Count Bassie

[quote name='Count Bassie' timestamp='1319408805' post='1413888'] I feel pretty old after looking back, sometimes! I've just handed off some very good, to be rewarded with a good bit less, too many times. Wasn't necessary mostly, and that's the part that smarts... so dumb, for so long... But I figure all that smart has to go somewhere... [/quote] ...and that's not to imply it went back to me at all! Just sayin'.

I feel pretty old after looking back, sometimes! I've just handed off some very good, to be rewarded with a good bit less, too many times. Wasn't necessary mostly, and that's the part that smarts... so dumb, for so long... But I figure all that smart has to go somewhere...

In response to the boy there, I think that amps are amps, for the most part. You learn to become simpatico with what you use, and after a time your voice comes out of it. At a point it becomes a refined relationship between your hands, your ears and your gear. To keep running off to the next piece of greener grass and buying a 'new' amp only cheats you of time invested in what you've been learning to use. I have 3 amps- two are necessary in case one farts... but they're all [u]different[/u]. That's a result of my chasing too many rabbits! The rabbit that always escapes is the one called Satisfaction. But I've had my Trace 250SMX a few years now, and will remain.

just thought I'd chime in... I have a partsed-together Squier P-Bass that I've strung up with an old BEAD set I had on another bass. The Hamer Cruisebass I BEAD'ed was ok, but it has a fairly beefy neck and the big strings seemed ungainly. The Squier seems a more friendly instrument for the purpose with the 'A' type neck on there- it's narrow at the nut and the profile front-to-back is thinner than the Hamer. I had to widen the nut slots- I think I'll try that using the strings as a file idea... but I used a razor knife to 'open' the slots and it's pretty good. I'm also going to have to remove a spring from the bridge to get the intonation nailed I guess... But it feels really pretty good. I've been trying to do this for a over a year now, as I play in a band that does some Brazilian 'Creole' and a few modern 'Dance' numbers with low-B in the bass. I haven't been able to get on with a 5-string all that well, though I've tried. They tend to feel big, and I've played a 4-string since 1979, so there's that. I'm trying out an Ibanez I found hanging in a friend's store, that one feels pretty good though I traditionally don't like the Ibanez SR line... I think they're ugly, but I'm sort of ugly too, so it may work out! Bu I kinda like the BEAD on the Squier. Interesting how the bass can make such a difference in feel, moving from standard to BEAD.

[quote name='EdwardHimself' timestamp='1319107709' post='1409925'] "Is anyone truly happy?" Of course not. It's the human condition to be perpetually unsatisfied with your current situation, it's what is supposed to drive you on to bigger and better things. Of course these days now that our lives are so comfortable and there really isn't much else to strive for in our lives, we end up becoming very depressed because we can't understand why we don't have this ficticious feeling of "happy" that everyone else around us seems to have. It's why countries that have suddenly become economically prosperous like china also have some of the fastest growing suicide rates in the entire world. [/quote] Thread Killer...

Fidget?... my kid plays violin, must have been a Freudian slip.

[quote name='bertbass' timestamp='1319102297' post='1409820'] I find that how happy you are with your gear is dependent with how many gigs you do. The more gigs the less you think about other gear. [/quote] Right! I start to fiddle if I'm not busy enough...

[quote name='deanovw' timestamp='1312469875' post='1327243'] At the moment I am gigging with an ancient Trace Elliot 4x10 combo, (with casotrs, phew!) There is nothing wrong with it at all. I play in a fairly loud band and the master volume rarley hits 2. It will prob go on for years. There is no need to change it. I am perfectly happy with it yet I want to change it. No reason, just fancy a change. [/quote] I've been through a small mess of used gear over the last few years... alright- since 1995 or thereabouts! Started with the sale of my blue-line SVT, and I don't think anything has been gained at all really in all that sighing, selling and buying, playing, thinking and sighing again... What a pointless cycle! I played a gig this last weekend with the old A.M.P. KD-400 I scored a couple weeks ago, and it sounds very nice. Got some old beater TL-606 cabs a couple months previous, loaded them with Eminence Kappalite 3015s, and whatever I do in the next 6 months, I will know that there's no need to change anything. My rig sounds really very good right now- and I have a couple other choices for heads on-hand also (Trace 250SMX, GK 800RB). From time to time though, the gear-a-whoring and trading has been a source of entertainment! More often than not though it has left me increasingly tired. It's been [u]the sound[/u] I've always been after, see, from the start; and somehow, I've always been able to get that, no matter what I've played through.

7 pm tonight (Eastern Standard Time, US...) I do my first live-on-air "Doctor Roger Radio Hour", on [url="http://990wbob.com/"]990WBOB.com[/url]. We'll have a friend of mine as our guest, she's a Yoga instructor and massage therapist. She's also a bluegrass fanatic, and is going to talk about the new wave of bluegrass music; she'll also be bringing along some tribute music in honor of Bill Monroe, apparently the Father of Bluegrass. I'm going to learn a thing or two myself... I'm going to be interested in getting music on the show, and if anyone has presentable original music I'd be open to hearing about it, and could have on the show. We could even arrange a phone interview (I'm in New England, USA). If you've got a relatively complete act going, bring it- hook me up wth links and ways to check it out! Music, band mythology, touring disasters, how "that tune" came to be, whatever your act consists of, I'm all about it. Thanks for checking it out. Tune in! And I believe the station takes callers...

[quote name='Stingray5' post='1358347' date='Aug 31 2011, 10:40 PM']Thanks, CB. The black Thunder 1A (fretless) was soon replaced by a Thunder II fretless. Made a nice pair with the other Thunder II.[/quote] Those are cool basses- when I went to Berklee in '84 I [i]almost[/i] bought one... mistake to not do it! Classy look, I always thought.

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='1357805' date='Aug 31 2011, 01:18 PM']It is quite "interesting" i suppose. I remember the general consensus from the build thread was that it looked quite good apart from the bit i hacked out of the top horn! If I were to get another knob it would be for another pickup, should i decide to install one. The other 2 are actually a volume and rather than a tone (don't like tone controls) a variable coil-tap control.[/quote] I see now about the controls. Maybe that is a better use of your bass' guts... @ Warwickhunt: Right? Looks like cartoon chrome. Also I like the way it sort of 'floats' with all that blue nearby.

[quote name='Stingray5' post='1357732' date='Aug 31 2011, 12:01 PM']Apologies for the guitars as well as basses (not to mention crappy pics!). This was much of my gear through the 80's. [attachment=88348:guitars002.jpg][/quote] Nice Westone.

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='1357709' date='Aug 31 2011, 11:43 AM']Hmm i'm really having trouble seeing what you mean. Here is another picture anyway which will hopefully clear away any confusion as to just how terrible this bass really is: [/quote] Maybe I can clear up what I meant also- I didn't think I was looking at reflections anymore, after you explained it to me. But, I still think it's kind of cool-looking... I totally get why you think it's terrible, and I guess it kind of is! But still it's got a sort of ghostly effect, and if you could convey that effect so it didn't look 'terrible' up-close, you'd have something. And I suppose you need to get another knob on that control plate.

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='1357630' date='Aug 31 2011, 10:21 AM']are you takadipiss? Seriously though, one of them is blue cyan with black hardware and the other one is erm hmm good question. Sort of a managerie of sunburst partially covered over by grey and white primer and glow in the dark paint lol. Also with "satin chrome" hardware. It's Great [/quote] Ah... I figured I was looking at reflections! Some features/details are hard to nail down with these digital cam pix. You can get some unexpected, odd distortions. So thanks for straightening me out! Bunch-a ball-busters... Anyway from here it looks pretty cool.

[quote name='bartelby' post='1357595' date='Aug 31 2011, 09:50 AM']think you're in for a shock... [/quote] I'm sitting down...

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='1306833' date='Jul 17 2011, 12:23 PM']amirite in thinking that one of these was used in a Thin Lizzy video? Might as well give this one a go, just for a lauwf: [/quote] Love the chrome Jazz Bass!

[quote name='NancyJohnson' post='1350803' date='Aug 24 2011, 04:53 PM']I've been dipping into this thread on an off over the last ten months and have [b][i]watched with horror[/i][/b] how you've [i]butchered [/i]this once beautiful Cruise bass and then have to front to compare the end product with a Westone...in hindsight all it probably needed a nice cuddle, a nice cup of tea and a small makeover. Sorry, does nothing for me. Shame. P[/quote] Running for office? Watch with horror how our rainforests are being shaved off the face of the earth for someone's fattening pocket. Watch Syria's twisted leadership slaughter their own citizens, simply because they want to be treated like people. [u]That's[/u] horrible. This is just an old bass guitar that belongs to 'someone else'. Shame it does nothing for you though- my bad!

[quote name='BottomE' post='1350093' date='Aug 24 2011, 06:40 AM']Count! How the devil are you. I am at work and unable to play them at the moment but will later.[/quote] I'm in a hole, but trying to fix it... the vids are nothing if not personally compromising, but the show the bass bopping around slightly. The sound isn't very bass- friendly either, but if you have an eq in your system you can hear it. How you been man?

I know... that this thread has been dead awhile, but I got a little live footage of my modded Hamer Cruisebass getting played at a recent gig and I thought I'd post it. 'Tis here, at a Portuguese feast with my Portuguese trad/events band, Novera... yes it's me playing, in all my dour splendor. I don't know how to get the vid to appear here, so here's a linky: [url="http://youtu.be/tX6duR0ZLGw"]http://youtu.be/tX6duR0ZLGw[/url] Another, a better view of the bass I think. Please, ignore the player. [url="http://youtu.be/AVJyXvXG6TE"]http://youtu.be/AVJyXvXG6TE[/url]

That looks very cool. Really nice, and yeah I hope the neck fixes. I "see" a luthier somewhere lurking, running off to his shop...

If it's working, don't fix it. Less is more, right?

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1335881' date='Aug 10 2011, 06:09 PM']I'm not totally against the front bevel idea but I'd prefer to see this decision based on playability rather than what looks best or what is easiest to do. With this radical neck approach, you are taking something iconic and potentially improving the design. The lower neck cutaway on these is an obvious inherent design flaw (maybe not so much by design than circumstance) that needs to be addressed too and here you are with the perfect opportunity, especially since you have actually compounded the flaw yourself by adding an extra fret. Take a page out of the books of the builders who have been proven to have this part of the guitar right. Start your cutaway ~2 frets back and let rip. How are you going to get to play "do" if you don't make it accessible? [/quote] Okay, well maybe it's not [i]really[/i] a T-Bird anymore... you have already cut its poor overweight head off , you might as well get it to be how you'd really enjoy playing it. It does seem to have lost the original mojo without a headstock- and now it's got a very cool look that's kind of all its own, and comes off more as 'modeled after' a T-Bird. With more frets, you're going to want to be able to access them when you're finished. I'd bet... I say go for some cutting-out at the lower bout- the change will be minor compared to what you've done so far. It's a danged nutty project- looks super-cool from here. I'm going to want to do something like this to mine.

[quote name='JPJ' post='1334794' date='Aug 10 2011, 06:59 AM']Just a thought, but how much time do you spend playing up at the dusty end? Is it really necessary to contour the body? And If so, is it not better to contour the back of the body, where your palm goes, rather than the front?[/quote] Depends if you're inclined to reach around the front, maybe even fold your thumb in and get your whole hand to the front of the 'board. I do that with my Epi T-Bird now... it's not as if I need to be there for long stretches, I'm not a big upper-register soloist/clinitian, so my forays up there are usually (blessedly) short! It's a T-Bird...

[quote name='ogrimark' post='1333202' date='Aug 9 2011, 03:57 AM']I showed the pictures on here last night to our lass who liked the look. The downfall was the second i started to say I really like she snapped at me, told me know and stropped off chuntering about never happy with what you got and always looking for more I have no idea what she means but i am seriously liking this Tbird.[/quote] Women. We love 'em!

This is looking promising. Nice job so far!