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So if you'd like to provide a loving stable "forever" home to a BB that's been left in a loft, or no longer gigged due to basschat "Glass back syndrome". Contact Dr Travs, BB relocation and restoration service! A few months ago he very kindly took delivery of a vintage white BB425 from a very lovely man, which he stripped down and setup. And brought to live with my flock. He even fitted a BB1025/P35 bridge which a nice man on BC was selling. Not two days ago he brought to live with me an 80s BB350f fretless in Pearl White (It goes pink in the sunlight, awesome) from a funny fellow in eBay land, that probably used it as a doorstop or something. he replaced a broken bridge and gave it his famous TLC, he even gave it a chance to be fretted, but it still wants to identify as a fretless in as world that isn't kind to fretless. So if you have it in your heart to love a BB that currently is about as popular as an excitable dog at a miss lovelylegs contest, please donate to Dr Travs and his team of magical elves. So I present my two current BB'S "The White Sisters" BB425 in vintage white with an upgraded Yamaha vintage + bridge AKA - Jayne BB350f in pearl White AKA- Luna Another shout out to the lovely @Hacksawbob for tracing his 5 string pickguard, which means Jayne will be getting a new Tort frock 😁

So I was recording an episode of my podcast with Dutch bass legend Rinus Gerritsen of Golden Earring, and I'd heard about him having a shortscale Rickenbacker 4001, of which many people *know* doesn't exist. So I asked him about it, he smiled and said "oh yeah that thing. I was in Chicago and a guy came up to me and said 'hey, you play those cheapo Danelectro basses, shouldn't you play a Rickenbacker?' I didn't really like Rics so I said 'nah the Danelectros are great, and by the way, who are you?' The guy said 'I'm a Ric representative'. So to be sure to get rid of the guy I said 'sorry man I'm a shortscale guy'. The Ric rep said 'oh but we have a shortscale, actually we have two! One was built for this country music guy, so if you tell me at which hotel you're staying I'll have it delivered to you'. So the next day there was a guy with a guitar case and there it was. One of two shortscale Rickenbacker 4001 basses ever built." And here it is. Mapleglo, walnut headstock wings, and it feels...weird. It feels like Ric but...different. Shorter, of course, but also...special. It is of course absolutely unique. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I'm not a big Rickenbacker guy but this is quite something.

Had a busy week, last week, with 3 festivals & an outdoor theatre gig. The highlight once again was playing to 30,000 people at Carfest South on the Friday..

A few jazzes here! - 1972 (sunburst & tort - pickup covers now removed!) - 1969 (natural & tort - replacement fretboard, bought right here on BC) - AVRI ‘62 reissue (Lake placid blue W/ matching headstock - refinish) - Geddy Lee (CIJ model w/ mirror pickguard) I’ve had a couple of others over the years, including a 2012 USA Jazz and a Lakland Skyline J-Sonic.

A couple of P’s to show off - 1966 (sunburst & tort) - 1983 Fullerton ‘62 RI (red & tort) - 1977 (natural) - 2000 MIM (sunburst & black) Technically I’m cheating on the 1977, as it’s now ‘left the building’. The ‘66 is everything you’d expect, but perhaps surprisingly, the Mexican is my longest serving bass and honestly, despite having owned about 25 basses over the years, remains the ‘all time’ favourite. It had SD quarter pounders and a Schaller bridge. Just something very playable and ‘easy’ about it.

👑KING AARON MILLS👑 killing it with his fellas!🔥🔥🔥💥💥💥 🎸TREGAN Shaman Bass🎸

This was my rig for tonight’s gig Tuner > big muff > q strip, into 2 x QSC k12.2s Amazing tone and volume

Personally, I'd hold out for a used OC2 or an Octabvre. The OC2 is the classic octave sound, and the Octabvre adds the versatility of having a seperate footswitch to solo the sub. The MXR vintage should come close, as it was cloned from one of Janek Gwizdala's old OC2s. I like the EBS Octabass too. It's got a smoother tone than the OC2, but it's not quite as cool. I'm not a big fan of digital octave pedals. I find them too clean and they don't have the glitches that are part of the charm of an analog pedal.

Check the OC-5 thread, no need for anything else. Plenty of sound files and comparisons with a lot of the contenders and the original Japanese (and Taiwanese too) OC-2, of course.

I am no pedal expert (I have two threads already asking for advice) but when you read a lot of reviews for various pedals, they all seem to reference the OC-2 and use it as a benchmark. As the 3Leaf pedals are like unicorn tears, I just went back to the beginning and bought an OC-2 and it’s great fun. It is the original octave sound you have heard on so many records. My octave journey may continue, but the OC-2 seemed the best place to start.

I have had a 4 string with a thin jazz neck for ~ 3 years, well built modern take on P&J ...the neck is fabulous....well balanced

We have in our neighbourhood these shared spaces for hobbies, a gym, garage, etc things that typically you do not have in multi-family housing. For a small fee, you get access. One of these spaces is for handcrafts, mainly to do with wood. I had no specific idea what I'm going to do there, just enrolled out of curiosity. I've been somewhat good with my hands all my life, so I thought I'll eventually come up with interesting projects. Some weeks go by and I start to notice these piles of misc wood pieces. Mostly scrap wood, knotty pine, the usual stuff. Then I notice this interesting piece of some hardwood with the words "free to use" written on it. I ask around and seems like no one is missing it so I just take it and immediatelty notice some potential for a bass guitar body. I measure, look at the grains and start to feel all warm and giddly inside. Yes yes yessssss.. It barely has enough dimensions for a body blank, but it's doable. I cut it in two pieces and found this nice alignment with the grains to get a kind of bookmatched vibe going on. At that time (it was like one year ago) I was super psyched about MM basses, so I then order a Stingray template set. While I wait for the templates to arrive, I use my SUB to get some rough idea of the body area and start to work on the glue joint. I clean the glue joint with some sanding blocks and razor blades, to get it to fit and not to have any gaps. Time for some Tite-Bond. The templates arrive, I make "backups" since the template material is kinda weak feeling. I use the "backups" to start the quality time with a router. After some passes with the straight router bit and a curved bit for the edges. Quite some time passes between the fotos, wasn't really thinking about documentation. This block is HEAVY, therefore I decided to make it ligher by making a generous space for all kinds of potential electronics setups. Also decided to go without the plate in the front and do everything from behind. The straight line was done using a guide, the rest is basically freehand. I also made a test cover from some other wood that was similar, but it actually came out so nice that I'll actually use it. I'm thinking of doing the attachment with some magnets, so that I can replace for example a battery without screws. Oh, also worked on the belly cut and the cutaway in the front. So here we are now, from this point forwards it gets expensive. I have always wanted to have one bass with a Status graphite neck, this most probably will be that one. Also, I'm really going back & forth with finishing, hardware color, etc overall look & feel. Suggestions welcome This list looks most probable at the moment: - Status neck - Chrome machine heads - Black bridge - Black pickguard or see-through or wood with hard finish - Electronics cover black with grains a bit visible - Soapbar style pickup (no magnets visible) - The body will definetly be done so that grains are clearly visible, looks really nice

So quite a few years ago I became what began as an enthusiast but quickly became an obsession with the SWR sound. Over the years various SWR amps, cabs, and combos have passed through my hands but I think I’m currently at the most heads I’ve ever owned. As it was a typically miserable British bank holiday weather wise, I decided to spend the afternoon ‘testing’ and sorting my current stable. I think I’m sorted for now, unless someone tempts me with either a Baby Blue or the even rarer Spellbinder 😎

Saturday night, bringing the skank to Salisbury.

@Soledadis quite right, very much optimised in the manner described. I have never seen a capo specifically designed for bass, which is why I’ve tried quite a few. I settled on the G7th C31020 Newport Capo. @Lfalex v1.1I was just rummaging through my desk and it turns out I have two of these or some reason, you are welcome to one if you want it? Very early on in my musical endeavours I saw a band and the bass player was using a capo so I never thought anything of using one. I play up around the 12th quite a lot and play a lot of chords, it’s just another tool in the bag for me. In fact, sod it, here’s me using one.

RIP LSP

Been playing some Horace Andy today, nice Bassline

You lie and yo breath stank - infectious grooves

I think I’d be tempted to get the Rumble 210 combo. For rehearsals & small/medium sized venues it would be enough on its own, then add in the 115 cab for the big venues. Re the Hartke, a band I joined some years back had one of these and it went completely dead on the Tube control, and was very thin sounding when not on it.

A friend I played with for years did something similar, though theirs was a plastic Samsonite type job.

How about Cannonball by Breeders? A 90's classic often ignored by party bands.

BB605 in Essex. https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/yamaha-bb606-5-string-active-bass/1413556863

I used to have a 1980 RS924 which shared the body and neck shape with this. Negatives: heavy and no forearm contours Positives: Immeasurably better build quality than the 70's Fender I had, great tone, intelligent design, high quality hardware, sounded great, set up and played really well too. I sold it for €650. As an instrument, excluding all the jibba jabba we get caught up in when talking about instruments, I felt it was worth more than that. They weren't playing games in Japan in this era. These are properly excellent basses. If you can get this one, even though it has been modded, for £200, do it today.

So sad. A true legend, dedicated to his life long craft. I'm sure dub reggae, and reggae in general wouldn't be the same today without him having pioneered his techniques so early. RIP brother. X

If using a stingray instead of a P bass or Rick is against the norm and mainstream of punk isn’t this what being punk is all about? 👍🏻

… nice comment, I’ve got a few boards built now so I’ll shuffle them into ‘Live’ and ‘Creative’ categories. I like the train of thought thanks 👍🏼

Body cut to template. Started the electronics cavity. And rounded the edges a bit.

Dat Wengé grain, tho... This promises to be sooooo sexy.

They were very new to the market at the outset of Punk, so availability, price, and even desirability were probably factors.

I have seen an Industrial metal band with an electric upright. Bow plus heavy distortion plus some very low tuning sounded like the apocalypse.

DVLA have very kindly renewed my licence (jeez what a pain that was), so I'm hoping to get down to this if I can sort out a hotel. Looking to put names to faces and of course satisfy some GAS curiosity. Particularly looking at shorties, 5s and amps. Will bring my Bass Uke for giggles.

Today some "spare parts" will arrive. I had my org. tuners anodized. Not completely due to costs. Only wings and axis. The red 1000 will be complete by then. Happy 🙂

Ali McMordie of Stiff Little Fingers is a Musisman player.

There's cost, Stingray are a pricey instrument and above many starting punks financial means. Later when upgrading, the path from your starting squier to a mex/jap fender to a US one is keeping to what you know and love. MusicMan and later Ernie Ball didn't get to market until after the first and around the middle of the second wave of punk. So younger punk players won't have seen their idols playing one. I have seen quite a few being used by newer bands in the last 10-15 years, they're great punchy instruments fit for fast paced music. I'll leave you with this distraction:

We played HRH Sleaze in Sheffield at the O2 Academy. Biggest crowd since Covid broke so lots of rules about testing and vaccinating for the audience. We were slightly under rehearsed but both the electric set last night and acoustic set this morning had a certain charm and were well received.

Downsized my “big” board some more. With some smart use of preset, snapshots and midi programming I can get all I need for our cover band from this. More pedals is more fun and might sound better but this is easy to carry and with all the thinking and programming already done I can concentrate on the gig at hand instead of knob tweeking and tap dancing. Split path on the stomp with ampsim to PA and without to stage amp makes it easy to adapt to different places.

With your rig (as mine is similar I know how loud it will go) if it was swamped by a band I’d really consider whether I wanted to join them or not. Pubs will probably only ever put them on once, and proper music venues with FOH will have soundmen that will get very frustrated by them. If you do join I’d say adopt a Cliff Williams type role and play solid without expecting to cut through, and def get some ACS earplugs.

"Main bass"??? That suggests you don't own enough basses....

Perhaps he previously wasn't too concerned about the pic, however more recently whenever he'd meet a young lady and start dating she'd have no idea of his former fame, but then when they were about to get intimate he'd strip off and she'd take one look and say "hey - your winky looks just like the kid's on the Nevermind cover"

Fun fact: the original photo depicts exactly what is wrong with this young man.