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A very happy Matt Waller popped in to the workshop to collect his new bass. I think he was a very happy man. It was a pleasure to build your bass Matt, regards Mike.

I have a few gigs trickling tentatively into the diary, and one is a dep slot for my old Madness Tribute. I've got over my bruised pride that they are still going strong without me, and am rather looking forwrd to it. It's at the Llanelli Festival, only a couple of days beyond the alleged end of restrictions - so still very theoretical. Nonetheless I have been studiously relearning everything, and transcribing all the bass parts, it has kept me busy. I got to thinking about the really important stuff today. What bass to take? Obviously I have my two toned precision, which will make a great prop/2nd bass but I wonder what the man mr Bedford himself used. Wouldja believe it theres a five year old thread here where someone points out that he was using a Bruce Thomas Profile - and I , of course, have that very bass in my collection. A good omen? Maybe I shall be blowing the cobwebs from my passport and heading over the bridge in June after all. Now, what hats did he wear....

I wanted to try the Shaper for some fingerboard symbols. I decided to try an infinity. Tricky to draw in CAD as they get longer and narrow as you go up the neck. The plan is black resin

I bought one a year or two ago and it turned into my main bass quite quickly. Wonderful tone and I also ended up not using the bridge pickup on it but it’s nice that it’s there.

Will carbon rods change the sound ? :popcorn 🍿

You're not supposed to change flat-wounds. The elves in the factories spend much time and effort fitting them, in the certain knowledge that they'll last longer than the Owner of the guitar, and, anyway, it's all about the Funk, say the Experts. To keep their tone, round-wounds get changed every evening, as every fule nose, but flat-wounds, never.

I thought I'd breathe some life into this long running thread with this Good Friday phone snap.

That's my view.

Thank you @stevie for taking the time to do the technical comparison. From your explanation the Pulse appears to have a similar character to the Eminence driver in the BF One10 but the BF may have a higher Xmas. IMHO the B10N-300x appears similar to the cleaner BF Super Compact rather than the more coloured BF One10. The extra 100w thermal power gives a decent safety margin when used with the MiniMax delivering 300w of headroom. So I've built a 13kgs, easy carry, 300w combo with sufficient headroom to match any "shed building " drummer who may turn up for a jam down the Dog & Duck. Happy days 😎

Ok, so I couldn't wait and after dinner decides to fit my new pickguard. Looks awesome but as you can imagine verynwasily smudged but also scratches pretty easily too... Have to see how that works out in the long run. I also fitted the @KiOgon circuit/loom, the difference it makes is significant, I'd suggest fitting one of these before investing in pickups. Note KiOgon pot shafts measured 9.5mm, so I slightly larger than the HB original pots which meant I had to drill the holes out a little with a 10mm drill bit. Was a bit rough because I think you need a really high speed with this material to avoid taking chunks out, but it worked out fine. Thanks to KiOgon, apologies it took me 6 months to actually fit your nice 0.1uf kit ☺️. Just for info measured my standard HB pickups at 7.3k Ohms, significantly lower than compared to the toneriders which are 10.6k Also treated it too a quick fret polish and some lemon oil and a string change. Next job is Fender high mass bridge... I'm going for the Phil Lynott look if you hadn't already guessed. ☺️

I would say whatever you do, don't force it. There's not a great deal of wood above the string in that bridge. With the ball end compressing the wood in the way it's design to, the bridge is very strong. But with too fat a string trying to expand the hole outwards it's liable to split the bridge, especially if the width of the string tapers, as the string tension will pull the string ever further into the hole putting a lot of pressure in a direction that the bridge isn't designed to handle.

GB Rumour

So out had to come the heat gun again. At first I thought it might just be overspill from the fretboard glue but not...definitely glued in. Not a bad job, though. I started at the heel and quite quickly was able to start levering it out from that end - the aluminium of the rod quickly heated the glue enough. And I found out what was holding the headstock section in place, with all those cracks, under the string tension. It was the glue on the trussrod . As soon as the trussrod was out, this just dropped off: Which is, actually, a great thing - because the split at the scarf joint appears to be clean and should, with care, slot back together with the grain from both sides interlocking with some titebond to hold it together (clamping will be more of a challenge - but I do have a cunning plan )

Have a google... 'Acoustic Guitar, soldering iron, steaming, dent' If the wood fibers are compressed, you can steam em out - damp rag, and soldering iron or iron I had a dent in the fretboard, steamed it out a bit, not a fix but an improvement... Small area so i used a wet cotton bud on the dent, then applied the soldering iron tip to it... Keep wetting... keep steaming... keep looking

Hey, these are the ones I use - they work great: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Guitar-Glove-Bass-Musician-Practice/dp/B01C4QYOQS/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=musicians+gloves&qid=1617365734&sr=8-1

Seek and Destroy by Metallica Suzi aint impressed 👇

I think this guy is brilliant - plays exactly how I aspire to and fall so considerably short of. 😊

If I had a hundred quid for every time I've played that song in front of a bunch of happily singing punters...oh, wait...I pretty much have... 😀

It's a great song with a really nice bit of bass playing to go along with it. I've played it a few times live and its gone down great, really good to see - I'm not really surprised it's spent so long in the charts

Lots of heated opinions here! I started out using Cakewalk in the late 90s, before moving to Cubase, which I happily used in studios and at home for a long time. I'm now a Reaper user. I do more live engineering than studio these days, and my initial use case for Reaper was as a very stable, resource efficient and lightweight platform for capturing live multitracks at shows. It's a lot less bloated and hungry than other DAWs I've used, and proved to be a solid choice for the job. I've since moved over to use it for all my mixing and editing. The included plugin set (it's an optional tick box in the installer) is all useable - there's no fancy graphics on the front ends, it's all just sliders and parameter value displays, but they all sound fine and do the job they're meant to do, and there's a pretty broad selection of them. The audio editing and MIDI functionality all works fine for me. There's a little learning curve in adjusting if you're used to another DAW, but that's to be expected. You can load custom keyboard shortcut maps and I'm pretty sure there's one available that mirrors common Pro Tools shortcuts to help if you're moving across. It's not going to be for everyone, these things are always about what works for you personally, but it does the job fine for me and I've used it professionally for mixing and mastering of material that's gone out for releases and broadcasts. No desire to change, as it's doing everything I need it to and not causing me any issues.

I had this problem fitting heavier gauge nylon tape wounds on a Harley Benton fretless acoustic . The silks had bunched up towards the ring so I trimmed them with nail clippers and my moustache scissors and then gradually crushed the leftovers with mole grips . Just a pinch at first , rotate 60degrees , repeat till 360degrees and test . If still no joy decrease the mole grips gap by 1/8 turn and try again . When I finally got them down to a suitable diameter and they tested okay I wicked a little superglue into the silks to keep them there and spun them through a pinch of wet and dry Emery paper once the glue had dried to smooth them off . A smear of candle or beeswax helps afterwards for fitting/removal .

As I mentioned earlier in the thread the lowpass filter range was reduced so it is now pretty much the same as the Wal. Most of the comments here relate to a version of the preamp that ceased to exist 5 years ago.

Yes - that's an option as long as I was careful not to sand unevenly. With a bolt on, I would put it into a jig and rout it flat, but that is impractical on a set neck. Quite difficult to get even and flat with a sanding beam but definitely one option. The other is to leave it and then defret and level the fretboard, but left with broadly the same issue. If I can get back to the original neck straightness with carbon rods, then I know that the neck height and angle is going to be right and the fretboard may even be able to go back on with the original frets. As I say...a series of compromises held together by hope

I was sucked in by a bass demo that used a Beatbuddy for backing. I can’t remember what the bass was, but I bought a Beatbuddy mini (the one between the original mini and the mini2). It really has given focus to my practice and I’m actually doing some exercises in addition to tunes. So much better (and more expensive) than a metronome.

Thanks. Yes, MrsAndyjr1515 isn't keen when I emerge from the cellar too often No wood today for yours, so presumably Tuesday. Pity - that WILL be worth getting back down there. Indeed, a domestic win-win situation. At least we know it's coming...

My favourite colour scheme...don't even have one...🙈...need GAS plans I think...🤔😂

Bought a Dingwall D-Roc from BD earlier in the week. Part of the payment was coming from my employer (30 year service gift!) and Mark was very helpful during somewhat involved email discussion leading up to the sale. Excellent customer service.

Bit complicated. Surely a better solution is to make a pit in the floor. This would have its own natural boundary, and no need to calculate neck reach etc.

So, while I am waiting for the wood to arrive for the present full build and therefore with an empty workbench top, I got the towel out and got the Washburn on it: I have to say, this is one of my favourite acoustic basses ... Note the iron next to the SW Bassbash mug! Well, usually, that is hot enough to get a fretboard off. Clearly, the first few inches were easy enough because the truss-rod has already sorted that . I follow the gap with a steel acoustic guitar side bending sheet to stop it re-gluing behind me: Now, normally, this is plenty of heat. It's slow (I usually reckon on 10 minutes ironing per inch!) but adequate. But not on this. By the smell, it was hide glue and definitely was going to need more heat to remelt! So out with the heatgun...and that is serious paint-stripping heat! NOT something I would recommend...but needs must : And slowly but surely, the steel sheet started moving further up the board. Towards the body, I protected the varnish from the heat with some 2.5mm wenge sheeting I had in my bits box: And - eventually - off! The dark mark on the neck wood is just that, a dark mark. It's not a burn...all of the heat was on the fretboard. Mind you, I'd be surprised if there are no burn marks to sand off on the fretboard when that's cleaned up! Now...normally, to get the trussrod out you just lift it out. But not this one...because it's glued in. Of course it is

Lets be havin yi, spring has sprung, baffies on an oot n aboot

How sweet is the bass on this tune. Bassist is David Barard who is a tone hero of mine. I first heard him playing with Dr. John and was blown away by his 70s Jazz Bass sound, to me it exemplifies everything I like about that sound with its open treble and clanky bottom end. I've finally got around to learning this tune and thought I'd share it because it's such a nice groove. @bubinga5 I think you'll like this album! Barard plays a Sadowsky and sounds pretty much straight to desk with light strings or at least a fairly heavy touch and low action. I love the fret rattle and the way the notes sound slapped when he digs in. I am able to get this bang on with my Celinder but my playing is nowhere near as tight! I think he's on Facebook actually so I might try to contact him, seems like a cool guy.

I never really get the thing about steels and fret wear. I mean, whatever strings you use (round wound anyway) there's going to be metal on metal contact and some wear involved. If you keep a bass long enough it seems to me a fret change every 10 years or so falls into the category of reasonable maintenance. Not using strings you prefer the sound of because of potential fret wear seems a rather self defeating deprivation to me.

To be fair, if you listen to a lot of Killers Mark Stoermer has a very distinctive tone and has some nice bass lines too. Good song with a lot of memories attached to it.

I would get a 1 meter square mat for the floor and spray ‘STAND HERE’ on it in a very bright rattle can paint. Maybe put some bumpers around the edge of it to prevent you from straying outside the square. Given your predilection for not knowing where you are, I might add some hazard tape to the perimeter of the square/bumpers, just to keep you focussed. Then, now this is the clever part, directly above where the 1 meter square mat is, cut a matching hole in the ceiling. You might have to make the ceiling hole slightly oversize to counter the reach of the neck when you remove it, but I honestly can’t see any flaw in this method.

Definitely, getting that amp and hearing the half decent low frequencies been a bit of a revelation to me tbh.

@Reggaebass I think I saw on tv last night the cave you’ve been living in for the last 18 years

Yay! A chart where I have heard of 4 out of 5 of the songs. Oh, I don't like any of them and am very unlikely to like the other. Oh well.

Let the band decide that.

There is no flat as such with a filter preamp the filters are engaged all the time. (Unless you have the ACG DFM which has an active/passive option) This is a common misunderstanding made by people who don't really understand how they work. There is however a close to flat as you can get setting. Stack 1 is the volume/blend. Stack 2 Upper ring fully of. Lower ring full on. This is the filter fully open so the full range allowable by the filter is allowed through. Stack 3 as stack 1 Stack 4. Upper ring fully of. This is a gain so with it fully off the highness filter does nothing so the lower rings position does not matter. Both pickups are now useable with the blend and both filters are open the highpass disengaged. The way I would go from there is to move the blend on to the bridge pickup. Then adjust the lower ring of stack 3 until you get something you like. I generally close the filter to a degree to cut the top end so I have a more mid heavy sound. Now move the blend to the neck pickup and do the same. I would normally generate the bottom end from there which again means closing the filter to remove the top end and some of the mids. So you have reduced the preamp to a Volume/Blend/Tone/Tone and that is basically all it is. Now use the blend to go between the two pickups to change the overall sound. The upper ring on stack 2 and 3 just boost the effect of the filter cut off so you get more filter effect if you turn them up. I like them in the centre detent. The preamp only appears complicated if you try to adjust every thing at the same time if you take it one thing at a time it is not that complicated but it does not work the way a 3 band does and most people approach it that way and generally can't get what they want. This is a common problem and it is why filter pre-amps are not that common people as a rule don't really get them. For those that get their head round it you will get sounds you will struggle to get with any other on board pre-amp. But there is a learning curve and some people just don't get on with them which is why I have always offered an alternative to the filter preamps. If you don't get on with the pre-amp and like the bass just replace the pre-amp would be my advice. Sell an 01 will not be difficult and the East Uni-Pre will fit the cavity it is what I use for builds that don't need the filters.

Decision made: Matt finally decided to go with the scratch plate, so I screwed it on and did the final setup. His custom made Zoot Funkmeister is now ready. Here a couple of quick shots taken early this morning in the workshop of the finished bass.