Leaderboard

So, I love Mustang, Musicmaster and Bronco basses. One reason is because I am more comfortable with short scale basses, the other is that I just love the aesthetic. Recently I saw a loaded body from a MIM PJ Mustang on eBay so bid and won. Also, whilst I love that the PJ Mustang has two pickups, they seem oversized to me and actually put me off a little. That's okay though as I've got a Fender Pawnshop Mustang that I ripped the pickup and pickguard out of so I could replace with a Nordstrand. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Here was my problem, there's no neck. Turns out fender don't sell replacement Mustang necks either. Total pain, but it turns out the neck of my Bronco bass is almost a perfect fit! So, I had to fill and redrill the neck holes. Route a deeper cavity for the pickup, put shielding pain in the new cavity and wire it all together. It's a miracle it didn't just explode when I plugged it in. Also, the neck is a little wider than the pocket and has caused a little stress crack on the edge of the neck pocket. It's s shame but oh well. So, how does it sound? Great. The humbucker is deep and rich but still has articulation. The jazz pickup is tight and fast and selecting both sounds more like the jazz pickup but with extra depth.

I know. When the Nazis secretly stepped up re-armament in 1934 it was discovered that German domestic production of aluminium was insufficient to meet the Luftwaffe's needs. Increasing imports of block aluminium would have tipped off foreign intelligence services. Ernst Udet Goring's Director of Aircraft Research and Development the veteran WW1 fighter ace Ernst Udet hit upon a cunning plan to secretly acquire the aluminium necessary for air frames. Through intermediaries in Portugal, Spain and Switzerland Udet purchased 40,000 Rickenbacker Frying Pan guitars, the bodies of which were made of cast aluminium. The guitars arrived in Lisbon, Madrid and Basel and then secretly shipped to an off-the-books foundry in the Ruhr where they were melted down and recast for use as aircraft components such as fuselage longerons, ending up in Junkers bombers including the much-feared Ju87 'Stuka' dive bomber. Due to combat attrition in Spain 1937-1938 and replacement for wear and tear it is unlikely (though not impossible) that any of the Rickenbackerkampfflugzeuge (Rickenbacker war planes) flew in action during the period 1939-1940. As every schoolboy knows, the ME109E's which fought the RAF during the Battle of Britain had nothing to do with Rickenbacker, being constructed from melted-down Kramer necks.

Going to see Aswad on Sunday at the Havering show 🙂

A common dab writes: "Frankly I'm getting a bit peed off at the constant misuse of my name. Whether it's contemporary dance or those infernal sherbet things, although ironically I'm quite partial to liquorice actually, I think it's because the aniseed helps to cut through the overwhelmingly seaweedy flavour of pretty much everything in my diet, which I suppose isn't all that surprising when you think about it. Well for god's sake, you try eating anything else with your mouth on bloody sideways, see how you get on. And yes, I think you look bloody silly too. Where was I?"

How about 'Not actually a fish'..? Unless of course you do actually self-identify as a fish, in which case I apologise humbly for causing such grevious offence and please don't sue me.

I've been a bit slow with this one. A couple of weeks ago a Stingray 5HH popped up on Gumtree at a moderate but not low price, but offering trades for a Marcus Miller Jazz (as well as Flea Jazz). I had my MM since October 2018 and we were getting along just fine. It was a rarer sunburst model from 2010 and in immaculate condition. Alas, the thought of a straight swap for the SR was too tempting. I replied to the ad and we quickly arranged a trade the same day at a nearby McDonalds. As ever with 'layby trades', I took my battery loaded Zoom guitar pedal and some headphones to ensure it actually worked. And it did. Trade done in 10 mins with a bit of a gear chat. My initial thought process was of greed, as the Miller was worth about £750, and the SR5 easily £1000. I could flip the SR and buy another Miller, pocketing £250, right ? Alas, the SR is a bit too good. I can get any sound I want out of it and the EQ is just perfect. New set of strings and a setup and clean and it does everything I want. Will I keep the instrument for more than 12 months despite my gushing praise ? History suggests not. But it's a good story isn't it.

On point 3 I feel the need to mention Peavey Milestone basses (of which I have two, they were 'nuts' cheap used £50 & £60 with Hiscox case). Given that they are alder bodies, BBOT bridge, maple necks, rosewood boards and J pickups I do not find much difference between them and my USA Fenders and G&L basses. The machine heads are not the greatest but the rest is really very well built. Wish these had been around in my youth - Woolworths K bass, Avon SGs, Jedsons, Columbus sort of F copies etc. were less than satisfactory. I could and do gig with the Peavey basses.

It really won't, it won't make a blind bit of difference. If your girlfriend goes off with your best mate, does it help if it was your girlfriends idea rather than your best mates idea? So he is going to join a band to make them look better and then deliberately pick songs that the singer will mess up and they will sound a crap band playing live so that the rest of the group decide to get a new singer? I hope it sounds better in his head than it does when said out loud!

I’m marvelling at its lightness. Then I find the decals @LukeFRC did. And the badge. Sweet.

You missed a trick there, fishy mcfishface

I like that the amp is too big, it's very Spinal Tap 👍

'You don't want to know where my fingers have been'

There's a new Parts List up on page one of this thread, which includes a revision and details of the screws you'll need.

Got my hands on a Stella this morning. I guess that folk who know me will be aware that I'm a bit (ok a lot!) of a skeptic when it comes to compressors, although I did quite like the 'devil's one knob' Spectracomp as I could finally hear a compressor doing something useful / positive to my sound. The Stella is clearly quite a step up from the Spectracomp in its feature set (and a corresponding hike in price). I've a got a fair learning curve to get up to speed with this comp, but my 'day 1' impressions of the Stella are very positive. Subtle but positive impact on tone** is immediately there to hear and in line with expectations of a VCA compressor which are supposedly fast and relatively transparent; really good metering and multi-faceted control including wet / dry mix and side chain filter both of which should aid in preserving a fulsome low end. Already had a BC buddy wanting first dibs on this pedal when I move it on - but I've got a sneaky suspicion I may have finally found "my" comp so it could be a while before he gets his hands permanently on it! ** not yet clear to me is the inherent character of the pedal and how much is down to compression, though!

You must be very young then, and only seen cordless kettles ie those with a base and a removable jug. There used to be another type of kettle where the jug was not cordless. Instead of being permanently wired to its lead, there was a separate lead with a connector technically known as IEC60320 variation C15 (on the lead)/C16 (on the appliance inlet). C15/C16 is the notched variation, for high temperature applications (.......such as a kettle), however the very similar looking one without the notch, C13/C14 (lead and inlet respectively) became widely, but technically incorrectly, known as a "kettle lead". AFAIK a C15 variation will normally go into the C14 inlet although it might be ever-so-slightly bigger, because the notch is designed to prevent a C13 lead (not high-temperature specification) going into a C16 inlet (ie appliance requiring high-temperature variation specification) so is keyed as such.

#fisharepeopletoo

I can do it for you (as you can see!) - what would you like?

A Space Elliot for air amplification I think.

Bit of progress on the neck pocket. First up, hogging.... I make my pocket templates individually for each guitar I do. It doesn't take that long but does need a router table. Basically I clamp the neck on to a piece of 12mm MDF, then stick down 3 straight edges using double sided tape, pushing them up against the neck to get the shape. If you haven't got 3 straight edges then 3 pieces of MDF cut straight work just as well. Once they are stuck down the I use a guided bit in the router table to cut the template to shape. The advantage of this technique is that you are using the neck itself to shape the template. Once that;s done I then cut two piece of MDF on the radial arm saw at an angle of 2 degrees. These will provide the angle needed to cut the neck pocket. So the template is finished:

John Hall will want custody at weekends

Sorry if it’s the wrong thread but here are some of mine on the settee ...

This thread is useless without 'that' Partridge clip...

Hi all i acquired a beat up Ibanez 300 the other day that i was going to use parts for a project, but after stripping it down i decided to have a go at repairing it, on close inspection it was clear whoever owned it was a bit rough with it they must have smashed it or stood on it they had two 4 inch screw's holding it together and a rubberised sealer stuff filling the crack then it was covered in chequer plate and the edge of the body was painted with hamerite, i took the two pieces and cleaned them up as best i could without removing too much wood and glued them together then i routed the crack and glued a new piece of wood in to strengthen the break, i am going to do the same on the back,

Just finished an afternoon recording a bass part for a couple of friends. Gave them the option of flats or rounds and they opted for flats. Realised that I'd never recorded with flatwounds before, and what a revelation! The best recorded bass sound I've ever enjoyed. So hard to put into words but it had an organic authenticity, and a fundamental thick rubbery satisfying sound. Great day. Used my B3 for a touch of compression and an amp sim and the engineer was pleasantly surprised with results. As I was myself.

I think these are up to date. https://dshowmusic.com/line-6-helix-amp-models/ https://dshowmusic.com/line-6-helix-effect-models/

I think that any genre of music can be played on any of the most popular basses. Could you not play jazz on a P bass? I know I could. And for young beginers, cost is usually important. I think this list would be very useful. Frank.

As one little fish said to the other little fish: Do you believe in cod?

***PLEASE NOTE IN ABOVE PIC THE INPUT PANEL IS THE WRONG WAY AROUND. IT GOES THE OTHER WAY! ***

Well this amp is the one that just keeps on giving. Removing the power amp board revealed the FETs have been replaced. Probably the consequence of running it off that high power PSU. Both fets had 'rubberised' insulators, one with compound on one without, but they looked like the work of the same person (the part numbers for both fets are written on the board in the same fat felt pen). Probably along time ago, as the original Hitachi fets, now obsolete, were used. I replaced all the insulators with mica ones and servisol heatsink compound - best to have them all matched. Also redid the compound on the heatsinking. End result, offset voltage still 0.2V, low enough to be acceptable. That's 1/100th of a watt wasted compared to 16 watts when I started, and there's now no visible displacement of the speaker cones. Most importantly, with parallel fets each one now has to handle ~75W instead of 150W, which is probably a good idea when they are individually rated 125W. Best of all, I've learned the amp inside out and if it DOES fry in the future I'm confident at worst I could rebuild a complete replacement amp from the ground up.

After reading the Rose Morris article, you'd think they'd make more of all those Rickenbackers they sold to Hitler.

Deep sea bass of courses 🤧

To make bass stand out a bit, take your track and click "Effects" > "Change Pitch". Select a "Percent Change" of 100. This will raise the pitch of everything by one octave. Next it's "Effects" > "Bass & Treble". Move the "Treble" slider extreme left and leave the others normal. After that the song itself will sound a bit weird, like Alvin and the Chipmunks are singing it, but the bass is much easier to hear. Just remember it's now an octave higher than it should be. You can then make it even better apparently using EQ but my initial efforts at doing that were so cack handed that I decided to stick to just using those two effects.

Close to the Edge. Back in the day I played it so much I had to buy another copy. Now I have it in every format. Relayer would be a close second. The only band I have seen in concert more often than Yes would be Jethro Tull.

Under the "Effects" menu at the top there is a "Change Tempo" option. Edit: To loop stuff you have to highlight the bit you want to loop and then press <Ctrl> + C to copy it. Then go to the "Tracks" menu > "Add Track" and select the new track it's opened up. Press <Ctrl> + V to paste the bit you want to loop into that new track. Add another track and copy it into that as well. Now you will have 3 tracks and the same section listed on 2 of them, but at the same time. Underneath the "Analyse" menu there are six buttons. Choose the one that looks like "<->". That allows you to drag the sections around. Select one of the sections and drag it to the end of the other so they will play one after the other. You can click the one that looks like a typing cursor (like a capital "i") to be able to select again later on. Then just copy the section into the empty track and drag it to the end of the other one to loop it as many times as you like. Finally click the "Mute" button on the original track so you don't hear it when you play it back. Then you can use "Change Tempo" to slow it down.

We have several designs of shirt. Every time a new one comes out we get a freebie. I generally wear them for work, normally under an open Levi western shirt or the like. We never wear them on stage. The only 'band' t-shirts we've allowed anyone of us to wear on stage is our drummer, wearing his Motörhead t-shirt - bear in mind we're an 80s indie band.

Oddly, although these are universally known as kettle leads, kettles often have a slightly different one, with a little notch in, designed for handling much higher currents than even the loudest bass amp.

Sad news. And what a great bass player - I learned a lot from him and other rock/jazz/blues bass players of that era. Played some wicked bass solos - such as on this track from 1970 - on a Precision bass - and some nice walking bass parts. http://youtu.be/zRzZgNlyQ7U He also confounded the Fender experts by announcing he bought a new black slab bodied Precision in the 60s from a music store in the US, thinking it was just a normal Precision - it is visible on the Monterey Pop film!

as everybody says, Tony is a top gent. Sold my preamp to him and everything is so easy and smooth that I now have seller’s remorse. 😜 enjoy the preamp mate. 🙂

I just picked up a Vintera P yesterday and it's considerably better than the Classic 50s P that I owned for a while. Everything about the build is better and, in my (dubious) opinion, the seafoam green and gold pg combo is disgustingly delicious. Nothing new about it per se, but it's an improved take on a decent instrument in the 50s P. I needed a P and more than happy with the quality for the price.

My Harley Benton JB-75, albeit with retrofitted Fender pickups, has ousted my EBMM Musicman Sterling, Fender Geddy Lee Jazz and soon to go Fender Player Precision. I was going to get another but those J&D basses at DV247 have mighty similar headstocks and come in nicer colours so I could be going for one of those next. I don't believe that there is anything that can be defined purely as a beginner instrument. I've had 140+ basses and could have chosen something costing thousands but chose a £140 bass instead as my main player.

Been playing air bass for forty-odd years now and still can’t get on with a Rickenbacker air bass. So uncomfortable...., An air Precision with flat wounds is fantastic though.....

Firstly look out for anyone you know who's got a larger than life personality and is maybe a bit of a showoff. Whether he can sing that well is of secondary importance. I'm not being facetious. There are many bands out there with good enough singers but few who are larger than life showmen/women who can command a stage

I'd start in the kitchen......specifically, at the kettle.

I'm married to the singer. It's like taking a packed lunch to a buffet. 😂