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I’ve received another update from Jon. The neck now has frets and is looking rather fabulous....

I'd knock the idea of "democracy" on head - it's your band and your vision. You want a benevolent dictatorship, where others are encouraged to make suggestions, but you're making the final decisions. One of the problems with democracy is that people don't always know what they want. There's often a difference between "music I like to listen to" and "music I like to perform" - until they're asked to learn it, folks don't necessarily realise that a song actually has some really fun guitar parts etc. And some songs just come alive the first time you try them out as a band, even though the original's nothing special. I can't stand most 80s music, but I'd still rather see an 80s cover band with a coherent setlist and who've obviously put some effort in, instead of a generic "bit of everything" act!

Altho i started a new cab day topic i thought i would give this a brief update too. Went with the TT800 and the 210 and 115 cabs. TT800 wont arrive till June and using Mpulse on exact same settings as with my PH212 cab. The 115 cab sounds very similar to the PH212 tone. The 210 has same depth but the mids are now clearer. Agedhorse told me the Mpulse amp had a mid range scoop and that is probably why the 115 cab doesn't sound as clear in the mid range. He said i should boost the mids a touch and lo and behold he was spot on the 115 cab does produce that clear mid tone but not quite as good as the 210 cab on same amp settings. Overall i now feel i have a full range bass rig and 1st rehearsals with the new cabs will be next Sunday at a 6hr session. I'm really impressed with how much depth these cabs have compared to other lightweight cabs i've tried and at circa 19-20Kg each its an easy one-handed lift for each cab. As always i appreciate everyone's help and advice and allowing me to understand the subtle differences with the cabs. I'm happy i've made the right choice and i'd happily gig with either the 115 or 210 on its own. Dave

So I got a pretty big amount of money back from my taxes and decided to invest in a decent double bass. After trying out a few instruments I knew what I was looking for and found it in this Dutch built, all solid 3/4 bass, built by luthier Léon Christiaens in 1991. Feels great, adjustable bridge, in an amazing condition...lovely. Absolutely lovely. IMG_4599.MOV

That's possible, and you can't assume that any design was arrived at by scientific means. Marketing departments have a habit of specifying target dimensions, driver sizes and wattage ratings with little regard to how well it works, because they're interested in how it will sell. For instance, at one time the Kappa Pro Ten was a popular driver in 'boutique' cabs, mainly as its 500 watt rating could be advertised as a step up from the usual. However, it was designed for PA midbass/midrange, so with electric bass it worked no better than a 250w rated Beta 10 that cost and weighed half as much.

These Folks were from Derby. Got to play on the same roster as them at gigs in the Derby/Burton area in the 80's. Great band probably not that well known.

Back to the Warmoth inspired look.

Next the dreaded binding. Swore I'd never do binding again but I'm either stupid or have memory loss, probably both. Binding was a disaster, again 🤣 Had something looking like a bass. Grain looked great, sadly overall look was too dark ☹️

It's like a cat attempting to scratch a blackboard while another cat pours petrol on it, and as he tries to strike a match both of them start sliding down a steepening scree slope made up of innumerable sharp pieces of slate. Meanwhile, someone else is recording that sound, and playing it back through a 70s Waltham cassette player which is mic-ed up and broadcast through a bank of Kay's catalogue guitar combos with slashed speaker cones. In other words, not good!

We suffered a night of that game. Of course, they neglected to let us in on their 'travel light' plan until we turned up, which made for some interesting conversations given that we'd been told to just bring breakables as usual. By showtime everyone was annoyed, the sound was terrible all night, the gig had hardly been promoted either so the crowd was thin, and the touring act went down like a brick. By contrast, we got one where we'd been told to bring everything and get there early, which seemed a bit suspect and we assumed meant another sneaky 'lend us all your gear' gig. We got there to find the headliners doing a meet-and-greet soundcheck with everything set up, then they vacated and we were invited to set up in front of their stuff and given a proper soundcheck. Turned out we were the only support band that night and we had an hour to fill on the main stage, instead of the 20min first support slot in the little room that we were expecting. That gig was a pleasure to play and the touring band were excellent!

Say what you want what you really really want 😁

I still use an 18" bass cab as a stand alone cab for some of my reggae gigs but prefer it with my 1x12" cab as it gives me a bit more detail whilst not detracting from the low end. I have used it like this on a few gigs and mainly on gigs without the bass in the PA.

I had a dig about & I found this from 1981 (!) Shows my gig wagon, decks, and more importantly (bottom right) a view of one of my twin18 & Vitavox boxes (the other boxes are some of the Tannoy 15's that I bought from the Blind Beggar pub) (why do we never take 'proper' pics?)

Decision almost made...love these BB5000a in purple. Eo, while not seen on a 4 string BB, is roughly era correct.

Yes, have been in a good quality covers band for 5 years now. We describe it as "rock and soul" but really it's an Irish stew of all sorts of songs with no real theme and some really bizarre ones creeping in more and more. Due to personal circumstances for a handful of the group the enthusiasm is waning, we are all good mates but there are flaws in the thinking behind the band. Health issues also might force the singer to quit which would be awful. Regardless, I've had my eye on doing something a bit different for a while. When I got the 80s band started the guitarist was very different, not a "blues w*nker" but someone who can really play and loves a bit of electro synth stuff to the point he's probably just as good a synth player as guitarist. His view is "nobody wants to hear another flipping guitar solo, they just want to dance" and he plays great big delay and chorus sounding stuff that sounds fantastic. The drummer is rock solid and a really nice easy going chap (odd, I know). The problem has been bringing in the singer the guitarist knows from an old band. She's very good, she's gigged a lot, if we stuck to a theme and styled it right (I mean dress the part, create the right visuals for online advertising, the right band name) I think it could be a solid band that could pick and choose its local gigs. I just fear being another "three middle aged blokes and a girl singer do random songs off Radio 2" which you see everywhere and are usually disappointing. Whereas "three middle aged blokes dressed like Miami Vice with an awesome girl singer play 80s sing and dance along songs" is a much more appealing proposition for an audience and for someone booking gigs. That's my view at least.

Have a look at the Ibanez Mikro bass range. They are much better ergonomically than those you have mentioned in my experience. The Mikros are short scale, lightweight with slim necks and a very comfortable body profile. Rounds are usually much easier to play because most flats (TI flats ££££ excluded) are higher tension and tougher for beginners. Just about every new bass will be supplied with an adequate set of roundwounds on it already to go.

I'm fed up with trying to be like everyone else. 🙂

Tips the scales at just over 6lbs. Set of La Bella double ballend tapes are on the way from Bass Direct. I do like that natural grain finish, might try this again. "Again" of course means no binding and it'll still have a peghead 😃

You don’t sustain the album sales that GB has in today’s world if you aren’t musically talented. There’s more than enough people ready to pounce and take you down. The fact that he was writing a soundtrack that defined a generation kind of says it all. You may not like him or his music - but his credentials stack up and are underpinned by his success.

You’re going to need to keep the jazz and get a MM to compliment it. As soon as you have the MM you’ll miss the J. 😊

The Spice girls were terrible. There was nothing remotely spicy about them I did quite like dirty spice the ginger one though. Music wise this was the beginning of the end next thing we now people were crediting Gary Barlow as musically talented.

I think there are some misconceptions about using a compressor in your signal chain, and a lot of bassists seem to not know what a decent compressor can actually do for you. Last week, again, a fellow bassist told me "I do not need a compressor, my playing is good enough". Why do some players feel using a compressor is a bad thing? Any sound engineer will ALWAYS compress your signal anyway and you do not use a compressor to "fix bad playing technique". First of all: You need a GOOD compressor if you want it to get you a good sound. I tried a number of cheap comps and wasn't at all happy with what they do. For instance the Spectracomp on my TC amp is completely RUBBISH compared to my two pedal comps, it is acting like a limiter not a compressor. There are two compressors in my big drawer of pedals, and they both have very different characteristics. Most of the time I will use my Cali76cb, which has a high pass filter that keeps it from squashing the low B on a higher ratio and it has a dry/wet blend so I can combine the compressed and uncompressed sound. I have it set up with a pretty long attack time, low ratio and I blend in a fair amount of the uncompressed signal. This way the compressor doesn't do much when I play softly but when I dig in it will add punch through the attack phase of the envelope (the attack phase of each note I play). It makes my basses sound more 'in your face' when I play hard, exactly what I want it to do. Then there's the Black Finger which is adding tube warmth to my sound. This one (kinda like a Diamond compressor) works particularly well with Pbass tone and adds that tuby on the verge of breakup grit if I want it to. If I had to describe the effect I'd say the Black Finger makes my bass sound bigger. So there you go. One compressor for punch, one for warmth. None for "fixing my touch". Anyone out there who also find their compressor improves their tone? If so, in what way?

Thought I'd share! This is something I've been working on putting together for nearly a year. My Zoot Funkmiester arrived on Friday which was hand built in Essex by @Cosmicrain, and joins my Maldon built Ashdown CTM300 and my Brighton made Barefaced Big Twin II. Rather chuffed and sounds the business! Still a few months before I'll get to gig them though...😢

Because a Brownie Box camera can only do so much ...

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Absolutely not! There's some pretty big shoes to fill... Doug used to do this and found something positive to say about every entry. My positive comment would usually be something like "and then mercifully, it ends".

Ooo Thanks! Off to have a word with the b̶a̶n̶k̶ ̶m̶a̶n̶a̶g̶e̶r̶ missus!

My neighbour's dog does.

OK, back to BB topic... Before the last layers of lacquer...the Yamaha Logo 🙂

@gobasserk, You're doing OK. When I was travelling I noticed that, no matter where in the world I was, most people could swear fluently in English... @Al Krow, I was watching some daytime telly a few years back with some English children (toddlers) playing with some Vietnamese children of the same age. All were getting on fantastically, laughing and playing. At the end, the interviewer asked one of the English children how she got on with the Vietnamese children when they didn't speak English to which she replied "...but she laughs in English". From the mouths of babes....

Everybody knows a P bass with flats is the best way to be raised 😁

I've been wondering why Ashdown got the cabinet volume so wrong. It looks to me like they specified the width of the cab to match the width of the amp, which is logical. I suppose they specified the depth of the cab so that the amp would fit in there too. Makes sense. And then they specified the height of the cab so that a 10- inch driver would fit with enough space for the grille surround. So that's how the professionals do it! 😁 (Present company excepted, of course). The lack of a port remains a mystery. Especially as their published description claims it's ported.

I'm in, I have two Skyline's & if one of these with the ebony board ever turns up on the UK market I'll have three 😁

I'm really happy that this thread appeared - as a proud owner of a 55-02 I'm surprised that there is not much Lakland love on this site. I wonder why? Is it that they are just not popular, or that it is our hidden secret? I picked mine up second hand about a year ago, as I wanted a bass that would be an easy transition between 4 to 5, and most 5ers have much more narrow string spacing. Played a few of them in the Bass Gallery and fell in love with the neck and the tone. For quality is easily on par with my MIA Fender Jazz. It is so rich and full in tone. It doesn't have a unique tone, I admit - It doesn't imitate other basses - rather it gets in the ballpark but then adds some high-fidelity with the LH3 preamp. Compared to other 35" scale basses it doesn't feel all that different to 34" (that said, technical playing down the lower frets does feel a little bit of a stretch and can be a bit tiring). One thing I have noticed is that most of the 55-02s I see around on the web are on maple fretboards - it's almost like this is the default fretboard material for 55-02s. But interesting that many Lakies on this thread are rosewood. I always wonder whether the maple is that much better for this pickup combo (and no, I don't want to get into that debate)? Anyway, thanks for the thread! Toby

I’ve had similar experiences, “we can’t make refund until you close the dispute”. Oh yes you can, one chance to make that very refund or watch your message fly it’s way to your CEOs inbox. Heres your refund.

End of 2019 I see a bass advertised that looks nice but discount it as it’s a 5 string. It’s also in the next village from where I work. So my first 5 string. Was really struggling with the preamp (to the point I was going to sell the bass) but liked it enough to try switching in a East Uni pre which transformed it. It just sounds great and for the same level as my Sadowsky metro sounds a lot louder - big wide warm low mids with a lot of harmonic richness coming from the bartolini pickups

Compressor misconceptions, interesting thread title but bass compression is a widely misunderstood subject. Unfortunately, a lot of these misunderstandings and misconceptions have appeared on Basschat over the years which only serve to further confuse an already widely misunderstood subject. And unfortunately, a lot of this nonsense is still available when searching the forum and through Google so is likely to perpetuate. My take on it is that some people assume a stomp box compressor is an effect, they expect something spectacular to happen when they engage it, or for something immediately obvious as you'd get from other effect types, filters, synths etc. When this doesn't happen the questions start which is fair enough or assumptions are made that the pedal serves no purpose. This is where, IMO the misconceptions start creeping in. Regardless, while not exactly glamorous compression is a very useful tool in much the same way that EQ is a useful tool. While it can be used as an effect that's not really its point. Possibly the most sagely advice I've seen on BC regarding compression was something along the lines of "don't think like a bass player when using it, think like a sound engineer". That's when it all makes sense. Do you need one? No, not really, but if it's going to help you sit better with the other instruments, why wouldn't you? Can you control your dynamics with your fingers? Yes. To a point. But depending on where you play the same note on the neck (e.g. G at 15th fret on the E string compared to an open G string) the same note can have hugely different dynamic energy levels. While you can play one louder or harder than the other a compressor will smooth these out so both notes will work in the mix despite their different harmonic densities. Compression kills my dynamics. Yes it can if you haven't set it up correctly. In the same way that a poorly EQ'd tone can make you sound awful. But when done right you retain your dynamics and still sit better in the mix. While compression takes a while to understand it's worth doing your homework to get a good understanding of how to get the best out of it. Many of us spend a good chunk of cash on gear chasing the sounds in our heads, we buy certain basses and amps to make us sound great, so why not use compression to help make you slot in alongside the other instruments you're playing with?

That Tom Paton bloke who managed was well dodgy. Does anyone know if they could play.Great trousers though. Poor Les got ripped off I think.

I don't think most bass players think it's a bad thing, more that they don't hear any real benefit from having one on their pedal boards when playing live. It seems to me that there are at least as many bassists who are perfectly happy without a pedal board comp as their counterparts who swear by them. Besides, if you are making extensive use of dirt pedals as part of "your sound" you're already getting some compression in your signal, and some amps have compression built in also... ...although I note you regard the TC Spectracomp on the TC amp to be "pants" because it acts like a limiter. Nothing wrong with a limiter though. It's a valid alternative which many bassists are very happy with. It allows your natural sound and playing technique to come through / "breathe" for the most part whilst eliminating unwanted volume spikes. It makes complete sense to use bass compression in a recording studio where the compression can be adjusted to suit the style of music and done expertly by a sound engineer (see comment on attack / release below). And if you're playing at a venue with a decent sound engineer who is going to be compressing your signal anyway - so I completely get where @jrixn1 is coming from with his post above. A lot of bass players use their compressors to get more even volume across their strings as an alternative to adjusting the height of one side of their pups e.g. closer to the top D and G strings, but also to prevent unwanted volume spikes more generally. Dunno if that is what you are referring to as "fixing bad technique?" Agreed. It seems to me that the much of the "magic" of a compressor is in the attack and release settings, which actually should be adjusted for each track to suit the style of playing. Something that a trained sound engineer will do in a recording studio. It also seems to be a facet of compression that is discussed very little and perhaps not widely understood (I certainly don't claim to be an expert!) Again this level of refinement / adjustment makes total sense in the hands of an expert sound engineer in the studio, but less so for a bassist doing DIY compression in the Dog 'n' Duck pub? Just my 2 cents FWIW! 😊

Well, NPD (new plane day) today! Tooltique did a good job with restoration. Pretty much ready to go, just a quick sharpen/hone and away. Was going to start with the neck but the ash body blank was too tempting, so jointed and glued.

To me, the original piece is a matter of timbre as much anything, which, despite the excellent technicity of the fellow, lacks wholly. I couldn't get far with it. Quite a 'Zappa' approach, and kudos for the enormous work involved, but I prefer the orchestral version, no contest.