Leaderboard

Building a bass isn't as simple as deciding on a spec. Sending it off to a manufacturer and immediately getting 12 basses back. If only it was. Dealing with the factories isn't easy. We manufacture in fairly small numbers - but even we have minimum commitments in order to deal with the factory. And they're way more than 12. To make a bass the process goes something like this : Draw on the back of a piece of scrap paper something like what you want Turn it into a proper drawing Finding out the specifications and dimensions of the parts and then modifying the drawing again. There's maths. Maths is involved. Finding the parts. Again a problem with scale here - depending who your parts supplier is - parts minimum quantities can be very high. Choosing and sourcing wood (or picking something your factory has ready access to) Get samples made. VERY RARELY are they right off the bat. And as the one commissioning the design you pay (sometimes at a premium) for each sample. We've never got the product right first time with the factory. Generally 2-5 prototypes are made. Once all that's done you have got to get the product made. Then shipped (unless you're happy to pay courier prices) It's expensive and time consuming. It takes us generally 12 months at least to bring something to market. I doubt it's any different for Eastwood. Now. None of this is to say it isn't possible. Just thought I'd offer some insight. You could certainly do it easier if you used an existing body (P-Bass/Jazz Bass) and neck. But then... what's the point? Why not just buy a cheap P-Bass and modify it yourself? If anybody has any questions about what making stuff is like... my door is always open. If anybody has a desire to start manufacturing basses en mass... my door is always open (it only benefits us to put work in the direction of our factories) Laters!

And the verdict is? Plugged in and onto standby for a full minute this time. Main power on, and a teeny bit of crackle for 5 seconds or so (my heart sank) but then silence. Total silence. Then I noticed that characteristic valve amp hum. Plugged in the 64 Precision and gingerly upped the gain and volume. And there it was - that sound. Thick, creamy brown goodness - tweaked the EQ to roll off a bit of mids and top and up the bass - upped the gain to 1 o’clock and dimed volume and tone on the bass. Yeah. That’s that b15 sound. That’s exactly it. The 15” driver in the barefaced Compact lapped it up and with volume half way the radiator in my room started to rattle on low notes. Had a ten minute play and the amp was still silent. This is a good amp. At 299 it’s a bloody excellent amp.

W.e.e.ll...me, my brother and a coupla mates are in the Slade in Flame big gig scenes waving a bedsheet with FLAME sprayed on. I got 4 free tickets via the Slade fan club. I was 13 at the time, my brother was 11, we travelled down by train on our own....how times have changed 😎

condoms! id own far more gear

It arrived this morning. Following Cuzzie's advice (see above), I started with the Dug and Squire presets and tweaked to taste. Having done that, I immediately used the pedal to track some bass on a full band recording and found that all of my personal settings sit well in the mix. Really well. In fact, that's what this pedal excels at. And it really nails that Geddy/Squire/Entwistle/Dug balance between dirt and articulation. It's 'voiced' rather than being a neutral entity. But Sansamp fans/users will be used to that. And, ultimately, it's a voice that works. I'll be using tonight and across the weekend for a number of gigs. I'll bring my Bass FlyRig to A/B it with and will report back. I'm really pleased with this pedal. And I have some fine sources of dirt to compare it with: Rusty Box, SansAmp RPM, Bass Fly Rig, BDDI alongside a Keeley Modded Bass Rat. I envisage that, once set up to taste, the pedal will fall into the 'set and forget' category and that my bass's volume knob may factor into the overall sound quite heavily as well. Watch this space for further details.

I’ll seattle for that answer

Looking great. Im sure Chad's face is that colour right now. I'm sure you could do the same for the Kemper community...

What? WHAT?? Damned varifocals!!!!!

I'm thinking of emailing M D Phillips to get his input on this ...

Fender Precision. I`d had many basses over the years, none ever sounded right, and every time I played a Precision in a music shop I was underwhelmed. But, I gave it a go and bought one, again was underwhelmed until I played it with the band, suddenly it all made sense. All my fave bassists played them but as I`d not really got on with them in music shops I`d dismissed them and tried to get the sound - that in the mix sound that just sounds right - with so many other basses and never got there, when it was just that`s the way a Precision works, nothing special in isolation, awesome sat in the mix.

Well, after getting on for 45 years of bass playing, exclusively 4 string basses, I suddenly bought a six string a couple of days ago. Mainly because since joining a band playing Grateful Dead cover exclusively, I've found myself running up and down the neck where Phil Lesh would be going across, and partially because I just fancied a new challenge. Ordered it on-line Wednesday (never played a six before) and it arrived yesterday morning, well packed and in perfect, straight-from-the-factory condition. Played it for a couple of hours yesterday, and I have to say for an instrument that cost £100 less than my last Mexican Jazz bass, it is very impressive, lovely wood, good hardware, useful active electronics, and, of course, an extra string or two! Planning to play it as much as I can today and hopefully use it at tomorrow's gig in Melksham, playing with the Wirebirds, so material I've played for several years. So far just getting used to the feel of the wide neck, and mainly playing it as a four string using the middle strings, have started to use the low B string to save the effort of moving down the neck to get to nots between A and E, and once or twice just found the notes I needed on the high C. My biggest concern is how it will feel to pick up one of my lovely four strings once I've played this for a while!

Ooh exciting! I just subscribed on iTunes.

Sleepless I am, sleepless.

You leave my nobbly ned stumpy top horn out of this! Blatant invasion of privacy! Mrs discreet is mortified!

Onto the installation of the rosette and purfling circle. This is a bit scary because it's got to be spot on. And it involves routing a couple of mm out of a top that is only 2.7ish mm to start with! First was to use the asymmetric holes in the centre of the cut out rosette as the template for a couple of similar holes in the top: Then remember not to cut out the centre until I've routed all of the other bits! First I routed the edges of the rosette - the inner using one of the pivot holes and the outer rout using the other one : So - what's going on on the right hand side? Well - it's a good illustration of a little tip for acoustic guitar rosettes: leave the join lines / gaps and test the rout position always at the neck end of the circle. Why? Because that will be covered by the fretboard And so if you pink torpedo up your measurement, measuring from the wrong side of the router bit: ...then you can correct it for the full circle and the pink torpedo up won't show because the fretboard will be over it Anyway - trying to remember which pivot hole to use far which area, I indexed the router a couple of mm each time each way to clear out the wood in the centre so I could fit the rosette Then a 1mm slot on the outside for some purfling: Then installed the purfling - it bends easily round this kind of radius dry and cold - and then some very careful scraping to bring the whole rosette down to top level and finally a deeper rout to cut out the sound hole. And here we have it: It's lucky that the c**k up slot is going to be covered, otherwise I'd have had to have added another piece of laminate as a 'feature' But luckily, on an acoustic, the fingerboard (or in my case it will be a stick on end magnetic pickup from a Shadow dual system) goes right up to the sound hole: I've said it before. Many regular builders will agree that we still make as many c**k ups as when we were beginners - it's just that we get more skilled at sorting out the consequences and hiding them!

OK, you asked... We were a thrash band back in the days when that was new and exciting, and having replaced our vomiting dog style singer with one who had a far more classic rock type voice, we were able to find a lot more melody on the songs where previously there had just been tuneless shouting. I was last into the original line up and has been wanting the old singer out from Day 1 but he was the BL/guitarists best mate and I didn't really get a say. Me and the drummer had a lot of celebratory pints on the day he quit. Anyway, taking advantage of this new vocalist, the rest of us were trying to write and arrange songs with bigger choruses, more stripped back verses, etc to let the vocals shine. Not a massive switch - less Cannibal Corpse and more Anthrax. But the guitarist didn't like it - if a song didn't have a flattened fifth or an atonal run in it somewhere he'd put one in. We discussed it with him and he just flat refused to change - he'd started the band, he was going to play what he wanted and only what he wanted and he didn't like songs that didn't have some element to make them (he says) interesting/(we say) difficult to listen to. Ignoring the fact that by then most of the set was already quite melodic so it wasn't much of a change, more an organic development of what we were already doing. We weren't looking to turn into Def Leppard. So there then followed months of grumbling about him behind his back, and every minor point that we were happy to put up with when everything was going OK became a complaint - his playing that had been fine previously and was entirely acceptable for the level we were at was suddenly a bit limited and limiting, his gear wasn't good enough, he didn't own a pair of jeans only baggy jogging bottoms and that was a terrible look on stage, etc. But we'd never got anywhere close to sacking him, not least because it was his band and we were all pretty good mates by then (and my girlfriend was very good friends with his then wife). He then committed the cardinal sin of playing a new song that he clearly didn't like (but the rest of us did) as badly as possible so that he could refuse to play it live because it sounded awful. I'd had enough, told my fellow plotters that I was going to force the issue, and announced at the next practice that I was off to start something else as I wanted to do the stuff we'd been talking to him about and he didn't want to do, and I'd see out the remaining gigs that we had booked. It was all very cordial - I wonder in retrospect whether he was fed up with me constantly writing stuff that he didn't really want to play. I didn't know that the others would follow me out the door, but I had a pretty strong feeling that they would. The day after the gig the guitarist rang the others to discuss replacing me and who they could ask, and they both told him "er...well, actually, you'll need to find a drummer/singer too" I don't regret leaving, but in retrospect it wouldn't have been necessary if we'd made it much clearer that his band was going to fall apart if he didn't make the sideways step that the rest of us wanted. The shame is that he never played in another band, and sees that one as his big chance, the one that got away.

I think the asymmetric rosette is a lovely touch - bravo!

Keeley Bassist. A lot of money for a pedal - and they've gone up by another £50 since I bought mine - but it does its job extremely well, doesn't alter tone, and is dead easy to dial in. I also started using it for general compression (instead of limiting) when I joined a second band. Since I was going to be playing with a pick most of the time, and that's not something I'd done much before, I thought it would help to smooth out my level a bit while I got the hang of it. What I've found since then is that I actually really like the extra punch that the compression gives - the initial attack effectively gets emphasised, because the rest of the note gets de-emphasised.

First off, big respect for your post and aspirations. I work with a wide range of adults with severe to mild learning disabilities and/or autistic. We are lucky to have a team of music therapists - in a nutshell, they have psychology degrees because they are using music to support people who have communication and emotional difficulties in a therapeutic and clinical way (there is so much more to it than that, but like I said, in a nutshell). However, there are many volunteers who come to our organisation to play music either with or to the people we support. I can’t stress enough how VITAL this is to a large amount of people. Again in a nutshell, a staggering number of people in residential care spend large proprotions of their day disengaged and devoid of opportunities. Generally this is due to the social care finanial crisis affecting community outlets and organisation’s support provisions and also because many services can struggle to convert their values into staff behaviour. People that come in to do music engage people, make their day, and often give them something else to look forward to. I’ve also seen this have a great impact on staff, and act as a much needed stress reliever for them too. Less stressed staff equals happier supported people. I could go on and on, especially as this touches on my professional remit, however I’ll end by saying that by going in and playing with or for people you’ll be making a significant contribution to their quality of life outcomes. A good organisation will have a volunteering person/department, will have a meeting with you, get you DBS checked and will make the most of your kind offer. Just reach out and find the right place. Good luck!

I understand, I actually gave up playing completely at one point when I couldn't balance the family, job and band. Recently I saw two top session/jazz players, one had a Squire P bass and the other had a Sire 5 string. They made those basses sing. So it's not about the gear, it's how good you are and what you can do with an instrument.

@Les Elvin Compression is a really useful tool, and despite what has been said earlier in this thread, it definitely has its place in a live situation as well as for recording. The trouble is that it is a subtle effect, if you are thinking of it as an effect like a chorus or drive pedal, then it is not at all obvious when set up correctly. They are used to control the dynamic range of your bass signal. As such, they are not always apparent - but that doesn't mean that it is not doing its job or isn't working. The job of a compressor is to keep your signal in check, not to wow the audience with a sonic gimmick. If you trawl through some of the other bass chat threads on compression you'll see there is a lot of talk about about the subject including a number of widely repeated misconceptions e.g. compression killing your dynamics. They don't. Not when they are set up correctly. But if you have time, read through some of these other threads because there is some great information in there that may answer your original question. And here's the obligatory link to the most valuable resource on bass compression on the net - http://www.ovnilab.com/ I'd definitely recommend you read the FAQ section before going any further - http://www.ovnilab.com/faq.shtml Compression is a bit of a dark art and if you want to use one it's worth doing some homework to get an understanding of what they do, how the various controls interact with one another, and how to set one up to its optimum settings, so it is keeping the signal spikes in check whilst still giving you control over your dynamics. Once you have found the right settings, they are hugely rewarding in terms of what they can do for your bass sound. Some are transparent and will keep everything in check and stop the big spikes in your playing overloading your amp, some can colour your sound in a useful way, others will give your sound a real punch - where every note from the highest to the lowest will stand out in the band mix. Some will do all of these things. For the record, a decent compressor is an essential tool for me, it is the only bell or whistle in my rig. Bass into a compressor into my rig. That's it. And you don't need to spend a fortune either, the various Zoom pedals have some cracking compressor models, the Boss LMB-3 (which is actually a compressor and limiter) and the TC Electronics Spectracomp are all excellent compressors that don't break the bank.

Not true. From my experience the enhancer is great, the limiter not so much. It's probably all about what instrument, what you want from the pedal, what other stuff is in your chain. But I find the enhancer on its recommended setting out of the manual great for fretless, I want it to bring out the slides etc with a bit more emphasis and it does that for me just fine without affecting anything else. I am starting to use the limiter now in my chain after an EHX Battalion and it does more for me after that pedal so I am warming to it now, but it needs some time spending on tweaking.

If I didn't use a limiter when playing live, then every time I got to a bit with slapping/popping the audience would be deafened by massive volume spikes.

My dad, who was a university lecturer, always said it was spending most of his time with young people that kept him young, and towards the end of his life combined the wisdom and perspective of age with a genuine compassionate rapport with his students in a way which I aspire to. Also, at my age one has outgrown the worries and constraints of earning money, bringing up children, and meeting other people's expectations. At long last I'm free to be selfish 🙂 It has changed dramatically in the course of two generations - my grandparents, as far back as I can remember, were definitely Old, past their best and out of touch, as were all my friends' grandparents, and I think that's why for a long time I was terrified of reaching the age I am now. My grandsprogs have a tattooed bass-playing Granny who is studying for an MSc on the way to a new career, and I hope they'll grow up with similar expectations for themselves.

Been working with Eastwood this last summer and they're nice guys - enjoyed the instruments I've got chance to play so far. I've been bending their ear about a hardtail Map Bass with "32 scale finished in the nifty metallic green colour they're doing the Airline 59's in, but they're not biting just yet... I think your major limitation is going to be agreeing on a spec without even a broad design proposal. Pretty sure you'd get more people if you brought forward a general design from the start and then ran a poll to work out the little details?

Excellent, thank you. I’ve just subscribed and will be listening on my commute home this afternoon.

Witney is the spiritual home of Basschat. It was founded at Henry Box School, which you can pelt from the Leys

Erm, you did notice that your circles weren't concentric before you cut it out? 😜

I'll be 57 in two weeks and I'm not even the oldest in my band. But you probably ARE too old if you think you are lol it's just a number mate, ignore it, act like a teenager

definitely superglue a few good whiffs and you won't feel the pain hehe

Some good words from Tom. Just to add on: Here's a good video to check out SD P bass pickups. I'm sure there's likewise for Jbass pickups too but id say stick with one of the Pbass ones, a new ("hi-mass") bridge, wiring and this will be a bass to last you and within an amazing budget! 😁🙌🏻 Jealous to say the least.

Yes that`s right. It`s a complicated thing, all this ohmage etc but Alex did his best to explain it to me (it does go in eventually but I`m not the most tech-savvy around).

Superglue. Most definitely superglue. Looks quite spectacular from the photo! Good luck 👍

So yeah, i bought one of the thunderbirds yesterday from Dawsons in liverpool. It was my birthday and id played it for half an hour, it wasn't the first time i'd played it either (It looks like they'd taken the time to set it up so it played beautifully), and i also got it discounted to £450. Its beautiful. Ill post pictures soon, but i just love everything about it. My only issue/gripe, is how light the fretboard is, so i may look at ways of darkening it. It may just need oiling, but i think its just the wood colour.

Yes. And I say to them: Do you think you'll never get old, you idiots? You are all going to die of old age - if you're lucky!

So - time to add a swift: And then cut out the rosette ready for installing:

A Brompton. They look stupid and are expensive new, but picking one up second hand I've used it almost every day for a month. Fantastic piece of engineering, well built and entirely practical.

Bit more progress in between the distractions of normal life! The second side of kerfing strips was completed: ...and then back to the top to get it down from just over 3mm to closer to its final thickness. My hand arthritis is causing me gyp at the moment so I brought out the Stanley No80 scraper plane into action. I'd forgotten what a useful plane this is! It made short but controllable work of the final thinning. After each pass, I picked up the top from an edge and rapped it with my knuckle. It had passed from drum thump to drum thump with one harmonic to drum thump and multiple harmonics - probably just going from 3mm to 2.8/2.9mm ish. Then one last pass and a change again - now even running my hand across the grain was making it ring out. So I've stopped. It's probably just under 2.8mm. Now I must stress I don't fully know what I'm doing on this sort of thing - I reckon to do that you have to sacrifice at least one top (or guitar) by taking it up to the 'oops - too far' - but I know from my last build that this is going to be strong enough and will be capable - if I get everything else right - of producing a nice sounding guitar. Here it is laying on top of the 25' radius dish: I was worried that the top might still be a little too stiff (and therefore too thick) but it presses into the dish no problem - the go-bar deck certainly won't have difficulties. What is nice is that for the last dreadnought I built, I marked the brace positions on the radius dish so that I could sand them to the correct radius for each position. One less job this time around Next task is the sound hole - but before you can cut the sound hole out you have to sort the rosette! A Tasmanian member of one of the other forums on a visit to UK a year or so back presented me with a few nice sample pieces of local Tasmanian wood and the challenge 'to incorporate this onto one of your builds.' Well - I reckon a book matched pair might do for the rosette! First I thicknessed it on my bodge-home-made-job thicknesser jig: That's gluing, then I can see if it will work OK as the rosette feature ring

These guys are awesome

The frets have been levelled, crowned and polished (it was easier than I thought it was going to be!) Now the buzz has stopped!! Thanks for all the advice everyone Just got to sort the electrics out, do the refinish then do the shielding then it should be good to go 😀

Police Squad - mentioned there about playing with a mostly flat EQ. I am as guilty as the next for always setting a cut in the low mids before playing a note or checking the room acoustics, habits may be depriving us from discovering a better sound on offer. I often think back to playing with a programmable effects unit. Set all your sounds up at home and surprise surprise get on stage its all over cooked and unusable. I'm just plug n play now.

Top tip from someone who has done this many times (given to me by a doctor): don't use a needle or anything sharp. By the time the hole is big enough to let the blood out the point is painfully stuck into the nail bed underneath. Uncurl a paperclip or similar. Heat the end to red hot in a lighter. Push red hot end through nail slowly - it burns it's way through and is then cooled by the blood underneath so you won't even feel it go through the nail. Repeat if you're too slow the first time and don't get right through! Cue satisfying spurt of blood and relief from the throbbing. Do it as soon as it throbs and there's clearly blood under the nail - if you do it soon enough you'll keep the nail. If you just leave it you probably won't.

Actually, no. She's in Seattle.

They tried something similar over on a major car forum once I believe.. 😁 (I actually quite like the idea and will watch with interest!)

140+ basses, 40+ amps and 60+ cabs later I'm finally there.

Well, as I’m sure you know you can make any compressor with infinity ratio act like a limiter. I tend to find in most respects when set up correctly they all sound the same, except for differences like noise, footprint and other settings to play with. I actually find the Boss LMB3 a great limiter, and the enhancer has a place in some applications, like livening up a woolly sounding house amp at certain venues. With enough tweaking for a given instrument I’ve found the limiters in my Roland and Zoom units to be excellent.

I personally, wouldn't get within 5 miles of a compressor pedal! I've recently taken issue with our monitor engineer, who, in spite of my occasional protestations, insists on adding "Just a little bit" of compression, which is mostly fed to the drummer and keys player. Dynamics in the band is very important, I need to be in total control. Using a compressor, even "Just a little bit", takes away just a little bit of control.