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Hello all, I am very late in posting this up, but Christmas 2023, I bought my son a Harley Benton acoustic g****r from Thomann and managed to sneak myself in a PB-50 (sunburst a'la Sting) into the order. All delivered to my house from Germany before the big day for under £200. I don't really play 4 strings these days but I love the original Precision look. I have not seen a decent 5 string one without blowing a wads ot cash on a custom, so thought I would get it for my own guilty pleasure, and at that price (I think it was £105), it was hard for me to refuse I liked the bass straight out of the box and apart from filing down a few rough fret edges, it was ready to go. I spoke to forumites on here who kindly sent me the templates to cut down the headstock to match. This concerned me as with my blunderbuss approach and giant sausage fingers, I reckoned I'd be left with a snapped headstock and a bloodstained house. But then during Christmas 2024 I had a dafter idea. I have always loved the look of upside down headstocks, so why not look for a lefty neck for it? I also looked for original look bridge and pup covers.... I was talking to @Merton about it last week and realised I hadn't posted a thread about it I did complete it in January and don't have the greatest amount of photos from the build, but happy with the results, so here we go ...

I don't think they were..? They were just beginning their 'Long, drawn out arrangement' phase. (edit) I will say that it sounds like their TV feed was mixed by a drummer...

Martin bought a Swan Flight case from me. Great communication and quick to send over the payment. Hope you enjoy the case! Thanks, Mike

Check the album too - Short Court Style.

The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep) - Sunn O))) & Boris

Played a rare gig with backline and without inears over the weekend...never again (if I can help it). I'd forgotten what a rare thing it is to have a decent onstage sound (I didn't have one, obv), and obviously everything was wayyyy too loud...pfffttt... Once you've gone inears (with your own mix), it's tough to go back...

There is something weird going on when you have both volumes on full, I've always found it better to back the neck pickup volume back to about 75%. Definitely both tone knobs wide open though. Then amp / pre-amp EQ to suit (plenty of mid though). I see @Jasper has his mid set around 75% (ish), treble a similar amount & bass around 60%. Sounding quite nice. 👍

Bought a flight case from Mike, it arrived super quick and very nicely packed. Thanks.

It's perfectly capable as a buss comp, I had it on the master buss for years, but it also works as a pair of tracking comps, which is now its main function, maybe as a drum or guitar buss comp in the mix. It's a very versatile unit, sounds great.

Black Sheep of the Family - Rainbow

Nige! 😀 He deps for us now and again... The Inn On The Wharf is a great gig, we're trying to get back there ASAP...

B E A D G C is the tuning. And trust me they are all BASS!!

It was a memorable weekend back in 1985. During the morning of the Saturday I moved into my first purchased house, starting as early as I could so I could set the tele up and watch the show. I’d stretched myself to the limit to buy a new-build semi for £22k. Different times.

It shows as £279 for me.

That's good to hear, I understood that supply of the rechargeable battery was the core of the problem, glad John's found a solution. A very elegant piece of design and engineering 👍

Zombie thread revival, I know, but I've recently bought a P-Retro from John - they don't have the silver knobs in stock, and the website looks like it's Out Of Stock completely, but they're not, they have the black ones. It's now a v2, I think the change is the battery. I shouldn't be surprised (because I've got U-Retros in everything else), but it's a stellar preamp; it takes the workhorse P and, somehow without changing it fundamentally, takes it into another league of usability. That two-way parametric EQ thing is genius (clockwise for mids boosted around the frequency point of the other dial, anti-clockwise for a bass/treble boost/scooopiness), and the selectable pull-bass (4 points of boost, I use the 100Hz one) is really useful. It sits post-tone control, and when switched out you have your original tone without any bells and whistles. As if you'd want that... 😀 Not exactly cheap, but for my money (which John now has 🙂) it's worth every penny.

It certainly doesn’t. But it renders your view irrelevant in an argument of whether they’re worth the money or not because you’re not their market.

More Slanty Pickups after the Fender Boxer 😉...

You mean my Royal Navy service? I did 36 years and had to leave just when I was getting used to it....... 😆

When I started gigging seriously at the end of the 70s, the guitar shops (in the U.K.) I frequented stocked ONLY Rotosound Bass strings. They tended to be on view only in single strings. I never had enough money to buy more than single strings anyway - I’m guessing they sold a lot of Gs!! I remember, when I was playing in a touring disco/funk band in the early 80s, breaking a D string on my Stingray (which I bought new around 1980), about half way through the set - playing octave bass lines created somewhat of a problem leading to some improvised positions and techniques….. and a trip to the guitar shop for a Rotosound bass D string at the next opportunity. Bear in mind I asked for ‘a bass string’ of whatever position I wanted (almost always G) and got given a Rotosound of whatever was the standard gauge - I got the impression that’s what everyone used. In those far off days no one used flatwounds and there was little choice for bass players. Of course, it was a different time, when even players at the pinnacle (eg Pino) generally only played one bass - and mere mortals certainly did. The days of dentists and other professionals storing and displaying multiple high end instruments were unheard of dreams yet to be thought up - mind you I recently asked my dentist, a very pleasant young lady, how many guitars she has……… she looked rather strangely at me so maybe it’s one of those musician tall tales that’s a complete fantasy 🤣🤣