NancyJohnson

Ordered the UGreen one.  I had no idea the USB socket would/might output audio.

Cheers

26 minutes ago, warwickhunt said:

'Easy' to find... you sure?

Yup.

By easy, I don't mean Amazon Prime delivery, but if you search you'll find.

1 hour ago, warwickhunt said:

I looked at converting a bass to 12 and the neck size, rigidity aside, the cost of parts started to stack up.  One of the big hurdles was sourcing a 12 string bridge as they aren't exactly an off the shelf item.  Modifying other bridges needs to include the octave strings being intonated separate to the bass strings.  One way to get round it is to buy a donor 12 string bass... Oh wait!    

Schaller used to make an eight string bridge; these seem to be easy enough to find - this would allow for intonating the two octaves:

The Konig Bassworx bridge is quite elegant:

Thomann have a b-stock 7-string bass for £399.

https://www.thomann.co.uk/harley_benton_bz_7000_ii_nt_b_stock.htm

Over the years I've seen a few 12-string conversions (the first was off an OLP 5-string).  I see stuff like this Harley Benton and do wonder whether it would be ripe for a project.

The missus immediately vetoed the idea ("It's £400 and it'll cost you that again once you've tinkered with it, so no!").

How hard would this actually be?  Plug the headstock holes, new machines.  New (intonating) bridge and nut. 

Yes, people here would be going, 'String tension!', without really having the science to back up whether the neck would survive 

On 07/10/2025 at 22:04, alittlebitrobot said:

 

 

 

There's no manufacturing defect; the geometry on Squier headstocks is always different to the full-fat Fender models.  Always been the case.

4 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

So, pardon my ignorance, but if you started with a nice tone, why did you eff around with it?

It just happened quite naturally.  We'd be in a room and would just tweak things as our ears went numb as things got louder.  There was an inevitability that we'd all be fighting for our frequency.

Need to get some audio from a Samsung phone into a Scarlet interface (it's off a theremin app).

Old school, I'd just have taken a feed out of the headphone socket (stereo minijack/ twin mono 1/4" jacks lead), but of course the new phone hasn't got a headphone hack socket.

Looking for recommendations for some kind of Bluetooth receiver (or whatnot) that I can plug into the interface.  Practical experience appreciated.

Help!

2 hours ago, miles'tone said:

The volume knob?

Don't be silly now, eh? 

😁

37 minutes ago, Skybone said:

Went through something similar a while ago. Had a very nice StingRay at the time, but just couldn't find a sound I liked from it, so sold it and bought an SB1000 that came up in the local music emporium (both it and the Ray had been "dream" basses since the 80's), fabulous bass to play, but again, just couldn't find "my" sound out of it no matter what I tried.

 

Went back to said music emporium, and simply sat down and tried a load of basses (thankfully, the shop had an excellent selection of basses), in order to try and find one that not only felt and played well, but sounded great too. After a couple of hours of trying stuff, I walked out with a passive Mexican Jazz (which had US made pickups). It was just head and shoulders above anything else I tried. Only sold it to get my first 4003 (THE dream bass).

 

The only active I've had since then was a G&L L2000 Tribute, again, looked and played great, but just couldn't get a sound I liked from it.

 

Bizarrely, the only active bass that ever "hit the spot" sound wise was an old Thunder 1A.

 

Though currently tempted by the Ibanez BTB that @fleabag has in the marketplace.

I had a lovely Bongo 5HH and likewise, could never dial it in.  I enquired here about whether there was any way to just run it passive as it was uncontrollable; you'd start a rehearsal/gig with a nice tone, then you'd slowly notch up and up and up and a hour later it would just sound like mush.  

At the time, could never really determine whether the bass had passive pickups/active circuit or whether the pickups were active themselves and there was an additional active circuit.  I gather from previous enquiries it's the latter, so in hindsight it would have meant pulling all the guts.  There still doesn't seem to be any direct drop in replacement pickups for these, either.  Looking at the board, there's nothing on there to turn down the output on the board itself.

56 minutes ago, bass_dinger said:

So, how do we identify ourselves?

 

Do we wear lanyards with both our pseudonym and our real name on it? Do we have a cut-out of our basschat icon, worn as a mask - and then remove them when the organising committee start to play the basschat theme song?

 

Uncannily, my real name is not bass_dinger, and I only spoke with Prowla and Hamster two years ago - so, I am wondering how I will make myself known as Robert.

 

 

We'll be issuing everyone with a sticker like this.  Just put your Basschat username/real name on it.  This will allow you exit/access.

23 hours ago, basexperience said:

As a n00b, what's the process here? Do we bring as much gear as possible?! How does that work?!

As mentioned earlier, just bring a few (interesting) bits.  Edging on the side of reason, people would be far more engaged in something different, rather than another Precision or Jazz.

Also, it's a village hall, not the O2.  😏

Well, it's started.  This inevitable urge to simply go back to passive basses.

I suppose getting handy with the soldering iron over the last few months on other basses, I've decided to start putting the basses that have had retro-fitted active electrons installed, back to passive.  I'm just sick of batteries, and the disparity from bass to bass.  Obviously the Spector is the only one that came with the preamp installed as stock, so that will be unaltered.

Bliss.

6 hours ago, knirirr said:

There's a good chance that I'll be free to attend this, if no-one would mind me dropping in. It appears that there might be a chance to discuss EUB technique, so I could bring mine. Or a DB, but probably not both. 

We have two rooms here, one with a little stage. 

We're putting on the timed stuff on the staged area (see post #1); it's feasible that you could do something in the second room, but obviously there's no guarantee of an audience, given the crossover in the main room.

22 minutes ago, casapete said:

It’s not only the exorbitant ticket prices / fees that have slowed down my gig going, it’s also

the behaviour of crowds - talking all the way through ( even in the quiet bits ), constantly 

squeezing past to get more pints of dripping beer, phones being held aloft obscuring your

view etc etc. These days I choose which gigs to attend by trying to eliminate or at least

minimise the chances of this happening, but it’s not always feasible or predictable.

We’re lucky to have a few good smaller venues nearby where they do care about this 

stuff, so they primarily get our custom. As they’re often full, it seems like I’m not alone 

in this either. 

When I was in a touring theatre band, we always knew that the venues which kept their bars

open throughout the evening would be the ones where we expected grief. People in the middle

of long rows of seats who constantly got up to get pints and go to the loo used to often be

the start of confrontations where the theatre staff had to intervene, often leading to the rowdy

folk getting ejected. One time in Manchester the police were called to sort stuff out, as we watched

it unfold during our second set - pretty grim for a decent venue. All this because the theatre wanted

to make more money, very sad. 

 

 

This post is hurting my eyes.  Just keep typing...the text will wrap automatically, no need to keep hitting enter after every few words!

A few years back (2009), I went to see NIN/Jane's Addiction/Street Sweeper at the Docklands O2 on the NINJA tour - it took three hours to get there (and the same back), horrific car park fee and maybe a 25-30 minute walk from the car to the venue.  We missed the first band and saw about 15 minutes of Jane's Addiction.  In the venue, the staff were literally barking at the punters to keep inside the yellow lines at ground level.  It was the most soulless gig I've ever been to and it really tainted my feelings about schlepping up to the smoke for gigs.  From memory, that was £35.00 a ticket.

I just don't know why people want to go to see live music any more, especially in big places - I recall Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols commenting about why would anyone want to go [to Earl's Court] and see four dots on the stage - now at the big venues, I'd wager people spend more time watching a screen than the blokes on stage.  The old Hammersmith gigs, you could swing the car into a parking place under the flyover for nowt, walk in and be home an hour after the gig.

As @neepheid says, someone is having a huge laugh at the punter's expense; also take into account all that money sitting in a bank account for the next nine months earning 5%.

Don't go to a lot of gigs now; ticket prices aside, I honestly abhor the inconvenience and associated costs of the journey in and back (generally Reading to Landaan), the cost of getting a pint etc.

Anyhoo...on to ticket prices.  Guess I'm a little behind the curve here, but interest spiked when I read the happy news that Sugar had reformed and are doing two dates in London next May.  Got the mailing list presale, no prices, navigated through that, no prices, tickets in basket, no prices, get to the end £62.10 a pop, plus a ticket agency fee.  (God knows how the 10p element was calculated out.). At which point, I just shut down Firefox and went and made a coffee.  My head was reeling... You're probably looking at £200+ to see a band play for 75 minutes. 

Old enough to remember going to see Rush at Hammersmith and the ticket was under £4.00.  Five bands at the Lyceum for under £5.00.  These prices seemed reasonable at the time, even adjusted for inflation.  

Van Halen - Live In Pittsburgh 98.

Blimus!

12 hours ago, super al said:

Weirdly I am totally besotted with Jellyfish's Bellybutton, it's my favourite album of all time!

Surely another reason to get beyond Skylarking 😁

Honestly, Jellyfish should have been enormous.  Off the scale enormous.  Luckily there's enough projects involving everyone involved (well, except Sturmer) to satiate the desire for music.  If you've gotten past theose, check out Sugarbomb.  

There's this allusion that you need to buy these angled shims for £££, because anything else will have an adverse effect on tone (chortle) and sustain (chortle, again).  

Just make sure the neck is straight, then pop in a bit of playing card, business card, sandpaper, cornflake box into the back of the neck pocket, screw the neck back on and continue the set up. 

There's probably hundreds/thousands of vintage Fenders that have never had the neck off that are harbouring all manner of horrors in the pocket, and nobody is complaining about those not housing $30 StewMac shims.

21 hours ago, SurroundedByManatees said:

 

This kind of stuff

Or not that kind of stuff.  😄

This is worth a watch, too.  I'm sure it's been posted here previously.

Once you get past the XTC and Dukes regular release stuff, I would strongly suggest delving into Transistor Blast (4CD) and the Coat of Many Cupboards (4CD) collections. 

Andy Partridge's 'Fuzzy Warbles' collection (just the nine CDs) is great, as is his Failed Songwriting Career EPs.  Andy has also done the Powers and Monstrance albums, which for the sake of completion are worth a listen, although probably not more than the once.

Colin's reboot with Terry Chambers as TC&I (EP and Live album) is good.

There's also some decent live recordings on the Internet Archive website (from 1978-81).

Finally, there's also superb tribute album called 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' on Futureman Records.

1 hour ago, super al said:

Any suggestions as to what album to listen to after Skylarking will be much appreciated 😁

To be honest, anything.  Start from the beginning and listen to how they evolved!

1 hour ago, Dad3353 said:

 

An excellent, well-filmed and apparently honest documentary; thanks for sharing. 

A bit longer than four minutes, eh?  😏

OK kids.  I've uploaded the 'This Is Pop' documentary to my Google Drive.  It's 2GB, MP4 format and a joy to watch.  I'll leave the link active until I need the space.

Obviously files are prone to have download issues, if the link is on the wonk, let me know.  You should just be able to click and download.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1__xzmx6z_hz4sSVieht-5NQVLRkImfgN/view?usp=sharing