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I work in the music industry. Why do I have so many? Because I'm passionate about my instruments as a player and collector.... and because I can :)

When you have this many basses you don't get through strings so quickly, so after the initial investment on a set per bass the replacements are fewer and further between! Strings going dead? Pick up a different bass! lol! 😂

Slightly off topic and with no G strings involved I spoke to Strings & Things (UK MusicMan distributor) recently and they said that if I register my Old Smoothie online for warantee I’ll get an extra few months and free gift in the post. The free gift turned out to be a nice tool kit worth about £46 (eek!). Nice touch, very impressed, big thanks to the Gentlemen at S&T 👍

I’m an SWR’aholic. There, I’ve said it, it’s out there and I feel strangely unburdened 😀 So as a few of you may recall, I own the daddy of all SWR amps, the SM-1500. This is an absolute powerhouse of a bass amp with 1500 real watts available if you ever need them, but that comes at a price, and that price is weight. A few years ago I was pairing the SM-1500 with either a Goliath Snr 6x10 or a pair of Goliath 4x10’s but eventually I learned that I didn’t need that type of stadium filling rig for my regular gigs and paired things back to a single Goliath, mated with an Aguilar AG500SC which is more than enough, even when headlining the Bulldog Bash to 4,000 last year. As a result, the SM-1500 lies idle most of the time in the man cave. But as good as the Aggy is, I still hanker for the SWR sound, and so I started to look for an SM-900. After a few wanted ads on here, I got a couple of leads but nothing that came to a purchase and then last night, whilst browsing a Facebook selling group I spotted what looked like a pristine SM-900 for sale in Holland. As luck would have it, I work in Holland Monday to Friday, and the SM-900 was unbelievably just 15km away from me. A few messages later and a swift trip up the road tonight and I own an SM-900 😎 Now all I need to do is ship it back to the UK and I’ll be one happy bass player.

Ok make that five...

I arranged them like that just to annoy you!

So much misguided hate... So Nick Rhodes might not be the greatest technical keyboard player in the world, but he's most definitely the right synth player for Duran Duran. In the same way that Adam Clayton is the right bassist for U2. I had a listen to Jordan Rudess, and while he's got plenty of keyboard technique I don't think much of his sound design abilities. He'd be completely wrong for Duran Duran. And if the OP thinks it's so easy why doesn't he apply for the role?

Hi I know you are moving on but, as a bass builder, just to put your mind at rest: it is exceptionally unlikely that the twist problem is anything you've done. My reasons for saying this: As folks above have said - with a single truss rod neck - in my view, the truss rod does not do anything about twist. It does not cause it and it cannot cure it. I'm pretty sure the Jazzus is a single truss rod neck. The truss rod adjustment is a routine event - especially with changing weather conditions. Adrian M explains this himself in Part 1 of his YouTube set-up guidance videos (which are good, by the way). He himself in that video adjusts the truss rod under full string tension. Adjusting with no string tension is also OK. Unless a bass has been left in exceptionally poor storage conditions (eg, I make an assumption it hasn't been left in a car in full sun in recent weather or anything of similar extremes) twist is usually an issue whose causes would have been already present in the timbers or construction at the time of building. It is entirely possible that this would have been undetectable at the time of making so it is not necessarily a sign of poor quality control. As the neck moves, through playing or through weather changes, those underlying issues can sometimes start to show. On a relatively new bass, therefore, I'm surprised that there is any argument other than to replace the neck FOC (I think the neck is bolt-on?). It is usually no-one's fault - but it is, in most likelihood, a fault in the bass.

He was good enough for Fender to release a signature keyboard 🤔😋

So after that little disaster I continued spraying through the day, cutting back with 800 grit between coats, the cutting back became easier and easier as the day went on. I got a total of 6 coats on which is more than enough for one day, they will be left now until Friday and I'll have a good look at them then and decide if that is enough or do they need more, they are looking very good at the moment but I'll see how they react to a bit of time to let some thinners evaporate or whatever it does Cut back after 3 coats today This was the fourth coat, starting to look good I thing

They're untidy - why are they not all perfectly lined up by number of strings, make, colour and size? *twitch*

Thursday afternoon we played "almost acoustic" at Rebellion festival. I'm on drums and the suggestions are "snare and brushes" or Cajon. Instead I took my snare, hi-hats, crash cymbal, and a kick drum contraption I made out of a tupperware tub, pedal, EQ pedal and noise gate. The soundman didn't look very impressed when I gave him the jack to DI but the audience loved it. Best reaction to a gig since we played the Arena stage at Rebellion a year ago. The following day we did the Pavillion stage with our normal full setup, and it was good, but somehow not as exciting as the Almost Acoustic thing - probably because we were just winging that one. Someone posted some footage on Facebook, I'll try to share it here: Last night I played bass for my mate down at the local open mic and that was just as much fun as having hundreds of people cheering for you!

Not at all. I only got it a few weeks ago just for fun really. Aside from the fact the bridge is total garbage, it's really good. You're welcome to pop over if you want once I get my new cab sorted.

I've watched most of Davey's videos - they're mostly pointless but fun nevertheless.

If I have to get my credentials out, would you at least draw the blinds first please?

I had a look around, Luke, and here's at least four Andyjr1515 bloopers All covered in gory detail in their respective threads My first acoustic guitar build. Lovely neck blank. Was really pleased with it: Slight problem. Wrong size. Had to make another neck blank Mick's Psilos Bass. I knew what I meant. Unfortunately, I comprehensively failed to explain to Mick what I meant. Had to make another neck Tom's African Bass. "Hmmm...did you hear something like a cracking sound???" Tim's Alembic-esque electric. Fretted, through neck. Almost finished. Problem was that, once I'd strung it up, I realised that the fretboard was too narrow and the strings slipped over the edge. Result - I had to de-fret, add binding to either side of the fretboard, refret, re-shape the neck to fillet in the new binding...and every erroneous step followed avidly by the thread followers And there are many, many more examples. To be honest, there aren't actually many builds where there isn't at least one 'oops' moment. And usually it's a really obvious and avoidable error. The only difference to my earlier builds is that I now: triple check stuff that would render a bass or guitar complete scrap before I let sharp metal anywhere near the wood. I reckon I make as many errors, but they tend to be smaller ones. have got better at working round issues once I've c****d them up! Does that make everyone feel better?

...yes, please verify your credentials or get the hell outta here. Big Poppa.

My home made radiusing rig isn't brilliant, but it does the job. I've clearly got something horribly wrong with my geometry because I have to offset the blank by 10mm off centre to get it to rout evenly on both sides of the radius Still - with that tweak it works well enough to be able to just finish it off with 15mins of a radius block after 20 mins or so routing down to final size. Based on that it used to take me a couple of days to radius a fretboard - and the radius was often highly suspect even after that - it's still progress and was well worth the time to draw it out and make it Then onto the G&W mitre box. Theoretically the scale should be 25 3/8" but I have a 25 1/2" template already - should be close enough as the guitar is going to be for my own use. Folks may have seen one of my previous threads where I scrapped a fretboard using this rig the very first time (please note @LukeFRC ) but, now that I've found a decent method of setting it up and securing everything from moving, it works well. So, I have a radiused and slotted fretboard: Next job is the neck, using the maple/walnut/maple offcut I found. But first, I must amend the title of the thread to avoid being lynched when everyone realises this isn't a bass and think I've been hoping no one would notice!

yes I was, didn't know he was closing, but like you, not surprised. Bit of a character is Jimmy, at a recent open mic he had a bandanna on his head, I said didn't know it was it was fancy dress you coming as a pirate, to which he replied "Better than coming as a c*nt" perhaps not the best at retail diplomacy though

Back in the workshop on my phone. Turns out the splurt was water not congealed nitro, it has evaporated away leaving next to no damage so an easy fix in the end. I’m feeling better now that was quite upsetting but I’ve learned something so that’s good!

My Spector NS2's get a lot of love - they just feel and sound perfect to me. I'd use my Spectors for everything if I could (and they'd nail them all) but I take the projects I do seriously in looks and sound so Lizzy tribute gets P basses, Hair Rock covers gets Hamers/Jacksons etc, 80's hi-fi pop gets Wals, disco functions get J bass etc etc

Not sure the truss rod offers much torsional rigidity, and aren't the lower strings (BEA) generally lower tension than the higher ones anyway?

I now feel slightly dissapointed that my TC-RH450 doesn't have a thrust control. There are many times I am sure I could have done with more thrust, and as we don't get invisible bears over here, that would have been perfect. I am sure there are times when there is just way too much thrust too. In fact I might have to make an effect pedal for some thrust control.

An excellent exercise in recycling, but they're real suds to play.

Well I just saw Jim’s show last night at the Edinburgh fringe and had no prior knowledge of his misfortune. We had seen that he was on and remembered him from about 25 years ago. The show was witty, enlightening, shocking and poignant and yes, I did laugh out loud quite a lot as he said to me on the way out. He can’t play at the moment- still working on making a fist with his left hand but ‘Bessie’ the bass does make an appearance on screen. His recovery, whilst nowhere near complete, is nothing short of remarkable so if your going to Edinburgh for the festival, turn up and give the man some well deserved support.

A synth legend. As well as playing, he was very creative and also heavily into the production. The sounds he brought to the first two DD albums brought so much atmosphere which allowed the rest of the instruments to shine against a lush background. Probably the hardest spot to fill in a DD tribute IMO.

I've not played seriously for years so there's no good reason to own near 70 basses 🙂 Then again I've no family or financial ties and since I've been sober can afford it so why not own 70 basses 😎

Not much to report today, 5 coats of clear gloss on the back and the neck. Do the fronts again tomorrow

There are no hard and fast rules and plenty of overlap where high gain overdrive can sound like distortion or low gain fuzz. "distortion dumps a portion of the signal to ground from the opamp feedback loop, and overdrive doesn’t" might be true for some circuits, but it isn't a general characteristic of distortion. Not all distortions use op-amps for one!

When I first moved to Warsaw I only knew a couple of musicians, so asked them to put me in touch with anyone who they heard might need a bass player. So, a week or so later I get a call and ask if I want to go and rehearse with a band. Sure! I arrive at the given address and it turns out to be a semi-derelict factory. Okay. There's a youngish bloke waiting outside for me and he helps me lug my amp out of the car and inside - it looks like a squat. After wending our way through a veritable labyrinth of dark corridors I find myself in a darkened room with a surly looking, multi-pierced person behind a 1000 piece drumkit and another guy with a BC Rich guitar and a full-on Marshall stack. This is gonna get loud, methinks. First up, they ask me to detune my 5 string down to a low G. Alarm bells! Then they give me a quick rendition of one of their 'songs': a 600bpm deathcore number, with the chap who helped me load in jumping around shouting "WOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!" into his microphone. Hmmmmm. I think I'm at the wrong gig here, but hey whatever I should be able to keep up with them. We thrash around for 5 minutes or so and they ask me what I think, to which I reply that I don't really think I'm the right man for the job. Shouty bloke assures me that I should hang around as their second vocalist will be along shortly and he is a much better singer. OK. Second vocalist arrives, we start another 'song', now there are 2 variations on the "WOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!" theme. Enough is enough for me, so I start to make my excuses and leave. On the way out, they ask if I'd like to join them for their next rehearsal - I politely decline, but being British say that whenever they are planning to gig let me know and I'll come along (as if). I enquire as to the name of their ensemble to which I get a reply of indecipherable Polish. How does that translate into English, I enquire, 'Nun's C*nt' they reply.

My old beloved Jazz Bass I bought second hand in 1982 has undergone some dramatic changes through the years. It started as a black maple neck bass. I took off the horrific lacquer and had it more or less just wood filled/plain wood for a lot of years. It was the heaviest s.o.b. out there, causing a slipped disc and back surgery for me. Some years ago I had a new very nice body made for it, chambered, with "tiger eye burst". But - I made a mistake: I didn't tell the luthier I wanted 70's bridge pup position, so it was a beautiful wall warmer for some years. Last year I bought a super nice single piece swamp ash body with 70's routing from www.guitarbuild.co.uk and today I let the old friend out in the sunshine again. No lacquer, just heavily Danish Oiled and polished, Hipshot KickAss bridge, the Swedish Lundgren single coil pickups and completely shieded and grounded. Even the pole pieces are grounded, so no buzz when touching them. Faraday cage, kind of... Well, here is my old friend, my first ever bass, revitalised and reincarnated... It is the same bass as in my avatar, but with the beautiful body, that now has a fretless neck...

Came across these on Facebook the other day and subsequently searched Youtube and there's plenty there too, absolutely awesome. Here's their version of Distant early warning:

Crazy. I’ve got a 100w valve head that would leave the Bugera in a pile of wreckage, not to mention the other ICEPower Diet Coke amps. I just ignore power ratings now. At least EBS tried to be honest with the Reidmar, but I bet sales suffered.

Thats the reason i dont have give shape in the back of the neck. I need it thick and strong.This press can deal huge damage if i aply huge force

My local is Andertons in Guildford. Friendly staff, internet price matching, decent gear selection (considering it isn't a dedicated bass shop) that includes Spector, accommodating with requirements/orders, excellent online site, a decent in-house repair tech, long opening hours and an extremely helpful guitar/bass section manager in Lee Voss. No complaints and I'm lucky to have them nearby....

I did a bit of work on a wee arduino project to implement presets on a Darkglass Vintage clone. I was really trying to see if I could improve on the implementation of the Tech21 preset functionality I'd seen in the VT bass deluxe I owned. Which was stinky poo... Not the sound, but the fact the position of the controls bore no resemblance to the actual preset settings! Having played around a bit I can see why it was done the way it was, but I wouldn't buy another pedal with that sort of preset implementation. As with many of my projects, I didn't get it finished, but I did enough to know while it's not difficult to do, I doubt my implementation, or anything like it, would be good enough for Doug's asthetic vision for Darkglass products. It's not in the same league of difficulty as what DG have implemented with their DSP work (it's probably around the same order of difficulty as the workings of their intelligent footswitches for their amps). I got as far as storing 3 different presets and recalling these values to a quad digital potentiometer. The issue is the design of the user interface. I was happy enough to implement mine with a single rotary control with integrated push button, a little 0.96" OLED display for indication of settings, 2 footswitches and 4 LEDs.

Rabbie is spot on--Technique & Tone. I read an article by Ray Brown where he said that guys like him were brought up--in the 1940's---in big bands and had to project to be heard. No amps in those days.--hence there tone and volume. He said that the guys today are brought up with amps. A big difference.

The thing is, it’s only TC that admitted it. Given the shared technology, I bet there’s a few others whistling on the sidelines, hoping no-one will notice.

Missed this entirely, but I'd be happy to play either bass. I've owned both, but moved the Lakland on. A whimsical decision, as usual - I'd be happy to own another. They're very good basses.

With that attitude they'll never build a client bass of local customers. Remember the best form of advertising is word of mouth. Give them what they want and they will come... Catering to nobody's needs is a surefire way to bankruptcy.

This is what's next, since the NRA is almost bankrupt they are getting into the music industry to get rid of old stock

That was a 1980 pre-EB. The finish was known as Root Beer. I bought it from the USA. The story behind it was that in 1980 MM were trying to get better exposure so they produced a number of basses for named artists. This one was allegedly made for Tom Hamilton, hence the gold hardware, although I was never able to prove it. It went to a new home in Denmark a few years ago. The scratch plate was fitted by a later owner although it still had its original black one. It was quite heavy.

I often wonder what my local music shop would say to me to encourage me to walk in their door instead of shopping online?

At least since its recyclable you won't feel so bad when it quickly goes in the bin.

Surely something "offensive" is something which is defined as contravening the overarching social/legal/personal/sexual norms of the day/region/person. So, I suppose, yes nothing is intrinsically offensive in a way that you might be able to apply a physical test to it - but only in the same way that nothing is intrinsically "red": that is simply a word which we use to describe a phenomenon that satisfies certain criteria. I'm not sure how useful it is focus on this point. Two thoughts occurred to me while reading through this thread, as a white male of just less than 40 with a very foreign name and 50% Asian parents: 1) As a youngster on holiday, the wee chap who came up to me and announced "you're a Paki" was using that language deliberately to offend, intimidate and injure. The word may not be intrinsically offensive but his use of it was deliberately so. Ditto the woman who came up to my mum in a shop, pointed at my dad and said "my father was killed by one of them in the war" (one of what? - no epithet was used but the insult is explicit.) 2) A more trite example. There are probably over 30 of us at work who share the communal milk. There are no rules applied to its use but if someone came in and used all of it to themselves every day, it would not make them a champion of libertarian values: it would make them a selfish oaf, unwilling or unable to see the consequences of their actions on others. Which is my long-winded way of saying that while I would in no way support a ban on any language that pub covers bands might choose to use, it has to be acknowledged that language is a phenomenally powerful tool, even a weapon, and those that use it indiscriminately (or childishly seek to offend simply for the sake of doing so) must be prepared to accept to the opprobrium of those with a broader scope of experience.

I think that the selling point is that a Stingray has a pretty unique tone, which works well in most genres. Coupled with this is that Musicman have always had a consistent build quality, something you can't really say about Fender over the years.

Hi guys and gals, I'm 38 years old and been a bedroom guitarist for 15+ years, until recently I was asked if I wanted to have a go at bass in a band. I though "why not, how hard can it be?". It's so similar but so different and I've well and truly been bitten by the bug! I sold my guitar amp and most of my guitars and currently have a Ampeg PF500 amp and a Yamaha TBRX605 and Sterling Sub5 bass. Playing bass is challenging me in a very different way than guitar, and I've definitely become a better musician. We haven't played any gigs yet but it's great jamming with other people, I wish I'd done it a lot sooner!