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Well then, after some two-ing and fro-ing with Andy via messaging and telepathy, the wonderful Andy dropped my Nemesis bass off today on his way to a pluck and slap fest bass bashing, so thanks for the detour Andy. How refreshing to put a face ( albeit one only a mother could love ) to reams of text over the months. What a lovely chap. Mr friendly, mr patient, mr craftsman. So, without further ado, and i guess if you've been a nosy bustard and stuck your hooter in the build threads, you've probably already seen it, so this could be a bit of a zzzzzzzzz for some. Or maybe not .. but here in all it's glory. Notice i didnt say ' she ' ... It's a bass and it's inanimate, guv For anyone who missed the spec : Aaron Armstrong custom build pup. Series / Parallel Hum cancelling / Single coil with 3 posish switch 250k + 500k switchable Schaller 3 way adjustable Unknown Tuners / buttons / string tree Last piece of English Walnut cut down many many moons ago by Scrumpy Mike's good buddy Merv. ( top face ) African Sapele ( back face ) Purpleheart Sandwich filler ( from Tesco finest range ) Pupleheart pup cover ( which AA built the pup into ) Purpleheart control cover Sapele ( i think ) knobs with Purpleheart caps and abalone or mop markers Weight 4.05 KG I thought my Rally Basso had a fab tone, but this has topped it. Quiet a variable tone monster considering it's a single pupper EDIT : forgot a full frontal.....

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Tony Butler... a lovely, charming and humble man. They say you should never meet your heroes, well I'm overjoyed to have met this one.

Four and a half hours after leaving I’m back after the Bash. I’m still stuffed with glorious food, everyone was lovely, my throat is a little sore after trying to talk over the thrum of a gazillion basses. I swore a lot today, mostly an uneducated man’s inarticulate exclamations of delight at @Jabba_the_gut’s astonishing builds, such great quality, so much so I have a new aim, to only own two basses, one fretted, one fretless, both short scale and both Jabba builds. Extraordinary basses, really just extraordinary. @scrumpymike and team run a great event I don’t know half the people I met (and swore at) and didn’t get to meet half the people there (who I didn’t swear at). Have I mentioned the food? A couple of points, @wrinkleygit had (imho although I wasn’t alone) the best bass in the building, a Jabba fretless, I swore an awful lot about that bass in particular, I was settled with the Rob Allen and now I’m considering selling it, I suppose that’s the way with musical instruments, you make your way, slowly, towards your personal bass nirvana but never really arrive... </esoterica> @Witters needs an Ibanez SRC6 in his life, don’t we all? More fun than eating sherbet dib dabs whilst on acid, ahem, although not quite as transcendental. Oh yes, before I forget, the food... A 346 mile round trip, worth every mile, see y’all next year.

Back home and unpacked from the SW Bass Bash. I have to say a big thank you to @scrumpymike and everyone who helped organise this event and all the lovely food - I'm leaving the first couple of weekends in April free in anticipation for next years bash! I've been looking forward to this event since it was announced last year and it was so nice to catch up with everyone I have met there previously and meet some new faces. You really couldn't ask for a more enjoyable day with a nicer bunch of people. Thanks again - it really is very much appreciated. I end up chatting to everyone for so long I actually forget to do things I planned to do - I didn't try half the amount of gear I wanted to and I missed getting a photo of @wrinkleygit's fretless bass alongside the fretted version I just finished building! Cheers again to @Rich for the couple of pieces of wood that will get recycled into bass necks sometime in the near-ish future. I also have to say thanks for all the positive comments I got on my basses and the surprised looks on folks faces when the tried the shortie basses!! Cheers and see you all soon! Jez

I think the phrase is ‘clucking bell’ I just tried @wrinkleygit‘s fretless, built by @Jabba_the_gut and (never thought I’d have to string these words together) it’s better than the Rob Allen! I’ll say it once more... better. I really don’t think he realises just how astonishingly good his work is, glad I’ve got one ‘in production’ they will soon be properly sought after. Genuine works of art.

@Frank Blank‘s acoustic corner ready for perusal...

The Great Big SW Bass Bash pedal! Rich donated it 3 years ago & I won it. I donated it last year & Woody won it. This year Woody donated it & you got it. No pressure

I would very much like to purchase one of @Jabba_the_gut‘s tiny travel basses - such fun, and so nicely put together! Loved the food - you could easily charge twice what you do @scrumpymike. Loved having the opportunity to buy bits from @Chownybass too - got me a bridge for my incredibly slow build. Also won a pedal in the raffle. - I love pedals! And thank you to @Andyjr1515 for the donation of a neck for my slow build and knobs for my Hohner Jack. Bought some mics from @Frank Blank a chuffed with those too. I like mics nearly as much as I like basses! Basschat is a great community.

@Frank Blank definitely won the long distance prize. There's dedication. @Jabba_the_gut's work really won the day for me. As Frank says, I honestly don't think he realises just how good his instruments are. Here is @Witters trying, as so many of us did, to work out how Jez managed to get such a dinky package to make such a good and BBBBIG sound. As ever, many many thanks to the wonderful Scrumpettes for laying on such an epic spread, and keeping me supplied with gallons of coffee! Last and definitely not least, thanks to @scrumpymike for organising yet another belting day. I raise my hat to you sir.

What a great day, excellent food, cracking company and some lovely bass guitars to fondle. @wrinkleygit's @Jabba_the_gut-built fretless is truly special, I actually fell in love today.

Just got back and unloaded. Another brilliant south west food bash for bass players I so want a bass like this:

Just got home so let me be the first to thank Mike & the Scrumpettes for a brilliant day once again, the food was to die for with a special mention to the rhubarb crumble & clotted cream. Oh & apparently there were some basses there as well.😉

I watched it. As far as being one bass player's personal opinion on he achieves his own personal tone i have no issue with it. In terms of his opinions being passed off as 'essentials' for bass tone I thought it was just another case of opinion being passed off as fact. There is nothing from his free videos that would encourage me to pay money to obtain any of his knowledge. I'm happy that he has managed to build up a successful business but I just really don't gain any insight or enjoyment from his videos. I have slowly managed to block SBL from my social media mentions, but I still see SBL posts here on BC. When I see them I can't help but watch (it is like a drug). For my own sanity I am going to pull myself away from all SBL discussions and would ask the mods on this site to give me a warning if I so much as comment on another SBL related topic.

Slightly better full frontal ...roswood boards dont like flash much , so i see. Makes 'em look a bit weird

Sounds like a brilliant day, I'm looking forward to my first Midlands BB!

Only just got back from the fabulous SW Basschat Bash but wow - what a review I'll post the clip tomorrow if I can work out how to get the blighter OFF the aforesaid oldish iphone. And many thanks, once more, to @fleabag for such an interesting project And hope today's non-bass related challenges went OK, Pete!

Mentioned elsewhere, but that is STUNNING! Congrats matey, and I once again dof my cap to @Andyjr1515 Eude

Another great bash! highlights for me :- Frank Black's Godin acoustic (& special medal to Frank for distance travelled!). Yorks5stringer's restored to its near original condition Fender Tele bass (again, its a great bass). Woodinblack's beautiful Ibanez 5 str. Japanaxe's Dingwall Super P, Demeter Amp & Portaflex Amp, very lively sounding. Jabba_the_gut's teeny weeny travel basses, brilliant fun to play. MoJoKe's new Markbass Classic Amp, filthy sounding thing. Meeting Tony Butler, lovely humble interesting bloke The company of all you basschatters & a buffet of smashing grub. Cheers, Norm

Great day, folks! Thanks to all involved in organising, preparing and running everything. I found plenty to lust after/consider for future purchases/wish I could prepare food like that! Great to meet everyone, too! hmmm....Ibanez src6 @Frank Blank ?

Amazing day - thank you @scrumpymike and everyone who made the whole thing possible. Played my first ever short-scale - the @Chownybass SWB-1 fretless 😮 I think I'm in love.

If we're going to have a skinny-string interloper, at least it was a good (and very cool) one

Great event again and nice to meet up with some old and not so old friends. Big thanks to Scrumpy MIke and all his acolytes and also to all the nice people who brought gear to try and those on the trade stands too. I manged to snag a rather nice Chowny as well!

Oh and not to mention the raffle! Can't quite believe my luck 🙂

I second that emotion!

Bearing in mind what he said about YouTube the other day, I'm surprised he didn't make even crazier claims for clickbait. It's the way YouTube works, don't blame him for it - and don't confuse this stuff with his actual lessons.

Nah, Canadian maple and Rosewood board and fillet. I wouldnt lick it - its full of Andy oil

Culturally we tend to blame people for their mental health. His mental health appears to be part of the problem of both the backlog and his apparent aggression. It’s tough. Had the guy been fighting cancer for ten years, been in and out of hospital and was able to say ‘it’s the chemo, it makes me aggressive’, things would probably have been different.

Set the neck straight, or with a slight bow. The preference is yours, to allow you to flow, Be gentle with the rod as you twist and tweak, one false move and it’s unbearable to speak

Listened to this tonight. It has been a while, but what an album. Terrific musicianship, song writing and superb vocal performance. It is my desert island disc without question. This has got to be one of the best debut albums of all time IMO. . Listening to this tonight on vinyl using a decent Turntable. Shockingly good and very moving. Sad that such a magical performer was taken so young.

Some like it high, but for some that’s a battle, so they set it low and try to avoid rattle. 😁 Having tried a few Fender Ps in my local GG the other day, I suspect the highness of the Fender specs is to allow for poor ex-factory set ups; some of them seemed ridiculously high to me.

Correct setup sequence is nut height, neck relief. Then string height via the saddle, if the saddle is at its minimum and still the string height is too high only then should the neck tilt adjust be used (or a shim added on non tilt adjust instruments). After all this then intonation adjusted. Adding neck tilt should be kept at the minimum required for correct saddle adjustment. Too much tilt and the string to fretboard angle changes to much in relation to each other and it becomes harder to get a low action.

I predict a Jabbass feeding frenzy. And given the aesthetic quality of his builds I have no reason to believe that all the other aspects of his builds are fine and dandy. I am looking forward to checking them out in the Midlands bash.

Apologies, will do, I hope it doesn't say annoying adverts will ruin your every moment on BassChat 😉 Eude

Just watched it and thought it was pretty good overall.. Unless my ears are completely deceiving me, I think Scott made a fairly honest comment about active eq, saying it gave you a 'different' tone, not a 'better' tone. Obviously, he's strongly in favour of passive basses so he's biased his comments in the video that way which, to bass players who are newer to the game, is probably a little unfair as they need to work through that themselves in their own time and their own way IMO. But I do think Scott is making a useful point (despite his inherent bias) if you take the whole of his comments about tone into consideration. The video is helpful because it stresses how all the elements in the signal chain contribute towards achieving a great tone and that its particularly important to understand how to use the various eq tools you have at your disposal to their best advantage.. So for example, if you have a powerful active eq circuit on your bass, powerful eq controls on your amp and even more eq options in your pedals and FX units, then it's very possible to over use all those tools to the detriment of achieving a great bass tone. That's a simple yet valuable observation that's worth pointing out IMO, along with his comments about changing your strings and how you use your fingers.. The only other thing I think about the video is that Scott left out compression as one of the important elements in his list.

Scrumpy Mike's lovely headless bass: Charlie and a shortie bass The quiet moment when everyone was eating!!

So gutted I missed this today, it looks like you've all had a marvellous time. Sooooooo….next year then?

It was actually the reason I bought tickets! I couldn't believe it was still on the table when I walked up.

Well the elixir one doesn't seem so bad anymore We're working on it I promise! But waiting to hear back and unless they're slow replying I don't want to take it offline so that they can debug it. After a short settling in period we should start to see much more relevant ads too. More inline with what the site is actually about, or in cases even the particular thread

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Damnation. Someone did. Me. Simply couldn't resist.

Here we are guys! I'm posting some clips Please don't judge the bass player, but only the sound. It's all a first take record, so forgive the mistakes! I'm uploading 2 Funk Lite clips because at my normal setting it sounded a bit dark, it's the main problem with the audio clips, all these pedals sound broader when amplificated Funk Lite.mp3 Funk Lite 2.mp3 Fwonkbeta 2.mp3 Wonderlove.mp3

i think you just answered your own question 😁

Gotta applaud his honesty... 😆😆 https://www.facebook.com/groups/guitarexchange/permalink/2221801644566124/?sale_post_id=2221801644566124

I once heard a (probably untrue) story about an interviewer asking Phil Lynott if he regretted never breaking America. 'I regret never getting to sh@# Kate Bush' says Phil, 'but what can you do?'

I like it - it looks mental. 😃

A brief example to go on with. There really are so many variables for getting a tape saturation tone on this pedal. There are two internal jumpers that affect the tape saturation and I've removed neither at this stage. I've mixed a 3.5 :1 regular compression in with the tape sat. on this quick snippet, the tape sat and parallel compression both at about 50%. I used a Sandberg VS4 with worn in Fender flatwounds and passive EMG Geezer Butler pickups. The first half is the pedal bypassed and direct, the 2nd half is the Stella with Tape Sat. The range of the saturation increases with a hotter input and removing jumpers for low or/and high pass might be desirable to some.

Without punk, you'd have had no new wave, no Seattle sound, no what I like to call "The Matrix" music... Hell's custard, I've actually bored myself sick already! 😬