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Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues - Eels

I’m getting to grips with a Roland pro mixer x. Annoyingly, this has just been released and looks like a good new alternative. It doesn’t offer multiple inputs, but has a good internal mic and some effects through an app. https://blackstaramps.com/polargo/

Is it just him building? That’s a lot of orders if it’s a one-man operation?! Like…looooong wait times? Si

Everything Starts With An E - E Zee Posee

Thanks. I think this is where I'm heading.

God bless her and all who sail on her!

That is delicious

I’ve noticed some strange noises from the tone pump if my mobile phone is in my trouser pocket immediately next to to it.

Sorted for E's & Whizz - Pulp

40's work well on a short scale bass. Fender puts 40-100 as standard on the American Performer Mustang I have, and I use cut down Elixir 40-95's which suit it down to the ground. I do have a set of nearly new LaBella deep talking flats for short scale bass that I took off my previous Vintera II Mustang if you'd like me to send them to you to try, @Swills?

Gorgeous @molan I wish I’d kept that gold sparkle Lull too and the lakky! 🤦🏻‍♂️

LOVE that.

Also the EQ boosts can affect the gain levels so always go back and check the gain isn’t excessive and the clip light only comes on momentarily in the main. All valve amps ignore that and use ears as a guide ! I have a MB LM4 and you will get your flat and scooped from the selector control and vintage by adding more old school control ( clockwise ) Its a very loud amp so keep your master volume low until you have everything else set how you want it

I like TI Flats on my Sandberg Lionel (Same scale and hardware as the Florence) but it is light. If 40-100 rounds are too light then I fear the ti flats would be too. They are slightly bigger gauges but they are also a lot more flexible. I have 2 other shorties. On one I have La Bella Deep Talking Flats at 45-105 and they suit it - they are quite stiff - by way of comparison, I would have the 39-96 on a long scale, so I have the 45-105 on a short. If you would have 45-105 La Bella flats on a long scale then you might need the 49-109 The other has 50-110 Dunlop roundwounds. If you want some flexibility then La Bella do their own Low Tension flats. There's only one choice of gauge. They are quite a bit higher in tension than the TI Flats but not like the DTF ones. They sound quite similar to the DTF though - so a trad flat rather than the mid pushed ti flat sound. La Bellas are a lot cheaper than Thomastik or Dunlop flats too - might find a used set to try in the classifieds. Also - the Florence has big tuners so you don't have to use specific short scale strings even for flats, so pick whatever you can find cheapest. Bass Direct is often cheapest for La Bella, Amazon for Ti Flats, and Dunlops are just mad everywhere.

Ebeneezer Goode - Shamen

Is this one of these basses being played?

Together with some of my main band musicians, plus a great pro-drummer, I helped to put together a U2 tribute band as a little side-project earlier this year. There are no huge plans to gig loads but the two nights out we've had so far were lots of fun and we have a few more things lined up. My regular gigging bass is my trusty white Ritter Cora but I felt i should go dfor something a bit more Claytonesque for this gig. I've owned a couple of Claytons in the past, both in gold sparkle. The first was a lovely, lightweight Mike Lull that was built directly for Adam & the second was the official Fender full Custom Shop version - now residing chez @hiram.k.hackenbacker. I already had a nice Lake Placid Blue P bass with an aged MJT body, mint green/white guard, McIntyre neck, Hipshot Ultralights and a lovely set of custom wound Curtis Novak pickups. My first thought was to get the LPB body resprayed and I remembered that a Lakland I have was painted by Rob Fleet (via Simms Customs) https://www.rfcustom.co.uk/ I contacted Rob who could not have been more helpful. He explained that the cost of stripping my existing body & prepping for spray work would be relatively close to sourcing a nice new body which I could help to spec out in terms of desired weight and woods etc. We spent some time working our the ideal weight and he found a nice piece of premium alder to work with. I've always likes the Fender limited edition pink/purple sparkle Clayton P bass and Rob mentioned that he had an order for a deep purple flake pain job and I saw some images of the exact colour. We agreed on everything and the neck was duly dispatched so that he could make sure the neck fit was really tight and also to spray the headstock in matching purple flake. Not long afterwards I received the first body build shots and confirmation that the finished weight was bang on our agreed specs: Rob let me know that he thought it might be a good idea for him to custom build a guard whilst he had the body to ensure an exact fit and we agreed on a white pearloid finish. This kind of, relatively small, thing is a perfect example of Rob's attention to detail. He new I had a guard already but wanted to be sure of a perfect fit and finish. We also discussed the headstock logo as the body & spray work is all from Rob whilst the neck was made by Chris McIntyre, pickups from Curtis Novak etc. etc.. I didn't feel 'right' about asking Chris to use his logo and it seems to me that the core of this instrument has come from Rob. I felt I needed a logo of some kind and really didn't want to try and come up with some kind of random name so we agreed to go with an RF Custom logo. I think it's a classy logo & I have no plans to sell it on or pass it off as something it isn't - it genuinely is a 'custom' build so I'm happy with that. Today, Rob sent first pics of the finished body, with guard in place, & headstock. Typical of rob's professionalism is that he attached controls to the guard to make sure everything looked just right. He also asked about precise position of the strap buttons before drilling. So, here it is before it comes home for final fit at my local luthier, the rather wonderful Julian Mullen: Once it's home and fully finished I'll post some more pics!

I have a little bottle of gut string oil from Hidersine called Hidrol, which I used when I still played gut strings. They don't seem to make it anymore. Unfortunately it does not say what kind of oil it is - it's clear though. I remember that I didn't have to use it very often, and that I needed very very little oil.

I don’t use the covers on my P and jazz basses, but my AVRI 62P came with the bridge cover fitted so I left it on, all my the screws go in a small sealable bag and stored in the hard cases, same with the thumb/finger rests and screws

Lady Saga

I'll have to try that with my '95 Stingray's mutes.

Glad I’m not the only one. For some reason I tend to play more softly when I do this which probably gives me better tone. I’ve got more dynamic range which helps to build songs and you get a real lift when you dig in.