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It has taken me some time - quite some time - but I’ve finally got my hands on one of these. It’s about as close as I’m likely to get to an actual Status T-Bass. This was the bass that first brought me to BassChat as a longtime lurker, before a registered member. I never actually thought I’d get a T-Bass, despite coming very close a couple of years ago, there was one on Fb marketplace, but the seller was very cagey with his answers to my questions, and he just didn’t inspire any buying confidence in me at all, so that one passed. (A decision I’ve regretted for letting the bass go, but I always felt it was the right decision due to bad vibes from the seller.). And here I am today, making this post. I've the bass exactly a week now. Pros : It’s a T-Bass! That headstock (you can’t really want a T-Bass if you don’t like the headstock). The colour (I'm not sure if it's faded white or supposed to be this off-white shade). Cons : It’s a TE, not Status. It’s the 3-piece neck. Just before PoiDH, a super-massive shoutout to @NigeJ and @HeadlessBassist , who both took time out of their lives to go and meet the seller and check/inspect the bass for me. Just prior to Nigel’s viewing it developed an electrical fault - seller said it was due to a battery leakage and provided pic of removed battery box with green residue on it - which is why I needed Richard to go and check it out after the issue was fixed, which he did, tested the signal and all OK. Without these two, I wouldn't have this bass now, so thank you very much gents, your time was very much appreciated. The bass isn't perfect, there's some dings in the finish and a couple of splits in the finish as well, the black marks you see in some of the images in the Flickr album may just buff out, I've got some polish to try and remove those. I've got some Rotosound flats on order as well as some strap lock buttons. I'll revisit this thread once the above have been put on and I've had a go at giving it a cleanup. Enough words, PoiDH below … Plenty more images in this Flickr album. Mark

And here are the the goodies 😃 The ebony has a couple of shiny spots from rubbing on the packaging, and needs a good oiling, but it's great quality. The neck needs it's gluing face with the fingerboard given a super light going over with a jointing plane as it's almost but not quite rough thicknessed/sawn. The bridge is okay for 'setting up' but is a bit thin and weedy for a rockabilly machine - still that's a simple fix. The tail-piece is actually carbon fibre, as is the end pin and assembly - a but modern for what I'm doing, but again, okay to set the bass up with. The machines are 'okay' and may get replaced down the line. The nut wasn't in the kit strangely ... but cot me £8.00 from a specialist double bass supplier. An issue I can see is that the ends pin hole has been reamed out about 1/8th inch oversize - so one job will be to make a liner from mahogany or similar to tighten that up. The neck heel is nearly twice as thick as it needs to be, and is designed for a bass without sloping 'shoulders' like my Stentor - so it has a neck set angle cut in. That can be sawn down to 90 degrees as this bass has the neck set angle baked into the body joint. My lunch hour today was devoted to cutting a new laminated mahogany filler strip (laminated using my new hide glue pot - more about that shortly) and cutting a maple neck joint cheek. This is a slow and careful process with lots of checking along the way. So it was like this ... All that crap was cleaned out and a mahogany filler and maple cheek fabricated Trial fit ... to be glued up tomorrow and the other side prepped - yummy .... So hide glue - why on earth have i never used it before????? It's so easy once you have a heated pot - it just sits there till you need it smelling faintly of doggy chews - thin it with hot water if it starts getting too thick - wop it on and clamp quickly - it's reversable, organic, sets up WAY hard and is proper innit. Warm both bits to be glued with a hair dryer if you want more clamping time ... I will never go back to Titebond I swear. More soon ...

NBD. A short-scale Squier Jaguar, purchased from our own @Ian Somerville at the lovely Trowell Services on the M1. After giving my HB shorty P to a charity I’d been looking for a backup to my Fender Mustang. Plus, I’ve never had a red bass before.

I just flew from Istanbul to Houston to get a birth year Rickenbacker. I tell myself I did it to see family but that’s a lie.

Anecdote : It was a concert for the launch of the first Kiemsa CD. The local hall was packed; the whole evening went off splendidly. Come the final number, Our Eldest, on guitar, had imagined a novel way of playing his solo spot, at the end of the song. At high volume, his Laney amp screeching, he took a pair of wire cutters and proceeded to cut each guitar string in turn, to the stupefaction, and cheers, of all present. End of the last song (or so it had been planned...). The acclamation for an encore became too pressing, so they had to return to the stage, but Our Eldest had to remain silent, with a red face, whilst the others played out the occasion. One had to be there; it was a great evening.

A few changes. Does everything I want it to do (famous last words...)

From basses on the sofa... only two of these are shorties, but they are all compact.

I can go for the shortest. A squire strat from next door neighbour. It took all of 20 seconds

He doesn't half look smug. IIRC, this is the offence of "Appearing so self-satisfied as to outrage the Public Decency".

It's both. The fact that Civil action can be taken for an IP dispute does not prevent there being a criminal offence. Same in all manner of things. Many criminal offences have a linked civil one. "Conversion" is the civil equivalent of "Theft". In a civil matter the result would be an order to pay compensation / loss of income etc. In the criminal one it would be either a fine (payable to the state) or prison. Punching someone in the face is a criminal offence with criminal penalties. It is also causing a Personal Injury that can be sued upon as a civil matter. Pursuing one option does not mean the other cannot be pursued as well. ADDITION: Not to forget that the IP owner - the real composer can take action against GT for IP problems but a purchaser of a song via a streaming service cannot take the same action for IP... because the purchaser doesn't have an interest in the IP. The purchaser has been a victim of deceit = fraud. The real composer has been a victim of theft and an IP issue and has probably been denied income because of it. So - it's a multy-layered thing. But ultimately the evidence against GT suggests that he would fail to successfully defend civil and criminal actions against him...

Quite excited ... a big package arrived from China 8.00 this evening. ... neck, fingerboard, bridge, end spike, tuners, the whole lot to do the bass all in one. What was I expecting? Well £200 spent on the whole shebang - what was advertised as 'ebony fingerboard' and 'nice maple neck'. I was dubious. What did I get ... well amazingly ... a bloody great chunk of what appears to be rather nice ebony. Sure there are some slightly lighter streaks - but really, barely visible. The neck is indeed maple, and even has very faint flaming. Sure it's fairly roughly finished and needs a fair bit of sanding all over, but it's really not bad at all. They have left so much spare wood on the neck heel that it's going to be a fair old job trimming it all down accurately - but better too much than too little I suppose Photos tomorrow.

One trip to Edinburgh later... Okay, I'm still on my way back! Gotta love Competition Burgundy. Thanks Dave!

I've been doing a 50s Rock'n'Roll show and decided I wanted a 50s type p bass for the look. Obviously, the most afforable option is a Harley Benton PB50. I love it, very basic, but does exactly what it says on the can. Only snag is, of course, the headstock. So, having never done more than setting up the neck on a bass, I decided this might be the opportunity to pop my modding cherry. I had an extraordinary bit of luck when I discovered that my landlady had a scroll saw in her basement. So, here's a pic of the bass as is, the saw and my dry run attempts at cutting the headstock shape. Many thanks to @PaulThePlug for tips and the template of the headstock. Any tips before I jump in with the real thing would be much appreciated.

Message Brian here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/earlpilanz

I think Charles is a really clever person and he sums up the issues in the video very well. His proposal at the end proves his empathy for the people who have had their music stolen, with some good exposition for them too afterwards. Congratulations to him for that!

My advice is to get out there in the real world. Open-mics, jam nights, local gigs. Talk to strangers. Offer your services to solo performers. Let people know that you’re looking for a band opportunity. Good luck!

So about 9 months ago I became a double bass player - I bought a second hand Stentor '1950' bass in a very fetching blonde - and was lucky enough to get a spot in an established rockabilly band within four months of starting to play. That's not some prodigy genius, that's hours and hours of practise and 40+ years as a guitarist. All in the garden was rosy ... well, I kept looking at eBay adverts for double basses - not sure why - I mean one 'musical wardrobe of doom' in ones lounge is a big enough statement 😁 Luckily my wife thinks upright basses are lovely bits of furniture as well. These other basses I looked at were all fixer-uppers, as I am fairly handy - owning a guitar pickup company helps ... as does a father and grandfather who were engineers. However they all were a bit pricey considering they were unknown quantities two or three hundred quid is a lot to shell out for something with no bridge, a fallen soundpost and poorly done neck repairs ... so I kept my hand away from the bidding button. Then late one evening I saw it - bass shaped standing by some wheelie bins in the pic - no idea what size 3/4 or whatever and £49 with no bids ... er ...and no scroll and peg box either!!! So for fifty quid it came home with me ... Well, I determined it was old 3/4 (but quite dainty and slim compared to my Stentor) plywood ... Czechoslovakian ... I think, not valuable in the least (especially wrecked) with a painted (and thoroughly manky) fingerboard. A perfect candidate for fixing up. My first thought was to graft on a scroll and pegbox, but the guitar builder in me reckoned it was probably easier - and a more sound job long term - to replace the whole neck. I know - I'm a certifiable loony - but after I copped a look through the unoccupied end pin hole and one look at the two honking great wood screws holding the neck (as well as god knows what glue) I thought 'no ... that there neck has got to come off, and if it's going to come off I'll replace it with a new one - and fit an ebony board - So here are a couple more views before I started . .. ... nope the flame on the neck (like that on the body) is painted on. Normally if this were a guitar I'd have used hot water to soften the glue and with palate knives and wiggling I'd have removed the neck intact. The fly on the ointment here are those two big screws ... so butchery was needed sadly. Plenty of measuring up first ... This is where I planned to get the ball rolling by removing the neck along the dotted line My Japanese Ryoba saw made fast work of the sad bit ... and left this As soon as I saw evidence of PVA bodging adhesive I went for isopropyl alcahol rather than hot water to start freeing up the bits of neck I'd sectioned out (being careful to avoid where I thought the screws were. and there she blows and it's bloody HUGE - the plan had been to wind it backwards into the body ... but it was so loose it just fell in. Lots more dribbled alcohol (sounds like my weekends) and the other one put in an appearance Messy ... but we can fix that. Extraneous holes to fill with properly cut wood plugs (not dowels) and loads of claggy white glue and hide glue to clear up. I measured the heel block depth and cut a plug for the central slot/hole from a part salvaged from the old neck heel ... and will cut two more for the old screw holes. So for those that are interested ... I have ordered a neck and fingerboard from China maple/ebony ... it'll be interesting to check out the quality ... I bought some tuners for my Stentor and they were amazing for the price. I made a dummy neck 'plug' so I can re build the sides of the neck pocket against a 100% square sided former. and this plug will be used in drilling for the neck bolts ... yes this bass will sport a bolt on neck More soon.

bit of a fun afternoon project

No personal attachment or interest, but if I were looking for a passive shortie …. https://bassbros.co.uk/product/atelier-z-baby-z-4j-vintage/

Brian's the man!

Passing off other people’s music as your own is basically theft isn’t it? Selling a guitar which had been given to you for exposure but then not given said exposure isn’t illegal but is highly dubious behaviour.

This.

OK.... the two-day installation of the "Bird Scarer" started yesterday... It is an instrument which has been built by a bespoke builder for me... It won't be fully functional until after we've installed all the electronics etc today. I will post more later, but here's a teaser...

There's a real sense that cancel culture has evolved into capitalise culture

I wonder did Janek pay to licence the Gran Turismo image.

I've used joinmyband successfully. Err and unsuccessfully. But if you take the rough with the smooth mostly a happy experience.

An interesting question. I knew I couldn't afford a 'year of birth' bass. I already had the Squier 40th P as my first 'proper' precision (I won't count the kit), and wanted a more 'authentic' vintage experience. I looked at the Squier CV, then the Fender Vintera. Each step up brought a bit more, as well as ramping the cost. But because a lot of my work was delayed through Covid I had a very good year with some big contracts finishing. I could afford it, so I looked around for a chance to try the AVII. A Strings in Treforest had one in stock and their price was the best I could find in the UK, they are fairly local to me and a great place to go. They let me play with it for ages, it sounded great, and I liked it, but the action was a bit high for me and too much neck relief. Their tech took it away for twenty to thirty minutes and set it up for me. After that, it felt great. Retrospectively, it doesn't sound dramatically different to the Squire 40th; basically both have a great vintage sound. The neck on the Squier with its satin finish is nicer to play. But it is a real experience to play and I do love gigging it. The one thing is the clay dots disappear into the amber varnish and rosewood board under some stage lights, which can be disorienting. My partner has a vinyl cutter and made me loads of tiny 1/16" dots I put over them, and they work brilliantly - I haven't rubbed any off yet either, although they are removable. Sound: One day I set up my home rig tweaked it for a good, natural sound and did a lot of A/B tests, and I was sceptical the AVII would sound particularly distinctive. Actually, it sounded incredible, which I felt validated my first impressions. Finish: it was (and still is) immaculate, lots of lovely case candy. The attention to detail is great. A steel sheet under the pickguard, not foil. Vintage style electrics. Lots of modern makers marks. Mimicing but not faking 60s style e.g. dated 2022 but in the vintage style. Reverse tuners, hootenany button, thumb rest, bridge and pup covers. Feel: The C neck is big, but not baseball-bat chunky. It is not super light, but neither is it very heavy, and it balances well. The very glossy neck is a bit sticky, and I fight the urge to flat it a bit. It's hard to express, but to me it feels special and it inspires me to play my best, but it's not as easy to play as my Flea Jazz, the Performer or the Hohner B2 - which are three of the easiest playing instruments I've ever played. Looks: it looks like a nice instrument, but I think relatively few people would realise it is in the early 60s style; at a distance it's only the style of the sunburst that marks it out as such. The G&G hardshell case was listed at about £300, so knock that off the price (£1,925) and it felt like a steal compared to anything from the custom shop. The cases are now £389(!!!) and the basses are £2,179 and don't include a case... so not such a deal. Long and short, I gig it a lot, but it's not the bass I choose when I want an easy time of it. I hope I'm able to put some honest wear on it while I am still able to gig it.

Well first rehearsal done and it felt like the last 5 years hadn’t happened and that I’d never left, sounded great, really tight, and the JMJ really worked - tho I had to use a thinner pick to coax some top end nastiness. Even my backing vox were to standard, which was the area I thought I might be lacking in. Overall am pretty pleased.

Hell yes

Saturday night was a wedding at a new venue for us in Lincoln. Long old day with travel included. We performed the ceremony, drinks and evening + DJ which is fairly regular package for us. But when we have a few hours travel on these as well they are killer days. Woke at 6am… Left the house at 7.30am and got home at 3.20am. Worked out at around 20hr day (ish). Still, just the one gig this week so not too bad. This can get relatively regular in the Summer so taking it as a nice easy week. All round a really good day. Lovely couple and group of people which were well up for it in the evening and a good sound with no limiter! Good first dance too. ‘Silver’ by The DMA’s which we smashed (if I do say so) Although, we are going through a few weeks of technical frustrations. Struggling quite a bit with something causing an intermittent cut out/ crackle in our IEMs. Thought we’d cracked it but it appeared again for a couple of songs... Sometimes wonder whether we’d be better with corded IEMs but with only 1 aux feed sending to 2 IEMs I don’t know whether this is achievable…? More investigation needed Also struggled with a horrible grounding type issue on my bass in soundcheck. Noise gate and reducing the gain on my pedal seemed to fix it but strange it’s never been an issue before. I’ve gone back to the Zoom B3 after having a few gigs using my new Laney Digbeth pedal. But, I really missed the cab sim within the SVT patch so not sure whether I’ll just stick with the B3 or try and find a way to make the Digbeth work as it does sound great. Anyway, the important bit… Brown Asda boots that I picked up on the way to a gig a few months ago after the guitarist let my Dr Martens fall out of the van on his drive without realising.

Sunday evening gig in a local, with a new guitarist and new drummer. Slimmed down setlist, of which we’d only run through half together on Wednesday afternoon. Vocalist/guitarist and I have gigged together for the last eight years, so fit well together. Drummer and I gigged together for 12 years in the late 80’/90’s, he dep’d with us for one gig in 2022, so I trust him and he’s brilliant. New lead guitarist has some brilliant vocals, especially with the couple of Cult songs he’s brought, gigs with another Band and does his one man show too, so he’s fitted in well. New line up gives us four ( well three and me ) lead vocals and an awful lot of gigging experience. Cant help but think this might be the start of a good thing.

SATURDAY NIGHT! (I know that's not last night) Depping with Manchester Ska Foundation at The Empire in Rochdale. I play with them about once or twice a year, but hadn't for a while so I was looking forward to it. I love playing with these guys as the gigs are always good and they're all cracking musicicans - I really have to raise my game! Early get there (6:45), I had to drive down actual cobbled streets to get to the venue which my crappy Hyundai i10 wasn't happy about! Bit of waiting around as the sound engineers were covering for the usual guy, so there was some confusement about channels, stage boxes, phantom power and such and such... All setup evetually, soundcheck all normal then lots more waiting round as we weren't on until 9:30. (I popped over the road to see the Town Hall, which is "widely recognised as being one of the finest municipal buildings in the country" apparently. It is rather grand.) The place was pretty full when we went on for the first set - a decent mix of people who'd come to see us and random Rochdalians (Rochdalers?) who were in there anyway. We cracked through the first set and sounded great. Highlights were 'My Girl Lollipop' which I absolutely LOVE playing and 'Ghost Town' (one of my favourite songs EVER), especially the trombone solo... Goodness Gracious, that girl can play! Oh, and 'Nite Klub' (Bass Solo!) which I did well on - I got a 👌 from the Sax player after my solo, which I was happy about! 'Hands Off, She's Mine' (The Beat) was a new one for me but I did pretty well (It's pretty straightforward to be fair) I'd done my homework so I was happy with my playing, right up until I completely (and I mean COMPLETELY) buggered up the 'coming back into the slow bit' bit in 'Special Brew'... I wanted the stage to open and swallow me up. I apologised profusely to the band at half time, they laughed and said "You did it better than Al (the usual Bass player) normally does" and blamed the drummer, so no harm done. Quick Lime & Soda and (Strawberry Jam Firerose) vape break and back on for the second set. The place had filled up nicely and the crowd were loving it. Second set highlights were 'House of Fun' (RELENTLESS Bassline! Lots of fun!), 'Too Much Too Young' which is a blast to play, 'Message to Rudy' (there's about four notes in it, so I just went on autopilot and enjoyed myself), 'Our House/Wings of a Dove' Mashup which is pretty complicated (all modesty aside... I'd put a lot of work into that, so I smashed it) and 'One Step Beyond' which always goes down a treat (except I forgot about the 'Swan Lake' keyboard solo in the middle and had to busk it (badly)... cue more laughter from the rest of the band and an amused 'Gotcha!' look from the keys player). We end with 'Night Boat to Cairo' and everyone gets a solo... my solo was... perfunctory at best... (It's over F and Eb minor... can't get my head round it!) but it went down well enough. The band were grateful for me stepping in and I feel lucky to play with them, so everyone was happy. Decent payer, quick packup as we didn't have to take down the PA, twenty minutes back to my dear old Ma's place for a bottle of Henry Weston's Signature Vintage (6.8% ABV). Played the StingRay (I'd taken the P as well, but... couldn't resist the 'Ray) -> Small board (I only used the chorus for the 'Nite Klub' solo) -> 'secret weapons' board (Thumpinator -> VTDI) -> MarkBass 802 -> PA. Shoes were the Black and white leopard print Converse (Peach Pink sparkle don't really go with the whole 'Two Tone' vibe...). An absolutely fantastic night all round. Apart from 'Special Brew'.

What a cracking gig last night. Played with Nine Lives in a wee pub in a wee village (specifcally the Pittendrum Bar in Sandhaven - a small village just along the North Sea coast from Fraserburgh). Funnily enough, we had played in this village a few years back, in their village hall on Hogmanay just before the COVID hit (so 2019, I guess? The "before times"). One of the advantages of playing a small place is that you don't need many folk as long as they're up for a dance or a singalong. There were 20ish folk in but they were a musically omnivorous bunch and seemed to be up for just about anything, which makes our job a bit easier. Anyway, long story short, we had folk up dancing to most of the songs, and a few head bobbers at the bar, so can't really ask for more than that. The pub said that they want to book us again, so that's what you want to hear. Easy load in/out - side door onto the street right next to where we're playing. Really was a fantastic wee gig. Gear was my "cheap night out" basses - Gear4Music bass with Lace Aluma-P then Epiphone Em-bassy with Entwistle PBXN Neodymium, into the usual Markbass modular nonsense. Also because yesterday was May 4th, I geeked out a little. R2-Neep2?

I did a little jam session thing yesterday, second gig in three years and I had no amp so went through the pa and sounded dreadful. There were poets and the usual string of lunatics but watching the tiny crowd watching enjoying themselves was life affirming and I realised that life is not about how I experience things but how WE do so. For that reason, it was a triumph. One lady who was celebrating her 70th birthday yesterday sidled up to me and said she had been volunteering at Rock Festivals for decades and had never heard anyone play bass like I did. She said, '...but I got it. I really did'. Made my little day. 😊

I bought one of the 3D printed kits from Ebay. It just needs some 25mm x 25mm stripwood and eight woodscrews. I carefully cut the stripwood, 4 pieces, to the length I wanted. All good and I used some dark mahogany wood stain I had in the garage. There was a little bit of a wobble so I unscrewed the screws slightly and pressed on two corners to try to straighten it out. CRACK! B*gger. After calming down, I used the remainder of the wood to replace the broken brackets. I also added some feet to give an angle and some small blocks to add strength. Adding the new side pieces adds 50mm to the width, and it is now bigger than the padded bag I keep my pedal board in! Here it is with the wood colour on again:

This is sublime

https://custom-lynx.co.uk/product/tukrj45-cat5e-tukrj45/ ?

These were some of my old Thunderbirds. I still own the Hamer and (to a degree) I wish I'd had been able to hold onto the white one, but hey-ho.

As I've ready posted my (embarrassing) felt puppet picture, and it really is about AI generated content (and not a gratuitous excuse to post 'something what I done', honest...), the band generated blisster pack action figures of ourselves which I used to make a poster for our next gig. It still can't generate a Fender with 4 string, our guitarest isn't that fat, and the drummers legs aren't really that short!

Thos figure are only for artists who have signed away most of their streaming royalties to their record label. Based on my streaming figures, for independent artists who are getting 90-100% of their streaming income, a sale of a single physical copy of a 10-track album on CD at £10 is the same as about 350 people streaming all the tracks.

A rugby club up in the valleys on Sunday early evening. Modest attendance but enthusiastic reception for Bendricks Rock. I'd driven to London at 1:30 am, got four hours of non-sleep from 5-9 then drove back for 1pm. About 20 minutes of fitful nap, eat, shower lots of tea, then picked up by vocalist for 50 minute drive. I was amazed that not only did I not eff-up, I had a good gig. Nearly dropped off in the car back. Now I'm going to sleep early, goodnight.

My blues band played a new festival last night. Great stage, excellent PA and lighting, and very well run in terms of the sound. The guys were really good at their job. However, it was a brand new festival, I would say intended to be a very big event with thousands in attendance. But....there were not a lot of people there, and they are still desperately trying to sell tickets for the rest of the weekend. I think the organisers are going to take massive bath on this one. We were very grateful to those who did come and see us, especially @rwillett and his partner Zoe (credit to Rob for the photo). '73 P bass, GK Legacy 800 (DI'd), TE Elf 2x8. Rob

Annual Otis Jay Blues Band show at the local Forest Arts Centre, New Milton. Sold 100/130 tickets for a three-band bill - all good clean fun and a joining-in audience to boot. Great to have pro sound and lights. Sandberg VM4, GK MB200 through Barefaced Two10, DI’d of course.