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Hi Folks Don't often do this but with this one I thought I must.. So, there I was in my local music shop in Bognor Regis (Mike's Music) buying some strings when I saw this hanging on the wall looking a bit unloved.. Being the kind chap that he is, Mike let me have a trial with the bass and after spending some time with it at home, I realised it was a must have.. As far as I can tell from the serial number, its a Made in Japan 1991/2 Fender Precision. Sounds great, beautiful Ash body and maple neck and is in brilliant condition for a 27 year old bass. Happy days, or should I say, happy NBDs! Thanks for looking.. 😊

Ive had my P34 for a week now, and love it to bits. Not had a lot of time to play it this week, but i can honestly say i had had no ‘i wish it....” moments, its the most complete bass ive ever owned. Ive struggled to take any phots that make it look interesting, its hard to photograph at home and, well, we all know what it looks like. Still, a few to prove i have it lol.

Awesome gig yesterday evening at the Farmyard Bikers rally in Helmsley, North Yorkshire. This is one of big ones at about 6-7000 punters and loads of bands over 4 stages and 2 days. Great weather and enthusiastic crowd, even had time for a beer after our spot and watched a couple of bands. Loved the backstage request.....lol

😂 Si

Milli Vanilli

Just back from a local (festival) gig... now off to a pub gig. Oddly the pub gig is going to be paying way more than the festival but I reckon the festival gig might be the better experience; we shall see.

took a good bit of cleaning, was like a dusty headache. Wearing some BB knobs now too.

Woo! First one I've actually recognised. I'm nowhere near my bass at the moment so someone else should feel free to continue

“YAMAHA”

Could you please update me about everything you've posted in the last... oh, I don't know - 3 months?? 😃

Yay! 👍

Here’s some https://www.allparts.uk.com/collections/wood-horn-knobs

Female bass-player? Boogie Oogie Oogie, A Taste of Honey?

Completely disagree. He was great with AC/DC at the Olympic Stadium a few years back. Aside from nailing the songs, he looked like he was living the dream. I guess this post is about replacement singers, because (like it or not) the singer is almost always the focal point for an audience and everyone else is essentially a backing musician. A change in a high profile frontman can be hard for some fans to take, but - so what. And just for the record, I think that Adam Lambert is awesome with Queen.

Couple of good gigs this week in Milton Keynes and Aylesbury. We have a new lighting guy, so enjoying seeing what he can do to make us look better, not an easy task....

I remember when it was all fields.....

All my basses are active. Passive basses are a bit meh these days (with the exception of Hohner) They were all the rage back in the 50’s 60’s, but not so much in recent years. 🤔😆

Dear friends, after more than 4 years the first 4 String bass is ready to rock the world ! EVO-FX4

The thing is, when Gibson were going bust, everyone was saying “they need to go back to what they do best, Les Paul’s/SG’s/335’s!” And were criticised for all their “innovations” (which incidentally were poop...) Fender and Gibson do what they do, Imagine Levi’s making tracksuit bottoms or Dr Martens making tennis shoes. It just doesn’t work that way. Fender have a staple 5/10 models and have to work with that. They try stuff and it doesn’t always sell - there are 100’s of models which didn’t stay long. I sold Fenders for years as my Job, and all the weird and wonderful sat on the wall while black strats and white telecasters turned over in huge numbers. For years their best selling Telecaster was the butterscotch 52, their second biggest selling telecaster was the left handed version. After that it was a natural finish USA with a black pickguard and the Baja Tele in blackguard blonde...etc. Its about an “Icon” thing for players. Jaguars/Jazzmasters/Mustangs were sort of dead until Grunge - the artists bought them because they were reputable branded guitars but cheap. Then in the early 2000’s the 72 Custom Tele/Thinline Tele/Tele Deluxe were in vogue because of all the hip indie bands using them for that same reason - before that they couldn’t raise an eyebrow let alone a big ticket price. They have a legacy and they’re bound to it, damned if they do (by some) and damned if they don’t (by others). More stringent quality control and they’d be away - but that adds cost, and that’s why a Deluxe USA Jazz is £1800 or so and a USA Sadowsky is about £4500. Incidentally - I side by side compared a USA 2010 Deluxe, A USA sadowsky and an Alleva Coppolo (check spelling) and the Fender held its own, massively. I preferred it in sound to the other two and it felt as nice as the Sadowsky. It was just a bit heavier than the other 2. It was also about £1449 at the time. They should open up 12 month contracts to us all and see if we could do a better job. Anyhow, as someone said earlier - if you weren’t thinking of buying a Fender this year - these probably aren’t aimed at you...I’m off to play my yamaha 😂

I just think that Gibson are behaving oddly pi55ing on their own chips by behaving like a peevish gorilla at a time when they should be focused on mending fences with a sizeable slab of disaffected consumers. The time to pursue copyright infringement is when customers (and potential customers) are back onside with the company. That said, it might be that the hedge fund wonks who now run the company are attempting to enhance the value of the company by clearing up any unattractively loose ends in respect of trademarks which might excite the concerns of future investors or outright buyers. A sign that Gibson may be back up for sale sooner than expected? Who can say? If, however, Gibson's plan is simply and negligently to run high-profile lawsuits alongside their customer re-engagement strategy then that's Juskiewiecz levels of crazy.

You can create your own Glastonbury festival at home. Pitch a tent in your garden,put on radio 6 Then get whizzed and stoned out of your mind. Don't forget to steal your own shoes and urinate up the side of your tent.

I fancy changing the rather bland black-metal set on my W&T, to something a little more in keeping with the instrument. Anyone suggest somewhere to buy a set please?

So one of the nice things about being a graphic designer, apart from being good at design (as that’s still to be determined) is you end up learning enough about processes to know the best way to get things done for different projects. So I asked Stevie if he wanted help with a badge for the cab. Partly as I wanted a nice badge for my own cab and partly as, if done right, it’s wee details like this can lift a project from very good to great. Like a most the other details stevie has built into this cab we want to try and do it to a high quality. I also wanted it lightweight- a pewter cast badge would be daft on a cab with neo drivers. The first problem we have is the small volume number, while die cast plastic badges, like the big manufacturers use, would be nice - it’s hardly cost effective to make 1000 badges in China to just use 10. Equally you could get a small batch of something from the UK, but the cost goes through the roof. Stevie set a budget for it, which bluntly was a bit more than I would have wanted to pay for a cosmetic thing that erm half of you might not like. So - instead my aim was to get a badge for the grill, a sticker for the gap on the handle and a sticker for the back for about the price of a pint at a music venue. Design is subjective right? And what do you call this thing... we started off on this idea that actually some of Stevies other passions could help name it- like it can be as abstract as anything as long as it’s memorable, pronounceable and means something to Stevie at least. Stevies wife’s maiden name didn’t sound rock and roll enough so we ended up talking about his work as a German translator and throwing random German words at each other. This was quite good as I also enjoy German culture (I’m there now), and design - and it’s the centenary year of the Bauhaus. So Stevies there geeking out on German cab names and I’m geeking out on German design and it’s viele spaß! luckily for you the long compound nouns got dropped, and Stevie started trialing BCcab as a name in PMs with some of you. Bass Chat cab obviously, without it needing to say that, and able to say it without sounding like an idiot, and I think there may have been a second meaning but I forget what that is. So then BCcab - v3. I still got to geek on with my Bauhaus- sorry!! I tried to come up with something that would work with almost any colour scheme and layout, but be distinctive enough that to be worth doing. Not so small that it wouldn’t be noticed, but not so big it took over the cab. so we’ve got a vinyl sticker for the back plate, a domed sticker for the handle and a subliminated aluminium plate 100x40mm for the front. (Soft enough to drill for screws if you need) - and it’s all just going to add £3.60 to the cost. (if you are building the cab and not getting the flat pack Stevie will have a few extra sets you might be able to convince him to sell you if you cover postage too) So the other day I got the first pre production picture of the badge prototype made up. (Colours are off a wee bit on this pic) im excited if no one else.

Playing a Music Man Bongo through a Darkglass Alpha • Omega 900

Tuff cab dried, the corners and handle were fitted, along with the back plate and 2 pole speakon connectors. See a problem with any of that? I didn't.... I also couldn't find my soldering iron and had to wait for a new, better one to turn up from Amazon before I could wire up the speaker. I noted the holes for the top and bottom holes in the speakers weren't quite lined up properly. I'll fix it if it's an issue, but I lightly glued the tee nuts into place to stop them falling into the cab when inserting the screws so it's going to be a big faff, and the finish line was in sight. Thanks to Phil Starr for letting me know my 16 gauge cable was likely going to be find for the internal wiring which saved me having to order some cable in. The speaker wires were soldered to the lugs, passed through the internals of the cab, and the speaker screwed into place with a piece of speaker wadding stuffed in there. The back plate was then wired up, the amp sat on top of the cab, and..... ...the speakon cable wouldn't fit into the connectors. I didn't know that there were at least 2 types of Speakon connector, 2 and 4 pole. All my cables are 4 pole and the connectors are 2 pole. 2 pole male will fit into 4 pole female, but not the other way around. Some combination speakon connectors allow a 1/4 inch jack to be used in the centre barrel, but not the ones I bought, so I'm stuck until I order some 4 pole connectors, or 2 pole speaker cable before I can see if it all works. I'm leaning towards the 2 pole cable, as it'll sidestep the need to re-wire anything. So close, yet so far.

Update on the whole "Alexandra Palace to Waterloo" drama - left the gig before the encore, caught the W3 bus from stop R to Finsbury Park, Victoria line to Green Park, Jubilee line to Waterloo. Arrived in Waterloo at about 2322, and the 2320 train was delayed so I got on that. So, no need to sleep in the station. Hooray! S.P.

Lovely bass! There’s something about the feel and tone of 90s MIJ Fenders.

Nice playing too

That is one gorgeous bass. Congratulations!

Neil, I'm going to say it's Diamond Dogs! Although apparently it is actually Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting!! (I've had fresh success with my uploadings! 😃) 👍

Damn. Shame I missed that one as it was so close! Looks great mate. 👍🏻

Is that the geezer from oasis? I don't like oasis

With the stacked DG boxes I'm really after a quite defined tone, along the lines of Nolly Getgood but with a little more bottom end. So the high part of the fizz needs to be there, just not too fizzy! I had a play last night and running the Q last I just can't get a tone I'm happy with, however, with the Q bypassed the tone is also a hollow fizzy crap fest! So, it seems that the magic happens when driving the Walkabout preamp and the VMTD and B3K settings won't read across. So tonight I'll start from everything flat or zeroed on all three pedals (after noting the current settings) and go from there. I'll also swap the order if that fails time permitting. Cheers all for the input!

That would seem a bit of a generalisation from the fact that your basses are all passive? I have two purely passive basses (Yamaha BBs), but the rest are all active, most with a combined active / passive ability and I love them all - which is why I still have them and have not moved them on. I suspect if you ran a poll you'd find folk split between whether they prefer active or passive circuits on their bass EQs.

Four years in development? You've got a nicely contoured body there. I like your choice of colours too. Are you going to do a run of these or build to order?

Haüssel jazz pick ups are not only very good, they are quite hot and have a heap of mids. The closest I have heard a neck solo’d Jazz pick up sound like a P bass pick up

Nail. Head. The wonks in question may know c*ck-all about making guitars but they know a lot about making money. Gibson is a heritage brand and the value is in its history. Cleaning up the trademarks and any IP questions may not add a huge amount to the value but it will make everything a lot cleaner and make the brand much more attractive to a new owner. The Epiphone thing is curious - some of their models are fine instruments in their own right. I have a lovely ES-175 and I've tried a few of their jazz boxes and really liked them. On the other hand, some of their output is truly dire.

Go for four-conductor wiring humbuckers and run each individual pickup in series.

This is the most effective phishing thread ever...

@51m0n thanks very much for taking the time to put my mind straight on the subject of transients. I've shared your comments below for the wider forum as it was such a helpful pm and I am sure will be of interest / benefit to many others! Transients and compression Transients are one of the keys to understanding compression and how compressors tick, true. The threshold is always crossed by the transient, that is the trigger, it is always the loudest part of the signal (with bass), only instruments that swell volume can achieve crossing a threshold with the body of a note rather than a transient: certain ways of bowing a note with violin family instruments, e-bows, volume pedals, keyboard pads and a whole raft of other sources do behave differently, but general bass playing, it’s the transient that engages the compressor. There is no 'note' or pitch info in the transient, it is percussive noise, but it has more or less higher frequency content, the nature of human perception of sound means that a high frequency heavy transient will give the impression of a sound having a generally brighter timbre throughout the note duration, even though that transient is just a few milli-seconds (ms) ?in duration. Anything that allows you to hear the transient 'better' will result in the timbre of your instrument sounding brighter generally - tweeters do this, they tend to reproduce transients better than full size drivers, as well as dealing with the high frequency energy of the transient particularly well, brightening things up a great deal. Ergo anything that dampens the energy in that transient will also darken the perceived signal timbre. Anything that increases the transient energy will effectively brighten the perceived timbre of the entire note. It’s subtle but very real. Some sound engineers swear they use compression to help EQ signal as much as an EQ. I agree with them. This is important because compressors and limiters can hugely change the relationship of the volume of the transient compared to the volume of the main body of the note materially impacting the difference in level between the two. Hence, they can definitely impart or remove brightness, which they do as a direct function of the attack time setting. They modify this relationship depending upon the type of compressor / limiter and the settings you have and the input signal. This is what a compressor really does, the make-up gain does the rest; people label this with many simpler things e.g. “compressors make your quiet signal loud, your loud signal quiet, your dynamics more squashed etc” all of them an over simplification, which is where the problems really arise. A transient is typically less than 100ms long, it can be much shorter, in order to not trash the brightness in your tone you need to get your compressor out of the way of your transient. In order to not make your tone too harsh when using higher compression ratios you need to still keep control of that transient, and that is why attack time is so vital, and a limiter can seriously help from a timbral perspective as well. The final super-important nuance is that no two types/models/brands of compressor achieve full compression up to the set ratio after the threshold is crossed in the same way, the compression is almost never turned on linearly, or 'immediately' it takes time to ramp up, and it is rarely linear. The same with the release. The very sound of optical compressors is the relative slowness of the way they turn the compression on and off, coupled with the very curved nature of the optical circuitry, the light starts going out very quickly but as it dims it slows down in its dimming. This has a massive impact on the sound of the compressor.

I've found one of the Mickey Mouse Tele endorsees...

Welcome to the club! A few notes for you: The mono jack socket is the one nearest the strap button and if you plug a mono jack into the ""Rick-O-Sound" one you'll only get the treble pickup. I'm not sure if your one has it, but on current 4003 models the Treble Tone knob is also a push/pull switch, which allows you to switch in the "Vintage" style treble capacitor. The strap buttons are Schaller Straplocks. Don't put too heavy gauge strings on a Ric; I use Swing Bass 40-60-80-100 on mine. Enjoy the Ric! (BTW, the Laredo is a 4004!)

Just had an email from my luthier who has completed the work on the RA Mouse to extend the fret lines, here’s before and after shots... Before... After...