Leaderboard

I bought my '65 P around Easter time this year and it was a decision based on scientific facts (kinda), the bass is oozing mojo and it addressed a long term longing of the heart... The P sound is the sound that's always been calling out to me, and my two fave P players I've long admired are Scott Thunes and Paz Lenchantin (I may have banged on about these two before...apologies if I'm repeating myself. Highly likely! ☺) both of whom play '65 Precisions which they've nearly worn to death. Always wanted one simply because of this fact. No way could I ever afford one though. A pipe dream. I'll keep this bit short... Had a terrible last 12 months. Very sad and unforseen family circumstance occurred. I found myself looking into a brief yet present window of opportunity. I saw the bass I always wanted online. Bought it for more than I ever thought I'd spend on a bass, yet it was also for the least amount I had seen one going for in the modern day. I made the most out of a crappy situation. The bass is everything I hoped it to be and in 20 or 30 years (if I'm lucky) when I pop it, my kids can sell it and go halves. It should be worth much more by then and hopefully that will cover everything I've spent on my bass geekery over the years and then some! (That was the science bit 😄) Made sense to me and I convinced myself at the time...

Just home from a brilliant Bandeoke night in a music pub in Wiltshire. Loads of people getting up to sing and people head hunting us for other venues. This is almost my ideal band - no rehearsals, play anything we're asked regardless of whether we know it, and somehow pull the whole thing off.

David Wilson is the real deal.

We played the Nice'n'sleazy Festival in Morecambe yesterday... We were on at about 1800, there were probably a hundred folks in there, none of whom appeared to hate us! Not a single bottle of piddle was thrown, there were in fact people shaking about in a rhythmic fashion... 'Twas our 2nd gig with the 2 bass line up which worked very well - gnat's chuff'n'all. And I had the slight disadvantage of a broken leg, so had to sit. Which I enjoyed! I felt like a jazzer... And even more excitingly, I used my new (eBay!) Line 6 Helix LT. I like that too!

I had a curtain blunder once. It was the first time my band had ever had a curtain opening/reveal to start a show with. Very new to us. While we waited for the show host to finish announcing us, we decided to make hand shadows against the curtain. Of course, after the dog and the bird, we couldn't resist giving the middle finger and making ‘w*nker’ signs. The drummer, who was late to the stage, arrived and said ‘you do realise that the audience can see that on the other side, don’t you?!’. Before we could process the horror of what we had just done, the curtains opened to a rather annoyed looking first row. That first song was pretty awkward, let me tell you! 😆

Played at a Bournemouth retirement complex- a first for me - and delighted to find that musical appreciation doesn’t fade with age. The Otis Jay Blues Band enjoyed celebrating the jubilee with like minded folk … I reckon we will be back!

It's built! Lots of bits done today, levelled smoothed and oiled the fretboard, put the neck and body together, screen and wired the cavity etc. It plays really well, but it should really. With 4 strings and a slightly curved plank, how hard can it be to get it right. I am really happy with the colour. To be honest I could have spent more time on the finish but I want to play. I include a pic of my soapbar installation tip. Probably obvious and most people know it, but someone may not. In the initial assembly, after putting the pickups in the routs and marking/drilling pilot holes, I struggled to get pickups, springs and screws lined up on all four corners. While staining the disassembled body I hit on the idea of using cocktail sticks in the pilot holes. They keep the springs aligned and the pickups slide over the sticks. Every thing is perfectly aligned until you are ready to put the screw in each corner. So much easier.

Just back from my second gig this (long) weekend - another outing with Franklin's Tower in Oxford. Another outdoor gig, fortunately with a good canopy over us as there was intermittent light rain. Good audience, mostly locals but a good few wearing Dead T Shirts who had come from as far as South London just to get a hit of their favourite music. Three hour gig divided into two sets - second day in a row so we were feeling it by the end, but a great atmosphere. Band felt and sounded much tighter for it as well. Nothing else in the diary now until a Grateful Dead festival in Cirencester in a month's time.

As one or two of you may already know @Jabba_the_gut is currently building me a matching pair of basses (build diary here), a fretted and a fretless, which already means they don't match, but frets aside, they will otherwise be the same. Anyway, before I bog myself down in semantics, I was eager to acquire a Jabba bass essentially to see me through until my two were built. Luckily Jabba had one very similar (in shape at least) to the two he's building for me already finished, so I bought it from him back in September last year at the Midlands Bass Bash. Incredibly rudely I bowled into the Bash as soon as it opened, bought the bass, shook Jabba's hand and left! I barely had time to laugh at @Stub Mandrel's (actually excellent) rig. Like the impetuous idiot that I clearly am, I invariably acquire a bass, play it for ten minutes, rush on to Basschat and in a gushing eulogy tell anyone who cares to read that I've found the 'gas-killer bass' and that I am totally satisfied only to then sell it on again within a fortnight after I've had a word with myself. However, I've now been the owner of a @Jabba_the_gut bass for ten months and I can, in a far more sober, thoughtful and considered manner, tell you that I think the Jabba bass actually does fit the bill, or certainly my bill, to a tee. The other basses in the rack now have a layer of dust over them, that's the one or two I haven't yet sold. I have a lovely ACG Recurve SS 4 that I was lucky enough to buy from @Clarky (thanks Sir) and then stupidly sold but, thank Bog, was able to buy back. That's a definite keeper as it fills the electric solid-body roundwound bass corners that the Jabba bass doesn't, but then the Jabba bass is semi-hollow with flatwounds, it isn't supposed to twang and clank, it has too much class. Anyway, I'm wittering. I play in an acoustic duo and I've been through a gazillion basses trying to get just the right balance of sounds as we play quite a variety of songs, from kind of mellow jazz to much more angular abrasive stuff. The Jabba bass sits in the middle of that brief coping easily with the demands I make of it. If I were a technically minded man I'd tell you technical things about it but I'm not so I can't but it is an incredibly beautifully built bass and it sounds amazing. Whenever anyone sees it, be it musician or civilian, they always admire it, usually with the words "It's a work of art..." which it most definitely is. Blimey, I'm still at wittering, I best get off the train otherwise I'll end up in prattling and no one wants that. In summary. @Jabba_the_gut makes exceedingly good basses and my aim is to own several and play them exclusively. The tone is gorgeous, the build is exquisite... extraordinary. If you get the chance to own one then jump on it, you won't regret it.

Retirement Complex? Looks like a church to me? Nitpicking aside, it's good to see you brought some of the residents up on stage with you!

a few cables to change and the noise gate to hook up but very happy with how this sounds! Switched out a few pedals the Kma fuzz for the moose nomad, and the mxr la machine for the poly octave

My number 1 ever since I bought it second hand in about 1991 or 1992! 1985 Mk 1 Custom Series Wal.

Non Vinaigrette rien Edith Piaf

Also just back from a small town festival gig. Large open sided tent, but zero people in it because it was sunny and warm. This meant we couldn't see anyone and it felt like a rehearsal but with clapping at the end (at a guess 300 people). We did fairly well, despite being very rushed (load onto stage to first song was well under 10 min).

It's been a while.. This was how my Novo-18 'creative' board looked like in March, and there's been some changes since. Not least, the power supply needed an overdue upgrade. The pre-amp is all valve/tube ~ the Edison 2 by Night Owl Industries. https://www.nightowl.industries/edison-preamp

Not a personal embarrassment this, but a brilliant anecdote I read years ago which is too good not to relate. Hopefully I've got the details right. It was related by a drummer whose band were booked to play a tea dance, can't remember the venue. He travelled there under his own steam, with the rest of the band following in the bus/van/whatevs. He got there first, and set his kit up. No sign of the band. Time marches on, still no sign of the band. He waited nervously at his kit and absent-mindedly started playing a quiet waltz. He looked up and, to his horror, couples were taking to the floor and starting to dance to his unaccompanied rhythm. He kept it going for a few minutes, and eventually ended on a graceful rall to polite applause. Someone handed him a note and he opened it, hoping it's going to tell him that the band are just arriving. Instead, he reads, "Please can you play Red Roses For A Blue Lady?". (A few minutes later, another note arrived to tell him that the bus/van/whatevs. had blown up on the motorway and the band will not be joining him.)

Thanks to @greenolive and this thread I started looking at Leduc basses, due to getting the names muddled up I ended up with a Lefay 🤪🤣

Could have been worse. You could have done a stage dive and no-one caught you... I remember a support act from years back who were a bass & drums duo. They had this weird lectern thing between them on stage which it turned out was concealing the laptop from which they were reading all the chords and lyrics. They spent the whole gig pretending to face the audience but looking at the laptop out of the corner of their eye. They had a backing track with drum and keys parts on it, and weirdly it also it had the guitar solos on it too. So whenever it came to a solo, the guitarist would keep strumming away, peering awkwardly at the chords on the laptop, while the recorded solo wailed away in the background. To put the lid on it, they both looked bored out of their minds. The whole thing was toe-curlingly dreadful, saved only by the bassist's beautiful vintage Les Paul Triumph bass and his uncanny resemblance to Alan Partridge. Ah-haa.

So basically, what I'm hearing... S'manth, less and more And so ... B0 - 800mm scale length (31.49 in) G2 - 730mm scale length (28.74 in) And now to model it S'manth x

Last night's gig was mostly yesterday afternoon - played with Franklin's Tower on the patio at the back of a pub close to the centre of Oxford (The White House, for those who know the area). Start at five, had to skip a few songs we had hoped to play, finished at seven - no breaks. First proper gig this year, felt good to be back out there. After some indecision about whether to the Jazz or Precision, I took one of each and the Jazz stayed in the car. Played my 2012 US Standard P for the whole gig, through the Ashdown ABM 500 2x10 combo I bought from a fellow Basschatter recently. Sounded good where I was standing, and I am told also sound good out front. Next gig is this afternoon, same band but slightly out of the city at Iffley, close to where I spent the first ten years of my life. I expect I'll use the same equipment but probably take a second Precision as back up.

As a punter I was watching a great band playing rocked up TV theme tunes , a great night was being had by all . Smart arsé here notices the theremin at the front of stage and decides he can chip in and play it from in front of the ( 1 foot high ) stage. it turns out I could influence the thing and the singer is playing along with this... until someone knocks me from behind and I faceplant the stage . quick as a flash the singer’s shins are pinning my shoulders to the stage and he is thrusting away to much hilarity . everyone denies bumping into me , so I may have just been pi55ed 😂 I’ve grown a bit wiser now, but that gig last year was excellent 😁

tl;dr NewTone strings will be most helpful in just doing it I use a .140 B string on my 34" 5 string, I have a heavy right hand technique. Key (simplified) maths is here https://www.hago.org.uk/faqs/formulae/index.php (or read Resnick & Halliday, Nelkon, Muncaster etc., I will confess to being a Physicist, now retired). Combining the equations gives : t = 16df^2Lu t = deflection force (how floppy or tight they feel) d = deflection (how far you pluck them) f = frequency (f^2 frequency squared) L = string length u = mass / unit length (roughly guided by string gauge, not simple since there is complexity within due to string construction, core etc. In Physics world we do not have roundwound, flatwound etc. we just have solid flexible rods) Bigger, thicker (hence greater u ) and/or longer length will increase string tension, they are of equal importance. There is much said about how 35" scale length improves the B string compared to 34", the physics suggests this is only a 3% increase. It may be that 3% is significant in this situation. However, other factors are in play here, e.g. string length between the nut and machine head, between the saddle and bridge anchor point. They will inherently be involved in the deflection length (unless the bass concerned has clamped strings at the bridge and nut). As @Andyjr1515 states, it is "basically a series of compromises held together by hope". The time honoured Physics approach is needed, do it, try it, and then, because we are Physicists, make it bigger (or smaller) and see what happens . Edward Teller had some concerns that the A bomb would ignite the atmosphere and oceans, other Physicists thought this was improbable (hence still probable), so we just cracked on......

Coriander Wayward Son Kansas

Aisle Be There For You The Rembrandts

Looks extremely familiar, but then what do I know !!

Brown Eyed Girl - Same bloke.

Asstral Weeks ～ Van the Morrison

Possibly the difference between a musician and a player... much respect. Would love to be able to play (and understand...) music rather than play a tune.

I was exactly the same, it took lots of coaxing to get me up there. Now I love it. Doing it again tonight and we've never as much as met the drummer or the guitarist. They've never done it before nor do they know each other. The buzz is tremendous.

So long as the amp has a volume control no worries. Two salient points: First, if you're running at half perceived maximum volume an 800w amp won't be running 400w, it will be running 80w. Second, few speakers are able to take even half their rated power before they distort badly. When that happens turn it down. If it happens on a regular basis you don't need more power, you need another preferably identical cab.

Update on the neck. I got @funkle to take me some profile drawings of his favourite-playing bass so that I can get at least a familiarity of feel with the Wal-ish neck. From those drawings I've cut a plasticard template and so am now out of excuses not to start carving the neck

Inspired by my last licence plate 3 string cbg I decided to build something 'different'. 30.9" scale, flat ebony fretless board (10mm thick) , hollow body, parallel neck and as small a headstock as possible. . Stainless inserts and a 'mistake' in drilling the the bolt holes despite using a pillar drill. Note the anti neck dive fitment, 1 lb of lead! 20mm neck depth and 48mm width (easy using the planer-thicknesser). 48mm neck width results in 13.5mm string spacing. From using the 3 string cbg I hoped that this would be playable (if not the design will let me replace the neck with a conventional taper one). Extended neck join and angle to get neck tilt with shim. Next time I will set the neck support block in at an angle in the body (or rout an angled pocket). Those with sharp eyes will notice the little infill at near the fingerboard end. Careful measurements can fail when user stupidity intervenes in simple mathematics! Wanting to keep the headstock as thick as possible, get the maximum break angle (and not cut / carve / rout a Fender type headstock thinning) I copied this sunken method that I found on another guitar build. If anyone does use it remember to make the depressions large enough to get a box spanner or socket over the machine head bushing nut. These did, just! Self made ebony nut, made with rat tail file, really pleased with how that turned out. Cavity for recessed piezo pre amp control panel. Due to this 'design' evolving rather than being planned correctly (ironic that my professional career relied on planning to prevent p**s poor performance) I ended up routing the recess after assembling the body shell. Much easier if done before. Body is sapele, 60mm wide, 20mm depth. Bridge with stainless adjusters. Angled machine heads to reduce turning moment (and hopefully help with neck dive). Machines are from Retrovibe, 20:1, excellent quality and fairly lightweight. Good price as well. Neck dive has been averted, all up weight is 7.9Lb Joyo piezo pre amp, chosen beacuse of price and features (£24, 5 band eq, tuner and phase. It also had a piezo undersaddle rod thrown in). Bought direct from Joyo so no risk of a 'knock off'. Finish is Tru-Oil. Very easy to use and get a 'glossy' finish. The neck is so stiff that I have had to (for the first time ever in any bass I have owned) use the truss rod to add relief. If you build one be aware that not all USA licence plates are the same thickness, some are very flimsy, some are steel, others aluminium. The Colorado plate was easy to use, the Nebraska one was 'buckled', difficult to get flat and eliminate buzzing / vibrations. Strung with some status flats I had lying around it is quite a 'fun' thing. The box format is surprisingly loud acoustically, string spacing is tight and playing it requires finesse (not my normal right hand technique). Will hopefully post some sound clips, I am pleased with it, it has a jazzy EUB, double bass vibe, plenty of string growl as well.

I think that wood also plays a role of course. For pre-CBS, the Brazilian rosewood is a lot denser than the Indian which is used on repros. Also, outside of Musikraft and the Fender custom shop, no-one will make a 7.25 radius laminate rosewood maple neck -they all tend to be slab. I don't think quality alder or maple is hard to come by, although ash is getting rare. Also, regarding '70s Fenders, everyone wants light weight these days, but Northern/heavy ash was probably a key ingredient to that tone which no-one would want to touch these days. I have heard that the wire and magnets used today differ in composition from the stuff used in the '60s/'70s/'80s, even though it's described the same way (alnico 5, heavy formvar, etc.). But modern builders wind their pickups hotter. 60-64 or so, as well as 76-82 Jazz bass pickups were typically wound at around 8-8.5k. 65-75 are lower, around 6-6.5k. Most modern 'repro' J pickups are typically around 9-11k. Also, the 'vintage' heavy formvar wire so many people talk about was NEVER used on Jazz basses - only Precisions, and even then only up to a certain year in the early '60s. So when you see Jazz bass pickups with heavy formvar wire wound to 11.5k described as vintage....nah.

If we're on cheese, I'll add the Faces' classic: Under dreaming spires To Itchycoo Park, that's where I've been I got high (What did you feel there?) well, I cried (We'll try the cheese there) tell you why

Ha! 1500 quid? Nope...

First gig with my ABM 500 2x10 combo last night - cost me 10% of the Evo 5 head in the post above and sounded great.

One of the things that irritates me about certain types of jazz gig is where in every piece everyone has to take their turn doing the solo... which involves seeing how many notes can be squeezed into a given time interval... it's just boring.

My drive pedals are third in the chain (in the FX loop) with an envelope filter too. I have decided I really need another X5. What a pedal board that will be.

Sade. Your love is king, never need to part. You kiss his ring. Makes no sense at all. You'd have to part them to kiss that!

My first band landed a nice spot in a multi-band charity event, attended by several hundred people, with a proper stage, FOH sound and lights and a dressing room. At this point we'd played less than 10 gigs so this was a big deal. I was a mere guitarist back in those days and the audience was largely made up of people who worked in the same organisation as me. No pressure, then. The running order was by ballot and we managed to get the second from last slot, before the main band of the evening. Most of the bands were scratch acts put together for the event and all bar the main act were given 15 minutes. We started playing and three songs in, the organiser told the singer to 'play an extra song, you're the first act they've danced to' and sure enough, everyone was up and dancing. Not because we were brilliant but we were playing songs they knew. As a predominantly originals band, we had few covers we could call on and our 15 minute set was made up of the four covers we regularly played. So the extra song was one we'd mucked about with in rehearsals - 'Smoke on the Water'. The singer was very taken with the audience reaction to us and when I went to play the guitar solo he fell to his knees in front of me and screamed 'Dave on guitar'. Very dramatic and very, very off-putting. There followed a slow motion car crash of a solo (some would say nothing new there). 😀 We managed to pull it back together again and played several repeats of the chorus, drinking in the full dance floor but it all had to come to an end and we managed a tight finish and we even remembered to step back to allow the curtains to close. Then I realised I'd left my pedal board on the other side of the curtain. There followed a fumbling, confused search for the end of the curtain, rather like a Morecambe and Wise sketch, and I popped out alone on the stage to the obvious delight of everyone watching.

Name burnt into the headstock. Gonna use the wudtone neck finish over the next few days. Once that is done its will just be a case of sanding and staining the body. Then attaching all the bits to it. Hopefully I'll have it done by the end of the month.

Troy Me - James Brown

Yup - pretty much, on all counts

Think I'll decline: anywhere that allows the elderly to brandish a sharpened blade is too West Side Story for me!

The White Stripes were utter sh#te!

Outside in a sunny packed Pub Beer garden this afternoon in Dorset, next to the BBQ which was pretty galling as we were asked to announce the food was closing half way through our second set. Cheeky gets, I managed to prise a round of drinks off them before we started but they didn't even ask if we wanted feeding. Talk about hiding in plain sight! Gig went well and we've managed to get our singer to embrace a Telecaster rather than her acoustic, next we'll have her standing up rather than sitting on a stool like in a folk club..... Moving on we have 2 gigs this Sunday, one a Vintage Festival, then another Festival on the 11th and 12th too! Look forward to the Festivals as usually get good sound, both in monitors and the PA. In deference to the Jubilee I brought out my 50 year old Telecaster Bass today, but think I'll travel lighter at the weekend with the Acinonyx