Bassassin

[quote name='AndyTravis' post='940121' date='Aug 30 2010, 05:14 PM']where would one get a acrylic p-bass body? i like the idea very much...[/quote] This was actually from an Axl - branded cheapo, I think they were around five or six years ago now. They come up from time to time on Ebay and don't tend to be very dear - which might be connected to the hideous headstocks they had: [attachment=57758:Img_3572.jpg] J.

They say you're not done with music until music's done with you. They're right about that - give it a while, you'll be back. Meanwhile, enjoy the downtime! Jon.

I'm finding this to be the case with a Peavey T-40 I got a few weeks ago. While I like the neck & it's pleasant enough to play sitting around, as soon as I put it on a strap the 10 3/4 lbs weight kills my shoulder & back, the sharp edges of the body dig into my arm and I can't find anywhere comfortable for my right hand. And with all its undoubted tonal versatility, I can't find a sound that's right for what I want - either that or I give up in agony before I can locate it. Bloody shame. I wanted one of these for years. Jon.

Not sure whether this should go here or in Porn, since it's pretty much done now, but I'm sure you'll agree, this ain't something you see every day: [attachment=57742:full.jpg] [attachment=57743:headstock.jpg] [attachment=57744:front.jpg] [attachment=57745:back.jpg] This sort of combines two things I've hankered after for a long time - a P with a maple/blocks neck, and a see-through bass, which I've wanted ever since seeing that pic of Geezer Butler playing a Dan Armstrong on the Sabbath Vol 4 album sleeve! The glitter is just an added bonus - as will be the colour-changing LEDs once my battery box arrives... This has been an ongoing project for some time, starting with the body & scratchplate which I got off Neepheid probably about 2 years ago. I was a bit concerned about this because there's quite an ugly-looking crack running from one of the screwholes in the neck pocket. However it originates inside the pocket & doesn't go through the body, meaning with the neck in place string tension actually pulls it closed, and it shouldn't get any worse. I flowed superglue around it & plenty was drawn deep into the crack so I think it's pretty stable. My personal prerequisites for a project P involve a Schaller 3D bridge, DiMarzio Model P pup & a blocks/maple neck. I'd hoped to put a pearl-block neck on this - in fact I bought one of a BCer earlier in the year but the ParcelFarce gremlins had that one. Anyway, Mr Foxen on here sold me a cheap, nasty and slightly broken black block neck ("Artist" brand, which I think was budget Korean stuff from a few years back) for very little money, which made it fair game for some experiments. I re-shaped the area behind the nut, which had been badly damaged and more badly repaired and installed a Gibson-type nut, like on old JapCrap P copies. The headstock was a bad attempt at a Fender shape so I hacked it down to resemble a '51 P. This was the first time I've reshaped a headstock & I'm very pleased with the result. [attachment=57747:P1010580.jpg] [attachment=57748:reshape800.jpg] The body came with an insipid translucent red glittery scratchplate, which I didn't like particularly - however a bit of black paint on the back improved it massively, in fact I liked it so much I decided the headstock should match... Things could have been a lot quicker & easier if I'd known about[url="http://www.specialistpaints.com/product.php?p=flakes-canz"] these guys[/url] at the time, but all my searching turned up no rattlecan glitter paint! So I ended up spraying the front black & while the paint was tacky, sprinkling a tiny amount of red glitter (from the local craft shop) onto the head. Ten million coats of lacquer later, the result was pretty convincing. I've cut it back but it's still a bit orange-peely - even after allowing it 3 weeks to harden it's still a bit soft, presumably due to the amount of lacquer. I might have another go in a month or so, if I can be arsed. Anyway having acquired/raided the spares box for all the bits (the DiMarzio came off an old P copy I got for £40. And sold for £150...) it was time to put it together. Surprisingly it all went well - drilling the body to fit the Schaller bridge wasn't the terrifying ordeal I expected (acrylic's as easy to drill as wood) and I shimmed the neck to fit the very wide pocket with pieces of thin perspex, cut to shape & tacked to the heel with dots of superglue. There are still huge gaps between the scratchplate & the heel and I've yet to devise a way of making these less conspicuous, but I can probably live with it. So what's the point? That's debatable - the neck is not fantastic, it's a clunky treetrunk of a thing, the frets are rough & badly fitted, even after re-gluing several loose ones, tidying up the ends & crowning/polising the lot. It plays OK but not great, sounds very good, and weighs in at a fraction under 14lbs. I somehow doubt I'll be gigging with this! Its future - if it has one - possibly includes a better neck and a different scratchplate, and if it's ever going to get out of the house, my future involves weight training... Jon.

[quote name='Soloshchenko' post='939729' date='Aug 30 2010, 01:29 AM']Absolutely bloody ridiculous price there.[/quote] It is - but it was [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?s=&showtopic=270&view=findpost&p=881519"]£600 two months ago[/url]! He knocked the price down a couple of times & will probably do the same this time around - it's cheapo parts-box bolt-neck Chinese crap with a bullsh!t-powered description, so he'll likely still be in profit when it reaches £200. Nice Shafty, I'm pretty sure my Fireglo Frankenbugger was one of these in a previous life. J.

"Man I feel like a woman..." But you look like a tranny, love. Liking the Rumblefish. Jon.

[quote name='Paul S' post='938987' date='Aug 28 2010, 07:31 PM']Five, listed below. Not sure what happened to my 'one in, one out' rule.[/quote] I think it's looking like a case of JapCrap fever. It's in its early stages as yet - but regrettably there is no known cure. J.

I'll have it next, after Kirky. Jon.

It's a bolt-neck - you can tell because there's no skunk stripe on the front of the body. This probably started life as an Ibanez 2388B but it's far from original now. J.

More than 10 - in fact a lot more than ten. I've honestly lost count. *edit* Did a rough bodycount and there are more than 30 - but in mitigation of my GAS, this includes various currently unplayable projects and several which are queuing at the exit. Jon.

Real Ricks: main difference between the 4001 & 4003 is the neck & truss rod system. 4001 necks are pretty delicate & really don't get on with high-tension roundwound strings, which ironically, are what sound best on a 4001. The truss rods cannot be adjusted as one would adjust any other truss rod - and attempting to do so can cause massive damage to the neck. Hence there were many 4001s with massively damaged necks, and after several decades of this, it occurred to someone at Rickenbacker to update the rod design & beef things up a bit. Presumably once they'd got the heresy trial out of the way, this happened and the 4003, with a somewhat more robust neck appeared. Pretty much everything else about the 4003 is exactly the same as most 4001 versions, they look the same, sound the same* and as much as any 2 Ricks can, feel the same. *Pre '84 Ricks have a capacitor in the bridge pup circuit which boosts the treble and is responsible for the classic "clank". Many players bypassed or removed this & it was discontinued until 2006. Subsequent Ricks have the cap in a switchable circuit. JapCrap copies: which one's best is very much a moot point and really depends on how well they've fared over the years. With the possible exception of the Korean-made Hondo, there really weren't any cheap & nasty Rick copies, however they were all regarded as throwaway back in the day, and many have been abused. They're fairly delicate instruments to start with so it's not unusual to find damage/delamination at neck-body joints, which because of the way the basses are built can be a major, and often irreparable problem. The huge majority of Fakers have ended up with their original branded truss rod covers replaced with Rick ones, so there's not a lot of point really in talking about different brands & factories and the differences between them - there are probably at least 20 different copies & variations knocking around and they can be quite tricky to identify. It's also the case that the most popular colours are natural & fireglo - black ones do turn up but they're not too common. Even in these cash-strapped times, expect to pay £400 - £500 for a Jap copy in good original condition. To be honest, if what you want is a Rick-type bass, and you're not too picky about absolute authenticity, you might be better off considering one of the current ones - the Anniversary & Rockinbetter branded ones are good instruments, by all accounts and pretty cosmetically accurate. A fair bit cheaper, too. Jon.

I really don't know how it's taken so long for me to even notice this thread. Excellent idea, that's another advance order! And I couldn't help but be struck by a (conceptual, at least!) similarity between this very striking image: And a design I did for a friend's business card a couple of years ago: [attachment=57424:Mcard.jpg] If [i]only[/i] I'd had a couple of plectrums handy! Jon.

I think it's fair to say there was some outstanding bass playing in quite a lot of 80s chart-botherers. What went wrong? J.

The only one I know about is the Japanese SQ series (around 1984) - these are longscale: Got any pics of the bass in question? A quick Google gives the impression that the Korean shortscale version just looks like a scaled-down P, rather than having the Tele head & unusual pickups the SQ has. Jon.

[quote name='matski' post='935960' date='Aug 25 2010, 01:54 PM'] Is Georgina (that's her real name) Prebble still at it? She went to school with my sister and once asked me to teach her how to play bass...[/quote] She is - and [url="http://www.myspace.com/diesofluid"]DSF[/url] are not 'alf bad if you like that sort of thing. J.

If we are allowed top-class bassists who made their name playing bubblegum, I'll have [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKIs_6qc4cQ"]Too Shy by Kajagoogoo[/url]. Jon.

[quote name='Bassassin' post='935844' date='Aug 25 2010, 12:24 PM']I dunno. I should probably actually listen to her music...[/quote] Did this. Belakiss play generic student union bar landfill indie, actually sounding a little bit out-of-step with the 80s & electro influence many of the genre's current bands display. Her root note basslines are quite appropriate and more complexity wouldn't add anything worthwhile to the song. Penguins are slightly more interesting & a bit more eclectic but not really a suitable showcase for technique either - you'd only notice the bass if it wasn't there. The singer really defines the songs, but her style & delivery is somewhat cliched. She sounds a lot like Grog Prebble from Die So Fluid / Feline/ Flinch, only a bit more one-dimensional. In short then - her bands are rubbish, stick to the sexy dancin'.

Interesting this - when I read the first post, my knee-jerk reaction was to think - you wouldn't have heard of her - or her band - if her Grandad hadn't been in The Beatles, and to muse briefly about the shallowness of the prerequisites for garnering attention (if not success) in the music business. Subsequently reading through, I'm now wondering if my initial response would have quite as jaundiced and prejudicial if she'd been introduced as "Zak Starkey's daughter". I think Zak has a level of credibility as a musician that his father, correctly or otherwise, has never been accorded - probably largely due to that snotty remark of Lennon's. That said I suspect the majority of the general public are only aware of Zak (if they're aware of him at all) for being Ringo's kid. I dunno. I should probably actually listen to her music... Jon.

[quote name='noelk27' post='935579' date='Aug 25 2010, 01:44 AM']The original SB-INT was not built by Matsumoku.[/quote] Thanks for that Noel - I knew they were MIJ but had an idea they were from '87 and therefore post-Mat. J.

I'd say decide what you want from a Jazz, then buy the bits & put one together yourself. Jon.

As an when - and it's not really a practice, just playing through a set of songs it looks like we're never going to gig again, because it looks like we're never going to gig again. Jon.

[quote name='karlfer' post='935205' date='Aug 24 2010, 07:31 PM']I'll get me coat then study how to get back to plot. Karl.[/quote] Good plan - dredging up all these old memories has made the nightmares start again... J.

[quote name='tino' post='935030' date='Aug 24 2010, 05:20 PM']Change of subject....got a 1974 Ibanez copy thinking of putting a Badass on ....anyone here done it...pros surely cant be any cons....can there???[/quote] 1974 Ibanez copy of what, Tino? If it's your 2388B/DX then don't - get a Hipshot, which is a direct replacement for the old bridge and will also allow string spacing adjustment - important on those parallel Rick-type necks. If you went for a Badass you'd have to fill/cover a bleedin' great route and would permanently alter what is (as you know) a rare & collectable bass. Plus the BA2 is an ugly, hefty primitive lump of slag. J.

Very nice bass, that & I'd be surprised if it didn't play as good as it looks. Modern Arias don't have the reputation the vintage ones do, and I think that's a bit undeserved - the newer ones I've played (I have 3!) are well made & very good quality for the money. Ross - you might already know, but the IGB range does date back to the mid 80s, so there are a few MIJ (possibly Matsumoku) examples which come up from time to time. Jon.