bassist_lewis

15 hours ago, Jonse said:

Large pedal board is out the window now that I'm using an Ashdown ABM600. While the amp is taking care of the boring stuff like tone and compression the nano board is go! 

Cioks Adam underneath doing the (not so) heavy lifting. Just need some larger rubber feet so I'm not putting pressure on the power supply when I step down. 

Fits in my Mono tick too so that's one less thing to carry. 

Very nice minimalist board. I had the BB Preamp years ago, it's such a great overdrive! 

On 13/04/2021 at 22:43, stewblack said:

What a beautifully presented advert. 

I want to buy them all! 

Let's see what is left come pay day. 

Same 😂

57 minutes ago, 4&5 String said:

 

So is there a difference between the M2 and M3 except for the sizes?

I own the Mk 1 and Mk 3 but not the Mk 2, so can't comment too much on the latter. BUT the Mk 3 is like a 'best of' of the previous versions: it has the same octave tone knob as the 1 and 2; same solo foot switch as the Mk1; Tim tuning from the Mk 1 version 2; sub volume from the Mk 1; small enclosure of the Mk 2.

What's different from all the previous versions is that it has separate volumes for the dry and octave signals, so you have a bit more control there. I also A/B'd my Mk1 and Mk3 and noticed that the octave tones are quite different, the Mk1 is smoother, and sounds better solo'd, (to me at least) but that's really splitting hairs.

Note on version names: on the 3 Leaf website he calls the first 2 large footprint pedals the Mk 1 and Mk 2, the difference being the addition of the Tim tuning mod, and the small one is simply called the Octabvre mini. The newest pedal is just called the Octabvre, he doesn't give it a number on the site or on the box/manual.

I noticed I said I would do a demo of it... sorry! I might have some time this week.

13 hours ago, greghagger said:

I highly recommend an Xtender and have put them on a couple of my basses.  You’ll have fun getting use to fretting the E string though when you have an Eb or D selected! 

It does make a 4-string much more versatile in certain situations and can save you having to lug a 5-string out for a few low D’s or Eb’s. 

Bass looks great by the way. 

I have one on my JMJ and you're right, it make s big difference and its loads of fun! Took a while to get used to the altered shapes though!

You're both right, I took off the control plate and the soldering onto the output jack was touching the copper, just bent it in a little bit and its fine. Thanks for the advice!

I managed to find a guy who makes custom pick guards in Glasgow. I sent him my original and he copied it in tortoiseshell, both arrived today. In the interim I put on new knobs.

I shielded the pickguard and screwed it all back together. It looks as good as I hoped, however... it suddenly doesn't have any output 😖 so I'll have to get it to a tech to check the wiring.

1 hour ago, Lw. said:

Wow - that's surprisingly neat routing for fender, I assumed they would cut straight though from pickup to control cavity! 

These vinteras do seem like pretty decent instruments for the price! 

It was pretty messy close up, there were very rough tool marks where they had pulled up the router which I had to smooth out, and the floor of the pickup cavity is all uneven. HOWEVER, the instrument plays really well and sounds pretty great to me. It's definitely a chunky 'Fender' sound, it's not like a Fodera or a Ken smith... but that seems to be what I like these days!

So I've found a guy who will custom cut a pick guard for me, so mine is posted and the bass is hanging up with no guard and the strings hanging off. However, I took the opportunity to do some shielding in the pickup and control cavity, I even ended getting my JMJ and re-doing the shielding on that as well!

3 hours ago, foxyFuze said:

I used rosewood coloured furniture oil with a sponge and then a light application of lemon oil once that had dried.  Came up a treat. Worth thinking about if the lemon oil alone doesn't work.

Ref later point about the tuners - if this is a Vintera then the tuners are Hipshot, yes.

I'll look into that!

3 hours ago, Jonse said:

Tuners? Don't those come with the Hipshot lollipop ones like on the JMJ signature? 

Yes, this has the hipshot lollipop ones, but I'm thinking of replacing them with the ultralight clover ones and an xtender.

Starting small, I've replaced the stock strap pins with StrapLoxx (I have them on all my basses). I have been exploring new tuners though. Luckily my Callowhill has almost the exact model I want to replace on the Fender so I checked they would fit, but no decisions/purchases made as yet.

22 minutes ago, meterman said:

I had a good experience using Earlpillanz (Brian) - I messaged him through eBay about a custom pickguard for a parts-stang bass and he made me exactly what I was after. About £27 if I remember correctly and turnaround was about 10 days.

Last year he cut a pickguard for an old MIJ Bullet bass for me, and every screw hole lined up perfectly and it was a perfect fit. Can definitely recommend him 👍

is that his name on eBay? I will definitely give him a shout. WD Music are having to check with their US supplier, and the other eBay guy I was linked to doesn't do international shipping yet

1 minute ago, Lw. said:

@bassist_lewis I'd best give it another splash later then! It's getting there at the lower frets, but the dusty end is dry AF. Maybe eating a packet of crisps then doing some solo noodling is the way to go! 

😂 I've cleaned it up and hung it up just now, but I'm doing a live stream tomorrow night so I'll do it again then.

17 minutes ago, Bigguy2017 said:

USA Mustang Bass
https://www.axesrus.co.uk/ARUMUSTBASS-p/arumust.htm

MIJ Mustang Bass Reissue
https://www.wdmusic.co.uk/pickguards-c62/fender-basses-c111/mustang-bass-japanese-reissue-c294

Vintera Mustang Bass
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Replacement-pickguard-for-Fender-Vintera-Mustang-Bass-many-colors-/283728492848  ???

 

My hero!! I've actually emailed WD music to see if what they currently make will fit, and I have an axesrus one lying around that does fit except the pickup cutouts are are for the larger modern sized pickups. But that eBay one might be the one!

19 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

That looks very nice, congratulations. Red is a bugger to photograph, is it the same in real life as the pics? I've never considered new strings an upgrade, though, changing the strings is the first thing I do on a new instrument 😂

The camera makes it look redder, in real life it leans towards brown... but it isn't brown 🤨 kind of pastel. The official Fender video is actually pretty true to how it appears in real life.

5 minutes ago, Lw. said:

Looking good! 
How much lemon oil did you use? I've oiled my Mustang twice now & while it looks similar to yours when wet, it dries back to grey-brown - it's the only thing that's annoying me about the bass! 

Very liberal, a couple of sprays per fret?! I know someone on here has done it (@kevin_lindsay?) and their's looked much darker in the photos. I'm going to leave it overnight and see how it goes (gf won't be happy the table is out of action!).

I just took delivery of this beauty. I've always loved Pino Palladino's playing and the look of his custom shop precision, and this is only one pick guard away from being the same colour scheme - though that seems to be more of a challenge than I expected!

As well as getting a tort pick guard I'm going to do a few other mods as I've never been one for upgrading my instruments, I might add a drop tuner or change the strings but I pretty much buy a bass and leave it as is. I'll detail all my mods and upgrades in this thread for anyone who might be interested, it might also prevent other people making the same mistakes!

My first act as a newbie modder is to apply lemon oil to the fretboard, as Pau Ferro is a bit light coloured for my taste. Please take the cardboard box neck support as proof of my noob credentials.

1 hour ago, Fil1ip said:

Following 🐱

😂 all questions and no answers apparently!

I want to get a different pickguard for my mustang but I'm not sure how to be certain it's going to fit. I bought one over Xmas but it didn't fit - the screw holes didn't line up and the cutaway for the neck was too small. Does anyone have experience of a reliable site for mustang pick guards?

It's for a Mexican made Vintera mustang.

It has its place, there are certainly lots of songs where it works really well. But I think there are a lot of players who seem to see it as the ultimate measure of your ability as a bass player and focus on it entirely, neglecting and dismissing those that don't do it.

Also, to get that sound and do the insanely fast machine gun thing you have to lower your action to the point where nothing else sounds good (to my ears at least).

1 hour ago, jimbobothy said:

... what system do you use? I use Evidence Audio SIS ones and no breakages yet.

Also Evidence Audio. I follow the instructions and think I'm cutting them right but, it's hard to tell. The only thing I can think of is leaving too much of the copper core exposed.

I've had a recurring problem with my solderless cables and wondered if anyone else had the same issue and/or had a solution. A few times now the copper core has broken off inside the jack connector, rendering it useless. This is very frustrating because I now have a pile of jacks that I can't do anything with, and I loathe to throw them away. Any advice appreciated.

Took delivery of this beaut earlier this evening. It's a phaser but has a delay built in somehow (???). Sounds ace as a regular phaser but can get all weird and atmospheric pretty quick. The art work is also really cool, it came with a comic book and the instructions have a huge illustration on the back. I think, in Anderton's infinite wisdom, they sent me serial number 002, which is pretty cool.

It's already on my board, replacing my Flashback delay.

1 hour ago, mike257 said:

I think this is far more common that people would imagine. I worked with a pretty big name American artist a couple of years ago, band are all ridiculous top class players, some with a list absolutely huge names on their CVs. They're doing weddings/functions and regular church gigs when they're not on the road. An ex-manager of another band I work with runs a very high end function band agency in London and same story, loads of top class session players with huge pop credits. 

It's definitely eye opening when you get on the inside of it. I do a lot of tour management so I juggle the budgets for the shows. I think back to the bands I idolised as a teenager, the ones I thought "that's where I'd love to be in a few years", and I now know they will all have been slogging their guts out in knackered vans, sleeping in stinky poo hotels and barely making any money at all. As a kid, if their album was on the shelves in HMV and they were selling out 300 cap clubs, I thought they were living the dream! 

I guess that depends what your dream is! For some people the uncertainty, poor pay and poor treatment is all worth it.

26 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

Here are some real world numbers just to show the bare bones of the actual situation. I don't know why people are so protective of this information, everybody should see how things really are. This is for some original music I wrote and released in 2019 and used CDbaby to publish to the streaming services which cost around $90 to do, if I recall correctly. This is all streaming activity since it was released right up to today. I hope to recoup by 2030.

Ok, 2040 😂

Granted, the style of music we play - slow stoner/doom type stuff where our shortest song is 7 minutes long - is exactly the opposite of how to play the streaming game. Ideally, songs should be as little over 30 seconds as possible to register a play, hence why so many albums now feature short songs, short skits and other filler. We're in it for the doom, not the money, though. I have had to go to 4 decimal places to make sure everything gets covered. Pay is counted in US$. To clarify, we're getting 1.05 cents per stream on SoundExchange, for example, and 1/3 of 1 cent on Spotify.

Why would you bother, I hear you ask? Well, something is better than nothing, I suppose, but only just. People are going to post your music to youtube and the likes, "share" it on your behalf, whether you like it or not, so you might as well get paid (yes, I know) for it rather than them. That was my logic, anyway, based on it being uploaded to Youtube by several different people unassociated with us. I felt forced into it rather than waste my time finding it and having it pulled down (we did that too, a few times).

By contrast, we have around 100 digital sales on Bandcamp, priced at €3.00 and get roughly €2.33 for each sale there. If I ever come across as a Bandcamp fanboy, it's because they are, without question, the only decent digital music provider who aren't ripping artists off. Bandcamp also give you free streaming and downloads for every purchase of music you make. If anyone wants to check out the music behind the numbers, http://witheredfist.bandcamp.com is my shameless plug 😉 If you actually want to support an artist, Bandcamp or direct from the artist is the only way to do it, in my opinion.

I'd be interested to hear what people think of those numbers, is anyone surprised by them?

How have you been paid so little from iTunes (aside from, you know, capitalism)? A song costs 60-99p, do they take a huge cut?