Leaderboard

It's moments like these (not the messing up but being able to laugh at the messing up) that make playing in bands so enjoyable for me. It's difficult to describe. I have a photo that sums up why I love playing in a band, and it's not unlike this one above.

Dr Scientist Dusk - Blackout Edition. The text is there, it’s just black, so you can only see it when the light catches it. This is my second Dusk and they are both going on the same board, so I don’t need the details twice This is bumping my Broughton JoshWah off the board and into classifieds. Love this pedal so much. I plan this to be my only pedal purchase of 2025. I’ll let you know how that goes! Ha.

I see Guy has put some big stickers or blobs of Tippex/similar to increase visibility of side dots on his famous Jazz bass Betsy. Not just me then that needs visual aids (as opposed to purely muscle memory) ... so does bass playing royalty!

My latest board. I was running just the Microtubes Infinity and the tuner for ages but treated myself to the LHz Hazard Lamps preamp pedal for some of that lovely Spector Haz Lab oomph in the chain!

A very rare shot of us all smiling. Had a good gig last Friday. Might be the last (for a while) with our dep singer, who has such a similar voice to our normal singer that it's like we dont have a dep. As REM say, that's me in the corner (not on bass).

We end up doing a lot of laughing at our gigs, and usually the audience are laughing with us rather than at us ( I think anyway…). We do have our serious moments too of course, and the best gigs are when the balance of the two are just right. We like to think our audiences leave the gig with a smile on their faces. Thinking about this, looking back to gigs I’ve seen over the last 50 years, the best ones are those which made me smile too - usually those when you can tell the band are really enjoying it. I don’t have much time generally for overly serious stuff, happy upbeat music is what mostly floats my boat. 😄

Would a light mild work as well, or maybe a stout?

Thanks Dave - in the ELO Experience it was intended to appeal to theatre audiences. We tried to strike a balance between doing the songs justice but also being entertaining and not taking ourselves too seriously and we hopefully achieved that. The cellists worked out some routines that seemed to work and the audience loved them! The band is still going strong too - people want entertainment.

It seems we're starting to strain at this. Those with years of expertise and experience, such as Bill, Aged Horse and Stevie, have given good advice above, which should be all we need. To summarise, don't abuse your gear, ensure it matches (within reason - a 1000w amp with a 100w cab is almost bound to end in tears, but smaller discrepancies are fine as long as you are sensible) and that you use it within its specified limits. Accept that drive units, as mechanical devices, are going to wear out/fail on occasion. Even electronics components don't last for ever. C'est la vie.

You're not wrong. It's perfectly safe to use an amp rated at even ten times the speaker rating so long as you employ the volume control. It's perfectly safe to use an amp rated at one tenth the speaker rating as well, even if you crank it into hard clipping, so long as you don't have a tweeter. The myth of underpowering came about decades ago after JBL published a document on how amplifier clipping could damage 'the high frequency components of their loudspeaker systems high frequency devices'. It probably took three re-tellings of the tale, if not less, before 'clipping can damage high frequency components' morphed into 'clipping kills speakers'. Engineers like myself have been countering that notion ever since, but it's like a never ending game of whack a mole. The truth of the matter is succinctly summed up in this quote: There's no such thing as "underpowering" a loudspeaker. The loudspeakers really don't care about the shape of the waveform. A square wave is not by itself a killer of tweeters, woofers, etc. Well over 90% of the power put into a loudspeaker driver turns into heat, whether the waveform is square or not. Overpowering (thermal damage from too much power) and over-excursion (excessive cone travel, typically from low frequency energy) are what damage loudspeakers. Bob Lee Applications Engineer, Tech Services Group QSC Audio Secretary, Audio Engineering Society Rebuttal is welcome from anyone claiming to have Bob Lee's level of expertise.

The whole live concert is pretty amazing. I always sort of got him but never really musically understood him because I don't like fusion so I got a little bored. But his playing on this and the way he outlines the chords and the notes he plays are just magic. You can hear his musical influences with the notes he chooses imo.. the more I listen the more mind bending his playing gets.

So, I did a thing... Then I did another thing... Oh well, sod's law and all that!

ACS Custom moulded earplugs are excellent. I think you also get a small bass chat discount

I thought it was forbidden to smile as a bassist, let alone laugh. I’m told I look like I just heard my Mum died when I am playing but I feel quite the opposite inside. I think I need to work on my bass face!

Very close to a reply that I was going to post, The way to create a 4 ohm load is with two 8 ohm speakers in parallel. I would have gone on to explain that despite looking like a simple machine, the drivers we use are complex. When Beyma published power compression graphs, the loss in power stated at way below rated thermal power. If my memory serves correctly, most LF drivers at least in the Beyma range were approximately 1dB down on power by the time they had been driven to 1/3 of their right thermal power. At rated power, the compression had risen to over 3 dB. The 4 ohms us that many amplifiers cannot supply the extra current needed to achieve the extra power. If you look at an amplifier spec, and it’s 4 ohm power output is not double the 8 ohm power output, then it is likely that the power supply is not able to supply the required current. Taken all these factors into account, There is very little to gain, if any, in going for a 4 ohm driver/cabinet. Two 8 ohm cabs, stacked vertically, with a decent amp is much better.

On Saturday, after one of my more egregious cock-ups I discovered that I'd reacted by sticking my tongue 👅 out for rather too long...

And it still does @Paul S. Though it's got a new bridge now as you can see in these photos... It really does sound incredible too..

Well, if you were coerced into it then you’re totally in the clear

Sorry, this is not true. No, it's impossible to have DC offset on a tube amp, the output transformer prevents this. Sorry, not at all true. Sorry, not true. Woofers don't care about distortion and clipping as long as the distorted/clipped power is within their RMS rating (and the rating is honest) That's fine until the player has an accident (ie. cable pulled partially out of the bass causing a high power transient event) or the player has a lapse in good judgement that typically goes hand in hand with unrealistic expectations.

It was a particularly fun gig Dave - this is me after I messed up ‘Duelling Banjos’ would you believe……

Hi folks, I have put wanted ads up for some of these things but was wondering if there’s anyone who might be willing to loan me any of the following pedals for a few days. I’m more than happy to reciprocate with loans of a few interesting pedals I have or to cover all postage in the case that I have nothing that interests you. I have already had some great experiences doing this from a couple of very kind BC members. I’ve also been loaning out my Artifakt to a list of people for the past few months as a way for them to try one out with having to stump up big sums. Thanks in anticipation. The things I’d like to try are: Aguilar Tonehammer v2 Markbass Vintage Pre Arkham Oracle Noble preamp Audio Kitchen Fake Plastic Trees Chase Bliss/ZVEX Bliss Factory Warm Audio Pedal76 MXR Bass Synth SGFX Beta V Seamoon Funk Machine 3Leaf Audio Octabvre 3.33 Kinotone Sparks Twonotes Opus (Origin Bass Compressor - sorted) (Origin BassRig Super Vintage - sorted) (Shift Line Olympic MKIIIS - sorted) (Jad Freer Capo - sorted) (Sushibox Grand Slampegg - sorted) (Origin DCX Bass - sorted)

First off.... This is for home / light rehearsal use.... I'm not expecting to play the Albert Hall with this thing!.... But I would like it to sound as good as it possibly could, given its limitations... And mine! A while back I was given this Bell & Howell 631 projector speaker cab, complete with its 12" Jenson 'fan-frame' speaker and thought it would make a nice little home bass cab project. So far I have swapped the speaker for a Celestion Pulse 12, added a jack socket and plate, blanked-off the two semi-circular vents to the rear of the cab and added a bit of padding to the inside of the rear door, along with some door seals. I also added some 1960's grill cloth that I had knocking around. (which I might change at a later date). I had to increase the diameter of the apperture in the baffle plate as the Celestion was about 10 or 12mm larger but the baffle retains its felt lining. I also had to remove the extruded aluminimum grill as it rattled like a snare drum. Having removed the original grill, I then opened up the lower portion of the front of the cab to match the apperture in the baffle plate as the original design had the bottom of the speaker behind the fascia. To port or not to port?... That is the question... At the moment it's more or less a sealed cab, but quite a small cab, somewhere around 36.3 litres. It's hard to be exact as the sides on the cab taper inwards as they reach the top. I could possibly fit one or two 2" ports in the the front fascia but 'tuning' them would be another area where I'd need some advice. I will probably 'square-off' the front of the cab's opening (see mock-up photo) as I don't really like the 'smiley face' front it has at the moment. The amp for this cab is a T.C. Electronic BAM200... So nothing too heavy or ambitious. Photos... 1 - How it looked originally (not mine as I forgot to photograph it in its original condition). 2 - As above.... 3 - How it looks at the moment 4 - Inside View 5 - Rear View 6 - Mock-up for 'new look' front. So... Your thoughts, comments and advice would be most welcome.... Many thanks.

A couple of years ago I bought a Hamer Cruisebass; it was a second year run and came without a scratchplate...always wanted a scratchplated one. Had a short dialogue with Tim at Gig.Ink, got a scan if a plate from a chap in the USA and got one cut. Arrived today. Before and after vanity shots below. I am so happy.

Resistance, Impedance and Ohms Law On another thread the old chestnut of amplifier power, valve amp magic etc. I thought it might help if I explained (I used the term explained loosely) what Watts and Ohms are and why Ohms Law matters. My qualifications 40 plus years in Electronics, 7 years study, an HND and had letter after my name but let lapse when fees were too high. I should say that as I try to simplify this, I realise how many other things are involved, so please forgive me for errors or mistakes. I will correct them as soon Ohms are the unit of measurement of resistance and impedance. The difference is that most electrical components, especially loudspeakers, exhibit resistance (DC) and Impedance (AC) and often capacitance. However, we will ignore capacitance here. Ohm's Law states V=I x R Or the voltage V = the current I x the resistance R (Z). If you have ever tried to measure a loudspeaker driver with a multimeter on the resistance range, it will read below the rated impedance. A Fane 12-500 has an Re of 5.6 ohms and a nominal impedance Z of 8 ohms. The Impedance is frequency dependant, and 8 ohms is usually the lowest load that the driver will present to the amplifier. If there is a passive crossover in the cabinet, this becomes a part of the impedance too.

Just received my latest purchased CHOWNY SWB-1 SHORT SCALE from Stuart Paterson aka (songofthewind) and can’t praise him enough for the communication from start to end with countless updates and information. It’s restored my confidence in the genuine people who are still out there. I’ve just tuned it and had a quick tickle on the strings. Boy this little beauty packs a lot of punch 🤜 If you’ve never heard of them I recommend you check it out. Obviously it won’t be to everyone’s taste but for a short scale bass and I’ve limited finger flexibility it feels like it’s going to be perfect for me and no brainier for someone starting to play and the more experienced.

I’ve tried the 61 at Bass Gallery. It’s as good as vintage Jazz as you will find. It came from the same very long-term ownership as the 70 fretless Jazz and the Jazz-neck Precision. I have no doubt it is original apart from the bridge, the original one was retained and will be supplied with the bass. I’m not sure why BG don’t put a little more information in the description, but the turnover of stock suggests they manage ok as they are. I have bought 3 basses from them, ex-Pino 79 fretless stingray, oly 62 Jazz and the aforementioned 70 fretless. They get some absolutely stellar stock and they are solid to deal with.

Oddly enough when i saw the ELO band the thing i remember the most was the 2 female cellists just having a great time. Aprt from the smiling all night they seemed to work off each other with little dance sequences that looked spur of the moment to me but brilliant to watch. The full band did come across as having a fun night. Dave

I think this is a good practical rule of thumb for bass players. Speaker power handling can be a complicated subject but there are good reasons for not driving your loudspeakers to their max.

leave him some feedback ?

A word of warning about the bolt-neck on these. On mine, and on at least one other version (a 'Northern' branded Kasuga for the Canadian market, with maple-leaf inlays!) the neck tenon's glued into the pocket as well as screwed. If necessary it may be possible to remove it but will take a lot of care. This is further complicated by the detail that the Maxon neck pickup is an accurate copy of the toasters used in 60s/70s Ricks, in that it's actually a guitar pickup with 6 poles. In order to mitigate weakening the neck joint, the tenon is drilled for each individual pole, making it potentially fragile if you're attempting to dismantle it. This is that Northern Kasuga - look at the little maple leaves! Anyhoo, mine has actually had a repair at the neck joint at some point, either the result of a 'normal' accident or a bodged neck-removal attempt. Fortunately it's rock-solid and the bass is ridiculously playable, action as low as you want without fret buzz. Mine's pretty convincing-sounding - I've never had a 'real' one to compare it to but it's not hard to coax a late '70s Geddy Lee growl out of it. Worth mentioning that the circuitry's accurate to the original 70s basses, and they have the .0047 treble cap fitted. I bypassed mine which gave it a bit more depth & guts.

Stain won't usually seal. It will, however, soak into the wood, which you may not want. If the neck is a mixture of varnished/unvarnished, you will not get an even tint and it could look terrible. There will almost certainly be some of the varnish left on the neck, which will protect the wood. When using sandpaper on a curved surface, it helps to back it with a piece of sponge, so you don't sand a flat into the surface. Friction should keep the sponge in place on the sandpaper. If it doesn't a small piece of double sided tape will.

Perfect balance basses? The people who buy them definitely need mental health treatment. Probably electric shock therapy and 20 years in a straight jacket.

Just a quick note... a nominal 8 ohm speaker can have different definitions but under IEC-268-5, will have an average impedance of 8 ohms with a minimum impedance of no less than 20% below the nominal value within the defined pass band. In reality, many manufacturers play fast and loose (or highly creative) with this definition, something that amp designers must anticipate (and that regulatory safety test labs will test for).

Unsolicited gifts are fine. Borrowing stuff is probably fine - if you're borrowing it, it's not really yours, no money changed hands, you'll give it back at some point. I don't think there's anything to see here (except for you being too lazy to palm mute )

I think leads could be considered consumables/sundries. I think I'd have to be in a real bad mood to get ar$ey about a cable. I reckon you're OK.

Took a pic of my ACGs before the sunburst Graft 5 was boxed up ready for sending to its new owner.

I currently have them on one bass. I first used them on an AVRI Precision because the dots were so indistinct. I now have them on a ‘70 Precision as the small white dots don’t stand out like the black dots of later years. I use these https://www.rosetteguitarproducts.com/new-page-2 and they made a huge difference on dark stages. Rob

Our first gig this year at The Lookout on the Pier in Scarborough harbour. The weather had improved so apart from some patchy fog the journey was fine. Usual full house of diners with plenty of requests, some of which I’d not played for ages. These included ‘Waterloo’, ‘Moonlight in Vermont’, ‘Losing you’, ‘Starman’ and ‘Ever fallen in love’. ( We couldn’t manage ’Peaches’ but swapped it for ‘Golden Brown’ !!). We are there again at the end of the month and it’s always a pleasure to do.

I've always thought Jaco's work with Joni was some of his very best. His bass parts aren't just lyrical, they're pictorial; he's illustrating Joni's words with his bass playing. It's beautiful to hear, and only Jaco could do that. I bought this album in the early 1980s and quite literally wore it out. It was the first time I had really heard Jaco and it was a revelation. I've listened to it so much over the years that I can't really listen to it anymore, but it's a truly magnificent record that has great memories for me.

As has tended to be the case from Bass Gallery in recent years, there's VERY little detail provided about such an expensive instrument. This is also clearly a 1961 JB at the earliest so the three-knob would be valid having come in late 61. It always annoys me when people include multiple dates, unless it's a bitsa then the year of the bass is the date of the newest part on it.

It’s cool seeing the J Type and RetroB next to each other - both nice modern twists on the classic J but with their own personalities.

J'arrive! Eventually... And you'd be 100% correct! And you'd be 100% incorrect! Well - maybe 75%. Several brands you mention did source at least some of their instruments from Matsumoku - but the OP's bass isn't one of them. That one's a Kasuga EB-750, made by Kasuga Gakki in 1975-ish, at their own factory in Nagoya city. Of the other brands, Ibanez was made exclusively by Fujigen Gakki, Custom (a local brand from the Netherlands) sold through-neck Fakers made by Matsumoku, and *possibly* Yamaki Gakki. I've not seen a Pearl-branded Faker but the sub-brand Vorg By Pearl sourced their bolt-neck Rick copies from Matsumoku. Aria & Aria Pro II all came from Mats, and the Aspen in the pic has Grover copy tuners, which only appear on Matsumoku Fakers. Just to bang on a bit more, aside from the factories mentioned, both Chushin Gakki & Kiso Suzuki made their own versions, and it looks highly probable that the 70s manufacturers' co-op Matsumoto Gakki Seizou Kumiai may have had both through & bolt-neck examples. On top of that, there are a slew of MIJ Rick copies that don't come from any of the aforementioned sources (there are always detail differences) so must have come from Moridaira, Kawai Gakki, Terada Gakki, Iida Gakki, Daina and so on and so on. And that's without taking into account 70s & 80s Fakers from Korea, Italy, Brazil, West Germany, Czechoslovakia, and even right here in the U of K!