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The hypothesis seems to agree with the theory. Hung the bass on a rope (for safety). Attached a guitar third string. Wound tuner until rope went slack. Closest I could get was B flat (233Hz), the string started to slip on the tuner if tightened further. String weight is 0.00005 pounds per foot (15 gauge), length 17.5 inches, using D'Addario formula: Tension = 0.00005 x (2 x 17.5 x 233) x (2 x 17.5 x 233)/386.4 = 8.6 pounds Not too far out, weight on scales (with assistance of Mrs P) is 8 lb 11 oz

Sure beats my usual method of weighing my wife and then getting her to hold the bass and then weighing her again

So a little while ago, I decided I wanted to try a bass Ukulele for fun and the odd acoustic gig we do. Not wanting to throw away the type of money Kala want for a U Bass, and after a couple of false starts, I decided on giving the Harley Benton fretless bass ukulele a try and ordered one from Thomann. As usual, thanks to UKMail, my delivery arrived two days late, and as I work away from home all week, meant I didn’t get to play with it until last night. A year or so ago, I bought a Harley Benton five string acoustic bass for my weekday home in Holland, and once that was restrung with some decent flatwounds, it’s been an unbelievable bargain, so I hoped for the same with the bass ukulele. First impressions are that the quality far far exceeds the price. The woodwork is excellent, the finish is light and uniform, and the woods even look good quality. The headstock is scarf jointed, and the inside of the body is clean and well constructed. The stock strings look like Aquila Thunderguts, but I have bought some Thunder Reds to try when I get around to it. But the best bit is playing it. It is so much fun to play and I haven’t been able to put it down this morning, oh and it’s one of those things that just makes you smile every time you look at it. And all this for the princely sum of £127.

The seller's gone a bit OTT with the description. Always best to keep to the point.

Perhaps the song is written from the point of view of a patron of a laundry. He could just be after a service wash. It would explain why he mentions that his suit is made of of sack, different washing cycle probably.

Small pub in Lichfield last night, what it lacks in size it always makes up for in atmosphere, great beer, great landlord and a blast from start to finish. We were really on it and the crown were great, one really weird guy though, why is there always one? We do punk/ indie/ grunge/ rock and he asks for various miles Cyrus songs. He wasnt local as he told us at great length after the gig as we tried to avoid him. Landlord loved it and gave us 50% on top of fee and wants us back.

Slightly better result for the second of the years Kebab hunting weekends. Singer betrayed me by saying his missus had got him fish and chips at home so wouldn't be dining. No probs, huge McDonalds lit up like a space ship 10 yards in front of the new to us but local gig. Shut as a shut thing when I got there. Cue mad dash back to the centre of the known universe and a reliable donner kebab from the ever excellent Tasty Bite. Another new venue tonight in Kearsley so hoping for a result and no band mate betrayal.

Playing in a funk band this is right up my street, my favourite funk is by Phat Fred, we cover this one, took us a year to get the feel just right......

Can’t use African as it’s non migratory

Now, I may have a way of doing this by only weighing one part...much simpler. OK, get your kitchen scales and weigh the heaviest bit, the body.... Now, we need a region of really flat space-time, and I mean flat...let say centre of the Boötes Supervoid, about 700million light years away, somewhere nice and empty. OK, carefully, one at a time, put each part of the bass in orbit around the body - far enough away to treat the body and part as a point masses. Note the angular velocity of each orbiting piece, and so derive their masses, tot them up and there you go. It's the elegant simplicity of the solution that appeals to me

This may not be an entirely accurate method. It has been postulated that the soul has it's own small but measurable mass which has been observed on occasion to manifest itself in a slight weight loss at the instant of an individual passing away. Based on the principle that most people would be likely to cease to live should their neck become detached from the rest of their body, it seems reasonable to extrapolate from this that a bass with the neck removed would at that point have no soul and would therefore weigh slightly less than when it was a complete instrument. Now I know what you're thinking - once the bass is reassembled you will have an accurate measurement of the weight of the bass - albeit as it is now sans soul rather than its original weight. However, as it is demonstrably perfectly possible to play James Brown songs on a bass that has had it's neck removed and reattached, I would speculate that the soul of the bass is able to reenter the instrument upon reassembly thereby returning to its pre-measurement weight and rendering this method marginally inaccurate. Of course I may be over thinking it.....

Where did all the funk go? Juan Nelson stole it all.

Starting to look expensive? Just "starting" to? 😋 I wait with baited breath for what slightly tweaked pedal darkglass break the £400 barrier with. The problem I have with stuff like this is they're mainly a one setting pedal or on and off if you prefer. For the price they're getting into now, if it doesn't have midi presets I consider it to be robbery. Consider. The strymon timeline. Arguably the best delay pedal on the market. Full midi implementation and costs less than the Darkglass stuff. Just saying. They are getting very expensive for what they are. I agree about the Helix actually. When my trusty Digitech 2120 dies, it's what I'll be getting.

Slinky on every level and a fine bit of Bootsy dirt groove on this old classic 🤩

OK, but try listening yo the others, not just mine.

I think Changes is a bit of a turd and Laguna Sunrise a bit of an under-developed doodle but the rest of it is my favourite Sabbath by a country mile. Picked it up for £1.99 on the shoddy NEMS vinyl issue when I was 15 and spent many happy hours figuring out Supernaut, Under the Sun et al. Never quite copped FX though.

Dear Blue, you're obviously a lovely guy, but.......................

If you’re unsure then change it. What do they currently sing? I’m personally of the opinion that there’s no such thing as ‘political correctness’. What there is is respect and good manners, and not saying something that may upset someone else. Just the way I personally was brought up.

I joined a ska band about a week ago, had my first gig with them on Saturday. A quick 45 minute set at an indoor event, it was an ideal introduction. Had a whale of a time, loved it. They have a big following and so there was a very decent crowd, all up and dancing from the B of the bang. Set list was: The Prince 007 Gangsters Is This Love? Israelites Ghost Town Tears Of A Clown A Message To You Rudy On My Radio No No No Baggy Trousers Special Brew Night Boat To Cairo I've really enjoyed learning these songs; I was already familiar with them, as ska was the sound of my youth and I've always loved it, and it was great to finally play it. There are some wonderful basslines in there -- my personal highlights are Ghost Town and the utterly gorgeous Is This Love?. Next gig is in two weeks; a longer one this time, more songs to learn!

Here's one for all the old punks out there. JJ Burnel of The Stranglers was the reason i first picked up a bass guitar. My personal all time favourite bass guitar album would have to be Black & White. For me, bass players back in the day did stuff you just don't hear anymore, unless you come round my house that is. :-) To name but a few: Barry Adamson, JJ Burnel, Bruce Foxton, Lee Gorman, Steve Hanley, Peter Hook, David Jay, Segs Jennings, Lemmy, Stuart Morrow, Tracy Pew, Paul Raven, Steve Severin, Algy Ward, Jah Wobble, Youth. Anyone care to add to the list? I reckon the whole "post-punk" era in particular was a great time for bass players. Killing Joke, Birthday Party, Bauhaus, Cure, Joy Division, Sisters Of Mercy, Theatre Of Hate etc. Songs that were obviously written around strong bass riffs, always loud in the mix. Anyone's else's first bass line Love Song, Public Image, Peaches or Warhead? Cheers, Jake M

The Bomb!

Just saw on their Instagram story there’s a sweet looking bass.

I'd vlove this opportunity. I don't drink alcohol. Blue

Bravo 🤣

I'm never going to use all those sounds. When I had a Zoom B1on it was very interesting but in the end I found one combination of effects I really liked and used that all the time. In the case of the B1on that's fine, as the thing is only £45 brand new so worth buying if it gets 'that' sound for you.

@Highfox I hope you’ll be updating this post in about 2 months time... wink wink

On the flat-pack idea, I think we got up to about half a dozen potential takers. I haven’t given up on the idea, but we haven’t reached critical mass yet. Maybe the next incarnation of this design will get some more interest. I’ve designed and built a few bass cabs with midrange drivers, and gigged a cab with an 8” midrange chassis for a few years. I built my own take on the Fearful with an Eminence 3012LF and a Celestion sealed back midrange (the Celestion is much better than its price suggests but it needs some fancy crossover work). I also built a 15” system with the Beyma 6” neo midrange. Although I thought all of these were a worthwhile improvement on a single driver, I still much prefer a two-way system with a high-end compression driver and this is the direction in which I am heading. Naturally, I’m still interested in finding out how Phil gets on with his line array design. Both John (Chienmortbb) and I have been keen to try to get the weight of our cabs down a bit. He has been using the Beyma SM212 and Celestion CDX-1445 (as used in the Yamaha DXR series incidentally) in this cabinet with a fairly weighty crossover, while I have been using neos, albeit quite heavy ones. So we’re now on a mission to make a more lightweight 12” system, although it will of necessity be more expensive. I received the Faital Pro chassis about a month ago – probably the first in the country – and this is what I have been working with in the odd hours I get to spend in my garage/workshop. For those interested in such things, it’s the 12PR320. It’s an uprated version of the 12PR300 used in the Vanderkley 112EXT and the Bergantino CN212 which beat all-comers at the Essex Bass Bash cab shootout a few years ago. The main improvement over the PR300 is in its xmax, which has now gone up to 7.37mm. Its 300W power handling matches the 8-ohm output capability of the popular lightweight amps, it weighs in at a fantastic 2.5kg and is very well priced (by Blue Aran) at about £130. It works well in our Basschat cabinet, although it looks like it will have even more low-end oomph in a slightly larger cabinet. We’ll see. I’m not messing around with cheap tweeters this time round. I’m using a top-of-the range Celestion 1” neo (the one above the model used in the QSC K-series and the one used by Duke Lejeune in his multi-thousand dollar hi-fi cabs) on an asymmetrical CD horn and crossing over at 1.5kHz. I’ve already designed the crossover, although I still have to tweak it. It’s complex and won’t be cheap, but this is a no-compromise box – so it has to be right. This will be a genuine FRFR design. You’ll be able to use it for keyboards, for PA, or as a monitor. I expect it to sound at least as good as the Yamaha PA cabs that are getting such a good press at the moment – but it will be designed specifically with the unique requirements of bass guitar sound reinforcement in mind. The drivers I’m using have distribution in the US - so we might even get some input from our US contributors, where DIY cabs seem to be a lot more popular than here. I’m not sure how they’ll deal with our new-fangled millimetres though….. Chienmortbb and I don’t live too far away from each other and we’ll be getting together in a few weeks’ time to check the new design out and compare it to the previous incarnation. We’re hoping Phil can make it as well. Anyone else within travelling distance of Dorchester is welcome to join us if they can bring a high-end 12” bass cab along with them for comparison purposes. And yes, the new cab will be at the SW Bass Bash. I have to be there to watch Phil building a cab in a day.

Ped has solved this one for you.

@Kev I am going to sit on the fence and see both sides of the argument, as both are valid. @Wolverinebass simply pointed out that the multiFx units like Line6, Fractal AX8, Boss has a new one at NAMM are not far off in price to 1 pedal and you get a load more, including the sound of a similar pedal (no doubt an AO patch will become available). There is nothing wrong in that, you are a seasoned player, know what you want, and will get it to use it how you want. There may be people newer to effects than you who stumble across the forum and thread and some balance to show them opportunities out there is justified. You could take it further and say why not spend the same money on a Genzler 350 Magellan which has one of the best drive channels out there, AND is an amplifier which is ultimately more useful than just a pedal. @fretmeister And Wolverine’s posts are not saying get the cheapest version of something, they are saying if you spend a little more you can get the same thing practically, AND a whole heap more. So it’s more saying don’t get a Ferrari with just 1gear, get one with flappy paddles, 7 speed gear box, reverse etc. I think sometimes we all get defensive of products we like, I certainly do with my stuff!

"Handcrafted in Jolon Ca." Surely that should be "Colon Ja."?

We also cover this one, awesome band..

How about covering it in good leaf?

I'm certainly going to order an SR5, possibly HH in that turquoise green/blue colour with the black hardware and scratch plate. But I like the dark blue sparkle greatly as well - maybe an SR4 in that........ I can forsee a likely depletion of funds on the horizon 🤑

Gotta wait till Monday Chris. Thats delivery day. I can tell you 2 differences right now, since i used to have a Firebass - the weight and size

I’ve just posted a “NBD” thread about a little Harley Benton fretless bass Ukulele I’ve bought. Amazing little thing for the price.

Not for this thread All valid points.

The sauce needs to be thin and use vintage Brandy, this allows the pudding to breathe better resulting in a fuller tone. Modern thicker sauces inhibit the pudding's response.

These should ship around April. UK price set to be around £270. Anyone who’s looking for one with a little basschat discount, let me know.

This is a great forum, enhanced by the upgrade. So +1 to all the above positive comments to ped, charic and all those involved in development and moderating

And ruins the frets in the process!

This reminds me of a story told by a colleague of mine. He bought some clever electronic scales that also connected to an app on his iPhone. One day whilst at work the app pinged open and declared a persons weight. A few minutes later the app pinged open again and showed a weight roughly 2kgs lighter than the previous one. He thought odd but thought nothing of it assuming his daughter and a friend must be at home. When he later questioned the daughter on how her day went she said she had been out all day on the coast. The only slightly queasy assumption he could come up with was his cleaner must of weighed herself. Then got undressed and re weighed herself!

That’s not going to work, that’s just going to give you the volume, not the weight, you would also need density and mass to make the appropriate calculations, and whilst volume by itself would be an interesting area of bass research, it’s not going to help those wishing to lighten the load. You would get better results by incinerating the bass and collecting the resulting gasses in an atomising spectrometer, which would provide accurate measurements of all the bass elements which went into the manufacture. This would then provide the most accurate weight measurement of the guitar. However it may prove difficult to sell afterwards.......

Cheers G-Dog! Dunno if this actually fixes the master vol affecting the DI vol tho. Be good to see schematics when they're available.

But obviously not with your wife 😁

I like that they're making crossovers from various classic Fender models, but I wish they'd do it with a little more... taste? For example, I really dig the stuff RS Guitarworks is doing with some of the classic designs, like a Jazz Bass in '50s P-bass style. Just awesome! https://rs-guitarworks.myshopify.com/collections/basses/products/contour-bass-54

I had the Behringer B205 personal monitors, their version of the Thomann one. Actually a clone of the Mackie. They are really good in a noisy band environment and you can have a personal mix if you get a feed from the PA. I A/B'd them with the Mackie, nothing in it, if anything the Behringer was more tidily put together but that may have been just luck on the two I had in front of me. Studiospares do their own version of the 'Box' version if you want to purchase from the UK. The Behringer was used as a monitor by my drummer so I sold it to him and upgraded to the TC one. It sounds much better and has a lot of useful extra features. Not least it actually just clamps onto the mic stand, fixing the Behringer/Mackie to the stand is impractical really as you end up with something that topples really easily. The TC works well as a monitor in my fairly loud semi acoustic duo too. In a band situation I'd go back to the Behringer style monitor in a heartbeat, The extra fidelity of the TC means feedback at lower levels than the Behringer which is very mid biased meaning it cuts through with the bit's you need to hear to pitch when singing. If you want a 'proper' floor monitor I'm using the Behringer 1320 The band love them and they sound unbelievable for the price, much more accurate than the Laneys, though see above for the feedback consequences of wider flatter frequency response. If you don't need the controls on the front of the speaker then the PA route of the ART310's or similar is a great solution. If the cost of that is too great then a couple of Wharfedale Titan 12's is the bargain of the moment, they sound really good on vocals and reliability seems excellent. I think DJKit had them on offer but search around