nilebodgers

Over at the other bass forum there is an old thread where a bunch of luthiers are attempting to prove or disprove the “shims cause ski-slopes” thesis with a bunch of long-running experiments. As far as I remember, they haven’t managed to cause one yet with shimming.

If a band can't agree on and stick to a song arrangement then there is no hope. Gigs will just be a perpetual series of car-crashes. Where is the enjoyment in that?

I’m keen to try flats on my J. I’m doing a load of jazz lessons at the moment and the twangy G of the rounds on there just sounds wrong. I can roll off the roundwound edge from the other strings with the tone control, but there is no fixing the different character of the G.

I liked “In the Evening”, can’t remember anything else.

I was there, but for the life of me I can't remember which of the two days it was or much about it apart from a cool laser pyramid lighting effect on one of the Zep songs.

Forty two years ago is a blinkin long time.

If it’s strictly a fun thing rather than a money making thing then putting up with any BS is a lot less palatable. Only the OP can decide if they can stand to work with a clown like that guitarist when they really don’t have to.

5 minutes ago, Downunderwonder said:

Am I wrong to size up the band as a 50 something bassist hanging with 20 somethings?

LOL - it reads like that. Although the guitarist sounds more like a 10 year old.

When I retired this year, that was the end of my duty to deal with unreasonable and offensive people (i.e. clients). That tantrum episode would have been followed by my immediate resignation if I hadn't already gone due to the persistent volume issues and song arrangement comedy.

I wonder if after a few years YouTube archives old video into a highly compressed lower resolution (smaller file) version?

3 minutes ago, Downunderwonder said:

Yup, I must have got my eyes crossed looking at it on my phone!

 

For the continued mystified:

 

Placing a straight edge on the graph at 0dB& 40hz, parallel to the gist of the intial curve, hits 10hz down at -36dB = 18dB per octave. [10¹ hz to 40hz is 2 octaves]

18db/octave is logical as that can be done with one opamp. 24db/Oct needs 2 opamps so a budget-oriented design is more likely to be 18.

23 minutes ago, LeftyP said:

Chain Reaction were taken over by Wiggle and I believe Wiggle are now part of some large conglomerate!  Always had great service from both sites for my cycling stuff.

The problem with Chain Reaction now is that they have almost identical stock to Wiggle at almost identical prices, so they aren’t a real alternative like they used to be. I agree service is very good from both.

9 minutes ago, SH73 said:

I have considered wiggle for cycling stuff, would you recommend them? 

Yes, Wiggle are good. I also use Chain Reaction, Evans, Cyclestore, Merlin and Tredz. I’ve had a good few chains and tyres from ebay stores, but I don’t usually buy things that might need returning off ebay.

10 minutes ago, SH73 said:

But do they deliver free next day? 

Amazon win on delivery no doubt and their returns system is great.

They just don’t seem to be really competing in the bike space as the prices are so much higher.

Interesting. I buy quite a lot of bike consumables and clothing and Amazon never have what I want at a lower price than the online bike shops like Wiggle.

When I started buying basses again after a long layoff I looked again at straplocks. My old Yam bass had schallers, but I had used extra long screws and threadlock compound on the strap fittings to stop them coming loose. This was ok and secure, if a bit squeaky.

When I saw the new buttons had a captive screw I didn’t even try them, I knew that would be a problem so went straight to Dunlops.

Yes. A passive DI reduces the signal level down to something that works well with a microphone input. The loss is usually -20dB (one 10th) with 1:10 transformers.

Anyone spot the motorcycle and customised sidecar in the background of one of the pics?

Cocktail stick plus Titebond/PVA wood glue works like a charm.

1 hour ago, Old Horse Murphy said:

These PO/Supplier management systems aren't designed for this type of transaction and (believe me) are even far worse in professional services' applications. If you were placing an order for (say) 10,000 iPhones or 60,000 toilet rolls it's a great way of raising PO's right through through to payment as it can really speed-up transactions and the whole procure to pay process. 
 

At the moment, it's seen as a very low-hanging fruit for an increasing number of companies to roll out without a great deal of thought as to how it's applied. It's going to get worse before it gets better, especially as companies will want to take the savings early in the process. 

When I was working in conference event production one of our clients (a large European bank) used one of these systems (SAP Ariba). It was a massive ball ache to invoice a job as the kind of things we were doing didn’t fit the process and required a messy kludge with many traps that would cause the invoice to be rejected.

I don’t miss having to deal with that sort of nonsense.

10 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

If you play all the fills.

 

Folks do realise the chorus isn't just 3 or 4 notes? This will play from 4:20:

 

 

It’s such a nice bit of playing with the perfect tone for the song.

Also - Lots of guitarists can play the guitar part, but I’ve not heard one yet that can do a convincing Kossoff vibrato.

No, that would be nuts.  Basses are for playing.

42 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

That’s at fret 1 - the nut test 

 

Yes, isn’t that what you said your 0.3mm was, “first fret clearance”?

8 hours ago, Geek99 said:

Anyway - both my basses, one with acceptable action and the one in question here, which does not, have first fret clearances of 0.3mm!

That would be buzz city for me. I’ve got 0.5mm - 0.6mm on all my basses.

(first fret clearance)

Has the cable got a semiconducting layer? It’s usually a black layer in between the core and the shield and it can be easy to let it touch the core if you aren’t careful. You can end up with a high resistance short between hot and earth and a much increased cable capacitance that can make the cable sound very strange.

(look at Van Damme Pro Grade Classic XKE Instrument Cable for an example)

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

Being an engineer i tend to measure things but i have adjusted basses to a point i'm happy with and then i just have to measure it. (its sad but i have no choice 😂)

With regards the neck relief my quick way of setting it is when changing the strings i look down the neck without strings and adjust neck to be perfectly straight. When strings are added it draws the neck slightly concave. That would be my approx guide and from there i would then tweak it till i'm happy.................and then measure it cause i'm a sad auld git 

On hindsight i seem to have different methods of going about it probably dependant on how much time i have available to fine tweak things.

 

Dave

(retired) Engineer here too - I have to measure it, it's a compulsion.

1 hour ago, Hellzero said:

A true pro luthier (but those doing what is mentioned after are quite rare, sadly) will always make a frets dressing or fingerboard dressing under simulated strings tension, which is the only way to have a perfect neck allowing deliriously low action.

 

That's also why the Plek machine gives such awesome results...

Things like the Stewmac neck jig pull the neck straight to level frets even though the truss rod is left at normal tension. I don’t have a jig, but I used a fret rocker to prove to myself that the problem was only there if the neck was curved, the truss rod tension wasn’t a factor.

A plek machine should be able to level with the truss rod at full tension and the neck curved though, that would be the best result.
 

I’d have bought a new neck for my cheap mim bass though if I wanted to keep it, it’s value didn’t warrant a pro luthier or machine attention.