Mabrothrax

Gorgeous! I have some serious gas for a see through bass... but left handed? No way!

I feel it's quite simply because now there is (and has been for some time) an expected standard of playing and technical ability, to which students are both actively and unwittingly pursuing, In a fast and hard world, the person who can tick the most boxes has an advantage - not to say that personality and originality don't matter, but when you consider the modern realm of recording, producing and so on you can easily see why so many players will chose to fulfil expectations/requirements rather than impress and excite with a personal twist on their musicianship.

Having sniffed around for replacement necks I've found a distinct lack of lefty maple necks at a relatively low cost. What's more, does no one make replacement necks with musicman style headstocks? So I've realised it's best to make good with what I've got and have decided to re fret the rosewood/maple neck. The machine heads are being replaced because they re worse than awful. Seriously, a conclave of demented lobsters would do a better job. The headstock looks cheap and ugly and needs beautifying. The angle of the cut is making it hard for me to see how to reshape it without ending up with a rather narrow, pointy looking head. The machine heads I have on order are 'reversible' so I can experiment with a 3+1 set up, which I'm pretty sure is what I want. I might go for a paddle head neck from some nasty far eastern ebay store if it doesn't work out.

Colour me jealous, I would kill for one of them (or a cutlass II)

In no particular order... Chris Squire John Deacon Mark King Tony Levin John Giblin Nick Beggs Mick Karn Dave Meros Guy Pratt Sting

Bollocks to Keane. Let's not forget that our beloved Bexhill on sea was the concentration camp in the film Children of Men, whch reminds me of one of the local nutters who'd hang about the library and insist that the town's name is daemonic and that t was of special interest to the Nazis... Oh, and we're #8 in the original 'Crap towns' book.

I got me and a mate and a double bass in one of those huge polystyrene cases in a fiat punto. Much fun.

can we pet a bunch of sound clips from people?

Has this gone?

Gig? What is gig? Such is life that I currently can't afford to be in a band because it involves far too much time and money for travelling to where there are bands, and then more than I can sensibly afford on a crappy rehearsal room. So, I look for bassist wanted ads hoping there's something closer to home that I can stomach and get nowhere, look further afield (London) with a vague interest fully aware that I really can't afford to commit unless there are paid gigs waiting. I left a prog metal band 2 years ago because, even after being honest about it and scaling things back it simply cost too much to rehearse for what turned out to be 1 and a half gigs in the space of 8 months (from an established band that had hadsome very respectable gigs in and around london). I assumed the band had died a death as there is no internet presence left, but seems they've been continuously working on the album we were writing when I left despite many line up changes. they asked me to rejoin to help complete and promote the album, but have no gigs lined up...

You really need to say what sort of slap sound you want before throwing effects at it. It's worth looking into different types and qualities of compressor. Some clean up and even out your sound, others do 'squashed' bass really well. Most sit in the middle. With chorus, it's worth looking at ways of blending your wet and dry signal to get the classic slap sound with a hint of 80s cheese. Some higher end pedals have this blend wet/dry built in.

[quote name='rapscallion' timestamp='1344889604' post='1770768'] Preamp wise speak to Tommorichards(?) he's looking to make up some Sabre clone preamps for about £15 I think [/quote] Way ahead of you but thanks anyway. The wee beastie is going to evolve over the next few months - I'm still deciding how what ratio of Precision to Sabre it's gonna be. Actually, it needs a name. Claymore? Rapier? Bastard Sword?

PM sent.

It used to be rotosound, but nowadays I'm an (other) Optima Gold lover

Actually, you're right - been in touch with Tom, we both seem to be keen on Sabres and wannabe custom Sabres

I'm pleased with my EBS octabass > Exar compressor. Does 'tear your playhouse down' and even 'sledgehammer' really quite well. Of curse you can't beat the OC-2 for that 80s sound. Mmm. Gas attack!