Stub Mandrel

Last night Alice Coper explained the origin of the term 'pigeonholed' on his radio show. He then said something along the lines of 'now you're educated explain what this means' and played Roundabout...

I'm surprised it's taken this long for compression to get a mention...

That's flattering, but I'm sure the kit timber would be judged by most to be of lower grade. The other significant determinant of sustain would be the neck fit which is fine for both. The Fender hardware is better quality, though the same basic design for both. My input wasn't much more than making sure the screws were done up properly, which ought to apply to any bass. Odd thing is the jazz has Fender roundwounds and the kit P had Fender flats. I would have expected the rounds to have more sustain. I suppose the real question is why do some basses have less sustain? I suspect that in part its down to the pickups with the 'vintage' pickups in the Jazz being less sensitive.

But jumping up and down to the Guns of Navarone was 🙂

I have two routers and they scare the crap out of me compared to my much larger lathe, pillar drill and milling machine. In fact woodworking machinery in general seems designed for use as horror movie props...

It's an indicator of difference. As I said above, if a £77 first time kit build bass sustains longer than a respected £950 bass it's clearly not a direct relationship between quality and sustain.

But that sounds like a bass with unusually poor sustain rather than a justification for basses that sound like they have a built-in e-bow 🙂 I must be in a particularly arsey mood today, so please forgive me!

Serious question, does anyone here have a bass that can't sustain for 2 bars at any sensible tempo?

'More' is not necessarily any better than 'enough'. In particular, one reason why wooden basses have different characters is that they mute out different parts of the sound, particularly as it sustains. We should not be surprised if basses designed for maximum sustain sometimes get described as sounding 'sterile'.

You have to pay extra for a reserve. It's usually people worried about losing out but wanting a low starting price to attract attention.

I've had the good fortune not to be in bands where the guitarists have any great interest in bass, although one of the current band's guitarists is able to show me a lick I haven't had problems with playing it (e.g. one time he showed me his simpler version of a line I was screwing up!) One band I joined the guitarist/songwriter had written all the basslines already, very much in a Bruce Foxton style. My audition was him going through a whole load of them on guitar. I picked them all up I got the gig!

🤘 Nice one.

Some people like Hofners...

Probably the opposite. Sympathetic vibration of the timber is going to sap energy and reduce sustain. Imagine a string fitted to a rigid iron frame (piano) or a wooden fame (harp). Which one has long sustain and which one has a plinky plonky sound?

Hmmm. Got my HB kit-built bass here. Through a practice amp at pretty low volume. After 20 seconds I could still just hear bottom E and got bored. My Flea Jazz get as about 12 seconds. So I'm not convinced that it's directly related to either quality or even 'heft'...

Nice and solid or what? 🙂 But... Sweet Jehosephat. For the last year I have been coping with the cognitive dissonance between you not having a beard and your avatar, and now I have to reset all over again!

Protective film still on the pickguard. Clear proof the instrument isn't worth playing...

Courtesy of my namesake...

And you either need to count to big numbers or memorise the guitar solos!

Only a feathery one:

What about making a pickguard from a carpet tile, for extreme comfort on cold winter evenings 🙂