Beer of the Bass

[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1377536010' post='2188584'] I dont have a really issue with them buying and selling, but i would expect them to contribute to our community rather than just come her to make a profit. This is the reason ive always thought members should rack up some posts before being allowed to sell things (sorry, i know thats off topic) [/quote] I would have agreed with this, except that I've dealt with one particular BCer who meets this description (buying and selling but not posting elsewhere) who has been really useful in supplying assorted bits of cheap secondhand gear I've posted wanted ads for, and were I looking for certain bits of used gear again, he's probably one of the first people I'd ask. I'm not naming names, but I feel like this particular chap is actually a bit of an asset to have on the forum.

There's a strong possibilty they'd make for nice guitar drivers though!

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1376907998' post='2180549'] Right. Next job. Lets find that waistcoat... or at least a like for like replacement. [/quote] Only if we can have a Waistcoat Relay, where we all wear it for a gig, take a picture then pass it on!

I can't remember which value I've got in there at the moment, but it's probably a .0047 as I got the idea from a rickenbacker diagram. I like it because it reduces the interaction between the two pickups in the lows and low mids, so I can run the neck pickup on full then use the thinned-out bridge pickup to dial in some extra highs without getting the usual scooped mid jazz sound.

I've got a similar series capacitor on a push-pull pot on the bridge pickup of my bass, even though it has Jazz pickups and wiring. I really like what it does to the two pickup sound, though it's kind of useless with the bridge pickup on its own.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1376664736' post='2177679'] I would say that , in my experience of comparing them side by side , what you get by buying a good ( emphasis on [i]good [/i]) high quality , high -end bass over something like an EBMM , which I would class as a [u]very [/u]good quality factory- produced bass , is that a boutique bass will play with far less relief in the neck( if you want it that way ) , the action can be lower(if you want it that way ), and a quartersawn and reinforced neck will feel more solid and need less frequent adjustment . In terms of the overall quality of the sound , however , at what they do , I think EBMM basses can match many or even most bespoke basses . [/quote] I'm curious as to why a "boutique" bass would play with less relief in the neck than any other. A vibrating string doesn't care how much you paid, the laws of physics remain the same. A bass with perfectly levelled frets will be playable with less relief and lower action than one without, but it's simple enough to achieve a good fret job and setup on almost any properly functioning bass. OK, only the higher end instruments come like that from the maker, and perhaps that's what you meant. I'd agree on the usefulness of a stable and stiff neck though.

It's specifically the Fuzz Face and Tonebender based designs that behave oddly with active basses or with a buffer in front of them. That covers a huge number of contemporary fuzzes though, and it can be hard to find out which. Big Muff based pedals are usually OK, as are derivatives of the Univox Superfuzz. It's a shame manufacturers are often cagey about owning up to whose topology they've borrowed, though perhaps understandable given the size of the boutique "not quite a tubescreamer" market for guitarists...

[quote name='lowlandtrees' timestamp='1376642986' post='2177160'] Which gauge TI flats should I go for? This is a subject that I know bugger all about. I had always assumed that string gauge and tension were directly related. How do you know which strings are high tension and which ones lower (probably a tigga nooby question) ? [/quote] I think TI flats only come in one gauge. They're lower tension than most other strings of the same gauge, as they have some sort of silk or synthetic winding between the core and outer layers, so have lower mass.

[quote name='lowlandtrees' timestamp='1376600527' post='2176802'] No I did not feel good about messing with the rods. Thought that I was buying light guage strings. Last ones were Elixir. Have loosened them and re thinking. What guage and make of string then. I do like the feel of flats on the fingers [/quote] TI Jazz Flats are nice, low tension flatwounds but expensive. D'addario Tapewounds are flat feeling and low tension, and I rather like them.

Which sort of double bass sound are you after? I found that TI flats on a fretless give a little bit of a double bass vibe, but in a modern growly Dave Holland-esque way. If it's a more old fashioned thumpy sound you're after, tapes plus a higher action might take you in the right direction. The ones I've tried (D'Addario) have some brightness, but it's quite natural sounding rather than zingy. After all, even a gut strung double bass still has some bite and attack to it.

Woohoo, I have my first pickup! My slightly ridiculous winder is a cheap Dremel copy stuck down to a bit of wood, with a PWM circuit to cut the speed down to a couple of hundred RPM and a dowel with slices of cork on it to limit the wire travel. The spool sits on the floor with the wire whipping off the top and I'm tensioning it using a scrap of leather held between my fingers. The motor has very little torque at this speed, which is nice, as if I tension the wire too much it slows down rather than snapping it. I have no counter, but then neither did Fender back in the day, apparently. This one measures 7k DC resistance, though I was aiming for around 8K. Looking around the net, Lindy Fralin uses a 7k neck pickup in some of his sets so I'm going to keep it as it is and use it for the neck. I'll try and wind the other bobbin a little fuller for the bridge. There's a couple of mm on either side of the coil, so I'm sure I can squeeze on a little extra. Here's my shonky winder, shown here with no tension on the wire, because I've just finished winding. Next up will be winding the bridge pickup, attaching leads and waxing them. This pickup winding lark is quite fun - I may have to have a go at some bass pickups some time...

A lighter set of Chromes?

I've built one too, which I don't use very often, but it does more or less what you'd expect. It's good for getting a bit of amp-ish character when running a DI. It doesn't overdrive very far (though you can tweak that through FET choice and bias adjustments), but does so in a smooth, compressed way as mentioned above. I found with mine that it's just a little too mellow sounding - I like to turn the treble up on most preamps (including old-school valve amps), or use a bright switch if I've got one - more for upper-mid bite than sparkly modern sounding stuff, but I can't really get that out of the stock flipster. Mine is the older design though - I think it's had a redesign since then.

I used to have a beautiful 1920s Kumalae Uke, which I'd found at a furniture auction. Unfortunately, I ended up selling it to a fanatical uke collector on eBay a couple of years ago (for something like £300!) when I needed to pay some bills. It was flamed Koa, and sounded really sweet. Fortunately, I've just found a funky little banjo uke in a charity shop that just needs a bridge and some strings, so I'll have a uke again shortly...

[quote name='Myke' timestamp='1375626653' post='2163566'] That's really nice How long does it take to put a coat on? [/quote] The Tru-oil just wipes on, and is re-coatable in a couple of hours in this warm weather. I like to leave it overnight before sanding or buffing though. Despite the name, it's not really an oil finish, it's more of a polymerised oil based varnish.

Having havered over whether or not to try spraying a solid colour, I decided to give the woodstain a try after all. If nothing else, it saves me from filling my kitchen with lacquer fumes, as I live in the city centre and have no outside space. I've used a spirit based stain in Forest Green from Rothko and Frost. I prepared the body by dampening it to raise the grain, then sanding to 600 grit after it dried to remove the fluffy bits, as I'd read that this helps the stain to absorb more evenly. I wiped on two coats of stain, allowed these to dry then wiped on a couple of coats of Tru-oil. I'm going to keep adding more coats of tru-oil until I can buff it to a satin sheen, but here it is at the moment. I may still re-do it if I don't like it when I'm done, but I'm quite liking the stain at the moment. With any luck, it'll come out looking a little like the finish on the Thurston Moore sig model...

Jen and the Gents are doing the official Fringe slots on the Royal Mile this year. We signed up in advance and have specific slots booked, but we're on a little stage, with electricity, which makes life a bit easier. It definitely gets more CDs out there than playing venue gigs. Did your dancing guy have a kilt, big moustache/sideburns and a hat covered in badges, by any chance? If so, that's auld Lewis, King of Scotland! He always seems to dance to Jen and the Gents when we're busking. He has it down to a fine art, he comes and larks about for about half a song, then wanders off before he's outstayed his welcome...

[quote name='Spoombung' timestamp='1375527357' post='2162500'] 4 strings. There are NO memorable bass lines on 5. [/quote] Surely that's a matter of sample size rather than any inherent issue with five strings though? There are fewer players using five strings, and they haven't been around for as long, so most of the influential stuff we all remember was done on a four string. But that doesn't mean that someone couldn't come up with a memorable line on a five string.

While the tru-oil on the neck is drying, I've been working on the pickups. Here's an assembled pickup, ready for winding. The flatwork is 3mm Tufnol, the magnets are Alnico V rods from Cermag in the UK and the eyelets are from a dolls house supplier on eBay. The flatwork is about 0.6mm thicker than standard, but as long as the coil dimensions are right it shouldn't make much difference. Next I have to figure out winding...

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1375209040' post='2158287'] I think I will disappoint you: metal. You'd have liked the cloth one better, wouldn't you? [/quote] Yeah, I'm a fan of that sort of thing! I can see how the metal grille would look better matched under your Markbass combo though.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1375195502' post='2157966'] My Compact arrived and is finally with me! I was only able to try it at home at low volumes so I cannot tell what it'll be like, but it's promising... and I love the weight (or lack thereoff!) [/quote] Ooh, nice. Did you go for the cloth or metal grille?

I think it's not so much the total amount of friction that gets annoying but the alternate stick/slip thing you can get on some gloss necks, especially when there's some moisture being smeared around by your thumb. If a less glossy finish is slightly more grippy but consistent feeling, that could be easier to adjust to.

Kent Armstrong do a good toaster style pickup, I have one on my four string and like it but can't vouch for how close it sounds to the originals. WD music stock them (they're under guitar pickups).

I've started Tru-oiling the neck. This is four coats into the process, having flattened it back with extra fine steel wool after the first two coats. It's getting a nice satiny sheen already. The body is waiting on the bridge arriving (I want to do any drilling before it's painted) and me buying the paint.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1374845227' post='2153992'] I agree, if you read my post what I'm saying is that you can get closer to flats or dull old rounds with rounds and an eq than you can get an old set of flats to sizzle [/quote] If you were playing in a covers band and needed to emulate a range of sounds with a single bass, I could see this being a workable approach. I guess I'm fairly lucky to play in originals bands where I can seek out the sound I like and use it as I see fit rather than having to cover all bases. If I can't get sizzle out of my setup, no-one misses it!