Leaderboard

Thanks for your kind words everyone! You guys are absolutely right, its a difficult finish to apply well. ive had a little bit of experience with it before and did some practice before having a go at this, but the steps i followed are as follows: sand the surface back to 600-ish all over i mixed up a 2lb cut of the shellac with methylated spirits. its a pain to get clear methylated spirits in the UK without a permit, but some model railway suppliers do sell it in small quantities. i let it dissolve for at least 24 hrs, with a regular shake. using the 2lb cut of shellac, i layed down a fairly thick wash coat over the surface, not using a rubber just using a lint free rag. with about 3 hours of drying time inbetween to ensure that it had totally gassed off. make up a few french polishing rubbers. I use lint free t-shirt cloth wrapped around cotton wool pads for this. using one of the rubbers, add a small amount of the methylated spirits, and dab a very small amount of fine pumice onto the pad, and begin working it over the surface of the bass. this fills the pores very effectively. you can hear and feel the abraision happening, and then adjust the alcohol and pumice accordingly. this needs to be done pretty slowly, but it leaves a good base for the final polish. once the surface is filled and flat, i actually diluted the 2lb cut slightly, as it wasn't as thin as i was used to. this was then applied to another of the rubbers, and lubricated very slightly with a drop of olive oil. the polish is then applied in figure 8 motions. the length of each polishing session can vary, and its best to just do this by feel, but generally each session of polishing was about 5-10 minutes for me. if you feel the surface getting soft then stop and let it dry before coming back. between sessions it use useful to wipe over the surface gently with a rubber with only alcohol to remove any residual oil to remove the fine swirl marks after youve done 2 or three sessions, sweep over the surface with the grain with a rubber with just alcohol once i'd done 5 or so polishing sessions, the pad had started to build up a bit of a crust of shellac, and at this point i began to add some more pressure and added more pure alcohol to the pad to burnish the surface. once youve reached a good gloss to the finish, a final gentle wipe down with very little alcohol will help to even out the finish. I let the finish dry and harden for a few days, and then wipe it with a soft rag and some good quality furniture cream polish, just to bring out the gleam that you see in the above photos and feel free to ask if you want any more info on the finish! with that in mind... Here she is!! in a case with some foam and velvet, where she belongs! needs a proper set up, and some proper photos taking, and i will record some sound clips but these will give you an idea of the final look: As i say, needs a proper set up doing, some fret leveling and truss rod adjustments, but at the moment its still a lovely bass to play. ended up very heavy (over 12lbs) but this is a gig bass, not one to take to practice for a few hours. the preamp is a john east U retro with a passive tone control, and the bigsby combined with the roller saddles and graphite nut dont knock it out of tune when used thankfully! i will get round to signing the truss rod cover with a gold sharpie as well, but as itll be on and off a few times i thought id best not just yet. The inlays didnt seem to mind the neck being under tension or the first minor truss rod adjutments, so that's more good news. ive strung it with one of my spare sets of optime gold strings, but i think it would benefit from a set designed for a longer than 34" scale. I hope youve all enjoyed the log, and as i say i will get some proper photos and some sound clips done. but in the meantime it'll be onto the next one!!

When taking frets out, a bit of heat helps And then an essential item - proper fret removal pincers. They are flat ground and the edges are sharp so go under the fret and lift without damaging the fretboard: You basically nibble down the length of the fret and let the pincers do the lifting. Doesn't take long before they are all out: Then is the turn of the long levelling beam: I use a 2m piece of aluminium box section with emery cloth stuck with two-sided tape. My GP would be delighted...Andyjr1515 is at last getting off his fat a*s and doing some hard physical exercise! Hand sanding even a 1mm bow is bloody hard work! I use the old school chalk trick to see how it's progressing and making sure I am sanding the nut end and the heel end at a similar rate (because the heel is twice as wide as the nut, it is VERY easy to end up under sanding the heel end and over sanding the nut end): After a couple of hours (yes - really. If this was ebony, it would be a couple of days!), we have it flat and re-radiused: Here is the 'before' against the straight-edge, laid from nut to heel. The gap you can see is from the nut at the right to around the 7th fret at the left: And this is the 'after' - which is what it should be like, ie, no gap: Next job will be re-fretting. Probably tomorrow if I've got enough fretwire in my bits box...

It’s done. The badge is the final touch, and the strong double sided (slightly foamy) sticky tape is holding well. (Link for tape at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071ZYRKQS) The angle I took it at makes it look like the badge obstructs the port a little, but it doesn’t. I’ll take some final glamour shots tomorrow in daylight. I’ve been playing it a lot, and although speaker ‘break-in’ is very likely a myth, I played a looped bit of bass from my Zoom B3 looper through it for a few hours as well anyway. I really like the sound of this cabinet. Tomorrow I’m going to try a lot more fx through it. Look ma, I made a black box. 😂

Just bought this lovely Super Twin today from another BC'er also called Paul. Great guy, met half way in a harvester car park! Got it home and plugged it in. Superb! A/B'd it against the SC and compact individually and together. Sounds even better. Happy Bunny!

So, I recently acquired a Darkglass X ultra for my studio. I'm using my Tech 21 Dug Pedal in one of my bands. I'm sure some people I'm sure will be interested in the comparison? I sat down the other day with my Rick 4003 and set to work. Firstly, both pedals are brilliant. There is no denying that. Now, let's get down to the meat. The Dug is obviously based on achieving his own tone. Now, not everyone wants that. I don't. However, despite it having a fixed crossover it's amazingly versatile and even at more extreme gain settings is still musical. Now for the downside. The mid scoop. It's there where the problem lies with this. Even with fiddling you can't get it back as the pedal eq just isn't voiced that way. Most of the time this isn't a problem though. The clean tone is a bit so-so and it's impossible to switch from clean to dirty with settings that are workable for either. This then brings me to the Darkglass. It has both a filter for the lows to keep them clean and one for how much frequency wise of the signal gets distorted. Sharp bite to brutal fuzz is possible. The 7 band eq is great as well, so a clean tone is easy enough to achieve. This brings me on to the distortion. It has a different character than the Dug. The only way I could describe it is "Darkglass." It's just what it is. So, can you get the same sounds out of each? Yes, but it takes some effort. At harsher settings the Darkglass fizzes a bit and at higher low end settings the bass turns a bit mushy in my view. However, unless you're mental, you're not going to do that. So which is better? Depends on your point of view. The Dug is £150 cheaper give or take. But it's less flexible. The Darkglass has more things to get used to, but is much more agile to change on the fly. Is that worth the price difference? Depends. On a personal note, I'd use the Dug live as I know it better. However, I feel that more can be wrung out of the X ultra if you choose to try to. The fact it has switchable cab emulation is another bonus. Maybe the inherent "Darkglassness" of it might put people off, but in many ways it's better than the Dug. Possibly, the Dug has a more musical distortion, but that is a very personal choice for the player. I'm a Tech 21 person for life, but always like trying new stuff. Take your pick. I doubt either would disappoint anyone.

It's been a while! One of the great things about doing threads is that, when family stuff gets in the way of building, you can look back and see where you'd got to And so, of the bridge-at-an-angle issue, I went for the easy option and just squared up the outer lines of the bridge, leaving the correct saddle slant as per my little jig. I triple-checked the measurements, re-fitted the saddle angle jig and then drilled two 4.5mm holes through the top E and bottom E pegholes to position the bridge: Those who follow my builds know that I tend to go off-piste from time to time against the 'conventional' methods. This is one of those times. Generally, you would put the back on and apply the finish before attaching the bridge, but I want to leave the back off for the moment. To attach it, first thing I did was put the 4.5mm drills in from the back, to use the shanks as my locators: Then put some masking tape on and scored round the bridge and removed the tape from area that was going to be glued. Then scraped and sanded back to fresh wood for that area: Then applied the titebond glue and used my long-reach clamp and a small home-made jig designed to be able to apply clamping pressure to the two wings of the bridge: Finally, while the glue was still wet but with the bridge firmly clamped in position, removed the two locating peg drill bits with a pair of pliers: And that means that tomorrow, the electrics should be able to be fitted and the back glued on!

It is an odd choice, considering Hall's habit of registering trademarks and other interlectual (sp) property. There's nothing wrong with numbering your cats, but of course numbers can't be registered. That's the only reason that Barry Manilow fan @Maude can go around saying '4005' with impunity. 😬

What kind of a name is "4003" for a cat?

Good news story in the end, we all make mistakes, if you put them right then you are a company I want to deal with. I read this through because I'd recommended Hercules stands to a band member just a couple of days ago. I wonder if Fiat will send me a new car if I complain about their soft touch car handles disintegrating on my 15 year old Multipla?

I use the Guitar Tapp app on the iPad (also available for other platforms). It's free and is an aggregator that pulls tabs from all of the major online resources. Quality of tabs is variable as mentioned above but as a one-stop shop it's excellent.

Tabs submitted to online tab sites are a bit iffy sometimes, but at open mic night, we occasionally get asked to learn songs for the following week. I tend to use a combination of the following, until I find the tab I think is closest to the original: https://www.ultimate-guitar.com (there is also an Android app to go with this - probably an iPhone app too); https://www.bigbasstabs.com https://www.songsterr.com This site is subscription site, but you can see the tab on screen without joining up. The main thing to be aware of is that the tabs are submitted by players of varying ability and are not always accurate. Don't forget, there's also BassChat's very own Groove Library subforum: https://www.basschat.co.uk/forum/41-groove-library/ Good luck! EDIT: also as Cuzzie says Nowt like listening and working out!

Well folks the Guitarist quit last night via message....I tried to get a meet up over weekend just gone but he was to busy....tried to get a meeting tomorrow what would of been a rehearsal but won't reply...never mind back to the grind as they say, many thanks to everyone who replied I appreciate your comments.

What strikes me as the most 'wrong' thing the guitarist and bass player are doing is expecting the OP to book gigs on the basis that they can then cancel them nearer the time if it doesn't suit them. That simply isn't going to work. No band I have been in has ever cancelled a gig, simply because it lets people down and gets the band a bad name. My band has a google calendar and we all input dates that we are not available for - mainly other gigs as some of the guys play in other bands. I quit my other bands to concentrate on this one. I arrange holidays for dates on which other band members are already unavailable, to avoid clashing with potential gig or rehearsal dates. I would only cancel for a serious medical emergency that rendered me physically unable to attend or play. Even when I was taking my wife for radiotherapy for three weeks, we arranged for someone else to drive her on the one day I had a gig to play. In fact, she organised the replacement driver herself, as she wouldn't dream of asking me to give up a gig like that.

This situation is the difference between players who are serious about playing in bands and players who see playing in bands as a bit of occasional and inconsequential fun. Those aims are like oil and water and will never mix. If the band has momentum, is a gigging unit and has gigs in the diary then replace (temporarily or permanently) the guys who are not sufficiently interested in the band.

Well, I got this: Minor scuffing, but essentially a £400-£500 bass of £70 🙂 I like the sound and feel of Tanglewoods, but it might need a bit of a setup, if it hasn't been done already. MIght put black tapewounds on it.

Our band decided to play this song, and I tried to find a transcription. No luck, so this is my approximation of the synth (?) bass line. I am pretty slow, so this took time. There may be inaccuracies, so please, I am open to comments and findings. We dont need another hero.pdf

Help! I know this is old hat to most of you but I'm simultaneously excited and crapping myself. What is the best resource for good tabs? Was visiting a guy to collect some strings, he has just opened music store locally and is rapidly becoming a good mate, . Anyway we got to chatting while I was noodling on an ancient and much scarred fretless Fender and trying to decide whether it was worth the money as a stop gap. Mainly about how I felt my playing was coming on and whether I was ready for an open mike night, without thinking I said that I felt that getting out and playing with other musicians was what I really needed to move forward. Upshot is 2 numbers (and an encore), my choice to be ready before Christmas. Sometimes I should just keep my gob shut🤐

When I said mid scoop, it can be overcome to my liking mainly by engaging the mid shift and virtually maxing out the mid dial. It works perfectly well in a band mix. The darkglass has a natural tendency to be slightly "thick," but it's just different architecture anyway.

My board as it stands now! Everything except the comp and chorus (multi programmed with various chorus/flange/phasers) is in the T70 loop so the octave is totally clean underneath. The scrutator also has a moog expression for filter/bit crush sweeps 😁 Chain is EBS Multicomp set at multiband so the highs are compressed more than the lows Cog T70 octave set for channel 1 a clean octave sound with a deep filter setting and a hint of octave up. Chsnnel two filter set for a synthy buzzy octave with the dirty octave up at unison vol and the clean signal taken out, very synthy. The sub control set to sound as near as possible to rhe classic OC2 setting, is say it's 90% there😁 In the t70 loop Malleko scrutator (bit crush/sample rate reduction/filter wah) Boba fuzz (Mastatron clone, with a much heavier gate) MXR Bass Envelope filter EHX enigma Qballs (set for low pass filter and a downsweep, I don't use the distortion) Custom cog grand Tarkin Fuzz In series wirh the T70 Source Audio Gemini Chorus (set as above) Currently looking at adding a nice overdrive,but space is limited 😁

You must be using a fairly long strap for that BTW, do you find a zip or a button fly more effective (for adjusting EQ, obviously!)?

A bit late to the party , but I was a dyed in the wool Markbass amp and cab user until I joined a two guitar band , ( loud ) . Suddenly I just could not hear myself at the gigs so I did the pilgrimage up to Warwick and got myself the VK212MNT . What a difference , suddenly I could hear myself I the band despite the best efforts of Mr Mesa Boogie and Mr Marshall to drown me out , It was punching through the mix like Mohammed Ali. I quit the loud rock band , it was playing havoc with my hearing , and I downsized to the 210MNT ,and I have done loads of gigs with a single 210 and never found it lacking ,even some seriously loud pub gigs . It bearly breaks into a sweat in a normal 3 piece pub rock band ,so I can only imagine 2 to be more of a good thing . Still use the Markbass amps , they seem to go well with the VK cabs .

More accurate would be to say “wait until you suffer an intervertebral disc prolapse”, as I did around 35 or so. Got a whole set of ‘em now. Also got problems with all my joints, which regularly sublux. It’s not necessarily age-related. Anyone with serious back problems who chooses to play heavy basses “for the tone” is nuts. Of course those without serious back problems won’t understand until/unless they get them.

Anything less than 8lbs and I feel like I’m playing some form of fragile toy. I suppose I’m lucky really, current band never likely to do more than an hours set, and even then thats not a regular occurrence, so 9lb basses not that much of a problem. Don’t miss the weight of my 10.5lb 70s Precisions though.

That's great. Blokes like us need blokes like you to sell our old basses to.

I think that is nonsense, to be honest. I've had more than my fair share crap heavy basses and currently own some superb lightweight ones.

Just laziness, 😄 I can have my mini acoustic downstairs in front of the TV and just work on a little piece now and again (during the ads/boring bits), whilst I'd have to go upstairs probably unplug the Uke bass, plug in the electric and switch on the amp. And the kettle/coffee is downstairs. I find little and often works best for me when I'm trying to learn.

-

Don't drink much any more which explains why I don't know the venue (it was sh!thole when I was in my teens, a loong time ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth) and wasn't one of my regular haunts, which are all now closed or f'ing wine bars Thankfully I already know the lyrics to Peaceful and If, so going to work on nailing the bass lines on the acoustic mini before working them up on the electric

Don't worry about it - know your material, concentrate on your part and don't get bladdered beforehand! You'll be fine!

I won't be able to provide gig experience as I don't have a band at the moment having just moved 150 miles away and quit my band of 10 years 😕. I have tried it through my Quilter BB800 via the balanced line out into the rear XLR in and also a standard jack lead into the front panel via the active input. It is quite easy to replicate the tone of the BB800 pre using the Interbass into the line in XLR, but the vintage cab sim engaged and gain at about 2-3 o'clock adds a whole new dimension. It's also possible to take a feed out of the send jack too which is post gain and EQ but pre master. And as an amp I can rattle my house with the master about halfway!

Agreed - that wouldn't be a good idea.

I emailed them about mine Sunday, they responded yesterday asking for a few details. Replacement in the post today for delivery by the end of the week. Great customer service. 👍🏻👍🏻

Well, I couldn't resist. Boss pedal to show scale. The Interbass is smaller than I expected which is a bonus. There were 2 reasons that I was interested in this pedal. I like the Quilter BB800 but to get the sound I like (with gain at a setting where the limiter is working). at home it's way too loud. I had been considering an Ampeg PF2OT for practice and recording. Also, I've been using my Markbass TTE801 live as I've wanted a tubey sound and I haven't been able to find a preamp with the right qualities to go in front of the BB800. I've only had a quick go so far (as an amp into my Markbass 121HR). It is ridiculously loud for its size but it gives me plenty of tonal options at home practice level. The FR/Vintage switch is great and the Vintage position is exactly what I was hoping for. Gain settings above 50% result in increasing amounts of grit when digging in and the feel is reminiscent of the all tube amps I've owned or played through. The EQ section is really good. I haven't been able to turn it up for a long period yet but it seems that it's loud enough for a pub blues gig with a medium drummer and 2 guitars or would certainly make a good backup at least. All in all I am confident that this amp/pedal is what I was looking for and will sound great taking the balanced out into my BB800's XLR in.

the way it's looking you they'll need a bass player as well, it's tough finding other people who are all singing from the same hymn sheet

Great. Now I can order a really big fretboard and cunningly carve in into that rosewood chair I've craved for so long.

They are saying "You and the band are less important than going off for a weekend of drinking and bunking up with the Mrs". They may even have a point. Using the babel fish to translate that though, I get the wording "PLEASE SACK ME BEFORE I F*** THIS BAND ENTIRELY". The babel fish is very reliable. It knows, you know...

For me natural with a satin finish If it has to be a particular colour then probably aged OW is right up there:

We bagged a mid-table main stage slot at what has turned out to be the final Macmillan Fest in Nottingham on Sat. It's been running for 10 years and if you play original rock or post-rock music in Notts, it's been the one to aim for. Six stages, 12 hours of music. It was a pressure gig, because not only were we aware that we were being given a shot (i.e. a better billing than we'd earned), but it was our first live outing in 4 months, following our singer's having a baby. I don't think we could have got it any better in tehe practice room without playing out for a while before this gig. The Rescue Rooms is a bigger stage than we're used to but I think we adapted pretty fast. A few lessons learned - drums are quieter on a big stage and on a riser for starters - and I did have to go walkabout at one point to compensate for a particularly inaudible picked clean guitar intro (lousy monitor mix). And bang it was over. Appreciative crowd. We held the audience ( and they had 5 other stages to check out) and got a lot of positive feedback. Another band who'd seen us before commented that they hadn't 'got it' previously, but in a much bigger room, the huge reverb soaked sound and classical singing suddenly made sense. Did some press (a first for me - but I missed Eyre Llew's set). Had a nice Japanese meal, caught Nordic Giants in all their costumed splendour and was still in bed before 11. Pro shot of me doing the volume pedal / delay thing in the intro .

The lathe option would give a certain line which there is no way I could get with hand tools, but the by PM and various posts I am beginning to think the hand tool thing might be a go-er. Thanks everyone for their willingness to guide. I am going to buy some really big paper.

From our last UK tour , taken last night. Awesome Orange rig delivered EVERY night.

While I'm waiting for the knobs to arrive for Tom's Squier, I've kicked off the initial work for another small job - this time for @Sibob Those of you who follow the Yamaha BB thread will know that he's had a problem with the neck on his BB415. Some kind soul suggested that I might be able to do something with it and so he sent the neck to me a week or so ago. Basically, @Sibob couldn't get enough adjustment on the trussrod to achieve a decent flatness of neck. I love Yamahas, but I'm not keen on the trussrods they tend to use. The love comes from the fact that ALL of their instruments are just, well, right. I play a Yamaha sax - and that is as good as every Yamaha guitar and bass I've ever played. Just look at the carve on this neck: It is as smooth as silk and it feels great! But - the trussrods are single acting and have a relatively small adjustment range. So they rely on the neck being flat with the trussrod loosened and no strings, then the adjustment is enough to counteract the bow resulting from the string tension. So - full loosened, it should be flat This is the centre section against my flat beam of Sibob's - fully loosened and no strings: I checked with some feeler gauges: It's bowed to a gap of 0.7mm. So, yes - the trussrod can be tightened to make it flat...just. But then add the strings and it bows some more and there is no adjustment left in the rod to counteract it. In cases where there is a relatively small amount of extra movement you can sometimes sort it by adding a washer under the trussrod adjuster, or by levelling the frets. But with frets at 1.3mm high and a gap of 0.7mm to flatten, there wouldn't be any fret to speak of left either end once it had been sanded flat. So the action is: Remove the frets Flatten the fretboard itself Refret Level and recrown So that's what I'll be doing over the coming week or so

I've gone through so much backline kit in the last four decades, I've lost track of what I've owned, but one thing I am prepared to impart is that with so many advances in amplification-tech, size really isn't everything. Live gigs aren't about masses of backline (anymore?) and I'm currently running - size for size - the smallest rig in decades.

I’ve just got Aaron Armstrong (of Kent Armstrong) to make me a 5 string double bass pickup and then had Simon Farmer (of GUS Guitars) make a fingerboard extension to fit it into. He made a rosewood block that he glued to the underside of the fingerboard and then a channelled other block that is screwed into this block that also holds the pickup in place. I can remove this and the pickup by loosening two screws and all that is left is the block stuck to the underside of the fingerboard, which can’t be seen and could be removed with a little woodworking skill, leaving no sign of it ever having been fitted.