hiram.k.hackenbacker

Ha ha. I’ve already ruined the relic vibe by getting a graphite neck put on it. I think LED’s may be a step too far.

The bass is now at Status HQ waiting for Rob to do his magic. It should be ready some time next week hopefully. Too late for the gig tomorrow, but never mind. I wasn't able to see the neck I've been allocated today as it was in the workshop being polished, but I saw various other necks they have waiting to go out. They do look rather fabulous, even the maple fingerboard effect variation. A reply from the dealer I purchased the bass from has been conspicuous in it's absence 🙄. A 'message received, we'll look into it' would have been nice. Whilst I was in Colchester, I popped into Peach Guitars. Talk about a guitar warehouse; it's huge! Mainly acoustics and guitars rather than basses, although there were quite a few basses upstairs, just not much I was interested in. The only reason I went there was to try out one of the new Stingray Specials. They only had one which was, ironically, hanging next to a Fender Flea '61. Well, at least I can say I've tried one. More on that in the MM Stingray Special thread....

For that very reason I think I’ll wait until I’ve tried it with the originals and if they unbalance it too much I can swap them out.

Enquiries are being made. I shall report back in due course.

Ska rehearsal tonight. What bass to take instead of ‘Skamite 1’? Think it’s gonna have to be the 1996 Sienna Sunburst....

Dawn did mention the tuners when I spoke with her on the phone. Definitely worthy of discussion, but I decided I wanted to retain the vintage tuners it came with. Part of the reason I’ve decided to go with a replacement neck is that the issue with the old neck is not obvious i.e. you can’t see what the problem is without taking it irreparably to bits. I did look at the replacement kit, but that just looked like grief to me. Initially, it looked like a three week wait for Rob to make the one I wanted, however, Dawn said they had one that had been made for a named artist that had not got back to them. A quick enquiry was made to find out if they still wanted it and I’ve bagged it. The best bit is, it has no fretboard markers (other than side dots) which I’m quite taken with after getting my Starry Night Stingray. Each to their own of course, but I’ve been a bit mystified as to why everyone has been selling their Flea Sig’s because mine was a great sounding bass. I’m hoping this might make it sound even better 🤞.

Thanks for all the info people, but I’ve just spoken with Status and I’m taking it up there on Friday. I know it’s going to cost about half of the original cost of the bass again, but I think it’s going to be an easy fix with what should be outstanding results. I have two Status basses already, plus a NAMM Stingray which has a Status neck, and in my experience they sound fantastic and are almost bombproof. It won’t be ready for the weekend, but it will be worth the wait.

I really like this option and it’s just up the road from me. It will probably double the cost of the bass to me, but at least I’ll be able to use it. Black graphite fingerboard would look odd, but the natural option would look fine I think?!? http://www.status-graphite.com/status/frames/index_home.html

Just checked. Ordered 29/6/16 ☹️

Would another option be to get a new neck?

Having had it apart - twice - and adjusted the truss rod I conclude that it is indeed knackered. The first time, I rotated the rod adjuster just to where I could feel it tighten and there was no difference in the string height when I reassembled it. The second time, I rotated the rod adjuster and it just keeps going around and around with no change in tension whatsoever, so I don’t think it’s attached to anything at the nut end anymore ☹️

Yes, that was my first thought along with a few expletives 😬

Yes, to the right when looking down the neck from the body. I meant I don’t know much about the mechanics of how they are held in place. I get the principle, but I’ve never seen the guts of how they are secured. I’ve just taken the neck off and it’s like the truss rod has been wound almost completely off. None of the tension that was there when I adjusted it the other day as the crosshead adjuster rotates freely. I’ve turned it to where I can start to feel it tighten and I’ll put it back together.

Slightly cooler today and the heating has flicked on, but it’s nothing this bass hasn’t been through before. All a bit odd. I’ve just taken it apart and will report back.

I’m not a complete numpty in terms of knowing how to adjust a bass. It needed a slight tweak to bring it down, but I’m fairly sure that’s because I hadn’t played it for months.

No, I never leave any of my basses exposed to any significant changes in heat.

I did adjust it when I started using it again the other week and the truss rod was very stiff to adjust, but it always has been. Somethings happened as it’s pretty far form how it was set up last night.

So, I only use this bass for one band who I dep with occasionally. I've been brushing up on my Ska over the past few days in preparation for a gig this Saturday and I've been leaving the bass out on a Hercules stand when I'm not using it. I came down stairs this morning and picked it up for a quick noodle after breakfast and found that something had happened to the neck overnight. I like a nice low action and this bass gave that to me, but when I picked it up this morning, I found it was now unplayable. The string height shown in the picture is about 7 to 8mm from the top of the frets. I don't know much about truss rods, but could it be that it's failed? Anyone with one of these basses will testify that it's a right PITA to adjust as you have to take the neck off to do it. I haven't had a chance to do that yet as I'm out of the door in 10 minutes. Bought new from Kenny's 2 years ago. What are the options with this if it's the truss rod that's shot? Obviously I'll try and adjust it, but I'm not holding my breath.

Thanks 👍

Another video of a Bowie classic. Bit of an odd song this one, but I love playing it.

Tickets for our next show at Brentwood Theatre, Brentwood, Essex are now available via this link. New venue for us and it's a bit on the smallish side for a theatre, so if you want tickets I would get them sooner rather than later as they are selling quite well.

Thank you most kindly 😀 Thanks. I think it works, doesn't it? I don't think it would quite as effective without the 'Ken Burns' though.

Well, this was an interesting and extremely time consuming video (for a numpty like me) to pull together. The reason that it exists at all is that we wanted to record something for Paul, our keys player, as this was his final gig with us before moving to Spain. There was nowhere to place my Zoom other than at the far left or right side of the stage (more on that later) and it wasn't possible to get any audio mix from the desk. The footage from the Zoom was OK and I have used segments of it in the video, but as it was a festival and half the joy of performing there was the large crowd, I knew it wouldn't serve the video very well by just having that footage alone. I decided that Life on Mars? would be a good opportunity to grab some stage to crowd perspective on my phone camera. I only play on the last section of the song anyway and I thought it would also be nice to get Paul's piano solo on camera from up close as well. As Nat also wasn't singing on the song, she did the same. On reviewing the recording from the Zoom, the video was as well as could be expected from the poor camera position, but the audio was dreadful. On hearing it, I remembered that I hadn't even raised the mic's on the camera, let alone placed them in XY position. I'm blaming the very quick turnaround we had between bands, but ultimately that faux pas was on me 🙄. The Zoom audio was extremely bassy with a bit of keyboards and drums with very little in the way of main/backing vocals or any guitars. At that point I didn't think I would be able to do anything with any of it as I was relying on the audio from the Zoom, which is normally excellent, to be the audio over which I would edit the video. All those times I've moaned about the audience taking videos with their phones rather than watching the band - well it turned out to be a blessing in this case. A couple of videos turned up on Facebook of Life on Mars? and as a result I was able to create an audio file for this track that was just about usable. It's still not great, but it's loads better than I had to start with. So, all I had to do now was stitch the video together. After finding the audience videos I also found that there was a selection of pro-shot photographs of us that I didn't know existed. I've wanted to incorporate still photo's in an edit as I hadn't tried that before. This seemed to be the perfect opportunity. So here we have it, Life on Mars? from Witney Music Festival, Oxfordshire on 17/8. The video that almost didn't happen.

You could be right there, but all the gigs I’ve done have been well attended with a crowd that are well into the music and scene. There are also quite a few songs in there that would keep me on my toes even if I was playing them regularly (Too Much Too Young/Baggy Trousers/Night Boat). I'm a bit gutted they’ve dropped Poison Ivy as I really like playing that one, even though I have to detune for it.