Stub Mandrel

My mid-70s Maya fretless has a weird problem. I stored it in an unheated garage for many years but instead of 'checking' the nitro finish is flaking off in chunks. It's OK at the moment, although the 'holes' are a bit hard-edged, but light relic has become a medium, one and if it carries on it could end up in the Rory Gallagher territory. Wouldn't be so bad but under the sunburst it's a 'blockboard' body. One option is a refin, I love the checked vintage cream/ivory finish on my brother's '62 SG junior, but it was done before he got it (to hide where a Bigsby had been fitted and removed). Can anyone suggest what this might cost? I realise this isn't a super valuable bass so I'm not worried about recreating the authentic finish.

AKA 'Kelly Enema' 🙂 It's a stained fingerboard, not sure what type of wood, it's just worn through the surface. Think it's due for its first fret dress...

First time round I did about ten years and was never happy that we any of the bands I was in ever relied on more than a random mate or partner to feed back on whether or not we 'sounded OK'. Even with minimal PA and pub gigs I'm aware that some bands have rich, full sounds without blowing the windows out and others sound either muddy or thin as a rake. I'm determined that we have someone who will not only be honest about how we sound but also be able to offer advice on how to sound better. I'm no longer confident that each band member (including myself) can choose the most appropriate settings for themselves.

Nice one 🙂 I've scavenged all the black keys off a piano. Cut in half and bevelled/polished on the cut end that's, err... lots of posh 'tug bars'.

The legendary Riverhead Unicorn, a bass so good it had a song named after it.

Not many other sketches still come up in conversation forty plus years later! Almost there with the parrot sketch...

Drool. is that a Jupiter? I had one of these in mind:

Before we go out, one guitarist has a mate who's a sound engineer and we are going to ask him to help us get our basic sound dialled.

That means the bottom E would be two tones ABOVE a standard cello's low C, the A one tone above the G, the D being the same on both and the G being a tone below the A. These are pretty small differences, I would have imagined the tension difference would be no greater than between some different types/gauges of standard strings?

One of the perils of relying on badly mangled sound on YouTube 🙂

It depends on how much you use string bending. Can't say I've worn the fingerboards of any of my basses except the fretless, which I use roundwounds on that has 'witness marks'

Shame Tufty only services Rics...

That is a guitar I've had for over 36 years...

Very glad I took Stews recommendation for this. You can get some amazing sounds with the modulation, just a shame you can't vary the speed of it, from Mellotron to Theremin (think old Dr Who theme). With just the sub-octave it's very old school, with the octave up its getting into Royal Blood territory. Polyphonic too, even copes with polyphonic harmonics.

I've played quite a few different basses in a few different shops over the last year. From the great to the horrific. One memorable experience was trying a £1,400 Warwick which had a horribly feel, poor fret ends and you could feel the unevenness of the neck laminations, then tried a £220 Squier Jag with a spotless neck, smooth as silk with beautifully rolled edges. This wasn't a case of setup, but rather poor QC by a high-end manufacturer. That said, I think the setup and fret finish probably make the biggest difference to your perceptions of an instrument, along with whether you can get the sound you want. It's pretty obvious from a cursory examination whether a shop is setup one or a 'don't touch them' one, and shops that fail to do at least a rudimentary check of the action give me an impression of probably not having any regard for their customers. I suspect some shops are terrified of dropping the action so far that they get fret buzz, others may assume if they set up the cheap guitars they will show up the better more expensive ones. In my experience, the best shops for setting up guitar are actually the ones that have guitar techs in house; rather than looking to make an extra buck I think they realise well set up guitars can lead to impulse purchases! I tried out lots of acoustic basses, most had awful setups, the worst were always the Tanglewoods. I think shops are more reluctant to adjust plain saddles because it's irreversible. The irony is that Tanglewoods are shipped with shimmed saddles, but I reckon most need 1-2mm shaving off the saddle. One shop I mentioned this in took it off me and brought it back ten minutes later set up much better, I think it was just truss rod. I ended up buying a s/h Tanglewood for £70, the action was awful but after rather more than ten minutes on the nut and saddle as well as Truss rod, it was also set up nicely (how did some poor soul cope with it being like that for 13 years?) In another shop, I commented on the sound I wanted and they swapped the amp I was using for one more like my own, which made a big difference. A s/h Squier Jazz bass was quite nice in the shop, but after a few weeks the action had become far too high; this one needed a washer on the truss rod which had run out adjustment. A reminder that guitars set up nicely might not stay that way if they are on the rack for months. My Flea Jazz felt good, but after a week I did drop the action a touch and tweak the truss rod, but that was about personal preference.

A good hard brass is harder, and possibly stronger, than mild steel, should be a good bridge material.

Papa Was a Rolling Stone 🙂

There are some really simple guides out there, but for most pedals you have no more than three or four knobs to twirl, and use your ears. If there's a mistake it's setting the controls to what you THINK should work rather than focusing on what it sounds like. Do that and SOME people will decide it sounds better without (I click mine off when I want to sound raw with lots of dynamics).

The Labour Party tried that, with poor results.

I haven't read all 9 pages, but... I used a compressor almost from when I started gigging in '87 until I stopped at the end of '96. Now I'm back, I'm using a compressor as a 'better knob'*. *Just to clarify, I twiddle the knobs and turn it on and off while listening to the results. This way I can be confident that using the pedal gives me a sound closer to what i want to hear than not using it**, which seems a pretty sensible approach, if subjective. **I've been starting to use harmonics more and I think I might need to up the compression a tad, as they get a bit lost unless I use a distortion pedal.

I saw that. The future is so cloudy now I'm thinking of alternative routes. It might be a lightweight class D head (Maybe TE Elf) and a lightweight 10" or 12" cab. That way I get an easily portable backup amp that I could also use with my 2 2x12s or 1x15.

Could you ask him about the pickup arrangement? Or even a photo beneath the scratchplate!

Well it's becoming a bit more academic. Turns out there's a decent PA, the guitarist will be using a Marshall combo, and a drummer is on the horizon (allegedly). The cafe bar gig has been pulled (for a reason I don't entirely agree with), but there's a paid pub gig in month which gives us five rehearsals, which we will need with 15 songs on the setlist some of which only got agreed last night. We've agreed I'll use the Trace for that, but keep the volume down... It's all feeling a bit ambitious, but to be fair the musicianship is there and the singer is very good. So I've decided just to do what I'm asked and let the BL do his way. On the plus side the songs are being heavily re-arranged so it's a mix of original basslines and fitting ones into songs that never had one originally or need it to fill more space (like Nina Simone's Feeling Fine). Turns out they were planning the Marvin Gaye version of Wherever I Lay My Hat, but I must have done OK as they want to do the Paul Young version now! If it goes pear shaped, I will still have learned whole lot of songs I wouldn't otherwise have played, and most of it will be on fretless which I only ever used for one or two songs in a set in the past.

One can only hope for the best 😈