Leaderboard

If this catches on, it's going to kill the 'basses for sale' section of the forum! (If anyone wants to buy anything I have advertised after New Year's Day, I promise them complete discretion and anonymity!)

To be fair they'd both get it!

And there rests the case for the prosecution, M'lud...

I should be so lucky

I've stained the neck and fretboard and started applying the finishing oils. Ref the fretboard and neck, the owner has always preferred a strong amber tint. For particularly the fretboard, to contrast it needs to be lighter or darker than the top. I did a few trials (my own inclination was to go lighter, like @Len_derby 's, rather than darker) but in the end we pitched for a match of a bass he sent me a photo of and which contrasts the other way round - strong colour neck making the body top actually look a decent number of shades lighter than it actually is. Fascinating stuff. Anyway, I'm about 1/2 way through the finish application and this is how it's looking: Couple more days of finish application and then that can be sitting hardening while I do the remaining jobs. Oh yes, and there's probably Christmas in between those two sets of activities

Finding it extremely hard to leave this bass alone, I actually went and found where it was hidden last night...

That would be an ecumenical matter.

The book is only £18.19 NOW on Amazon. Out of stock but delivered within a month...

I only put my head above the parapet at blues jams, where a basic 12-bar can take you most of the way, but "Hey Joe" keeps coming up, "Black Magic Woman" and "Hooch Coochie Man" and "Crossroads" are usual suspects too. And "The Thrill is Gone". It does bug me that the bass player is expected to just know anything that comes up. I play as many open blues jams as I can - it's really good experience - but almost all the time either the guitar player(s) just announce what they're going to play, or (even worse) everyone else gets together on the other side of the stage and then someone walks across and tells me what they've decided to play. I've had to learn to listen for the first few bars and then blag it, but that's good experience too and I'm slowly getting better at it.

I don't think so! A fatter string requires more tension in order to make it's higher mass resonate at a given frequency. More mass and tension require more energy for the same amplitude. Apart from the fundamental tone, harmonics appear along the string. The more energy, the more harmonics. As those harmonics are multiples of the fundamental frequency, the result will be a richer tone, not a fatter tone. As the proof of the pudding is in the eating, I analysed the waveforms produced by both, thin and fat strings. It can be clearly seen that the percentage of harmonics versus the fundamental frequency depends on string gauge. In other words: Thinner strings produce more boom. In the graph tone, gauge and tension are listed.

Well this was unexpected! A tax rebate, a few things going well and a quick trip to Denmark street led me to acquiring a brand new, 3 EQ USA stingray! it's a bass I'd always lusted after, but like so many you see your hero's play it but you don't know if it's going to be practical for yourself. I played a Sterling by Ernie Ball a few years ago and didn't think much of it. This USA Stingray has such a punchy and rounded sound, it's like a recorded and processed bass sound but coming from your fingers. As I said to the guys in the shop you can drive yourself mad looking at a plethora of options online, sometimes you just want to play something and go "yep! That's the one". I played a USA Jazz too and really enjoyed that, but felt the Stingray was better suited to playing live in my covers band which is leaning towards becoming an 80's cover band. So here it is. I also have to say the guys in Wunjo are superb. No pressure sales, gave me a good trade in on my old jazz bass too. Top marks for customer service!

Having been messing about on my acoustic guitar for a few weeks, I picked one my basses up last night and you know what I actually enjoyed playing for me and playing stuff I enjoy it was great with a drum machine and lot of different effects

I was going to say "westcountry"? Glastonbury's over two hours north from me. Eden is westcountry. (Tongue in cheek disclaimer for the argumentative types) I don't know why anyone gets upset over these Glastonbury bookings, it's a mainstream pop festival and Kylie is a mainstream pop star whose been churning out hits for three decades. I'd have thought that qualified her for 'Legend' status in the eyes of the average Glastonbury goer. I'd be fairly content to have had her longevity and success, as would many more on here I'd imagine. Never mind keep knocking her.

Har, challenge most definitely not accepted. Another project is the last thing I need! You, however, have all the Hohner parts already - all you need is a cosmetically challenged Peavey to go with it. If only there was one around...

Easy, Dave. Take a large mirror to the jam ...

I just concentrate on getting a good signal to the recorder, I run out of the DI out on my Markbass LM3 and couple that with a Red Audio 6 Condenser mic in front of a 1x12 cab, between the two signals I am getting all the bass tone I need for a recording

Unless we hold the bash in Hawaii - which I personally would be up for 😎

An early Christmas greeting from the Family...

How's it going guys? I just published my guide to chords on 4 strings. It's got 4 essential tips you can use to find your own awesome chord voicings. Take a look! https://onlinebassguitar.com/bass-chords-4-string-players-guide/

I could contribute by offering a space to keep it or any of your other basses in case they feel left out a bit.

I know what cetera really needs is a whip round for a new bass - he's not got quite enough to choose from...

That's def a beer or two i owe you next time you are up here with your new project.

the Ramones went off a bit after their 8th Album

I posted a brief comment on another thread about playing acoustically, and doing so piqued my interest, so I thought I’d share it. I play bass in a purely jamming/hobby/non-gigging band (by choice, as we’re mostly in our 70s!), but have decent soundproofed facilities, with full PA, drum kit etc, so we don’t spare the volume when rehearsing. But we gave our first 'performance' last night, in front of our wives (!) in a living room, so went acoustic. No mikes, the drummer used a drum box and tambourine, I did use an amp, but very low. To our surprise, we thoroughly enjoyed it, even though any mistakes tended to be more obvious, not that there were that many.....

I used them for my first 2-3 years of bass playing until I understood there were other string brands. 😁 They eat your hands, eat your frets and die quicker than any other string I've tried, usually after one gig. Started using D'addarios and Elixir (when flush) and have never looked back!

It looks like an ashtray.

I bought a 5 string set of TI flats about 2 years ago. I'm hoping to get at least another 10 years out of them!

I've found them consistent for years, one gig, dead.

I've played versions of that which have passed through Red Town to Red City and on towards Red striving for global domination before the guitarists have run out of wind.

Remember to bring Red House to an end before it becomes Red Housing Estate.

Fix them to a strip of wood and glue / screw that to the wall I use Hercules grabs

At that price - I'm in too! Apparently he played Jaco's bass of doom for the project...

I'm really happy with the bass and it plays really well. To just go on what BigRedX was saying about the scale length. Yes I have had a full scale one in the past and it wasn't for me. Since I use a Ibanez Jem with a 24" scale and the headstock on Ibanez guitars usually makes them feel bigger than they are, I knew what I wanted. The length of the Ibanez jem is literally 2" shorter than the bass if you go from the bottom (where the strap lock is) to the tip of the headstock.

Have Chromes on a Yamaha BB414 and Cobalt flats on a P. Price is similar, as is sound. Initially, the Cobalts a very bright, as they should be, they are a round with a ribbon overwound. But as with both brands, after a couple of yoears, they both just sound like nice flats! Edited to add that I'd buy either of these again, but now the rock band's finished, probably Chromes.

No, you're thinking of 'I'm just a J Bass guy'

Welcome back! The low end is the best, after all 🙂 A drum machine can be your best friend. My teacher badgered me to get one for ages and he was right. Without it I struggle to spend as much time practising as I should, but if I dial in a random drum machine track and work on locking in with it with even a simple chord progression, half an hour is gone before I know it. Nothing quite like playing in a real band, but if/when you do, all that practice will be a totally sound foundation. If you don't, you'll still have a lot of fun 🙂

So much 80s songwriting was ruined by naff-sounding production that you're almost certainly doing it a favour by rearranging it!

Proper cover, with proper bass playing...

To be honest I’m glad you’ve removed the temptation! Enjoy it buddy.

I imagine a Rock 'n Roll fairy to look like an ethereal Steven Tyler but with large gossamer wings and, perhaps, his wand stuck in an elevator door. I think I may have killed such a RnR fairy this morning with the arrival at Chez Blank of a QSC K12.2... ...suffice to say a day of titting about ahoy.

Don't we all love the member with a great memory to remind you what you had forgotten you had posted.

I've said this before, but I think it bears repeating. I paid just over £2k for my Helix and RCF745. My previous big bass rig which was mostly bought second hand over 10 years ago cost me more, and while it looks impressive on stage the Helix RCF combination is far more versatile. One thing did occur to me recently; a lot of the gigs I play are supports to well-established goth/post punk bands where the headliner will have brought an Ampeg stack or similar. I set up my RCF in wedge mode just in front, and still looks as though I'm using a big impressive bass rig while sounding infinitely better!

It’s lovely to see an expert at work. Genius.

Flight cased in ears porn.

Thanks so much everyone! i'm super happy that everyone is enjoying this build log, im certainly enjoying building it! making a start on the top carving for the body now. lots of work with rasps and spoke shaves. as mentioned in the previous post, this isn't going to be the most radical of carved tops, its more to add some shapes and highlights to the upper "horns", i also have to keep the carve very close to the edge at the bottom, so that the top is flat enough to accommodate the bigsby. on the wider parts of the body, i really just want it to catch the light, and be a bit more shapely than a normal bass. this will also help to remove a little bit more of the weight from the body! you can see from the left picture sort of what im going for, the curve is mostly convex and then only concave right down at the edge. it makes it look quite bulbous, but i dig that! i also put a tiny bit of tru oil (literally 3 drops for the whole board) do darken the ziricote a tad before i put the frets on. i might do 1 more but i think that'll be it. i dont want the board to end up shiny, just a bit darker to add some contrast

This is possibly one of the most over-the-top basses I have ever seen, and I love it! I imagine Dracula would play this bad boy if he were a bassist.