uncle psychosis

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1358349845' post='1937515'] I think you'll find that Skol has chosen the neck through design mostly on the fact that he has so many frets, so for playability, he has opted for neck through. [/quote] I wasn't talking specifically about Skol, I was talking in general.

Personally I think people spend too much time thinking about the tonal effects of things like bolt on vs neck through, fretboard material, etc and not enough considering the (probably more important) aesthetic and playability implications. If you have a bass that is comfortable to play, has a good basic sound, and the right kind of design for what you want (pickup position, fret access, right number of controls, etc) then you can easily make minor tweaks to the electronics to fine tune the tone. Worrying about whether or not your double-mocha-skinny-latte-wenge fingerboard might be brighter than a ekky-ekky-ekky-ptang-nuwop-ni fingerboard seems a little silly to me.

Thanks guys The Lakland videos were really helpful---just followed through them and used the Yamaha Bass Guitar Manual as a starting point for the string heights etc. Was able to lower my action quite a lot without getting string buzz and make the intonation better (its not perfect, but I think its as good as I'll get without a better tuner). Its definitely better than it was. I guess moving to a much warmer house and changing strings had a much larger effect than I'd anticipated! Cheers Sam

Hi guys I recently changed stings---went from .45 rounds to 0.40 flats---and now I'm fairly sure that my intonation is out: I think all of the strings are sharp roughly the same amount at the 12th fret. 1. Changing gauge is liable to change the intonation, right? 2. Should I adjust each saddle or would tweaking the truss rod be sensible? 3. How accurate a tuner do you need to do this "properly"? I've got a Korg Pitchblack... Yours technically-incompetently, etc etc

[quote name='Doddy' timestamp='1358185402' post='1934496'] Yes,because obviously the time it takes to sort out the important requirements is going to be well spent sorting out brown M&M's. [/quote] I'm sure the stadiums they were playing at probably had a teaboy to do the simple tasks

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1358170568' post='1934119'] Correct. I used mine direct to desk, sounded huge. [/quote] I use mine DI'd into a mixer for headphone practice and really like it. Glad it scales up well.

[quote name='BurritoBass' timestamp='1355182700' post='1895253'] As long as our M&Ms backstage are the right colour and I've not had to waste time folding small sandwiches at the tour manager I'm easy [/quote] [quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1355183737' post='1895264'] You won't go onstage unless you have 10,000 brown M&Ms to fill a brandy glass? [/quote] Funnily enough, I read an interview with one of the bands who were famous for their "10,000 brown m & m" requests (I think it was Van Halen). They said that the reason for it was simple---their requirements for things like power supply, lighting equipment, etc, were pretty complicated and very particular. If they turned up and the M&Ms hadn't been done then they could be sure the rest of their requirements wouldn't have been met correctly either!

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...