Leaderboard

NBD! Ive wanted a 50’s style burst/gold/maple p bass forever. This beaut popped up on reverb and i snapped it up to replcae my outgoing Burns Bison (i need to learn that im just a p bass kinda guy!). Despite all my basses wearing flats the actual plan was for this to get a set of groundwounds. The 78 Tokai is on flats and ud my main axe, this was going to be back up. However when she arrived i whacked flats on until the grounds arrive and she seems to love them!! Now im torn whether to keep the flats on or not! Planned also to swap out the pups but again they sound great. Neck is wider but much shallower than the Tokai, certainly not uncomfortable. Here they both are chilling out

I’ve had this bass for about a year now with Heavy flatwounds on and foam on top of the strings - Jamerson. I do mainly studio work so it’s just bang on perfect! £150 bass and played on probably 4 albums worth of songs with very happy customers!

SWASHBUCKLING (SCROLL TO BOTTOM FOR ANOTHER TALE...) A seminal moment in my life loomed. We were booked to play support for Johhny Kidd and the Pirates at the Ritz. Johhny Kidd was one of the brightest stars in the rock'n'roll firmament. He was the only British singer who was the equal of his American counterparts. He was right up there with Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent and Bo Diddley. More than that, he was a great songwriter. I'd have given my left bollock to have written 'Shakin' All Over'. His backing band, the Pirates, were quite simply the best band in the world. I'd seen them twice before; once at the Regal Cinema in Llanelly, supported by Vince Eager and Wee Willie Harris, and once again, about a year later, at the Ritz. But this was different. Until now I'd only been a member of the audience at a Pirates' gig, but this time I'd be sharing a stage with them. I'd get to meet them. I'd get to talk to them. I was ever-so-slightly straining at the leash. The big night rolled around, but we had to play the L-Club first. The moment the last chord died away we started packing the gear. We slung it in the van and raced over to the Ritz. The Pirates' gear was already set up. Like us, they were a three-piece. On a centre-stage rostrum was an industrial-size drum-kit and, on either side, matching cream Fender Showman Amps tipped back on their stands, aimed at the balcony. Just looking at the stage sent a shiver down my spine. I got the same feeling, years later, when I stood in front of the temple of Rameses II at Abu Simbal in Upper Egypt. We found them in the dressing room and, starry-eyed, shook hands with them. They were friendly but self-contained, keeping a humorous distance. Johnny wasn't wearing his eye-patch. The eye-patch was source of much controversy. The music press was agog with curiosity. Did he really have something wrong with his eye? Or was it just a sick gimmick? Johnny told reporters that he had been changing a string on his guitar just before going onstage and it had snapped and hit him in the eye. He'd borrowed an eye-patch - there's always someone around with a spare eye-patch, isn't there? - and because it went down well with the audience he'd continued to wear it. If it offended anybody, he said, he would stop wearing it, adding pricelessly that he'd probably have his leg off and wear a peg-leg instead. 'I only wear it when I want to be recognised.' he told me. 'When I take it off, nobody recognises me.' 'I would,' I said. We went on and played out of our skins. The highlight came when Johhny Kidd stood in the wings and watched us for a couple of numbers. Then it was their turn. As Micky Green, the Pirates' guitarist, walked past me on his way to the stage he held up his guitar for me to see. It was the most beautiful guitar I'd ever seen. It was beautiful, like a bulldog is beautiful. 'It's a Fender Telecaster,' he shouted over the back-stage noise. 'It's the same guitar that James Burton uses.' Earlier in the dressing room we had declared our mutual love of James Burton, Ricky Nelson's legendary guitar-player. It was no surprise to me that James Burton was one of his influences. You could hear it in his playing. Green was probably the most startlingly original guitar-player in the world, but in there somewhere you could hear James Burton. If you want to hear Green at his most sublime then listen to his solo, done in the style of Burton, on 'Ecstasy', itself a beautiful song. Burton must be turning in his grave. If he was dead. Which he isn't. I stood in the wings and listened to the best band in the world. The Telecaster was a revelation, sounding fat and percussive. Now, I'm quite prepared to admit that this may have had something to do with Green's monstrous talent, but even so there was no disguising the sound of the guitar. 'I'm gonna get one of those,' I said to him after the gig. The following day I dispatched Quasimodo to London to buy me one. I didn't know how much it would cost so I gave him £200. Three days later he came back with a Telecaster - £127, plus case. It was a sun-burst, Custom Telecaster. The only difference from a regular Telecaster was white piping around the bodywork which, to the uneducated eye, gave it the appearance of a semi-acoustic. I tried it out and it was magnificent. 'It was the only one in London,' said Quasimodo. 'I got it in Ivor Mairants' shop. They said they'd had it in the back of the shop for about two years and I was the first person to ever ask for one. At first they thought I was joking. They asked me what gear you used and I said an AC 30 amp. They asked me what echo-unit you used. I said you didn't use one. Just the AC 30. They didn't believe me. They said everybody uses an echo-chamber.' These were the days when ninety-nine per cent of guitarists were Hank B. Marvin clones. Marvin, the pedestrian lead-guitarist with Cliff Richard's backing band, the Shadows, played ghastly, wooden riffs, drenched in echo. It proved to be a seductive style because it required very little skill to execute, thereby putting it within the reach of the most average of guitar- players. Eventually it went the way of most fads, dying from lack of substance, and a thousand useless guitar-players hung up their guitars and became accountants - which is what they should have been in the first place. They were part of the past and I was part of the future. Who says London is ahead of the game? As chance would have it, we supported Johhny Kidd again at the Ritz a couple of months later. This time we booked another band in at the L-Club and got to the Ritz early. We set the gear up in the darkened hall and ran through a few numbers, among them 'My Babe', a Pirates tour-de-force. Halfway through the song the swing doors at the back of the hall burst open and a bass-drum case slid across the polished dance floor, followed by a guitar-case. Then Johnny Kidd and the Pirates walked in. They stood at the back of the hall and listened to us. At first we felt a bit sheepish but then we saw the smiles on their faces so we turned it on. Suddenly Johnny Kidd, dressed in a black, thigh-length, leather coat, ran towards us. He leapt onto the stage, grabbed the nearest microphone and began to sing. The beauty of rock'n'roll dreams is that, occasionally, they come true. We kept 'My Babe' going for far longer than necessary. When it was time for my solo Johhny Kidd pointed at my Telecaster and grinned. When we finally finished, the rest of the Pirates jumped up onto the stage and clustered around my Telecaster. I handed it to Micky Green. He looked it over, then played a few searing, chopping licks. 'It's great,' he said. 'It's a Custom. I've never seen one before.' Then Johhny Kidd had a go. He liked it too. Then Johhny Spencer, the bass-player, had a go. Even Frank Farley, the drummer, played a chord or two. We talked guitars for a while and then they began to wander off. As Johhny Kidd left, he took me by the arm. 'If you're ever looking for a singer,' he said, 'give me a call. Who knows? - the Pirates might sack me one day.' 'The job's yours,' I said. As if I wasn't happy enough Micky Green stood in the wings and watched our whole set. Occasionally we caught each others' eye and exchanged knowing smiles. My life has been downhill ever since. Of course he could have been bored; I know how tedious all that hanging about can be, killing time until the show starts. But he could have gone for a drink in the bar, couldn't he? And he didn't, did he? Then Johnny Kidd and the Pirates went on. I stood in the wings and for the last time watched the best band in the world. Occasionally I caught Micky Green's eye and we exchanged knowing smiles. At the end of the night we said goodbye, wished them luck, and waved them off. We never played together again because two years later, in October '66, Johhny Kidd was killed in a car crash. Why do they always take the good ones? Why didn't they take Hank B-bloody Marvin instead? The Telecaster, being such a rarity, proved to be a major fascination for visiting star bands. Whoever we supported at the Ritz would first enquire what it was, then ask if they could try it. The Hollies came to town and after the sound-check Allan Clarke, their singer, took one look at it and commandeered it. He sat on the drum rostrum and started to play. I waited politely, hoping he'd get fed up, but he didn't. 'Can I have my guitar back?' I said finally. 'I've got to shoot off,' 'Oh, hang on a minute,' he said, playing an A chord and letting it ring. 'This is great.' I couldn't get it off him. Just then Graham Nash wandered across the stage, obviously bored. 'It's an Esquire, isn't it?' he said, after a cursory glance at the guitar. 'They're a bit limited.' 'It's not an Esquire,' I said frostily, 'it's a Telecaster.'. 'It's great,' said Clarke. I had to go over to the L-Club so I told him to leave it in the dressing room when he was finished. And off I went. When I came back, about an hour later, he was still sitting on the drum rostrum playing the Tele. We had to go on so I wrenched it off him. 'I'm going to get one of those,' he said. I have to say that the Hollies were a bit sharp. They didn't seem to count numbers in. They just started together. I tried to spot somebody counting-in on the sly but I couldn't see anything. 'Just One Look' and they were off. But I did notice that Graham Nash, who played a black, acoustic guitar, was plugged in but not switched on. Now what do you make of that? One Saturday night after the gig in the L-Club we rushed across town to close the show at the Ritz. There was a band already playing when we arrived but we didn't pay much attention to them as we slung our gear into the backstage area. But then we stopped to listen. They were a bit good. They were a band from Merthyr called the Bystanders. They had quite a reputation and Dave Scott had been trying to book them for some time. They were playing the Shirelles' song, 'Baby, It's You'. From behind the curtain they appeared to have about twenty-five singers; four-part harmonies soared into the ether and someone out there had a majestic falsetto voice. We walked around to the wings to see what they looked like. There were five of them and, inexplicably, they were all wearing fancy dress. The falsetto voice came from the lead guitarist, a diminutive figure enveloped in a huge Bud Flanagan fur-coat. We met during the changeover. While he took his amp down I set mine up. 'How's it going, buttie?' he said, offering his hand. 'My name's Micky Jones.' I could have turned and walked away. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble. But I didn't. I took his hand and shook it. 'Deke Leonard,' I said, not realising that when the history of the world is finally written this meeting would take its place in the pantheon of memorable encounters alongside Livingstone and Stanley; or Doberman and Pinscher; or Robinson and Caruso. I later discovered that the Bystanders liked dressing up. I'd see them many times in the years to come and they'd usually wear snazzy, blue suits with collar and tie but, suddenly and for no apparent reason, they would adopt fancy dress. I assumed they were filling some gaping chasm in their collective psyches but I didn't dare delve too deeply. Some things are best left locked up...

Not bad. Bit more fettling to go.

Top Tip: Preempt these scammers by removing the value of what they hold over you. Make your own video of yourself having a barclays and send it to all of your contacts before they have a chance to send theirs.

I am actually quite jealous of you. I wish I was beginning my bass life with all the tools that are available for you these days. Back when I were a lad, we had to move the record stylus back and forth on t' turntable to learn our parts. You try telling the kids of today! 😏

Not much done today, but I have got most of the rest of the bits - certainly enough to do a quick mockup to check if Matt wanted to go with black or metal pickup rings. He's opted for metal. The bridge and rings are chrome ones here from my bits box - the nickel ones are on the way. Also, the other bits are not yet positioned, but it gives an idea of how it's starting to look: So tomorrow's job will be the pickup chambers.

I can do Kitchen on Fire!

I give you, my Frida Kahlo......

wish I would get one of these, I could ask him how he got my webcam working, I've been trying for hours without any success.

I don't understand it. I've tried to follow James Jamersons hot sauce recipe exactly as he first made it... But somehow it just doesn't taste the same as the original............

Fixed.

Good evening fat fighters. How many of you like bass? I like bass, don't you? Hmmm? We all like...every now and then...to have...a bit...of bass. Oooooh, I love a bit of bass. Hmmmm. Oooooh, bass. Oooooh, bass. We LOOOOOOOOOVE the bass. Bass. Bass. Bass. Bass. I'm just one of these people. I come home and I need a bit of bass. Buttery. Biscuit. Bass.

I’m pie & mash, simple, dense & filling.

Just before we were sent into our houses for the foreseeable (big shoutout to those key workers who are out making the world go round), I bought myself a Squier Classic Vibe 70s Precision bass. I had sold a Squier Chris Aiken bass last year that I had modified with EMG GZR pickups and really regretted it, so it was time for another. I wanted a P bass that I could leave in the back of a van or not worry so much if it gets knocked or, to a lesser degree, nicked. I've got some great basses but it's hard to relax when you've got a couple of grand on a stage in a dodgy venue! I needed a 'cheap' bass. So here she is... £339 from A Strings in South Wales. They had two in stock, this and a brown one. The brown one looked cooler on the Internet but the black looked better in real life and this one played better. I also wanted a bit of a project - I enjoy taking guitars apart and wanted my new bass to be different to everyone else's. So I decided to set myself a bit of a challenge, Top Gear style (but without the laughs and million pound budgets). A cheap bass challenge it was then. I gave myself the challenge of spending 10% of what I paid for the bass on each upgrade - maximum of £34 per modification. I'd been looking at P bass pickups and the prices you can pay are crazy - you can easily spend 50% of what I paid for this bass on fancy pickups alone, so I thought I'd try a few budget conscious options out. First to go was the bridge. The bass played very well to begin with, but I've always had a problem with the thin, bent metal bridge that Fender supplies on its poverty instruments. I find they wobble a bit in the saddles and don't feel secure. So I ordered a Fender High Mass bridge from here -> https://mickleburgh.co.uk/shop/fender-jazz-bass-p-bass-brass-bridge-assembly/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItePq_P7q6AIVQbTtCh08ZgWEEAQYAyABEgISgPD_BwE for £34. I wanted to see if the age old forum rumour was true - does a bridge increase sustain and improve tone? To find out, I recorded myself before changing the bridge and after. (Soundcloud link at the end, and no it doesn't!) The new bridge made the bass feel a lot tighter, and better screwed together, weirdly. It also added some weight to the very light body and helped it sit a bit more nicely on a fabric strap. It's a quality item, with well machined parts and no sharp bits. Intonation was easy to sort and it required very little saddle adjustment to get the bass playing nicely again. I'd recommend Fender's Hi Mass bridge. In terms of sound, I didn't hear any difference. See for yourself in the Soundcloud link below. The notes don't sustain for years like people say and the tone of the bass remained the same. I never understood why someone would want a bass that sustained for ages, I've certainly never found any use for 2 minute long sustained notes... yet. Happy with the bridge, I decided to try some new pickups. The pickups that came with the bass were a pleasant surprise - they had character and a nice output. The tone control was useful and helped tame some top end but it could also let the bass 'bite' when you wanted it to. I decided to change them just because I had some free time and I was curious. I had acquired a set of Seymour Duncan SDP-1 pickups courtesy of @shoulderpet. They arrived really quickly and I set about carving up my bass to try them out. They needed a little soldering, but I fancied a challenge. Unfortunately, I was only getting sound out of the E and A strings. Upon going through everything with a fine tooth comb (and a magnifying glass), I had realised that in trying to solder a connection from one half of the pickup to the other, I had lost the end of the winding. I had probably lost it when I put some heat on the solder point and it had slipped out of it's hole and gone missing. Bugger. I shelved those for now and I ordered a set of Entwistle PBXN pickups to see what the fuss was about. Whilst I was waiting for them to arrive, I decided to shield the insides as per @la bam's awesome thread on his John Deacon bass. I had noticed a bit of noise when I wasn't touching the strings previously so thought why not. I got some aluminium tape and went to work on the gizzards. It's a surprisingly therapeutic thing, putting foil tape in the pickup cavity, but my attempt did look a bit like a 5 year old had finished it off. I put some on the back of the pick guard and we were done. This was the tape I used, a whole £4.09 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fixman-190288-Silver-Aluminium-Adhesive/dp/B00FHXA7TE/ref=pd_nav_hcs_rp_2/258-0320931-5931511?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00FHXA7TE&pd_rd_r=abbd6043-4e0b-4aae-9843-e48fde7dfe81&pd_rd_w=LHmq1&pd_rd_wg=TIXYi&pf_rd_p=12e82a50-703f-4e6f-ae56-e22f8e18f1f0&pf_rd_r=M0X9MJ3HJM004AQ0HFH7&psc=1&refRID=M0X9MJ3HJM004AQ0HFH7 The new pickups arrived from Pickupsplusmore on eBay (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Entwistle-PBXN-pickup-for-bass-guitar-neodymium-designed-by-Alan-Entwistle/233364897542?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649). First thing's first, these pickups are DEEP. The screws that go through the pickup go pretty much the entire height of the pickup again underneath. I had to cut the foam that kept the original pickups secure in half and put them either side of the screws that hang down. After a quick test with a tap from a screwdriver and happy that they worked, I tried to refit the pick guard, but as is well documented on here, the 'ears' of the Entwistle pickup cover are bigger than the originals. IMG_3912.HEIC Luckily, I had the Seymour Duncan pickups here which I salvaged the pickup covers from. Popped the Entwistle ones off, put these on, and the pick guard fit. Voila. I'm not a badge snob by any means (in fact I'm a bit gutted not to be representing a British guitar legend), but the Seymour Duncan covers look cool and the Entwistle pickups are superb. Using neodymium magnets obviously gives these pickups an increased output, but they can sound aggressive and menacing or they can chill out but keep a fat, smooth sound. There's more of everything - every frequency seems to have been turned up by 4 or 5 notches. Playing with these pickups reminds me of the first time I plugged my old MiM Jazz into my friends Fender Bassman 135; it made my bass sound higher in quality compared to playing through the shitboxes I usually went through. There were deep, rich overtones and each note left my bass beautifully. I feel like that is what these pickups have done to this bass. I'd be impressed if they were £130, but they aren't. They're barely £30. Honestly, a brilliant buy. I recorded this bass throughout the (admittedly limited!) mods. I've uploaded them to Soundcloud with a fingerstyle, a slap line and a picked blues tune to give a bit of a range. The fingerstyle pieces were played with the tone at 50% but the rest had the tone fully open. There is no compression, no touching up (oh matron...) or do-overs, or even a backing sound. Just the raw sound of the bass with all of my mistakes after each mod. So in all, this bass has cost me: £339 - bass £34 - Fender Hi Mass Bridge £29.49 - Entwistle PBXN £10 - Seymour Duncans (that I ruined, sorry!) £4.09 - Aluminium Tape Total = £416.58 I'm really pleased with everything, and all upgrades cost no more than 10% of the bass. I've spent around 23% of the bass' new value modifying it. God, lockdown is fun, isn't it?

I’ve made a video about Pino’s sublime fretless bass line on the intro to Paul Young’s, Wherever I Lay My Hat. Pino quotes an interesting source for part of the melody. Anyone know who that source is?

If you shout loud enough into the speaker can you put electricity back into the grid?

I still haven't got mine, but the people at Kenny's have been doing a great job of trying to track it down for me, and and even better job of keeping me informed about their progress. All this for a ten quid sale - they've certainly impressed me, very good people there.

Yes I can. There’s a tonal characteristic I’ve clearly heard across several different instruments with different body woods and electronics from different manufacturers. The common factor in each case was a wenge neck and board, and it’s not been present in any other neck material. It’s a subtle difference I’ll grant you but I’m not getting into a debate about whether woods affect tone!

Happy Friday, it’s a lee scratch perry one from me , from 1976, Robbie Shakespeare on bass

Makes my 3 ash bodied basses that little bit more special then; I love an ash body!

Looks great doesn't it. I have the mini 15 to go with it so looking forward to the opportunity to set it all up. Probably overkill for my kitchen though. Bigger gigs I'll probably run it alongside my ABM500 and 610 as I've done before with my little Five 15 head.

I'm in the club 2013 TNV6

Lovely work👌 Love mine too. A bit beat up now and a Luthier lost the truss rod cover, but she is a beauty. Strung with 30s through 90s. Slapadelic 😎. Had her second hand from Musical Exchanges in about 1990.

Oh go on then - if I must...

Yeah took afew along the road. A fair few mistakes and lessons learned but luckily turned out well. Used Crimson Guitars Stain and Oil

I'm Vegan: sparse, lean, tasteless and and lots of GAS

Just passin' through

Some of my favourites. I realise some of it might not be for Reggae purists but I think music should do the talking and sod everything else.

looking forward to this now!

Hey guys! Finally did the finishing bits on my BBN5 yesterday, really pleased with it overall! Not quite sure what to do about a headstock decal yet, or maybe just leave as is. Maybe one of the 3d roundals off the newer BB's would look good?

I got an old multigym from a friend a while back for my son but he didn't use it so I converted parts of it into a handy stand for drying guitar bodies or necks once a finish was applied. The body has now had a sealing coat and a couple of coats of satin lacquer applied by rattle cans. The finish has turned out quite nicely - helps when the weather is dry and warm.

Yup if you run your DAW and record a bass track you can apply an EQ and see the eq curve dancing away on playback. I've just been doing that with some 'new to me' jazz pick ups. Always handy to know where a particular instruments has it's EQ peaks and troughs. I had three p bass which all had visibly different EQ when put through this sort of 'testing'. Meant I had a better understanding of each from an EQ'ing perspective. One had quite a bump at 500Hz, one was quite pokey around 300Hz etc. Sure we can hear differences in some basses but it's good to know based on actual evidence if changes are needed to fill things out/cut out freqs on a gig.

I guarantee none of you have a bass quite as impractical to cart around as the Octabass.

Anything by Rob Wright. Try this for size.... oof.

Thanks so much for your kind words 🙂 I'm really looking forward to gigging with this band. And of course, I wish all on BC to get safely through this awful period and back out there again doing what we all love, whatever it may be 🙂 Dave

I joined and originals rock band a week before the lockdown started so I have plenty to learn while I'm under house arrest. Shameless plug here 😉 https://rattlesnakesister.bandcamp.com/

Have a look at Ariane Cap's website - she markets a wall chart that covers bass theory. https://arisbassblog.com/music-theory-wall-chart/ Of course, it may not meet your needs but it's worth a look! 🙂

I'm a DIY home cook. Rarely use a recipe, often substitute ingredients for ones I don't have but the finished dish usually tastes good, to me at least. My concoctions may have a flavor of the original, but with a subtle difference. Never wanted a Michelin star. Too much pressure and heightened expectation. People sitting down and thinking "Go on then, impress me". And from what I have heard keeping the coveted star often means the food is pushed to the background and presentation and fancy sauces take over.

Just posted on Facebook - must’ve had a delivery. Think These are the special artist orders from Namm.

In my head I’m a pan roasted Sonoran yucca heart with chokecherry reduction sauce, The reality is I’m a soggy chip.

Don't worry too much about playing open strings. Obviously an open string will ring out until you stop it. This can sound messy if you don't do it immediately. Why she plays open A for this song is beyond me when clearly the A at the fifth is clearer and easier to play. It's obviously her style and is in no way beneficial to the song. You will eventually get used to muting with other fingers and it will soon be second nature.

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Check this bass wiring bible for ideas. It's in German, but the drawings are in any language you want. 😉 http://www.ak-line.com/medium/Bassschaltungen.pdf