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I am not a photographer, but I present my new acquisition. I used to work in GuitarGuitar and so had a lot of time to myself to endlessly play high-end basses. Sadowsky, Lakland, Fender Custom Shop, G&L, the list goes on. In all that time, there were two basses which stood out for me above all the others (yes, even the £3000 Sadowsky!). One was a 1980s Rickenbacker 4001, and the other was the Sandberg VM4. I could afford neither, but resolved that one day I'd buy a Sandberg VM4 and as I didn't really like the stock finishes I'd do a custom order of black body, black pickguard, black hardware, rosewood fretboard, and hardcore aged. Fast forward 9 years, and I discover that Sandberg now make the Oliver Riedel (Rammstein) signature model which has all of the options I would pick myself given free choice. Well, decision made! Plus, the hardware is a very tasteful black nickel rather than the cheap looking glossy black you usually see. It also has their uprated 'Black Label' pick-ups instead of the standard Sandberg ones, so you get a hotter and more aggressive tone. So here we have it; the Sandberg California II / VM4 Oliver Riedel Signature Model. Lucky me. download.mp4

I have two main 'go-to' basses for home noodling, one kept upstairs and one downstairs. My '81 Aria SB-R80 and '83 SB-R60. Both have plenty of bruises and scars but they feel wonderful and just fit me perfectly.

We have accepted an offer from The Fretboard to buy Basschat. It's not a lot of money but Chris and I both have young families and less time than ever to stay on top of stuff. My being in China doesn't help with the financial side of things, either. Not sure what they intend to do with Guitarchat or the other plans, I guess they'll reveal those at some point in the future. Stay tuned for further announcements on hand over.

So last year I wanted to buy a new bass, partly for tax reasons but mainly just because I wanted to. So after very, very short deliberations with myself I decided. Sander de Gier was going to build me a brand new Soulmate; I already own a Bebop 5 string and that's a great bass too, so what could possibly go wrong? The specs were pretty easy for me: I wanted dots & binding, lollipop tuners, a sixties sound and a Candy Apple Red finish. I ordered it in September and picked it up today. And what. A. Bass. It's hands down one of the best Precisions I've ever played. The neck, the sustain, the sound... Everything is just perfect. It's a great add to my '71 Precision. Sander told me it's the first Soulmate ever with dots & binding, and possibly the first De Gier bass ever with lollipop tuners. I'd love to make some family pics but I'm currently in the middle of moving so that has to wait.

Will get the kids showered and in pj’s then do a similar vid of the HPJ. realistically though. Bottle 2 is calling. might be better if I got iris to do it...

I know very little about Sandberg basses or the company's history, but I did fall for, and buy, this about three months ago. Used it for our February gig, since when it hasn't left its case!

It didn't take terribly long to cut but - because the neck incorporates the neck angle which means you need to know exactly where the body is going to join - it took an age to draw, calculate, check, recheck and check again! But the side profile of the neck blank is now cut: And, hang it, let's have the first mock-up

My online application was submitted on Sunday morning just after 6 am. The money arrived on my account just over an hour ago. That's roughly 80 hrs between applying and receiving the money. We really do have a superb social system here.

The ‘66 off here. Did the deal today. Sold the Pino a few days ago so kinda justifies it 😂

Keep going back to look this on the Bass Buddha site... 😳

I downloaded some ABBA bass transcriptions just before this thread started and dug out my electric bass(I usually play DB these days) and have had a ball playing the lines with the CD blasting away. Some interesting and tricky licks and many of them are in keys that challenge my reading skills. Lots of fun and good energy for these difficult times.😊

Really digging some Blondie basslines in this lockdown. Nigel Harrisons tone in Dreaming in particular is lovely. Definitely flatwounds right?

There's a lot of choice, but in my experience you get what you pay for in this world. You might think your bargain Aldi sponge is the bee's knees, but that's only because you've never had the sublime pleasure of muting your strings with a genuine Marks and Spencer dish sponge. The difference is night and day. The feel, the build quality, it's on a whole other level. Once you've experienced the real deal you'll never go back. On top of that, the resale value will be much better if you ever decide to move it on.

Panther is a vastly underrated bass, beautiful skill and craftsmanship and super thin contoured body - the sound really surprised me. Joy to listen to and play

Yeah @bassfan stop living vicariously though my Pinot infused YouTube videos...crisssakes 🥴

On behalf of Klingon sufferers everywhere: THANK YOU!

Sorry guys, going to have to pull out. I'm classed as a essential worker, I deliver bog rolls. I have to do a round trip from Cheshire to London on Friday. It means I won't get back until late Friday evening. I blame it on the panic buyers. Long may they suffer from ring rust.

Has a friend of ours moved to Germany? Sure I saw this name on the headstock: Philips Clertone-Konvertierungen

😆

That's because the rest of the bass is so ugly the silly scratchplate becomes a tertiary consideration after the janky shape and shoddy workmanship.

April Fools...for a couple of you at least. :)

That is beautiful but it needs oval tuners, my good man.

The configurator has cooked up a vintage style P bass that has got my attention!

Lemmy's playing on the Space Ritual version of 'Down through the Night' remains a highlight - a perfect example of playing to fit the music in my opinion. I'm not a fan of his later music, but that one track was part of the reason I got into bass playing back in the early 70s.

Interesting. As a long-time fan of Hawkwind I much prefer the bass playing of Dave Anderson on In Search of Space to Lemmy on Space Ritual and Do Re Mi. The former seems to blend-in and support the songs much better, where again to me, Lemmy is just noodling up and down a pentatonic scale. All just personal preferences though, not a band to get hung-up about over musical niceties. 😘

Who told you that?? OK it's a fair cop, I did indeed. As you're probably aware I'm a lover of all things old, green and UV illuminated but I have tried many, many other amps (Class D amongst them) alongside the Trace stuff over the years. I was actually toying with the idea of trying a Mesa Walkabout (possibly the Scout combo that came up recently) or trying a D800/D800+ just to see if they hit the spot (I know @karlfer is a big fan of the D800) but when the WD800 came up I pinged a PM off to @waveydavy before I'd actually noticed that it was for a Berg trade. 🙄 Anyhoo, next thing it was for sale and I had first refusal. It's the first piece of Mesa kit I've owned although as you know I almost pushed the button on a M6 when they were on sale at crazy prices a few months back. First impressions is that this is a quality piece of kit. Everything about it, the knobs, the switches (although small) all feel very solid. I've only used it at bedroom levels and tbh I've not messed around with the parametric EQ a great deal. All I've done so far is tried it flat and then with the 'Factory Sample Settings' and I must say that I tried the 'Tube Grind & Punch' setting and that sounded so good I've pretty much left it at that. It sounds superb to my ears through my BF Four10. At volume it's going to sound epic I'm sure but as with the rest of us, it could be some time before I get to try that. ☹️ Not having tried a Walkabout or the D800 I'm not in a great position to comment on the differences, nor am I the most gifted when trying to put across a tone or feel into words but so far I'm very impressed and it certainly sounds to my ears at least that there is some 'depth' to it's sound that I've often found lacking. However I also know that the true test will be in a band setting and at some volume so I'll reserve full judgement until then.

Punk happened as well as, not instead of other forms of music. Where's punk now?

Ask and you shall receive. I'm not a good player, so forgive the very aggressive fingering. I play the same thing four times: 1st time: DI via an amp sim, fingers over the P pickups 2nd time: DI via an amp sim, fingers over the M pickup 3rd time: Straight DI, fingers over the P pickups 4th time: Straight DI, fingers over the M pickup All without EQ, compression etc. All settings on the bass are flat. Drop D Riedel Demo.wav

Dang now up to 10...that was careless. One of them is going to have be shown the door!

A big +1 for this. I don't often watch anything more than once but this set on Youtube with his Dad, and Gene Coye on drums is beautiful His tone and taste, with a foot in the traditional and a foot in the modern day, is brilliant.

And do what Jack says - get a Prodipe TT1 MIC -the Pro or the regular one with the switch, they really are a hidden jewel £35. Ya can’t go wrong! We use a single ALTO 212s 12” sub with QSC 8”s. It really helps out.

You usually need quite a long drill to get the right angle and given the rest of the corpse ( could not use the word body) looks as if it has been worked with only rudimentary tools, it may explain the channel ( I prefer to call it a scar) being hacked out.

For me it's ;

The CS Pino wins by a long, long way for me. His settings on the Ray were not a good representation of what they can do in the context of a track like this. Treble boosted way too much.

I made my own Nordy Mute style thing. Self Adhesive foam strip and an ice lolly stick. Cut slots to match your bass with a very sharp knife. Can be put on / taken off really quickly without any faffing. Cost - pennies. The Nordy version is about £40!

Listened to it. Of course, it's the Pino Palladino CS, as it's the only bass suited and fitted for that tune. And as always a super unscientific totally biased comparison... Why not put a banjo bass in the process to be sure it's a complete non sense approach ?!? That said, I liked the Moog sound too.

Wait till there's a nice storm brewing , open a window and hurl the offending footwear outside, and write a song about it. You could call it ' sandal in the wind ' I do beg your pardon

That sound is 95% technique, 5% gear. Bootsy Collins was one of the first, and is still one of the best funk players. Bootsy could play a washtub bass and it would still sound like Bootsy.

After not playing, apart from the odd couple of minutes here and there, since breaking my right hand last November, I have decided to finish learning the track that got me to pick up the bass again 10 years ago, The Real Me by The Who. I'm up to the point I got to last time, so I'm in uncharted waters now.

I’ve put this on my watch list. I’m genuinely shocked that he’s charging anything for it, let alone the amount! The description is “creative” at best. I want to see if anyone buys it. And if they do, I’m going to sell them my used pants, advertised as a Gucci balaclava.🙄

If your eyes are over the bridge, turn the truss rod towards the bass side, away from the volume knob. Do one tweak and let it settle for a while. After 15-30 minutes, tune to pitch and check the relief again. Repeat. Definitely check a video or two on youtube just so you’re familiar with what you’re doing. It is intimidating at first, but the more familiar you are with it, the more confident and knowledgable you are, the more likely you are to get it right 🙂

Hi all, the 4 String EVO-FX4 Is almost finished.... next step : preamp wiring & soldering...

Richard Cousins from Robert Cray's band is also another fav of mine

To my fellow builders, particularly the ones just starting out on this crazy journey: If you don't already use hand planes and you are in lockdown, then one of the best things you could possibly do with the time is to watch a few videos on YouTube of how to set one up and adjust and use a hand plane and look at @Christine 's superlative guide, pinned at the beginning of Build Diaries, of how to sharpen the blades. And I say that as one who, until my late 50's, had only ever used my handed down Stanley plane the way my father had and, no doubt his father before him - to smooth out the lumps and bumps in poorly home-plastered walls. And that was because the possibility of actually cutting wood with them - even soft woods like pine - was, quite simply, fanciful And now, for me, planing a piece of wood ranks as one of the most pleasing and satisfying parts of the whole building process. So what was I planing this time round? Well - having found a piece of leftover purpleheart 6mm splice, it was time to assemble the neck blank. Before I did that, I wanted to make sure I could maintain a flat surface that the fretboard would eventually glue to, so I put the two mahogany halves together, lined them up and just skimmed the combined top full length with the plane to square it up. Then glued, assembled and clamped it all to within an inch of its life and I have my 3-part blank: Next jobs on the neck blank will be: - Routing the trussrod slot - Thickessing to final width - Cutting the plan and side profiles on the band-saw, ready for the bottom wings to be glued on (after, of course, checking the sizes, re-checking, checking the checks, walking away and then coming back to check again ) Stay safe and thanks, as always, for watching.

There you go. One of these. Slice off the green scourer bit at the base with a Stanley knife (Careful!) You'll have to experiment a bit to find out what thickness of sponge you need to suit both your bass and the amount of damping you want. Edit: Forgot to mention that I've found you may need an additional thickness under your B string on a 5'er.

Not if you compare it to its equivalent on a Rickenbacker - and that genuinely is a slapped-on afterthought. Roger Rossmeisl's original design followed the form of the instrument in a way the current "design" doesn't. I think I've only seen a couple of singlecuts that aren't foul. I really have no idea why anyone thinks it's a good idea to add an extra 2kg of timber to a bass and make it look like this: And once you see it, that's all you can see...