You may have noticed on products such as the Seymour Duncan Antiquity Series that part of its selling point is this thing known as “scatter wind” manufacturing process. What is scatter winding? When wire is wound into coils on a pickup, the most basic definition of scatter-wound means “non-uniform.” Imagine a spool of thread that … Read more
See Geo’s business listing here Take a design, make it better; that’s exactly what reader Geo did with his custom build. Geo was originally inspired by the Fender Performer Bass; a very short-lived mid-1980s design that was made in Japan which is quite the collectible these days (assuming you can even find one.) Geo’s “Supersonic” … Read more
First in a series of articles about tools in the small builder’s workshop, this is a brief overview of the larger power tools commonly used in a shop. Later articles will cover smaller power/hand and luthiery tools, as well as specialized jigs used in instrument building. To a large degree, bass (and general instrument) building … Read more
Victor quit the bass? He sure did, so we did an exclusive interview to find out why he would do such a thing when he’s such a well-known bass player. We called Victor a total of 27,745 times to get the scoop on this. He sent us a cease & desist letter instructing us to … Read more
You’ve heard the phrase, “built like a tank,” and understand what that means. There was (or possibly still is, not sure,) a bass guitar made in Russia where the brand name was “Ural.” Do they play well? Sort of. Did they ever sound good? Not really (it’s been said that it ‘sounds like a detuned … Read more
Some bass players hate guitar players – with a passion. My first response to that is that you probably hate bad guitar players, as in ones that always play too loud or are way too flamboyant when playing, or have a poor sense of rhythm, etc. The unfortunate reality is that there are a ton … Read more
See Scott’s business listing here I admit up front that the only reason this was chosen for bass of the week is because it looks cool. Scott emailed us with his latest bass build. His email was really short, but I guess in this instance it doesn’t need to be long. It read: This is … Read more
First thought by most people upon seeing the title of this article: “Dear God, man… WHY would you do that?” Good question, and I have a good answer. Certain players have cheap bass guitars that they don’t feel like putting money into and want to do the “blackout” hardware thing, so they get the bright … Read more
(Quick shortcuts to bass compressors for those that don’t like to wait: See the MXR M87, Aguilar TLC and Pigtronix Bass Philosopher. More provided at the end of this article.) The compressor effect is something that’s been around a very long time and is a genuinely useful thing to have. Some consider using a compressor … Read more
I understand that not everyone is photogenic. I get that. I also understand that some people hate having their pictures taken, but you understand that band pics are a requirement to put on business cards, web sites, social sites and so on. The top 3 classic mistakes people make with band photos 1. Train tracks … Read more
