KingBollock

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1459939255' post='3021012'] I've finally begun to realise, after 37 years of playing, that if I'm looking for fulfilment I'm not going to get it from music. [/quote] Never say never. But then, if you stop looking it might find you.

I know people that took up instruments, and actually got really good at them, that never had any intention of playing live or even with other people. The bass traditionally being a supporting role, I can see how people might find it difficult to imagine someone taking up the bass with no intention of playing with other people. But the bass can be a fun solo instrument, and things like YouTube can allow people to play to other people completely on their own terms, and home recording can fulfill other creative desires. Playing live can be a hassle. You need the right gear, a way to transport it, and there's all the time and effort that goes into that relatively short amount of time on stage. And some people might just not enjoy being on stage. For me, unless I decided to take up bass professionally and make a living from it, if I was offered a place in two identical bands, but one was paying and the other not, I would choose the one that didn't pay. Things tend to get squirly when you throw money into the mix and I would far rather not have the extra hassle. But I am the same in other parts of my life, I am quite happy to do odd jobs for people for free, but I won't do it if they offer me money (this drives my mother-in-law mad. She always wants to offer me something for my time and effort, but eventually she cottoned on to the fact that it just wouldn't get done if she did). My ideal band situation would be with a bunch of people I like, we would meet up at our homes to write original material and have a laugh, and would get together once a week at a rehearsal space to perfect the songs and have a laugh. And once we got it right we would record it. I wouldn't care if it went no further, but the occasional no pressure gig would be nice. I would actually love to gig, but I would want to put on a proper show with good lighting and probably even pyrotechnics, not just a bunch of blokes in jeans and t-shirts. I'd even be prepared to wear makeup if it helped the image and stage show. Unfortunately I live in the middle of nowhere, don't drive, and the music I would really love to play would be something like symphonic, blackened death metal... Not going to happen any time soon... Such a specific genre definition sounds like I am sabotaging my chances, but there is other stuff I would enjoy playing, too.

If you're in an experimental mode and not set in one technique, try as many as you can, but you do have to allow each method enough time to really know for sure if you like it. Three fingers is harder to get used to, but I believe it is worth it if you can stick to it. My favourite three finger (technique wise) player is Adrian Lambert (ex-Dragonforce, Biomechanical), he has a very, very tight technique. Also, don't forget your thumb. I personally struggle to keep three fingers tight, I get very sloppy with it, but I find it much easier if I use my thumb and two fingers, used normally or even rolling as in the banjo technique. I will also occasionally use my thumb and three fingers, assigning each to a string. I find these techniques where I use my thumb and fingers easier than just using my fingers, including just two fingers, which I really struggle with. I am mainly a pick player, but I will also use a pick and my middle and ring fingers at the same time for chords, either one after the other or all plucked at once. It is also handy for adding fast, or simultaneous, octaves while using a pick. Edit: Yeah, what NickD said...

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1459291001' post='3015279'] My band is working and getting paid. I'm musically fulfilled. Blue [/quote] See, if that was all it was, that would leave me cold and dead inside. Funny old world, eh?

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1459203111' post='3014469'] At least one of those things is very necessary. [/quote] Yup. Who the hell wants a dry, flaky snake?

[quote name='pfretrock' timestamp='1459174289' post='3014093'] There is also the homeopathy approach. A gallon of spring water, just add one drop of methylated spirits. [/quote] What a weak concoction! You need to make sure there is absolutely no methylated spirits within a hundred yards of it for it to have any effect!

I had no idea there was a football match on either. Last year I went to a gig with five or six bands on and it was the same night that Wales played England at Rugby. It was a proper band venue with a proper stage, but there was a small telly behind the bar... I felt so sorry for some of the bands, they really went for it but hardly anyone gave them a glance, it was disgusting. I remember watching the singer of one of the bands on the floor in front of the stage, really giving it some welly, proper going for it, and then the bar erupted because Wales had scored, my heart bled for that dude. I saw him a bit later and he looked really sad, I want to give him a hug. There was some amazing talent on that night, but everyone preferred to watch a bunch of burly blokes groping each other in the mud.

[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1458911121' post='3012056'] Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth for me, stunning clean and heavy vocals. [/quote] If you're going to do growly and clean vocals, you should definitely do it like Akerfeldt. Not like those ones all over Scuzz and Kerrang! who sound like teenagers ranting when they think their mum can't hear them and then whining when they realise she can. It's such a let down. There'll be some nice chunky, heavy riffage and deep growly vocals, and then all of a sudden they all turn into a Disney boy band. If there were so many of them I'd think them a parody!

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1458859932' post='3011724'] Those go on forever, I've got a 17w one ('cos I'm so delicate ) that I must have had for a similar amount of time. [/quote] Same here, 17w and about the same age.

I use the bottom four strings from a cheap Fender five string set that I tune up to C or C# standard. It's a .130 set, which is probably a bit too heavy, but I have no problems with it. So don't be afraid to tune up to what you need. I do have five strings, too, that I keep in standard tuning.

Female: Mother Earth, Silent Force, Heart of Everything era Sharon Den Adel. Male: I struggle with this but in the end I have to admit that it's probably Dani Filth. I love Björk, too. Would love to hear a duet with Björk and Til Linderman from Rammstein.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1458688530' post='3009980'] I quite like the idea of using those printed hessian sacks that coffee is shipped in, if you're going for recycled materials. They're colourful looking, cheap and seem like they would work well as speaker cloth. [/quote] That's a cracking idea!

I don't mind if I have to stretch the jacket cloth or whatever, to make it work. I know I'm perhaps being a bit daft, wanting to stick to something that wasn't meant for the job, but I would be using an old clock case so it would be fun to use mostly repurposed stuff. It really is only for fun. I have all the amps I need, this one will probably end up in the conservatory for use in the summer. My smallest amp is 100w, so something like 5 or 10w would be good. I might even look into building a tiny valve amp for it (the cases are quite large). If I do get it to work, I might knock up an iPod type amp or an FM radio for the living room. When I saw all those cases under that table in that shop... I dropped to my knees and while my mind started whirring my wife let out a very audible groan. That's when I knew!

[quote name='mrtcat' timestamp='1458665988' post='3009661'] How much do you need? I have a few off cuts of proper grill cloth you could have if they're big enough. [/quote] I have absolutely no idea. I haven't bought the case yet and I have got a few projects that I need to get done (including fitting a battery operated movement into an old clock case) before I really start thinking properly about it. The cloth question popped into my head, so I thought I'd ask before I forgot. That's a very kind offer, though. I rather like the "make do" aspect of using a cut off from a jacket if it was suitable, though.

I found a nice supply of antique clock cases (they're not worth anything and the movements in them are dead) and a couple of them look like they would make quite cool little combo amps with speakers where the faces would normally be. The thing is that they're cheap, just £3 each, so I want to do the whole thing as cheap as possible. It's just for a bit of fun. I was thinking that some sort of tweed might look nice as a speaker cloth and I was wondering if material cut from an old jacket (that I would hope to find in a charity shop or something) would work? Or is it just a stupid idea? I don't normally use speaker cloth so am not sure enough of its properties to determine suitability.

I built a Ram's Head Muff and a Musket into one box with an order switch. I love it. They both sound very different to each other allowing for a huge variety of sounds. But using them together and being able to change the order adds even more variety and massive amounts of filth. And when you consider all the mods that you can add very easily... My electronics workbench is almost finished being rebuilt and when it is done I shall finish the mods I still have planned for my muffs (I have named the box Dank & Fetid) and finally get around to recording a demo of it.

I have barely played bass since November. Due to upheaval from Christmas and then me deciding to "renovate" my music room, my gear was all packed away and only cracked out again a couple of weeks ago. I played this and thought it was cute. I only recorded it so I would remember it, but I saw this thread and thought bugger it, I'll stick it up! It's the first thing I have recorded in four years (and that had been the first thing in ten). https://soundcloud.com/user5139486/upon-waking I played it on my Cort T-35 (all my other basses are still packed away) through my Behringer V-Amp into Audacity. If I had been thinking of this thread when I recorded it I may have made it a little longer than 21 seconds...

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1458390586' post='3007178'] have you tried a felt or leather pick? [/quote] There was a good thread on felt picks on BassChat a while ago. It got me experimenting with making my own. I basically used strong double sided sticky tape (I didn't want to use a glue that would leech into the felt and go hard) to stick the felt to a thin Dunlop pick. It worked really well, but with round wound strings the felt wore through too quickly.

[quote name='Skybone' timestamp='1458380731' post='3007069'] I use Dunlop Tortex 0.6's for electric. People used to ask why, when they all used heavy picks & heavy strings, well, if light strings are good enough for Iommi, May & Gibbons, they're good enough for me. Plus they just feel far better. [/quote] I hadn't associated the change with a change in string thickness. But in my case the pick thickness has gone drastically down, but the string gauge has gone up. In fact, on my main bass I only have the bottom four strings from a very heavy five string set. And I have it tuned up to C#, so they're a lot stiffer, too.

I went from playing 3mm almost exclusively, on bass, for over 20 years, but last year I started using some orange Dunlop .60 picks that I used on my acoustic guitars. From this thread, this seems very light, but even the next size up doesn't feel as comfortable or sound as crisp. And it was from playing a lot of death and black metal on bass that got me started with them. I still use 3mm picks on electric guitar.

The best thing about having a moderate picking attack, and setting your amp up for that, is that you then have somewhere to go if a part needs a softer attack or if it needs some welly. I also think it allows for better precision. Pick playing can actually be very versatile. I have to confess that my finger style is woeful. I am not so bad with two fingers and thumb, rolling like with my banjo, but if I want to have a sound that sounds like fingers I just use a different pick (3mm Dunlop somethingorothers, I used to use Big Stubbies, but these are black) and play closer to the neck. Edit: Dunlop Primetones!

I find the all plastic thumb picks very uncomfortable, I much prefer metal ones that can be shaped. I use those for banjo, but because the pick part is metal too, they don't work so well on bass. But you can get them with the metal thumb strap and a plastic pick. There is also the Chris Broderick Pick Clip, which is a metal thumb strap that you can fit normal picks into, but they're not easy to find.

Try a lot of different kinds and thicknesses of picks. They can make a huge difference, I'll even sometimes change the type of pick I am using depending on what song I am playing. If you're struggling to grip it, try to find a pick that is easier to hold. For you that might be a different material or something with ridges on it. Just try as many as you can.

[quote name='6v6' timestamp='1457604882' post='3000002'] I thought it was mostly meant for steel, but I see they do a version which is supposed to work on galvanized steel and aluminium now. Not used it for years to be honest, mostly because it's difficult if you ever want to overcoat it (you can't repaint with Hammerite or anything else unless you strip everything right off IIRC), it's kinda funny stuff compared to normal paints, but I guess it may work OK. [/quote] I need a primer that I can paint on with acrylics. I know some people that use acrylics on the Halford's primer, but they're not painting aluminium. Which is why I wanted to check first. Also, my hobby room is in a state where it can't currently be used as I am fixing it up. The music and computer sections are done, and the painting and modelling section is almost done. But the electronics section is currently nonexistent since I changed my mind on how to build it. I was going to use the bench I was using before and build shelving, parts bins, drawers and pegboard panels around it, but I am now going to be building the whole thing as one unit from scratch. It's all very frustrating (I can only work on it on four days out of ten, and only that much if I am lucky) and so I find myself constantly researching every minute detail and asking questions at every available opportunity, just so I feel like I am doing [i]something[/i] towards it.

[quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1457519816' post='2999223'] I've been mulling over combining two Joyo American Sound pedals into a single 'twin channel' pedal that can A/B dirty and clean settings. The pedal is based on the Tech 21 Blonde but with a mod for more low frequencies. How complicated would finding the enclosure be? It'll need to accommodate 5 controls for each channel (3 eq, 1 voice and 1 drive) and a 6th for overall level of both channels. I know there are enclosures out there which are large, but can anyone advise what the smallest footprint could be for this layout based on other designs? Front and inside shown below: [attachment=214232:DSC_0059-01.jpeg] [attachment=214231:DSC_0058.JPG] Many thanks! They're still around but their range has been massacred to about 6 fonts. [url="http://www.letraset.com/products/90-Letraset-Transfers/"]http://www.letraset....aset-Transfers/[/url] When I was working in a design consultancy, we used to print text on to adhesive sheets of plastic using the photocopier. [/quote] I think the Hammond 1590XX would do it. It's 145mm x 121mm. [url="http://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=185_187&products_id=1413"]http://www.bitsbox.c...roducts_id=1413[/url] I have one with a Big Muff and a Musket in it. Though I built both on the same piece of vero. [attachment=214233:MusketMuffBox.jpeg] That's how it looks with its very temporary labelling. There will be two more pots (with smaller knobs) and two more switches added before it's finished.