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Pleased to say Iris came home after 6 weeks in hospital and 5 operations (the first of which at 2 days old was a gruelling 9 1/2 hours). She’s doing great and it’s lovely to have her home.

Dropped the Mrs at the gym and thought I'd pop into the LGS which is only a couple of minutes round the corner. Just browsing - mostly at guitars when I came across the Mockingbird MK3 below. It looked stunning so I tried it and loved it. It's a bit neck divey as you would imagine , but sustains forever and has an awesome array of tones. I wouldn't have ever imagined buying a BC Rich but it wasn't what I expected at all. The shop had set it up perfectly too. I now feel compelled to put gold strings on it (it's an obsession) It was marked up at £500 so a quick google found it for £386 in Thomann and the LGS (Sound Affects) matched the price. A good days work !

Hang on - is that an Amazon Echo on his coffee table...

Have you tried offering to help carry the stuff to the car, you know, don't leave it all for her to do? I mean, don't strain yourself, obviously ...

Ok I do know it’s been a while ive finished grain filling finally and I’m sanding off the residue one trick I’ve learned is to wipe white spirit over to show the grain and highlight spots that need more filler or sanding. Monday is final sanding and sanding sealer

Cheeky interim purchase before my ACG arrives. Cheers Jonze! This is a 2006 CIJ Mustang, always fancied one, and the wife has a couple of bass gigs (she plays a Mustang guitar), so made sense! Liking the Fiesta Red more than I thought I would, but was the right price, so don’t care either way! Cleaned up the fingerboard (needed a little TLC), fitted some La Bella Mustang Flatwounds, overall a very cool bass Si

Today I took the glued bodies out of clamps and trimmed the excess with the bandsaw. Then I flushed the tops on the router table, when I looked at them I had an "Oh heck!" moment as there was what appeared to be an open glue line all around the join but when I sanded a bit of the top op the disc sander it turned out to be just a little glue that had discoloured the back at the very corner and comes out with the slightest sanding, PHEW LOL; that had me going for a few seconds. You can see the line in the photographs, it looks just like an open glue line, in hindsight there was no way that I could have ended up with an open glue line but I still fell for it. Next I scribed a line at 49mm all around which will be the line to carve the top to but also the line at which the bottom of the fretboard will sit at the neck body interface. I marked the position of the neck joint and pickup pocket routs and drilled out the waste to cut back on the amount of noise from the router. I fixed the routing jig to the body with a couple of screws, one through the point of the bridge and one near the edge where the wood will be carved away so no holes will be left after the body's done. I routed the neck joint on one body but then realised I had made the jig too shallow for the pickup pockets so I made a perspex spacer, I'll fit that and finish the routing tomorrow. The weather picked up so we went for a walk on the beach, it seemed a lot more fun than woodwork

The internet is a big place. If people want to aggressively argue about politics, religion or the more toxic stuff there's a lot of places they can go to do that whilst being as sweary as their imagination allows.

Given the presence of the 'Report' button plus the introduction of the 'Like' system, it would hardly be beyond the wit of Basschat for such a section to be largely self-moderating. As a doting Dad I am well aware of the need to keep children away from bad language. After all, who ever heard a teenager swear? But recent polls seem to have shown fairly conclusively that being over-run with little children is not a problem that need concern us. Seeing as we are overwhelmingly a bunch of mature grown-ups, why not treat us that way?

Pickguard arrived in the post today - Cheers @Jono Bolton so while I wait for the other chrome work to arrive...I stuck it on.

Stumbled across this and found it an interesting little read so thought I would share in case anyone else was interested. http://rumblinman-blog.tumblr.com/post/62650774540/the-bassist-within-elvis-presley

And, it arrived this morning 😁

Whatever the hiding place was you got the PA out of, just put your missus back in it. Job done!

Most people will have their favourite era, usually according to what age they are. So no, I don't agree with Roger Daltry.

Hey there. Mustang and precision user here who plays both flats and rounds here. I’ve actually tried to do the same thing (albeit with a 34 not 35), maybe I can offer some thoughts. First, though, let me try to “manage your expectations” a bit. What you are looking for is going to be tough. I think that you are going to have a hard time getting the 35 scale bass with flats to feel a lot like a short scale with those strings on it. You probably know this, but as a rule (darn physics), short scale basses like the Mustang will have lower tension for the same pitch and gauge as a longer scale bass. That’s why players often find SS to be “loose”, “floppy”, or lacking a “tight low end.” Moving to 35 will be the exact opposite—higher tension for the same pitch. Your particulars are more complicated because the gauges you note of the strings are unusual. Most sets with 45 top end have 100 or 105 on the bottom end. (At least the ones I’ve played and the ones I saw on a quick check of GHS's site.) So, you have even lower tension in the low end than normal because the string is smaller gauge. Add to that you'll be switching from rounds to flats. Most players find flats much stiffer than rounds because of the square vs round winding. They simply bend less with equal force applied to them. So, no only will tension be different, but flexibility will differ, too. All in all, a tricky thing you are asking. Going from what is a very, very soft feeling spec to what is usually a pretty stiff spec. My best recommendation would be LaBella low tension flexible flats. They are on the light side of what you can find in the world of flats (42x100), but are built with a layer of silk in between the middle and outer windings, which improves flexibility. In my experience, they are the softest feeling flats. They also sound nice and thumpy, with the classic flats sound. Plus, they as soooo smooth. They feel like you’re playing a silk shirt. TI Jazz flats are also popular because of their softer feel, because they have a similar winding approach. A bit heavier, and more expensive. But wonderful. So, to get a soft feel, those are probably your best options. Both sets also have “oddly guaged” middle string compared to other sets, to balance out the feel, which is nice. For comparison, I recently strung a through-body bass with extra light LaBellas because the bridge couldn’t take top load, and very few companies make flats that work though-body. Even though they were lighter gauge, they felt stiffer. (Ended up swapping the bridge so I could use LTFFs on it!) Like @fretlessguyI also use GHS precision flatwounds. And I really like them. They are, though, a bit stiffer than the LaBella LTFFs. But I use them on my fretless, where I don’t feel the stiffness as much (and I think it actually helps increase the mwah). And they have more in the upper midrange than the LaBella/TIs—“zingier”—which is great on fretless. They would be a good option, too. So, going from a very soft, round wound, short scale to an extra long scale with flats, I think the LaBella LTFFs will be your best bet. In my experience, they won’t get you all the way to the same feel, but as close as you can get. Sorry. Probably more info than you needed there. But it’s a tricky jump you are trying. Knowledge is power and all that... Good luck with the quest! P.S.: this focused pretty much on feel alone, because that’s the tricky part. Forgot tone. In the end, flats will never sound like rounds. Just different animals. So, if you like the sound of rounds, stick with Boomers on the long scale bass.

In a recent post on another topic recounting how generally pleased I was with the RM 500 EVO I'd bought from a fellow BCer, I included the following negative comment: "Only thing I can fault is the relatively noisy fan - not really a problem in the gigs I do but is that normal?" This was picked up by Ashdown, who promptly posted an offer to replace my fan foc, acknowledging that a few amps did go out with noisy fans before the problem was sorted. To cut a short story even shorter, I gratefully accepted the offer, sent the amp back to Ashdown, they received it yesterday - and it was delivered back to me THIS MORNING complete with a new fan!!! The fact that Ashdown took the trouble to monitor this forum and volunteered a free fix to an owner who didn't even buy the amp new is just astonishingly, astoundingly, unbelievably awesome: respect! (Btw the fan is now as quiet as on any amp I've ever owned.)

So happy for you all. What a wonderful smile! And she can grow up with live music as a natural part of her life 🙂

Zebrano’s my favourite with that body shape.

I finished putting this red Precision together today - body, bridge, pickguard and neckplate from an eBay seller. No idea what make but the finish is reasonable and it's pretty lightweight. A Kmise neck, Kent Armstrong pickup, a decent solderless loom, Gotoh string tree and genuine Fender machine heads. Setup is almost there, going to let it settle overnight before final tweaks but initial impressions are really good. Sounds like a proper Precision The finish on the neck is seriously impressive considering it only cost about £30.

Good evening, Knirirr, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

Well, it seems the cok ups hadn't finished, we had arranged to go and jam at pub and no, just a couple of hours before I set off, I get a call from the BL to say the first pub's just called to him to confirm we're still playing there! Had to make a few calls, get the troops back and ready to play a full gig. At least we'll be getting paid now! And we have our excellent Australian guitarist with us again. 40mins later...now turns out we haven't got a drummer as he had been stood down last night and has taken something else. Going to be an interesting evening! And now we have tracked down a former drummer (probably hiding down the back of the sofa) so I won't be the only member of tonight's rhythm section! It's all go over here in Oxfordshire!!

I rest my case...thks

My personal view (and so not necessarily that of the Mods nor Admins...) is that there is enough diversity and richness in language (English and others...) to allow one's feelings, however strong, to be adequately expressed without resorting to vulgarity. Use, or worse still, over-use, of bad language diminishes my opinion of the author (that this matters little to them I'm quite aware, but still...). There are perhaps occasions when comic effect could, maybe, justify writing in that manner, but they are, I reckon, rather rare, and all the more effective by being so. It will be understood, then, that I am for keeping the profanity filter, hoping that it never need be invoked.

I’m not a fan of anodised gold p/gs but that looks awesome.

Picked up a Mojomojo from the classifieds this week (well I had to buy at least one new toy to replace all the ones I’ve sold!) and very impressed with it. I’m surprised TC don’t market it as suitable for bass use! The top end is a bit muffled and it sounds best at low gain, but the low end is amazingly good, better than most ‘bass’ pedals. Just read from the TC blurb that the internal voltage is ramped up which undoubtedly helps with headroom, letting the full heft of your note attack through. If you want a mellow, warm sounding drive that sounds great for classic rock, blues, R&B, etc, I reckon this is one of the best options going regardless of price, and the best thing is it only costs £40 new!

Not at all. And he strikes me as someone who overestimates his own importance/contribution...

This is our second outside gig of the season this Sunday. THIS SUNDAY! Join Maple Road LIVE @ Bilda’s Friess Lake Pub for some outdoor Sunday Funday rockin’ blues! Great food and a fantastic beer selection are 2 more reasons to join the party. Bring a comfy chair, it’s going to fill up fast! Bilda's Friess Lake Pub 4493 Hwy 167, Hubertus 3:00-7:00

I think that’s a good point, a custom reshelled UE900s would be a different animal to the stock universal fitment. Even after all this time using universals of various types, I’ve only just found some tips that are comfortable and isolate effectively. I’ve tried comply tips before (as I found they isolated the best) but found them a bit itchy after a while and have shied away from memory foam types until recently when I’ve started using these ones that are more comfortable and fit very well (for me, it’s a very personal thing of course) Earphone Buds Replacement 6 Pairs, New Bee Earbuds Tips Premium Memory Foam Earbuds Soft Cushion Earpad Noise Cancelling Suitable for Headphones with 5mm-7mm Tips (S/M/L, Black) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071NZJ7QR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_i_q1CeBb5PF92TC

If it ain't broke why fix it? The creative work-arounds people come up with to bypass the filter are far more entertaining to read than the banned expletives they replace..

That abano stuff looked interesting. I thought I might get a ebano headstock plate to play around with as it was on £6, but it was £6 + £6.50 for shipping, so slightly more than getting an ebony one Not that I would get ebony now, but maybe I will wait until I need a lot more from them

I personally think that the filter is vaguely amusing and encourages inventiveness

Well I've certainly got hundreds of albums in my garage that were released by my band, unfortunately they all look and sound very similar ...

Just FYI, I never questioned why Fodera's cost as much as they do. I really like the look of some Fodera's and appreciate any high quality, handcrafted buotique manufacturer of basses. I simply questioned a couple of the aesthetic choices for such an expensive instrument. If you look at a Ritter for example or even the new masterbuilt Warwicks, it seems no detail has been overlooked in creating basses that look as stunning as they sound

He's never been one to under-estimate his own importance. 1971 is probably about the time that The Who started to run out of steam and others who had undoubtedly been influenced by them kicked them to the curb and disappeared into the distance.

Well the Ramones didn’t form until ‘74 so...

I can`t see this myself, how can AC/DC not have been taking rock uphill, or Guns N Roses, both quality bands imo.

Who knew walls were so popular!? Here's mine, taken in Dartford about 8 years ago

As far as I can see the vendor gave every chance for the purchaser to do their own investigation before and during the exchange, he's a couple of sets of strings down and a couple of hours time out of pocket.

I think have all of the pictures that are broken links now. You wan to post all of them (i don't know exactly what i have posted) or you wan to see a few specific pics?

Working in covers bands, I have one standard set up on stage but then use many different styles of playing - open pick, damped pick, fingers, staccato, legato etc etc to get the correct feel for the song - which I think is more important than trying to get an exact sound.. In any case, I think your sound is SO influenced by the type of stage and the room acoustics that micro attention to EQ is pretty pointless. You can have bass heaven on stage but you might be mortified if you heard what the punters are actually hearing.

Added fret lines to the Black Beast. Not especially for exact intonation but for ease of playing the beast. For me a fretless with lines is just more relaxed to play.

So I’m still very good friends with All but two members of the band. Nice Christmas messages from all of them. They’re carrying on without me and the singer who left at the same time. The plan is to earn more, think my mate the guitarist will turn to bass and they’re going down the much more tried and tested “Dakota” route. A shame really - but I wish them well. Tomorrow we meet with Neurosurgeons and have a look around the family quarters at St.Marys in Manchester. All grand, Iris (the little bundle of stress/joy/fear/interpretation) is also going to be seen in 3d and we’ll hopefully come away with heads full of More information. Anyhow, we’re all enjoying Christmas...Jenny’s Nanna turned 100 today, and my Nanna turned 82. We met a new family addition today at a do, and my eldest daughter (Ella) got a guitar for Christmas and has declared I’m to be her bass player when she’s famous.

Τhe jig to make the twisted neck is ready. You can see the router following the angles Next step is to give the shape in the wood.Don"t know when,but i believe soon