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Ten strings sell but who's buying? 💀

All the more headstock to smack mr mustaine with The punishment due? 😂

All of it. The HX software models are (IIRC) 4 to 6 times larger than the old tech. Far more detail in the modelling process. Apparently down to modelling each individual component in the signal path rather than just trying to model what comes out of a speaker.

All finished and back together, just a quick little project 😀

Hi all. I’ve just put together this little home rig and I’m super pleased. I purchased the empty Ampeg mini stack cab first, then picked up two old Trace Elliot speakers on EBay that used to live in a 1048 TE cab. Finally I took the plunge and purchased the Hotone Thunder Bass head. The whole thing sounds amazing with my P basses and the tone is superb and would make a great recording set up too. Super pleased with this rig and the head has a surprising array of tones. Cheers all

I'll be playing a favourite venue on Sunday. It's a festival held in the centre of a local small town between here and Swindon. Faringdon has held its annual 3 day Follyfest for some time, the Wirebirds will be making their sixth consecutive appearance there this Sunday, when we bring the festival to a close. We don't get paid to do it, parking is a pain, but the audience is always great, and there's a good PA and a well organised team to run everything. The summer wouldn't feel quite right without our annual pilgrimage to Faringdon.

These basses, contrary to my initial misgivings, sound very good indeed and the light weight and new contours promise a much more ergonomic Stingray. However, I don't like black hardware on a traditional 4 string Stingray. I'm not keen on ebony fingerboards either. Or sparkle finishes.And the white ones are the wrong shade of white to go with the roasted maple. The overall reaction to how these basses look has been very positive, but i am struggling to find one I could live with, to be honest. I don't like the bridge, either. No Stingray really looks right without the big old-style mute bridge. I will still probably buy one, anyway. And then not be happy with it.

In a previous life, I worked as a sound engineer at a venue in the UK. It would have been mid 90's when a band turned up with four keyboards and a drummer with an electronic kit. As usual, I gave them time to set their stage and then wandered over to cable up. I remember thinking to myself, they're just sat around here relaxed and they haven't even bothered to bring their amps on stage..! This was my first real introduction to IEM. They did their own mix on stage and required only one mic for chatting to the audience, no vocals for the songs. It was one of the easiest gigs I've ever done. I went on stage during the soundcheck (having turned off FOH) and the only noise was the drummer hitting the pads. Quite surreal... And no mike bleed from coughs, sneezes and farts...! Getting back to the thread, I've been using an amp and vocal processor for a couple of years now. I haven't used an amp onstage for years. I recently bought a Line 6 module for amp sim and use it with either my Bose array pa or an RCF powered cab, the ART 310a. I can easily switch from acoustic to electric guitar. OK, time to fess up, I dont play bass.!! It's been a revelation to me, much easier to pack in the car and much more consistency at the gig. It's a million miles from you guys with Kemplers and Helix, but it works for me. Great thread by the way..!

Boards of Canada. loving the moods of it

I got the bass back from Laurence Dixon (The Bass Place, Herne Hill) today. He installed a Realist pickup (at my request, and in addition to the existing one), replaced the bridge with an adjustable (again at my request), shaved & profiled the fingerboard to match the new bridge, sorted out the twin soundposts so that they are correctly positioned and work properly, and did some corrective work on the end-pin structure. His work was every bit as good as Clarky told me it would be, and the bass is instantly far more playable and more comfortable to play. It also sounds noticeably better. I wanted the Realist since the existing pickup arrangement did a great job of picking up the sounds of the strings and of the slapping, but disguised (almost completely) the sound of the oil-drum. The Realist picks up far more of its sound from the resonating body and that means that you can actually hear the aluminium. All I need now is to run the two outputs through a blender and I will be able to control how much oil-drum the audience hears. The adjustable bridge allows me to switch between a rockabilly setup and a blues/jazz setup at will. The rest of the work was, frankly, remedial. As I mentioned before, Dave Gartland is not a professional DB luthier and he doesn't claim to be one. The bass as delivered had a few flaws which were easily fixed (well, "easily" by someone like Laurence), plus one which it is stuck with. As far as I'm concerned, it is now fully giggable and I'm looking forward to doing exactly that. I'm also expecting a fair bit of trepidation from any sound engineers who have to deal with it ...

My offer was accepted. Personalised orange bass on its way for mr orange.......

My favorite place is a small bar called Aribas. Here's why; 1. It's a great sounding room. Low ceilings and carpeted flooring. 2. The bar is right next to the spot we play in, no stage. 3. The crowd is primarily made up of live music lovers. The average age is probably 65. These folks were probably Hippies back in the 60s and love the vintage 70s based blues & rock we play. I love the place. Blue

'Frolicking' comes across more as a triplet, don't you think? I've heard that some people think us bass players are a bit weird. Can't imagine why. Edit: Douglas beat me to it. See, that's two of us think it's a triplet so we must be right.

Voted. I may as well produce certificates for everyone, right..? (... although, to be fair, they'd be merited...)

My work here is done. 🎸🔊🙂

The HD500X is a country mile behind the HX models though.

No. This one.

To be fair, there is a nut.

Thanks everyone. Going to get some D'addario pro steels today and see how it goes...

Arguing over string choices, is this TB?

I don’t listen to much classical music, mainly due to my own lack of knowledge. I like what I like, but it’s such a broad umbrella covering so many genres and sub-genres it’s difficult to know where to start. I feel the same about jazz to some extent too. So I’ve been exploring and last week I came across Vaughn Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending’, which I think must be one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard. Hearing it led me back to Górecki’s Symphony No.3, which I am familiar with and is similarly enthralling.

It’s the drums that make you tap your feet, the bass that makes you swing your hips. To my knowledge it’s only Penguins that tap their feet as a come-on.

Yes, I remember the endless debates about Geddy Lee switching between his 4001 and his Jazz, and how he clearly unmistakably used the 4001 recording tom sawyer, as it sounded so much like it and he used it in the video. Until he came out and said it was recorded using the jazz.

Be prepared for a massive long queue to try the WB100!

Get In! 😂 The jokes not the bass. Though I loved Dave was I was a young metal head so if he's happy then good for him.

Hello Peter, Saw you first playing with The Shortlist many many years ago, and then with Buddy not quite so many years ago at Wilbarston Village Hall (rather posh as village halls go). Special Kudos for building your own basses!

Orange. My favourite colour. And being my surname I must surely add it to the collection......

Sold Bas a Bananana M, very easy transaction. Have now covered buying and selling with him and all good.

... but be warned: I'm a drummer, so what would I know..?

Just to be clear... The legal threats only concerned fake Rics, new or second-hand, but it was made clear that pursuit would follow even if the posted ad was of a supposedly genuine Ric that turned out to be bogus, a fake Ric that we (the site...) wouldn't be able to distinguish. 'Good faith' was not, apparently, a protection, so the decision was taken to not take the risk, and forbid any and all Rics. That way, there's no question of its authenticity being questioned, and zero risk of breaking the law. New or second-hand made no difference; any ad for a fake Ric would lead to a legal action.

Yeah I much prefer playing to my P the action is nice and low and the neck is nice and quick, even though its set up the same as my P it just feels better to play I've just got to sort out the electrics as it on a solderless harness and 1 of the ends came off when I was stripping it down to spray 🤬

I'm in. Live nearby and can provide a small PA if needed.

The Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray. I've never listened to it before.

which album? good to see there are at least a few bods around these parts who like a bit of electronica

I rather doubt it! I suspect that also applies to fakes only.

THere's also a few odd time signature playlists on Spotify that might be worth sitting down with and playing through, again, just to immerse yourself in some 'popular music' that isn't 4/4 Si

what about p455w0rd?

It's actually a radius at infinity (distance) that is flat, not zero degrees if you consider it for a moment. Radius is a distance from the centre point, not an angle.

Absolutely they can sound different. My old ‘73 P sounded totally different with the BBOT compared to the Schaller that replaced it. FWIW a preferred the sound of the BBOT, but it was bloody uncomfortable. A lot depends on your ears though. Many people I know can’t tell my 2 basses apart sonically and to me they’re quite different.

Yes, but they're not valve watts, are they?

I`ll add to this, I bought a Vintage Tony Butler Sig V4 a few months back, and played it with my band for the first time this week. And to say I`m knocked out by it would be an understatement. Usually when I play any Precision other than my US 2012-15 Series ones I find myself noticing that I`m not playing one of those, if that makes any sense. Well with the TB V4 I didn`t notice it at all playing wise. I might have to adjust the height of the pickups a tad, but sound-wise it was "there"! This is one of those basses that you just think, wow, how is it so good for that amount of money - I paid £120 second hand, but new they`re only £250 - £300, in comparison to £1200/£1300 for the US ones when they were on the market. I do prefer my US ones but this TB V4 comes very very close. So much so I`m def going to use it as my overseas/flight bass, to save flying with an expensive US Precision. Now irrespective of cost I wouldn`t do that unless it was a bass I was comfortable with, I`d prefer to take the risk with the expensive bass. I`m actually thinking of getting another and just gigging these all the time I`m that impressed. The only mods I`ve done/will do is a Hipshot triple-retainer to keep the pesky A string under control (not that it did misbehave, but to eliminate the possibility), and may well put a KiOgon loom in there, think that the electrics may be the weaker part of the bass if there is one, though sound-wise it doesn`t seem that way. These might not suit everyone, the neck is a real cricket-bat-chunker, and being a Precison, well it sounds like one, so if you don`t want that sound then it`s probably not the right bass for you, but given this one-time purchase of a Vintage instrument I`d say it`s worth checking out their range. I`d read before about pros who claim to "love their Vintage" and thought it was just marketing/cos they`d been given them. I`m not so sure now, I reckon it`s because they`re great instruments, irrespective of price/value.

My new custom overdrive has arrived. All in all it is two complete Nightfall units, with all controls on each channel, and the possibility to use A or B or cascade A into B. Also switchable via stereo tele jack from my Boss ES8 switcher. Sounds very nice!

I've played funk on mine. In fact I've played pretty much everything on mine. They don't have to do "that" sound. Having said that I love "that" sound (although there are actually many variations on it; Squire doesn't sound like Foxton, who doesn't sound like Lemmy, who doesn't sound like Glover etc). Most of my favourite bass players are Ric players, or have been in the period where I most liked their sound. I also love how they look and feel (although some years more than others). I've never really understood why people get so worked up about instrument (a) or instrument (b), as if the instrument has somehow offended them by existing. They're tools, and if the tool works for you, great, if it doesn't, find another.

Good work...I bet any prospective will be hard pushed to see the repair.

Well hello chaps, I thought I'd better say hello and explain Bridgehouse's pickup as I'm the person who designed and wound it :-) My business involves a hell of a lot of pickup rewinds (as well as building new pickups), and the most common bass pickup to need my ministrations is that 'certain classic California-made' bass we are discussing. It's always had me thinking that it's kinda an object lesson in how to break the mould in bass pickup design ... because it's actually built pretty much the opposite way to the way you'd expect to produce bass tones. It's thin bobbin and super fine wire combined with relatively low output is really poles apart from the tall bobbin, thicker wired P Bass and J Bass. There are plenty of guitar pickups that use the squat bobbin approach: the P90 and the Jazzmaster are two notable ones, and they instantly sound different to taller bobbin pickups like Strat ones. My instant thought was to replicate the tones Bridgehouse was looking for (without tons of extra EQ) a 51 P Bass bobbin was too tall and would accentuate too much treble over mids. So I fired up the laser cutter and produced a custom bobbin of exactly the same winding area as the ... um ... Californian bass, and sat it atop a ceramic magnet ... filling it to 14k with 44awg wire. As a finishing touch I added adjustable dome head steel poles. Now does it sound exactly like the original? I popped it briefly into my bass pickup test guitar (a P Bass partscaster with a dirty big central rout) and gave it a little go ... I ended up with a big smile. Not an exact ringer, but a lot closer than I've ever got with a Precision and no EQ. I'll leave it to Bridgehouse to do some sound samples ... but I'm pleased I proved a bit of a concept, at least to myself.