Leaderboard

The eagle has landed. Super build quality/QC and from my first play it sounds very fat and organic.

I’ve avoided Fenders since I took up bass 7 years ago because the broad opinion here at BC is that you can quite easily get more bass for less money. But this MIM came up at a low enough price that I reckoned I could sell without losing if I didn’t get on with it, so I took a punt. First impressions were: 1 It’s really light (8lb/3.3kg on bathroom scales); 2 Played acoustically, the tone is phenomenal; 3 It’s grimy (yuk) - it’s 3 years old; 4 Through an amp, the alnico 5 pickups might as well have been made of jelly for all their supposed punch. However… I then noticed the neck pickup was set really low - over half an inch from the strings. I guess it hadn’t been setup since it was purchased. So I swapped the full old strings for Pressurewounds and did a full setup (using the Fender Owner’s Manual for measurements), including raising the pickups to their recommended height. Oh boy is it good now! I don’t understand why the pickups are so noiseless (through headphones), but I do now understand how these pickups were pushed as an upgrade to the Standard series. They’re very direct and resonant. And talking of upgrades - that seems to be something smart about a Fender: replacing parts is so easy (there’s a black pickguard on its way already because the white one looks like it’s yellowing - and I think all black will go better with the maple fretboard). I have a couple of questions, if anyone can help: 1 What is the ratio of standard Fender machine heads? These move a bit inconsistently especially compared to the tuners on my G&L Tributes; 2 How do I degrease a gloss maple fretboard- I don’t think water alone will cut through the grime? Several reviews elsewhere mention sharp frets and dead areas on the fretboard, but that’s not the case with this example. And isn’t that the problem with MIMs? You just don’t know if you’ll get a duff one. As for me - I feel very lucky today.

The service they offer can lead to mental health issues too. So far I'm at 69 emails and 10 months of grief. I have zero sympathy for his mental health issues based on comments that are as a result of his business's lack of fair service. Forgetting my personal experiences, there are far too many saying similar things for this to be over sensitive customers. If he doesn't want bad words said about his business, he has the ability to adjust what causes the negativity. If only positive feedback can be aired for fear of mental health issues then we are effectively living in censorship.

And so we're onto the final carve. The paulownia is very interesting wood - some of it is very soft...and some of it is VERY hard. So the challenge, especially because everything is curved, is not for it to end up as a classroom demonstration of "how erosion created the Grand Canyon". And at this stage, much of it is by feel. It is almost impossible, in the sanded state, to visually see the lumps and bumps...but you can feel them. So my first step is very focussed scraping with, sometimes, the gooseneck card scraper: ...sometimes with a single-edged razor blade: ...and a variety of home-made sanding blocks. The variable curve one is useful as I can sand across the grain and the emery rides on, and sands off, the hard lumps of the peaks rather than digging into the softer troughs that a conventional sanding block, sanded with the grain, will tend to do: It will take a while until I can't feel any lumps or bumps any more...but I know, that some will still be there. What I will probably do - before I give it the CA treatment - is then give it a light gloss colour coat to highlight the remaining hills and hollows, then sand that all off, CA treat it and then, hopefully, move onto the final finishing.

Didn't know Liam Lynch worked there! 🙂

Fair play , I was not expecting such a great turnout this month , most excellent 👍 I will set up the voting thread when I get in tonight

Update on UK-bound new WB-100s: having been marked as exported from Poland on 6th August, the Royal Mail tracker has this evening marked them (well mine but I assume its all one shipment) as arrived in UK today. A "mere" 18 days later (leading to some understandable nervousness). Still have to go through tedious wait for customs assessment, HMRC letter and paying charges before delivery. But at least my amp exists and is in the UK.

Why would you want to know, Dave? It's rubbish and needs replacing!

Alt Right Now Free

Quick PS: This month I decided not to use MT Power Drum Kit and instead deployed Monster Drums, a freebie by Indonesian developer Agius Hardiman. The nice thing about Monster Drums is that it's a sort of wrapper for a range of 20+ different sampled kits for use with different genres including pop, metal, reggae, East Asian trad and pop. Includes Linn and Cajon kits. Sounds can be routed to individual or grouped channels. The kit packs are fairly small, mostly less than 100mb so no round robins or (afaics) velocity specific samples. Works OK, though and fairly light on CPU. It's just gone up to V2 (64bit only) but I think the 32bit version may still be lurking somewhere. The only annoying thing is that the developers page takes a while to load, otherwise the package is an easy install.

It's not to everyone's taste but I like it. The colour is hot pink

Guilty? As charged, it's a fair cop, I'll come quietly, got me bang to rights etc.

August is coming to its conclusion and that means one thing, it is time to choose the toon of the month A joint win by @Doctor J and @upside downer in July with 2 excellent tracks produced the choice of image from the latter, with the comment .... "This image from Alan Schaller's Metropolis collection, which examines 'how we are dwarfed in the modern world around us and often lost in it'. It properly brought out the creative juices did this one , marvelous Now is the time to settle down with your choice of beverage and let your ears be filled the some great new music. Then choose your favourite 3 tracks for your votes 1 @xgsjx All the parts are monophonic (that was my own challenge). All aboard the train to here..... 2 @Dad3353 Well, she said 'Platform 2, eight o'clock.' It's now... Let me see... Hmm... Half-past midnight. Maybe she's not coming..? I'll give it another hour or so... Can't get much more minimalist that this, this month. 3 @Leonard Smalls It's about a lonely bloke thinks he's been stood up on the Metro. Not only that but he hasn't got a clue where he needs to get to. So he contemplates just stepping off in front of the next train, but instead, checks his phone and discovers that a perfect French fella has just swiped right on him on Grindr. Previous date forgotten, next one eagerly anticipated! 4 @NickD I loved the Negative space in the image, which gave me my title, and that sent me down the wormhole of my own reflections while waiting for the tube, and my wondering at the perceptions of others there, surrounded by people, and yet alone. It's a bit about how the city will consume you if you let it 5 @Doctor J For some reason, I envisioned a male escort on his way home after a late... ehhh... shift, I suppose. He's a good guy, alone in a world which just doesn't understand. 6 @Nicko When I saw the image I initially thought it was Baker Street - a station i used for my daily commute for a few years - but it's obviously late at night and I don't work late so the only reason I ever saw it like that was when I'd been for after work drinks. 7 @upside downer A meandering, sometimes uplifting, sometimes melancholic melody that weaves through our lone hero's introspection on another of those nights where he is lost in time and space alone with his thoughts. 8 lurksalot The guts of this was laid down before the weekend but the lyrics, such as they are ..... were added with the weekends experiences of that London in mind! 9 @Nail Soup I've been reading about how Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica LP was made, and listening to a lot of Beefheart. The picture inspired a Beefheart-style wordplay... the musician term Tube Overdrive Vs how someone taking the Tube prefers it Over Driving (a car). Musically I tried to use the same compositional techniques as were used on TMR. Also used some tube overdrive and tunnel reverb on the vox! 10 @skankdelvar From my soon-to-drop new album Songs For Moaning Bastards Well there we have it , a fantastic selection yet again! Choose your favourite 3 Voting will close at midnight on Wednesday 31st Good luck all

Courtesy of JoeBass of this parish I now have a lovely new-to-me Sandberg Superlight TT5. Some will know I'm a big fan of the SL basses and I have a 4 string already. I have been looking for a 5 string for ages and this one is a particularly lightweight example at only 6lb 12oz! Under 7lb for a full scale 5 string is amazing. Even Sandberg suggest most of the 5 string superlights are just under 8lb. It balances perfectly and the neck is very comfy. Sandbergs have my favourite necks of all basses. As an added bonus it's got the East J-Retro Deluxe preamp. A massive confusion of stacked knobs and switches. My first thought was "that's coming out and EMGs are going in" but after playing with it quite a lot it now makes a lot of sense. I wasn't a fan of the Sandberg pickups with the stock preamp in my 4 string but with the East they seem to be much better so I'll hold off from ordering my usual EMGs for a while. It now has some Thomastik Jazz Roundwounds on it and I still need to tweak the intonation a little but it's nearly there. However - it will, at some point, get a finger ramp to help with my finger injury (I did warn @Andyjr1515 when he made the last one for me! ), and I will put some stickers on the neck for fret dots. Most of all though - that tort plate is going! Tort is only for the type of pervert that puts pineapple on pizza! I'll get a black one for that classic black & maple look. It will then match my 4 string. #OCD Thanks again to Joe for an easy transaction, and a lovely bass. Next big band rehearsal is in about 2 weeks and we've got a new band leader (not met them yet) but I will be taking this.

Ok dudes , we are in , no dress code , run what yer brung , fill yer boots

Following the same ''logic', one wouldn't read a book, but write one's own..? Poems, too..? One can learn much from that which others have written, be it on prose, poetry, lyrics or musical notation. There's no shame in reading books, so why music..? It doesn't stop one from creating at all, quite the opposite. It can (if one has the will...) provide stimulus to further one's own creations. That's what I've always found, anyway. Disclaimer : I play drums. I play what comes into my head much of the time, but also know how to play a wide variety of styles others have established. When I'm playing calypso-style, for instance, I'm not simply copying what I learned by reading, but my own version, adapted to the piece being performed. It makes complete sense to me.

There is also the so-called Kano Model of Satisfaction that distinguishes between attributes that people take for granted and the ones that can delight them (and so-called one-dimensional ones too). For the take for granted ones, you can only avoid dissatisfaction but cannot achieve satisfaction. For example, when you arrive back in the UK after a nice holiday abroad and you grab your bag(s) or suitcase(s) from the luggage carousel, no one will be overly happy, you expect it to be there. However, people get very unhappy, when it is not there. The same applies to lots of utility services (think about electricity, water). No ones cares if they work, but people get mad if they don't. The delighting attributes are the ones that people do not expect. So you do not make people unhappy if you don't do them (because they don't expect them in the first place) but you can make people very happy if you do them. For example, if in a hotel they remember your favourite meals or drinks or surprise you with a room upgrade (without any prior service failure, maybe just to say thank you) etc), then customers will be very happy and probably tell their friends about it (positive WOM). Problem is that, over time, these delighters deteriorate and people start expecting them. You then need to come with something else and finding these delighters is not easy (people nowadays have high expectations, are well informed etc). Here is a nice video for an example:

Having had a number of dealings with Mark over the years, in person, over the phone and by email, I can't see him being too concerned about anything that has been said in this thread, he's very forthright and also has a very strong I know best attitude. That's just my opinion of him and I'm happy to be corrected on it. If you agree with him then all is well, if not... Nobody can deny that he's done really well for himself and that BD is possibly the most successful bass specialist shop in the UK right now. But it's clear from this thread that he has lost several sales over the years because of his attitude. Pre-covid this may not have been too much of a worry for him and he could perhaps have easily swallow those 'loses' for want of a better word. However, with everything going on in the world right now (and without getting sidetracked into what and why etc) and with the cost of pretty much everything going up peoples disposable incomes are going down proportionally. At a guess a significant percentage of his customers are hobbyist players (rather than pros who earn a fortune from music) and it's the hobbyists that are perhaps being, or more likely to the ones who have to prioritise where their disposable income is going. While he may currently be king of the hill there are other options out there, which from what I understand are offering a consistent, higher level of customer service. There are several people on this thread who have already said that they will no longer buy from BD, myself included. With all this in mind, I do wonder how sustainable his business model is and how it's likely to fare over the next few years. But I can't realistically see anything changing any time soon.

That's a good point. There is even a concept called "service recovery paradox", which means that sometimes customers are even happier after a service failure got dealt with satisfactory (e.g., imagine you arrive at your hotel, your hotel has lost your reservation but apologizes and upgrades you to a suite). This paradox, however, does not always work, it depends on the situation and severity of the failure. For example, if your wedding photographer tells you after your lovely wedding that (s)he has lost or ruined your wedding photos, you won't be happy if told "Sorry for that but I will give you a 20% discount for your next wedding" (even though, statistically speaking, there will, most likely, be another wedding in the future ;- )

BOLD - Spandau Ballet

This is my latest fretless squeeze and by far the liveliest most mwah containing fretless I’ve owned. Fender Tony Franklin fretless Precision 2011.

There is a quantum leap in difficulty between reading monophonic lines (essentially bass, or solo voice, or brass, with exceptions...), and polyphonic lines (keys, guitar, some choral works, drums...). getting one pitch right at a time compared to getting several pitches right, is a challenge, when learning. In that sense, bass is an easy one, and it's a reasonable excuse for a guitarist to say 'Thanks, but No thanks'.

Yeah but you're 6 feet 7, I'm a short derrière so I guess he's not intimidated by me

I'm the bass player in Chic to Chic. I'm afraid everything in the above statement is true - he took deposits from us with a view to booking gigs in theatres and using the cash as down payments. The venues had no idea about the gigs and he's refusing to pay the money back. If you are in a tribute band, and are approached by Mick Mason to work with/for him in any capacity. STAY WELL CLEAR. We have to stick together as musicians to overcome people like this, so spread the word as wide as possible about this man and his fraudulent activities. Even if we only stop a few people getting ripped off, that's a chunk of money that he hasn't been able to steal. If you are in a tribute band, and had problems with Mick Mason, please send me a message. Either through here or via www.chictochic.co.uk Aidan Hampson

Nice. Elegant and simple.👍🏽 Reminds me of my ACG! Simplicity is underrated!!!!

I bought something from them a couple of weeks ago, stupidly ordered the wrong variant. One e-Mail to them and it was agreed to do a swap. Sadly by the time I returned my item the intended one had sold out so they offered instant refund or to wait until it was back in stock. Refund please, sorted straightaway. This might be slightly against the grain of this thread but I think it’s only fair to show that BD aren’t all doom & gloom.

Here's my two current BB's #1 is a BB734. Excellent bass after a little pickup tweaking. I feel more at home with a PJ bass. My right hand just knows where to go. Yet to gig it, but seems solid and very very playable. People say the PJ set up is a bit bland sounding, but i personally think it just works in the mix. I'm not hugely keen on the matt finish. I think it will look old very quickly, but it is what it is. #2 is a BBN4S I think (from memory). In the late 90's my dad took me to sound control in glasgow to get my first proper bass and I got one of these. When I was about 22, me and a mate stripped the paint, defretted it and fitted a bass whammy system to it. I then sold it for 80 quid i think. I always wondered how good they were as I remembered it being a very good bass. Fast forward 20 years and i managed to find this one in the same colour, local to me, so I purchased it for nostalgia. I've ended up playing a number of wedding gigs with it. Plays nicely and I love the neck but doesnt really cut through the mix; it feels hard work to play at gigs as it makes me need to dig in harder to get a bit of honk to the tone (if you know what i mean). I'd imagine the electronics are pretty low grade given the bass was a budget bass, so i might look at alternatives. The bit of perspex is basically a thumb rust which I've added, stuck on by sticky tape so completely reversable. It's also got a yellow tint to it despite it originally being a white bass. Love it!

It was a long shot but if I'm going to ask and someone is going to know then here would be the best place.

I have been dealing with Bass Direct for around 10 years now, and have had mostly positive experiences with a couple of not so positive ones. In Marks defence I would say that I have generally found him to be welcoming and accommodating with a positive attitude to resolving issues. When I have visited the store he always warmly welcomes me and we quite often chat about life and all sorts of things. I really quite like him. Obviously everyone has good days and bad days and you never quite know what people are struggling with personally that is affecting their reactions and behaviours. My interactions with some of his staff members over the years have been far less positive for reasons that I do not want to discuss publicly… but from reading this thread it would appear that there is some commonality with the experiences of others.

Must admit, after playing it on every gig with my band for 11 years it does start to get a bit meh. Then again, I see the reaction from the audience and how much they love it and it helps me no end.

I was seriously considering the H1 for a while, I find it beautiful, but in the end my longing for a Musicman won.

I really ought to get this back out and use it a bit more: Esh Poseidon V.

Like most have already said "don't give up just yet" I'm 62 and play in a 70's Glam covers band and a 70's punk covers band. I love both bands and altho i was into Glam back in its hey day and was my first step into buying records its not my favoured style of music. Punk was never a music i was really into and was surprised just how much fun it was to pay. I'm into Prog and classic rock but you can play in any style of band and just take the songs for what they are. I put a lot into both bands. I've tried the originals prog bands but they came to nothing for various reasons but if i came across a band doing something i liked i might give it a try but would never give up what i have as its just so much great fun in both bands. You'd be surprised how difficult punk is to play at 62. The stamina required really surprised me. I play fingetsyle. Its like Iron Maiden with attitude LOL Take a wee break, keep the gear in storage somewhere and let yourself relax and think about options. Dave

What about the other two? 😉

I'm the bass player in Chic to Chic. I'm afraid everything in the above statement is true - he took deposits from us with a view to booking gigs in theatres and using the cash as down payments. The venues had no idea about the gigs and he's refusing to pay the money back. If you are in a tribute band, and are approached by Mick Mason to work with/for him in any capacity. STAY WELL CLEAR. We have to stick together as musicians to overcome people like this, so spread the word as wide as possible about this man and his fraudulent activities. Even if we only stop a few people getting ripped off, that's a chunk of money that he hasn't been able to steal. If you are in a tribute band, and had problems with Mick Mason, please send me a message. Either through here or via www.chictochic.co.uk Aidan Hampson

2 x 250k pots + 0.1 cap. Control plate/knobs from Axecaster. Scratchplate from China. 90 minutes well spent 😀

The cynic in me wonders if the about turn had anything to do with the mention of the studio in question. BD aren’t all that far from me, though I must admit I’ve never visited when in the vicinity, partly due to reading so many less than great accounts. These issues may be in the minority, but there does seems to be a lot of anecdotal evidence. Enough to keep me away anyway. If I want attitude that results in me handing over a wedge of cash I’ll chat to my kids…

Just picked this one up yesterday, anyone know what year / model, I think it's a euro4 ?

I don't think there's such a thing as too old , although if you want to do originals and have success with them it'll be far , far harder than it is for a younger person. If you find it frustrating - pack it in. Life's too short. It may be that after a break you find different ways to make music that make you happy. If that doesn't happen - fine. Other interests will take it's place. I stopped trying to 'make it' at an early age. All I ever wanted to do was write songs and make a living at it. I had enough knock backs to change my mind. I took to playing bass in rock covers and blues bands because it's dead easy , makes a bit of beer money and there's always lots of gags and laughter. I don't even consider the two things linked. I gave up trying to be a songwriter and became a covers bass player. I could just as easily have become a mountain biker or restored an old car or whatever it is people do. That's how I see it. I'm retired now. As a volunteer I drive trip narrowboats , steward at a WW2 Bomber base visitor centre , survey headstones for the commonwealth war graves commission , check and maintain a bunch of defibs in nearby villages , stand outside covid jab centres in the pouring rain telling people where to park while trying not to punch those who abuse me and I'm on the Parish Council. I enjoy all of those things. I'm also in a reforming rock covers band. It's just part of my life , not a definitive. Do what makes you happy even if that means putting the bass up in the loft.