Jean-Luc Pickguard

I've made loads of these. The most recent one was housed in a colmans mustard lid (yellow english mustard IIRC) for Pete o5b's open-backed banjo. I think I also used double sided carpet tape & a disc cut from a mousmat. It worked a treat first time he tried it at a gig - straight into his geetar amp for a couple of songs. There's a recording here: [url="http://www.o5b.co.uk/petes-banjo/"]http://www.o5b.co.uk/petes-banjo/[/url]

Any live band that enjoys playing covers has got to a million times better than the rubbish I had to endure last Saturday at Chessington World of Adventures at a Nintendo event. A blummin'g great tent with a few thousand punters, Massive video screens on each side of the stage, lightshow, lasers, smoke & pyrotechnics. On come a pair of 19 year-old twins with comedy hair, one of whom can do cartwheels, somersaults & the splits. They 'do' a set consisting of Rock DJ, Ice Ice Baby, Jump Around, All the Small Things, Ghostbusters, Teenage Kicks etc. The songs were all delivered karaoke style with no live musicians no spontaneity and no feel or groove. However it wasn't even proper karaoke - I don't think they were actually singing anything - it looked & sounded like they were miming badly to an autotuned studio track.

Its best to treat it like a separate instrument - not as weeny bass guitar that can't do everything a bass guitar can. It isn't one and canmake sounds you can't get from any other instrument. Just as you play double bass differently to how you'd play a Precision bass, you would also play an ashbory differently. There is some immediate familiarity but most people who have a ten minute go on one and ignorantly dismiss it as unplayable or a gimmick probably do so as they think it is impossible to play with good intonation. What they don't realise is that unlike a lined fretless bass guitar you don't stop the string right on or just behind the fretline, but between the lines, more like on a fretted bass. Like reading music the more you practice, the better you get.

I've got two, but probably only need one, so I'm thinking of keeping the blue one & selling the black one. An Ashbory is Good for jam nights as no one asks to borrow it. People who have never seen one often make 'fisher-price bass' jokes - until they hear it.

John East!

It's human nature to fear anything we can't understand, so I'd say "Kill it with fire"

[quote name='stevie' post='985609' date='Oct 12 2010, 12:28 PM']I've had good experience with UPS (via Interparcel)...[/quote] +1 Everything I've sent via them has arrived in one piece

Jeebuz - Perhaps the website is meant as a metaphor for the basses - looks OK on the surface, as long as you don't look any deeper than the surface. Welcome screen, table based layout & framed redirect - what is it 1996? Does flea not want people with visual disabilities to visit his website? Does he not care about SEO? trojan dropper - (I'm running noscript, so I didn't see this for myself, so I'll take the others' word for it) This is unforgivable - they should take the site down until it's restored from a clean backup and tested

is the nut glued in? I bought a pack of 'fake ivory' plastic chopsticks and used a microsaw & files to make a nut when I built my fretless precision. There's enough material in the thickest part of each chopstick to make two nuts and I had a big pack for pennies so I had plenty of practice before I made the real one. Once made I put three tiny dabs of superglue on the underside and stuck it in place - the idea being that it will hold but a solid strike from the edge should break the bond cleanly if it does ever need to come out for replacement. Its never popped out in the six or so years since I made it. You cousin does sound a bit daft. If it did make a difference, it probably wouldn't be a lot & you'll look look like a guitarist from an 80s mullet-rock band.

The Pennfab ebay a/c seems to be run by the same peeps as stagebox.com website who don't seem to list any Penn stuff at all which seems a bit strange. I've just found [url="http://www.proaudiostash.co.uk"]http://www.proaudiostash.co.uk[/url], so I can give them a shout as well - they seem to have at least the corners & handles, but only list a few different connector dishes - looks like I need a D023K to take neutrik 'D-series' speakon & jack connectors

[quote name='The Bass Doc' post='983662' date='Oct 10 2010, 07:19 PM']I think it's possible to buy direct from Penn - they've got a depot just down the road from me in Washington Tyne and Wear. A mate of mine has definitely bought from them by arranging to pop in after phoning ahead with an order.[/quote] Thanks that's good to know - that sounds like the phone number I've found on the Penn website. Hopefully they're set up for mail-order without P&P costing more than the goods for a small order.

I need some cab hardware of specific size which is only made by Penn Elcom: 8x corners: C1568 2x Handles: H1105 1x Punched Dish Plate: [s]D2101K-NLT4[/s] D023K Any ideas for a UK supplier who does Penn Elcom stuff? I've sent an email to Penn Elcom - there's a UK Phone number which I'll try during office hours, but wondered if anyone know of any UK companies who stock this stuff.

Looks nice, but "this bass is the bomb. Tone is just SO much better than that $10,000 plus pre-CBS Fender...and mojo for days! " makes the seller look a little daft to me.

I'd tell the guitarist to make him a chord chart so he can play his own bass line. Or failing that. they should get a bass player who can actually play. He sounds like a bit of a numpty

I like my BDi21 a lot, but I tend to use the acoustic version the ADi21 more. The eq sounds fantastic with an acoustic bass or electric upright bass & makes my cheapo chinese fender stratacoustic guitar sound a lot more classy on recordings. After trying many different compressors, I finally found exactly what I was looking for in their BLE100 limiter/enhancer - not quite a compressor, but it turns out I needed a limiter all along.

use it for 40 years

Call me a cynical old cnut (please do!) but is is it possible he's doing this by detuning his bass, playing along with the track slowed down and then speeding it up on the video? There just seems to be a bit of Benny Hillness From about 1:40ish on Coffee Shop Of course fair play to him however he did it.

Not me - If I wanted to hear something that sounded like a dustbin full of spoons being rolled down a hill, I'd roll a dustbin full of spoons down a hill.

Don't know why, but this thread reminded me of this

[quote name='pietruszka' post='977363' date='Oct 4 2010, 04:54 PM']Really? I didnt know, Ive seen pics of him playing double bass and he's standing. Oh well, shows what I know!! Dan[/quote] Um... The story was that he couldn't stand or sit for that particular session due to the amount of alcohol/substances consumed prior to being called in. He didn't have a problem standing otherwise

Charlie Chaplin once lost a Charlie Chaplin-look-alike contest: [url="http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/chaplin2.asp"]http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/chaplin2.asp[/url]

I love his effortless way of playing - he's hardly moving at all on that video

Aren't those picture frames things for people who can't play to display an instrument which cost a lot of money and is for looking at not playing?