Leaderboard

After many a year, saying that relicing and ageing guitars/basses was rediculous, I have gone and got an aged bass. Last week I went out to try out some short scale basses and had dismissed one, because it had soft ageing. There were no long scratches or swathes of exposed woodwork. This was a subtle process, that had odd blemishes, pin prick marks in the finish and matt/worn chromed hardware.. Cleverly done but still fake, in my book. Anyway, I came away with a very reasonably priced Sterling by MM short scale Stingray and was loving it's tone and playability. Took it to band rehearsal and all went very well. But in the back of my mind, I was still thinking about that aged bass. Not as as a replacement but as a brother to my newly acquired shorty. It was well over twice the price of the Sterling 'Ray but after a good session with it, through the shop's Eich combo, it had to come home with me. TBH, I'd still have preferred a non aged bass but this baby was so nice and the ageing so subtle, I felt/feel very good about it. The bass in question is a Sandberg California II Lionel Short Scale, in virgin white. Put succinctly, it is more or less a very classy, short scale P-bass, with an alder body, hardrock maple neck, rosewood fingerboard and passive electronics. With Sandberg's usual, high quality build and hardware. I got it home and put it through my Galien-Krueger/Mark Bass rig, doing a good A/B test, with my Sterling 'Ray. Obviously the Sandberg had the quality of a higher end bass but there wasn't that much in it. Playing wise, they both feel so comfortable and easy to play. Tonally the 'Ray has more versatility, with it's 3-way switch giving series, parallel and single-coil options. I mainly use the single-coil option and it's a very different sound to that of the Sandberg. The Sterling, unsurprisingly, even in s/c mode, sounds like a MusicMan. A tight, punchy sound, with a s/c clarity. The Lionel has that split-coil sound of a P-bass but probably the fullest, clearest P-bass sound I have heard. And I have owned both US and Japanese, Fender Precisions. So enough difference to warrent owning this two shortys. This Sandberg is a class act.

I turned 21 in 2005. I had a mortgage, was living with the mother of my first child… when I turned 21, my mum and dad - who I’ve battled with, but have been incredibly supportive of my musical endeavours asked me what I wanted. ”Musicman Bongo” And they gave me £800. So I put the rest to it and I got one of the early bongos. They didn’t come with a case originally. i took a case…but was later informed it was a £120 optional extra 😕 Returned it. Anyhow, 4 years later - my partner wrote her car off and quit her job on the same day when we had a brand new baby…so a massive bass sale began. @LukeFRCand @Etienne got some basses… the Bongo went, at a huge loss… they weren’t popular at all at the time. now I’m 37, the “brand new baby” is a 13 year old bass playing emo. Its time found the same age, spec, colour… It’s in Northern Ireland. i debate a flight. And then I remember my good mate @briansbrewis in Derry. and here’s where a person shows their worth. A message last night to Bri. “Yeah it’s near me, I know him - let me work on it” and nothing…for a bit. this afternoon “I’ve gone out for a drive…here it is…got £150 knocked off and I’ll get it ready to ship…” it’s in his lounge. He’s bought the bloody bass! What an absolute hero - Bri is no middleman…he is the man. I never in a million years expected him to do this - I thought he was going to talk the guy into shipping the bass (listing was collection only) I cannot express my thanks enough (I’ve paid him back - financially at least.) A depressing thing is that I don’t have any pictures of me with my original bongo. Anyhow - Publicly, thank you Brian.

Continuing my trend of simple basic instruments I'd been hankering for a Danelectro. Owned then sold a Wild Thing model a few years back . No regrets over that; it was a short scale and I don't enjoy playing those 🙂 Watching Dano prices increase , I decided to build one instead 👍 Parts bought , template made, body blank etc . Had the choice of 2 necks, guitar neck re-purposed for 15 frets or a 32" scale from Retrovibe. Then apathy kicked in hard 😧 Few months ago a lass near the Welsh border listed her Dano on a Facebook page, collection only meant 700 mile round trip 😢😢😢 Re-listed the other week there for the attractive price of £235 , I gave serious thought to the drive 😃 Common sense told me ask for help on Basschat. @alyctes was the first to reply then @Old Horse Murphy a few hours later ; fantastic result. Turned out Nick passes the lass's place on way to rehearsal. He did much more than just pass her place, he handled the entire purchase for me , what a guy 👍 Nick had it packed up and delivered to me by Thursday. Sadly I was up and about at 3am so was deadbeat by the evening , all I had left in the tank was a quick thank you note before bed. Different story by Friday 😃 Spent a good few hours last night playing it and I'm over the moon . Nick had warned me it was strung with Fender flatwound cables and the action was a mile high. Bought a set of Rotosound 30-90 but tuned the flats DGCF and the action dropped to easy playing level 😃 Feast your eyes on this sparkling lovely.

Joined the Sandberg club during the week with this left handed Sandberg California TT4. Gigged with it last night, sounded a lot punchier than the Fender Jazz I previously owned. Loving the neck profile which somewhere between a P bass & Jazz bass. It makes two hour plus gigs so much more enjoyable. One happy chap 😀

My typical eBay experience is as follows: Fender Precision Bass, Made in Mexico, 1996, Full working order and in excellent condition. No hard case so collection only from Bristol. £450 ono Then wait for questions: Is this a Jazz bass? What make is your bass? Will you post it? Where are you? Is this an American bass? Would you take £80 for it? How old is this bass? Does it work? etc etc

What are you doing all the way up there, anyway?

Not exactly my gig, but I'm responsible for making sure it all works and doesn't sound terrible, so I'm claiming it! A (very) local show, raising money for The Christie, with electronic duo Une.

Is it made of tonewood?

I got up yesterday morning as I had to take the day off for a funeral when I noticed a message from Andy via Basschat with the subject HELP ! so I knew this had to be something important As luck had it I had the guys number and he was only contactable with e-mail in the ad, so I called him and he agreed to meet me, was a lovely sunny day so I didn't mind the drive up, we had a good chat about basses and gear, as you do with fellow bassists.. We done the deal there and then, had a wee noodle on it when I got home, cracker basses with plenty of tone. It was only after I got it when Andy explained about selling his and regretting it, so I thought I have a decent box to ship it and arranged for the collection today, which has been picked up by the way Andy, winging its way to you as I write this I was really happy to do my bit and get this sorted for Andy as I know it would have been difficult to arrange otherwise.. Its was a pleasure and was worth it to see a happy camper and thank you for your lovely comments...

No. It’s the space I reserve for mistakes.

Ok, I made some progress last few days. I spent until 02.00 last night, literally hours, playing through headphones and tweaking. I *think* these pickups are the right ones - clean, clear, and even up the spectrum, though amazingly when I put them through a frequency analyser not much happening above 3k. They sound brighter than that - I was really surprised. Anyway @skelftells me that’s what Wal pickups are like too, so I believe him, and hope that I won’t end up having to try out another manufacturer’s pickup, it’s expensive. I will compare to the real deal soon when I borrow my friend’s Wal, but unfiltered, the pickups don’t have the resonant peak or character of a typical passive pickup. I think this is probably as it should be; once they interact with a filter that causes a resonant peak, they gain character. So, if a Wal is similar, I reckon using the passive tone knob on a Wal Pro would help to give the flat pickups a little character, and using a LPF on a Mark 1/2/3 gives a lot of character, depending on the setting. The ACG EQ-01 is really clever. I like it, and now I can see better how to use it. I can dial in a reasonable Flea sound from BSSM with it, if I play hard (just like Flea) and get the filters just right. I think the ability to roll back in treble after the pickup HPF filtering is really clever. A little goes a long way. However, I have still felt the overall sound to be very clean, clear, and open; too clean. That’s exactly what I should expect, I guess, the ACG system is designed to be transparent, the pickups are flat, and the maple neck takes out a lot of mids. So, one breakthrough last night was trying different kinds of distortion to make the signal dirtier. I suppose I’m trying to emulate the effect @NickA(and @skelfas well, in a long and very helpful telephone conversation) have both advised about - the distortion caused by the EQ circuit built into the Mark 1/2/3 basses. Anyway, long story short, the best form of distortion that caused the sound I wanted to hear was using Amplitube SVX and loading up a B15 to give some tube saturation. Fairly mild, but the effects were beautiful. I tried lots of other effects in my DAW, but that one was the best. The resulting sound got really really close the Flea BSSM sound. However, I made another experiment today. I realised that my preference for a maple fretboard is probably working against me, and I swapped around another Jazz neck I have with a rosewood fretboard on to the bass, and have spent a while messing around. Bam. Instantly a ton more growly mids, a less clean and clear sound, and playing hard with the filters set right sounds much ‘dirtier’. I’m really happy. Rosewood seems to be just right here, not surprising I guess. (It looks like my dislike of rosewood on other Fender style basses may depend on the kind of pickup used. It sounds too middy/not enough treble to me with Jazz or Precision pickups, but I hear no lack of treble here with this system, and the mids sound wonderful. Where’s that helping of humble pie gone….) The final bit of experimenting I want to try this weekend is to use the new rosewood boarded test bed through my DAW into the B15 emulation, for the tube distortion. I am hoping that will be basically perfect. We will see. I am hoping the recipe here will be convincing to others too. We shall see. I have some leave coming up in a week or two. My plan is to borrow my friend’s Wal and do some recording then for you all.

Hi everyone, Firstly thanks for all your input, much appreciated. Since I last visited I've made two changes which seem to have improved the sound of my B-string somewhat. First change was: I installed a brass bridge(Hipshot A-style) on the instrument. When I first received the bass a brass bridge was on it already, but I switched to an aluminium bridge, my thinking was about the weight of the bass primarily and also I thought the aluminium bridge sounded punchier. My bass is very resonant, and there is a noticeable difference between the brass and aluminium bridges in how the instrument feels and sounds. The brass bridge seems favour a stronger fundamental, whilst the aluminium seem to be more "airy" favouring higher frequencies. I admit that this topic is subjective to many people, but I really think that my bass has a stronger, deeper resonance with a heavy lump of brass attached. Second change, if you could call it a change, was: I took the time to properly intonate the B string, as best I could. I used the tuner on my DAW, previously I had been using a clip on tuner, and spent the best part of a frustrating hour trying to get as close as I could to perfect intonation on the B string. Here I will hold my hand up and say that I never really sat down and spent any time on B-string intonation before, as many of you will probably agree it can be a pain in the ar**e. But the results are noticeable, my B-string still has it's own character, but less of the unwanted overtones are present. Bellow is the bass in question, a Pavel Aryel Deluxe, made for me by Pavel Del Fuente in 2016.

Given the fact that you're happy with the BF. What do you gain by changing? The size is similar to the two cabs you'd be getting, for the bigger gigs. The footprint is the same, and the weight will be similar. You'd have two things to carry instead of one. Just slightly playing devil's advocate but the BF will be very light and capable of being quiet if you use the volume control.

First contribution, but also first time I feel really satisfied. Still searching for the right octave (mostly for those Ian Allison synth sounds). Also featuring my diy "guest pedal" junction box that will probably move underneath at some point. The signal passes through a switched jack that can be interrupted with a trs split cable. It's mostly there because I've been thinking to add the Justin Chancellor fuzz wah and it wouldn't fit the board.

12 years separate these acquisitions. The colour scheme is purely coincidental, they just happened to be available in that colour on offer in 2 separate German outlets 🤷‍♂️

I have never tried it myself but several of these threads have had ''I was giving away a perfectly good XYZ on driveway, it sat there, until I changed sign to Price: £50, then it was stolen in ten minutes".

Painted and Tuff Cabbed: I went for the Brown Black (or is it Black Brown) colour in an attempt to make it look slightly more furniture-y around the house and slightly less of a big ugly black box, but it's very nearly black anyway. I like it though. I didn't get the finish quite perfect - the roller from Blue Aran had an annoying tendency to start sliding rather than rolling, and I should have made sure to have better lighting on each side I was painting to spot the imperfections, but I'm sure nobody but me will ever notice. Crossover completed and installed: I'll glue those inductor leads down before final assembly. But now, let's put the speakers in and try it out: I spent entirely too long just playing music through it off the iPod, very loud (sorry neighbours)! First impressions: it shows up that my amp makes quite a lot of hiss, independent of volume settings, so this pairing may not suit for quiet practice after all, but I can't imagine it'll be a problem for rehearsals or gigs. I would say the high end is a bit harsh for actual hi-fi, but would serve perfectly well as a PA speaker. I might just probe the wiring of the crossover HF side though, in case I've made some mistake that's thrown the frequency response out. And last of all, the bass! Well it sounds great - I'm not sure if I was expecting it to go a tiny bit louder, but it's almost certainly all I need for the foreseeable future - except that it faithfully reproduces every detail of my terrible technique, which really needs to be the next project to work on before I contemplate any more amp or speaker related tinkering. All that's left is to stick some wadding in - although I can't say I can hear the need for it - glue the port in, and put the grille and corners on, and this thing may be finished.

Yeah, they’ll never catch on.

No... Its not like a bolt on neck gets in the way of your playing. Way more important things on an instrument. I dont think a bolt on neck has anything to do with upper access either.

Had the pleasure of hearing @Paul S's blues band in action last night through their RCF Evox 8 PA system. Was a really good night out! Bass, vox and kick-drum were through the PA. Loved the way it can be set up as backline with no need for monitors or IEMs, relatively tiny stage footprint, and ZERO feedback with mics in front of it. It's got me completely re-thinking the plans we were about to embark on. Paul told me today that the PA was just ticking over last night, and has plenty of headroom. Here's a bit of classic Jimi H from last night, so you can hear the set-up for yourselves:

The bass in question is a Yamaha BB2024( ie the one without a scratch plate ect). It weighs 8.8 pounds, sounds great, feels great and plays perfectly in every respect. It looks nice, too. I really can find nothing to criticize about that bass. I have got other basses that are also perfect from a manufacturing point of view, I just don't like them as much as that one. I don't play those other basses either, truth be told. The reality is that for the last eighteen months I've mostly been playing a Harley Benton, I'm a little bit embarrassed to say. Why you may ask? Well, partially because nowadays I want to focus on putting my time and energy into doing some intense study and practice on the bass. Having nice basses around inevitably leads to me adjusting them, comparing them, or obsessing about some other superfluous "problem". Playing a cheap but functional bass makes me much more productive in terms of improving my playing. I suppose I have reached a point in my life where I have realized that material things are not as important to me than less tangible things, like knowledge. Anyone can buy a bass, not everyone can play it well.

Dear Friends, as I didn’t have any clue about video games nor controller … Here are the wooden knobs for serious Bassplayer’s on the new EVO-X5 EvoluZione… In A World Full of Copies … Be Different 😎😉

Last night was the Horse & Jockey in Lanark again. Forth gig in a row and four drummers, so it’s all getting a wee bit Spinal Tap. Song we done off the cuff, Hard to Handle, went better than some we’d rehearsed. But the one we’d rehearsed to death, Asia with Heat of the Moment, nearly fell apart. 🙄 Nice crowd and all good fun, so we’re booked to go back at the end of April.

Blimey, that's quite a list of things to address! As it happens, I can answer most of them from experience, so here goes. Maybe worth mentioning first that my s-s love goes back to the start of my playing career, when I was just naturally attracted towards Gibson basses - thanks mainly to Andy Fraser and Jack Bruce among others. At that point, I didn't even know there were different scale lengths, so it was a pure stroke of luck that the first bass I bought was a Watkins Rapier that happened to be short scale. So, to your first question. You've pretty much answered that yourself based on the obvious physical differences down to one thing being shorter than another. However, the only things that HAVE to be shorter are the fretboard and the neck. The other things you need to think about are: the body - this can be shorter too (as the bridge is closer to the top of the neck) if you want the shorter reach to the fret (and all the other frets of course 🙂). If you do decide you want your s-s bass with the back of the bridge assembly very close to the bottom edge of the body, you'll have to think about strap balance. This is determined by the positioning of the top strap button and the ratio between body weight and headstock weight. Best case = top button at the F12 sweet spot and the heaviest body you're comfortable with. Worst case = top button south of F12 and lightweight body. An interesting example of this is the Gibson SG, which has a fairly heavy body and a top button on the heel of the neck. In this respect, lightweight tuning machines are your friend. In my case, I've got short-ish arms and fingers and medium-ish hands. So, my custom-made gig bass is designed to give me a short reach for my fretting hand and, having my preferred (large) Fender-style headstock, has a compact body (based on the Fender P Lyte) and lightweight tuners (see below). Re the choice of off-the-shelf basses (including some discontinued), there's a MIC s-s Fender Jazz up on here (OK if you don't mind a body that's on the heavy side and only 19 frets) and a Jaguar (OK if you don't mind neck dive). My pick of the P-style stuff currently available new is undoubtedly the Sandy Lionel - I've had one and I couldn't fault it (as Adee who bought it on here agrees). I've also had the SBMM s-s Ray, which is massive value for money if you like the 'Ray vibe. American owners on Talkbass who are familiar with both versions say that in practical terms the ownership experience of the SBMM is so close to its 'full-fat' brother as makes no difference. Don't know about the Banshee but looks interesting. Re strings, your choices should be adequate if limited Hope this helps.

Ah yes, but at least one reviewer has stated a preference for the B3 over the B6. I regret selling my B3 - it was handy to use just as an audio interface - a solid, easy to use piece of kit. However I am very happy with my new toy too.

This was a winner the other day.

Very strong Walkabout vibes.

I was going to post the same. New product announced. Someone posts a link. First reactions are good, ‘want’ etc. Then a few hours later it’s declared a failure as it’s missing something that another pedal has, irrelevant if the person posting needs it or not (and probably will never use it). ‘doesn’t have direct connection to Hubble telescope, what were they thinking ?’ 😁 Big discussion about how it will fail, over priced and out of date. Then someone mentions something in the just released manual, and the mood changes to positive for a while. Then it comes out. People start to buy it, declare its amazing and it will replace such and such…... ……..Item appears in for sale section 😂

I gave in...

Brotherly love, with a bit of friendly competition.

I really hope that is the case, because Status Graphite are an excellent company run by thoroughly decent people. It would be a big loss if they packed it in.

Jason & The Arsonauts - XTC

Wow, dmc79 lots to answer there and some of it is a bit subjective, so a lot of this IMO. Yes, the 4 fret stretch is easier. One of the bands I play in is a blues band that does a lot of up tempo stuff, with some rock and roll thrown in for good measure (so lots of 4 fret stretches). A combination of age related issues and small hands was combining to make it real murder on my big boy ‘51 Precision (copy): by the second set I was finding it physically impossible to keep my speed up and my hand would literally cramp up. Moving to a 30” scale has made it so much easier. I can now do a 2 set gig and keep my speed up without discomfort. Fret 1 to fret 4 on my 30” basses is about 11.5 cm/4.5”. Weight: shorties do tend to be lighter but there are some notable exceptions, so it is worth checking before pulling the trigger. The Reverend Watt Plower is made of lead according to some folks and some Chowny basses were a bit weighty but they say they are addressing that now they have moved to UK manufacture. Generally they are lighter, so less shoulder and back strain on prolonged gigs. A drawback that comes with diminished size and weight can be neck-dive but that can be countered with a grippy strap and/or lightweight tuners. Not all shorties suffer: my Ibanez EHB1000S is perfectly balanced but it is far from your Fender aesthetic. I have noticed that there are quite a few slab bodied shorties: e.g. Fender Mustang, Gretsch Junior Jet, etc. it’s a matter of taste but I find the lack of an arm contour causes forearm pain playing standing up for protracted periods. This isn’t unique to shorties of course. Strings: I think it is fair to say there isn’t the same huge choice that you get for standard bass and that can reflect in a price premium. Most of the big manufacturers do rounds and flats for 30 and 32” scale basses. Finding one that suits your Fender P Bass preference: well it depends on what you want to spend. There is actually a much wider range of short scale basses than a perusal of the usual online shops would lead you to believe. If you have Fender Standard/Performer range money both Sandberg and Maruszczyk do short and medium scale versions of their P Models (and Jazz). Maruszczyk seem to do every colour combination you could think of. If you really can’t find what you want, getting a custom bass made is not as expensive as you might think. I had a custom P/J shorty made on a ‘51/54 P Bass theme for the same money as the Fender Performer Mustang by Tony Edwards Guitars and I am sure other luthiers will do similar. There is a thread on the short scale Stingray somewhere on this forum.

My initial impressions (and pre-bias) was shattered after a bit of a play so it's definitely worth trying both. I'm still very uncertain as to which would be the most useful to me, and really looking forward to A/Bing them with my current pedalboard.

I almost never listen to the vocals of any song, I mean I hear them but I don’t necessarily know or care what they’re about. I almost hear them as a melodic overtone. When I say how much I like such and such a song to people at work they often say back something about the meaning or message of the song which has passed me by because I’m just locking in with the rhythm section!

Top tune that. Don't really get the OHM comparisons with that new song though, sounded like generic modern RHCP to me with genuinely terrible vocals. Tried 3 times and not made it to the end of the song, just the standard of monotonous rubbish they churn out these days.

I had a very fun evening playing with these... lots of thoughts but need some more time to get my head around them! Will gather them over the weekend 🙃

Some friends from our local skateboard park went to see Led Zeppelin at Knebworth. This was 1979, I was a 16 year old punk and wasn't interested in led Zeppelin stuff so didn't go. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time.

GEAR AQUISITION SYNDROME

Yes that’s probably why I like it. Also that track has one of my fave drum intros ever

Welcome aboard! And congratulations on the start of an interesting and rewarding* hobby/obsession. Lots of friendly folks here and always lots of help. Some have been playing for decades, some of us only a couple of years. Don't be shy to ask questions, even if they seem really basic. Everyone, and I mean everyone, had to start from zero and figure it out. * potentially expensive too, unless you stay away from the marketplace until you actually need gear 😉

Yeah I see that, one of the poor habits I'm trying to get rid of

This: