What ever

VBV 3

2012-02-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

Alright! time for a update on the Five string flying V bass.

The body has ben cut and routed to the final shape and size, and pickup

and electronic routs are about done. I just need to do a little tweaking and drill holes.

Headstock has been cut and sanded.

Next step is to order tuners and bridge and drill the output jack hole.

May goal is to have it done by the end of this month or close to it.

^_^

Look what came all the way from Kanagawa Japan!

2011-10-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

Maxon PT-707 Phaser!!!!!

It sounds incredible! more later..... ^_^

Mustang bass project, or, the Thunderstang...

2011-09-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

This is one of those projects that I must have changed my mind on a 5 or more times. It started out where I was going to use a jazzmaster guitar body then a univox hi-flyer body, then I finally just said screw it and got a mustang body. The neck is a 82 Fender Musicmaster, the pickup is a TV Jones Thundertron and it is finished out with a custom silver pickguard made by Pickguardian who are just wonderful to deal with. The controls for the bass are a stacked volume/tone and a 5-position rotary switch which lest you select: Series humbucking, north coil, parallel humbucking, south coil and series out of phase.

Web comics... the net... whatever...

2011-09-09T22:43:00.000-07:00

I think it is really cool and fun that there is a lot of content out here on the web, you can find just about anything if you look hard enough... I find though that some of the best things you find you don't even mean to. I love how by finding a link though a site that had a different subject then where you end up or someone on a forum/web-munity posts something almost at random. Sure the web is not as kooky and odd as it once was, where every know and then you'd find your way onto a site that was just... "huh..." "why..." sadly since web-munities like myspace and facebook, blogs and what-not have you just don't see this stuff as much... and when you do it is old and hasn't been updated since... anywhy......... I love comics, mostly manga but there are two web comics I follow daylily and these are SinFest and Blip. I found SinFest though Talkbass.com due to one member always having SinFest images as avatars and I found Blip though SinFest... I read other web comics from time to time but these are the two I stick to and don't get sick of.. ^_^

VBV 2: body glueup

2011-08-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

Wings is be'n glued yo!

continued from here...

NPD [new pedal day]!

2011-08-06T19:29:00.000-07:00

So What is this..? well It is a Dwarfcraft Devices Hair of the dog with a spider gag etched into it... why... you ask well.. Aen from Dwarfcraft put up a thread on ILF called WHO WANTS ONE WITH A SEX TOY CARVED IN IT? And I just had to ya'know.. I thought a gag would be fitting because of the name of the pedal... [also Nana to Kaoru is in my top favorite manga list] and fuzz is kind of a pleasure/pain sort of thing ^_^ So I bugged Aen and Aen said sure and so here it is..

I have to say this has to be the fastest turnaround I have ever had for a pedal, under a week! Now... how does it sound? BEEFY! It totally cut it in rehearsal and it doesn't sound like any of my other pedals! Dwarfcraft ROCKZ!

"I" bought a ABG! (>_<)

2011-07-03T18:29:00.000-07:00

Those that know me know I have talked much shit about Acoustic Bass Guitars for years... I have always had a love/hate thing with the whole idea... and yet I end up playing every model that comes out hoping to find one I don't want to smash and set on fire. There have only been a few, two boutique ones, and a Tacoma that I thought were good [note no I have never played a Earthwood (T_T) ] but they were all way to much money for an instrument that I consider a oxymoron: Acoustic - Bass - Guitar. For it to be a functional acoustic bass it would have to be the size of a upright to actually put out a bass fundamental. The size of a guitar just won't cut it no matter what tech you use... And yet I still play all the new ones... I came to the realization [tricking myself?] that the only way to wrap your head around these things is to think of it as a low guitar and to play it as such [Yay Lemmy skillz] and not to worry about lowend. That said because of all this I never wanted to pay more then a few hundred for one...

So.. today I was at music 6000 in Oly and walked by the row of ABGs.. and as always plucked all the E strings... one sounded rather good... I picked it up and played it... not bad.. not bad... then I looked at the price... $199.00... I played it some more... and thought yep this is the it ^_^ Thing has a good sounding pickup/preamp and has a built in tuner[!]

It's an Ibanez AEB5E-NT 3U-01 it isn't perfect at all, the top is oil-canny, the fret work is horrid and the nut isn't sitting well but still it really sounds better then most ABGs out there... go figure...

Here's a clip...
Close miced with a SM58, had it plugged into my bassman 20 that was across the room and turned up the volume... then I turned on my HAO HAO face fuzz for fun, then went back all unpluged.

Slidebass clip, bass direct with a bit of reverb.

With a SM57

Desk.

2011-05-30T20:09:00.000-07:00

I know, I know I'm a nerd... fuck off! The reverence is there... enough for a excuse to post that anyway.

So I was asked to post a desk I made out of this bookcase I was given last year and a old elm tree slab I found in my Grandmother's garage about... 15 years ago.

What was done....? Well first I should say this is the second time I have used the slab as a desk, the first time it was in it's full length [7 feet] and on sawhorses.

Ok... So I needed a desk... and I had this little book shelf so I got the idea to cut the elm slab in half and screw it t the top... That's it really.

Pictures!

(~_^)

Project RIC: part one.

2011-05-21T10:25:00.000-07:00

So, G.A.S. hit hard two weeks ago and I pushed the buy it now on this "stripped 1977 burgundy red Rickenbacker 4001.

I have wanted a RIC since well the beginning really... The song that made me want to play bass in the first place was Cliff Burton "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth" bass solo on Metallica's Kill 'em all album which as we all [should know] was played on a burgundy red Rickenbacker bass.

Now at the time I heard the song [it was on a mix tape my sister gave me when I was 13, THANKS SIS!] I had no idea that is was a RIC... BUT I do remember going to a music store soon after hearing that and seeing a 4003 in Ruby Red and thinking the headstock was the coolest thing ever!

Also another reason for long time RIC G.A.S is of corse Motorhead! Motorhead is in my top three bands of all time. Lemmy IS GOD!

It wasn't intill a year later that I got to play a RIC when I was looking to get a new bass [1993 Ibanez SR 505, still have and love it] and I got to play a fretless 4003, I remember it sounding really cool but wayyyy out of my range... also it was the most god awful salmon burst you ever saw.

Anyway I have a thread going on ILF about the project, please post your thoughts...

Fuck ikea! I'm building my own fucking book case! part 2

2011-04-24T23:03:00.000-07:00

So here is what I came up with. The cost stayed under $100 [somewhere around $70-80 I think] One thing is this design is made to be fastened to the wall for extra safety.

Hight is a foot shorter then the celling, with is 4 feet and depth is 15 inches except for the second shelf which is 7 inches.

The trick to this whole thing is making as few individual cuts as possible. This way everything is the same length.

So first you decide how many shelves you need and how far they need to be apart. Then you measure and mark them all together.

Then you tape your pieces together and measure what to total hight is to be.

Marking all the way around

Then you make your cut.

Now all the rails are the same length.

The sides are put together like a ladder using these 1/2 inch sticks cut to the length of the depth of the shelves.

Next you drill and countersink you screw holes.

You then screw them to the rails right under your shelf marks.

Then you clam your top shelf to the side and drill and screw the side to the shelf.

Repeat intill all shelves are attached :)

At this point I decided I wanted a extra shelf so I added it and two more rails as well to make it a bit more sturdy.

And there you haz it! (^_^)

Tele to Bass VI conversion... Or... MEGA-TWANG!

2011-04-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

So I was unhappy with my tele and have always wanted a Bass VI so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and so here we are....

This only took a few hours to build and went very easy.

How was it done?

Well one thing I noticed a while back was that the long horn bass neck or any 30" 24 fret ~~Danelectro~~ neck can be used on a guitar with a 25.5 scale with little hassle. And so the idea was born... or something like that...

Electronics: I thought it would be super neat and stuff to have a lot of tone options where I could go from tick-tack to mud and everywhere in-between so I settled on a
Rio Grande muy grande humbucker for the neck pickup and a Seymour Duncan STL 1B Vintage Broadcaster bridge pickup. It is wired with a stacked volume and tone for each pickup and has a coil cut on the Rio and a normal tele 3-way switch.

Note on strings: Fender bass VI strings will not work if you intend to use a guitar through body stringing bridge. I went with Ernie Ball 2837 Slinky Silhouette 6-String Short-Scale Bass Strings which do.

First I had to drill two extra holes in the bass neck to make it a 6er

And drill body mounting holes

Also due to me wanting this to show that this is my creation and my hatred for ~~Danelectro~~ due to their anti gay politics, I removed the logo and cut a bite into the peghead

A.N.D stands for Aaron Noguer Designed Sonic Implements!

Other stuff...

~~Dano~~ guitar and bass nuts are interchangeable, all it takes is a screw...

And for better intonation, I used Compensated Bridge Saddles for Tele from Stu Mac.

And thats about it really, it sounds great!

Tele bass VI test run by Mudfuzz

I don't know why...

2011-04-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

Some things I find funny and what ever...

More socks! More pedalz!!!!!!!!!

2011-03-31T22:07:00.000-07:00

New socks!

2011-03-30T22:24:00.000-07:00

I like striped socks... no idea why... I think it has to do with liking anime/cartoons too much... or that I think it is good to have something a little silly/odd going on with your personal style and whatnot... what ever...

My Pedalboard!

2011-03-29T19:05:00.000-07:00

ಠ‿ಠ

NPD!!!!! [custom Mellowtone Wolf Computer]

2011-03-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

So... today I got my custom Wolf Computer! Eric of Mellowtone offered a run of Wolf Computers a few months ago where you could pick any colors you wanted and I have been interested in getting a Wolf Computer for a while... but I was a little worried how it would work on bass so I asked around on ILF and Eric himself. And Eric said he'd put in a bigger input cap so it would let more lowz thought, so this as far as I know is the only Bass Wolf Computer out there [Yay!] and IT IS MASSIVE!

Fuck ikea! I'm building my own fucking book case! part 1

2011-03-27T22:18:00.000-07:00

After much looking I have come to the realization no one makes what I want and so I am taking matters into my own hands... Is it really so much to ask to find a bookcase/shelf that is deep enough to be able to put a turntable in it without it looking like a industrial mess? It seems all I can find is cheap shit from or like ikea, industrial garage/office shit and stuff I can't afford (>_<)

So I went to lowes and got some paint grade pine planks and some 1X2 [cost was around $60-$70] and I'm going to build my own design of what I feel will be a simple and easy to build with hand tools so I am going to take picts of the built and give measurements so anyone with a tape measure, square, drill and a handsaw can build one. (^_^)

Old EUB building Picts slideshow!

2011-03-25T18:25:00.000-07:00

I just dug this out off a old disk... these are the picts I took while building my EUB [Electric Upright Bass] put to the first test recording of it.... enjoy... or not...

Pointless poems with no point

2011-03-24T21:45:00.000-07:00

The dust, it blows in a empty place

The sun is baking down but you feel a chill

A cold sweat that dries on the back of your neck

The vast emptyness drowns you and you gasp for air

But all you get is a mouth full of dust

In the darkness of the corners of my mind.

I sit there

A pen light shines

Blinding me

Watching me

One spot

Right there

In the darkness I am free

But that point of light

It binds me

It holds me

It captivates me

A thoughtless thought

no point

and it's gone

just like that

it is gone

it doesn't matter

what I thinking about

How to carve a bowed string instrument fingerboard

2011-03-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

This is something I wrote a while back and have posted in on a few building forums but this is my essay so I am posting in here for all...

This is how I carve doublebass fingerboards, I have done this three times so far.

Tools needed: Hand planes, bevel gauge, straight edges, scrapers
Standard doublebass fingerboard radiuses range from 66 mm - 72 mm.

Carving a Violin, viola, cello, doublebass ect fingerboard is the same process as building a mast or boom for a sailboat believe it or not.

Layout is the most important aspect of building anything. Work everything out before hand, then cut. The fingerboard is one of the most, if not the most critical part of an instrument. Take your time and keep it straight until you have to dress the board. You should go over every step before you start.

The centerline is the most important thing there is, everything should line up with the centerline.

Templates:

You have to look at a FB as part of a cone [or a cylinder if you use a continuous radius]; you have two circles - one at each end - and you connect them. For a compound radius you have to know what the radius is at the Nut AND at the End of the FB . To lay out the radiuses so you can transfer them to the ends of the FB, you make templates.

To make a template:

1. Start with a square; use the diameter of the circle as the width of the square.

2. Draw two lines dividing the square into four equal squares.

3. Draw your circle [with a compass] in the middle of the square.

4. Decide how thick you want your FB, then measure down from the top of the square, and draw a line horizontally across.

5. Cut out the circle

6. Cut across using the line measuring the thickness of your FB. Then trim the sides of the template to the final width.

7. Do this for each end.

FB prep:

Plane FB to your desired thickness and length. MAKE SURE IT IS STRAIGHT, and make sure the ends are square.
Draw a centerline, on both sides.
Cut your taper.
Place a template on the end of the FB, line up the centerline on the template with the
centerline on the FB; trace the template onto the end of the FB.
Do the same on the other end.

Layout: You will need a bevel gage and a straightedge for this.

Bevel 1 & 2:

Set the bevel gage to 22.5 degrees.
Take your bevel gage and place it on top of the FB at the nut end with the arm of the bevel gage against the end of the fingerboard.
Line the bevel gage arm against the outline of the template. It should be covering the majority of the wood outside of your outline.
Draw a line against the bevel arm.
Flip the bevel gage around and repeat this step drawing the line on the other side.

Bevel 3 & 4:

Set you bevel gage arm at 11.25 degrees.
Take your bevel gage and place it on top of the FB at the nut end of the FB with the arm of the bevel gage against the end of the board.
Line the bevel gage arm against the outline of the template. It should be covering up the left over free space near the top of the of your outline.
Draw a line against the bevel arm.
Flip the Bevel gage around, and do this on the other side of the same end.

Bevel 5 & 6:

Set the bevel gage arm at 33.75 degrees.
Take your bevel gage and place it on top of the FB at the nut end with the arm of the bevel gage against the end of the board.
Line the bevel gage arm against the outline of the template. It should be covering the wood at the edge of your outline.
Draw a line against the bevel arm.
Flip the bevel gage around and repeat this step drawing the line on the other side.

Repeat all these steps on the other FB end.

Carving:

Now take a 36-48" straightedge and connect the points of the bevel lines (1 & 2) from end to end, on the top and on the side of your FB.

Now plane down [checking occasionally with a straightedge, both along the length and width of the bevel] until you almost reach the lines. Do this on both sides.

Next do the same thing with bevels 3 & 4 and with bevels 5 & 6.

Then plane down the remaining wood outside your outlines, taking small shavings until your FB is completely rounded and straight.

And finally sand smooth using a long block with finer and finer grits of paper.

And there you basically have it (^_^)

Fear is the mind killer... or is it... let's try this...!

2011-03-21T22:27:00.000-07:00

Just be'n evil and all...

My own creation.. the rest just inspired it.....

and yes turning them all on at once is the idea here... (^_^)

NOISE AND ANIME?

2011-03-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

You bet!
I love both... more then I should, both for many years.. So of late I've been throwing these together for fun.

(^_^)

Nortstrand NP5

2011-03-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

For the V

(^_^)

The VBV

2011-03-20T16:56:00.000-07:00

So here is where I am on the the five strang flying Vee bass

Carvin Through body neck Black limba wings.

More at a later time and place.... (^_^)

Like Yo and stuff....

2011-03-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

So I started this here side blog to post picts and whatnot of the oddball stuff I want to that don't fit on the FX demo blog... This will mostly be about instrument building and anime... or not....

That's about it... here is a amusing image...

(^_^)