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Hello, I feel ashamed about my first dialogue with Adrian when I received the Bass. But my order were 6 january (Nordstrand pickups take long time to get it). And when he sent me the picture of the bass finished, I asked him two times about why It was shining in the picture and the weight, and he didn't answer me. When the bass arrives and saw it shining with no answer I fell into shock. Next thing, I appreciate the fissure etc and coldn't wait to receive answers. I've just write him this email (add). I'm not arguing with him, only looking for a peaceful solution. Thank you.

Pot taper is the same on mine. Personally, I don't consider it to be an issue. Main issue here (IMO) is poor comms from Adrian, but I can't help thinking topping and tailing your email with: 'Hello Adrian. Thanks for sending the bass. I have a few questions... ...thank you.' ....might have started things off on a better foot.

I just bought myself one of the Fender Vintera Mustang basses to add to my selection. It's the first short scale instrument I've owned, and it's fun to use. I find myself playing more "busily" than I would on a standard scale length bass. When I got the bass, the Pau Ferro fingerboard looked pretty dry and anaemic. So, Ioosened off the strings and set about dressing the fingerboard. I scraped the board with a single edged razor blade to smooth off any raised grain in the wood, then buffed the board with super fine steel wool. The next stage was to apply lemon oil. This was left on the wood overnight to really soak in to the pores. In the morning I wiped off any excess left over. The end result is a board which now looks dark and lustrous, and feels super smooth to the touch. I've also received a set of medium scale La Bella flatwound strings to use (I got medium scale as short scale strings would only be usable on top loading short scale basses. The Vintera has the traditional "through body" stringing, so needs a slightly longer string length to accommodate this). I've also got a Nordstrand NM4 to use if I want (I mat also fit a couple of solid shaft CTS pots too, and a switch craft jack - just because I have a few unused ones in my "bass bits" stash at home. Oh, and the Hipshot lollipop tuners that come with the Bass are very cool!! Fingerboard - before, and after.

We must always remember. Whatever we buy, however hard we work, 99% of audience members and other musicians will not notice. I've told this sorry tale before but i'll tell it once more. Played a gig, which was going down a storm, My Eden 8x10 combo (God I loved that rig) failed with a few songs to go. When i say it failed, it began responding to the bass with horrendous farting distortion - not anything even close to resembling 'tone' . I had no back up so I looked despairingly around at my bandmates who just blithely carried on. Rather than do nothing I played on with this horrrible noise where notes should be. At least it was in time. No one. Not a bandmate, not one person in the crowd, not even my mate who was there to watch me, no one noticed. I learned a valuable lesson that day. Whatever we do is for our amusement only. So buy basses you like, amps and cabs which please you. Nobody cares.

Ghastly sticker jobs? I'm in 😁

While I'm glad and grateful that the government is offering £1.57bn, I'm going to hold off jumping for joy until I see how the funding is being dispersed. The £1.57bn is described as being a rescue package for "the arts" and the prime minister and Oliver Dowden and Rishi Sunak are quoted as saying that figure is to cover museums, cinemas, galleries and theatres as well as the opera and classical venues which already receive heavy corporate sponsorship in many cases. It's not necessarily a "bailout" for the music industry. 90% of independent festivals and venues are facing going under in 2021, and I've yet to see any mention that this is going to be addressed. The UK music industry is a huge ecosystem that goes way beyond just the musicians on stage. Obviously we all know that many concerts, gigs, shows or recitals (if you're refined!) require a team of often unseen staff and workers doing their best to make it happen. So yeah, there's the band onstage, but there's plenty of other heroes and heroines doing their bit too, many of whom will be freelancers. Like road crew and drivers. Techs and backline people. Sound crew. Light crew. Maybe a DJ or two. Bar staff and cleaners. Door and cloakroom staff. Promoters and venue staff. Or if it's a big show or a festival there'll be caterers. Portaloos and the people who install and manage them. Artists liaisons and site management, etc, etc. There's often an army of people of people behind every show working their horses off to make it happen. It's not just the folks onstage, it's the entire industry that supports and enables the show to happen. It's an emotive issue for me as I rely solely on live and studio earnings to pay my bills. And it irks me that we've had to go cap in hand to a government that clearly didn't want to get involved, just to get a bone thrown to us. Well, maybe to us, maybe not to us, it waits to be seen how the bailout package funds will be allocated. Naturally I'm apprehensive about how much of the £1.57bn will actually "bailout" the music industry. France gave €7bn to save their music and culture industries back in May without having to be lobbied for it so £1.57bn isn't exactly 'world beating' really. Sorry. I've gone on a rant! 😂 I rarely rant on about anything and I don't want anyone to think I'm having a political dig at anyone. This, to me, is a cultural issue, not left or right or centre, and it affects so many of us. "Cause even if you're not gigging, you might still want to go to see live music, or buy records, CDs or tour merch. Or you might have friends and family who are freelancing as roadies or techs and their careers could be on the line. Instrument manufacturers and repair techs are at risk right now 'cause if musicians go to the wall then everyone who depends on them go too. 'Cautiously optimistic' is how I'd describe how I feel about it, but I'm not holding my breath. (Only cos I need both hands to type and my fingers are crossed) Right. Rant over. Enjoy your day BC folks and let's stay hopeful about our musical futures. ✊

As an old git/OAP, I'm often astonished by the quality of "budget" instruments, when I compare them with what was around when I was starting out in the 1960s/70s. Modern CNC machinery means consistently accurate manufacture and it's rare to come across a real dog nowadays. The main question when buying is "Do I like it?", rather than "Is it good enough?" A decent set-up is usually all you need.

Just took delivery of this today, the neck is sublime. nice flat D profile and so smooth to play , I have owned a few Fender Basses in the past this one just feels so good. looking forward to recording with it shortly.

In my furloughed boredom I'm actually quite tempted to screw a set of tuners, a bridge and a P bass pickup and electrics to the 6"x6" uprights on my carport, record the open EADG and then record the open EADG of my P bass and see if there is a significant difference.

Very much this. There is no denying that the selection of woods and construction of acoustic instruments has a massive effect on the way they sound. When the projection of the sound is produced by a carefully selected single piece of wood, braced as little as possible to withstand the tension in the strings and attached to the rest of the instrument (whose size and shape also have a significant bearing on the tone) with minimal contact points - again just enough for the body to withstand normal playing use and little more. Compare that with the typical solid electric instrument body. Great thick chunks of timber slavered in glue and cut and joined in a way to maximise the number of bodies obtainable from a single board. The shapes while harking back to acoustic designs are often more to do with what is now visually acceptable based on the original solid instrument designs, and have no bearing on what may or may not sound best.

But how far do you take the resonance angle though when pickup type and placement and strings will have far bigger impact on the sound of a bass. You could have the most resonant bass in the world, and then fit flatwounds, roll off the tone and play over the neck which will alter the sound far more than any wood can. Alternatively have what some would regard as a dead, non resonant bass but fit stainless rounds, crank the treble and play with a pick and it will be bright and more resonant than the previous example. Everything makes a difference, but some so small it's not worth worrying about. Comparing to acoustic instruments is, in my opinion, pointless as an acoustic relies on it's body to create all of it's amplification, of course it makes a far bigger difference to an electric instrument which relies on, well electrics for it's amplification. To take it to the extreme, fat bass players will dampen the sound more than skinny players due to the large area of soft bodyfat in contact with the instrument absorbing frequencies compared to a smaller area of denser abdominal muscle and hip bone which will absorb far less of the basses frequencies. If body wood type has a large enough impact on resonance to be of concern then so should the build of the player the bass is strapped to. So all you fatties can stop worrying about tonewoods and either get on with playing bass, or get in shape to improve the resonance of your bass. 😁

You f ecking heathen. 🤮

My Glockenklang Blue Rock maintained its sound without change in tone, welly, thump etc, all the way up. I would not rule out all class D using a generalisation.

It does at that. Had a look on the Kiesel FB and thought most of instruments had horrible finishes e.g. the natural wood look, the Buckeye Burl, the Leia and the DC127 in Hot Pink Crackle . The Buckeye Burl looks like it's been rescued from a garden bonfire. There's one guitar that looks like a crime scene from Dexter

I hadn't paid, over the years, more than about £600 secondhand for a bass, until recently. What I found, when I did splash the cash, is that although an expensive bass (ie in the area £2000) is nice to have, you don't get that much more for your money. I know many bassist who play cheapish basses, who get a great sound out of them. Edit: I'd recommend investing money on amps and cabs, before spending on expensive basses. A cheap bass through good gear, will sound better than an expensive bass through bad/cheap gear.

Eastwood Hooky Bass 6 PRO will be shipping within the next 3 weeks...

Pretty much anything with a Yamaha badge on it. Bass, guitar, brass, drums, keys, tech. The price range is almost irrelevant, you always seem to get quality beyond the price you pay.

Yeah, but isnt that dance track, "Move, Move, Move. Move, Move Your Body" just about the same thing?

Leland Sklar is who I've been watching. He's played on more tracks than anyone else and whilst not every episode has him playing, he knows virtually everyone and has an anecdote from almost every session he has done.

Magic. It's not attached when you buy it, so just glued on.

I believe Trip Advisor gave it the top ranking

I'm still in the kids taking up most of my time outside of work (and that's brilliant btw once I finally got my head around it and refocused my priorities!) except I'm 10 years down that road but still there as my eldest has full on ADHD and autism, but all good! 🌈 For the last few years I've been getting a new bass every 6 months on average, doing the one in one out thing. Changing to suit whatever I'm listening to. Sounds mad but I have really enjoyed it! Playing with GAS when there's not much time to play has kept me sane and in the game in a way! What I'm getting to is that things have really progressed for me during lockdown. I'm back in touch with some of my besties (I live far away from where I'm from) as everyone has had to get along with Zoom at al.. I'm now getting 15 minute drum tracks off one mate who is amazing. I'm pottering around my day listening to them, scatting basslines as I go and coming up with really original stuff that's exciting me. I record said bass scatting along to the track then work it out when I can grab my play hour Amazing what you can do without holding the bass and just letting your imagination get involved unhindered.No same old patterns to hold me back. I suggest getting involved with others online and create. Just because. Just because it's fun! No commitments, dip in for an hour when you can and just enjoy the therapy from life that music provides. The payment is doing it. Yes, a new bass can bring you on and inspire you for sure. Having some project to yank your chain, getting you thinking and something to work towards much more so! I hope you find your mojo mate. Big hi 5.. you got this! 👊

Another one from the American Psycho album...

It's far from easy to explain. This is an extremely complex subject and, as is the case with so many complex subjects, many have opinions about it that are founded not on fact but on their own suppositions. They will also tend to dismiss what others say as "nonsense", or worse, with no evidence to support the assertion. I did point out above that one should apply sensible limits to materials choice (balsa, to quote an extreme example, would obviously not be a good option, because of its lack of structural strength or rigidity). See itu's post above, in which he makes the (true) observation that two pieces of the same species of timber can behave very differently. As others point out, the variations between various hardwoods, or other materials such as Masonite, resins and so on for building bodies for solid electric instruments are minimal and tonally insignificant. If you have scientific evidence to the contrary, I'd love to see/hear it. Methods/quality of construction and electronics are the things that make real difference.

The Uptown Top Ranking (totally love that song BTW) reminds me of the kebab shop I saw in the Spanish town of Altea. Well it amused me enough to take a pic anyway!

Looks like Dave Swift may be a holder of insider information...

The Sandberg Electra's are a bit over the £500 threshold but bleddy worth it - fantastic budget Sandberg instruments

Because I neglected the cheese wire warriors over the last few updates they got the big reveal first. It's finished!! Three coats of varnish over the weekend, interrupted by going away and it's now installed. Sensible handle for @Stub Mandrel. It's got a maximum opening of 250 mm, any more than that then the screw disengages. Side to side, is technically the width of the room, realistically, a meter would probably be enough. Likewise depth is also about a meter, but that's only because the floor gets in the way. 1500mm maybe before the end is too high to work on? If the leg met the chop all the way down then you'd get an even clamping force all the way to the floor, about 900 mm, long enough for a through neck So there it is. It's a little rough in places and certainly not perfect but it works, it's solid and I suspect will break whatever goes in the jaws before it does. The weak point is the M6 coach bolts, I think they'll bend first. If they need to be bigger in the future it's not a huge job to do. I hope you've enjoyed the trip into the Heart of Darkness, and that all the mistakes have been made by me for you, should any of you want to make a variation of it.

Will dent if you breath heavily on it

Only the OP will know what will give him the spark, and I'm with @itu in suggesting that there are a list of other things that might be tried. But I say that as somebody who doesn't have any other distractions like a demanding family life. I've actually been using the extra time at home to make an effort on specific things - playing 7 string guitar being top of the list, but writing bass parts has kept me busy too In more usual times when I'm in need of a spark, for me it's changing the strings - new fresh zingy strings and I'm away. I did actually get a new bass this year and I played that every day for the first month, and it's still an inspiration. But the purchase was carefully planned, and in the absence of a new bass, fresh strings, every time

I've found that MB doesn't necessarily sound the best close up, but out in the room, it sits really well in the mix. I've heard several players using MB amps and have always been impressed. The sound just seems to fill the space properly. Some of the amps that sound good in the showroom can fall a bit flat in a live context, when the tonal subtleties you liked in the shop are drowned by a full band.

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@Angel Whatever you decide on ; get decent cutters. You want things to cut smoothly, that's not going to happen if the blade gets blunt halfway round. Oh, and keep a swear box handy . If you're like me you'll be in profit by the time the build's over 😀

Spot on. Thankfully I don`t make my living from the entertainment industry but hopefully this will provide some help to those who depend on it to live.

No, it’s not.....but it’s not exactly the nicest customer email either IMHO. Of course if someone isn’t happy, that’s fine, and the onus is on the builder to remain calm and helpful, but I see both sides. To me, looks like a normal nitro finish. Foam in the truss rod cavity? Come on, it’s clearly just to plug it, take it out if you don’t like it lol. ‘Things in the fingerboard wood’? What things? You mean the kinda whitish stuff in the Rosewood pores? Welcome to open-pore wood....it’s completely normal. Scratches in the back, yeah not ideal, but welcome to nitro, nobody buys a nitro finished bass and gets annoyed and scratches and bumps. So absolutely bring up the fissure at the neck pocket, but to me, the initial customer email (with quite an attacking vibe quite frankly) was largely unwarranted. I wager that if the OP had led with only that as an issue (and not all the other unwarranted stuff), Adrian’s reply would have been more helpful. Basically, choose your battles. (Foam in the truss rod cavity 🙄 lol) Si

There’s a nice laid back drum beat on this one lowbelow 🙂

I thought I had a nice barn to play in, but even I have barn envy at that.

First thing first....protect your ears! Ringing ears after a rehearsal is not good. Save a bit of your budget for some quality ear plugs...if you do you'll probably hear yourself better for a start and your hearing will be saved, you really don't want tinnitus.

Stickers? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Ed Friedland (The Bass Whisperer), is a favourite of mine. He is a pro bassist, who also writes books on how to play bass. His bass reviews are to the point and articulate. He also tours and records with The Mavericks, a US Mexican/Americana type band.