4 Strings

The neck pup on a Jazz sounds pretty much like a P, get a Jazz for all things. Verdine White is one of my bass heroes. Not impressed with the solos etc you see on Youtube but his recorded work is so, so good. Like 'Nard, he has that ability to play repetitively and accurately but with just enough variation to make it human, loaded with feel and creativity. A good source for inspiration!

Brighton, with all my band!

I'd call the meeting and tell them that you're going to follow icastle's suggestion above. Win-win. You might also find out how good they are as friends. I had a similar experience, paying for rehearsal space, rehearsing for a single gig which was way off and absolutely no organisation regarding what songs etc. Each rehearsal started with a look at the set list, as if it was something new, and deciding 'let's just go through the songs'. No progress, never would be, I was out after 3. Keyboard player was great though! I call them 'Bingo' bands. You can't practice for Bingo, just turn up, no preparation between events necessary.

I have one too. Great amp. Do they look better without the leds? Can you see the warm glow of the valves in the little window?

If you had a stainless steel neck you'd expect it to make the bass sound bright as the material is so hard. Maple is a hard wood, rosewood even harder, ebony hardest of all. The string runs from the bridge to the metal frets. The tone difference of the string when held against a metal fret set in hard wood or marginally harder wood is going to be marginal, if at all audible/measurable. Maple looks brighter and so may give the impression of sounding brighter than rosewood but is slightly less hard and so is more likely to give a less bright sound. A layer of lacquer on the maple is young to keep it clean but not much else. The Fender maple fingerboards used to be one piece as cutting the frets directly into the maple neck was cheaper than adding a separate, harder fingerboard. The skunk stripe was from the truss rod being added to the back of the neck instead of the front. Nowadays, as has been posted, the process for standard basses is uniform, either a maple or rosewood fingerboard is stuck over the front mounted truss rod (same for both MM and Fender and, it seems, everyone else). I believe there would be a difference between these modern necks with separate finger boards and the older one piece necks, but not so much in tone but in resonance. Almost any solid maple bass neck has a resonance on the 5th fret of the G string in which the body/neck system absorbs vibrations to give a short sustain and a bit of buzz against your belly. With any composite construction this will be compromised and so the is sustain more even across the strings and frets. Also, Mr Letts is perfectly correct when he says that rosewood holds the fret tangs better than the softer maple.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1393351718' post='2379187'] Bernard's talent transcended electricity . He was so funky that the normal laws of physics did not apply to his bass playing. [/quote] Ha! Where's that 'like' button! In the 'chucking' clip, def flats.

Almost all here is good advice, I've studied his playing for some covers and to try and get some of his talent to rub off. He is a supreme bass player, very classy and able so don't feel too down hearted if you don't completely nail his sound, I've yet to find anyone who has! (That clip is sounds great, but nothing is plugged in!)

[quote name='Hutton' timestamp='1387193721' post='2309107'] Just got this rather nice 2010 American Standard Jazz. [/quote] Yes!

[quote name='kingofthestuntmen' timestamp='1391853466' post='2361952'] Here we go; my first 5-er and most recent Crack Generator impulse buy; [url="http://s42.photobucket.com/albums/e334/kingofthestuntmen/?action=view&current=d0e29648f0e4fe8618c220e23bcfaee1_zpsb537c0aa.jpg"][/url] [url="http://s42.photobucket.com/albums/e334/kingofthestuntmen/?action=view&current=b8421e8287a796c647230941dfdbdb4b_zpsc32f52e5.jpg"][/url] [url="http://s42.photobucket.com/albums/e334/kingofthestuntmen/?action=view&current=5104a11ac9238a806529691e5eb708f6_zps9e74849b.jpg"][/url] Nothing special compared to some here, but for £70, paid up over 4 or 5 weeks, I reckon I did OK... [/quote] You certainly did (assuming you needed it!). No reason why this shouldn't play and sound as good as any on this page.

I'm trying out my little BF Midget in bigger and bigger situations to find it's limit. I may have found it, but it might have been the amp's. Towngate Theatre in Basildon, over 500 seater, lovely big stage. Motown Sisters show with backdrops and back projected video clips so we were asked to keep back line to a minimum. 'This is a job for Midget T', I thought. And so it was, just. As you can see, on the edge of the little drum riser facing me, it was blasting! I have a bad habit of ending up being the loudest on stage, this was no exception and I was told that it was also contributing to the overall sound in the auditorium. Remarkable little thing, blasting out Motown depth and refused to give up its clean tone even when I lifted the bass control. Not sure how much capacity was left, the Streamliner was well over halfway and never been used so high. <a href="http://s1341.photobucket.com/user/4Strings1/media/2014-02-07193956_zpsfb49c067.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o760/4Strings1/2014-02-07193956_zpsfb49c067.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 2014-02-07193956_zpsfb49c067.jpg"/></a>

[quote name='skej21' timestamp='1391944369' post='2362784'] This photo is amazing. The bass looks great. The look on your (bass) face suggests that there is someone just off stage loudly questioning the utility of the utility bass! (Or a group of yoofs have just kicked a football into your garden!) Be gone, utility doubting heathen!! [/quote] Haha, probably not far wrong, skej21! (Although it may also have been the result of thinking, "Rats, I thought there were only two repeats of that verse, hope no-one noticed!") Utility has been returned, all work done and gleaming in a re-wax. Heath has replaced the pup switch with the 'Superswitch' and wired it to a very complicated diagram supplied by Aaron Armstrong to satisfy my switching whims (which it does) and puts things in series where they should be, dressed all the fret ends, added a battery switch (and an led - in green of course!) and, ta-ta-ta-taaaaah - the tuner! Tuner works great! I'm now thinking it's becoming a Cortina with every conceivable extra bolted on! The tuner has been mounted between the pups on a piece of maple from the neck wood (same as the pup covers). Switchable by a pull-up volume knob. I know, no pics, no tuner so I will take pics and show you, it's the icing on the cake. (tbh though, I have lasted this long by very rarely ever using a tuner, always by ear. I'll continue in this vein as I don't want to lose that skill, but sometimes it needs a proper check (I have a recording with a flat 'D'!) and, bingo, no-one even knows I'm doing it!). Pics will follow

[quote name='blablas' timestamp='1390662432' post='2348073'] [/quote] Just about everything in this photo is atypical!

My baby has gone back to the womb. Heath popped by and now has the Utility Bass in his workshop for the tuner to be fitted and it's final finish. You may remember it got a bit rushed in the end as I wanted it for certain gigs and we were waiting and waiting for bits to arrive from the US. He'll mainly be adding the tuner, changing the pup switch to a 'Superswitch' which has more terminal combination options to allow the pups to be wired and selected as we wanted in the beginning. The very helpful Aaron Armstrong kindly supplied this and the wiring diagram. He'll also dress a couple of frets and have a look at the quiet 'D'. Lastly, I have run a battery down by not pulling out the jack so, in the name of utility, Heath is going to look at squeezing a battery switch in that cavity. He offered to look at sanding the sides of the pups a little, so they can tilt in their cavities, but they're fine at that now. Bye bye, Baby, Baby, bye bye. <sniff> Didn't realise that I would miss it.

Looks great, more pics please, but also how it plays and sounds?

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1389278925' post='2332269'] I've had conflicting stories about whether it's even possible to test things like laptop power supplies. At work, the technicians never did these because they said there was nothing that they could test. The last bloke who did our band gear (required for a gig) insisted on doing them, maybe because he was charging per item. [/quote] Because theyare plastic and so there's no earth?

Thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the Queen of Bassface, Charlie Wilson and a friend of our family in Rudimental. Dave S's fabulously ugly and inappropriate bass has almost ruined my 2014 already - may all my problems be this big!

Does it have the shared grid resistor? If so, will you be making the mod to put one on each valve? And if so again, can you tell us what you do, how you did it and how it went? (If you've got some old Mullards in you won't need to, only if you're replacing with modern valves.)

[quote name='steverickwood' timestamp='1387629361' post='2313954'] [attachment=150765:ruach.jpg] He brought another one along when I got the brown one, but I had to make a choice. I think another guy on here purchased it - it was very cool and red!! I'm so descriptive. [/quote] Very nice! Seemed like a choice you couldn't get wrong either way!

Heath is great fun, and a really nice guy. Hope you're as pleased with the Brown 5. I'd be happy to place another order with him (if there was any way I could justify it!) for something similar, but with a couple of lessons learnt from this one.

Thanks again! Well, here is the Utility Bass being utilised: [URL=http://s1341.photobucket.com/user/4Strings1/media/IMG_1102_zpsb11ad1b6.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o760/4Strings1/IMG_1102_zpsb11ad1b6.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Thanks! I ordered it beginning of June and the sketches etc started but Heath made a proper start around August I think and I picked it up at the beginning of November. If it was one of his designs he would have finished it in 3-4 weeks, but my constant inference delayed things! It was being designed as it was being made and so decisions made along the way. A flow of emails regarding standy-uppy ideas etc tried his patience, I'm sure, but also there was a delivery wait for imported gear (Hipshot) to arrive and to get the pickups made into the wooden cases. Yep, I bought a little led torch from the pound shop, charge them up and they lose most of the glow in a few minute but smoulder away for quite a while. From daylight it holds a glow for quite a while, but gigs are usually evenings and out the case it needs a charge. In fact, now I've been thinking about it, I've discovered I've not seen the dots due to bright lights in my eyes (disability glare) rather than it being too dark!

Thanks, DarkHeart, it's better in the flesh too. Wish I could take any credit for it's beauty - apart from choice of colour!

Feel for you, I would have been very, very disappointed. I've been privileged to have seen him many times with Wilko over the years and he is one of my heroes. I suppose the Blockheads gig would have been better paid but, as you say, sounds like he's putting his loyalty to Wilko in action, assuming he had the choice. I bet they were great though! Always admired that band, even when I was at school and they were fresh! So, was the bass player any good?

[b]Impressions[/b] I've now done 15 gigs with this bass and probably as many rehearsals, I'm beginning to get to know it. The neck is truly amazing and the action can be as low as you want. I tend to have it above the lowest possible so I can 'dig in' a bit. There's been some big changes in conditions (from freezing outside into overheated venue etc) and the wheel of fortune has come into it's own in allowing a quick fractional adjustment to keep things exactly where they should be. Very easy to use, used it on the fly twice now whereas before I would have just lumped the slight change in relief. I'm getting spoilt. Soundwise, it's very punchy but, to be honest, I wish I'd gone with one pickup! It turns out I'm happier getting the sound I want from one than from too many options. However, the neck pup is a very powerful P. Looks like a Jazz but is wound like a P and has been positioned to be the midpoint of the the two parts of a P from the bridge. It kills that sound, and I love it! The M pickup still needs some work. It's wired in parallel but I'm waiting a little diagram from Aaron Armstrong to wire in in series and so boost it's output somewhat. It's got a good sound but the output level is rather 'cool'. Again, very punchy and the single bridge coil is positioned where a Jazz would be and this works well when separated by the switch. I'm still playing with the infinite variations from the combination of the East preamp and two pups, but getting there. It plays like butter, it has to be said. I noticed this more when I used the Relay Bass recently. 'Oh yes', my memory said, 'that's what a normal bass is like'. The Ruach is very comfortable, easy to get slip into and is already feeling like those comfy slippers. It's not a lightweight (compared to the ply body of the Relay Bass anyway) but it's lighter than my 'Ray and easy to swing about and not be noticed on a long set. The 'E' sounds lovely and tight, the 'G' absolutely sings, but, if you've read before, the 'D' is a quiet string. I believe it's resonance/harmonic thing. Doesn't stop me using the bass and only I am ever aware of it. I have played with the eq to enhance the 'D' and I'm also hoping a rewire of the MM pup will help, but get things wrong and the 'D' can get lost in a mix. With the bass on it's own you wouldn't notice, it sounds fine but in a band setting the harmonics it produces seem to cut through less than the other strings. I've played with the pup heights so that rather than a quiet 'D' I have a loud 'G' as that is easier to play with. It is honestly a thing of beauty, still gets gasps from onlookers, only last Tuesday from a singer in a pub in Brentwood 'Are you sure, Greg?' he said, 'that's pretty amazing!' You might notice on the 'Knobs and Pups' pic, the 'E' saddle on the bridge is losing it's black. I tend to play dampened quite a lot and my palm has worn this off already. Not at all bothered by it, but it does show that this bass is getting well used. It's a Utility Bass, I expect plenty more signs of wear and tear on surfaces to appear. It's become 'mine' and I'm looking forward to further improvements in the MM output and as I slowly solve the 'D'. It is not for sale! Not sure what's happened to the tuner - it's been paid for and ordered, I ought to chase to see if it's arrived on these shores!