Leaderboard

This Build Diary is a bit different this time. A little introductory text and an image and then a link to a video. It's a bass that I made in the workshop whilst submerging myself in the music of Maceo Parker and his band(s). So I call this bass "Maceo" by way of a tribute. The bass players on Maceo's discography are mostly Jerome Preston and Rodney "Skeet" Curtis. Those guys really put the "F" in Funk! If I have done this right, the link below will take you to the video post on FB. I don't think Basschat supports video itself? The Making Of "Maceo" video is the pinned post over at the top of my Facebook Page... I hope you enjoy it together with some background music courtesy of Max Manning on guitar and myself on Bass and violins arrangement, with Damon Clarridge on drums. Our buddy Craig Blencowe gets a credit for lyrics - but we're keeping the vocals up our sleeves for later!

Just a heads up for a couple of things on Sky Arts today (Sunday 31st Jan)), channel 11 Freeview. At 5pm till 8pm there is Rush : Time Machine Live in Cleveland 2011. Not my thing but know there’s a lot of fans of the band on here. Then from 9pm to midnight there is The Eagles : Live from the LA Forum concert, from 2018. This was on recently in case you missed it. Cheers.

I've radiused the fretboard using a block and sandpaper - it's welcome exercise during these times! I started with 180 grit then worked through 320, 500 to 1000 to finish. Next, I cut the fretwire to length. I bought 5m of Japanese nickel silver wire a while back and this is the first build I've used it - prior to this I have always used Jescar stainless steel fret wire. I will trim the tangs from the ends of the frets so I can fill the fret slots at the edge of the fretboard to keep things looking neat. I've got a set of tang nippers that make this really easy I've got a small arbor press that has been adapted to press the frets into place. There is a wooden cradle (not shown) that I made for this to prevent the neck getting damaged during this process. This press has made life much easier for this task! So, I fitted the zero fret no problem (that is a slightly different size and is Jescar stainless steel wire) but the first fret just wouldn't push into the slot and stay still to allow me to apply pressure from the press. I tried a few tricks to get it started but it wasn't having any of it. I got the calipers out and measure the fret tang, 0.6mm. I then measured the Jescar fret wire and my saw 0.5mm!! Next task was to go onto the web and order some more Jescar fret wire....... New fret wire arrived a couple of days later (great service from Touchstone again), was cut to length, the tangs removed at the end and fitted to the fretboard without any fuss!! I used some ebony dust and superglue to fill the slot ends and sanded flush. These will be barely noticeable once lacquered. Next tasks are to dress the frets and then to carry on with the binding on the body. Cheers

Done a bit more on this build. Fretboard has been radiused and the fretslot ends filled with offcuts from the board to give a neat finish to the edges. I've also done a bit more sanding but also made a logo for the headstock

New bass just arrived. Adam Nitti signature. Not like the usual Ibanez slim necks. Chunkier and perfect 18mm string spacing which I think is a little more than others they make. Bart pickups and preamp sound fantastic.

Hahaha I'd never noticed that before, damn you now thats all i can see now I look at it too 😂 Preamps are now all soldered up!! all box caps in place, tested for the right inputs and outputs, all seems to be working as expected thus far. lots of tests to happen now to muck about with component values and make some final decisions about the filter profiles. this first setup is the widest frequency sweep, from around 100hz at the bottom up to 6.8khz at the top. if i find that either end sounds wrong or wouldn't be useful, i can just change a few resistors/caps and try again. at this stage im thinking i may have them tuned differently from eachother, with the bridge pickup having a much wider sweep to allow for more top end. The Opamps ive got in here are LME49720's, which are some seriosuly good Hi Fi opamps. these are the kind i have in my headphone preamp on my desk, and they sound phenomenal. Much faster slew rate and much lower distortion than those normally used in onboard preamps, but that comes with the downside of much, much higher power draw. not many preamp makers give exact details on the predicted battery life or power draw of their preamps, but Noll for example quotes typical draw of 1.5mA, which is pretty good. a typical 9v battery would hold about 600mAh of charge, meaning about a 400hr battery life. compare that to these beasts the LME49720s have a draw of about 5mA per channel, each. and theres 7 channels being used by the preamp. and theres 2 preamps. oh dear that means about 70mA of power draw at maximum...which, Maths fans, means battery life on a single 9v of less than 10 hours. not exactly great so lets talk solutions. as mentioned before, the plan is to have a phantom power input, running at 24V that will power the preamps most of the time. Sorted!! but... what about the one in a hundred time when i want to just plug and play without the phantom power? Ta Da! this is a Battery protection and charging board that takes 3 18650 sized Lithium ion batteries, the kind you might get in powerful torches. the plan is to mount this in the other side of the bass, and have the same 24v power input to the preamps run to this as well. this will: 1) charge the batteries in place whenever the bass is plugged in 2) protect the batteries from under voltage and over voltage, and ensure the power is cut once they are fully charged (very important for lithium cells) 3) allow me to carry additional batteries and swap them out if needed 4) run the preamps at a reduced 12v when a normal jack is plugged into the bass. 18650 cells have some serious capacity. a 9v battery- about 600mAh. these bad boys - about 3500mAh. and thats at 12V, not 9. meaning that i can get 50 hours of play time with the hi fi opamps on a full charge, not too shabby! Again, if youre only here for the sexy wood stuff, i must apologise for the electrical nerdery. i assure you there are dullards like me who really find this stuff interesting! but, here you go: the fairly nerve wracking process of slicing that 50mm block in half on the mitre saw. clamped carefully and then sawn slowly. measure 9 times, cut once! but the patient left surgery in good shape! well... sugery number one. this now needs to be repeated... twice... on even thinner pieces. admit it. own up. who was watching up to this point thinking this was all going to go horribly wrong? I certainly was, and im sure glad it didnt. there are a fair few hours invested in this up till this point! then its just a process of glueing them end to end with some CA Glue, and glueing the little extra triangles in place in the remaining gaps, letting it all set up nicely, and then planing down one face nice and flat 😁 honestly, im pretty chuffed with this. im very much ooking forward into turning it into a proper neck blank and getting moving on the body of the bass properly. by my measurement its about half an inch longer than i was aiming for, but thats fine and should run perfectly from the headstock to the body. roll on the next experiment!

Rough carved the neck, radiused the fretboard and thicknessed the heel.

Ibby now have a 30-32 fan fret!

Tapesat is a Becos USP, in that I am unaware of any other compressor that quite does this. It's a germanium based overdrive circuit, which is not unusual in and of itself, the unique part is that it is only applied to the not compressed part of the signal. So you can do parallel compression with at least some of the Becos range, and the more complex units allow you to add saturation to the uncompressed part of the signal. It can be very subtle or really not so much and the balancing act between wet/dry compression and saturation and saturation level and amount is endlessly tweakable. There are a lot of different possibilities, and any clips I made would be further complicated by the fact that the Twain has two entirely separate circuits and the set up of those has a huge effect on the output. I'd be at it for weeks 😃. I still owe everyone a comprehensive review of the Twain, but haven't got the time right now, work is at a very very full on stage in a project I am lead architect for, and it hasn't let up since I got the damn pedal, to such s degree that it isn't even on my board yet 😳

Back in 1970 myself and two mates had give up motorbikes and bought instruments. Two of us playing guitars and the other of flute. We were big Tull fans. We were learning as we went along, as was the way back then, if we found a new chord we tried to write a song around it, none of your cover version tosh for us. One night in my parents living room the other guitarist began playing a chord sequence he had come up with so I joined in. After a few measures of this the flautist started playing over our sequence, then the other guitarist played something different over my chords. I followed them and began to listen for patterns to enhance or to subdue, and soon they followed my lead and we ebbed and flowed for about 15 minutes. When we finished we just looked at each other in shock and excitement. We knew bugger all about our instruments but we could improvise on the hoof, we could play off one another, we were musicians and the World was ours to conquer.

I’ve been fortunate enough to make some great friends through music, share stages with bands I watched on the TV as a kid, and visit places that in all likelihood I might not have had the opportunity to without gigging, Colditz Castle in Germany being the main one. Best hobby in the world imo, I’m not a particularly sentimental person but I’m sure that at times in my life music has kept me going/given me that boost I needed, probably without knowing it.

....... but it is worth a try. My progress on my "build from scratch" seems to have stopped. It is good to know your limits. I have reached mine on that one. However, the itch to mess with stuff will not go away. I have bought a £200 5 string solid body bass uke from China. It has a truss rod and I know it will take metal strings because someone sold the same one on Ebay recently having strung it up with bass guitar strings. The woodwork on it is OK, but the frets ends could be used as an offensive weapon. I have come to the conclusion that solid body uke basses do not provide the air-shifting thud which is what I love about the original Kala acoustics. I have put cut down bass guitar strings on it and discovered that the original machine heads are made of cheese. I have clearly led a sheltered life in regards to machine heads as I have never had experience of rubbish ones before. They got so stiff while turning with no strings on them that I felt I had the option of stopping or breaking them. I have swapped them for some cheap and cheerful Wilkinson ones (£28ish). I had to re-use one of the spacing washers from the originals because the headstock is just too thin for the Wilkinsions to fit properly. The piezo bridge seems to have been crushed by the tension of the new strings but that is OK as well because I have a bass guitar bridge (£25ish) to go on anyway. The straight accross piezo bridge will never do the intonation needed.If that all works, then I will plumb a pickup in. I do fancy one of those oval Delano ones. I played a mini bass in a Bass Bash which had one and I liked the noise it made. I also like the shape and the little thumb indentation. I am so shallow. It would make more sense to put in a standard soapbar size so that I could change it if need be, but I am feeling adventurous. When I use the word "I" in relation to structural work, you can read it as "I will pay someone". I actually did the machine heads (after guidance from the BC Massive on how to) but managed to strip the head of one of the screws. Mr Drill sorted that out but it was a reminder to me that some things are best left to people who can. I screwed some chair legs together yesterday to repair dried glue issues. The drill bit I used was too big so the screws I had went in easily but did not actually bite into any wood. How I laughed as I got into the car to go to B&Q to buy bigger wood screws. I will have to do the screw which anchors the machine head in place later but will kick myself if I missalign them. I can see it but cannot neccesarily do it. But I have to try. 20210129_210359.mp4 20210129_205909.mp4

Do we? Normality is austerity and growing inequality and the lack of government action on climate change. Normality is Billionaire wealth increasing while homeless people die on the streets. Normality is never being able to afford to buy a house, being saddled with a lifetime of student debt, and zero hours contracts. Normality is the problem.

Part absurd myth with a little bit of truth too. IF the speakers are designed to work together, that means sensitivity, power handling, phase response, complimentary voicing, then the combination may be better than 2 identical speakers. Of course, this can not be assumed, nor taken for granted. Where cabinets were not designed (in the engineering sense) to work together, it will be a total crapshoot.

Harsh? How? It is a clearly measurable and demonstrably true. When comes to deaths per capita head we are the worst of any country. By any comparison you are trying to bat away (yes, we are bigger than NZ etc) there is one that is the opposite (yes, we half the population of Japan and 20 times the deaths, and they are right next to China). every other modern nation (and many of the others) with our skills and our resources managed better. However much flag waving you want to do (and you really seem to want to do a lot), we have been presented with a crisis and we have failed to rise to the challenge. This thread is, but not that part of the thread, that is a change of subject. they are doing a brilliant job now the government have largely got out of their way. I applaud them too and always will. they are doing well for a government entity run by donkeys this much is obvious although again, although once this is over I am sure the government can demonstrate how it shows how great they ran the nhs so they can sell more of it to their mates I am not bothering to look until there is a reason to assume that things are going well by the summer

And the 'understatement of 2021 thus far' award goes to @SpondonBassed😆😆😆👍🏼

I've never heard of that chord. 🙄 🙂

Been done to death on here by some of our esteemed cab builders. In a nutshell, if you like one cab a second identical one will work perfectly with it and give you more of the same. A different cab might work just as well/better, but may not. Matching cabs removes the unknown.

And here it is, along with my other Fenders and then a full family shot which is rather eclectic. Funnily enough, the JMJ Mustang was an impulse buy that I decided to get rid of as soon as it arrived. Well that never happened. I'd describe it as the equivalent of my office dog: it sits in a stand right next to my desk at home and when the teleconferences are a bit long it sits in my lap

I don't think that it's what really happened. In fact as he bought through a U.K. VAT registered society (shop if you prefer), it was sold without the U.K. VAT and he just paid the French VAT, which means no difference for him.

And - to my admitted great surprise - it worked! Here's the first run with the binding spacer in place: And here it is after the spacer has been removed and I've repeated it on the other side. Mathematics says that there would be a 0.4mm sliver in the middle - which there was. It just needed a sprape down the slot with a narrow chisel and all was cleaned up waiting the two rods that should be arriving in the next couple of days. Then we can get the fretboard back on Oh, and to prove that more experience doesn't eliminate whoopsies - see the little line on the left of the above photo near the top? That's what happens when the distance clamping screw loosens from the vibration as you're cutting the slot: It's only 2mm deep and it didn't go very far - but in that I could actually feel something change and stopped immediately, that cut happened in an instant. And normally with routers (especially the big ones) you can't see what's happening and can't hear or feel that something is amiss - and they have much bigger bits going much deeper... Did I ever mention that I hate routers Anyway - happily we're on the home straight with this one

Hearing Pretty Vacant by The Sex Pistols was pretty much the same for me.

Oh and to finish the anecdote, I ended up with a Firemist Silver 60th Anniversary road worn Jazz. As soon as I picked it up it just felt "right" to me 😀

Although not much to show for it, in the background things are still progressing with this. At the moment, @Fishman and I are looking at colour options. I'm still experimenting, but this is a possible contender. Ignore the orbital sander 'snail trails' - on this test block, I'm just whacking it with a 60 grit disc to get to bare wood each time before trying the next colour. In the meantime, the fret slots at the edges of the board have been filled and sanded and the next couple of days will see the frets levelled and re-crowned

I feel obliged to note that Hermes delivered a parcel to me today without damaging it or stealing it. Impressive stuff!

Proof a solid P bass is all that bass player needs

Well, not everyone can multitask as well as Keith Richards. On balance, music is probably healthier, though not necessarily cheaper. My longest friendship is with someone I met in primary school more than 40 years ago. In the 6th form, we would bunk off and hang around music shops, or hang around his house listening to his outstanding record collection. A couple of years ago, we started working on a few tracks that we eventually released online. He lives in England, I live on the west coast of the US. It was great putting something together with modern technology, including the capacity to emulate equipment and effects that we could only dream of tinkering with when we were feckless, potless teenagers. That friend introduced me to New York new wave, which he loved. At the time, it seemed remote and exotic, a great scene that had already faded and which we could only envy. Thirty years later, I'm writing for the same publications as Patti Smith and Richard Hell, and it tickles my adolescent ghost every time it happens. My old friend has released a few solo albums on a net label, and I'm overjoyed that a friendship with music at its heart has endured so well -- especially given that it took me 25 years to repay him for the Television tickets.

Love To Keep You Warm, from 1978's Trouble album. Modified P-bass with Velvet Hammer pickups and flatwound strings, into a Peavey amp & cab (no DI). Love To Keep You Warm.pdf

Where have I been? I've only cottoned on to Precisions in the last few years in a proper way....and this bass....absolutely killing. https://shop.fender.com/en-GB/squier-electric-basses/precision-bass/classic-vibe-50s-precision-bass/0374500501.html I very rarely gush about instruments. I have owned many very fine and expensive ones, and still do. But I am telling you right now, in a way that is very rare for me, that this is an absolutely astounding instrument. Not 'for the money'. Just plain great. I could easily recommend everyone have one in their collection. Originally, I was looking at getting a Fender roasted maple neck for a project P bass, then realised I could basically just buy a new inexpensive bass and be content with project one 'as is' for now. Been tempted by the Harley Benton version of the 50s P bass for a while, but didn't want to do any fettling at all....so stumped up £339 on the Squier on the assumption that if I didn't like it, back it would go to Thomann. Was very inspired by this video and its super gnarly tone - linked below for your pleasure: Now all I can say is this bass - or at least this particular one - is killing. It sounds just like the video, which was my main criterion. The fit and finish is excellent. Two tone burst is well done, I like the vintage tint on the neck, the neck pocket is tight. It looks great. I will take the pickguard off and report whether there is routing under there or not, but reports from others are good on this. The hardware is good, not Hipshot, but good. The bridge is BBOT with threaded saddles - I like this and find it perfectly functional. It intonates well and the strings don't move side to side. The tuners are better than those that were on my cheapie SBMM Sub Ray4; they aren't so stiff and they work fine. Tone and volume pots feel and work fine and tone pot gives a fair bit of variability to the sound. I do have a niggle here - the edge mounted jack doesn't feel as 'tight' when I plug into it as it could. I may need to open it up and tweak that. The nut and fretwork is frankly unbelievable for this price. I was surprised. Proper bone nut, properly cut; I don't need to file it down at all. Narrow tall frets with no sharp ends and well seated. I can get a setup of my customary low relief (0.003" - 0.005" at 7th fret with capo at first fret and holding down strings at last fret) and 5/64" action on E string 12th fret going up to 4/64" at the G string 12th fret. No buzzing anywhere. This is good quality fretwork in my view - I won't need to consider a fret level. The neck is a modern C profile and is glossy. I have no issues with this finish. I have plenty of instruments with different finishes on the necks and find it easy enough to accommodate them all. Nut width 42.8mm and feels comfortable. It comes with 45 - 105 D'Addario nickel rounds. My favourite string brand and one of my preferred gauges. Sweet. It's a light instrument. I need to weigh it, but it feels just under the 9lb mark I think. I will report back. There is a slight tendency to neck heaviness on the knee, but not on the strap. It's about normal for what I see with most Fenders or Fender-style clones. Unlike the Ibanez Talman TMB105 I bought earlier in the year, I see no need to get lighter tuners. Sound. Everyone's hands vary, but I think this bass could cover any style. I played slap, pick lines, fingerstyle, jazz, funk and felt delighted with all of them. This pickup is really responsive to right hand dynamics in a way I haven't appreciated in a while and it has a beautifully gritty tone if you dig in just a little. I see no reason to change the stock pickup. The sound responds nicely to where you place your right hand; I think it by and large sounds best directly over the pickup, especially digging in. There is hum if you take your hands off the strings - it is a single coil - but when your hands are on the strings, I hear no hum. The tone knob is useful. I don't see any need to mess with the pots/electronics, apart from my previous comment about having a look at the tightness of the connection when I plug a cable in. It could well be the one I picked up is one of the better ones out there. But this particular instrument is an absolute peach. I can heartily recommend this instrument to anyone, which is relatively rare for me. It's not a good bass 'for the money', it's just plain good. Thanks for reading. Pete Nearly forgot...pics or it didn't happen...

Thought I’d share this. Free offer of an Ampeg practise amp when you buy a bass over £999 from Guitar Guitar. Seems reasonable, if you can’t find the bass at a lower price anywhere but want a sweetener😀 https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/news/141309/

I get you - and granted yes - by normality I was merely referring to being able to move more freely and enjoy certain aspects of life as best we can - the rest as you put it is effed up and is on all of us to try to improve.

At £3000 I want to decide whether the bass is made of platinum or if the bridge is encrusted with diamonds. EBMM have been on the gear with this pricing. There is no way I'd pay that for one.

At £3000 i want to decide if I have gold, chrome or black hardware And what colour/fingerboard options I have. Ah well. I have stingray sounds covered, so 🤷🏻‍♂️

Bit of Dirty Loops for you

I started playing bass when I was 12, and looking back I think it was an important creative and constructive channel for all that teenage uncertainty, anxiety and anger in the years that followed. Playing an instrument has been my best companion, and a big part of how I see myself. Its also introduced me to many of my friends and resulted in lots of cool situations. Ill never be a millionaire rockstar but I’ll always be a bassist.

Never doubted you for a moment! I bet it was squeaky bum time when you realised that screw had decided to drift loose though.

i do not do tabs , smoked weed once ,, but not tabs ,, if you Smoke tabs they become addictive ,, its why you get so many meth heads 😁,,, sound strange , yet the " meth head" of this madness is to remind players ,, many tab scores & notation scores are often not exact ,, they are in many cases transcripts designed by the host ,,, the only people who know the Exact bass line are the bass player of any such band the producer & engineer etc ,, they then sell a contrived score to the publishers ,,, anyway pushing that a side, The Word Girl is very subtle joint ,, going over an array of chord changes D,A.D.G tuning insures you get right onto The Beat ,,, my bass jam goes slightly beyond the bass line of the song, if you want myself to show you how i play this tune (my way ) , you now have the chance , cheers

So if you're OCD, it's impossible to set it smack in the middle?! 😂😬

But if you're wearing platform shoes, presumably it won't hit the floor!

No...it means you must

The Laser ball end extra long set 2220 is very good, I've used one day in day out working on gearboxes and they are still good after more than 10 years, very hard wearing, and the plastic holder is still good too, just the right grade of plastic, hasn't worn much, hasn't split, still functions really well I bought a second set for my musical instruments as the workshop ones are always oily/greasy despite being wiped down before being put away The extra length is always useful I find, other than for storage, makes them easier to find if dropped though

Just found this image on TB. It's not as I imagined it to be.

It still bugs me that you should have to take out insurance at all. I'm sure we all do jobs where if we f**k up, we (or the company) have to put it right. What other service do you pay for where they ask if you'd like to pay for an insurance policy in case they completely balls it up?