tauzero

A bit of an odd one last night - return visit to the social club where I played my first gig with this band. Reasonable room, upstairs though. It's about three weeks since the singer's mother died, and last night would have been her birthday, so there were assorted sisters, brothers-in-law, nephews, and nieces sat in the corner getting hammered (and having some sort of shouting match outside afterwards, as well as one niece getting abusive about the ents secretary). As far as gigs go, it was about standard for us. The drummer and I are both getting a bit pissed off with the fact that we've been doing an identical set for two years though. Oh yes, and the singer went and invited this bloke up to sing, so he did a couple of numbers which Denis just about knew and I busked. I told the singer afterwards not to get any guest singers up again as it made us look like a bunch of amateurs. In equipment terms, it was the first time out for the cut-down 2x10" homebrew, which proved to still have plenty of bottom end to it. Needs some acoustic foam in it, I think. Need to have a good session programming the Superfly for it - not easy while we're in the flat... Oh, and the ents secretary had a word with me when I arrived - she wants to do an open mic night there and knows I regularly play at the one just down the road at the Roadhouse, so I (or Kaz and I) may finish up hosting one there. And the other band might get to do a barn dance there too...

Obviously a psychiatrist would be the best person to ask about this. As none was at hand, we asked Clement Freud to speak for a minute on the subject of Gear Acquisition Syndrome: "Gear Acquisition Syndrome, or GAS, is, according to Grandfather Sigmund, a form of kleptomania. The sufferer feels a compulsion to own a piece of equipment, be it an instrument, an amplifier, a speaker, or an effects unit. This feeling is not extended to the point of outright theft, however, and legitimate means of acquisition are pursued. The drive behind GAS is, in fact" Bzzzzzzz! Paul Merton has challenged. Paul? "He repeated GAS." That is a correct challenge. Paul Merton, you have fifteen seconds on the subject of Gear Acquisition Syndrome. "I remember once acquiring a gear. When I started driving I had a Mini, which I later replaced with a Maxi, which had five gears instead of four, so I had acquired a gear. Some Formula One drivers have taken this to the extreme, with seven gears in their" And there goes the whistle to mark the end of the minute.

[quote name='Bassassin' post='133063' date='Feb 3 2008, 03:05 PM']Ugly. And if you really wanted an upright bass guitar (apologies to those who are offended by the "g" word - you think of a more apt one) why not just put a really long spike where your bottom strap button would be? Or perch it on a barstool? [/quote] Or, indeed, screw it to a cymbal stand. Or get a Dean Pace (6" fingerboard radius my arse) and get it fretted.

If it helps, I'd never heard of Laklands until a few months ago, and I've been playing bass for thirty years.

[quote name='Absolute-beginner' post='130339' date='Jan 29 2008, 10:38 PM']I'd welcome suggestions on this, say around the £200 mark. Ive looked at shecktor and Ibanez and Yamaha. .[/quote] Precision and Jazz variants make perfectly adequate instruments until you get to the point where you can work out what you're looking for. There's so many reasonable budget basses out there that you're really spoilt for choice. As long as they seem reasonable without going through an amp, you should be able to get a good noise from them with an amp (any Precision-type bass will sound like there's a pillow over the speaker but that's normal). Find one you're really comfortable playing and get that. After a year or two, make sure you've got a few quid spare, then every time you walk past a shop with a bass in, go in and try it out. If you find one which is a significant improvement over what you have, buy it if you can. If you find one which is beyond all your previous experience (as long as you have got quite a lot of previous experience by now), buy it. You may even find that your ideal bass is a Precision or Jazz variant - many have, but whether that's simply down to bassists' innate conservatism, I don't know.

[quote name='Rich' post='131779' date='Feb 1 2008, 10:19 AM']Said it before & will say it again... the Hipshot detuner thingy is the single most useful mod you can make to a 4-string bass.[/quote] So much easier to just use a Digitech BP-200 (or similar) whammy to drop the entire bass by a tone. None of this arseing around with different relative tunings, and you get lots of free effects too.

[quote name='Absolute-beginner' post='132101' date='Feb 1 2008, 05:57 PM']Craig charles??? a nice bloke, are you kidding me??? what a complete stoned tosser! IMHO![/quote] When I did Robot Wars, he was just sat quietly behind the operator booths reading a paper until it was time to perform. I'd have rather liked to ask him about the Red Dwarf film (which was at the time allegedly being filmed in Australia) but I didn't. Flippa Forrester was much more chatty, I got talking to her at Technogames - she wasn't one of the presenters on that series IIRC, she'd actually turned up out of interest.

[quote name='noisedude' post='132341' date='Feb 2 2008, 12:14 AM']So why am I now already looking at cheaper alternatives for sweaty club gigs? Surely I bought it precisely for such packed and noisey nights and yet I'm convinced that I'm going to dent it the first time I turn round too fast near the wall at rehearsal. I'm actually scared of denting this bass, even though it's technically already 2nd-hand! Maybe it's the untarnished gold hardware or maybe it's the gloriously unblemished finish. I don't know. But can someone tell me why I'm not happier at getting exactly what I wanted??[/quote] I'm in a roughly similar situation - got an Aria Pro II Rhino as part of a deal, and it's surplus to requirements. Normally I'd take it down to the Roadhouse for an evening or two doing duty for me at the open mic night, but I don't want to because, although it's the least valuable of the basses I've got, it's (as far as I can make out) absolutely unmarked, and I'd like it to stay that way until I can sell it.

[quote name='Hamster' post='130888' date='Jan 30 2008, 07:05 PM'][quote name='OldGit' post='130870' date='Jan 30 2008, 06:41 PM'] Would a 500k pot brighten my darker sounding P pickup?[/quote] Yes - it will allow more highs through. If that doesn't work, try a 1meg. [/quote] Um, why would it allow more highs through? A pot is a simple resistance, which doesn't vary with frequency. Quick summary of resistances/impedances: Resistor (fixed or variable): a resistance which doesn't vary with frequency Capacitor: impedance which is inversely proportional to frequency - blocks DC completely, then the impedance falls as the frequency rises Inductor (coil): impedance which is directly proportional to frequency - so it increases as the frequency rises The effect of changing the volume pot is that (IIRC) it forms a potential divider with the pickup, so as the frequency rises, the proportion of the signal voltage across the volume pot would decrease. However, I don't know what the impedance of the pickup is - I would have thought it would have a pretty negligible effect, otherwise there just wouldn't be any top end. Oh hang on, it's a Precision, isn't it?

Another approach to this particular application is to use Variax piezo pickup saddles. I got some guitar ones pretty cheaply off That Ebay, and one of these days I'll work out a way of fitting them. I keep meaning to get round to experimenting with a couple of piezo buzzers I bought ages ago. I shall have to dig them out. The only thing is that I think they'd suffer from being placed under adjustable bridge saddles, as the height screws would exert a lot of pressure over a small area. Perhaps they could be shimmed with some thin metal, eg. off a tin can. You can knock up a simple buffer preamp circuit to sort out the impedance issue - the [url="http://www.scotthelmke.com/Mint-box-buffer.html"]mint box preamp[/url] is one example, and it's difficult to get more simple than that. Alternatively, Behringer's cheapo ADI21 DI box has a high input impedance.

This one looks faintly familiar: [url="http://www.bachmusik.com/en/p100200/bach-wa-5m-na/"]http://www.bachmusik.com/en/p100200/bach-wa-5m-na/[/url] £270. For £225 [url="http://www.bachmusik.com/en/p100198/bach-5m/"]http://www.bachmusik.com/en/p100198/bach-5m/[/url] Or for £200 [url="http://www.bachmusik.com/en/p100902/bach-5mg/"]http://www.bachmusik.com/en/p100902/bach-5mg/[/url] which also look a bit familiar: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260204552032"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=260204552032[/url]

My project basses are all notlobs [1] but my playing basses are all neck-through - I do prefer neck-throughs but not for any terribly rational reason. I do venture up to the dusty end fairly frequently and neck-throughs tend to give better access, but that's about it as far as I'm concerned. In fact, I wish I'd kept my notlob Steinberger XZ-25 because I could do with a headless 5-string for microstages (I prefer a headless bass not to be bodyless too, having had an XZ-25, a B2, and a Westone Quantum). [1] Obligatory Monty Python reference

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='127924' date='Jan 25 2008, 06:09 PM']These are actually being sold by the Flight Case Warehouse under another account. I've got nothing but good things to say about their service, brilliant. These fender fit cases are great value too. [url="http://www.flightcasewarehouse.co.uk/music/typeproducts2.asp?id=3948-3980"]http://www.flightcasewarehouse.co.uk/music...sp?id=3948-3980[/url][/quote] +1 to all that - went and picked a guitar rack up from them this lunchtime, and the bass cases fit the Antoniotsai 5-strings nicely (and it was a bit cheaper than £40 as I picked it up).

Mustang Sally

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='128072' date='Jan 25 2008, 10:28 PM']A very unusual take on the Les Paul: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fujigen-Greco-Lespaul-custom-Bass-LGP-90_W0QQitemZ300193411129QQihZ020QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fujigen-Greco-Lespau...1QQcmdZViewItem[/url] I rather like it ... but not at that price![/quote] Isn't a FNGERBORAD some sort of Scandinavian way of serving food? Anyway, that bass doesn't give me Norwegian wood.

[quote name='Beedster' post='127772' date='Jan 25 2008, 02:38 PM']Real men carry their gear and don't wheel it around like a bloody air stewardess [/quote] I quite agree. Though plumping one's GK 200MB onto the stage in front of slightly more intimidating bass rigs does require the ability to say "size doesn't matter" and really mean it... Stuff any single component that weighs over 15kg.

[quote name='gilmour' post='126940' date='Jan 24 2008, 02:41 PM']I really like the look of single cut basses (I know not everyone will agree with me) I'd really like to try some out, but I don;t know whomakes them other than shuker?[/quote] Gibson?

[quote name='andy67' post='127590' date='Jan 25 2008, 10:02 AM']yep I do take it for walks and as I'm a 70's/80's rocker I take it for a walk in my underpants![/quote] Doesn't it look rather silly dressed in your underpants? I suppose it would stop anyone from asking to borrow it, though.

[quote name='queenofthedepths' post='126945' date='Jan 24 2008, 02:50 PM']I was thinking of taking off the bridge cover and screwing it on just there, but I'd rather not remove anything coz it all adds to the garish factor! [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=5086"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?act=attach...ost&id=5086[/url][/quote] Eee, that'll be lovely once you've finished the defret.

[quote name='john_the_bass' post='126651' date='Jan 24 2008, 08:49 AM']There's another guitar shop in Sheldon on the Cov. Road (I think) and if you want to go out to Solihull, I think there's one there that used to be at the end of Stratford Road in Shirley.[/quote] Yes, one on the Cov Road (Sheldon Music), one in Solihull town centre on Mill Lane off Mell Square, Express Music on the Stratford Road round the back of a supermarket, and how could I forget Hobgoblin Music on Digbeth (and Turners Violins upstairs from there if you want to check out some double basses).

[quote name='Funkmaster' post='126681' date='Jan 24 2008, 09:33 AM']The Saturday night gig is a private party but Friday night (1 Feb) is at the Roadhouse Venue - [url="http://www.roadhousevenue.co.uk"]http://www.roadhousevenue.co.uk[/url] If any Birmingham based Basschatters have not got your Friday night planned next week it would be great to see you at the Roadhouse Venue![/quote] I might get down there - I play there every Thursday (but as yet haven't been down of a Friday). You'll be glad to know that they rewired the monitor desk a couple of weeks ago, just for you.

[quote name='Machines' post='126627' date='Jan 24 2008, 07:24 AM'][quote name='tauzero' post='126574' date='Jan 24 2008, 12:29 AM'] He had the nicest Squier Strat I've ever played in there a while back (a sampler made by a Korean factory when they were touting for business from Fender).[/quote] Was it a red one ? If so my Dad bought it. [/quote] That's the one. Possibly the nicest guitar I've ever played, actually. Far more playable than the Parker Fly he'd got in for six times the money. I was tempted but I'm not a good enough guitarist to do it justice (the Variax 300 is fine for me).