CamdenRob

Really enjoyed listening through all the tracks, some great work and alot of effort gone into some of these. Cast my vote in the end for my favourite bassline. Looking forward to having a crack at next month's picture. Rob

I have bought basses from both wunjo and the gallery and can vouch for both. Top blokes, top stock, top service. The rest of london's bass shops leave something to be desired... A quick mention for rockstop on charing cross road too. I had a problem with a pedal and they exchanged it no questions asked. That sort of thing ensures I'll be buying stuff from them again, even if they maybe aren't the cheapest. Rob

I use a looper all the time, I think they're great pieces of kit for songwriting. (I even had a crack at this months composition competition on one) Admittedly just one chord pattern repeated indefinately with a widdly solo over the top is not really my thing, but I think a looper can be so much more than that. I'm going to put some bits up on youtube for some old friends who are always interested in what I'm coming up with. Here is the clip if anyone is interested. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWKn8MbLYzU[/media] Rob

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1369205787' post='2086149'] I do that with the voting page that will go up on... friday! (Had to think about that ) [/quote] I thought there might be something like that on the way, sorry I'm new to how this works. Rob

Any chance we could arrange all tracks into one post to have a flick through them all? Sorry I could do this myself but I'm not entirly sure how to do it... Rob

Thanks guys, kind words. Its really good that there are people here that will listen through anothers composition and critically comment. Thats what actually makes this thing work, its as much about people bothering to take the time to help another bassist with their piece as it is about the arrangements we've submitted. Crazy busy at work for the next couple of days but I'll have a proper listen of everything at the weekend. I really appreciate anyone who has taken the time to listen to this. Rob

Thought I would have a go at this months competition. Don't have a soundcloud account or proper recording equipment so I have used a blackberry playbook video recorder and the internal microphone. Not the greatest quality but as its a video you have the added bonus of my gurning bass face throughout... The second picture made me think of spring... dunno why... just did... So I have created this piece called 'Spring Greens', which is what I happened to be having for dinner when I wrote it. This also isn't a jazz piece... but never mind! My girlfriend has created me a YouTube account and uploaded it for me (clever girl) so here is a link to that [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWKn8MbLYzU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWKn8MbLYzU[/url]

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1368796374' post='2081640'] All you need to know about nose oil [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_sebum"]here[/url]. And it's the [i]outside[/i] of the nose. One only ventures inside when bridge mute material is required. Rub a little olive oil into it and you're gig-ready. (Not 'lemon' oil - contains petroleum distillates. Which is sort of where we came in.) [color=#FFFFFF].[/color] [/quote] Well there you go, I had no idea my nose oil could be so useful. I particularly liked this part of the wikipedia article on your link... "Nose grease has mild antifoaming properties and can be used to break down a high head on freshly poured beer or soft drinks. Wiping nose grease onto one's finger and then touching or stirring the foam causes it to dissipate rapidly[sup]."[/sup] The burly looking tatooed chap with the bolt through his nose down my local is always complaining about the head on his beer. Next time I'm in I'll sort it out for him by sticking my nose oiled finger in his pint...

I had a Squire P Bass in white with a delightful tortoiseshell scratchplate... Sounded like someone stamping on a frog....

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1368710827' post='2080487'] Pretty much any of the proprietary 'guitar cleaners' will do the job, but there are some issues surrounding this whole fingerboard cleaning thing for us to obsess over, should the fancy take us. As it has me, for years. Thing is, we're often asking these products to clean [i]and[/i] (lubricate / finish / shine) at the same time, which is a bit ambitious. It goes without saying that finished maple boards do not require oiling, but you'd be amazed how many people, etc. The so-called lemon oils we buy from guitar outlets are usually 99% petroleum distillates with a tiny bit of scent in there to make us think 'Oooh, lemony fresh!". 'Real' lemon oil - the pure stuff boiled down from real lemons and sold in specialist food sections contains sufficient concentrations of limonene and other stuff as would affect glues, bindings etc, and is not recommended. It will stain unfinished lightwoods a weird yellow and it's also bastard expensive. Bearing this in mind, for myself I avoid anything with claims of lemony-ness. It's considerably cheaper and more effective (if slightly more dangerous) to use naptha (lighter fuel) to clean rosewood boards. Not too much or it soaks in and dries the board out over time. Then a smidge of an organic oil like teak oil, olive oil, almond oil just to give it a sheen. Thing about teak oil is (i) too much can seal the board, inhibiting moisture transfer and (ii) teak-oil soaked rags can spontaneously combust, yikes. Olive oil and almond oil contain a fair amount of water. Apply too much of these oils and the board beneath can get soggy while the oil will seal the top surface inhibiting moisture egress. Bad. Dan Erlewine likes raw linseed oil (not boiled - forms a hard surface) for rw boards. He also recommends spit to clean nitro bodies - ymmv. Personally I'd not want to handle someone else's spitty bass. My own spit, fine. Don't like fast-fret and similar string-lube products because they're usually silicone-based. If you want to get 'difficult to shift' fingerprints over everything it's considerably cheaper to buy a can of silicone lubricant from Halford's for £3.99 and very lightly spray a bit of kitchen roll to apply. Not WD40 because it contains petroleum distillates which dry the board over time. Best and cheapest string lube is the oils in the skin of your nose. Outside of a shark's liver, nose oil has the highest concentration of squalene (the base for watchmakers' oil). It's organic, it's free and you've always got a supply within reach. [/quote] Thank you for what appears to be a well researched and scientific response but... nose oil? Seriously?

Whats the deal with those pickup covers? what advantage is it supposed to give? I appreciate it looks kinda cool but surley having an enormous piece of metal right over the middle of the strings would make a bass nigh on impossible to play? I'm sure this has been covered elsewhere so apologies if its going over old ground.

Morning All. Do you guys wipe down your strings etc after each play? I always have a quick run over each string and the fretboard when I finish playing. Does this actually make any difference? I'm guessing the strings will sound brighter for slightely longer? Rob

Thanks for all your input gents. Finally got a chance to drop in and try this out on Saturday. Felt good & sounded good in the shop. I always find it difficult to get a proper feel for a bass without your own amp set up etc.. Took a punt and bought it though. After a bit of setting up I'm really pleased with it, need to sus out the controls properly though, there are so many different knobs and switches it almost guarentees I'm using it in a sub optimal way... More fun to be had next weekend sitting at home twiddling with knobs...

Thanks Gents, I thought they looked good, just wanted a second opinion. Think I'll give it a try this weekend.

Morning All. I've been looking for a four string as I miss playing slap (can't fit my fingers between the strings on my sixer, due to a combination of inexperiance and poor technique) The Gallery have a G&L Tribute L-2000 (the korean ones) I'm thinking or trying out. Are these any good? nice slap tone? decent build quality? Thanks

I live around the corner from the Gallery and their entry buzzer system is a bit unfriendly. Once your in though the guy I've delt with is always very accomodating. I've only bought a few small bits from there but I'm hoping to drop in on my way home from work today and try out a G&L tribute L-2000 they have in blueburst. I've only had limited experiance of Denmark Street. The guys in Wunjo's were really cool though when I picked up a spector from there about a month back.

Thank you all very much I feel a warm fuzzy feeling of acceptance... but they may also be the burritto I just had for lunch Placed an order for a custom build from letts basses today. Going to take about 20 weeks to build so I might start a thread detailing my experiances with this. Its really quite interesting chossing everying from woods, to shape, to electronics etc, looking forward to seeing what the end product comes out like. Also got a second hand cort curbow fretless arriving tomorrow. Never tried fretless before and this little bass looked like a fun place to start. I'm not doing well on the 'avoiding buying bass stuff' front... the girlfriend is most disapointed.

Hi, Just joined up here as a new member I've just come back to bass playing after about Six years off. I've had to grow up and get a proper job since the last time around but I've got the bug again big time. Does anyone else find themselves flicking through pages of gear online then wondering where the day has gone? Why has this happened to me? I used to be normal... well relativly speaking... I've started off (again) with a Spector Legend (bought it of a guy on Denmark street with an impressive moustache) and one of those little GK amp heads and a compact 112 cab. Sounds bright and punchy even if my fingers don't quite move like they used to I've got myself one of those little TC Ditto loopers and I'm enjoying just feeling my way back into it jamming with myself. Hopefully I'll make it back into bands at some point work schedule permitting. Anyway, this seems like a freindly forum to be a part of. I always enjoy reading these posts so hopefully I can be a part of that too. Rob