bass_dinger

4 minutes ago, SimonK said:

...so I heard banging and commotion, came downstairs and lo and behold my Trace 4x10 had given birth to a healthy baby 2x10, a £40 lovechild from Facebook marketplace - I didn't even know she was pregnant and now have to find room for another cab to feed!

 

I'm guessing blaming my 4x10s infidelity isn't an excuse to still be in this?

 

 

If that was a recorder, everyone would be laughing at you! However, I see that it is not (it only has two holes on the body).  So, well done, it's lovely!

And for £40, it would be rude not to.

16 hours ago, cybertect said:

Friday evening, after a few months' absence, Robbie McIntosh returned to my favourite local venue, The Sound Lounge, in Sutton, south London.

 

Superb as always

 

 

 

 

 

\

 

Those are great photos!

I am tempted to go along to Sutton, just to see if the musicians are as good-looking in real life...

15 minutes ago, Richard R said:

 

Let's get the inevitable of the way and never revisit it again:

Jaco would have only needed four holes.

 

...indeed.   However ...

On 06/02/2025 at 09:15, Rosie C said:

Let's go back into the midsts of time to Pythagoras... he made an instrument with one single long string on it - much like a bass guitar

.... Pythagoras only needed one string...

2 hours ago, Rosie C said:

Much of the tone is from the instrument

Oooh, just like the electric bass guitar,  then!? 

I feel another Tier 2 fail coming on... But first, let me exhaust the possibilities of my current instrument. 

My daughter's orchestral violin teacher used to joke, seriously, with people, when they said his fiddle had great tone. He would hold it up, and put it to his ear, unplayed, and shake it. "I can't hear the violin's tone...".  His point was, the tone was only released by the player. 

Yamaha have a good resource  - a Web page that allows one to select a note on a stave, which produces a diagram of the relevant fingering

https://www.yamaha.com/en/musical_instrument_guide/recorder/play/play002.html

As for this video, 

On 05/02/2025 at 19:41, Rosie C said:

 

Anyway, here is me in our early days of recording music...  

 

 

...that pure tone is what attracted me to the instrument - sweet, woody, dry (very few overtones and no vibrato). 

However, I am struggling to get that sound.  My fingers don't cover the holes consistently, my breath control gives  wavering notes, and my playing doesn't feel as in-control as yours.

I have a friend who teaches recorder, so, I will approach her for a couple of technical lessons.  But first I must learn (memorise) the fingerings, so that I better understand what my difficulties are. 

I am encouraged to play more.

PS where can I find the sheet music for that Tielman piece of music?

1 hour ago, Si600 said:

Your Tambourinist could look a little more enthused to be there though

She is in a state of silent awe, as she admires the tone that a skilled Grade 4 musician can muster from a recorder.  

She is also pretty impressed that the recorder player also laid down the octave mandolin and bass guitar tracks too. 

That would humble most musicians, especially a percussionist. 

An impressive video @Rosie C - I even tried to subscribe to your channel, in the hope of more of the same.

11 hours ago, pete.young said:

A friend has one. Fantastic for rounding up stray dogs.

By playing it, or by using it as a stick to beat them?

19 hours ago, Duroc17 said:

Or when the singer names the band - he has to say … on the (make and model) bass is…(name of bassist, age star sign optional) 

"....and finally, the bass player is using roundwounds, probably .45 to .105, that were on the bass when he bought it 15 years ago. Plectrum is a Jim Dunlop XL Jazz III.  The drummer is banging drums with sticks; the guitarist is strumming a guitar; the vocalist is singing into a microphone, and wearing a lilac sparkle suit from Top Shop.  Buy our album. "

I recently picked up a recorder - a woodwind instrument.

Many of us will have experienced them at primary school.  Cheap instrument, sounds shrill and painful when played badly. Rarely played well.

I have a Yamaha with an arched windway, which gave a more mellow tone than the other instrument at a similar price range. 

I have found that it is a very sensitive instrument to the skill of the player- blow it too hard, or unevenly, and it will punish one with an unpleasant tone.

However, it is an accessible instrument  - a fingering diagram and some music and one can play a tune - usually London's Burning or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star....

I also see that the fingering diagrams are different  for (say) A flat and G sharp - because, strictly speaking, they are different notes.

Any other recordists on here?

Others: "I bought a new bass. I spent big money.  I failed. "

Thread inhabitants "oh well done! Share some photos. It's lovely!"

Bass_dinger: "I bought a recorder. I spent £17. It's only Tier 2"

Thread inhabitants "arghhh. Terrible idea, terrible instrument."

To ensure that this thread is not derailed, I will find (or start) a recorder thread - and everyone can insult the instrument over there, instead!  Bring your bagpipes too.

https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/509120-the-recorder-woodwind-instrument/

In other news from Bass_dinger Towers, a setup followed a slight repair ( replacement neck and refinish) to this 2023-purchased bag of bassy bits...

....resulting in this barely-distinguishable-from-original finished article... 

Repairs and setups are within the rules, I think.... 

2 hours ago, Bass4real said:

lmfao 

 

 

 

In basschat.co.uk, people are so relaxed that they sometimes don't even complain when others misattribute quotes to them.

But they will mention it. It looks like in your post above, you have over-typed your own words into the field where my words were.  Not a problem - certainly not here, in this rather silly and jokey thread. Really, I don't mind.

However, it may be a problem with the basschat software, that allows users to amend what they are quoting. 

1 hour ago, neepheid said:

 

Aye, probably.  If it had been a bass recorder you might have been in more bother

 

Have you seen the price of a bass recorder!? Honestly, if I had the money to spend on a bass recorder, I wouldn't spend it on a bass recorder...

The wonderful Just Flutes in Croydon list them starting at £250, up to £1,500. I will stick to sheet music from them, at least for now. But it's a great shop full of enthusiastic staff - and is located in a building that a friend of mine described as "Shakespeare's birth place".

It's a Yamaha!

It's got a letter B on the case...

It's a baroque-layout soprano recorder bought to accompany my grandson's journey into musicianship. 

Tier 2 fail, I think?

7 hours ago, neepheid said:

I'm not in a super hurry to do anything about it but my Epiphone Jack Casady has been benched for over a year now - either the pickup or the coil has gone stupidly microphonic and feeds back at the slightest provocation.  It got worse over time - first of all it was using the highest amounts of overdrive, then any amount of overdrive and now it's at the point where if the amp is turned up anything beyond practice levels, the feedback will commence.  It used to be able to handle any amount of overdrive and I would have to deliberately approach the amp (and like be six inches from the speaker) to coax feedback out of it.

 

I tried going to Epiphone/Gibson and they basically told me to bog off and take it to a tech.  I enquired at Gibson's nearest officially endorsed tech (in Dundee) but I was not satisfied with their answer - they spoke about potting the pickup - both the pickup and the coil are already entombed in epoxy so not sure where this wax is supposed to flow...

 

So looks like I need to replace the gubbins.  Now, the chances of landing a Jack Casady pickup/coil/loom are very low (last one sold on here was 4-5 years ago, for instance).  Now say I got fed up of waiting for a lightning bolt to strike at the exact time and place I need, in how much hot water with regard to gear abstinence would I be if I was to procure an alternative?  The only one I know of which is a direct physical replacement is the MAMA pickups Special J.Casady pickup.  I don't know if this would be considered an "upgrade" or simply "different".  It's only like-for-like in terms of physical dimensions - it would be a total move away from low impedance stuff to traditional high impedance, using good old series/single/parallel to provide the tonal differences instead of impedance levels.

 

I will stick a wanted post up on here for an OG Jack Casady loom, and if that bears fruit then I guess I'd be fine, but if you think that the MAMA replacement would have me exit the proceedings then I'll just wait until next year - it's already been out of commission for a year and it's not like I haven't got other basses I can play.  But it is starting to bug me a bit, having a gorgeous but unusable bass sitting in the corner gathering dust on its gig bag.

 

Over to you...

To me, a fundamental point of this challenge is to encourage basschatters to become better musicians by making the very best use of their existing kit, rather than seeking self-improvement by buying new stuff.

It seems pointless having a wonderful instrument in one's collection, which is broken, unusuable and unplayable - and leaving you unable to improve your craft. 

So, if all it takes to get it working is a repair, and you will play the repaired instrument, then I say, go ahead.

And, as the rules say, a repair is allowed. 

19 hours ago, Geek99 said:

I’d stay away from Talkbass.com then, if I were you. “Argument Central”

No it's not!!

Thomann is perhaps like Netflix  - tens of thousands of products online, but not the specific ones that I want. 

I wanted the Behringer umc404hd  - originally out of stock for up to 6 weeks, and now a 9 to 12 week wait time. Amazon have just one in stock, for twice the Thomann price.

So, I made do with my existing Xenyx 4 channel mixer, into a semi-functional Yamaha AG03 interface box. 

It takes up more desk space and I still need to buy a midi-to-USB cable.  However, it means that I am still in the Gear Abstinence challenge - and I am still playing bass and keyboard, rather than looking for kit to "improve" my skills.

13 hours ago, Bass4real said:

the second tallest in 2nd grade 

2 -Me bottom row right corner in 8th grade

As someone who grew up in England, I have always wondered what " second grade" and "8th grade" means, in terms of age.

People from the USA seem to use it as shorthand for their age. However,  I have not seen any information online on how old an 8th grader is (probably because I have not looked).

So, this is my opportunity to convert grade to age!

21 hours ago, ezbass said:

Here’s an interesting conundrum. I would like a better gigbag for my Epiphone Casino Coupé and have seen the one that Guitar Guitar recommend for that size of guitar. This would be (another) tier 2 fail, as it’s for a guitar. However, it seems that the bag is big enough to be used for a Mustang, as it is pictured with a Jazzmaster in it (Mustangs seem to fit JM sized cases). Would this escalate it to a full on fail, or keep it in tier 2?

I would congratulate you on repurposing and reusing equipment. A guitar gig bag can also be used as a bass gig bag, so you saved your bass-budget, _and_ you are taking your bass to a gig.  Spending less and playing more. 

13 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

Hair’s right though 

Indeed it is, as this cropped hamster head clearly shows...

And the real thing..

I recently acquired an edge-lined fretless bass.  How do I play it?

Specifically:

How do I improve my ability to pitch the notes correctly?

What is "correct" - should I aim for Even Tempered pitch or the actual pitch? (I have already discovered that the 3rd of the scale sounds more correct against the Root when it is slightly flat)

What slides work (from the 4th to the 5th? 1st to 2nd?)

How can I get more "mwah"?

4 minutes ago, Shockwave said:

Anyone got something in a parts bin somewhere?

Came here to suggest the same thing.  Surely someone has string tree in their Box of Bits? 

14 hours ago, DF Shortscale said:

Yeah I thought it was a 'touch on the optimistic side'. It has a couple of watchers, which means there must be some people out there thinking it's not completely crazy.

Or that people out there want to see if this item sells - if it does, they know that they can offload their own similar gear for the same inflated price. 

I have found a bulk pack of Slo-blow fuses for this amplifier, purchased from RS Online when I needed one or two spares.

Realistically, I have more fuses than I can use in a lifetime of gigging. So, if you wish, I can let you have some.  DM me, if you are keen.

Robert 

It's now on my wall, in the dull 40 watt glow of cheap lighting - a dark jade green in that light, but in a photo, it is more of a dark blue.  Like the luthier said, it's one of those colours that change depending on the lighting. Also, because the slightly yellow maple cap colour combined with the blue stain, gave us a more green colour.

The jade green is stunning  - I am fixated by it.  And the fingerboard visuals work too.  I'm in love!!