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Kind of surprised how little discussion there is out there for G & L basses. so here is a little recent story... I have owned a couple of SB-2 in the past and have to say they are excellent gigging tools of trade, fast necks, light, punchy. Recently i was reflecting on how good they were and decided to pull the trigger of a preloved L2500 and an excellent thing it is to. Now this bit is where I just got the g.a.s. Watched the video for 'riot' by Ritchie kotzen, the bass player absolutely nails it playing a G & L JB 4 string. So off I go to Anderton's and order a tribute version. Taking its time to get here (getting even more irrational..) I decided to cancel the order and flip to a Kiloton. Never played one before but knew it would be structurally close to the SB-2...and what a bass it is, one of, if not the best decision I have ever made on a purchase. Think passive stingray, almost the same level of output, single/series and parallel switching, Jazz neck but with more character than a single MFD humbucker bass should legally have. Brilliant. Instant #1 bass.

There's also a reverb. Ok, it's a well know fact that Jaco Pastorius used only Rotosound RS66LD round wound strings. To get closer to the sound here, you'll need to double all you parts to get that chorusing effect (also used by Mick Karn, by the way), or try to approach it with a very slight delay. Use only the bridge pickup (no neck pickup as he almost never used it) with tone completely rolled off (the capacitor was a 47 nF with a 250 kOhms pot). Play, as mentioned, over the bridge pickup with a heavy attack. Boost the mids, but higher at 800 Hz. This is what makes a fretless sing. And you'll need that Acoustic 360 kind of slightly to heavy distortion, so use this, with the mids all the way up, it's amazing how close you'll get : http://www.one-control.com/blue-360-bass-preamp.html I owned a Fender Jaco Pastorius Relic Custom Shop bass with this preamp and the settings mentioned. The sound I got was really close to Jaco's sound (just adding a bit of 800 Hz to make the bass sing easily). He was also using a bass cabinet with an 18 inches driver (Acoustic 361) that is also a great part of his sound. Good luck in your tonal quest.

Yep, he double tracked fretless, so it’s almost exactly the same lines, but there is some natural variation in the intonation- gives it a very organic and musical version of a chorus effect. Live he would have a slight (MXR) delay on one amp, with another amp dry - again, producing a chorus type effect, but more natural than a pedal. The other elements are roundwound strings (yes, it is😜) and a heavily coated fingerboard..that really makes it growl. It’s a pain, but it was a key part of his fretless sound.

Entering beta-test phase for Project Pickguard (scheduled while awaiting delivery of pickguard attachment screws from the far East). Decided to go with the stock Yamaha part as it only cost me £14 including shipping from BTN and it only took a few days to arrive! I did lightly scrape it with a scalpel as the 'guard is designed to join onto a metal plate that covers the controls (as on a jazz bass). That part of the pickguard is cut straight so I just needed bevel it slightly. Not necessary but I think it looks a bit better. Currently held in place with double-sided tape and the little plastic truss-rod access doodad. Realise the jazz-style knobs are non-standard but I hate the way I can't see how the stock ones are set. I think they look OK, particularly with the black 'guard which I think, rather like The Dude's rug, really ties the bass together. Overall, I like the look and think I'll stick with it.

I've seen something similar on YouTube (can't remember what video it was now) where they used a flat (rather than a round) shoe lace to wrap around the shaft below the knob and then pull the lace up slowly but firmly to remove the knob. Is there room to squeeze a flat shoe lace around the recess? More innuendos are available on request.

I came across a Uke Iron Maiden tribute band called Nylon Maiden. I'm still traumatised 😵

We played immediately before Martin at the Acoustic Festival of Britain last year. I got to talk to him at length and had a good look at his current Ric, a ‘72 Burgundyglo 4001. The action was literally about 3 times as high as mine. It was the opposite of low! Can’t speak for his TBird as he didn’t have it with him. He was using a Hartke head and an Ashdown Mag 2x10; I helped him carry his rig onstage. I think his full rig includes an ABM head as well as the Hartke; not sure about the cabs. Have to say he was an absolute gent, extremely warm and generous and extremely funny. In fact the whole experience of chatting to him, playing, then getting to watch his (blinding) set, - Argus heavy, obviously - then chatting to him some more, was my most memorable gigging experience ever. I just wish I hadn’t been quite so embarrassing a fanboy! Got him to sign my Warwick Alien, which I used for the gig. Watching him made me feel a lot better about my style too, which is very similar.

This was the state of my ‘64 Precision when I got her. This is her now. Life’s too short to own a bass you don’t play because you want to preserve its value. The crass analogy is that it’s like remaining celibate from your supermodel wife to keep her pristine for the next guy...

MT has always had a great tone. The bass on "Argus" sounds amazing.

When I was assembling my fretless PBass, I ended up with a spare bridge. I can’t just have a spare bridge laying about, so I gathered a few other parts. My neck choices are a one piece maple tele, or a rosewood Pbass, I think a TeleBird might even confuse me, so I’m leaning toward the rosewood. Either neck works well on my fretted Pbass. EMG JV pickups, and a cheesy Chinese gold neck plate... I had to wait a while for this body, but I should have it within the week. I’m going for a lighter blue than LPB, not certain on the shade... For the next build, I’m starting with only a Pbass pickup and wiring harness.... I’m thinking double Pbass pickups and a non reverse body and a full rosewood neck...

Going back to some parts of my roots : I found it in Pisa, Italy. Bought it straight as there was only this one built in right handed. Remember that the great Yves Carbonne is left handed. I also bought its fretted cousin, as it's not an Yves Carbonne Signature, but a bass built for Bruno Ramos. Now, I'm really into 8 strings basses and love them. And, urm, urm, I ordered a custom made Leduc U-Basse 8 strings fretless... So for now, I have a perfect pair :

I’ll sue if you get white pearl Pickguard 😂

I'll tempt you guys with a little sneak peak of mine.....

It's a pretty early Origin by De Gier: serial number #020. Cocobolo fingerboard, spalted maple top, padouk body. Bartolini pickups, Aguilar OBP-3 preamp and a sustain to die for.

Shame. If we'd got another two versions of the idea you could have had a four paned poster Andy Warhol stylee. (Remember where you heard the idea first, heeheehee.) Edit: If you like that, what do you reckon to a panelled quilt as band merch?

Full size body design

go through the Interparcel quote page, ask for a quote, get the price you should have paid, on the size of the parcel actually delivered and offer the difference..might work.

There's an Ashdown RM500 head in one of the rehearsal studios I use... ugh. Nice sounding amp, but that mirror face... whose idea was that??? It's great if I want to retouch my make up, but it's a pain if I want to read which knob does what.

I was carrying out a fret levelling job at the weekend and had Argus playing on the Ipod. Still one of my fave albums and even having listened to it countless times, I had to keep taking a break from the fret filing to enjoy the bass playing and his tone.

Pretty much a stock answer to this type of question: "Talk to David at Bassbags" They used to (and I assume still can) get custom sized cases made to measure but also have lots of stock (I guess the clue is in the name of the company!). My own bass is the opposite to this one, being long in scale and body, but not very deep. I assumed I'd need a custom case so took it to BassBags, where David looked it up and down and pulled out a stock Westbury case that fitted like it was made for the bass. www.bassbags.co.uk

A picture of an a$$ with daft hair in sunglasses? No problem!

Chatting with Mick earlier and he told me to check this out. Utterly blown away by it. What unbelievable craftsmanship and so good to see an instrument saved like this. I am now looking at a couple of my own basses which have niggling issues and wondering what fairy dust the magician might be able to sprinkle.

Dont be knockin' Cliff! His epic late 70s/early 80s trilogy of Devil Woman, Carrie and Wired for Sound is right up there with Copacabana in my house. Only Sir Clifford of Richardsville can make being given a shove from stage left whilst teetering on rollerskates look cool.

I use New Moon, easy to set up, and there was a 10% discount for Basschat members.

I've got an ART MP studio V3. It's good in the sense that using it doesn't sound worse than going straight into the interface but there's no startling improvement in what you hear, IMO, YMMV, etc. The biggest audible differences occur as one scrolls through the various pre-sets and that's as much down to EQ variations. Before you lash out on a valve pre-amp, just for fun it might be worth checking out some VST saturators get a sense of what sounds are available. There are scads of freebies out there including the Ferric TDS a tape simulator which doubles as very flexible saturator / compressor, also the Shattered Glass 1566 and the Klanghelm IVGI. I've used all three, they sound nice and they have their uses.

I think I do disagree about the rounds

At this rate I could have bought a keyboard synth and learned how to play piano before the pedal turned up!

That's the spirit! Looking forward to the development of this project and your next.

Hello all. I received another email from Interparcel this morning basically just telling me to stump up. I have reiterated that I booked in good faith, not knowing that the seller would send a 54 x 44 x 42cm cab in a 68 x 62 x 62cm box. I did tell the seller on the phone that I had made an additional ( 56 x 50 x 46) couple of cm allowance for box size. I also made them aware that I've been a customer for at least 14 years and have spent a small fortune with them and UPS as my preferred team. I have asked what a parcel of the actual size shipped would have cost. They aren't contesting the weight that I added a Kg allowance to. My issue is the size of the surcharge and their inflexibility. The seller didn't want any responsibility for arranging a courier and refused to accept liability for shipping. Not ideal I know but the price was right. I can't see any comeback with the seller. I'm awaiting a reply from Interparcel. They offer a discount down to £116 if I pay within 5 days. I get paid tomorrow. If they don't sway their view I'll have to pay. That'll be £140 for shipping one cab...... If this post raises awareness amongst the community then it's useful methinks. Check the size if someone else packs. It means you can't book until the packing is done but you could save yourself a surcharge. Peter

Don’t get me wrong. Their is nothing wrong with the design of the Thumpinator. My point is that you can go higher without really affecting the speaker response. Remember that few speakers have any great output below 40Hz but going to 35Hz at -3dB does not affect your sound but does significantly reduce the sub-sonic movement.

So sorry to hear about your decision @Lozz196 but it sounds like, in your heart of hearts, it’s the right one for you at this moment in time. As others have said, I’m sure that you’ll find an outlet which gives you the buzz of playing to a room full of people who are loving it but which is sympathetic to whatever balance you need for your physical and mental health.

IBTL👎 Noticed a new category under item specifics: 'is it getting a good set-up yes, a careful one by me'.

Ah that is a major oversight. I wonder if some sort of splitter cable could be made

Snarky Puppy, Royal Albert Hall, last night. Amazing gig. Who would envisage a 14-piece band, playing instrumental jazz/funk/world music/whatever, selling out a venue like that? (Of course, landlords will tell you that you'll never draw a crowd with that kind of thing - original music? no singer? - as an excuse for knocking you back for a gig....). Great compositions and ensemble playing, and some fine soloing, the pick of which came from Bob Reynolds on tenor sax and especially crowd favourite Shaun Martin on keyboards, but featured particularly on Moog synth played via a talkbox. A lot of the set was based, obviously, around the most recent album, Immigrance, which they've been touring for over 6 months. Bad Kids At The Back from that album gained the first big reaction of the night. Rightly so, as well - good tune, well played. Nice moment of audience participation too on Xavi, with the 5,000+ audience split into two by Michael League, Snarky bassist and bandleader (and what a fine description that is!! ), to clap a 4-over-3 rhythm, over which the band came in and grooved like monsters. Turns out that they were recording the gig for a live album...which. remarkably, was available as a double CD package a quarter-of-an-hour after the gig finished. Yes, really. I didn't queue for it, having a train to catch to get home; but it will be worth picking that up at some point...and not just because I'm in the crowd noise. Huge shout also for the support act, which was a trio comprising vocalist Lucy Woodward, Snarky percussionist Keita Ogawa on kit drums and the amazing Charlie Hunter on guitar/bass. Hunter's an interesting player - his instrument is a fan-fret 8-string Novax; the bottom 3 are bass strings, the top 5 being guitar strings. And he plays both roles at once, with a technique that's part like Chapman stick-style, part Travis-picking, but with a healthy dose of bluesy funk groove. At one point, on their cover of Terence Trent-Bridge Derby-County's "Wishing Well", he was playing a guitar solo whilst simultaneously holding down a descending bass line. Quite cool. Here's a video clip from a while back, that shows his playing - it's from a TV show hosted by jazz pianist Ramsay Lewis, who has clearly never heard of either Hunter or Nirvana.....

I've sucessfully used just a couple of small dots of superglue to hold a new nut in place - its strong enough to keep the nut in place when you want it to hold, but giving it a clout from the side is enough to break the bond without causing any damage to the fingerboard or nut when you do want to remove it.

The most useful lesson I have found on Rhythm Stick is the Josh Fossgreen one on youtube: Listening to the bit where he plays the complete verse through slowly from 11:12 along with looking at his pdf transcription completely cracked it for me.

An absolute guilty pleasure of mine, with some very silly fills towards the end: Toto - 'Africa' bass transcription PDF