phil.c60

36 minutes ago, Si600 said:

Fair enough.

But then, and this is clearly only my opinion, but if I stand in front of the pedals then, being a righty, the lead from my bass is on my right hand side, if it were to then go into the left hand side of the pedal it has to cross my playing space from right to left at some point.

So pedals right to left makes more sense to me to keep the cable run logical and tidy.

Absolutely this. Which is why, being left handed my minor annoyance is the input being on the right!

Apart from whether she is/isn't a lovely human being, who knows  - I don't, I've never met her, but just out of interest what about

this !

She most certainly does, and apparently she writes (or did) most of her songs using a bass, and if you listen to some of the lines (especially on her earlier stuff) they are great.

4 hours ago, Si600 said:

We went to an evening of pipe bands and other assorted folksy stuff in Wick on our tour of the NC500.

I quite enjoyed it but the thing that really impressed me was the very pretty young lass doing the jumping up and down scissor dancing thing.

For about five minutes.

Her core and leg strength was something genuinely something to be in awe of.

There's a joke there somewhere about Christmas and walnuts......

I find that even though I am in a gigging band, I get the motivation to learn other songs that are never going to be band material just because they are great songs and I like them.  It also improves my playing as I have to play in different styles. My advice is to find songs that inspire you to want to practice and learn  and then you will. If you can't, or don't want to at the moment, you may find that taking a break is the thing to do but don't rush into dumping all your gear because in 6 months time you will probably hear something and think "Mmm, that's a great tune/bass line/whatever: I'm going to dig out may bass..." and before you know it you'll be all over JMB like a rash and back in the saddle! (I've done this too). 

And make sure that the string starts and the top of the peg and moves down as you wind it without overlapping the previous wind so that you get the correct break angle over the nut.

Well I'm clearly slacking - 35 last year and so far 33 booked for this year. Not bad though for a blues based covers band who's members all have full time jobs.......although mine's not so much full time this year as "Gentleman's Hours"!

I'm not sure if it's them that's dead or me.......

My tuppence worth, straight from the bathroom scales......!

My main gigging bass, Hot Rod Precision (1999 Natural Ash) 7.5 lbs, Warwick Star Bass (Chinese) a shade over 8 lbs, G&L L2000 (USA, Natural Ash) 8.25 lbs, Precision Bass (1996 Tobacco Sunburst) 9lbs. 

I rarely (if ever) gig with the Tobacco Precision because the difference in weight  is really noticeable compared to the Hot Rod. I had neck surgery 18 months ago which has left me with some residual droop and weakness in my right shoulder (the shoulder it hangs from as I'm left handed) so it makes a huge difference over a two or three hour gig. The interesting thing is I had never weighed the Star bass before, and thought it would be the lightest as it's chambered and it feels very light in the hand. Just goes to show!

Even though the Hot Rod is very light, it sounds good to me and I get regular comments from other people that it sounds good.

You wouldn't have thought a thread like this would come back to life until Easter..........

Or, if you think it's down to the drummer, speak to the singer/guitarist, find another drummer for the gig (even if it has to be a dep) and fire this one the week before the gig. Or even on the day of it......

A mate of mine's band have their old guitar strings made into bracelets which they sell at their merch stand. They sell very well, apparently, and are even tagged with which gig they are from. They've been doing it for a long time. They are very nicely made in an arty fashion, which helps.

Jesus Left Chicago by ZZ Top is a good one for me, 2 bar intro, first verse 12 bars then its 13 bars after that......but the changes in the solo and the last verse are in a different place to the first two verses!

Or I suppose you could say that the first verse is 14 bars.........LOL.

"And I'm not allowed to count bars I should just feel it" - that'll be yet another guitarist who can't count and has no sense of timing expecting everyone else to fit in around him then.  And it's goodnight from me.

"onboarded". I'll just leave it at that.

Last Sunday afternoon........ photos taken by a very nice man, Adam White, at The Hoff (The Hothampton Arms).

I had  a Chinese one like this and I threw it away.....lol.

I don't believe you need to keep adjusting them either, but when you do need to, you do. And you want it to go smoothly (no pun intended). As I said, YMMV. I have spent my entire working life using tools like this, and the old adage "buy cheap, buy twice" is usually true, plus an awful lot of aggravation along with it. There's nothing like irretrievably rounding off an awkward fastener with a cheap tool to teach  you a valuable lesson. I learnt mine a long long time ago. And funnily enough when things get tricky, it's usually my tools that people want to borrow. LOl.

7 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

If i had to use a truss rod tool a lot I'd be questioning  why i brought a crappy bass, not the tool. 

The fact that truss rods don't get adjusted very often is usually why the nut is stuck......so if you need to free it off, by getting it to just start moving and working it back and forth little by little while it's quite stiff, your cheap tool might not work out to be such a bargain. 😜

Plus, if you are on a voyage of discovery regarding string choice, you might be adjusting it quite often!

As with all these things, quality is the (Allen) key. Cheap Allen keys lose there shape after relatively little use, and are often not quite the right dimensions. Considering a lot of truss rod nuts are also not very well made, can be made of quite soft material and access can be restricted experience has taught me that the best tools for the job are the best tools you can afford. Unbrako are great Allen keys (I've been using them for 30 years) and are reasonably cheap. The other issue with ball ended Allen keys is that while they are great for access, the contact area with the fastener is vastly reduced plus they have an inherent weakness due to the undercut to achieve the ball-end. They can round out a stiff fastener quite easily, or snap off.  They are really only any good for low-torque applications: as long as the nut is not stuck they're fine, but.........

I had to have the access hole in the headstock opened out on my G&L L2000 as there was no straight access to the nut and it was stuck. I could feel the ball end getting "uncomfortable" even with a top quality tool. Once I had a straight line access an Unbrako Allen key worked like a charm. Broken truss rods and rounded out truss rod nuts in L2000's  often means a new neck. Best avoided.

YMMV.

12 hours ago, Cuzzie said:

Not many 5 string ASATs made and mainly prototypes, although weirdly I think most are in Europe

If I remember right the bassist from Skunk Anansie had one and they are reported to be very neck heavy

Not a surprise - I tried a lovely left handed semi-acoustic four string and the neck dive was too much for me. A shame, because it was lovely in all other respects. The lack of a top horn so the trap button is nowhere near the twelfth fret makes it a lovely shape but neck heavy. There used to be an extender plate available IIRC bolts and provides a different strap position but I can't remember where I saw it - yes I can it's here:

I have a very nice American L2000, left handed in natural Ash. Such a range of sounds, it's brilliant.

Run Through The Jungle, Creedence Clearwater Revival . 

For me, just too screechy most of the time. Too be fair I'm not really a soprano fan, contralto is more my bag.