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I've been a bit distracted by this Back onto the bass next week, the ear studs have arrived so no excuses. ♠️

I assume you mean what are all those weird people doing on "stage"? The gig was at The Hearty Goodfellow in Nottingham, a pub that has since been demolished and replaced by a new building for the up-market Indian Restaurant "4500 Miles to Delhi" Back in the 70s and 80s The Hearty Goodfellow was one of the few places that originals bands could get a gig, either on a Monday or Wednesday night, or supporting avant-garde jazzers Pinski Zoo who had a Friday night residency (and which was the only "weekend" gig available if your weren't playing rock covers). The band was called "The Perfect Party" and was a post-punk/synth pop amalgam, and in true post-punk style featured "unconventional" instruments and playing ability/technique. It was formed by the percussionist and myself who'd been together in a previous band, and various weirdos we'd picked up from ads in the local record shop. The band lasted just a year of which only the last 6 months was spent gigging, but in that time we managed to rack up on average ay least one gig every week, record two demos, get a track on a local compilation produced by BBC Radio Nottingham and build up a decent reputation and following, all of which got CBS records interested in signing us. Eventually they decided to go with Wham! instead, and that pretty much resulted in the break up of the band. On stage from left to right the "musicians" are: Percussion (bongos and home-made drum synths plus drum machine - Boss Doctor Rhythm - programming). With his back to the audience our guitarist whose unique approach to the instrument meant that we couldn't write anything with conventional guitar parts. He went on to be half of Diskonexion who had a couple of critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful house records released on Graeme Park's Submission Records label in the late 80s. Next, our singer who also played recorder on a couple of songs in true post-punk style. Two synth players one playing an Octave Kitten and the other an EDP Wasp (which belonged to me). The girl used to go out with Stevo (of Some Bizzare Records fame) which we though might help raise the profile of the band when we asked her to join. It didn't. She also did backing vocals on a couple of songs. Finally there's me on bass guitar and in control of the drum machine. Musically we fell somewhere between early ACR and a low budget version of New Order. The songs were all written by myself (music) and the percussionist (lyrics). For the time (1981/2) we were pushing the envelope of what could be done with technology if you didn't have record company backing to be able to get professional quality gear. The drum synths and the Wasp were particularly unreliable, but not in any predicable way. At one gig the Wasp played random notes all by itself during the first song and then remained stubbornly silent for the rest of the set. Back at the rehearsal room the following day it was perfectly fine. The photo comes from one of our later gigs when we had properly found our musical direction and had learnt how to write to the various members musical strengths and weaknesses. It was taken by a friend of mine who would go on to be a synth player in my next musical venture. Somewhere there is a mixing desk recording of the gig which sounded pretty impressive at the time, but I suspect hasn't aged as well as I would like to remember. So there you go, with probably way more detail than you would care for...

My brother and his partner invited me along to a planned meet up of some Budgie fans in Cardiff. Only one other turned up, but we all had a great chat, and she turned out to be the artist who designed this. Pretty impressive to fill Roger Dean's shoes:

One of those things I found by chance on youtube. If you're a Yes fan stick with it (it's over 30 minutes but that's Yes' fault mostly) He's amazed at the sound of the bass. He's done a lot more of these, ELP's Tarkus has the keys score with him which is interesting.

The block was made out of mahogany and it's unfinished beyond the visible parts so it's shrunk a bit in the last 5 years, but it could have been made out of anything solid. There's so much I would do differently if I had a second stab at things. Aluminium might have saved a few hundred grams without loss of performance and it's soft enough to be shaped with wood tools. Maple or other woods were possible as well. I would have widened the recess as well because it's a bit tight around the sides.

With the Psilos, the through neck had the angled ramp incorporated. We couldn't hide the block like @Kiwi (lovely job, by the way ) because the body was only 25mm thick! : The judgement/hope was that the block would 'wrap round' the player and therefore not be in the way. And to our great relief, that's what it does

When the pedal has 'bass' in it's name it means it's the superior version.... or it could be you've walked into the wrong shop and it's fishing supplies.

Gives you quite a boxy tone, apparently. I'll get my coat.

Zombie threads are just threads. Discussions, information and ideas can still be valid 10 - 15 years later.

Just for you... Credit where credit is due, the idea was nicked from Ritter but modified by me so the tuners were recessed. Jon Shuker helped with the actual implementation. It was complicated because routing at an angle wasn't practical. So at Jon's suggestion, I carved out an angled block to fit a cavity and bolted it in place. The string anchors/tuners were (expensive) ABM units cut and ground to the correct angle. I probably wouldn't do it this way again, it added loads of time to the build. The bridge cover and saddle are from ebony and the sides of the cover are scrap rosewood.

He should have a suitcase with pop out legs and a spot on an east end corner with a look out… “come closer, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, you won’t see this quality any cheaper”

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I found a great condition Mu-Tron III recently. I’ve been interested to try one for a very long time but never quite got round to it. This one has just had a full service and calibration. It’s all original except the power input has been changed to a UK three pin custom made adapter which is super neat and convenient. Though of course it takes batteries too. I saw a few that had been modified to true bypass but I read that this can alter the way the gain control behaves so I wanted it standard. The bypass does take some very top end out of your signal but it’s by no means a bad sound and in fact as the gain control works with the pedal ‘off’ you can use it to get some grit if you like. When it arrived I left the parcel to acclimatise for a while before opening it up and I realised how nervous I was to try it. Partly I wanted to discover it doesn’t live up to the hype as I’ve found with so many pedals of late. In such case I was able to send it back and chalk it up to experience but the only way to know for certain was to try one. So I put my sensible hat on, picked up my Stingray and plugged everything in (backwards at first, as the input is on the other side) The feeling of playing the pedal was akin to playing a new instrument entirely. The second I turned it on everything sounded perfect. I didn’t even touch any knobs or switches, just started with everything on 5. I have many filters and have tried a lot over the years. Favourites of mine really squelch when pushed rather than ‘whistle’ and remain responsive when playing finger or slap. In ‘high range’ The Mutron is very interesting in that you can play softly and it’ll sound almost like your normal sound, and when you dig in the depth and squelch becomes apparent, making any toppy clank go all gloopy. It’s like your clean sound with a seriously funky topping. It never sounds harsh even with the peak on 10, it just sounds wetter and more sparkly. I feel like when you dig in, rather than sending the top end into harsh zone it deepens the background of the note. In low range you get the seriously warm depth with a quickness of decay that means your next note is always a surprise, catching the filter at some point along its bouncy journey. Again the clean sound and the character of the bass always feels present without sounding separate, but the effect is very obvious and all encompassing. It sounds cliche but it just sounds ‘musical’ and makes you want to dig in and be inside your bass in a fully sexual way. With a big smile on my face I took my five fingered hand on the end of my right arm and selected my index finger to push the ‘down’ mode switch which clacked agreeably over on its axis like a mad one way see saw. I’ve never really liked down mode sounds before, and haven’t really experimented much as a result. Normally I find when the filter closes the note becomes a bit muddy and therefore you don’t get much time to identify the note clearly before you go too subby, if you see what I mean. But this gives a really nice growl that goes down to your rubbery note below with some extra stank. I’ll definitely use that. I was fully prepared to not like this pedal; even hoping not to - the prices they go for are getting silly but this is one time that the hype really is deserved. It has so much character in build and sound; it’ll probably only go up in value and after all it’s the pedal everything since is based upon. I’m really happy with it, as you can tell. My wife said it looks like R2D2 which is cool too. A couple of pics. I think mines quite an early one, 1974 ish, ‘pat pending’.

That is hardly ever the case!

As a comparison I had all new pots and a new PSU on my Ashdown amp recently which cost just under £80 including return post.

I really liked them. If a candy Apple Red one came up in good Nick, I’d do my best to get it. The necks were nice, slim but not scrawny. And the “American made Mexican standard” is fair enough assumption.

Banjo Hangout Sounds like some sort of medical condition requring some sort of support undergarments.

That's a thought - is he the musician with the lowest 'price of gear" to "earnings" ratio in history?

I’ve seen several vids and articles saying it was Roto steels.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Simple Man

wow wow wow, that is stunning @Hellzero Thanks for all this insight, everybody 😄 I just thought I'd show the forum what I got up to last year, and it's turned into a very informative resource for my next build.

Doing a fair amount of pit work I had tired of lumping my surprisingly large footprint Aggie db112s into very cramped pits. So for shows and rehearsals I jumped at an end of line db elbee cab. I was running it with a little mark tube. About the same time our singer moved house and kindly converted the garage into a rehearsal studio. He was tired of the ritual having to set everything back up again after gigs, so ordered another elbee. What he hadn’t realised was you need an amp, so after telling him I’d sort it he ignored me, I turned up to rehearsal and there was a veyron. So, my beater Sire bass, two bargain cabs and amp which keep up with a 5 piece horn section and percussionist as well as standard rhythm section. Probably costs less than a grand all in and sounds ace.

Just in case, here's how to get the best of both worlds according to the Dobbratz brothers, the two Le Fay basses owners. It's what they call the RHT which stands for Right Hand Tuning, so basically a headless with a headstock. It has become my number one bass. And yes, it's a stainless steel fingerboard.

I’ll never tire of listening to that track. Incredible.

Stannah Stairlift - Barry Cryer

I recently had a similar problem with a DV Mark guitar head, after taking the top off it didn’t take long to sort out the problem, a loose ribbon cable connector from the output board to the main board just needed pushing fully home, I believe connectors working loose or not being fully home in the first place is a common MB fault, good luck, Mike.

If you did this with any other income you would be considered to be evading tax.

Anything below £50 needs manual approval (unless you’ve got a sub). Just to stop people listing 5k Fodera basses for £1. You know the sort!! It’s been like this for a few years now

Upgraded my EHB1005 to an EHB1505MS. No regrets, this thing is a beast.

I’ve done it myself, I replied to a 10 year old thread without noticing the date, and yes the bass was sold 😁

Probably new folks signing up and reading old threads, then commenting on them. Perhaps they searched for something, found their result and commented on it, rather than start a new thread to ask their question and then be told to 'do a search', then search, find their answer and comment on it, resulting in a zombie thread revival anyway.