JPJ

I don't know about the rest of the Basschat massive, but I'm loving this thread. A lot of the electronics talk goes straight over my head but its great to see the technical knowledge we have here. To me, this reverse engineering of the Wal sound is like watching chef's reverse engineering the KFC blend of 11 herbs and spices. Fascinating stuff, keep up the good work! 😎

Ok, so she’s getting close to where I want to be. It’s also becoming more difficult to photograph due to reflections. In the Superyacht paint world we talk about distinction of image, in other words how good the reflected image is, and this is where I’m at, wet sanded to 1200 grit then wiped over with Tru-oil from a cotton rag. I’m planning on 1500 grit tomorrow, then 2000 on Friday at which point I’ll stop, leave it to harden for a week or two, before a final polish with a polishing compound. Got to say I’m pretty happy with how this turning out for my first attempt at a Tru-oil finish.

So this is sanded to 800 grit, with a coat of Tru-oil wiped on after sanding. The gloss is really starting to build now, and it’s becoming more difficult to photograph but hopefully this gives a reasonable idea of the finish.

So, a small update. I’ve been building up the coats of Tru-oil but made a bit of a mistake in that when wiping one coat off, I left a series of transverse peaks in the finish. So today I have had to sand back with 240 grit to remove the worst of these, but then I have wiped on a coat of Tru-oil and its starting to get the finish I am after. Word of warning. I realised I was out of 800 & 1200 grit sandpaper. My usual supplier is Axminster and as they have a store near me I visited yesterday for the first time (I normally order online). The store is an Aladdin’s cave of everything the amateur (and professional) wood butcher could ever wish for, all in one place. Mrs JPJ was not impressed that my five minute visit to pick up sandpaper lasted nearer half an hour.

So Sunday was a pretty cold wet July day here up in God’s country, so after a quick trip out for coffee and cake with the Memsaab, I settled down on the sofa and watched this video series on YouTube by Luthier Benedict Puglisi, of his recreation of Edgar Meyer’s double bass. I find it fascinating to see the hours of work that goes into creating both the carved front and back of these instruments. In my opinion, well worth a watch if you like this sort of thing.

The only thing I don’t like about this is the vinyl covering on the seat. The foot rest on mine is height adjustable, and no squeaks yet. Funnily enough, I didn’t like the tilting of the K&M stool as I could never get it to stay in a position I was comfortable with.

So, slow progress, as I said I’m taking my time and trying not to rush this. The fingerboard has been slurry sanded 3 times now to 400 grit. It’s a messy but very satisfying process. On this mornings third sanding I added some of the sanding dust from sanding the board and it looks like this has filled the last little voids around the fret slots and the open grain of the fingerboard wood, which according to Warwick is Wenge. I’ll leave this to dry overnight before deciding whether to move up to 800 grit.

I do the same, albeit using a Behringer X-Touch that I managed to pick up secondhand for about half the price of new. But of late I’ve found I’m making less and less on-the-fly adjustments mid-gig. I think this is a combination of finally having both my bands ‘dialled in’ and also having a settled FOH set up. The game changer for me was the addition of the dBX Driverack between the XR18 and the FOH speakers.

That looks a nifty adapter - just a shame it doesn’t work with the NXT stand. A replacement CR stand is on my wish list but at £195 I think it’ll be there for sometime.

When I bought my NS NXT it came with both the original stand and the end pin support. I tried the end pin support at home and whilst it felt great, the convenience of the stand, especially as I double on NS and fretless bass, meant this has been relegated to the corner of my office where the guitar and mic stands live. Prepping for an upcoming acoustic gig where I will be playing seated, and only using the NS, I decided to try the end pin again as this allows the bass to sit lower than the lowest position on the stand, and its proven to be a revelation in terms of comfort. The bass is now connected to my body in the same way as an upright would be, and bizarrely its so much easier to play using just your arm weight as the relationship between you and the bass seems to be much better. Obviously it’s a little bit more inconvenient between sets etc. but the improvement in comfort and playability more than offsets this. If you have an NS, I highly recommend you try the end pin support.

So back when I had my KK Baby Bass, I bought myself the expensive K&M stool which I never really got along with. When the KK went, so did the stool, but I have an acoustic gig coming up soon where I’ll be playing my NS NXT so I needed a tall stool as the stand on the NS doesn’t go low enough for a regular height chair. So off I went looking for a solution to my needs that wasn’t going to break the bank and I found this https://www.artistguitars.co.uk/products/artist-kb009-professional-guitarist-stool-w-footr-12954 and decided to take a punt. Order was placed on Monday evening and it was delivered today. First impressions are very positive, seems really well made and sturdy. Max seat height is 730mm, and in truth I would have preferred 800mm being slightly on the tall side, but this works great. Price was £49 including 48hr shipping. If you are in the market for a stool for use at home or on the road, I’d recommend you try this one.

A small update. The fingerboard has now had four coats of Tru-oil and finally looks like it’s sealed. Tomorrow, I’ll start on the slurry and buff technique until I reach a finish I am happy with. I’m really trying to take my time with this process as I have a propensity to rush jobs like this and then regret it later.

Thanks Marti, Thats what I wanted to know. I already use the Nino mute, and I’ve also changed mine from contemporary to traditional strings but whilst I can get a really convincing db tone from the D & G strings, I’m still struggling to get the same from the E & A strings.

Question to the more technologically minded. Is anyone using IR’s of double bass with an EUB (specifically NS NXT in my case)? If so, how do you find them and what hardware are you using?

Fair point, but this is an acoustic bass so my journey’s above the 12th fret will be infrequent 😂

So a light sanding of the fret markers and then the first coat of Tru-oil on the fingerboard, which was almost immediately absorbed.

I ended up buying a Pelicase for my NS NXT 4. I was lucky in that I found a guy selling some off as ‘new old stock’ otherwise the price would have been prohibitive but still less than a made-t0-measure flightcase. Works great and I have no worries now throwing this in the back of the van.

Slow progress as life and gigs get in the way but last night I cut the slots and glued in the little fillets of veneer to make the edge markers. As if this job wasn’t perilous enough, I decided to make it more difficult by putting the first twelve frets on the top of the neck and the second twelve on the bottom. No idea why I did this other than I love a challenge. I cut the slots freehand to pencil lines marked on masking tape using a junior hacksaw blade, which it turns out cuts perfect slots to accept 0.6mm veneer plus a little bit of PVA glue. The veneer I used was sapwood from a piece of walnut which has turned out to be a perfect balance of visibility and discretion. This morning I have trimmed all the fillets back flush with the fingerboard and scraped any glue residue using a sharp craft knife. Both the fingerboard and the edge will get a light sand later to tidy up and then I’ll move on to finishing the fingerboard with Tru-oil. Got to say I am extremely pleased (and relieved) with how this stage turned out. Still plenty of opportunities for me to cock it up royally but this was the stage that concerned me the most so I am happy that the result is as good as it is.

More local, Stormin the Castle. Main stage Saturday night, the slot just before the headliner “Phil Campbell & the Ba$tard Sons” 😎

Sounds to me like you are hitting the limits of your desk. Ignore me, but since going digital ten years or more ago, all these problems have stopped for me. Need to eq the mic channel - no problem I have a choice of parametric or graphic eq. Need to eq front of house - no problem I have the choice of parametric or graphic eq. Need to eq a monitor bus - no problem I have a choice of ………. Effects-wise I have four busses with a pretty unlimited selection of delays, reverbs, etc. Monitors-wise I have six individual mono busses or three stereo busses. Need to adjust eq whilst sound checking - I just take my tablet out front with me. All this in a three rack space box that doubles as your stage box. Oh and I can save any number of scenes so that once I’ve played a venue with a band, I have a baseline setup for the next visit. On your last point, and as I am sure more knowledgeable folk than me will say, compression is no substitute for good mic technique and can actually be the source of feedback in certain situations.

Southern Incorporated gig yesterday, social club in an old mining village in County Durham. Nice size room with plenty of enthusiastic audience members. We played really well, and slipped in a couple of newer songs as we ramp up to a major bike festival show at the end of August. Seemed to go down well with the audience as we received a standing ovation at the end of our second encore. Nice when the promoter hands you the money and says “after a performance like that I feel like I am ripping you off paying only this much” - job done 😎

Yes a Y cable will work fine.

Todays progress consisted of trimming all the veneer fillers back and sanding and sanding and sanding the fingerboard. There were a number of dips and high spots all over the board but now it’s nice and level and flat, and the fret line fillers are about as inconspicuous as I can make them. Next step will be building a jig to cut the fret end slot markers as I don’t trust myself to freehand these with the Dremel. I’ve saved all the sanding dust and I have a bottle of tru oil on order. Once that gets here I’ll be attempting @Andyjr1515 slurry and buff technique on the fingerboard.

At this point, it looks like the slot filling is going well, so no. But I can still faff it up from here so we’ll see 😂

Well I made a lot more progress than I was expecting. All fret slots are now filled and the glue is drying overnight. Tomorrow night it should just be a case of trimming the excess slot filling veneer, and sanding the fret board flat.