Kowad

On 12/05/2024 at 04:48, rmutt said:

I built this bass as a gift for a friend when I worked at the Yamaha custom shop in LA around '94-'95. I used  a Yamaha neck but it had nothing to do with the company. The black lines in the fingerboard are graphite to increase the strength of the neck and to make the strings speak better. I wound the pickups as well. The body is basswood with a maple veneer on top. It's great to see it after all these years!

Wow! Fantastic provenance! So glad you found this. It plays beautifully!

12 hours ago, Geek99 said:

a polished trebuchet that has been clumsily glued to a toaster by a nine year old, and then hit with a hammer. By the nine year old 

I would buy that bass!

4 hours ago, Cairobill said:

RBX800AF?

Neck to body join is right...

But obvs loadsa tweaking on the body....

Lower pickup cover there is bang on! As is the neck join. I'll add, the bolts on the back are f***IN MASSIVE! 😂 I'll get a picture of them sometimes, they are chunky! Perhaps that is a Yamaha thing (that was a part of the appeal tbf, I have a decent selection of basses but nothing from Yamaha).

The body gets very fruity compared to this - the knobs are way out of whack, and the foremost of them is *behind* the bridge. This is a LONG bass (though the scale is certainly not long / outlandish). I don't think the body could have been shaped from this - no signs of joins, smooth and continuous grain (from the looks of it) etc. I'm currently trapped under a very small Labrador, I'll have a closer look later!

Regrettably, I like both of my kidneys. 

5 hours ago, Machines said:

I am inclined to think it is a Yamaha neck (logo removed)

 

 

Perhaps worth adding that this definitely checks out. I could have done more due diligence but did at least check the serial number. 
 

I doubt this is going to add much / anything useful!

50 minutes ago, Man.about.Tyne said:

Well that headstock doesn’t look a million miles away from my first ever bass in all its glorious 1980’s pointyness! 
 

I’m thinking rebodied onto an old neck… maybe

IDENTICAL!

43 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Is this the one on ebay/ gumtree??

 

Amazing looking Bass - first time I have seen one.

HA it turns out it is! My reverb feed is set up for interesting fretlesses, this pinged through and I had a bit of a SHALL I SHAN'T I but tbf the indecision did NOT last long 😂

1 hour ago, Machines said:

What do those top 2 controls do ?

Pickup selectors! (On / off).

Good morning! This arrived today. A MYSTERY YAMAHA FRETLESS. 1988, LOOK AT THAT FRETBOARD oh my goodness, never seen one of those before! 

Very little further info, just unpacked, played briefly (plays beautifully!) and I'm into meetings all day, eurgh.

Curious - has anyone seen one of these? Any ideas of provenance / history / context? Others like this? Bought from reallygreatguitars, who thinks it may be a one-off / prototype. 

ANY THOUGHTS OR INFO WELCOME, what a stunner! 

On 25/02/2024 at 08:17, Paul S said:

I'll add my Scottish Power veto to the growing list.   Long story short, we bought a house which was demolished and all the services notified, final meter readings done etc.  4 months later we got a gas bill from them and despite numerous phone calls, live chat exchanges, photograph of disconnected meter sitting on a heap of rubble, plus a complaint, it took a letter to the CEO to stop the demands for payment.  And someone still called round to do a reading about a year on.  Could have done without the hassle.

Oh I’ll add to this. I was responsible for dual fuel at a house for one week.

I got start and end readings. You’d think it’s that simple right? Only they f***ed up the start and end dates and then closed the account with estimated readings. They were then (they said!) unable to change the dates on a closed account.
 

I worked out what I owed cost per unit, daily standing charge, VAT), I’m going to guess it took 3 months to sort out with perhaps 40 emails and a good few phone calls. And multiple - multiple! - photos of the meters.
 

They even denied that the meter in the photo was the meter they had the serial number for in the house at one point, I can only quote my response, “that is a you problem.”

Bought a heavily edited Jaco Pastorius signature from @Lukasz Chyla, the editing was much of the appeal! Very responsive, very swift shipping, robustly packed, very happy to recommend all round. Cheers Lukasz!

Cheers for this, actually my intro to cissy strut. Went and found the tab, have been playing it for a solid week. Greatly enjoyed. 
 

reminded to post bc I’m in the gym atm, listening to apple’s essentials The Meters playlist 😂 Cheers!

10 hours ago, SH73 said:

Microsoft 

Spent my last £1k on a top end Dell that was meant to see me through a masters and PhD in 2006-7. Timing was peak Vista, it crashed about once a day, and had the blue screen of death needing a full factory reset at least once a week!

Before I bought it, other students had recommended macs, and I was fully “nah! Look how much better the specs are on this dell!” But within 12 months I’d bought my first Mac and I still buy my own macs so I can continue to avoid my employer’s freely provided windows machines 👀

Windows trauma. I swear. 

I have this problem back to front, I'm convinced the riff going through my head on repeat for the past 5 weeks is ACTUALLY QUITE A FAMOUS TRACK, but I've come to think it actually isn't. Because it's none of the things I thought it was. 

So, thought I was hearing non-new music, may have accidentally composed what should frankly be a phenomenon.

7 hours ago, Richard R said:

I just had an explore round the Nonlinear circuits Web site.

He has some other strangely named modules:

 

The suppository of all wisdom

 

Or Poultry in Motion. A lot of them have hidden text on the rear of the panels too, often referencing obscure Aussie films and / or mid-90s gabber. 

There's one of everything he's designed in that rack (apart from the most recent releases, which are on my desk but haven't yet been built). It became a bit of a lockdown mission / obsession 😂

I haven't used it for anything bass related, though it should be possible to do so in principle 👀 

45 minutes ago, Stag said:

Ah yeah, the pointy one is a very limited run for the 90th anniversary of Ric - hence the "boutique" price. Allegedly the new (long scale) 4005V is supposed to slot in as a standard offering... it cannot be standard at that price lol

 

Also goes totally against what ive heard dealers in the US taking preorders around the $4K mark - would actually be cheaper to buy a flight to Santa Ana, pick it up from the factory and take it home at that price! 👨‍✈️

A scout of reverb was showing one of these at $4180 (or so) preorder in the us. 
 

Not that I was looking. 
 

👀

On 22/02/2024 at 21:54, Cato said:

 

Not music related but...

 

 

I think the only company I'll never use again is a local Ford garage.

 

It's about 3 minutes walk from my house so it made sense when I first moved  here to take the car there for MOTs , services etc 

 

But they always found stuff that 'needed' doing. The tracking would be off or the tyres were worn or the air conditioning fluid needed changing.

 

The final time I went there I got a phone call saying I 'needed' over 1k worth of stuff doing or the car would be undrivable.

 

I declined, took the car back and took it to another local garage where they told me they were unable to find any of the issues the first garage had warned me about.

 

So now I take my car to that garage, and if anyone ever asks me if I know a good mechanic I 'll warn them about the local Ford garage that tried to rip me off.

Replaced a flat tyre myself.

Took the wheel to Halfords. £20 puncture repair check, £20 off a tyre if it’s unfixable. 
 

Called within an hour; unfixable, we can put on a £210 replacement tho. 
 

I’m between meetings, sounds steep but running, so ok. 
 

Check Halfords website. They don’t sell any tyres that fit for north of £170, and that’s a specialist winter tyre?! 
 

Seek clarification later; it’s a £156 tyre. If you book to have your tyre replaced, it’s £156. However, this was an unbooked replacement following a puncture check, so that’ll be £210 minus the initial £20, thanks.

I kicked up enough of a fuss that i was “only” charged £170, but what a scam! Never again. 

On 23/02/2024 at 12:55, Andyjr1515 said:

Yes, I agree with that.  And I would venture to go further.  My personal measure when I'm setting up a bass or a guitar is 'when you tap down on the fret, my ideal is "just perceptible" movement'.  

 

But there's a 'but' when it comes to trussrods.  And that's mainly about who is doing the adjusting.  Because many great bass players are not practical, confident, don't have the right tools or, frankly, don't have any interest in the mechanics of their instrument - and there's nothing wrong with that!  

 

So my general advice, for what it's worth, to anyone reading who regards themselves in that category is:

 

- Don't use the truss rod to adjust action height.  Its only job is to keep the neck straight under string tension

 

- If your bass plays nicely without buzzes at an action you are happy with, then 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.

 

- If your bass plays nicely without buzzes at an action you are happy with but you are curious, then by all means, have a look at how much relief (bow-and-arrow curve) you have using the methods described above and:

• if the relief (measuring the amount of curve) is no more than the thickness of a credit card, then either leave it alone, or learn how to/find someone who already knows how to reduce the relief somewhere between @Baloney Balderdash's business card and my 'perceptible gap'...the bass may well play better at a lower action height.
• if it is more than the thickness of a credit card, then learn how to/find someone who already knows to reduce the relief.  As @Baloney Balderdash rightly says, less than this amount of relief would be better, but above this level then the bass's playability will certainly be being compromised.
• if there is no relief at all at the centre point and the string is hard against the 8th fret, then it indicates that the neck may have a back bow (a hump in the middle) and, if so, the truss rod will need adjusting.  It needs loosening or the strings will tend to buzz, particularly around the lower and middle fret positions.   Learning how to/finding someone who already knows how to adjust it will make the bass play better and, usually, allow you to lower the saddles and action.

 

 

- But if your bass is buzzing in places, or action is too high, then learn how to/find someone who already knows how to check the relief.  On a bass, in terms of set up everything affects everything and the set up should always starts with setting the neck relief.  Once that is done, you can assess everything else.

 

Hope the above makes sense.

 

By the way, I answered a basschatter's PM query recently about setting the trussrod and how it works/what it does.  In it I used some googled diagrams/pictures to illustrate and clarify what some of the terms we use mean.  If anyone is interested, more than happy to copy and paste that here.   

 

 

 

 

 

Appreciate all of this, similar to some of the truss rod content I’ve been reading up on 😂

I have a p bass that I keep on parking. Even when the truss rod is fully tightened (and locks), there’s still more of an 8th fret gap than I’d like. There are indications that the previous owner also struggled with it - both pickguards that came with it are heavily chipped around the truss rod adjustment access point.

I’ve thought, several times, that I should get a luthier to do a professional setup. I’ve spent the weekend tinkering with pretty much everything and it is currently playable. But the truss rod limit nags at me. Is it usual to have a bass that may be just about right when the rod is fully tightened? I feel there should be more play in it. Haven’t had anything like this much beef from any other bass!

The Diva was my second bass. I figured, if I’m going to be shit and out of my depth on an instrument, I might as well be shit and out of my depth on something that is both gloriously beautiful and unnecessarily hard (ie, fretless). That it is so utterly lovely also convinced me to spend a lot more time with it. 

My very first bass was a 4003s. And I loved that bass very much, too. Tbf, I loved the 4003s and the marleaux so much between them, that when I discovered fretless rickies existed i couldn’t resist. I absolutely 💖 both of these (tho if I’m entirely honest, the 4003 slightly more). The 4003 was also my intro to tapewound strings, which was yet another a very lovely introduction indeed. 
 

12 hours ago, pantherairsoft said:

It’s been my grail pedal since it was released. I used the regular version for many tours but I’ve finally got my hands on the Pro.

 

Easily one for the best pedals I’ve ever used. I’ve been messing with it daily for a month now and I’m in constant awe.

I'm only aware of this thanks to eurorack! I have a few WMD bits upstairs (but not one of these. Which I still don't fully understand 😂)

I think this may be an autism thing (or tbf a 'ways of learning' / not knowing what I'm doing & learning on my tod thing) but I moved from trying to play bass like a guitar - reverb, delay, chorus - to wanting pure tones and just throwing in a bit of EQ / filter, to now being much more interested in fuzz, grit, distortion and drive. I have a darkglass vintage ultra microtubes, I wonder if I would have gone for something more aggressive if I'd bought it a year later. 

I picked up both of these on weds. Haven’t had much time with them yet. I’ve had a look at the c4’s interface and, whilst I’ve built a tonne of eurorack, am currently baffled (but enjoying a few presets). I want to get an adapter so I can connect it to my phone.

I am enjoying the big muff! But want a proper chunk of time with it (and the manual). 
 

First new pedals in some months. 

On 19/02/2024 at 12:57, Cestrian said:

That’s really useful, thank you. Also, I’m guessing a reputable auction house would ensure authenticity prior to the auction?

Can I ask, what are the shelves? Keen to establish something similar, I've been cluttering my pedal board for too long, and tbh I need a better solution than sticking unused ones to the side of my Minimark with board tape 👀

Ok so not my only fretless, but oh my god. Is it absurd to say I was expecting just a touch of buyer’s remorse? Not even a smidgen. Just glorious in every way. I have been lost in it since it arrived - I think only a couple of weeks back, but it feels like a year 😂

50 minutes ago, itu said:

https://musicplayers.com/2012/04/vigier-excalibur-shawn-lane-master-signature-electric-guitar/

 

I know the text is about a g-word, but take a look at the strap button attachment picture.

Ooo. 
 

that’s interesting but I don’t think (?!) is what’s happened here. The schallers went in flawlessly - and I’d expect there to have been some grip from the brass if it was in there. The originals were wobbly, and one of them really did feel as if it just hadn’t been drilled enough. I think I would have seen if a brass casing fell out 👀