Leaderboard

I thoughtI'd give a quick update. I had my wrist op on Thursday, 17th September. All seems to have gone well. I had the dressings changed on last Tuesday and it looks like it's healing nicely. Considering the trauma to my arm, I only needed painkillers for the first three days. Next stop, 5th October for a review with my consultant. I'm looking forward to getting back into playing again in the next 5 or six weeks.

Ive been looking for a Suhr Jazz for quite a while as they are quite rare and on my bucket list of Jazz basses to own. Some might know John Suhr predominantly makes guitars. He makes high end jazz basses in all sorts from his Classic Pro model Classic Antique to the Custom Classic J series. This instrument is a Custom Classic J. Its a swamp ash body with a honey burst high gloss finish. Abalone side dots, decal and fingerboard dots. Suhr (Humphrey) Jazz pickups in a 70,s spacing position, paired with a 2 band Suhr preamp. Ive played many high end jazz basses and this preamp is the clearest non coulered preamp ive ever heard. There is no preamp messing around with this basses clarity. It is also built beautifully. Amazing attention to detail. Ive got to say after playing many high end jazz basses from Celinder, Sadowsky, Nordstrand, Lull this Shur is up there.. The pickups on this bass are soooooooooooooooo good. !! These Suhr Humphrey pickups are just killer imo.. Im not sure how he winds them but these pickups make this bass sing. They are a dual coil that sounds very close to a single coil but are (I think) overwound to give a punch ive not heard on many jazz basses.Ive always had an issue with jazz basses sounding a little thin. I think John Suhr sells these pickups as Humphreys or a single coil. This bass retails at around £3500 which is a bargain when you look at Sadowsky NYC Alleva etc. Its all in the name I guess. One of the great Jazz basses does John Suhr make. thankyou Fatih.

I don't own a guitar as such, on account that I can't really play one. (I know a lot of bass players say that and they only can strum along to stuff, but I can't enough do that, I've never learnt to play guitar). I do have a Westfield Strat Clone hanging around the house, I bought it for the kids. It's ok, I think. My middle son started to learn playing on it. Roll forward to lockdown and because my 3 boys got very good reports/praise from the school for their hard work during the lockdown I gave them £100 each. The middle son does the right thing and puts it towards a new guitar. He bought this: It's a Squier FSR Bullet Mustang Competition. It's short scale, quite a thin body...and I have to be honest, I'm quite envious. It feels really rather nice, and sounds pretty good as well. For £140 it's an absolute steal. I will say, he bought this particular one for the right reasons. Not because of the pick up config, or the shorter scale, or that it's a hardtail. He bought it because it's his favorite colour, orange. I pinched it earlier and strummed G and D, the only 2 chords I can play and it made me sound awesome.

Still a better gig than Anne Widdecome

I’ll find out at some point as I ordered it.

This mornings P Bass gathering! Some custom builds, some CS and cool oldies! Love a P bass 🤘

I am a bugger for saving stuff in odd places. I found some old polycarbonate sheeting from a cheap plastic cold frame that my late mum had in the garden. When retiring it from use I kept the sheeting because it was compact and flat and easily hidden behind one of the bunkers. Sometimes this strategy pays off. I cut a pickguard from it using the template I made yesterday. Loosely installed this seems to work with the overall look of the bass. I may have been staring at it for too long... I must try some strong lighting on it to see if it would look interesting on stage. Getting there...

I have been working as a high class escort for rich single ladys

Confusion (New Order) Both song and band relate to the last few posts 😁

Does my little P/J gang count 🤔

If you like the rest of if you can just recalibrate. Played with a great drummer who was infuriatingly slack on rehearsal start times. I just accepted 7pm start meant we started playing 7.35 , and worked my times around this. If relaxed start to rehearsals is the only issue, you’ve found an originals band you genuinely enjoy playing with - a rare thing. I’d stick with it.

Nobody commenting on the fact that the singer was the first to arrive?

OK, I've totally failed to wait the whole 2 weeks I'm an impetuous git I know, but I figured 3 days early wouldn't hurt..! Last evening I wet & dried the paint until it was nice and smooth and then cut it back to a shine with a cut & polish type substance. The finish isn't brilliant, I should have used grain filler as there's grain showing through in various places and it's not a flawless mirror finish, but it was never intended to be really. It's got too many dings already to be A1, and it's going to collect more in its working life anyway, that's the whole point. I want it to get a bit roadworn. But the overall effect is just what I was after. The strings are just a temporary measure to get it set up and working, the DR Black Beauties are in the post from Holland as I write 😎 I'm particularly pleased with the neck. It's the first time I've used tung oil, and the results are just wonderful. I am never going to lacquer a piece of wood again. The pickguard worked out well. Sure it's not absolutely perfect, and it will start lifting at the edges as time goes on, but I've got spare tape if needs be. For now, the effect is great. It sits so well with the black hardware. Although I'm wondering if white knobs would work better The hot pickups are real beasties, and the EMG 2 band gives a great control range. it's going to sound quite brutal when it's properly set up. But again, that's absolutely fine. Smooth subtle hi-fi would have been totally wrong for its intended job. Rothko and Frost have played a blinder with the decals too, I couldn't have asked for better. With hindsight, maybe I could have done without the silver infill on the big word. But that's just a detail. I think it looks the dog's parts. I'm also really pleased with how my re-shaping of the headstock turned out. It now looks like it should have done all along! So. A bit of tidying up to do here and there, and a setup of course, but it's basically done if not dusted. I've had a lot of fun with this

Having sold some gear and cleared a couple of things off - I’d hoped to get a Status Groove from these very pages. Typically - it’d sold about 4 hours before my gear had been paid for. “Oh well, they drop up from time to time - will have a mooch on Facebook marketplace...” I saw this. Hours later, a deal was struck. It was our very own @Geddys nose who I’ve dealt with before. tis very good.

A couple of absolute bargains. EBMM 5 string stingray at £1300 brand new Ashdown CTM 300 for only £729 (RRP at 2 grand IIRC) Used Ashdown LB550 for £263 couple of others too https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/sale/bass-guitars Man I wish I had some money!

Ignore me, do this. Like a Rickenbacker Lightshow.

Pop some LEDs in the cavities!

Wow! That'll be epic with the CTM300!

Got this Ashdown ABM810 today. Should be getting the matching CTM300 on Monday from @la bam

Er didn't Thora Hird die several years ago tho? That’s a bit niche by any standards.

Quick update... as mentioned earlier, I got the Audient EVO 4. However, despite it sounding fine, I just couldn't get over the cheap build quality and odd UI. It made it feel like a toy. So, back to Focusrite, specifically a 3rd gen 2i2. It feels like a serious bit of kit, and sounds great.

Here’s mine. Working towards more MIDI compatibility.

Thora Hird? Diane Abbott? Anne Widdecombe? I hear they have a great deal of disposable oncome.

A classic Gregory isaacs one, nice heavy Bassline

This is the very definition of a bass tone that blew me away. It's what made me pick up a bass in the first place and whenever I hear that record I still tune out everything else and just listen to the bass. When I recorded with an originals band many years ago I achieved quite a close sound using a Trace SMX pre into the desk, using a Precision and pick of course.

He was too quick for me, had to google the band name lol

I feel somewhat guilty in that my job involves writing research software; I can do 99% of this from home and doing so has been a lot more pleasant than spending 2 hours commuting each day. It has also saved quite a bit of fuel and parking money, so I have spent it on luthier's fees, more frequent bass lessons, live streamed gig tips etc.

I am very aware of the theory and temperaments as well as scales. At the risk of being picky, we try to utilise mathematically correct tempered scale, but there aren't too many instruments that actually use it per se. The base is there, but the usage is not. The exactly tempered acoustic piano sounds ridiculously bad, and many stringed instruments are everything but tempered. I am sure you know Pythagorean comma et al. and you get my point. As a bassist my instrument is tuned slightly low. Not many cents, but still. My tuner (Peterson SAM) has this option.

I've just bought the Sterling 5 string - I think! I have never played a 5 in my 35 years of playing bass, so if my transaction was successful it may end up on here in another week!🤣 Wish me luck!

Another track from the same album, the legendary 'Five G'. I struggeld with the funk bit as many of the notes are non-specific and there is aknack to the playing of the line that you are not going to get off the chart. I attahced a link to the YouTube copy of JB's Starlicks video where he explains how he does it. Hopefully, with chart and video, you can work it out. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/five-g-bruford/

My experience of valve swaps is somewhat varied. What I've found is that the same valve in a different circuit responds very differently. I swapped the cheap Chinese ECC83s out of my Fender Bassman a few years back and replaced them with long-plate JJ ECC803 types. There was a difference - they were definitely a bit bigger / fatter sounding adding a thickness but it wasn't a night and day contrast - maybe 10% at best which I found a little surprising.. By contrast, I put a set into my home built 60w 'Beavis' head (Marshall circuit - Linear L50 components) and that absolutely loved them! They made it sound bigger, bolder, brighter, cleaner and really added a new chapter to it's sound. I've no experience of the LB30 / CTM30 amplifier so can't comment on that but it sounds like it might be a great platform for a little experimentation..

That's one of those videos that tells me I really should have tried harder. 😂

@LukeFRC I talked to my luthier who advised me the Danish. I saw old realisations and that's look great. In addition, it is very easy to sand again in 10 years and then to re-oil.

@PaulThePlug : I'm going on a natural oiled finish - I will show you. @LeftyJ and @Bassassin : I can understand your point of view. Personally I do not attach importance to the brand, the rarity or other sign of fame. What interests me is the quality of the violin, the design and above all, the sound. This is an exceptional bass and, in my opinion, it will be even more so without its yellow varnish full of hits which does not allow the woods to vibrate fully. I'm going to give it 6 or 7 coats of Danish Oil, I just think it's to respect the woods and its design. The serial number is still visible. The logo ? I don't care. I will show you the final result.

Still repairing, setting up and modifying, guitars, basses and mandolins. The first three months of lock down were dire but since then it has improved, to a point where I'm as busy as I want to be at this stage in life

Well, thats the same with my singing, but not because I can't hear it You could just get those turntable mats with the pattern on it, and then look at it under electric light and you would see if it was running slow. I always had a problem with the track 'jane' by jefferson starship - I was given it as a single but the hole wasnt quite central, so the intro had a wow of about a tone! Natural. I used to believe that you could teach these things, but I am now coming round to the idea that you can't teach that stuff later in life. You can be shown it and have it pointed out, but if you don't hear it yourself, noone can persuade you to hear it. And not all instruments do we bother with. And sometimes it is not desirable. But much longer subject!

From our jam night. Me and my drummer with ace guest guitarist / singer.

At the risk of seeming picky, we use a precisely equally tempered scale: each note in the scale is 21/12 times the frequency of the one below it. Strictly speaking it's a compromise (all the notes in an octave, apart from the root note and the octave itself, are slightly adrift from the harmonic purity that characterises scales based more closely on the harmonic series. We use it because it sidesteps the numerous issues commonly associated with those earlier scale types such as the Pythagorean series (which most will know as the cycle of fifths) and the Just scale). In practice there are indeed particular issues with implementing the scale on different types of instruments, but the equal temperament scale is the standard temperament for most of the music we hear. To address the OP's question more directly, the notes in the equal temperament scale are learned, to the point where we rarely even notice the harmonic anomalies inherent in its structure. It is worth pointing out that very early western music didn't have the octave as a fundamental element of the scale structure the way we do today. Ancient Greek music (thought of as the birthplace of the western musical tradition) had scales organised differently to the way we do it. The Greeks knew and used the octave in their music, but because of the way the musical structures were organised it didn't have the importance we attach to it. TL:DR hearing the octave is an acquired skill. For the type of music we play it lies at the very heart of the way we work, which means that being able to recognise it is essential to our approach. In a situation where it isn't essential or isn't used (as is the case for most of the scales used in the ancient Greek approach), it may not be necessary to know about it. There is an interesting little sideline to this: The Pythagorean scale, based as it is on successive applications of the ratios 3/2 and 2/3, and hence considered the purest scale in terms of adherence to the natural harmonic series and the standard scale type in early western music for hundreds of years, can't be used to generate an exact octave. There is no power of 3 that is exactly twice any power of 2, and vice versa. As a result, being able to complete the scale requires a well-developed notion of the octave as an interval. In truth I'm not entirely sure how this feeds into the current discussion, but it's interesting nonetheless. EDIT TO ADD: Here's a couple references on the subject of temperaments: Wikipedia Early Music Sources (YouTube)

I’d like to try some NOS sometime . Some RCAs or Telefunkens. Just to see if the hype around old stock is real or if new valves are just as good.

I totally agree. In my book: Lateness = amateurs & rudeness. Punctuality = professionalism & manners. No excuse not to send a quick message saying sorry but we are running a bit late. Personally would not audition people at 7pm. Would always do it at 8pm. Gives the band an hour to arrive, set up and warm up. Gives a much better first impression.

I've been hesitant to go further this week because I was looking at a relatively expensive purchase in the sourcing of pickguard material. This will almost certainly be a unique shape even though I am following the outline of the missing original in the faded red paint of the Encore body. The pickup position that has been dictated by the Yamaha neck has made that most likely. The faded paint is just visible enough to make out under good light. Tracing paper is not transparent enough to make out and trace with a pencil however. I used some flimsy masking sheet that was handy and getting it as gently taut as possible was able to trace the outline onto it. The trick then is to get that outline onto the card backing* without distorting or ripping the flimsy plastic sheet. It is especially fragile since I have cut the outline of the pickup and the neck with a sharp blade to allow the sheet to sit flat against the body. I used a glass cutter. The little wheel allowed me to follow the curve accurately whilst scribing that curve into the card. *In this case, a Weetabix packet. Other cereals' or products' containers may be used. I followed the scribed outline with a sharp blade. It came out better than I'd hoped. A few minor shavings and I've ended up with a pleasing shape that is worth working on both to mount the controls and to finish off the instrument respectfully. Here it is in reverse. For the next build, I quite like the idea of using a "Pop Tart" packet with the outside showing and then having it laminated onto a proper three ply backing... The mock up is promising.

I'm not reading this thread and I'm not going to look at the site... I hate you all!!!

I have an allowance from my millionaire great Aunt. It helps keep Ubit towers in the style that it is used to. The west wing was in need of repair recently but old aunt Gertie soon had that taken care of. I work just to keep from getting bored but intend chucking my job soon as I wish to further pursue my dream of being a top model. My current wife is an international origami champion and gets handsomely rewarded for her work. This is our string fund and I have a regular supply that arrives bi weekly. I don’t have many regrets.

Recently completed my first ever pedal board. Just used them loose and ad-hoc in the past but I was going through wires on power supplies like nobody's business. So I thought it better if it was all enclosed and boxed up. The four home made ones are clones of a Roger Mayer Octavia, a DOD FX 25 Envelope Filter, a Death By Audio Robot and an Earthquaker Devices Plumes. The latter three I'm pretty pleased with myself about as I designed the strip board layouts myself from the schematics. Which I think is pretty good going for someone who has absolutely no idea what he's doing with electronics! *struts*

Decided to take a little family shot. There’s another ‘project’ Precision that needs to be added to this when it’s finished, soon hopefully, waiting on tuners. Anyway, L-R: 70’s Camel Journey 2020 Moollon P Classic IV 1971 Fender Precision Si

In his fascinating book Musicophilia, the neurologist Oliver Sacks mentions that some people discern pitch differently from one ear to the other. Extraordinary.

Martin Turner on Wishbone Ash - Sometime World, both the first and the second halves....