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I got the Lake Placid blue P bass for Christmas. My initial impressions are very good. This is my first Squier. I have two MIM Fenders and two MIM Charvels to compare it to. all of my Mexican made basses have needed shielding and I was assuming this would be the case with the Squier too, but no. No unwanted noise with this one. The finish is superb. The binding looks great and it makes the black dot fret markers really stand out. The gold anodised pick guard looks classy and the other gold hardware and pearloid inlays really make this bass stand out. The neck has a glossy finish, which some won't like but I'm fine with it. A couple of minor negatives. It is a bit neck divey but not enough to make me want to swap out the tuners (I have a good strap for it) the jack socket doesn't really hold the jack in as firmly as my other basses but as long as you wrap your lead behind the strap in use, it won't come out. I have heard better split coil P pick ups. Unusually for a P bass, I am adding a bit of low mid via my amp's EQ section. However, the D and G strings sound great, better than my Charvel PJ4, which is my go to bass at the moment. I could swap the pup for something better, but I could also just boost the low mids from my head or an EQ pedal, so I'm not sure whether to bother. I'll see how it is in use. I would say this is a keeper. I see no obvious signs it is inferior to a MIM Fender P bass and it looks gorgeous.

Lobster has bought and reviewed the HB ‘Stang.

I don't think Fender offer instruments to suit my tastes/style, but Ibanez have this, which would please me greatly... Ibanez SRH500F-NNF...

Run, Rampant Rabbit, Run! - Flanagan and Allen

Is This The Way To Amadildo - Tony Christie

Merry Christmas, everyone. My rig from last Friday's gig.

The most I’ve spent on a new bass is just shy of £3600, I’d come into a little money and decided it was my last chance to acquire the Status bass I’d been lusting after. Going forward, on gigging basses, I’ll top out around the £1500 mark.

Yes its the cover song challenge time of year and we have some great entries again this time all for fun but there is some incredible effort gone into these so give them a listen and choose your favourite 3 voting will end at midnight on New Years Day 1 @Nicko What better than 2 minutes and 47 seconds of late 70s modfather. 2 @Dad3353 A staple of our repertoire, I've cut out a little of the intro build-up, to keep to the time constraints 3 @FacStudio The inspiration behind this is my love of Biffy. 4 @Leonard Smalls Here's a little something my band recorded live (but in a studio!) back in October and mixed by me 5 @MoonBassAlpha As suggested by my friend Rob for an occasional get-together we have with another school friend Paul (we used to jam together and did a couple of gigs). The parts were subsequently recorded remotely, and mixed by me 6 @Nail Soup I was stuck for a song, until this popped into my head - originally just to perform at a local acoustic session. It's old favourite of John Peel. It got a lot of JP plays at the time, but not sure it made much traction outside of his show. But it's stayed with me over the years anyway! 7 Lurksalot mine is sooo boring , I had some ideas to make more interesting but ran out of both time and skill 8 @SH73 Here is my contribution. Drums are Ez Drums, the rest is played and recorded by me. 9 @upside downer Here's mine. It's a cover of Every Man's An Island by Jah Wobble and the Invaders of the Heart from the acclaimed 1991 album Rising Above Bedlam. That's your lot then get your 3 votes in before the end of New Years Day

Filmed in Hatfield House and its grounds. I actually owned one of those smashed mirrors for a while.

Ibanez, if I want something which reflects that life continued after 1965, purely because they keep evolving and the Japanese stuff is always superbly built. Whatever the top 4 string SR is at the moment will do very nicely. If I want something Fendery, I'd build it myself with Warmoth bits.

Done !

Orgasm Addict - The Buzzcocks

Happy ending - The Strokes That's got to be double points

That looks like a recurring nightmare I used to have.

Zombie post! This was my gig rig recently on a small stage, in a modest pub. We are a covers band. My guitarists both use 20W amps with 12" speakers, and the drummer is not loud. The little bastard was able to keep up without going through the PA but there was not much left over. So yes, it can be done with efficient speakers in the right setting. I love the LB for recording and solo practice.

Clearly not you, but thank you for taking the time to comment anyway.

I managed to get a decent level from my Bassman, when I played it through eight twelves. 😳 This was the 60s, when the average twelve had only 1mm xmax. Today it's not hard to find a 212 that has 450cc displacement. The 212 Bassman/Bandmaster/Twin Reverb loaded with Jensen C12s had 80cc. They also had Fs of 112Hz, so going low wasn't in their wheelhouse.

Playing at thw Golden Fleece in Bath with Wildcard. I believe it's free entry so if you are in the Bath area come on down

Here's a once over of my new Saint bass by Ashdown. Quick, and odd, back story to this. Ashdown showed this bass on their Facebook photos of their Christmas open weekend. It was stated as being a prototype of a new short scale for release in April. The prototypes used for that weekend were for sale through Reverb for the very good price of £299, compared to the usual pricing of their basses at around £850. Trigger pulled. The bass I received is definitely the one in their Facebook picture as there are a few tell tale things which together are too much of a coincidence to be another bass. This one is 34" scale, not a shorty. Now I must stress that the advert didn't specify a scale length, I just put the facebook comments by Mark Gooday together with the Reverb listing. We'll see if the new release in April is shortscale or not. This would appear to be a standard 'The Saint' bass in a new colour. No problem, I like 34".🙂 I must also stress that this was sold as a prototype bass so any issues I've found can't really be held against Ashdown, but if it was used as a demo at their open day I'd have thought they'd want their best on display and this one looks like it was rushed to be finished. And like I say, I'm convinced this is the bass as there are tell tale marks on it that are also on the one pictured at the open day. So the bass. It's a bass of two halves, good and bad, and hopefully the bad is down to being a prototype/demo. The colour is fantastic, metallic shell pink, kind of a pearlescent silver shimmer to it in the light and a nice amount of sparkle, really nice. As is the finish itself. The neck is also lovely. Smooth satin roasted maple neck and fretboard. 40mm nut which is cut and fitted nicely, no sharp edges. Slim neck profile and well finished frets, again no sharp edges. It plays really well. The neck pocket is nice and tight although the paint edges there could be better, but I am being fussy. Headstock logo looks great under the lacquer. Now the not quite so good, the pickguard is fairly rough around the edges, the curves are a bit like a 50 pence piece, but I'll whip it off and smooth them out. I'm assuming the cavities are shielded with the black carbon paint as I can see it all around the edge of the control cavity cover, again just needs a tidy up. The control pots are loose, particularly the bridge PU one, just winds itself up on the wires inside, but it has been used by allsorts at the open day, but still. The tuner ferrules aren't pressed in properly, particularly the D which is sticking out 3 or 4mm. Again is it's a prototype/demo but they don't just slide out over a few days. The proper Saints have Hipshot Ultralite tuners but mine is fairly generic open gear Fender-a-likes, quite possibly Wilkinson as the bridge is Wilkinson as well, quite possibly the pickups too. The pickups are fairly bland, nothing really wrong with them but nothing outstanding. The tone control is terrible, all your adjustment is in the first 5% of the sweep, after that it's just wide open, may as well be an on/off switch, volumes seem better but they're spinning on their fixings so it's hard to tell. So overall, I do like it, I don't mind sorting a few niggles, which is all they are. The actual bass itself is great, just the putting it together seems rushed. But, I like it for the price I paid. If I'd paid full price I be bitterly disappointed. But again I must stress this may not be representative of a proper one, who knows? I do know though, I'd have had my best example at an open day, not this one. With an hour or twos work this will be a lovely bass but I'm not sure it's any better quality than a good Harley Benton. It's an odd one really as I'm not a sure who they're aimed at. I love Ashdown amps but I'm confused by their basses.

Well. by some fluke I have another certificate to put on my wall. Thanks to you kind folk therefore for honouring me with the choice of photo this month. As we normally experience a cold and wet Christmas , I thought I would show a scene that other parts of the world might experience at the same time of year! * *this isn't another part of the world really , its Chester Zoo Simple rules ✔️ Entries must be <5 minutes and recorded between now and deadline. X No illegal samples, copyright infringements or other snide goings-on X Bagpipes. please no bagpipes, the ears cant take it, panpipes only if you have too. X No voting for your own entry. We'll know. And we'll shame you.. Deadline wise , we will go for the 24th which means you'll probably have till Burns' supper time , if he has it at the same time I get home from work! A line or two of blurb as well for the vote thread will be lovely. Have fun

prayers for rain - the cure

Blasphemous Rumours - Depeche Mode

Fade to Gray (sic) - Visage ....... for men of a certain age

Thanks, @Ricky Rioli. This list is pure gold 👍 I will show it to my wife and tell her that if she wants to avoid the embarrassment of her husband being at the bottom of the table next year again, she will need to allow me to buy significantly more basses (and sell way fewer). +8 is the number to beat next year 😉

There's always one, isn't there...

Quick, pin the December voting thread! It's falling down the page at a speed!

Tutti Frutti with Robbie Coltrane is on the iplayer, episode 3 on BBC4 tonight, couple of new docs on sky arts tonight, Beach Boys and George Harrison

I once tried these and my main beef was how sticky they felt. Really grabby on my fingers when sliding up and down the string. Honestly, I don't even remember how they sounded, I chucked them after about 5 mins because of the feel.

Night Nurse - Gregory Isaacs

Hell Toupee - Deep Purple

I got a big fat book of jazz licks, all in bass clef. Nice!

I got a set of DR Black Beauty strings from senior management. They sound awesome on my P bass. They look great on a white bass as well

In past years I have spent around the £2k mark each for two Warwicks. I also got a Ric 4003W (the walnut bass) from France for about £1400, a few hundred quid cheaper than in the UK, where they couldn't be found anyway. Would I ever spend that money again (even for the same basses)? No.

I’ve read this with interest. Nobody here would have an issue with this if it’s your bass that you play and love. The problem is, when you mess with the originality of the instrument, you dramatically effect the value. But you can’t seem to accept this. Leaving it unfinished suggests you’re either a poor craftsperson or you’re lazy. Neither of which encourage people to buy a £2k bass. This isn’t a personal attack on you, I’m sure you’re a good egg. But the Bongo 6 is already a niche instrument, and you’re limiting your market with these changes. Add on to that your attitude and it’s a hard sell. Happy Christmas, good luck with your sale, and I hope you can find someone that loves it as much as you do.

So here is my Christmas 2022 reconfiguration. The additions are the “Ditto +” (a looper) in the top left and the AirTurn (Bluetooth page turner) in the bottom right. Any further additions will need to be both very small and 18V as I’m out of space and 9V power outlets. Signal chain is: Switch for selecting from 2 basses (middle top), tuner (top right), Hypergravity compressor ( green one), octave ( blue one, bottom centre), chorus ( purple one), preamp ( far left), looper. The AirTurn isn’t in the signal chain. I intend using it at church , or at reading gigs. It paired easily with the iPad and then worked with both apps I use for chord sheets without me having to do anything other than select the app. The pages turn immediately both forwards and backwards. It seems like an easy to use and useful bit of kit. I intend using the looper mainly as a practice tool. So record something on the fretted bass then play over it with the fretless to help my intonation accuracy. I’ll probably also use it as a drone then practice soloing over the drone. I’m also hoping it takes me in a few different creative directions but we’ll see. I did the reconfiguration at the in-laws on Boxing Day. It was a bit of a krypton factor exercise fitting it all together. I then went and did another puzzle (jigsaw) with my lovely wife. Quite enjoyable for an afternoon with the in-laws 😀.

Actually, I think this 2001 Basslab L-Bow was the only music gear I bought this year, but even in any other year it would surely have come first as it has one of the finest and most entertaining basses I've ever played.

Ticket job at a fairly local venue for us. Not done this one before so hopefully it’ll be ok. I always find NYE difficult to call as a gig, especially in recent years where I think the tendency to stay in has risen somewhat.

Looks like it's been released and in stock - there are a couple of YT videos landing at the moment also so I'm going to wait for a few more reviews before taking the plunge https://www.thomann.de/gb/two_notes_revolt_bass_preamp.htm

A girl I work with has another job working behind a bar, one of her regulars is a postman and just one of the changes proposed will mean he loses £50 a week. I think it’s more this that the action is really focused on, the pay increase being a part of it of course but the main thing is the change in working practices which will mean reduction in take home pay.

Train to Skaville are playing our own self-arranged self-promoted NYE bash near Devizes. Pretty much sold out already. Should be a great night, really looking forward to it.

I know what you mean about black screws, but get yourself a medium tip black permanent marker and silver screws become black (at least the bits you can see anyway). It sometimes takes a bit of working into the posi head but overall gives a good effect. It's also handy for touching up black screws that are slightly damaged by the screwdriver, I touch up black screws after repairing / modifying all types of gear and it greatly enhances the overall appearance!