tauzero

[quote name='queenofthedepths' post='161379' date='Mar 21 2008, 12:39 PM']Since I've just bid on this, does anyone have any idea what it is? A tenor guitar?[/quote]
Looking at the immensely high action and peculiar longitudinal bar running under it, and its lined fretlessness, I would say it's a lap steel guitar of some sort. The machine heads look very wrong for something tuned to bass tuning.

I wouldn't normally say anything about an open mic night but Thursday evening did have a few twists and turns...

The normal host is away so the future Mrs Zero and I, plus Kevin, a friend and other half of a duo from some years ago, have been roped in to do the hosting in his absence. I took charge of the house guitar and bass last week, and last night I loaded them up, plus my own Variax and a Warwick and a 3-way stand. Got there and we realised we hadn't got the beer tokens - the normal host had given me two sheets per week of preprinted tokens (each performer gets one for a free drink). So I dashed back and got them, got back a few minutes late but Kevin had held starting until I was there. Lesson 1, always remember everything.

Kevin had tuned the house guitar with his clip-on tuner and tried to tune the bass too, but unsuccessfully. So I tuned it and noticed that the G and D strings were a semitone sharp, which gave me a bit of forewarning when he started playing and I realised he was tuned a semitone sharp. As I was reading his fingers and Alan the gob-iron player was doing the same, I was doing mental transposition as for a capo and Alan was digging around for the right key gob-iron. Lesson 2, always make sure your fancy shiftable-pitch tuner isn't pitch-shifted (or just use a non-shiftable one).

Then the whole rhythm was falling apart as Kevin isn't used to a drummer so just goes at his own pace, and the guitar wasn't audible enough at the rear of the stage for the drummer to keep with him, so I had to stop doing anything off-beat and stop leaving spaces and just play 4ths and 8ths so the drummer could pick up off me (I had a backline bass amp). Lesson 3 isn't so much sort the monitoring out as anticipate changing requirements when there's a deviation from the norm.

At least I managed to tune the house guitar back to proper tuning before anyone used it. And Kevin got tuned properly so we could do a properly in-tune session at the end.

[quote name='nick' post='160738' date='Mar 20 2008, 12:01 PM']What's wrong with curly leads Rich?
Swear by mine, can't play with a straight one anymore.[/quote]
In the old days, they were dreadfully crackly. Don't know if they're any better nowadays, wouldn't touch one with a bargepole.

[quote name='coasterbass' post='160782' date='Mar 20 2008, 01:14 PM']When i went to my local shop to ask about getting my first left handed bass the guy told me to learn to play right handed, on the basis that you need more power in your fretting hand than your picking hand.
Clearly I ignored him, but I think he may have had a sound point... Maybe everyone should swap?!?[/quote]
Guitarwise, it didn't do Gary Moore any harm.

[quote name='neepheid' post='160793' date='Mar 20 2008, 01:31 PM']There's a lot of scope for intonation adjustment in a Badass bridge, so I could move closer to the bridge a few mms for the right neck. I'm ideally looking for a 24 fret neck with some material beyond the end of the fingerboard. Or as you point out, a 26 fret neck. Not something you see on eBay every day [/quote]
Actually, a couple of years ago, PMT in Brum had several Warwick necks in, assorted peculiar ones - I got two 5s (one's a little twisted and has been defretted) and a short-scale 4, there were also a broadneck (can't remember whether it was 5 or 6) and assorted others. All gone now though.

Surely most modern mass-producing instrument factories are using CNC machinery for all the body and neck cutting, shaping and routing, so there's no additional machinery or tooling required?

[quote name='JoeS' post='160598' date='Mar 20 2008, 01:13 AM']...And after typing out all of that, I'm never going to complain that nothing ever happens round here ever again [/quote]
One of the Robot Wars robots was based in Crawley for a while, where quite a lot of rebuilding and upgrading went on. There you are, another thing that happened in Creepy Crawley. And I remember wandering past the pub near the level crossing and hearing a rock band playing (another band whose bassist didn't know that there's no bass on the verse of "All Right Now").

[quote name='luminousbrit' post='160381' date='Mar 19 2008, 06:07 PM'][quote name='tauzero' post='160161' date='Mar 19 2008, 11:02 AM']
And hello from me, rehearsing in Wolverhampton most Wednesdays. And I've got an acoustic bass which I'm selling, if you're interested in having a look at it...[/quote]
What make is it and how much you asking?

Do you hace any photos?
[/quote]
It's a Keiper. 34" scale, with a Belcat preamp in it. I've had to replace the preamp as the original one didn't work, but the replacement, although the right size, is upside down relative to the original so it doesn't sit as flush on the body as the original. Basically, the two approaches are to have it not flush and the right way up, or flush ad upside down. The bridge saddle could also do with taking down a bit as the action's a bit on the high side. I found I didn't get on with the 34" scale, which was unfortunate as that was the reason I bought it...

50, male, and a bass player since I was 18. Also an electric upright bass player since I was 48 (my personal version of a mid-life crisis).

I play four and five strings in roughly equal quantities, and fretted and fretless ditto, almost entirely with fingers, make occasional use of slap, and even more occasional use of a plectrum. I can see a role for a seven-string in a potential future band.

I like to experiment with passing notes and fills, while maintaining a solid groove. Quite a lot of the time I'm playing with no drummer, so the groove (if you can call the bassline for diddly diddly music a groove) is important, especially when there's a barn dance going on.

Have played just about everything over the years (although the jazz was as a rhythm guitarist, not as a bassist). Heavy, light, AOR, prog, boogie, folk, reggae, traditional (diddly diddly, not trad jazz), pop, funk, soul, disco, punk. Favourite genre is medium/acoustic rock. Write my own stuff and play other people's.

[quote name='allighatt0r' post='160212' date='Mar 19 2008, 12:57 PM']Wants: More money for more basses. (I would never pay more than £400 for a bass, even if i had the money to spare.)[/quote]
I used to think that (only the sum of money involved was about £150). Then I played a £950 bass that I simply had to have, chopped in all my basses for half the money and raised a loan for the other half. It was the right decision.

Some effects pedals have built-in drum machines which might be worth playing with. Digitech BP range, Zoom B2 range to name but several.

And hello from me, rehearsing in Wolverhampton most Wednesdays. And I've got an acoustic bass which I'm selling, if you're interested in having a look at it...

I think it's gorgeous. Wish I had a couple of hundred spare, although with the Fed dropping interest rates to 2%, the dollar should be worth about 20p in the near future so it'll be cheaper to buy a couple of those and an Ashbory...

I still have a bit of a soft spot for my Precision and for the Hayman 40/40. If someone offered me the Precision again, I'd pay them £150 for it, and I'd pay £100 for the Hayman. So I would imagine it's unlikely that anyone would ever offer them back to me...

Haven't really missed any of the other basses, though I think I perhaps could have made more money on That Ebay from them than I did (that's where most of my basses have been sold).

I'm no expert at all on this sort of thing, so this may be complete rubbish, but would a radius block be advisable? I assume that they're effectively concave sanding blocks that you use, er, sandpaper in.

Staples do something similar, though the one I've got is unwheeled (and it's for instrument tools and bits rather than taking to gigs).

[quote name='paul, the' post='159300' date='Mar 17 2008, 11:17 PM'] you lot have really odd wives

I plan for mine to have a vagina.[/quote]
Are you going to be putting up a build diary then?

I'll give it a try here before wandering over to ebay...

150W amplifier with graphic equaliser, combined with a 4x10" speaker section.

In generally good condition. Some things to note:

A couple of slider knobs are missing. They may be obtainable from Laney - they did send me some but they were the wrong size.

One of the 10" drivers has been replaced (by a previous owner). This hasn't caused any problems that I can hear.

The power supply smoothing capacitors have been replaced (by me). This was to cure distortion that was apparent in the power amp stage, which it did.

I managed to mislay the bolts that secure the amp to the top of the cabinet in the process of replacing the capacitors, so the replacement bolts aren't
original (in fact, they aren't actually there at this very moment, I'm still trying to get some M5x30 scews...). If you judge the concours competition in vintage bike shows, this will trouble you. If you don't, it won't.

Selling because it's just a bit too heavy for me these days. Superfly head and light 2x10 are more me-friendly.

Collection only due to weight.

£125 or thereabouts.





(you can see the replaced driver bottom right in this picture)

[quote name='neepheid' post='156262' date='Mar 12 2008, 06:59 PM']I've had good results with Artec pre-amps, with 5 holes in the face of your bass, the SE-3 seems ideal:

[url="http://www.artecsound.com/se3.html"]http://www.artecsound.com/se3.html[/url]

You can get it from Thomann:

[url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/artec_se3_basselektronik.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/artec_se3_basselektronik.htm[/url][/quote]
Look on ebay too, Artec preamps go for half the price they do from Thomann.

My first proper bass was a Hayman 40/40. Hayman went out of business and the Fender Soundhouse had a fire at about the same time, so they flogged off all the Hayman bits that were knocking round in the Soundhouse in a fire sale. I was going to make a twin-neck but didn't get the right parts so finished up with the 40/40. I hadn't played many basses then and the 40/40 seemed good to me. I eventually chopped it in for a Precision - I'm not really sure about the relative levels of playability or sound, it's all a long time ago. A few other bassists did have a play on it, though, and they were all very enthusiastic about it.

I shan't go putting a value on it, I'm not very good on bass prices...

[quote name='Raph' post='156287' date='Mar 12 2008, 07:38 PM']I'd happily get a rack case the right size if I could find one but they seem to be either about 250mm deep which isn't enough, or 400mm upwards,. I can get a flightcase made up the right size, but they're so heavy the thing becomes unliftable, and it takes yer arm off as it is, so I'm trying to find a moulded one the right size.[/quote]
You could try talking to Flightcase Warehouse, as they make flight cases on the premises and have assorted materials, including lightweight ones.

[quote name='OldGit' post='158788' date='Mar 17 2008, 09:16 AM']Our drummer has turned up this article about not using rechargeable batteries in wireless mics ..
[url="http://www.wirelessmic.net/wireless_rechargeable.html"]http://www.wirelessmic.net/wireless_rechargeable.html[/url]

However it's undated so does this still apply or are new rechargeables better?[/quote]
Sounds like it's from about 10 years ago. NiCads used to suffer from the memory effect but IIRC they were developed to the point of not suffering. NiMHs and whatever other rechargeable stuff is out there doesn't.

I've used rechargeables in my wireless for years. No problems. I put one charged one where I can get to it easily so I can swap if necessary. Normally get through a 2.5ish hour set with one. Kaz is using rechargeables in her wireless mic, again we keep one spare easy to hand but one charged one normally lasts for a four hour barn dance.

I have had some stuff from [url="http://www.ukdj.com/"]www.ukdj.com[/url] but they don't seem to have plastic corners in at the moment.

Also worth checking out [url="http://www.bluearan.co.uk/menu/index.php"]Blue Aran[/url].

In an emergency, there's Maplin, but they tend to be three or four times the price of UKDJ and Blue Aran.

Saturday night, barn dance at Perton community centre (just outside Wolverhampton).

They've had us there before and a few people had seen us before, either at Perton or in Wolverhampton. Good crowd, which was nice as it is also a fund-raiser for a cancer charity. Dances all went well, with the standard level of chaos.

Sound-wise, the room is something of a nightmare - high ceiling, solid bare walls, and a stage which transmits everything through it. Kaz the caller's wireless mic was doing that sub-feedback ringing thing on a fairly regular basis. The melodeon was feeding back every time Penni got near the monitor (which is still in the experimental stage).

For the first time, I'd brought the GK to use as effectively my monitor and DI box (all the other instruments are acoustic, so they can hear themselves to some degree) and I was also able to set up the bass and the upright through an A-B box and set their levels so they were the same and I could switch between them with no messing around on the PA, which was nice when we did the solos on the last dance and I swapped from upright to bass guitar halfway through.

They want us back sometime soon as well, which is nice.

I started on guitar before moving to bass, and still play guitar a fair amount (I play bass in two bands and guitar in an acoustic duo). All my songwriting is done on guitar. I can also find notes on the keyboard and eventually work out what keys to press to play a chord - that's something I could really do with practicing. I also play electric upright as a secondary instrument.