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Played outside at a classic car rally at Snetterton racetrack on Sunday. Only the second time I have played on a trailer stage. It turned out to be character forming. In the pic you can see the sound team scratching their heads after the first generator spiked and blew out the power amp for the bass bins before we had finished setting up. Two alternative generators were found and we finally got a stable enough power supply to power our amps plus a couple of column PAs and two powered speakers. The technical hassles put us on edge, so we had a bit of a shaky start but got into our stride after a few numbers. Unfortunately, playing to a much smaller crowd than anticipated: after a month of drought in East Anglia, the heavens decided to open just before the gig. Plus, there was a race meeting on the track behind us, a Grand Prix and the football on the TV, so lots of distractions for the petrol heads. It also rained again during the gig, so it turned into a bit of a drive-in with people sitting in their cars with the windows down some of the time. After doing our two hour gig, the main act turned up but without their rhythm section who had tested positive for Covid. After a hasty crisis meeting, me and our drummer agreed to step in. They did a few numbers with just the two guitars and harmonica player, then we joined them and jammed it out. You can do that with the blues!

I find some of the responses in this thread a bit depressing (not to mention predictable). One transaction has gone wrong (admittedly, in spectacular fashion) and it's being sorted out within hours. Nothing to see here, if anything I find it highly reassuring that the retailer is on the case so quickly and it looks like a mutually agreeable solution is forming, if it has not already taken shape. As a serial moron/someone who orders instruments online at distance, I find it absolutely normal. I bought a bass once from G4M - the fingerboard was coming away from the rest of the neck at the nut. Back it went, got a refund, no dramas. I had two goes to try to order a Gibson Grabber 3 70s Tribute bass a few years back but both had issues which I found unacceptable, so back they went too. So drama free, I can't even remember which retailer it was. Even if I did decide it wasn't for me and sent it back via distance selling regs, all I'm out is the postage - and that's cheaper than a visit to the nearest retailers with decent selection (Glasgow). I get to try it with my own amp, in my own environment - hell, I could even take it to a band rehearsal and try it there before deciding - can't do that in a shop. I know I'm not going to change anyone's minds here who are dyed in the wool, "must buy in person" types, but I just wanted to present an alternative point of view because at the moment, it's all looking a bit doom and gloom. You will not be cast into the fires of hell for buying a bass online without trying it first. I've done it many times, and I'm not even smouldering yet.

You're showing yourself up.

Good be playing live again - the Halfway Heroes MCC bike rally at Cabourne Parva, Lincs. Excellent hired in sound crew, brilliant crowd - our 90 min set ended up as 2 hours they'd have happily had us carry on but I think we broke the dummer!

For all the Giblin (and Joan ) fans out there in in case you haven't seen it.

Well, here we are after a few weeks of buggering around in my spare time Cab is Tuff Cabbed, corners are on and castors refitted. I replaced all the knackered black screws with stainless and I think it looks great. The grille is actually painted with chameleon metallic flip paint- so it's black gloss on the metal with the flip over the top. You can't really capture this on camera but on this grille you kind of get a purple-to-royal blue metallic which is actually much less garish than it sounds. I really like it: It looks stylish and eye catching. I'm not going to change much from here- I'll be repainting the handles in gloss black and wrapping the handle bars in blue grip. Then I'll attach the logo that's been 3D printed for this once it's painted and sanded. I got a tiny gouge taken out of the tuff cab transporting to rehearsal a couple of weeks ago. I just glued it down and dabbed a bit off tuff cab over it. Good as new. I expect I would have been really annoyed had this been 150 quids worth of tolex with a tear in it. As it is, I couldn't care less. Result!

And the joint winners are... @Doctor J and @upside downer..! Here, then, are your Winner's Certificates (download and save as pdf file, then proudly print and frame...) ... BC_Chal_Cert_2022_07.pdf ... which look like this (but bigger, of course..!)...

Or... ...via ouija board

My take on this would be: If it's for a one off gig, and she is going back to playing Cello then string a bass in 5ths. If she is going to be playing bass going forward, use standard tunings . As I'm sure someone mentioned above most classically trained string musicians to Grade 7 will have the musical knowledge to adapt fairly quickly to any stringed instrument. Especially when she won't have to worry about intonation (presuming it's not a Fretless bass)

Just to be contrary, Tony Levin tunes his cello in 4ths because it’s what he knows, so why not the reverse? However, he’s ancient and she’s young, so learning it in the traditional tuning probably would be easier for her and best in the long run. Ooh, a fence! Let me sit on it.

I don’t mind. I can take it.

Bass vi strings e to e

Thank you, you lovely people. And well done to my co-champ the good @Doctor J! New image on its way to @lurksalot shortly 👍

Using the Fluence pickup positioning that Fishman used for Mike Inez's 'Moon Bass' special, puts the pickup here, scaled up for the 35" scale: And that looks about right to me - I haven't measured it, but I reckon the centre line is probably the same as a Stingray and, like the Stingray, should be able to allow the built in EQ sweep to achieve sufficient treble when needed without sacrificing pure bass 'thump'. So todays task is to cut that chamber and, time allowing, start the top carve.

Well done gents, excellent entries 👍 If you can sort a picture between you and send it over, I’ll start the new one this evening 😁

https://bassmusicianmagazine.com/2022/08/bruce-thomas-pushed-rock-to-a-new-era-august-2022-15th-anniversary-issue/

I can do that in standard tuning, never minded altered!

Wired up front panel controls, OT primary and choke. Now to check connections and continuity before installing 6.3V AC leads for pilot lamp and heaters.

My hardly bent-one.

Someone's mod status is irrelevant if they are posting their opinions about something. When I was admin I would want to be challenged and not expect my 'badge' to stop people doing so if they disagree with me.

Well, you didn't ask for my opinion either, but as it's a forum and you've posted the thread, I'm entitled to have one. The way the thread reads (although I note you've edited it, so I don't know what it said originally) is that you've quite rightly taken issue with the condition of the bass and then rung them. I for one would have made the call first and included that in your first post. Right to reply and all that. I know he's a bit more thick skinned than most of us, but I think you were a bit harsh or @wateroftyne. Calling out a Moderator on a forum he helps run for you is also not classy.

Wait till the 3kg back panel turns up...

I'm pretty sure "wrong time of the month" was a droll reference to the retailer's name .

Just an opinion of course. Not a classy way to go about it, IMO.

Same basic process for the pickup chamber as with the neck pocket. I generally aim for 1mm clearance around pickups to allow space not only for the up and down, but also - especially with soap bars - the ability to tilt the pickup a touch to balance the volumes of the bass strings and trebles. I start off by drilling the corners with a drill at 1mm greater radius than the corners of the pickups: Then a Forstner, to hog out the bulk Then take out the resulting 'waves' with a sharp chisel and mallet, creating a depth of 5mm or so dead on the original pencil line - this will then act as the datum for the top bearing bit on the hand router...and because it is already extended into the chamber, there is no possibility of it cutting beyond that chiselled line: And just continue deepening the cut until I have the depth for the full pickup and plug-in connectors: And so - unless I can think of any more excuses not to get on with it - the top carve can begin

These aren't cheap items, why the hell are they sending them out like this? ....perhaps it was the wrong time of the month?

Saturday - played an all day rock/metal gig at Leo's Gravesend. Had the pleasure of using the in house cab, which was a Zilla 2x10 plus 1x15 in one enclosure. Bit toppy, bit boom on the low E, no time for adjustments, was nice and loud though. Very moist gig! Yesterday, Charity gig just outside Worcester, favour for my engineer mate. used my own cab, sounded amazing. Work this morning- knackered.

Well done Chaps! 👏 A couple of great tunes!

Thanks a lot, gents, and thanks to all who participated and voted. @upside downer, please, the floor is yours, pic on!

I had a 'Jaco' style lined fretless jazz around 2017-18 that the previous owner had updated with EMGs, a Babicz bridge and Schaller tuners. I can't remember the purchase price but considering the upgrades was still good value. It felt, played and sounded nice. Was well made and without issue, but was a tad heavy compared to what I was used to (Luthite Cort Curbows) I should have kept it but it went in a clear-out of all my surplus gear. I may have sold it on here or ebay? I am currently considering a HBZ-2004 Deluxe Series 4 string. Does anyone have experience of it?

Haven’t you guys heard of Red Mitchell?

Almost all the basses I have bought have been sight unseen, and I have used PMT loads of times (as well as loads of others). You get the occasional hassle here and there, but nothing that was never sorted, and as irritating as things can be at the time, you get over it pretty fast. Maybe if you live in a big city, going to a shop is an option, or if you have enough time to travel somewhere, for me it isn't, I can buy it online or not get it. When I think about the basses I currently have, none of them was bought in person, i have a few guitars that were.

I’ve bought 2 custom basses, sight unseen - you don’t have much choice when ordering those.

Thanks again, chaps. The connections between the PCB and the bridge plate are sound, as are the wires from the plate to the actual piezo elements. The bass working well with my Thomastiks tells me it must be the nylon coating. SO...what I did was this:And it works! The copper tape is connecting the ball end of the string to the piezo element. I will tidy it up (and hope I don't blow myself up), but I quite like the diy look... Thanks for your input, I probably would have given up without it

Yes, I got it, just wondered if I was alone in thinking that sort of comment was unnecessary and offensive and as a collective, we are a bit better than that?🤔

I was going to suggest Quilter too, I've got a Bass Block 802 and its excellent. Nice tone by itself, but also plays very well with external preamps if that's your thing. Pretty sure I got mine from Wembley Music Centre.

No, I'll do it this way. Thanks for the input though!

I'm not raining on anything, but simply pointing out that when you have built up the required skills and have easy access to all the information you need and a workshop full of power tools, you would actually have to deliberately make mistakes in order to produce something that wasn't at least, good. At the risk of sounding like a Monty Python sketch, when I built my own solid electric instruments in the late 70s the only source of information about how to make your own guitar was Stephen Delft's monthly series of articles in International Musician magazine. There was no Stewmac and the like for getting supplies, so several issues were given over to how to modify existing woodworking tools to make them suitable for guitar building, and two articles were dedicated to making your own truss rod from scratch (the alternative at the time would have been to remove a functional one from an existing guitar). My two instruments were made almost entirely with hand tools, at school we weren't allowed to use power tools ourselves, but the woodwork teacher did put my rough cut wood blanks through the planner and cut out the body shape (very roughly) on the bandsaw. However everything else was done by hand and I probably spent as much time sharpening plane and chisel blades as I did actually shaping the wood. Each instrument took the whole school year to make and I spent every lesson where I wasn't actually required to be in class for one of my A Level subjects in the woodwork shop. Therefore having gone through the process myself I know how much easier having a fully equipped workshop with all the modern power tools at your disposal would make it. That's not to say that the end result in the video isn't impressive, but it's tempered by the fact that IMO you'd have to be a complete numpty in that situation not to make something good.

Do you play 5 string banjo? I cheated by getting a Tenor Banjo so have it tuned the same way as the mandolin. I did the same with the Bouzouki - 3 instruments all in the same tuning. Within my duo we also have a mandocello but it is tunes a 5th down. The shapes are different but related so easy to adapt. It makes us look super talented but actually it's all smoke and mirrors!

Last graph for a while This one shows the Faital 320 in three different sized boxes. The pink is the 50l box, red is 85l and green is 35l. This time the boxes are tweaked to get the 'best' out of each box. What you see happening will be true of any speaker put in different box sizes in general terms. The larger box allows the best bass response in that it is flatter and goes down lower. 85l is about perfect for this speaker in that respect. -3db is well below 50 Hz and -10db which is what most manufacturers quote is pretty close to the fundamental of bottom B on a fiver. Putting any speaker in a smaller cab introduces the bass hump and the smaller the cab the higher the frequency at which it happens. It doesn't show well in this graph but the peak gets higher too. The thing is that for a bass cab more bass isn't really a universally good thing. Our ears don't pick up sub100Hz very well but mics do so the vocal mics will amplify this bass even though we can't really hear it and the PA will quickly start to struggle. (use the 80Hz filters guys) If you are stuck in the corner those bass frequencies will be boosted and you might well start to excite room resonances. In listening tests we carried out with bass players most bassists thought the pink response was 'bassiest' not the red one. Only about one in three recognised the extra deep lows of the red response. That is bass players, most of humanity gets bass information from the second harmonic in the signal 80-160Hz. So now the question. How big do you want the cab to be? Given the trade off. I can give you the Pink response in a 100litre 2x12 using this lightweight value for money driver. I can get an extended response in a smaller box by using a speaker with a bigger magnet. Or I can get the box size right down with the pink response with the right driver if I can find one. A 100l 2x12 isn't huge but it is substantial, a few years back it was around the norm but with cheap drivers and for me a bit too much of a warm sounding hump. If you leave me to it I'll design around the Faital 12PR320 and try and optimise size and response but I think physics will push me to an 80-100l cab. If you want something smaller I'll look for another driver, though the perfect driver can be hard to find.

I agree on all points. As said I am fully aware it is far from an optimal mix. But it was made at a point where I only had a pretty crappy condenser microphone to record, even if I think the actual recordings sound surprisingly decent despite that, and also I just got a new PC after my only 1 year old Macbook Pro with Logic installed died on me after spilled beer into it while making music with a friend of mine, so I didn't have a proper reverb plugin at the time either. I am usually a big fan of reverb, and if I had had a proper reverb plugin at the time mixing this song the vocals would definitely had been processed thoroughly through that, really annoyed me even at the time I mixed it that I couldn't add more reverb to the vocal track and make it sound a bit more ethereal, definitely was never the intention that it should sound so dry. But yeah, will pull myself together to make a proper remix at some point, and I am glad you liked the actual song. Probably one of the most catchy songs I ever wrote, but without for that reason sucking up to anything, or deliberately going for being easily accessible. Here's another one of my personal favorites I recorded for that project, a couple of years earlier, this one is a bit more traditionally folky:

@Beedster Funnily enough my 16 year old son grabbed me a couple of months ago and said, Dad I've just heard an awesome track you might like. It's called Roundabout. Imagine my pride 😊 maybe that means musical taste is in your genes 😂 But you should also listen to Heart of the Sunrise. Turn it up good and loud and marinate in the sumptuous soundscape!