Leaderboard

Well, if we're going to get that picky... This fellow was using electrics on solid bodies in the very late 17xx's, according to Ms Shelley. The experiments were not popular with the neighbours, though, and the technique was abandoned for a couple of centuries.

As promised, here is my mémoire about the subject, written in French and published in 2001. Hope some of you will enjoy it. The link : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MH6uXdr4PAOTlt9h-vh1aVaeeYCTSfPj

My hovercraft is full of eels.

Well, it’s done (kind of). Neck pocket definitely needs a shim as I can’t get the action low enough (and I don’t like a particularly low action either!) or the pickups far enough away from the strings. Tuners are pretty dreadful - the worst (thankfully the G string) is a real pig to turn. I’ve given them a bit of lubrication so we’ll see if that helps. The A and D are OK. Truss rod works fine. Neck relief adjusted (I use really heavy strings so it went very banana-like at first tune-up) and will leave to settle overnight. Might’ve made a mistake with the wiring as the series-parallel mod doesn’t appear to work properly. No matter, I’ll retrace my wiring tomorrow, but I’ve had enough for today. Neck plays and feels pretty great actually. Shame about that tint but I’m sure I can live with it. Just the headstock decal to apply when it arrives. I’ll figure out the actual cost once I’ve worked out the gremlins detailed above, but at a rough guess I think this comes in around £180, not including strings. IIRC correctly the yellow one will come in at slightly less as the body was £15-20 cheaper.

If you understand French, I wrote a mémoire some 15 to 20 years ago about the origins of electric basses and guitars up to 1965. It was an event day around lutherie and I also made a presentation of the main usual basses and their respective sound, and also explained how to have the real sound of your instrument with any amp. I can create a topic and put a link to the pdf.

09.30 after logging online call at 11.00pm last night - message from shop apologising profusely and telling me they are setting up an exchange (pick up and drop off at same time) as soon as they can. If I still don’t like it then full refund. Phone number and name of assistant provided if I have any questions or concerns. Yeah - I can’t fault that at all. It’s the sort of service you hope for but don’t always get.

I bought a Sire Marcus Miller M7 in February. Most impressed. It has replaced my TRB5 completely. However, playing an open mic last night & turned the Frequency part of the stacked knob round to high end & turned up the Tone volume. Did number fine, then was turning back to flat when I experienced a big CRUNCH from the pot. Since I use this setting for several numbers I was concerned. Indeed by the end of the night this had progressed to several crunches quite close together. After I got home I stuck on my headphones and examined the problem. There were about 3 places quite close together crunching and if you got the setting right on top of one you got feedback overpowering everything. If you switched to passive mode you could still hear it. Not good. I changed the batteries to no avail as I know some preamps give this kind of signal when battery is low. Phoned Andertons this morning & was passed to their bassman, Dave, who asked all the right questions and after a a few minutes agreed it sounded like a faulty pot and would get the item collected and repaired. I've arranged for it to be collected week today. No probs. How it should be. Thanks Andertons. And I'm going to mark the circuit board so I know if it has been replaced or if they've just used a blast of pot cleaner. OK, I'm paranoid. Anyway it was much less painful than I expected. G.

-

Stromberg catalogue 1929 At the risk of being even pickier - in 1929 the Stromberg Voisinet Company was selling flat tops with an integral pick-up and a companion amplifier which looks remarkably like something Phil Jones might have put together. So that's six years before the Rickenbacker / Electro-string Ken Roberts archtop in the article about the guy in Lewes and three years before the frying pan. Vivitone Electric Guitar circa 1933 Now let's get really picky... Gibson's Lloyd Loar was working on pick-ups and amps from 1919 onwards and in 1924 designed an electrically amplified upright bass. Though Loar was their mainstay guitar designer Gibson's management scoffed at his ideas about electrics. Outcome? Loar got the ar$e and had it on his toes to set up his own operation. By 1933 Loar's Vivitone company was chopping out arch-tops with a pick-up and a companion battery powered amp (busking, anyone?) that pre-dates the Pignose. There wasn't much demand so Loar turned his mind to the idea of electric pianos. Gibson would eventually catch up in 1936 when the company released the ES-150. Vivitone electrics / dope cubbyhole The eagle-eyed observer will have spotted that Lloyd Loar's hollow-body Vivitone has no f-holes through which to insert the electrics (early attempt to reduce feedback?). Loar's elegant solution was to put everything in a little sliding drawer on the bout which presumably also provided stash-space for jazz cigarettes. All this was 85 years ago and two years before Rickenbacker. Jazz Great Perry Botkin with Doc Kauffman's Vibrola guitar / amp combo My favourite early guitar is the Vibrola designed by Doc Kauffman which debuted in July 1936 and was taken up by Electro-String. The guitar was mounted on a pole which was attached to the amplifier. Inside the solid guitar body was a system of electrically driven pulleys which provided a mechanical vibrato effect. Doc Kauffman not only invented the first guitar whammy bar in 1928 (Les Paul bought one) but went on to found K&F with Leo Fender in 1945, leaving around the time that Leo started working on the Telecaster. In another wang-bar coincidence, around this time Leo was allegedly picking Paul Bigsby's brains for solid body guitars and nicking the design for the Strat headstock. Fender's distribution company was owned by Francis Hall who in 1951 bought Rickenbacker from Adolph Rickenbacker, he who had first produced the frying pan, drawing on his experience manufacturing steel guitar bodies for Dobro back in the 1920's. (Francis Hall's son John now runs Rickenbacker; his hobbies include firing off menacing threats at UK bass forums). Thing is, all these guys knew each other or were aware of each other's work. Fascinating times.

Good progress this morning. Got the neck on (bit fiddly but using pieces of string as the 1st and 4th strings I was able to get it there or thereabouts). It’s probably not 100% correctly aligned but it’s pretty close. Might need adjustment once the strings are on but we’ll see. Control plate, pickguard, control knobs and strap buttons all fitted. I’m a couple of screws short for the pickguard, which is more annoying just because I had three packs of the buggers last night and now I can’t find them. I’m sure they’ll turn up. Obviously had the inevitable false start with the pickguard where I’d almost got all the screws in then realised I hadn’t peeled the plastic film off. Joy of joys! Tuner ferrules are in so I’ll hopefully get the tuners on today. Need to make sure they’re correctly aligned so will be taking it cautiously from here!

So it finally happened. After a long hiatus we at last got the band off the ground and I have lost my singing in public cherry. In the end I simplified the bass line under the verses to a straight four so I literally didn't have to think about it and concentrated on delivering the vocal line. The more comfortable I became with words and structure the easier it was to add to the bass part. It's not perfect yet but I have a vocal coach and she's working on the weaknesses in my voice. A lot of work but my God it was fun.

This. Don't know why sellers don't organise their own courier, it's easy enough via ebay or via interparcel. The hard part is packing it all up.

Hi all! This episode I'm joined by the wonderful @Sibob who deserves a great thanks from us all, because he took care of all the editing/post production on this one and it sounds amazing! As requested we've gone for a totally unscripted approach and we cover a multitude of topics; making music, playing solo vs being in bands and, of course, gear! So have a listen and let us know what you think of the new format, we're all really exited to hear what you all reckon! 🙏 Now for few bits of administration gubbins; at present we're sorting out all the publication side of things, hopefully we'll be up on iTunes within a week but we're having some issues with the iTunes connect service, so as soon as it's resolved I'll post here and let everyone know. In the mean time we've got a new main page for hosting the podcast; http://basschat.libsyn.com/ and it's already live on Spotify; https://open.spotify.com/show/1AXD0U4t9RxZaFw2R29FnH It can also be found on Stitcher. Thanks to all involved behind the scenes and thanks to everyone who listened to the pilot and got this thing off the ground! Much Love and happy listening. 😊 Bo aka @Akio Dāku Edit; Issues resolved so now we're up on iTunes! https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-basschat-podcast/id1428552711 Oh and I forgot to mention we're on Stitcher too! https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/basschatcouk/the-basschat-podcast?refid=stpr

Or one person buying twelve (which isn’t beyond some of you 😂)

I did! I've gigged it hard too since it arrived and it's really special. The range of tones is fantastic and it's a joy to play. The craftsmanship is incredible. @CameronJ, try one out if you can! I want more of them! Might pick up a 235 next.

Don't worry, as you certainly noticed I'm fluent in English and my tailor is rich. 😉

For the first time in ages I have something to contribute to this thread! Did anyone else get along to Danzig last week in Brixton? Great show; only got into them in the last few years thanks to Mrs Mooseblaster, and it was a bit of a treat for us that the set featured a lot from the first few albums.

It is essentially the M80 minus the overdrive/clean blend/parallel out etc but plus the parametric mids. Great little preamp.

Tuners ahoy! Did this by eye and very pleased how it turned out. Obviously took my time with it but as long as you get the first one right you’re laughing. Might even get it strung up tonight, but not sure how to approach positioning the string tree yet.

It’s the future, man! We will pop your “I killed rock and roll” bumper sticker in the post

Glad it's getting sorted. Mine arrived today and have to say, it's perfect! Reached straight for that '74 P w/ flats, instant joy! Happy New Tube Amp Day to us all!

PS: All builds will obviously be crowned with appropriate amusing headstock decals in a Fender style. They're on the way.

Noooooo Tort is wrong on so many levels!! The only place I like to see Tort is in the bin!! 😁

Looking good!! I've never really been a fan of the sky blue-ish colour but that looks really nice, but I'm a bit of a sucker for a maple block neck...... 😀

What gets me wound up, is people doing a no finger style demo. Its all slapbass (See bottom of link). The thing is ancient too (1936), it's just wrong, him sat there slapping the stinky poo out of it. Then he breaks out a pick from nowhere and really goes to town with that too. I stopped watching when he started tapping. I want to hear its normal finger style tone. Haha only joking. There isn't any slap bass or pick playing in the demo , I wish there had been. I'm parodying demo comments.

Yes. Little known fact that FOH originally stood for Full Of Heft.

That fact has probably saved her life.

Does FOH have 'heft'? Because that's where your signal goes...

I have played the blues circuit a bit and sometimes help out backstage at the Colne Blues Festival. Generally the bigger acts use a hire SVT rig or are happy to use the house rig (usually something like a SVT4 and a 8x10 fridge). However, I have seen plenty of good pro players turn up with something like a Mark Bass or Aguilar Tonehammer rig and get a great sound. Personally I would avoid using overdrive for blues and go for something a bit cleaner - no need to go ultra vintage or anything, but avoid anything too hi-fi or with too much gain.

Recently, i was fortunate enough to be able to visit Stephen Chown and try out various basses and effects. After a trip to visit family down south, i went to see him in Bristol. The office is housed in a Victorian bridge arch, which certainly beats most offices. After a while messing with basses and pedals, i brought up the point of me making some short scales. Within ten minutes, i had two chowny swb necks in my hands. At some point, a chowny swb with a carbon top will exist (watch this space) Anyway, cheers to Stephen for allowing me to attempt an swb replica, i recommend chatting to him if you ever get the chance, and hopefully visit him in Bristol again soon.

.

Just got the Zenith back. All I can say is OMG. It's gorgeous. Simon at GUS has managed to fit a 22 fret 5 string neck to a 21 fret 4 string bass and you'd never know. The passive EMG's and greasebucket tone mod sound lush with a threeway switch and wired in series and parallel. The piezo only has a volume pot but it's got a hidden secret. Instead of being battery run it's powered by a capacitor that takes only 1 minute to charge and this will last 16 hours. I've put the original brass bridge logo on the headstock instead of where it should be. In my opinion it just looks better on the headstock (it looked good on the original rosewood bridge but now that has been made larger it looked out of proportion and 'wrong'). Anyway, I know I didn't do anything to convert it (unlike some of the skilled people on BC I would have just ruined something that, in my eyes, is probably one of the best looking basses I've ever laid eyes on), but I knew what I wanted and luckily had one of the finest luthiers on the planet just down the road from me who managed to transform my thoughts into a work of art

Id change the range 1997 - 2009 There were some gems made during that time, but all the stereotype negatives come from basses built during this time, especially early 00s. Baseball bats, bendy necks, ridiculous nut designs, neck dive etc . All things the vintage golden era models and new models do not suffer from!

@M@23 recently got himself a P35 (I believe) and was really loving it... You should've held on to your BB1025 methinks?!

I use a laptop bag bought thru Amazon. Takes my leads, power cables and speaker cables, tuner and compressor pedals if required, notepad or music sheets whatever is required for rehearsals, spare batteries, pens, etc and keep my car keys and bank cards etc while rehearsing (its kept at my feet during rehearsals at all times i've even carried my GK MB200 as a spare but it gets a little crowded in there. At times i wish it was a little bigger tho. Another couple inches deeper. (ooh Matron !!!!!) Dave

Nobody blinking here : This is this, where you can see my ugly face, and it's not short at all as it's a full 3/4 EUB : http://leduc.fr/index.php/series-l/contrebasse-de-la-serie-l

Personally, I'd rather have semi-parametric mids than overdrive... that's why I fancy this pedal.

Really nice project - looks superb.

I wish I'd managed to do it all myself, like you, but sometimes it's best left to the professionals PS. If anyone wants the original rosewood bridge then they can have it for free.

Sounds like the way to go look forward to seeing them all 😀

now i know people say less is more however more is def more! orange rockerverb goes into the 410 and my ashdown into the 810!

I used to use a Jazz bass into a Genz Benz Streamliner / Barefaced Compact / Midget more for monitoring as I'd DI Into the PA. Jazz or P basses seem to work pretty well.

Definitely go with the white!!

Absolutely. Listen to Pino playing with the John Mayer Trio for inspiration! Si

I do a lot of this sort of music - I used a Markbass Little Mark Head, into either a Schroeder 1210 (12" and a 10" speaker) or for really big gigs, I add another Little Mark and an Aguilar GS410. Bass-wise, a Precision with flatwounds does the job. Tone sometimes rolled off to about 1/2 or 3/4 depending on the room. I find the guitar and keys covers a lot of the mid/high end of frequencies, so a nice, warm, smooth bass sound stands really well in that mix.

Didn't think you had any relatives still with us Dave

Hey @Bassmingo, I've got an identical bass, that had exactly the same problem. I hope you still have the neck, as the headstock is distinctive with a black finish. All you need to do is loosen the truss rod and clamp it in a reverse curve position. Leave it like that for a few weeks, then re-assemble the bass. I did this clamping with some wood blocks, a long spirit level and a G-clamp. It takes time, but worth doing.

It want that long ago that loads of bands had a Peavey 1x15 TNT combo of about 120 -150 Watts was it?