paul_5

I used 'plastic wood' to do mine. Then loads of varnish and really fine sand paper. Not only do I have a 'smooth as glass' fingerboard, but I also ended up with disproportionately enlarged triceps

I liked it, more power to your elbow mate. +1 about the dead strings though. [GREAT BIG THUMB emoticon]

Absolutely go for it. Fretless is a beautiful sound, and (personally) more rewarding. My first fretless was a cheap (£70) 4 string that I defretted and then filled in the gaps. I've never looked back. Top tip for starting off is to play songs which occasionally feature open strings - that way you've got a reference pitch to check the relative pitch of your fingered notes.

[quote name='daz' post='1153899' date='Mar 8 2011, 02:55 PM']is there some sort of chart or some way of finding out what the note is that comes from fretting any two adjacent strings? I tried looking at it via my tuner but it didn't seem to like it.[/quote] This is because you're playing two notes together, and most tuners only like to deal with one note at once. If you're barring the thinnest strings together, then you've got an inversion of an implied chord - bear with me - The 'root note' of the chord you're implying is the note on the G string. Confused? here are some examples: hold down the D and G strings at the 9th fret, now play the open E string. See? it's most of an 'E chord', but without an 'E' at the bottom (you've inverted the chord) similarly barre the same strings at the 2nd (or 14th fret) and play the open A string - sounds like an A chord, right? the reason for that is that you've got two notes from the A chord (E and A), but the lowest note isn't an A (which is the usual thing to do on a bass). It's a really useful method of filling up space in a mix. Long story short: whatever note you've got on the G string is the root note (letter name) of the chord you've implying. Hope this helps Cool, now I'm off to play 'Jon the fisherman' and 'here come the bastards'...

I win! [url="http://www.vintagefenderbass.net/jazz-bass/1975-fender-jazz-bass/"]Birth-year bass[/url] Baaaaaaad GAS

I did something similar last year - looks nowhere near as nice as your lovely basses, but plays well and sounds great. Pics to follow. Oh, and I spent £104 in total: body, neck, PUPs, bridge, scratchplate. I went slightly over budget, as I'd set myself a limit of £100, but still, got a new bass for a ton! [attachment=74192:P3070698.JPG] [attachment=74193:P3070700.JPG The body was a Hondo P bass copy from the '80s (which sounded fine) but I'm more of a J player, so I took a chisel to it and 'made room' for the J pickup. There wasn't really room for the wiring for this extra PUP, so it's being run across the body for now. The main thing was de-fretting the Yamato fingerboard - silky smooth now.

yet another +1 for Watford Valves.

I've got one too, and they're grand! I run mine from a one-spot that does my Boss stuff too, they're fine sharing PSUs with other kit, standard Boss style power socket.

in today's market, about £8

+1 for the two octave approach. really helps in learning all of the note positions on the bass.

16 tracks simultaneously into a laptop is a pretty tall order, are you sure that you nee to everything all at once? I've never recorded more than 9 at once, and that was with a VERY picky drummer. As long as people don't mind playing to a click, then overdubbing is the way forward. It might seem like a lot of money up front, but the only alternatives are a) book studio time and pay a similar figure for a single lot of recording, or buy an old tape machine - which will cost less initially, but at roughly £50 for 20 minutes (and all the outboard kit like compressors and a mixer) it's really expensive, this is why computer recording is the most popular option. Plus it's sooooo much easier to edit on a big screen than start splicing tape etc...

Same here, I use non-branded stuff from a local market. Beats the 3M stuff that comes with most pedal boards hands-down. Cheaper too.

Don't worry about the audition, just have fun and enjoy the experience. That way even if you don't make the grade, you've had a positive experience. If you get the gig, then that's a bonus. All the best. Paul.

If you're going down (no pun intended) the '70s 'porn' route, then why not consider ridiculously oversized fake moustaches and / or over-the-top chest wigs (or 'merkins' as they are known in the trade)? There - I've used the word 'Merkin' in context. someone owes me £10.

Nice idea - questionable RH technique though. Just let me consult my Alexander technique manuals for the optimum position for this sort of thing.....oh, there isn't one. There IS one for having a poo though, what are the odds?

That's just beautiful, I really fancy a Nordy now!

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='1148216' date='Mar 3 2011, 11:44 AM'][url="http://www.rockandrollconfidential.com/hall/"]Bad band promo shots[/url] I have to share this for anyone who missed it last time I posted it.[/quote] Thanks for posting this again, I just cried laughing.

When I read the thread subtitle (strange noise) I thought you were showing off! Hope you get this sorted.

I pimped (well, rebuilt) a cheap P bass last year. The single best thing I bought for it was a GFS pickup. overwound Alnico split P that was punchy, loud and clean. They're about £30 ish and worth every penny. A friend of mine has eve replaced his USA strat pickups with GFS ones, as they sound better, ad cost peanuts. [url="http://www.guitarfetish.com/GFS-PB-Pro-PLUS-OVERWOUND-Alnico-P-Bass-style-VERY-hot_p_334.html"]GFS bass pickups.[/url] currently out of stock though