godathunder

whoops

On 24/04/2024 at 10:49, thebrig said:

I saw them at Knebworth in the summer of '76 and they were fantastic!

 

The full line-up that day were The Rolling Stones, 10cc, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Todd Rundgren's Utopia , Hot Tuna , Don Harrison Band.

 

Brings back great memories for me.

ah, come now, you cant tease without putting a link to them playing Freebird there. I'm pretty sure this was the version I saw on a best of the old grey whistle test show late one evening when I was a teen - absolutely blew me away - although, in retrospect, Id pick Tuesday's Gone as my fave Skynyrd song

The OGWT video for Led Zep's Trampled Underfoot was also on the same show - was a very educational evening

Ive always been a fan of this album and love marcus miller's playing on it.

I can play the more prominent lines but the production is very dense at times and I'm not always sure wha gwan basswise

Does anyone know of any online transcriptions?

Of the numerous drive/dirt/fuzz/distortion etc pedals I crossed paths with over the years, the only one that I felt compelled to buy a spare of was the Arion SMM-1 Metal Master.

Its a cheap and nasty pedal that sounds like someone throwing gravel into a cement mixer. It also has an unhealthy amount of low end boost available

As ever, these things are subjective, but I reckon its my desert island pedal

edit: usually a few on ebay for sub £50

Sad to hear that Del Palmer died yesterday

https://www.katebushnews.com/2024/01/06/del-palmer-1952-2024/

I'll have to admit that I'm not 100% certain which Kate Bush tracks he played on, the above obviously being originally played by the late John Giblin, but I know that he played on Running Up That Hill, The Sensual World and Jig Of Life  and was her engineer and programmer through most of her career.

Anyway, Ive always been very jealous of the chap, not only was he Kate Bush's fella and collaborator, he had some quite excellent sideburns too

thanks @angletone

thanks for the photos, thats great to see - there are at least two in the world then.

unfortunately Im not likely to make any progress with it for a little while, pesky life getting in the way as ever

16 hours ago, Jackroadkill said:

 

My first bass was one of those, waaaay back in 1995; it cost me £115 and I loved it.  However, as I knew nothing about gear at all, I would, wouldn't it?!  I found out the body was plywood and started to go off it.  I ended up covering it in paint and stickers and making it heavier by adding a belt of about 50 7.62mm dummy rounds to the strap and adding a home-made humbucker mounted on velcro under the strings.

I picked one up as my daughters first bass a couple of weeks ago.

She did her research and knew exactly what she wanted - a red one

Sounds and plays pretty well for a 35 year old piece of plywood.

Stickers and bullet belt strap sounds very on brand for my daughter........

This is from the article:

Constructed with a birch ply back and belly, that bass features a centre core made of obeche wood and has two hollow chambers to help obtain the acoustic tonal qualities of the double bass.

There is a hole where the pickup sits but it seems a little small to work as an actual soundhole.

Unfortunately my time was mostly spoken for while I was at my folks so I didnt have much time to do more than take a cursory glance and take some photos.

@Marc S I see that you're in south wales, I'll be back over at some point in the next couple of months. The bass is in the rhondda so if thats anywhere near you and a mutually inconvenient time is available Id be happy to pop the kettle on for you.

On 05/09/2023 at 22:31, TheRev said:

 

The tailpiece in the Shergold article looks quite small compared to the bridge so I'm guessing it might be a cello tailpiece?  New tailpieces are pretty cheap and if you have the bridge, then all you need is a shout out for a set of used strings and you could be up and playing for £100.  I'd leave getting a setup until you're sure you can tune it up without it folding in half.

Ive just popped a measuring tape on the photo in the article and at 41" scale length it looks as if the tailpiece is around 9.5/10" so I think youre spot on about it being a cello tailpiece - looks as if I can pick up something decent enough for sub £50

13 hours ago, alyctes said:

If you need a DB tailpiece I probably have one kicking about.  I'm away at the moment so it might be a couple of weeks before I can find it.

Thank you very much for the offer, it looks as if Im looking for a cello rather than db tailpiece now though

1 hour ago, JoeEvans said:

I removed the tailpiece on my db and replaced it with four loops of spectra cord - I posted about it on here, will try and get a link. Might save a bit of mucking about if the bass needs a non standard size of tailpiece.

I read your posts on this a few weeks ago when I first gave thought to restoring it. Great idea but Im far too lazy given the low cost of a cello tailpiece......

So, hopefully that just leaves strings - I take it that db strings come in a variety of tensions and given the unknown integrity of the instrument a low tension set would be more sensible (for my fingers too - I prefer heavier strings and a medium/highish action on my electrics but I get the feeling this will be a bit more of a workout for them)

The bass is in my parents house in wales but I live in ireland so its going to be a couple of months before Im back there to make any progress with this

Thanks for your help chaps

A couple of decades ago my family bought this bass for my father with the promise that the tailpiece would follow. Inevitably, it never did and the bass has sat in a dark corner gathering dust ever since. Emboldened by my recent experience of butchering (the easier bits of) donna lee on a fretless and possessing a couple of old miles davis albums, I quite like the idea of bringing it back to life and expanding my palette with a bit of upright action.

I'm told that the bridge is still around but now lives in a box somewhere in the recesses of the attic. This hopefully just leaves a tailpiece, a set of strings and a setup missing. I'm a complete novice in the dark arts of the doghouse so is there anything I'm not considering and just how many shekels am I likely to have to splurge on it's revenance?

I'd be grateful for any advice given and also grateful if anyone has any further info on these basses, the article below was the only thing I could find:

https://shergold.com/uprightbass.html

after years of neglecting my playing I decided I needed some finger excercise and am now regretting my choice of jaco's take on donna lee.

Im treating it as a study piece rather than aiming for performance

Ive got the head under my fingers (at about 170bpm rather than jaco's 220bpm) and am cautiously moving forwards

I reckon that with dilligence I may be able to claim competence around this time next year

Have already come to the conclusion that neils henning orsted pedersen and joe pass' 350ish bpm take on it is not up for consideration

I love that theyre still using their old 80s turbo tms3s as sidefills after all this time.

They're definitely creatures of habit.

I took the kids to see them in dublin a couple of weeks back, they were astonishing, especially considering bruce and nicko's health problems.

7 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

I may have posted this, a few years back, but I can't find it, soooooo...

 

The scene..? The local annual festival (Les Trois Elephants, France...) which attracted 300 volunteers, and 10-15000 visitors. I was, for several years, one of the standing committee to manage it all. One of the specialities, other than an excellent programme of top and up-and-coming acts, was street art, jugglers, theatre, odds and sods of all sorts, all with a festive spirit. That year, we rummaged through some brain-storming ideas of things to put on, apart from the rock concerts, main stage. I had worked for an enterprise importing second-hand pianos from the North of England to France, to be refurbished and sold here. In this, I had contacts with a major supplier of pianos, and knew that they had a massive stock of unsalable joannas, gleaned from modest homes all around the North. ETC.........

Should you ever hold a rematch and find yourself in need of an assistant piano mangler, youve hit upon one of my few areas of useful expertise........

I reckon that Ill be ok if I manage to bring my ancient arion metalmaster distortion. Set with near minimum drive and the bass eq knob boosted it has a sound akin to trains colliding. I dont play in a style that needs that anymore but Id like the option just in case the remaining members of motorhead also end up stranded there

A compressor, delay and some sort of modulation would all be nice but mainly that one

Ive demolished a couple. Id recommend it, its very theraputic.

Bonus points if you can push one down a flight of stone steps, its an awesome sound. My only regret in this endeavour is that I didnt record it

But unfortunately unless theyre a particularly good one theyre just another piece of redundant technology

On 08/04/2023 at 18:02, Suburban Man said:

 

 

On 08/04/2023 at 18:02, Suburban Man said:

 

 

 

Whoopsie, once was enough

On 08/04/2023 at 18:02, Suburban Man said:

Like DAD says about listening while 'not standing just in front', tweeters are very directional, unlike your 12" speaker, so if you switch the tweeter on you may end up focussing a lot of HF sound somewhere you can't hear it, but other people can. Step away from the speaker a bit and listen at wherever the tweeter is pointing to appreciate what it may be doing.

 

PS This is why some cabs can be tilted - you won't hear the output of your tweeter if it is pointing at your knees

 

 

Im going to have to disagree with you here. Yes, the tweeter will have a dispersion pattern thats largely dictated by the horn its coupled with but due to cancellations (destructive interference) from edge to edge of the 12" cone, that will beam the hf in a far narrower pattern than the tweeter will.

This link explains it far more succinctly than Ill ever manage

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/what-exactly-is-beaming-and-why-does-it-matter.60525/

personally I think the hf drivers are a marketing gimmick. I can see the purpose of a dedicated mid range horn (a 2" compression driver or similar) giving a cleaner and more evenly dispersed 800hz up but I dont feel theres any useful audio coming out of a bass guitar up at the 5khz+ that piezos (and the awful tonality of piezos is another rant in itself) etc reproduce. Just hiss and string noise but, hey, each to their own

if it makes you feel any better, a few months ago I was sat at home of an evening listening to river of bass by underworld. I started to twitch slightly as once in a while there seemed to be an odd resonance colouring random bass notes. I put the track on repeat and wandered the room trying to track down anything that might be vibrating in sympathy. Sometime around the 6th repeat of the track and with no resonant culprit found I realised that the sound was the intermittent snoring of my somewhat belurgied cat.

doh

gutting news.

Burke was a family friend when I was a kid but I hadnt crossed paths with him since the 90s when I left Wales.

I never actually saw Budgie (and wasnt a huge fan despite being a metalhead) but still probably saw Burke play live more times than any other bass player

he was a genuinely down to earth and nice guy who was hilariously funny (he made a hysterical singing nun). he was also a very talented bass player with a far broader range than you may imagine.

he was a huge influence on my bass playing - not so much in style as in encouragement and definitely in terms of playing the thing bloody loud - he ran a Marshall Major flat out into a pair of Vox Foundation 18s for pub gigs for gods sake

anyway, somewhere it'll always be a sunday afternoon in the royal oak soundtracked by beautiful lies

chin chin old chap

many moons ago when I was bumming round india with a backpack I was an extra in a bollywood film, playing a guitarist in a nightclub scene

the guitar I was given to strike my best pete townshend poses with was a Givson - it was like trying to play a cheesegrater.

if memory serves, the other guitar on set was a Fenda, although I didnt get to manhandle that one

if you still have this Ill take it off your hands - please pm me your bank details

hi, Im ger, another newbie to the forum

Im based in co wicklow, ireland (late of south london and south wales)

Ive been playing for about 30 years but have been on hiatus for the last half decade or so (life gets in the way)

Due to some life changes Ive decided I need to make a bit more time for music in my life

the alternative will likely involve very long sleeved shirts and rubber wallpaper

Ive invested in a can of polish and intend to find out if my basses are still under the large pile of dust where last I saw them

hell, I may even buy some new strings for them

Im a loud and unsubtle rocker by nature but listen to a broad spectrum of music and attempt to play all sorts

so hello all, and I apologise in advance for everything

ger

I used to run a sound system some years ago and occasionally used one of the subs (either a 2x15 or a single18) and a mid cab as a 2 way bass rig.

Even without a crossover filtering the highs the subs on their own sounded attrocious. inarticulate with a very peaky response. however, with a 120hz crossover and a 2x12 above it sounded really good, just not something you'd want to have to cart around regularly.

ok, which companies are convenient for you? ill get some quotes from them