wintoid

Terrible news, RIP Robbie

Just fantastic!

Ohhh that was a treat, thank you so much!

16 minutes ago, rubis said:

I read this book before diving in 

http://www.melvynhiscock.com/

and found it very helpful, having said that, i think by browsing this forum, and (dare i say it) Talkbass or TDPRI which have build your own sections, i think you would pick up lots of useful information

The other thing is post your efforts and ask questions, people like nothing better than helping out and passing on tips 

Enjoy what you do 

Thanks, I appreciate it.

1 hour ago, PaulThePlug said:

Status have a pdf about fitting their neck... plus detail on their site about neck pocket size.

You then have some dimensions to look for in regard to a body.. then as mentioned, maybe a little fine sanding...

Pickups may be slightly different in corner radius from a Seymore Duncan to another brand, bridges may differ in string spacing...

What other bits are you looking at?

Thanks, I'm basically nowhere so far, just thinking about it.  I like a graphite neck, that much I know, and probably a narrow jazz one sounds good to me.  I need to learn I think.

6 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

For the first part of your question;  There is a fair bit of instruction within these build diaries.  You get posts from members with rudimentary skills all the way up to pro luthiers.  Time would be well spent here.  YouTube, of course, is another great resource.  Parts rarely fit together straight from the factory so some amount of fitting is involved when buying loaded bodies and neck sub assemblies.

For the second part;  You can start out simple with a kit.  I did this and learned a lot from the process.  It will almost certainly give you a thirst for more.  From there you can go as far as your ambition takes you given access to good timber and tools, either hand or machine.  There's plenty of scope for creativity.  It's not quite like Meccano but, as mentioned in the first part, it is possible to get playable results from off the shelf items with a little bit of fettling.

I wish you a lot of joy with it.

Thanks, much appreciated.  I'll hang out here and read up!

I had a quick search, but not really sure what to search for.  I was hoping there might be a sticky with some basic information about how to get started with building basses.  So just a few really basic questions if no one minds...

Is there a good resource for learning about what the problems are, and how to resolve them?  For example, if I wanted to buy a graphite Status neck and fit it to a Jazz body of some sort, what do I need to look out for when choosing components, and is it as simple as bolting it together, or what is likely to go wrong?

Secondly, just at a high level, do you need high levels of dexterity and great carpentry skills to do this stuff, or is it more like lego/meccano and you just bolt it all together and off you go?

Very nice!

Oooh!  Thank you!  Just briefly tried this and it looks to be the solution.  I was sure I'd tried that, but obviously not.  Thanks so much for your help.

I'm using an RME Babyface Pro sound card, which is a USB device, and powered entirely from the USB connection to my computer (Mac Mini).  I've treated myself to a preamp/active DI box, which is the EBS Microbass II, and supposedly this can be powered over XLR phantom power.

So, I've connected the Microbass to the Babyface using an XLR cable, and powered it from a 9V battery initially.  No problem, this works OK.  I've been into the RME TotalMix software, found the bit where phantom power is turned on, and done that, which results in an orange light turning on on the Babyface.  However, the Microbass is not detecting the phantom power.

Am I missing something obvious?  Is there not going to be enough juice for a USB-driven soundcard to also power an active DI box over phantom power?  Did I need to ensure my XLR cable had some particular characteristic to get this to work?

Any help much appreciated.  I literally have never used phantom power before, so I know nothing about it.

I've got two hifis at home, and various other speakers and things around the house, all tied together with a piece of software called Roon.  Roon brings together my collection of CDs (all ripped) and downloads, and integrates it with Tidal (also works with Qobuz).  How it looks on the computer/phone is as if it's offering up a gatefold LP with liner notes on each album.  So for me, it gives me the stuff I miss about vinyl, but easy to use, and music in every room of the house.

The liner notes often have links to other artists/albums/producers and you can go down a rabbit hole realising that x artist played on y's album, but was in a supergroup with z.  Fantastic!  I spend hours lost in my collection.  And it's simple enough once set up for the rest of the family to use.

Unfortunately, Roon is looking a bit expensive these days, and they're into the subscription model, which I personally don't like, especially to be charged for listening to my own music.  I bought a lifetime Roon subscription some years ago, and it cost me about £350, which I rationalised as like buying the best CD player I'd ever buy.  I've certainly had my money's worth.

As much as I love my hifis, music in the kitchen whilst cooking is a great thing!

12 hours ago, Misdee said:

But then again , I am a middle -aged bloke with middle-aged taste in bass tone. The BDDI , even the V2 with a midrange control, seems to  naturally favour the  more aggressive scooped and distorted  modern kind of tones that angry  kids in board shorts with tattoos and multiple piercings seem to like . That is fair enough, because the present( and probably the future) belongs to them .

I enjoyed this

I literally own one bass cable . So the cable I'm using it the one I usually use between my bass and my amp (ancient Roland cube thing).  I just pull it out of the amp and stick it in the Babyface.

I'll give input 4 a go over the weekend!

On 15/09/2020 at 13:11, wintoid said:

The Babyface is supposed to have HiZ jack inputs for instruments, rated at 470 KOhm

Turns out this is wrong, incidentally.  The Babyface has 1MOhm inputs.  So I'm guessing the pedal idea wouldn't have helped anyway.

OK I checked and TotalMix has a little symbol of a guitar over the input into which I plug my bass, so I'm going to assume that I'm successfully using "instrument mode".  However, unlike @TwoTimesBass I am nowhere near hitting clipping with everything maxxed out and an active bass.

Thanks guys.  You're right, Bitwig is a strange fish.  I love it!  It's absolutely geared towards someone who's interested in synthesis (me) and much less towards someone who wants to work heavily with audio (unfortunately now also me!).

From memory, I switched the inputs from +4 dB to -10 dB and it was louder that way, but still pretty quiet.  I'll have to do some fiddling around to see how to switch from line to instrument, which sounds like it might be the issue, but I don't find RME TotalMix very simple to use, so I could easily have overlooked this.

I've been a bedroom player for a long time, and am turning my thoughts to recording my bass for the first time.  I have a reasonable setup, using Bitwig as my DAW of choice (love it), and an RME Babyface Pro FS as my audio interface.  The Babyface is supposed to have HiZ jack inputs for instruments, rated at 470 KOhm, but they seem to record a bit quiet.  I read that DI boxes are supposed to put out 1 MOhm, and was thinking that might solve the volume issue and improve the general quality, but I also read that Boss pedals all put out 1 MOhm, so I thought one possibility would be to get something like a Boss limiter, and that would give me real control over the volume hitting my DAW.  I'm not sure whether it's considered bad practice to record the bass post-effects, even if it's only a limiter.

I'd be really interested to hear any thoughts from those far more experienced than me!

Does it take a battery and/or does it have a PSU?

Really enjoyed watching through those, thanks for sharing them.

Duran were OK by me at the time, although I was suspicious that such a focus on image must surely mean the music and/or playing was being curated heavily by the record company.  I was already heavily into bass when Planet Earth came out, and couldn't argue with the groove.

I do think John Taylor was underrated.  I remember trying to produce my own basslines in a similar style, and it always seemed the lines were too complicated.  Somehow his were always perfect.

I bought my Bogart bass from Ismael.  He's a great seller, very clear communication, and patient with my questions.  Definitely recommended.  Thank you.

On my monitor's built-in speakers, I preferred the Schack , but once I put it through the Genelecs I thought the Bogart was the best, but only marginally.

1 hour ago, Chris2112 said:

If it's that white 5 string one, that looks really cool. Stefan has recently started an official facebook page and is always available if you have questions or need support. Karl Clews and I administrate a Bogart Owners group on Facebook, that's also a good resource. 

That's the one, yes.  Unfortunately I don't use Facebook, but I've seen a few Youtube's of Karl playing Bogarts.

Sorry @itu if the quotes have been excessive, although I don't think I'm the only one.

2 hours ago, Chris2112 said:

And so, to summarise my thoughts on a few other bits and pieces I had owned...

A good few years ago, I had owned a Zoot fretless bass with a carbon fibre neck. I wasn't sure where the neck had come from, though Zoot offered them as an option at the time and I had seen a few others around, though none as a semi-lined fretless like the one I had. It was alright, but never sounded quite how I had wanted it to. With a Bartolini humbucker, full maple body and carbon fibre neck I really expected something wild, but it never quite hit the mark for me.

I had owned a Zon Sonus at one point that was a bit of an eye opener, in truth I had probably sold it off a little too quickly and should have kept it longer. It may have been a Sonus Special model because it did have an ash body with a bubinga top and two Bartolini singlecoils. At the time, I was a little disappointed in the tone because I was coming to it off the back of a slew of Status Graphite basses. Joe Zon had wanted to reinvent the Jazz bass for the 90's with the Sonus and I think he did well with his intended goal, creating a distinctive instrument that was very lightweight and with great balance. I had hoped it would be more bright and hi-fi than it was, and it definitely wouldn't compete with a Status in that regard. These days, I would consider Bartolini to be my favourite pickups by a country mile and I feel that I would give the Sonus a warmer reception now. At the time, I still thought it was incredible and the craftsmanship was stunning, but it wasn't enough to make me want to keep it forever. 

As much as I adore Zon basses, the company is really in an odd place at the moment. I know they had moved addresses in the past couple of years, IIRC it was because the lease on their workshop ran out and the building owner wouldn't renew (or at least not on reasonable terms). That seemed to start an annus horribilis for Joe Zon, with a number of posts and threads on Talkbass with owners complaining of having been unable to get in touch with Joe or having paid either in part or in full for a bass, often several years ago, and yet still not having sight of it. The fact that a number of buyers were waiting for their basses but new basses were being made and sold for trade shows (presumably then delivered to customers or sold for the trade show) was an understandable cause of anger. There was a particularly bizarre episode involving a now-deleted thread about some guy who was a long-time Zon customer slandering the company over a bass that he had ordered and that seemed to grease the wheels to get it delivered to him, before he tried to retract his posts and say the whole thing had been a misunderstanding. It knocked my confidence in the company after seeing Zon as a long-time stalwart of the custom bass scene. I truly believe that Joe Zon makes the coolest graphite-necked instruments in America today but I would never buy one new. It doesn't take much effort to send an email to a waiting customer.

This thread would not be complete without a mention of Stefan Hess, the German builder behind SKC Bogart. I am not sure how Stefan got started in the world of graphite, but he was instrumental in the production of a number of high-end instruments in Germany from the late 80's and beyond. His own Bogart Blackstone basses are probably his most well-known works, but he also made graphiter products for other builders. 

The Clover Slapper, also known as a the SKC Clover Slapper, was a headless grahpite-necked bass using a 'cricket bat' style neck and body piece with maple wings, brass hardware and Bartolini pickups. Some of these were made in 36" scale and sound absolutely massive. Kai Eckhardt had used a 34" 5 string model with John McLaughlin in the late 80's. 

Kai Eckhardt also used another of Stefan's products, this time in a Schack bass - many readers here might remember the old 'basslobster' site that hosted videos of virtuoso players before youtube was even a thing. That site had a video of Kai playing a Schack double-neck with graphite necks. SKC produced the graphite necks for a Schack at the time, though nowadays I believe Schack make their own necks following their resurrection. 

Stefan's own SKC Bogart Blackstone basses are notable because he didn't just make the carbon fibre necks, he worked with new materials to produce the body. The 'Blackstone' material referenced in the name of the bass is a composite foam injected into a body shell, designed to have the tonal characteristics of alder wood but with total uniformity in mass and construction. In truth, I think the final product is a bit heavier than alder wood, but I commend Stefan for his desire to design and create. SKC Bogart folded for a while around the turn of the Millenium, but Stefan has been back building basses now for several years. 

I currently own a 1994 Blackstone 5 string that had previously belonged to Stuart Clayton (he used it in his video cover of Alain Caron's 'D-Code' and by youtube views I think that makes it the most famous Bogart bass in the world!). I've written about this bass extensively elsewhere on the site and it still remains in my regular rotation today. It has some very aggressive sounding Bartolini pickups and a Noll preamp. These basses have always been very underrated on the used market and continue to be something of a well-kept secret outside of Germany. They most regularly pop up on the German Ebay, and I would quite like a fretless model some day. 

 

 

 

Phew.  In between your posts, I decided to abandon the quest for a Steinberger, and plumped for the very tempting Bogart in the classifieds here.  I had wanted a 4 string, but at the tempting secondhand price, I am prepared to have a go at learning 5 string.  Really looking forward to receiving it.

So it's a relief so see that you didn't say all Bogarts are dogs

OK I'm too weak, I think it has to be done!  I guess I'm going to have to learn to play 5 strings.

Really struggling to resist this.  I'm trying to only buy one bass, and really think it should be 4 string, but this has become unbearably tempting!  Someone please buy it.