Kiwi

For project managers like myself, this is the total sum of the working day. Project delivery dates get broken down into stages, stages get broken down into milestones, milestones get broken down into progress reports and each week meetings set out the achieveable for Friday. Each day should have its own set of tasks to be completed. Very soon you lose your will to live under the never ending onslaught of deadlines. Unless you can find some personal challenge in there somewhere. I've managed to make even the most mundane tasks like specification writing and fee bid proposals have some aspect of interest.

[quote name='vmaxblues' post='217118' date='Jun 11 2008, 07:09 PM']Now guys, what am i missing here?[/quote] A tuner? But seriously, the only way a string will snap at correct pitch is if there's something else putting strain on it somewhere. Or the strings could be crap? Is the bridge too far out from the body?

[quote name='coasterbass' post='215225' date='Jun 9 2008, 09:09 AM']It covered the subtle sections admirably (even without a compressor) and then tore the face off everything in the rockier stuff. It has the real growl of the SVT's that I love, and bit through two guitars, keyboards, synths, and the drummer.[/quote] I can't help but love your description.

There are some demo videos on Youtube I've seen. The design intent seems to be to recreate a system that has a very full dynamic range - something that Hellborg has always pursued in his signature gear since getting into acoustic bass guitars. The marketing seems to be promoting something akin to a hi-fi system. Hmmm. Personally, I don't think I need that level of dynamic range in my music and certainly find it difficult to understand where my money would be going if I bought the amp system. The stage is a very crude listening environment, I think that all the refinements on offer here would probably be completely lost unless I was doing a solo acoustic gig.

I recieved a East MM preamp from Nick today (found it "tucked" under the door mat in full view of the street. Don't know whether to be pissed off at the lack of consideration over being nicked, or pleased because the postie saved me a trip to the sorting office...) Anyways, *ahem* Super smooth transaction, great price, super quick delivery too. A++++ great eba-um, Basschatter. Thanks Nick.

LOL nice intro Chris, you'll enjoy Basschat I'm sure. Welcome aboard!

[quote name='Marshy' post='216495' date='Jun 10 2008, 11:14 PM']Well, damn, don't I wish I'd read this a while back. I had two basses there on commission sale: a teal green stringray 5 and a yamaha fretless 5. Got a call in *February* to say the shop was closed in favour of online only, would I collect the 'ray, and the fretless was sold. I note from earlier comments that the retail shop shut before Christmas. That's a long long delay before calling me. And, oh, I had to burn a day's holiday to get down on a weekday to pick up the 'ray too (thank god I did though, eh?). They couldn't find the paperwork for the Yamaha, and said a cheque would be in the post. That was March 6th and guess what: I'm still sat here three months later with no money for the Yamaha sale. Lots of phonecalls from me to them, lots of empty platitudes or unreturned calls. Barry owes me a phonecall. Again. He knows it, Nick knows it, the other staff there know it. They owe Companies House a set of accounts too. Will I ever see my cash? I'm guessing not. Having spent two grand with them just before they closed the shop up, this is all a touch disappointing. If you're watching guys, please do the decent thing. --Chris[/quote] Unfortunately it sounds all too familiar. I hope you get your money soon. It sounds like they're heading for bankruptcy though. I wonder if Barry took all his money out of the operation just prior to things going downhill?

Bob you're not going emo on us are you?

[quote name='SJA' post='216280' date='Jun 10 2008, 04:07 PM']a mini-bodied bass like the Status Streamliner or Zon Vinny would interest me. trouble is, I'd like a D-tuner on the E string, and AFAIK the only detunable headless bridges, by Steinberger and Hohner, are narrow-spaced- I'd prefer 19mm spacing.[/quote] Mmmm, it sounds very exotic. Jon's good for that kind of custom work but I'm not sure about how much demand there would be in a function band. Maybe you could have a chat to him? It's probably not going to be possible for me to supply a neck for that purpose though, I'm sorry. However I'm certainly open to suggestions and ideas if there's a general appeal for them. My ideas are going to seem very pragmatic by comparison, based on the problems I've actually enountered while playing rather than a Ned Steinberger level of engineering innovation. (That might come later though, if it all works out. But I'm taking baby steps for now and beginning with first principles ie. a bass that sounds good). EDIT: Here's a pic of the neck and the East MM preamp If anyone would like to swap their black East control knobs for a set of gold ones, please feel free to PM me.

Hats off to you Andy

[quote name='SteveK' post='215855' date='Jun 10 2008, 12:11 AM']Doubtful, there must be an imposter! Seriously though, it'll be another SteveK[/quote] Yes you're right. I can tell by your bass collection.

[quote name='walbassist' post='215701' date='Jun 9 2008, 08:50 PM']Ah, so it's the CK signature series Shuker bass line![/quote] Mmm lets just call it a collaboration rather than an endorsement because I'm underwriting the financial side of things. I'm not really able to endorse gear as such, but Jon is definitely helping me out with an idea I've been mulling over. Anyone who has already seen my comments on graphite necked basses in other threads could probably put some of the pieces together. But there's some new bits being designed and prototyped as I speak which will add some extra versatility for players in covers bands like myself. Because I haven't tried any of it out, I don't know how good it will be in practice so its better I say less for the time being.

[quote name='dood' post='215654' date='Jun 9 2008, 07:49 PM']No necks going spare then?!![/quote] Not to sell by themselves I'm afraid. But I think you might like what I've got planned.

Welcome aboard Mr K! Don't I know you from some other forum?

thanks for that! Always interesting to see how it rolls in other countries

[quote name='walbassist' post='215548' date='Jun 9 2008, 04:46 PM']Why do I have the feeling that the words "double" and "neck" will soon be forever linked to CK on this forum? [/quote] Hahah, I did think of a double neck but I think I'd be too embarrassed to gig with it. I rarely use a fretless in the current band anyway. My cryptic suggestion about the wait applies more to what I'm planning for the other necks.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='214523' date='Jun 7 2008, 06:17 PM']I will use the eq of my basses to alter any tones I need. The cab has a preset eq and limiting curve, so I'll try that(just remembered that one )[/quote] Might be worth noting that you'll need to set and forget your bass onboard eq at soundcheck. If you go changing it by substantial amounts during the gig, the sound man will be playing catch up with you. Nice rig BTW. Very classy, I've played both components (albeit separately) and I'm sure you've managed to achieve a very warm, round and clean sound. But not too aggressive?

[quote name='dood' post='215100' date='Jun 8 2008, 08:56 PM']oh!!!!!! I see.. now I am very interested! Not that I need a 5 string headless... but.... ;o)[/quote] Trust me, it will definitely be worth the wait.

[quote name='Bassmonster' post='214908' date='Jun 8 2008, 02:28 PM']That sounds like its gonna be a bit of a beast![/quote] Mmm, well hopefully it will have the midrange bark of my Cutlass basses but be a bit more versatile. [quote name='dood' post='215067' date='Jun 8 2008, 07:47 PM']How many steiny necks have ya got young man?[/quote] 5x 5-string necks and 5x 4-string necks. I'm going to be keeping two of the 5 string necks and I have plans for the rest, to be revealed at some point in the hopefully not-too-distant future.

I recently came into a job lot of Steinberger 4 and 5 string headless bass necks which I couldn't resist pulling the trigger on. So I've asked Jon to make me a workhorse bass that essentially sounds like a 5 string cutlass and a p-bass. Hopefully this means I will only need to take one bass to gigs at last! I'm designing the body based on the standard 6 string shuker body but CNC machined to have a carved top and to take a 5 string neck. If CNC carved tops are good enough for Martin Taylors jazz guitar luthier, Mike Vanden, its good enough for me . The top will be either my own flamed redwood facings or a flamed sycamore facing on an alder body core. The body will also be chambered so I get both excellent balance with the headless option and hopefully a light weight body. Because I'm using Jon's CNC machine it means most of the work for him will be finishing, (and perhaps cleaning up my mistakes ) The preamp will be a John East MM pre + mid-sweep c/- Old Horse and the pickups will probably be two Delano MM quad coils in $$ positions with coil taps. The advantage of using the East preamp is that the built in input buffers mean the output level will stay consistent even though the pickup impendance changes with different coil options. So I avoid all of that nonsense with output levels that plagues the MM SR5 HS basses. The quad coil Delano MM pickups mean that noise free output is possible even on single coil settings. Watch this space...

The gig in Sparsholt was fine although we had problems hearing ourselves. The room sucked all the midrange from the bass and vocals. For some reason my middle finger didn't work properly during Good Times meaning I couldn't do the last triplet in the riff. I tried it each time and the finger wasn't strong or quick like the others. It felt like I might have strained it or something during the load in. Plus our drummer was playing it too slow and I couldn't lock in with him. Anyway, we played "Shake Your Body Down To The Ground" and, because I'm basically playing lead bass through the whole song whenever I'm not playing the basic riff, I got another cheer from someone in the audience and some applause. Nice. I had a chat to the cheering couple afterwards too, really warm and in their late 40's by the appearance of it. Then I had some half drunk crazy Italian guy pulling me aside and telling me he's a bass player and a legend because he spent 11 years in New York hanging out with Ramones and Johnny Thunder back in the late 70's. This guy had on a pink satin cravat and a bad hair dye job too. *brrrr* Smile and nod. Smile and nod. Smile and nod...

[quote name='LE_Gui' post='213810' date='Jun 6 2008, 12:51 PM']Hi, I'm a 28yo frog bassist (in Marseille, France), usually having french bass forums as pond (forum.onlybass.com is my main jumping area) I've been playing bass for about 13 years now, in cover bands and also in a metal band. I plan getting this metal band up again on of these days and I would also like to get a funk-rock band on my own since I got a lot of funky slapping parts that can't be used in a metal context Anyway, I'd be glad to discuss here and why not meet some english members if you come in France or if you use msn Thanks for your attention Guillaume[/quote] LOL, nice intro Welcome Guillaume (another one!)

Nice bass but what bits of it are actually from 1975?

[quote name='ped' post='213236' date='Jun 5 2008, 02:20 PM']Kiwi can you contact Alembic for a rough idea? Would be interesting to find out.[/quote] OK, I'll drop Mica an email and see if she's forgotten me yet.