Kiwi

[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.

An alternative, if you have access to a SG bass body. Could be get a 3d scan made of a real SG body by a 3D Bureau. They will be able to convert it to a 3D model suitable for sending to a milling machine.

Hi Trev - good to see you here, thanks for signing up!

[quote name='john_the_bass' post='4877' date='May 23 2007, 01:51 AM']a hat and a t shirt? I might as well hang a sign around my neck that says, "i am a complete bass geek". that's what my mrs thinks anyway!!!![/quote] Vearing of ze rrrrrrritualised uniform vill be rrrrrrequired at all future bassbashes! Ve vill create un overly elaborate initiation ceremony inwolwing ze vigorous application of a [url="http://www.dima.unipa.it/~petrucci/varie_file/image014.jpg"]Steinberger XL2[/url] in a humiliating manner und zen "Mr Funkypants" vill descend from ze skies und distribute free novelty earplugs to all ze happy kiddies. Finally ve vill all join together und ensuziastically sing ze bassbash song to ze tune of "Tiptoe Through Ze Tulips"

Looks like you've got a very similar finish to that on the custom Jaydee Jazz I used to own How is Alan going to do this? I know how John did it and I wasn't really happy with the results at the end of the day.

Hey guys we really appreciate your enthusiasm and support but from what we can see, the membership is a little divided over this and we see no value in forcing the issue onto people if its not wholly welcome - particularly after the recent turmoil. We're also concerned that subscriptions might encourage a divisive us-and-them type culture which we've seen on Talkbass a bit. Now I understand Talkbass costs "several thousands of dollars" to run per year, and they've regularly got a thousand members online at once. I imagine its hard for Paul to otherwise cover those costs out of a gigging musicians wages so I'm not criticising him for the subscription thing at all. However, if some of you are enjoying and appreciating the forums so much, thats really cool! Why not make an annual voluntary donation and think of it as a subscription? If you'd like that formally recognised, I'm sure we can put together a list of supporters accessed from a link on the home page. This way you get to show your appreciation and we don't feel like others have their enjoyment of the forums reduced in any way. How does that sound? Maybe at some point when we've got the logo sorted out, we can get some T-shirts and caps organised as well!

Yeah - these are mine : Level 42, Live at Wembley: [url="http://www.youtube.com/v/TCv-5EonBuo"]http://www.youtube.com/v/TCv-5EonBuo[/url] John Pattitucci, during his Smith days on this clip: [url="http://www.youtube.com/v/Am61TgFB8qI"]http://www.youtube.com/v/Am61TgFB8qI[/url] Louis Johnson on this tuition video (which sounds the same as my 'ray!): [url="http://www.youtube.com/v/pr3EwkdrtBk"]http://www.youtube.com/v/pr3EwkdrtBk[/url] Meshell Ndegeocello has an monster vintage jazz vibe going here: [url="http://www.youtube.com/v/uE3Y380Nv8Y"]http://www.youtube.com/v/uE3Y380Nv8Y[/url] and the most gorgeous fretless sounds ever: [url="http://www.youtube.com/v/4S2chCFBcaA"]http://www.youtube.com/v/4S2chCFBcaA[/url] [url="http://www.youtube.com/v/zc4cg-w-92M"]http://www.youtube.com/v/zc4cg-w-92M[/url] (Oh nooooooooooooo!!! Its sampled and sequenced!!!)

At risk of being in the minority, I wasn't that impressed with it. It sounds fine with a jazz bass but with my Smiths it sounds rubber bandy. Not dissing anyone who likes it though, it was just too coloured for my needs. BTW: Very impressive playing there Sir!

The simple one is check all the earth connections. Ideally you'd want to check the earth leads are properly connected to the pot casings (or sometimes collars), the jack socket, the pickups and there's nothing live touching the shielding on the control cavity. Are there any crackles when you shake the bass? That might indicate a broken or dry solder joint somewhere.

[quote name='ped' post='4735' date='May 22 2007, 11:27 PM']if you do go there make sure you ask for sum yak meat.[/quote] Mate there's none left - it was so damn good.

Gallien Krueger solid state combos Burman Pro all valve heads

[quote name='ped' post='4675' date='May 22 2007, 09:59 PM']Bugger I want it back now lol[/quote] No you don't, I think she's the Naomi Campbell of the bass world - nice looking but she's demanding, there are dark aspects to her character and everyone's had a go on her. Here are some more photos: and another sound clip of me playing really boring scales but there's a combination of all the different pickup settings with the Q filter turned on and off. [attachment=235:Alembic_samples.mp3] Now get those donations in son, and sort the sponsorship out.