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Two gigs with the seven piece swing/trad band. Last Tuesday was a Jazz at the Junction gig at a Legion hall where we have played several times, the place was full and they were right into the music, no dancing though, the place is too small. I was in some sort of weird place mentally(age and/or long Covid fog ?) but as front man I managed to say what I needed to say and played reasonably well if the recording was accurate. I came home frustrated and depressed with the whole night's performance even though the audience liked it. On Sunday we played a charity gig at a large (for our part of the world) church to raise money for roof repairs. Lots of stairs and twisty corridors to navigate for load in and out but great acoustics once the audience of about 300 came in and we played well and I was back in the real world and was happy with my performance. It was a strange set up with the band on several levels with a large immovable altar right in the middle and the band spread out with the Bose PA set up behind us, and since only the bass and keyboard use the PA it was hard to hear the horns on "stage" but it was great for the audience and they loved it. My bass teacher and another DB player were in the audience and that made me a bit nervous but after the concert he was complimentary, I'll find out what he really thinks at my lesson on Friday.

Duffy's bar in Leicester on Saturday night. It was rammed and super sweaty. I'd annoyed the sound engineer yet again! This time I moved the drum monitor before he'd arrived. It turned out this monitor was knackered, and rather than fix it, he'd found just the right angle to balance it on a bar stool and keep it working. It'd been working for months apparently! After the show I politely recommended that if he didn't want to fix it, he should put a "do not move" sign on it. Anyway, I played without a monitor and it sounded fine on stage. Great gig!

Friday night was a bar gig in Burnley, late start (first set start 10:40), late finish, and as you play on the dance floor in a corner, the second the band finishes and the club music comes on (after 1am) you're breaking down kit surrounded by pisht dancers...an hour home, too, was late night. I played a Paddy's Day afternoon/early evening gig in a pub in Manchester town centre once (an, erm, 'authentically organic' place (aka 'murky dive'); there was a bloke selling meat from a shopping bag at half time) where the band was split (drummer and me one side, singist the other) because the place was corridor-shaped with bench seating and the bogs were at the back...very disconcerting to have people just walk past backwards and forwards between us during the set. One older bloke went seven times in the first set, and was eventually rewarded with his own dedication to Should I Stay Or Should I Go...

The singer often reminds me in my audition I said "I'm not an effects guy". The latest change... Marshall Guv'nor overdrive and Boss Ds-1 distortion off, Darkglass Alpha Omicron on and Joyo delay reinstated.

Ask ten people what makes an amp hi-fi and you'll get twelve answers. Besides, the amp is only half the equation. Speakers that have no coloration are rare. There are some that are so colored that pretty much any amp will sound the same through them. I wouldn't worry about how any amp or speaker might be classified and just use what sounds good.

An hour ago courier delivered 2004.Yamaha TRB 5p ii - Bubinga. Sounds superb. Bought from reverb, Australia.

Quick update - After trying to replace the truss rod and breaking the fingerboard, we're back with a new fingerboard and a truss rod with a wheel.

I didn't see this thread until I googled us to find the link for the tickets to our gig haha I'm the bass player in this band (Invisible Airwaves)! Thanks for all the nice comments guys. Lovely to hear. And can confirm, Tamas is a very cool guy Maybe see some of you in June!

2004 Fender American Standard Jazz bass with S1 switch.

Some people seem to be interested, so I'll continue. Though before I do, I think it would make more sense for me to quickly explain my general set-up. My guitars are mostly made at home, at a workbench in my garden (which periodically requires me to duck out of the rain holding an armful of tools). I have the option, however, of periodically taking stuff up to my wife's work so we can do things that require big, expensive tools like table saws, CNCs or routers. My wife is a scenic carpenter who runs a professional set-building shop with just about every tool you could possibly want. She's also a much better woodworker than me, it's handy. Anyway, back to the build. When I first started making guitars I bought a big ol' slab of ash, something like 2.4 m (8 ft) of the stuff, to make bodies with. I liked the way it looked, but it was very, very heavy and, by the time I came to start work on this bass, I'd already used most of it. I decided to use the remaining length of wood, cut into thin strips, to make a multi-piece body from contrasting woods (the other wood being sapele). I was inspired to do this by a picture of a bass made by a now-mostly-forgotten British luthier called Peter Cook, which I came across in Melvyn Hiscock's Make Your Own Electric Guitar years ago. Weirdly, when looking though my old reference images I realized that a bunch of them came from this very forum. So, er, thanks @FlatEric for providing those. If you read this, I thought you might be interested to see my Peter-Cook-Axis-inspired electric mandolin, which I made around the same time. The last section of ash board was cut down on the table saw in my wife's workshop, then I set to squaring it all up and levelling the sides with my trusty flea-market Record No. 7. This is the bass body with all its pieces squared up. It's not been glued in this picture, but I had already drilled the holes laterally through the centreblock for alignment dowels. I cut out the side pieces with a borrowed jigsaw, and did the remaining bits of the centreblock shaping by hand. I drilled those pilot holes for routing before I glued the body up, because my drill stand wouldn't reach when it was all joined together. And here's my hi-tech set up for carving out control cavities. Note the 1980s Bosch drill stand that my wife found at the back of the cupboard at work. I didn't take any pictures of the routing process, but here's the router template for the pickup routs and neck pocket. My wife was able to import my technical drawings to her workshop CNC, and I then brought the body up to the workshop to use the routers there. I should mention at this point that I really, really hate using routers. They scare the shit out of me. And here's the finished product. Pickups and neck pocket routed, as well as a recess for the control cavity cover on the back. The string-through holes and the neck mounting holes were done with the workshop pillar drill. All the shaping and rounding had been done at home with rasps and spokeshaves.

Not really, just some herring loss.

My vow to not buy any more gear is failing quite spectacularly! With the purchase of a couple of Jazz basses called Brian! I don't know much about these at all so any info much appreciated. They appear to be really well put together! Got some info from the internet Model: Brian by Bacchus JB-style Made: Korea, late 1990s (no serial on these) Finish: gloss Body: alder (unverified) Weight: 4.475kg Neck: maple, 15" radius, 34" scale Pickups: Bacchus 8-pole single coils They appear to be very similar in colour with one with a blueish green finish which I suppose is teal. The other is green both look very nice and sound great. They are relatively heavy though, they were apparently imported from Japan to the UK. I only wanted one but they were both excellent so I just got them both,

Rhythm Is Ghana Get You - Gloria Estefan

At Thomann they are sold as "B-Stock" products at a slightly reduced price, depending. And all returned items goes through testing to check that they work as they are supposed to.

I was reading a CuNiFe pickup thread just yesterday, on Gretsch Talk. First post was interesting as the fella pasted an email he'd got from Curtis Novak regarding magnets. "Hi Don, I use threaded rod magnets and the alloy I use is FeCrCo. The thing is an old pal of mine who was an engineer at Gibson, and was pals with Seth said that Fender had contracted with Seth to design a humbucker, that would compete with Gibson's but still sound like Fender's sound. Their whole goal was to have a humbucker, with adjustable pole pieces that still sounded like a Fender pickup with AlNiCo magnets. They choose CuNiFe, NOT b/c it had any mystical sonic properties, but rather b/c it sounded closest to AlNiCo AND could be machined into a screw. In my former life I spent 16 years working at one of our National Laboratories, and was pals and worked with a number world renowned metallurgists, and physicists. They all confirmed that in a sensor such as a guitar pickup, there is NO special sonic characteristic that the alloy CuniFe would have over AlNiCo, or FeCrCo other than their grade strength, and their orientation to the coil. All 3 alloys being equal in strength, shape and orientation to the coil would give the same sonic results. Outside of factual data there is much hype that starts putting this pickup in the same category as the Loch Ness Monster, and Bigfoot designed to create an artificial fervor and demand for it and to attempt justify an astronomical price. In my personal experience working both in high level research science and my many years with pickups, I have seen when people get way too wrapped up in their data, assumptions, goals, desires, and their egos. In the end they are only researching and accepting results that confirm their desires. They tend to lose focus and get way off track of their original goal and with pickups they start listening with their eyes, and stop using their ears. Glad you like them. Curtis" After my experiences with different single coils I'm of much the same mind as Mr Novak 👍

Given you don't break it and keep the box intact Thomann will let you try it out for 30 days (and the 30 days actually counts all the way up till the day you post it), and they'll pay for the shipping back. Full refund of the cost of the pedal, and no questions asked. It would cost you the initial shipping Thomann charges to have it send to you though (or actually I think that pedal costs beyond the minimum amount that gives you free shipping), and you would have the inconvenience of having to pack and post it back.

Great thread! Thank you for the idea @max_overdrive . I'd buy a Joyo Scylla Compressor for about £50. It's relatively cheap and thoroughly effective. The JPTR Jive is around £100 depending on where you buy it. So that's my 'always on' pedals sorted and half the budget gone. Need to be cost conscious now. Behringer UO300 for my octave needs, £25. Demon FX now come to the fore. Angel Blue drive which is based on something called the Timmy V2 and costs £25, Pearl White Autowah £35, Mini Chorus £38. Left with £27 and still no phaser or flanger it's Harley Benton to the rescue, their Classic Flanger is £26. A pedal array I'd be more than happy to gig with.

One of Maruszczyk's latest creations, a Jazzus with Turner multicoils and a Lusithand preamp. Pretty much nails the Wal tone to my ears.

hadnt played my bass for nearly a year. i put various bits of gear up for sale and set everything up as a buyer was coming to try it out , i ended up sitting playing for an hour. i didnt think i had missed it but i had immensely

Ha! This made me chuckle I too was a no effect, pure tone guy when I first hooked up with my current singer. She often reminds me...

Welcome, and I'm stealing that.

Cod Almighty! I've unwittingly unleashed a fish pun thread.

Best to stick to playing scales… 🐠

Hi All It's been a while since I've posted anything here. We ended up moving to Italy in the middle of the first wave of COVID. We've been re-structuring a house and finally, 4 years later, I've got a workshop set up in the basement. Sooo..... I'm making a fully acoustic bass. I've been planning it for what seems like forever. The idea is to make an acoustic bass that is designed to be amplified. It's not designed for acoustic volume, for that the body needs to be much bigger. My thinking though is to make the top as flexible as possible, then amplify the movement of the top with a K&K piezo, stuck on the inside of the top, under the bridge. It's a 'flarchtop'....So the spruce top is pushed into a tight radius (15 foot) by the braces, it's not carved like a normal archtop would be. It will have an archtop style floating bridge and tailpiece. I strung it up for the first time yesterday and the top didn't immediately collapse. Which is a good thing..... I didn't take pictures along the way, never got round to it. It still needs sanding, and heel cap and a few other bits, but the end is definitely in sight. A couple of pics....

(Native) American pie. - Don McLean

Probably depends on the value. Most, I believe, are offered as 'second-hand'; speaking for Amazon, it's usually the first option I look for when buying stuff from them. Of all I've received bought as 'second-hand' have been perfectly serviceable, often with simply a split corner of the packaging. The keyboard I'm typing on, as well as the track-ball I use, were acquired in this way, among many other purchases. I suppose if an item is returned severely damaged in any way, it would be binned, or sent to a 'job lot' centre for treatment if the value justified it. Hope this helps.

Just returned from Stewart's. Had a very interesting and enjoyable morning chatting over a cuppa and talking gear and the old days (he works mainly from home at present). Had a play on his '63 Tele' through one of his current combos. The amp was really excellent. All solid state and sounds just like a 50s/60s valve amp. Instant Ventures guitar sound when clean and breaks up gently and smoothly at higher volume. I would defy anyone to play it sight unseen and not think it was valved. Compact and light and very pokey for its 22 W rating. He explained the idea behind it. He's developed a circuit that replicates the effect of an output transformer (which S/S amps traditionally don't have). It senses speaker impedance and ensures, as does an output transformer, that the signal sent to the speaker takes account of variations in impedance. Speaker impedance varies, sometimes quite dramatically, according to frequency. In general, impedance rises as frequency gets higher, meaning a S/S amp is working harder to deliver the same output as frequency rises and causing it to sound duller and lacking in sparkle. He considers the reason valve amps sound louder than S/S amps of the same output rating is due to the fact that the speaker in a valve amp is always being sent an optimised signal. So maybe the belief about "valve watts" isn't a myth, after all. Made sense to me as a layman and I can confirm that it works extremely well.

Any on-line shop will do the same, not just Thomann; it's part of the distance-selling regulations in the UK. Returns are sometimes at the charge of the Buyer, though, if the unit is not faulty.

I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself - Dusty Springfield

No More Mr. Nice Guy - They Might Be Giants Damn, that's not the actual tittle of that song... Then: No More Mr. Nice Guy - Alice Cooper

A quick phone call to a Mr Shuker in Derbyshire: 'Hi Jon' 'Hi' 'Can you make me a 6lb P-Bass? In black, my normal spec neck, Hipshot hardware and something like the old East P-Retro?' 'Yeah, sure' 'Smashing. I'm going on holiday with a grand I suddenly have spare, I'll ring you when I'm back'

This is exactly what my (slightly modded; just tuners and bridge) 414 is: it's my most-gigged bass, ahead of half a dozen basses that cost several times as much, and it just does the job. If it were a pound lighter (I'm getting very fussy about weight these days) it'd be perfect...I love the sound of a P, and the 414 does that a treat...

it's called bass chat - seems like the right plaice.

I wrap my stuff up pretty quickly, then straight in the car with it. After that, I move on to everything else. I prefer lugging the big boxes outside, ‘cos wrapping cables bores me to death. I have to bite my tongue when others are either slow, or don’t do their fair share.

It’s the talk of the Net! I’m hooked… 🐙

I'm in a four piece covers band and like so many bassists I own and run the PA. Drummer and I arrive first and set up and are always last out at the end. Just like @Dan Dare I'm please don't try and help. The last thing I want is to sort out the mess they make. I've done everything I can to cut down set up and break down times. Mains leads are run first and are 6-way sockets wired on cables just long enough to run three sides of the stage (two 5m for the sides and a 10m across the back) leaving a 6-way in each corner. Any audio cables that need to run to the far side are run after that. The drummer has a mat the exact size of her kit and the cables are run just behind that. I have spares of everything incuding most of the things that band members forget and it all packs into a single storage box. Leads are all wound 'properly' and all have cable ties. I play with other bands and each band has it's own box with counted and checked leads. Our new guitarist had me down as obsessive/OCD but in everything else I'm quite chilled and relaxed but after 50 years of knocking down a stage you just realise having a system and all the right bits in all the right places saves you so much time and hassle and somebody helping by 'saving' you 30secs of lead winding and costing you 5 mins of untangling at the next gig or when you get home isn't a good deal. On the plus side all the band help out with the carrying and lifting I just don't let them pack the van any more than I let my wife pack the dish washer. Maybe I am a little bonkers

Hell? Ohh… - Lionel Richie

I’d look at any instrument that was better quality than the standard of my playing and keep the change. So, one $150 squier affinity later …

BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam covers band tonight in Dalkeith Miners Club. WOW what a venue. 300 tickets sold on our first gig there. Holds 600 apparently altho not sure where they would all sit as it was fairly busy with 300. Club was refurbished 1-2 yrs ago and what a job they've done. Large stage with glass partitions across the front of most of the stage. Full good quality PA and lighting and a really good Sound Engineer who seemed to know his stuff even tho he was very young compared to us. Great reception, dancers up for literally every song. Great feedback at the end from folks in other bands so that was good. 2 different bass players complimented my playing and tone so that was nice too. Several people said we had under sold ourselves at £5 a ticket but that was down to the venue. We just got a fee. Their comment was that some people will think £5 the band is either s**t or not worth going to see. Several bands that were nowhere near as good as us and they were charging more than double what we were. All down to the venue however the Sound guy said that after the next time we play there we should go thru him as he reckons we should be on a minimum 4 figure fee. All very promising. They also want to book us for Hogmanay 2025. Jings i might be dead and buried by then Anyways gear for tonight was my usual Sandberg VM4 into Shure Wireless into Ampeg SVT7 Pro and Mesa SW210/115 cabs. Dave

Have you access to a graphic or para EQ gizmo ? That'll get you much closer to what you want than swapping a pickup. Doing a quick count, I've had quite a few 51 single coils, 3 from Duncan, 3 from Herrick, 3 from Bloodstone, 3 from Martin Harmer, Wilkinson, Roswell, no-name from China, Jess Loueiro and a couple of others. Had them in single, split and stacked 51 footprint. Magnets ranged from Alnico 2 & 5, ceramic, neodymium and alnico5/neodymium mix. Wire counts going from 6.7k ohm to 29.9k ohm. Tested in the same bass, none of them have made earth shattering differences from each other. Some are a wee bit louder, split/stacked are a bit polite, big slugs a wee bit slow on attack (bloody hard to describe.); all very subtle and the character of your bass will remain the same. Before plugging in a soldering iron, play around with pickup height, play around with you amp settings and borrow an EQ pedal 👍

Here's a Seafoam Green Telecaster Bass to throw in the mix