uncle psychosis

The Bass Attack is basically a preamp. I don't think putting it in the loop would be a great idea myself.

I am a big fan of Fender basses and normally think people are too quick to criticise them---but that is an absolute monstrosity. You've got to wonder how it got signed off. Just baffling.

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1357591059' post='1925079'] Got the initial drawing back from Paul at [url="http://www.13guitarco.com/"]13 Guitar Co[/url] and wow! - I'm very pleased with it He's going to extend the lower horn slightly to create some extra leg room for playing sitting down. Other than that it's good to go. Next step is to order in the wood. I'm currently thinking of a dense material like mahogany/myrtle/ash for the body and maybe bubinga or maple for the neck... but all that could change! If anybody wants to make suggestions then please do - I'd welcome any input throughout the build. Cheers. [/quote] Normally I think single cuts look stupid and fugly but thats really nice... Keep us updated

[quote name='toneknob' timestamp='1357807304' post='1928560'] What model have you got? I use CX400-ii and they're fine. (£20ish on eBay) [/quote] Be careful buying Sennheisers on eBay---lots of fakes out there.

[quote name='squarezero' timestamp='1357725981' post='1927167'] My guitarist says that you should never put two distortion/overdrives on together, is this true? Damn shame if so... [/quote] Really? Really? What??? Stacking overdrives and distortions is incredibly common and people do it all the time. I'm amazed that a guitarist could think otherwise...

Depends. If you're doing it for extra cash / networking opportunities / gaining playing experience then "any old band" is probably alright, for a while at least. If you're doing it purely for fun then I wouldn't bother.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1357530538' post='1924091'] Like many of my "projects", this advanced very very slowly. As in... zero for several months and suddenly a tiny baby step. But it's moving! I decided against the ash body. I have it. I may use it in the future. Or not. But for the fretless, I'm going with the original idea. And today I tested it briefly. I decided to spray a little bit of Capri Orange on the back of the bass, without even prior sanding, as it seems in pretty good condition. The results are promising. It was a little tricky at first to produce a thin even coat, so I got a bit of overpainting giving a couple of small runs... but I think once you get the hang of it it's not that hard. It dries fast, which is nice, and what's even nicer is that once dried, it flattens very nicely, giving a pretty uniform shiny surface: the runs, unless very big, get disguised. I can see how after a few coats the result will not be bad at all, so I'm optimistic that I can produce something that will not be horrible. The paint sticks to the poly body, no doubt about that. It wont flake easily. Nice. The only negative point is... spraying directly over shoreline gold does not give me a very bright orange. So I have decided I should spray it with white primer first. I just ordered a can of primer, so hopefully I'll get to that soon. That will allow me to get the bright orange finish I'm after. It's not going to be a professional finish, but it's not going to look as terrible as I was fearing. [/quote] Nice work. I really want an orange precision (see above for the reason why)...and you're giving me ideas

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1357386144' post='1921874'] What irritates me about the heavy duty stuff is that you have to buy loops and hooks together, and end up with a load of loops that you have to throw away. Plus, it's not cheap. [/quote] Here's what I use my leftovers for: Stick some loop and hook pieces together back to back. Cut into strips about an inch wide and 4 or 5 inches long. You now have yourself a decent supply of reusable cable ties. Boom!

[quote name='Leen2112' timestamp='1357514554' post='1924002'] Ok I'll admit I havent read all the posts but my point is that while I mostly buy music I don't see why I have to pay twice. I spent a lot on records (remember them?) back in the day and when that all went out I started to replace my faves on CD till I found I could download them for feck all. I thought I already paid for the music so how bad can It be. I always pay for music now though. [/quote] I've long thought that one of the reasons for declining cd sales is that people bought lots of cds to replace their old vinyl which artificially raised the sales figures. Once people replaced their vinyl their buying dropped off dramatically. Personally speaking, I have most of the "old" music that I want, so now that I'm restricted to new stuff I buy a lot less than I used to. [quote name='the_skezz' timestamp='1357514902' post='1924005'] I stopped illegally downloading about two years ago, mainly because I prefer to have a physical copy of a CD - something more personal about it than an file on a computer. If I want to listen to a track I don't have, like if I'm learning it, I'll listen on youtube - if I want the priviledge of owning it and having it on my Walkman, I'll buy it. I hear all sorts of people say they'll buy something from a band if they like the download, but most of the time that's bull - I know people with a band's entire discography on their computer who haven't put a penny towards the group. It doesn't bother me if they pay or not, but it annoys me that they use such a flimsy excuse to justify it. [/quote] One of the few advantages of getting older, having family etc and having less time to devote to music means that I can fairly happily afford to buy records as and when I want, because I'm discovering a lot less stuff than I used to!

[quote name='redstriper' timestamp='1357513612' post='1923978'] This is indeed awesome. [/quote] The spotify technology is awesome, but the revenue that the artists get is so pitiful that I'm put off using them. Call me sentimental/naive/stupid but I'd rather use spotify purely as a preview service and then go and buy the record.

I certainly don't think that the music "business" will survive long in its current format---if people want to illegally obtain your music there's no way to stop them. It seems that the fairly traditional roles of gigs versus records are swapping---you used to go on tour to promote your cd, now you release a cd to give you an excuse to go on tour. Personally speaking, I will continue to pay for music that I like (as I have always done) but I suspect that its going to become nearly impossible to make money off a record (monstrous hits excepted). The likes of Cowell won't really be affected, his business model is just as much about TV and newspapers as it is about selling cds.

Bought a pedal from Jason. Paid for it at about 13.30 on a Friday and the postman handed it to me at 09.30 the next morning. Can't expect any more. Cheers!

[quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1356729171' post='1913080'] I got mine from Strings Direct. [url="http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/p/914874/jim-dunlop-nylon-stubby-3mm-single-guitar-pick-445r3/"]http://www.stringsdi...tar-pick-445r3/[/url] [/quote] Arrived today, looking forward to trying them out. Hopefully they'll last me a bit longer than the other ones...

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1357231700' post='1919508'] You obviously aren't aware of what actually happened - Fender actually started the process of closing Hamer down almost as soon as they bought them. They stopped Hamer producing guitars to supply to shops & turned them into a "special order only" outfit. How the hell is a guitar maker supposed to keep up a profile & sell guitars if the owner stops them supplying shops with their instruments? [/quote] For all we know, Fender bought Kaman, got a proper look at Hamer's books, and just thought "hmm, maybe this isn't going to work..." ? [quote name='Gust0o' timestamp='1357233913' post='1919554'] Perhaps they had prospered nicely, as you say - but their original operation clearly didn't fit with Fender's wider business plan, or their intents if they made the decision so quickly. The above sounds like a rationalisation exercise, from what you've said RhysP - Fender pulling them back to what is, perhaps, a core strength. Others have noted their boutique nature and quality, so why not? In terms of the mass market, they weren't a brand fit to compete in the way that Fender itself does - perhaps Fender thought the spare production could be better utilised for other purposes, or assets sold on to recoup on costs. And, in any case, would Fender want a Hamer sub-brand challenging their main lines? I'm not so sure, unless there were some real differentiation. There are a whole host of reasons why Fender might make that decision very early in the deal, and not simply to put a 'competitor' out of business. This type of move is very common in business. Just musing, maybe shedding a light on some decisions which might otherwise seem bizarre - I'd quite like a look at Fender's strategy, mind, out of professional interest [/quote] This sounds far more likely than "big bad Fender spends large amount of money acquiring profitable competitor purely to shut them down". Fender completely rejuvenated the Gretsch brand---why not put them out of business too? Recent Hamer models compete more with Gibson in terms of spec than they do with most Fender designs. Fender would be perfectly happy to own a profit-making brand that competed directly with their biggest rivals. Its a real shame that Hamer have gone, and I could totally believe that its because of poor management on the behalf of Fender or Kaman. But the idea that Fender acquired a profitable business purely to shut them down is just too far fetched. Thinking about it, in fact, perhaps the Kaman parent group sold the musical subsidiary to Fender precisely because it [i]wasn[/i]doing all that well? I was a bit bored, so I just checked out Kaman Corp.'s share price---plummeted in early 2009.

[quote name='Gust0o' timestamp='1357229685' post='1919449'] Maintaining the methods of mass production for small volumes is the killer. Works for craft production, in the small-volume/high-end space, but you have to cut your cloth accordingly - you can't have production sat idle. I think the market killed Hamer. People were likely just not buying them in the same volumes as in previous periods, and someone made a commercial decision. [/quote] Precisely. I've heard that Hamer made great guitars---but I don't think I've [i]ever [/i]seen one in the flesh. Not at a gig, not in a shop, not at a mates' house.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1357229773' post='1919454'] But Fender have a long history of using underhand bullyboy tactics with smaller companies - look how they threatened Rob Green at Status when his first basses went out under the "Strata" name. Fender absurdly made him change the name as it was supposedly too close to "Strat" & people would obviously confuse the two & accidentally buy a high end carbon fibre bass guitar thinking it was one of Fenders sh*tty bolt together guitars. [/quote] yes, but Fender didn't own Rob Green's company. People who buy Status basses weren't giving money to Fender. People who bought Hamer guitars (since 2008) [i]were[/i] giving money to Fender. Companies don't voluntarily close down parts of their organisation that make them money. Its not like its a fly-by-night thing, either---they bought them four years ago. Why buy a company to close them down and then keep them going for four years? I think the adjective you used to describe Fender's own products suggests that you're perhaps not being entirely objective here...

[quote name='Wolverinebass' timestamp='1357219828' post='1919254'] You are quite correct of course. Nothing wrong with Fender making stuff that people want to buy. It could be argued that Fender (like Rickenbacker) can't deviate too much from their tried and tested formula. Nothing wrong with that. What is totally wrong is them closing down a company which makes better instruments than them and also them giving me some sort of crap about "they're too similar" to Fender basses and therefore not allowing them to be sold in the UK. Surely it's Fender that have the bizarre attitude and not me? [/quote] Lots of Squiers are now (supposedly) outdoing "proper" Fenders, but Fender are still maintaining the Squier line...If enough people wanted to buy Hamer basses then Fender would quite happily sell them. They've survived decades in a tough business, you don't do that by throwing away money. I've worked in manufacturing and maintaining small volume products isn't particularly easy or profitable. A lot of the time it just doesn't make financial sense. Its always sad when instrument brands go under, but I don't think its particularly fair to assign some kind of underhand motive when its far more likely to just be because of simple economics.

It's so cheap I'm tempted to get one even though I don't need one!

[quote name='Wolverinebass' timestamp='1357059430' post='1916949'] Thank you for closing them down Fender. Go back to your mass produced, "we haven't changed anything about our design at a fundamental level for more than 50 years" tosh. It's just so wrong. [/quote] A bizarre attitude. Musicians want to buy Fenders. Not only that, but musicians want to buy Fenders that are the same as they were 50 years ago. You can hardly blame Fender for making what people want to buy...

This guy is really good, has a lot of stuff on youtube etc: http://www.justinguitar.com/