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Was quite apprehensive/scared/terrified of fretless until I picked one up in earnest, now all my favourite instruments are fretless and I can't see that changing anytime soon

Just a quick message to let everyone know that John of Noise Works did a fantastic job of fixing an awful banana neck on an eBay-acquired 1979 Shergold Marathon bass. I bought said bass a couple of months back and did everything I could (truss rod, low tension strings, filed some proud frets etc) but the bass was virtually unplayable - looks like it had sat in its case unplayed for years with high tension Rotosound steels. I tried the Shergold forum on FaceBook (thanks @ash for reminding me of this forum) and some peeps recommended John. Eventually I went with their advice. Over the course of a few weeks, John heat clamped the neck, fixed the dents and bumps on the back of the neck and levelled/polished the frets. The result is a slick playing, low action bass with loads of 70s/80s cred. Very reasonable price and friendly service too. Recommended!

Fly Away - Lenny Kravitz

You will need an interface to get your bass audio in there. A pickup is less ffaff than a mic. Audio interfaces are cheap on FB marketplace. You will need to have some sort of syncing noise/visual so you can glue audio and video together in iMovie You will need to spend 3 or 4 hours on a "teach yourself Garage Band" YT series. It is far from rocket science, but if you just pile in and hope for the magic after 10 minutes you are destined for Dissapoinment Central.

Cable ties added at the top of the strap to stop it scrunching under the buckle.

I had a HA550 that was awesome but too big and heavy for my needs. Had a Kickback 12” 120w combo that was great … but again heavy! Loved the look of the aluminium driver tho.

Wren Wren Wren - Divine Comedy

I don't know much about Hartke amps. I've seen them back lined. I knew Larry before he started that company . Daryl Daryl

I get it Stub. I've got a video from our gig from Saturday night. Video and audio are poor. It's not worth sharing Daryl

Thanks for the update. I'm still loving mine as well and have been playing it a lot recently. I agree, the stand is heavy but it's good quality. What tinkering did you do to the case?

Three Little Birds - Bob Marley

We were a successful female fronted covers band ( rock, pop ) and the girl could sing and more importantly put on a visual show IE she was entertaining for sure. When she was leaving us for personal reasons we tried hard to find a lady who could sing rock but we failed. Most had no projection or power or they didn’t sing well ! Due to the comparison that would be clearly made to the awesome outgoing lady we decided to get a guy to replace her. The result was the band changed so much it was a terrible version of what it was. I left ( who formed the band ) then the guitarist left and only the original drummer remains Sad really how bands go from hero to zero very quickly and mostly it’s down to a change of singer especially if you were blessed with a very good front person who had an amazing vocal range and power. She looked good too !!

I've been working on a wiring diagram for my latest idea. There is some method behind the madness: In everyday use I run with both pickups, tone and volumes full. To get more middle, turn the neck pickup down a bit, less middle, turn the bridge pickup down a bit. If I use a pick, I may turn the tone down on one of the pickups if I don't need all the click. I haven't got a taping kill switch, and really ought to have one. So here's the circuit I came up with. The two pots represent a logarithmic MN taper pot that is built as one pot to make a centre notched pickup blend control. Easy to turn one pickup down a bit. Then there are two tone switches. Quick selecting pre-set low pass. Then a tapping kill switch (Break signal switch-Normally Closed, Press = mute) That will be fun. The circuit analyser says it's all in phase and won't be hum cancelling. It may be because the pickups are single coil in the model. A bit more research there needed. I intend to replicate the existing low pass filter spec. They have a subtle effect, just enough to take the growl out. No need to experiment, someone has already done that it seems. I'd be interested to hear any comments or suggestions/improvements. Edit: I've already had an idea. Looking for switches, the nice ones are the classic 3 way Les Paul type. I could upgrade the 2 way tone switches to 3 way and have a second pre-set tone with a lower dark shelf. Might be overkill?

Triad - Jefferson Airplane

I will soon be the proud owner of the MB58R 102 Energy instead of the P variant ! 400w rated instead of 300w

Welcome Rover.

I appreciate your advice on this. I'm still thinking about the decal! I don't think I want a fretless - I have the DB and EUB if I want to scratch those itches. As for the Chinese neck, I was looking at it tonight and realised I may have been a bit unfair to it. I am not an expert on neck profiles but it is quite deep so assume it probably is a D type profile so not really Jazz like at all. I also now assume the original nuts were not that wide due to the headstock profile so it may be more faithful to the original than I thought. I wouldn't know if course, as I've never seen a real 51 in the flesh, I just love the look. This neck is really straight though and has not needed much adjustment so far. Very happy!

@Lord Sausage Huge musical composition. Keeps turning up new and interesting melodies and ideas all the way through. Some stunning playing in there too.