Leaderboard

Tomorrow is a family day and so I've concentrated on the doing rather than the explaining. I'll fill in the middle bit on Sunday, but it starts with the levelling beam: And finishes with the levelled, re-crowned, polished and fretboard finished The set up will take a little longer, but I can't see why the remaining assembly jobs won't be finished by the end of Sunday

I rarely post nowadays. I was inspired to say how much I'm surprised at the bass tone on old Free songs. I'm well old enough to know Free intimately but I have been re-engaging to some of their stuff courtesy of streaming (Tidal through Sonos speakers). I didn't have a bassists head the first time I heard Free. His tone is awesome. Nice playing too, nothing frivolous but driving the songs along well up in the mix. Interesting guy too was Andy. Great songwriter.

That's enough for one day...SimS holes are drilled

Chive Talking - The Bee Gees (I’m not at all sorry 🤣)

Not me in the photo, despite my username

Just clarifying what I meant by 'a wipe of solder across the copper foil joints' - it's just to make sure that there is electrical continuity in all parts of the shielding. The "conductive glue" claim for many of these sticky-backed foils sometimes isn't very I simply pop a small bridge of solder anywhere along each joint. I wipe it across the joint so there isn't a thick blob of solder that might interfere with, say, the fit of the pickup in the chamber: I then check for earth continuity across various points in the shielding, including between the back chamber and the pickup chamber. The SimS cover is conductive and earthed too, so there should be a pretty good faraday cage protection against HT interference. Next job is levelling and recrowning the frets and tidying up the fretboard so that anything that has iron filings around is all sorted and vacuumed before any of the electronics or magnets are fitted

Unless you’ve been following the build thread you won’t know who Conway Instruments are. So check out this for the history: All you get here is porn (and specs): 5 string fretless, 30” scale with through body stringing Black limba core, English ash top and limba back Limba, maple and cooba set neck, pau ferro board Nordstrand MM5.4 pickup with coil tap and series/parallel switch There's more to it than that but it’s the basics. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. She’s stunning to look at, lovely to play and sounds huuuuge.

I had no idea this was a cover.

Hate: People who talk during the set.

You have to be over 7 feet tall to see pretty much any big band now, due to the raised hands holding mobile phones pointed at them, usually whilst the owners of said raised hands try to talk to each other. Because we all know the sound quality & picture on an iPhone tomorrow morning at work will be superior to actually watching & listening to the band at the actual gig.

For me it was Step On by the Happy Mondays. I was gobsmacked to hear it was a cover!:

quite a few Bob Dylan songs, All along the Watchtower, If You Gotta Go Now, Mighty Quin, Mr Tambourine Man, probably be some more, Oh yes, the covers are always better than Bob's originals 😂

Practice is that part of the day when you rehearse your mistakes, so when you make them in public, they're really appalling.

Just weighed it, by the way. 7 1/4 lbs with just the pots and strings to add.

I don't like to have anyone else to worry about when I'm going to gigs - I'd much rather go on my own. If I go with friends I'll reiterate my position, make a point of telling them to do their own thing and agree to meet back at the car/hotel/train, because there's nothing worse than group decisions about where to stand and which least-favourite song should get sacrificed to go to the bar, or whether somebody's tired and wants to leave early, or where to go for food afterwards, or whether I'll hold their pint/bag/phone/coat/burrito/whatever while they go for a pee. If I'm not just left alone and allowed to be completely 'in the moment' and absorbed in what I'm watching, then I'm unlikely to be enjoying myself and there's really no point me paying to be there. That aside, it's just people being irritatingly thoughtless and unaware of their surroundings or needlessly aggressive that can spoil it for me. Some of those types have provided amusement or at least decent stories, mind... I recall going to see Motorhead and being stood towards the back when a fairly short lass started back-pedalling towards me, clearly only concerned with getting a better view over the crowd. She literally back-heeled my toes and then stepped up onto my steels, believing them to be some kind of fortuitously placed riser. The height difference was such that - even stood on my shoes - she wasn't actually obscuring my view, so I just stood there amused, looking like a metal penguin for a bit and waited until she noticed. When she did, she must have jumped far enough to get at least a fleeting glance.. of her house. I was on the very edge of a pit at one gig.. can't remember who was playing.. when a bloke flew out towards me and I had all on just getting my arm up to protect my face from his. He obliterated his nose into my upper arm, apologised and headed straight back in, pouring blood everywhere. The next day I was left with a dead arm and a massive bruise, but figured he'd probably woken up looking worse, so I got on with my day.. which included attending a funeral. As I was sat in the service needing to look suitably sombre and contemplative, the nerve in my shoulder decided to un-pinch and I got level-500 pins and needles down my arm and half my face. Cheers for that experience, lad.. hope your nose set at a right-angle! Another edge of the pit experience was at a Megadeth gig where a bloke tottered back from the bar between the bulk of the pit and me, carrying one of those 2-pint plastics in each hand. The crowd surged and knocked both of them upwards, but he kept tight hold of them so they just went straight over his shoulders. Straight over me. 4 pints of Strongbow. I decided that I didn't like Judas Priest enough to stay and watch them headline the gig whilst I was p-wet-through and smelling like a urinal. Ruined my leather jacket, and Megadeth had just played absolutely terribly, so that was an expensive night with few redeeming features. I still spare a thought for the guy who lost 4 pints purchased at arena prices - my jacket only cost a couple of hundred quid!

I know what you mean Scott, it’s just something to play while I’m laying in bed 😁

So excited to put it together I didn’t correctly align the old head’s branding.

So close…

Want to know what I love about gigs? Not having to stand RIGHT NEXT to the sound desk to get the best possible sound experience every single gig we went to together because ex can't enjoy himself if sound isn't perfectly perfect. What I also love about gigs is not having to look at his frowny face for 90 minutes when he thinks the sound engineer isn't doing his job properly. Which we'd know about obviously, what with being RIGHT NEXT to the guy. And breathe ....

Amazing player, amazing songwriter....and what a monster tone. Even though they had 'that' song, it's a bit of a shame, as the rest of their catalogue always gets a bit forgotten IMHO. All of their albums are brilliant, even 'Heartbreaker', the one without AF. Such a shame someone of his talent never really got the breaks afterwards....I know he wrote the Robert Palmer track, but the stuff with Sharks, The AF Band.....never really connected. At least he's still a big name in the bass community, as he absolutely deserves to be forever.

Why do you think the dog looks so nervous..?

I was in a Free/Bad Company tribute band a few years back and my admiration for Andy Fraser shot through the roof when I had to work out his parts. His basslines are brilliant - often simple but always funky and with such great feel and tone.

My little Marshall MB.

Yet Another New Bass Day I last posted in this section a month ago to announce the arrival of an Ibanez SR1200 to my collection. That left my care yesterday having been played once during my brief custody, and replaced by a Fender Jazz US Special. I just have to face up to the fact that I am not really made for exotic active basses, and should stick to standard Jazz & Precision basses from now on. Obviously,y it is inevitable that I will deviate from this sensible course, but such is life. I acquired the Jazz after seeing it advertised on Facebook by a chap who wanted to swap it for a Premium Ibanez. As I had one doing nothing, I decided to get in touch, yesterday he came over to our house and we sat in the garden with an amp & cab, talked bass stuff and tried each other's basses. The result was satisfactory for us both - he prefers Ibanez and I prefer Fender, so a straight swap was agreed. Looking at the prices of each, it was a fair deal for us both, and a pleasant hour or so chatting and playing in the evening sun. I now have four Jazz basses (though I am selling the active one) and only one Precision…. Obligatory picture of the new recruit:

June update: Most of my pedals on one pic...

I must admit (and this isn't aimed at anybody in particular) I do find some attitudes to weight a bit puzzling. My previous cab setup must have weighed in at somewhere around 50 Kg, I'd guess. When I swapped it for my current BF 1x15 Compact, it was truly a game-changer. A single cab solution, at ~11.5 Kg. Yet the thought of "lugging" an amp of the same weight is a no-no, despite an amp being a far easier carry than any cab. IMO. Each to his own, eh ?

Hey Laurence, I do - I have a glorious 5 string fretless built for me by a friend. I don't wish derail this thread with it but if you're interested all the deets are here: Mert (PS, I bought the OriginAL preamp pedal from you last year, still loving it!)

Bought a black one too last week from guitarguitar, awesome bass! There should be a black pickguard in the gig bag if you fancy changing it 👍🏻

Get up and play yer lazy sod !!!

They used to put out a special edition Closet Classic Pro every year. My first Maruszczyk Jake came about because I had mad GAS for the 2011 (see below), but I couldn't afford one, so I specc'd it from Adrian instead. The 2012 was similar but in Oly white. When they announced the 2013, I thought it was horrid.

What!!!!!!!!! My four are beautiful, especially my Shuker!!!! Photos already on this thread..............

Absolutely. It really boils my waste fluid when people insist on talking through a set, just sod off to a pub somewhere, I'm not interested in the weekend Steve and Jess came down and you all had a lovely time!!! People who turn up late and barge to the front. People who spend the whole gig videoing it on their phone. ...and why does the tallest person in Britain always decide to stand in front of my height restricted wife which means I get it in the ear all night about not being able to see anything.

Soundproofing for bass is very expensive and a bit hit and miss if you're not an experienced builder. I've built studios for years commercially, and it cost me about £8K to soundproof my garage, but it only really works as I have utility room with 2 good doors and an exterior double skin brick wall between the studio and the house. A lot cheaper to get some really good headphones. LF is known to effect people physically (look up The Brown Sound) so it's not unfeasible that they're causing the wife's headaches.

The generalised answer to this is most people are bastards and, in a cramped gig situation, these bastards push past you, bump into you and glare at you because it's your fault they spilled one of the six pints they were trying to convey tho the front of the room where their bastard mates are busy spoiling everyone's night. I was going to list a few methods I have used for dealing with these type of bastards but I fear the information might be 'too much information'.

A tad shocked at myself but a fairly casual investigation turned into a purchase last weekend. Bar the commmon, slight misalignment of some of the pots I can’t fault the thing. Took me ten minutes to set it up. Probably the best action on a bass I’ve ever had. Sounds fabulous (to me) and is quite a looker in the flesh.