Beer of the Bass

If Bertie Bassett played bass, this would be the one!

The height above the board is not the thing to focus on in fret dressing. What you need to determine is whether line described by the tops of the frets is straight. A good way to do this is to find a short straight edge which spans just a few frets, lay it across the tops of the frets (along the length of the neck) and see if it either rocks or has any visible gaps.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1405667106' post='2504092'] we used to lug this mental heavy 2x12 Fender Deville combo - two man lift most the time. Played a gig with a bigger band and helped them unload - it was funny how their Fender blues jr. sounded pretty much the same by the time you had mic'ed it and put it via the PA! [/quote] Yes, I'm finding this when gigging with a small 1x10" 15 watt valve amp. It doesn't sound as big or authoritative in the room as a 2x12" would, but the sound delivered via an SM58 an inch or two away is just fine and that's really what counts at most gigs. And in many smaller unmic'ed gigs it's enough for the room anyway. In an ideal world I'd pull out a Twin Reverb for the larger rooms, but I seem to get by without...

I love it when a band manages to shoehorn something really out-there into an otherwise accessible three minute pop song, whether it comes from a guitar or any other sound source. It's like putting a dollop of some sort of really pungent pickle on an otherwise ordinary meal! Some of the songs posted are excellent examples of that.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1405592006' post='2503305'] Now THAT is a PROPER racket!! [/quote] Yeah, the only problem is that instead of thinking "make it stop", I just break out in a massive grin and want to listen to it again!

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1405591631' post='2503298'] I wonder if such a thing is really possible? Do all those old Gary Glitter fans still enjoy his music? It hasn't changed has it? Do people still view Rolf Harris's paintings in the same way they used to? They haven't changed have they? [/quote] Are these really comparable examples? Morrissey is a bit of an attention seeker and comes up with some questionable opinions in interviews. Gary Glitter and Rolf Harris committed horrible crimes against children. One of those things I can easily turn a blind eye to when regarding their work, the other not so much...

I like that Byrds example, though it's very much of its era. I think it was meant to be as wigged-out as that, and why not? I think my favourite not-really-a-guitar-solo happens at about 2 minutes into this live Bo Diddley song. It's kind of awful but great at the same time. Also, he must have been stupidly loud as he's standing in front of two Fender Showman stacks and you can hear the speakers farting out on the low end! [url="http://youtu.be/nFpv1LKrA9s"]http://youtu.be/nFpv1LKrA9s[/url]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1405540217' post='2502921'] [size=4]Is that because a guitar can be a full-range solo instrument in its own right and the bass is (generally) regarded as a team instrument?[/size] [/quote] I think that's got to be a part of it. A few years ago I was playing bass in a band who were auditioning guitarists. A surprising number of them couldn't play a simple off-beat rhythm part focussed on beats 2 and 4 without playing something on the 1. I reckon this is because that type of part only makes sense in context, and just doesn't work solo. Keyboard players with too much going on in the bass are a related phenomenon. I started playing guitar in a band a couple of years ago after a decade and a bit of playing bass in bands, and I think about this stuff a lot! I try and lock with the drums (though usually with the snare and hats while the bass locks with the kick drum) and I keep my sound fairly lean in the lows as that's where the bassist lives.

I'm going to use Tru-Oil (musicman style), for a fairly minimal but still finished feel.

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1405419866' post='2501693'] Is the top of his finger included in the sale?? [/quote] I hope that [i]is[/i] his finger! What if it's some weird exhibitionist practice, like the people who photograph shiny objects with their own naked reflection and list them on eBay?

I've been starting to shape the back of the neck. The intention is to shape it at the nut end and heel end, then join those up. I think I've got the profile at the nut end close to where I want it, though there's still some smoothing to do.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1405331994' post='2500782'] That's true, but you can get them - long-run Speakon cables are used for PA. [/quote] Yeah, but they're bulky and awkward to route around the stage, being thicker and stiffer than instrument cable. A quality 6m Speakon cable is probably getting on for the size and weight of a small head like a GK MB or similar. So although you could stick the amp on the pedalboard, I think I'd still rather put it on top of the cab.

Would we really want to be running long speaker cables about the stage? Decent speaker cable is a bit heftier than an instrument cable.

I know what you mean about the description, but OTOH they are still going to great lengths to be as transparent as possible about the performance specs of the cab, which is perhaps more useful information from a players point of view. And hey, you can have fun guessing what's going on with the ports when someone on here buys one and takes photos! I'd be very curious to hear what these new cabs sound like, though I'm avoiding succumbing to GAS partly by already having nice sounding cabs to suit the variety of gigs I do, and partly by having very little disposable income...

I had an old Aria TSB-550 which had been defretted and had a full width brass inlay across the neck at the top fret position. It looked like a professional job that had been done early in the life of the bass, so I guess the idea must have had a bit of popularity at the time. I could never see the point of the brass plate myself, as I never liked the sound of fretless slap, but it was a lovely bass.

I'm working on a bass neck at the moment and would like a custom decal for the headstock. I'd prefer to have one printed rather than making one myself as although I have a laser printer, the print quality from it is never great. All I want is my name in a simple font (I'm not looking for a fake Fender style or similar), though silver ink in the centre would be great. Can anyone point me towards a decent supplier of decals to order? There are a few out there, but specific recommendations would be useful.

Yes, that's sad news indeed. He's been a major inspiration on my double bass playing as he was supremely musical, always sympathetic to what was going on around him and never really went in for any showboating. Though this may be somewhat selfish, I'm sad that I never managed to see him play. He was also a proper lefty of the old-fashioned sort, and I'm of the opinion that the world could do with some more of those...

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1405060466' post='2498332'] purely academically, but what kinda of super sensitive cab could make 30 valve watts work? Some kind of BFM cab? [/quote] One of the old-school approaches to getting the maximum useful volume out of low-wattage valve amps has been to use cabs tuned to have a hump in the midbass. Conveniently, this can often be achieved with quite inexpensive drivers in small cabs (hence the popularity of the cheap ceramic magnet Eminences as a replacement driver in the old B15n amps). This can sometimes sound boomy, but gets you an extra few decibels between 100 and 200Hz. I guess another factor is having guitarists who are on-board with the low-wattage concept! I wouldn't want to turn up with a 30 or 50 watt bass amp when the guitarist is using a 50 watter with a 4x12", but if they were using a small combo I might consider trying it.

I've had some parts from them for a guitar project, though it was only hardware not a neck. They were fine to deal with, the parts arrived quite quickly, were well packed and marked "gift" to avoid import duty. If you're wary of dealing with a company in Hong Kong, these guys also do maple board fretless necks and the price is not much higher than EY. [url="http://www.customworldguitarparts.com/default/"]http://www.customwor...ts.com/default/[/url] I've no experience with them but they look good in the photos!

If your endpin is the right diameter, I've had good results putting a 5 pence piece inside the bottom of a new rubber walking stick end to stop the endpin from wearing through it.

I've had an Ibanez power jack fail in the same way, and it turned out to be tiny hairline fractures in the PCB track around it rather than the socket itself. This was hard to see with the naked eye. So it may be worth tinning some fresh solder over the pads to see if that sorts it before replacing the socket.

There was a rather shouty and not terribly informative thread about these a few weeks ago. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/236382-barefaced-cabs-retro-six10-and-retro-two2/page__hl__barefaced"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/236382-barefaced-cabs-retro-six10-and-retro-two2/page__hl__barefaced[/url]

[quote name='Bigjas' timestamp='1404299720' post='2491245'] The strings feel fine to me and if they are quality ones thenI am inclined to leave them on for now. The action feels very high, it measures approx 15 mm at the end of the fingerboard. Looking at previous threads on the subject I think I will lower it a bit to see if it makes it easier to play. [/quote] Ooft! 15mm is crazily high for steel strings. Just by way of comparison, I have my strings at 8mm on the G to 10.5mm on the E at the end of the fingerboard (with similar strings to yours), and some players will go lower than that. You'd be wise to take it to a luthier to have the setup looked at rather than going DIY, especially as you're new to the instrument.

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1404221326' post='2490442'] Use plywood, much stiffer and lighter, what could be better? [/quote] Plywood bodied instruments can sound good if the pickups and setup are up to scratch, I've observed this myself. Even if you consider that body material can make some difference to the sound of an instrument, it doesn't necessarily follow that cheap material = bad sound. I'd say that ordinary plywood is still an inferior body material for other practical reasons though. The lamination lines often show through a solid finish after a few years and they're prone to cracking around bolt-on neck pockets due to the short grain in this area. A higher grade laminated wood might fare a little better, like the Ritter above.

I bet that's McNach's desk at work without a bass in sight and he'll be feeling just as impatient as you lot!