Annoying Twit

I'll go for four, because my top three have already all been done. Ringo Starr (has to be) Terry Bozzio (I would have to spend two years practicing polyrhythms first) Steve Jansen Yukihiro Takahashi (particularly if I had a better bass synth)

Herbie Hancock's band. In some ways, Zappa's band would be preferable. But I've heard that he was a hard taskmaster and that playing in his band was musically rewarding, but not always pure enjoyment. Weather Report would be nice too, but I think that Zawiunul comes up with fewer cracking melodic tracks than Hancock. Edit: Jan Hammer? BTW: I listen to mainly pop/rock. But this thread is about which band I'd like to play in if I could.

If I was in your position, I would consider it a fun challenge to go out and play lots of cheaper instruments to find one of those basses like the mentioned Vintage V4 that's cheap, but very nice.

Time to buy a lottery ticket?

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1387752307' post='2315344'] I don't understand why the red one has tuners at both ends. [/quote] Is it a 12 string bass? The following bass has some degree of 'different for the sake of being different', but by $%£* I would like to own one. http://atlansiaguitars.com/Bass-Guitar.php

There are three main shops selling basses in Leicester. Each has their strengths and weaknesses, and none have a huge range of stuff. But, if you put all three together, it's a reasonable selection. I'm not sure where to go for setup work. I've had a bass setup in Leicester by an independent technician, and I wasn't overwhelmed by the result. I've had a recommendation to go out of the city for setup work, but haven't done so yet. All of the shops have good service, in that if you go in and want to try stuff, it's no problem.

I now have a La Bella flatwound B string very generously given to me by "Beer of the Bass". Thanks! It's a very, very, different feel from roundwounds, and also sounds very different. I thought I'd probably experienced flatwound strings before and I'd recognise the feel, but I certainly haven't played them before. The sound change was the biggest shock. I put the string on my Shine SB26. Previously I changed the pickups on this from humbuckers to single coils, and the sound didn't change much at all. But, with the La Bella string, the fundamental nature of the sound has changed quite a bit. And that 'piano wire' sound that I don't really like vanished. It's a very different feel, particularly when sliding. And, much less string noise. I'll revise my opinions after playing longer, but at the moment, I think I will want a bass with these flats. Or, something similar. It'd give me more variety. However, it is more floppy. Previously the front pickup was quite close to the string, but with the Flatwound string would stick to it and stay stuck to it! I had to drop the pickup a bit to avoid that happening. If this is how floppy La Bella strings are, I'm not sure I want to try TI flats.

This thread has diverted from my original post. I fetched a Behringer V-Amp out of my cupboard, and played the bass (Rockbass Streamer Standard) through it. For some reason, even though it's a guitar, not a bass, V-Amp it can make the bass sound, to my ears, much better. Hence I don't need the BDI21 just yet. I don't see why it seems to work much better with that bass than my Zoom B2, but for some reason it does. There are even plenty of dirty presets that seem to work fine with it. It's almost like two wrongs making a right.

I've seen the bass in the gumtree ad before. I'm not sure exactly where.

I am also very curious about this topic. I have played basses which have a very low action, but a taut feel. I liked that very much.

Hydrogen. Works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Though, it does seem to work best in Linux for mixing and plugins. But, it does do what you want. www.[b]hydrogen[/b]-music.org/‎

A quick google reveals that you are correct about the mountains. BTW: It seems that if I'm going to keep on asking questions on Yahoo Japan questions, that I need to answer other people's questions too to build up 'coins'. I've just answered a question 'What's the best Christmas present, or the Christmas present that makes you really happy?' I've just said that in England, it's traditional for 'Dad' to receive socks and underwear, so if I receive anything better than that, I'm happy.

Oops! I went the wrong direction when I tried googling Rokkuman instead of Rokkomann! Interesting to note that they spell their name in Japanese as ロッコマン which would naturally have a single N in roman letters, but they spell it with the double n. I've received one answer to my question so far, which is:[q [quote] [url="http://rdsig.yahoo.co.jp/chiebukuro/PAGE=DT_ACTIVE/LOC=ANSLIST/R=1/O=ID/RV=1/RE=1387651276/RH=cmRzaWcueWFob28uY28uanA-/RB=/RU=aHR0cDovL2NoaWVidWt1cm8ueWFob28uY28uanAvbXkvZG91c3VydTI0/RS=%5EADAFK.s8fQ6NMyICu_qldpFs23OKJo-;_ylt=A2RAEEhMj7RSWBAACiBZqfZ7"][i]dousuru24[/i][/url]さん 初めまして、MayaとおっしゃっているのはEL Maya（エルマヤ）の ことだと思いますが、自分の友人が一台エルマヤのジャズベースを 持っているので聞いてみました。 でも、神戸のロッコーマンという楽器店のオリジナルブランドぐらいの ことしかやっぱりわからず、ロッコーマンから委託されて生産していた 工場まではわかりませんでした。 当時のロッコーマンのことが詳しく書かれているので、こちらを見て みるとよいかもです。 [url="http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1066285765"]http://detail.chiebu...ail/q1066285765[/url] 力になれず、すみません。[/quote] In this s/he says that by Maya they think I mean El Maya. S/he says that they asked one of their friends who has an El Maya bass. But he hadn't heard of any El Maya basses apart from those by Rokkomann in Kobe, so therefore hasn't heard of any made at any other location. S/he then recommends that I read a previous answer which has detailed information about Rokkomann in Kobe. [But, this is the answer I found previously which didn't mention the factories]. Then, s/he says (politely) sorry that they couldn't be of more help. That's the first answer, and it arrived quite quickly. Hopefully there will be more answers overnight. I've got to go revise the difference between Maya and El Maya basses. There is a phone number for Rokkomann on their site. I wonder what would happen if I phoned them.

With things like the Rokkuman factory (the -nn is very unlikely in Japanese), it might be interesting to see if we can get in contact with a Japanese bass enthusiast of a suitable age. I'm off to google things such as '日本製ベース歴史’ and 'ロックマン工場’ to see what I get. ... Oh hell, there's a video game called 'Rockman' which is spelt 'Rokkuman' in Japanese (I strongly suspect that this is meant to be the name of the Japanese instrument factory), and 'bass' and 'base' are spelt the same when written in Japanese. This is going to make searching much, much, harder. [url="http://img5.blogs.yahoo.co.jp/ybi/1/44/c1/rockmanx121/folder/616885/img_616885_10221744_0"]LInk to image[/url] There are also Rockman amps, as used by Boston and B'z. Searching directly on Maya bass (マヤ　ベース) seems to throw up mainly English pages. E.g. this one that credits a company called Tahara with most of the Maya instruments, but also mentions the much better known Chushin. [url="http://torchsvintageguitarresearchblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/maya-guitar-mystery.html"]http://torchsvintage...ar-mystery.html[/url] Edit: This blogger says that he's been involved in Rock and Pop for 35 years, and he says that he would like to talk about what he knows. [url="http://atelier-coco.info/?cat=11"]http://atelier-coco.info/?cat=11[/url] Edit (again): [url="http://chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/my/enigmatica999"]This guy[/url] really knows his onions, and has answered thousands of questions on Yahoo Questions, specialising in guitar and bass questions. He wrote a lengthy answer about El Maya guitars, discussing a strat. [url="http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1066285765"]http://detail.chiebu...ail/q1066285765[/url] He didn't say which factory they were built in though. Edit (again): I've asked my own question. (It includes apologies for my broken Japanese!) http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q13118233473

[quote name='Green Alsatian' timestamp='1387548307' post='2313246'] Have you heard their latest album 'Same Horse Different Jockey' yet? It's great! Plenty of catchy tunes on that one. Here's the video from the first single, 'Express Yourself': [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSb0uHwdTvg[/media] [/quote] No, I haven't, and didn't know that it existed. I even checked their discography on Wikipedia to see if anything had been released that I hadn't noticed before I posted, and it's not there. I'm off to see if I can find the album on spotify now, and will pick up the album proper soon. Edit: Album is on Spotify, listening now.

[quote name='Green Alsatian' timestamp='1387534857' post='2312977'] I'd be gutted if Norman wasn't at last Friday's gig too - sorry to hear that you didn't get to see him in action. I don't agree, since it was Chaz Jankel who wrote the bulk of the music to back Ian's lyrics. His absence is really noticeable on 'Laughter' (although having Wilko onboard for that album was great). I'm a huge Ian fan and think his best material was when backed by The Blockheads. They're are too good a band to be not playing and their new material with Derek is excellent - well worth checking out. That Derek does justice to his old mate's lyrics when they play the older stuff live is a bonus. [/quote] I think that the most recent album Staring Down the Barrel is a very good album indeed, and in my opinion compares well to any Blockheads album with the exception of New Boots and Panties which is an absolute classic. The 11 reviewers on Amazon seem to agree with me. As does the BBC reviewer. http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/3xw6 The whole album can be heard on Spotify.

The notched ruler shown by Ou7shined seems a good idea. I can buy 24" rulers on ebay, though perhaps buying one at Halfords or somewhere would be better. I'd hav to ask our machine sho if they have a drill press for adding the notches as I don't have such equipment myself. I presume a reasonable way to build one is to lay it against the neck, mark with pen where the frets are, and then drill. And that the notches can be a bit on the big side so that they clearly miss the frets, with the straight edge working as long as there is plenty of straight edge remaining between them. Such a straight edge could also be used to help me equalise the tension on the two truss rods on my Shine bass. I could get the neck flat on both sides, then remove equal amounts of tension from each side. The Crimson Guitars fret levelling file looks very much like a portion of a normal file cut to length and with a bit of wood stuck on the back. It's much more refined than that, but couldn't something similar be made by sticking a piece of wood onto a file to make a handle? The fret levelling beam is interesting, but is a significant investment. If into the future I can do my own fret dressing, then it will pay for itself. I feel the files I bought for filing nuts have already paid for themselves. But, I'm not sure if I'm going to get all the way to doing my own fret dressing to a good standard. I must admit that I'm tempted to go the route of passing a file down the neck, with or without a lump of wood stuck on the back. At least for the first try. Though, a spirit level with some double sided tape attached fine grit sandpaper is also a cheap option. As pointed out however, checking the neck is as straight as it will go is the first step.

If I have a passive bass that has basically a clear sound, but it's a bit wimpy, and lacks 'power', then would a bass DI box help with this? If a bass DI box would help with this, would that include the Behringer BDI21. Which seems to get good reviews, but it is a Behringer product... This would typically be for headphone practice. The bass in question seems to sound OK through a Laney 2x10 combo amp (not mine). But particularly since I stopped using cheap everyday headphones and started using DT770 Pros, the lack of the bass boost on the phones is a bit noticeable. Particularly since other basses I own (in one case active with 2-band EQ, in the other case passive but seemingly just with excellent pickups). Wouldn't adding a serviceable bass DI into the signal path be sort of like making the bass active, but without having to do any woodwork or wiring?

Most of my learning is scales, now chords, and improvisation. However, I'm trying to learn the main riff from The Blockheads' "Feel the Funk". I'm not good at things that require fast fingering (rather than achieving speed through hammer-ons etc.) I'm not 100% sure that I have the riff right as I picked it out by ear and I have trouble working out bunches of fast notes in riffs, but at least I have something that gives me a finger speed workout.

Maya Fretless P. Said to be from the same factory as Ibanez/Tokai. I usually think of 'the Ibanez factor' being Fujigen, and of Tokai having its own factory. But it's been mentioned before that things are more complicated than that. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAYA-FRETLESS-PRECISION-BASS-1970s-ROTOSOUND-FLATWOUND-STRINGS-IBANEZ-TOKAI-ERA-/261357642044?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3cda21213c"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item3cda21213c[/url]

I see your point. I used my pseudo-fret rockers to test my Rockbass and Shine SB26. For the Rockbass, even though I hadn't flattened the neck (it was fairly flat anyway) I couldn't find more than the very slightest at the limits of detectability rocking. Which seems to suggest that the frets are fairly even anyhow. I tried a test I read about, which is to lower the action until there's mega buzz, and then see if you get the same amount of buzz from the lower, or upper part of the neck. I found that at very, very, low action, there was buzz in the middle of the neck, but not at the ends. I wonder if this is indicative of the next itself not being straight as per the diagrammes on Jack's website. I've shimmed the neck on this bass, which improved the action. But, I can't get below a medium action (or what I think is a medium action) without buzz. For the Shine SB26 there was easily noticeable rocking all over the place. And quite a few frets would rock at one side of the neck (same frets but adjacent to different strings), but not at the other side. This bass has two truss rods, and I'm concerned that they may not be at the same tension. When I've adjusted the truss rods I've tried to make the same changes to both sides, but there may have been some drift, and the bass was in an appalling state when I received it. Looking down the neck, I think I can see a slight sideways twist. If one side looks a bit higher than the other, how should the truss rods be adjusted to compensate for/fix this? If the method of doing single frets by filing parallel to the fret is not a good idea, then what about the method [url=http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?168216-How-to-properly-level-and-crown-frets-for-the-DIY-er]recommended on the Seymour Duncan forum[/url]. This uses a single file instead of a long straight edge, and the file is moved gently down the neck across all the frets. The file itself acts as a straight edge, but isn't long enough to cover all frets. The movement of the file is along the neck, and repeated across the neck so that it doesn't file away the radius of the fretboard. Marker pen is used to visually check that the frets are being filed evenly. Is this a good way of doing it? If not, where do I get a really big straight edge?

Thanks. I've looked through your pages, and see the potential difficulties in a full fret dress. Like many others, you use a long straight edge to equalise the heights of all frets at once. I'm now the owner of a WH Smith metal ruler cut into a variety of lengths, which I'm planning to use as a fret rocker. Stage 1 will be to look for high frets, and see if I find any. Trying these straight edges on the random guitar neck I have here gives some indication of high frets, but the amount that the straight edge rocks on those frets is very, very, small. Barely noticeable. I'll see what I find when I get home. (All my basses are currently migrated to home). I'm now a bit hesitant to attempt a fret level/dress without solid evidence that there is a problem that needs to be solved. Both of the basses I may do this too are fairly new though bought second hand) and there is no real evidence of fret wear, certainly nothing that (I would expect) a silver polishing cloth wouldn't fix. Thinking now, I'm not sure that I've really approached setting the truss rods scientifically enough, and perhaps I should do that again, using feeler gauges to check that the relief is as generally recommended. Perhaps my not being able to get a really low without buzzing is for other reasons than high frets. I've just googled an interesting method of setting relief, so, I'll do that tonight, after straightening the neck then checking for high frets. An alternative is to simply pay for a fret dress by someone such as yourself, or much closer to me: http://www.leicestershire-luthier.co.uk/services.html#fret If the bases I'm considering hacking myself were ones which I thought sounded really good, then I'd definitely be looking into that. But, at the moment I have one bass I really like the sound of, which I'm not touching, and two others which are just 'OK'. Hence I don't want to sink too much £££ into them right at this moment.

Congratulations!

Thanks. I was thinking of levelling everything as on a post on the Seymour Duncan site. [url="http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?168216-How-to-properly-level-and-crown-frets-for-the-DIY-er"]http://www.seymourdu...-for-the-DIY-er[/url] But, doing an individual fret, only after checking that it's high, seems a better option. E.g. as in this: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c527_CtazOQ[/media] I don't recognise the thick pad with fine grit sandpaper that he uses to polish the frets. E.g. at 3:35 into the video. What is that stuff? Looks like it's a good idea for me to take a step back, and at first just obtain a fret rocker to check for high frets. And, then to consider my next step once I've actually identified a problem. Otherwise I risk breaking the rule 'if it ain't broke...' Should I buy a £40 secondhand bass (they come up occasionally) to practice this on? Edit: I just remembered that I have a random guitar neck lying around. I've verified that the truss rod seems to work (nice and firm, loosened properly), and it seemingly does. It's a guitar neck, but does have reasonably chunky frets. Though, looking along the neck, it might have a slight twist.

I wish to have a go at fret-levelling a bass. From what I hear, the method is to draw black lines on the tops of the fret. Then to VERY GENTLY slide a file without a handle down the frets, being careful to observe that the black is being removed from the frets evenly. I repeat this across the fretboard until I'm complete. This is all done after strings are removed, the neck is removed from the body, and the truss rode slackened to allow the neck to become completely flat again. I've read that just a fret level can be done independently of a fret re-crowning. That levelled (only) frets are not as good as fully re-crowned frets, but are still playable. So, I could do the levelling as one 'thing' that I do, and perhaps re-crown the frets at a later time. My question is - what grade of file should I use? I will be borrowing one from a machine shop, and they have a range of them. PS: I have a plan B if I completely stuff things up - if I ruin the frets, I'll be back on here talking about defretting a bass.