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SO chuffed! I was the only bidder and won a Maruszczyk Elwood L 4A and picked it up this afternoon. Couldn't be happier! Super lightweight but perfect balance, insanely good build quality, Delano pickups, Glockenklang preamp and in a gorgeous natural finish that feels fab. All for under £600? Very happy with that! Came with the case and all the candy including a set of strings too. Pics to follow in the morning. Can't wait to crank it through my gigging rig - first low volume noodlings are very promising indeed. Cheers, James

Will the excitement never end?! Bridge is on. Don’t ask about the black screws...so mundane is the story I cannot even be bothered...in a side note, chrome screws on the pickup now...as it should be.

Here’s some pics, though...

And you don't want to buy from a dealer with a bad Attitude.

My first self built bass. I bought a fretless neck and a loaded body from here and sourced the other bits from ebay. Finally got around to building it today but made a school boy error. I forgot to buy the strings. Our own Gary Mac is doing the honours so I should be up and running next weekend. I've not played fretless since the '70's so it will be interesting to so how it goes. Anyway, there's the picture.

I've cut a new fretboard for this bass and this time I measured twice and cut once!! The previous neck was 31.5" with 24 frets, for the new neck is 29.5" and obviously has to fit in the same neck pocket and the bridge has to be in roughly the same place. So this works out as the replacement neck being 22 fret for it to fit correctly. As the chance of me getting the intonation exactly right having not tried this scale length before I think is minimal, I'm removing the original brass inserts for the bridge and filling the holes so I can repositioning it later. I'm also going to redrill the holes for the string anchors as I have a better version I'm going to install. This is done by widening the top 4mm of a 10mm hole to 12mm diameter. to do this I have a small piece of mdf with a 12mm hole in it that is placed over the original hole. One of the string anchors is used to centralise it before clamping the template in place. This is the body with the brass inserts removed Then this the body with the holed infilled The body had also picked up a very small dent which I sanded out. I tried refinishing but couldn't get it to match so I sanded the finish off the walnut and started to finish it again. Fussy, but I want it to be right This is the body with the topped sanded and the string anchors holes redrilled.

Good choice.

john martyn some people from grace and danger easy to learn and super expressive

Is possible that your band mate may be even less keen on that scenario than you are. 😐

Mine arrived Thursday too, best £16.50 I’ve ever spent. What a collection - I thought the John Entwistle book was good, but Geddys is amazing!

My SB2 is shod with thomastic. I tried my newly aquired SB1 with flats that were on the bass and in the end changed to rounds. Theres soomething nicely aggressive about the sound with rounds.

There's more to the story which is why I had no problem taking the money. Blue

And here be pics:

yeah, ain't gonna work with my ELF mini rig with one or both 1 10"s hehe

Slick stuff from Cory and his band. B Slade with the amazing laid back Sharay on bass. He reminds me of KRS1

Great guys and we've been using their stuff for about a year now: Map Bass, Airline 3P and Rivolta Mondata in the band. We do have a casual non-endorsement relationship with them so feel free to take this whole post with salt to taste, but I'm happy with the quality on all the stuff we got and none of it was special order or anything. Wouldn't be using or defending it otherwise. General thoughts on the Map Bass are that it's incredibly heavy but also possibly the deepest bass I've ever played. Get a lot of other players asking if I'm using a sub octave or something but it's just a very strong fundamental and a lot of output and low end. In fact there's so much low end that I struggled a bit to start with but after lowering the pickups it's now got a nice vintage growl to it. Still very high output and I have to severely rein the gain in on my pedals to keep it clean. We went up to the demo day they did last year with most of the range in and I was impressed with all the higher end stuff. Lot of nice decorative touches across the range that you wouldn't find on a Fender of similar price but the lower stuff definitely felt like it could do with a setup. They're very interesting guitars and get a lot of attention - lots of other players and audience members asking what they are.

Things have really picked up out of nowhere with all these acoustic gigs. Well, not really out of nowhere. I have a suspition about why I started getting these acoustic offers. I played Cafe Soeurette Saturday night from 7-10 ,great hours and a nice engaged crowd. I'm playing a Sprecher Micro Brewery gig this Saturday night. I also found out my primary band will be opening for a national headliner at a large country festival this summer. 3 weeks ago I had nothing. Blue

Sorry, I can't see the repair...are you sure you posted the pics in the right order???

John Hall is looking well 🤭

This was all a bit of a whirlwind romance. I only found out about her yesterday and here we are happily ensconced in my room already. A Trace Elliot BLX 110 which sits daintily beneath my trusty Series 6 head and makes it sound like a normal bass amp but with honey on. Not light, not by any stretch but the easiest lift of any TE cab I've ever owned. Two of these would make for the most adorable and Tracelicious stack ever seen. I have a 210 coming to sit beneath but honestly I think that will be overkill. I know the trend will be away from back line in favour of the Sony Walkman, or whatever young folk use these days, but luckily I'll be dead and buried long before it catches on. In the meantime I'm going to gaze adoringly at my green and black beauties, and sigh with contentment every time I hear that deep satisfying badouff as I flick the power switch to on.

I was in Sunderland last weekend, could have picked up the yammie then. I've never had good experiences with peeps on gumtree.

Really sorry to hear about the OA Mark, that's rough.

yes, nothing beats playing originals. I love the feeling when you write a bassline that is more than roots-third-fifth-octave, though some or all of the aforementioned are used , of course. are you going to be recording anything soon? I'd like to hear you.

Will obviously remunerate your for time and fuel/effort. Hope it’s still there!

And @Al Krow this is up for sale in Liverpool.

I would take a fair guess and say that most bass players have never owned or played an alembic bass. Probably most have never seen or heard one live on stage outside the big named pro users like like Stanley Clarke or Jimmy Johnson. A lot of the negative views I have come across regarding alembic be that on line or in person conversations with other bass player are centred on cost and not the sound or playability. Although some find the ergonomics less than suitable like for instance the stanley clarke style basses are neck heavy but that can be compensated for with a good strap and time getting used to the instrument. Personally I don’t gig, rehearse or record with any other bass than an alembic. For me they give me the sounds and the playing experience I want. For some owners they find the sound is not for them and sell them on and that is fine we don’t all have the same tonal requirements. In the past I did swap the electronics in one of my alembics with some ACG filter based electronics but I found whilst they were extremely good I somehow lost the punchy power in the lower mids that the alembic gave and the upper frequencies I found a bit harsh so for the music I was playing it didn’t work out for me. I have since put the alembic guts back in that bass and it suits me better. Over the years I have since tried a number of other high end basses like Fodera, Ritter, Wal and some custom shop fenders which all sound great but I haven’t found anything in them that I feel would make me choose them over my alembic. Of course we know they are not cheap to buy new even the entry level basses but if that is an issue there are used bargains to be had on the usual internet sale sites. One crucial thing to do if buying used amongst other things is to get the serial number and check it out with Alembic, there are a few fakes/copies around especially the Epic basses and also ask for photos of the electronics cavity as some have non alembic innards that the owner may never realise and the cost of getting a new set from Alembic ain’t cheap. When you get them post them on the alembic site www.alembic.com and ask form verification, there are lots of members there who can save you hassle. Contrary to another poster on this thread, I have found them really easy to set up even though it has two truss rods, and have never taken mine to a tech to have a setup done for me. There is some good information on the Alembic website forum.

Well, I'm no longer a Sandberg virgin, having spent some (good) time with a couple of 48s in Glasgow's Guitar Guitar. The shop was pretty quiet, and the bass department downstairs was pretty cool... I saw a couple of Gibson Thunderbirds as soon as I got there, but nah, not for me, I didn't even try them. The Sandbergs were both very similar, I really liked the neck on both, although the red one was marginally nicer. It may be a thinner neck than what I normally go for but there's meat in that neck. I loved it, it felt great. Soundwise... the 2-band is adequate, nothing more to add. I was using a Mesa D800 with a couple of 112 Subway cabs, which is the closest to what I normally use that they had in the store. I loved the sounds they made. It was good to compare two, as they had slightly different setups and aged strings etc, so they give me a bit better idea of their 'sonic territory'. The bridge humbucker is *very* good. Really nice thick sound, full bodied... and the neck pickup is very very Precision-like. Just what I was hoping for based on what I could get on Youtube, but a bit better (the right amp helps, no doubt). Both had Delano pickups. Neck profile and dimensions, sounds... That was great. Now, the not so great. Balance: not perfect. With that design I was not hoping for perfection, but at the same time I was hoping to be wrong. The neck does pull down a bit, on both instruments. But I have to say, it was very minor compared to what I was expecting and it's something I can live with easily. The worst part is how long the neck feels. It's the ONE thing making me pause and think about it. I played both for a fair bit, standing up, trying to imagine how I'd feel playing it for a whole gig... can't be sure. I don't know. I'll have to sleep on it... Teo at the store was great, he got my details and is going to figure out what it'll be to place an order for the bass configured the way I want it, with the same neck profile as the red one, and we'll see... He thought they could get the bass in 3-4 months only, which I was surprised about. Hmmm. It sounds so good, 'though, and it's a great looking bass. But... I'm not sure... I'd hate to stop using it once the honeymoon period is over just because the neck feels a bit too long. Hmmm. Of course, now I'm thinking if I don't get this I would probably want some kind of VM Sandberg... I should walk away from this forum.

That's great but i cant help but wonder if Cory took getting in the 'Marvin' mind set a little to literally !

+1 to that, as also an Alembic and Wal owner Mine's an early one; a 1976 S1 long scale. Love it, but have to admit I tend to use more for recording than gigging. We're so familiar with the design now, but when you think what was around when the first Alembic basses came out, they must have seemed from another planet.....

One of the reviews actually said that the E and A string appear thicker than the D and G!

I have an old Behringer V-amp Pro that I got 2nd hand and I've never had a reason to use so it can go on the raffle prize table as well.

I watch a lot of Queen and bass related videos on You Tube, so it randomly threw this at me today. Did make me laugh....

I know it's frustrating, but it's just the way things are manufactured now. It's a throw away society. You cant win. Either a new board is expensive in relation to the cost of the amp, or the part is cheap but the labour of diagnosing and fixing is expensive. Got to put a mention Ashdowns way. I'm sure they pride themselves on their amps having serviceable parts, so they can always be fixed. The old school ways are the best sometimes.

I have more industrial options if I have someone to lift in and out of the car for me

Finally found one. I bought one of these from Peter Cooks shop in Hanwell (from Peter himself) in about 1986/7. Traded it in at my local store a few years later and missed it so much that I bought it back. Finally traded it in London in 1990 for an old white P bass (that I've still got). I decided that I wanted another but they weren't made for long and they really are few and far between. Of course I've found one, literally, on my door step. Previous owner did his last gig 10 years ago and removed the batteries to stop them leaking. So it's been in its original case, unused, for the last ten years. It's in incredibly good condition. neck pickup not working (not when I tried it but it's ok now) and not checking the actives means I got it for £440. He was happy that it's gone to a good home. Pics to follow, (it's still a bit dark) It plays like butter. Seriously low action. It was last given a set up and fret dress by the late Tony Zematis. Can't think when I'm going to get any chance to gig it because it won't work in my Police Tribute!! (perhaps I should start a Duran Duran tribute, I know a bloke who looks just like Simon le Bon and can't sing, so he'd be perfect---it's a joke BTW , I love D/D)