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With the Superquad on its way, it's time to start the back carve. While there is a broad plan, this will 'morph' as the carve happens. First, I carved the back of the lower cutout, extending the sweep of the heel cutaway. Then I started scooping bulk out to take some more weight out and also provide a bit of 'too many biscuits' relief . It won't be a @TheGreek 'contact lens' symmetry at the back - I am preserving the depth of the control chamber until I can be sure the SimS multi-wire loom will fit without the need for a screwed back plate - but that same vibe. So out comes my beloved Veritas Pullshave : The pullshave is designed to scoop the shape of wooden chair seats...so after a hard gig, @Matt P will be able to flip the bass upside down on top a tripod and sit on it! Because I have actual chambers and potential chambers and fixing screws to accommodate, I'm doing this a bit at a time, with plenty of pauses, measurements and ponderings. This is where it's at so far: That would probably already sort the effect of too many custard creams - but I'll be aiming for a full jaffa cake depth When that's done, I'll then go back to the heel and reshape that. And by the time that's done, the SuperQuad will be here and I can start thinking about the top carve

Seems they spend much time moaning about their awful daughter in laws who have 'stolen' their 'prince' away from them, and how very dare those women who have married their sons then not follow their well meaning but incredibly out of date pushy advice about how it's okay to leave the baby in a pram at the bottom of the garden to cry it out for three hours. Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything ... 😜

This feels like the best £350 I’ve spent in a long while. BB450 in coffee burst from a guy in Tyne and Wear. Immaculate condition (has an Omega bridge not the original sadly) and with a new set of La Bella black tape wounds sounds incredible to my ears. Even got a non OEM hard case. Old BBs are just brilliant value (not that anyone here needs convincing)

Not at all! Bigger gauge strings don't equal bigger tone has lots seem to think.

I am retro! Small company obviously unwilling to expand its workforce instead cuts off orders to maintain sanity. 4 years worth of orders on the books ought to give plenty of opportunity to take on an apprentice or two.

I have a simple solution to this problem... I'm single and live on my own... 30kg of new amp and cab arrived yesterday...

UNLESS you leave it there long enough and then it becomes vintage dust and thus acquires ✨ magical tone-improving qualities ✨✨

Just astonishing.

Assuming, that is, that I can physically handle it... An REM tribute is mooted, should be a bit of fun!

There are now 21 George Porter Jr. transcriptions online of which 9 with The Meters. The Meters - A Message From The Meters | Bass Transcription | George Porter Jr.

She can listen to 5 songs either in one sitting or spread out over the week. It ensures I get 2 days peace from her playing music. 🥸

I don’t disagree with this on the audio spikes, but it’s worthwhile remembering that compression is not there to just tame spikes etc. It can be used to appropriately change the punch/presence/sustain/timbre of the notes as well as make it more present in a mix

https://dust-tone.com

Extremely narrow. I will only listen to blind, dwarf Mongolian throat singers. It's a niche market.

How remiss of me....

Make-up brush ? Glam rock equipment… or is there something you’re not telling us …

My mini-pedal board has been pretty much unchanged for the past 10 months and I've enjoyed getting to grips with the fewer that were on it (four of which still feature below). With the recent addition of a couple of Boss pedals i.e. the OC-5 and RC-5 (still not caught up with @PatrickJ' Boss collection above after his new arrivals!), I've reverted to my larger Metro 24 powered by a HB Iso12 Pro underneath. To answer PJ's tongue-in-cheek Q in the above post, having reached the limit of my compression ability, I thought I'd give this line up a go without a dedicated comp. That's allowed me space to put the excellent Mosaic octave-up back on; the Thumpinator is also back in at the start of the signal chain to hpf out any low end "crud" and the Mastotron is there in place of my Red Ripper, partly because it sounds equally good and partly 'cos it takes less space! Tbf there are several comps and a limiter in the fx patches provided by versatile Zoom B1-4 multi fx sitting proudly at the heart of the board.

I don't get the snarkiness towards them, the hipster jibes. Dart is an exceptional bassist and they're a band who have found success on what appears to be their own terms, without any support from The Biz. It's natural the music is not to everyone's taste and I can understand not being a fan of how they promote themselves but one must surely doff a cap in their direction for showing it's possible for a skilled and creative independent band to make a successful dent in an industry absolutely weighted against them? The guy now has two signature basses with a company who traditionally have not exactly previously warmed to the idea of signature basses. They should not be anywhere as big as they are, by any logic, but here we are. There is a lot more substance to them than being something for hipsters to stroke their beards to before heading to the pop-up gin bar. I think it's gas. Fair play to them.

Not a lot to show for lots of hours today! Routed a small step to help locate the nut at the end of the fret board will also help me line up and square the fretboard if I cut the taper before gluing it on, undecided on how I want to get to that bit. And got the headstock angle face planed and levelled up, this will be getting a wenge veneer added as the cut through section doesn't suit the bass even though the pattern is lovely. I've installed brass inserts in to the neck to act against the grub screws in the nut to help lift it up for adjustment. Got the fretboard cut and squared up, and that gave me the excuse to finally open my new toys from G&W!! Got a fret mitre box and a fret press! Can't wait to use them! Onwards!

Another shout for anaconda. Andrew just built me this PJ. Its really something.

Spirit of the Age - Hawkwind

That’s a great song and this cover by Rafael really grooves

As a slightly more relevant contribution, I'm finding 'the end of Covid' more challnging in terms of band members than any other point. I've got one band where the singer was not prepared under any circumstances to be in a confined space with the other two of us until May 17th (because them's the rules) even though all three of us have had Covid and lived and all three of us have had both jabs. Which would be sort-of-OK had he been prepared to tell us that this was his thinking before last week. Up until then, he would only give vague and woolly comments about can't be too careful and guys, you just need to give me a bit of time. So he's managed to inflict the worst of both worlds on the band. I've got another band where the drummer was not prepared under any circumstances to be in a confined space with the other three of us until May 17th (because them's the rules) even though all four of us have had Covid and lived and all four of us have had both jabs. He made it very clear right from the start that he wasn't prepared to break the rules so fair play to him. We booked a rehearsal room for the afternoon of the 17th - at his suggestion - and yesterday he WhatsApp'd us with I’m really looking forward to getting together next Monday but am also mindful that we will be in a closed airless space so can I ask that we all do a lateral flow test on the Monday morning, please. I've bent over backwards to be positive and constructive with this guy over the last six months, but I have to draw a line somewhere. If I have to start providing proof to the drummer that I have a recent, clean Covid test before he'll rehearse with me, then frankly that's a band that I can live without.

Anyone who has heard any Cardiacs albums certainly wouldn't have forgotten about it...

The neighbours are probably enjoying it 😁, A few more Marley tracks that roll for me and from the great album confrontation

I’ve always favoured 45-100 as, to my mind at least, it brings more evenness in tone across the strings with the D&G being, on first glance, heavier in overall terms than the E&A. This may all be complete BS, but it’s how I thought about it when I first started out and I haven’t changed since then (except for strings that came with a bass or were free).

Please leave room for the DJ thanks lads!

I prefer their earlier stuff before they went commercial.

I made a six screw plate, just dropped on the body for a quick look.. now bear in mind I haven't shaped the corners this is just roughed out and drilled, (as I had the crafty opportunity to use a decent drill press when no one was looking!) the only snag being however, if I used this, the butt end of the NW Gtrs neck has an open recess at the end of the skunk stripe, and I'm not sure it'd be a great idea to put 2 screws in the neck here where it's got less solid wood...not sure.

As the owner of two... I hope so!

I use an old laptop bag for my amp. Does the job well enough. The cabs I just treat like new trainers. It's only the first scuff that hurts. After that it's just character.

Several years ago I had to analyse a mountain of company data, which ultimately had to be signed off by the Bank of England... What was obvious when I looked at a breakdown of UK companies by size is that there are a lot of small ones, quite a few big ones, and very few in between. What that tells me is you have a lot of small family businesses and start-ups, but once a company begins to get to medium sized, the big boys step in and buy them out an eliminate the competition. It's bad news as it removes market diversity. It's basically a complex monopoly and needs some serious legislation to deal with it.

@skelf - funny, I'd completely forgotten about this thread but almost 2.5 years on from when I created these posts about your ACG Retro B .. I now own one / it (did you make many in this colour combination?). Would love to talk to you about it sometime.

Basschat summarised in a single elegant line of text

Fixed

I think these are some gems which have maybe already been forgotten: Groove Armada - Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub) Tears For Fears - The Hurting The Silencers - A Blues for Buddha Marillion - Misplaced Childhood Simple Minds - New Gold Dream

In your opinion yes. It's not mandatory to have to think certain bands/albums are the greatest, the epitome. There are several BCers who don't like The Beatles and that's fine. Their choice, their taste.

It's not even really a style I'd listen to much and I think the whole band sound fantastic. He is an absolute beast of a bass player and his tone is spot on. Rather this than more Bonamassa (sp?) blues boredom.

I'd been saving up Master of Puppets, apparently the undisputed greatest metal album of all time, for decades. In February of this year, I thought the moment for this massive treat to myself had come. I got myself nicely excited by reacquainting myself with Kill 'Em All, and getting to know Ride The Lightning, and then..... meh. I mean, it's okay, I suppose. I listened to it 7 times in a row* and haven't touched it since. So to get back to the thread's topic, albeit a little facetiously: Ride The Lightning, a properly exciting album** * yes, I was counting, there was a lockdown and I was desperate for things to do. No regrets ** ...which I've listened to 25 times*** since mid-February *** yes, I am still counting despite the end of the lockdown. Bite me

Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape - Be-Bop-Deluxe ( You keep setting them up EZ.... )

My rig for medium to large stages. With monitoring this combination never lets you down. There are more cabs in case Metallica is calling but usually I take only one with me 😎

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.