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11yrs cancer free today! Rock on!

I spent decades wondering why my bass playing improved so slowly until I picked up my first short scale and realised I should have been playing them all along. I think people are coming round to the fact that full scale basses have precisely no advantages over smaller, lighter, easier to play short scales. Definitely try one, if we weren’t mid-global health crisis you could probably walk to my house and try mine out!

77 here 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿...would love to try a Doug Wimbish out the Jazz type neck would suit me to a T hopefully.

WTAF ?

Update time.... four have gone in the last month (crossed through) and two have arrived (in bold)! (PRE-KRAMER) SPECTOR SB-1 USA 1976 (Walnut/Maple) (PRE-KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2 USA (Cherry Sunburst) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2 USA (Black) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2 USA (Black) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2 USA (Gloss White) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2 USA (Tobacco Sunburst) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2 USA (Red/Black Lava Crackle) - Ex-Barry Dunaway (Yngwie Malmsteen Band) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2 USA (Red Stain) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2A (Gloss White) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2A (Black) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2A (Black) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2A (Teal) SPECTOR NS-2 USA (Custom Holoflash Black & Abalone) SPECTOR NS-2X USA 'Spectorbird' (Tobacco Sunburst & Abalone) SPECTOR Euro CR (Holoflash Black) SPECTOR Euro CRFM(Dark Purple Stain) SPECTOR Euro CRFM (Plum Stain quilt) SPECTOR Euro CRFM (Forest Green quilt) SPECTOR Euro LX (Gloss White) SPECTOR Euro LX ‘Ian Hill’ (Black) SPECTOR Euro LX 'Rachel Bolan' (Black/Silver Sparkle) SPECTOR Euro LX (Black Stain quilt) SPECTOR Euro LT (Violet Fade quilt) SPECTOR Euro NS-2 JA-CR Euro RI (Gloss White) 1 of 82 SPECTOR Euro NS-2 JA-CR Euro RI (Black) 1 of 82 SPECTOR Legend 4X (Holoflash Black) SPECTOR Legend 4X (Black Stain) SOLD STUART SPECTOR DESIGN NS-4 Euro (Red Stain) DINGWALL D-Bird (Blue/Purple Colourflip) WAL Mk1 Fretless (Mahogany with Stained Maple facings) WAL Mk1 “Geddy Lee” (Black with Gold Hardware) FENDER Precision ‘70’s Jap RI “Phil Lynott” (Black/Mirror) FENDER Precision '70's Classic' Jap RI (sunburst/Blocks on maple board) FENDER Precision ’62 Jap RI (Vintage White/Red Tort) FENDER FSR Precision PJ Deluxe Active (Sea Foam Metallic) 1 of 150 FENDER FSR Precision 70's RI (Nat Ash) FENDER Jazz Bass Special Japan "Duff McKagan" (White Sparkle) FRANKENSTEIN Tele neck/P body '"Billy Sheehan - The Wife" SOLD JACKSON "Kip Winger" Sig (Cherry Lacewood) JACKSON TBX-Pro ‘Jacksonbird’ 1 of 56 made (Black) JACKSON Ontario ‘Concert Bass’ (White) HAMER Impact USA (Black & Gold ‘Marble’) HAMER Impact USA (Red) HAMER Impact (Copper/Gold) HAMER Scarab USA ‘Rick Savage’ (White) KRAMER Forum I (Flipflop Blue) KRAMER Ferrington Electro/Acoustic (Black) ESP The Surveyor 1984 (Blue Stain with Blue fingerboard!) ESP PPJ-160 ‘Masayoshi Yamashita’ Sig Model (White) ESP/Zep-II PPJ-160 ‘Masayoshi Yamashita’ Sig Model (Black) PEAVEY RJ-IV “Randy Jackson” Sig Model (Red Sunburst) PEAVEY RJ-IV “Randy Jackson” Sig Model (Grey/Silverburst) PEAVEY “Rudy Sarzo” Sig Model (Dark Natural) TOKAI ‘Hard Puncher’ P (Black/Mirror) TOKAI Works TW801? (Black) FERNANDES MV-65NS “Nikki Sixx’ Non-Reverse Spectorbird (Black) FERNANDES MV-65NS “Nikki Sixx’ Non-Reverse Spectorbird (Black) FERNANDES MV-65NS “Nikki Sixx’ Non-Reverse Spectorbird (Black) FERNANDES TB Ltd Edition ‘Thunderbird’ (Off-White) SOLD YAMAHA BB3000 (Black Sparkle) ARCHER KS3 "Kasim Sulton" Sig Model ARIA CSB Black & Gold (Black) G&L Tribute Legacy L-2000 (Honey) SOLD PEDULLA Buzz Deluxe Fretless (Black) HARTKE XK-4 Active (Black/Chrome) GUILD Pilot (Purple Burst) GUILD Pilot (Red) BASS COLLECTION California 'Rickenfaker' (Natural) SOLD MUSICMAN USA Sub Stingray (Black) HAGSTROM Super Swede "Rutger Gunnarsson" (Dark Mahogany) EPIPHONE Thunderbird Vintage Pro (Black) EPIPHONE Thunderbird Vintage Pro (Tobacco Burst) ITALIA Imola GP "Ricky Phillips" (White) HOHNER B2A w/D-Tuner (Black) HARLEY BENTON PB-20 Precision (Matt Black) FELINE/SPECTOR "Gene Simmons SB-1" Copy (Black) FELINE/KRAMER "Gene Simmons Axe" 1980 Hybrid (Black/Silver) PUNISHER "Gene Simmons" Ltd. Edition (Signed/#’d) (Black) AXE "Gene Simmons" Ltd Edt (Signed/#’d) (Black/Silver) CORT “Gene Simmons Axe-2” (Black/Silver) CORT “Punisher GS-2” (Black) STACCATO MG Active (1 of 34 made) (Black/Magnesium Alloy) I also have 10 'guitards'.... ....and another Spector incoming before Xmas!

OK - we're on the final furlong. - Grandparenting duties done and a clear run until Christmas (and maybe beyond!) - MrsAndyjr1515 sufficiently irritated with my week-long presence in the daylight to actively encourage (ie, push) me back down the cellar - Frets levelled, re-crowned and polished - loads of 'air-bass' playing on the test strings to confirm action heights and intonation ranges - final bits all on hand (I'm pretty sure) to finish the job And today I sorted the truss-rod cover magnets: The wenge cover will match the colour and sheen of the headstock once they have both had the same number of finish coats. I have chiselled a tiny nail relief at the apex for easy removal: The finishing of the neck (silky smooth Tru-oil slurry and buff as done on the other basses of Tom's I've worked on) has also started. So remaining jobs: - fit luminlay side dots - fit the pickups - install the Dunlop inset strap locks - string it up with the new Status strings - take the arty-farty shots - wait for a Covid-secure time corridor for Tom to be able to pick it up!

The terms seem quite consistent

This was my experience too, especially being a bit of a short ar5e myself. A wrist injury eventually made playing 'normal' basses all but impossible for more than a few minutes. A mate of mine who works in health care, and is also a bass player, suggested trying a short scale to see if that helped - and it was a revelation. I could now play for hours without cramping up and the tighter fret spacing made playing feel ridiculously easy compared to my old big basses, so much so that whenever I pick up a 34" scale bass it feels cumbersome and impractical. I've slowly replaced all of basses with short scales now and can't see myself ever owning anything longer. Fnarr. While it could be a passing fad, I suspect that there will be a few existing players either picking one up or even transitioning exclusively (another mate of mine who's also been playing for decades is doing just that), not to mention new starters being attracted to the ease of playing compared to the standard monoliths. After all, it's a legal requirement that every short scale review must describe the bass as 'fun'! So I think they'll be hanging around for a while yet. While they may not eradicate the standard scale bass, they do the same thing in a smaller, lighter, more comfortable and easier to play format. Why make life difficult for yourself?

Saw Hawkwind last November at Guildford. A friend of mine was doing the sound for them so I got to meet some of the band and crew on their tour bus before the gig. All lovely guys, very friendly and funny. They brought on special guest Eric Clapton for half a dozen songs towards the end of the gig, EC and Dave Brock being old friends from long ago. I watched most of the gig in the wings behind the monitor guy, and managed a brief chat with EC. A really enjoyable evening. (Oh yeah, I sold the bass player my old Trace AH500 head too!) 😊

Back to Spector. Saw this on Spector's FB page. Killer looking NS4. The guy for whom it was custom built must be one happy guy. Very jealous 😉

If this doesn't cheer you up.............

"So remaining jobs: - fit luminlay side dots - fit the pickups - install the Dunlop inset strap locks - string it up with the new Status strings - take the arty-farty shots" And the one I forgot - earth the bridge blocks Pickups are in: And a blurry picture of the inset strap locks installed:

Don't laugh... Ibanez SRMD 205. Mezzo (32 scale) £299 and use some of the rest to upgrade the pickups and preamp.

Actually I already did, and just had a very quick reply! He's escalated it and then I had a message from the head of customer services who is getting the depot to search for it. Fingers crossed! The Paypal refund will be easy enough, but would rather have the bass back for him!

The problem I have with allowing the thicker part of the string into the speaking length is it means the unit mass of the string is not constant for every length which will affect the intonation. I've experienced this effect (in the opposite direction) with taper wound strings where the full thickness winding does not start immediately after the saddle. I realise that we are talking tiny amounts here, but the difference in tone is also relatively small, so it's going to be a compromise between accurate tuning above the 12th fret and how important those tonal "improvements" really are. Personally I couldn't hear anything that a good parametric EQ couldn't have duplicated in the context of a full band mix with the bass guitar sitting in it's appropriate sonic and volume space.

Update time! . . . . . (Yup! 😢) 😁

Again, at 1,700 quid, he is most probably not talking about a Sterling by Music Man or similar, a set of cheapish brands, but about a historic model called Music Man Sterling (which I believe they brought back a few years ago too - haven't seen them though). The brands were named after that model, and the model was probably named after Sterling Ball, son of Ernie. This is what was meant above with "full-fat American", as this model was 100% San Luis Obispo, so to speak.

And a bit more progress. I started on the body contours, using the trusty Shinto rasp. I love this thing. Every wooden object around me is going to have a nice round-over when I'm done with it. I've gone for a kind of Ibanez style gentle curve on the belly cut, and a flatter one for the arm cut. The arm cut is making me nervous because I have to bend the maple cap over it, so it probably won't be as curvy as a real Ray. I really enjoyed this part of the process. I don't seem to have pix, but I added small round-over with the router to the entire rear edge of the body. It looks sophisticated to my eye: sometimes the big round-overs on many basses look a bit generic to me. Anyway, here are some photos. Frankie has returned to his role as supervisor.

DaVinci Resolve. I know it says it costs £239, but if you scroll down to the bottom of the page there's a link to slightly less featured free version. IMO Premier isn't worth it unless you are already paying for the Adobe Creative Cloud in which case it is essentially free.

Yes, it’s taken me along a long and interesting journey to realise that the tone I use at home isn’t the right one for band use, and that a scratchy/rattly/gainy sound isolated comes across in the mix as a really good bass presence. All learned via Basschat I should add, though I’m sure someone somewhere will provide statistics that prove otherwise 🤣

Apparently I once saw Hawkwind performing on the back of a lorry at a Stonehenge festival. I had no idea it was Hawkwind, I had no idea I was at Stonehenge. I had most of my belongings stolen by three gentleman from the Windsor Chapter, including my DMs, I had no idea this had happened.

Well, I am not an expert at these things, but I would put the rug on the floor

First layer of finishing oil on!

It's the physical presence of the barrel of the jack plug that acts as 'on/off' switch for active basses. As long as there's a jack in the socket, the pre-amp is switched on. An 'on/off' in the lead will not affect this, so the battery would still go flat over time.

Ugh! Unplugging! I bet you take shampoo and conditioner into the shower...

I've just done a quick'n'dirty download and micro-test of this, and it's darned good. A couple of magnitudes faster than Resolve, and very much more lightweight in its approach. I managed to import, line up, chop around and overlay a few clips, with fades, in a few minutes whilst eating dinner. Thanks for the tip; it may well replace my other softs.

The "Anvil Chorus" (Coro di Zingari) - Verdi

I needed to do exactly the same thing, ended up making my own adapter using one of these off ebay. Works fine: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162947860761 Easy to do. Just cut the end off one of your dc cables, then attach the little wires inside to the screw terminals. NB they will most likely be red and black, and you will need to connect the red one (usually from the pin) to the positive terminal. Then wrap the whole thing in some heat shrink or insulation tape. Job done. If you don't fancy DIY, Temple audio make an adapter that does what you need, but its expensive.

Yamaha 5ers are amazingly good for the money. A used BB425 will leave you plenty of change but not leave you feeling short changed.

All the instruments since 2015-16 have that logo - to do with a change in the law in the US (California) at the time meant that because elements like the tuners not being made in the US or California prevented the previous logo being used. Easier to look at the front of the headstock? Old Smoothie 40th Anniversary - 2016

The blue is on the left and the red is on the right. 🤣 Same question for me...

Unless of course it’s a Stingray Special which is made in the USA but has a different logo on the back, just to cause more confusion!

Here's one I did with Adobe Premiere earlier this year (my son already has it so I used his account). I've used Vegas before, so had an idea of how to fly it. It took a few days to do during lockdown, using a sound track produced in Reaper Edit to say, all footage was taken on mobile phones and sent to me using WeTransfer

The one the Prof is referring to is the full-fat American version. There is also a 2006 Stingray in the For Sale section, going for a bit less than a grand.

(ahem) Sony Vegas. Honestly, if I can make it work for me virtually anyone can: just drop your footage in (on separate tracks if you prefer) then cut, chop and copy to your heart's content.

So I downloaded all 1.6Gb of DaVinci Resolve (free version), extracted & installed the software, and fired it up. It wanted me to create a database, with a password. WTF? OK, so I did that. It offered me the opportunity to add a folder. OK, so I did that too. It lets me 'enable sharing'. WTF? Share what, with whom, and why? Ignored. It allows me to 'optimise'. WTF? Optimise what, and why? Ignored. It invites me to 'create an access key". WTF? Key to what? Why do I need one? Ignored. What it does NOT let me do: Search for media files Bring anything up on screen Playback anything Edit anything Do anything remotely useful And of course there's no on-screen Help or an option to Get Started. With recommendations (above) from both @BigRedX and @Dad3353 it's clear that the software is more competent than I am, but it's equally clear that this is a P155-poor interface and already dangerously close to being uninstalled.

Have a look at Newtone. I discovered them because they were local(ish) and back in the 90s would custom wide you almost anything so long as you ordered 3 or more sets. I'm currently using their Axiom Bass VI sets on all my short scale Bass VIs. If I was looking for strings for a 4-string short scale I'd ask them which of the short scale sets they do, are the closest to the lowest four in the Axion Bass VI set.

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This is one of the main reasons I'm not a tone chaser. Also why I know that the SVT is, and in all probability will remain, the finest amp I ever played through. I've come to enjoy the tone I get at home but never chase it in a gig. Too many variables Rooms vary, ebb and flow of bodies changes things, sound engineers make you sound how they like it, and different mates or band members giving you the nod in a pub soundcheck have their concept of levels too. And most importantly what I hear won't be what the audience hears anyway. The SVT by the way just sounded awesome in every single setting.

The regular LX is solid flamed maple. The LX Jazzman has a swamp ash back, equal to the FNA Jazzman. I never understood why they're different.

Guild single coil pickup.

I’ve found that it seems to give a slightly higher tension. And it might be all in the mind but it seems to be a deeper more resonant sound. Though to be honest I string through the body mainly to both stop the ferrules in the back possibly falling out, plus in case of string breakage, it’s much easier to get the strings out than if strung through the hi-mass bridge - the ball ends can get pretty tight in there.

I was hoping to do a few more of these this year, but a crappy few months in the middle got in the way. I've finally got a bit of time again and Douglas's picture felt like I nice change from pushing myself out of my comfort zone - that's an image that left me right in the middle of it so I could barely see the edges :). Like many I've gone with what I felt was being played, and having listened to the others now I'm not the only one that thinks Aliens sound like rock guitar through an envelope filter! For anyone interested: Steven Slate Drums, I started off with Groove Monkee midi but the original is only there in the "chorus" now, I re-did the rest. Bass is Stingray 5HH through an Idiotbox Blower Box and a Hotone Omni IR loader. Guitar is a PRS Custom 24 through Amplitube's MESA amp sim and their excellent Nu-Tron III envelope filter. Not loads of FX as it might sound, but their is a little trick in the playing to make the filter freak out for the Alien vibe. Synths are all NI, there's a Form preset in there sort of backing up the bass and filling in the middle a bit (that one gave me a headache as it won't go to Mono without losing loads of volume, but it sounds good) and FM8 for the "breaks". There were things that I played live on the keyboard that became these parts, but they got hacked around a lot. Mixing and mastering... hmmm. Still mostly done by guessworks, some light use of a few of Waves CLA series plugins and then the Infected Mushroom Pusher at the end, because it seemed to suit the style. Having a listen on an Amazon Echo was a bit of a revelation, it sounded rubbish in Mono until I fixed a few things. All good learning anyway. I enjoyed it anyway