EliasMooseblaster

Cheers! I've never been sure about the body - it's something quite pale and relatively light, so we suspected poplar or ash but couldn't say for certain. We stained it with a bit of brown Ronseal before the original finish, and then I used quite a dark brown shellac on the refin, so it's certainly not its natural colour any more!

I wasn't sure whether to call this New-Old-Bass-Day, or Old-Bass-Reborn-Day. I finally finished a refinish of the faithful old P-bass copy that my father and I bolted together from a kit about 12 years ago. The kit was bought from Brandoni Guitars, who I gather are still going. Over the course of about a week, we assembled her and attempted to French-polish her, until she looked a bit like this: (on the left) She's about 10 years old in the above photo. It wasn't long after this that I took the strings off to let the bowed neck rest. Last summer I decided to sand down what remained of the battered old shellac finish and give her a new coat. I also bought a nice Fender '62 RI pickup off the Bass Doc so I could upgrade the old one. And a nicer scratchplate. So as of yesterday, she looks like this: Quite pleased with the finish, so I just wanted to share the shiny with you all! I'll see whether I can post a better quality shot this evening (i.e., that wasn't done with a cheap mobile phone camera).

[quote name='Adrenochrome' timestamp='1386343444' post='2299060'] Content - but could always improve. [/quote] This puts it better than I could - I'm quite happy with my playing at the moment, but there are always ways I could improve it.

[quote name='superclive' timestamp='1386251698' post='2297719'] Why do kettle leads seem to multiply? When everything else seems to disappear? [/quote] Just like me, they long to be, Close to yooooou....

I'd have also gone for options 1 and 3; in the end I went with 3. I've got into a strange habit of hoarding kettle leads ever since a bit of a hiccup with a return to a mail order company - they replaced the amp very promptly but forgot to send a cable with the new one! Now I always check before I part with my cash...and this minor incident was nearly 12 years ago! Maybe I'm just a bit neurotic. As flyfisher said, the things are easy enough to find and replace. I think what I really worry about is making sure I've got one with a 5A fuse in it, as everything else in the house seems to run off 3 or 13A. Not that I've managed to blow a fuse in an amp to date...maybe I really am just neurotic!

Get a 'bird. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoRb8hxwluE

Just going to bump this thread to re-iterate what a bloody good album this is! I've been in danger of overplaying it the last couple of weeks, but several of the songs have been firmly stuck in my head the whole time. [i]Monte Carlo [/i]is truly infectious as an earworm, and [i]Joe [/i]is still making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Bloody good stuff sir, bloody good.

Yeah, I was surprised - I've always used .045 to .105 myself, so I got a bit of a surprise when I used my friend's bass at a rehearsal, which he'd strung with .050 to .110s. Nothing too alarming...until it came to taking a solo and realising I couldn't get my bends on pitch!

As a long-time fan of The Who, I shall do my best! If it is indeed correct to credit Pete Townshend as the first man to destroy his instrument onstage, it all began as an accident - they were playing in a club with a low ceiling, and in the middle of one song, he accidentally put the head through the ceiling. The guitar came back down, but the head didn't, so to save face he grabbed his 12-string and finished the song (and rest of the set) with that, as if he'd intended to do it all along. The audience, understandably, went insane. I think they freely admitted it was a bit of a gimmick to repeat this, but at the same time, The Who were always the angry group that appealed to angry mods. The (occasional) destruction of their gear evolved into a statement of that anger, even though it was really just a gimmick. If you watch those videos of Townshend and Moon laying into their gear from the '60s, Townshend clearly looks like he's letting off steam in the process. The problem is that the bands who've subsequently done it don't have that backstory or that connection. I've watched clips of Nirvana doing the same, and it just looks staged and stroppy. Particularly when you're filling up arenas, like Kiss, like Nirvana, like Green Day, it just looks like three or four rich kids smashing toys they can afford to replace. It has none of the same resonance.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1386027984' post='2294923'] Here we go, folks, the ball is now rolling (and in your court..!). Here's my offering for this months Challenge... [url="https://soundcloud.com/dad3353/dreams-of-a-patchy-dormeur"]Dreams of a patchy dormeur...[/url] Let me know if there's any problems with the link, or whatever... Enjoy... [/quote] You do work fast, sir! Good stuff, I really enjoyed that. The drums sounded good - am I right in understanding that was just you programming a plugin, or was there some triggering trickery going on?

I'm working on it, I promise - give me a couple more years to get famous and then they'll be clamouring in your shop for any bass they can get their mitts on! Joking aside, this does go back to a similar thread I was reading last week, which came to a similar conclusion: a lack of any real "bass heroes" in modern music - I've certainly noticed the glut of cardboard-cutout indie bands in which the tallest of the four hipsters was given a bass and told it was easy enough to play, but of course he was told he [i]had [/i]to buy a Fender so they could "get that vintage feel." Dubstep has probably not helped matters. But then I'm sure '80s synth-pop was not exactly helpful - why bother looking for that elusive Competent Bass Guitarist when you could just play the bassline on a keyboard? Now I'm fortunate to be too young to remember much of the '80s, so tell me: were the big shots Mark King and Jaco actually appreciated at the time, or did that come later? Do we simply have to wait for players like Steve Lawson or Me'shell Ndegeocello to receive more widespread recognition? Or do we need to go out and reclaim this territory ourselves?

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1385984937' post='2294263'] elephant? I thought it was one of these… [/quote] Ah! I thought it looked a bit strange for an elephant. You're probably right. ...now what the hell is that?

My 2011 Gibson Thunderbird. I bought it off Billy Apple two months ago tomorrow. (The same evening our singer decided to resign, in fact, but that's a different story...) At the time, I had a strong sense of GAS for either a T-bird or a US Std Precision - and by "either," I of course meant "both of them." Oddly enough, this one bass has cured my GAS completely. I still look at some of the specimens on the BC Marketplace - some of you have some gorgeous-looking instruments up for sale, I have to say - but they just aren't having the same effect on me. Previously I would have lusted and pined for most of them, but now I can just look at them and appreciate their beauty. I am satisfied with my Gibson. It's quite possibly the nicest bass I've ever played.

Congratulations, Spoombung! An excellent entry among a number of excellent entries last month. Now, this one could be tricky: October and November's pictures kind of jumped out at me, at least insofar as I could tell what kind of 'feel' I wanted to write. This one's not so obvious. That elephant does look very comfortable, but I don't think I've ever written comfortable music before. More thought required, evidently!

I have the same problem, it's compulsive. The missus keeps telling me to at least keep myself under control while we're in public, but... ...oh, you're talking about your basses, aren't you? Never mind...

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1385562915' post='2289671'] 3rd place - [b]EliasMooseblaster[/b] - very atmospheric start and gave me all feelings of a gothic, Dracula style wedding. The fretless bass in parts was inspired. And I loved the differing styles of the guitar solos. [/quote] Thank you very much, glad you enjoyed it! You've also forced me to go back and listen to my own piece again as I didn't realise the bass sounded like a fretless - it's actually a (fretted) T-bird, though I guess the neck pickup does have that kind of woody, not-quite-an-upright tone about it! While I'm here, a more general thanks to everyone that's commented on the clip so far - it's very encouraging to see that it's gone down well.

1. Call yourself Simon Cowell and behave in a generally objectionable fashion 2. Hoik trousers up to chin 3. Go through "X-Britain's Got Talent-Factor Come Dancing"-type "talent" show rigmarole to find passably gifted singer 4. ???? 5. PROFIT

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1385474512' post='2288638'] I recon if you ignore all the Youtube warriors and only talk about big-name bass icons, I challenge you to come up with a list of 10 bass players who APPEARED in the last 10 years who are pushing the boundaries of bass playing and you recon will still be at the fore in 20 years time. Go on, list names and say WHY you recon they're inovators pushing the boundaries. [/quote] Fair point, I can't! I could name several great bands/artists who cropped up in the last decade, but no really stellar bassists spring to mind in the same time. (Edit: I make no claim to be an expert on modern music, and would be more than happy to be proven wrong!) Is it our own fault in some way? For all the jokes we share on here about being the one who gets ignored, or the being the geek of the band, have we developed a collective sense of apathy? Have too many of us "learnt our place" and resigned to playing conservatively? How many of us would aspire to appear on such a list?

Yep, have grudgingly narrowed it down to two. (Which is not to speak ill of any of the others, of course!) Whether I can force myself to pick between the two will be a different matter!

Not wishing to offend any of the vocalists, but I think Bankai's right: the vocals don't sit quite right in the mix. I don't know how musically adept your big fan is, but normally if people don't like the sound of the vocals, they won't appreciate the rest of it. Which is a shame, because the instrumentation sounds pretty good throughout! It's going to sound like a strange thing to say, but your lead singer sounds a bit self-conscious on these recordings. I wonder if the problem is that he feels less reserved on stage, and therefore sounds a bit more convincing. (I can sympathise: it is a bit strange standing in front of a mic with just your bandmates nearby and going for it the same way you would when on stage!)

Christ on a bike...to echo all the above sentiments, I honestly don't know which one stands out above the others. They're all really impressive - and all really different! Hopefully a few more listens will do the trick - I don't want to have to resort to closing my eyes and sticking a pin in the screen...

Ah, fair enough, then - I suspected my concerns were unfounded! Afraid I've never tried to set a neck before (I've only assembled bolt-ons so far!), so the best I can do is wish you luck with it. Looking forward to seeing the results!

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1385033783' post='2283593'] Oh dear. I really want one for myself now! [/quote] Yep. Yep, I thought had no GAS, but mentally I seem to draw a distinction between "shop-bought guitar GAS" and "build your own guitar GAS." [quote name='Shockwave' timestamp='1385033616' post='2283590'] Annoyingly I was told after i bought the kit that the bridge was actually a 3 point one, which I didn't really want, but never mind! The rout for the 3 point bridge has already been done, I will be tuning this bass drop C when finished so I need to try and make sure I have enough travel on the bridge to intonate the C correctly. Is there anything I can do with the nut to help this if I run into problems? What say you guys about a finish? Could keep it natural, but I am very tempted by using some sort of wash/trans colour. Could go with Green! What recommendations would you guys give me regarding techniques and glue for the set neck part of the build? [/quote] First of all, just a quick question: have they confirmed that it's a 34" scale? Only, I've got the Epiphone SG bass in a 34" scale, and that has a 22-fret neck, and I notice this is only 20. (But then I know there's only 20 on your average P-bass, so I could be worryingly unduly.) Have they actually routed for the 3-point bridge, or just drilled the holes? Again, I'm comparing to the Epiphone, but the bridge and tailpiece seem to be screwed straight into the top on mine, so you might be able to swap in a different bridge and...erm...cover up the holes. To be fair, the 3-point is a bit of a nuisance, but it's workable. Just be careful when you're changing strings as the moving parts have a tendency to fall out! As for finish...I bet that maple top would look absolutely stunning if you French Polished it. Does require a lot of time and patience, though.

I'm trying to move over (very gradually) to using Ubuntu Studio - no interfaces, though, just plugging into the PC's soundcard. As far as I can tell so far, the software's all very good. Getting drivers for specific interfaces could be more of a challenge - I certainly haven't found one for a Line6 UX1! As Skol points out, you can get a lot of Windows software to run under the WINE emulator, though you may find certain bits don't work perfectly.

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1384782178' post='2280600'] + about a million! What the hell is so likely to go wrong micing a cab exactly? Cos we mic drum kits, guitar amps, horm sections, leslie speakers, vocalists all the time, what exactly is wrong with micing a bass cab, do we need extra insurance in case the mic gets miffed? [/quote] I've often wondered about this myself. (Particularly since, if you ask this question over on Talkbass, you get about 100 responses from people desperate to tell you that they stopped using a bass amp altogether since they bought a particular DI box - I wouldn't mind, except they invariably write in the most sanctimonious tones, as if they think you're somehow inferior or unclean for still lugging one of those big, dirty cabs around...) Is it an assumption that most bassists will (i) spend most of the set chugging root notes underneath the rhythm guitar anyway and (ii) can't be trusted with their own EQs? Is it just an assumption that bassists are generally less stroppy than guitarists? Are sound engineers anticipating most of the soundcheck being spent telling the guitarist to turn the f**k down, so at least if they can plug the bass into a DI, they can spend 10 seconds applying the same EQ curve they learnt in music tech school because "that's how a bass is supposed to sound"? Not to tar all engineers with the same brush; it's always a delight to get one who knows their stuff and gives a monkey's. And I'm finding an increasing number of bass amps which have a DI socket off the preamp, so I'm allowed at least some influence over "my sound." But still...what the hell is so likely to go wrong micing a cab?