alyctes

5 hours ago, Bassassin said:

 That's the fella.

He still appears on my screen occasionally.  My BC time is fairly restricted though, so for all I know he's in Off Topic all day long.

On 03/10/2023 at 21:38, Bassassin said:

I bloody love these! Kicked myself for ages after I once missed out on one here for £100!

 

Couldn't justify it now as I'm not gigging & too lazy to sell any of my bass surplus to make space. Which is a shame as I'm FB pals with the seller, who's also a BC member, or at least used to be.

Must be Mr Foxen, I guess?

That lower horn could make it unpleasant to play sitting down.

Lawrie has two feedback threads...

Lawrie sold me a book about Mr Karr.  As before, a smooth and swift transaction.  Happy to trade with him.

Thanks Lawrie.

9 hours ago, Beedster said:

 

It was a small and sharp fork @alyctes. Have to admit I'm surprised/amazes/shocked at how easy and quick it was. I've been meaning to do it for a while and last night had the time and space so cracked on. I used a BBQ spatula to retrieve the post, then grabbed it between my first two fingertips through the F-hole, allowing me to get it vaguely into position albeit at a precipitous angle, and then used the fork to push it vertical and to them manoeuvre into place under the foot. I don't know if i was just very lucky or whether aluminium basses are easier to work with in this respect, but sitting down with a beer afterwards I couldn't hep thinking that like so many other technical aspects of instrument setup and repair, it's a whole lot easier than you think 👍

 

Thanks for your help above, that was going to be my next approach had the fork failed!  

Glad it went well.  Can I ask, how did you ensure the post went in in the correct orientation? 

Nice!  Did you sharpen the tines, or ... ?

HBs are very good for the price.

Or for second-hand try a Peavey Milestone III.  A decent one for £100 should be easy enough. 

3 hours ago, sandy_r said:

 

I guess it's the mics in the bridge - a weird conconction of acoustic sensor in a solid body (but somehow different to piezo)

 

Yep, serendipity strikes in mysterious ways - my GAS was 200 miles from home (Dorset), visiting family on the East Coast

 

IIUC it's actually a microphone system, somehow (which is an acoustic sensor, obvs).  I've not tried to work out how it actually works.

4 minutes ago, sandy_r said:

 

Interesting, thanks for sharing

 

Whilst I was in my pub band I upgraded from a fretless Yamaha RBX200 to a fretless BB4, thinking that would hit the spot

Then I just happened to walk past a cash exchange type place which had a used fretted Sinsonido in the window...

 

I never gigged with the Yamaha again!  Great sound (after I fixed the onboard preamp), great gigging/practice weight

After the demise of the pub band, some years later, I had the frets removed and have been able to crossover to acoustic-oriented gigs, using it as a lightweight EUB

 

There must be something about it - surprised me!

 

They don't quite sound like anything else, do they?  I had mine second-hand from here, seller was local and I knew nothing about fretless at the time...  classic GAS purchase!

On 21/09/2023 at 18:50, Woody1957 said:

What's the weight of the tank please? Is the barrel long or short scale. Cheers.

That's a long 75mm. 

On 18/09/2023 at 23:17, ziggydolphinboy said:

cor

this is tempting

 

Isn't it, though?  Sadly I wouldn't play it...

7 minutes ago, sandy_r said:

 

Did/do you have fretted or fretless?

 

 

I was thinking of the fretless, but I've played both. 

They're lovely!  I had to add weight to mine, it was too light to be stable for my cloddish hands and lack of skill, but they make a great noise.

If you need a DB tailpiece I probably have one kicking about.  I'm away at the moment so it might be a couple of weeks before I can find it.

I bought patch leads from Edward.  He went out of his way to get them posted promptly, the packaging was good, the communications excellent.  I wouldn't hesitate to deal with him again.  Thanks!

7 minutes ago, Beedster said:

This is very interesting, many thanks @alyctes 🙏

My pleasure! 

There's no reason you can't use two strips-and-string assemblies, but that's hard to get into the bass - you really have to get the string of the second handle on the post _after you put it in the bass. 

Also you have to mark the post so you can tell which way round it goes, because there's nothing to stop it rotating.  Careful cutting of the end of the aluminium should fix that though.

I can't really remember who Dad and I learned it from.  I think it was my cello teacher, some time in about 1969, but my memory is a bit dicey nowadays - we may have taken it to someone else.

All severely not to scale.

The key to it is keeping control of the post while not holding the string too tight.  That means you can get the whole thing into the belly of the beast but still have control.

16 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

Obviously a lot more going on than I can envisage and a complete waste of your time trying to describe to me sorry. Loosing the plot at T shape and not seeing the orientations, all clouded by how I think a piece of aluminum channel strip looks and how I think I might do it with a piece of string....

 

Looking forward to the picture.

 

Btw most of the sketches I post are done at work on back of an envelope and phone does the rest.

Aluminium, string, post:

16 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

Obviously a lot more going on than I can envisage and a complete waste of your time trying to describe to me sorry. Loosing the plot at T shape and not seeing the orientations, all clouded by how I think a piece of aluminum channel strip looks and how I think I might do it with a piece of string....

 

Looking forward to the picture.

 

Btw most of the sketches I post are done at work on back of an envelope and phone does the rest.

The aluminium plus string

16 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

Obviously a lot more going on than I can envisage and a complete waste of your time trying to describe to me sorry. Loosing the plot at T shape and not seeing the orientations, all clouded by how I think a piece of aluminum channel strip looks and how I think I might do it with a piece of string....

 

Looking forward to the picture.

 

Btw most of the sketches I post are done at work on back of an envelope and phone does the rest.

Okay, the aluminium:

12 minutes ago, prowla said:

There was an Australian bloke who did Stairway To Heaven with a wobble board...

That had the distinct advantage of making me laugh, which is much more positive feeling than any I ever got off the LZ version.

(We'll skip hastily over whether they "covered" the intro...)

Not tonight I can't.  I can have a go tomorrow. 

Okay, "channel" might be the wrong word. 

Take a piece of aluminium strip, long enough to reach the post position and still give you about five inches outside the F-hole.

Fold each of the two long sides inward so that each side has a channel big enough for your twine to run in it, but keeping the twine from escaping sideways.

Run the twine up both sides of the aluminium so there's a loop at one end.

Put the sound-post in the loop.

Hold the twine so that it tightens on the post.  Now you've got a T-shaped assembly, held together because you're keeping the twine tight.

Manoeuvre the post in through the F-hole and into the correct place.  Pull or push as appropriate.

When it's in the right place, let go one end of the twine.  Now the post is in place and not attached to the aluminium.

Pull the twine and the aluminium out, and store them somewhere for next time.

If I knew where mine was I'd take a pic but it's somewhere in my personal chaos and it might take a week to find it.

Just now, Downunderwonder said:

Also a 1 shot deal?

Nope, you can try again.  The point of the channel is that you can let go one end of the string when the post is in place.

When I've done it on a cello I've used a piece of aluminium channel folded over at either side so you can run a piece of string down each side.  Then put the post in the loop.  Fiddly, but it works.