Leaderboard

“We have emailed you yesterday that the bass you ordered should only arrive with us on the 22.01.2025, this was an error by our product management, the year is 2024 and not 2025. So the bass you ordered is now due to arrive with us on the 18th of January 2024. We are sorry for the confusion and the mistake that was made here.” I’m back in the game! Thank god they emailed me, I almost impulsively bought another bass to replace the 1st one I bought on impulse that was delayed. 😬

Current board with everything I need - it’s cured the GAS (for now!)

just a small update to the flyboard.

Hi, As part of my work on 3d printed guitars, I started thinking about what was the best pickup to use for either six string or bass. Currently my six string has a pair of Tesla P90's which sound great to be honest. I have an 89 MIK Squier Telecaster which I love playing but the neck pickup sounds like, well something very muffled and bad. I did think about buying a replacement pickup but to be honest, I haven't a clue. So I thought about making pickups and wondered how difficult it is. After reading a lot, it doesn't seem that bad to do, you have a bobbin, you have some magnets, you have an awful lot of wire and you turn it. I saw people doing this with electric drills, by hand and by using various automated winders. As I'm stupid and can't resist a challenge, I looked at doing my own pickups. I have a few Arduinos and stepper motors sitting around and I used to be able to code, so had a good walk with the dog to think, had a play with a 3d printer, an Arduino simulator and a lot of coffee. My working assumptions were that the major problems are: 1. Actually feeding the wire onto the pickups in a controlled manner 2. Keeping the tension correct all the way through. Since people were using their hand drills to do this, I figured that its not the worlds biggest problems and if I could use a computer, a lead screw and a stepper motor I could control the feed back and forth across the bobbin ad that tension is a simple felt pad to slightly slow things down. So below is the schematic on the Arduino simulator that drives two stepper motors, the top one at full speed and the bottom stepper motor at a far lower speed. The lower stepper motor drives a lead screw that moves the copper wire across the bobbin back and forth with no user intervention. As this isn't a video you can't see it working, but it does The actual core of the code is written, it didn't take that long, a few hours for a few days as I tweaked it. What it doesn't have is an interface to enter all the values, such as the number of loops, the gauge of the wires, the width of the bobbin, the number of steps of the stepper motor per revolution, the pitch oft he lead screw. Thats this load of code here. int ratio = 10; int stepperSpeed = 1000; // int stepper2Speed = stepper1Speed/ratio; int noLoops = 10000; unsigned long loopCounter = 0; int currentRatio = 0; char buffer[21]; double coilWidth = 3.0; double wireWidth = 0.0564; int stepper1Steps = 200; // 200 steps per revolution int stepper2Steps = 400; // 400 steps per revolution int leadscrewPitch = 2; // 2mm double step = (double) stepper2Steps / 360.0; double distancePerStep = (double) leadscrewPitch / (double) stepper2Steps; double numberOfStepsPerRevolutionAsFloat = ((double) wireWidth) / distancePerStep; Putting a simple menu system on here is probably 10x the work of writing the code so am thinking of ways to cheat Along with writing code, I started to physicallty put together the start of the winder. This is the first cut, it has an 8mm lead screw that will be attacched to a Nema 17 motor on the left hand side. This stepper motor will move 1 step every 11.28 steps for the main motor that winds the bobbin up. After 3mm of movement, the bobbin width, the stepper motor will reverse and move back. Each step is around 0.005mm of the lead screw, thats the level stepper motors can do even without microstepping (which TBH I don;t know how to do yet). So as the main stepper motor puts 10,000 loops on, the wire is carefully moved back and forth across the bobbin in a highly controlled manner. Thats the principle anyway. I know that there are screws missing and its a bit Heath Robinson, I didn;t have many M4 and M5 screws to hand. Moving the lead screw by hand is smooth and allow coils up to 120mm to be wound. No idea what that would be, but thats the options available. Next steps are Nema 17 mounts, adding in menus (masses and masses of work), putting in switches to detect the lead screw holder hitting the ends by mistake, adding in PSU, working out CNC shields or stepper motor drivers, mounting on plywood, designing a bobbin holder, designing a bobbin, getting some cheap AWG44 copper wire, but the basics are in place. Thanks Rob

I just sold my fretless 4003 but still have my fretted Rick. Made in 1983 I think? I had a real problem when I got the Rick at first.... it sounded terrible! But it was my playing, I was far too heavy a player. My other basses were obviously more forgiving but the Rick was clancking and buzzing and rattling. I had to just stop playing so hard which ironically has improved my playing overall.

You are perfectly right. I'm probably being a bitter old man, but: Personally I think there is too much music available nowadays. The figure being headlined is 60,000 new tracks being uploaded to Spotify every day. Various attempts to to debunk this have resulted in revisions down to between 5000 and 40,000 track daily. However, just 5,000 tracks a day is staggering, considering that in the days of vinyl there were probably significantly less than 1000 new singles and albums each week (That's just a guesstimate - I have been unable to find any serious stats on this if anyone has them please post). This combined with the dwindling number of listeners prepared to buy recorded music, means that there is an ever growing number of songs vying for an ever shrinking audience's attention. When anyone with a computer, an internet connection and $50 can produce and album and upload it to all the download and streaming sites, it's not surprising at lots more people are doing it. Unfortunately all that "background noise" makes it much harder for listeners to find new music that they like. And as a listener in the 70s when I started getting into music beyond what was on TotP, my sources were John Peel and Alan Freeman on Radio 1. I'd probably hate at least half of what they were playing and be indifferent to a lot of the rest, but there would be a handful of new records played every week (out of the 120 or so I'd heard) that I would like enough to consider buying. By contrast last week I listened to a 500 track modern post-punk/goth playlist on Spotify. That's 500 songs in specific genres that I really like. However I found less than 10 new bands that I enjoyed enough to warrant further listening. What particularly struck me was how derivative and how poorly recorded much of it was. I've always been worried that my band's home-produced recordings weren't up to scratch, and while so far we've not managed to emulate Trevor Horn or Martin Rushent, by comparison with most of what I heard we are doing pretty well. When someone like myself is struggling to find interesting new music from curated playlists what chance do most casual listeners have? Also when you consider that if my band puts out a single we are in effect competing with every other song ever released for listeners. In the days of releases on vinyl and CD a single (unless it was very popular) had a life of no more than 3-4 months, so it was only ever competing with a few thousand other songs at any one time. These days Spotify and other on-line sources have to apply negative weighting to streams of "back catalogue" tracks otherwise hardly any new music would make the current charts. It's not the cost of living that is crushing new music. It is the sheer amount of music available

I would go further than the OP and argue that the cost of living (which is a systemic failure by governments and central banks) is not just crushing music but it is crushing the social contract and eroding the democratic process. Unless we are careful (and this involves tackling the thorny issue of politics, global rather than party politics) western liberal democracy is in trouble. Far right political parties are on the rise in Europe. Trump is on the path to re election in the USA. This is a pivotal year for elections. Choices made will have a profound impact. Tensions (internal and global) need to be calmed not exploited. Anyhow this is political (thread lock alert) and a personal issue for me that is always in the back of mind these days as we are sleep walking into dangerous territory and the media (mainstream and social) are getting hung up on all kinds of peripheral issues but ignoring a very real threat.

Thought I'd share a nice post from a guy on another forum (for people who play extra-short scale six-string piccolo bass) "Back in my bar band, weekend warrior days, I finally realized buying another piece of gear wasn't going to improve my playing. So when I needed some retail therapy, I would buy a book or video lesson instead. Over time I collected a decent library of materials. Trying to decipher the information laid out in some of the 'must have' tomes [...] I thought I would never get much out of a lot of the material, save for a few basic concepts and ideas that I already understood. But perserverance has won out. Nowadays, I will often realize a concept has worked it's way into my playing "

Nice!

I've already built a CNC machine. Admittedly it was around 800x600mm. https://forum.v1e.com/t/new-build-in-clapham-north-yorkshire-uk/16519 This is not a CNC machine. A CNC machine doesn't have to loop back and forth for the winding. You could program it to do that I suppose in Klipper or Marlin but itwouldn't be ideal. You could argue it's closer to a 3d printer. Also a CNC machine doesn't get to 0.005 mm accuracy at the price I can afford. Mine certainly didn't. I also didnt happen to have a small CNC machine lying around. I did happen to have a few arduinos and stepper motors. No idea what I am winding. I'll build it and play. I may not put an input interface and just reflash from a laptop for awhile.

The print magazines became increasingly full of advertisements in order to try and survive. It became so irritating that every other page was an ad, that I gave up on all of them.

To my mind the problem regarding cost of living isn't that it makes it harder to make music - it's cheaper and easier than at any time in history to record an album and make a video. The problem is that so many people are struggling financially that it's harder than ever to get an audience out, especially for ticketed events as opposed to pubs. Venues are closing down, audiences are falling and you can't make up for the low fees by selling self-published CDs any more. It's live music that's suffering, not music within digital media.

Quinn - GSRM25 Fyra - GSRM20B ʻElima KALA California 5 string fretless ubass Sam x

You’re saying it’s good for Methil?😂

I still think back to the 70s/80s where a musician would have one decent-ish guitar & one amp (often paid for by student grant, and said musician if no longer a student would more than likely be unemployed as unemployment was a big problem then), would be living in squalor eating virtually nothing all day (which is why they were all stick thin back then). Sure we have a cost of living problem at the moment but there were plenty of hard times years ago as well.

Ibanez released info on the new in 2024 models (scroll down for basses, some interesting additions there) https://www.ibanez.com/eu/news/detail/20231124144232.html?fbclid=IwAR1FSRh0zffZsagwmI-rgLY8lnbN5uz-z4JArskLWTVKf8daifIWjf4f4tE

new bridge in 2020, new truss rod in 2023

I saw 3 hips come sailing in. - Trad.

What A Waste - Ian Dury and The Blockheads

"It's gonna be free practice for us tonight...super quiet"... Lead Singer Well it was the start of "dry" Jan, but that's maybe going to be the worst prediction of 2024 already in the bag! Was a huge amount of fun!

I won a copy of "Yes - Complete Deluxe Edition" at a Bass Bash raffle. It has this on the title page: I can follow some of the dots. But four odd time signatures in five bars is hard to count:

I have books that I couldn't use 20 years ago - too complicated, beyond my capabilities, etc. However, when I look at them now, I can use them easily. I can read the dots, count the beats - and use what I learned when I play.

Let me build it and see. I'm trying to work out the minimal amount of hardware so probably looking at a CNC shield and a couple of DRV8225 stepper drivers. The CNC shield is overkill but it's cheaper and easier than two dedicated single driver boards. The core software is there. There's zero checking, no input whatsoever, it's all hard coded. I'm thinking that I'll just reflash from the Ardunio sketch if I change any parameter. Focus will be getting the stepper motor mounts done, working out the motor drivers and the inevitable changes to the pinouts, putting it all on a small sheet of ply and checking it all lines up. Then I'll print the simplest pickup I can with my own 3d printed bobbin. Dip it in wax and see how it sounds. Might be junk, might be great. Then and only then will I look at anything else

That's because it has nothing to do with a Fender logo. Every single thing about it is wrong. The font, the spacing, the place on the headstock, everything.

I'm The Slime - Frank Zappa

Hocus Pocus - Focus

'The Big Noise From Winnetka' - a Drum'n'Bass duet from 1939. Written and played by Bob Haggart (string bass & whistling) and Ray Bauduc (drums). I remember my dad playing this record in the late 1950's (it was a 10" ; 78rpm ; made of shellac, which was very brittle and the forerunner of vinyl) and. Dad was a huge fan of the 'Big Bands' and I was inspired by his enthusiasm. And an alternative version by University of Minnesota Duluth professors Dr. Adam Booker and Dr. Gene Koshinski who revisit the classic tune composed and made famous by bassist Bob Haggart and drummer Ray Bauduc. Enjoy.

Norman

...and we used to have to sweep the lake...

"Better strings" is incredibly subjective. The EBs will be just fine and dandy.

Hatfield 1980 - EBTG

Compressor: FEA Opti-FET Octaver: Aguilar Octamizer EQ: Tech 21 Q-Strip Overdrive: DHA VT1 Distortion: Idiotbox Landphil (Blowerbox with more eq) Fuzz: MXR Brown Acid (I actually prefer the sound from the Latent Lemon Brassmaster but it looses points for being unnecessarily large) Envelope Filter: MXR M82 Synth: C4 (annoyingly limited interface though) Modulation: Source Audio Gemini/Lunar/Mercury (all basically the same). Delays: I like multi-fx for delays as it allows lots of editing and parameter control and stacking effects (e.g. adding reverb to the delay) which I find useful for delays, I especially liked the Boss GX 100 because of easy access to tap tempo and assignable expression pedal to sweep through a few effect parameters changing at the same time and touch screen for easy editing. I've got my eye on getting a Boss RE-202 though. I think Multi-fx are nearly as good as individual pedals for most things (it's especially difficult to hear much difference when playing through an amp/cab and with a band), what I'm really waiting for is something a bit like the Boss GX 100 or Pod Go form factor but with a good envelope filter and synth so it is all I need in one unit. At the moment it seems all multi-fx fail there which is a hassle as it means I still also need seperate pedals/power supply pedalboard etc. and that then leads me back to having a board of individual pedals, it must be possible - Source Audio do it really well with individual digital pedals (a Source Audio multi FX would be great: Atlas, EQ2, Aftershock, Gemini, C4, Colider, Zio: all bunched together with a few footswitches and a big display/touchscreen).

@sandy_r @Paddy Morris @3below Thanks so much for your feedback - I am just going to bite the bullet and get a replacement. I do like the realist so I am going to stick with it but I appreciate of the suggestions and help.

I think the new truss rod may be a bit earlier. Mine has a 2022 serial number (mid 2022 if you believe the week numbering really does mean the week it was manufactured) and a single truss rod. It surprised both the guitar tech and I when he took the truss rod cover off. He was in the shop when I bought it, so I took it into his workshop for him to give me 5 minutes training on how to adjust a double truss rod. I adjusted it a couple of days ago - there is only one allen bolt to turn. I guess 2022 doesn't mean it appeared in the UK in 2022 though.

Or maybe the sheer amount of new music? Self-publishing on the internet combined with cheap home recording technology means anyone anywhere in the world can release their own music rather than it being something just for the lucky few. The downside being even fewer get to make a living from it as there's simply too much competition.

The Vintage Circuit push/pull pot was from 2006.

There is a link in the top post to the rules - I forgot to include it initially, my bad. Copied from there (and edited for year): Tier 1 Challenge During the calendar year of 2024 (01/01/24 - 31/12/24): - No bass gear purchases/trades whatsoever, be that amps, pedals, basses, accessories. Tier 2 challenge (should you play other instruments, engage in music production etc) - As above, but extended to your other musical gear Allowances in both tiers: - Strings (sticks, skins, reeds etc) - Maintenance/setups that only involve work on existing aspects of your bass (ie no purchasing a preamp to add to it) - If something breaks through no unusual intervention of your own, and is unable to be repaired, you may replace it. - Educational purchases, ie tutorial books, lessons, anything that furthers your playing is permitted. - If you have purchased something in 2023, you are able to take delivery of it within 2024. - If you have put down a deposit on something before committing to this, which then requires a final payment within 2024, that single payment permitted. Although not mentioned here, precedent has been set in previous years that unsolicited gifts are allowed. But it doesn't work if you get given money as a gift then you choose to spend that on gear. Also precedent has been set that decrees that the replacement of broken items must be like for like as near as practically possible - no abusing this with sneaky upgrades. Hope that helps!

If we're not going to get political, at least actually get the economics right. The current 'cost of living crisis' in the UK is primarily down to political decisions made following the fall-out of the crash in 2008. Over countries have recovered from the Covid lockdown much quicker than the UK. The conditions for the current state of the UK economy pre-date the invasion of the Ukraine. This is all getting unnecessarily political. Essentially, the answer to the OP is that the cost of living is a factor that is making it difficult for today's young musicians, but the main issue is the changing nature of the music business, changes in demand for popular music, other entertainment options becoming more prominent, etc.

Fatman ～ Southern Death Cult

i call mine silly billy becuase it never plays what my brain and my fingers tell it to

I called my bass the same name! Billy Sheehan's wife.

Heh, found a piece of 5mm hardwood ply in the shed. Back panel is go! Now, about that logo. I thought of doing a cheeky sendup of a famous logo and I decided upon doing something Moog-like. Found a font that someone had created in the sprit of the Moog logo, asked for permission to use it, got it, then got to work using it to create this: How will I get this onto a piece of ply? With another cheapskate move - the old homemade carbon paper technique - scribble f loads of pencil on the back, tape it down then trace over it with a pen... Admittedly, it was super faint so I had to go over it again with the pencil to have a useable guide. Next question - what now? Paint? Sharpie? Scrub this off and create a waterslide decal? In the end I did none of those things and went back to a craft I used to partake of as a child - woodburning. First pass with the big round tip on the iron yielded this: Then moved to the fine tip for the corners and the little musical note thing inside the 'p'. I'm really pleased with how that came out! Time for a wee mockup (some paper straws keeping it up where it will be when attached) That turned out way better than I anticipated. Really pleased with it. All that's left to do is lacquer the back panel then attach it. Will probably use wee panel pins and just nail it on, like the backing panel on an Ikea wardrobe.

I didn’t listen to myself! Now got to try them out and then move the one I like least at somepoint.

To put it bluntly, classics appeal to all ages. The newer you get, the bigger the risk of losing half your audience.