funkgod

ouchhhh makes you wince as its going, mine fell over in the studio an 1830 thedore heuber and snapped the head clean off, i had popped out to get a coffee when i got back i wondered why everyone was just staring at me with white faces, my mate broke the ice by saying... " maybe it will play in tune now" 🙂 so you need one of these, what ever is holding this up .....

yep spot on. lets just say that word again " the greatest"........... ok, to who ? you ! we all have our " greatest" for me, as much as admire fantastic players who have obviously put allot of time into their playing, and some pushing boundaries, i will never remember anything malmsteen, or mclaughlin has done yet i will remember stuff by george benson, knopfler, gilmour, carlton, jimmy herring, wayne johnson even zappa because those guys play with melody and its melody that catches my ear, its that that i hum walking down the st, im not saying here that malmsteen, or mclaughlin and the like dont play with melody but just too much of the other stuff leaves me a bit cold and reaching for the FF to the next track. Regarding Clapton, i dont think he was overrated claption like it or not took music to another level in cream, all be it pushed by baker and bruce, and was THE first publicly named rock GOD before the term was used for anyone, it was made for him. painted on the fence for all to see, also contrary to what most believe hendrix and clapton were very good friends, in fact it was clapton that was left waiting for him with a present of a left handed strat he was going to give him the night they had arranged to watch sly and the family stone, the night hendrix died. i think Blackmore was better, and i think clapton and esp Blackmore were better than hendrix, hendrix was raw and ground braking no doubt ....but not better, ........to me.

Check out 200 motels, you might change your mind ! !

Cheers guys, thanks for the nice comments, yea made up with it, i will get some sound bits on youtube when i get the chance, Im now just thinking of adding a pull up switch to one of the pots, well...changing one of the pots sorry to one with a pull up switch to take out the tone cap and bypass it, so it goes full tone or add another value cap for a more trebly sound than the other one, so a bit of experimenting may be on the books soon, iv just fitted one to ians rick 4000 and makes a hell of a difference, so much more tone out of it now, i would say its transformed it to a much more usable tool. just my op. we will see, thanks again guys.

Thank you, thanks to doug, he is a bit of a star, he is just doing me a flame maple topped ash body for my fotoflame jazz bass, and refinishing the worn out body on my 82 wal, also doing a lacquer crack on my early goodfellow. and his prices are very good too, any repair work needed he is very VERY reasonable, yea give him a bell the bass is now done, as said i went for an antique finish, doug is very perticular about his finishes for example on this he did not just spray the edges black but hand done the finishe in an "antiquey" as he calls it brown and also adds something to the poly to blend in, a bit like a violin finish and its like a mirror, here ya go, thanks doug.

yep, its crap, this whole subject presses more buttons than i can cope with...... i work my tits off getting a studio together good enough to release good quality tracks, the hours involved getting them tracks together would scare people, the amount of years spent learning all the instruments played on them tracks, for what ? for others to earn money for all my hard work makes my blood boil. i put a post up a while ago saying "allot of times its our own fault for giving it away for nothing, i see people putting whole tracks on youtube, WHY, FFS all you have to do it put part of the track on youtube with a link to your site where if people like it they can pay for the down load, easy" so then i got into an argument with one guy saying " if we did not give it away for nothing, our songs would not get played at all " And thats what we are all up against !

Everybody at some time has looked at a price and said to themselves " WHAT? FOR THAT ?" i know anything is worth what someone will pay for it, so im trying to think of basses that are really worth every penny against others which i would call just taking the pi@@ so 1, great value for money basses ? what is going at the mo which is great value for money ? for example im just looking at the sire marcus miller on ebay for 360 buy it now looks great and when you stack that against a mex jazz for now 150 more or even a usa jazz to me its looking pritty good spec wise, but are they really worth it ? ( im looking for a fretless) and 2, which ones do you think is over inflated ? so... would anyone pay £7,749.00 for this https://www.peachguitars.com/fender-winter-2021-custom-shop-event/fender-custom-shop-1958-p-bass-heavy-relic-mb-vincent-van-trigt-faded-chocolate-.htm

G&L update, Looking good.....

i still have the original pots from my pro2E, pete said dump them and sent me some solid shaft ones like gray plastic you have to cut down slightly, i think i had to widen the holes slightly as well. Also done a number of jobs on my custom bass and for a few guys on here also, main problem when you get lack of punch and lowish power is the two electro caps by the transformer, if if goes dead completely or again intermittent on and off then there is an earth pin that goes right through the board to take it to the back of the board, i re soldered that and bingo, good as new, worth a check, what else,,,, oh yea the jack plug twisting when it becomes loose over the years of playing and it twists the button cap leg shorting out something and also if it twists so far the tip of the jack plug connector that shuts of the battery will shot out against the back tone pot steel laminate, so if loose make sure you tighten it as soon as, you can do a mod or get it done at wal if its the older wal to have the battery shut off on the pot ( turn and click for off) like the later ones. Just thinking about that, there is no reason you could not do that the the pro2E or 1E, so .... while you are fitting a new pot fit one with a master shut off switch also and switch out the earth ? save you taking the jack out and if like me you used one jack to the amp and the di to the desk then that would save you taking both out and looking for them when you go back on. 🙂 im sure paul could do something here.

started off playing bass and piano bit of guitar, banjo and slide and have always had a few flutes knocking about, and have been asked now and again to play percussion which i love and have a great set up, but when i started to write and record my own tunes then that opened up a whole new world for me, 1 i got sick of asking brass players to do parts so i got a trombone then another then another got 4 now so i do all the trombone parts, no mad soloing just lines and melodies and then i started on trumpet so got one then a better one then a better one again got 4 now, which im only good enough to get my lines down again no solo stuff, drums im not sure how i got into that or even when, just one of them things over the years again not to a fantastic std but good enough to get the basics down on my tracks, and a blues harp gob iron iv had for years, so i play all these on my tracks to varying standards, crap on most but ok on a few, thank god for cut and paste 🙂 so iv ended up with 1 Bass ...... have a few of them 2 Guitar, ...have a few of them 3, drums ...acoustic and roland electronic kits 4, percussion... congas/bongos timbs rotos and all sorts of things that go bang when you whack them. 5 keys.... nord and CME UF8 and racks 6 Flute,... 5 of them yamaha, TJ, bla bla bla 7 Trombone, 4, jiggs king besson and a lovely 100+year old Hawks and son 8 Trumpet, 4 of 9 Banjo,...a nice old framus + steel guitar/dobro 10, mouth organ.... not played that in years always had one in the car for boring trips and ques ! BUt... iv just in the last year or so had the lust for a nice set of marimba/ vibes, think its roy ayers been seeping through all those years, iv found my self checking out prices looking for space to put them, would love a nice set of them in the studio, pref ones with butterflys/rotating paddles from a motor in the resonator pipes ( like a mini leslie speaker in each pipe) maybe...one day ... when i can afford one ahhhh....thats it im off to look again, no harm looking 🙂 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Marimba-Bergerault-4-3-Octave/293344979385?hash=item444cb929b9:g:GCMAAOSw9ltd2Vll

MMMMMMMMMMMMM AMEK niiiiiiiccee, gimme gimme. :-)

had one for a short while, sorry to say i did not like it, for me i need an all rounder bass, for all styles, what i found was for slapping it was useless as the neck pick up was really close to the neck and i need a bit of space there to get my fingers under the strings, if they had moved both pickups back a few inches then great, but , just could not get along with it so... back to the G&L.

You could try one of these 🙂 Joking aside, in case you decide to get it out the bag, a great upgrade to your 550 is the DR880 which is a fantastic DM, if mine broke today i would have another by tomorrow, all my tracks use this, i love it. sorry cant help with software though.

the apples, buzzing about

Here are a few, of them all the two stand out ones the dark wal in the middle iv had since the 80s and nearly worn it out so that is retired and the red 83 G&L L2000 is the only thing i have found to replace it in terms of power and the sound that i use, both are as good as each other for the same reason. The very early ( first few months) thumb bass sounds great very clean sound but just cant play it live, i cant take my eyes of the fret board everything feels too fat left by a few fretts, and just cant get use to it, the green 6 string XB600 washburn for what i paid is a real surprise, such a great sound low action and nice fast slim neck for me is bang on, all my 6 string fretted stuff is done on that, i would put that per sound against anything, sometimes things just work at any price, this one for me is my proof, each to their own and all that 🙂

Ahhh i knew you would have it :-), it a very underlooked album, "beautiful" is a perfect descriptive word for it , what is great about it is.., although he did arranging for it, he did not impose himself anywhere he just let the arranging carry it and sat in it with just great complementary bass playing, now i have heard him play with Jacques Loussier on the Bach album and i cant listen to it, as good as it is its all just too 'Pianoy' and makes me feel miserable for me "around about a bass" has far more scope and depth, i have not heard much of him playing with Miles yet, i will have to check some of that out, each to their own and all that. @BigRedX 2000?? WAT....thats just piggery :-).... if only i had the space.

Bilbo... i might not be able to top trump you on the cds, but dam close 🙂 if i may proffer another to your collection....... its amazing everyone is getting rid of cd's like the plague, yet im still collecting them, which for me is GREAT cus some are so cheap, I think to musicians they are more like reference material, abit like parts of a song, you just cant get rid of one or rest don't make sense, i have about 800/900 funk and related cds, i need every one 🙂 and yet funny enough one or two of my faves are not funk, for eg, my fave for years sunday morning music is Pierre Michelot, Around about a bass. .i think you might like that check it out, loads of top notch arrangements, another to add to your collection 🙂 haha https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pierre-Michelot-Round-About-Bass/dp/B00TIDN9R6/ref=tmm_msc_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

🤣 haha perfect,

its good for everything, i cant listen to punk anymore for me it THE Ingredient thats missing, just think how good "god save the queen" would have been with the pringles shaker in it ! ! its a no brainer.

Leggo ? mehh..... i got a hoops basket ball and a dub van 🙂 and wait for it ... a pringles shaker 🙂 No studio is complete with out the pringles shaker, its a must have for the cheap skates who cant afford a real one. its absolutely imperative you get the exact amount of split peas and rice, Just waiting for someone to come along and top trump me with a Lava Lamp 🙂

Looks big but is only the small bedroom 9 foot across 2 and 3/4M, but its an active home studio, almost every day, i love the sound of it, releasing tracks at the mo, im just doing the brass on a funky Reggae type track, just waiting for my living room ceiling to cave in 🙂 so in order to gain some space im just in the middle of making one of these, but with racks at the bottom either side as well.....

if you got to about 10:08 of the vid you will see it getting its coats on, and the progress of my m8s rickenbacker, was black with white binding is going to be cream with black binding

hi greek, haha yea, looks prity bleak, but at that point i was in up to my neck, and anything is better than the finish it had, you cant see in the first photo but it was bad, the back of the neck was worn as well down to the wood right along so its had a good life and used allot by someone, a testament to how good it is it could be said, so Doug said he would do that as well, cant wait to get it back, im just wondering if i should redo the black crinkle finish now on the hardware????...... ooowwww ........go on then :-)

UPDATE... As it turns out, im crap at french polishing, tried on a few bits of wood, and to be honest what a pain in the crack, i think by the time i would have finished i would of spent so much time and care on it i would not want to take it out, and also i did not like the color on hog, it reminded me of the gibson SG bases, not my fave look, so had to have a rethink, so quick call to Doug Wilkes which is not too far from me in Keel ( by stoke on trent) and his reply was "yea just bring it", What a top guy, if you don't know dougs work and are looking for that next level thing you DON'T get in alot of custom shops, check him out, hes been around along time and really knows what its all about and is very passionate about his work and being down to earth is my sort of guy, So..after a long think i was going to go with a butterscotch finish only slightly more pale but settled on a antique burst finish, ( like sunburst without the red) so a quick treck to Dougs with a friend who took his rickenbacker 4001 bass to be refinished we left him with them, so, we will see, here is a pic on Dougs bench, and here is his site. http://wilkesguitars.co.uk/