Leaderboard

OK, so he wasn't a Jack Bruce but I saw Hendrix in local clubs a couple of times and if a Jack Bruce style player was on bass that band would have been the biggest mess ever, and no one would be fondly remembering any of them. Just like Adam Clayton, Dusty Hill and many others, Noel Redding was exactly right for the band he was in. His job was to hold it all together and give the others a solid platform for their frantic playing styles. And after all, someone in the band has got to be playing the songs. . . . so it might as well be the bass player!

We're old fashioned here. It's either CD's or steam driven radio in this house.

Entitled "20 Iconic Bass Guitars", I'm thinking of making this available to BC members as a print in either A3 or A2 sizes providing I get enough interest... This image you're looking at is printed on bog standard A4 and really need to be seen in a bigger format, but you probably get the idea. Any criticism welcome...

Well, last year I reached a bit of a milestone in work - 30 years! So to mark the occasion, in a moment of madness, I decided "to hell with it" and ordered myself a Limelight bass One of my fave colour combos (if not, my fave) is Fiesta Red, with rosewood board and tort plate (of course) Since having my old Squier P bass converted into a P/J, I've become a real fan of this pickup configuration A few years back, fellow South Walian pal FuNkShUi was selling a Limelight P, in Fiesta Red, and it had a Jazz style neck I tend to prefer Jazz width necks, or at least I don't mind P width necks.... but don't like them to be too deep.... So that was my order - a P/J Precision, fiesta red, with Jazz width nut. I missed out on FuNkShUi's bass back then, as I had to sell a bass before I could buy another A week later, the MM I was selling had sold (to another BC member) - but the Limelight had gone, and I had been kicking myself ever since Mark at Limelight has done a superb job. I asked him for a medium-light level of "distressing". I know not everyone is a fan of Relicing - I don't care.... it's MY bass I think it looks lovely. A quick noodle, and it feels amazing! Sounds lovely through my small practice amp too. Can't wait to plug it into a larger amp and crank the volume up Since the new CITES rules , Mark had a bit more trouble than usual sourcing the Rosewood fretboard neck - however, I wasn't in a huge rush, so I told Mark not to worry .... my new bass has been worth the wait. I'm a happy boy - but am currently in work, and can't wait to get home, to try my new bass (Pics courtesy of Mark at Limelight)

Let's not leave out the lefties.

Mark Boyle, the lighting man on the tour, recalls the night Martin Luther King was killed, after which Jimi played an improvised lament, he describes as harrowing. It's about 1/3 down on this page. http://www.boylefamily.co.uk/boyle/texts/beyond.html

Maybe we're all spoilt with the Internet nowadays if there's folks complaining about seeing a bass for sale 500 miles away and the seller not wanting to post it. Perhaps go back to pre internet days bass hunting techniques, when all this gear was still for sale around the country but you just didn't see the adverts, so you didn't want it. You had to scan local papers or the stock a local shop carried, if you were lucky enough to have an instrument shop that carried basses local. Down here in Cornwall there was/still is very little. Personally I prefer it the way it is now. Even if 50% of sellers didn't want to post I've still got the opportunity to purchase a vast amount of instruments from around the country/world that just wasn't readily available 20 years ago. Nobody used to post basses because nobody outside of say a 30 mile radius would see the advert. We all coped back then and I think things are slightly better now

Things are only obvious if you know them! I actually lean my whole hand across all the strings when I am picking, from my little finger down to my hand, so it actually mutes all the strings, to vary the mute I just play further back so my hand reduces and then stops muting by sliding over the bridge. So if I am playing a d, it will line up with the very bottom of my litte finger, so the side of my hand rather than the finger itself.

I've never know what the reference to "butter" means, but all the expensive basses I've owned in the last 20 years have either been Pleked when made or fret stoned and set up for me by Martin at the Gallery so, it's true, all those basses have played "like a dream". A couple of cheaper basses were set up by me and when I moved them on they were playing far, far better than when they were sold to me. So from a "nightmare" to a little bit "dreamy", at least. I try to put all the info into my adverts but some don't put in enough. I still add "non smoking home" in my adverts. I remember the old days when basses, amps and cabs, from smokers, came into our non smoking home and the terrible stink that was so hard to get rid of and made our home smell so bad! Plus the awful smell of tobacco clinging to everything from the gigs!

Dinosaur in my 40s here, still don’t use iTunes or stream (apart from YouTube). I like having the vinyl or cd, I like looking at the covers, reading the lyrics and info, looking at the pics etc.

Me too, above and beyond - I'm not even a customer and I'm being offered support on a product that they didn't even build. Superb.

If you ever need any help with the V4 just give us a shout

What?? You mean I haven't contributed to this thread yet? Or did I? This is my dream bass. It took lots of dreams actually. More emails and long telephone calls into the evening, Ten years later and as seen here she has had a complete refinish, some new hardware and a few updates ready for another ten years of service. Everything about this bass has been measured to fit as it were. Some of teh features are now standard order options over at Shuker Guitars.

Oh go on then.... Sadly its not a batwing, but its a lovely '81 model.

First impressions? Fantastic piece of kit. Loud as a loud thing too !

I recently purchased a GK Plex preamp from CygnusX2112 aka Patrick, which he shipped to me in Estonia; the deal was friendly, fast and completely painless. A good chap to deal with!

Ahh you guys are so kind, thank you! Love the wall (Wal?) paper idea... 😉 And I know it' a Saturdee neet, and I may have had a couple or three G&T's, but nobody mentioned a discount, did they...? 😂😂😂

Money Programme here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBsqrvsOrGY Sounds quite similar at the end.

Thank you so much! That’s perfect.

Haven’t had a Vigier but have had 2 of both the others (including a custom Alembic) and my Alembics were in a different league entirely. I have my dream basses already, but I would like a Nov ‘63 Ric 4001 (birth month) or a Jetglo ‘72 to go with my others. I guess the custom Sei I’ve been planning forever (my third) counts too.

I used them for rehearsal this morning. Lovely tone. Sat in the mix really well. Did Stevie Wonder, Mickey Bubbles, Blues Brothers, Louis Armstrong, and some Latin stuff. I went for a bit of a Duck Dunn tone. Not too bassy, plenty of mids and knocked the treble off on the bass. Very happy. They’ll be staying on my P-Ray.

this is my.......... dream bass

Of course, I'll bring it over to yours.

In some circles 'Taking liberties' might include: robbing a post office on some else's turf without first asking permission; failing to repay an agreed sum of money; confiding sensitive private information to a third party. The variant - a 'diabolical liberty' - would probably be something like unexpectedly shooting dead a business competitor while he is quietly drinking in his locale of choice; or for the purposes of internal discipline razoring a subordinate without just cause. Big Vern

And one of those layered hats, I hope

Another reason not to put text on there is that it gives the owner the choice of hanging it landscape or portrait. You guys are looking at it as almost landscape but it was done in a portrait orientation. 😊

Do you play a five already? I'd find a six easier to play than a four these days!

Well, I think I'm on the home straight for this one. The finishing proper has started. Having used tru-oil slurry-and-wipe as my general grain and void filler, I've then lightly sanded that and now applied a very thin wipe-coat of Osmo Polyx 3011 Gloss, just using my usual choice of dirt-cheap microfibre cloth: I will let this dry overnight before applying the second coat. One of the reasons for me being patient (and it's a strain!) is that, while I've have great success with the Osmo satin and also their whitening 'RAW' version, I have had an issue the one time I tried their gloss. On the second coat it wrinkled and orange-peeled. Now, to be honest, I have no patience with finishes that are super sensitive - it's why I keep away from many of the more traditional guitar finishing products. Life's too short. Having said that, I'm pretty sure my problem with the Osmo gloss was that I simply applied the second coat too soon. The satin and matt versions were not at all reactive. It would be nice to get a modern very low VOC gloss that actually works and can be wiped on....hence the patience

My 62/63 p bass takes some effort to play well. The pay off is glorious tone.

I used to be a pick player as for me it suited the music and was the most natural way to play. Today I play both fingers and pick. The picking hand should be the most automatic process possible and follow the feel of the bass line and song. You don't limit yourself to up/down/up/down as the most efficient process, that's just utter rubbish. It should be what the bass line dictates. As an example, this is an old video (2008) of me playing pick to one of my own songs. The intro is all down strokes, it's the only way it works to give the desired effect. Then the verse is up and down and a mix of both, again, because it's what works. Its all about flow rather than technique. There is also no conection to what the fretting hand is doing. They are both seperate processes. The other thing to notice is if you listen with the volume off, my movement of my picking hand is consistent. This is what I mean by it being an automatic process. My wrist or arm is not changing or moving in different ways. I guess its similar to constantly strumming a guitar. Finally, most of the movement/strokes is in the wrist. So much so that my wrist used to lay against the top of my bass and rub the skin away on my wrist.

Where it comes to muting, if you are picking with your thumb and your index finger, you have the flat of your little finger to mute.

I sold @OzMike my GK Plex pre-amp. Mike was super nice to deal with, we agreed terms and payment really quickly! I was a little nervous about posting to Estonia (due to some poor eBay experiences in the past) but everything went swimmingly well. Hope you enjoy the Plex! Cheers.

Unless you are a builder with big hands and sausage fingers and play a 7 string guitar.

Good morning, Spikey, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

+1. Another dinosaur here who grew up listening to the entire track list on vinyl. Some songs take a little more time to "grow" on you. Nice to know I'm not the only one.

Welcome Spikey.

Very nice! The B.C Rich warlock would fit in there too 😉

Desregard the Wikipedia info, a chord consists of three or more notes: "It is required of a chord that it consist of three different tones" - Schoenberg, Arnold. Theory of Harmony. University of California Press, 1983

Absolutely, the core of the amp is obviously ABM, there’s a reason that the ABM range has been in production continuously for 21 years since day one. Saying that the differences are more than just skin deep. Actually the first point is that each Head Of Doom is built here in England by one of two people. One being the guy who actually designed the amp Dave Green and the other his wife Joanne who between them have around 60 years of amplifier design/building experience. This is the same for all our valve heads as well. The standard ABM 600 is made in our China factory so for starters it was always going to be more money than an ABM 600. Externally the steel housing and front panel costs a lot more than the wood ABM chassis and wood sleeve amazingly. Then internal differences are increased voltage running the valve pre amp(the Doom...) increased output transformer and the part which adds a good chunk of the added cost is the three isolated slave outputs, these each have their own small transformer for true isolation. So add to the cost an extra three transformers, all of which are handwired by one guy 10 miles down the road, this also includes the output transformer as well.... Then don’t forget the extra VU meter! ;-) Hope that helps.

Add to that that you're the first person who has been this positive about it. Everyone else was fumingraging.

The previous version of the forum had the same anti-cuss filter, but would simply replace the offending expression with a series of '******'. It was decided that, with the new software version, it would be just as efficient (at not letting bad language pollute the forum...), but more 'fun', to replace the words with 'lighter' alternatives. It may not appeal to all, of course, and is irrelevant if one doesn't use such language on a family-friendly forum in the first place. Hope this helps.

and the rich :-)

Go to your Profile > Account Settings > Signature, enable View Signatures, add your details in the field below it, Save. Job done.

Include me in! I'll bring: Zoot Custom passive 4 fretted, medium scale Zoot Custom active 4 fretless, medium scale Barefaced 110 Barefaced BB2 Gen 3 (if I've not sold it by then) Oh, and the Valeton rip-off of a Tech 21 Flyrig Looking forward to it. BC

Added another cab to the set up... Too much for most stages... Fun though!

More pics This the woods for control panel, I placed a Padauk layer under Rosewood Here is the shaped control panel Knobs layout, on the right a killerswitch This is the jig to route the fretboard end Then I placed a Wenge cover on the end of the neck White plastic dots inside an aluminum pipe Fretting job, I use a fret tang nipper found on Ebay, I needed to modify it to fit the fret. It works well for what it costs. And as you can see I use superglue in the slot. On the right the self made jig for filing the fret ends The headstock with magnetic TR cover made out of Rosewood with Padauk accent Control panel on the body The whole bass ready for the hardware

Ideally you should be using Speakon connectors for all your amp to cab wiring. It's a more robust connector capable of carrying the sorts of currents that modern high-wattage amps put out, plus it is a locking connector so you won't get any problems with cables pulling out of their sockets and potentially shorting out. If you need good quality speaker cables making up OBBM here on Basschat is the man to contact.