Leaderboard

The "bluegrassy" trio did an outdoor busking gig in front of a restaurant at noon today. First time in many years where I have played on a sidewalk, we went acoustic (mandolin, guitar,DB, vocals) except for me on DB who used my Traynor amp to give just a bit more volume. We will be doing another lunch time gig next week and then have a bluegrass festival with the full 5 piece band the following weekend.

Another Wednesday night for me playing rock n roll at a local club. A three piece band ( guitar, bass and drums ) using the house PA for vocals and our own backline. A reasonable crowd all wanting to dance, so we obliged with a good selection of stuff including ‘Flip flop and fly’, ‘Lipstick, powder and paint’, ‘Sea cruise’, and some more recent tunes like ‘I knew the bride’ and ‘Rockabilly rebel’. We ended the evening with ‘Tennessee Waltz’ as a tribute to Connie Francis. I used my P-Lyte into a Hartke 3500 and my old Loud 4x10. Couple of musos commented it didn’t sound as good as my Rumble 500 I used last week, and I have to agree. We get to leave the gear at the club though, and I use the Rumble on other gigs so it’s easier for me to use this set up , but I maybe do need to consider getting another Rumble at some point.

Decloaking briefly. I have a thing for Fiesta Red Precisions. One the left a GB Spitfire with a P bass pickup. In the middle a 1962 Fender Precision On the right a 1981 Fender Precision 1957 Fullerton reissue. These have very wide necks!

I am currently using the Boss instead of the HX. It sounds really good, but it is 0 intuitive

Here's the pic I should have included in my previous post! I'm planning to raise the board a few mm to fit the HPF underneath as soon as I find some suitable feet.

You might have to hold your horses. theres a band meeting been called. I’ve obviously raised some valid concerns and I don’t really want to leave. i wont lie - ive not been in a great mental space recently so maybe the band has copped for it… i dunno:

BC right now...

Man. Where do I start? I wasn’t always the biggest fan of Ozzy or sabbath. My gateway to metal ran through Guns n roses, Bon Jovi - hard rock acts. From there I fell into Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. I was aware of Sabbath and Ozzy of course but I wasn’t a particularly huge fan. I respected them for what they created, but there were louder, faster, darker acts out there by the time I was discovering metal in the early 90’s. However the shadow of Sabbath and Ozzy loomed over everything. Pantera did sabbath covers. Anyone who was anyone in metal attributed their passion to the Birmingham quartet and their lunatic frontman. Still not a ‘fan’, they were impossible to avoid, from compilation CD’s, to articles in Metal Hammer. You learned by Ozmosis (sorry!). War Pigs, paranoid, the Wizard. Crazy Train, Mr Crowley. All became ingrained in my psyche, and I still wasn’t a fan. I told people ‘oh yeah they’re vital, but I don’t really like them that much’ i got older, I got wiser. I paid more attention. Iommi, Butler and Ward were the engine of sabbath, they made it work. But Ozzy was the paint job that screamed ‘look at me!’. He was the heart and soul of Sabbath. They were a good band without him - Dio’s sabbath were incredible, except they weren’t Sabbath. Ozzy made them iconic. He made them ‘them’. i realised that I’d been lying for years. Telling people I wasn’t a fan. Telling people I respected their influence, but never loved their music. I realised too late that I was always a fan. Probably since I first heard them on one of those compilation CD’s. Since Tuesday night all I’ve done is blast Sabbath and Ozzy. We’re gonna put paranoid in our set next week and close the show with it. Our little tribute to the Prince of darkness. I hope he’s looking down right now, shaking his head and wondering what all the fuss is about. Probably shouting for ‘SHARRROOON’ to explain why gen-x is being so quiet right now.

Very neat. Nice idea. When I use it, I shall be sure to point out that I am using the patented Al Nico 'Cable Restraint At Point' method.

While the lacquer cured, I started to prepare the tuners for installment. Like I mentioned in the thread of the other bass that I built for Tom Petersson I modified the Schaller tuners a little bit. Two reasons: Save weight. And to make them shorter in order to keep the headstock as small as possible (without sacrificing strength of the wood). After I had wet sanded and polished the bass, I installed al the hardware and electronics. Initially the bass was designed with a pearloid pickguard (which matches the pearloid buttons of the octave tuners) But when I saw the beautiful quilted maple top I got second thoughts. And suggested we'd leave the pickguard off. Tom agreed to leave it off. But I did make some pics with the pickguard that I already had cut out. I used cut off head of phillips crews to make it look as if it was really mounted. So no holes were drilled in that quilted maple top. I put the pickguard inside the case. So if Tom should change his mind he can always decide to mount it after all.

A couple of years back I worked an acoustic duo with two guitars. Very laid back, restaurant music. Occasionally had a percussionist sit in and he was generally excellent and tasteful. One particular show he was suffering from an ear infection and consequently the volume kept going up with a particularly piercing cowbell right in my ear line. I could have handled that, but a chap at the pub garden we were playing announced he was also a percussionist and ran home to fetch some kind of wooden primitive xylophone thing so he could sit in. It was about knee height and he placed it on the floor while sitting on a slightly-too-tall stool, so he had to lean forward and awkwardly hammer away at it with a mallet like a particularly demented shed builder. It was already a horribly warm day and now one ear was getting the cowbell and the other a discordant clattering of poorly tuned wooden tonebars with little relation to the tune, with the two of us guitars trying grimly to hold onto a tempo. I started to get a bit woozy and felt like I was dodging massive gears inside a giant horror movie clock or something equally baroque. SAW: REAPERCUSSION perhaps. Puckered my anus enough to get through about three tunes worth of it and then had to stop the set "to do a couple of solo tunes" while the other guitarist diplomatically told them to shut the f*** up before both their instruments went into the harbour.

Sent the bass to the USA three weeks ago. And lo and behold, two days ago it showed up on stage in Toronto

Good luck Andy, hope it all works out for you which ever way it goes. I hit 56 next year which means I've played bass in bands for 40 years. As I get older, I am becoming more reflective and less enthusiastic about gigging. I'm very happy with the bands I'm in, everyone is great to work with and on the same page but the fire is dying. I started out all those years ago, playing all over the country, building a following and eventually getting a record deal. Every pub and club had music and it was always a packed and enthusiastic night. These days there really is a huge difference with a general lack of interest in bands and music. There are less places to play and the foot fall is so small that it makes you wonder, why bother, it sometimes feels like flogging a dead horse. Even playing Glastonbury this year, I noticed some stages were very quiet and bands were playing to not many people which was depressing to see. Someone said earlier that as we get older, we realise that time is precious and I'm very much feeling that way. I'm fortunate to have lived out my dream and achieved more than most but after 40 years of being a musician, I have nothing left to achieve. I now feel that the years I have left, with good health and relative youth on my side, I want to spend the time I have building new chapters, memories and adventures.

You've got to admit though, getting any sort of tune out of a chimney is pretty impressive.

So new (to me) bass day, a rather nice Sandberg SL. Been looking for one for a while due to back issues and when I saw this up for grabs, in my favoured black/black/maple it just had to be. Just played it for about an hour and even without being set up as I like, and without my favoured Elixirs (currently has Elites steel rounds) it’s simply a dream to play. Not usually a fan of matching headstocks but I think it really suits it, plus - and shows my levels of OCD - it matches our guitarists Ibanez like this so I’m more than happy. I’m giving up gigging so this will be used at home and with my non-gigging classic rock band, this 6lb bass will make 4hr rehearsals a lot easier.

Here are the two bass guitars together, side by side like they should be...

I just moved the Ozzy track behind the Scofield track so Ozzy's is listed as transcription no. 666 on the list on the front of this thread. 👺🤘

Finished the bass solid black. And applied the water slide decals. After lots of wet sanding I polished the bass For the pickup rings I made some black spacers. I laser cut them at the FabLab. So I'm thinking about making more of those for future use. Mounted the Gemini Thunderbird pickups (spacers underneath the nickel rings)

Routed the profile for the controls cover And cavities for the pickups And the neck pocket Shaped the neck heel (sorry no pics). And glued the neck in. Then it started to look like a bass

Forgot to show you a step 😉 Before I drilled the holes in the headstock I made a test headstock out of cheap MDF Because for this bass I had to used a new type of tuner for the octave strings. I had always used ultra light weight Gotoh Stealth tuners for the octave tuners. But Gotoh no longer makes them. Gotoh does make carbon plate tuners that are very light weight as well. But they are quite expensive and have to be made to order so it can take months to have them. Then I found that Schaller has a light weight tuner too in their arsenal. The GrandTune machine heads. I decided to modify them a bit by cutting off one lug. This would not only make the tuners even a bit lighter. But also would make the headstock shorter, which is a big factor in the battle against neck dive! So when I was happy with that result I drilled the holes in the real headstock (as seen in the post above).

When the fretboard and truss rod cover were ready I made a rough cut of the neck shape. And glued the fretboard on. As always I used strips of inner bicycle tubes for clamping. Then clamped the neck to my work table. And started to shape the neck profile When the neck was taking shape I drilled the holes for the tuners. Drilled holes on the side of the fretboard for the side position markers Glued the markers in Filled the little gaps under the frets with a mix of ebony sawdust and Titebond Original

I suppose, if the OP has no plans to gig soon, a compromise might be a good little heaphone amp like a Vox Amplug or maybe even a budget multi fx that can be paired with headphones like the old Zoom B1on if they can find one. It will still be a decent sonic upgrade on the practice amp and should leave enough change for a bass upgrade too.

It`s def a case of two arguments: Better amp - sounds better so makes you want to play more. Not much can be done to make an amp sound better than it already does. Better instrument - plays better so makes you want to play more. Re this as other mentioned a decent set-up can turn a budget instrument into a great player, so always worth getting optimum performance from your existing instrument.

I've had my music described as 'somewhere between Country and Rap'. I'm consistent.

Correct, we were outside beside the tables they have on their sidewalk patio, the gig next week will be inside the restaurant.

He was aiming at the harmonica player, who got up and started playing during the premiere of the 1812. Tchaikovsky was so grateful to that audience member for his timely intervention, that he wrote the part into all subsequent performances. True story.

Ok, here's my entry, another hurried effort, but I'm out tomorrow, hence the rush! Inspired by the picture and by a jam at a friend's house over 40 years ago. Turned out a bit more guitarry than I intended, but these things do tend to evolve a life of their own, once started. Guitars and bass going in via a NuX Mighty Plug thing, except the lead guitar, Cry Baby into a Session Rockette 30. The usual Gretsch kit and tambourine, all into Reaper.

Moby, of all people, has some nice words:

U42?

Today I can finally present a new Brooks bass guitar to you guys. The Brooks EXB-12-TP Black. As the TP in the name already gives away, it was custom built for Tom Petersson of legendary band Cheap Trick. Tom sent me an email end of november 2024. At first I thought someone was playing a joke on me. But it turned out to be real. And early january Tom ordered two twelve string bass guitars. Here's the first. (more about the second one soon...) - Korina body - Nine ply laminated Korina set neck. Glued in - Black finish. Gloss - Checkerboard binding - White 3-ply pickguard - Ebony fretboard - Abalone position dots. Aluminium ring in 12th position - Jumbo frets - 30 1/2" scale - Buffalo horn nut - ETS Custom made twelve string bridge set. Nickel - Two spokewheel double action trussrods - Carbon reinforcement strip in the neck - Gemini Dominator in the neck position. Nickel - Gemini Devastator in the middle position. Nickel - Pure Tone output. Nickel - Toggle switch. Nickel, black tip - Hipshot Ultralite Mini clover bass tuners, Nickel - Schaller Grand Tune guitar tuners. Nickel, Ebony button - d'Addario custom strings - Weight: 4.9 kg ] I'll post pics of the build process below.

Routed the profiel for the controls cover on the back of the body Routed the neck pocket Shaped the heel of the neck to fot the neck pocket Then routed the pickup cavities

I've had so many good comments about mine that I have no desire for any other amp. Compact, easy fit in the car boot, a one-hand lift, and it looks good too imo - such a great bit of kit!

After I glued on the fretted fretboard I shape the neck profile (sorry, no pics) And I drilled the tuner holes Shaped the headstock outline Then cleaned up the front and back of the headstock. Drilled the little holes in the side of the fretboard, for the side position markers. Glued them in. And sanded them flush Filled the gaps underneath the frets with a mix of ebony saw dust and Titebond Original

After a fight with both my ageing laptop and a cranky Soundcloud, I've finally managed to upload this month's effort. The Sage. Who is he? Where did he come from? What does he want? What does he know? Why has he started breakdancing in the old part of town? Has he got the moves? Can he still do them? Will we have to call an ambulance for the mysterious old coot? There's a wee bit of guitar and a drum sample (or two) from Looperman but Ableton is Employee of the Month as I cobbled the various synth and bass lines together by programming everything using the 'noises library' within.

Tom Petersson specifically asked me to make them not too heavy. You can imagine that the Explorer body with all that hardware can be quite heavy. So I drilled some holes for weight relief. In hindsight I could have drilled even more maybe, because the bass is still almost 5 kg... When all the holes and channels were done I glued the White Lima top on. Then routed the body shape. When the body outline was ready I routed the first profile for the binding. Then glued the strips of checkerboard binding in After that first stage of the binding process was done, I route the profile for the outer binding. And glued the black binding in Binding ready

So you all likely know my propensity to modify or tweak what I buy. This thread follows my tendency in that... I recent years, I have found that a lot more is about the player than the instrument (to a large degree, anyway), so I might as well buy a cheaper instrument and tweak it to my liking than hack up an expensive bass. Though I do own expensive instruments, increasingly I am getting a lot of joy from cheaper ones. Now. I became quite entranced with the sound of the Stingray in my youth, but always found they sounded worse in my hands than in someone else's. At least, until I spent about 6 months working on my right hand technique a while back. I bought and sold 5-6 Stingrays for this reason. Now, I am happy with how they sound when I play them, but it turns out I really dislike the 3EQ versions, and eventually I realised the sounds I liked best were 'older' Stingrays. I also favour Jazz width necks over Stingray or Precision necks; getting an SLO Special Stingray looks a very expensive affair. Not to be mean, but I happen to think Stingrays are mostly a one trick pony, and I can't face stumping up huge amounts of money for that, much as I like them now. So the goal became getting 'the sound' without forking out for a Stingray Classic or a vintage Stingray. So, in many ways, a Ray4 fit the bill. I bought a Ray4 a year and a half ago - the videos by JuliaPlaysBass on Youtube giving me confidence in doing so. It got about 80-90% of the way to the sound I wanted, and I played it stock for about a year. Good value for money, although I did get the frets levelled and get a new nut installed. (The original nut needed filing down to be properly playable, which I did at home, but a proper fret level by a luthier made the instrument feel just great to play). Eventually, I replaced the tuners with an old set of Hipshot Licensed Ultralites I had lying around, because the original tuners were not that great, and it felt like I was invested in the instrument after a while. That was a nice upgrade. I had to shim the Ultralite tuners to fit the holes, but it was worthwhile. I just used electrical tape, worked fine. I quite like the very practical ethic of not filling the old tuner screw holes, gives a kind of industrial look. So. As I continued to play the instrument, I realised I wouldn't mind putting more into it, as it had taken on something more personal to me. I did a lot of research using Low End Lobsters series on modding his Ray4s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrGKPGOKp9M and the Mold Smoothie Project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRkzMzjkD58) and ended up purchasing the John East 2 band MMSR EQ (without plate to make it cheaper) and the Aguilar AG4M. That got me 'the sound' plus a bit more, as the EQ has a slightly bigger range than the original. The install was easy - John's products are brilliant in my opinion - but I got a bit of hum out of the Aguilar, which I did not expect. I ended up shielding the pickup cavity, which seemed to do the trick. I do have a fairly electrically noisy household, so it's good at picking up issues like this. The Aguilar is a 'vintage style' Stingray pickup, so perhaps it wasn't surprising to get some vintage aspects to it, lol. So, now I had the sound. However.....the bridge had been a subtle annoyance to me that I tolerated for a long time, because the instrument was inexpensive, but replacing the bridge felt a bit wasteful to me. It's a perfectly good bridge, and I have never found the magic in a bridge change that many people talk about, though I have swapped plenty in my time. Eventually, I realised that I could try to fit an old Stingray mute set on there, which would allow some flexibility if I desired it, and also look a lot better. Bass Direct sells them for £28 shipped...so, I bought a set. Turns out, the long metal plates of the mutes fit perfectly under the existing Ray4 bridge without having to modify the bridge or bass in any way. Sweet. I spent a long time looking for inserts to put into the wood under the bridge for the mute screws to fit into, but I could not find a supplier here or in the USA for the right size. Strange, but there it is. I bought a few of different sizes just to try them, but the screws never worked right in them - either too small or too large. I dug out old pics of vintage Stingrays with the bridges and hardware removed, and it turned out that it looked like those screws simply went directly into the wood, not an insert. I also messaged Low End Lobster to ask him if that is what he had done with his bass, and he said he simply screwed them directly into the wood as well, and it worked fine. So, one 4mm drill bit and a lot of measuring later, this is how it ended up... It's not perfect - the hole I drilled for the screw through the bridge under the G string was 1mm off where I wanted it to go, even though I used a centre punch - but it looks right, and furthermore, the mutes are totally useable and the sound is very cool. Even with some candle wax to lubricate the screws when I screwed them in to the bass, they are a slow turn, so it's not instant adjustability, but a minute or two will allow me to return it to the 'non-muted' sound. The finished article. I need no more mods. This has been a real labour of love, over a long period of time, and I am really happy with it. It's cheaper than any of the options I might otherwise have had to consider given my requisites, but it's difficult to recommend it if you're not as picky about necks/EQ etc as I am. A secondhand SBMM Ray34 or similar is better value, though those don't have the forearm contour that I think is critical either. But you get the gist. I think I spent around £600 all together, and it looks and sounds great. This is now, finally, my 'Stingray'. Pete

Take your own bass to the shop and try it through the same Fender amp. If it still sounds bad, then you'll know that a new amp is not the solution.

Yoghurt is obviously not a good adhesive.

Thanks for the followup - every day's a school day. I guess my perception is that I've only seen wenge widely used in expensive instruments where it is used as a marketing tool/flex.

Many years ago we were trying out a new drummer. He was a bit of a name around here, and he announced he wanted to dep out the rehearsals and only do the gigs!! We told him to do one!!

There is a bias in your system, it comes from the USA, where, for example, maple and walnut are local, but China has to import almost every wood they are using for manufacturing instruments, so the prices will be quite the same for maple or wenge, furthermore if they used wenge, it's because it was cheaper than the usual walnut for that skunk stripe as the politics of the Chinese factories is to always use what is the cheapest option. Check this supplier prices for a more accurate representation of the value of current woods used in luthiery and you'll see that wenge is a non expensive wood, in the lower range: https://luthierssupplies.co.uk/product-category/electric/electric-neck-blanks/through-neck-splices/bass-through-neck-splices/?orderby=price

Just in case, here is a handy link.... https://uk.fender.com/collections/electric-guitars-telecaster

And excepting Big noise from Winnetka

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. A riff that's heavy by any standards, plus an even heavier riff, all combined with delicate acoustic guitar. And it all fits together as a coherent whole, creating a musical vision of heaven and hell that's arguably the heaviest song ever recorded. Others have tuned lower, played slower or used more distortion but never achieved the sheer force when that song hits. That ability to cast light as well as shade is what sets Sabbath apart from their imitators.

Keys. I’ve been in too many bands where the keyboard player felt obliged to fill any hint of quiet with pointless flourishes adding nothing to the song.

Oversinging has very much become a thing people think they need to do, all the time. It needs to die in a ditch.