Leaderboard

Hi All, So thought I'd update you on what happened. DHL couldn't find the bass, it was last seen on CCTV in the wearhouse the day before the last scan, then it went missing. It's possibly it was damaged and "disposed of without being properly recorded", or that it went out on with an agency driver who couldn't find our address and then it got lost in the system. They aren't sure and it may resurface in an auction as some of you have suggested. There was 1 new purple burst available in the UK at Anderson's, and my email to the CEO resulted in personal contact from the head of Customer Services, who agreed as a gesture of goodwill to compensate Ollie for the extra so he could get that one. They were very helpful, even reserving the bass for us so it couldn't be sold while they investigated. So I have a very happy 13 year old who has a brand new bass rather than a used one, and I'm actually quite envious - it's a really nice bass!! Do I think this would have happened without directly emailing the CEO? Probably not given that I also emailed Customer Services independently incase the CEO didn't get my email and I eventually got a reply telling me it would be redelivered the following day, a week after I already knew they had lost it 😆 I probably wouldn't have bothered the CEO if it was just for me, I'd have just taken the PayPal refund and been cross, but I'm glad I took a stand for Ollie as he'd worked so hard and waited so long to get one. He's busy slapping some RHCP's as I write this, so was well worth it! Aside from this I also had 2 very kind offers for free basses for him, one on here and one on FB, and that also put my faith back in humanity and the bass community! All in all a very happy end to this tale. Thanks for all your input and suggestions!

Delivered to my door two days behind MatiZ's, but this time not by UPS but by pro bassist Kelpie, whom it was my pleasure to meet today. BB735A - quick second-time-around review Very happy with it and a really nice weight at 4.4kg / 9.7 lbs - the same weight as my 1025 (and by coincidence also the same as my KS). Having seen it in the flesh the PG is staying on! My first time around with a 735A, it arrived pretty new but with a set-up that the previous owner had never quite been happy with or was able to fix, including trying lighter tuners. I'd largely got it set up how I wanted but shortly afterwards bagged a played-in P35 which had the additional benefit of the I.R.A treatment and was a bass that had been set up beautifully by pro-bassist, Mark, whom I bought it off. I was never really tempted to pick the 735A up to play after that, so I moved it on. Interestingly Tyler, whom I sold it to and another of our excellent pro bassists on BC (and the third I've already mentioned in this post - blimey these BB's are clearly popular with proficient bass players!), managed to get the 735A to just how he wanted it and absolutely loved it! The only adjustment I've made today is to lower the pup heights - Kelpie had set them quite close to the strings and then put tape over the bridge J to prevent unwanted clicks / pops when he dug in hard. I'm just going to settle for lower pup heights and turn my amp up instead! Sounds and feels good - lovely balance and no noticeable neck dive from its sturdily constructed 5 piece laminate maple and mahogany neck. I immediately preferred the active circuit to the passive on this, which I found less articulate / crisp - but each to their own: I know others, including EJWW in his comments a few posts above, prefer the passive tone on their 734/5As. The passive setting is still a really "nice to have" for me though: not least for peace of mind if the battery fails mid set. The other reason for a grin on my bass-face today is that, having had GAS for an active PJ with 3 band EQ and active / passive option, that was not too heavy and had more accessible frets than I was getting from my Sire P7, this ticks all the boxes! I've also managed to spend < 20% I was half-thinking of forking out on an equivalently spec'd new bass (albeit with nicer woods), and the tone on this 735A easily goes to toe to toe with that high-end bass. So my wallet is feeling hugely relieved and the ulterior motive of turning this into a poor man's midi bass with an additional GK3 pup and pairing with a Boss SY-1000 can move onto the next step!

Finished! My friend wanted Ernie Ball Cobalt Flatwounds and they are right when they say they sound like rounds! Very impressed with those. I need to do some setting up, as I left the nut slots a little high. Overall I couldn’t be happier with the sound and look!

Well, i've just done the same to him. Bought a 150 quid item, and marked it payment made, but didnt pay him. Lets see what the w@anker makes of that

Having suffered with Semi gas for some years now, I've been keeping my eye out for one of these for a while, and when one popped up "in stock" in the UK, I grabbed it before it could get away! And I'm smitten! Lovely thump & surprising range of tones available by twiddling the volumes to blend each pick up. Lovely high quality finish all round - can't fault anything. Only thing to get used to is that it's huge!😊 At least 3" longer from head to toe than my Fender P, and obviously a good deal fatter. It needs a completely different playing position compared to my "normal" basses, but it's something I'm looking forward to working on 🤗.

It still gives me a pang of guilt that I once got a perfectly good Squier MB1 P/J bass in a Crack Converters down from £100 to £50 as I demonstrated to the staff that one of the volume knobs wasn’t working. Turns out (after I got it home) that it was the pan / blend control, I hadn’t had a bass with one before......

I was always a bit hesitant about graphite basses and necks, but the neck on my new Sterling...it's amazing.

I can't believe its not funny

Laura Ashley Death Punch. Has a certain ring to it.

Pickup position in both basses are exactly the same at the split, Hill's reversed pups have a slightly brighter E & A where the D & G loose a bit edge seems more balanced out all in but mind the Hill uses EMG's compared to the 77's Dimarzio's. The 77's neck feels more slicker but could be put down to having a satin like finish compared to a painted neck, all in i couldn't pick a better one out of the two...both hold there own. Just need a Wimbish now or a p/j Hill and i'll be happy. By the way both are good for thrash metal never mind heavy metal

The photos were taken during lockdown.

I'm sure all BC'ers must be feeling really sorry for all the pro musicians out there - they might have just about survived the last lockdown and been limping along since then, but tonight's announcement might be the final straw. And also all the support crews that worked with them..... not so easy to 'retrain' when it's the only life you've known. And even if Covid is beaten or becomes just another virus for us humans to deal with, it'll take many years for the live arts in all their forms to fully recover.

Yeah he’s a very tasty player. I was learning the original Fool For Your Loving a few weeks ago and the bass on it is great. Had the pleasure of making Neil Murray a cup of tea many years ago at the Roland HQ in Swansea where I worked. I said: “You’re Neil Murray aren’t you?” and he said: “Well I’m an older, fatter version of him,” which I thought was quite witty.

The company still feature it on their bass string sets.

Have you tried dieting?

It's been a while since I've had two fretless basses in the house, let alone two basses that might last a while. I've owned that Jazz for almost 20 years now and the Sterling/Status arrived a few weeks back. I've added a Nordstrand pickup to it because the Kent Armstrong that was in it sounded a bit too modern for my taste. And boy. Is it great. I'm not a big Stingray fan but this is quite a bass.

It's great isn't it!? You can't log in as you may be a robot, but the reply to your complaining about it comes from their robot. Unless of course you are a robot, in which case Skynet has gone active and we're all doomed. "I need your boots, your motorcycle and a new bass guitar!"

It’s not called Crack Converters for nothing, around my way it’s the first place people look if anything is stolen

I love this geeky clip

Yes, people must (be) really stupid

A little bit overkill for acoustic gigs , but i like to have thunderous lows even with acoustic bass !

Review of a Mama replacement pickup for the Epiphone Jack Casady Bass. I have no financial interest or affiliation to Mama. Signal chain… Jack Casady strung with Pyramid Gold flats, Flattley Bass Fuzz, Stoneham YI-200 valve amp. I wanted a replacement pickup for the Jack Casady bass I bought last month, it didn't have the original pickup or wiring installed. My new to me bass came with a very hot single coil pickup that really made the sound too aggressive for my tastes. This is because I play in a three piece acoustic style band that requires a more mellow sound. They're was nothing fundamentally wrong with the single coil, it just didn't give me the sound I was after. After a prolonged Google search I found only one company who made a replacement pickup for the Jack Casady Bass. It was Mama pickups based in Italy. They make the pickup in black, white or cream and it can be ordered with three choices of wiring with pots and two mounting screw colour options. I ordered a black pickup with black mounting screws and the simple tone and volume wiring. Other wiring options include a single coil tap and an elaborate single coil, parallel, serial switching arrangement using the original impedance switch is available. It only took a few days to arrive from Italy and I excitedly opened the well packed package. The package contained the pickup, screws, two high quality mojo (CTS) pots and an orange tone cap. The wiring loom was not pre made so you will need wire and soldering equipment and the original input socket. I'm good with a soldering iron so making the loom was straightforward because Mama supplied a simple and easy to use wiring diagram which is available on line. If you can't work a soldering iron then you will need a guitar tech to install the pickup for you. The original plastic pickup surround needed a small amount of modification to allow the larger screws to fit through it and widening because the pickup is slightly to big for the original pickup surround. Installation was not hard but it did require a little work and thought. Within two hours the pickup was in, adjusted and tested. Instantly I was impressed with the sound. It was slightly darker than the single coil but more importantly it lost nothing of the punch and power. I fiddled with the pickup height and managed to dial in the right sound for my playing style. My preferred sound, after an hour of playing at home, was the volume on full with the tone set to number 5 on the 1 - 10 dial. If I had to compare the sound with another bass I would say it's like a Precision with a slight hollow ring from the acoustic body of the bass. It is perfect for my three piece acoustic style band and sounds fantastic with Pyramid Gold flats installed on the bass. Cost was around £185 for the pickup, screws, pots and tone cap. I can only conclude that Mama has a new follower and customer. I would love to hear their Jazz pickups installed on a future bass purchase. 😄

Jaccobs Ladder by Incognito. I saw him play this a few times on an F Bass 5 string live with Incognito at various venues.. When you hear the song it makes more sense. But non the less what a bass player. Met him upstairs at the Jazz Cafe when he was playing with Down to the Bone. What a lovely man he was.

Sold my Status in a mad panic as the Mrs’ car is making funny noises. It’d been a close second to my sadowsky and I bought it in a mad rush because it was drop dead gorgeous and local... Anyhow, I wanted to have funds in just in case it’s not a simple fix. It’s booked in for the weekend so should be sorted fairly cheaply. Yesterday I Sold a (non working) vintage watch to a man across the street (he mentioned in passing he liked watches the other week and sent him pics and entered into negotiations). I had sorted my amp situation so wanted to move my Ashdown rig on. Got a mailshot from Local PMT the other week that they were doing a sale on “pre loved” gear in store. Messaged them to see if they still had a natural Spector LX i’d spotted last month in stock. ”It’s still here, but it’s red, not natural...” I went down to see what they were on about. Love at first sight is nonsense...NOT. Jeez. Agreed on price, and then did the “Ive got a p/x can you look at it...” the guy at PMT I’ve known for years (probably 20+) and he’s the manager, great bloke. Did a decent P/X value. And for the price of the watch and a bit more...I was leaving without my old amp and owning a Euro LX.

I think we should all go straight to bed

You are perfectly right about that. I somehow managed to merge two replies by two different people in my mind, you being unlucky to be the wrong one, but seems it doesn't really add up to actual reality... Doh!

Really pleased with mine too, it’s superb quality, I do totally get people held back by the cost, I sold two basses to cover it! The feel, the smell and colour did it for me, can’t resist a sparkly finish !!

Do we all need to run our posts past you first?

I did...

Back in 1986/87 Kramer had a special batch of 5A solid quilted maple .Apart from this bass the remaining quilt was used to produce NS2s for Doug Wimbish, Mario Cipollina , Adam Clayton and Henry Vaccaro (Kramer company owner).

I did some guitar tech work on that show, and spent many a night sitting behind him - which meant I could hear his fantastic playing, but not actually see him play 🙄

Welcome to the club - I am six weeks ahead

I quote: 😄

There's something about valve amps............ 😎

.

Followed the link and I got $2 off my first purchase too...ker-ching!

I’m pretty much the same but with the Para Driver, Dave, no matter what I try I just keep coming back to it.

At least Dave sounds like he knows his stuff. 👌 DAVE SAYS: "THIS IS A CUSTOM PAINTED BASS GUITAR: THE SOLID WOOD BODY IS IN GOOD CONDITION PAINTWORK AND DECAL ON FRONT ARE NEAT, MINOR NICKS ONLY WORKS FINE! NO ISSUES! WOOD BIT ADDED TO FRONT, DON'T KNOW WHY"

Absolutely! Not so much with music but 100% with lyrics: "A predictable rhyme is a waste of my time Can't you write any better, you peasant? You treat us like sheep with your lyrics so cheap. Obnoxious, naff, and repellant" 4/10, Must try harder

Not at all. I've been downloading and learning some of @Bilbo 's transcriptions of songs from my earlier years and that's just for fun. After 44yrs playing i still get excited by some basslines that even after 40 years still give me that buzz to learn them. Altho i learn basslines as near note for note as possible its only for my own benefit. I use it as a starting point and the band use my knowledge of the song as a guide at rehearsals. If i'm playing the bassline perfectly or as near as possible it allows them a bit more freedom to improvise, more so when we are a basically guitar bass and drums trying to cover larger bands or songs that have been double tracked in studios. We as a band try to get as close to the original as we can tho. Dave

Bedminster