Ok, after…jeez, maybe two and a half weeks or so where I didn’t write anything because I was trying to finish editing that cookbook I was working on as a favor for our neighbor, and some other things that kept dragging my attention away from the book, I’m finally getting back into it. Unfortunately, I was either in the middle of, or I’d finished chapter six, so I’ve been reading through it from the very beginning, just to get my head back into what was going on, and the timeline of everything. I actually fixed a few minor things along the way so far, but I still have three more chapters to get through before I can start writing again. I’m thinking that by tomorrow at some point I’ll be able to get back to it.
Aside from that, there’s really not a whole lot going on. I have a small little project coming up that I’ll be working on. See, I’m a bass player, and I have been since about 1987. Earlier this year I was in our local Guitar Center, and I found a Sterling S.U.B. bass used that looked like it had just come out of the box. I mean, if someone played it, they maybe played it once or twice and that’s it. It was in like new condition and I think I got it for $179 bucks, when they sell new for $299, so I got that and a hard shell case for it and trotted happily back home with my treasure.
The bass itself, while like new as far as the construction was concerned, did have a couple of problems. It needed the fret ends filed and smoothed, it needed to be set up to get rid of the fret buzz that seems to plague pretty much any model of Musicman bass (mostly because people never bother setting them up properly), and it’s got noise when the treble knob is up past 1/4 of the way to center, and only gets worse the higher up you go. This is probably a shielding issue, but I can take care of that easily. Unfortunately, because the stock preamp is also only a two-band with bass and treble, the treble knob includes a lot of mid-range frequencies, which makes it difficult to dial in a good tone.
Why am I mentioning all this? Because it’s related to the little project I have coming up. I’m going to take out the original pickup and the preamp, and replace them with a Seymour Duncan SMB-4a MusicMan alnico bass pickup, and a Seymour Duncan STC-3M3 Active Tone Circuit. I’m well versed in guitar and bass tech work, so I find these types of projects really exciting and fun to do. Once I get these swapped into the bass, I’m going to start using that bass a whole lot more than I have been, because as I said before, I’ll be able to dial in my tones with it a whole lot better than I could with the stock preamp.
I know it’s probably strange to think about me having a life outside of writing considering how many books I’ve cranked out in the last two years, but believe it or not I do. It’s not much of one usually, but I find ways of entertaining myself.
Anyway, I got some stuff to do, and then it’s back to the book. I just wanted to pop in to do a little update on how things are going.
I’m back! Almost…
Ok, after…jeez, maybe two and a half weeks or so where I didn’t write anything because I was trying to finish editing that cookbook I was working on as a favor for our neighbor, and some other things that kept dragging my attention away from the book, I’m finally getting back into it. Unfortunately, I was either in the middle of, or I’d finished chapter six, so I’ve been reading through it from the very beginning, just to get my head back into what was going on, and the timeline of everything. I actually fixed a few minor things along the way so far, but I still have three more chapters to get through before I can start writing again. I’m thinking that by tomorrow at some point I’ll be able to get back to it.
Aside from that, there’s really not a whole lot going on. I have a small little project coming up that I’ll be working on. See, I’m a bass player, and I have been since about 1987. Earlier this year I was in our local Guitar Center, and I found a Sterling S.U.B. bass used that looked like it had just come out of the box. I mean, if someone played it, they maybe played it once or twice and that’s it. It was in like new condition and I think I got it for $179 bucks, when they sell new for $299, so I got that and a hard shell case for it and trotted happily back home with my treasure.
The bass itself, while like new as far as the construction was concerned, did have a couple of problems. It needed the fret ends filed and smoothed, it needed to be set up to get rid of the fret buzz that seems to plague pretty much any model of Musicman bass (mostly because people never bother setting them up properly), and it’s got noise when the treble knob is up past 1/4 of the way to center, and only gets worse the higher up you go. This is probably a shielding issue, but I can take care of that easily. Unfortunately, because the stock preamp is also only a two-band with bass and treble, the treble knob includes a lot of mid-range frequencies, which makes it difficult to dial in a good tone.
Why am I mentioning all this? Because it’s related to the little project I have coming up. I’m going to take out the original pickup and the preamp, and replace them with a Seymour Duncan SMB-4a MusicMan alnico bass pickup, and a Seymour Duncan STC-3M3 Active Tone Circuit. I’m well versed in guitar and bass tech work, so I find these types of projects really exciting and fun to do. Once I get these swapped into the bass, I’m going to start using that bass a whole lot more than I have been, because as I said before, I’ll be able to dial in my tones with it a whole lot better than I could with the stock preamp.
I know it’s probably strange to think about me having a life outside of writing considering how many books I’ve cranked out in the last two years, but believe it or not I do. It’s not much of one usually, but I find ways of entertaining myself.
Anyway, I got some stuff to do, and then it’s back to the book. I just wanted to pop in to do a little update on how things are going.
By Duane • Uncategorized 0