Paul K

That appears to be one of the metal neck ones that Kuru spoke about earlier, 1970's. They apparently didn't come with active electronics then, hence the Barcus Berry pickup.

I get the drill: crack the windows, shades behind the windshield, etc. and hope for a tree. But honest, that's just a drop in the bucket. Hot is hot; 7:30am until 4:30pm. Guitar Center sent me a 20% off coupon, so a $300 Applause is $240 shipped....or I'll find a cheap used one and just treat it like a disposable guitar-- it'll last until it doesn't. Wow! It would kill me to keep The Herd locked inside HSC's. They're all either on the wall or on a floor rack; Every one gets picked up a couple times a month! So if I find a cheap Ovation that I don't mind treating as disposable: which electronics are good, which suck the wind? Kuru: I wondered why those two extra dots are on some of the guitars I've looked at on-line. Very good to know. I will, of course, enjoy the hunt.

Thanks for that very deep insight. The "care and feeding" part makes total sense, and may be a deal-killer for me, as the guitar will spend a lot of time in my car in the sun in Georgia with the windows closed!

Thanks for the back story, Kuru. Purpose: Loud and light guitar for busking and travel (I'm away from home about 6 nights a month) that is bullet-proof enough to sit in the car in the Georgia sun with the windows closed. (This week I glued the top back down on my ukulele!) My dreadnought is bulky, and although it's loud it just doesn't carry when busking. I can't use an amp in this town for that sport. Indeed, asking for a guitar louder than a dreadnought is asking for unobtainium, so medium bowl depth is probably what will suit me the best. I'm attracted to the "Deep Contour" size bowl, but they only seem to be used on the models that are more pricey than what I'd want to keep in the hot-hot car. I always use a strap; I keep a strap permanently attached to all my guitars and basses. They're always there, and always the right length unless I'm wearing outdoor gear. I mostly won't be plugging this one in, but it'll be plugged in enough that I want the electronics to be worth plugging in. Bonus for the on-board electronics having a tuner built in; older guitars tend to not have them. I just put new strings on my dreadnought, and that was a move I should have done a long time ago. Indeed, all 12-strings sound great. Mine needs new strings. Maybe I'll do that and busk with it a couple times to gauge the reaction in the tip cup. I have a friend with a Taylor Mini with K&K pickup; it's just stunning. I installed a K&K in my 12 string (yes, the bigger K&K made for 12's) and I must have done something wrong, as the guitar sounded like it had a blanket over the top...not what I was envisioning. I had previously installed a strip piezo under the bridge, and had to cut the bridge down afterwards to get appropriate string height; maybe I should take that legacy electrical bit out and fashion a new bridge for a better connection between the bridge plastic and the guitar? Thanks all for chiming in. Cheers Paul K

Ladies and Gentlemen; Gear Acquisition inquiry. I want an Ovation or Applause bowl back guitar. Local store has none to try out, so I'm likely to just bit the bullet on one I think I like and live with it. My read on the data is that once you choose a bowl size and how fancy you want the eye candy to be, they're all about the same except for electronics. True or false? If false, what should I look for? If true, which electronics packages suck wind and which are the ones I should settle for? Cheers, Paul K

No worries. If it's too heavy just borrow a router and a drill press and go to town. Gumby supplied to give a sense of scale and depth.

C'mon, fellas. 2.667 ohms. 1/a + 1/b = 1/c a and b are individual speaker impedence. c is total impedence. Bet a dollar that it's not in series, as that would require soldering skills; almost nobody has that cable in their milk crate of cables. Picker might. But that's it. Series connect would be 12 ohms.

Baking Soda and Crazy Glue is new to me. I've used pencil graphite and Crazy Glue. It was a total pain in the ass. Instead of building the slot higher it built the slot wider and I had to re-file it again anyway and do it all over. Currently I use a bit of wax paper for that hack. In my #1 bass I put in a Warwick Adjustable Nut. Heaven, baby. All basses should come with that as standard. It's just better.

Indeed, the tape thing is for one string in one fret position; not a whole-scale Buzzy-McBuzz. I used to own a Warmoth bass, five string mongo huge neck. Totally great construction and attention to detail. And mine was heavy as a tank and NEVER needed seasonal truss rod adjustments.

I also have tapes on my #1 fretless. Love it. Here's a little fretless inside information: I have a low spot on the neck of two basses. I put some metal tape on the fingerboard at that spot, and problem fixed. The metal tape is for ducts....so it's "duct" tape, but it's not like the "Duck Tape" duct tape brand. Much cheaper than sanding the whole thing down, and is reversible. Durability hasn't been an issue, even on my bass with GHS Brite Flats on it instead of nylon tape. YMMV, as my low spots are close to the nut and so string vibration hasn't been an issue in premature wear of the tape. But your low spot is probably in the same area, as that end of the stick is more sensitive to these kinds of things. Color doesn't match, but so far nobody has asked my what's up with my bass....so situation normal.

Thumb anchor thing worked well at last night's gig. Nobody noticed anything different, but..... I did. Punch and attack back to where I wanted it.

The GHS Brite Flats play like a roundwound, but without the Zing. Not nearly as stiff as a flat. The GHS Brite flats are comparable to other ground-wound or half-wound strings that I've played. But keep in mind that since I generally don't change strings until one breaks, I don't get the chance to do realistic A/B comparisons. And when I do change strings I have usually forgot what the gauge was of the old ones. Indeed, with the detuned strings, I did find that I couldn't dig in at the 'normal' spot like I could when they were tuned normally. Looking forward to this Sat night's gig to try it out live.....hope it's not COVID canceled. I have also used a pick and mute on certain songs, but when playing live I ALWAYS forget to have a pick handy for when that tune comes up....always.

Well....I'm talking about returning to regular BEADG tuning instead of DGCFBb. I don't want to get too crazy.... And indeed, this bass is fretless. I've never tried a set of Tru Bass 88's. This bass has GHS Brite Flats on them. Same idea, probably. I have a different bass EADGC with tape wounds; they're very finger friendly. So plucking: You're plucking about where you do on the BEAD as you do on your EADG? For the lower tuning I find I'm plucking closer to the bridge because I get a better, tighter attack that just suites my ears better than when the same bass was tuned EADGC.

Ladies and Gentlemen; So ya'll are the only people I know who might give a hoot about this. I'm in a band that tuned to Eb, and found that tuning to D helped the singer a whole lot (his band, his songs). I have a bass that I dedicated to Eb as it had heavier strings and truss rod adjusts from a wheel at the base of the neck, so easier to make changes to. Works well, but with the lighter tension I need to pluck a bit closer to the bridge on this J pickup design. Thumb anchor was a problem, so I made a little rail, kinda like Gary Willis puts between the pickups on his signature Ibanez. Double sided tape and a little black sharpie and it looks pro. And plucking that much closer to the bridge really makes a difference. So much so that I may have to revisit the low B string concept. I detested the Low B tone years ago and so went with a high C string. So all you fivers out there ---so...uh... all three of you left on this list.... When you go to the Fiver, do you make this plucking location adjustment? What's your insight? Cheers Paul K

Too late. There's a band in Savannah with that name....but just not featuring anybody.

Ladies and Gentlemen; So hit the link, scroll down to "The Fundus Among Us", click download. And then jam out. I've been told that the disc is great for when ya'll are doing the Hey-Nanny-Nanny....if you know what I mean. https://www.drkmusician.com/music Cheers, Paul K

The Chicken back to more bass playing.

The Murder Hornets

Wow. So very sad to hear your news. Rough times on a local and world level. Words fail me.

All mine are canceled. I tried to get a busking license also, but that office is closed down.

When I was doing the drum thing I had a small Yamaha table top thing....DD50 or DD55? And I'd cue up "Frampton Comes Alive" and just play to it. Big thing that makes that a great live album is that the tempos didn't speed up like most live records do. I'm working the day job a lot less since moving to Savannah; perhaps I should revisit the kit.

I did some drum time for a while. It seemed that all my favorite bass players started on kit in church 'cause their father was the minister. Then the bass player took a week off and never got his chair back. I figured there was something to it. I did the rudiments and this cool book called "Single Surface Learning" where the concept is that if you can play it on the snare, you can play it on the kit. I learned a lot about drums that is helpful playing bass. A big takeaway is that drummers, by getting the rudiments drummed into their heads, learn rhythms differently in school than wind instruments. Us clarinet players were taught to sound out each rhythm one note at a time. Drummers are taught to think in whole words: rudiments. And that's a way better way to read rhythms off of a chart.

Never tried that one. I have used and grown up with (Ha! I just called myself a grown-up! Wishful thinking!) Band-in-a-Box. Totally kills it for jazz styles. It sounds as good as the midi synth can make it sound. BIAB musicians are better than you and me.

I had a Fender Bassman 1967. It sounded like crap from the moment I bought it in 1978; the capacitors were evidently already done. Sold it a couple years a go to a friend. Carvin PB150, the one with the 10" in it. Peavey Hernia 300....er.....Combo 300. I put wheels on it; still heavy. I put handles on the side. Still heavy. Put a tweeter in it. Still heavy, but then it would hiss more. Dr. K Kick Drum speaker cab.....22" shell with a 15" Eminence Bass-lite in it. Ported in the back, and with one of the handles from the above Bassman 50 amp. Still use it, and it's way cool. I mounted an Ashdown Superfly with a couple of top hats and a piece of plastic pipe. The Superfly was one of the first amps that had a digital switching power supply, so it's 11 or 12 pounds. They billed it as "digital" but it clearly has an AB amplifier in it as it runs hotter than Hades. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10220861794596203&set=pcb.10220861807396523&type=3&theater You should be able to scroll through the pics that will show parts of the construction process. Lemme know if you want to make one and I'll fill in more details. It's the coolest thing on the planet. Carvin AC300 for small gigs, jazz things. I also put an Eminence 12" delta-lite into a Behringer 12" plastic-cab PA box. It's lite, it's loud, it's cool. Often times I just use my Carvin 12" PA speakers for bass. Bought them during the neodymium craze before the price of that rare earth metal spiked.

My Steinberger Synapse guitar has two strap buttons also. Indeed, the guitar stands up when you lean it against the wall....hooray! But also it sits better when you're using the lower (high string side) button, which wasn't what I thought would work before I tried it. So it does add function where you never really figured you'd need it. I'm a fan. Surprised they went with such a short scale. I'd have used 32".