Leaderboard

my rig

Not forgetting Episode 4 (string) - A New Hope. The one where everyone realises they should have just stuck with that P bass in the first place and saved themselves a fortune.

Good evening all. After a long wait this finally showed up today. A brand new Fender Deluxe Jazz Bass Special Duff McKagan signature bass in black! I've only had an hour or so play time but first impressions are it's bloody gorgeous! Out of the box it plays well but I will probably lower the action to my personal preference and the Hipshot D-tuner needs some adjustment. Neck pocket is tight with no visible gap, paintwork is flawless on both the body and back of the neck. Fretwork is superb with no sharp ends. The nut width is definitely P Bass width 42mm and the thickness of the neck front to back feels deeper than my (now sold) 2017 MIM P Bass. Soundwise, loving the pickup switch and TBX tone circuit. It seems very versatile and just has so much grunt when you push the tone past the centre detent and engage the TBX circuit. With my EBS Multicomp and Darkglass B7K V2 it's all I need to give me the bass sound that I had in my head for so long! The only downside is that whilst everything is black...the side input jack is chrome..but that's just nitpicking. So if you're still reading..here are a couple of pictures.

Probably done the rounds before, but really enjoyed this and comparing the different instruments.

The originals band I'm in, Gasfoodlodging, released a CD a couple of weeks back. It's just had a review by Ryan's Gig Guide, a Birmingham/Black Country monthly that has replaced Brum Beat. Modesty forbids me from quoting it but it can be found here: https://ryansgigguide.com/2019/June/8-9/ No bribes were involved in the production of this review, and the reviewer is not known to any member of the band.

Some updates! Th700 for small clubs

My early 80s 62RI in uber-rare surf green

Last nights offering... 😃

The good people at Ishibashi sent me this old Bacchus Grooveline. I reckon it’s early to mid-2000’s. I’ve been looking for a Stingray with a J neck size for a while and this really fits the bill. It’s a dinky J ash body, weight is a sweet 3.5kg. Maple neck with with blocks and binding is always a winner. It’s a fixer upper and that was reflected in the price, but these Handmade logo’d Bacchii are always superbly built and the pickups are amazing. Such is the case here, it’s a really good player, even with a duff fret job, old strings and that criminal bbot bridge in place of the Deviser Tune-o-matic. What were they thinking? I will sort out that crack and replace the bridge and broken tuner. I’m thinking of stripping what is left of the finish and refinishing in an emerald green stain. The previous owner had fingernails like Wolverine, by the looks of it. I’ll also sort out the frets, a level, crown and dress awaits. Anyone know where a man can buy Gotoh tuner buttons?

Just ordered a set - at £13 a set it's got to be worth a go. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SPECIAL-OFFER-EBS-TN-ML4-Guitar-Strings-Set-of-4/183549306999?epid=11026285892&hash=item2abc642877:g:ZtUAAOSwDsZcRcdu

Status Graphite Energy. Breathed on by Bernie Goodfellow who re vamped the pots and wiring and added an EBS preamp.. Clean crisp and deep. This one is a keeper.

XR16 - 4 auxes. Into 4 Behringer P2s. Into 4 ZS10s

Norman bought the Alembic from John Entwhistle, IIRC. Love Norm's P Bass tone on New Boots and Panties. That is one of the benchmarks for me.

A small update to the board 🙂

I do the same with my basses, pop my head into the room where they’re hanging on the wall just to have a look 😂

I had my Excess 4 up FS at Bassdirect for quite a while & reduced by couple of hundred as I wasn’t getting much interest, after they asked me to reduce again I decided to get it back as I’d take too much of a hit .. when it arrived I noticed it had a bit of condensation on it & felt cold like it had been stored overnight in a cold warehouse .. started playing it & the (low) action was just perfect, like it had just been set up ! What a neck ! So that made me change my mind & keep it, I only (foolishly) tried selling as I was so used to jazz bass length & initially struggled with the extra frets etc I have taken the preamp out as I felt it was a bit noisy (never gelled with preamps) & just wired in parallel with vol pot, perfect for me same as my two jazz basses. Have now gigged it & just love it, so glad I came to my sense lol Love the fret dots on your 5 btw .. I went back to 4 strings a couple of years ago & think the Vigier has an even better neck than my previous Dingwall ABZ5 ..... kinda don’t wanna try an Excess 5 just in case I like it too much lol

I'm pretty sure the veneer will stay that colour. On the other hand, Mick and I still have to decide whether the underlying wood at the edges and back would look best stained or left natural and there are still some options of how much to cut in the veneer into the body wood and where. Whatever, I have a good feeling about how this will look when its finished.

In my mind episode III - Revenge of the Sixth (string) was the best followed by episode V - The U-Bass Strikes back with episode II - Attack of the (Rickenbacker) Clones a close third. Don’t bother with episode I - The Phantom (power) Menace. (Sorry, very bored on a train)

With the glue now touch dry, I can begin the veneering itself: The advantage of the glue being dry is that you can spend as much time as you like positioning it because it barely grabs. Then with a hot (dry) iron (as I said above I happen to use an old heat-shrink iron, but a standard ironing iron works fine), I start in the middle and progressively radiate outwards, making sure the veneer gets hot and applying firm pressure, but moving it in circles so I don't scorch the veneer in one spot: Once the main flat areas are stuck flat (this only takes a few minutes) I start applying firm pressure round the outside of the body shape, starting to seal what will become the edges: To allow the veneer to bend round the edge better, I then remove some of the bulk excess with scissors, keeping an eye on the grain direction to avoid a grain-following split heading towards the body: I then work round the edges with the iron again, peening the veneer over the curve by a mm or two. The glue, once cool grabs in seconds - but it is fully repeatable. Just heat up an area and the glue will remelt and then grab again as soon as you lift the iron and let it cool for a few seconds. If it's a tight curve and a stiff veneer, you can hold the area down firmly with a cloth (to prevent burning yourself) while it cools and grabs. Once all of the flat areas are glued and the edges defined and secure, you can start trimming just past the flat surfaces. I find the easiest way to do this is use a disposable Stanley knife (Swann Morton do them too) and use the body itself as my blade guide, holding the blade at about 45 degrees to vertical: I use a sawing motion. If you are careful, you follow the outline without the risk of cutting into it. BUT - always, always, think of where the grain is going and make sure any split will go away from the body and not towards it. In the above example, I will stop around here and then cut the bottom overhang in the other direction - the grain then naturally pulls the blade (and any split) towards the left and not to the right and into the body. For the chambers, I get my template out and cut a small hole in the middle so I can see where the chamber edges are. Again, I use the chamber sides themselves as the blade guide, this time with the blade vertical: So eventually, you have trimmed it just round the edge of the flat areas, but with no unglued overhang of veneer: Then simply sand with a sanding block along the line of the join. There will be a bit of tidying up to do to sort the edges properly and make sure there is no PVA line or - in the case of the tissue backed veneer, fuzziness - at the edges...and I also need to know from Mick how 'sharp' or 'blunt' he wants the tips of the veneer at the ends of the two horns...but this is broadly done

I missed bass sounds part I so i struggled to follow the plot with the sequel.

I use a Hercules stand for mine - one of the ones that grab the neck as you place it on

Disconnect one of the guitarist's speakers so hes less loud and his amp head plays up, and put weights in the bottom of his cab. Then start complaining of a bad back so you can't help him with it...

Need to talk strings. it’s wearing flats which I hate... what are people using for rounds? I’m normally a 40-100 d’addario nickel wound kind of person.

Recent refinish. Sea Foam won the day. No wrong answers on that shade though 😎😜

My Recurve medium scale and custom (made for Kev Hopper) fretless

My 62RI , but not as old as yours 🙂

And there are thieves who operate in Poundland! 😂

Do this all the time

I generally don't play pubs as such but i did say it was rare and as i agreed later it was probably admission fee.

Nice bass Andy. Saw this advertised and was tempted myself. Just put that original bridge back on and enjoy - plate looks fine to me.

Is it any good for metal though ?

Ta Merton. I am too skint for any other Status. I keep turning the bedroom light on to look at it.. Mrs Dandy does not understand.. 😜😜

Flipping nice that, as is the orangey yamaha.

Ah. Sorry, I didn’t read your post accurately enough! I’ve never played an original Bass Station so can’t really comment. As for the size of the Mini vs MicroBrute, see the below photo and draw your own conclusions: Keys-wise, the Monologue’s are more playable than the MicroBrute’s...but neither are full sized. The Monologue has a somewhat unconventional E-to-E layout though, which may not matter to you if you aren’t already a keys player to any degree. In a way, if you’re purely a bassist/guitarist, the E-to-E layout of the Monologue makes a lot of sense.

Also available on axesrus https://www.axesrus.co.uk/Machinehead-Nylon-Tension-Washers-p/nylongwashers.htm

Firstly, to get it out of the way, all 3 sound pretty good. I won’t comment on th quality of sound as they each have a fairly distinct character. I’ll leave that decision up to you. Having said that... If it were me, I’d go with the Novation Bass Station 2 all day long. My immediate reasons being that it’s the only one of the three you’ve mentioned with full sized keys - and those keys have a nicer action than the other two as well. Believe me, when playing anything even remotely dexterous, you’ll appreciate the full sized keybed. Also, Novation are developing a bit of a legendary reputation for product support. They’ve recently released another update for the BS2 unlocking even more functionality. Bear in mind that this is a non-flagship synth released in 2013. That in itself is impressive. As far as controls, they’re all intuitive enough. Nice knobby layouts all round which is great. However, of the three, the Arturia MicroBrute is the only one without any way of saving presets. You’ll have to remember the settings for all the sounds you create, which may force it into the “never to be used live” pile for you!

My 1972 Fender Jazz (just like Geddy Lee’s no1)

This is very recent Mojo

Had my first Trace Elliot experience in 25 years last night. 300 watt series 6 head into a behringer 4x10. Don't mind telling you that my heart sank when I saw it. But it sounded clean and punchy. My ACG loved it!

No need. I didn't even have to buzz the wires. It occurred to me that the hot wire to the plug might not belong on the "short pin" quoted in the wiring instructions so I swapped it. It's a passive bass so I am not sure why it was supplied with a stereo jack socket. Also, it is the barrel type where you can't tell which tag is which contact easily. That fixed I had a noisy connection that seemed to be due to the plug going a bit further into the socket than it likes. I fixed that temporarily by using a washer as a spacer. I will upgrade that to a good quality purpose made socket soon. It tuned well and after I played one song I had to change those ruddy awful strings because they had gone beyond just giving me the ache. The D'Addarios are nicer but for one dead string in the set. Strange because it was a factory sealed packet. I am not that fussy because they will all sound like that with use eventually and the dead one sounds fine despite not having the top-end twang. I ain't that sort of slapper so it makes no odds. The odd thing was that the D'addario low B would not fit the bridge hole for the last inch where the windings are thickest. The seemingly heavier roundwounds were fine. Looking closely, it was just a couple of windings that were oversize. I opened out the low B bridge hole by about a quarter mil and it was fine. This photo is essentially the same as the previous one except that it has new strings and it works. I will see if I can get a sound bite up somehow.