Ou7shined

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I was warned that it would be a bad idea to start with because of the added heat but paradoxically it stops the sweat getting into my eyes... and looks a bit better than Mark Knopfler's headband.

There's a lot of good advice here but I say this - Good communication in writing partnerships is paramount but whatever you do, play it the way [b]you[/b] want to play it and if it don't fit go find a band where it does. Original music should be all about artistic expression and not about doing what you think others need or want to hear. We all have our own individual styles so why conform to someone else's idea of what you aught to be doing - unless were talking about taking constructive advice from a bass guru.... always listen to your guru.

We've never cleared a floor before, we usually start off with a stand-off-ish crowd (que singers joke about the space on the floor in front of us) and by the end of the set we have folk all over us - that's just the way we work the set list I think. But at practice if I get bored and do a bit of Sunn O))) I usually get a few WTF looks and the offended have been know to leave the room.

Great tip guys. I probably lost a bit off the back too when I sanded off the varnish.

I hope it was your wifes current CC Jean-Luc

I've got 4 year old Fender stainless 55-105's on, they seem ok for now although the G string is a bit bright for my liking. I seem to be forcing the fretless "bwoaup" sound just now and when I go on th G it pops a bit. I guess I'll learn to be more subtle as time goes on.

Right where's that Cornflakes box.........

[b]CLUCKING BELL! [/b] That's done the trick alright.
I've just been jamming away with myself and all those Del Palmer riffs that intrigued me as a youth came sliding off my bass. I've never leaned them they just came natural like. I got particularly hooked on playing the outro to KB's Breathing (although I don't think that that's one of Del's)
And now I know what the sub-harmoniser on my Ashdown is really for - not just doing Mc Hammers "You can't touch this" during longer than expected breaks between songs to the amusement of the great unwashed.

I can't believe that I gave this gee-tar up for dead! :wub:

Thanks man, I'm really chuffed with the neck - ended up doing a far better job of it than I intended - especially considering it only took a couple of hours. Yeah, the saddles physically can't get any lower and I reckon there's still a couple of mil left in it. Maybe I could file off the bottoms of the saddles to give myself that extra flexibility. Gonna have a crack at the nut in 10mins after my morning cuppa.

Thanks Jase, I'll check that out.

[quote name='Bloodaxe' post='91954' date='Nov 21 2007, 03:31 AM']Good fun innit? I've been merrily knocking £££ off the value of my old Aria SB-1000 to the same end...[/quote]
LOL I've probably just [b]increased[/b] the value of mine
Loved reading about your project - looks great. I only wish, like yourself, I had access to the right tools.

Cheers for the tip on spirit-based stain - visit to b&q imminent.
...and yes, wide fingers.

I've been playing it a lot (poor old finger tips are starting to feel like the ones I wore out with the sandpaper) and I'm getting the hang off the fretless technique (used to play a fair bit of slide guitar) but oddly enough I feel I get more of a fretless "bwoaup" sound by using my defretter patches on my GT-6B and my fretted Ibanez. Perhaps shortening the nut will remedy this.

I was in the spare room this afternoon and I noticed my old bass' flight case skulking between boxes of old clothes and the Mrs's mountain bike, so I hoiked it out, blew the dust off and had a look in at my old plank. It was in tune !!! and I hadn't touched it in about 3 years !!! Memories came flooding back of sweaty gigs, dropped D tuning and all those thumping tunes I used to write. But sadly this G-tar will never cut it again, not now I have a "real" guitar. It was a great sounding thing after I'd fitted it with a pair of Reflex Reds and my then trademark flatwounds but the neck was sh*te, the action was too high and if I put anything other than 55-110's on it you'd need a week of fiddling to get the intonation right again. But then it came to me. How about defretting it? After all it was really the poor fret job it received the day it left the AXL factory that sealed it's fate.

I've never done this before, [b]indeed I'd never even held or seen an actual fretless bass before[/b], but I figured I've got the skills. A quick flick over the inter-web to make sure it can be done (I was worried about the diff between a fretless fretboard and a standard one - apparently it can be done) and I was off. 15 mins later the frets were out. I've never liked the finish on the neck, a thick, glossy lacquer which sometimes you'd get stuck on half way through a run. My Ibanez has a silky, hardly noticeable finish on it which I like so I decided to sand of the AXL varnish too. It came off quite easily along with the embarrassing AXL logo (who?) too.

Next to fill in the grooves. I knew I had wood filler, I thought it was Antique Pine which would have blended in fine with the dark fretboard. But no! I have "natural" filler about as stark a contrast as you could get. I filled the grooves, let it set, rubbed it back then went to the filler with a point of a scalpel to find any weak bits. I howked out the offending areas then refilled it again, let it go off, then rubbed it back again. Now you can't even tell (by feel anyway) that there ever were frets there at all. My final paper was P240 but it was kinda clogged so it wasn't abrasive and has actually served to polish the wood - ie the fretboard now is actually reflective in certain lights.

Now the ex-clunker of a neck is as silky and fast as my Ibanez's.

I stripped every bit of hardware off and cleaned then polished (where applicable). I filled up all the screw holes (bar the 4 neck ones) with more filler as some had gotten a bit lose over the years. Then put it all back together. It was when I was putting the strings back on that I realised that I didn't really know how I was going to tune it up now it didn't have frets and I never played without 'em before. I couldn't be arsed to get my tuner (GT-6B ) so I took a reference ping of my 6 string acoustic and did 5th/7th fret harmonics. Panic over

I'd kept the bridge exactly where it was set up when it had frets but this was set for the high action forced by the kinky-neck-fret-buzz from it's previous incarnation. Not knowing exactly what to do with a fretless I hoiked the saddles down to their lowest seating then gave the grub screws a 1/4 turn just to nip them up and stop them falling out, screwed down the Reflex Reds to accommodate the new low strings and had a play about. It seemed fine. No more buzz and that magical "peeyow" of fretless came forth for the 1st time. I had a quick go at the intonation but it's better to do that with a tuner so I'll do it properly tomorrow.

I'm going to stain the fretboard dark, maybe lightly spray on some silky lacquer to the neck - I have thought about Tung oil (do people Tung oil guitars?) put in new pots (these are a wee bit scratchy sometimes) and put my own logo on the head but there you go... my 1st fretless bass. I would have typed this up hours ago but I just couldn't put down my new toy - even if the neighbours were in bed.

So back to the point of this thread - what should I know about setting up (intonation etc.) a fretless from scratch?

[b]the horrible white in the grain is filler - looks rough in the pic but is actually smoother than a baby's[/b]


[b]closer up[/b]


[b]even closer-er up[/b]


[b]from afar - looks reeeeally like a fretless.... NOT![/b]


[b]the Reds & my old band name[/b]

[quote name='obbm' post='90616' date='Nov 18 2007, 11:56 PM'].....This does raise the bigger question however as to why do band members so dislike playing the songs that the paying punters like. I could reel off a whole list of popular numbers that my fellow band member just will not do. It's a kind of musical snobbery.[/quote]

Same here. We are a Pearl Jam tribute. Most people know Ten (their first album) and we get more requests from it than any other, most of them are do-able but our drummer refuses to play more than a couple of tracks off it as [u]he[/u] can't stand it.

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='89984' date='Nov 17 2007, 07:07 PM']Nah its definitely "something" sewn on - look at the stitches around the edge and you can see the outline of the neckplate & screw under the cover. I bet its glued on as well.

Cowboys on acid shouldn't be allowed near basses. Oh well at least its only an EBMM.[/quote]

Yeah the listing says it's sewn on (and lightly glued in places) and can be removed to reveal the original sunburst - which has the usual scratches etc. He goes on to say that the short hair doesn't affect the playability [b]"unless you take it in the mouth"[/b] ?????

Just my tuppence like, but I really enjoyed his performance... although I found the sloppy bongos and the lead guitar over doing it in his 15sec of fame a bit dodgy. And the fact that he wanted to put a slant on this frequently covered classic by using a fretless (and 2 drummers - ???) is perfectly ok in my book. And for an old boy his vocals kicked ass too.

Pearl Jam's [b]Alive[/b]. We usually keep it for our last one before encores. It's not my most favourite song (although I do love playing it) but the crowd always blow the roof off in the chorus.

[quote name='queenofthedepths' post='89314' date='Nov 16 2007, 11:52 AM']That looks awesome! Have you really not been able to find new ones?! I seem to see them all the time in Gamlins, Cardiff (not that that's any help to you...) but I can't find 'em online at all[/quote]

I must admit I haven't tried all that hard, just looked in a couple of obvious places but if anyone can find one online could you give me shout.

btw I like your awesome cool one (looks comfy) and I like the metal spikey one too - it would be handy to slap hecklers round the head with when they call your clear one gay.

[quote name='jacko' post='89319' date='Nov 16 2007, 12:00 PM']Hmmm. They're advertised as one of a kind then further down they say
"These two pieces are identical to the ones used by top bass players like U2's Adam Clayton and System Of A Down's Shavo Odadjian!!"[/quote]

I'm guessing that they mean that it is a one off paint job but that the exact same set-up has been used by xyz - just worded badly.

Anyway I'm still [u]almost[/u] thinking about it (just the grill like) but I'll get my 1x15 first before going any further.

I've been using a 2" wide, clear plastic one for that last 5-6 years. I like that it looks invisible even though it is just a tad too short for my liking. It offers no comfort whatsoever but it is cool, so hey. In all the time I've been using it I can't recall anyone ever mentioning it until a couple of weeks ago I got a heckler who felt the need to share with us all how "gay" he thought it was as I put it on at the start of our set. It's actually approaching the end of it's useful life now as the pressure point (where the thin bit loops into the thick bit) has started to tear and you can see layers of plastic where it was once solid but I can't seem to find a new one and putting "clear strap" into an eBay search comes up with lots of new fangled lady-bump-baskets.

I saw [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ashdown-ABM-810-ABM-900-CUSTOM-HOT-ROD-FLAME-Bass-Stack_W0QQitemZ180178738609QQihZ008QQcategoryZ121159QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem"]this[/url] on ebay....


...and it got me [url="http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d67/ou7shined/bass/Ashdownfire.jpg"]thinking[/url]. :ph34r:

Thanks Steve.
I took a peek inside via one of the handles. They are indeed 8ohm drivers - by Sica.
I've made up a simple diagram of the wiring too using the same colour coding. I'll post it too for the possible aid of others.








Ok last question any ideas on what this 1x15 cab should be to be a good match?
I had had my eye on [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=140173276631&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=004"]this[/url] but I guess it won't do now.. and it was just down the road from me too.

That's great news.
I was told that the 4x10's in the combo are already 4ohm (but there is nothing written on the amp to back that up) so what ohmage of cab is it safe to add?

I've just bought [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=7490"]this bad boy[/url] - old style mark 1. I've been told that I can maximise the amps wattage by adding a 1x15. There is a "sub out" and the official blurb from Ashdown states that this is to be used with an "ASHDOWN 400 Watt powered sub unit". Sadly these units seem to have fallen from the face of the Earth since then but that's a whole other kettle of fish.

I do have a never used (won it in a battle of the bands) powered 15" 180w 8ohm Peavey wedge (Eurosys 15pm) in storage but I guess this wouldn't do much for my sound at all.



Here's the rear of my rig. Can I add a cab to the other output and if so what wattage should I run?

We've got a dodgy last minute replacement gig in a few days and the PA will be for vocal only. Our drummer is a hard hitter and our lead guitar falls on the very loud side too, rhythm guitar has just got a new Orange so he'll likely be pulling out the stops to see what it can do so it would be nice to have something in reserve for myself if things get too much.

Chuffed

PM'd

Ma doo's are aye chappin' thanks.
I was gonna type up some dates for yiz but it's just quicker to copy over a flyer.

(I hope this outrageous self promotion doesn't contravene forum rules)

Mmmmm waaalnuuut! One of my favourite woods. Swirly.
Your custom jobs look wicked good luck with the fretless. I'm probably gonna have to get a fretless at some point too if I'm to do Jeff Ament any justice but for the mo I'm using my GT-6B to simulate one.

I have 2 slight dings on the neck of my otherwise pristine Ibanez SRX300 where it fell (and bounced) against a table The dings are on the back of the neck and have no discernible effect upon the playing or sound but it just bugs me that they are there. Can they be removed?

Many moons ago in a different incarnation I used to build and repair furniture and a trick that we could sometimes employ with small dings was place a damp cloth over it and gently iron over the area and it would rehydrate and expand the wood until the pit disappeared. I'm reluctant to try this on the neck as primarily I'm scared there's a chance of warping the neck by heating it and secondly it's obviously a hard wood and might not respond anyway. It feels and looks like bare wood but (and I'm just guessing here) presumably there is an extremely thin, clear matt finish of some sort on it, this would put the kybosh on that plan too.

I suppose I could always claim it on my home insurance but that seems quite drastic considering the damage.