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Pedal car 🤦 My excellent B-Tron III is in the loop of the Dual Phase, so effectively after phaser one and before phaser two. I can achieve the same effect with a single, much smaller pedal (my Pigtronix envelope phaser) but where's the fun in that?

Just took delivery yesterday. A new, 2024, MTD 534-17. New strings and a setup. It's F'n amazing!!

I've been looking to get a 5 for a wee while then I saw a local band a few weeks ago and the bassist was playing one of these. It looked and sounded great and in fact I thought it was something a bit exotic. After a bit of googling I realised it was a cort and a very reasonable price for what you get. Got it today. First impressions is it sounds great. The string spacing feels close so will take a bit to get used to but don't think it will take long as it feels pretty comfortable. Love the look of it though. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea and it definitely wouldn't have been my cup of tea even 10 years ago, but amazing how tastes change!

I had 30 minutes to kill in London a couple weeks ago and really enjoyed visiting Wunjo Guitars on Denmark street. Nice staff and a lot of stuff to look at, interesting pedals, some beautiful basses.

Shows you why you need scratchplates - almost everything not covered by it has been worn away

So, last night I combined my Behringer Octave divider with the B Tron and produced the most wonderful squelchy synth sound. Sat perfectly in the band mix. Two wonderful pedals for the price of a cup of coffee. Win!

The last time I went to a musical instrument store with the intention of trying some things out and also to make a purchase there and then if I found something I liked it was a disaster. I was in the market for a controller keyboard to use with my DAW, had done my research and seen that my local PMT stocked several of the models I was interested in. When I got to the shop the keyboards and high-tech section was physically closed off with a notice telling me to ask for a member of staff to assist. I did this and was told that someone would be with me shortly. While I waited I had a look around at the various guitars and basses on display, which seemed much reduced from when I had been there previously. After more than 10 minutes had passed and with no-one showing the slightest inclination to serve me, I left. In the end I bought the cheapest of my choices from Amazon safe in the knowledge that if it didn't do what I wanted I'd able to send it back and try something else. I've been back once since this episode when I was in the area and had 15 minutes to kill and it looked even more run down than before, although the keyboards section was open this time. I couldn't even find enough things to keep me interested for 15 minutes and left shortly after entering. TBH the needs of the people who post on here regularly have become far too specialised for the typical musical instrument store to service and we should recognise this and accept that we are not their customers any more.

Gibson massively hurt their sales with their minimum stock requirements and not allowing people to sell epiphone without minimum Gibson stockn while Fender/Squier made hay.

My strategy? Buy nothing, sell nothing, wait and see. I suspect that whatever you do for the next year, you'll end up later wondering if you'd have been better off doing the opposite. When in doubt, do nowt.

LOL, nope, you're screwed. If I don't get a bye for a bass which has been living rent free in my head for 12 years, you certainly don't get a pass for a paltry 4 years.

Here’s the staining of that beautiful flamed maple top, Nick wanted the same burst as he had on “Greenie” his Kratos bass. We’ve now sent the body off to T Dog customs to be finished in a high gloss IMG_3051.mov

How do you get 4 hours for lunch? 😉

Very true. How many folk have gone to a music store to try out something particular, only to then buy it elsewhere because it was cheaper?

Take aways from last nights rehearsal: 1. I really like playing Princess of The Streets, it's, I think, my current favourite song to play. 2. I'm an idiot with no ability to say no. I've ended up having to sing No More Heroes and Peaches. I can't hold a tune, I have no technique and end up really hoarse when I try to sing, but it's a new challenge either way These are they BTW https://www.youtube.com/@MrPardoned, I'm not on any of the videos, I've only been with them since the beginning of Feb

What's a nice vintage Fender without a nice tort pickguard? 🙂

Very nice. I had one of the Cort SCMS range and it was a great bass. I put US Bartolini pickups and preamp in it and that took it to another level.

Ah yes, verticalscope. Using terms like 'reach out' 🤢 I've been approached by them (reached out to? reached around?) a few times and they didn't seem like a remotely safe pair of hands.

I run a UK-based guitar/bass blog, and one of the brands we work with has given us some free gear to give away. Figured some of you may want to enter, as it is free, no spam or mailing list is required, etc. Dan's Guitar Store contacted Guitar Bomb and has kindly donated an excellent prize for a free-to-enter draw. The winner will receive a set of their new Precision Engineered Instrument Cables; see picture below. The giveaway is open to all UK residents and is free to enter. It is live now and ends at midnight on 30 April 2025. To enter, just leave a comment on the Guitar Bomb competition page stating why you should win (you can also comment on the Facebook and Instagram posts if you want a few extra chances to win)

That's a lot of interesting suggestions. The Sandberg California is quite appealing. The precision and stingray pickups are an appealing combo

Tried out my new cab at rehearsal this week, SVT-CL and SVT212AV

Frankly if it wasn’t being rammed down our throats by every media source we’d probably not even notice Jack

The bridge in the manual isn't the same as mine, that's why I'm asking!

Reading this makes me remember how lucky I am in Glasgow just now. On my lunch I can go to Guitar Guitar, Merchant City Music and Jimmy Egypt. All stocking slightly different things but have a decent selection. Just wish I had more money/need to support them.

There are still a good few stores in and around Cardiff, but gradually fading away 😞 A-strings in Treforest is excellent. Big selection, great service. How many shops will take a bass you are trying out and do a setup on it while you wait with a cup of tea? (Yes, I did buy it!)

Another Update - the fretboard binding is back on, routing for the rod and carbon rods will happen soon. Irony / synchronicity: Robin and I have both have colds / flu at the same time 🤣

Crikey, I return to this thread to find the forum has changed to pickguardchat.co.uk

Hell Toupee - Boz Scaggs

I've got a great idea for a headstock logo too! Quick, where's my sharpie...

apart from my new toy, a Kramer 450b. I think it is made from wood effect stone!

Finally got to put the dream team together at rehearsal last night. Sacred Poos, this rig is insanely loud. Had to keep it around 2 so as not to blow the drum kit over... Havent even had a chance to buy the fancy speakon cables for the woofer/tweeter bit yet but keen to see how much of a difference it could make 🤔🤔

I hope the UK distributors now see that the little shops should have fender and Gibson as well as their other stuff… instead of chasing “mega bucks” chains. anyhow - Thomann…think that juggernaut will carry on a bit longer.

No, you did not prompt this (I don't think having it on a wishlist counts), it is an unsolicited gift, you weren't involved in any way, so I think you're good. Nice family, lovely gift, enjoy!

Well done mods for picking up this stuff , have always found this forum is full of the best folks and we certainly don't want to be infected with these scammers - Well Done !

It’s 1.5mm for my 2020 TM5. The bridge is pretty straightforward, I found. My only tip is when adjusting intonation, detune the string just enough so there’s some resistance as you push the saddle. This makes it easier to make small adjustments.

OK, but apart from that…

There is so much to untangle here Firstly dont change your speakers. It will completely change the sound of the cab, reduceit's value while it will cost a fair bit to buy the new drive units. It would be far cheaper to change your cabs entirely. That's without the re-engineering of the cab you would need to match it to the new drivers. Secondly don't believe the advertising. There aren't many 10" speakers that can handle more than 200W at all frequencies and there are usually frequencies in the sub 100Hz range where power handling may be reduced to a few 10's of watts. This leads to the old rule of thumb about cabs handling twice the amp power. That dates back to the 60's and early 70's when speaker coils were wound on paper and stuck down with very ordinary adhesives. The coils heat up like an old fashioned light bulb and the paper literally caught fire. I saw a lot of smoke in 1970 coming out of cabs. In those days rating a cab by thermal limits made sense. Times change and modern speakers are wound on fireproof materials and it's pretty hard to physically set them alight any more giving speakers a thermal rating makes no sense but it is the standard and nobody wants to see their 200W speaker de-rated to 50W If you want to use an amp rated above the thermal rating of the speakers then you need to manage the frequencies below 100Hz. That means using a high pass filter (HPF) and shaping rather than just boosing your bass response. Every 3db of bass boost increases the power to your speaker by doubling the power. If you turn the boost up by 12db (usually the maximum) that's 16 times the power at the very lowest frequencies wher all the damage is done. You talk about it not being loud enough, is that for you or the audience. You may be blasting out the audience and almost forcing the guitarists to turn up but still not hearing yourself

Last night was a run through the song list to sort a setlist for the upcoming Beer & Cider festival gig in May. Rehearsing in the comfort of a holiday cottage for £20 and evening, with kitchen, working toilet and heating! Got the setlist sorted, ran through the 'dustier' songs and had an availability update for everyone with the diary. The Martin shortscale acoustic bass was playing up with feedback for the first time last night - been onto G4M website and got a feedback buster coming for the weekend.....🤞

The difference between tens and twelves is slight. Just having the combo up on top of the extension will make the high end more obvious. For that matter putting it on a stand would.

As with all families it's seldom you find two siblings exactly alike never mind cousins. Basswood is a softer lighter Tilia, average Janka 410 and 26lbs ft3. European Lime has average Janka of 700 and is 33lbs ft3. Guitar companies aren't stupid, they know that 99.9% of the general public see the word 'lime' and think of the citrus fruit and unless folk are familiar with Ancient Germanic warfare they won't have a clue about 'Linden'; it was used for shields.