All Activity

Body and neck >> Getting everything lined up nicely >> Body meets neck >>

The battens around the front edge and the holes for the port and the speaker mean it's not that easy to apply the Tuffcab. Painting it black (I used rattle can matt black on the ones I built) is much easier, and if you're putting a grille on, you can't really see the texture anyway.

All this has been very useful. Thank you, folks. Going to the "what", and taking Phil's advice Lighting to make the band look good - yes. Lighting to allow the band to see what they are doing - yes, definitely. Lighting to improve the audience experience - yes. Ease of use for total noob. Ease of set-up. Expandable for the future. Easily transportable. The band I've just come of had a t-bar with, I think, 6 PARs and they pointed in different directions, some flashing colour to sound changes, others just lighting the band. Here's a link to some video from Saturday night. It's a very typical venue layout, the stage area was generous for a 4-piece. How would you go about lighting that if it was your band?

Body shape cut and rough edge contouring >>

Top wood chosen, Splated/Flame Sycamore >>

Honestly, they sound pretty much identical. The feel is significantly different though; I've always found the carbon fibre neck a bit 'sticky' compared the to the sanded maple neck. I've also now realised that every single one of my basses has a maple neck/maple fingerboard (apart from my currently out of action Warwick)

This build diary is WAY overdue, as it approaches the last leg of the journey. As most of you know, I'm a HUGE fan of Alan's work, having played nothing but ACGs for over 15 years now! I have nipped and tucked a lot of what I need and want in a bass, as I've gone along, and as I've developed as a bassist. I've settled on 31.5" scale as my preferred scale length, having gone 34", to 36", to 34" to 33" on the way, and I'm officially a 6 string player, who dabbles on 4. Anyway, as with a lot of my more recent basses with ACG, this started as a sketch. I'm a huge fan of Alan's Finn SC Classic shape, having owned several, but I felt that it was a little large for a shorter scale, so the crayons came out >> The spec then started to creep >> And here's the spec we came up with >> Sona 6 String 31.5" Scale Hidden Set-neck Construction Spalted/Flame Sycamore Top Mineral Stained White Limba Body Wenge Accent Veneer Ash/Wenge 5 PIece Neck Plain Wenge Fingerboard Body and Neck all stained Black, with a kinda of reverse linear black burst on the top ACG RFB Pickups in 40mm casings, bridge pickup in a measured "sweet spot", neck pickup, not too far forward East Uni-pre 4K Preamp Hipshot Type A Bridge - Black Gotoh Resolite Tuners - Black 50mm Wide Nut 16.5mm String Spacing Flat/0 Radius Fingerboard Work commenced early 2025. More to come.

Apparently it's obligatory to look him up on the interwebs, as otherwise you are being wilfully ignorant. I didn't know who Melissa Auf der Maur is and thought I would find out about her and her great career-defining basslines in episode 2. However, the only thing I found out was that I didn't want to listen to any more of her work.

I’ll jump in on this too. I’m 61, and I’m still fronting an original heavy rock band, the same band I joined in 1982. Were recording a new album and it’s sounding absolutely awesome, very pleased with it, and live were better than ever. My voice is still holding up, and young people who come to see us love the stuff, it’s old school, like their dads listen to, and it goes down pretty well. THAT SAID…….. a month ago, my best pal lost his battle with cancer. He was 59 and an amazing metal guitarist. I helped lower him into the ground to the sound of “Where were you?” By Jeff Beck. In January, my mum died. No great surprise, but still, you know. In February our drummers wife had a heart attack and died for 10 minutes. Somehow, they revived her and she survived, but unfortunately with severe brain damage, so he has his hands full looking after her. The band, keeps him sane. My point. If you’re young and you’re reading this, be all you can be. Take nothing for granted, don’t waste time being miserable, do the things that make you happy, with the people that make you happy, play music, love music, all music, and most of all, KICK ASS. If you’re old and reading this, all of the above also applies to you, x2. F*** getting old.

Well, not really. The audience are much further away than me from my backline and are getting a mix of the front of house PA sound with perhaps some of my backline too. It ain’t the same sound as me standing in front of my cabs. 100% agree with seeing what works for the room tho - I do the same and go as far as my lead will allow during sound checks to get an overall idea. As you say, it’s the overall sound that matters. But to return to the OPs query, I was just trying to suggest some areas to explore for sorting his sound. As I say, I’m just going from my experience and fully expect others to have different ideas.

...am I the only one to hope that those tattoos on his fingers aren't the permanent type?

@Greg Edwards69; Best of, old chap - look after yourself and focus on a smooth recovery. I'll look forward to your first post-treatment gig report.

I like him too, but I wish he’d just wind it in a bit. The crass punkesque attire is a bit irritating, but, it gets him noticed, so job done there I guess. I like the fact that he isn’t a virtuoso, there’s too many of them on YT already.

He's apparently making a living from playing bass. It may not be quite the same dream that most of us had when we started out way before social media, but he's still living it. Personally, while I would never actively seek out his (or any other bass influencers) youtube stuff I do usually watch the short clips that pop up in my Instagram feed and he's made me laigh a few times, so good luck to him.

Here’s my 1991 EB Stingray5 . Triggers broom as my guitar luthier calls it . Natural ash , Status Graphite Neck , Norstrand mm5.2 pickup , a John East MMSR 4 KNOB 3 BAND preamp and gotoh machine heads

I like him. The character is harmless, and behind it there's a quietly self-deprecating man with a sense of humour and humility.

I like him, and his northern honesty. I'm also northern, albeit of the Red Rose variety, and I stand in solidarity with my behs brother 🤣 We call a spade a spade up 'ere. I did get told at the last North West Bass Bash that I spoke a bit like Danny Sapko, especially when I say the word "behs". Here's his latest, it made me chuckle a few times -

Oh absolutely. The sound you want onstage is what works with a band and cuts through.

And what if I haven't exactly? Am I the only musician who hasn't?

I watched a couple of his YouTube clips a few months ago. While initially not minding , he seems a bit Peter Kay ..everywhere and annoying. I got bored fairly quickly. I might watch one more of his YouTube clips and see if he can be accepted into my YouTube feed. As for Scott Devine ; I watched a lot of his stuff years ago and had a lot of time for him . Unfortunately I can’t be bothered with him anymore. He has those clickbait captions now,which I will not click on ! Lazy and annoying! I even managed to watch a recent one where his voice was dubbed American! Is that an AI thing ?!? I posted that on his comment section and I did get a polite reply . I stopped watching Charles Berthoud’s stuff for a while . Too much slapping all the time imho. I’ll probably watch him again in a few months or so ,to see if much has changed on his channel. That can be an issue with YouTube from time to time , when they put a certain person everywhere who is really annoying like James Corden and you can’t find the remote quick enough without using expletive language and hatred .