Leaderboard

Any musician worth his salt and with time on his hands is often in more than one band. Just remember the rule re: booking clashes.... "First in the diary".

I'll be quitting this band. I've been in this situation too many times and my patience is too thin to put up with it. The kicker last night was they couldn't even play the songs they'd supposed to have learnt for last week, let alone the ones for this. The basses will be going back in their cases and will, at some stage, probably be seen in the for sale forum. This year was the first year in the last +10 years where I wasn't in a band, and it's been a good year. I've spent a lot of time fishing with a mate of mine and taking my kids. Last Saturday I took my eldest fishing, I loved every second, we had a belting day. I've not felt like that in a band,not that I can remember. So...day off Tuesday, weather looks good, I'll be getting the rods out, NOT learning songs.

Enjoy the space. Playing bass in a 3 piece is one of the greatest things ever. Listen to more Cream / Jack Bruce and you'll get the idea. But also - the guitarist should be writing solos to support the song rather than going off on a thin sounding widdle fest too.

How could you call musicians utter moronic wasters when the truth is that not only are musicians utter moronic wasters, but also pretty much every non-musician too. 🤨

I quit bands, and music, everything at the beginning of the year. I sold almost all my gear, bar 2 basses and a bag of leads. People said don't, but I'd had enough. Then I got asked by someone I said I would be in a band with, the only person I'd be in a band with, I owed him really. And am I regretting it. All the same old crap. People not learning songs, not bringing gear, can't pay for rehearsals blah blah blah. Musicians are such utter moronic wasters.

Afternoon all done a bit more today, its taken so long to do any way got it painted last week and bugger me lost all the pics but got some today of the lacquer came out quite nice, colour is VW candy white, have been looking for a decal for the head but i cant find a sound gear one just an ibanez logo i think that will have to do, ah well see if i can get a bit more of my tele done while i am waiting for the lacquer to harden, thanks for all your helpful comments and suggestion's cheers.

And onto the fretting of @Sibob 's neck. One of the wiser investments in recent years has been a pair of proper fret tang-cutting pliers: There are many ways of fretting, but what works for me is: Cut the tangs and length Check the slot clearance and depth Lightly triangular file the top of the slot Run a small bead of titebond along the tang Hammer one side, then the other side, then the middle Wipe off the squeezeout Clamp a radius block over the newly hammered fret Move to next fret You get into a routine, but it's still a bit of a tedious job, so time for a coffee with 12 done and 9 to go: What was nice about the way the frets came out is that the tang-slot filling, done when the neck was made, survived on all frets, so one less job Once the frets are all in, they will be left overnight for the glue to fully harden and then the ends clipped and the bevels filed. Then it is just a case of levelling, re-crowning where necessary and polishing up. Finally, the fretboard will be polished back up, the nut lowered and refitted (remember, the nut fretboard end is now 0.7mm lower than it used to be) and then it should be able to go back to Si.

Makes me realise how lucky I am to be in a band with people I actually quite like, who learn the songs they’re supposed to learn, turn up on time, don’t miss rehearsals etc. Sure, there are things I’d change if I could, but no one’s perfect, and I’m sure they’d say the same about me.

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

This is the first Sandberg I've played so I can't compare it to other Sandbergs. I didn't love it with the stock strings - but I don't really like roundwounds in general. With the stock strings, the bass was very keen and forward and I wasn't sure it would be grounded enough for me. I changed to Dunlop flats and this has tamed the punch to some degree. I'm adding some low mids on my preamp pedal but EQ is otherwise flat. Btw I'm only playing the bass in passive mode (in fact I've removed the battery). On a Fender etc I would use the tone knob pretty much all the way across its full range from open to closed, depending on the song. With the Sandberg, I've found I less often have the tone fully open, i.e. I do prefer it with at least some tone rolled off; and also that the overall tone range is smaller - i.e. closing it fully doesn't get as "dark" as I would ideally like. The B string is good. I'm normally on in-ears these days so it's hard to fully know how things sound like out front, but I played one gig using a house MarkBass CMD 121H and no PA support. I went as low as C (no low B in this gig) and those notes were absolutely solid and full - completely not "gutless". My tone benchmark is Yamaha BB735A which I love and gets 10/10. In that case, I will award the Sandberg 9/10. The Yamaha weighs about 4.5kg and I can (and have) happily gig it all through a busy summer, and would do it again. Having said that, gigging a 3.3kg bass means 25% less weight and that change is really noticeable, and is just really lovely. Shoulder is barely aware a bass is hanging off it. No problems with neck dive, by the way.

If anyone gives a damn, Steven Wilson has sprinkled his magic pixie dust on XTC's psychedelia alter-egos The Dukes Of Stratosphear material. Psurroundabout Ride sees it's release on CD&BluRay in less than a month. A smattering of bonus materials and All The Dukes' material in 5.1 psurround as well.

Dare I say it's symptomatic of modern rock music being chock-full of lousy rhythm guitarists? I've heard too many records where it's just a solid wall of chords under the singer, as if they've all developed a sort of musical agoraphobia. Of course it all falls apart live: if they've two guitars, the guy taking a solo can't be heard over the endless, pummeling power chords; if they've one guitar, all the momentum disappears because the thin, widdly solo they overdubbed in the studio leaves a massive hole where once was a wall of chords. @fretmeister is entirely right above: playing in a 3-piece is wonderfully liberating. Listen to Cream, Hendrix, Mountain, even groups like The Who which were basically a trio-plus-singer. Make sure your bass sound fills enough space - make the low mids your territory, season with high-mids and treble to taste. If your guitarist does want to replicate certain solos, can any of them be played an octave lower?

This is Basschat...all guitarists are egomaniacs, singers are preening narcissists and drummers are always late. Meanwhile on Drumchat, all guitarists are egomaniacs, singers are preening narcissists and bass players are always late.

As I said It was a curiosity as I've only ever really played through 10's. The B15 was an iconic amp from that era and thought it would be fun to recreate it. Anyways as per your suggestions of getting the tone. All valve head and a 2x12 cabinet P Bass with Flats In regards to muting technique I'm working with the Rocco Prestia style to save messing with foam or bass mutes. It's sounding pretty much how I want to at home volumes. Looking forward to taking it to rehearsal in a few weeks to try it at volume. Still curious about 15's though

Recently reconfigured nano board.

Ah that's a shame - for future reference most rehearsal spaces will have amps/cabs you can rent along with the room, usually pretty cheaply too. Saves spending out on gear in the initial stages of bands.. Also as someone said earlier, rehearsal should be done at relatively low volume anyway. My band practice in one of our living rooms. Practice amps, electronic drum kit, No vocal amplification. Works just fine.

"man who hits drums" - fantastic! I reckon the mods should add this to the swear filter when anyone types "drummer". Although it may need to be "person who hits drums" in the interests of equality....

Sounds like your drummer has wildly overreacted. If the second band doesn’t conflict with your current one then there is no problem, surely.

A conflict of interest will occur sometime in the future, it’s what happens when musicians play in more than one band.

The stand is just a very rudimentary stand that I made I’ll post a pic when I get back to my workshop It looks a lot like this but I’ve filled the back in and put a brace across the front which I’m going to shape a bit so it doesn’t look so square and chunky..............😀

All the way through this you guys have been so kind, and helpful! its awesome to have conversations like this while building, and really good to get peoples thoughts and opinions on things as i go along i've got a few ideas cooking for the next project already!

Well, you can't build anything else until you have a bench, right? Having moved house earlier in the year, we've had a lot of jobs on the go.... and a nice space for me to tinker in has been fairly low on the agenda! Anyway, we now have a reasonably weathertight shed/garage in place (about single garage size - 3.6m x 5.8m external dims), so I'm now looking to get some shelving in there and - most importantly - a workbench. No car will be in there - just the ride on mower etc. I have some decent sized offcuts of laminate worktop (650mm deep), and had thought to use those as the bench top - any reasons not to do so? Should I be looking to use double thickness 18mm ply or similar instead? Any recommended depth for the bench - is 650mm too shallow? I'm intending to run the bench along from the single side door under the window to the far end.

The nearest thing I got to play bass was back in the late 90s when my old Who mate the Ox (John Entwistle) and his then girlfriend Lisa Pritchett-Johnson (who used to go out with Joe Walsh) rented out Kilsheelin House in Clonmel, County Tipperary in Ireland. With characteristic aplomb John immediately christened the place 'Castle Ox'. He had retreated there with our sound engineer Bob Pridden to start writing his book on Keith Moon....a book which Pete had said that if John had lived to a hundred he would still never quite finish. I had amassed a huge amount of facts and anecdotal evidence on Moon and the Who for my co-authored book The Who Concert File. John had been a great help to me taking landline calls from dodgy street corner phone boxes in Cork to his splendid residence at Quarwood. So, we're in Clonmel....'Castle Ox'...we're going out on the fosters...and characteristically John has found it necessary to include among his vast overspill of luggage for a month's stay...three or four bass guitars! One of which is delicately leaning against the wall of the great hall in 'Castle Ox'. It's like a woman undressed or a grand piano with the lid open...I can't resist it. The bass is strapless. I pick it up and clumsily try to find the riff for my song Happy Jack. John stared at me and said in a threatening tone..'Jack, drop that bass and you'll be paying for it for the rest of your working life..' I leaned the 1963 Fender Precision back against the wall with applied delicacy and looked back at it lovingly as we exited the grand hall and headed for a country pub. Lisa was driving. John didn't know how to.

I used to use an Akai Unibass in a power trio years ago. It can add an octave higher, with or without distortion and also add a harmony note to the octave up. I now realise this was a bit daft but I was in epic rock god territory when the guitarist soloed. I had a bi-amped bass rig with the lows fed to a 2x15 and the highs to a 4x12, but also had a 2x10 guitar amp in a cabinet between the two, so rack mount Peavey Max pre amp, graphic and stereo power amp on top of a 4x12 on top of a guitar amp in a cabinet on top of a 2x15, all cabinets were home built so they all matched. The Unibass would send an octave up with a 5th added to the overdriven guitar amp and the bass to the rack unit to be split between the two bass cabs. My back problems aren't from lifting all that but rather that it fused most of my vertebrae together with sheer rawk power 😁

Spent this evening engrossed with my new toys. Bass into EHX Tri Parallel Mixer. First send to guitar amp via Digitech Ricochet into Bass Whammy into guitar pre amp pedal into reverb. Second send to bass amp. It sounds sublime. Can mute either bass or guitar and add in 4th 3rd, 5th or whatever from the Whammy giving the 'guitar' two stages one for single notes the second for power chords. Going to work hard to get used to the set up and when to use it and on which songs then unveil it to an unsuspecting band rehearsal on Tuesday evening. Thanks for all the advice and ideas and to @dannybuoy for the pedals. I love it when a plan comes together.

Ripe for rearrangement then. Here's my considered advice: Instead of being all tasteful, like, just keep the melody line, play all the chords as maj 5ths, crank the tempo right up up to prestissimo and wig the f*ck out. Solos? Get your guitarist to buy a kazoo and a kazoo holder (like a harp brace). Or he can kick in a filthy, dirty fuzz and play the chords without a solo. Trust me, the punters'll lap it up. Or they'll kill you. Keep us posted PS: I'm not joking. Just reduce these songs to their most basic form, kick the sh*t out of them and see what happens.

^ This I've left 3 bands now, with big long stints of doing nothing in between, but not once did I ever consider selling the gear. I've put too much hard work in finding gear that I like, and I love just plugging in every now and then to annoy the wife!

Drummers are normally OK too in my experience. It's drums n bass versus the rest ... gotta have sympathy for drummers with setting up and down. In my experience singers just turn up and say ... can we do a sound check? Peace Davo

Like a lot of these kinds of thing, it takes a lot of trial and error until you find out what works for you. For me, the trick of clamping a radius block on after hammering in made all the difference to the ease and quality of the seating. Once you've gone through the learning curve, and got the one or two tools or jigs that make the difference, it isn't difficult - just a bit tedious in that you have to do it 21 times or so!

Yes I did that but could'nt escape music. I bumped into Fish, Seal, Walter Trout and the Wailers, all doing the same thing.

I actually get it, and have myself done it. While the wording from the OP comes across as a bit "throwing your teddy out of the pram" I don't think that was the intention. If you are no longer getting enjoyment from doing something, and genuinely believe that the enjoyment has gone for good, then why sit on a load gear, clogging up space and gathering dust, when you can sell it and put it towards something else? I also understand how a person might be lured back into it by a friend and a bit of rose tinted glasses mentality, only to rediscover why they'd had enough of it in the first place. Sounds perfectly reasonable to me, and it's not like he's the first person in history to use this forum to have a bit of a rant and blow off some steam.

Why not? Essentially we’re a hobby band that plays pubs in and pretty close to our home town. We have a bit of a local following, and we treat it seriously and with professionalism, but we’re not earning a living from it or anything 😊

What's with this "I folded the band" stuff? If you are only playing 1 or 2 gigs a month then you need band members who don't mind that level of inactivity. If you have guys who want to gig more than that then you need deps or different players. Nobody owns anyone. You can't dictate how often other guys will be allowed to play and punish them if they want to play more.

All over the place:

This is the mk2 stand............ They are going to be painted and thick draught excluded stuck on to protect the bass................😀

MY biggest annoyance too - Turn up for a rehearsal and it's clear when someone hasn't been learning their parts individually. 'Have you learned the song mate?' 'Yeah I had a quick listen'

Hey Frank I am not questioning your experience in any way - I love my Barefaced Compact. But honestly I put a Trace Elliot on top of two MB 151 cabs and, for the right style of music, I was very happy with the results. Also my Orange Terror and MB cabs was an amazing combination. But the BF cabs are my go to. They're just so versatile. And wider too. This is always a matter of personal preference of course.

Fly screen mesh is a new idea, just a quick look shows they do fibreglass mesh in black and grey as well as aluminium mesh plus polyester https://www.flyscreen.com/mesh/standard-rolls-for-cladding-and-screening/

I am more than a bit partial to a block inlay so I thought I’d see how this build would look with yellow blocks instead of the standard MOP effect.............. Just the electrics and headstock decal to fit then it’s ready for a set-up...............😀

Are 5 string basses worth the effort? For you? Don't know. For Me? Absolutely. IMO 5 sting basses are very flexible, versatile and you can play any bass line on one. If you approach the switch over in a positive frame of mind then any effort will be worth it. A move to 5's will find any holes or short-cuts you've been getting away with for years. It will test you to improve your technique, but in the end this can be the best move of your bass playing career.

I recently made a cheeky offer on eBay. The item was listed at £250 so I put in an offer of £200. To be fair I didn't think I'd get it at that, but you've got to start negotiations somewhere. The seller came back with a counter offer of £245 and made it clear that this would be his final and only offer. Very generous I thought.

spent a few hot hours in the shed today undid the clamps all looked not to bad, trimmed the inserts and gave it a quick rub over just to tidy it up, forgot about the screw holes in the side i drilled them out and glued in some dowels. Not looking to bad. Sorry the pics are not in the right order.