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Ok guys I'll tell you what I did. I discovered by accident that Gear4music do what is called the LA bass for about 90 quid, it comes with a rosewood neck which I hate but I bought one anyway to see how bad it was. Imagine my surprise when it arrived and it was as light as a feather! When I checked the spec' the bodies are made of Paulownia wood which is very light so I wondered if they had a maple neck that was also 61mm. They had so I bought one to try out and it fitted! very tight but some very light sanding made it fit spot on. There was a little neck dive, nothing much so I bought some wilkinson schaller stylee tuners which fixed it. I bought a loom from John (KiOgon) and a pickup of choice to finish it and it's brilliant. Issues with doing this job. The first one I did the neck wasn't exactly straight and the strings ran off a bit but it was easily fixed by using a Schaller 2000 bridge that has lateral adjustment so the strings could be lined up exactly. There are other cheaper ways to sort that though. The fret edges can be a bit sharp but that's easily filed and smoothed, also the maple necks are a bit paddle shaped, my friend Dave on here very kindly made me a headstock template so shaping it was just a jigsaw and a bit of sandpaper away. I'm very pleased with my cheap lightweight basses, my gas is now satisfied. HTH Tom. Oh the necks are only £35

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Did you grass us all up? 😂😂😂

Maybe some limited rock guitarists have that attitude but in jazz, soul, and other genres, flat keys including Eb are definitely much more common and any guitarist worth his or her salt would be expected to play them without question. It's only a matter of learning your chords and scales properly.

I know that Taunton Hobbit, but this is the most excitement I've had in ages, now move along Killjoy

In other news music retailer Gear For Music have just announced bankruptcy after an unfortunate pricing error was ruthlessly exploited by an online bass community...

These are all class D Amps with switching power supplies and although very efficient, the still produce heat. Usually the total combination is about 80% efficient so at 200 watts, total power is 200 X 100/80or 250 watts. So you still have to dissipate 50 watts of heat. If you can touch it but it is very hot it is likely around 60C, at 70C you cannot keep your finger on it. Many Amps have their over temperature settings between 60-70 degrees. Make sure the space around the amp is clear to aid airflow but in general if the Amp is not cutting out, I would not worry.

Thread resurrection. I finally took the plunge and bought the Stingray last week. Loving it so far. :-)

So I put my back out last week after hauling PA gear around all week (I got a bit lazy with my lifting technique by the end of it) and then doing a long show on my G&L L2500 - a big block of swamp ash. The next night when I got there my bass had been set up on an 'Mbrace' - this little gadget that holds your bass and just screws onto a standard mic stand. You can adjust the height and angle and I actually found it easier to play, as you can step/lean from side to side parallel with the bass so you can get your arm in the perfect position wherever you are on the neck - something you can't do with a strap! I got a light grilling from the rest of the band but hey, it was really good to play and it totally saved me a hefty back-ache!

Hi all, just thought I'd show you my bitsa P bass that weighs 6.1 lbs, no neck dive, schaller tuners and an SPB-3 pickup with a KiOgon loom. Sounds very loud plays really well: I also made a blue one except the pickup is a Dimarzio 127 and the tuners are Wilkinsons, also no neck dive and the same weight. Happy boy.

This is nice. Do PJB make combos you can actually gig with? That are still tiny? Not really. The Pjb compact suitcase is a great combo, but quite heavy. I've a flightcase that is much lighter, and a bit smaller, but it isn't loud and still won't quite hide behind the sofa. It is giggable for quiet / acoustic stuff but needs a pb300 beneath it to he heard over loud drummers and guitarists. A double 4 or bass cub plugged into a PB 300 is a good modular solution .. but I guess so is a gk mb200 combined with a small and a large cab To the OP I'd say Roland micro cube.

Nice one, brilliant! More power to you. It's never too late for your dreams. Seasick Steve got his big break when he was 65.

I have one of these but live too far away for you to try it,however I can confirm these are awesome amps. I will never go back to a class D unit now this thing has way way more ooomph than my MB800 FUSION ever had & is plenty loud enough to compete with our insane drummer.

Got my first Dingwall this morning and couldn't be happier with it. Thoughts and details are in my NBD thread.

Therefore, I recommend an interesting bit of card which can be guaranteed to amuse oneself or a luthier or another owner when the time comes to re-shim.

That was me yes, and thanks! The bass I was using was a passive American standard Precision! the one on the right :-)

See if it happens first...😂

Don't go charging in with a fistful of dollars just yet, hold your ground, be patient and don't back down. I reckon you'll get that for £24 if you play it right.

Just googled Citizens Aadvice and they say that if you've actually bought the item the shop can't ask for more. Once bought it becomes a contract. If you buy online and they send you the item invoiced at the price listed then that's apparently the contract again. If like me you go to the till and they scan it and say the pric is higher then you would need to pay the higher price. A lot of shops will sell for sake of customer relations if not much in it. Guess i was just lucky when it happened to me.

Had a rammy in Morrisons last Sunday on a 3 for £6 deal. "Sorry,tag was in wrong place." That was end of story. Moneysaver says shops don't have to honour prices. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3277262

Don't know how it works in England but up here a shop is under no obligation to sell at the listed price.

My opinion of your opinion... The Ric is as modern as any piece of wood with 4 strings on it. I do have a couple of Status basses whose composition might make them more modern. I find the Ric comfortable to play and the neck is a delight, all the way up the fingerboard. The pickups are as powerful as is required; some actives may have higher output (eg. my John East), but that's what volume controls are for. The idea that Rics don't have a range of tones is amusing; it's just that their most well known one is better than anything anybody else does. The Ric's body is small compared to many instruments (eg. I have a Music Man and P- & J- basses.) and is thinner than pretty much all of them. The Rics have great hardware, finished to a high standard. The gripe about being easy to adjust is a red-herring - how many times do you adjust a bass once it's set up? The effort of taking it to a tech is more than that required to do the job itself. Rics are no heavier than a lot of other instruments, but I suppose if you contrast them with a violin bass (I wonder if that's where the myth came from?) then any solid bodied instrument would be. The Ric does its signature sound well, but the built-in mute, push/pull pot, stereo outputs, tone controls, option of playing fingers or plectrum give a wide range of options. The fact that a lot of people play Rics could be because a lot of people like playing Rics; they certainly helped bring the bass to the fore in music. So, whilst you are entitled to your opinion and what its its associated logic leads you to conclude, it differs from mine. I can't say that my logic would ever lead me to consider a Spector as an instrument of choice; it's not even in the contest, not something I would consider. (The only thing I would say a Ric is not so good for is slap'n'pop bass, but many folks don't like that anyway.)

Beat me to it! Shame to hide it away! Completely understand though.

Great stuff!!

My Arpege got a sweet little brother.

Ok, here are two more pictures. You can see that I had to swap the original Schaller Da Vinci’s, for much better Hipshot ultralites, and tying in with the black trim theme a bit more. Currently strung with La Bella Gold tape wounds, but would love to try some of the new GHS pressure wound phosphorus bronze, as I do miss the sound of PBS a little, but can’t stand the noise of my (very short) nails scraping on them, and when moving up and down the strings. One thing to note Trevor is that the Otter bass was always based on the Tamar shape. My Lowman uses a body size more akin to their giant Okement shape. I think it works much more as an acoustic as a result.

That is looking pretty fab Kevin.

It's being delivered today! I've a fun morning of sitting by the window waiting for the delivery man.

It's a niche market.

Not specifically a Bluetooth speaker, but the Cambridge Audio Minx is well reviewed and sounds good with a decent low end for its size. I have one - use it with the laptop, phone and other things. Can be powered off the mains adaptor or the internal battery.

So that was you on the last leg the other week? Bass sounded great; I've been trying to find that tone ever since :-). Think my basses may be too complicated !

The (yes - Mooer) pedal toppers fit just fine on everything I've tried so far. The expression pedal behaviour of the PS6 is super annoying and I can't believe that Boss intend it to work like that. I've renamed it the 'Glitch Shifter' but it does have its uses and I'd need two other pedals to cover its functionality. I'm waiting to see what the TC Quintessence does to a bass before I decide to move it on though.

Very nice!! You’ve done a lovely job of the sunburst!!

My guitarist had the active neo in his old Takamine. He no longer has the guitar, I wonder if he still has the pup. I preferred the sound of it to his current Baggs piezo setup. The little battery lasted ages, and plenty of juice on tap.

I've got an Anker - quite cheap, but quit bassy too https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-SoundCore-Bluetooth-Playtime-Resistance-Black/dp/B01MTB55WH/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1513856960&sr=1-3&keywords=anker+bluetooth

It is a good shout - i picked a copy up of Time's Up a while back and its stood the test of time very well.

Woof! Get your tech to take it out of the box though, I know it’s for practical reasons but it’d look cooler naked!

I am 59, took up bass a couple of years ago. Play in a 70s classic rock / blues covers band, playing the stuff I grew up listening to. Always wanted to be a rock musician and know what being in a band was like. We play pubs and beer festivals. Now I do. Best thing I ever did. Almost 60 and finally I feel cool.

A good few of the bands I gig with, many of whom are pro bands, have band members in their 60s. Charlie harper, the lead singer of the UK Subs is 73 or 74, his view is while he is able to do it, he will. And so should we all!

One of my students was 80 in September. He's actually out of all my students the most dedicated. We're currently doing chord melody jazz stuff. He saw me showing off a few weeks ago, and wanted to learn how to do it. He's also getting a 5 string after Christmas. You're never too old.

Doug is a superb bass player and maybe watching video clips of him doing say, clinics or demos on the stands at music shows, then it's not surprising that he's going to be 'doing musical theatrics'. The average trade show audience won't be interested in him playing root 8th notes to a I V vi IV. Take a look at Doug's discography. He's a very busy, in demand session bassist. Recordings that vastly out number his video clips. But hey, when the time comes, well, more is more . Challenge and be challenged.

Ideally you should be using Speakon connectors for all your amp to cab wiring. It's a more robust connector capable of carrying the sorts of currents that modern high-wattage amps put out, plus it is a locking connector so you won't get any problems with cables pulling out of their sockets and potentially shorting out. If you need good quality speaker cables making up OBBM here on Basschat is the man to contact.

One is stylish, well designed, well balanced, plays peachy and is versatile... The other is a Rick...

As an acne ravaged 16 year old, my life had already been changed when I met a girl at school three years my junior. I was well and truly hooked and used to walk her home every night (carrying her books of course). Nothing happened between us but when I heard John Sebastian's lyrics in "Younger Girl" they said it all. "Should I Hang Around Acting Like Her Brother, In A Few More Years They'll Call Us Right For Each Other. But Why If I Wait I'll Just Die!" Stupidly, I waited and she married someone else! I liked the Hondells version that was played on Radio Caroline (North) back in 1966. Here we are 50 years on and that song still strikes a chord with me. To compound things, a few years ago Frankie Valli recorded "My Eyes Adored You" which told my sad story; "Carried Your Books From School, Playing Make Believe You're Married To Me". Oh the pangs of first love! I met her again earlier this year and she still caused a little flutter in my heart. What a sad old fool I am!

Players of double basses and fretless electrics play a lot of open strings, as it keeps your intonation correct when you're playing an unfretted neck.