Leaderboard

Three drive pedals are going, one has arrived! Now-discontinued Teeth Mk.1.

Tattoos.

I think I've redeemed myself. Start again then... Made a better jig which actually works the correct way round... First cuts... And then changed the jig to do the short sides, et voilà That's more like it! Crappy first attempt above for comparison. Then I guess when you write on it with a Sharpie, it becomes official... The only thing I have to consider is that my top bearing router bit is a bit fat for the corners of the pickup (it's OK for the mounting lugs), had to cut them out after the fact on the template, so going to have to figure out how to solve that. But progress is progress, and I'm much happier with this second attempt at the template. One final piece of paranoia - I checked that the neck fits when the pickup is mounted - it has a 21st fret overhang... Phew! That is approximately where the neck pickup of a Peavey T-40 goes with regard to scale length.

Topics about irrational prejudices.

Sunburst with tort scratchplates.

Which logo do you want on your Cort?

I don't like crowds so I play jazz.

Pedal-boards - and I have three SM58 mics - yes, I do Curly leads - used to have, but incinerated the bast*rd things Headless basses - Nurse! Nurse! Any form of music containing the following words: punk, hop, metal, disco, funk, (I could go on) Basses manufactured anywhere east of Norfolk (including Warwicks btw.) Live music - any sort, ever. Audiences - all, anywhere Gigging - see last comment Wowser, this is great fun and the surface hasn't even been scratched yet!

Cort.

Bacchus...made me forget all about Fender, Squier, Sire, etc.

Couple of pics from Sat nights gig with Blockbustarz just appeared from Auld Gambling Hoose in Alloa. Excuse the wig, it was a new one i was trying out for a friend. 😂 It needs a bit of trimming for the next gig. Couldn't see thru the darn thing. Dave

I don't like painted necks. I get uncomfortable with non matching brands on amps and cabs. Basses with a matching headstock sound better than ones without Nobody likes bass solos (well... nobody likes mine. Especially not me) Any bass that's been refinished must be good because somone kept it and repainted it rather than sell it and buy a similar one a different colour Vintage basses that don't show much wear are probably not great since nobody wanted to play them a lot

You may have to take issue with Mr Fender about that one! 🙂

My hatred of baked beans is not irrational. They deserve all the hatred I can muster. The vile taste, the vile texture. The revolting sauce they are in. They alone are reason enough for humanity to end. Anyone and everyone who had any involvement in them being not only available for sale, but actually grown and harvested at all should be propelled straight into the sun. Oh, you mean bass related? Tube amps on bass are completely pointless. Outdated, unreliable, too heavy, fragile, pointless. Once good transistor amps were available they should have been banned. Anyone and everyone who had any involvement in them still existing after good transistor amps were available should be propelled straight into the sun.

So apart from a HVAC filter that is still to be delivered, the spray booth is finished. Constructed from 18mm MDF with plans generated by ChatGPT, an adapted dj light stand for a jig, a used hydroponics extractor fan off eBay and a Mr Bezos led batten light. The duct tape is not holding it together but just some extra sealing on the panel joints as well as glue and screws. The baffle protecting the extractor filter from overspray just slides out so I can change the filter easily. I am hoping that this will make spraying easier, quicker and yield better results. I will look to support the hoses better so reduce the angles at the extractor fan and improve airflow. I was also not worried about the interior look as it will soon be covered in paint lol. I just need something to spray now……..

Got another: clip on tuners on stage. Feel free to use them all round the house, but they should never be seen on stage. Even band practice is pushing it.

My mate calls them scratchguards. Drives me loopy.

Found an old plank in the shed to practice on. Also found a potential solution for the corners - got a 1/4" cutter, if I poke it far enough out of the collet then there will hopefully be enough shaft (stop sniggering at the back, you!) poking down below the baseplate of the router then it should not cut into the template but follow it as if it had a bearing. Dunno if the radius will be small enough, but it'll be closer than the 1/2" cutter I'll be using for the initial routing. That's tomorrow's fun though - got a band rehearsal now.

Slap bass (mainly because I'm crap at it) 6 string basses (when will you ever play that skinny string - never) Wireless guitar/bass systems (pointless unless you're in Lynrd Skynrd, or plan to crowd surf while playing bass) Hofner Violin basses

Maple fretboards and painted headstocks should never have happened. If the headstock is painted, it should be a dark wood fretboard. Ramps make your bass look bad. I don't care how they might help your plucking position. Work it out another way.

Neck through basses ( and I’ve got one) you can never get the action low enough and you can’t shim them Fast crazy show off slapping

Our drummer evaporated after last week's rehearsal due to back issues. We have a new one on board for the originals as of last night. A bit more oomph but not too loud. Interestingly we started with a song that has an awkward stop with a five-beat bar. This used to cause the previous drummer to slow down, the new chap was rushing it. I took my Epiphone Embassy, I think I've found the right bass for this band. It has a growly sound but the blend and tone controls are effective. Not loud last night but even the singer described my sound as having 'girth'. Working on originals is fascinating. I had two competing basslines for the next song, the one originally on fretless is now the chorus. The chords don't change but what we all play changes. my line is a harmony line up an octave and not following the roots. I've also come up with a really unusual intro. We finished with a third song that demands a JJ Burnell style plectrum line, with some jagged rhythm and lots of clanky growl. Working on this one is improving my plectrum skills. Very different from sitting alone learning songs then just getting together to polish arrangements.

I would buy a used Fender - £549 will get you a decent one.

I actually had a blinding one. I’ve got a job interview tomorrow and the stress is getting to me. Partner and I decided that I needed to get out tonight so I went to the engineers arm in coalvile for OM night. @Nail Soup has visited. When I got there I explained to the hostess that I wasn’t sure if I was getting up but she gently pushed me into sweet home Alabama with her and another guitarist which went quite well, she then decided to do Dreams which went better than I thought it would as I’ve only ever played along to YouTube on both tunes I was just taking bass off when the next performer came up and asked the guitarist to stay instead of using a backing track. She then asked me to Stay on as well and do a song I don’t even know. When id stopped hyper-ventilating the guitarist gave me the chords and said “just wing it,they are all so pissed they won’t know”. So I did … Teenage dirt bag (another first: I used my five string properly and started on fret 5 to get the E, I’m starting to avoid open strings) sire v7 5 string sold to me by some serial rogue called @lee650 And a zoom b2 on ampeg patch shoes ? Brown. Next. That is all I know

thanks mate, it works very well for the function gigs that I do. We are ampless and most of the time I bring 2 basses (fretted/fretless) or a bass and a synthbass so the switcher is so handy. 3 out of 4 gigs this board will be my choice. this one takes care of the 1 out of 4. Sounds very nice but heavy and a bit risky for beer spills. 😆

Together with some of my main band musicians, plus a great pro-drummer, I helped to put together a U2 tribute band as a little side-project earlier this year. There are no huge plans to gig loads but the two nights out we've had so far were lots of fun and we have a few more things lined up. My regular gigging bass is my trusty white Ritter Cora but I felt i should go dfor something a bit more Claytonesque for this gig. I've owned a couple of Claytons in the past, both in gold sparkle. The first was a lovely, lightweight Mike Lull that was built directly for Adam & the second was the official Fender full Custom Shop version - now residing chez @hiram.k.hackenbacker. I already had a nice Lake Placid Blue P bass with an aged MJT body, mint green/white guard, McIntyre neck, Hipshot Ultralights and a lovely set of custom wound Curtis Novak pickups. My first thought was to get the LPB body resprayed and I remembered that a Lakland I have was painted by Rob Fleet (via Simms Customs) https://www.rfcustom.co.uk/ I contacted Rob who could not have been more helpful. He explained that the cost of stripping my existing body & prepping for spray work would be relatively close to sourcing a nice new body which I could help to spec out in terms of desired weight and woods etc. We spent some time working our the ideal weight and he found a nice piece of premium alder to work with. I've always likes the Fender limited edition pink/purple sparkle Clayton P bass and Rob mentioned that he had an order for a deep purple flake pain job and I saw some images of the exact colour. We agreed on everything and the neck was duly dispatched so that he could make sure the neck fit was really tight and also to spray the headstock in matching purple flake. Not long afterwards I received the first body build shots and confirmation that the finished weight was bang on our agreed specs: Rob let me know that he thought it might be a good idea for him to custom build a guard whilst he had the body to ensure an exact fit and we agreed on a white pearloid finish. This kind of, relatively small, thing is a perfect example of Rob's attention to detail. He new I had a guard already but wanted to be sure of a perfect fit and finish. We also discussed the headstock logo as the body & spray work is all from Rob whilst the neck was made by Chris McIntyre, pickups from Curtis Novak etc. etc.. I didn't feel 'right' about asking Chris to use his logo and it seems to me that the core of this instrument has come from Rob. I felt I needed a logo of some kind and really didn't want to try and come up with some kind of random name so we agreed to go with an RF Custom logo. I think it's a classy logo & I have no plans to sell it on or pass it off as something it isn't - it genuinely is a 'custom' build so I'm happy with that. Today, Rob sent first pics of the finished body, with guard in place, & headstock. Typical of rob's professionalism is that he attached controls to the guard to make sure everything looked just right. He also asked about precise position of the strap buttons before drilling. So, here it is before it comes home for final fit at my local luthier, the rather wonderful Julian Mullen: Once it's home and fully finished I'll post some more pics!

Alternative title, "I'm not buying that one - it's all scratched!" Alas, poor Nate has gone. It was a lovely bass, but I don't gig Precisions. It's not my sound. So here's [yet] another Jazz bass... Previous owner has added a Parallel/Series switch (like Fender's original S1 switching), quite why, I have no idea. Also a Leo Quan BadAss II bridge, which is an excellent choice, although I'd have preferred the Fender American Standard/Professional bridge with the through body stringing. I guess you can't have everything. Liking the Shell Pink finish and the Pure Vintage 64 pickups (same as my American Original), but the relic job is VERY heavy handed. Then again, I could've been playing it since 1961 (eight years before I was born... 🤔) Like I said in the Nate Mendel for sale thread, I haven't kicked this around a gravel car park, but some Mexicans in Ensenada probably have. With it's American Original cousin...

More work last night and tonight: - Re-installed the bias board more securely (bolts have nyloc nuts); - Added the feeds from the PI to the 6L6 control grids, as well as the negative bias supplies (all of them brown/blue wires); - Connected the AC (orange) and ground (black) to the bias board; - Installed the NFB connection and corresponding ground reference (green/black wires). ALL BUILD PICS NOW IN POST DATE 01/11/2025

so spent a lot of time with this pedal the last 6 weeks used it with 7 different basses and it's interesting the chorus is good but not great I was surprised by how much I like the reverb ( reverb seems counterintuitive for bass) the para eq is very good , the business, very well thought through thanks to @Hellzero to have a go at it they should have called it something other than the Fretless maybe I see these are pricy but worth a go if you can try before buy FKT also make an Octaver Pedal which looks mean

Oasis. What a pair of unspeakable twàts.

He's not your mate. Not with that sort of behaviour. He's just someone you haven't buried under your patio.... yet. And I congratulate you for your self control.

White pickguards. Hofner violin basses. Classified ads that lead with Fender Squier instead of Squier by Fender. Passive pickups being called active ones just because the bass has a preamp installed. That massive swelling on the Fender headstock. I have a Fender. Bartolini pickups. It bothers me that they turn up on some REALLY nice basses. The price of 70s Fenders compared to eye-witness reports of how awful a lot of them were when new. Ernie Ball will NOT give Stingray 5 customers 19mm bridge string spacing.

Painted necks Mismatched amps & cabs - but not if the cab brand don`t make amps Stickers on basses - look great on other peoples basses, but not on mine Amp/cab overhang Blue basses - I don`t support Chelsea Green basses - I`m not Irish Pau Ferro - just looks like an imposter that`s failed to master either maple or rosewood properly All of the above are completely irrational

Not only that, but it's constrained by the hole it's in, even if the plug does split it has no room to expand so the screw will still be held in. With a pilot hole to remove the material that's in the way of the screw you'll be fine drilling and plugging.

Reading your message, I just realised my mistake - I was operating the wrong way round. I should have had my rails/fences/guides on the opposite side, so if I wandered, I wandered into the material I was removing anyway, not the stuff I wanted to keep. FFS! What a moron. I really am living up to my username.

Not at this time ! However the output does get up to line level pretty easily if you want. So it can behave like a 'preamp' in that sense. Just not with balanced output.

If I was in that position I'd buy the Squier CV going for £250 s/h on here... It is literally a swap of a logo for other features. If you don't want active and are happy with a basic selection of colours, the playability is likely to be indistinguishable.

Dave , What color is that bass? It looks like blue burst. Daryl

After several months of waiting, the Iron Ether Subterranea has finally arrived. Described by Taylor at Iron Ether as a, ‘multi-timbral analog synthesizer and octave pedal’ it acts as an oscillator section for a great analogue synth setup when paired with an envelope filter. These were discontinued a few years ago but recently brought back for a limited production run. Hopefully they’ll be added back to the regular production line. It’s a great analogue synth pedal. https://on.soundcloud.com/CpmKMabzrIOQzEnS99 https://on.soundcloud.com/U5G8C0THhHiAINPoEz https://on.soundcloud.com/HmamFI3dmsihHflhpM https://on.soundcloud.com/aEdvwY6QUt0qnNTR8M

Missed this thread previously - fretted & fretless - my main two basses for the last twenty years!

More pictures here.

Here is a trio of Mocha basses : 74P - 79SR - 75J