Grassie

I've never really been keen on the look of these basses, but that, my man, is one sexy instrument. Is that what they call a "pea"-bass...?

Tell you what - hope I look as good as Bowie does when I get to - what is he? 60 something? Whatever. He's a genius, and Gail Ann Dorsey sings her arse off on Under Pressure. Goosebumps I'm telling ya...

Of course it is...but only at weekends...

I like to use gaffa tape to secure my bottle of Grolsch to my hand, in case I drop it...

Here I am, sat at home, clock-watching before I start a late shift at the most depressing place it's ever been my misfortune to work at. I'm reading this topic and I shall now go to work with a smile on my face. Thank you to all the professional piss-takers, you are men after my own heart.
By the way, I bought a VM Squire Jazz fretless on here last year, and I am now considering taking up fretless exclusively. So the For Sale section works for me.

P.S. If it was a Schecter Model T(im) I might have been interested...

Hi everyone,

Bought a VM Jazz fretless last year, and would like some advice on strings. I've been playing it with some stainless roundwounds on for a while, but have just taken them off as 1) they are as dead as a dodo, and 2) they have started to mark the ebanol fingerboard. Now, as I understand it, flatwounds won't make a mess of the fingerboard, but will I get the same sound as I do with rounds? I love the tone the late, great Mick Karn got from his bass and would be happy if I could get close to that sound, but I'm doubting I could do it with flats. Don't fancy ground/halfwounds as I don't want to bugger the fingerboard any more. I appreciate that this thread has probably been started before, but I would love to hear your opinions on this....

Cheers

Soundcloud and Hyped Sound are two others that spring to mind... : )

[quote name='ezbass' post='1082397' date='Jan 8 2011, 06:18 PM']A hugely underated player and a great harmony singer too. Van Halen's loss is Chickenfoot's gain.[/quote]
Needs to ditch the Yammies and get back to the Stingrays IMO...

[quote name='Chris2112' post='1082280' date='Jan 8 2011, 04:37 PM']Funny, I was just listening to "RV" by Faith No More and thinking about how awesome Bill Gould is![/quote]
The humour in FNM's stuff gets overlooked sometimes - RV is hilarious!

May I chuck my two pence worth in?

1. Mark King - When I was ten and discovered Level 42, then discovered MK is from the same place as me (the Isle of Wight), I realised anything is possible.
2. Flea - First song I learnt to play was "Give It Away" - then proceeded to absorb every note from "Blood Sugar Sex Magic".
3. Gary Beers (INXS) - Economy with added groove - the most underrated player ever.
4. Michael Anthony (Van Halen) - Constant sixteenths like MA plays will give your forearm a hernia! Holds it down like no-one else in a rock band - replaced by EVH's 16 year old son - bass playings biggest travesty.
5. Billy Gould - Killer tone, killer attitude, killer grooves (check out "King For A Day" from the album of the same name or "Stripsearch" from "Album Of The Year")

Thangyewvermuch!

Grant

"Adhan" by Michael Manring or "Standing On The Corner Of The Third World" by Tears For Fears - Mr. Palladino again.
Total class, either of 'em.

[quote name='Stuart Clayton' post='1031731' date='Nov 21 2010, 07:32 PM']Hey Grant,

Not sure if it's of any use, but it's in The Mark King Bass Book - which I wrote last year. You can check the book out here:

[url="http://www.basslinepublishing.com/the-mark-king-bass-book.html"]http://www.basslinepublishing.com/the-mark...-bass-book.html[/url]

Hope that helps,
Stuart[/quote]
Hey, nice selling technique Stuart! I'll be sure to ask for a copy for Xmas!

Thanks mate!

Hey everyone,

Would appreciate the tab of a section of this tune by Mark King if anyone has it. It's the section from 11: 45 on The Essential from his Influences solo album. Only lasts a minute, but I adore this little piece. Can anyone help...?

Cheers

Grant

I don't clean it as often as I should - and I suffer from sweaty hands when playing. This has meant I've had to replace the bridge because of rusty grub screws and intonation screws, rusty pick-up screws, rusty pickguard screws and rusty pole pieces, which have become so bad that I've given up cleaning them and replaced the exposed pole piece pick-up covers with blank ones. All that rust is ok if you like the "relic'd" look, but my jazz bass just ended up looking like i left it out in the rain.
Still not as hot as I should be as the frets have started to go a funny brown colour, especially up at the dusty end, which is strange, as I rarely venture that far east (or west if you happen to be watching me play). Maybe a re-fret will change my habits and force me into looking after it a bit more...

Mark has just played on Dominic Miller's new album - and he's unrecognizable. And so he should be, as it's Dominic's album and not Mark's. Mark is also the house bassist for the upcoming Prince's Trust gig (which he's been doing since the 80's) so to regard him as a one-trick-slap-pony is just plain wrong. Mark [i]is[/i] the King, and has done more for British bass playing than anyone else...nuff said.

Hi all,

For sale is my Electro Harmonix Bass Blogger bass overdrive pedal, features drive/fuzz switch, drive , tone and volume knobs, input, effect output, direct output and 9v power jacks. Also powered by a 9v battery (included), tough die-cast casing, you know the score with EH - very stompable! Something of a rarity in bass overdrive pedals as this does not suck the bottom end out of your sound (oooerrr!). Comes in original box with effects sampler DVD and manual. Hardly used, all in good working order, has been sat in my gig bag for months! £40 to you... (that includes P+P).

Cheers

Grant

NOW SOLD

[quote name='RhysP' post='939945' date='Aug 30 2010, 01:15 PM']Wow! A post from one of the Flowerpot Men.
[/quote]
It's pre-preg material. Many thanks to all who have posted advice on this thread, I wanted as many opinions as possible and looks like I got them! Back to work tomorrow, so I shall start asking around to see if anyone has any, ahem, "offcuts" they would like me to take off their hands! Of course, if I can get everything together material -wise, and sort myself out with some practical tips on avoiding the aforementioned unwanted resonance problems, then you'll certainly get to read a build diary. I'm actually quite excited by this. I've managed to bugger up my back over the years lugging around cabs and combos which should've come with health warnings. So the main objective [i]is[/i] weight saving, but certainly not at the expense of sound quality. Like i mentioned before, if it goes breasts skyward then I'll do a wooden cab anyway. Stay tuned...

[quote name='velvetkevorkian' post='939636' date='Aug 29 2010, 10:09 PM']There's a couple of people on TalkBass who DIY'ed composite cabs- not carbon fibre but some kind of fibreglass IIRC. By all accounts it worked very well, but as BFM says the time and effort compared to a traditional wooden build is much greater.[/quote]
I'm in no rush! It's only something I thought about for the first time yesterday. I'm definitely going to look into it further though. If it's going to be too much hassle, then I'll go the wooden route anyway. Carbon graphite is sexy stuff though...

[quote name='lee650' post='939625' date='Aug 29 2010, 09:44 PM']I believe accugroove brought out limited editions of some of their cabs with the 6" driver being made of carbon fibre, the other speakers were just the same though, not sure how they would sound compared to the normal ones, just something i stumbled across whilst gear surfing, it is a very interesting idea.[/quote]
I'm only interested in making the enclosures, not the actual speakers. Been looking at Eminence Neodymium drivers for around £80 each, so will buy everything else I need elsewhere. Can you imagine how light the cab will be if I pull it off...?

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='939609' date='Aug 29 2010, 09:19 PM']It's been done with PA, the cost verges on astronomical. Bass players being the cheapskates...excuse me, 'thrifty blokes' that they are, I doubt you'll see carbon fiber bass cabs successfully marketed.[/quote]
The reason I ask is that I work for a composites company, and was contemplating building my own 2 x 10 cab out of the stuff. Just wondered if it would sound any good. Might have to pick some engineering brains at work...

Hi everyone,

We all know about the fantastic gear that Rob Green builds at Status-Graphite, and the very clear and resonant properties of woven carbon graphite when used in bass guitar manufacture. But has anyone tried making bass cab enclosures with this stuff? Light weight and resonant? Perfect for cabs, no? What do you all think...?

Cheers

Grant

Thanks for the info guys. Checked the blurb on Ashdown's website, definitely says 100w output.

Hi Everyone,

Just been reading about the need for more (or less) than 300w for general pub or club gigs. I'm soon to start rehearsing with a new band (two guitars, drums and myself) but would really like to downsize my rig. I'm currently playing through a Hartke HA3500 head and VX 4x10 set up which has basically buggered my back up with all the lugging about. I like the look of the Five Fifteen stack (not the combo), but was wondering if 100w is going to be enough? We're going to play a good mixture of acoustic stuff and some other tunes that are a little bit more full on. Has anyone out there played this stack in a similar situation? Will it cut through?

Regards

Grant

This guy sounds like comedy gold to me. I particularly enjoyed the "potted" history of Lemmy's career, including "He made it into Hawkwind, and then on his own. His Mother stayed here, and he visited, as and when. Birthday's Christmas, Et cetera. (Probably when hungry too, that's when I see my Mother ha ha!)"
But the best bit is the answer to the question about how much it would be to ship it to France - "Bonjour, I'm unsure because the Post Office is closed."!!!!!
Ha ha!!!! Proper Del Boy!
Listen, if he gets £200 for it then good on him. That's free enterprise. The idiots are the people who've already bid on it.....