Bradwell

I'm 28 and have met people younger than me who only like music from the decades before they were born. IMO it's pretty sad when people limit themselves in that way. I think there's a couple of wider issues that affect these things though. I think record labels were more willing to take risk in the 60's and 70's, so more of the inventive, original and exciting music got into the mainstream. People are still pushing the boundaries with music but it finds a niche audience through internet distribution. I'd also suggest that the prolific use of valve amplification at all stages of the recording process (not just guitar amps and the occasional tube pre-amp) adds a lot of second order harmonic distortion. It's a very pleasing sound and some people latch onto it's warm & slightly grainy quality, ultra clean digitally processed music doesn't trigger the same emotional response.

What sort of finish is on your bass? [quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1424872619' post='2701404'] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]IMHO I would have thought the best end result would be got by sticking the cards on the body and giving the whole thing a really thick coat of lacquer, but this would wreck the original paint finish.[/font][/color] [/quote] Check that the laquer you are using is compatible with the existing finish and accept that if you don't like the results a full sand-down + respray is in order.

They held two auctions of loads of stock from their UK distribution centre recently. I managed to pick up a ridiculous amount of quality gear for a very good price (Powered PA speakers, 16 channel mixing desk, two full guitar stacks plus valve amp heads and a few other bits and pieces) One of the amp heads needs new power valves - understandable as the stock I bought was all ex showroom / festival backline etc. But the other kit hasn't missed a beat. I think Peavey gets a hard ride for their brand image of working man's gear rather than being top shelf kit, but as previously said, it's bulletproof. There's no point turning up with an expensive amp that's unreliable.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1423671194' post='2687766'] You can do that, but what if another song comes along another half step down? Plus trying to squeeze lower notes out of a 4 string doesn't give you any of the other advantages of using a 5 string bass. [/quote] I tend to use open strings a lot for my style of playing so it would suit me, plus it maintains the advantages of a 4 string bass like being able to hook my thumb over the fingerboard to fret the heaviest string. Having said that, I skipped 5 string basses altogether and bought a six string last year, extended range is awesome. [quote name='ubit' timestamp='1423673710' post='2687814'] Jeez, that would do my head in. I like the major notes to be on the right marked fret. Playing one fret out would confuse the hell out of me. I'm the singer right enough and need to be playing on autopilot [/quote] Yeah it takes time to adjust, even without looking at the board for fret markers it alters the scale length and screws up muscle memory if you learnt a certain song on a certain bass.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1423661860' post='2687570'] You can play anything in punk style. I played Postman Pat in a band once. It was like Nellie the Elephant. The crowd used to go absolutely mental. [/quote] Check out the Dead Kennedy's covers of Viva Las Vegas and Rawhide, excellent stuff.

Is it not better to just have a 4 string bass tuned half a step down and then use a capo on the first fret? Means you can have one set up as a back-up on stage, doesn't require the purchase of a 5-string and maintains the possibility of keeping the open strings tuned correctly when you need them.

[quote name='Marc S' timestamp='1422966284' post='2678880'] Has anyone used the sheilding paint? Saw it in the Haynes Fender Bass Manual, and just wondered how effective it was? [/quote] Effective enough for most people's needs, not sure that there's much advantage to using copper foil over a couple of coats of shielding paint. Easier to apply but also makes a mess if you're not careful, it gets everywhere, last time I wear a tuxedo whilst carrying out guitar repairs.

Will concede the point about tube amps always running hot... rushed post. And yes there will be a fair amount of distortion introduced by the valve amp at volume. If the sound of a guitar amp can be made to work right with a modeller up front then go for it, however, it's a bodge job using components that aren't voiced with this application in mind. As Nicko says - go try stuff before you buy. There really is no substitute and fussing over cone size detracts from things that are much more important. I've got 210 and 212 cabs from the same series, yes I can tell the difference. I'd take the 210 as first choice over a 112 of the same size (if it sounded the same tonally as my 212). End of the day I like them both, even more so in combination. Trust your ears & not the spec sheet.

There's not many valve guitar amps above 100 watts. When it comes to playing with an acoustic drum kit in a punk/rock band, bass requires moving some air and that 100 watt amp would be running hot, better to get something with headroom in the long run. A 300 watt amp running at half capacity will be a lot less stressed than a 100 watt amp running at full tilt. Guitars don't need the power so much due to the higher frequencies. I can be running my rig at full volume and the 100 watt guitar head will match that output with the volume pot on 3 out of 10 through a 4x12 cab. My old Laney combo (120 watt) would overheat and cut out whilst trying to keep up with a drum kit and cheap 25 watt Fender practice amp. It all depends on who you are playing with (yeah, ok, my drummer is loud) but it's worth getting a reliable amp that won't be over-stressed. For the budget I would spend the most on the amp. Cabs can be picked up cheap if you're not too fussy. Combos are a different matter due to being part and parcel but the advice on having an amp with power in reserve still stands. It also frees you from the limitations of relying on the PA to hear yourself, although you might have monitoring set up nicely in the practice space you might not find it works for gigs.

Also worth noting that guitarists get massively hung up on 12" speakers - A sort of institutional insanity based on the cult of Marshall stacks. I've had some great electric guitar sounds from 8" speakers. Never played one but a Phil Jones Briefcase uses 2x 5" speakers. My Dad's Minimark has 2x 6" speakers and that's more than enough for home practice and he quite likes using it for his jazz gigs. They might not be a fit for rock/punk/metal but can certainly produce useable low end.

Don't get too hung up on what size the speakers are. Figure out your other requirements first - weight, power handling, volume, budget. A 210 will have greater surface area than a 112, but moving air also depends on cone excursion. It all comes down to cab/cone design so there's no straight set of rules to say a bigger cone gives you lower frequency response. I'd also focus on getting gear with the right tone to fit with your bass and style of playing, low end rumble is only a small part of that. Guitar amps and bass amps are completely different in terms of requirements so I wouldn't go hooking up the guitar amp to a S/H cabinet, at best it won't sound particularly good, at worst you could damage the amp

Not that I've owned much gear but the current rig - Eden WT800 and D210 + D212 XLT cabinets. The tone just works perfectly for me and I've not played any other rigs that give me such a good feeling. The combination of 10's and 12's works better than just one cab alone. Can't say that I feel the same for my electric guitar gear though - a choice of five guitars, two valve amps and three cabinets and I can never settle on a tone that's just right with any combination.

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]1. Si600 - GK MB500 Fusion, GK MB212 (house rig), Fender P V.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]2: Roland Rock - Avalon U5, Crown power amp, BF STwin. W&T Ergon and 78P if I get the refin done in time. Some pedals.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]3. tauzero - perm a few from Sei Original, Status Series 1, Antoniotsai, Dean 10-string, Warwick Thumb, Mrs Zero.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]4. Dread Bass - Lefties - ACG 6 and 7 string Recurve S Types, ACG Krell Fretless If Ready, Alembic Epic, Warwick Fortress, Letts 6. Aguilar rig if needed.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]5. seashell - MIM Fender P[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]6. Prime_BASS - whatever bass is the flavour at the time, ACG 33" graft J type.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]7. Len Derby - Yamaha Bex semi acoustic, Roland micocube battery powered practise/busking combo[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]8. Bottle - Modded Ibanez GSR-180, some pedals, Line-6 Combo and the 1x12 + Amp rack[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]9. Marillionred - Warwick Streamer $$5, Warwick Dolphin SN5, Letts fretless 5, Michael Kelly Acoustic 5, Warwick LWA1000, Barefaced Big Baby 2 - and some headphones.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]10. Jabba_the_gut - some of the stuff below....if it's finished in time.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]11. GrammeFriday - MTD 535-24 fretless, MTD Kingston AG5, TC RH750, RS210 and/or RS212.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]12. Kev - Wal MK2, Warwick SSII and some pedals.[/font][/color] 13. Bradwell - MIJ Jazz, Ibanez GSR 206, Eden WT800 + D210/D212 XLT cabs

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1421245495' post='2658879'] Don't know if this post is serious or not but I wouldn't use any kind of oil that is used for cooking as they can have things added to them (things to alter flashpoints etc.) that might not do your fingerboard a lot of good. Cooking oils can also go rancid. [/quote] Lemon juice is used to clean the gunk off fingerboards first. Walnut oil is fine, exactly the same stuff as used on gunstocks but a fraction of the price when bought at the supermarket. Use it sparingly and give it time to soak into the wood before playing, recoat every 6 months. Don't use generic cooking oil though (sunflower oil / olive oil etc = sticky mess).

[quote name='camdoug1990' timestamp='1421167392' post='2657948'] castleford,w yorks. yeah i was edging away from the orange, if i hadnt got these pedals thats what i would have gone with for the natural overdrive [/quote] PMT in Leeds? The one in Manchester stocks TC Electronic gear and they usually have a fair selection from other brands and some S/H gear. I borrowed a RH450 a while ago, nicely designed piece of kit and I found the more traditional tone controls suited me more than Markbass gear I've used. When I mentioned mentioned my Eden, I didn't register the word Micro in the original post - it's definitely not. But they do a WTX500 that weighs under 2kg. Not sure there's many stockists in the UK though.

Where are you based? People may be able to suggest some good local music shops. I'm using an Eden WT800 which is great for having loads of clean headroom and works well with pedals up front. I tried Markbass (can't remember which one though) and found it lacked the low end kick I was after. Orange amps tend to go into distortion easily, if you like the core tone that's great but putting pedals on top of that isn't going to work too well. Nothing beats testing a load of amps & cabs - when I was buying my rig I planned a couple of day trips to check out well stocked music shops. Also worth going to a bass bash if there's one local to you.

I find there's way too much ego with a lot of guitarists. A good lead guitarist will know when to give other musicians space to shine and find a good tone in whatever equipment is available. A bad lead guitarist will spend ages talking about his Gibson Les Paul + Marshall Stack then play Van Halen style solos over the top of everybody else. Luckily on this forum I see less gear snobbery: Plenty of fancy basses and rigs but I presume the vast majority of us started with a budget squire and 10 watt practice amp. Once in a while they might get taken out of the loft, plugged in and we can still find a funky groove on the most worn out beginner's bass.

I will take a look at Line 6 amps, good to know that most of the tone settings on them are alright. The cheap solid-state & valve-state amps I've played they were generally too bright and cutting, no amount of playing with the tone controls could get rid that. Doubt that the proprietary footswitch would be too much of an issue, however, it's nice if companies use open source software and allow third party equipment to be used. Would probably just use distortion pedals etc before the amp and do any necessary switching through the front panel. Having a bunch of different sounds would be good for recording too, maybe I need to get over my tendency to keep everything as separates and accept that multi-fx built into an amp isn't a bad thing.

Looking for people's opinions on guitar amp heads for practice. I don't like combos and have cabinets both at home and at my band's rehearsal space so I'm not going to be shifting speakers about. However, the three amps that I have are all heavy 60 Watt+ heads which don't sound particularly good at low volumes, the volume controls are quite sensitive between 0 - 1 and they take up a fair amount of space in the car. Can anyone recommend some decent practice amps for rock/punk/metal? Nothing too expensive, just good at levels suitable for bedroom playing to small gigs. I prefer valve amps but haven't much experience with modelling heads. Played a couple of Marshall valve states but hate the sound of those. Was thinking along the lines of Blackstar or Line 6, nothing too expensive (£200 max) and easy enough to pick up second hand.

Try to get them both pretty close in terms of size - the rout should be just large enough for the pick-up to fit, even if it's covered by the pick guard. Best to make things as neat as possible. Would agree with the comments regarding free-hand Dremel work - it's only something I would use for fine detail. Low power router attachments are not a good tool for removing large amounts of material, they will wear quickly and potentially cause damage to you or your bass. Even with the Stew-Mac type attachment, Dremels do not have the inherent stability of a proper router when sat on the flat surface of a guitar body. Routers are one of my favourite power tools but they definitely require test pieces, decent kit and an experienced tutor to get you started.

Sharp chisels and a fair amount of care/patience if you're not buying a router. Dremel will do it if you have the correct attachments but that also takes time. I'd also get another standard MM pick guard and cut the pick-up hole for it yourself, shouldn't be too expensive.

[quote name='Rumple' timestamp='1418831597' post='2633828'] It would be handy if you could see some of the Luthier's previous work before committing to a build. [/quote] This! There's plenty of luthiers who simply do customised versions of already popular guitars that won't be suitable for a totally custom design. Probably best to work out your budget, be prepared to wait 6 months for the build to be done and learn to compromise when an idea won't work. Did a quote for someone a while ago, his son wanted a Rickenbacker 330 type guitar and thought it'd be better getting a custom build, told him I could build something that'd blow the socks off a 330 starting at £1,700 on a 6 month build time. His budget was about £500 and I came to the conclusion that I'm mostly just going to build instruments for myself and very close friends. No profit in that as I'd have been doing it mostly to gain experience and an hourly rate of well under minimum wage. Sure there's going to be plenty of people willing to offer advice but feel free to drop me a PM, might be able to point you in the right direction.

[quote name='Drax' timestamp='1418824547' post='2633705'] That IS there though [/quote] They need to release a definitive re-master, guaranteed free from both recording/production errors and schizophrenia.

I'm not keen on relic basses either, most of the fun in a worn bass is the years of playing a great instrument that results in such a finish. I have a theory that relics were invented as a fashion statment that also had the bonus of shifting B-grade instruments.

The Led Zeppelin I, II & III CD remasters (early 2000s) I'm convinced there's a few tracks where Bonham's hi-hat pedal squeaks like mad and there's some sloppy (albeit, minor) audio artefacts left in during the mastering process. Also used to have the lemon song set as my ringtone, each time I hear the first few notes of that I instinctively reach for my phone. When I mention this to my friends they usually ask what a Led Zeppelin is.