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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

We (the Grateful Dudes) are on a little trip just now. Four of us met up at Folkestone yesterday morning, travelled through the channel tunnel and then drove for 13 hours to reach the town of Plauen in Germany. It is on what was the GDR, not far from Leipzig and Dresden (and Prague). Interesting drive with the four of us plus gear for six, but not amps or drum kits as they are being supplied. Lot of traffic, frequent hold ups as today is a holiday in most of Europe. Sleeping two to a room in the centre of town, we will go to the venue, the Malzhaus, this afternoon to set up and sound check. The two remaining Dudes will be flying in this evening and hopefully will make it in time for the first of our three evenings playing here at the Playing in the Band festival. Looking forward to meeting the German heads and other musicians that will be here.

Somebody must want this - series 5 AH500w head - start your own nuclear war - £150 at the time of posting. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trace-Elliot-AH500X-GP-11-Series-V-Bass-Guitar-Amplifier/352677241076?hash=item521d33a0f4:g:~OoAAOSwxjdc74nj

And there are thieves who operate in Poundland! 😂

I used to have a warm up. Two ocatve scales in all keys, major and minor. Two octave diatonic arpeggios in all keys. Fingerings patterns 1234, 3124, 4132, etc I think that was it.

Well, wipe your muddy paws @ped Get what you're saying but I'll be OK with it I think, so long as it's reasonably stable. Should be able to fold it and take it places as I often have one fretted and the fretless on the go.May end up getting a neck-grab type also. This one will be way better than what I have at the mo. though. Thanks for the tip, I don't mean tip like falls over...

Thank you @ped I’ve been playing it constantly. Vigier set it up with my choose of strings and it is perfect, right out if the box. Very, very happy 😊

That's crazy cheap for that, some nice touches like the wooden contol cover & trc. It's an ugly bugger, mind, and I'm usually a sucker for a neckthrough. Very tempted but no - don't want a 6er, I already have a 5-string which is functionally a 4 with a very long thumbrest.

These little Hercules stands work well too http://herculesstands.com/international/products/fretted-and-bowed-instrument/guitar/single-stands/gs402bb/ the cradle arms that the bass rests on are hinged so can move horizontally to accommodate the offset body shape. Not quite as stable as the larger neck grab stands but they fit nicely in a gigbag!

Well, that's all respect for JB out the window, then. The worst type of guitarist mentality, and an admission of his failure to do what so many contemporaries have done, and that's make modern technology work for their sound. Here's some quotes from a guitarist who is a peer of JB's, Paul Gilbert, who has spoken a lot about his tinnitus and his onstage headphones: "The purpose of my headphones is the same as the more common ear molds: to block out the stage volume while giving me a controlled mix and volume from the monitor desk...Do you wonder why concerts are always too loud and sound crappy? I wondered until I realized it’s me! Sorry!...I would definitely trade some head-stuffed-into-the- 4x12-moments in exchange for getting some high-end back into my ears." Now that's a proper (and better) guitarist... 😀

Blummin eck...is a bit small

I have the same stereo "head" Mic used at the start of the video. It is absolutely brilliant for the money.

Forced myself to watch it and here's my conclusions: 1. Don't be "that guy" who brings 34 basses to a gig 2. All basses sound a bit different 3. (Almost) all basses can "do the job" 4. Some, clearly, have such a distinctive tone that its going to suit a very limited kind of music, and stick out like a sore thumb in others 5. Some basses look horrible

@GisserD developed a smaller rehousing for the Future Impact; he might be worth speaking to.

this is one of my favorite part of being in a band !!!! enjoy and have fun until it last

I have one, but in black. A lot of friends generally regard it as my coolest looking bass. I prefer the weight of my Gibson but the Epiphone has all that chrome hardware, which looks amazing.

This is very recent Mojo

@EBS_freak, getting that way too. If, in 2019 he's still publishing articles advocating practices that caused his own ear damage, and he learned about it in 2013, this is not good. The guy appears to be dangerously duplicitous.

And this is why guitarists are always a nightmare when it comes to inears. Playing for themselves instead of the overall sound of the band. Bad for your hearing? In the fact that you can have a lower SPL? If JB has explored Klang and all the ambient options available, then I would be receptive of his wide, sweeping statements. In Ears have reduced the amount of people that have resulted in having chronic tinnitus... I'd say that's saving your ears. I find it interesting that all those that don't advocate the use of IEMs (typically the old school rockers) - are all the ones that are struggling with insufferable ringing ears. As for comments about the dynamics... the sounds engineers are in control of the dynamics that audience hear anyway, whether you are using IEMs or not. If your guitar rigs are overpowering the PA, then the balance of music that the audience here is greatly compromised anyway. Better to have a set of ears out front where the audience are to balance the mix. Fatter and fuller sound - he's saying a desk full of processing and a PA with full range reproduction can't produce a fatter and fuller sound? Err... try getting a fuller and fatter sound out of your kick drum without any processing and see how far you get. If you can't get a fatter and fuller sound, it's down to poor engineering or inadequate tools... not down to the concept of running a quieter stage with the PA doing the work. I think we can say that JB is a dinosaur who doesn't give a stinky poo about the health of his own, or other people's hearing. But hey, that's rock n roll.

If that is indeed the case then I can see the logic behind the choice even if I'm not a fan of the name myself I guess it's more memorable than the usual mix of acronyms and numbers.

I'll wrap this topic up with some last photos. The bass is sounding good. I really like the tone from the neck pick-up on its own with full treble. Lovely and dry with those D'Addario semi-flats. With both pick-ups the sound is warm. The bridge pick-up gives a nicely defined sound and allows some diplomacy in the lower frequencies where the neck pick-up has a nice fat bottom end always. Thanks to whoever donated those strings to the raffle at Midlands' BB4, they're playing in nicely. There was a neatly trimmed plastic truss adjustment cover supplied and a Pit Bull decal that wouldn't fit between the machine heads. I wanted to put something of my own on it so it wasn't an issue. The plastic cover looks neat enough. There would be no problem using it with the black hardware. I am very happy with the whole project. I chose to replace a lot of the screws with stainless steel ones for my own reasons, not because I had a particular problem with those supplied. The few that I used were fine. The pick-up springs supplied were twice as long as they needed to be. Fitted, they would not allow the screw to bite more than a thread and a half. I cut them in half and they worked well enough. With the electronics, the instructions call for the hot wire to go to the short pin on the output socket. On the one supplied it was the mid-length pin. When wired correctly the socket was noisy if the plug was fully home. It would only cleanly connect with a washer acting as a spacer between plug and socket so I replaced it with a good one from Foulds of Derby. Ask for "Ferrit" if you're looking for electronics advice. He's a good 'un. I found that the roughly finished body was close enough to shape. There was no need to remove much more off it to end up with a pleasingly rounded shape. The neck was finished to size and was a neat and snug fit in the neck pocket from the start. All that was left was the finishing and assembly. I'd happily do it again. This one is a keeper though and it brings my collection to four in total so the next one has to have something special. I'm in no rush as I've got to claw back some practice time and do some house maintenance before Winter.

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.