Leaderboard

Manchester...erm, mid-80s... Our drummer (in an originals-with-the-odd-cover 80s Rock Band) was about to become a Dad, and had reluctantly decided he'd have to shelve the rehearsals and gigging for a good while, so he'd stepped down, and we were on the urgent look-out for a replacement. As a thoroughly nice chap, and knowing we had gigs booked we needed to fulfil, he had even left his kit at the rehearsal rooms for new drummers to use, in part or whole, for the auditions. We organised a Sunday afternoon, with an hour slot for each drummer we'd contacted, and it started unremarkably, but then, second to last, was the standout. And not in a good way. He turned up in a six-wheel Transit, immediately earning about a thousand bonus points, but it became terribly clear that all this thing held was his kit...and there was little room for anything else. After refusing to use of any of the already-set-up kit, he began ferrying kit in. And more kit. And more kit. After ten minutes of watching boxes piling up, and with his end of the rehearsal room beginning to look like the dockside of the Queen Mary before a round the world jaunt, we volunteered to help, and then we all spent the next 45 minutes setting up a furry tigerskin-covered double-kick kit, with six raised toms, three floor toms, eight rototoms and so many cymbals we couldn't see him any more. As he tightened up the third china cymbal, I said "No gong, then?", and he froze, looking concerned. "I didn't bring it...should I have done?" I assured him it wouldn't count against him, and eventually, with about five minutes left of his allotted hour, he was ready. The singist had been forced to nip outside to intercept the last auditionee, apologise and ask him to bear with and go for a pint in the local for twenty minutes, and then our hero launched into the first intro, to a then-bog-standard Bon Jovi tune we'd decided would make a good starter audition song. Now, in 35 years of bands, I've never played in a freeform jazz ensemble, and I certainly hadn't back then, so I was unfamiliar with the five-count intro, and the thirteen-bar drum fill*, but this chap was clearly a master. We couldn't possibly fault him for brio, enthusiasm, and certainly energy...it was his counting which left quite a lot to be desired**. In addition, having taken so long to set up his mahoooosive kit, he was determined to hit every single drum and cymbal as often as he could, with scant regard for the song, or indeed the befuddlement he was creating amongst his prospective fellow band-members. I shall leave to your imagination the meal he made of the drawn-out ending, suffice to say Richard Wagner, had he been hanging around the rehearsal rooms (unlikely) and not dead for about a century (for once, fortunate), would probably have shaken his head and said something unflattering about bombast. In German. He finished by standing, his arms aloft and his eyes shining. Had that thing Usain Bolt does (not the running, the archery-arms thing) been around, he would have been doing that. We shuffled our feet, unable to maintain eye contact with him or each other, for fear of collapsing into hysterics. Eventually the singer thanked him for his time, and we all heaved-to loading his van again, while the singer went to buy the other auditionee another pint. He didn't get the job. * I'm probably doing an enormous disservice to freeform jazz ensembles around the globe here, so apologies if so, but I'm at a loss as to where else to place it musically. Perhaps amongst those gangs of glassy-eyed, saffron-robed enthusiasts one encounters on the city streets, each banging a drum in a random manner with a blissful expression and no regard for hard-pressed shoppers... ** I note that 'dyscalcula' is the numerical equivalent of dyselxia, and apparently A Real Medical Thing. It may have been that he was a secret sufferer; that would explain an awful lot. Edit: I've just spotted that I've spelt 'dyslexia' wrong in the footnote above. Oh, the irony...

Still cold from the back of the UPS truck is my new Harley Benton PB-50 which will soon be disassembled for some minor modifications: swap bridge for a more traditional looking example, reshape the headstock and apply amber tint to the neck. I may upgrade the pickup at some point but it’s perfectly adequate for now, and I will probably change the scratchplate for a white one. Also I’ll fit some flatwounds. I’m impressed so far, the neck in particular is fantastic. The set up is pretty good, it was even in tune. For £300 this would be a decent bass, for a little over £80 it’s incredible. The only gripe I have is with the pots. The tone knob did nothing at all at first, although the more I turned it the more it gradually came to life and now works - weird, it’s as if it just needed some motion to get it going. The volume control works, but instead of gradually decreasing the volume as you roll it back, it stays at a constant volume for about 80% of it’s travel before just falling off a cliff with a silent final 20% of the turn. Not a massive issue as I’ll probably change the pots. I was kind of annoyed at first, but then again have to remind myself it’s an €85 instrument. I think we are so spoiled with decent cheap gear these days we have high expectations even of budget stuff! So yes, I’m happy, and with the completion of my self build Precision two days ago that’s two new basses in 48 hours, can’t argue with that!

I like it!

firstly I would like to thank basschatters for the posts of advice they have made. secondly thanks to Andy and bass bunny for the phone calls for all the pickup experts here the dimensions of both pickups the bass are collection pickups are 94mm long 18mm wide and the lug centres are 40mm

So looking forward to seeing this project's progress.

I bet you will!!

Me too 😄👍

I just hope there won’t be any higher offers through PM to him now I let you all know...

I thought I saw the word “it” in the title and completely miss read the rest of it. The actual thread content was therefore not what I was expecting.

@BrunoBass Congratulations on joining the ranks of PB-50 owners That was pretty niffty delivery timing since it only shipped Wednesday. @machinehead I've owned 5 of these and all have hovered around 9lb using luggage scales

Dude you can kill small dogs with that rig, nice Sire too..

[Pedantry] I'd have to disagree; it's counted in (typically on the hihat...) as '1-2-3-4-1' for the riff to commence on the following 'and' off-beat. [/Pedantry]

Not gear, but when our singer fell off the side of the stage at one gig i couldn't stop laughing for the rest of the song. I am not a nice person lol.

I am the proud new owner of Lorin's 735A, and it is gorgeous. It replaced a black 425X which I loved, very sorry to see it go, but boy was it worth it! Very comfy to play, lighter than the 425, very even tones everywhere on the fretboard. In passive mode it has the usual BB smoothness, and when flicked to active you can very gradually and gently mold that smoothness from a thick deep tone all the way up to a farty honk, in combination with the rotary pickup control. Such a well-thought-out design and execution, it is easy to fall in love with it! I have tried it with nylons, chromes and nickel rounds, and it is great with all of them, depending on the sound you want. With Chromes in the studio it will be gorgeous. I am going to gig it with rounds as that is the sound I want. A good demo of the 735A (and all good things Yamaha) is here:

spilt a pint of Shandy (hey I was driving right?!!!) straight off a table onto my pedal board, ruined a markbass compressore, managed to save my DHA VT 2, just before a gig, had to go direct into my Ampeg, sounded exactly the same if not better!

Not the kind of stress you want. Life is difficult enough without idiots making it worse.

New wardrobe GAS?

If PG Wodehouse had ever auditioned drummers this ^ is how he'd have written it up. Sterling work, Sir

Its a MV4 standard body not undersize,probably Ash.Pearl block neck identical to this but pearl blocks

I used to be a 34" inch bass guy but I'm loving the 35" ATM . Like akio say , the extra inch feels perfect with string tension

Don't be sorry, I will post pictures over the weekend.

Naffghan Whigs - ticks all boxes :-)

"That's not a bass it's got five strings!" Derp... I am of course joking; I play five-strings myself. Nice artwork. I like it's simplicity and it doesn't give too many preconceptions of what the album sounds like, which I think is often a good thing. But to answer your question, no, mostly because I've never created any album/CD artwork on which to feature!

Neck sanding is over.Now i have to build the body and then give the final edges to the neck,where body and neck met etch other and then glue the fretboard

I bought a Fender Mustang from Wunjo this week. A great shopping experience from start to finish. Great friendly service and they know their stuff. We should all make the effort to support them when we have a gas attack.

I ran a LMII and a 1212r for years, never once struggled to get a great sound or an absolute ton of volume. Just seemed to fit perfectly in whatever mix I was in without any effort at all and definitely a pairing which is more than the sum of it's parts.

It's not a model, he's got a really really big house.

This comment was intended for a completely different post elsewhere. The one on Gibson. In a bit of a senior moment I seem to have pasted it here. What a D*ckhead I am.

Don't fret, Eric!

Ooooh, let's not

c'mon then lets see some slap then smartarse

The fretless genius that is Steve Bailey managed to run over his bass in a parking lot after a gig after forgetting it.

Thanks. It was tough because I wanted to go all in with the issues but I knew that would turn into a slanging match quite quickly and then the band is dead in the water. Tried to gently go from easy to more difficult subjects to gauge reactions and hopefully get approval for change. Drummer seemed receptive. Singer was just too cool for school and has the mental loop going round where he thinks his is the only opinion that matters. Shame because he can be fun and a nice guy but realise the longer I stay in, the more angrier I will be.

I met Roger and had a look around his factory when I visited in 2015. Ended up walking out with an NYC S-Type that day which blew my mind - and he was kind enough to set it up, sign it for me and write down the measurements he uses for his setup. It’s a phenomenal guitar, up there with Suhrs and Andersons. The Metro I have is fantastic too, up there with my two Canadian Dingwalls and definitely better made than my pre-CBS Precisions.

I had a Magellan for a good while, and it was the best Class D head I've used (out of, IIRC, at least a dozen). The newer Class D amps have the newer power module which is a big improvement on the earlier generation.

Prob just someone saying what s legend you are

^ 'chocolate starfish' - nice one, profanity filter!

In a rather Donald Rumsfeld kind of way, theres about 50 songs I know I know, about 50 I think I know , possibly another 50 that I don't know that I know, and a huge list of things I know I dont know. Put anoyther way Things I currently or recently played, things I used to play regularly (which I think I know but probably don't if I try to play them in a band), and things I have played cos I fancied learning them but have forgotten that I did.

are you talking about the relocation, or the passage of 56 years ?

Ok thanks mr chowny! :-) x cheers!

I have not played a Peerless Smoked Bass but a bassist in another band we supported a couple of years ago had one and sounded great causing me to buy a Peerless Retromatic B2 like the stock photo below. It's an excellent bass and I imagine the Smoked is also excellent. Peerless have made hollow body guitars and basses for many years including the Epiphone Jack Casady bass and the Epiphone Casino guitar.