what are you gassing for this week? this year? this forever?

[tabbycat]

have to admit being a bit wet for the knas ekdahl moisturizer, though would quite like to build my own to do the same kind of thing but with more personalised options. suspect it to be all analog.

have been thinking about a diy spring reverb tank for a while. seeing freppo's homemade one on his site this year only increased that. they are so time-place-mood in a box.

[rocket88]

1978 Rickenbacker bass. i've been after one for every, and had my change back in high school to get a red metallic one for $700, but instead bought my g&l l-1000. i still have by l-1000, couldn't be happier and love it more then any of my other basses (i hope they don't read this, don't need any jealousy). but i NEED a Rickenbacker bass. i can't explain my lust for one, but i just have never been able to shake it.

now, i've actually thought about building one, as there are some crazy ideas i have for it, and feel it would be sacrilege to butcher a real one, but i need to get a body template for one to start my build. there's no good dimensions listed, as almost any mention of someone building one they pretty much get a letter threatening legal action.....

[tabbycat]

ricky's are neat looking basses. have you seen lemmy's ricky? don't know how long he's had it but i saw it last weekend in a clip of them playing ace of spades at glasto this year. reminds me of the carved acorns-and-oak-leaves on some of the early 1970s guild guitars.
have never been an all-out obssesive fan of hawkwind or motorhead, though i like bits. but i'm a big fan of growing old disgracefully and the man is 69.



have recently decided i need to get back into bass so am currently looking for a a cheap epi eb0 (the short scale ones, because i'm too slow on a proper long neck). bass is ace.

ps. any use? build a body, buy a good used neck, to take a lot of the pain and margin for critcal error out of the equation.
http://www.johnanthonyguitars.com/store/p5/_Rickenbacker_R4001_Series_Bass_plans_P035.html

[rocket88]

Oh I've seen that bass up close. Not that long ago Motörhead played a show at a small club, with clutch as their opening act, and I was front row dead fucking center to lemmy. Best......concert......of......my......life......

Anyways, I've seen those plans and from what I understand after talking to some guys that got them, they're off, live way off. That's why I'm looking at getting someone that had one to just do a body trace and I can work from there. Im actually planning on doing some if similar to what lemmy did when he was in hawkwind, which is replace the pickups with gibson thunderbird pickups. I've got someone who will do a custom set with chrome covers like back in the day when in read. Just need the body and I go from there.

Btw, I have liked the epi sg basses. Super comfortable.

[Muadzin]

Axe FX. €2500 of digital uber goodness!

Will probably cost me even more to save now thanks to the bloody Greeks and their dead beat shenanigans!

[tabbycat]

Muadzin wrote

Axe FX. €2500 of digital uber goodness!

Will probably cost me even more to save now thanks to the bloody Greeks and their dead beat shenanigans!

digital? are you some kind of a pervert? have you considered a arduino-based build?



re the greeks... you love them and you know it. 'austerity? no thanks' is the right answer. i hope it spreads.
protest-riot season in the uk opens with the next round of austerity cuts announced this week.

[ξεναγος νεκροπολης]

hi there guys.
i live in greece.i grew up here. i love this place as much as i would love any other place i might have been born i guess.i'm an anarchist. a worker. an antisexist. an antifasist. and i'm fighting in my whole life for what I believe is right.
i don't want to be seen as a politician in here.after all, my english are way too bad for this..!!
but...
greeks are stupid indeed. for years they believed what goverments wanted them to believe(and this happens everywhere...in your countries too i'm sure...)not for the last 5 years, but for the last 200 years. and they still do.
what they've acheved???
letting companies, banks, and politicians to deside for their lifes.
yes...yes...those banks, companies and politicians are the very same in your countries too...
media say buy-eat-sleep-look your own buisness and let others deal with your problems.what your media say?
that's their "democracy". voting every 4 years and then look at your f&*king buisness.
what's happening here?what's going to happen in spain and italy in a few years?
70% of young people (20-35 years old) with years of studies don't have a job. all this people didn't have the chance to be lazy as people elsewhere might think we are here.300.000 of them, have already left greece and their friends to find a better life somewhere else. Neonazis came out again to stop people of trying to change their lifes.we know how give orders to them.companies. do you have nazis where you live??fortunatly we've managed to take them of the streets back to their holes where they belong. we have thousants of people without a HOME. 3 million people living under poverty(i'm one of them. i'm saying hello from that place.)
thousants of old people don't have medications. and ten fucking thousants of people commited suicide cause they couldn't provide FOOD for their children. i don't have any children. i work 40 hours per week. 2500euros is what i've earned this very last year. not savings. that was for my rent and my food.

so please.read history books. read philosophy books. turn of your tv. it's just a two position push botton. you can find the schematic by googling.

please fight, or look at your buisness as you tought too (or fight against those people above)
choose side.
capitalism HAS come for you.
i don't love greece
i don't even like rage against the machine anymore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4smim2MNvF8

[tabbycat]

hey  ξεναγος νεκροπολης, thanks indeed for your comment.

my impression from all i've read and understand of the situation, and coming (as you) from a left of centre anarchist libertarian background, is that the imf bailouts have not gone to helping the greek people get their economy together (as claimed) but have been diverted to bailout the foreign speculators-'investors' while leaving the greek people to pick up the tab through increased taxes and an ever more crushing austerity program.

as i care a great deal for the greek people, and not at all for the speculators, i don't care if the speculators get burned on this deal and lose their money. they are happy to burden a country with massive interest repayments on the basis that they are entitled to that interest as they are taking a risk. and yet as soon as that risk is realised and it appears that they will actually lose on their gamble, they go crying to the imf/ecb to cover their bad bet, with the cost to be underwritten by the greek taxpayer.
the same thing happened here in the uk with the banks, and the austerity program currently being inflicted upon the poorest and most disenfranchised of this society, as a consequence of bailing out those banks, is nothing short of sickening. i don't want that system imposed here or in greece.
i say to the foreign speculators, if you truly believe in a 'free market' as you keep saying you do, then learn to accept your losses as readily as you claim your winnings, or stay out of the casino. certainly don't expect any general public anywhere to underwrite your business losses.

as i understand it, though initially it will be tough for greece to get by without ecb support and a low imf credit rating, in the long run, being freed of those never ending crippling interest-repayments will allow your country to wipe the slate clean and rebuild your economy more effectively than with that interest repayment forever dragging you back. of the only two options (neither which is great) that is what i understand to be the best for the greek people. if i am wrong let me know? and what do you think would be best?

i have tried hard to understand the situation (as i consider myself a european citizen before a uk citizen, since the uk has become a failed mini-me of the us) but i can't read greek so only have the perspective of selected (non-murdoch-tainted) uk newspapers and reliable (left-inclined) websites. obviously that is not the same as living it, as you are.
i haven't watched tv since the 1990s for the same reasons i suspect you don't. its bread-and-circuses apathizing banality offends me.

i don't want the greek people to be whores to the ecb forever, which is what the ecb seems to be trying to impose. i want the greeks to control their own destiny and regain their dignity. as i understand it that is more likely to be acheived once released of their debt burden. which has become, as is widely known, unrepayable.

if you think that is wrong or i am missing the point, i would value more perspective and analysis from your side. what do you want to happen there?

[Sergio]

I understand you perfectly, I'm from Spain and situation here is desperate too,  with a goverment that only licks Germany FMI and all those bastards asses, we are becoming poorer and poorer, middle class is almost dissapeared. I have lots of friends that are on the dole for years! Jobs that are offered are like slavery. If you are supposed to work 4 hours, you´ll reallly be working more than 6 and youll get paid like if these were 2...My girlfriend stills like 4 years unemployed.
Almost everyone my age has a mortgage. Lots of people here have commited suicide too. Same reasons, They have No Hope.
Here we have more rich people than ever before, poor people has increased much more. Its an equation and its very simple. Wealth, its like energy in Einsteins one. It only changes hands.(  
We have had two political parties, that have been alternating since our dictator died. One of them were the Partido Popular, "keepers" of the dictator, not that they recognise, but they were, using the flag, terrorism fear and every other excuse they used to manipulate simple minds. the other one PSOE , socialist or thats what they said, but they are the same, just a masquerade, in the end it has been demons trated they are the same and have the same aimings. and same bosses, as you said, banks, big enterprises, $$$
they have so many zeros in their accounts it doesnt satisfy them anymore, they want all the power, and they are tired of having intermediaries, so politicians seem to be more of a trail of the past. To remind us that once we had democracy.
So, its time for a 3rd party, I hope Podemos will do a little cleaning, because corruption here is unbearable.  And I really hope will have something alike in every country in this fucking planet, because corruption and evil seems to be everywhere, so theres no place to hide. Its time to fight.
 All that said, I must have something wrong inside my head, I still having the GAS. and yes, this would be amazing if I could get a Roland Jet Phaser, but most of all, Id like to build it myself, despite still in trouble with the EHX Bad Stone.. my fault, sure of that i was over schematic and layout lots and lots of times and they seem to be the same!
 

[ξεναγος νεκροπολης]

tabbycat you are right.it's exactly as you wrote it.this starts years and years ago.just after 2nd world war(marshall project), big companies are paying greek politicians to vote laws for their interests
and sergio i feel you...we had 2parties for 40 years after dictatorship ended.
lets see what will happen.

[dexxyy]

Most so called 1st world countries have only 2 major parties, this makes democracy a myth. Basically your democratic rights consist of voting every 4/5 years to see which one gets to fuck us all up the arse.
I think the word "politician" was only created to save us all having to say "dirty, sneaky, self serving, lowdown, no good lying bastards" all the time when referencing them.

[Beaker]

Good to see some like minded souls on here - Tabbycat's U.M. avatar kind of staked his colours firmly to the mast!

The UK is equally screwed despite it being 400 years since we were a dictatorship, instead of 40 years in the case of Greece and Spain. Jobs are thin on the ground, and if you can get one, you will be on a zero hours contract at minimum wage (which does not even come close to paying rent on a house or flat. My son is 26, clever and hardworking, and has just landed himself a full time permanent job for the first time since leaving school.  

We have lost our traditional third party - the Liberals shot themselves in the head by getting into bed with the Conservatives, and now our new third party, UKIP would just love us to be a dictatorship again.

Keep your chins up comrades!

[Travis]

Much GAS over here for a nice clean Fender amp and a Mosrite Ventures guit

[Ed Nice]

I don't really have any extravagant wants or whims, but my recent meh over my MXR 45 and subsequent reading of many things Phaser related has made me lust after the Causality 4. Luckily, I can [hopefully] build one... :)

As for Greece? Don't get me started. Things going well? Banks make money. Things going to shit? Banks make money. War!!! (...currently branded and sold to you by your illustrious leaders as '* On Terror'). Banks make a shit load of money. Peace! Hooray. Banks make money.

So all this bale out and loan extension talk, it's just BULLSHIT. Sadly for the Greek people, they are in a position to make banks a ton of money so their glorious leaders will no doubt steer them in the direction of maximum profit rather than anything that will benefit the country?

And as someone already mentioned on here, Democracy is a fallacy and a lie. We are given one of two options; both of whom are so incredibly close, there isn't any daylight between them. I could go on but I won't. I'll just wind myself up too much.

EDIT:

!!!! I think I want one of these...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNJwee4g7Ao

[gabiru]

This:



It's made by one of the greates luthiers in Brazil, N. Zaganin. It costs around US$2000 and it's worth every single dime.  But I'll have to save a lot.

---

About the Greek subject: thanks for the comments, guys. It's very nice to see a rich debate being made by regular guys on the real situation.

Down here in Brazil, we're facing political and economic crisis. Unemployment rates are getting higher, the mid-class income is getting smaller and prices are rising up fast. The right wing parties are getting together to force the government to apply austerity measures and, although elected with a left wing agenda, Dilma Roussef, the president, is implementing the right wing agenda. Meanwhile, the "Câmara dos Deputados", our very own House of Commons, is being ruled by a very conservartive deputy who has strange relations with the large companies interests.

The today bad news is a 30% salary reduction if the company is facing difficulties. Although it doesn't affect me directly now (I'm a public school teacher), I feel it's only a matter of time to the government decide we cost too much...

[tabbycat]

Travis wrote

Much GAS over here for a nice clean Fender amp and a Mosrite Ventures guit

which one? illustrate your fetish. i like it that the ramones used mosrites. subverting the surf medium via surf means.

Ed Nice wrote

!!!! I think I want one of these...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNJwee4g7Ao

i can hear scott grove laughing from here re the tonewood for electrics debate. but that is pretty fugly tbh. don't sitars have necks like that?

re the greek thing, adam curtis (all his documentaries are must-see) sums up the corporatist agenda behind imf bail outs pretty neatly here in four minutes (40m10s to 44m00s). http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2pqw7a

personally speaking, if i could stand the summer temperatures (half-scot so can’t do sunshine) i‘d rather be trying to make a go of things in a Greece free of imf oppression and united around an anti-corporatist agenda, than living in the uk with a slightly better basic standard of living but surrounded by a general public that would seemingly happily vote fred and rose west into government in return for 10% annual house price growth per year and a razor-wire fence around the entire coastline. it's like people here have forgotten what solidarity means. a nation of low-paid workers criticising tube strikers for standing up for themselves, rather than getting off their arses to organise and petition for better pay themselves. we need to import a few french farmers and lorry drivers to teach us how to strike properly. those guys are the pros. we've been on the slide since orgreave.

gabiru wrote

The today bad news is a 30% salary reduction if the company is facing difficulties. Although it doesn't affect me directly now (I'm a public school teacher), I feel it's only a matter of time to the government decide we cost too much...

i used to work in adult education here and the biggest thing to hit us in the last ten years was zero-hour contracts. once you let them in you are doomed. divided and ruled. definitely get unionised and fight any attempt to introduce those.

struggling to get back on topic, am currently selling everything non-essential i own to cover some bills and because i want to live more minimally. feeling cluttered. but hoping to have enough left over to get a cheap used squire jag bass. black i think. decided against the epi eb0 i mentioned above. too pointy (like a skinny girlfriend, all knees and elbows) and a shade headstock divey when sitting. it's for bedroom demos not gigging.

anyone had any good bad experiences of these?

some say the pickups are pretty gutless. sound ok in yt demos.

[Beaker]

Personally speaking, I f*%king hate the Jaguar bass, for the simple reason that it's just a Precision / Jazz Bazz in Jaguar clothing. What an utter cop out. What a total, abject lack of imagination and lack of balls by Fender.

They have been making PJs for years, and we all know what they sound like - and this just sounds the same. That's not to say it's bad - they actually sound pretty good, and with a pickup upgrade, I'm sure they could sound amazing. But it's just a PJ in Jaguar clothes.

I just wish that they could have showed the same level of imagination and experimentation that they did when designing the Jaguar and Jazzmaster back in the 60's.

It could have been so easy for Squier to have used different pickups - anything but P and J pickups. Lipstick tubes would be awesome, TV Jones Gretsch Thundertron type pickups would be even more awesome. With 4 conductor wiring, they could have the Jaguar dual control plates fitted for split/series/parallel and out of phase pickup selections. Anything to make them sound different to a P or a J!

Then, and only then, would it truly be worthy of being called a Jaguar Bass.

Don't tell me they could not do it on a Squier budget, they have successfully done Jaguars and Jazzmasters already, and I totally love Squier - Fender are using them as their R+D department - put out new experimental models (witness the '51, the Tele Custom II and the Surfcaster) under the Squier name, and see how they sell. The ones that fly end up in the Fender catalogue.

Anyway, rant over. Tabbycat go ahead - buy a Jag Bass - they look great, play great, and sound pretty good.
 

[tabbycat]

Beaker wrote

I f*%king hate the Jaguar bass

haha, am trying to read between the lines but my instincts tell me this won't make the shortlist in your letter to father christmas this year? but that's the spirit, half past ten on monday morning and ready to kill.

i know what you mean. i'm just a mug for the jazzmaster-jaguar look and always have been. i go catnip for their pebbly stumpiness. a fine feminine form. as opposed to something like the ricky bass, which is as much a musical instrument as the ultimate statement on virility. it's practically rampant and they should sell them in brown paper bags. but thanks for the tip about the jag bass not sounding so bad in real life.

btw, i wonder if ricky will ever go the budget route? even gretsch have the cheapo electromatic range now to compete with the squires and epis. one would think it's only a matter of time.

[Beaker]

I think hell would have to start getting a bit parky before Rickenbacker went budget!

Don't get me wrong, the Jag is a great short scale bass - the necks are lovely, they play like butter, and they sound good - my son has one.

He shares my opinion about it though - great bass, but oh, what a missed opportunity (I'm going again...)

Of course it depends on your budget, if you find a used Jag cheap, I guarantee you won't be dissapointed, but personally I'd much rather hold out for a Univox Hi-Flyer Mosrite copy (or copy of the Univox), a Danelectro or a De Armond Jet Star or Starfire bass. These are the true stars of the short scale world in my opinion.

Psych/gararge punk beauties all of them!

[rocket88]

yea, rickenbacker refuses to have multiple quality lines. i think the idea is that if it's a rick then it's going to be top quality, nothing is ever watered down so to speak. there's nothing inexpensive on a rick. i swear i seen the trussrod cover go for $30. seriously, it's a tiny piece of plastic that says "Rickenbacker" on it. Ugh, i still need one.

i could never get used to a short scale no matter how hard i try. i don't know why, but my hands get all stupid on them.

what's interesting is that nearly every pysch band or doom metal band i see, nearly every single bass player plays a rick, and it just make my gas for one go nuts. i still really want to make my "clone" cause i can't cut up a rick, unless i find a blank body for the right price.