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Dinner time yesterday I'm smoking a fag and deleting emails,it's kinda cold and the day's dragging something terrible Among the junk,one says "You're a Winner". " Aye right" says I an goes to bin it,then I spot it's from Wunjo. Didn't think they were in the habit of sending junk emails so I open it. Bloody hell !! Forgot I'd entered last weeks competition,now I've won the thing Even better was Wunjo don't hang around, 12.45pm was the email telling me my good fortune and asking my address. 3pm today it was delivered What can I say except Thanks Very Much

This may be a little premature but im super excited by this. Ola strandberg posted this on fb with the phrase something is cooking #bodenbass. my main bass is a sublime xylem custom so its rare for a new bass to excite me but ill be preordering one of these asap. I treated myself to a boden os6 guitar last year and its so far ahead of the competition in terms of playabity and erganomics. The endurneck really does make such a difference, strange at first but so comfortable. There was a prototype boden bass made a few years ago (video on youtube)and i have messaged several times enquiring about possible production but always met with the answer 'not any time soon' Hopefully there wont be too long a wait.

What he plays is always perfect for the song. Nothing flash. If all it requires is root notes, then that's all he plays. I rate him very highly.

Just added The Boho Dance from The Hissing of Summer Lawns by Joni Mitchell. The bass is played by Max Bennett. I've loved the bass line on this track for years before I even played the bass guitar. I must try to learn it!

Sorry for the delay, had a lot on my plate. IT'S COMPLETE! I had to choose between a solid finish (myself) or splashing out on getting the "Green Machine" pearl candy with the stripe. So I bit the bullet and got Rob at Knight Guitars to do the paint for me. The photos don't show the beautiful depth and shimmer of the pearl candy, I couldn't get the light right, but it flipflops through differing shades of deep green through to lime. The bass is assembled, plays beautifully and sounds nice and throaty with plenty of zing due to the Jazz positioning and high output Seymours hidden under the custom covers. Here is the finished article, hope you like it.

AND FWIW HIS PEAVEY SIGNATURE BASS (THE pALLADEUM) IS THE ONLY pEAVEY BASS i HAVE EVER ACTUALLY LIKED PLAYING & WAS STUPID ENOUGH NOT TO BUY ONE WHEN THEY WERE EASILY AVAILABLE. Apologies for caps but I hit capslock and not going to retype

There, that's fixed. Makes a difference to some people - me included. Although FOR ME it is actually string spacing, rather than the actual width of the neck. I struggle to play a 4 string bass with a neck that is 43mm wide at the nut but happily play a 5 string bass with a 45mm neck.

He needs to get that bass refinished, it's in a right state.

Hi everybody - 'scrumpymike' here, aka Sales & Marketing Manager for Gillett Guitars! As those who attended the first South-West Bass Bash I organised in May already know, Michael Gillett kindly sponsored the event - which is how I got to know him. (For those who weren't there, Gillett design and build the distinctive 'Contour' range of electro-acoustic basses in the UK and are based in the South West near me.) The basses were generally well received at the bash and a few of us (me included) were so blown away that we decided to get one. Since joining GG three weeks ago, I’ve shared my passion for this forum with Michael G and explained why I think we should be actively supporting what is the best online community of bass players in Europe and keeping members up to date with what we’re doing. He’s up for that so we’ve taken a Basschat banner ad, this sponsored Gillet Guitars topic, and are giving members first shot at some ex-demo Contour Slimline basses at a big-discount as a Christmas promo (post with full details to follow). A while back I posted a couple of ‘scrumpymike’ topics about my own Contour bass, which were enthusiastic to the point of being evangelical. Now I’m on the payroll, I’ll be confining my future Gillett content to this sponsored thread — and I’ll try to make it a bit less subjective and more objective / informative. We’re the only company batch-producing luthier-quality bass guitars in the UK so please give us your support if you can. And I don’t just mean your money (though that would be nice). There’s a massive amount of knowledge and experience on this forum and your comments and suggestions will be gratefully and thoughtfully received. So, watch out for the next post with details of the ex-demo offer. In the meantime, here's our website link: http://www.gillettguitars.co.uk/

Next Sunday 10th December, 4pm-10pm. Raising money for the homeless charity. https://www.facebook.com/todostogether/?hc_ref=ARQQxHE8bivVCYMDMBNr66DJwGbKqsVKRHZefwLmH4aRPDZzn3dpRiEkFycS7FDHGRw Four or five different bands put together for the occasion, made up of musicians from a number of local bands. We did the same thing back in the summer and raised a couple of thousand pounds for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

They've bagged themselves a new singer, a former X-Factor USA contestant no less, but don't let that put you off. The guy has the chops to commemorate Scott Weiland's legacy, and has his own thing going on too. I hope they do really well with him, if ever a band deserves a new start, it's this lot. Oh, and Robert DeLeo has bagged himself a new bass too - a Nelson custom PJ. Never heard of 'em.

There's a couple of live tracks up on You Tube with the new guy, from the Sirius Radio gig where he made his debut. The new track and and an old one. He does have that SW vibe going on. I really would like to see them come back big; they're just too good not to.

Traded Warwicks with him in London yesterday, lovely knowledgeable chap and a pleasure to do business with! Deal with confidence, folks

It was an original US made Kramer Spector NS2, not a Warwick Streamer....

Cheers for posting, STP have always been one of my fave’s. All 4 original members are just so good, and Robert has been a big influence, yet when I hear them play without Scott I find it harder to enjoy, his hooks and melodies were outstsnding.

try playing and singing Driven To Tears. It took me a damn long time to do it and even now it's a challenge

Aye, that he has. All good this end, just not gigging enough! Hope all is well with you too.

Just to add a " Well done chaps " Some nice features ! Keep up the good work Many Thanks Gary

Ozric Tentacles would be lovely. Just switch off and play!

The trouble with this conversation is that there are many different talented people around and their talent takes many forms, so you are often left comparing apples with oranges! So how do you compare a prodigy like Mozart with a highly schooled, incredibly gifted, all-encompassing journeyman like Bach – yet alone individuals from the modern age / popular music?? For me, I reckon that John Lennon was a zeitgeist of an extraordinary era with a talent that could have come out in many ways, just that it happened to be in popular music. Whereas McCartney merely happened to be a decent songwriter who came to notice working with him. A similar thing to Lennon could arguably be said about Bowie a few years later. But again, you have guitar players like Eddie Van Halen and Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose playing left a lasting impression on everyone who saw them long before they were famous (SRV’s drummer, Chris Layton, once said that no one ever damned him with faint praise and said that he was a ‘good’ guitar player – everyone who saw him thought that he was extraordinary). There are also guys like Prince who can do just about everything incredibly well. We are only look at people who are relatively famous and I have just mentioned a few guys who operated in genres that I am familiar with (I’m not even going to start looking at jazz or modern classical music). There have always been lots of incredibly talented people with very different types of talent, but I don’t think that you can begin to compare them unless they pretty similar in the first place, and even then…

If you lasted half hour you'd be a Legend yourself

Eh?? Whatever sound you provide to the FOH should be "your sound", the sound that you want out in the room. It's not about providing a sound that is convenient to the sound guy! If the sound guy has a particularly difficult room then that's for him to resolve with his PA config and more powerful EQ. The "room" won't dictate and the sound guy won't have "hands tied behind his back" unless he's not up to the job. If that's the case then pre or post won't matter at all.

And in fact I started this thread to say that I went to a shop with the intention of buying one option, but after trying a few chose a different one which had many of the characteristics you mention above. My whole point originally was to say that received wisdom (Yam DXR) was not in fact the best on (my) test

@krispn mentioned the following pedal was on his radar: Damnation Audio MBD-1. OMG! Worth checking this clip out. In terms of the dirt spectrum: warm valve-->overdrive-->distortion-->fuzz, it seems to deliver overdrive all the way through to fuzz. It is not particularly 'fizzy' in terms of top end and also seems to retain low end really well with the option of clean blend. It doesn't have a tiny footprint, however, so I'd need to chuck a couple of other pedals off my mini board to make way for it. But I'm seriously tempted. Anyone got one / tried one of these?

Played my first gig with the Puma last night. First impressions? Wow ? Decided to take just one cab (the S115) and was playing my 70’s reissue P with ‘62 Custom Shop pickup fitted. It wasn’t a huge room but for balance had a small amount of bass going through the PA. The sound was full, rich with oodles of power on tap. A few of my muso mates were there and they all commented on how great bass sounded (and were also all shocked when they saw the size of the box the bass sound was emanating from). What I also found amazing was that Puma was almost stone cold at the end of the night after being on for 4 hours! All in all, I’m over the moon with it and it’s exceeded my expectations by a long way. Second gig tonight and very much looking forward to it. Thanks again for all the info along the way guys.

The rcf and qsc have been talked about throughout the thread, if someone tries putting 1400 watts through a sound lab from Maplins expecting it to replace an Ampeg stack they'll have a nasty surprise. I don't really see the difference, a rubbish bass speaker could be replaced with a rubbish PA speaker with similar outcomes, most people interested in frfr are already using a nice bass rig so they need to expect to require a nice P.A. speaker.

Very nice little surprise!

Thing is, it's really just a visual aesthetic and likely has any effect on the tone. (If they're all manufactured this way, they're all going to sound pretty much the same, so you're not going to have a reference point anyway.) Also, didn't MM just bring out a 4-string Stingray with A 5-string pickup in it?

He' a great bass player. It takes great ears (and great confidence) to play with so much space. Plus, he has the chips to play really busily if he wants to - after all, he first started out in the jazz rock outfit Last Exit. Anyhow, here' a live clip of a wonderful performance of "Wrapped Around Your Finger" during the Police's reunion your. Absolutely gorgeous.

His choice of notes, tone and timing are sublime. He's a wonderful and restrained bass player. Frank.

What I did there, you saw it.

Dunno yet, it'll need to be cranked right up to tell I suppose, it's just an amp at the end of the day nobody will be more suprised than me if it makes me sound like anyone other than me ?. It is UK hand built if that means anything, that was a factor, I'd rather have something made here in the UK and there is always going to be a premium to be paid for that.

I don't foresee any shortcomings, my Matamp is ridiculous through it and that's only 200w. Man watts though I suppose.

I had an original Dakota red mustang that had been refretted. I sold it last year for around £1200. i think your body looks original but as you say has been butchered round the pickup cavity but the brass insert is right. If you can photograph the underside of the pickguard with the pickup attached and the control cavity I can give you an opinion of the pickup and wiring, etc in terms of price, the one I sold would now sell at a dealer for say £1500 plus assuming your pickup, knobs, wiring, etc are original, then if, after discount you paid less than say £950, I would say that would be OK

Please post as many assembled pictures of this as possible. I've major Mustang GAS just now.

I've always liked the first four Police albums and i learnt a lot from learning basslines to tunes like It's Alright For You, Regatta de Blanc, Canary in a Coalmine , When the world is running down and Voices in my Head. Always found them very fitting, memorable and essential for the songs. Yep, an underrated player IMO.

Seller replied very quickly and arranged a fair discount and as Sibob suggested didnt look but usually does and apologised - very good customer service . Also offered full refund but I want to keep the bass so took discount - thanks everyone for all replies. It's a good forum here!

So the PA outfront - people seeing a gig is usually an isolated event where if they are uncomfortable with the volume, should be standing further back. Most gigs are too loud anyway and will cause permanent hearing damage.... but you can always take earplugs... but again, that isnt rock and roll is it? When playing regularly in a band, this problem is compounded further as despite what the literature says, playing with earplugs doesn't attenuate across the frequency range like one big volume knob... so a lot of people still play without them. Standing next to a drum kit with loads of splashy cymbals and amps running flat out is also going to play havoc with your hearing. Buy hey, as long as it's flapping those trousers, all is good. Here's the rub - those amps running loud are going to bleed absolutely everywhere... straight into the mics, muddying up the mix somewhat rotten. That will make the band sound worse out front. Everybody knows, whether you are in the studio, or live, mic bleed is not a sound mans friend. Similarly, running amps so loud you can hear them over the PA is equally frustrating, as you can't get a good mix and you can't get a good balance between the left and right speakers because those loud guitar amps are highly directional. Pity the guy in the audience who is getting blasted by it. Pity the guy who has come to the gig and is off axis to the guitar amp and can't hear the guitar. Yes, the sound guy could put more of it through the PA... but then poor guy getting blasted is now getting full on assaulted and everybody is questioning whether the sound guy is deaf because there is so much guitar in the mix. You yourself have stated that bleed into mics (from the cymbals etc) is a problem. It is - so by having the onstage volumes more quiet alleviates this. Yes, I know you are going to say that it's just not rock and roll to not be smashing seven shades of sh** out of a kit... but you should be playing for your audience... not for self indulgence. Your band will sound better with a smaller / less loud kit and darker cymbals to avoid all the shrillness coming over the cymbals. Will make your vocal sound infinitely better too. So lets talk in ears. Which inears were you using? When I am talking about inears, I talk of inears that give you 26db attenuation - much more than your typical 17db attenuation that you typically get from ear plugs. Note - 17 to 26dB is a big amount. 26 is like putting your fingers deep into your ear holes. If you had to turn your inears up so loud, I guarantee that you did not have a good seal on them. If you did, you can do a gig on inears at whisper volumes. Fact. Standing 1 metre or 1 mile from the drum kit will make no difference when the band is playing because the isolation provided by the inears means you can't hear the ambient drums with any clarity or volume. So when you say the snare is too loud in your ears, it's because it's too loud in the mix being supplied to your inears... not because you are standing too close to the drums. If this indeed the case, I know everything I need to know about your IEMs. They either don't provide any serious attenuation or they are a poor fit. This isn't my opinion. This is fact. Theres guys out there using IEMs in tiny venues every day - and it's arguably better to use them in those type of venues than the stadiums because you will be usually standing a lot close to the drums due to the reduced stage areas. So you tried the Helix instore? I'm glad you had that time to learn the system intimately in order to form a good opinion on how it can work for you. I guarantee that the store would have set it up in it's optimum setting and nobody had messed around with the presets or anything like that too. Likewise, I'm sure your rock and roll ears are a good medium to draw such statements. Should also point out that modelling from the Pod and Eleven Rack is very, very old and not in the same category as the modern offerings from the main players, Helix, Kemper and Axe FX. If I was to blind test you with a Kemper, there is zero chance that you'd be able to tell the difference between the two... even with your golden ears. This isn't me saying this... this is the industry. These great bass players that you talk of - most of them don't. They have roadies. On theatre shows, they will have carriage (this in particular will determine what they choose to use - the truth is, they'll use what ever is the least hassle - they won't even care if it sounds any good or not most of the time). And again, a lot of the time, it's stage dressing... because the audience want to see something on stage, even if the sound isn't coming from it. A lot of these great players ARE using modellers - because they can take their rig with them on a USB stick. It makes it more consistent when the hire stock hasn't got your amp and cab of choice. What you have to remember also, is that a lot of these guys are using the gear because they are either endorsed to do so, ego driven because they want to see their image in the bass rags or because they are dinosaurs. As I've stated, theres nothing wrong with dino gear... but things can be done differently. There is a load of backlash against inears and modellers... and as demonstrated by yourself, those opinions are usually strongest from the people who haven't tried the gear properly. Your inears experience is typical - using the buds you got free with your phone does not count as trying inears in anger. I, along with a load of other guys have been the dinosaurs.... and thats cool... because modelling was pants compared to where it is now. But I kept my eye on the modelling market as I knew that if they got it nailed, thats where we should be... in terms of tone and portability... and safety to our own ears. Im sorry that dinosaurs are insulted by such a label. I kinda get fed up of being called a sound geek. Ah well, this is the snowflakeosaurus generation after all. Right, I'm going to find a corner to cry in because I think somebody accused me of not knowing sh**.

Probably one of the classical chaps but out of modern musicians I would probably put forward Michael Jackson. While he wasn't my cup of tea his talent was undeniable

I've nothing against critical comments about products - in fact it doesn't happen enough - but if you're going to slag a product off like that you really need to explain yourself.

I'm a fan of earlier Kiss and i like Gene Simmons more as a showman than a technical bassist so maybe a bit biased. He's a Rock bassist so being technically brilliant isn't really what its all about. I would think that if Gene Simmons was endorsing your bass there would be significant sales mainly because Kiss have a lot of fans whether you personally like them or not they are one helluva business. Think there are too many bassists out there with Signature basses that a standard bass would have suffice. The one that comes to mind is Roger Glover with his Vigier. I'm a fan of his but the standard Excess bass is virtually the same as far as i know. Cliff Burton from Metalica had a signature Aria or he used an Aria and the company eventually made a Cliff Burton bass so not sure if that counts. Think the Adam Clayton signature bass is the odd one for me too. Not sure it brings anything to the table and it looks daft too.

John recently bought my Sire VV7. Excellent communications throughout deal & prompt payment. All round courteous & pleasant guy to deal with. Thanks John.

Just had recent dealings with John. A 100% pleasure all round and very easy to deal with. His music is very cool too...check it out! Thumbs up from me, deal in confidence as they say