In At The Deep End

Please say hello to my weapon of choice for my latest gig.

The sharp-eyed and mathematically astute amongst you will have spotted that this is a guitar with only four strings on it, and yes, it is confession time: I have crossed over to the Dark Side and for one show only, I have become....(whisper it) ...a bassist.

Indeed, due to our regular singer being away at the V Festival last weekend, we had a shuffle around within the band and went out as a three-piece rather than our usual four, a shuffle which necessitated me switching instruments and...ahem...taking care of the bottom end, as it were...Stop sniggering at the back..

There are many similarities between the bass guitar and its more petite sibling - they are tuned similarly (albeit with two less strings on the bass) and hence notes are in the same place on the fretboard and so forth, and it's relatively easy for a guitarist to transfer to bass and bluff his or her way through the basics...(bassiscs?) but really there is so much more to the arcane world of the bass that I must admit to only dipping my toes in the very shallowest parts of the deep end.

For those of us more familiar with Rock music, the bass is often underplayed, holding down simple root note patterns, but imagine Funk without the busy, driving basslines, imagine Reggae without the fat, lolloping groove. Bass playing really is another language, and for one day I was a tourist getting by on a few stumbling "Bonjours" and "Dos cervezas por favors." I shall glad to get back to my familar home territory this week, but for one night only it was a pleasure to paddle in the vast and unchartered waters of Bassland....I'm just relieved no-one was recording the show....

Guitar Upgrade...Part I

I like guitars. A lot. I own six electric guitars (not to mention a couple of acoustics and a couple of basses), so I certainly have enough to be getting on with.

But there was one guitar that I thought could do with a bit of TLC and a few upgrades here and there.

My PRS SE EG is one hell of a guitar for the price…but there’s the rub, it is a cheap guitar and whilst the build quality is way beyond what one has any right to expect from a £300 guitar, the weedy, thin sound and the tacky finish were letting the side down.

So, I decided it needed new pickups (the bits that convert the movement of the strings into sound, in a nutshell).

And a new paint job. Eek. I am not experienced in either of these areas, so this could get messy….She started out looking like this…

The first step was to remove all of the moving parts and electrics, and start stripping the finish.

I didn’t want to risk using dangerous chemicals with my total lack of knowledge in that area, nor did I want to use a heat torch and end up cremating the poor girl, so it was down to a lot of sandpaper and even more elbow grease.

Took a long time just to get the back of the neck and headstock back to bare wood. Then it was onto the back of the body..:

 

Eventually, she looked like this..

 

As you may notice, I had to fill a couple of holes by the bridge, where I'd made a misguided and botched attempt to install a different style of bridge...oops.

Still, sanded down it was time to mask off the cavities, the fretboard and the face of the headstock (I wanted this to remain black) ready for the first coat of primer... 

Look out for Part II to see how I get on with the spraying....Wish me luck!