rushbo

“It’s too late for me, I’ve ordered a toastie. Save yourselves.”

I defretted an old Squier Jazz and filled the slots with epoxy. I masked the neck to avoid any unnecessary cleaning/sanding - a little sanding of the board and then used boat varnish (I think...) to add a tough, glassy finish. Worked a treat and sounded lovely. A bit Lo-Tech, but then again, so am I.

[quote name='Heathy' timestamp='1474915627' post='3141523'] Things took a turn for the worse at a recent gig, when the punter responded by typing his request onto his phone. I then said "I can't read that - I'm 47". The next time someone does this to me I'm going to lick their face. I'll let you know how this pans out. [/quote] Oh man, please do...

[quote name='stu_g' timestamp='1474925079' post='3141605'] my bitsa's white slab body has 2 piece body i forget which wood either ash or alder usa precision pickup mirror scratchplate and an encore neck which is quite hefty it's not totally finished as it isnt laquered yet will get round to it at some point total cost around £150 mark second the black bass made from parts i had around, squier indonesian neck with wilkinson 70s style tuners sunn mustang body with a gotoh dimarzio style pickup and scratchplate from a silver series squier precision cost hard to work out as i had all the parts around third candy apple bass with squier classic vibe jazz neck,usa p bass body, wizard thumper pickup, usa jazz bridge pickup,vintage fender bridge wired as a fender hot rod precision courtesy of fender support wiring diagrams cost around £200 these all sound the part and the candy apple has a very funky sound [attachment=228709:IMG_0539.jpg] [/quote] Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! That candy apple P is a stunner.

I love a bitsa. The "cheap bass" thread got me thinking about the humble FrankenBass...they don't have to be made of super-mega-expensive components, just as long as they're unique and they tell a bit of a story. Here's mine.... [attachment=228707:bitsas.jpg] The green one is made out of an Encore body and an Indonesian Squier P neck, with hardware and strings I had left over from other projects. My only expense was £9.99 for a couple of rattlecans from eBay. It was originally a rather sickly sunburst, which I stripped and then replaced with an even sicklier orange. That had to go. I had to do some work to the neck pocket as it was about 2mm too wide to fit the Squier neck, but other than that, a nice straightforward job. Sounds lovely and thumpy. Total cost...about £70 The middle one is my current fave...the body is from the Squier P that donated the neck to greenie (still following this...?) and the neck is from a gen-you-wine Mexi Fender. Pup is from a 2005 US Fender P and it's got a Badass bridge - most of these bits came from good ol' BC. It's got a Kiogon loom of course. It's a monster and sounds brilliant in the context of my old skool, Dr Feelgood-esque, RivvumanBlooze band. This boys and girls, is a keeper. Cost? This is my Fodera moment...about £200. (In case you're wondering, the round waterslide transfer is the lesser crest of Birmingham. As I live near Dudley, I have the Black Country flag on the back, in the interest of balance). The Red Devil is bolted together from an Indonesian Squier body with a Chinese Squier neck. I had to get a drill attachment doodad to enlarge the holes for the machine heads, tho. I quite enjoyed that. A Warwick bridge, a BassDoc scratchplate, Wilkinson tuners and some stick on "blocks" and all is good. Originally it was a vile purple which was Hell on Earth to strip. It resisted abrasive sanding, Nitromors and loud and persistent swearing, but it finally succumbed to my heat gun on the "Krakatoa" setting. This one is strung with rounds for a bit of extra zinginess, which we all need now and again, am I right? Maybe cost about £140. Yes, it's good for Metal. It used to have an inverted P neck, but the truss rod was faulty. Well, it became faulty after I snapped it... Indonesian Squier basses are brilliant and perfect for modding. Or just playing as they are... None of these mongrels would cause Jon Shuker to miss his nap time in terms of build quality, but I love 'em all dearly. And they sound way better than they have a right to. Now, I've shown you mine...show me yours!

Good work fella! First gigs are always...eventful...

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1474747862' post='3140265'] if you get chance to hear the Backbeat soundtrack or the Beatles live in Hamburg album (wonder when that'll get the digitally remastered and re-released treatment?), I think you might agree that they weren't a million miles away from punk [/quote] The Backbeat soundtrack is excellent....and the film ain't bad either. The Fabs had more than a few Punk Rock moments....the whole Hamburg thing, the "Please Please Me" LP being bashed out in a day, Lennon sweating and stripped to the waist while singing "Twist and Shout" through a ragged throat, "I'm Down", loads of the "Get Back/Let It Be" stuff (before it got sanitised for general consumption).....Macca too- recording your first LP on your own using a single mic and then forming a band and playing guerilla gigs for 50p ticket prices in front of students who couldn't believe that they were watching a Beatle. I think that's pretty Punk Rock.

[quote name='mentalextra' timestamp='1474729068' post='3140110'] I wonder if anyone in the music business has ever denied being influenced by the Beatles. And if they did, was it a career ender? [/quote] Back in ye olde Punk Rocke days, the vast majority of Popular music was deemed "boring", including The Fabs. A famous and possibly apocryphal tale is that Glen Matlock was booted out of the Sex Pistols for declaring his love for the Beatles, among other things.... If you were the Who, the Kinks, the Stooges, the New York Dolls, the MC5 and Reggae, you were OK. Oh, and Bowie and a bit of Krautrock. But Punk was all about shock and there was nothing more shocking than criticising Monarchy and the Beatles....blasphemy! Heresy! There are a few old skool punx still doing the rounds (Hi Johnny Rotten!) and topping up their pensions. PiL are still well worth seeing. Even though Johnny doesn't like the Beatles...apparently.

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1474708875' post='3139949'] B strings make an effective drain unblocker [/quote] Word.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1474566343' post='3138895'] A bass is a bass, is a bass. As long as it's set up OK, what does it matter how much it cost ? It's how you play it that counts surely ? I recently did a dep jazz gig on the drummer's £60 Aria bass. [/quote] I could not agree more.

I love putting together bitsas...my current favourite is a Pretend Precision consisting of a £20 encore bass body and the neck off a £25 Squier P bass. Hardware and pick up are from god knows where and it's strung with a set of ancient flats. It's painted seafoam green with two tins of rattlecan paint from Fleabay (£9.99 for two...) I absolutely love it and it sounds like a Motown Machine. I may splash out a tenner for a white pearl pickguard, but I'm afraid I might upset its thrift store mojo...

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1474569296' post='3138919'] I've got the same - also pimped with teacups! What do you mean by flip the pickups? As for the strings, seriously, whack some flats on as soon as you can - it will bring the bass to life! Mine's got the Hofner flats with the dark green silks. Joyous thump. [/quote] I'm in the market for some flats at the moment... The 500/1 has the pickup reversed for some reason...hopefully a Hofner geek will be along in a moment to tell us why. I painted the switches cream and put a thin piece of sticky vinyl around the headstock to look like binding. Pretty convincing, too. I painted the nut to get the striped look (fiddly as all hell...) and put wood filler in the bridge to get that "stepped" look. I like fiddling about with basses - it's fooling no-one, but it amused me. The great thing about them (apart from the incredible value for money and lovely thumpiness) is that you don't even need to plug 'em in for low level, home practice!

Can I vote for Kraftwerk? Their influence on early Hip-Hop via Afrika Bambaataa amongst others, is huge. And with Hip Hop/Rap/Urban music being the most popular music forms in the world according to Spotify, they are currently the most influential band on the planet. (Gets coat, runs out smirking, IBTL etc....) But I voted for the Beatles...by a nose. Ringo's nose. Boom tish.

I've got the "entry level" version - it was called the Icon at the time, but I think they're called the Ignition series now... I picked it up from Thomann with a fitted hard case and a "correct" strap for about £240. It sounds fabulous. For quite a light instrument, it really packs a punch. Mine still has the factory fitted strings, so I can only imagine what it would sound like with decent flats on. I also did the trainspottery mods - flipped the pick ups, replaced the black knobs with "teacups", brassoed the "Icon" logo off the truss rod cover blah blah. They really are great basses - even the cheapo version. The real deal must be incredible!

I love Squiers - especially the Korean and Indonesian ones. I've noticed that the second hand price is creeping up (not so much for the Chinese ones). Maybe people are waking up to their fantastic good value.

Mine arrived today. It's ace.

[quote name='jezzaboy' timestamp='1474314294' post='3137102'] The track I heard on radio 2 from Shea was full of teenage girls screaming. Giles Martin said they left the screaming in but after about 30 seconds, it did my head right in. What I could hear of the music sounded quite good considering they couldn`t hear one another. I can`t wait till October when the real Beatles movie - Supersonic, comes out [/quote] I'm too old to say "lol" I think Giles Martin left the screaming on because no software in the world could remove all that. Yeah, I'll be standing in line with my salted Popcorn to see "Supersonic". I'm no fan of O*s*s, but they're an interesting band who came to define a genre in a very similar way to the Beatles. Their image, interviews and that tabloid friendly sibling rivalry took them much further than their music alone would have. That's not me hatin' on them Gallaghers, as they would have been a pretty successful Beat Combo anyway, but not the kind of Beat Combo that could sell out Knebworth...

[quote name='6feet7' timestamp='1474313553' post='3137086'] OK. I'm going to say it then. I don't like the Beatles. But I also don't like anything any of them did individually afterwards either. Whatever their influence I just don't get it or them. [/quote] Fine and dandy...with any Art, it's subjective - I have a real problem with Dylan, Van Morrison and The Doors. I'm in the demographic that generally worships them, but me..nah. The Beatles are important from a contextual point of view because they rescued an American Art form - Rock and Roll - and sold it back to America, just as it was looking like it was all about to fizzle out. Their music was only one part of their appeal as they were the full package to our American cousins - as good looking as Fabian, as quick witted as Jerry Lee Lewis (but without the, er...baggage...) safer than that hip-swinging son of the devil, Elvis and they were exotic - British with that "cute" accent. What the Beatles also had was the ability to generate (in my opinion) absolutely timeless Pop classics at the drop of a hat. Without that, they'd have lasted about as long as Frankie Avalon. They were at the forefront of Pop/Rock music in the sixties - a time of incredible change. Their skill was knowing when to change and by how much - so "Love Me Do" became "Paperback Writer" then "Strawberry Fields Forever" and finally "Come Together". As the world changed, the Beatles were one step ahead, responding to trends, but setting them as well. "Would The Beatles be as successful (or influential) if they'd have been formed in the 70's, 80's or 90's" is a nice, dinner table debate. Guess what I'd say?

I saw it last week and thoroughly enjoyed it. How much it adds to the story is debatable. but it's a great movie and I would urge even the sceptics to try and see it when it eventuality gets streamed/Netflixed and DVD'd to death. My "take away" was just how good a live band they were, even in a hail of teddy bears and Jelly Babies. I guess playing for six or seven hours a night, seven days a week in German clubs can really sharpen you up... After the film ended came the best part for me - the showed all thirty glorious minutes of the enhanced Shea Stadium gig. Absolutely superb. Paul trying to keep it together, Ringo knocking seven shades of something out of his kit and John and George goofing off. Yet it all sounds incredible. Still relevant? Yeah. They were accidental pioneers, breathing new life into a declining dance craze. The degrees of separation between them and the current crop of skinny white boys toting guitars increases with every generation, but that's a hell of a shadow they've cast. Their legacy will outlive all of us. It's OK to say "I don't like the Beatles", but to deny their influence and colossal importance is foolish.

It looks filthy. How many basses get to this state as a result of "normal", regular playing?

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1469899486' post='3101911'] Don't think so...I'm sure the word 'plastic' was in there somewhere. [/quote] Plastic Factory. I spent a fortune in there on REM/Church/Paisley Underground stuff there in the late 80's/90's...

I saw them at Brum Uni (I think....) as part of a package tour. They were ace. It's prompted me to dig out that "Resident Alien" CD I haven't played for years. There were some fantastic bands in the 90's, that didn't get the attention they deserved - Belltower, Headswim, Nyack, Kinky Machine...the list goes on.