Leaderboard

I thought the whole point of brexit was to leave eurovision. The people voted leave. Out means out. It's the will of the people. No deal is better than a euro pop deal etc etc. Let's be honest, Britain could dig up Lennon and Harrison, bring them back to life and they could write the best ever Beatles song and Britain would still come last.

All the Moog iOS apps are free today in celebration of Bob Moog’s birthday. The Model D is a brilliant app recreation of the Minimoog. You can also pick up the usually pretty expensive Model 15 modular app. https://apps.apple.com/us/developer/moog-music-inc/id396776421

My Reverend Dub King. Sounds like it looks. A great deep tone for dubsters, acoustic or light rock! The previous owner put the pup covers on it.

personally I wouldn't bother going custom for something based on a classic "off-the-peg" design like a J-bass. There are already a multitude of manufactures all doing their own take on this instrument, so unless you have very precise and specialised needs, there really ought to be something already available that will be perfect for you. I'd suggest a trip to one of the big mainstream retailers to try every J-type bass in the store, followed by outings to both Bass Direct and The Gallery to do the same. If you really can't find a ready made bass that suits you, then at least you will have a much better idea of what you want from a custom instrument.

Hanging up to dry. I've now applied the sealer coats and the first white base coat.

'No Quarter' for me - favourite Zep tune by a country mile.

This is one of those ideal small jobs for 'in between the bigger stuff' jobs. Well, mainly I say 'mainly' because I ended up spending most of this morning getting the finish off the fretboard!! Yes, you live and learn! Most builders will tell you that stripping finish off a modern bass body can be a nightmare - but necks and fretboards are straightforward. That's because, on a body, many modern makers put a viciously hard undercoat under their poly finishes and you would go mad if you tried to sand it off. Generally industrial-grade heat guns are the only way! On the other hand, necks are always lightly finished and hand sanding is a breeze. And even more so for fretboards where generally they are not finished in the first place. Or so I thought before today... Because Yamaha clearly don't play to the same rules. This fretboard had the viciously hard undercoat - and you can't risk dig-ins and burns on a fretboard from the fairly brutal heatgun and decorators scraper approach, so it has to be basically sanded. One hour in: One and a half hours in, realised it was going to need some help with the help of a razor used like a scraper: Two hours in...there's some wood showing! (but only at the edges so far) : Two and three quarter hours later - we're down to wood : And a quick damp cloth check to make sure that there's no residual in there: So that's the easy bit done, then

Picked up this Thunder 1A a couple of months ago from @geoff90guitar . Could see it was fundamentally a solid instrument that just needed a bit of fettling. Had a neck shim in which wasn’t actually needed so that came out, & there was a stuck solid pick up screw that my local guitar shop (Kempsters) sorted for me. Other than that, just a load of elbow grease on all parts. It’s 39 years old with some just right minimal mojo - very pleased with the end result! 🙂

A , P bass with flats is heaven, I played one for years then switched to jazzes, but I like both, if you haven’t tried one @bubinga5, I’d recommend trying one with flats and one with rounds, they do sound different, you might not like either but it’s nice to try different basses 🙂

Is there such a thing as an obscure Led Zep track??

Nice, I had one from this era with the comp stripe. Lovely basses.

This Young Chap used to be on here occasionally

My first time looking through and listening to submissions. I'm impressed by what you guys get up to! I've dabbled with more traditional composition - nothing serious. I need to give some thought to having a go over the coming months.

Everything I love about them. Like an early Toyota Landcruiser. Does what it was built to do, no pretensions or BS and won’t let you down.

A lot of them are very small outfits and put most of their resources into making instruments. I think it’s worth a call before writing them off completely.

IMO DS were vilified in the 90s mainly because they were so huge (and to be fair, they got a little bloated). But really they were a hell of a band.

Yeah, we’d talked about darkening it, but it looks great as it is.

Mark Knophler did the soundtrack to "Princess Bride" One of my most favourite movies EVER and a beautiful soundtrack to boot.

Not a huge amount done today but I managed to get an hour and a bit in, trimmed the fret board down to profile and got the frets in, thinner fret profiles than usual to help with the spaces between frets on this 30" scale, no headaches should be able to get the other wing glued on soon!

😁 Just a little sideline of mine..... As I have all the equipment and the know-how, I help speaker builders out by custom winding hard-to-find inductors at very reasonable rates. It's not going to make me rich, but it's very satisfying.

I'd have to lose a few frets to make space and probably sell a kidney to fund the pickup bill!

I was listening to the album Showcase by Triston Palmer during the week, he’s known better for Joker Smoker, it’s from 1982, it’s worth a listen, there’s some really great Flabba Basslines on there that I’d forgotten about, here’s a few The album has 6 tracks with vocals and 6 without

I've been having a blast from the past and listening to some Scientist tonight.. Tracks like this were very influential to some of the post punk bands too, especially the likes of Killing Joke etc, so influences go round in all directions.. I believe this track has Ansell Collins on keyboards.

And here's Peter's Zoot Funkmeister 32" 4 string body now routed and ready for it's sealer coats before applying the final colour.

I think I’ve nodded at every single post in this thread! Soooooooo good! The Rain Song really gets me in the music feels!

https://youtu.be/GZ3DWnkILbY I missed the 6 music stuff but I've enjoyed this YT vid and the 2 that accompany it, great to hear the multitrack broke down into instruments. Yet again, sorry for the derail, hopefully the clip attaches OK. Martin

Old veteran dub .and another from trinity and Gregory, nice Bassline to play

I agree, but where does Punk end and Post Punk and New Wave start, and where's the boundary between Post Punk and New Wave, then where does New Wave become Synth Pop, and Post Punk become Goth, and all of it become Indie? A debate that can go on and on, but labels are as relevant as the one in the back of my pants. Good music is good music. That said, I offered Gang of Four's Dave Allen up and I would say they are Post Punk, not New Wave. 😆

Jimi Hendrix had to light his guitar on fire because he was following Pete Townshend on stage at Monterey (he warned Pete) He didn't have to do that at Woodstock. They both can play the guitar pretty good. There are a lot of people out there with basses and guitars who can play really fast and pop and slap and Joe Random goes, "Whoo" but it gets old quick. One note. That's all it takes to give me the shivvers...

Fascinating! Just what I had thought. The vocals are mixed too low in Watch That Man too. I love little mistakes and such like, it's extra colour and I feel it gives me hope!

And, in my view, Alan at ACG is pretty much at the top of the 'luthier's luthier' list...

I It's my only bass now and pretty much does everything I need, I love it. I've just fitted flatwounds on it to see how it sounds. Not plugged in yet but I have a feeling I'm going to like it alot. I record a lot and have always found flats sound great in a mix and I think the full range of the MFD is going to really compliment flats.

I wanted something to complement my Fallout which I love but is like an angry wasp and saw this one come up so took a punt on it un-played. My plan was to put flats on it as I wanted something deep sounding. It came with flats and to be honest I struggled as it was so deep that it lacked presence in the mix. The original rounds were in the case so I put them on and was blown away with the resulting tones. The sound is as the name suggests "dubby" and very musical. The controls are vol/tone/balance. I tend to set the vol and tone where I want them and then change the sound with the balance. Neck pup is very dark, bridge is brighter and there is no noticeable change in volume when changing the bias between the two. You can hear Andy Irvine exploring one in the same way here: The playing position very comfortable either standing or seated. Yes it is wide but it isn't much thicker than most solid bodies. Fit and finish is great. The only thing that I may change is the plastic balance knob, which spins a bit to easily for me but that is minor and easy to resolve and to be honest I have got used to it. Overall I'm delighted with it! I would love to get my hands on a long scale Reverend to try sometime.

As said many times, never on a maple board. Got to disagree with OP though, as rosewood really benefits from oiling. I make my own up from extra virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar and fresh lemon juice, and apply to a cleaned down board. It must sit flat for at least 24 hours to soak in, but the transformation is absolutely brilliant. See the pics in my thread here..

Hi Serge, Stevie is shy about this but I'm not as I have no financial interest. I also know how difficult it is to source inductors of the right values and power handling. He sells inductors on Evil Bay including winding custom values. I hope I'm not breaking any BassChat rules by putting this up but here is the link 133768834024 | eBay that's for the 10" driver but all the other inductors are available.

When I started out all my fave bassists played Precisions, so it would seem obvious that I would get one, right? Wrong, for some reason I had many basses, some with Precision pickups, but never an actual Precision itself and I was always chasing a sound that I just couldn’t get (a dur moment spread across many years I’d say). Then one day I bought a Precision, got it home, plugged it in, and was sadly severely underwhelmed. But then I took it to band practice and it suddenly all made sense. Since then although I’ve had other basses I’m a Precision player, nothing else works for me like a Fender Precision.

I think the OP mentions “loosely based” on a J, I would therefore certainly advise to speak to a luthier. I am lucky as I build my own custom instruments (plus the odd commission for others), to my specs and being able to choose whatever you want is a wonderful, although sometimes daunting feeling. Contact @Andyjr1515, he has done things I do not see other luthiers take on. Simple fact is that the more you rely on building as your main income, the less willing you will be to go outside the box unless you can charge a fortune to do so.

I started off on a Squier P/J which I owned for maybe a day or two before it became apparent even to a total beginner that there was a lot wrong with it. We took it back and the guys at the shop agreed, so by way of an apology gave me a great deal on a Yamaha BB which they said I'd have no problems with - and they were right. Rightly or wrongly, that experience negatively coloured my opinion of Squier and, by association, Fender and anything fenderesque for the next 10 years. But then Fender seemingly upped its game massively and released the revamped MIM Standards so, having read a lot of good reviews, I went and tried one. It was a 4 string when I'd played 5s exclusively for years, it was white/white/maple when my main basses at the time were all black and pointy (a BTB, a Warlock and a Vampyre), and it was light and ergonomic at a point where I was suffering back/neck issues that worsened with every rehearsal and gig. It was smooth and tactile, singularly the most comfortable instrument I'd played in ages, completely honest in all its limitations and just sounded great with both controls on full, so I bought it there and then. I pretty much instantly connected with it and the more I played it, the more it felt like the way forward.. so I proceeded to ditch all the black, pointy, heavy, uncomfortable instruments that I'd amassed, re-imagined all my original bass parts for 4 string and started to really enjoy playing again without always being in pain. So yes, a good P can be a revelation and even dig you out of a hole - probably literally if required!

"Does the Fish have chips?"

When i was touring and playing anything from 2-7k venues (Not always filled 😂) I was using a powered Bergantino IP112 (1k watts) with an AE112 extension, with a 3 leaf enabler pre. It was too bloody loud,and I had it as quiet as I could and still got complaints. I went direct with a small wedge monitor controlled from the desk. Didn't sound anywhere near as good as the Bergy but no complaints and I could hear myself fine 😁

I tried watching Jethro Tull meets Pricilla Queen of the Desert blended with Frozen on acid to identify said bass but it was too traumatic.

Thanks for your insight. Any idea about that Ukrainian guy's bass though?

Yep , Simple Minds were very much New Wave and Derek Forbes' bass is pivotal on all the albums up to and including New Gold Dream, IMO the last great album they made. As for Stuart Morrow I've long been bigging him up on BC. Check out the bassline to 'No Rest'.

I suppose Japan count as New Wave therefore we have to include the governor…

Metal Box - Jah Wobble That is all.

I use it, and then add in higher mids for clarity. In my band we’ve a humbucking guitar and keys so I keep out of their domain this way.