Leaderboard

Well I've gone and done it again, another ACG! It's no secret I'm a huge fan of @skelf's work, and I'm happy to call him a friend, so I guess it's no surprise that when I fancied another bass, it would of course be an ACG. I haven't had a 4 string for a while, and I've never had a super fancy one, so here we go! This is a Salace SC E Type 4 string. It's actually a downsized version of the original design, by about 10% I think. The scale is 31.5", which has become my go to scale length these days, every bass I own is the same. It has a Tasmanian Burl Blackwood top, with a Wenge accent on a White Limba body. Set in, asymmetrical Wenge neck, with an Ebony Fingerboard, super slim 36mm nut width and 24 frets. SB single coil pickup upfront, and a BZ1 hybrid humbucker at the bridge, with a 4-way rotary switch for front ceramic coil, both coils in series, both in parallel and finally the rear alnico coil. East Uni-pre with active/passive switching. Hipshot a-type bridge, 18mm spacing and Gotoh Resolite Tuners. I know single cut basses are a bit marmite for some, and single cut 4 strings are quote a rare beast, but I'm absolutely over the moon with it. It has such a massive range of available sounds, it's incredibly comfortable to play too. As usual, working with @skelf was a dream, amazing communication throughout and the bass arrived well within the estimated 12 month build time. Here's a cheeky unboxing video >> And finally, a few more pics... Cheers, Eude

I have a pair of very narrow speaker cabs. I assumed that a particular head would fit them when they are stacked vertically. However there are a few millimetres overhanging on either side. This, of course, renders the set up entirely unusable. Sensing the opportunity to buy more gear, I am in the market for a bass head no wider than 10 inches. I am aware so far of the Elf, Gnome, Bam, and Harley Benton Block. Can you recommend any others? Ideally with precise measurements. Ta.

Yeah, but you're not likely to get 'opportunistically stolen'....

I collected this compact but weighty beast from Bristol today - a last bastion of the 'oldskool' Trace Elliot dating from Feb '99. I'll not fly into a drawn out essay here but history suggests this particular era of TE wasn't known for the same level of quality as their heyday but this example has stood the test of time. Everything works and it makes all the noises it's supposed to. Initial findings suggest the tonality is a little different than the SMX models and the additional features are very interesting so I'll do a review at some point. Did I need yet another black and green box with Trace Elliot written on it? Of course not, but I convinced myself 'something more compact' would no doubt 'come in useful' which if I'm being honest is at least half true. Anyways, I'm very pleased with my new toy as it sounds truly fantastic. ❤️

Many bassists of Magma, the French fusion band, have been using the cello tuning. Jannick TOP (from 1973 to 1974 and in 1976) started using this tuning in the 70's, because he was a classical cello player and because of the power it was delivering (through a full tube SVT 300 with the mandatory 8x10 cab...). He is using this gauges: C = 0.135, G = 0.095, D = 0.065 and A = 0.045. Philippe BUSSONNET (from 1996 to 2019) is using some slightly lighter gauges: C = 0.130, G = 0.090, D = 0.060 and A = 0.040. Worth listening to Magma and calling @Dad3353... 😉

Cheap wireless is a compromise on sound quality, and if you start running high numbers of channels you'll get in to issues managing coordination of frequencies between each unit. If wireless was the right solution for tidy stages and quick setups, professional touring shows would be using it for all of the connections - and they absolutely don't. If the cables around your drum kit are messy, whoever is cabling it up might just need to take more care, or you might just need some different length cables to have less mess. As far as keeping it tidy goes, it's always best to start your cable runs from the stagebox end, run a neat route that's not under people's feet, and coil any slack at the bottom of the mic stand, so if you do need to move the mic, it's easy to do so, and you don't get a tangled nest of excess cable back at the stagebox or mixer where everything meets. If the drum kit is setup in the same layout every day, I'll drop the stagebox for drums to the downstage left edge of the drum kit (snare side, near the front corner of the drum rug). I'll use short (2 or 3 metre) XLR for everything close enough, and 5 metre for the couple of things that are a bit further to reach (floor toms, the far overhead). If you get appropriately lengthed cables, run them neatly, then label both ends of each cable with what it's for, you can put them tidily in place so they all run together, then use wraps of PVC tape every six inches or so to make a loom up and they'll all stay attached together as one piece like that for the duration of the tour, and be coiled away as one at the end of each night. I'll do the same for anywhere else on stage where there are multiple cables always running to the same place. This way, you just have one big coil of cable to pull out for the kit, and you just unfurl it neatly from the stage box across the kit and everything is more or less in place. Goes in and out quicker, and you don't spend ages searching for individual cables or wondering what's plugged in where.

I made a Nordy-esque mute a year or two back. The sponge was from some packing material which I glued to an offcut of wood trim. I added a couple of little magnets so I can put it on my mic stand when it's not in use.

Also, the Embassy is usually significantly cheaper than the Thunderbird, the geometry is "better" (in that the tuners are not in the next time zone), and the Embassy I had was super light - great if you like that sort of thing/have back issues.

As I've always said, any gig where I was worried about the safety of my instruments, I would be more worried about my own personal safety, and wouldn't be playing it in the first place.

Taddaaaaaa

Just finished the neck conversion on my lacewood U S. Masters bass. Nice to have 24 frets on a shortie. The neck was an unfinished 70 quid jobbie from ebay, I think the board is pao ferro though it was sold as rosewood, but I'm happy as the original neck has a pao ferro board. Here's a picture next to the Mustang for comparison. I only had to move the bridge back by 15mm for intonation. Eventually I'll be defretting it, but having just fettled the frets I think I'll play as is for a bit after all that effort! Finished neck and fretboard in tru-oil, just 3 coats for a minimal satin sheen.

Over the decades, the stuff I bought has, maybe, changed in commercial value, but it doesn't interest me to even look it up, as I won't be selling any of it, anyway. Good when I bought 'em, and still good all this time later. I'd not hesitate to change a worn-out pot, or have a p/u re-wound; the 'collector' value (if any...) is of no interest to me. I'd rather have my stuff working at its best.

As it says, use the code ANNIVERSARY25 to get it for £35.62 with free delivery. Think these are usually around £55-£60 but that code is 25% off their already discounted price: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/315276816222

Fifths rather than fourths, surely? Are you aiming at the same tuning as a cello or an octave down? For the same tuning, you'd start with a D string (0.060" or so) as the C string, G string (0.040") as itself, then what would normally be a C string on a 6 string bass (0.030") as the D string and something like a 0.020" as the A string. If you have a look at https://www.daddario.com/globalassets/pdfs/accessories/tension_chart_13934.pdf you'll see what would be needed to get similar tensions across the four strings.

just added a Thumpinator, decided to go 3@1 > thumpinator > cali76 > jive > warped vinyl > bassrig

I have received the pedal, and not only does it work flawlessly, it also sounds no short of amazing, both as cleanish preamp and as overdrive! I had high expectations, but got to say they have been exceeded, I am blown away with how awesome this pedal sounds. Edit!!!: I probably ought to add, that while this pedal is an astonishing sounding overdrive it is unfortunately quite noisy when engaged. However I just swapped the 2 stock EHX 12AY7EH tubes with 2 EHX 12AX7EH tubes, and beside the pedal obviously not being capable of quite as low gain overdrive settings but on the other hand also being capable of higher gain overdrive/distortion than before, it is actually also a whole lot quieter (as in much less noisy) dialed in to deliver about the same amount of gain (9 o'clock Vs. before maxed gain knob) as before the tube swap (relative high gain overdrive (but not distortion), and not any more noisy than your average drive pedal), but also the drive it delivers is considerably tighter sounding, which I prefer. So unless you need just breaking up/light tube breakup sounds I can warmly recommend swapping the 2 stock EHX 12AY7EH tubes with higher gain EHX 12AX7EH tubes (or whichever brand 12AX7 tubes you prefer). In any case I can confirm that tube swap seems to make a substantial difference to this pedal. EHX ought to re-release all these big 2 x tube pedals, not only do they all sound amazing, they are also amazing value for the money (or well, judging from the 4 I've owned myself (Black Finger (still own), The Wiggler (even owned 2 of these at some point, but was stupid enough to sell both), LPB 2ube (which I very much regret being stupid enough to sell, awesome stereo/2 channel tube preamp, being able to bridge the channels and use it as a tube overdrive too), and now the English Muff'n), and from the demos I've heard to the others).

Mrs.H and I are currently at HRC Dominican Republic and there is a dismal selection of basses on offer here. The first one I saw was in the main concourse and is probably one of a thousand that Gene Simmons has played @cetera. The second was on display in the HRC shop and isn’t a celeb bass - just a bit bizarre. I’m still not sure what’s going on here.

My Ibanez AGB200-BKF

What's that you say? Oh, go on then!

Thought I'd throw a couple of quick thoughts down re the new desk I got (CQ12T). This thing is so small, light and easy to use out of the box that even old hands like me can manage... when you get used to navigation. Nothing unusual in that but I do still find myself toggling through screens trying to remember where the send fader is for something or which screen is the one that allows adjustment all of all of a certain setting in one place. The various PEQs (parametric graph type) are handy and easy to use and I quickly found myself converting the quick/simple channel set ups to the advanced mode, which I didn't think I would but it is quite intuitive... when I can remember which bloody screen. The negative... there has to be one! The one thing that I thought was initially clever was the auto-fader feature... but it isn't! Essentially the desk sets the input gain for you, based upon the input applied by instrument or individual voice and once initially set it will tweak the gain down if the input starts to exceed that which was initially set (guitarist anyone); fine and dandy and this works 'in isolation'! First full band rehearsal using the desk, I went through each of the 3 vocals, bass and acoustic guitar (no drums or electric guitar through the desk at this point), all set independently and sounding good (no peaking etc and the levels looked about where I'd expect them to be if I was using a fader meter). Band kicks into the first song and 8 bars in we are all looking at each other wondering where the hell the vocals and bass just went? Yep, the desk had turned us down and it will not reinstate levels if it pulls them back. I get that with everything playing the mics may well have received extra gain/input but we weren't pointing mics at the speakers or anything but I'm puzzled as to why it pulled back the bass in the desk! The bass was effectively DI straight from a preamp pedal. We tried this several times and each time it did the same thing, so I had to manually reset them and disable that feature. No big deal but a pointless exercise/feature if it won't work on a basic level. I'll report back with new thoughts as and when but has anyone else got one of these desks and wants to chip in?

Mrs.HKH and I are staying at the Hard Rock Hotel in Tenerife at the moment and as a regular visitor to Hard Rock establishments, I’m always drawn towards the basses on display. I thought it might be a nice idea to share the basses in cafes/hotels worldwide and what might be known about them. I’ll start with this one which is the first instrument I saw whilst checking in today which is in the main lobby at the HRH Tenerife.

Angel Interceptor - Ash

I've come to the conclusion that just not a pedal board freak so all effect pedals have gone and I've simplified everything to a small board. New pedal is the most excellent Caveman BP1 Compact.

I've owned some old and some valuable instruments, but their vintage, rarity or value have never stopped me from taking them to whatever gigs I've found myself playing. For about 5 years I was regularly taking in the region of £15k worth of instruments and equipment to punk and psychobilly gigs. I suppose I have become desensitised to worrying about the value of instruments from having been in synth bands in the 80s when in real terms the value of the equipment I used to gig was considerably more whilst my disposable income was a lot less.

Ha ha, I have no intention of helping with your GAS. Now I just need to speak to Alan about commission

Have you had some work done Jack 🤣

Just an update on the Harley Benton. Spent a bit of time on it yesterday, I have some studio stuff upcoming and give my recent bout of sickness (see elsewhere), I've not played much. Used it for about an hour, fairly loud, plugging in various devices, started to get some farty overtones/weird distortion; wondered whether it might be the cabs (nope)...it just doesn't seem to like a hot input. Went back to the Darkglass and it was fine. I realise the AO900 is undoubtedly going to be more robust, but in conclusion, I guess it's fine for short-term playing, but not for longer sessions.

We're similar. About 2m x 1m, with metal rings in each corner. We bring a lot of bits of string ( reasonably thick and decent quality, I think it's old tent guy ropes ). Never failed to find something to hang it from, usually try and loop the string over something and tie it lower down for a quicker removal.

As told at length in another PA thread, difficulties in getting to grips with our new Bose setup caused my band to split. Not wanting to retell an old story, what were the problems experienced? From my PoV as the sax player in one short set I was never able to get decent foldback from either the Bose or the old PA to hear what the audience was hearing, nor was there ever any pre-gig time to let me set up my Sennheiser IEMs ('not worth it for three numbers' they said, maybe right). I use a Nux radio mic for the sax but feedback issues prevented me from going FoH to hear the mix, so believe me trying to hear what you're playing while competing with mic-ed drums, singers and amplified instruments onstage with a wind instrument is busted blood-vessel, out-of-tune and bad intonation territory. While on my main bass duties, being wireless too (Nux again) was great, allowing me to go out-front to hear the mix during soundchecks. However, although when using the Bose system everything went through the PA, foldback during the actual gig was really difficult to get right because the FB system was just cobbled together from surplus gear and there was never enough of it to give me any at all, so I found myself using my Ag700+Darkglass 1000w cab as my on-stage monitor - ridiculous! So what's the remedy? Pay serious attention to getting the FoH AND foldback gear, volumes and mixes right, and if possible go IEM for everyone - we never did because of a lack of inclination, equipment, time and skills available. Sounds simple, and it can be, but using practice sessions with unrepresentative gear in an equally unrepresentative hall without a sound guy available just won't cut it!

Word on the street is that V4 update is coming although Boss accidentally announced it too early!

I think Suzie Quatro had a reoccurring role on Happy Days. Daryl

I thought porridge was fictional. I remember reading about it as a kid. I think it was referenced in The Three Little Bears.lol Daryl

My mistake 35/40 years ago was getting the best instruments I could. Then watching them rocket in value and become too valuable to take outside the door. Painted myself into a corner I didn't see coming.

Yes , but actually it's the City of West Bend WI. Washington County 20 minutes north of Milwaukee. Also home of Happy Days and The Fonz. Daryl

You need something that is (capable of being) freestanding, easily erected by one person in less than three minutes, and which will fit in the tiny gap between the drummer's arse and the back wall. It needs to be lightweight and - as Mike says - tall enough to be easily seen over the drummer's afro, but not so tall that it's unusable in venues with low ceilings or medieval beams or both. Oh, and it needs to be cheap enough that the lead guitarist doesn't throw his toys out of the pram when asked to cough up his share. @Silvia Bluejay has bought all the pop-up banners used by our three bands so she's the real expert on this, but she's just hopping on a plane so she'll be out of action for most of today. To answer the actual question, our banners tend to be 6' tall by either 24" or 28" wide, and we've been very happy with that size. Anything significantly larger would impact on one or more of the points I made above.

It was in some primitive form of measurement 6'x4' (should have paid in groats) and as we play pubs, it's just about right. The somewhat strange appearance in the photo is because we set it up in front of the telly that was showing football and it's not blackout-strength material. It does demonstrate that it is sufficiently large to cover a big telly though. The stand is made of black solvent weld overflow pipe (21.5mm) - all the couplings are glued to one of the pipes they're attached to and the top and bottom crosspieces are in two pieces. I also put diagonal braces on the feet so it didn't lean backwards or forwards, and the legs below the crosspieces can have 25cm extension pieces put in where we have the headroom (like here). It's a bit low when we don't have the headroom (or when I mislaid one of the extensions):

I've just updated my pedalboard with the addition of the Strymon Lex........ sounding good.

Swapped out the SGT DI for the Capo, so I could try routing the HX Stomp, some effects going to the Pre and others Post. Got a chance to use my Lounsberry Mo Bass Pedal, which is an awesome overdrive and doesn’t get the love IMHO! Sounding great so far!

I've a ubass like that, it is lovely to play and sounds great ... I must give it some more attention. and I know of folks who have defretted Mikro 4s or 5s. Sam x

From Louisville, Kentucky... They also had a Timothy B Schmidt Carvin but I didn't get a photo sadly