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Mrs S made the basic error of leaving me on my own with time to kill in Nottingham for the afternoon. I made the even more basic error of nipping in to Hotrox in Sneinton. They had this.... I wasn't going to buy it until i realised; a) that it is medically necessary as the binding on a 4003 is a bit sharp on the forearm, and b) that it will annoy Young Teebs. Oh, and; c) it is bloody lovely. Mrs S did the rolly eyes thing until I mentioned (b) then she understood why i had to get it. Of course, I've broken my one-in-one-out rule so expect some major activity in the marketplace shortly. Or I have a kidney if Raymondo's interested.....

I was waiting in all morning for a visit from the UPS man bearing bits & bobs from Thomann, including an EMG Geezer Butler pickup and a Fender High Mass Bridge for the Precision I bought new from Rockbottom in Croydon 37 years ago. As soon as the parcel was delivered I got my screwdrivers out and after installing the bridge & pickup and doing a setup this bass has never sounded so good or looked so cool.

Using flash for gig photography (as a pro/semi-pro) would be one of the quickest ways to get yourself ejected from the building! Or at least produce only photos of an artist scowling at you. Even presuming that your flash had the reach to be effective across that range rather than just mess with your exposure. It’s all about wide aperture, balancing “film speed” with image quality, balancing shutter speed with exposure... ...not using flash!

I thought these were only made in China? Congrats, enjoy and tick off mr Teebs.

Very pretty SkinnyPeeps. 👍 Just sayin'

Very short review: It's very good. Closest to the VTDI from the existing lineup, but with a darker speaker sim, tighter lows, more low mids, and a lower frequency on the treble EQ. Very flexible control of the mids and very punchy. Sounds more like a real amp than the other pedals.

I've seen that big, ignorant fat f*cker before with his long hair, bald at the front and looking about sixty if he's a day. Watching his channel is like having your car towed away by a 'Private Contractor' and going to their yard to get it back and you go in the Portakabin to pay some fat moron the fine and then you have to find your car and when you do you notice there's a big scratch on your driver's door so you go back to the Portakabin and the fat moron says 'It was like that when we towed it, pal. Prove it wasn't'. Just saying.

Oh, and; d) if you drop something on the laminate floor and take a chunk out of it you can saw a couple of inches off the finger board to patch it up with.

Just got one... pretty useful tool when you're playing about with a bunch of effects and wondering how to power all the pedals. Not much more to say... it just works... plug it in, see the reading, make a note. Here's a handful I just checked... First, a digital pedal that I thought was very power-hungry. The Source Audio Bass Envelope Filter... wasn't as bad as I thought, at just 120mA. Then, the EXH Bass MicroSynth... I had no idea how much current it required. I thought it would not be a crazy amount, but I was not sure. Now I know. Just 40 mA. How about the little Caline Reverb "Snakebite"? 33mA And what about an overdrive? A lot of this kind of pedals are between 10-15mA, so how about the Valeton Tube Refiner (which sounds GREAT on bass)... just 10mA. Cool. And finally... a monster. I got this valve overdrive pedal. It's a really strange thing, but sounds really nice. It's a Nobsound (yes, I know) G3 Little Bear that cost something like £35-40. A battery cannot power it. It's just very bad. It recommends a 500mA supply, if I recall correctly. I plugged into a 250mA supply and it worked ok, but it does work a bit better with a bigger supply. So, what does this one measure? 343mA!!! Makes sense.

They seem to be “desirable” but always come up for sale...weird.

These days they generally save the "Fish" era songs for festival slots and fan club shows. As this tour is billed as "With friends from the orchestra", none of the gigs on this tour so far have featured a Fish era song so far as I know, though they have pulled out some exceptional deep catalogue tracks. Glasgow may be the exception, but I doubt it. Hope you enjoy it 🙂

Hello! I just did a mod to my Swedish made Jazz bass. It used to have passive volume and a Stellartone - tone knob. Now it has an East J-tone. Passive/active with a push pull on the tone knob. Stacked volume/blend knob. Stacked bass/trebble knob. Really easy installation! Before Nice padded box! I just cut the old control plate out. Just screw the wires to the terminals Played it the day after with the band. Great!!!

That does look rather lovely Dave. Mrs S won't be making that mistake again

Thanks!

I’ve found a fairly quick way to do this - press and hold the mode button to go into pedal edit mode. Tap pitch shift, it defaults to interval as the first parameter, then use up/down to change between -1/-2. Just timed myself and can change the pitch in 3 seconds with 3 taps. Probably quicker than me bending down and twiddling the knobs....and better for my knees/back!

must admit, I do fancy the walnut 5 string version

This is my first ever Rickenbacker & I can't get over how much better it is than any of the many Fenders I've owned over the last four decades. My P bass is now just a backup bass.

I've no idea! Couldn't care less about that. But I suppose it must do, it has his name on it after all!

The sadness of this video is the championing of gear destruction just because it doesn't compare to more expensive stuff, thus going under the sledgehammer. It's 2019 folks, pretty much everything manufactured nowadays is generally going to be fittish for purpose; let's face it, while it's probably unlikely many Line6 Spider combos will be gracing big stages, but for bedroom, rehearsal or pub gig stuff, it's going to be fine and compared to what we all probably had access to when we first started out, these modelling amps are like something out of Tomorrows World. It really just sickens me that these asshats are just making a (small) name for themselves by subjecting usable gear to destruction, when it could be donated to a kid.

👍👍👍 I recall reading somewhere that he picked up and played a lot of top lines from a wide array of sources. I think it's a real signature of his that he went from root chordal / harmonic playing into melodic toplines and back, seemlessly. 'A Remark you Made' is a really fine example of that PLUS it's a really evocative title for a track. Bloody love it. And Joe Zawinul's piano solo is a fine demo of space awareness - knowing when NOT to play a note. I could go on...

Just ordered a Helix FX. As much as the Stomp is working for me i was struggling to see what effects were on or off when controlled by an external foot switch. Lack of LED's and the small screen made it a bit of a distraction. The FX will be better for me on stage. I spent most of the evening at rehearsals using the BDDI sim, just to make sure i can give up the Amp sim, and i can, very easily. using the BDDI sim was like coming home.

Frankly, I think everyone should now send you pedals and you could turn this in to a super blog Great work chap! Do more! It will be really useful!

If it's only a few days at this time of year they'll be fine in the loft. Middle of summer might be more of a problem but the risk of overheating in mid-November is probably minimal. And they should also be safe from flood damage 😁 Wrap them in a couple of bin bags to stop the mice/bats/whatever else might be up there from crapping on them and you'll be fine.

The body is pretty much done. Actually it still needs a hole for the jack, but that can wait.

Isn't this forum great? - 5 pages of friendly discussion about one of the finer details of bass playing 🙂 I put Olympias on my '82 JV Squier about 18 months ago. They get better and better - rather a 'sticky' feel to begin with. I would say they're medium tension - weights are 45.65.80.100 The big thing about flats for me is that they're so versatile - If you're playing with fingers then digging in changes the sound substantially - but then they also sound great with a pick. Or pick and palm mute for the Carol Kaye Beach Boys sound? Or play with light thumb and palm mute for a real DB sound. Only thing they fall down on is slap - but like I really care....😁 Here's my bass. Had it from new in '82, converted to a PJ in '83. It's turned out to be the most playable and versatile bass I've ever owned. And it's done some serious bass miles in the last 37 years - I'd be lost without it.

Seeing as 'ow the opticians say I'm slowly losing sight in one eye and I know a lot of musos, I'm taking up concert photography while I can still field photons. Plus its a cunning scheme to get me some bass depping in lieu of payment Watched all the videos, bought all the right equipment, got permission for my first concert. What can possibly go wrong? Any pointers from those with previous experience?

Hoping to settle in here and make it my 'new' local. Keep twanging!

Can’t get away from playing a Jazz, but mine bear little resemblance to their original spec. Left: Roasted Alder Body in Daphne Blue, Babicz Bridge, EMGs (18v) and 80s Squire neck. Right: Mexican Alder body in Midnight Blue (special edition colour in 2003), Babicz Bridge, Bartolini 9Js with Richter passive plate, Status fretless neck. Love em.

The Joe Dart signature bass is basically a passive Stingray/Sterling. I also very much like my Sandberg Basic in passive mode. Especially with flatwounds!

I feel sorry for H. He's been in the band for 30 odd years (Fish was only in it for 10!) and people still call him the new guy. If you want to hear more old Marillion you are better off seeing Fish, who is touring again also (for the last time before retiring). I love both 'versions' but I think you have to see them as two slightly different bands. H singing Fish songs just dont sound right to me. Steve Hogarths lyrics are better in many respects than Fish's ever were and musically the band are wonderful to hear. Ps does he still do the white gloves thing?

Cheers mate..........👍

I get it. You don't want to feel like you're outside of the disco but things change as life goes on and it's very much the case that we need to be careful how we spend our time because we don't get it back. I think this is very different from the beginning of the end. Might be the beginning of change though - could put you in a better place (especially if you don't need the bangers and mash - which is a nice place to be) I play a lot more these days but mostly doing gigs that don't really float my boat artistically. I like the playing and social side so I keep doing it but frankly if something forced my hand I'd view the glass as slightly half full and make the change. Anyway, if anyone would like to hear more of my life story you can reach me at [email protected]

I do get a bit fed up with everything that surrounds playing in a pub covers band - trying to park, lugging gear, setting up, managing the PA, starting our first set half an hour after I'm usually in bed, packing up afterwards, etc., but almost always as soon as we're a couple of songs in I think - yeah, this is why I do it. The last specific moment that gave me an extra smile was probably our guitarist pulling off a particularly blistering (yet still tasteful) solo, complete with behind the nut bends, in the middle of... Mustang Sally.

So Ric's do exist. 😱 Very nice one, that said. Did you buy enough bottles ? 🤣

I have a 2014 MIC Classic Vibe 60s Jazz in Inca Silver and it's an awesome bass. The neck is so nice to play and the bass is very well put together. Threw on a new set of DR Fat Beams earlier this week and it just sings.

That's a bit strong! You may need to calm yourself down. But wow, they look utterly awesome... a combination of new, woody, and the 1950s... and the dots look great on the maple fretboards... Fantastic! 🐑

I've had a regular 4003 for over ten years and love it - but this is so much lighter and the neck is gorgeous. All the others will be going now....

Luvverly!

Come down from that fence Skank and share your real feelings with us all.

At this time of year - not too hot, not too cold - it would probably be safe to tape them up in a couple of sturdy bin bags and bury them in the back garden. If that approach doesn't appeal then it's probably safe to put them up in the loft as long as it's just for a few days. I left my first electric guitar in the attic for 18 years then 12 years in a warehouse then two years in a garage. It was fine. YMMV.

Like that alot

COC vibe

Sounds like Trigger's broom Dave.

This is where the science doesn't help too much, different experts and different bassists will disagree about what sounds best. I don't like an instrument speaker to be too strong at 50Hz, Those frequencies are poorly heard and few people will notice if you simply filter out at 24db/octave at 50hz. Trading a little loss of the fundamental for less chance of exciting room resonances and cleaning up the onstage sound is something I would do every time. When I designed the Basschat Mk1 speaker a flat response down as low as possible was something people asked for. I've been gigging with that speaker on and off for a few years and I almost always eq out the low bass and then apply a little boost around 80-120 Hz to get the sound I personally prefer. At a recent bass bash we had a shootout which included a Markbass 12 with just such a response, half the room loved it and half hated it. It's a Marmite thing. I'd say though that you probably don't want anything bigger than a 3db peak at most, that's going to really colour your sound, that disqualifies the Emi in the small cab for me and the Celestion needs a bigger cab too IMO. WinISD will tell you the response, it can't tell you if you'll like it. The other thing to consider though is that most of the character of the speaker will be in it's mid range response where our hearing is very sensitive. It's worth your while looking carefully at the published responses.

That means there were a number of young visitors who are already excellent bassists. That A Very Good Thing.

@MoJoKe thanks for the reply. All the comments regarding the volume have made me wonder, not so much about the visitors, but rather about the exibitors/staff who are subject to the noise for the whole weekend. I'm no expert, but as I understand it, anything over 85-90 for prolonged periods (maybe 8 hours) increases the risk of hearing damage. I haven't been to the show for the past 2 years, so have no skin in the game so to speak, but it has piqued my curiosity as to what the if the organisers views are on protecting those who are unable to escape.