jamesf

This is a guitar neck I made in engineering class when I was 16. It actually played pretty nicely IIRC, until I ripped out the frets to see what a fretless guitar would be like. and then had to rip the fretboard off because I wrecked it. truss rod works, tuners and string trees included. Needs re-sanding, will fit a gibson-sized neck pocket. Very high quality piece of mahogany bought from a cabinet maker. Send me some postage and you can have a neck to play with. J

Second item for the good people of basschat: some used ernie ball super slinky guitar strings - not bass strings! have been on either a strat or les paul, can't remember. Sling some postage my way and they're yours J

Having had a couple of bits for free off here, I'm offering the results of my clearout. First up: a headset thingy, made by creative,has been used, is surplus to requirements. Pay postage and this wonderous object could be yours, all yours. J

I think that's actually a worse job than the Gibson les paul I refinished white when I was 16 replete with giant blobs, drips, you name it... what I don't quite get, is the 'artist?' actually thought 'yes, it's finished - that's exactly what I want my bass to look like, I'll just put the hardware and pickup back on and job's a good un'. I mean, why?

[quote name='tombboy' post='353605' date='Dec 13 2008, 02:52 PM']Thanks J, I have altered your post a little so it makes complete sense for me! (No offence intended) Actually, it goes to show how much I have to learn!![/quote] OMG I am actually going to die of laughter Don't worry, I don't make much sense to myself either most of the time! Looking forward to hearing some recordings of the TD20 - i've only used the TD3, but they're superb for controlling MIDI instruments such as samplers and synths as well as recording regular drums. I've yet to record with the DI out from my markbass, but I'm sure you'll get some great results. Acoustics is a tricky business, but if the room sounds great and your mixes translate well, that's all that counts.

If the control room is still 4m x 4m, you'll encounter coincidental axial mode interference over two of the room dimensions, causing an unpredictable comb filtering effect. If two sheets (preferably more, staggered layers of varying thickness over the layers) of drywall are being used, I'd suggest using more velocity devices such as your corner traps over one of the control room walls, or at least 40% coverage. If you are using nearfield monitoring, this will be less of a problem if the listening position is set up properly, but if mains or midfields are being soffitted, the extra trapping on one wall will help to combat this effect. Building walls out of parallel won't be required in a room 4mx4m if you have adequate spot trapping - it simply acts to prevent flutter echo, which is a rapid reflection of high frequencies - because of the size of the room boundary (4m), higher frequencies of consequence will have completed several wave cycles before they hit the boundary and so will have lost sufficient energy to prevent the effect - the aforementioned 50% coverage velocity devices will also destroy these. The out-of-parallel walls will not affect distribution or generation of standing waves (your new nemesis!), as these are dependent on average distance travelled, especially in the case of tangential and oblique modes The vaulted ceiling is an excellent feature - don't flatten it whatever you do! The live room looks very nice, but personally I would have the console under the window so I could see and communicate with musicians in there when recording acoustic instruments and miking amps etc, alongside when recording electronic drums - this is of course assuming that mixing will take place in DAW; the mackie 24-8 is relatively tiny, so it will fit with ease - of course this depends on your mixing methods - ITB or OTB? plus the listening position, and subsequently your monitor placement. 2x3m live room is more than enough for vocals - get dimmer switches for the lights in there. As far as cable routing goes - are the power outlets wired yet? if not, it's standard practice to run a separate ring main around the top of the room for power, and have drops to the outlets - this way, the audio cabling is kept well away from the power cabling and interference. I'm so incredibly jealous of your project, words have not yet been invented! It's going to be a while before I can even begin to think about thinking about planning mine!!! There used to be an excellent tutorial on basic acoustics on Ethan Winer's site, but it got taken down a while ago - I'll see if it's anywhere else on t'net. And yes, you'd struggle to get a convolution reverb unit for under £8000!!! J

I started off playing cornet when I was 7, brass band type stuff really, then jazz trumpet when I was 11. I was volunteered as the bassist for a school jazz band when I was 13, even though I was a trumpet player, and had never even touched a bass; I always admired the two bassists in the 'proper' jazz orchestra though. I borrowed a bass over the school holidays but was really short then and couldn't reach the first fret, and I was really useless at it, having to coordinate both my hands, what's that all about?! So, i bought a guitar, played that for a few years and generally regarded as quite good, but got bored with it and decided to give bass a go again. I now haven't picked up a guitar seriously for about four years; shame really, as I have a nice strat sitting in my wardrobe! I've been happily playing bass for about five years now, and even though I'm still quite terrible, I have far much fun playing the bass than I ever did with the guitar.

The Audix D6 is superb, and my favourite kick drum mic. I don't personally own the Neumann u87ai (yet!), the studio I managed had a couple, and they were far from the most expensive mics there but sounded amazing on bass. And yes, DI and Mic gives you options - remember, you don't necessarily have to use all the options available to you, but it's best to have recorded lots of options for mixing than not! J [quote name='Stewart' post='326400' date='Nov 10 2008, 11:17 PM']Just Googled that Neumann - Almost £2000 - I think we definitely inhabit different worlds! I bet it's amazing... When we had our demo recorded, the bass cab mic was an Audix D6 - sounded good to me. I agree with you on Joe Meek - all the stuff I've heard has been nice. I *think* the compressor at the studio was a TL Audio. I'm very fond of my Compounder - it's in our PA chain now. Oh dear - started rambling... But the main point (for me) is to have both Direct and mic'd signals to play with if possible.[/quote]

I've had good results using my Phil Jones Bass Buddy, and I use the compressor on it for tracking as it's very subtle and just irons out a few of my many mistakes. It's great if you want uber-clean, but doesn't do dirty. At all. I agree that the Ridge Farm Gas Cooker is a superb piece of kit. I'm yet to record straight out of my LMII, and I'm interested to hear the results. If I get round to doing any recording anytime soon, I'll do some AB's of the PJB and LMII. If miking, I use a Neumann U87ai - I personally think it sounds its absolute best on any bass cab, usually through a DACS Clarity Micamp or a combination of TL Audio valve preamp and Joe Meek stereo opto compressor if I want some dirt.

[quote name='markytbass' post='317920' date='Oct 29 2008, 08:40 PM']Yes, I have a Rover 100 kensington that cost me £400 and its sh*t.[/quote] I had a Knightsbridge SE until it exploded on the way home from work a few weeks ago, leaving a mile-long trail of oil, fuel and coolant all over the main road. I got £185 for it, so yes, my basses are worth quite a bit more than that; now, I think it's about equal with the arrival of my VW (the residual value's probably better than my stingray at the moment as well! ) although strings are slightly less expensive than fuel, so I guess it's all relative when given running costs of each.