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What a superb demo. Never heard of him but he's fab Gratuitous picture of my Bravewood

The recent passing of the legendary Little Richard reminds me of a holiday in Fuertaventura where I met a super guitar player who was doing the season over there. Prior to this he had done a lot of work with Noel Redding..... So the story goes... Little Richard invited Noel back to his yard after hours. Anyway apparently after settling in as you do, Little Richard clapped his hands and out came the bowls of marching powder. He clapped again and a bloke and woman appeared and started having rumpy pumpy there and then. To which Little Richard proclaimed 'and now we shall w%nk'. Noel replied 'I'm ok ta I had one earlier'. Nearly spat my beer out at that one Classic rock and roll there. What have you all heard on the grapevine then?

Decent afternoon of progress. Found the scratchplate! Fitted it, measured, cut, fitted, measured, cut, etc. Then sand to make sure the lines flow. Finally I have the curves I wanted! Next up, scrape the edges with a Stanley blade. Genius idea, @Maude - worked a treat! Firstly I marked a 2mm line all the way around so I knew how far to scrape to (using a sharpie taped to a pencil and ramming a screwdriver in to get the correct distance from shaft to tip (shnarff)). I put a bit of copper strip under the bridge, along with some silver hifi speaker cable for the new earth wire. Bridge now on for good. Also had to put another block of wood in the cavity so the control panel can fix to something. Made a nice big hole in it so I can thread the neck pickup wire through it, then realised it could have just run along the side. Doh. My Heath Robinson approach is evident here with the use of spanners to assist the clamp in holding the block in place 😂😂

A couple of random pictures from the web of typical truss rods. Apologies if I'm posting something that everyone already knows. This is a single action truss rod This type will only tighten to counteract the force created by the string tension. One end is fixed typically in the heel of the neck and the other has a nut and washer on it. As the rod is fixed it doesn't turn but tightening the nut applies tension. This is a double action truss rod This type has a fixed beam with a couple of threaded blocks on that are welded to the beam. The threads are opposite hands so when you turn the threaded rod it becomes longer or shorter than the fixed beam so bends and can apply pressure with the strings or against them. I don't know what type of rod your bass has in it but the first impression would be a single acting rod with the nut and washer missing - I might well be wrong though!! Be interesting to see what others think.

Ha! I am lacking most refinements, but you’ll be glad to know I do drill pilot holes! Cant wait to crack on with this in the morning.

Lee Sklar, 12 minutes of solid gold sense.

Almost any Bob Dylan stuff. Rare exceptions; very rare.

Could get mates to ship the Joe Dart bass - that one really does look like a $500 bass!

Although I played the original to death when it came out I now much more prefer listening to Dub Side of the Moon by Easy Star All-Stars.

Not surprised. Noone wants to hear U2 songs!

Reveal time. The picture above, which incidentally is the corner of our patio, is the reflection off the back of the bass. I made it black 'n' white and cropped it as it was obvious what it was when red with the outline. I couldn't believe how clear the reflection was in the photo. I know, I'm a little sad. 😄 I just want to get it rebuilt now but waiting for parts.

That's not even CLOSE to being the ultimate.

Where would you like me to start? 😉 Unless you are under 10 or on holiday somewhere hot, no-one wants to see your pallid, hairy legs and knobbly knees. Keep the covered up in public, and while your at it go and tidy your bedroom. It's a mess!

Day 46 - Zevon

The record company are putting our album out next month. I played bass and co-produced it. Just a shame we can't tour it! https://www.bucketfullofbrains.net/news/richard-davies-the-dissidents-debut-album-human-traffic-to-be-released-on-june-12th/

I wanted to draw people's attention to this as it took me 'kin ages and I am not altogether sure who looks at my Transcription Archive page. I have completed a FULL transcription of Chris Squire's bass part to Close To The Edge. I have been meaning to do this for years and, now we have these 'Isolated Bass' things on YouTube, it's a no brainer. A labour of love, this one. Close To The Edge Bass Part.pdf

With decent internet and proximity, it is possible to play online (and record and livestream) in realtime, in high quality, with other musician(s). There are plenty of programs available for this but they're all quite similar. I've put up an exhaustive tutorial for one particular method, on Youtube. It's a long video to cater to absolute beginners, but the process itself is pretty short and you can use the timestamps (in the description, on Youtube) to click through quickly once you've cracked each section. This topic has recently gone from being a niche pre-occupation of mostly interested amateurs, to something of interest to most professional musicians. I'll be getting together an article to summarise the principles of this type of software, to try and help us become 'informed consumers' of it, in the same we as we are informed consumers of bass gear and so on. Enjoy.

Very frank , funny and forthright.

Oh my days. I have just watched this. I know it's Bobby Vega, but the tone is quite possibly the best thing I have ever heard, especially the bit at the end when he plays Wind Cries Mary... Now if you watch the same session with the 60s/80s P and Jazz, they don't come close for me. Has he added some extra flavour or are these bad boys that good? I know Dusty Hill swears by his, but I could never get over the look (pick guard and headstock especially I think). Feel a bit sick that I could have completely ignored this style of bass due to aesthetics alone😞.

Hahaha @hookys6stringbass you beat me to it

Hooky has signed the contract for his signature bass.... not long now

I had the same head too, for about 20yrs. Lovely tone shaping, just never got to use it loud: even volume 1 through a Trace 150w 15” cab was enough to get me told off.

+1 for the AH250 GP12 SMX. i won't part with mine

I could put black paint in the cracks and then flat it back to create an effect like Lichtenberg burning. 😁

I've just received delivery of a tortoiseshell plate, so I swapped it for the ivory white plate that was originally on there. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

No, it's still here and not going anywhere. Also the eBay one has a painted neck by the look of it, mine is natural.

There are plenty of singer-songwriters who have had their work arguably covered by 'better' singers - as well as Bob Dylan you could also include Burt Bacharach, Kris Kristofferson, Brian Wilson and Jimmy Webb for example. However for me there is always something about hearing the originator of the songs performing them that cuts through somehow.

...and especially if at the end of them there are socks and Jesus sandals...even if it's 50 deg C in the shade!

The pallbearers carrying the coffin down the aisle to the sound of Dave Edmunds' 'I Hear You Knocking'.

Meh, that's not a Mustang. Two pickups and the wrong bridge. I could go a JMJ though... 🙂

6 pages of largely negative posts. Which I largely agree with, but I think you're all pointing out examples of bad choices and bad bass playing. It's not the technique's fault that people don't use it with good sense and taste.

Have you got any mates in the US who could ship this to you (Jazz width neck) and say it’s a $500 bass https://shop.music-man.com/ernie-ball-music-man-stingray-special-slo-special-hh-black.html

Yep. Thankfully we don't get yodelling in songs anymore or "funny" noises from the sounds department or whimsical ditties from ageing comedians. We can choose which music we listen to these days and we never have to listen to "drivel". Back in the day, if you wanted to hear the latest Joe Cocker song you had to sit through children's choirs, brass bands and singing nuns. It was no fun being discerning a music fan back then. You needed to be patient and long suffering to get to the few gems that were broadcast.

Yes, getting the book-match on that Jarra was not easy, but well worth the effort, as the end results show.

Yes, I watched this as clarinet is my main instrument (the one which I'm most competent playing), and Mrs S plays the flute/oboe. Top-notch musicianship displayed by all, although to return to the theme of recorders I wasn't too impressed with the piece of recorder music that required playing 2 recorders at the same time. Shades of 'Hit me with your rhythm stick" sax playing I suppose. I did play alongside a YMotY finalist when I was at school and was hugely impressed by his ability - in quite a difficult piece (for me) he changed to his A clarinet and proceeded to transpose on-the-fly just for fun. I think the oboe player was a worthy winner of the group.

Very much this! I've said the same about amp and cab sims. I really don't care if they are perfect reproductions of "the real thing". I'm much more interested in the versatility and range of tones available and the fact that they are all instantly and accurately recallable at the touch of a switch/button. After all there is no bass/amp/speaker combination that sounds perfect without some fiddling with the pickup balance, EQ and gain structure.

Check the logos first when there is one, then the lining, then the tolex, then the hardware. It's a tough job, I know, but it's musical archeology.

Go easy, the OP is thinking of buying it so presumably likes it. Do you have any more pictures of it, especially how the (extra?) knobs have been fitted and what price is he asking? As said above, it looks to be a generic P/J that someone's modified and dependant on price, you could possibly spend your money more wisely. But if it's cheap enough and you like it then go for it. 🙂

As I said on the other thread, I love my Variax, but I look at it as a bass with a huge array of tones available at the turn of a knob, whether they sound exactly like the modelled basses matters not to me. I also like how the note length changes with settings. One minute it's bright, clangy, aggressive with lots of sustain, then it's warm, thick and muted with no sustain without having to mess with pickup selector, tone, foam mutes, etc. In a varied cover band setting it's great.

Don't know about the song going in yet but at the end it's Jools holland enjoy yourself it's later than you think.

I like Scott's Bass Lessons. I have a lifetime membership. But for me his technique accelerator course on teachable was a game changer. I don't think I've really had any bad experience with online content. Something to be learned everywhere.

And while I’m waiting for the scratchplate to magically reappear, I stuck all the bits on to see what else I need to do. The cavities need cleaning up and re-shielding, I need a little block under the front of the control plate To fix it in place, but really I should be able to complete this quite soon! Crap night time pic...

Tidied up my guitar corner. Current collection: 1989 Washburn Status S1000 2012 Spector EuroLX TW 2004 Fender Jazz MIJ 2019 Schecter Baron H dig I'm looking for a nice P bass to round it off.

Nothing funny or poignant in my choice, just my favourite ever song, Seasons in The Sun by Terry Jacks.

I hate that it is automatically associated with funk. Slap is not funk. Funk is about space. Slap is, unfortunately, used by many as an opportunity to play more notes than they should and, therefore, is the opposite of real funk. Used sparingly, slap is fine. Abused as it is by seemingly 95% of those with twitchy thumbs, it is an aural abomination.

Love the slap and always did. Still tend to use it a bit for effect - it's just another sound. This forum gets itself tied in knots over it in exactly the same way as "who needs more than 12 frets", "the fender precision is the only bass I will ever need" and Jaco was just tuneless noodling. Also, if your bass doesn't supply enough bottom end when you slap it, you're not doing it right, you're using the wrong bass or you've not set up your sound properly. Forgive me basschat - I'm just in that sort of a mood today!