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So you've had a dream about someone being keen to give you wood - exotically - and then charge you more than you thought. Have you posted this in the correct forum?

Personally I found that finding ‘the one’ made my gas shift from a frantic search to a more fun curiosity based and less desperate toe dipping foray into basses I’ve always wanted to try, safe in the knowledge that I’ve got ‘my’ bass locked in already. It’s been like that for ten years and I’m much happier for it. Sorry I know I’m not helping but it’s kind of my job not to

The postman has just dropped off a facelifted WB-100 for me to have a play about with. Plenty'o'gigs coming up.. big smile.

You guys have got it all wrong with your coffee table bass pictures. Didn't you read his post? This is the way to tempt him from the straight and narrow:

OK, if you insist! As mentioned before, it's terribly quiet, and you can hear the straplocks rattling too, but you can get a sense of the tone of this wonderful bass, tone all the way up, amp set flat... This was recorded in one take, for a joke, so apologies for the sloppy playing, proper stuff to follow. Eude

According to Wikipedia, to be a true Luthier you need to have made lutes.

My colleague, psychologist Dr beaflag , recommends a course of bass buying and a new rig. Plus a few beers

Done

🤖 "Hi! I'm Teebs & I'm here to help with all your bass queries! Let's get started! Now, to start, I just need your bank account number & sort code so I can verify it's you! "

You know he' a chatbot, with pre-recorded voice messages? He's usually calling about PPI claims! Yes, it is. 😁

Always my fault, innit!?!

Sorry Dave. 😬 🤐 I suspect you received a PM from Teebs... 🤖

Don't you go getting me into more trouble with "the two Daves", now. 🤨

Thank you very much for the compliment guys, if you have any questions about the bridge just ask me ... I'm excited to see you building beautiful basses

"Drawing Programs!" - how very dare you! I'll have you know that my "drawings" are all tiny, hand-crafted masterpieces! Look - I even have a certificate...

Working for me Andy. I'm now waiting for the motley crew to tell me to radius it instead

So a hippie then? 😁

OK - that's enough for one day. It's a sleep on it and have a look in the morning - especially what best to do with the lower horn and cutaway and the curve of the top horn. Oh - and check with @fleabag that this was what he broadly had in mind Adding a bit of dampness gives a clue to the final depth of colour:

Just a little bump, I still intend to record some clips of the bass very soon. I've had flu lately and work/home life has been pretty hectic, but it's still on my mind. I did a super quick recording on my phone playing Music for Chameleons for a friends 40th birthday, an in joke, and it sounds absolutely wonderful through my little Warwick practice amp, but the clip is too quiet to be worth sharing, recorded very late at night while everyone else was asleep, but I did make a video, so it can be done, see?... The bass feels so wonderful and so familiar, every time I pick it up, so thank you once again @Andyjr1515 for all your wonderful work in resurrecting this bass for me. Watch this space, and sorry for the delay! Eude

@Cuzzie I hand it to you brother as you both play bass and sing (I'm sure others do too!) But I've seen a few of your videos and they're not exactly slow or easy bass lines to be doing both playing and singing. You're a exceptionally talented guy! I've managed to get ~30 songs in the bag, down to the original recording and hoping it will show in rehearsal the effort I've put in getting these songs down to the most intricate of parts too. It's all coming along with time but being dumped with the entire catalogue of songs had been rather overwhelming. I have raised that we start at rehearsal getting at least a few songs down tight than to have a sloppy 15-20 songs quickly ran through. @Ricky 4000 is spot on about anxiety and I wouldn't consider myself an anxious person generally. This 'friend' has definitely put a lot of pressure on me to perform how I had in the past to be head hunted to be asked to join the band and I'm slowly overcoming this feat, to perform as good as I have. Again, thank you all Inc @geoham @mikel @Monkey Steve for your sound words and advice

This. He can’t see past this and recognise that you’ve actually done him a favour. He should see that what he’s paid out was a reward for the recovery of his bass. What he’s actually thinking is that he’s just paid to buy a bass he already owns. Given time, he might come round - but, frankly, why should you care? You’ve done the decent thing. You’ve reunited the bass with its original owner. You didn’t have to do that, but you did. So move on and let him come round in his own sweet time. To paraphrase what Andruca says, the people you do a good deed for don’t have to be nice people - but that shouldn’t stop you being a nice person yourself.

I have always operated on the assumption that you buy a good quality professional instrument and then learn to play it rather than waste time trying to find 'the one'. I have had the same bass since 1986.

Here’s how I would approach the situation:- - List the songs you already know, and confirm you know them in the right key! - Categorise the rest based on difficulty. You might get lucky and have many songs with simple, repeating chord sequences where you can get away with root notes. - By focusing on the low hanging fruit to start with, you’ll probably end up with a far shorter list of songs you need to work on. Some other tips that have helped me in the past:- - Put all the songs on to a Spotify playlist (or similar), and listen to it while commuting, working or whatever. You may be surprised how much your brain takes in subconsciously. - Focus on what’s important in songs. Unless there is a recognisable bass part, then just playing the root of the chords could be enough to get you through until you learn a song properly. On the other hand, take the time to learn any important or recognisable riffs. - Don’t let getting the ‘right sound’ get in the way of learning a part. Playing the correct part with a clean P bass sound will normally go down better a badly played part with the right sound. - Keep an eye on your guitarist or keyboard players left hand if you get lost! More than anything, enjoy yourself. Good luck! George

We finished six dates across the UK. I particularly enjoyed Nuneaton & Stoke but all six were fun. I used my Hofner verythin until the last date. I have a 6am flight to Italy in the morning to start the European leg.

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The Truoil treatment on the back of the neck had turned out nicely. This stuff really is as great as everyone says it is. I've gone for a sort of 'in between' satin and gloss finish, it feels great, and is a huge improvement on the finish I removed. I'm contemplating re-doing my fretless neck when I finally finish this revamp - I'm already thinking I'm going to miss pottering around whenever I finally get this done. Before.... ......and after.....

I am certain I really like Jazz basses, which is why I have "several". I am assuming you have more than one Precision. If not, please stop letting the side down.

One of these

Looking great!

Right, all these money saving tips are all well and good but shall we cut to the chase? It's a sad fact and 'The Management' ain't gonna like it, but just delete your Basschat account and never visit the site again. You all know deep down that before you joined here you got by in life with one, or possibly two if you were feeling particularly extravagant, basses and an amp, and maybe a multi or a handful of individual pedals. Now you're not really sure where to put all the basses you've bought, let alone all the other 'essential' gear. Justify it all you want but you don't need all that gear and nobody else can hear, or care about the subtle differences. Now be gone with you you money saving, little bass soldier, play that one bass and play it proudly 😂.

Will he have a receipt though? Prove he’s not handling in stolen goods (hahahahahaha!)

Someone has taken the sharp things away from him, haven't they? Haven't they? Why haven't they?

I was once told that dreams usually mean the opposite. No idea who or where it came from and i can't validate its authenticity. So you'll buy what you think is a fantastic Custom bass at a ridiculous price only to find out its a cheap foreign import and you'll need to pay substantial import tax after March Dave

We're watching you Ricky.

Thank heavens - some folk should never be trusted with sharp implements.

Er...... yes thats true. Now put the pencil down slowly and take 3 steps back, hands on head

Yes, it's laughable at how some drawing programs and a printer can work wonders

Don't be offending hippies again Ricky! You know what happened last time...🗯️ 🖕 🥊 🤕

I have an Aria Pro II magna & removed the pickups to refinish the body. The pickups weren't glued down, but over time they had stuck themselves to the cavity. A bit of gentle persuasion did it in the end. 🔨

Happily for @fleabag's health, this one would be the project AFTER his

They wouldn't put screws in for height if they glued the pickup in. Its probably just tight in the routing. Wood may have swollen slightly over the years

The Dillinger Escape Plan - One Of Us Is The Killer

Try the quick & easy fix first - electrical contact cleaner spray - it chemically removes the kind of corrosion (oxidation) you get on electrical fittings. That solves a good many problems like this without ever having to replace anything. If it doesn't solve it though.... Take your pickguard off carefully, and have a look at the pots in question - there'll be some markings that will give away what you're looking for. Generally speaking, for most pickups they'll use a 250k pot. Then you've got the choice of audio taper or linear taper (audio=logarithmic scale, linear=ratiometric, go for audio if in doubt), then you need one with the right shaft - take the control knobs off your pots to find the answer here (split shaft, solid shaft) and the right length (short, medium, long). Then you need to find someone that sells what you're after. Lots of choice here, random selection in no particular order: https://www.wdmusic.co.uk/ https://www.axesrus.co.uk/ https://www.allparts.uk.com/ https://www.northwestguitars.co.uk/ (I have ordered stuff from all these places, never had a problem with any of them) And finally, you need to choose how much to spend. No matter what you spend, they'll all be incredibly close to each other in terms of quality. CTS are a common choice, as they're what would be found in a high end Fender (CTS = Chicago Telephony Supplies, who were taken over by Fender in the 60's), and they'll be about a fiver. You can get cheaper ones - Alpha are good, they'll come in around £2-3, or you can get some ridiculously expensive pots that claim to give you extra 'tone' (with free snake oil). Either way, they'll pretty much all do the same job. Soldering them in is simplicity itself if you have ever soldered anything before (just be careful not to heat up the body of the pot too much when soldering earths to it). If you haven't soldered anything before, get some practice at it first, and someone to help who knows how to solder - it's not a difficult skill!

I’m more of a goose. I’ve ejected and hit the canopy...

Well, that's the album cover sorted ^^

Latest video from the excellent Samsara...

OK, so you have the bass sorted. But now you get to put all that GAS energy into amps, cabs, lighting, PA, set list software, clothes, shades, hairstyle, image consultants, a new laptop..... You may have won a battle, but the war ain't over by a long way.....

Instead of boiling your dead strings or soaking them in meths like some mad scientist simply stop being a tightwad and order some new ones from a guitar shop or online store, the end result will be the sound of a new set of strings which lasts longer than one gig and is much less time consuming than faffing about with metre long glass tubes or pans.