Just spent an amazing few days in the west country. One of the highlights of the trip was an afternoon looking at the awesome street art in Bristol. Every time I visit Bristol I take my point and shoot Cannon camera and explore a little. It’s such an inspirational place and my head is full of great idea to explore on my return.

So finding parts used has been harder than expected. Last week I scored a set of gold ultralite tuners made by Hipshot. The quality of finish and machining is great and being gold will certainly off set the black overdie finish on the body of the bass.

It was a tough call wether to build the bass up out of unwanted bass parts. Using budget parts I could have brought the whole project in at under £200, but felt that if I was to want to use the bass that it would fall a long way form the quality I would normally want. Although the body shape is not to my taste I really want to build something that sounds good as well as looks the part.

As for gold hardware; it’s not what I would normally go for, but should look pimp when it’s done.

This morning I picked up a set of EMG passive pickups that have only been used a few times. I’m hopping that they give the classic EMG killer rock tone without the need for active electronics. All my other basses are active with a passive option (on a push pull switch) and my Sadowsky P bass spends it’s whole life in passive. If I change my mind I do have an on board preamp sat in a draw I could drop in.

As for the rest of the parts, I have resigned myself to the fact they will have to be new. No one has responded to my wanted ads for a gold Badass II or Gotoh 201. Also I want to use CTS pots and an Orange drop cap and these along with some speed knobs will have to sourced new. If I can bring in the whole project for £300 I’ll be happy (especially when the original owner paid £ 1788 for the original build to almost the same spec).

Next up is ordering the remaining parts and the build. Hopefully I’ll be building it a Nottingham Hackspace (@nottinhack on twitter) which is an amazing co-working space full of very clever lovely people.

Many years ago I played with a couple of the Noise Republic guys in a long term project. The result of using some down time at a local studio one night was a complete take of bass guitar and drums for a track that was at the time untitled. I forgot about the session and have never really thought about it again. That was up until guitar guru and Noise Republic 6 string slinger Ian Marshall popped a copy on my desk (we teach music at the same college btw).

The band have overdubbed lush layers of guitar and vocals on to the untitled rhythm section tracks and created  the final song ‘Oprah’. Listening to finished album brought back so many good memories of playing with the guys. Here’s the album, its well worth a listen.

Janek has been on the international music scene for over a decade,
touring as a band leader and working as musical director or sideman
with some of the most respected names in the industry. These include:
Randy Brecker, Hiram Bullock, Mike Stern, Airto Moreira, Flora Purim,
Pat Metheny, Marcus Miller, Dave Kikoski, Adam Rogers, Jojo Mayer,
V.V. Brown, Jem, Paul Shafer, Delta Goodrem, Gary Husband, Peter
Erskine, Wayne Krantz, and Mark Turner.
As a Fodera and TC Electronic endorsee, Janek will be demostrating and
discussing his technique and musical concepts.

For tickets: http://janekgwizdala.eventbrite.co.uk/
]]> http://guerillabass.com/2011/10/26/free-janek-gwizdala-masterclass-in-leicester-15th-november/feed/ 0 guerillabass http://guerillabass.com/2011/10/19/warmoth-project-bass-build/ http://guerillabass.com/2011/10/19/warmoth-project-bass-build/#comments Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:36:10 +0000 guerillabass http://guerillabass.com/?p=408 Continue reading →]]> Building a bass has been a long time ambition for me. Pretty much since I started playing it’s something that I’ve wanted to do. As I don’t have (and never will) the luthier woodworking skills required to build an instrument from scratch a ‘parts’ build seems obvious choice.

There are a number of organisations building necks and body’s for both hobbiests and professional builders in mind. One of the very best is Warmoth. They can build almost anything; from a basic ash P-bass to exotic wood extended range instruments with amazing finishes.

Building a bass using a body and neck from Warmoth isn’t a cheap option and cost vs re-sale value (self assembled instruments are always worth less than pro-built basses) has been one of the reasons I’ve not done it previously.

However, I’ve just picked up a neck and body on eBay for a bargain £122. It’s an explorer shape four string with a beautiful quilted maple top and overdie finish. It’s amazingly well built even if the shape is not to my personal taste (normally I lay Fender inspired Sadowsky basses), but at the price it was too good to pass up. The original cost of the neck and body was £1100 including taxes and shipping. The instrument had been built up using pro parts by a luthier in Bolton for a guy in Rugby. The recipient couldn’t get on with the lack of cut away to access the dusty end of the neck and stripped the bass of it’s hardware and electronics and had a new body and neck built. The total cost for the original bass was a few pounds short of £1800. Hopefully I’m going to pick up all the bits used to save some money. As for how much it’s going to cost who knows. What I can say is that I will only be using top shelf parts and building a stripped down passive rock machine;)

The idea is that 30 days is about the time it takes to change an existing habit or start a new one. Some things stuck, some things only lasted 30 days and some went on for ages (veganism). It was a great way to plot mark out a year that all too often can fly by unnoticed. I can remember where I was and what I was doing in a particular period of time. Good stuffs.

Blogging as a project that kind of fell by the way side aver the 30 days. Partly out of running out of things to stay and partly that I was diagnose with acute tendinitis in both hands and wrists. The doctor signed me off from typing and I was unable to play bass. Not a good thing. I have blogged a little since then and commented on other people’s blogs. But as for this blog it’s been largely ignored.

Time change that, maybe not 30 days of blogging, just a little more regularly than I was. Let’s see……..

The creative arts are well catered for, multiple excellent music venues, galleries and co-working spaces provide areas for expression. Nottingham is home to some great urban art. Graffiti artists produce some great quality stuff in this city, so why are the council trying to eradicate this form of expression?

Just over a year ago the leader of Nottingham City Council, John Collins announced the banning of legal graffiti sites. He referenced a 1982 article by social scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling. The ‘Broken Windows Theory’ of norm setting and signalling that leads to social disorder and vandalism is often used by the establishment and has been subject to a large body of criticism. It has been criticised as being unsound and a largely unprovable. When tested, in general, the test has been inconclusive.

However the council have used this theory to ban legal sites and spend thousands painting over urban art on waste land in an attempt to sanitise the city. Money that potentially could have been spent in better ways, more youth engagement projects for example.

Graffiti is competitive by its nature and while I agree its not all good quality the bar would be raised over time if it was left. You need to make poor art to learn how to make great art. All forms of creativity are valid and precious, I just wish John Collins and Nottingham City Council understood that.

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