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I'm not sure how much he actually paid for it but I heard he was going to party like it was £19.99

I replaced the Bassculture MM pickup in my Elwood L fretless today with a Delano MC4 HE/M2. I have the 'single coil' HE/M2 versions in my fretted Elwood L and have been knocked out by the articulation of them, so I finally got around to fitting an MM one in the fretless (after 10 months since deciding to do so). The Delano is, to my ears, a much sweeter sounding pickup, the single coil and parallel setting in particular now have real character, so much so, that I may start using the parallel setting as my go to tone. A big shout out to Reinhard at Delano, who got the wiring info from Maruszczyk so I could just drop the new pickup straight in using the existing loom, I know he had to really spend some time on the phone getting the wiring info for the Bassculture.

Pre Basschat I had 16 Bass guitars and 1 amp. I now have 18 Bass guitars, 2 Electric guitars, 4 amps and a few effects. 2 of my basses are in bits for repairs or mods and since joining I have moved 5 basses on. I probably spend more time playing with them than actually playing them - I particularly enjoy getting hold of something unloved for cheap and then cleaning it and setting it up back to former glory.

To quote the late Fred Dibnah, technology doesn't make things better, it just makes them cheaper and quicker. You can keep your CNC machine...

You are supposed to wash them??

Just finished The Craft Room, a really good read, well done. Weekend Rockstars was great as well. Looking forward to your next book.

Might I mention, chaps, that I am going to make the Chowny I lent Al ‘available for transfer’. Lovely as it is, my team have just made it into the Premiership and I need to buy a season ticket! It will be in London until it is returned to me, so any capital-based Basschatter who fancies trying it out (I live in Bournemouth) please shout. M

I'll be interested to know what you think of the pickups - I was eyeing a pair of these for a project....

Ive got a cs64 which has a slightly different treble pickup, similar to the original horseshoe treble pickup, and I have had the same problems you have. I have tried one of these,. http://www.rickysounds.co.uk/Bezels.html with not too much success, and one of these Zero-Mod 4003 Thumb Rest , https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/221890260822?chn=ps&adgroupid=13585920426&rlsatarget=aud-295856144804%3Apla-142405565106&abcId=&adtype=pla&merchantid=115189455&poi=&googleloc=9045772&device=c&campaignid=207297426&crdt=0 In the end I put the cover back on the treble pickup [which I had removed with some difficulty], and i found a position which was reasonable comfortable. Good luck with the hunt, and if you find a miracle cure please let me know. Still sounds great so its worth persevering.

I manage to throw away some more sawdust today, yey!! First job this morning was to finish off the jig to enable routing the shape and the cavities. Doesn't look like much but it took ages Ah well done now! After that I took the body Mahogany out of clamps and cut it in half. Then I planed both sides diagonally both ways to flatten them, 2 passes in each direction was all it took, then with a sharp iron planed along the grain to smooth them, again a couple of passes wad all it took both blanks finished off at about 43.1 / 43.2mm so that's going to plan. too Next was to draw around the template and bandsaw the blank to shape. next I drew the cavity positions and rough drilled them out, I removed a bit of the waste with a chisel and that was me for the day, cream crackered! The pickups arrived too, yey!! Routing tomorrow perhaps, maybe a day off weather permitting

Sorry, fryer, it's LMC Audio: http://www.lmcaudio.co.uk/acatalog/LMC_Web_Catalogue_12__Drivers_53.html. - although they're not much cheaper when you add VAT. Plenty of cab designs on this very Basschat forum. In fact you're spoilt for choice. Start here:

That sounds like one of the better ones!

and without the horns...

Pre Basschat I had 1 bass, 1 amp and a minimal selection of effects for years. Now I have 4 basses, 6 amps and God only knows how many effects pedals and sundry other stuff. I'm not looking for an elusive sound or tone or anything else - I just enjoy mucking about with stuff and usually losing money in the process. No harm done except to my bank balance but life's too short.

There is the other thought - its 53 years old and it is mint condition. Was it really that bad that noone wanted to play it in 50 years?

My TM4 sadly was always bottom of the class and never came close to learning how it to play itself. It had to go...

It looks great! Nicely done indeed. The matched headstock - which I don’t like - looks good and I quite like it.

Welcome! Nice part of the world :-)

Just a quick pic with the rest of the family........

http://www.whtimes.co.uk/what-s-on/music/ska-and-punk-bill-at-hatfield-forum-hertfordshire-1-5532793

Need a catorgary who uses a compressor but can't tell what it does lol

Well - I was fully expecting that the first shot at the block routing would end in a scrapper. But - unless I mess up getting the ebony rectangles in - I think I was wrong! To my utter surprise, the block routs appear to be clean-sided and in the right place: All of the inner rectangles have been routed flat but will be chiselled individually when I fit the ebony rectangles - they must be deep enough to sink in the sides without being too deep to below the fretboard height in the middle. Back to the reason for the repositioning on the template.... Basically, the fretboard blank is double-side-taped to the metal template for both fret slotting and for routing the rectangles. In both cases, the template is positioned by use of a small index pin. However, in the fret slotting jig, the index pin is offset to the position of the cut: However, the template rectangles for the blocks are in line with the index pin notches in the template - not offset: And so, after fret slotting, the fretboard blank needs to be repositioned so that the rectangles are central and also that the index pin notches are now in line with the fretslots and not offset: I'll bet that's as clear as mud, isn't it

Not random, amateur or "hit n' miss" at all. A lot of folks on here give the impression of being far more interested in collecting / swapping / playing with / showing off their toys than in music. No shame in not being one of them.

I'm also an engineer, based in Yorkshire and use phrases like 'It'll be reet'

Shared this on the Facebook Yamaha Attitude page. Hope you dont mind @bigsmokebass..

I wouldn't get the PF range of cabs. They generally do "Honk" even with swapping the head around and spending ages on E.Q trying to get rid off. Try some local shops? PMT have 4x10 ashdowns/fenders etc for £400 - £550 . Take your head down and have a whirl if your serious about buying one

I had one of these, but sold it on as I wasn't really using it too much (never bothered using the spare bass for a start). Nether the less, a great piece of kit that will be pretty much ideal for your needs.

+1 for the Epiphone Jack Casady. I'm on my second, after selling the first one then regretting it. On your point about quality - Gibson's woes have nothing to do with Epiphone - being made in China/Korea and far away from the USA. Also bear in mind that the Jack Casady is arguably Epiphone's top of the line bass, so they want to impress you, they want them to be the best that they put out. Worth pointing out that Jack Casady himself uses stock basses straight from the factory ("no ringers" as he put it in an interview) - it would be a real shame if the knuckleheads in America who seem hell bent on grinding the company into dust put you off this excellent bass. Bear in mind that the JC is almost completely hollow, no centre block. It's super light and will feedback, if you want it to. But stay a respectful distance away from your amp and you'll be fine

I’ve got to suggest the Mesa M6 as well, the most lovely in-yer-face punchy sound in my opinion. I’ve owned a lot of amps & of them all, this was the one! Got a Mesa D800 now and it’s a great amp but not even close to the M6, again in my opinion.

I`m currently in an originals band and the answer is yes, I would go to see "us" if I weren`t in the band. We`re playing music that I love, on a scene I love (but that I wasn`t aware of until we started the band I should add). Up until this band I used to go and see local covers bands regularly, as I just love music, but I do so much with my current band I hardly ever have the time to go out and see a band locally, on those weekends when I`m not gigging the feet are up storing energy for the next batch.

well done

I've got a bass bar and it works well. Mine looks very similar to the base of a music stand with a T bar to support the bass. It's handy if you're doubling and doing fast change overs. I would prefer it if I could adjust the height a bit more, but that's not a big deal and it may well have changed since I bought mine a few years ago. There's a few other brands doing a similar design such as K&M and it certainly beats leaning your bass against a chair!

It's bad enough seeing the first Christmas ads on the box in September, now you've gone and started it in May I'm tempted to lock and hide this thread.

Not "best" maybe, but my J&D jazz sounds at least as good as many Fenders I have played and/or owned. Still a very giggable bass (admittedly with replacement Tonerider pickups). But as the best tone I've had was from my Status series II, no.

I am an expert here on compression, and I can categorically say that sometimes I cant hear it, out of the context of a mix. Because you just cant, not a 'transparent' compressor with a soft knee set to just pull everything up a couple of dB on the softer stuff especially in parallel. Good luck to anyone who can, you're definitely not normal. But put that in the context of a mix and if you know what to listen for you can hear the difference the compressor makes. So why bother if its that hard to consciously perceive? Because perception isn't conscious, psychoacoustics are hugely important and influential and definitely can make a band sound far more pro than the level of the venue they are playing in. Lets put it another way, would you rather an expert live engineer use everything at his disposal to make your band sound as brilliant as possible regardless of the venue, or would you prefer him to keep some of his tools in the box? Do you think your punters would tell the difference between Dave the drummer throwing some faders up on a shitty 6 channel Behringer desk and Wes 'The Wesernator' Maebe with a Midas Pro One and some choice outboard? What about Wes using the same desk as Dave and a few choice dynamics tools? I reckon Wes could make my band sound better live than I can with the same gear literally anywhere, he's the absolute canine undercarriage at his job, so I'd be some kind of an idiot if I didn't feel that. What does he use to achieve this? Simple, the basics that every sound engineer understands: good mic placement, good gain structure, good dynamics control, good spacial and additive effects, great musical understanding, great ears. He will use compression all over your bass to make it work in the mix better, think I'm kidding, check this out and especially this where he daisy chains two 1176s, the man is a master of compression, its his bread and butter. So what does this have to do with the OP question? Its simply the wrong question. It actually shows why most bassists probably shouldn't be trying to use compression, because it breaks down like this:- The audience should not generally be able to tell that a compressor is being used per se, but they will know that something is different if you turn it on and off. It depends on what the compression is for. A transparent gain riding compressor is going to work at a psychoacoustic level. On the other hand if you are using a compressor to drastically change the envelope of your bass sound then every single punter will hear the change as you swap it in and out. Its just a daft question really. Think like a bassist and you cant tell what its for, think like a sound engineer and you cant imagine a world without compressors on nearly everything.

Call me a philistine, but I've never really understood what a compressor actually gave me in a live context. I had one for a while (Electro Harmonix Black Finger) and all it really did was take up too much space on my board. Kejserens nye Klæder.

The thing is that I would notice if I didn't have my 1 knob compression at 9 o'clock. I doubt anyone else would. Even my brother rhythm guitarist says that bass is just bass to him and any subtleties of my bass tone brought to his attention seem to elicit little interest. As for the audience, I'm pretty sure that as has been said many times before, most would only miss the bass if it wasn't there, let alone discern any difference. The thing that folk readily notice is the volume, "the bass was loud". I think Motown did a lot to bring a good bass-line to the attention of the listening/dancing public. A few other popular songs had strong bass-lines like 'Hit the road jack' and 'These boots are made for walking'. I'm happy being part of the rhythm section, I like locking in with a good drummer and rhythm guitarist who are also good team players. But the subtleties we enjoy getting out of our instruments, thumbs & plectrums, strings, nuts, bridges, pick-ups, pedals, amps, speakers and techniques, for the most part are like trade secrets shared and assessed and discussed like new/old recipes by the connoisseurs of the art who are I'm happy to say venerable BCers.

Albatross (Fleetwood Mac) takes some beating.