Kiwi

To be honest, I don't know that age is the factor per se. But there's definitely a difference between a heavily gigged bass and a new bass in terms of feel. I like heavily gigged basses because they feel more broken in and supple. Having said that, there are some manufacturers who do a pretty good job of getting a broken in feel on new basses, Ken Smith and Celinder to name but two.

Andy, how much of a cliff williams fan are you?

Madhouse? Nooooooooooooooooooooo.

Everyone in here is very very sane.

Its the rest of the world that is mad, we've set this forum as a way to keep the rest of the world out.

[url="http://www.strangefates.com/StrangefatesSLvideos.html"]http://www.strangefates.com/StrangefatesSLvideos.html[/url]

I just saw this vid on the band site for strange fates. Hmm. They need to work on their moves a bit more, don't they?

hi hippy, welcome aboard!

Sounds like y'all need to get some advice from the amps forum, and keep an eye on the reviews forum too. Hopefully that will expand so if you need advice on gear in the future, you can get it easily.

hey duney, do you rehearsal at the Premises at all?

Welcome aboard keiran, you'll have no problems fitting in. Where did you get your avatar from?

welcome aboard Philli!

Croikey! Another member, Bassaussie, is an Aussie living in Portugal!!



[i]SPOOKY POSSUMS!![/i]

Have you two met yet?

[quote name='lukeward2004' post='6327' date='May 25 2007, 10:34 AM']Hi Guys,

My 5 year old Shure T series wireless died last night - well, it didnt die, but over the last few weeks, its been "farting" somewhat and I have tracewd it back to the bodypack. It has been through many gigs and has been knocked around a lot, so its seen a fair bit fo abuse. Ive been through the usual troubleshooting of checking cables, batteries and power, and its definately the bodypack...

...Any recommendations appreciated, im looking to buy something soon - but my GAS is for the Senheiser at the moment. Any Freeport owners?[/quote]

Rich and I swear by our old Trantec systems. I've got three of them secondhand off Ebay and they were each about £100. I can use them all at once as they occupy different frequencies, so in principle I could have the Alembic running wireless in stereo and have the Pentabuzz ready as well.

Build-wise they're almost bomb-proof with sheet metal cases. The only downer is that they're not rack mountable but given that I run combos now, its not a great inconvenience with the use of adhesive velcro gripping pads.

[quote name='Bass Culture' post='6465' date='May 25 2007, 01:34 PM']I dropped you guys a small donation by Paypal yesterday, realised my Paypal account was still set up to take funds from my Bank Account rather than my credit and that, being the day before pay day, said donation would take me over my overdraft limit! Spent the next 20 mins on the phone to the bank sweet talking them so they wouldn't hit with a unarranged borrowing charge. Oh, how we laughed![/quote]

Well thanks for making the extra effort

[quote name='dabootsy' post='6000' date='May 24 2007, 08:04 PM']HI I AM 42 AND HAVE BEEN PLAYING BASS FOR 26 YEARS
MY PASSION IS DISCO GROOVE AS IN CHIC ETC

I HAVE A FEW BASSES

WARWICK THUMB THROUGH NECK 4 STRING
FENDER MARCUS MILLER JAZZ
STATUS SERIES 2
SCHECTER BARON
FENDER JAZZ WITH A JD SUPERNATURAL FRETLESS NECK
PRECISION DELUXE TYPE NOT NAMED WITH ALNICO PICKUPS
AND A CHEAP AND NASTY WESLEY OFF EBAY THAT PLAYS LIKE A DREAM

LINE 6 BASS POD XT LIVE
ROLAND LOOPSTATION

ASHDOWN MAG 200

I JUST CANT STOP BUYING[/quote]

Great stuff - a man after my own heart. Have you got any pics of that Fender Jazz? Did you consider getting a stingray just to complete the tool kit?

My G.A.S. has been plugged for the time being now I've got all the sounds I want. However, one of Skelfs headless basses but with a wider and less offset body would do me very nicely. The tone of the instrument was... ...perfect. Crisp, warm, full and growly.

Sigh

This happened a couple of years ago - in 1 week in June 2005, there were so many famous bass players gigging in London that I couldn't see them all through exhaustion, even if I could have afforded it! Mike, for those of us who are really lazy is there any chance you could post ticket booking links?

Yeh, I had a good long chat with the head tech at Charlie Chandlers about it a few months back when I fancied getting my Smith 6 done.

He reckoned it was the biggest waste of money they ever spent because the machine can't deal with the curve of the neck under tension. It wil do an 'ok' job but he recommended I don't get any expensive instruments done on it. Reckoned I could get a better, cheaper job done by a good luthier.

My deep impact tracked my old Modulus Sonic Hammer 100% perfect with no glitches at all so I'd guess that it prefers single pickup basses if anything.

You know what? With all the business with Gerard and WoW and other stuff, I thought I'd check out Eve - stunning graphics but my goodness me, the anxiety that could be raised by the prospect of missing out on something, given the game runs in real time. I mean, you could come home from work and find your ships all destroyed!

[quote name='Alpha-Dave' post='5319' date='May 23 2007, 08:30 PM']CK: I can see where you're coming from and with a pair of single coils, or 'buckers in parallel you may be right, but stick a pair of high output EMGs on there and it might as well be made of plastic and cork because it'll sounds like any other with those p'ups (ok maybe not that extreme, but you get the gist ...)[/quote]
LOL, you don't sound like you're a fan of EMG's

[quote name='BeLow' post='5325' date='May 23 2007, 08:53 PM']CK's experience with his dark sounding ebony maple Alembic bass just reminds me that although I have started to get a feel for bass construction, I am a long way from knowing it all.[/quote]
Just turn up to a bassbash and have a thrash . You can test stuff out - like comparing jazz basses, or neck laminates or pickups. I've found talking to luthiers who have experimented really helps clarify the folklore from fact. LIke Rob Green was the first luthier who said to me don't believe all the bollocks about tonewood characteristics. You can find that sometimes different woods will give similar characteristics if they have similar qualities.

To my mind, that makes manufacturers such as Ken Smith or Ernie Ball who can maintain consistency despite often unseen variables in tone wood characteristics that much worthy of respect (at least in terms of their materials choices).

Well, my Alembic Elan 6 had ebony facings and ebony laminates and still managed to sound dark despite having a maple core!! There's so much to be said for maple as a neck material in terms of its tonal characteristics but it can't be swamped with other woods.

Don't get me wrong, I love graphite to bits and it will beat maple hands down in terms of attack and sustain but in terms of matching it to a suitable body wood, its a finer balance to achieve. I would LOVE for someone to make a graphite necked bass with a bubinga or wenge body, I reckon it would be an awesome instrument.

[quote name='bassbluestew' post='5302' date='May 23 2007, 07:56 PM']As the current owner of Peds old 400 +[/quote]

He bought it from me and I bought it from Basszilla Lemme know if you want to sell it BTW.

[quote name='paul, the' post='4769' date='May 22 2007, 11:58 PM']Wow, that sounds like a great place to be; modern, creative. Evidently all kinds of rewarding too.[/quote]

Its kind of rewarding in the sense of having incredibly complicated problems to solve because I'm dealing with time and politics as well as the usual 3 dimensions.

He definitely started with a stain. I think the second coat might have been stain as well because of the consistency problems, but I'm not sure. I think the more successful route would've been to have a consistent sprayed clear tint over the top, but it might be worth just experimenting with an offcut perhaps? I don't know how much the wood would affect the results.

[quote name='skelf' post='4944' date='May 23 2007, 09:23 AM']I would be interested in how your bass was done.
what I intend to do is to stain the bass with purple first and sand most of it back out just leaving it where it has went in the deepest. Then either stain with a blue until we reach the colour we are looking for or add the blue to the lacquer and spray it on. The first method I think gives more depth to the finish but can be difficult to get a consistent colour through out the whole bass especially with 3 different woods being coloured. The second method is certainly more consistent and easier to remove if it does not go to plan but does I feel not quiet have the depth I mentioned above.
Your experience with your bass would be appreciated.
Cheers
Alan[/quote]

John did exactly the same as you were proposing and encountered exactly the same issues you identified. I think he started with red and encountered major problems with porosity on the front facing when it came to the blue. The maple was sponging up vast amounts of stain with little increase in terms of colour depth. The result was a very patchy and inconsistent finish on the front of the bass.

I don't know if the wood needed sealing first but the back facing (denser grain?) was absolutely fine when treated in the same way. I asked John to incorporate a pearlescent tint because I liked the Modulus red over blue tint and wanted it to shift in colour when held up to the light.

I'm no expert but it seemed to me that the finish was more successful on less porous and brighter coloured (ie white or pale) wood.

Alan (AGC) does a fantastic maple/wenge combination for his necks. I'm not a fan of the sound of wenge necks by themselves but in moderate amounts they do wonders for maple!

I like the idea of a stiff, absolutely rigid neck being dampened by softer body woods.