Kiwi

[quote name='matski' post='411894' date='Feb 17 2009, 12:38 PM']Just to add some more info: I own a Cutlass I which is dated as Sept 1983 on the heel of the neck - however it is a little different to yours... It is not 'string through body' and has a 4-bolt neck.[/quote] Most Cutlass basses were made with this neck fixing. Whats the serial number on yours? Is the neck capable of low action? [quote name='matski' post='411894' date='Feb 17 2009, 12:38 PM']The I is the 'StingRay' Cutlass, the II is the 'Sabre' Cutlass innit.[/quote] Yes, thats correct.

[quote name='JPJ' post='411851' date='Feb 17 2009, 12:07 PM']Just make sure your digi cam is fully charged that you have plenty of space in your photobucket account. I'm not saying that we are desparate for finished pictures of this baby, but it would be such a shame if you were attacked by a basschat lynch mob so soon after taking delivery of your new bass. Remember, we [u]KNOW[/u] where Peterborough is [/quote] LOL, I'd better make sure the camera battery pack is fully charged then...

I've never owned a Fender, in 23 years of playing. Other basses have done the job better.

OK Jon says the wiring has been completed and the bass will be ready for collection this weekend!!! He's left the finish matt for now because he didn't want to mark the gloss finish while he was working on the electrics. But it will be glossed up later in the week. He's also going to try and finish both guitar bodies for me this week so that (hopefully) I can take them back with me as well. It'll be like bloody christmas at my place on Sunday with various guitar parts and stuff to play around on. Growing up is overrated.

Status Stealth II 5 string headless is the only bass thing I've still got a genuine hankering for. All my other bass buttons have been pushed. Outside of bass: 1980's Fender Concert (although the reissues look nice too) My strat (still being finished by Mr Shuker) My headless guitar (body is still being made by Mr Shuker) Roland JV1080 synth with the vintage expansion card Roland V-bass Roland TDK drum kit However the reality is that in the current economic climate I'd be a fool to pay for these while the job front is still so uncertain. In any case, I'm pretty much done unless someone ends up making some lightweight wedge bass cabs before I go out and buy all the tools and wood myself.

Love your demos, very early 80's disco and RnB influence. You've definitely got a sound forming. Do you have any tracks that are a little faster or more driven?

We played Boreham House in Chelmsford last night, ironically its very near an independent day school where I've been doing some planning work recently so I'm familiar with the area. We arrived anticipating a Gherkin-esque nightmare load in as we'd been informed (and charged for) that there was a 3-4 min walk from where we were parked to where the venue was. There was also no band changing area supplied but we had a table amongst the guests. Turns out the walk was more like 1 min and was down 8 steps. The percussionist and guitarist were away as well and we had a dep on guitar. We got there on time only to be told we couldn't load in for another 45 mins so we went to the pub across the road to wait. Then when we came back we had to wait another 30 mins so we decided to unload the PA and gubbins anyway and at least get it outside the marquee so we could shift it inside with relatively little hassle. We did that, we set up OK and sort of hung around on stage for the next hour and a half because there was no green room for us. We'd had contact with the venue organiser and it seemed like she had a bit of a bee in her bonnet about the extra money we'd charged the client for the difficult load in. One of the singers who also does the admin and logistics told her it was between us and the client and it was none of her business. Turns out this woman is paying us for the night and isn't going to let the matter drop. So we finished our line checks, get dressed and the singer goes off with one of the staff to collect our fee and comes back looking decidedly hacked off. She has the money but had to endure an ongoing debate over this extra load in fee. Seems like the venue organiser has taken things unnecessarily personally (the venue is difficult to get to) and is now pissed off that we're charging the client extra for what we were told in advance of the gig was a difficult load in. She ends up threatening our singer, telling her that she runs 6 other venues in Cheltenham and she thinks we shouldn't get the money. Our singer does a great job of not getting drawn into an argument and just repeatedly asks for the money. Finally the woman loses her rag and tries to tear a strip off our singer, and ends up phoning the percussionist (who is the manager) who then phones the singer while we're having our first dinner (we got a cold dinner and a help-yourself buffet later on in the evening). Why this venue organiser is taking such an active interest in how much we're getting paid, none of us can work out. But she's harped, threatened, cajoled and indimidated us for most of the evening. Anyone else gigged in Chelmsford at wedding venues and know who we encountered? I know we'll probably refund some of the load in fee but we DID book two roadies to help us based on the information we were supplied with. BTW, the client knew none of this argy bargy with the venue organiser was going on and they were lovely people. We didn't play our best because the dep kept making mistakes but they appreciated us none the less which I'm quite grateful for. (Keyboardist yells out 'Crazy!' and proceeds to play Crazy by Gnarls Berkley instead of Crazy In Love by Beyonce which was the next song on the set list...) One more gig to go and then I'm out of the band. The drummer, who is also leaving, and I had a decent chat about it last night. He and I are pretty much leaving for the same reasons - too many demands being placed on us. The ironic thing is that I'm the most experienced musician in the band! For most of the band, its the first musical gigging outfit they've ever been in. I'm leaving because of a clear difference of perspective between myself and the democratic consensus which I feel was totally avoidable if the band had actually valued more fully what we have musically. Still, I've found a funky outfit in Cambridge who sound really promising. The guitarist is into Chic in a big way (how much more perfect could that get?) and I'll hook up with them next month for a chat and see how interested they are in doing some disco house and club type stuff. They want to do a combination of originals and covers which is totally cool with me. I'd just like to play with musicians who can push and spark off each other. I'd also like for us to be able to do live funky jams in a Prince-style on stage with spontaneous segues, breakdowns, etc. I think some of the guys in my current band aren't experienced enough to do that yet.

[quote name='pete.young' post='409734' date='Feb 14 2009, 09:33 PM']How did you manage that, then? Mine only goes down to 4 Ohms.[/quote] Not sure, I think mine go to 2 ohms but I'll have to check. Maybe I've been guilty of "abusing my equipment"

Maybe consider the [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=40135"]Traynor YBA line[/url]? Also consider a 70's head like Sound City 200/120. 100w heads can sound perfectly loud enough if you team them with sensitive cabs and don't have to compete with a loud guitar. I've gigged my 100w Burman head through an Ashdown 4x10 and an Ashdown 2x15 and it was drowning out the guitarist using a 100w Marshall valve combo. I've also had a go on the Burman this morning through two EBS 212 neo cabs and the sound was lush. Warm, clean and plenty of volume (up to a point).

well you can't fault the website for thematic consistency...

Without wishing to take sides, I think its important to look at the instruments as having their own character. Comparing a stingray to a status is like comparing a Ampeg scroll bass to an Alembic. They've been designed in different eras with different parameters in mind.

The main reason I've plumped for the MIDI thing in the bass is that my keyboard playing is so crap. Still have to see what impact MIDI lag will have on any playing though. But even if that doesn't work live, I can also use the bass with a Roland V-bass which has an interesting range of bass synth capabilities with no noticable lag. The only thing I won't have is any ability to eq the piezo signal unfortunately, but will have access to the bright/dark voicings. That doesn't bother me too much, I'm unlikely to need a muffled piezo sound as far as I can tell at this point.

LOL, ok, nothing I didn't know then Glad its looking ok though. Jon likes a challenge, although it seems he's shooting for perfection on this bass!

[quote name='wotnwhy' post='409092' date='Feb 13 2009, 10:03 PM']i saw this yesterday [/quote] Oh really? Are you gonna leave me hanging like that matey? Actually Jon's just emailed me again (at half past 10 in the evening) to say he'll send through a couple of shots tomorrow.

[quote name='Finbar' post='409083' date='Feb 13 2009, 09:52 PM']Photos can lie. The camera might not have picked the gloss up?[/quote] Yeah its possible although I would have expected to see some sharp highlights on the edges at least. I guess there's also the possibility that he might be saving the final spray and polish until he's done all the installation work but no way of knowing at the mo either way...

hmmmm, Jon and I were emailing for most of this afternoon over the controls. He said he couldn't do option 2 because there wasn't enough room between two of the controls. So we've been looking at other options and we seem to have gone with a pair of inclined straight lines. So I guess Jon will have drilled the holes this evening and taken the bass home to work on over the weekend... [attachment=20269:IMG00037.jpg] I tried to get Jon to send through a couple of larger shots so I can see what the bass looks like when I collect it next week but he didn't reply. The suspense is doing my head in. Looks like he's gone for a satin finish on the bass rather than full gloss. Maybe he couldn't get the gloss to work properly.

A number of people mentioned Overwaters to me when I sold the Smiths. I found the sound on the instruments I have played to be a little too scoopy in the upper mids for my needs but I haven't played any recent Overwaters (ie made in the last 6 years) so I'm really curious to try some out next time I'm near a stockist.

We played a coporate gig at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford...almost. We were all dressed up, tuned, line checked and ready to start and then the event organiser came over to say they were going to cancel the gig because it was snowing so hard outside they didn't want to risk people getting stranded! So we thought WTF and played 4 songs for the hell of it and then started packing up. We had Steve Turner depping on keys again and he's apparently just finished recording [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/livelounge/artist/081121_aleshadixon.shtml"]a live lounge session with Alicia Dixon for R1[/url].

[quote name='cetera' post='406321' date='Feb 11 2009, 02:18 PM']Wow! Great line up... Great song... Lovely bass playing on a gorgeous Wal... Beautiful Kate... Anyone know how to get that tone on their Wal? I can get close but are there other tricks being used?[/quote] You're talking about the chorus used, or something else? The chorus is similar to the sound you can get out of most eighties japanese analogue delays - Yammie E1010/1005, Roland Space Echo etc. I really enjoyed the Princes Trust stuff, I've got the 86-90 concerts on DVD. I would love to have the early 80's ones too at some point.

I really, really like the stuff he did with Joni Mitchell. There was an amazing synergy to their creative partnership and the bass and vocals combination is hard to beat in terms of musical purity. The rest of his stuff I can take or leave however.

That doesn't look as bad as I thought it might. I have a feeling that the controls will be a little more spaced out generally though. Thats a relatively tight cluster and I think you're right about brushing things. I think the controls in my version are still slightly too chunky still but I haven't had time to reduce their size.

[quote name='OldGit' post='407042' date='Feb 11 2009, 10:19 PM']You could put the LED switch on the back like mine are. That would free up the vol push pull (I assume) for something else. Knob size variations sounds like a good idea. Doubt it.. Half term next week He'll be child wrangling ... [/quote] What makes you think he's going to be working on it during the week? He's been working on the electrics during the weekend for the past three weeks because its the only time he can focus on it undisturbed. Talking to him about it I can hear his eyes glazing over when he starts talking about how the various signals are fed into the preamp. I have to say I really admire what he's managed to get his head around in terms of understanding voltages, impedance mismatches, pot resistances etc. as he tries to get the whole bass to be powered off the MIDI cable when its plugged in (thereby only needing batteries when in non-MIDI mode). He says the control cavity looks like a complete birds nest at the moment too and half the battle isn't fitting the components its stuffing all the wiring in!

also, the bass might be finished the weekend after next!

Yeah, the second layout might be OK, if I make sure the piezo and MIDI volumes are almost mini pots. It would simplify the clutter a lot I think. EDIT: Just spoke with Jon and he's going to have to check if the mini pots (similar to what might be found on an effects pedal) are going to be available for digital applications in the right impedance. He's happy to go with the second control layout too. Jon might send me a photo this evening possibly...