CamdenRob

Some people are talking about 1mm? That can’t be measuring from the same point as I am surely? It would be unplayable? How would the string have room to vibrate?

2 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

Mine are usually at least 3mm at the twelfth. Any lower and I have to really concentrate on playing gently.

Yeah me too... I reckon yours are about the same as mine then 👍 

Taking a measuring tape to my basses they all appear to be around 3mm from the top of the twelfth fret to the underside of the string. Is that high? Any lower and I get horrible clank.

3 hours ago, thodrik said:

Okay, I'll bite.

I think it looks cool apart from the pickup covers. The tuning machines don't bother me in the slightest. The look of the bass though makes me think that I would need to water it a couple of times a week to help it grow. 

I’ll go a step further and say I think it looks cool in its entirety 😕

Fender style basses without pickguards,

Fender style basses without fender shaped headstocks,

Gold Hardware (Breaking this with my incoming Smith),

Relic or battered finishes,

PJ pickup arrangement,

Lakland Oval bridges,

Finally... Not an aesthetic thing but the single (non playability or performance related) feature that puts me off buying a bass is if it’s someones signature model... I absolutely love the look of the spruce topped Mayones HF signature, but I can’t bring myself to buy it because it has some bloke I’ve never heard of’s name attached to it.

*edit - I forgot ramps and headless basses.

18 hours ago, owen said:

7th generation super displacement drivers with their hyper efficiency etc etc etc.

 

There is no substitute for surface area shifting air. 

Apart from heft of course... heft trumps objectively verifiable science every time 👍 

That’s definitely a BC bash. You can tell by the level of diversity 👍 

Ive written a few over the years... it would devalue the beauty of the others if I were to single one out as the best. 😐

I have never encountered a reasonable provided back line... it’s always sh*t.

I always take my own now. Rehearsals and Gigs.

You work hard on your bass parts, acquire instruments that allow you to express yourself with the tone you want, then you end up running through some Ashdown monstrosity which renders all notes an ill defined wooly mush.

FOH issues are even worse and have so nearly lead to me packing this in on numerous occasions. I suspect some day it will be the death of my time gigging. It’s completely out of your control. A surprising number of FOH engineers seem to think bass guitar is something to be seen and not heard. At least not at the bottom end. Clank is fine... you can have loads of that... oh you want it to sound like an actual bass? No sorry can’t do that. 😐

I saw that on the MTD Instagram. What an absolute peach 😍

I see an MTD build in my future at some point... unless the economy tanks beyond repair following Coronavirus 😕

MTD 635-24 - Brand new, unused. Free including delivery.

😐

39 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

While we're at it, you may want to give SERIOUS thought as to where you choose to get your 'facts' from:

The Guardian on the borderline of neutral 😂 

1 hour ago, bassbiscuits said:

I suspect some people on here have a bigger spare room than I have.

I am at peak practical spatial bass capacity at the moment. Any more and I’d have to buy another stand, which I don’t have floor space for anyway 😕

Ill have to get rid of something... 

...Do I really need a fridge 🤔 

Three and one being built 👍 

Went to a BBC 6 music thing with Mrs C on Sunday with three bands so painfully vanilla I can’t remember anything about them... including what they were called.

*edit - I’ve remembered something else... They attempted to get a mosh pit going at several points to a band about as heavy as Ed Sheeran.

Design Manager in Commercial Construction. A role so boring I can’t bring myself to describe it...

At lot of you guys are far more professional than me and if I were in your situation I’d be as dedicated, but I play originals for fun so my outlook is somewhat different...

I would never miss a gig (or rehearsal / other band commitment) and I will always turn up prepared having worked on my bass parts etc. But... music is not my job... I have an actual job (which keeps food on the table) and is my priority. Therefore it’s not surprising I once turned down a three week van tour of Europe... singer just stood there aghast... I could see it in his face. Couldn’t comprehend for a second why this might be an issue. 🤦‍♂️ 

I think these days not using woods from ethical / sustainable sources would be frowned upon... If I were setting myself up as a builder I’d be making sure everything was kosher on that front as a given.

As for wood making a diffrrence to the tone of an instrument - I’ve been firmly in the “It makes no difference whatsoever” camp for a while now but I’d need to qualify that. In a band context, live, as part of a wall of sound containing other instruments, amplified to a sufficient level, I would challenge anyone to differentiate between the woods a selection of instruments may be made from... However  with isolated bass at home (and to a certain extent in the studio) there is an appreciable difference between the core tone of my basses.

I have two recent build Wals one with ziricote facings and one with maple facings. The two basses have identical components, mahogany core and ebony boards. Although obviously the core is not from the same piece of timber so it could arguably be that which is imparting the tonal character rather than the facings. The maple faced bass sounds richer at the lower end. Not more powerful, just a greater complexity to the sound. Very difficult to express in words but clearly obvious with a simple demonstration. The ziricote faced bass has a cleaner more clinical tone with a brighter top end. Obviously being Wal basses the tonewood is neither of these instruments defining characteristic, that comes from the pickups which make by far the biggest difference to the tone of a bass bar the strings IMO.

As for which I prefer, I like both is the simple answer 😊 I like heavily figured wood finishes and I also like the traditional fender aesthetic. Only thing I’m not keen on is going very close but not actually the same as Fender... Fender basses with a different headstock or no pickguard look weird 😕

In all honest I think it’s highly unlikely you’ll raise the required funds going down that route. 

You don’t mention how old you are and your work situation?
 

Unfortunately stuff costs money and unless you’ve vast inherited family wealth going to work for it is the only viable option 😕

It’s interesting isn’t it, how wrong it looks without the headstock we’re all conditioned to expect to see with Fender style basses.

Would be interesting to see what a poll of outsiders (totally unfamiliar with bass guitars) thought about which looked better... That said it doesn’t really matter what they would think as they wouldn’t be buying one anyway 🤔 

The Dunlop ones that came on my Fodera are useless if you want to use a strap thicker than a sheet of clingfilm... 😐

Don’t bother with bass if you’re good enough to play the guitar 👍 

On 02/03/2020 at 11:42, ped said:

Here's my G string (not the first time I've said that online)

My technique is way too agricultural to play that... id get more clank and buzz than note 😕

Others talking about low action, is this how low all you guys have it?

I recon mine must be at least twice that and I still have to force myself to play with lighter touch to not get a metallic tap at the start of every note... 

I think all my basses are over 10lb 😕

Jesus that video makes me realise I never would have cut it as a touring musician even if I had the technical chops...

Just imagining being in that closer quarters with other people makes me feel quite unwell 😕

I’d have to skip directly to the private hotel suite megastar stage 😐