair is beyond doable, i already have a couple of worthy replacements lined up, more about it later..... cheers guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassTractor Posted August 30, 2013 Share Posted August 30, 2013 Nuno, how's the Cort GB-35 working out for you? best, bert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuno1959 Posted August 30, 2013 Author Share Posted August 30, 2013 hi Bert the Cort GB35 is a VERY underrated bass which you can buy for PEANUTS & as far as i was concerned, after much researching online, it was a perfect way to try a good quality build 5 string bass without breaking the bank mine being a shop demo model ( it had a 2mm scratch by the jack, invisible if you didn't know..) cost me 279euros, postage from Germany to Portugal INCLUDED & 3 years warranty !! from Session.de if interested... now, it's a tad on the heavy side of things, the neck is wide as is the string spacing at the bridge & it's a fairly ''physical'' bass to play which might not suit everyone but is something i actually enjoy. dimensions aside, the neck is absolutely GREAT, with a QUALITY feel throughout 45mm at the nut, 75mm down at last fret, the bass weighs 4,5kg ( in a bathroom scale..) has a 34'' scale & mine has a gorgeous, VERY well done classic three tone sunburst i found the instrument itself ( body, neck, fretwork, extremely well balanced, etc, etc...) SO VERY NICE that i felt it was worth upgrading it's electronics which was the only ...how shall i put it ? they were not bad just.... banal ? you know what i mean ? no extraneous noises, no harshness, hum or anything, just uninspiring.. so, as soon as i could & after much Googling, YouTubing & pestering people on bass forums i subscribe to AND a chat with Mr. Jedamzik at Delano, i ordered a set of custom made Delano pickups ( custom made because of wide neck/string spacing at bridge..) & a Delano Sonar 2 preamp mind you, these cost MORE than the bass BUT after installing those.......the bass simply ''blossomed'' into a totally different, MUCH, MUCH better instrument. bass & electronics total cost so far ? roughly 575euros !!....now, call me crazy if you want but i truly feel it compares favourably to many 900 to 1000euro basses - EASILY !! a very important thing : after playing with them for a while, i changed the original strings for a set of Ken Smith Burners w/ a tapered B string ( 130..) did a set/up to it & this gave a B string a MUCH BETTER feel & definition to it's sound the only ''problem'' ( for snobs at least.. ) is that it lacks the ''brand name'' on the headstock but in my book that's actually a good thing : you can go do a gig, leave it on stage, go have a drink & when you come back it will be there waiting.... ;-) have a look here, in the second photo it was still standard, on the 5th photo it already has the Delano stuff : http://www.flickr.com/photos/13706825@N03/sets/72157634616940511/ if curious how it sounds, i uploaded a while ago a few ''sketches'' i made in GarageBand, it's all played on the GB35 for bass line, a few chords & a bit of a solo, through a Zoom B3 w/ a tad of compression & a slight touch of effects here & there. please disregard the BASIC drum beats ( Zoom B3..) & a few mistakes, these recordings are only meant for me not to forget the basic bass line & such : https://soundcloud.com/nuno1959-1/trapezoid https://soundcloud.com/nuno1959-1/metal-2-70bpm-lick here you can hear the B string ( w/ a bit os bass synth from the Zoom B3..) + the chords made on the GB35 https://soundcloud.com/nuno1959-1/tchan-tchan-2 hope this answered your question, have a great week-end & if you do get a GB35, enjoy it. personally, right after sending you this i feel like going to play it !! ...LOL... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassTractor Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 Wow!!! What a Fan.Tas.Tic answer, mate. It's the power of BC again. Thank you very much indeed! Thanks for the link, and that's a good offer indeed. Reason I asked about this bass was an offer on a Walnut Satin one locally, at a mere 150 quid. New! Sadly, it or they went out the door within the hour. I'll have a look at session.de. That it's a fairly ''physical'' bass to play sounds OK to me. It seems like one of those basses where it's a joy to press out overtones near the bridge whilst digging in, whilst filtering some treble again. Mind you: these are noob remarks. As to "banal", seeing as the Norwegian word for this is "banal", I gues that I can guess what you mean. You're crazy. Thanks for those links to your sketches. You put the GB35 on my list of stuff to buy. Now if I can just sell my Fodera ... No, this did not answer my question. It gave me soooo much more, like very much insight and pleasure. Thanks, mate! Have a great week-end! best, bert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuno1959 Posted August 31, 2013 Author Share Posted August 31, 2013 Hi Bert youngest cousin of Odin !! i'm glad you liked it & you're VERY welcome ! ;-) if you buy the GB35 & you do not intend on changing the electronics for something else, make sure you are NOT getting an older model which comes equipped with MightyMite pickups - those are not banal, those are really crappy !! not every webshop states it clearly - i wonder why !? :-b ... - so make sure you ask them BEFORE you order & preferably pay via Paypal - this way if they send you a MinghtyMite job you can EASILY get your money back, they won't even dare try to hustle you or Paypal WILL refund you straightaway after you complain to them just make sure to keep all emails between you & vendor.. one last thing, although it's made of ''Agathis'' ( exotic sounding name for a cheap oriental pine variety, hence part of the weight..) the bass does sound very nice unplugged so the basis IS there to get a wonderful sound given good quality electronics personally i went with Delanos because : 1 - i love a few Sandberg models which have that EXACT pickup configuration 2 - it was a cheap way to have a ''Sandbort'' 3 - the difficulty of finding that big humbucker pickup elsewhere - there are other brands but the dimensions are not EXACTLY the same so some wood routing might be involved now....about your Fodera.....i wouldn't mind trading it for my GB35 & would even offer to pay for postage - how cool is that ?....LOL....all jokes aside, those Fodera basses MUST be something else, i have never even held one in my hand, let alone play one but i sure would like to :-b oh well, just keep on playing your bass, preferably loud.. - your neighbours WILL LOVE you for it ! i KNOW mine do..... ;-) OK, time to hit the pool & then have some lunch.... cheers N Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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