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Thank you all for your helpful input. I've taken these comments on board and have been considering the various options - and I'm not quite sure how this has happened but I've just found myself ordering a 5-string fender deluxe active jazz bass with next day delivery from GAK 😃 have to say, it looks very cool!

I can assure you, they do exist.

OK guys, it's decision time again! Despite the positive trend at the moment, we're looking at putting this back to September 19th to be really REALLY sure. We want the event to be completely free from even the slightest covid concern and, equally important, to not be further complicated by any covid-related safety measures that will increase the already considerable work-load on the team. July or August would probably be equally good but I can imagine that holiday catch-up plans would impact on attendance. Comments please! Sorry for any further disappointment caused but we WILL get there!

I think this is what you might call Work In Progress But why is that middle switch not fixed in place? Ah...there's a bit of a story to that. What happens when you don't know your own strength? Well, to fix toggle switches like this, I use a socket without a handle. Because of how they are made, you can't tighten them up in the same way as you can potentiometers. And so I'm careful. But clearly not so nearly careful as I thought An email has gone to Martin at SimS confessing my sins and to order a replacement In the meantime, even with the inability to switch the options on that middle pickup, I could plug it in to make sure I'd got the basic wiring right. And it is VERY promising

Mailman just dropped this off all the way from Bass Direct! I couldn’t resist taking a quick peek, although I haven’t played it yet. I’m letting it acclimatize in it’s case. It’s a lovely looking thing !

Guitar amps should have a mute, remotely controlled by the bass player. 😊

A new ACG delivery today... that makes 4 in the 'built by Alan' collection. A number no doubt to grow in the future!

When Jack Casady suggested to Gibson that they reissue the Les Paul Signature Bass, they sent him to Epiphone who went to Peerless in Korea to make the basses for them. Then they took production to China so Peerless brought out their own version. So here we have a Peerless Bassmaster Player, which apart from the headstock and tuners is pretty much identical to the Epi. Really nicely built and sounds great, currently strung with rounds, should I try a set of flats which the seller sent me. Rounds / Flats???

Here are the actual bass tracks from Michael Jackson’ “Get On The Floor“ master tapes. Bassist Louis Johnson recorded the main track with Music Man bass. He overdubbed his part with Alembic Series 1, which he used in recording sessions during that period. I can tell that both tracks were used in the final cut. However, I don’t know the proportions in the mix.

If I thought I could get away with it, I'd suggest the following to my Punk/New wave band: 1 - Damaged Goods - Gang of Four 2 - Death Disco - Public Image Ltd 3 - Totally Wired - The Fall

OK. Draw circle on panel. Drill hole inside the edge of the circle. Place panel on work bench with hole just over the edge. Jigsaw blade into hole. Start cutting, pulling panel towards you. Stop. Remove tins, tools, cup of tea which panel almost knocks from bench. Resume.

Quinton Berry Found him for ya - he is funky

Happy with how this is turning out just midi and a few more bits of power to sort out

I'm with @Nail Soup on this one, I could only dream of getting anyone to try these. And I've tried, oh, how I tried. Holiday in Cambodia - Dead Kennedys Bikini Girls With Machine Guns - The Cramps Poptones - Public Image Ltd Let's (alternative) rock! Now, I just need some gigs! Oh, and a willing band. Hmmm.

Think of the food, think of the food...* *and the basses.

He never shuts up about you though, funny isn’t it...how two people can have such oppositional views on their friendship... 😉

Sorting out some of older videos I found this great footage of third world from reggae on the river, check out the acoustic guitar at the beginning, so nice

Small gig set up 👍

Church did it's first in-person service in a couple of months this Sunday. However, with both of us having underlying medical conditions and a child with some special needs we're all still shielding for now (roll on our vaccinations - hopefully not long now). So we did another one of those "record it on your iPhone and glue it together" videos as a special for this week's service. Our indie-rock version of Chris Tomlin's "Set Free (Joy, Joy)" but with a Valentine's twist at the end. The song starts dead on at 5 minutes in. The sound of my Pro Series Wal bass comes through really nicely on the mix. So glad that our pastors and worship team appreciate the role that bass can play in a mix and driving a song and aren't scared of it!!! Hope you like it.

This ......

It’s the same situation in my function band. It’s a compromise- I have a five string but most gigs it’s a P bass with an octave pedal, MXR octave. I’d rather have the bass I prefer playing for 90% of the tunes, keep the momentum between songs without having to ponce around changing basses and it’s a cliche - the audience will not give a flying monkeys.

Not a fan of octave pedals, I owned an EBS unit a while back and while it was OK with higher notes, but once you dug into the E string it was quite underwhelming; problematic tracking and you'd get this odd double note thing. If you can live with this then fine, otherwise you'll be spending more time concentrating on when it needs to be on and off. So you have other options. D-tuner. I've got these fitted to my Spector and Aria Primary. They work fine, but the E-String does go a bit sloppy. Use sparingly. Buy a five string. I'd say it's always useful to have one; while I'm predominantly a four-string guy, nearly all my recording work is on a five-string. Better than a D-Tuner. Going BEAD. Decent option if you're not busy slapping/pulling the G-string, otherwise you're going to have to be very busy up the dusty end. Remember you'll possibly need to adjust the nut slots to accommodate the wider strings and you may need to tweak the truss rod to keep the neck straight. Buy a Kubicki Ex-Factor bass (which resolves all the issues beautifully; All these cost ££. Weigh up how much you need those extra notes and decide what suits. It's all a personal choice; you could even try a heavier string gauge and tune down to DGCF and capo across the second fret to play off a standard EADG tuning. Too many options.

She's back with me! And I was the one that named her Rita 😁 I bought her from The original owner Greeneking who fitted the Nordstrand. I also remember seeing her with another basschat owner in Bassist magazine. Recently had a new nut fitted a full setup/electrics check and a clear perspex guard. Somewhere down the line a horrible nut making the strings narrower was fitted! I got that fixed as soon as I could afford it. I've had her back about a year now. I first owned her 12 years ago, I got from Warwickhunt who traded it to me, I part traded it later to a young fella Josh whom I believe sold her to you Mr Wrinkleygit. I recall I PM'D as I followed her adventures and missed out on need a 2nd time to Warwickhunt who can't help himself and sold her a second time 😂 She stays with me and had been doing a lot of recording recently. Small body/slim neck of a sterling and the Alnico vintage balls of a classic ray, and looks amazing Funny everybody loved her, NOBODY kept her😂 I regretted parting straight away,even though It was for a Ken smith.

My list unfortunately will soon be one made up of stuff I’ll need to sell rather than acquire. Hoping it doesn’t come to that but must admit I’ve been looking in my music room mentally noting what would be first to go if the gig situation doesn’t turn around soon. Fingers crossed.

Doug Wimbish does that a lot, doesn't not do him no harm.

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I don't see a problem. if I want it, can afford it, have room for it, I'll get it. End of. If it turns out to be less than expected, I'll move it on. If it is better than expected, I'll keep it and move on something else. Or not. At least I would have had the experience of playing it for a while. I call it 'curiosity' rather than GAS and certainly nobody else's business. Of course if it meant not being able to meet debts or put food on the table that is another thing.

So took the plunge on one of these. Went for this over an HX Stomp as I prefer more footswitchable options for live use. Also wanted the amp sims for recording, so also ruled the HX out. So far, its an impressive machine. Still learning, but its pretty intuitive.

Just got back from a sale, my GSR100EX for only $100 USD. Guy would not just sod off after the transaction, instead he gets out his phone & is showing me photos 1 by 1 of his 50+ instrument collection. Who has the heart to tell him that he must be mentally ill? Buying up stuff just because it's a deal is some sort of sickness in my opinion. However, we are encouraged to Buy More almost everywhere in the player communities online. Even I am guilty of buying due to influence from the internet, but when it's the other way around NO one will take heed of the ONE guy who is commenting NOT to buy it just because it's there!

EBS MicroBass II A Aompletely GAS fueled purchase as I have a SansAmp Bass Driver DI II that I'm not unhappy with but I've been EBS curious for a while (amps, pre-amps and effects pedals) so when feeling bored and a little low this weekend I indulged in some retail therapy. The EBS is also better spec'd with a FX loop and Headphone jack, the latter being a very useful feature giving the MBII can also be powered by 9v battery. If lockdown ever ends having this in the pocket of the gig bag makes a nice little travel rig. I know the Micro Bass III has been here a little while and I'd been considering getting one for a while now but when I looked into it little more there were a few things about it that put me off based on my current requirements.. 1. I wanted 48v Phantom Power capability from my Audio Interface. The III is PSU powered only 2. Size - I wanted something that could sit on my desk and not take up too much room, the MBIII is pretty large 3. Price - I picked this up new for £169 from Andertons where as the MBIII is almost double that 4. Although generally favorable reviews for the III a number of users claimed to prefer their II 5. I figured if I decide to keep the SansAmp I can return the EBS for a refund, if I favour the EBS I could get most of my money back by selling the SansAmp so this shouldn't be an 'expensive' purchase.

While the lack of gigs is obviously not good, the rest of your post I look at in a positive light. To have instruments as assets is far preferable to having that money in the bank. Both can be exchanged for necessary goods if the situation arises, but instruments are far more fulfilling until that day comes, and fingers crossed it won't. 🙂

Dave Mattacks is a very fine player for sure. I have had the pleasure of playing with him a few times.

I did think of Brian "The Brain" Mantia, and Tim Alexander (the other Primus drummer) And I'll add another; Pat Mastelotto. Awesome drummer.

I sold the basses I would never sell - the Hamer Blitz bass I always wanted, and my Rob Allen Mouse (although I bought that back, thanks @Clarky!). But I REALLY would not sell my custom Shuker's

Micro mesh is also used by guitar builders, especially acoustics, to highly polish the (top) wood pre oil or spray finishing. This is how I heard about it through David Dyke’s Luthier Supplies. Micro mesh doesn’t really take away any layer of wood but after sanding hopefully leaving no scratches, micro mesh is used starting normally from 1500 (or is it 1200?) working up to the final piece in a 9 pack that looks like a shiny piece of material itself. However, using this stuff can also highlight scratches unseen at the end of normal sanding as the polishing effect brings them out so before oil or spraying a clear finish, those damned scratches can be looked at.

I use the pitch shift feature on my HX Stomp to shift all the notes down 5 semitones, have a patch specifically for this which I flick to when I need that low B. The tracking is excellent.

WOW Binky! That is some collection there! What a stunning new addition too. Congratulations Eude

Hanging On the Telephone? Just use Zoom, Debbie!

It works nicely enough to pursue the project further. I needs a pickup and a set of strings from Mr Newtone. The cut down ones are not quite ringing true

Buy anything overdrivey/ distortiony you see in the for sale section for £40-£60, try it for a few weeks, flip it, keep going. You'll need to try a few things to get an idea of what you want. You'll only lose a few quid postage each time you roll the dice. Demo vids and other people's advice are nothing compared to giving stuff a bash with your equipment/ style/ technique/ ears. Personally I love any generic tubescreamer style effect on bass, but it's not a very popular choice in general for bassists.

Like Stan Sargeant. Unusual how he has the bass strung upside-down as it were. 🙂

Gullible & stupid person alert.

Different kind of Large bass collections 1- slowly growers. These folk never seem to sell anything, they have their first bass, and their second and every so often will buy something new. They never sell so don’t seem to have GAS. They will have a collection with a wide age range of basses and look down at the GAS fuelled rabid buying and selling of others. 2- collectors these folk have a thing they are into, if you ask them about it they are very knowledgeable about it and have a desire to own or try as much as they can. Whether it’s Warwicks, 70s japanese, Peavey or pre-cbs fenders it doesn’t really matter. They will have their favourite gigging bass and then half a dozen variations of the same model 3- professional players they make thier living playing bass of in music and have their main instrument. They will have a few of them as backup, and possibly will have been provided by the company. For recording and for fun they might have anything from a handful to dozens of other instruments. You can tell them by string preference to main instrument, close relationships over years with companies and being too busy to want to spend much time on here. 4- semi-professional players like the above but they make their main living doing something else. This means more free cash flow so they know what they like, it just will be a bit newer than the pro player and they possibly went for an upgraded top wood 5- thing lovers these players have a large collection of basses with no discernible theme or reason. Mostly lower end models they seem to have hoovered up lots of different make models and styles. Because they aren’t throwing big money at anything expect to see a lot of lower end instruments that are “actually way better than you would imagine”. In conversation about their instruments expect verboseness but little detail. 6- GAS fuelled thing lovers these players are similar to normal thing lovers, but ascribe to the idea in the marketing that more expensive things will be better. Their collection may not be large but it seems constantly in flux and week to week who knows what basses they will take to practice. Despite all evidence to the contrary they like to think themselves as discerning, so will go into excruciating detail And cause the luthier a massive headache when spec-ing a bass. They like to signal their discernment to others of their tribe with comments like “ah if this had an extra string”. (Btw the custom bass went from being the best thing ever to being traded for a Roscoe in about 6 months) 7- GAS fuelled swappers. like the above but unable to keep a large collection For whatever reason. Tend to have a small collection of higher end instruments. All but one of them will have a price if you ask. (And if you are asking You probably are one) 8- Stopper swappers Gas fuelled swappers who have stopped for whatever reason. Used to be on Basschat a lot. Not any more. Will be nice to say hello when they log on to sell their Ceilinder. 9- completists pride themselves one not having GAS, not as picky as some of the above - they have a a small collection... 1 precision, one jazz, one 5 string, one stingray, one fretless, one EUB etc 9- Stans These guys try to emulate their favourite player. They have the signature model. And the previous signature model, and a version of the bass they became famous on. If a Mark King fan they may pay their salery directly to Status Graphite 10- Trend followers you know when things are on trend on talkbass? These guys seem to follow the trend, yes they had a Lakland, and a SX and a Sire - and whatever got a bit of a buzz about them. Seem to go through cabs fairly quickly 11- the reader of course you sir or madam, the reader are a wonderful individual who only makes rational thought through decisions, unswayed by marketing, peer pressure or phycological need. You are truely free (but have you tried....)