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Righty ho, time I kept all you lovely people up to date. First op was 20th Jan. This was anterior lumbar interbody fusion and basically bangs a titanium cage between L5 and S1 vertebrae, spine and pelvis partial fusion. Done from the front. Can be dangerous but went well. Next up, spine reshaping and fusion from S1 to T10. That's a long way. During this op, I managed to effectively bleed out, most being recycled and put back in. Nine hours straight, in one position, so I have a collection of pressure injuries too, although fairly trivial. Couple of days in ICU, then to normal ward. Progressing well, then oopsie, leg turned into a blimp. DVT at top of leg/groin area. Further investigations show there are also one in each lung. Much imbibing of anticoagulants! This is sometimes addressed with surgery also, but they've decided against that. I'm pleased, I look like a badly patched rag doll as it is. What counts though, is that my spine has been restored to something like a normal shape - I can stand upright again! Weak as a kitten, and will be for months. Will effectively have to learn to walk again also, as those muscles are very weak after 3 years not doing a lot. Home on Friday, loaded down with dressings, anticoagulants, and pain killers. Even this is a trial, as home is 125 miles from the hospital. The tunnel end is approaching!

Well it’s here! And I can’t turn back! Sounding amazing in front of an amp & on its own. I honestly think I won’t use an amp again live

Yeah, another one of those threads, but with a big thumbs up to GAK. I ordered an EHX Bass Mono Synth pedal the other day from GAK. I'm not particularly in a hurry. It was meant to be delivered between the 7th-9th. Ok. On the 7th I got an email to let me know it'll be delivered on the 8th, by DPD. No delivery slot yet. I decided to work from home and just be there when it arrives, as my girlfriend was not going to be around during the day yesterday. On the 8th I get the delivery slot, around lunchtime: 19:56-20:56. No problem. It's 20:30 (time is important) and I am downstairs talking to my girlfriend and thinking about preparing some food. Since we're exactly in the middle of the delivery slot I decide to wait. I go back upstairs to finish something on the computer. I notice a text from DPD: "sorry you weren't in, we'll deliver your parcel tomorrow at your local DPD shop" Yeah right. It was timestamped at 20:26. It's a very quiet cul de sac and my house is at the very end. I can see and hear from upstairs any car/van approaching, especially at night. Double specially if I'm expecing someone. No, they didn't attempt delivery. We all know that. Interestingy DPD allows you to set actions if you're not in: safe place, deliver to neighbours... My default is to leave with one of my neighbours. We all know each other and it's a good bunch, I got lucky. No, of course they didn't try my neighbours. They just lied. Now, I was not in a hurry. I don't care if they deliver it a day later, three days later. It doesn't matter to me in this case. But it matters to me when they lie. It also matters to me that the DPD shop they chose is around 4 miles away. Can I go to it? I could. Not convenient at all, 'though. And they lied. That really annoys me So I write to GAK last night explaining the situation and I ask them to please contact DPD and get my parcel redelivered at my home address. It'll probably delay matters but what can you do: DPD to get parcel back, back to depot, another day out for delivery... I'm ready to not seeing the pedal until sometime next week at this point. Then this morning: Text from DPD: your parcel is ready to be picked up at some Argos 4 miles away from my home. And hurry up, it'll only be there until the 15th. I also see a flurry of emails from GAK. GAK has already sent me a replacement, due to be delivered tomorrow. I'm not to be bothered with the previous parcel which will make its way eventually back to GAK somehow. I'm not 100% sure I'll get it tomorrow, because... experience. But GAK have been great, which means that in the future when I buy online, I'm going to remember this and will be more likely to buy from them than I was before this. Mistakes will be made, problems will arise, it's unavoidable. What matters most to me is their attitude when dealing with issues... and GAK got top marks.

The 40th anniversary basses are fantastic instruments in their own right, irrespective of the name on the headstock. I don't believe I've played a better quality instrument at the price point.

How about: There once was a trumpet player named Joe With a fish in his horn that smelled so He'd blow with such zeal That the smell was unreal Making folks run and hide down below

Well I'm back in the Sandberg Gang and I'm loving it. I've recently had a cull of all basses over 9 1/2 lbs due to back/hip issues and was looking for something that would do lots of different sounds and was light enough for me to gig with comfortably. After spotting this at Bass Direct I went up to try it and took it home. It's a California II VT in an aged Gold finish with ebony board and blocks. It sounds amazing with the Delanos and the switching between active and passive has really no discernible change in overall volume. The slightly smaller newer body which I at first wasn't sure about is super comfortable and the overall weight is 8lbs 2oz. I'm really very pleased with it.

I use mine with a power amp mostly but sometimes I stick it in the fx return of the handbox WB 100 for a cheeky tube power amp section

Pick up the pieces - AWB

Pending a new family photo, here are the latest additions. A 2022 Fender Player Plus (white) and a 2021 Fender Player (black). The black one has an aftermarket pickguard and the hi mass bridge.

I'd suggest the matching Ashdown extension cab.

You'll get the best result with another cab loaded with the exact same driver. Otherwise you're creating a chain with a weak link. Comb filtering has nothing to do with the driver sizes. It happens in the highs when drivers are placed side by side. Doing so also halves the horizontal dispersion in the mids compared to a single driver, or multiple drivers vertically stacked.

There once was a trumpeteer named Rick, Whose friends loved taking the mick, In his horn they hid a gar, And from the boot of his car, The stench made him feel really sick

Visions of you. Jah Wobble

Worst limerick ever.

Clicked the TI Jazz flats and thought bleedin' 'ell that's cheap. Nearly bought some in my excitement before I realised it was a single string. 😄

The best depth neck is the one that fits your hands. I've been down the narrow and slim route and it used to give me hand cramps (big hands, long fingers) I'm happiest playing a full fat P neck - the chunkier the better too!

Lady Marmalade - LaBelle

Well... Initially it had two black Nordstrand Jazz style pickups (forgot which model) in the right spot for a Jazz bass. But I didn't love those pickups. So I tried the cream covered DiMarzio Area J, which I have on my Jazz and really like. Then I got tired of teh Jazz configuration, and moved the neck pickup to its current location. I have the black pickguard now and... a pair of black covered Model Js! I just need to find the time to change them over. I got a loom already wired with a Tonestyler knock-off type of control and series/parallel switch, which I hope will work well on this bass with the Model Js. The Area J are great Jazz-like pickups, they have that single coil character even if they're humbuckers, but I want soemthing fatter with thicker lower mids.

Video Kilt The Radio Star - Buggles

Yeah this happened to some frets on my Shuker and Jon simply filed them down - no problems since.

At last. How long has it taken you? ...Im not saying anything.

I can give a view on most of your queries, but I'm a bit confused here, @Beedster First of all, which model of Enfield do you have? And do you mean you want to fit the John East preamp with the same spec as fitted in the J-retro products into the existing rear chamber? Or are you planning to use a top-loaded J-retro with its plate and all? I'm assuming you are looking at the former option - which is fairly straightforward. The latter is more difficult and more extreme, with no sonic advantage. John East is very responsive to enquiries and will be able to tell you if that particular pre-amp spec is available as a separate unit to fit in the existing chamber. He will also be able to tell you how big it is from which you can work out if you can fit it, and a second battery*, into the chamber, removing some of the excess wood to make room but leaving of the magnets in place so that your back hatch is unaffected. Ref your original query, for what it's worth these are my thoughts: - *While I'm pretty sure that one battery would run both the two sets of SIMs LED's and a pre-amp, personally I would generally fit two batteries. This is because a flat LED battery in the middle of a number in a gig means the LED lights go out...but a flat pre-amp battery means the bass goes quiet! Or worse - before it goes quiet, they usually start squelching and squeaking as the pre-amp utters it's dying cries. Been there, done that! That said, if as with the Lionheart, you fit a push pull to the volume to switch between passive and active EQ, then at least you will be able to keep on playing - but it will still be a problem because it will probably still squeak and squelch until you realise what's happening and, in any case, switching to passive your amp volume will not be set right. - the SIMS Super Quads are totally passive. The circuit boards on the toggle switches simply add mini resistors and the like into the circuit for certain of the combinations to balance the resistance and avoid the usual volume jumps and drops when changing between the three permutations of the four coils. It's VERY clever stuff, but (or because) it is totally passive. - the preamp simply takes the passive signal and boosts or modifies it through the powered EQ. So yes, @Owen is quite right that you could simply buy an EQ pedal to achieve the same thing unless you want to adjust on-the-fly.

So I've just purchased a VS4 Electra to be friends with my VM4 California. Should be here in a few days. How do people find the electras compare to the California range?

Had a play with some different levels of drive and grit with the LPF on/off: Only had about 5-10 mins fiddling but really love the sounds on this thing, it does super warm vintage cleans all the way to glassy distortion. I find lots of products claim that level of versatility but I think this actually gives it. In the sample it goes from bypassed, A side, B > A side, Longsword + B > A side and finally Longsword boosted + B > A side. Each with LPF off and LPF on. Not remotely scientific but a useful reference. There are some extra details on the soundcloud. I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this thing.

The Enfield basses I tried most definitely had the sorts of controls that you would expect on an active bass. After all what is the point of offering a pickup with the Stingray coil configuration and position if you don't also have something that replicates the sound of the Stringray pre-amp. My impression was that the the instrument had been designed to replicate the sounds of the four most common basses (P, J in both passive and active varieties, and the original Stingray) as well as all the additional possibilities given the pickups and their associated electronics. You bass looks much simpler. Since the original electronics for the Enfield basses were designed in conjunction with John East, it's probably worth getting in touch with him to get answers you need.

@SamPlaysBass, I'm going to rain on your parade with a few practicalities. I play in a couple of bands that do slightly smaller gigs than you appear to - mostly 100-500 capacity venues with the occasional 500+ venue. In the days when I still had a conventional bass rig I can honestly say that my choice of cab(s) made a absolutely no contribution to the bass guitar sound the audience heard. They also made very little contribution to what I heard on stage, as the moment I stepped away from being directly in front the cabs I could hear more bass guitar from the foldback than I could from my rig. Some gigs we played I was being asked to turn the rig down to such an extent so as to not affect the FoH sound, that could hardly hear anything from it even when I stood directly in front of it with the higher speakers right next to my ears! The bass always goes through the PA and IIRC I've had my rig mic'd up on less than a handful of occasions, and since there was also I DI feed from the amp and the driver that was mic'd was chosen seemingly at random rather than spending the time listening to each in turn to decide which was the best sounding, I have no way of knowing exactly what contribution this mic was making to the FoH sound. That's before you deal with the fact that one driver close mic'd in a 6x10 or 8x10 cab does not sound the same as the whole cab from several feet away. Sure the conventional rig looked great and everyone in the bands pulls their weight when it comes to loading in and out, but I could no longer justify to myself taking up all that space in the van and on stage with equipment that made no contribution to what the audience heard and very little contribution to what myself and the rest of the band heard on stage. I'm lucky in that the genres of music I play these days having a conventional backline is not an absolute requirement from an image PoV. I also play a lot of gigs supporting fairly well-known bands from the 80s and 90s and there seems to be a fairly even split between those that still use the same conventional amps and cabs as they did "back in the day" and those that have ditched the backline entirely (occasionally the guitarist may be using some tiny valve combo). I certainly don't miss having to lug big heavy bass amps and cabs about. These days the heaviest items in the load are the drummer's hardware box for one band, and the synth player's over-engineered K&M keyboard stand in the other! And even if I was still using a conventional rig, I certainly wouldn't want to be dealing with the hassle of carnets etc. for using it outside of the UK. I'd be looking at hiring something on the European mainland for that part of the tour. So if it makes you happy, go ahead and agonise over which cab(s) to get, especially if the van space, stage space and the load in and out are no concern. But don't kid yourself that it is making any contribution to the bass guitar sound the audience hears at most of your gigs or even what the rest of your band can hear on stage. Is it really worth the effort?

Fingers crossed for a boring recovery from this point then. Do the physio, even when you think you can't, it's not fun but it's absolutely essential.

All the best with the recovery @Telebass, start of a new road perhaps 👍

Going by the videos YouTube are continually proffering me, middle-aged men are grateful for an acceptable opportunity for admiring hot / young women, when the only cost required is pretending to take their fluent competence for something extraordinary.

If you bought with a credit card, it’s time to phone them and make a claim.

Heart of Grass ～ Brondie

I wouldn't, since my 112 goes as loud as a '69 SVT 810 would. 😉 It's a form factor that we really haven't needed for some thirty years now, thanks to both driver technology and PA. It remains the staple backline rental cab, since you won't find anyone who can rightly say that it's inadequate.

I’ve been taking music lessons (bass centric) for about 18 months now, and I’m loving it. I’m 63 and wish I’d done this much earlier in life tbh. I primarily wanted to demystify the language of music so that I could at least understand what some of the YouTubers like Rick Beato, David Bennett and Doug Helvering were explaining in their breakdowns of familiar songs. Here I am now, with a modest understanding of the inner workings of it. You might find the subject of ‘voice leading’ interesting. It’s more appropriate for piano because of the physical layout of a keyboard, as opposed to a guitar/bass neck, but I found this video kind of eye opening. (It’s not really 100% about vocals) Don’t get me wrong, hardcore theory is still mostly over my head. …I dunno your level of theory understanding, but for me, watching breakdowns of songs has become a passion. To the point where I barely turn on the telly, and just subscribe to these for my nightly entertainment now. My point is, even after a lifetime of playing by ear, and being a self taught bassist, I‘m getting so much more pleasure from music now I understand the basics of the language. You might start a journey of discovery, like me, by just subscribing to one or more of the guys mentioned above. Kudos to @TKenrick, because it was his post that resonated with me enough to want to share my experiences!

All of those look crap to me. Why not just leave it in the cavity, where you haven't missed it all this time?

Copper is a good enough conductor of heat that you can solder a bridge across a join withiut damaging the wood/plastic underneath. David

Having spent the day playing the new P, I'm delighted with it, and I'm also delighted to find that there's just no overlap in character between it and my BB — they've both got clear personalities and voices of their own. Now, please can I stop throwing my money around? 😖