a woofin’ great bass addition!

new addition to the bass fam!

we happened across a 5 yr old epiphone eb0 going for cheap online this past week.  we’ve been in the market for something to replace our eb3 that is short scale to compliment our gibson sg for live and jam situations.

the deal was too good to pass up.  she was going cheaper than some our pedals!  so even if it turned out a bust we weren’t shelling out a lot. she had original strings on her, had never seen a stage & was only used for studio work. cosmectically she had a wee paint chip on the body & the fretboard has some wear.  nothing major at all.

old strings comin off

she was in dire need of a setup & strings so we used our new found skills (we just did our very first ever setup on the SG last week!).  first a cleaning with a damp soft rag to get some dirt off was in order.  then we put on some D’addario EXL 170′s on her that were a gift from last year.

did the setup & found the action was still too high(it was crazy high when we got her).  took that down, redid the setup.  played some riffs & tweeked the setup ever so slightly & viola!  a new used bass that is a looker with that smokin’ white pickguard.  almost reminds us of a Rik!  she is quite solid & built well.  we can see her being a great addition to the bass fam!  so a great BIG welcome aboard!

woofin' great bass!

even the dogs can’t help checkin’ her out!  all we need is a name…. stay tuned!

ready 2 rawk!

jason priestly strings story

tom lees on granville

so we guess the time is getting just about right to finally blog about our experience at Tom Lee’s Music store in Vancouver this past summer. the reason being that the GHS brite flats strings we bought that day are now in use.

we stopped at Tom Lee’s on Granville to check out the much ballyhoo’d store and perhaps buy a pedal (that ended up being the EHX bassballs that we dearly love). so as we are trying out the pedal in a soundproof room we spied none other than 90210(amongst many other roles) star, Jason Priestly(JP) shopping in the guitar section with his rather large body guard/personal assistant in tow. being much interested in the pedals we were trying out we didn’t give it much of a 2nd thought until we were ready to pay for our pedal at the one and only cash. there in the lineup right behind us was JP.

we had discussed with the store help that we needed strings as well as the pedal yet as we were ringing up the total the strings we had decided on were nowhere to be found. so a search for the strings ensued followed by a struggle to find out actually how much the strings actually cost. now the lineup had gone to 1 to about 6 ppl in this time. how much time had gone by was beyond us since we were in no hurry. no one was really bothering JP but the more and more a crowd developed around the cash, the more and more JP and his large ass. man were getting nervous. it was obvious they were in a hurry and wanted no part of an impromptu autogoof session.

the situation was out of our control. there were 2 sets of flat strings we wanted to purchase cuz according to the staff they were on sale. but what the actual sale price was proving difficult to locate. the tension in the lineup was building and building. the expression on JP and his ass. man were priceless.

finally the staff relented the cash to JP and the others so they could be served while we waited for the price. a few evil eyes were given by the large ass. man but really the situation was the result of the staff and not us. in our mind, we’re thinking yer not quite the big deal u still think u are. none of the tweens in the lineup had recognized him and in real physical life JP was actually super small. we doubt he reaches 5 ft. on a good hair day.

after they departed, the tension eased and we discovered our strings only cost $10 a set. worth making JP wait any day! what a bargain! we left the store and there was no sight of JP anywhere. a trail of dust was all he left.

now its a been a few months since we bought those strings and they’ve been on our gibson bass for about 2 months. the review is that we don’t like them and will likely not use the 2nd set. the tone and feel is just not suited to us. no matter how we tweak things we just can’t seem to get a sound we like out of them. the best way we can describe it in words is that it sounds as if the tone is being choked. we’ve been using the bass/strings set up for jams just so they get some use b4 we replace them. but nonetheless, we’ll never forget the day we made a hollywood star wait so we could get bargain strings for 10 bux!

in a totally unrelated note, here’s a pic we took of a streetfight later that same day. the suit actually kept talking on the cell as he tried to break up the fight. the fight started when the 2 guys on the ground bumped each other and then it just escalated from there. some nasty punches were thrown and then it got broken up by onlookers and every1 went their separate ways. stay classy vancouver!

even wks after the canucks playoff loss there was still fighting in the streets!

No Strings Attached

so when we got the new(to us) gibson sg bass, it came with the strings from the store on it.  who knows what they were?  most likely some nickel something somethings. we’re diggin the flatwounds anway so a change in strings was inevitable.  so here’s a pic of what the bass looked like before the string change.

you can see that the part of the strings where the winding at the end is actually going over the bridge.  this can’t be good we thought.  so sure enough when we put the new flats on the same thing happened.  the G string actually cleared the bridge on its own.  and we could clearly hear the tone difference between it and the 3 other strings that had the winding on and over the bridge.

so what do we have handy that could extend the winding part of the strings over the bridge?  well, we have just taken off some useless strings… could the ends of those slip over the string and add to the length?  why not reuse what we just took off the instrument?  lets try the ball ends of the old strings!

so we did and in the end we got it to work.  it took some time, patience, and some fiddlin’…  especially with the E string since the winding was thicker and the string ball end couldn’t quite get over it.  we had to take some wire cover trimmers to it to shave it down a bit.  no harm done to the string, u just needed to be gentle doing it.  as u can see, some strings needed more than one ball end.  the tone of each of the 3 strings we did sounded so much better once we had done this that it made the time and effort all worthwhile.  the bass stays in tune and we get great comments on its sound.  now only if we could figure out the sweet spot for that “tone” knob…. more on that in another post!

ps: here are the results in picture form.  hopefully, they help explain and show u what we did.  the blue part was going over the bridge before we added the ball ends of the strings.