MrDaveTheBass

Could be out of phase?

That's a lovely looking bass. 😍

All sorted! It turns out that the switch was wired oddly. Rather than just 3 wires connected to the switch (one from the bridge pickup, one from the neck pickup, and the third going to the +ve jack socket), there was an extra one coming from the middle terminal. Removed all wiring and resoldered, this time both pickups work fine. The Iron Gear Jailhouse Rail in the bridge is an absolute monster!

Be careful with compression on vocals as it can exacerbate feedback through your mic.

Thanks! I've just swapped the switch for a new one. Will let you know how I get on.

Please forgive me, but my issue is with a guitar rather than a bass - I promise I'll say a hundred hail Jacos. I've had a cheap £100 ebay Squire Telecaster knocking about the house for the last 10 years. It'd been messed about with before I got it, and I've had several goes over the last decade to get it going, but to no avail. It's not standard Tele wiring. Originally when it was built it would've had two humbuckers, a 3 way selector switch and two tone pots and two volumes. (Like a Les Paul). When I got it someone had replaced the bridge pickup with a Strat single coil mounted on a scratch plate. The issue that I've got is driving me nuts. Whenever I replace a faulty pickup, the other pickup that was working fine, and that I haven't touched stops working! When I got the guitar, the neck humbucker wasn't working, so I replaced it with an Entwistle HV 58. This sounded great, but the bridge pickup stopped working. I've just replaced the bridge pickup with an Iron Gear Jailhouse Rail 2, which works fine, but now the neck pickup has stopped working. I haven't touched the wiring for the neck pickup as each pickup has its own volume pot. Before I rip out all of the electrics and start again from scratch, does anybody have any ideas of what's going on please? Many thanks, Dave

90s trio, The Ben Folds Five!

I always check my intonation every time I change strings.

I once played with a guitarist whose tuning was driving me nuts. I made him stop and tune up using his electronic tuner. "Look!" He said, "All the lights are green." He still sounded dreadful, really clashing with my bass and the other guitar. I took his tuner from him and put my bass through it. It was then that I realised that he'd accidentally set the tuner to A = 445Hz!

I play fretted bass with a covers band and fretless with an originals band. One week I took my fretted bass to the original's band practice by mistake and the intonation sounded dreadful. The guitarist uses lots of different alternative tunings, and I hadn't realised how much I compensated with the fretless - playing some songs sharp and others flat.

I've always used both. Some songs sound better with fingers, others sound better with a pick. I like to think that I choose how I play based on the tone that I want to create. The truth however, is that some songs are impossible for me to play fast enough with my fingers, so I have to use a pick instead.

A couple of years ago I bought a second-hand EBMM Sterling Fretless. When I arrived at the house to pick it up, the guy who opened the door turned out to be a grieving guitarist, whose best mate and bass player had recently died, and he was selling his off gear for the bassist's family. The bass was (and still is) amazing - it's the perfect instrument for me, but was absolutely filthy, and I took a long time cleaning the previous owner's DNA off it. The weirdest part was that the guy obviously had very acidic sweat, and his thumb print was etched into the tuning pegs. A tube of metal polish and a new scratchplate later though, and the bass finally started to feel like my own. Although I never met the guy (or even know his name or saw a picture of him) when I play this bass I quite often think about its previous owner.

I was expecting this:

Haha! Should've had a search on here before! I've only just seen it. The band will be pleased when we get back together again.

Thanks guys! I've been bluffing this bit of the line for over a year!

Down at the doctors (Dr Feelgood)

If you do decide to defret, consider lowering the nut slots by the height of the (removed) frets. You'll find that you can get a much lower action and the bass should be much more playable at the end of the neck. Having two identical basses (one fretted, one fretless) should help loads with your intonation. For a while I had two differently shaped basses (a fretted EB MM Sterling , and an unlined Westone Thunder 1A Fretless), and my intonation was dodgy to say the least. As soon as I got hold of a fretless Sterling (also unlined), my intonation improved overnight. Spend time listening to yourself playing over recorded tracks through headphones, but don't over think it. After a while you should find that your fingers automatically start to find the right places on the neck. Have fun!

I recently discovered this lot. Absolutely sublime:

I've read that she was the only Bangle not to be overdubbed by session musicians on their recordings.

I'd always been a little ashamed to admit that Dire Straits - Dire Straits is one of my all time favourite albums. The songwriting is just superb - intimate, personal or well-observed, and every song is a gem. "In The Gallery" on first listen is an unusual song, but is one of my favourites. I only discovered recently that it's about Harry Phillips, a personal friend of Knopfler's: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/dire-straits/in-the-gallery

Dan Hartman's self-designed $5000 1974 silver “Bass Suit” had controls on the sleeve. I found this on the Vintage Weird FB group. Does anybody here know any more about Dan Hartman and his wearable 4-string?

I would expect a short-scale to be harder to intonate, as the tighter note spacing will demand spot on accuracy. (This is the same reason why my fretless playing is tolerable towards the headstock end of the neck, but induces audience grimaces as I wander towards the body-end of the neck).

Is that Howard Moon from the Mighty Boosh on keys? 😉