Dankology

I've had another mess around but this is driving me mad. There was barely a 1/16 of a clockwise turn left in the truss rod. In desperation I ended up giving it about an 1/8 of a turn counter-clockwise from its original position and this has allowed me to get the intonation right at the 12th fret. But now every note between 1st and 11th frets is significantly sharp and the string buzzes so much as to be unplayable. The other strings are unaffected. I've included a photo to show how high the action remains despite the bridge being as low as it can go plus a neck shim in situ. I'm beginning to suspect that the neck has something horribly wrong with it but would be grateful for some pointers to try before I smash the thing into pieces and throw it on the fire.

A new set of strings has just arrived, funnily enough... Will see how things go with them.

As noted in a recent posting, I'm using my Squire VI more regularly nowadays, in fact it's the only instrument I've used at our last couple of rehearsals. But the more I use it, the more I'm noticing problems. I've already fitted a Staytrem bridge as the original didn't allow enough saddle movement to intonate the low E and have shimmed the neck slightly. I'm currently using the Newtone Axiom strings which have a 100 (or thereabouts) on the lowest string. But I'm still struggling to intonate the low E despite the saddle being maxed out. At the moment it seems I have two options: drop the bridge to its lowest and get decent intonation but rattles all along the string OR raise the bridge and then have every single note up to about the 15th fret sound sharp. The other strings seem pretty fine. Looking down the neck, there seems to be significant relief (I should check I'm phrasing this correctly here: to my eye the neck seems to bow away from the strings around its midpoint). So I'm wondering if an adjustment here might be what's needed. But this is something I've never had cause to adjust on any guitar before - is it really as simple as gradually turning the adjustment clockwise and seeing how things go? Or does what I describe above speak of a more signficant issue?

I quite like a sort of hybrid system I've seen on one of the free online bass lessons sites: four lines representing the strings but with note names rather than fret numbers. I convince myself it encourages me to think more about what I'm doing rather than just mindlessly playing the fret numbers.

Sorry - I missed this reply. I checked the resistance in the shop before taking it home: it was something like 6.4ohm - which reassurred me based on your earlier advice. Seems to be working well and I'm liking the sound too 😀

I've always loved vinyl and when I was a teenager it was a cheap way to pick up loads of classic stuff. Still love big covers, two "programmes" per album and the whole ritual of putting a record on. A few months ago I almost gave up on new vinyl after picking up a run of noisy sounding LPs. Even a new cartridge didn't help. I eventually picked up a much nicer turntable and I cannot express how much better everything sounds, even through a middling amp and low end speakers. Even my other half, who semi-tolerantly indulges this stuff, has repeatedly commented on how good it sounds. So I'm fully recommited now and would strongly encourage any waverers to check out a decent modern deck. Of course, I'm aware that much of what I'm liking will be down to distortion and the limitations of the format but I'm OK with that. In terms of the vinyl revival itself, I'm torn: I love that new music is coming out on the format but the prices are ridiculous, even for nondescript secondhand stuff. I fear lots of nice new stuff is getting wrecked on cheapo pseudo-vintage decks and labels that have always pressed vinyl are now being squeezed out of the production process. On the other hand, CDs are now cheap and plentiful, so I'm filling in gaps in my collection on the cheap again. Jeffrey Lewis wrote a great song about it that I'm sure I've posted here before: https://youtu.be/3urXygZXb74

Well, Squire VI to be completely accurate. I bought mine a couple of years ago on a bit of whim from someone local for about £120. Judging by the comments on his Facebook page after it sold, I suspect it had been an object of derision in his band and, to be fair, in its then state really wasn't much of an instrument. Since then I've picked up one of the Staytrem bridges, shimmed the neck and switched to the fab Newtone Bass VI strings - I'm still pondering upgrading the pickups and nut as well as ditching the whammy bar but for now it is a useable bass and occasionally got used for overdubbed parts on the odd song. But for the last few weeks I've been using it almost exclusively at rehearsal and it's been a bit of game changer. We're a guitar/bass/drums three-piece and using it for octaves, runs against open strings, chords and high register melodic stuff etc has allowed the guitarist and I to blur our roles and the jamming has lead to more bits of new music than we know what to do with. I'm also using more effects than ever before, which is fun. It weighs a ton and the low end is a bit lacking for it to take the place of a normal bass but it is fast becoming one of my favourite instruments. So, is there anyone else in a similar position? These things seem to get very little love online (other than in the dedicated Facebook group!) but I suspect that that is more to do with the crappy bridge and strings that the Squires leave the factory with. On the downside it has made me want one of those Hagstrom 8-strings...

All seems good!

You've obviously never watched me shopping on Ebay... No, I have not considered this at all. In fact, my only process here has been knowing someone with a similar set up and assuming I could do the same with my amp. This is the cab: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trace-Elliot-4x10-Bass-Guitar-Speaker-Cabinet-/165322491861?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0 And the amp is the aforementioned GP12 SMX combo. Have I done something daft here?

I've long wanted to supplement my 15" GP12 SMX combo with a 4x10 cab but have never quite managed it. Last night I fell into conversation with some folks on the Facebook Trace Elliot group and someone recommended a 2x10 - I went looking for a photo and accidentally found a fairly tidy looking 4x10 on sale at Johnny Roadhouse for £100 - which seemed silly to ignore. So, vomitty child permitting, I'll be picking it up tomorrow in good time for rehearsal later in the evening. Given that the combo on its own loosened every light fitting in the house when I first bought it, I am really quite excited about this addition. Do pray for my lumbar spine though.

This is something I've long fretted over, and moreso on the odd occasions when I use a pick. But... we record all our rehearsals and most of our gigs and every time I listen back the bass sounds fine (other than all the bum notes, of course). It's almost some weird psychological/aural trick in the moment that makes me more conscious of the higher frequency content and somehow filters out the low end. But it's definitely there when listening back later on. This is with a US standard with JVX pickups. I do fancy having the series option though - is there a sensible way of doing this given the EMG solderless/plug & play system?

If my Squire VI is anything to go by, a new socket will end up being the tiniest and most trivial on a long list of mods and fixes. Love mine BTW.

Aside from the potential rights and wrongs of the recruitment criteria (and the seemingly random use of capital letters), that sounds like a band I'd really enjoy not being a member of.

Yours is also presented the most prettily... Really appreciate the time you put into this. These are my thoughts exactly. I really like the way the run sounds and as much as any flurry of quiet, low end notes might have done the trick, it was really bothering me that I couldn't identify what was being played. I've always had a thing about wantng to get my fingers (and ears) around tricky passages, even if it's a song I don't particularly like - just to have another tool in the toolbox, as it were. I was pretty far off as it happens. In my defence, while I was fighting with it I did think that it reminded me of Neil Young's Old Man - and it turns out that it is the same guy on bass. So I may be tone deaf but not entirely cloth-eared 😀

Thank you all for your sterling efforts. I'm looking forward to working my way through these latest versions tomorrow. Fascinating how much variation there is here, latter-day rearrangement aside... 😉

Second gig with our new band on Friday night! The sorry tale of how we were reduced from a 5-piece to a renamed trio is recounted in another thread but the new band is shaping up very nicely indeed now. The gig was a free-in in the bar at a small local theatre. We all know virtually everyone involved in some way so the preparations were very relaxed and informal. The guitarist had been in touch with the venue engineer a few days before to sort out the set up and had explained we were 2 x vox and wanted at least some of the kit in the mix so we could use some effects on it. All was ok'd and it was arranged to meet him on the afternoon of the gig - no show... As we loaded in we were greeted by what I can only assume was a volunteer/work experience bod and the "desk" photographed below. (In case the photo doesn't attach properly, imagine something you might give to child who wanted to pretend they were doing a podcast.) We resigned ourselves to just putting the vocals through the PA but soon realized that there wasn't even a basic built in reverb so rushed back to the rehearsal room to grab the XR18, modem, tablet etc. Amazingly, it all went well from there on: really decent crowd by the end, many of whom seemed to be happily bopping along. All our giveaway cds were nabbed and we even had a girl come up at the end to ask for a setlist - although I wonder if she had anticipated something like the very pretty one that our guitarist had shared on Facebook rather than the crumpled, beerstained plain A4 printout I was standing on. Oh, how I have missed playing live. (a free live EP from our first gig is available here: https://deadtenantmusic.bandcamp.com/releases )

I'm not sure I said that. But as an outsider he perhaps had a degree of perspective (and freedom to speak his mind?) that others that others did not but he chose to bullishly pursue his own agenda.

I'll have to agree to disagree on this one as I reckon his tenacity almost certainly contributed to the toxic atmosphere. But I suppose that's an eternal conundrum: how much does the observer change events merely by observing them? Or by continually punting daft ideas, of course.

In this context I think so. The editing here admitedly emphasises it but I think his insistence on pushing the live show aspect when the band were clearly in the midst of an existential crisis shows a complete lack of emotional intelligence. I'm not sure he comes across at all like a benign or even helpful influence. And that's not to mention his utterly outlandish ideas for the show itself or his pointless desire to use codenames for the individual Beatles.

So true. The proof of the pudding being that, once they removed the self-imposed time and creative restrictions, they crafted Abbey Road out of essentially the same pool of material. I do feel they were just short of one person pointing out how needlessly destructive the whole idea was but between the dead Epstein, apparently disillusioned George Martin, clearly star-struck Glyn Johns and the imbecile Lindsay-Hogg there was no-one to state the obvious and gently guide them right. Complete aside: I absolutely love the fact that history's very first "shut up, Yoko" jibe seems to have been cracked by McCartney himself, aimed at Linda

I suspect it's actually a hymn.

This was exactly the example I had in mind. Seems bonkers to me that such an iconic part could be considered not to be an integral part of the song.

I reckon it's horses for courses with the key being to get a solid agreement in place *before* the millions start rolling in... I always liked what Madness did: for each song the main songwriter got 50% and everyone got a 1/7 share of the other half. Somewhat smooths over that disconnect between a contribution (that could subjectively be large or small) and what might traditionally be seen as "songwriting". Although that does seem generous in a seven-piece band. I truly hate the situation that frequently exists in which the writer of an absolutely key part/riff/etc gets no recompense as it doesn't form part of the traditional top-line/lyrics view of a song. Then again, I'm sure what appears in brackets after a song title and how the income is actually split can be two very different things. My last band fell apart largely because one person wanted to do (and be seen to do) all the writing. Current band is very much a whole-band credit - which I'm slightly uncomfortable about as the singer contributes all the words and main melody even though the backings are fairly equally contributed to.

Apologies for a slight thread-jack but are there any pointers on a surround set up that won't break the bank and/or give the living room an unfortunate air of singleton's masturbation dungeon? I seem to have amassed loads of 5.1 discs in boxsets and I never get to listen to listen to them.