Leaderboard

My 735a arrived yesterday. First impressions are really favourable. There are a lot of useable sounds and the preamp seems great, useable and subtle, which suits someone that generally leans towards passive basses. The blend is great between pickups and a very slight bias toward the P pickup gives me what I’m after. The neck pocket isn’t as tight as my BBP35, or quite as well finished. Nor is the fretboard as nice of a slab of wood. But, that is fault finding and entirely expected. The pickups and bridge are superb and the matte black finish is very well done; in actual fact it is probably better than my Sandberg was. I forgot how flat the fingerboards were on them, but I don’t mind that and it was very easy to set up. It looks “sexy”, according to the other half. Feels great and is going to suit any gig. Not much to complain about, really.

Experiment time as I'm sat here looking at my '22 734a and '85 1100s. The 1100s is the earlier one with the old style pickups with bezels so I'm assuming classed as old school tubby. They are both very similar to the eye bar a few slight changes. I'll list the changes on the 734 compared to the 1100. The upper horn curves neckwards more, presumably for strap security or possibly balance. The second change is the neck heel as they have the six bolt mitre fixing and a curved lower edge for better upper fret access. Neither of these noticeably change the physical feel of the bass really. The change that makes it feel smaller is mainly on the upper side . The upper bout is a few mil narrower and the waist is around five mil narrower. But the actual transition from bout to waist is different. The 734 bout continues higher up the body making it feel less pronounced as it doesn't curve back in to the waist as drastically, even though it actually curves in further to the 734's narrower waist. This changes the line between the two lowest points of the waist to more parallel. In reality the actual width between the 734's narrowest points may be be the same as the 1100 but the 1100's being diagonal increase the measurement. Taking lines straight up parallel to the neck from the narrowest points and measuring would give a true reading. Here's the difference in angle across the waist. The lower horn is also closer to the neck which makes the body appear wider but probably won't change the feel of playing it unless seated. The body thickness is the same on both and everything else seems pretty much identical. So the difference in feel seems mainly down to the 1100 not actually being much broader, albeit it is a few mil, but more to the actual shape of the lower bout cutting back in much sharper to a lower down the body waist. It makes the lower body seem more squat and wide than the gentler curves and taller waist on the 734 giving a more slender appearance. But all that said and done, a few mil here and there can make all the difference in feel and we all like what we like. I'm now curious as to the comparison of the 424/1024/2024 series as my 424 (and previous 1024) both feel more like a traditional BB than the 734. Is it actually measurements, or mind games?

I was in the process of clearing out all my spares and extras, after making a board I'm happy with... but there were too many pedals I couldn't part with, so I stuck a new spare/compact/practise board together.... I'll move the genzler r-eq on to the smaller board once I get a lpf pedal for the big one. I might swap the tuners around too. The Boss is a little quicker, even though it takes up more space....

*The Smiths have entered the chat*

Hoping to use this rig at the weekend. It's the Harry D special named after its only previous owner. Harry bought it as an 1115 combo in 1985 and at some point in the nineties chopped the head off to make it a head and cab. The pre amp is an AH150 GP11 MK V and the amp section is an AH150 4 x mosfet air cooled power section. The cab has its original 38 year old Fane Sovereign 15-250w cast frame driver and even now sounds phenomonal. I recently posted this cab on a thread and tried using port tubes to change the cab tuning but in real world testing it sounded its best with the orignal TE tuning. The whole shee-bang was recovered and refurbished in a fetching alligator tolex from the eighties I'd bought years ago from a disco supplies web shop. It's fairly unique in that its a combo chopped into a cab and head but it sounds awesome and has that TE sound anyone whos ever used old school TE stuff will recognize. 38 years and still going strong. I had to consider if bass-chatters will be posting 38 years and still going strong about their boutique class D heads in years to come? Hmm I would suspect not!🙃

This old girl has just had a set up, fret dress and polish, hand carved bone nut and a new Jack and pot clean. I can’t wait to get her back. I keep looking at some of the budget basses that look really good for the money, Harley Bentons etc, but I decided to spend the money on getting my first bass match fit. I’ve not gigged her regularly since 2013. I’ve got her back in time for the weekend and a gig in a tight spot where a lyte bass will be welcome.

Tonight Friday 10th March 11 pm Quest How Do They Do It The making of the Fender Stratocaster

So my NBD was yesterday, when the Elwood 4a medium scale i bought off eBay arrived, just in time for a band practice. I am very pleased with it. It is in as new condition, having been completed on 31 August last year and it doesn’t look as though it has had a lot of use. I love the translucent matte finish. The grain shows through nicely. Build quality is excellent and all the screw heads are intact. This one has a 38mm nut, 12” radius and a slim neck all the way up, which suits me perfectly. It looks as though the C neck profile gets a bit flatter towards the top of the neck, which means that it only gets a few mm deeper. It has the standard Maruszczyk jazz pickups and a two band preamp. The build sheet doesn’t say the manufacturer of the preamp. It is fitted with 45-105 flats, which look as though they might be D’Addario but the build sheet gives a Maru reference no, so maybe they just have the same ball ends and blue silk windings. I am not sure whether they are ideal for me. I think I am going to try some D’Addario round wound nickels for a bit more growl. I’m a bit nervous about that because the standard Maru bridge looks a bit complicated to adjust and there is not much scope for fore and aft movement in the base plate. It weighs in at around 3.9 kilos (approx 8lbs 9oz), which is a bit more than I was hoping for, without being grossly heavy. There is a little neck dive on a strap but quite a lot when seated with it on your knee. At some stage I might consider lightweight tuners but I don’t want to have unsightly screw holes at the back of the immaculate headstock. Here is the obligatory pic. The lighting is a bit warm, which is making it look more cream than it is. The bass alongside is short scale.

A bit like mine!!

Showing my bundle of joy lately…: yep, I’m having it relic’d soon! Looks lovely as is but main to be my main gigging bass. Just advancing the unavoidable lol

Considering he's still defrauding folk and his earlier activity keeping bands deposits from nonexistent venue bookings plus his conviction how can he just be getting away with it??? I will be speaking with a mate who is former police officer and asking how to complain to made the loudest noise on this so something gets done.

hahaha long as you’re paying the suitcase allowances, getting ridiculous these days aye! Friday it’ll be there, may sneak in my power supply to give it a play since I have a bass there I could plug it into 😁

We should all have had them delivered to that address, I’ve got a spare suitcase you could have borrowed. 😁

Aaaand to make things more interesting, they’re gonna deliver it to my Spain address since I’ll be there from next weekend for a week - saves me all customs taxes etc, win win!!!

My latest PBass

He was on the right track 7 years ago. Who knows where he night be now? 😂

Something that came my way recently as a service and repair was a '71 Marshall Superlead 100w from a local contact who had bought it purely on spec without testing it. This thread has drifted somewhat off the orignal 'DSL" theme as various Marhsalls that are not 'DSL's' have crept in so I thought it worthy of a post. This particular amp hadn't been fired up in earnest for more than twenty years and needed little maintenance to get it working to a giggable standard. The thing that struck me most was the highly useable bass channel on the amp. My USA p-bass plugged straight in with no effects or anything to alter the sound was phenominal sounding. Transported me back to many a gig in the early eighties where all that you heard was a p-bass plugged into a Marhsall super lead or superbass with one of those curly coiled guitar leads that were all the rage at the time. Good times and a sound that is sadly missed these days. it was a wrench giving this back to its owner but i couldn't afford to buy it from him. Pre 72 Marshalls are fetching ludicrous amounts of money these days. This one had late nineties JJ pre-amp valves and the power amp section had mid nineties winged C Svetlana's in the power amp section. All biased perfectly and sounded awesome. Orignal mains and output transformers and old school tag board.

Oh yes! I think I may even have commented on your dual-channel Moose! That looked amazing! Have you got any demos you’d be willing to share? Why did you go for what you went for and are there other pedals/brands you’d recommend? I’ve only tried the Nomad octave fuzz but I really like it and I’ve been considering trying the Sledge Hammer or something similar. The Sledge Hammer appeals as some of the early architecture seems to have been based off a collaboration with Nick from Dunwich. I like Nick’s circuits, and bought Nightowl, Doesitdoom and Magic Pedals pedals because of his involvement in the design. The Nomad is earmarked as my next IG post. You’re the second person this week to recommend the Lusithand Alma to me and I’ve only seen positive things. The Wetter Bass Channel did a feature on it, I think. His reviews are great, as are Hondo Felder’s. Other companies I’ve got pedals from recently that are a bit more off the beaten track but worth checking out are Kink, NRG, Mask Audio and EAE (popular on here I think). Good comment on Warwick. I still love them though!

Guiltyyyyy

Haven’t been on here in a while as I’ve been busy trying to build up my business which is going quite well and getting good feedback from my builds Heres my latest build is it a P or Jazz bass I don’t really know to be honest?? The body is made from old floor joists and the neck is a scratch built Oak with Oak fretboard from an old chest of drawers I’m using a Hipshot A style bridge and some modern style jazz pickups……👍🏻

Spotted this scratty looking thing https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/161239970068617/?ref=facebook_story_share Twenty squid like

Paul has already admirably covered everything nicely. All I would add from my own experience is that the critical measurement (for a standard long-scale bass) is that the breakpoint of the G string saddle should be 34” from the front edge of the nut. It’s not likely that you’ll need to adjust the G saddle much if you get that measurement right so maybe just have the saddle a few mil short of the furthest forward position which leaves plenty of adjustment backwards for the E,A,D strings. In my case the pre-drilled hole for the ground wire was further forward than I would have liked so it was a fine balance between getting the saddle in the right place (34”) whilst allowing the bridge plate to cover the ground hole. A combination of of correct scale length, with the bridge properly centred at 90 degrees to the centre line should get you there. My body didn’t have pre-drilled bridge holes either so it was a case of measuring many times before committing to drilling the holes.

Youd be amazed at how linked the legs are to back issues. Any stretching I do really helps.

i shall try it when I'm better. I realise we need our core strength as we get older and will be working on it

You'll be more than welcome. Bring any gear you want (or bring none, it's your choice) and remember to not have a big breakfast

I'm going to play devils advocate here and argue for the guys who run things. I think the first example of the band you left is open and closed. The only exception would be if they made clear up front that you were employed as a session player in which case rehearsals would have to be paid by negotiation but if everything is upfront and open then that's pretty much OK by me, I've only ever done fair shares though. The open mic is different though and I've had experience of this. I ran an open mic night/jam session with a mate and frankly it's an organisational nightmare. You set up the PA on your own and take it down on your own, you need more and different stuff because people turn up without amp or with gear they won't share. some weeks you have too many players and people are grumpy because they only get three songs other times you don't get enough people and you have to spend the day before ringing around begging favours, you run the PA and FOH and you'll be amazed how often you say 'you're on next for the whole band to decide they need the loo/a drink/a smoke or that they've lost the drummer etc. On top of that if no-one turns up or you are quiet you have to be prepared to play all evening if necessary. I know the landlord/lady so offered to do it for free as they were just starting out, they offered expenses which I thought would be petrol money but turned out to be £150. That was a pain in the butt. I started out with £50ea for me and my partner in crime and £50 for expenses which included extra leads and a guitar amp. Then for a few weeks I had a settled house band and split the money 4 ways. then guitaris and drummer decided it was an optional extra and I had regulars who were more reliable than them so that seemed unfair. In the end it was such a pain that I took the £150 and put it behind the bar so anyone who played could get a drink. I can honestly say that the organisation was 90% of the work, if we'd run for longer then we would have built up a community of decent musicians and it would have been easier but I'd still be setting up and paying for the PA and back line. I don't think any pub could afford to pay more than £150 for an open mic night round here and frankly I don't want to have to decide who gets paid what and certainly not on the basis of deciding who is the better musician. An open mic night/jam session is meant to be fun and no-one has to be there. It was fun to be fair but bloody hard graft to get there. As to the band; I've always been part of an even split. However we've had some illnesses and have started using deps. We're paying them 25% of the cut (we are a 4-piece)but are getting prepared to pay a flat fee if this builds up. i've also got a mate who is a decent singer, he's depped for Jools Holland and other name bands. We've tried to set up bands locally but had problems with the musicians we've recruited. We are now talking about going out with just deps, people who are competent enough to just sit in with a set with little or no rehearsal. We will have to pay them a fee and for a while take the financial hit with the hope that when the better gigs come in we'll recoup enough to make it financially viable. I don't think anything is unreasonable so long as everyone knows.

An interesting collaboration between Sly&Robbie and Howie B. The whole album deserves!

If Status ever opened up their shop again, this is what i would order -

And I’m the 3rd @admiralchew 😁 diamond BCP 2.0 for me fellas. Huge running at 18v (36v internal). If you’re interested, speak to Nuno, he’s running an offer and could let go of the units with my casing (being replaced on colour/print) for a bit cheaper yet - but I didn’t say this 😉

Those new ones seem to solve the two biggest issues with the Bronco. Lack of bridge adjustment and tin foil tuners. Interesting.

I will need to check but for a BBOT style bridge, i think the measure is 35" from fretboard side of nut to saddle side of bridge string retainer.... (EDIT: Bridge Mounting Hole Centers) Get some elastic to check string run and neck / bridge alignment... my Jazz bitsa needed the neck pocket adjusting.

That makes sense. Same way warwick took hold in the 90s. I noticed moose electronics is following you. Have you tried any of his stuff? He built me a custom dual channel distortion recently and it is pretty much the greatest pedal ever. I csnt say enough good things about it. Also, checking out your page, i highly recommend the lusithand alma compressor. That guy is doing really cool stuff with preamps but this compressor is the business.

Here’s my latest precision build…….👍🏻

Heading over to Indonesia for this laid back tune.