Leaderboard

According to what I believe is a trustworthy source on social media, this is the new Flea American Artist series active bass. As lots of us commented a while ago, it’s the signature bass we thought fender should have released. No news on preamp and pickup but is looking good.

Hmmm - interesting... Anyway, I'm promised they are on the way so I've been doing the final fretboard pre-glue jobs so that I don't lose time while I'm waiting. Truss rod installed and demarcation veneer applied: The smaller luminlay dots for the over-body dots (the main dots will be the larger ones) which are best done before the fretboard is on - because, trust me, these particular ones are a beggar to do when the fretboard is already fitted: And - as you may have noticed, I've decided in the end to do a 24th fret block. It looked a bit bare at the dusty end without. This looks better to my eye: I'm hoping the replacement pickups will arrive tomorrow so I can rout the chambers then get the fretboard on

So am I. Shame I'm 46 though...

Yes, good advice that. I have made a couple of stupid mistakes recently which would have been easily avoided, all luckily simple to get round. The nut I bought was too wide so I bought a blank, the machine heads I got got delayed so I got some more and I remembered last night I needed to get some knobs and springs for the pickups! I was lining up the bridge rails last night (which is what the red string was for, using the scale length from my other basses to work out the range of positions i need for them. I don't really need that angle but I think it looks quite good and covers the positions I probably will need. I still have to wire this up: Everything actually gets harder now I have got to the easy bit. Before it was a couple of chunks of wood and if I messed it up, well, it wasn't expensive wood. Now it is cheap wood, cheap components and many hours of work!

Haven't been here and done this as often as I'd like, but had an hour going begging, so here it is. PS: There aren't any 'wrong' notes of course - it's Jazz.

Warm up? Oh that must be a really old model when we used valve preamps in active basses

Well, they've been flying all the way from South Africa and only just arrived...I suspect they are kn******d

Due to a muck up ordering the Mother of Pearl inlays I'm still short a set so I can't proceed with the Rosewood board until they come but I did a bit of routing on the Ebony one. For my inlays I routed close to the line and then pared to the line with a sharp chisel, apart from one little bit shown below where I made a slight wonder over the line with the router. My excuse is there was too much dust around the cutter LOL. After that I put a bit of masking tape on the cutter to blow it away and it never happened again. Chiselling was the first time I really found a difference to real wood, I don't really know how to describe it but paring Ebony, it's a clean forceful sort of cut, the Ebano felt more like paring balsa but harder, that said it cut very cleanly, certainly good enough for me. Anyway, the inlays fitted a treat with no stress at all other than that one little incident of my own doing. It cut so cleanly I'm thinking I may get away with no real need for edge filling with glue and dust (apart from that one bit shown again with the inlay). The good news of the day was I got my sander back from being repaired at Festool, the switch broke and it needed a new set of gears but bare in mind it is 25 years old and has had a very hard life and this is it's first repair

Don’t get it: why is @mrtcat wrong? Poor customer service is bad PR, regardless of the customer’s intention.

They know and recognise me as someone who has spent a lot in there over the years, probably £5k to date and I've also sold stuff to staff. It was reasonably busy but it's not a customer's job to convince a shop and it's staff that they're worthy of being welcome. Everyone is a potential customer when you are running a business whether they spend today, tomorrow or years down the line. If they're having a bad day then they need to be professional and suck it up a bit like the rest of us in our professional lives.

I think what the comments in this thread boil down to is not whether analogue is better than digital but what are you favourite effects and what compromises are you personally prepared to put up with. Sound/tone is entirely subjective, and IME a lot of it is to do with familiarity, rather than actual quality (if that could even be quantified). I also think that term "modelling" does a lot of multi-effects (even the very best ones)a complete disservice. I don't know how close the emulations of the various effects, amplifiers and cabs on my Helix are to the originals (because most of the time I've never tried the originals), and in all honesty I DON'T CARE. All I do care about is that amongst the various different distortions/choruses/EQs there is one that will give me the sound I am looking for to fit into the band mix of a particular song at the particular point. Everything else is irrelevant.

Two too many knobs? It's supposedly like a Stingray - one knob for volume and two for active EQ. It's as simple as you can get for an active bass.

Not this so much, but the guitarist in my old band ran a 20 year old Les Paul into a 30 year old Peavey; soundwise he'd be on the money, but not before spending an age knob-tweaking to actually get there. I could never understand how he would sound brilliant on a Friday gig and so utterly shite 24 hours later. And yes, tweaking happened between songs.

And of course, when you inevitably sell it on here, you can claim that it "plays like buttercream"...

Too many changes of electric guitars, then having to fiddle with his amp to get the desired tome. While I appreciate different guitars sound differently (i.e. Strat v Les Paul) there has to be a degree of practicality to keep the momentum going (I.e. chose a guitar that has both SS and HH pickups if you must). Our rhythm guitarist just uses a tele all the way through the gig and its sounds great. I usually being 2 basses to a gig but what ever I decide to play, that's it for the gig unless i have a catastrophic failure or unless a song 'really really' needs a fretless or upright bass, and I've never had this situation.

I think I have finished the finishing now, so I just need to bolt it all together (and wire it etc)

Today I cut the fret slots into the fretboards and scribed one of the neck joints to the body. I also played around with the Rocklite to see how it worked compared to real wood, in short, easier but I'll update the Rocklite thread with that The fretslots look as if they don't line up in this photo but they do (honest ) Marked out one of the fretboards for the Mother of Pearl markers. Here's what I did: Stuck a bit of masking tape over each fret gap to be inlayed. Marked the centre line of the board, marked the centre line of each fret gap. Marked the fret number on each inlay and the centre lines of each. Stuck masking tape to the bottom of each inlay and cut off the waste with a scalpel. Marked the position with a pencil of each inlay on the fretboard. Put a blob of superglue on the masking tape and put the inlay masking tape down on the fretboard and squared it off with a set square. Marked the fretboard with a scalpel very carefully. Peeled off the masking tape, the inlay and removed the masking tape from the bottom and put t hem carefully to one side. Tomorrow I'll rout out the inlay holes, I ran out of time today

Here is my contribution to the June 2018 Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by a picture chosen by last month's winner: Mornats. Not a good month for me; there are only strained, tenuous links to the picture (the 9/8 rhythm and the virtual 'cats'...). All Kontakt stuff: a 60's drum kit, a nice nylon guitar and some Blue 'singing', created in Reaper with minimal treatment, and mastered with AAMS, 'Country' preset. Modest; it is what it is. Thanks for listening, if you already have; if you're about to, enjoy.

Well, quite, but I came to this thread to watch/listen to a band I knew nothing about, and so gave it a go (otherwise why post these topics at all..?). It turns out that, like Lenny, I was, let's say,.. unimpressed, and chose to post in that vein. It's just my opinion, and for my part I have no wish to change the view of anyone at all, but it's comment on an open forum on a subject of interest to several. I'd have thought that all loyal views would be welcome, whether for or against. I'll post again in the same spirit on any similar subjects if I feel inspired to.

Hi everybody. I'm looking for some comments on choosing a new PSU for my pedalboard. I've been using a daisy-chain type 3A PSU that i bought from "effectpowersupplies.co.uk" almost 10 years ago and it still works fine but i'm up to 6 pedals now and i'm starting to get noise from lack of individual isolation in the outputs. My pedalboard is a Harley Benton, copy of a Pedaltrain and has space and fittings underneath for a PSU. It's this one: And here's a pic of the real thing: I've been looking in Thomann (it's better for me as i can get a joint order with the rest of the band and get free shipping) and i'm between these two PSU's: https://www.thomann.de/pt/harley_benton_powerplant_flex.htm : https://www.thomann.de/pt/harley_benton_powerplant_iso_1_pro.htm : I'm leaning for the second one, the ISO-1 as it clearly states that all outputs are isolated, not sure about the first one, no info on that. The powerplant Flex seems to have a better layout to link the cables though. So, what would the BC community choose? What are your thoughts about them? Does anybody has either of these and can make a small review? I'm also open to other sugestions that would fit in the pedalboard and won't cost much more than the cheapest pedal in that board Thanks for looking Marco

I got an email from the courier first thing the next morning and another to confirm delivery a few hours later. Remember that I bought the bass over the phone rather than online. If I was you I would give them a ring to check on progress / delivery.

OK there's going to be another change to this bass, I now decided to convert this into a 5 string Tele or Precision I need to order a 5 string neck, bridge and pickups, I'll custom make the pickguard to fit this body The body I'll keep white and I'm still going to do the pickguard orange I'm not sure about whether to change the hardware to black or keep it chrome I'm then going to use the neck off this one on my telecaster shaped body build 😀

+1

That is fabulous H.

Does make me laugh, I wonder what Sterling Ball thinks. Flea moves from EBMM to Modulus and gets them to essentially make him a Stingray (well, Cutlass), and them moves to Fender and gets them to essentially make him a Stingray. IME Fender make great basses (all two of them) but often pretty crap active circuits, certainly compared to those that go into Stingrays and Moduli. Interesting to see how this lands.....

I knew it was going to be a slog when I explained (it was my amp) that there was a slight lag in switching between clean and dirty channels, so if there were any songs where he needed to change channels mid-song he would need to select the clean channel and use a fuzz box (which he had) for his dirty sound. He launched into a (I kid you not) five minute rant about how that was unacceptable fault with the amp and that I should take it back because he knows about building amps and there's no reason why there should be a lag, just going round and round in circles about how this was appalling and what a terrible company the manufacturer must be to have made such an awful amp, etc. Just completely focused on making this one point over and over again, that he shouldn't be expected to change what he was expecting to do in order to make up for some deficiency in the amp. His drummer had to shut him down and explain (like you would to a five year old who refuses to get on the bus because it's blue and he only likes red ones) that this is the only amp that he will be able to play with for that gig so it doesn't matter how good or bad it is, he's going to have to use it. And no, he wasn't going to drive 45 minutes home to get his own amp and 45 minutes back again when they were already late for the soundcheck and due to be on stage in an hour.

Oh dear. That is all.

I had a James Captain, 197cc villiers engine and it was a great bike along with my Francis Barnett Plover 150 too. I've played an Aria 12 string since buying new in 1983, small world.

Altogether very meh...

That’s for switching channels, eg switching between two different basses or amps, or playing both at once. Remember that if using two fx pedals, the signal needs to be split, sent to both and then combined back into a mono signal. This pedal doesn’t appear able to do that.

I’d honestly suggest saving a bit more and getting a Source Audio Manta and an octaver. Obviously that’ll set you back more (£90 used for the Manta, plus similar price for a good octaver (of which there are many)). I must confess I’ve never played the Digitech. Might be worth looking at the Boss SYB-5 too; I’m pretty sure I’ve seen those go for £35.

Gigs where the organiser/agent etc has made a big deal about you turning up early, and youve left work early/rushed to be there. Only to find the event is running late and you end up sitting round for hours doing nothing. (ie every wedding gig I've ever done!)

As they say, clean the switch. If that doesn't work, put a resistor on the output (or input if that is unswitched) of the preamp. The thump, if it isn't a bad switch, can be caused by the fact the output is floating around until you switch it into circuit. As there is no load holding it down, it can get quite high and is suddenly discharged by the load dragging it down. Also the input (although this is often still connected) which can be floating.

And when doing this operate the switch several dozen times to make sure the cleaner gets in to the contacts of the switch and can work it's magic. New switches aren't that expensive do of switch cleaner doesn't work just swap out the switch.

They are not worth holding onto from the look of them Anyway, I'll send them back in the morning. There might be some anxious soul at this very moment saying, "Where on earth did I put those bits????"

You lot leave toys and plunging out of my thread!!

But we usually only start something new because we've left a band...keep doing what you've always done and you'll only ever be able to do what you know how to do already?

If I need a different tone, I just pick the appropriate patch on my Helix. Job Done. Also I would never take any new device (or even a new bass) to a gig (or even a rehearsal) until I was familiar enough with it for me not to be spending all my time fiddling between songs. The first time I used my Helix at rehearsal I had the spend maybe a minute after each song adjusting some of the effects parameters from what I thought would work at home to what I could tell I needed once I'd used them in the band context. At the second rehearsal I still had a little bit of work to do on the more complex and exacting tones. By the fourth rehearsal I had all the patches sorted and programmed in the correct order for the set. With all my sounds being set up before I play I don't really need any real-time control. There's one expression pedal built-in (and connections for adding two more) which can be assigned to any parameter(s) I want. There's a tap-tempo switch which will synchronise any effects that require it. Everything else is done by setting up my patches before hand. And in 30 years of using programmable effects I've never been in a situation where I've needed to tweak my settings for an unfamiliar environment. I set up my bass rig, switch on, and there is my sound ready to play. Leaving aside the fact that EQ is not the right tool for correcting room problems (it can fix the problem in one place in the room - usually where you are standing - and probably make it worse in 2 others out in the audience, and you can make a bigger different most of the time by moving the direction your bass rig is pointing in), the Helix has a global EQ setting which could be used to tailor the overall sound for a particularly problematic environment. For the vast majority of my gigs what the audience hears of my bass is through the PA (which is why I've dumped my amp and cabs in favour of a powered FRFR cab) and as long as I can hear myself and a reasonable mix of the other instruments on stage, I'm happy. Chasing your tone at a pub gig, or when you have less than 30 minutes to set up and sound check the whole band who are sandwiched into the tiny bit of stage left over after the big-name headliners have set up all their gear, is for bands who aren't going to be asked back to play/support again. I want to be set up and ready to play with the minimum amount of fuss, and the Helix lets me do that.

Failed promises?

'Lick my love pump' in D minor, the saddest of all keys?

New video this morning. Scott Whitley (on SWB Pro) and Danny Sapko (on Retrovibe Volante) lay down some funk in our studio.

I have been using the Fender Rumble 500 v3 for about 3 years now, used nearly every gig and practice at least once a week, Ben a bargain and I'm still happy with it.

This is my Bravewood jazz

[quote name='hitchy64' post='855559' date='Jun 2 2010, 11:47 PM']I can see why he wears them, but it's not very rock n' roll is it. You'd look a bit of a twat playing in them really lol[/quote] Nice to see we have some open minded people here... I interviewed Etienne recently and he's a lovely guy and really not the sort of person who would wear gloves for any other reason than he said that within three songs the sweat from his hands kills his strings dead - and as for the logic of this - inspite of what they might look like - is that the gloves will give you the perfect 'dry' tone and if anything extra punch and nice muted attack - like he gets here (nice bass llines at the end of this clip): Mike