Burns-bass

48 minutes ago, rwillett said:

If Andy wants to have a fire sale and drop his prices by around 90% I'm more than happy to help him out by buying a few guitars. 

 

They are lovely guitars but outside my limited budget. I have promised myself a 62 'something' for when I retire. 

 

Just to be clear, I'm not knocking Andy here. These are stunning guitars in the same way a Ferrari 288 FTO is a stunning car, I can't afford that either. I understand limited supply and large demand. I work with those things every day as I try to recruit people for IT projects. So if there are any SC cleared DevOps (limited supply) here looking for work (large demand), please contact me. 

 

Thanks

Rob

It’s a fair point. Maybe people are cashing out as the market is at an all time high?

Or maybe money is tight?

Or both!

I reckon Andy has the best stock I’ve ever seen in a vintage bass shop. Some of it has stayed around for longer than I would have expected… Guess we’re having a slow few months.

Offers? I need these gone!

This can be yours!

I need it gone. Any offers?

Anything? This will work with the SLB range of basses and any EUB with an endpin.

2 minutes ago, martyy said:

I should say as well that I was originally playing bluegrass/country. I remember buying the bass from Thomann and telling them that at the time. Probably why they set the string height high. These days I'm more interested in soul verging on jazz I suppose.

There must be a double bass luthier or two near you. Might be worth checking out some bass forums or Facebook? There’s a fairly vibrant orchestral science over there from what I can gather so there must be someone! 

As people have said, best to be present when they do a setup and you can get it right for you. It’s highly skilled but not exactly rocket science (bridge height, nut, etc.)

An adjustable bridge is a good idea but you need it low enough to start with. 
 

good luck 

This is a stone cold bargain. The case alone is £200 new.

19 minutes ago, martyy said:

I've played upright bass on and off for 12 years now, both gigging and in the studio. I've picked it up again recently after some years of exclusively playing electric bass, and as a result I've remembered how physically exhausting the instrument is.

 

Now for the question... I don't know any other double bass players and I've never played a bass other than the one I own. It occurred to me that maybe basses aren't supposed to be this torturous and I just have a badly set up one. The question is how can I even tell!? Electric basses have precise details about ideal setup (string height, relief etc) but not so much with uprights. 

There are two forces here: string height and tension.

The higher the strings are, the more pressure (or pull) it takes to get a note. Some people prefer a low action but get it too low and the strings can rattle. 

String tension is another variable. I use low tension Spiros, but couldn’t cope with ultra low tension guts or gut-a-likes.

This article is good discussion about string heights. https://www.bassgearmag.com/jazz-vs-classical-vs-bluegrass-set-up/#:~:text=The traditional bluegrass set-up allows for slapping%2C as well,strings at the same height.
 

Unless you’re confident working on your bass it’s best to take it to a pro. Last set up I had, I was there when the action was set and was able to get it to a level I was happy with, and the luthier was able to advise on the quality of note and overall sound.

I’m very much an amateur and I’m sure you’ll get much more in-depth and helpful replies. Where are you based?

10 hours ago, TeresaFR said:

I don't have straplocks on either my current basses, but for now, as I'm not gigging or rehearsing with others, I'm not getting them installed. Plus, only my secondary bass has a problem staying on the strap.

I installed the ones I had so no money was spent.

4 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

They add length if you leave the strap on. If you take it off, they might add a millimetre or two.

I will need to ensure they fit into the hard case. Given I’m not buying basses or searching for them, I have the time.

Always try whatever you’re using on a small portion of the finish before adding more!!!

(I say this as a person who used Pledge once to clean the Nitro body of a 1965 jazz bass. Don’t be me.)

30 minutes ago, pete.young said:

This looks similar to my old Musima, it looks like someone has attempted a not-very-good repair using PVA, which has splintered the wood off the side of the neck and stuck it into the socket, and possibly also stuck some of the socket onto the neck sides.  I took the Musima to a local luthier and he came up with 3 options.

 

Option 1 was so expensive he didn't bother writing it down! I think this was a non-screw option, which may also have involved making a new neck.

 

Option 2 aka bodge was to clean off the PVA, leave the splintered wood in place and attempt to glue the neck back in place hoping it would still fit reasonably tightly. And then drill the heel and fit 2 long screws through the heel and into the body block, which would provide pretty much all of the strength.

 

Option 3 was to remove all the splintered wood from neck and socket, clean out all the damage and PVA, glue a thin veneer to the sides of the socket and maple facings to the sides of the neck, and glue it back together. Then fit screws as for option 2, which would be a backup rather than the primary source of strength in the joint.

 

For me, none of these options made economic sense given the value of the bass.

 

No idea why there's a 90 degree notch. It looks as though it was done at the time of the previous repair. In the bottom picture you can see an extension of the saw cuts. the only thing I can think of is that the original cap was part of the back, and it splintered off when the original failure happened.

I've seen about three "Option 2" repairs (and owned one of them). If the purpose of this is to save a vauable instrument, it's a bad idea. If it's going to save it from being scrapped, it's worth it. 

I reckon if you cleaned of the PVA from both the neck and inside the cavity, it would (with a little gentle persuasion) slot straight in there. Guess you have to be careful about the height and the angle, but assume you'll be cutting a new bridge in any case.

This demands a comprehensive photo diary!

59 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

Buying straplocks implies that you've bought a bass. Surely nobody would buy a bass without immediately buying straplocks for it?

Nah, I'm a latecomer to the straplock thing. I never used them, then iI bought a set last year for a guitar as it kept slipping off.

Aha. Brainwave. I'll take the ones off the guitar and swap them over. 

I'm still in... (the bass in question is my pink jazz bass that I bought in 2020, have the forum posts to back it up!)

39 minutes ago, OliverBlackman said:

The rules given for tuners should still apply to strap locks. Do you smile or sigh when you buy them. Should be the answer.

Fair point. I hate straplocks as they’re clumsy and ugly but effective (like me).

Personally I’d class then as an essential purchase as their absence could impact my ability to play properly.

2 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

No, they're gear.  And bass tuners are bass gear.  Like for like (as near as possible) replacement of a broken (proper broken, not "I don't like you") tuner is the only exception.

What about straplocks? 

19 hours ago, Richard Jinman said:

Imagined it was people using DB’s as canoes… which to be fair would make good telly. 

Someone in Bristol actually used an old DB as a makeshift canoe during the Harbour Fesitval.

“I have no idea of the value so I’m going to look online at a dealer and price it at £1000 more than they would charge…”

God bless the Great British private seller.

Exceptional basses. This is Fender finding their mojo all over again.

12 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

You are perfectly right. I'm probably being a bitter old man, but:

 

Personally I think there is too much music available nowadays. The figure being headlined is 60,000 new tracks being uploaded to Spotify every day. Various attempts to to debunk this have resulted in revisions down to between 5000 and 40,000 track daily. However, just 5,000 tracks a day is staggering, considering that in the days of vinyl there were probably significantly less than 1000 new singles and albums each week (That's just a guesstimate - I have been unable to find any serious stats on this if anyone has them please post). This combined with the dwindling number of listeners prepared to buy recorded music, means that there is an ever growing number of songs vying for an ever shrinking audience's attention. When anyone with a computer, an internet connection and $50 can produce and album and upload it to all the download and streaming sites, it's not surprising at lots more people are doing it. Unfortunately all that "background noise" makes it much harder for listeners to find new music that they like.

 

And as a listener in the 70s when I started getting into music beyond what was on TotP, my sources were John Peel and Alan Freeman on Radio 1. I'd probably hate at least half of what they were playing and be indifferent to a lot of the rest, but there would be a handful of new records played every week (out of the 120 or so I'd heard) that I would like enough to consider buying. By contrast last week I listened to a 500 track modern post-punk/goth playlist on Spotify. That's 500 songs in specific genres that I really like. However I found less than 10 new bands that I enjoyed enough to warrant further listening. What particularly struck me was how derivative and how poorly recorded much of it was. I've always been worried that my band's home-produced recordings weren't up to scratch, and while so far we've not managed to emulate Trevor Horn or Martin Rushent, by comparison with most of what I heard we are doing pretty well. When someone like myself is struggling to find interesting new music from curated playlists what chance do most casual listeners have?

 

Also when you consider that if my band puts out a single we are in effect competing with every other song ever released for listeners. In the days of releases on vinyl and CD a single (unless it was very popular) had a life of no more than 3-4 months, so it was only ever competing with a few thousand other songs at any one time. These days Spotify and other on-line sources have to apply negative weighting to streams of "back catalogue" tracks otherwise hardly any new music would make the current charts.

 

It's not the cost of living that is crushing new music. It is the sheer amount of music available

Yes, this all makes sense. I also really value the time you’ve taken to spell this out as it’s not something that I’d considered in this level of detail. 
 

Some years ago I read a great book called “the paradox of choice” about this. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice)

I guess new music also has to directly compete with music from heritage acts (endless reissues etc).

Lot to think about!

6 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

I concur with @tauzero, not bass specific gear, so I reckon you're still in the main challenge, you can't go for extra credit now though.

I didn’t know there were caveats to this! I’m still in but I did buy a replacement switch tip for a guitar.

22 minutes ago, la bam said:

 

I guess that's one of the things I'm getting at. I'm not bothered whether or not I like something, but pop music used to be week in week out a mixture of pop, disco, rock, metal, reggae, love songs, party songs, dance, indie, world music, novelty, and new styles breaking through, a whole plethora of music. 

 

I genuinely haven't looked at the charts, but I'd bet they were nowhere near as diverse as a 70s 80s 90s chart. 

 

People's creativity and output has been stifled, even suppressed. Mainly because it's not financially viable to practice, gig, perform, tour, get your voice heard and make an income off the back of it, when starting from scratch. 

 

Therefore I believe it's becoming more and more of the same old boys club, producers, artistes and performers, controlling what music is out there, and financial restraints make it hard to break that chain. 

 

Unfortunately as its been like this for so long it's become the norm and people have just accepted it. 

I’m 100% with you. I was actually responding to RedX who said he wanted old man indie bands and middle aged rockers to get out of the way. I felt that wasn’t fair. 

The Bass Bros website was down for 24-48 hours over the weekend. This would have disrupted emails and could explain why they’ve been missed or ignored. 
 

If it was an intermittent issue then it could have been affecting their emails for a while.

Ive had contact form issues before and there’s no way to test for it in some cases.

I fear it was my post that brought property values into it (and for that I apologise).

The broader point I was making was that we need to create the social conditions where creativity (in music, art, acting, etc) can be enjoyed by everyone.

The alternative is that culture becomes the preserve of the upper classes. Evidence is everywhere. Most of our actors are upper class privately educated, as are our musicians, writers and journalists.

As a society we should invest in and support arts at every level. I bang on about working with old people, but seeing how music can transform people is incredible - and we should all be able to enjoy that.

32 minutes ago, Downunderwonder said:

Probably stolen @85 quid.

Nah. It was a young guy who didn’t play anymore. Happy to share details with anyone who wants it. 

21 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

For those people who absolutely HAVE to create music (or anything else) will always find ways of avoiding the obstacles in their way. IMO anything that discourages the casual dabbler who has heard a Coldplay or Sleaford Mods album and decides to have a go, is a good thing. There are far too many musicians playing in uninspiring bands, and if they want to have a bit of fun in the privacy of a rehearsal room that's fine, but lets not have them clogging up venues, Bandcamp and Spotify.

 

I think that too many posters on here appear to have forgotten what it was like to be in their first originals band. You don't need half the stuff that older musicians seem to to think is absolutely necessary, and many other things are far cheaper in real terms than they were in the 60s, 70s and 80s. If you want to do something badly enough you will work out ways of doing it within your financial constraints.

 

Firstly almost no originals band needs the hassle and expense of PA ownership. All the venues worth playing on the originals circuit have in-house PA systems and if you want to play somewhere different that doesn't it is still possible to hire a system for the gig. In 50 years of playing in originals bands I been two that had their own PA and in both cases that is because we had our own dedicated rehearsal space. The PA was primarily rehearsals and only used for gigs on a handful of occasions.

 

These days everyone thinks they need personal transport but actually you can get a long way (pun intended) without car ownership. In my first few bands hardly anyone could actually drive and if they did, only a couple of them owned cars which were invariable tiny and unreliable. For local gigs we walked or used public transport. For out of town gigs we would hire a car or a van and if none of the band could actually drive we'd have at a least one fan who could and would be happy to drive for us. Remember that all the decent out of town gigs your band would most likely be supporting so all you'd need to take would be instruments amp heads and drum breakables. A four-piece band plus that fits into a typical car. It might not be comfortable but it gets you to the gig and back. If you put on a decent show you'll soon get better gigs with better pay and be able to think about buying a cheap van. I still go to local gigs by taxi. It's cheaper than the running and parking costs for the evening (especially if the gig goes on past midnight) and taxi drivers have no problem stopping in the middle of the street directly outside the venue while I load in/out.

 

As has been said plenty of other aspects of being in a band are much cheaper in real terms than they used to be. Instruments and equipment are a fraction of the price for the same level of quality. In fact unless you buy something dodgy direct from China you are very unlikely to be saddled with the sort of unplayable crap that was all most musicians could afford when starting out right up to the end of the 80s. And recording (if you're not doing it yourself) is ridiculously cheap these days. For my first 3 forays into proper recording studios, we had to watch every minute on the clock otherwise we might not be able to settle the bill at the end, and there were always "hidden extras" like the cost of the tape, both master and multi-track, that you used.

 

Back when I started gigging there were all sorts of free or cheap resources available to those of us who were prepared to put the effort in tracking them down. And they still exist if you can put in the time networking to find them. Four out of the first 5 recording sessions for The Terrortones were absolutely free because they were either part of some training initiative, the studio owner liked us enough to offer us a couple of free sessions when the studio would otherwise be empty, or paid for by the record label who were putting out a compilation album with the band on.

 

Maybe the challenges that face originals bands these days are different to those when I was first recording and gigging, but anyone really committed to getting their music heard will find ways around them. You do have to be living and breathing and dreaming about music 24 hours a day 7 days a week if you want to treat it as anything other than a hobby, but IME that has aways been the case.

 

I’d politely ask who decides what’s good music and who decides what’s derivative rubbish that should be avoided? 
 

All individual artistic expression should be encouraged, even if you don’t like the output. The music you make I simply have no feeling for, but I’d damn near fight anyone for your right to make it and share it. Why deny that to someone else?