The Bassist and Guitarist thread

[houblon]

I was talking to my vicar about how I became a guitarist.

"I was in this shop in Edinburgh, goes by the name of Scales*. Sells fishing tackle and musical instruments. Well I only went in for a pound of maggots, but there was this beautiful guitar hanging up. An SG. I just had to have it! I suddenly realised that what I wanted to do with my life was to play guitar! It was a, it was like a, er..."
"An epiphany?"
"No, it was a real Gibson"

*True, that bit. Don't know if it's still there.

 

[DCBassman]

I was talking to my vicar about how I became a guitarist.

"I was in this shop in Edinburgh, goes by the name of Scales*. Sells fishing tackle and musical instruments. Well I only went in for a pound of maggots, but there was this beautiful guitar hanging up. An SG. I just had to have it! I suddenly realised that what I wanted to do with my life was to play guitar! It was a, it was like a, er..."
"An epiphany?"
"No, it was a real Gibson"

*True, that bit. Don't know if it's still there.

*groan*

 

[ColinJ]

Guitar competition time again!

"WIN! AN EPIPHONE CASINO IN WORN BLUE DENIM WORTH £399!"

UK residents aged 18+ only. Enter HERE by 23:59 GMT, 5 February 2021.

 

[rogerzilla]

Judge: You stand accused of beating your husband to death with a guitar. How do you plead?
Woman: Guilty, Your Honour.
Judge: Before I pass sentence, I need to know of any mitigating circunstances. First offender?
Woman: No! First a Gibson, then the Fender.

 

[ColinJ]

My teenage sister... Annoy, annoy, annoy, niggle, niggle, niggle, wind up, wind up, wind up...

Teen me: Pack it in - you're irritating me!

Sister... Annoy, annoy, annoy, niggle, niggle, niggle, wind up, wind up, wind up...

Me: Stop it!

Sister... Annoy, annoy, annoy, niggle, niggle, niggle, wind up, wind up, wind up...

Me: Last warning!

Sister... Annoy, annoy, annoy, niggle, niggle, niggle, wind up, wind up, wind up...

Me (swinging acoustic guitar at her)...: Thwack! Crack! (Crap, I broke my guitar! )

Sister, running off... Mum, Colin hit me with his guitar!

 

[MontyVeda]

As has been the story of my (guitar playing) life, I picked up the guitar regularly for a few weeks, got distracted, and stopped...

Something unexpected happened though... I have been getting regular visits from my Covid 'bubble pal' and she noticed that I had my guitar out of storage and decided to have a go. She thinks that she is making little progress, but I have listening to her over the months and she is definitely improving. Slow, steady progress. She hasn't completely nailed 'F' yet but I reckon that she soon will.

I saw that she was tilting the top of the guitar towards her to get a better look at the fretboard but that meant a big bend of the left wrist. I persuaded her to keep the guitar upright and lean forward more - that really helped her.

She said something which rings true... She enjoys practising so she practises. She thinks that I am more interested in being able to play and get frustrated that I can't, and so I don't enjoy the journey. I think she is right - I need to relax and enjoy the steps along the way.

To illustrate the problem... I have had guitars for 55 years and I can tell you exactly how many tunes/songs that I have tried to learn in that time. If you had to guess, you might say 1,000? 500? 250? Nope, the answer is ZERO! Nought! None! Not a single one. Endless twiddly little things that never got joined together with anything else to make a coherent whole. I don't like to hear myself playing badly, so I just don't play.

I'll probably crack it about 10 minutes before the Grim Reaper calls!

I'm much the same... i blame it on having too many hobbies.

I'm not bothered that i'm still a crap player after 30 years though... performing in front of people doesn't interest me one little bit. I just enjoy the sounds i can get out of my guitars; picking or playing bass lines on the classical, picking in open D on the acoustic, strumming the (unplugged) electric.

I'm planning on building a bass body, which is more about the woodwork than the need for a bass. I've got the neck, machinery and pick-ups from a cheap bass i did a disastrous cut-job on decades ago, which I hope to get started soonish.

 

[ColinJ]

Speaking of D strings... The one on my classical guitar snapped recently while the guitar was resting in its stand, trying to tempt me to walk across the room and pick it up for a change.

And no - I haven't been whacking my bubble pal with that guitar, before any wag asks! She did accidentally clatter the side of the guitar against an empty mug on an adjacent coffee table at the weekend. It turned out that no harm done, but I glared at her and pointed out that it is quite a nice guitar and should be treated with respect... I'm going to ask her to go 50-50 on new strings for my 2 guitars. She plays them about 10 times as much as I do so I think that is more than fair!

 

[MontyVeda]

so this is the plan for my bass...

I buy a hardwood chopping board and cut the shape out:

How's it looking so far?

 

[DCBassman]

so this is the plan for my bass...

I buy a hardwood chopping board and cut the shape out:

View attachment 572726

How's it looking so far?

Excellent, but unless it's a shortie, you'll have severe neck-dive problems.

 

[Oldhippy]

I have known guys go to a good timber yard and buy a quality off cut of hardwood. Maybe an option perhaps.

 

[MontyVeda]

Excellent, but unless it's a shortie, you'll have severe neck-dive problems.

It's not a shortie... but I'm gonna mount the saddle right at the back of the body to make it as short as possible.

This is my layout... (it's a lefty, BTW)

The yard stick shows 33" at the nut, but it's measuring from the front edge of the saddle rather than where the strings will sit. It will have a 34" scale because that's the neck i've got.
I have considered neck dive* but I'll only play it on my lap, so shouldn't be much of an issue... and being only 10cm longer than a telecaster guitar i think it'll be OK(ish) and not look like some freaky bass giraffe.

I have known guys go to a good timber yard and buy a quality off cut of hardwood. Maybe an option perhaps.

I can buy a two piece hardwood body blank for not much more than the hardwood chopping board, but this is going to be hollow!
It seems a shame to buy a chunk of nice hardwood and route most of it out leaving pretty much just the back and sides... it's gonna have a (possibly) cedar top, so the blocky appearance will only be on the back and sides, which might look quite nice/unusual.

*neck dive... I have a back up plan if it is an issue; a lead weight concealed in the body

 

[ColinJ]

'Neck dive' - I'd never heard that description before. I just looked up what it means... That must be a really irritating problem!

 

[Drago]

It doesn't matter how busy I am, or what else I'm up to, I always do at least an hour a day.

Gear4Music sell very nicely finished ash and mahogany P nass bpies for less than 45 quid. I build my 69 precision replica using the ash version and can higly recommend it. I'm sure the pricing is an error, but their loss, and all that.

 

[MontyVeda]

'Neck dive' - I'd never heard that description before. I just looked up what it means... That must be a really irritating problem!

I believe it's the reason the Stratocaster has horns.

 

[Oldhippy]

Likewise the Gibson SG models, bass and six string