Leaderboard

I came across it on Facebook. It might help prevent the odd domestic dispute 😁.

Hmm, I realise I have not been snapping pics.... hmmm, bad hobby builder! fretboard is glued on, body carved, neck cavity, battery cavity, control cavity and headless tuner cut all done. Need to carve te neck/radius fretboard etc. I will not be doing much over next 2 weeks, so pics will come asap. I did for some reason snap these pics, gives a little indication of what things look like, albeit totally incomplete.

Yesterday an exciting package arrived from Portugal. It means I can steam ahead on the build next week : The 20" templates for my G&W radius jig; a template for the G&W fretcutting mitre jig (the last couple of shortscale boards I've done I marked the positions by hand, but I am increasingly asked about short and medium scale basses so it was worth getting the template); finally, a piece of maple strip put into the package to stop the template getting bent...and which will make @Fishman very happy! The other thing that @Matt P and I have been discussing is the neck to body transition. Of the various options, Matt's preference is a mix of this, below, his present 5-er (no pressure, then, MrAndyjr1515!!!!) : ...and this, a stock Bing photo that I can't remember who the builder/maker is so apologies and thanks if it's you!: So basically, a continuation of the neck thickness until it meets the body at the lower horn cutout, and probably a continuation of the neck profile curve along that length, as with the bottom photo, rather than flattening off from the neck spline to the upper body as in the top photo. Should be a good week I will also be ordering the SimS 5-string Superquad during next week, so everything is starting to get pretty serious

Over Christmas I decided I had had enough with my Fender Jazz USA 75 Reissue and the fact that although playable I wasn't happy with the neck. The neck would not lie as flat as I would like ( I like 0 relief) and I had completely played through the frets. The bass was my main touring and recording bass for a decade and had travelled all over the world with me and had all the battle scars that went along with that! So I decided the neck was coming off and was going to be replaced with a new neck and also the thick clear poly finish was going to be stripped for a refinish ( which turned out would be necessary anyway!) Deciding that I wouldn't try to recreate the bass but instead create something new and different, I imported a Fender Mexican Roasted Vintera 60s from Germany in the early days of brexit and bought some Hipshot HB3 tuners and I dropped the bass off at my tech! The 3 bolt micro tilt neck system had to replaced and converted to a 4 bolt which meant the holes had to be plugged with quartersawn ash which were grain matched, as the 4 bolt plate didn't cover the holes. This is where the refinish became necessary as to sand the plugs down mean sanding the finish to get them flat with the body. So after a bit of discussion and Google image search I opted for a thin Inca Silver Nitro over White and a nee parchment 70s pickuard. We also decides to get some new saddles for the Badass bass bridge 2 to try and get the strings more centered over the pole pieces. Ater weeks of waiting and various photo updates I went to pick up the bass and spent a couple of hours with my tech to set it up and sort out the bridge saddles. I know that to some this may be sacrilege and that I should've kept the instrument as it was because the dents all bring back memories but I have instruments to play and I have far better memories of touring the world than smashing a bass around! I absolutely love what it has become. The roasted neck is amazing, the back of the neck is satin whilst the fingerboard and headstock face is poly and is definitely a better profile and overall neck than the US neck. The action is amazing and the bass seems to be even more resonant and clear in tone. The refinish is beautiful and with the black knobs and chrome hardware and parchment pickuards has an almost old sports car vibe. The finish will also naturally wear with age as it's nitro so I'm looking forward to that process happening over time! My tech also now believes that the old neck is actually probably fine but just the frets are completely shot in it... Despite that still happy I chose to do what I did!! And here's a photo of the finished bass

Not really. On Basschat we send them on their way with a piece of cake and a party bag

That's it in a nutshell. Compare "super cables" to outright rubbish and there will be a difference. Once you get into the realms of decent quality (which needn't equate to super expensive), it's all snake oil.

I played one the same as this right through the 80s. Still got it but doesn't get much use these days.

There is Good Stuff in there too, y'know...

The original truss rod is one of these - a substantial aluminium three-sided box with the rod in the middle: So this, actually glued in the equally substantial slot in the neck... : ...will indeed stop the neck from twisting. Trouble is, this design can be highly troublesome. The original, as well as breaking its way through the back of the neck, was doing this too - can you see how the nut is pushing its way into the u-shape, expanding it and almost certainly resulting in the fretboard splitting away from the neck: So what I have done so far, it add a strip of silk fabric epoxied in to strengthen the very thin bottom of the slot where the crack has been mended (thanks for the tip, @6feet7 !) : ...and then to keep the neck straighter (it had assumed a permanent bow) I've used rosewood strips as the trussrod packers (the strips are VERY strong in this direction) to help keep the neck straight: But that's not going to stop it twisting. So what I can do with the rock maple offcut packaging strip that G&W sent in @Matt P 's parcel, is cut a capping strip that will fit over the two rosewood strips and make a hardwood U surrounding the trussrod to give it the same twist resistance as the original U of aluminium from the old trussrod. But the difference is that the U is not integral to the trussrod operation, as it was in the original, and so each only has one job - the wooden hardwood U to stop the twist and the trussrod to stop the bow...

Cheers. Yes, still have the other two too. 5 Spector basses in total at the moment: 3 Fortes and 2 Euro basses (Mike Starr LE and 1977 LE). I think I will stop buying any more and instead start saving money for a NS-2 with a finish like this one:

Hmmm... Mariah, Whitney and Ronnie James Dio are/were exceptional and well taught singers. Give me someone who can do vocal fireworks naturally and in tune any day ghastly over-auto-tuned warbling.

Mariah Carey. Twenty seven different notes in every single word. I have a theory that they sing like this to avoid holding any note long enough for you to hear that they're never actually hitting the right notes.

Aria Pro ZZ

Over the last few years I have had reasonable success building a handful of small valve amps. I do miss the Ampeg PF-50T that I sold on to purchase an EBS, so the time is right to start possibly my most ambitious scratch build yet. I previously enquired in this thread as to what version of B15 to go for, and I have settled on something close to a single-channel version of the Heritage model (i.e. switchable between 25W cathode bias and 30W grid bias), working from the Ceriatone 'Aunt Peg' layout. Most of my previous builds have leant heavily on recycling old parts, but this time I am going for quality new parts. I have neither skills nor tools to tackle woodwork, so I am going for a Hammond 'birdcage' style housing. When assembled it is about 12in wide x 10in deep x 7in tall. The transformers (on order from Primary Windings) and valves will all stand up within the mesh cage (proportions not the same as shown here): Wish me luck!

Just as a heads up to everyone. I bumped into an ad for a Warwick Thumb NT 5 on Marketplace and looking at the pictures I realised it’s the one I bought a month or so back. I messaged the buyer who recognises it too, he told me they took his ad word for word. Given the same person is also selling several vintage Fenders I thought I’d flag it, they could all be fake.

I’ve added ‘Facebook’ to the title to avoid anyone associating it with our nice little marketplatz

Agreed to a point. Vibrato is certainly a skill, but less of a skill on some instruments, voice included, than holding a sustained note in tune, something I learned the hard way when I switched from orchestral violin to bluegrass fiddle, the former requiring lots of vibrato, the latter demanding sustained and often double stopped notes with none. Without using vibrato it’s a whole lot harder to sound in tune with other instruments/voices, requiring more technical control plus a better ear for your pitch and that of the others

TLDR: I agree with @MOSCOWBASS and @johnpaulbass that the GR cabs stand up on a sound test very well to a high-end lightweight cab such as BF and I think all three of us would say that the GR wins on overall sound quality, with an understandably bigger margin over the Super Compact than its more full range sibling the BB2. If GR can address construction concerns with their AT series cabs, they will most certainly have a winning product on their hands. Sadly the cab had to go back due to one edge and associated corners being damaged by the courier en route. Tbf I've seen a lot better packaging of cabs from fellow BC'ers than occurred here : the retailer didn't have a particularly well fitting box, no bubblewrap and very minimal use of polystyrene both of which would have shielded the cab a lot better. But I get the sense that courier transport of cabs isn't risk free from comments elsewhere, although this experience didn't help with my concerns regarding the robustness of construction of these cabs. Barefaced BB2 vs GR AT212-4 mini-shootout GRBass AT212, 4Ω - 700w, 12.9kg, 4Ω, 35Hz - 222kHz, 102dB. Signal chain: Spector Euro LX5 and DG M900 set flat / clean. "Lockdown A/B" done with assistance from a family member who is a classically trained musician and undoubtedly has younger and better hearing than my aging ears! Sound comparison – the GR AT is excellent! EQ set flat on both amp and bass and played both (i) finger and pick and (ii) at both neck and bridge pups. Immediately obvious that the AT 212 is louder at a given amp volume setting. This was entirely expected when pitting a quality 2x12 4 ohm cab against a 1x12 8 ohm cab. The amp master volume was adjusted to eliminate the volume difference when comparing the sound/tone of the two cabs. Overall, there was not a huge amount of difference in tone between the two. BB2 mellower and would probably sit better “in the mix”; AT212 was richer and more resonant = more “acoustic” / akin to having reverb added to vocals. Its greater clarity and articulation mean that it would likely “cut through the mix” more easily. Whilst they both handle the open low B well, the AT212 delivered the low B with more punch whereas the BB2 was slightly muddier. From a sound / tonal perspective the AT212 got both our votes. Aside: - when I had the amp set up to optimise the tone from the BB2 to my liking (slight boost to 'presence' i.e. upper mids and treble, v slight cut to mids and lower mids and v slight boost to bass at 80Hz to give a bit more low end "weight"), my co-listener preferred the BB2 to the GR Bass as the GR started to sound sound more "metallic" to her ears with those settings. However all that is saying to me is that optimising the sound for one cab with your amp EQ won't necessarily be optimal for another cab! Construction / ease of "toppling" I commented earlier about a concern over the GR cabs being easy to topple, based on a couple of YT clips, so I specifically checked for this. The BB2 and AT212 cabs are the same weight, with the weight distributed towards the front panel. This means they are pretty stable in three directions, but both relatively easily topple front-panel-forward if knocked from the back (or possibly tugged at by the lead connected to amp perched on top of the cab, although this is probably very unlikely); the BB2 with its lower centre of gravity is the more stable of the two. But given these are backline cabs this hopefully is not a major concern. I have reservations about the apparent robustness of the construction of the GR cabs and the CEO is looking to address some of these e.g. with with strengthened corners and anti-scratch plastic / rubber bars. The BF has the feel of a sturdier construction e.g. the additional reinforced side panel on both the Barefaced BB2 and Fearless F112 structurally strengthen and provide further rigidity which the GR cabs could perhaps do well to emulate. He did say that in strength tests (e.g. being thrown 3 metres) the AT cab housing actually came out favourably against wooden housing. IMO weight advantage is of no major benefit for pure home use and where damage is likely to be minimal; its real benefit is for the (aging) gigging bassist whose backs are not as strong as in their youth! By its nature of use, gigging gear is going to get more knocks and therefore needs to be robustly constructed and designed and which is partly why Boss pedals are so well loved.

At the end of the day if its what you want then its the right thing for you. I've heard a similar discussion on Squier P versus Fender P. Most won't hear the difference but some do. If it interprets as a benefit to the individual then its acceptable. I'm not here to judge .......... i was just curious. Dave

How about a Yamaha BB3000? Hope ChunkyMonkey doesn’t mind me using his pic.

The Dead lived to play live really, so Europe 72 is a good start IMO, or Live/Dead if you want a trippier one.

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I've been in those 'discussions' many times on another forum, people won't even take heed of Electrical Engineers, so I don't have a chance of convincing anyone, LOL! I will comment that IF you heard a difference, either it's confirmation bias OR the wire you were using before was total crap, either too small of a diameter or not actually Copper.

I make sure all my bass and PA cables are Neutrik /Speakon connectors with Van Damme / Cordial or similar. Chosen not for their sonic capabilities (the differences in good quality cable are lost on my ears) but more for being well made and solid reliability. I'm also one of theose guys who always wraps cables correctly so I have some going back 25 years 😮

Not a theory but a tried and trusted technique. Plenty of singers - and instrumentalists for that matter - can’t hold a single note at pitch for more than a few milliseconds. It’s why vibrato was invented

Don’t tease like that if you’re not going to share the link 🙄😂

I will - just got to take a few photos first otherwise, as normal with my posts, nobody will have any idea what I'm going on about

So why might @Fishman be pleased that I've bought stuff from G&W for @Matt P 's project over in the 'Build Diaries'? It's because while I've been trying to make some decent progress on Matt's build, I've been long-term pondering on an issue. When passing across the Washburn with the cracked neck to me, @Fishman mentioned that 'the headstock also twists quite easily'. That's OK, I thought - the scarf joint is cracked so of course its twisting easily! Now let me add a couple of other observations to the puzzle of this bass: - I wonder why the truss rod had to be tightened so much to burst its way through the back of the neck? - I wonder why Washburn glued the trussrod into the neck slot? That's a first for me. - I wonder what effect having so little wood underneath the trussrod at the nut end has on the integrity of the neck? And the answer is - all together now : Because the neck simply isn't strong enough. There's not enough wood of sufficient strength to hold everything where it should be. And why do I think that? Well - the fretboard isn't on yet. But, even with the scarf joint fully mended, and rosewood stiffeners/packers in the old wide trussrod slot even my arthritic hands can twist the neck with surprising ease and with modest force on the headstock. And if my kn******d hands can do that, then a slightly unflat fretboard certainly will, and the naturally imbalanced string tensions when it's tuned up to pitch certainly will. And that's probably why Washburn glued the trussrod in... And so what had the piece of maple G&W used as a packer got to do with anything? Because I have another cunning plan

I'm holding that photo up to my sunburst 424 and asking it, wouldn't you much rather look like that?!

Good point - Mods, maybe we need a new emoji:

I got a job lot of books the other day and this was nice to see.

I should have it by Thursday!

Ere i iz 😂

Greta Van Fleet. Led Zep. Pretty much every modern pop song since Mariah & Witney.

What sort of reasoned, common sense is this? It just won't do. 😉 😄

In general I totally agree about OTT histrionic singing - can't stand it. ,..... BUT sometimes someone can make it work:

I would like to hear a test where everything was the same....including the wood. Would they all sound the identical, or would there still be variation from one instrument to the next?