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Which logo do you want on your Cort?

Together with some of my main band musicians, plus a great pro-drummer, I helped to put together a U2 tribute band as a little side-project earlier this year. There are no huge plans to gig loads but the two nights out we've had so far were lots of fun and we have a few more things lined up. My regular gigging bass is my trusty white Ritter Cora but I felt i should go dfor something a bit more Claytonesque for this gig. I've owned a couple of Claytons in the past, both in gold sparkle. The first was a lovely, lightweight Mike Lull that was built directly for Adam & the second was the official Fender full Custom Shop version - now residing chez @hiram.k.hackenbacker. I already had a nice Lake Placid Blue P bass with an aged MJT body, mint green/white guard, McIntyre neck, Hipshot Ultralights and a lovely set of custom wound Curtis Novak pickups. My first thought was to get the LPB body resprayed and I remembered that a Lakland I have was painted by Rob Fleet (via Simms Customs) https://www.rfcustom.co.uk/ I contacted Rob who could not have been more helpful. He explained that the cost of stripping my existing body & prepping for spray work would be relatively close to sourcing a nice new body which I could help to spec out in terms of desired weight and woods etc. We spent some time working our the ideal weight and he found a nice piece of premium alder to work with. I've always likes the Fender limited edition pink/purple sparkle Clayton P bass and Rob mentioned that he had an order for a deep purple flake pain job and I saw some images of the exact colour. We agreed on everything and the neck was duly dispatched so that he could make sure the neck fit was really tight and also to spray the headstock in matching purple flake. Not long afterwards I received the first body build shots and confirmation that the finished weight was bang on our agreed specs: Rob let me know that he thought it might be a good idea for him to custom build a guard whilst he had the body to ensure an exact fit and we agreed on a white pearloid finish. This kind of, relatively small, thing is a perfect example of Rob's attention to detail. He new I had a guard already but wanted to be sure of a perfect fit and finish. We also discussed the headstock logo as the body & spray work is all from Rob whilst the neck was made by Chris McIntyre, pickups from Curtis Novak etc. etc.. I didn't feel 'right' about asking Chris to use his logo and it seems to me that the core of this instrument has come from Rob. I felt I needed a logo of some kind and really didn't want to try and come up with some kind of random name so we agreed to go with an RF Custom logo. I think it's a classy logo & I have no plans to sell it on or pass it off as something it isn't - it genuinely is a 'custom' build so I'm happy with that. Today, Rob sent first pics of the finished body, with guard in place, & headstock. Typical of rob's professionalism is that he attached controls to the guard to make sure everything looked just right. He also asked about precise position of the strap buttons before drilling. So, here it is before it comes home for final fit at my local luthier, the rather wonderful Julian Mullen: Once it's home and fully finished I'll post some more pics!

just a small update with my flyrig. temple mods added for dual input, fx loop and DI

Couple of pics from Sat nights gig with Blockbustarz just appeared from Auld Gambling Hoose in Alloa. Excuse the wig, it was a new one i was trying out for a friend. 😂 It needs a bit of trimming for the next gig. Couldn't see thru the darn thing. Dave

Ive actually switched up the Longsword for the MAE Black Math since taking this picture but very happy with the angry tones I get out of this. It can get pretty gnarly 👌 Heres a quick jam featuring The Accountant > Dagger > Model FeT > Bass Driver > Opus (with power amp and Science IRs):

I’d go again - I’ve done “that’ll do” stuff in the past and regretted it. you’re obviously skilled…maybe get close to the size shape of the rout template and finish off with a file?

Personally, i take them out and use masking tape to affix them to the inside of the pickup cover, then put the covers back in the case/storage.

I try to keep gain as high as possible to benefit from the character of the pre-amp and adjust master for the volume. On some amps this can mean riding it into the red, I just trust ears on whether it sounds nice. When I had an ashdown abm I always ran the gain about 80%. It wasn’t overdriving but sounded warm and full.

thanks mate, it works very well for the function gigs that I do. We are ampless and most of the time I bring 2 basses (fretted/fretless) or a bass and a synthbass so the switcher is so handy. 3 out of 4 gigs this board will be my choice. this one takes care of the 1 out of 4. Sounds very nice but heavy and a bit risky for beer spills. 😆

That's amazing for a duo act!

Depends entirely on the circuitry of the pre-amp and power-amp sections. For solid state amps generally you want the gain as high as possible without introducing distortion and then adjust the master volume to give you the overall level you need. For amps with a valve pre-amp and solid state (or Class D) power amp the gain control will usually also act as a drive control. To get the right balance you really need to set it up in the band context as IME bass guitar can nearly always do with a bit more dirt in the mix than you would be comfortable with when playing solo. Have a listen to some isolated bass tracks to see what I mean. They are always more distorted than you would imagine from the overall mix. For all valve amps it's almost entirely down to taste, provided that you haven't got the settings introducing too much noise. Use your ears to get a sound you like not the numbers on the controls.

Higher gain at the front end increases the level through the rest of the circuit and gives a better signal to noise ratio. I prefer to run the Gain as high as I can and leave the Master as low as I can get away with.

Feel kinda sorry for any bass player who had to let that go to CC.....

If you put the screws in the holes, unless you leave them proud, the holes will be made bigger, so when you come to replace covers, the screws will have nothing to screw into. 🤷‍♂️ Put them in a bag with the covers.

The pickup cover and bridge cover have never been attached to my American Original Jazz since new. Nor will they ever be. No unsightly holes in my bass, thank you very much. One instrument I had already had the bridge cover attached by someone else (Grrr!), so I carefully replaced the screws after removing said Talent Inhibitor. I don't like unsightly holes if avoidable. If I take an instrument's scratch guard off, I always lay the screws out in the exact pattern they came in, so the correct screw goes back into it's original hole. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to walk to the Post Office without walking on a single paving slab crack or join... 🤔

Things from a bygone era Jack Hargreaves probably mentions them in “out of town” at some point

Most pub music venues have realised a solo singer or duo, open mic night is a cheap way to give live music paying £150-£200 As a band it should be around £300-£400 but most small pubs cannot afford it paying £200 -£300 tops Plus the old bands play too loud issue is often a reason not to get re-booked if they are struggling locally with noise complaints. I don’t think pub venues have a clue about band quality or how good they are and book the same old bands each month as a lazy approach to booking music

Sent the last bit over as it finally cleared. Thanks again to all involved x

I have this one and definitely my favourite bass at the moment ....

Has your band ever played a really nice venue, with a good crowd, lot's of dancing and the pub cash registers busy but your band was never asked back. There could be a lot of reasons. Share your thoughts or stories. Daryl

Its actually an Overwater J4 Contemporary that they put together from spares they had when taking samples to Tanglewood. They only made a few of these so no serial numbers etc. Its a decent bass but i was finding it a bit heavy in the 2nd set and moved to my trusty VM4 for last 5 or 6 songs. Part of the problem was i hadn't gigged for 4 weeks so my back was feeling it. It sounded ok but i really need more time to get the best out of it. I had dropped the string height at the nut and raised the neck pick up by 5mm but still hadn't adjusted the bridge pick up to balance it so it was a bit bass heavy and lacked a bit of mid drive. I'll get that sorted this week and might give it another go. I like the look of it in the pics. The other thing was it was a lot hotter than my Sandberg and i had to tweak amp volume a bit at change over. I believe there are gain pots in the control cavity that would drop the gains from the pick ups more in line with my Sandberg. I think its Kent Armstrong pick ups and pre-amp. Dave

Sweet little Mr E - Wet Wet Wet

Also the EQ boosts can affect the gain levels so always go back and check the gain isn’t excessive and the clip light only comes on momentarily in the main. All valve amps ignore that and use ears as a guide ! I have a MB LM4 and you will get your flat and scooped from the selector control and vintage by adding more old school control ( clockwise ) Its a very loud amp so keep your master volume low until you have everything else set how you want it

No, it isn't the same. Fixed mutes don't kill the harmonics in the same way. You can aldo combine finger/palm muting with fixed mutes and get a really wide range of sounds.

After several months of waiting, the Iron Ether Subterranea has finally arrived. Described by Taylor at Iron Ether as a, ‘multi-timbral analog synthesizer and octave pedal’ it acts as an oscillator section for a great analogue synth setup when paired with an envelope filter. These were discontinued a few years ago but recently brought back for a limited production run. Hopefully they’ll be added back to the regular production line. It’s a great analogue synth pedal. https://on.soundcloud.com/CpmKMabzrIOQzEnS99 https://on.soundcloud.com/U5G8C0THhHiAINPoEz https://on.soundcloud.com/HmamFI3dmsihHflhpM https://on.soundcloud.com/aEdvwY6QUt0qnNTR8M

I push my preamp gain until the clip light briefly comes on when hitting strings the hardest. Then use the master volume as appropriate for the situation.

Gain is your tone, Master is your volume. My SVT3PRO User Guide said, dial the master as loud as it will go and balance your volume on the gain. Maybe that was because it had a valve preamp. On my D class amps I prefer the gain to be pushed and using the master to balance the volume.

Just got this today and already gave it a spin. Sounds great and is different enough from my Octbvre and T47. The sound options are great and a lot to explore and as Taylor suggests to pair it with a filter (preferrably Xerograph) and that is so true. I have read a lot about these and early ones had a bleed from the synth voices but this one is really quiet. Really looking forward to see what I can do with it.

I do simple routs like this with forstner bits and chisels – I could easily adapt one of my existing humbucker cavity drill templates if you want to go down that route. Just give me the dimensions.

Wish I had known about this before embarrassing myself with my backwoods, attacked with an axe effort! The MDF option is very reasonably priced! I've fired them off a message to see if they do custom orders...

My solution is to leave the covers on the bass. And if I want to play bass.... then I pick up a different one.

Sire.

I'm sure they still tried to offer the previous owner £50 for it though.

The screw pixies ran off with mine sometime in the mid 80's.

That is just crazy talk 🤣 tape them to the covers and put them in the case or envelope in parts drawer.

I am significantly smaller than that but I don't think I want a fretless that small with how terrible my intonation is even on a full scale. At what point does it just become a violin?

Had a busy day today, on both projects I have got on the go right now. Here's what happened on the shed bass. First of all, I offered the neck up and used some string to see how the alignment was. Not too shabby, as it happens, with the neck almost along the top edge of the neck pocket, just needs a slight angle away which I will hopefully be able to create with a bit of veneer. And scale length looks good with the neck pocket the depth into the body it currently is. Next wee job was to drill out and fill the old neck screw holes. I checked them a while back and they were a little jaunty and I wasn't happy to use them again, so they need to be filled. Now, because the neck pocket had to be routed out to clean it up of all the glue and unevenness caused by the removal of that infernal glued in neck, the result was that the neck pocket was too deep - the 21 fret overhang of the neck was sitting on the top of the body, but the bottom of the heel wasn't making contact with the bottom of the neck pocket. So I used some 2mm thick maple veneer (intended for headstock fronts) and got to work shaping it to fit the neck pocket. Then it was glued in and clamped down. So, toddling along nicely, more neck pocket fettling to be done then it'll be time to fit the neck...

What are pickup covers and bridge covers?

Some promoters are morons. We were playing a well known pub chain and the manager had to fight his way across the heaving dance floor to tell us he wanted us to play more danceable music!!! The dance floor was full, so we carried on with the set and everyone had a great night. . . . and we didn’t get rebooked!

State of play tonight. Most of the 'back end' connections are made, and after much cursing and struggling with inaccessible M3 fixings, the bias board is fitted. I'm not 100% happy that it's secure though and I may yet look at mounting it to the end of the chassis. ALL BUILD PICS NOW IN POST DATE 01/11/2025

In my old punk covers band The Daves we played a local venue where we went down amazingly. Unfortunately a lady and her husband that we knew had come to see us, she was very drunk and started a fight with him, yelling at him very loudly in the middle of the pub. When he left she started yelling at anyone who made eye contact she would fight them too. Her broad German accent made the behaviour even more noticeable in rural Watford. We could hardly say we didn’t know her as she had a Daves tee shirt on. No matter how many times we tried to get gigs they were always fully booked…..

See what the BC Swear Aunty makes of this, it's not my fault! I've been in a band called Firef***er since February. From what I understand the name comes from a song by Helge Schneider and was the result of needing a name but not being able to think of one beforehand. They've been going for a while and were a typical rock covers party band but had a bit of a rethink over Covid, caused in part by the death of one of the founders, and they're now a Stranglers cover band, the long term plan is to include some originals as well once we have a solid ground to build on. https://www.youtube.com/@MrPardoned I'm not on any of those BTW, they're from before I joined, but maybe we'll do some more videos soon. Our first gig is on the 18th of October. I'm 50/50 excited/runnning around going "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" We're based on the northern outskirts of Rendsburg in Schleswig Holstein, I doubt I'll see any of you at a gig anytime soon!

And some Pub Landlords tend to favor "cheap". We have few places where the owner/managers are living in the past and won't budge from $350.00. We won't take those types of gigs. Off topic, sort of. I know some folks here are not in this for the money, which is fine. However, some of us are. I've never hit the big time or even come close. I'm a struggling local guy. In my area we have some $50.00 a night guys, $70.00, and $100. 00 a night guys. I can proudly say I'm a $150.00 a night guy. That's not much money, but more than most guys are getting around here. Daryl

You need help...

Tonight was the penultimate rehearsal with the new lineup before our first gig together. If we play like that on stage at the weekend, the punters will be in for a treat Mixed all the levels right on the XR18 for a good room sound, and everyone was happy with their individual in ear mixes. I was especially pleased with my Tonex One sounds, having gone back to Amalgams Bassman amp+DI captures from their Tonex One pack. It's the exact same captures I used for guitar but it sounded mega on bass too, so maybe the answer for me if I go back to using a proper amp for guitar is to just buy a bassman and have it cover both guitar and bass.