Leaderboard

So today I received this beauty from my father as an early 30th birthday present. To say I am lucky to have him as my father is an understatement! Check this beauty out:

Having first seen one on the back of my mum and dad’s Gallagher and Lyle album when I was a kid and hankering after one ever since, I finally thought ‘bugger it’ and bought a Rickenbacker 4003 in Jetglo. I’m very pleased, so far. It’s a used model, which came up on Richtone’s website at a very good price. I shot straight up to Sheffield and nabbed it. They’d advertised it as a 1993 model but subsequent investigation of the serial number reveals it’s actually a 2005 model, but no matter. It’s in decent condition; it has mild wear and a few battle scars, but I’m quite happy about this as I intend to gig it hard and wouldn’t want to be too precious about it. It came wearing flatwounds which I changed to my favoured Super Slinky’s. The previous owner had the good sense to replace the pickup cover with one of those bezels with the thumb indent, which as a fingerstyle player suits me fine. I find myself using the back pickup only with the band, and with touch of overdrive I have the rock tone I’ve craved for years. Having played mainly Jazz basses for years the neck is the biggest difference to get used to; it’s pretty hefty, but I’m accustoming to it. Looking forward to giving it it’s gig debut tonight.

The above gentleman has already caused the board update below to be out of date! Lol! Bit of a back to the future (impact) for me with both Stomp and FI back on the board. Said farewell to two filter pedals (Fwonkbeta and MXR BEF) one mini multifx (MX-60B), two comps (Keeley Bassist and TC Spectracomp) - decent comp on both my Zoom B1X-4 and a multiband on the Stomp. New at the end of the board with XLR output is the Q\Strip which was recently traded in exchange for a Yammy BB 425. Space on the board for Gecko Mk III midi control, in due course, and Mooer Lofi incoming to provide a pretty decent bitcrush / sample rate reduction. Particularly chuffed at finally getting the HX Stomp and SA Hub (both via USB) and Panda FI (via Roland UM-One midi interface) all connected up to the PC to enable easy access to software editing. Should keep me out of mischief for the rest of the summer Zoom B1X-4, as a slimline easy gig-bag-fit all in one pedal board / tuner / headphone amp, continues to provide all I need (for now!) for rehearsals and gigs. ... oh yes and I almost forgot! My much loved Valeton OC-10, which does a better Boss OC-2 tone than anything else I've come across, has been rendered otiose and is now in the FS. That is entirely down to the amazing new patches that @Quatschmacher has recently been putting together for the FI:

Bands: 99% political 1% musical. It's the way it is, you just have to play the politics slowly but surely. I've been in two potentially pretty decent bands in which performance and progress were significantly hampered by the fact that a member in each owned the PA and the van respectively. In both cases, we were f*****d without them, they knew it, and there was little we could do about their attitude to rehearsals and gigs. Both were also completely unnecessary musically; one a twiddling lead guitarist who played solos so much of the time that after a while you simply didn't notice that he was there, one a rhythm guitarist who so swamped his sound in reverb that it was almost like the sound was coming from a pub down the road. Both of them outlived me in each band

Wow! Pressure is on for Father's Day now 😂 Beautiful bass you have there.

My latest incarnation 😊 probably MK20 😂 Starts with the EBS Multicomp set on multiband mode with a higher threshold on the treble freqs. Into a Boss Ls2 to split the signal, the main line has the following Malekko Scrutator (with Moog expression pedal, filter set to low pass) MXR Bass Envelope filter Cog Custom Grand Tarkin Fuzz Source Audio Gemini Chorus (with chorus/flanger/phaser/resonator/envelope phaser programmed in) Loop A Aguilar Octamizer (set for clean deep octave) Cog Custom T65 octave (set with no clean and a tight fuzzy octave, with a hint of dirty octave up, for synth. These can be used directly or mixed in parallel with fuzz/envelope. Loop B Dope Fx Boba Fuzz (Gated Wooley Mammoth clone, with added mid control and 3 way sub switch and internal impedance control, more like a Mastotron) Source Audio Manta filter (set with a reverse low pass setting and a multi peak setting similar to the bassballs. All of these are mixed to taste with the clean signal! via the Ls2 😁

I don’t get how sites like this don’t get shut down. The internet is littered with fake chinese shops now, it’s not just musical instruments, it’s clothes, tech, everything, and it all shows up on the first page of a google search. The whole of China should just be blocked from the internet until they sort out their laws, which are nonexistent when it comes to this stuff. An entire economy built on theft and the production of endless fake counterfeit plastic garbage.

Thanks everyone. I appreciate it!

I use the site a lot as there’s quite a bit of reggae on there, and I’ve also found myself playing tunes that i wouldn’t normally play because the music is there, I can read music but I’m a bit slow so for speed purposes I use the tab that Chris puts underneath. Fabulous job Chris thank you 👍

Once I learn to read music - I'm going to donate a few quid for the upkeep - as I haven't yet.

Amazing website! Thank you so much!

"tank fly boss walk jam nitty gritty you're listening to the boy from the big bad city, this is jam hot, this is jam hot" Dub Be Good to Me, Beats International.

If Higgie's dad worked out from first principles that a 5 sting Sadowsky NYC was the thing to get, then he needs immediate promotion to National Oracle 😂

I like the subtleness in Pea by the Red Hot Chili Peppers: "F**k you a**hole, you homophobic redneck d*ck" The phrasing is superb.

Man - I've gotta get me one of them dads! (Do you know any other dads like yours, going cheap?) 😂 Enjoy the bass - it's even got the right number of strings! 😀

We played Speakeasy in the Left Bank complex in Hereford on Thursday night... It's a smallish underground venue - the gig night is run by 2 very nice people who helped us bring the gear up 10 steps then down another at least 15 steps (flood defence!). Which was good - having been told it was basically a concrete box and didn't need much volume to get it pumping I felt that the full 1500w rig was needed. Though carrying 90+ pounds of bass horn in was fun! There were 2 bands on before us - local punks Dead Beats and Fika from Cardiff who were far more eclectic,almost jazzy. Both were excellent and meant we would have to work hard to keep up the standard. However, having so much power meant I could turn up the octave down pedal; coupled with Future Impact pedal on Hammond organ setting and Fwonk Beta in full Bootsy mode plus the drummer's Tama StarClassic we made a wall of rhythm for the guitarist to smear feedback on and the singer to spray paint with anti-hunting and other lefty slogans. Surprisingly it went down very well, about 1/2 the reasonable-sized crowd turned into a moshpit from the 2nd song - they were tempted in the 1st song but I put a stop to that with a bass solo (might as well start with one!) . Not only that but we were paid, and i was back home with a large glass of Woodford Reserve by 2340!

Sorry, Stew, I should have been clearer. It's bitumen damping material used for sound deadening. Dynamat is a well-known brand. I happened to have some bitumen roof flashing in my garage and used that. It's not a critical component but the more fastidious amongst us will want to damp the thin plastic of the handle. By the way, the cab I now have is as dead as a doornail when you knuckle-rap it - a noticeable improvement on the previous one. The only difference between the two is that the braces are now inset into the panels whereas previously they just used butt joints. I've tuned the port and finished the crossover. I won't bore anyone with more frequency response curves - but draw a line with a ruler and that's what we've got. Off axis response is also exemplary.

Keith's black Tele seemed ideal for the job....

Most certainly! You are the grand master of seller’s remorse dodging for which I respect and salute you 😁

Due to a neck injury I have been struggling for a while with the length weight and turning for a a full scale 5 string I bought a 32 inch GRECO PJ bass of here and there was a real improvement in my comfort and playing. So after a bit of research i bought this off ebay I cannot put it down. Its passive with 2 x vols and a tone

A guy contacted me regarding an item I withdrew from online adverts . He told me he still might be interested but wasn’t sure ...I kid you not.

I've just found out George Hawins Jr died. He was a fantastic bass player. Started in California and was with Kenny Loggins in the early days. He'd moved to Nashville when I first heard him, playing with Delbert McClinton on the Live album. I got goose-bumps again. . just listen to this shuffle!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDLGIPw3chE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8SSdyflGN4

Sorry to hear of your troubles Mart. Hope you get sorted quickly, effectively and painlessly 👍

Trust me - you won't...

A know a couple of these guys, but most I've not heard about. https://www.knowyourbassplayer.com

Amon Tobin

This song brings me so much joy, just left school and started my first job, happy carefree times.

I'll have a bit of NMA. (I love the YouTube thumbnail for this 😁) Stuart Morrow is so underrated!

Hi everybody, bought recently a Sadowsky NYC from Luka and must say, that everything went well. I was a little frightened to send such a lot of money by bank wire transfer to Croatia, but without reason. Communication, shipping costs for fast shipping via GLS, quality of the bass ... All I can tell, is just the best. I´m very happy with the bass and everything is, as it should be. Thank you again, Luka. I´m now the happy owner of this fantastic and gorgeous bass! Milan

Why am I imagining some kind of manic Bez thing? *shudder*

Why not simply cancel or not arrange any gigs until you're ready? If things are going slower that you're happy with, is it because you're being too pushy or one person are lagging? What do the others think? (Edited due to miscounting the number of guitarists). Also, you say everyone has gigging experience - how much experience does the guitarist/keyboard player have? Does he know that failing to rehearse/know the music is going to catch him out at the gig or does he have a cunning plan you don't know about?

Hard to hear really but this is a phone recording while tracking to a click... 2178D7CD-F1C9-4FF5-BA8D-A779A0B52EC4.MP4

No, but I also had an EB which I had to sell and wish I hadn’t. They are great basses.

Holy crap, that's good stuff!!

The 4004 has no scratch plate and just single master tone and master volume controls.

Nice bass! Does your Dad fancy adopting me in time for my next birthday? Just askin' 👍😂

If it's not at a level that's noticeable in use, is there really a problem there? I get that from an engineering POV it's desirable to minimise it, but if you're juggling port velocity against the size of ports you can fit, surely some turbulence below the point it where causes audible artifacts could be an acceptable compromise.

Two gigs of three done. Couldn't imagine a greater contrast. Last night a big venue virtually empty but those there polite and friendly. Thursday a packed pub seething with drunkeness and violence. Tonight a football club. Who knows what that will be like. It's a fun little run because it's not only three different towns but three different bands too. Took my Harley Benton with me to the barracks town where the worst of the fighting took place and while it was a good choice for its robustness its a little heavy for close quarters hand to hand combat. Tonight I'll go with something lighter so if I need to I can get a faster swing.

I like point 5: With our store, you can discover quickly and easily 1 . A versatile collection of the hottest designer products online for sale; 2. The much lower price than in other shops; 3. Sales and discounts are offered by us when you are shopping; 4. These hard-to-find items, or that unique and rare find; 5. The best customer service you never get.

I'm always nervous about posting my shoddy technique!

The 170 volts that I stated was for the 8 ohm example that you gave, I was simply following up on those numbers you gave. The 4 ohm value would be 340 watts, BUT you have to subtract about 2 volts (probably a bit more than this) for Vce(sat) from each rail (because it can't swing fully rail to rail) and because of the emitter resistors you have to subtract for that as well. Presumably, you have the module that has 4 bipolar output transistors (which is actually the 300 watt module, remember what I said earlier that these modules got mixed and matched with various transformers in order to ship products) because if you were really able to get 10 amps RMS which is 14 amps peak, you would have destroyed a single output transistor as soon as the output transistor got hot and the SOA derating kicked in (at right around 10 amps with these circuit voltages) So with each transistor handling 7 amps peak, and the emitter resistor being .22 ohms, the additional voltage drop of 1.5 volts applies (it would try to be 3 volts if it was a single output transistor). Now, doing your calculations on real world numbers, your output under load conditions is based on 56V - 2V - 1.5V = 52.5V, now divide this by 1.414 and your maximum RMS voltage is 37 volts RMS, which is 342 watts, which agrees closely with my prediction above. These are transient, ideal values (in RMS terms) that will be lower in practice because we didn't account for peak IR losses in the transformer, and other smaller factors. Now there are a couple of other possibilities, the first is that you really have a GP11-AH150 which uses MOSFET outputs and does have 2 pair per rail (one pair just didn't work out well, found that out early on for the reasons I mentioned above), which should have about the same performance as the bipolar example above (which is for the 300 watt/4 ohm rated module). The other possibility, and the one that I THINK is responsible for both your confusion as well as my confusion, is that this amp (with either the bipolar or MOSFET module) is rated at 150 watts RMS with a minimum load of 4 ohms in the marketing materials. In the production service docs, the test values given vary from 250 to 275 watts depending on the module and version. The 150 watts, I will agree is a very conservative number IF you consider that it's really a 250 - 275 watt/4 ohm rated amp by the designers/engineers BUT also confusing for nomenclature because they changed their module model numbers from 4 ohm power value from the bipolar series to the 8 ohm power value in the MOSFET series (and even this wasn't consistent depending on the particular documents). As an engineer, I spent a lot of time reviewing TE documentation and designs while working for one of the companies that owned Trace in a previous incarnation. There were a lot of really cool things about the designs but there were a lot of things that did not make sense from model to model or even build to build for the same model. This sort of thing is one example, and it was at the very core of the company's personality. So, in a way we are both right and wrong, for different reasons

God this brings back so many memories.