Leaderboard

No, I plan on taking a full-length mirror on stage with me and then standing just off-stage. 😎

The story actually evolves around what comes with age. Don't ask how it happened, I don't know it just did. I didn't realize it when I left home for the show. I had put my underwear on backwards. I knew something didn't feel right by the time I arrived at the gig. I was tired and a little confused . I just said " screw it" entered the bathroom and took all my clothes off and put my underwear on correctly . Lol I guess that's rock & roll. Daryl

So Pete is in Hobgoblin Music in Cambridge and has stumbled across an all-original Maya which - from a distance - is the spitting image of Macca's later bass. You couldn't make it up. And the shop want silly money for it. As in seriously silly money in the right way ... it's like stumbing back into the 1990s. What did I say? I said BUY! BUY!! BUY!!! Bridge pickup cover is still in place and doesn't bother me at all. I can play the bass perfectly happily with that in place. Someone has clearly tried to differentiate between the V/T for neck and bridge. Somewhere along the line, they've mixed up the knobs so that neck volume and tone are the wrong way round. There are no grub screws and the knobs don't just pull off so I'm not sure how to swop them around. Original trc is utterly horrible ... but it's authentic. This is a very nice piece of wood. No boxwood or ply was used here. And the tuners are quality items.

In truth, it didn't start with a Spanish name. I recently joined a band that does an awful lot of Beatles stuff. It's a weird thing, but I grew up listening almost exclusively to The Beatles (essentially until I was about 15, which was 1971), they are and will always be my favourite band and the most important band in my musical life, yet I've played a ridiculously small number of their songs in all the years I've been gigging. So this band could be very important to me. I already have a 1964 Hofner 500/1 Violin bass (yes yes, I know it should be a 1963, but have you seen the prices?) so what I needed was a Rick. Do I go for an early version of Macca's bass (1965 Fireglo) or a later version (natural refin)? That's what sparked the 'Wanted' post for a decent Rickenfaker, and that produced a very nice bass from @Thor which - from a distance - is the spitting image of Macca's early bass. The hand-drawn trc in sharpie is a thing of wonder, the rather more professional fake jobbie has to go and will be replaced by a Shaftesbury trc. Bridge pickup cover has been replaced by the perspex bevel preferred by most Rick players. Reasonable amount of wear to the body, and it's the real thing rather than a pathetic 'relic' job. Tuners are much cleaner than you'd expect - usually these are covered with rust spots. Only major flaw is the nasty crack where the wing is glued to the neck-through. It's been stable the whole time that @Thor has owned it, and it doesn't worry me. Even if it gets worse it's an easy fix for any competent luthier.

Posted this vid in the Roxy Music thread, but suspect he deserves his own spotlight having played in some important bands of the time - Adam & The Ants, Vibrators two name two. I think I learned more about playing bass from hearing and studying this bass line than I learned in the following 5-years. As I said in the other thread, it's tight, present, and insistent. Nothing special in itself, but it doesn't just suit the song, it drives it along powerfully. Glorious

Just got home from a Spacewasters rehearsal. We only rehearse when we’ve a gig looming (2 in fact, in the next couple of weeks, both at The Water Rats in Kings Cross) just to refresh a bit. Our new guitarist is fitting in well, both guitarists working this eve on sounds and who does which lead bit etc. Plus me and both guitarists now doing backing vocals so a lot stronger in that dept which is good. Bass was JMJ Mustang into the studios - I think - Laney stack of amp/410/115, sounded great. In this band I tend to go for a more traditional supporting bass sound which I prefer to the up front/listen to me sounds I’ve had previously.

My latest bass

by mistake... yeah right

updated big board photo. MK2 octabvre and HX stomp back, and added the EWS stormy for another drive flavor.

😂😂😂 I remember years ago one of the older guys i worked with came into work and after a visit to the loo he realised he'd put on his wife's underwear. The obvious Scottish sarcasm followed and when asked how he managed that he explained. "It was still dark when he woke up and didn't want to wake his wife. His underwear was in the drawer next to his wife's and he opened what he thought was his drawer and took out underwear not aware he was in the wrong drawers. (excuse the pun) He was almost retirement age so we all believed it was a genuine mistake so think yourself lucky it was only a minor mistook you made Daryl. 🤣 Not 100% sure why he even told us. ? Think i would have kept my mouth shut. Dave

Slightly off that line of discussion, on Facebook today was saying they use a class D 3000W karaoke speaker for their bass at home and it sounds great. A bit of digging showed the '3000W PMPO' device as rated at 2 x 150W into 4 Ohms.

I'll be comparing the two and sharing my thoughts in time along with a full review. I'm also planning another review of the QC as there's lots to include since the last ones. I am mega pleased to see that the next OS update of the Quad Cortex is finally going to include both the amazing Cory Wong X and Parallax X plug-in, following today's announcement. I use the Cory Wong X daily and I've wanted the compressor and SSL desk model in the QC for..well, ever! Next I'm looking forward to seeing the Archetype: Petrucci X ported in too, my other daily driver for teaching, writing and recording.

I replaced EHM big muff with Ampeg scrambler.

It’s Dood- he the kind of guy who doesn’t queue to get in a club…

He’ll have lent on his fame and skipped the line the rest of us peasants are in.

Did some rough basslines this evening, using garageband for a project I'm helping out with. Relatively small room with lots of gear in so I took the Squier Jag SS. Acquitted itself well.

Mine looks like this, it took 20 years of chasing to find this very one.

Very advanced notice, but as Weeds haven't played in public for around 9 years I thought I'd mention it... Complete with psychedelic and electronica support and 60s oil projection! Tis in Chester, btw...

Just added neodymium button magnets on top of the jazz pickup pole pieces, which I poked into their holes. Makes up the huge volume difference.

I was fortunate enough to play in a band with the great Paul Thompson for a while.great player and a great bloke.

I'm pretty confident that I could design an aesthetically pleasing & functional 15-string bass, within the significant constraints of the design parameters imposed by that specification. I am similarly confident that it would be fitted with eleven strings that were never touched.

As much as it would be nice to play along and say its because they know me, its for ma job; I'm going to give Anagram a thorough review and video for y'all! but yeah, they know me 😂

I think JG played on Love is the Drug, absolutely epic bass groove.

15? You need to try a theorbo.

15 strings, if running tuning at standard intervals, is pointless. I had a 13 string bass made for me some years ago, the thickest string was a G#00 that resonated at 18hz, so right at the very very lowest range of human hearing. The highest fret of the sharpest string was right at the top end of human hearing. It also had a near unplayable fanned scale of 41" to 24" to make the strings actually function correctly. It was a bit of an experiment, and while it technically worked, going beyond 13 string is a pointless exercise unless you're using alternative tuning. Binky, my 10 string bass, is however right at the sweet spot of utterly ridiculous, completely awesome and totally useable! For those that haven't seen it, this is Binky (and my 8 string Conklin!)

It's an original feature, but it's not systematic as you can have notched on the treble side, notched on bass side, notched on both sides, and not notched at all tuners. Furthermore, these types of tuners can be mixed. The interesting thing is that, thanks to these notched tuners, you can narrow the dating to the pre-CBS era, if they are squared notched tuners.

Anyway, here's my new pedalboard...

Status Groove Basses. Best neck profile for my hands. Massive regrets selling mine. Never see them come up. All that aside….great to see Dave Grohl playing drums again. 😂

There's been a bit of a development. I was talking to a band a while ago but it all went quiet. Yesterday I heard from them again and they sent over some new material and it's really good. I'm going to give it a good go, write some bass parts and see how it goes.

Yes. I can see that. In fact... I can't unsee it so I've inflicted it on you lot too.

Always better to have put it on backwards in the first place, than to wake up the next morning with it all the wrong way round and no recollection of why.......

Well, the intonation on that GG Mapleglo Ric has been fixed... 🤣 and there have been a few other modifications too, including swapping out the knobs for larger 1" diameter ones, like those on my 2023.

Any bass in left handed. 🤨

The fact that he owns them doesn't protect you from the hell of US Customs. If I had to send a bass to the US again I would convert the case into a boat and row the Atlantic to avoid dealing with both US Customs and the frankly unbelievable mess that US couriers make of dealing with US Customs. As an indication, I received 64 emails from UPS requesting information about the bass last time I did it

I like the Monaco yellow.

Hi @Hamster I wonder what your old PA tops are? I'm a little concerned about the description of these speakers as 'budget' which would for me cover things like Alto, Thomann's own brand The Box and such like. I'd think of both of these speakers being in the well made family saloon bracket, the VW Golf of speakers if you like. I'd think of these as at least mid priced speakers for the average pub band. Both can sound magnificent in the right hands. The Jefferson Archive ( @skidder652003's band) are a great band with a wonderful vocalist and sounded fabulous through the FBT's, really loud too. I'd spotted the 1.75" horn drivers on the RCF, in theory this should mean they carry a bit more of the mid range and this would help the sound of vocals. In practice RCF have really sorted out their crossovers with phase correction applied so the midrange is especially good. There's no mention of phase correction in the FBT speakers so no assumptions about how they might sound. I believe in the past FBT have used RCF drivers and I would suspect these speakers would be very close in sound. I wouldn't expect a huge difference in toughness between the cab in practice, My 10 year old plastic RCF 10" cabs have a few scuff marks from being used as floor monitors and carried without covers but nothing structural has broken. Any wooden cabs I have of that age would have similar scuffs if painted or small tears in the vinyl if covered. FBT also talk about internal stiffening of their wooden cab which is encouraging, it isn't just a box and they have at least put some thought into it. I'd anticipate a slightly tighter bass from a well built wooden cab and a clearer midrange from the bigger horn driver but The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Going small this weekend while waiting for my Anagram which has been delayed

Next step was obviously a body and neck. I decided to go '70s for a couple of reasons - I always liked the late '70s 'S' series basses, which most other people seem to think are the very worst in terms of Fender QC, but I really like the aggressive tone. Hence, I decided to go ash and maple. This is very much a tribute to the era rather than something 100% accurate - so although I managed to get a northern ash body (from Guitar Build), it's a '60s version without the channel cut between the pickup cavity and the control cavity. It'll all be under the pickguard anyway so no problem there. I went with one piece maple for the neck. I pushed the boat out a bit and ordered from Musikraft in the US. Allparts and Warmoth don't do the correct 7.25 radius on their repro necks. It's currently in production, not sure when it will arrive. An era correct decal has also arrived.

The instruments date from the late 60s to mid 70s. The adjustable nut was a feature on all Micro-Frets instruments. It makes more sense on the guitars where it helps make some first position chords sound more in tune. It's a good price at the moment even taking into account the condition and the non-original parts, I think the machine heads are replacements too. There are a number of well-known Micro-Frets collectors so I don't expect it to stay this cheap for long. However if I was still collecting unusual instruments I would be taking a punt on this.

No, Watt. James Watt. ☺️

BS. The guy is sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

I’m a fan of most of their output, but think the first two albums are special. The debut album was a proper game changer, and so influential. Also has the great inner gatefold where you’ve got Bryan Ferry looking like a suave alien, Andy Mackay like a futuristic teddy boy, Phil Manzanera a glam hippy, Paul Thompson a teenybopper pin up, Eno like, well, Eno, and Graham Simpson looking like a geography teacher. Guess which one played bass?!