Leaderboard

Finish pretty much done - it'll take maybe a week to fully harden before it can be micro-webbed, but I can finish the fret-levelling, hatch magnets and shielding / electrics installation while I'm doing that. Although I've had issues with the gloss version, the satin version of the Osmo Polyx is really straightforward to apply and gives a nice looking and tough finish.

Actually, how about a 'Sausage Fest' pedal - one knob, to control the bias. No footswitch of course...it's an 'always on' kind of effect.

Curiosity got the better of me. Weight as is at the mo (minus pickup, plastic cavity plate and jack socket and string tree) is 6lb 8oz so I’m expecting a tiny smidge over 7lb all up weight.. cor.

I once bought a ... ... ... ... ... ... delay pedal.

Well; you try getting the strings taut without one, it’s a right pain!

Not a bass I know, but a cool story so thought I'd share. The guitar is an EKO Ranger, made in Italy in the 1960s. While it's nothing really special in itself, it has great sentimental value to the owner as he has had the guitar since new, when it was given to him by his wife as a present. Disaster was just around the corner though as early on he tried to fit an output jack to the lower bout, unfortunately instead of fitting an endpin jack, he decided he was going to fit it on the lower bout... in the thin side wood. So when he came to drill for it, the side split and it generally made a mess. He repaired it, but the fix was....umm how shall we say - less than professional! So I was asked to put it right. Here's the mess, while it's certainly ugly looking now, it's about to get a lot worse. Some sanding revealed the repair, there's wood filler, screw holes and a piece of plywood around 3 times the thickness of the side! You can see by all the light coming under the straight edge here how far it's been pulled in and distorted. Without drastic measures (coming up!) nothing can be done to make this look right again. Obviously having a 1/4 piece of ply stuck to the side of the guitar is less than ideal also... Problem solved...an extra sound hole (joking of course). In case it's not obvious, here I have cut out the damaged, distorted, ugly wood and removed all traces of the repair. Here's the "repair" I dug out. As mentioned above, he used a very thick piece of ply, then drilled holes in the side of the guitar to insert screws to pull in the repair to the side. It was never going to work and there was still a decent sized void between the ply and the side, so he filled that with expanding polyurethane foam! Now onto my repair and filling the large gaping hole. The best material to fill it with (and any hole in wood) is wood of the same species, being a guitar builder I have no shortage of Mahogany and some of it is quite old, meaning it's very stable. It's also nice to replace material with wood of a similar vintage. But first I need to make a frame to support the new patch of Mahogany. I also make this frame out of strips of vintage Mahogany, making sure the strips are a good deal longer than the patch to give plenty of gluing surface. They also need to be bent to match the side of the guitar, this is done with steam (and patience!). In this picture you can see I have bent all the frame material and the patch itself (on the left). You'll have to ignore the dodgy pickguard on the guitar, I'm guessing that's another story! Here's the frame all glued into place. I used traditional hot hide glue, which is exceptionally strong and period correct. The strips are glued to the side of the guitar and also to the kerfing on the bottom edges. Now I glue in the patch, using a caul which I made up to match the profile of the side, this is made up of two pieces off a body blank screwed together to give the required width. This caul ensures even pressure during the glue up. A nice tight fitting patch all glued into place. It needs to be a tight fit as if there were any gaps you could get problems with the patch "telegraphing" it's outline through the new finish over time. Fortunately no gaps here, just a few lacquer chips round the edge which will need to be taken care of during finish prep. I mask off anywhere I don't want lacquer and spray a couple of coats of clear Nitro to get an idea of anywhere which may need more work/levelling. I repeat this process until I'm 100% happy before spraying the colour coats. Then I mix up some black Nitro to match the original finishes colour. Here the colour coats have been sprayed, the masking on the binding removed (the binding gets clear coated, but obviously not painted black!). This is the clear coat straight out of the gun so there's a very slight spray texture, but so minor it won't require too much wetsanding and it's reflecting a clear image (i.e me!) without too much distortion. I now need to leave this for a month before proceeding with 1000 grit and through the grades before buffing. The finished article! No trace of the repair and straight sides! Thanks for watching.

So after one of my One10 cabs started farting at practise, and with a gig last night I had a quick search for something to get me by until I get the One10 sorted. Found a Trace Elliot 1210 combo and 1x15 cab for a bargain price near me, bought it and gigged it straight away. Seriously impressed, wasn't sure how decent this gear was from mixed reviews online but it more than did the job last night ! Starting to think that there is something about heavier gear now...great haha.

Shut up, Meg!

Awesome, are you female? It wouldn't be great if a company released a 'Black Person Melter' pedal, where the description (parody or not) is 'wahey, lynching is fun, here's a pedal that sounds like that'? Presumably because it's an abhorrent idea and largely society is against it.......so why is the same thing not considered when we talk about gender? It's an extreme example, but hopefully you take my point. Your comments seem to be coming completely from a place of male privilege, even if you have personal experience of a different area of society. Yes you might have experienced marginalisation, but it's not the type we're talking about here. If anything, you should be fairly sympathetic to the issues at hand because you understand that most white people haven't had your experience due to operating from a position of relative privilege. There are obviously lots of exceptions within that, there are rich privileged black people and poor underprivileged white people, but I suspect those are minority cases on a global average. Si

Dude, no-one will because men haven't been historically marginalised by society......seriously, this is what I meant by "the forum being overwhelmingly made up of what I suspect is to be white men, it's worth us checking our understanding and approach before crying 'the worlds gone mad'".....this is now aimed at you! Si

At the risk of repeating myself, can't believe the generosity shown from this forum. Way exceeded anything i could have expected, so again, thank you very much to everyone.

I've never noticed an issue with the BBOt on my precision, it sustains forever. @Christine says "A lightweight bridge will vibrate more " but I don't see that as truth simply because its screwed to the body; surely it might make the body vibrate differently and it might have its own saddles vibrate sympathetically if they were loosely fitted, in a different way. Perhaps the qualities of the metal in a cheaper bridge of equal weight might make a difference, albeit a miinor one. I honestly think its minimal at best and the £130 bridges you see advertised are truly overkill when a wilkinson will do the job

Hmm...it sounds to me like there probably was something a little awry with the bass pot. The amp has a very bass-heavy tone, but I've never found the bass control to be that ineffective. (The bass-shift control was in the 'off' position, I assume?!) That said, I have come to like the old-fashioned tone stack. I appreciate that it's not everybody's cup of tea; you certainly can't "sculpt" a tone like you can with a lot of modern amps, but I already like the "baked-in" tone so it works for me. The biggest revelation for me - and you may have already tried this - was pushing the mid-range shift. Made the mids much clearer and more aggressive - more to my taste, anyway!

Real Electronics in Sheffield are the approved repair company for MarkBass. From comments by people who have used them they are pretty quick and reasonable. http://www.realelectronics.co.uk/Markbass-Amplifier-Repairs

My personal view is that the podcast isn’t for hearing the difference between them, it’s for discussing what people’s thoughts and experiences are Si

I decide I need a compressor so I buy one, use it and then decide I don’t need it so I get rid of it. Then a year or so later I decide I need a compressor so I buy use it and then decide I don’t need it so I get rid of it. Then a year or so later I decide I need a compressor so I buy one use it and then decide I don’t need it so I get rid of it. Then a year or so late I decide I need a compressor so I buy... (repeat ad infinitum)

1. Says the guy with a collection of Gus basses. 2. Yeah we know it's easy to put there, it's not as easy for the user to adjust though. 3. What's that got to do with the price of cheese?

We're back off holiday so I had a few hours in the workshop today. I routed the headstock for the truss rod access slot and then drilled the hole for the nut to fit into.The truss rods were fitted and a strip of masking tape put over then to stop glue getting in the slot and fouling the rods. I rolled the frets to about an 8" radius, cut the wire into lengths and started trimming the ends with a grinding wheel in a Dremel, fiddly but it worked OK. I fitted the frets using a press and nipped off the ends. That was about it other than to make a clamping caul to protect the fretboard when I do eventually glue it to the neck which should be later this week daily life permitting

Majority of mine have a traditional BBOT, and I can’t say I’ve ever had one move, or found it hard to adjust alignment or intonation. They are simple, and work perfectly in my opinion. Would something different audibly (for most players or audience members) change the sound? Unlikely.

Post of the day

Lynching ? So we've moved on to murder now ? How do you know i'm not female ? You're making assumptions. Typical male

I'm black though ?

I bought a VM Precision body and neck from Dan. Arrived super fast in bullet proof packaging. Everything as described. What more could a man ask for? Have no fear, deal with confidence. Thanks again Dan. Cheers Dunc

Not played one of those. And boy, that does look good, in Fiesta Red I played one of the earlier models of fretless Jazz type basses. I was impressed with that for the money So if they've been making improvements, I want to try one

Pretty much my pattern as well. It normally comes about by me reading a line in a post on here and have a 'wow' moment, so i go and get one. These days i use a Sectracomp, and i have actually gone back to it from a higher end comp, but i think i use it because its on my board so its no effort to take with me. Not sure if i need it but it doesn't seem to do any harm.

Mods, Why do we bother with 'Off Topic', 'Bass Guitars', 'Effects' & 'Theory & Technique' when people routinely hose their womble-butter at 'General Discussion'. Seriously, are we not monitoring and moving anymore? We need strict discipline in this area. Stabbin's too good for them. Please draw blood. Arch Bishop Desmond 22 PS How the flip does one swear on this counting forum!?

"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a covers set today" etc.

They're bloomin' good until that shouting starts up, every time. A shame. Shades of NIN nowadays, which can't be bad, though. Posted elsewhere on BC, but compare and contrast..?

Stunning work.

Didn't you just fork out on a fancy Warwick six string (from comments earlier in this thread indicating high levels of GAS together with the thing getting sold very quickly after)? The width of the fretboard should intimidate your keys player? We have the same issue with one of our drummers who never knowingly plays too slowly when we are live; she's generally fine in rehearsals... Do any pro bass players play Hohner cricket bats these days?!

I'm off for another week at the beginning of August The joys of being retired Thank you but there's still plenty of time for me to muck up yet

Here he is recording with David Sylvian... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXJxOszhH84

That's a good argument for long-scale basses rather than the number of strings. When my keys player goes off too fast (as usual) I can "accidentally" knock him on the head with my headstock from a plausible playing distance with my 35" - it might look deliberate with a 33" 🙂

That sounds splendid! Roll on the next one/two!

The attention to detail is fabulous. They're going to be so good looking when they're Looking forward to the next stage. No more holidays for you get on with 'em

I think that's Billy's grindy tone mostly, but there might be a bit of extra modulation in there - maybe a bit of chorus or something. I got one of the EBS Billy Sheehan Deluxe pedals a while back and it's great for that grindy tone - never had so much gain on tap, but somehow still controllable. This'd be my tip for a first pedal solution to try.

I suspect it's all down to individual experience (if that's the right word). At one end of the spectrum you have people like guitarist Eric Johnson who can apparently hear minute differences in equipment and set up, to the extent that, according to some rig run downs, when recording he uses nickel plated jack plug guitar leads for ryhthym and gold plated for solo work. I'm guessing he could probably hear significant differences between bridge types. At the other end of the spectrum you have people like me. I have changed a couple of bridges out because I like rock solid units with no lateral movement in the saddles and no sharp edges. There may possibly have been a change in the feel of the bass but I've never noticed a change in the tonal character of the instrument .

I just purchased (this morning) a Petersen Stroboclip HD. So far pretty impressed.

Have Newtone make you the exact set you want

@Akio Dāku sounds good. And @Chownybass, I’m sure none of us will mind!

I've heard this excuse a few times. It usually means I can't be bothered. I'd try somebody else...

another innovation that I think would improve any bass is a zero fret, no more messing about filing the nut (and going too far, opps)

Me, I like this one.

These are small in comparison to many of the offerings here, but all valve nonetheless, full set of pre-CBS Fender Bassman's; 1952 TV Bassman (Only made for 4 months) 1953 WP Bassman (Only made for 7 months) 1959 4x10 Bassman 1962 Blonde Piggyback Bassman 1964 Black Piggyback Bassman

What I've been saying for years..... As soon as they invent the hover lift machine which will carry things for you, everybody will be buying Class A/B amps again.....and my plan to take over the world will come to fruition!!!!