Leaderboard

According to what I believe is a trustworthy source on social media, this is the new Flea American Artist series active bass. As lots of us commented a while ago, it’s the signature bass we thought fender should have released. No news on preamp and pickup but is looking good.

Hmmm - interesting... Anyway, I'm promised they are on the way so I've been doing the final fretboard pre-glue jobs so that I don't lose time while I'm waiting. Truss rod installed and demarcation veneer applied: The smaller luminlay dots for the over-body dots (the main dots will be the larger ones) which are best done before the fretboard is on - because, trust me, these particular ones are a beggar to do when the fretboard is already fitted: And - as you may have noticed, I've decided in the end to do a 24th fret block. It looked a bit bare at the dusty end without. This looks better to my eye: I'm hoping the replacement pickups will arrive tomorrow so I can rout the chambers then get the fretboard on

So am I. Shame I'm 46 though...

Yes, good advice that. I have made a couple of stupid mistakes recently which would have been easily avoided, all luckily simple to get round. The nut I bought was too wide so I bought a blank, the machine heads I got got delayed so I got some more and I remembered last night I needed to get some knobs and springs for the pickups! I was lining up the bridge rails last night (which is what the red string was for, using the scale length from my other basses to work out the range of positions i need for them. I don't really need that angle but I think it looks quite good and covers the positions I probably will need. I still have to wire this up: Everything actually gets harder now I have got to the easy bit. Before it was a couple of chunks of wood and if I messed it up, well, it wasn't expensive wood. Now it is cheap wood, cheap components and many hours of work!

Haven't been here and done this as often as I'd like, but had an hour going begging, so here it is. PS: There aren't any 'wrong' notes of course - it's Jazz.

Warm up? Oh that must be a really old model when we used valve preamps in active basses

Well, they've been flying all the way from South Africa and only just arrived...I suspect they are kn******d

Due to a muck up ordering the Mother of Pearl inlays I'm still short a set so I can't proceed with the Rosewood board until they come but I did a bit of routing on the Ebony one. For my inlays I routed close to the line and then pared to the line with a sharp chisel, apart from one little bit shown below where I made a slight wonder over the line with the router. My excuse is there was too much dust around the cutter LOL. After that I put a bit of masking tape on the cutter to blow it away and it never happened again. Chiselling was the first time I really found a difference to real wood, I don't really know how to describe it but paring Ebony, it's a clean forceful sort of cut, the Ebano felt more like paring balsa but harder, that said it cut very cleanly, certainly good enough for me. Anyway, the inlays fitted a treat with no stress at all other than that one little incident of my own doing. It cut so cleanly I'm thinking I may get away with no real need for edge filling with glue and dust (apart from that one bit shown again with the inlay). The good news of the day was I got my sander back from being repaired at Festool, the switch broke and it needed a new set of gears but bare in mind it is 25 years old and has had a very hard life and this is it's first repair

Don’t get it: why is @mrtcat wrong? Poor customer service is bad PR, regardless of the customer’s intention.

They know and recognise me as someone who has spent a lot in there over the years, probably £5k to date and I've also sold stuff to staff. It was reasonably busy but it's not a customer's job to convince a shop and it's staff that they're worthy of being welcome. Everyone is a potential customer when you are running a business whether they spend today, tomorrow or years down the line. If they're having a bad day then they need to be professional and suck it up a bit like the rest of us in our professional lives.

I think what the comments in this thread boil down to is not whether analogue is better than digital but what are you favourite effects and what compromises are you personally prepared to put up with. Sound/tone is entirely subjective, and IME a lot of it is to do with familiarity, rather than actual quality (if that could even be quantified). I also think that term "modelling" does a lot of multi-effects (even the very best ones)a complete disservice. I don't know how close the emulations of the various effects, amplifiers and cabs on my Helix are to the originals (because most of the time I've never tried the originals), and in all honesty I DON'T CARE. All I do care about is that amongst the various different distortions/choruses/EQs there is one that will give me the sound I am looking for to fit into the band mix of a particular song at the particular point. Everything else is irrelevant.

Two too many knobs? It's supposedly like a Stingray - one knob for volume and two for active EQ. It's as simple as you can get for an active bass.

Not this so much, but the guitarist in my old band ran a 20 year old Les Paul into a 30 year old Peavey; soundwise he'd be on the money, but not before spending an age knob-tweaking to actually get there. I could never understand how he would sound brilliant on a Friday gig and so utterly shite 24 hours later. And yes, tweaking happened between songs.

And of course, when you inevitably sell it on here, you can claim that it "plays like buttercream"...

Too many changes of electric guitars, then having to fiddle with his amp to get the desired tome. While I appreciate different guitars sound differently (i.e. Strat v Les Paul) there has to be a degree of practicality to keep the momentum going (I.e. chose a guitar that has both SS and HH pickups if you must). Our rhythm guitarist just uses a tele all the way through the gig and its sounds great. I usually being 2 basses to a gig but what ever I decide to play, that's it for the gig unless i have a catastrophic failure or unless a song 'really really' needs a fretless or upright bass, and I've never had this situation.

I think I have finished the finishing now, so I just need to bolt it all together (and wire it etc)

Today I cut the fret slots into the fretboards and scribed one of the neck joints to the body. I also played around with the Rocklite to see how it worked compared to real wood, in short, easier but I'll update the Rocklite thread with that The fretslots look as if they don't line up in this photo but they do (honest ) Marked out one of the fretboards for the Mother of Pearl markers. Here's what I did: Stuck a bit of masking tape over each fret gap to be inlayed. Marked the centre line of the board, marked the centre line of each fret gap. Marked the fret number on each inlay and the centre lines of each. Stuck masking tape to the bottom of each inlay and cut off the waste with a scalpel. Marked the position with a pencil of each inlay on the fretboard. Put a blob of superglue on the masking tape and put the inlay masking tape down on the fretboard and squared it off with a set square. Marked the fretboard with a scalpel very carefully. Peeled off the masking tape, the inlay and removed the masking tape from the bottom and put t hem carefully to one side. Tomorrow I'll rout out the inlay holes, I ran out of time today

Here is my contribution to the June 2018 Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by a picture chosen by last month's winner: Mornats. Not a good month for me; there are only strained, tenuous links to the picture (the 9/8 rhythm and the virtual 'cats'...). All Kontakt stuff: a 60's drum kit, a nice nylon guitar and some Blue 'singing', created in Reaper with minimal treatment, and mastered with AAMS, 'Country' preset. Modest; it is what it is. Thanks for listening, if you already have; if you're about to, enjoy.

Well, quite, but I came to this thread to watch/listen to a band I knew nothing about, and so gave it a go (otherwise why post these topics at all..?). It turns out that, like Lenny, I was, let's say,.. unimpressed, and chose to post in that vein. It's just my opinion, and for my part I have no wish to change the view of anyone at all, but it's comment on an open forum on a subject of interest to several. I'd have thought that all loyal views would be welcome, whether for or against. I'll post again in the same spirit on any similar subjects if I feel inspired to.

Hi everybody. I'm looking for some comments on choosing a new PSU for my pedalboard. I've been using a daisy-chain type 3A PSU that i bought from "effectpowersupplies.co.uk" almost 10 years ago and it still works fine but i'm up to 6 pedals now and i'm starting to get noise from lack of individual isolation in the outputs. My pedalboard is a Harley Benton, copy of a Pedaltrain and has space and fittings underneath for a PSU. It's this one: And here's a pic of the real thing: I've been looking in Thomann (it's better for me as i can get a joint order with the rest of the band and get free shipping) and i'm between these two PSU's: https://www.thomann.de/pt/harley_benton_powerplant_flex.htm : https://www.thomann.de/pt/harley_benton_powerplant_iso_1_pro.htm : I'm leaning for the second one, the ISO-1 as it clearly states that all outputs are isolated, not sure about the first one, no info on that. The powerplant Flex seems to have a better layout to link the cables though. So, what would the BC community choose? What are your thoughts about them? Does anybody has either of these and can make a small review? I'm also open to other sugestions that would fit in the pedalboard and won't cost much more than the cheapest pedal in that board Thanks for looking Marco

How about a British made GUS G3 or G5 bass? Ever so slightly different and head turning

Duh! Of course, Gibson QC is fantastic...

I've had numerous conversations with other bass players (and geetarists) about what draws them to particular instruments in the first place. It is surprising how many times you read/hear the comment, 'Ooh, that looks nice,' and the lust, the need, the craving for ownership starts from there, a wanting that kicks in without any perception as to what the instrument will play or sound like. I've been there (from the first time I saw Overend Watts with his white Thunderbird and Johnny Thunders with his Junior) and I've worn several t-shirts, but my desire to own my first Thunderbird was driven simply from the association and way it looked; I had no idea how it (or the dozen or so that followed) would sound or play. I got lucky.

Loafers? Must have belonged to Rob Royer (Bassist with Bread)

To me it looks sleek fairly simple and active and shell pink I’d pay 2k all day long if it sounds as good as it looks

24 frets look spot on, a wise choice aesthetically , I do like the demarcation veneer too, very classy on an all Maple neck

Jesus, can't a man buy a plushy pig....?

I'd get on better with an old kipper hanging off of my rear view mirror. Those air "fresheners" have a stench that really gets up my hooter.

The Manta works with a standard expression pedal if you hook it up to the hub (which is brilliant as it allows space for 128 presets across up to 5 SA pedals). The Xerograph Deluxe also takes a standard expression pedal. The version on here that sold (formally mine) simply lacks the extra footswitch present on the newest version which allows the expression to be switched in or out without having to remove the cable. Wonderlove has expression (with its own button on the newer versions). EHX Qballs Enigma has expression control and is a great filter. Moog MF-101 sounds amazing but has very limited envelope control but very flexible expression control. Massive form factor though.

Next time!

So it's essentially a Stingray masquerading as a Jazz Bass. Oh, and two too many knobs.

and me! Stones in Cardiff Friday Night, Gig Saturday night, 3 hour rehearsal with another band Sunday afternoon!

I tried to find the Rocklite thread in Basschat. No result. Is it in one of the, er, other fora? I lifted this from earlier in this topic.

Very impressive from your mom, but what about you? When was the last time you heard that song and why do you think it came back to haunt you like that?

I’d honestly suggest saving a bit more and getting a Source Audio Manta and an octaver. Obviously that’ll set you back more (£90 used for the Manta, plus similar price for a good octaver (of which there are many)). I must confess I’ve never played the Digitech. Might be worth looking at the Boss SYB-5 too; I’m pretty sure I’ve seen those go for £35.

And when doing this operate the switch several dozen times to make sure the cleaner gets in to the contacts of the switch and can work it's magic. New switches aren't that expensive do of switch cleaner doesn't work just swap out the switch.

My bad...

That's lovely. My 2007 JC is Peerless-made according to the serial number. The Peerless own-brand one looks like it has a shorter headstock and smaller tuners, so might even help tackle the neck dive a bit.

Finally got around to talking to Ashdown last week about the loud fan in my Retroglide. Spoke to Dave Green..he thinks the fan is ok, but the amp should really be in a bigger case, but he said send it in and there were things that could be done. Got it back this morning, fan is much less intrusive now, and certainly won’t be heard even in very quiet situations. No charge, just the cost of posting the amp in. So much better than phoning retailers/distribution and getting passed around...in one call I spoke to someone that knew exactly what was inside my amp 😎

Sign me up for anything in Tidepool. Beautiful colour!

While the performance is all very polished it bores me silly; it goes nowhere musically - it's just those 2 annoying chords with some very minor widdling over the top. And in common with everything I've seen from her it relies on a dance routine. Which is excellent for those that like that sort of thing - but I'm afraid I like the music to do the talking, all the extra froth is just a bit of polish. I'm afraid this music is lacking in cojones - but each to their own!

My Yamaha Bex4 sounds wonderful whatever I plug it into. I've always liked the playability of Yamaha basses and loved the look of the Bex4, especially the tobacco burst one, so snapped one up when it appeared on here. It had the same soapbar as in my BBG5s in a P position and a underbridge piezo so I reckoned it would sound alright but I'm blown away everytime I use it. Our soundman thinks it's the nicest sounding bass he's heard. Less than £300 as well.

This is my Bravewood jazz

Apparently, if Wikipedia is to be believed, Bob Harris has been running his Country Music show since 1998. On the whole I think Bob Harris plays pretty good music on his shows. He also champions live music so he's a good'un in my book.

New CHB for 2018 being painted as we speak. That flame though! 😍🔥

Soooooooo, I've been flying BA with my bass for the past 4 1/2 years (I work cruise ships) and always taking it as hand luggage. Last month, I got to check in as usual, and check my bags and they spot my guitar. Usually, I give them the, "it's at the cabin crew's discretion" line but she showed me the updated policy and told me it was up to me to check that before I flew. They forced me to buy a £205 seat for it or I don't fly and they can't check it as it wasn't in a hard case. It was in a Mono M80. I call my work and tell them my predicament. They're far from sympathetic. "We'll pay for it to be checked". This went on for a while. All the while, the lovely lady at check in is reminding me that check in closes in two minutes and I need to make my mind up fast. I handed over my credit card *big gulp*. On the phone, my work refused to pay for it. Tight cnuts. I got to plane and of the 130 seats, around 60 of them were filled. I stuck in bass in the overhead and the nice cabin attendant told me to contact BA and ask for a refund. I did with no avail. I passed on my plane ticket to claim it as an expense at work. If I do get my £205 back, I'll buy a bass safe for it. Lesson learned I guess. Just to reiterate what people have said here: DON'T EXPECT TO CARRY YOUR BASS ON THE PLANE ON BA. Oh, and I have all that to look forward to when I head home from this contract. FML.