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Hi folks. This started off as a reply to the member's " HAS LOCKDOWN IMPROVED YOUR PLAYING" post. Then as it got longer and longer I thought that maybe it merited a post of its own. Especially as the lockdown opened a big big door for me musically. Perhaps similar events happened to other members too??? So grab a coffee and a digestive and I'll begin my yarn. I have been playing guitar for many years, but have always secretly wanted to play bass. I have an ancient Encore Pbass circa 1980-82 amongst my guitar collection which I had restored back to its former glory. Even freeing up the butchered truss-rod and respraying. So I bought an amp for her, and also a new Hofner B-bass for a stable - mate. ( Don't you just love buying your own birthday prezzies... luckily my family chipped in). I thought after years of guitar playing that switching to bass would be a doddle. Big mistake as I painfully found out. Plus a new scourge called Covid 19 was about to enter stage and bring about a change I'd never dreamed of... Anyway.. My new bass amp arrived just when Covid first started to get scary, so when at the end of a workday I entered my front door, a large box blocked my way. Yay! Amp's arrived. Hang on a mo... It was covered in Chinese print. Aaargh! What to do? quarantine it? Stick it in the garage for a week? I told Wifey to keep clear of it. Then she gave me THAT LOOK. "Col, you utter nob - look at the rest of the box before buying a ton of steriliser" I did so and saw other different foreign print on the other sides, not just Asian. It was merely multi- lingual Phew! Anyway, I threw off my rubber gloves, and I buckled down to my new quest on four strings and was making progress well into the first lockdown. Whilst being stuck at home I discovered Basschat and started devouring all the tips and tricks and advice from all helpful members. I even posted a thread myself and ended it jokingly casting out for a more experienced player to socially distance jam with, I could fast-track my bass playing learning capability. Soon I had reply from a member (Hi Loudspeaker) who not only played bass in a gigging BAND, but also invited me over to play in his studio/rehearsal building behind his house with room to social distance. When the day arrived my axes of choice were my Hofner B-bass and my Dean Cadi six string plus a bag of pedals for when my small bass reportoire dried up. My amps were not needed. When my few tunes on bass were done, I grabbed the Dean and we began cranking out the classics. After another few sessions ending up with me on guitar again, my bass guru says:- "Col, have you ever thought of playing guitar in a band?" Me: "What? you mean with real players in front of real people?" "Well that's what generally happens with a band" " No I couldn't, I'd pink torpedo-up, people would laugh at me, it would be like Spinal Tap" (what a classic film). "Listen, you pick new things up quickly, keep good time, and you're solos are fast and none too shabby, I think that you're easily as good as our guitarist." " That's the thing though, I'm not a guitarist really, I can play some guitar, okay a fair amount, but there's a difference". "So if you had a chance, say with our band, you wouldn't do it?" "I'm a bedroom player... I've only ever played in front of the mirror!" "Look, this is the thing, I suspect that our guitarist secretly wants to wind down, keeps dropping hints about disliking late nights after gigging, and how he just enjoys the rehearsals, my worry is that by the time this lockdown lifts and the gigs start coming back in, that he'll hang up his hat. You could fit right in." "Wooah! wait a minute, I would cringe in front of an audience, my nerves have got nerves, and besides... I don't have any hair, I'm sorry." " So wear a hat. Will you at least have a think about it? "Will you still show me stuff on the bass?" "Night and day". Later at home with Wifey and a glass or two of red. " Col I know you're uncomfortable with playing in front of people, but at least you have the ability to, it's not as if you're struggling to match up, it's just a confidence thing, you'd get over it, plus you already know one of the band pretty well now" " I'll need a bigger amp" "Then find one, just don't break the bank okay Hank Marvin?" "Plus a pedalboard" "Go on... anything else" " And a hat". A week later when I was in town, I stopped to answer my mobile. It was another pesky follow up msg from Gumtree "How did we do? blah blah" only underneath the type was an ad for an amp. Fender Champion 100. Eight miles distant and affordable, and I had stopped right next to my bank. I froze...was this fate? I looked again at the image on the phone, rang the seller, he still had it. Arranged a visit and plundered the cashpoint. Nipped home, chucked an axe plus lead into the car and off. When I got there, the chap had his garage door raised, and rigged up in there was the twin with a vintage Fender Strat leaning against it. My fingers were twitching with anticipation. Chap says " Did you bring a guitar with you?" "Erm, yes in the car. Hang on a mo" he obviously didn't want my grubby paws on his lovely Strat. Back with my guitar, I plugged in and did a quick tune up. He says '"Sorry 'bout that mate, only my dog followed into the garage and cocked his leg on my guitar." Ha ha, I had been totally wrong. Bad dog. I didn't understand the amp at all, so many more dials than my practice one at home. Matter not for it was LOUD. He hastily closed down the garage door mid - Van Halen, and I paid up. Job done. Next sesh at the studio, I took my new acquisition with me. " What's with the big amp Col?" " Thought I'd better put it through its paces if it's ever going to grace a stage". He looked surprised. "Thought you weren't up for it". "That was before I thought about the groupies. By the way, about my possible joining the band, how will you wangle it with the others especially the resident Eric Clapton?" "You'll simply be an old mate of mine who's only come along to sit in on our rehearsal. Just do like you have been here, you'll be fine. You're already playing a few of our set." " Mmm, how many songs are there in the set exactly?" " Oh about thirty odd, no pressure mind. (what!?) Anyway by the time the Covid restrictions ease and we can rehearse again you'll have them in the bag, trust me." Those restrictions eased only two weeks later, so knowing but a fraction of their set and nervous as hell I went for it. Turned out that they liked me. Later that evening I had a call from Loudspeaker "Col, they like you, and our guitar man is relieved that you can share some of the lead playing with him, are you in?" "You betcha, it was a blast." Six band meetings later and I know the whole set, just in time for lockdown#2. ∆rse, and double ∆rse! So now I spend my evenings learning bass to the set list instead and jam along with them all as they are all now so familiar. Bass is coming along fine. And I'm in a BAND. Next hurdle will be playing with an audience, but I no longer worry about that as long as I'm tight with the others. Well it proves that some things can come out of a ghastly situation. There is always hope somewhere. Thanks for your time. Cheers, Col.

Different kind of Large bass collections 1- slowly growers. These folk never seem to sell anything, they have their first bass, and their second and every so often will buy something new. They never sell so don’t seem to have GAS. They will have a collection with a wide age range of basses and look down at the GAS fuelled rabid buying and selling of others. 2- collectors these folk have a thing they are into, if you ask them about it they are very knowledgeable about it and have a desire to own or try as much as they can. Whether it’s Warwicks, 70s japanese, Peavey or pre-cbs fenders it doesn’t really matter. They will have their favourite gigging bass and then half a dozen variations of the same model 3- professional players they make thier living playing bass of in music and have their main instrument. They will have a few of them as backup, and possibly will have been provided by the company. For recording and for fun they might have anything from a handful to dozens of other instruments. You can tell them by string preference to main instrument, close relationships over years with companies and being too busy to want to spend much time on here. 4- semi-professional players like the above but they make their main living doing something else. This means more free cash flow so they know what they like, it just will be a bit newer than the pro player and they possibly went for an upgraded top wood 5- thing lovers these players have a large collection of basses with no discernible theme or reason. Mostly lower end models they seem to have hoovered up lots of different make models and styles. Because they aren’t throwing big money at anything expect to see a lot of lower end instruments that are “actually way better than you would imagine”. In conversation about their instruments expect verboseness but little detail. 6- GAS fuelled thing lovers these players are similar to normal thing lovers, but ascribe to the idea in the marketing that more expensive things will be better. Their collection may not be large but it seems constantly in flux and week to week who knows what basses they will take to practice. Despite all evidence to the contrary they like to think themselves as discerning, so will go into excruciating detail And cause the luthier a massive headache when spec-ing a bass. They like to signal their discernment to others of their tribe with comments like “ah if this had an extra string”. (Btw the custom bass went from being the best thing ever to being traded for a Roscoe in about 6 months) 7- GAS fuelled swappers. like the above but unable to keep a large collection For whatever reason. Tend to have a small collection of higher end instruments. All but one of them will have a price if you ask. (And if you are asking You probably are one) 8- Stopper swappers Gas fuelled swappers who have stopped for whatever reason. Used to be on Basschat a lot. Not any more. Will be nice to say hello when they log on to sell their Ceilinder. 9- completists pride themselves one not having GAS, not as picky as some of the above - they have a a small collection... 1 precision, one jazz, one 5 string, one stingray, one fretless, one EUB etc 9- Stans These guys try to emulate their favourite player. They have the signature model. And the previous signature model, and a version of the bass they became famous on. If a Mark King fan they may pay their salery directly to Status Graphite 10- Trend followers you know when things are on trend on talkbass? These guys seem to follow the trend, yes they had a Lakland, and a SX and a Sire - and whatever got a bit of a buzz about them. Seem to go through cabs fairly quickly 11- the reader of course you sir or madam, the reader are a wonderful individual who only makes rational thought through decisions, unswayed by marketing, peer pressure or phycological need. You are truely free (but have you tried....)

Because a bassist usually knows when to shut up whereas a guitarist....

Just got back from a sale, my GSR100EX for only $100 USD. Guy would not just sod off after the transaction, instead he gets out his phone & is showing me photos 1 by 1 of his 50+ instrument collection. Who has the heart to tell him that he must be mentally ill? Buying up stuff just because it's a deal is some sort of sickness in my opinion. However, we are encouraged to Buy More almost everywhere in the player communities online. Even I am guilty of buying due to influence from the internet, but when it's the other way around NO one will take heed of the ONE guy who is commenting NOT to buy it just because it's there!

I think Roger is only too aware of the issues coming from the Warwick made instruments and is working hard to eradicate them. From everything I know about him, he will take this very personally and be trying his utmost to make sure that all instruments bearing his name are worthy of it. Of course, some of this will be teething issues of new production but you didn’t really have to be much of an expert to predict that Warwick wouldn’t meet Roger/Yoshi’s exacting standards. The thing that gets me the most is the simple problem of weight - Sadowsky instruments are almost legendary in being light in weight whilst retaining a full and deep inherent bass tone. Someone at Warwick QC decided to ignore this core element of the Sadowsky brand and allowed instruments to be made with heavy lumps of wood. They then let them out of the factory without owning up to people that they were bloated and overweight. This simply never happened with Yoshi’s Metro basses. Some of the limited runs were heavier than others - like the 70’s ash bodied Miller-style natural wood ones. However, dealers were told in advance that these were going to be made using heavier, denser, ash in order to firstly nail that classic late 70’s tone and also to deliver really nice looking pieces of natural ash. Warwick simply didn’t seem to care about this and just flogged overweight basses to dealers without a care. . . Personally I’m looking forward to owning one when all the Warwick-related issues are sorted

Hi all! Newbie (to the forum) Dave here! Short Scale PORN!!! I think I must have just died and gone to Heaven (the club in London, that is, not the place with the harps and all that....) Been playing since the Summer of Punk back in 76, I really am that OLD! Still churning out the same (tired old riffs and patterns, amazed that I still get away with it after all these years...) Luuuuurve my Squier Bronco (unfortunate name for a beast of such utter magnificence) and sounds dirty as Hell!!!!

Gullible & stupid person alert.

Thing is, and I say this as a fan of a fair bit of the genre, isn’t this true of heavy rock generally? There certainly wasn’t a sniff of me or any of my mates getting laid in our mid teens! And if I was still in my embroidered denims 40-odd years later I doubt that would have changed.😉 I think the think with NWOBHM was that, as has already been said, it was heavy rock/metal’s equivalent of punk. It was about the energy of it all and feeling like yes, you too may have a chance to climb on a stage at the (insert venue of choice) and do your thing. And just like with punk, many of the bands actually weren’t very good, with hindsight. But when you’re 15 and first starting to think about seeing live bands, they seemed pretty darned exciting.

You can buy some of mine, they are £1 each, PayPal friends please 😁

Update to my board, an Empress Bass Compressor. So easy to dial in, just a couple of minutes with a looper pedal running to find my sweet spot and it sounds GREAT!

Take Me With You (live) from Live In The Heart Of The City (1980). On all tracks from this album, I am playing a customised Kramer 350 bass with 2 Di Marzio P-bass pickups in reverse configuration, close together, with probably La Bella Quarterwound strings. I think at this time I was using a Sunn Coliseum Bass amp into an Acoustic 408 4x15 cabinet. I'm sure I could have transcribed it using lots of repeat signs, taking up less space, but writing it out in full means that any slight changes are mostly written out. Take Me With You (live).pdf

I think Roger Sadowsky underestimated what was required to make a licencing deal perform to his very high standards. I would hope he's spitting fire at Warwick right now. My next Sadowsky, if that even happens, will be another Yoshi Metro.

Easy to differentiate - the top one is actually a Quarter Pounder with cheese.

Bassists are often more receptive to features that weren't typically present on gear 40 years ago.

My 2003 Yamaha BB605 and J&D JD-S5B

I’ve ticked 1, but to be fair that’s stretching the truth a touch 😂

I don't see a problem. if I want it, can afford it, have room for it, I'll get it. End of. If it turns out to be less than expected, I'll move it on. If it is better than expected, I'll keep it and move on something else. Or not. At least I would have had the experience of playing it for a while. I call it 'curiosity' rather than GAS and certainly nobody else's business. Of course if it meant not being able to meet debts or put food on the table that is another thing.

Yesterday was all about working out the pickup heights to put spacers for the adjustment screws to bite into and then shielding the bottoms of the pickup chambers. With all shielding, a simple ohmmeter check for electrical continuity is pretty essential, and for the sticky backed copper, running a trace of solder to bridge each panel join is also a must - you can't rely on 'conductive glue' : All of this took most of the day yesterday, but by the end, all three pickups are fitted and have the required adjustment range: You can see why I'm not certain that magnets will keep the hatch down...and remember, none of the other stuff if in place here yet. Oh...and remember that these connectors go in vertically at the very top of the switches: So, while I ponder on that particular houdini challenge, I'll buy myself some thinking time by spending a few hours on a much less mentally taxing task of adding the copper shielding to @Fishman 's Wal - assuming I haven't used up all of my foil

Dont go in the Den Of Uniquity, firstly cos @Teebs lurks in there, and secondly you'll expunge 'likes' in a fashion hitherto unknown to real humans. Thirdly, Teebs is in there

And the chambers are copper-foiled. I have to join the panels with a teeny wipe of solder ('conductive glue' isn't to be trusted) and then check the earth continuity. The bridge earth will be soldered inside the cutaway to the small patch of copper that will make great electrical contact with the bridge while maintaining a good, firm contact between the bridge and body. The apparently random tabs are positioned so that at least one is going to be firmly against the conductive layer on the bottom of the scratch plate assembly. I'm hoping that the black UNF hardware (custom order because of the sizes and thread, hence the leadtime) will be with me by the end of this week because I don't think it is that long now before it's time to start getting some strings on, trying it out and setting it up!

My '79 StingRay. Bought it in 1986 secondhand for £500 and have used it for the majority of gigs I've played ever since.

Back on track Has my bass playing improved? Yes Am I practising more? - Also yes. I follow Mary Spender on YouTube and she set out to a video every day during January and encouraged people to play/practice for at least 15 every day. I can't say that I've managed every day but I'm trying to practice most days,

You have overreacted!

Because there's only a limited daily supply and @Teebs uses them all up

I'm surprised (and not a little hurt...) that my name has not yet been mentioned. ...

I've had the privilege of playing bass for John Coglhan , Ex Quo drummer. He was as tight as duck's butt, never locked in with anyone like that before.

Obviously I am an idiot. But I’ve been playing bass for 25 years and never really understood the fuss about steel roundwounds, until now. I’ve been used to nickels all my life. I think I flirted with steels once about 15 years ago, and for some reason decided they weren’t for me. Just put some D’Addario Pro Steels on my Celinder PJ. It’s a match made in heaven. Where on earth have I been? Much clearer bottom and top, top easily tamed by EQ knob if needed, and the roughness of these Steels isn’t too bad. Incredible thump and punch, beautiful. You probably had my epiphany already. But damn, I might put these on all my basses now. So good.

It has been 12 days since I ordered this thing. 12 weeks seems like it’s gonna be a really long time! And I’m assuming the border situation will add a few more days/weeks on as some others have experienced. Nevertheless I am excited!

I assume you need a scooped EQ for this specialist item.

Now you have us thinking, we could do the crossover with one of these and these for connecting the speaker, no soldering needed.

That type is known for its punch. 🤨

Stadium 5 string fretless. Super light body with thick wenge fingerboard. 35" scale, Bartolini pickups and 2 band EQ. For those wondering, Stadium was the brand used for a series of instruments licensed by The Bass Centre and manufactured in Europe by Michael Tobias Design in the late 90s/early 00s. Some of you may remember the highly regarded MTD Grendel series, which were much the same. ESP LTD Made in Vietnam reliced jazz fretless. I don't know whether the whole bass is an ESP or just an ESP neck on an alder body. The relic job is very good. The neck is lovely. Chunky '74 jazz profile with a thick rosewood board. I swapped pickups for some Lindy Fralins with bridge rewound to vintage spec by Bare Knuckle and it sounds lovely now.

Hello all! It has been about a week since I posted - thank you all for your contributions, they were incredibly helpful and i'm awfully grateful! After playing around with what could be various different causes for my problem, I found that the bridge saddles were the cause of the fret buzzing (like how many of you suggested) - after adjusting this, they were fine. Once again, thanks so much!!

Yes - good tip about bending the wires out of the connectors. I'll see how I fare with the rest of the mass. Luckily they are pretty fine wires but twelve Andyjr1515-quality solder joints per loom wouldn't be pretty - however much shrink tube I used Mind you, not as bad as Schaller's 'thick unbendable shroud and cable coming straight out of the back of a non-standard pot' that features in the top-level Flagship EQ/piezo-mag mixer. Clearly no one at Schaller (and usually I am a BIG fan of Schaller) had actually tried to fit one into any conventional instrument... Not their finest moment...

Neil Peart He was the greatest rock drummer in my opinion. He'd have made me look proper shite

Its an odd thing for me but when i have a few weeks off playing at home and then start again i seem to have a new lease of life and can play better, faster and just seem to be more "into it". I want to learn new things or master some of the things i tried before but couldn't be bothered putting the effort in. Take a wee break and all of a sudden it falls into place. I've always been like that. 45 yrs now. Dave

Such a lovely instrument. It’s like art.

This one I have has a 40PX at the neck position and a 40JX at the bridge. (Originally it cam with the stock 40DCs and I put in the new pickups)) I have a 40DC that I'm contemplating swapping with the J as that would have a more balanced output with the P. It is not a big issue but I had to lower the P considerably and raise the J so they have equal output.

Sorted! It seems that I somehow slid the control panel all the way to the left, I've now managed to slide it back into view. 🙂

Been there, seen it, done it.............and, bought the T shirt!

Using rehearsal time for learning songs is a big waste of time and money. Songs should be learnt at home and rehearsed and nailed in the studio.

Did this with the beautiful @leemarseillebass Really getting to grips with the soft synths on GarageBand now, the iPad seems to give you a lot more control than the phone. So it’s more fun and you can change sounds on the fly rather than going into menus and hoping it works. Lee was ace for this - I just knocked some little bits together and he sent them back with his charming wiganese lilt. Bass was Jack Casady, middle impedance, tone at 50% wearing some older Sadowsky steel rounds which are aging beautifully.

I vote that the NWOBHM ended in December 1982. Simply because Def Leppard released Pyromania in Jan '83. I'll allow Dickinson in The Number of the Beast in '82, but May '83's Piece of Mind without Burr means it's finished. It was all stadiums and suchlike from then on.

Both the pickups and the preamp need battery power.