Leaderboard

Photo showing first UK built body ready for the top to go on. The holes are the cable routing for battery cables and some weight saving chambering. Fully Ash Body SWBs will now be an ash body with an ash top. So it'll look like one piece, but underneath you've got some stuff going on.

New band, lots of gigs booked... I was time to upgrade the cabs. I was using Rootmaster cabs and regretted selling off my second 1x15. The sound of two 15s was exactly what I wanted. I tried a 1x15 and a 2x10 and always felt something was missing. Those have both been re-homed via Basschat. I happened upon a deal for an ABM Pro Neo. I received it a few weeks back and it was good. But I bought the last one. Then a second turned up as B stock and I just had to get it. So now my rig is a Rootmaster 500 head into TWO 1x15 ABM Pro Neos. Same weight, or lack thereof, as the Rootmaster cabs, but there's a solid metal grille to protect the blue speaker and a bit more authority to the sound. I had the Neo and the Rootmaster side by side for a few days and could feel a difference. Can't wait to push the rig a bit, not that the volume will need to be going above 3 or 4 notches, and feel the bass presence with the band!

Personally I make a point of learning the name of the sound engineer. If something is not right, I query it down the mic but quickly move on. I always thank whoever does the sound regardless. It's just good manners.

Gail Ann Dorsey...there's more to being Bowie's bassist than just playing the notes...anyone who could make DB smile like he does at 2:31 is doing something very special indeed...

Put a deposit down on a build a few weeks ago. Due about 10 months from now. Heres the topwood, a resin hybrid buckeye burl top. Ignore the shape currently drawn on, its going to be a recurve 6er! Not sure how often Alan tends to send updates but Ill try to remember to keep this up to date. Any questions do ask!

The Fender Standard hex nut arrived - and I also bottomed that issue of the nut 'cracking' loose...because the Fender was even worse! And the problem? Actually both nuts had a taper in their internal threads! I got an imperial bolt of the right size and, sure enough, it would screw in nicely for 4-5 turns and then became very, very stiff. The solution was a quick clearance of the thread with an imperial tap (goodness knows how I came to possess one...but I do!) and also add even more spacers so that the nut doesn't have to screw in so far before it starts bending the neck. So we now have a hex nut adjuster - which will make it much easier for @Happy Jack to adjust it in the future: I reassembled it and was able to adjust from a large relief to dead flat, even with the middle string still in place: And talking of that middle string - when we were in the pub talking about the options to narrow the neck, Jack had noted that the strings didn't really line up with the top fretboard dots in the first place - and I noticed that when I did the mockup above. But I also noticed a stress lacquer crack at the corner of the treble side of the neck pocket when I was taking the neck off. Ahah! There's a clue. This is the effect (this one is purely aesthetic but the little lacquer stress crack less so): And this is most of the cause - the pickguard is encroaching into the neck pocket by enough to push the neck both across and at a slight angle. It's encroaching into the pocket by nearly a mm: I'll plane and sand the side overlap flush (it's perfectly flush at the back) before I set the final position of the nut and start filing the neck narrower - which I will start on tomorrow

Oh looky here!

I don't think you'll see much of a volume difference between 4 ohm and 8 ohm from your amp. More "headroom" is desirable when an amp is running out of steam. Your BB2 is only just ticking over at 400 watts.

My worst purchase was a totally pointless passive DI pedal that I can't in all honesty see me ever using. There is most likely nothing wrong with it and I am sure it would do it's job perfectly well. I just don't have a use for it - got swept away on a tide of GAS after reading about it on here. Will I ever learn? Probably not My best purchase has been a mid-70s Antoria Precision bass that I bought on eBay for not a lot of money. It transpires that someone at some stage had fitted a '75 Fender P pup into it, which kind of explains why it sounds so good. One of those rare occasions where I have come out ahead of the game financially - the pup on it's own is probably worth as much as I paid for the whole thing. Pictured below next to my trusty JV Squier, the Antoria is on the right. The JV edges the tape in terms of tone and build quality, plus it is lighter and the neck is beautifully figured with a rich caramel patina. However, the neck of the Antoria is very slightly narrower and very slightly deeper and feels more comfortable for my hand. Both are cracking basses. Toss of the coin which one I play these days.

I'll probably be in the minority with all this, but you did say you're looking for differing opinions I never thought octave pedals work for this job, because you're not really replacing what the guitarist was doing, especially with something like the OC-2 which won't do chords, tracks poorly and has an remarkably limited sound (seriously, I think it's the most overrated pedal, I don't understand why it gets so much love. The MXR BOD is way better if you want an analogue octaver). I also have no love for polyphonic octave because I've tried a bunch of the "good" ones and they all sounded horrid to me. I think that adding a bit of light dirt and mixing up what you're playing to fill out the sound is the best route for your situation. I'd say to try a chorus pedal too, mainly because they're fun and any cheapo chorus works just fine. Anyway, I'd better go, I can hear the OC-2 fans coming for me... They're at the gates... Tell my wife I love her... I'll miss you all.

Some Asian Dub Foundation to start the day:

Just buy a used CV Squier and never look at the internet again as both the P and J are all the bass you need for 99% of most gigs.

Thanks all, I've pulled the trigger on a Unitune.

I thought The Wildhearts, but assumed I'd confused them with Autograph. Curses, I could've been the one to save the day, rather than the berk who said Donna Summer. 😂

How about - The Wildhearts - Vanilla Radio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qt2y2oDlG4 John 😎

This has nothing to do with bass playing, and it's definitely a bit unfair to Tony Visconti, but it is very funny...

For live versions of Stay, this is the one that does it for me. The end section is really cooking on gas.

Very little. If people pretend they can tell the difference I wouldn’t believe them. The upgrade can be made in a few seconds and won’t cost you much. (Other opinions may exist)

I think he’s alluding to the fact that the chambering looks like a screwed up face (similar to the one you’d make eating a sour sweet)?

So did a back to back compare. Where you can select the same sort of thing, the sounds are broadly similar, in that there is no quality increase or anything. Sounds very much like the same engine that powers both of them. There are additional sounds though. Unlike the SY-1, not every type has the same number of variations. So the number of variations is Lead = 30, Pad = 20, String = 14, Bell = 12, Organ = 13, Bass = 11, Dual = 9, Sweep = 9, Noise = 4, SFX = 22, Seq = 18, Arp = 9 The controls are Tone pitch/resonance depth, and there are the controls for bass volume/effect volume. These are saved in the patch though so switching to the patch doesn't use the current levels. It loses the bass / guitar switch on the back as it is now in the menu. The switch on the right, you can set it to do what you want but by default, the hold function is a bit different than on the SY-1 which is useful for my purposes. On the SY-1, when the effect is on, pressing the button holds the note / effect you are playing indefinately. On the SY-200, pressing the button changes to the next patch up. Pressing and holding the button puts it into a hold mode (indicated by it flashing) without changing the patch, and when it is in this mode, pressing the button holds what you are playing like the SY-1. However, as it is now two buttons, pressing the on/off turns the synth off but this is independant of the hold. So if you turn it off while hold is active, it will still be active when you turn it back on. If it was actually a holding a note, it carries on playing that same note it was holding before. Seems pretty useful. All in all, it is a logical progression of what the SY-1 was and if you were happy with the sound of the SY-1 you will be happy with the sound of this, but just get a bit more flexability.

Thanks ! Well it will be for sale 😀

Here's a list of classic riddims I'm gradually adding to and putting on a Spotify playlist I've mostly stuck to ones with a Bass Guitar rather than digital basslines, most are the original versions but not all. Any other well recycled classics you reckon should be added? I'll get to 100 and will leave it at that otherwise madness will ensue! (I've also got sub-lists of quite a few of these in my mp3 files where I have different versions, useful for DJing when you just have to pull up Sleng Teng riddim 5 times with a different version each time!). 1. A Love I Can Feel (John Holt) 2. Afrikaan Beat (Lester Sterling) 3. Agony (Pinchers) 4. Answer (Dillinger – Answer my question) 5. Ba Ba Boom (The Jamaicans) 6. Ballistic Affair (Leroy Smart) 7. Baltimore (The Tamlins) 8. Bam Bam (The Maytals) 9. Black Cinderella (Errol Dunkley) 10. Bobby Babylon (Freddie McGregot) 11. Boops (The Ethiopians- Train to Skaville) 12. Boxing (Cornell Campbell) 13. Cherry Oh Baby (Eric Donaldson) 14. College Rock (Mighty Diamonds- Natural Natty) 15. Cuss Cuss (Lloyd Robinson) 16. Darker Shade of Black (Jackie Mitoo) 17. Death in the Arena (Soul Vendors – Whipping The Prince) 18. Declaration of Rights (Abyssinians) 19. Dem Bow (Shabba Ranks) 20. Diseases (Michigan and Smiley) 21. Drum Song (Jackie Mittoo) 22. Far East (Barry Brown) 23. Fever (Horace Andy) 24. Freedom Blues (Roy Richards) 25. Full Up (Sound Dimension) 26. General (Dillinger) 27. Get in the Groove (The Heptones) 28. Gun In A Baggy ((Little Lenny) 29. Gunman (Michael Prophet) 30. He Prayed (Burning Spear) 31. Head to Toe (Frankie Paul) 32. Heavenless (The Skatalites) 33. Hot Milk (Jackie Mittoo) 34. Hypocrites (The Wailers) 35. I’ll Never Let You Go (Slim Smith) 36. Java (Augustus Pablo) 37. Joy Ride (Wayne Wonder) 38. Kuff (Tiger – Bam Bam) 39. Lecturer (Jo Jo Bennett and the Fugatives) 40. Love Is Not A Gamble (The Techniques) 41. Love Me Forever (Carlton and the Shoes) 42. Love Won’t Come Easy (The Heptones) 43. M16 (Lone Ranger) 44. Mad Mad Mad (Alton Ellis) 45. Mean Girl (Horace Andy - Do your own thing) 46. Mr Bassie (Horace Andy) 47. Mud Up (Super Cat) 48. My Conversation (Slim Smith and the Uniques) 49. Night Nurse (Gregory Isaacs) 50. No Warrior (Junior Delgardo – The Raiders) 51. Peanie Peanie (Shabba Ranks) 52. Pick Up The Pieces (The Royals) 53. Please Be True (Alexander Henry) 54. Pressure and Slide (The Tennors) 55. Punanny (Admiral Bailey) 56. Real Rock (Sound Dimension) 57. Revolution (Dennis Brown) 58. Rockfort Rock (Sound Dimension) 59. Rope In Riddim (Cornell Campbell) 60. Rougher Yet (Slim Smith) 61. Sara (Frankie and Paul) 62. Satta Massagana (The Abyssinians) 63. Shank I Sheck (Babba Brooks) 64. Skylarking (Horace Andy) 65. Sleng Teng (Wayne Smith) 66. Solomon (Derrick Harriott) 67. Stalag (Techniques) 68. Storm (Gregory Isaacs) 69. Swing Easy (The Soul Vendors) 70. Taxi (Lil Roy – Prophecy) 71. Tempo (Anthony Red Rose) 72. Things and Time (Wailing Souls) 73. Three Blind Mice (Max Romeo) 74. Tonight (Keith and Tex) 75. Vanity (Sugar Minott) 76. World A Music (Ini Kamoze) 77. Youthman (Wayne Jarrett)

Waiting on the custom preamp before doing control holes. Threaded inserts installed for pickups and control cover. A couple of sealer coats and headstock decal applied.

It`s amazing how well a driven sound fits in the mix and fills it out. My fave example of this is Phil X & The Drills doing My Sharona, the bass is just awesome.

GR AT cabs - pros: great sound, super light weight, 4 and 8 ohm options; cons: build construction strength, price BF BB2 - pros: great sound, light weight; cons: 8ohm only, price

Last gig with Glam band the FOH had to rush thru the soundcheck because of PA problems. We did the first set based on how we normally do a stage set up with everything balanced to drum level on stage. Sounded fine. At the interval she complained the on stage amps were too loud and when i turned down i couldn't hear bass on stage at all. I know the songs well enough to just "go for it" and feedback from audence was it all sounded great. The vids i've seen from audience using phones it was pretty much ok. For me i feel that if i can play a set without hearing the bass and not worry too much about it and its still good out front then i've succeeded on a personal level. Just need to sort out venue sound engineers lack of experience. Dave

I want to buy 10 so I can make a Christmas tree stack and place the one with the tweeter on top to act as the star on top of the tree. X X X X X X X X X X My wife will love it, as it will mean that the new Christmas tree can be used throughout the year as opposed to our present plastic one which is stored in the attic for 11 months of the year.

Just thought - I did once go to a works do and a duo was playing called "The Peas" who did covers of popular songs on : double bass/vocals and acoustic guitar/vocals (bass drum). Added instrumentation in the form of Kazoo's, mouth trumpets, melodica, beat box. They were good fun, and sounded good. They are based in south of England by the looks, so not sure if they would travel. Music starts after about a minute. www.trevorgeorge.co.uk/act/the-peas/

Thank you , I knew it's something radio.

THAT'S IT!

It does indeed. A few years ago I went to see @NancyJohnsonplay a gig directly after the SE Bass Bash. The sound engineer was periodically going to the toilet and it was obvious to me that him and his mates were getting completely nutted on coke. So, for quite a lot of any of the band's sets he was in the toilet with a golf ball up his nose. I can only say that the sound wasn't great either. Surprising that.

You wouldn't say Metallica albums 5, 6 and 7 have good mixes? They're not my favourite, musically, by any stretch, but they are sonically magnificent, no doubt about it. That entire OP video is a sham, by virtue of the fact that the AJFA bass tone is on there. Nobody heard that bass tone until the Guitar Hero stems came out. You can't hear it on the album so how can it be a bad tone in the context of the album? If it's just a load of bedroom maestros judging based on hearing it in isolation, and beaching about what sounds bad in isolation, which it is, then it's entirely pointless. How much sneering has been done on here about guitarists with bedroom tone, rather than a tone which works in a band context? I appreciate the guy needs to continually get hits on his channel, but it's a tabloid-level approach to what could have been an educational discussion.

Exactly the reason I went for a player series precision than any of the American models. The difference in price against the difference in quality don’t correlate at all. Fender play the ‘Made in the US = highest quality” card very well when we all know that simply isn’t true. Being a cricketer, the same marketing/belief’s apply to cricket bats - people I know will only buy £4-500 top of the line bats made in the UK and think that bats made anywhere outside the UK i.e. the sub continent are inferior, when again it’s blatantly not true in the slightest.

I had a good result with Liberon finishing oil on an un-stained alder bodied Warwick using the hand sanded slurry method. It really is a little and often approach allowing the coats to dry and working your way up the grit of wet and dry paper From this; To this; I found very therapeutic for my mental health to spend an hour each day oiling and sanding.

Not quite on stage, but I used to be part of a group of deps for this vocalist who did gigs up and down the country. One of his band used to do the sound and the singer was endlessly beaching at him, gig after gig, about everything - too loud, too quiet, frequencies wrong, setup wrong - whatever it was, he complained about it. The guy used to just take it - he was really quiet and reserved, never snapped back. He was an chocolate starfish, but he paid well and the rest of us weren’t generally weren’t in the firing line. However, it all came to a head at a big wedding do at a huge country house in the middle of nowhere. The singer was off on one of his rants and the sound guy just snapped. Told him where to go in no uncertain terms and started packing all his gear away - both the PA and his instrument. I have never before seen someone plead like that singer did at that gig. Almost literally down on his knees begging, pleading with the guy to stay - it was almost like an adulterous husband pleading with his wife to take him back. The gig went ahead in the end, but it was touch and go for a while - and thereafter the singer treated the sound guy much better! (He was still a pink torpedo though and a few gigs later I refused to do any more with him!)

I reckon most of those songs could be in a list called "songs where the bass player got the tone spot-on" and it would have made more sense.

The revolutionary AMS CABINET SERIES (ADVANCED MODULAR CABINET SYSTEM) is another impressive display of engineering prowess from Markbass; created in a moment where value for money is more and more of increasing importance as in the current financial climate, the modular design of these cabinets allows you to customize your rig and to tailor your cabinet/s setup to suit your need and your budget. The AMS offers high build quality and super excellent bass sounds in a practical and portable package, starting from a single 10" speaker you can configure a 2x10", 4x10" (thanks to the optional AMS Modular Custom Cable) or 8x10" as well as for the 12" speakers. The benefits of such a system are clear: a modular cab system gives a player the flexibility to choose a small setup without investing in a big cabinet, but with option to add more speakers creating your personal setup, depending upon your application. The intelligence in design coupled with the portability, flexibility, and value for the money. key points > MODULAR DESIGN AMS modular design allows you to determining both your cabinet/s setup and its price, upon your needs, preferences and budget. > HIGH BUILD QUALITY AND SUPER BASS SOUNDS As always, Markbass cabinets are build of the highest quality and they efficiently reproduces a wide range of frequencies, delivering super bass sounds. > NEW SUPER TWEETER - CONCENTRIC DESIGN The new super tweeter featured in the H version of AMS cabinets is in concentric position with the speaker, it gives sweet and round highs with incredible definition and hi-fi clear tone. A very cool design solution that not only sounds and looks great but also allows to have smaller cabinets to stack, we also offer version without tweeter so you can build your balanced setup. So instead of me buying a 2 X 10 cabinet I need to buy 2 1 X 10 cabinets? Where's the advantage unless the 1 X 10's are less than half the price of a 2X10?

Bacchus The Night ～ Patti Springsteen

I love Carmine Rojas' playing on the Let's Dance album. To me that's ultimate Bowie Bass playing.

Agreed Jazz bass and flats played with a pick nearer to the neck is very much the sound of that era and that could easily be what this is but I feel I hear something else, maybe in the recording process or pre-amp. Listening again , I am more leaning towards it being an electric bass with flats and pick. Anyway, it sounds great.

And so, on a 'measure 14 times and cut once' basis, the fretboard taper was cut this morning: And, using a G&W steel fret cutting template as my flat surface, the maple veneer glued onto the bottom - you can never have too many clamps (or radius block cauls)! And that done, I've been able to start the fretting. I'm using Evo Gold fret wire (I've used those on all my personal guitars and basses and the majority of builds for other folk). After de-tanging the ends of each fret: I 'wipe' a triangular needle file along the slot to take the brittle edge off; then apply a teeny thread of titebond; position it in the slot; whack it one side, then the other, then the middle to engage the tangs; wipe off the squeeze-out; then clamp a 12" radius block (the radius of the fretboard) for good measure while I then prepare the next one to be done. 14 done, 8 to go

Again there is a difference in concept between the 'natural' roll off of an amplifier and the deliberate removal of the lower frequencies to protect the speaker and clean up the sound using a specially designed circuit. If the amp is built in it would make no sense to allow the amp to drive the speaker into a place where it could be damaged, one of the advantages of active systems over passive. Reliability is essential to the manufacturer both in terms o reputation and in repair costs so making active speakers fool proof just makes total sense for sellers and customers Increasingly people are using DSP to protect the speakers in powered PA amps. There are a whole series of parameters that can be monitored to make sure none of the drivers goes outside it's design limits. Even cheap as chips Behringers with DSP offer really high levels of speaker protection. My PA amps have the option of setting HPF frequencies and roll off rates as well as hard and soft limiting and crossover frequencies letting me protect my passive speakers and all of this is pre-set to match the drivers in most active speakers nowadays. It makes a bit of a nonsense of the 1000W PA speaker claim. The amps may well be capable of short term power at this level but the DSP makes sure that inappropriate power never reaches the speaker but hey, we are getting near total reliability and are able to drive the system as hard as it will go with no worries about breaking anything so it's all good.

This is the DB track that just makes me shiver all over, straight out of the blocks, no waiting: the wonderful Danny Thompson...

He should probably change the title to “bass tones that suck on their own, but sound perfect where it matters” . When you hear the Newstead tone in isolation though, it makes you realise what a shame the mix on that album is, because his bass sounds great. Fieldy’s tone probably wouldn’t work in any other situation, but it’s an integral part of the Korn sound. That anyone would single out the legend that is James Jamerson, just makes the poll a bit laughable. A man who’s tone provided the foundation for some of the greatest songs ever released.

Years ago we got a late gig, 40 minute punky set supporting someone. Free rehearsal. Vocalist had the start of a cold, but said it wouldn't affect things. He spent an hour before our slot drinking Guinness and eating several bars of chocolate. Voice gave out after a couple of songs. He just did the old knife across the throat thing to say he couldn't go on, so I stepped up, apologised to the 40-50 people watching and said we'd be continuing as a three piece (singer was already off stage at that point). He lumbered back on, pushed me and said, 'We need to talk.' We played for about another 25 minutes, instrumental versions peppered with incoherent vocals and jamming. Went down surprisingly well. When we finished, he'd already left the venue. We did indeed speak and he never sang for us again.