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Garden Party for us.

Saturday night, back at a WMC that Dirty Roses have played at before. Went down well, which was nice. I've done several years of social club work so I'm used to the bingo and play your cards right, it's still a novelty for the others. Antoniotsai dragon bass -> Lekato WS-90 -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> GR Bass AT212. We have our youngest fan.

This afternoon.. a bit of a special one for me - I gigged with my son for the first time ever. He's 13, the rest of the band are 15/16, but they're pretty accomplished for their age. An afternoon stuffed with proud Dad moments.

Bedford BandStand Sun 17th big crowd for Bedford Cardiac unit....strapless!!!!!!

Very early days but loving this already. MY first fan-fret and first Dingwall. Not a review but my first thoughts and feelings. I had faith that these Far Eastern versions would be good quality and haven't been letdown so far. Everything seems topnotch. Hope it stands up to some hard sessions. By far the easiest playing bass I have ever owned (maybe that's the banjo size frets?) The neck is a perfect P size and shape for me with very smooth rounded edges. Weighs in just under 3.9kg or 8.9 lbs. The balance on the strap is perfect. The pickups seem to be amazingly punch for a passive bass, seems all 4 selector positions can be are very usable, never had a bass that I would want to solo the bridge pickup before, this seems to be one that could work for me. Like I said early days and honeymoon phase right now, but there is nothing not to like (except for the price maybe) but then I have had more expensive USA made and boutique basses that these would give a run for their money. This really is a Super P. The custom shop versions must be obscenely nice! Maybe it's just the Dingwall thing, and I had no idea all along.

Our very own Dood demoing this fine beast.

I’m going to be out , just waiting to get the shipping costs and final bill. These have been on my radar for quite some time. This is the Korean reissue , improved tuners and set neck. Thumpy as all heck. I have too much stuff , but I’ve been looking at these for years. Finally will be getting one.

As some of you missed it (distracted?) she's selling a course on how to play the guitar: "Original Audio" "I love how you played guitar" "You rocked it" And crap or not, it's other people's music and they aren't being credited.

I often put my Zoom MS-60B+ on top of the amp with a short lead. At one gig, everything went silent at one point and I saw that the pedal had vibrated off the amp. So I took to using a longer lead and putting the pedal on the floor, except at a couple of open mic nights where the pedal sits quite happily on top of the amp and stays there. Until tonight. Bah. Another open mic one, this time when playing guitar - I'm so used to playing wireless that at the end of my slot, I just stood up and walked off stage, causing a mic stand and music stand to come crashing down. Oops.

Update: I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS BASS Honestly, it's a stunner. It feels alive. I may change the pickups for something potted (I can be quite heavy-handed) but it sounds amazing with flats. Here's a clip from a dep with my Son's band this afternoon.

I spent the day turning this piece of Sapele; into this Precision Bass body; It will be for sale soon on BC probably with EMG pickups and preamp and Wenge neck??? The body finish will be hand sanded finishing oil to as much of a gloss as I can get. I think it’s going to be a beauty.

Hello! Couldn't resist this one. Never seen another in the UK. Any others out there? A pretty unique spec - ovals, matching headstock, blocks & binding. Board is a lovely bit of rosewood, body is basswood. Pickguard was switched to black at some point, but I've got a correct replacement on there now. It plays and sounds great 🙂

If you run a length of tape up each side of the neck along the fretboard edge, [First, before the across pieces...] you can then peel the across fret bits of tape off in a one-er... I use one of those thin metal fret shields.

All I can say is that the followers of such obviously fake prestations must have been away the day the brains were distributed.

Hate to say it, but don't be surprised if your collection ends up in a heap on the floor with a wall mount like that. The distance from the wall will add much more pressure on the screws holding the thing up. Get a few second hand Hercules wall mounts. I have 30 or so of them, some mounted to dry wall (with the right rawl plugs) and they've not let me down carrying heavy loads (some 7 string basses) for years. They're not a foot proud of the wall either! You can normally pick them up for a tenner second hand, maybe less if you get someone selling a batch.

I really like the vibe of this '66 Precision that Mike Long has at the moment. It's tempting me to try a C neck again. It's all there, all original, even the case, and the weight is great. I have a guitar here which he would probably straight trade for........ hmm. https://www.atbguitars.com/1966-fender-precision-bass Rob

Astley was a cunning Master of Disguise - real name, Lola. 🤣

I should probably do that before it's too late...

Flats. I know that there are loads of players who love them, but I went through about 5 or 6 brands before realising that they weren’t for me.

There’s one crucial detail which differentiates this from someone playing air guitar…

If you're doing it, I'd suggest putting masking tape over the wood of the fretboard.

Man, who cares?

I've got a 1962 Precision, it's definitely authentic but it's had quite a bit of work done over the years including several neck replacements, various different bodies and a range of different electronics. For a while it was most of a 1969 Jazz, then later an excellent 1980 Stingray, and I believe it spent some time in the late 90s as a genuine Gibson Les Paul guitar, having had the neck, body and pickups replaced. As you can imagine, with that heritage it's extremely valuable.

Dear lord, what have I done…?

Played with Nine Lives last night at the Balaclava in Fraserburgh. Pretty good night, was a bit quiet at the start but it filled up during the first half and was nice and busy in the second half. Saturday night is the night to play in Fraserburgh, by my experience, should you ever find yourself playing there. We had a hen party (I think) and a divorce party all in one night. The divorcee in question was well oiled by the time she arrived though - spent half the time on the floor, she'll feel that today! Also in a new first for my gigging career, I got my bottom spanked by a lady with a miniature tambourine - a new peril when going for a wireless wander! Spanked all the way back to my amp so I was and to give credit where credit is due, her timing was not awful - kept me right anyhow! I took a highly unprofessional course of action and brought two basses I had been modding and mucking about with this fortnight - the Jet Star with the added Peavey T-40 pickup and the Fazley Hot Rod which recently arrived at Neep HQ and got a pickup change (Tonerider Duke) within an hour and a half of arrival, and copper shielded the night before. What could possibly go wrong? Well, nothing, as it happens. Maybe I'm lucky, or - whisper it - maybe I'm getting half decent at modding basses... The Fazley Hot Rod in the first half was a joy to play. With no controls to eff around with I could honestly sense the freedom from thinking about it and just enjoyed playing. The Tonerider pickup is a great sounding pickup - lots of output but more than enough low mids to really punch through with quite an aggressive sound. Really happy with it. As for the Jet Star, being wary of a boomy sound from the T-40 pickup neckwards, I hedged my bets at the start of the second half - both pickups on, T-40 in single coil. And it was... OK. Compared to the Fazley in the first half I was having a less good time. Part way through the set, I switched to T-40 pickup only, in series and wow, what a difference. I needn't have worried - the sound was much more satisfying, heavy but not boomy, lots of low end substance but never muddy. Much bettah! You know what my rig is by now! Which again only needed to be up about a quarter on the master to easily fill the pub with bass.

Gryffindor!!! Oh sorry... you said thinking hat.

Care to test that theory? 😄

Uhm… 3 things left though…

I agree with Phil on this. I'd never recommend having a bass cab in a corner. In this scenario, assuming the cab's 30cm from both the back and side wall, you'll get something like a 15dB boost between 40 and 100Hz, which is too much boom. I usually recommend positioning the Monaco between 15 to 30cm from the back wall to reinforce the very low frequencies (depending on taste). Lifting the cab isn't going to deal with this, as you will get cancellation, but at a higher frequency than you need. If you lift the cab 30cm, for example, and it's positioned 30cm from the back and side walls, you'll get boom plus a nasty suckout at 300Hz, which will be audible. So, you have to be careful (although the low ceiling won't have much effect on the frequency response). My advice would be to keep the cab on the floor, position it 12" from the back wall and well away from the side wall. As @Phil Starr says, put it where the guitar amp is. Then, if necessary, cut between 40 and 100Hz on your amp. Also, try not to have the cab directly behind any object that blocks the sound because that can reduce the level of higher frequencies reaching the audience. Good luck!

Hi Sean, you'd have had a problem with any speaker in that position. Each surface the speaker is placed against boosts the bass in particular and you had all three surfaces to contend with. Effectively you had placed your speaker at the end of a huge conical horn. That's no criticism of you, I've been stuck many a time in the corner of a tiny performance space like that you really don't have a choice. Using the Monaco may have helped quite a lot but it's a horrible position to be in, literally The only thing you can do in that situation is to wind the bass right back. I'd use agressive HPF and be prepared to roll the bass eq pretty much right down if I needed too, I'd also be looking to boost the mids. Years ago I posted up the eq I'd ended up with in a particularly difficult hall. I had a Hartke with a graphic and I was stunned how much bass I had to roll off. It might have been better to swap places with the guitarist in this venue as it would be less affected by the corner position.

TBH these days I don't attend any gigs that I'm not actually playing, because I'm simply too busy with my own music. The last gig I played had about 350 people in the audience, and while they hadn't all come specifically to see us, most of them were watching the stage while we were on rather than at the bar. I might possibly go and see The Birthdays Massacre when they play at The Rescue Rooms in Nottingham but I'm still hoping that my band will land the opening slot.

Back at Pitchers and we found that since we were last here a fortnight ago, we've lost 30% of the stage area to some lowest common denominator entertainment device called a Dance Machine. As James and his guitarist-sized pedalboard were here, as well as Phoebe with her far more modest showing, there was barely anywhere to stand and getting to the mic to do some BVs wasn't easy. It wasn't very busy, a few regulars were absent. There were three featured bands - Three Mile Island quite impressed me, an originals straightforward rock band. The monstrosity can be seen behind me - the drumkit normally goes where it stands now. It stands on a platform which the bass amp was set up on (it normally lives where that Boss amp is). Also visible is the first half metre of James's pedalboard.

I was researching the prices of pre-CBS Jazzes as I have quite a budget built up for music stuff. However, it seems to be impossible to find one under €10K... The 64 refin at Andy Baxter is lovely but it's almost €8K plus shipping and VAT. That hurts.

It never stops, but it's at least getting worse 😁 Insta faking is completely noeffort now.

Gotta say, I had a rumble 15 and I couldn't recommend it. I love the larger Rumbles but the 15's got nowt going for it , tonewise and obviously not enough power for anything but solo practice.

I get your point, but it’s all about taste (stop thinking about your nan). If you could afford a premium car like an Audi, bmw, jag etc would you buy it in snot green? I’d suggest it’s more likely you’d get black, dark blue etc and sunburst is a bit like that .. and tort.. which is always cool 🍿

I think a better question might be “what haven’t I done?” possibly a few capybara remain …

Which nut are you referring to? Theres more than one nut involved in this guitar...

I have done that from time to time. These days I usually use a TC Electronics BAM 200 and it's 50/50 if I'll plug my bass into the headphone socket and wonder why there's no sound.

Not a huge one, but last night put my hand in my pocket to pull out a plectrum as the song started... and found my car keys. Managed to find it in about a bar. Biggest near-cock up was getting overexcited playing a 5 on the last encore and switching in chorus, then a HM2, then an octaver and enjoying some huge low notes. At the end I turned round and my amp head was rocking on the edge of the speaker cab like the bus in the Italian Job.

Apologies if this has been posted before:

Just be thankful he's only doing it to instruments, imagine if he ever watched the Human Centipede or read Frankenstein

I disagree with you all, just take a closer look at the evidence. IT WAS IN HIS ATTIC FOR YEARS…… it’s the surest sign of authenticity 👍

BLOCKBUSTARZ at Lilliardsedge Caravan Park for the Hot Rods in the Borders weekend. Another great night was had. 3 yrs in a row we've been asked back by the Hot Rods guys which is nice. 2 x 45min sets that ended up a bit longer 9 - 10pm and then 10:15 - 11:30pm. Very warm on stage, sound wasn't quite perfect but sounded ok out front. We had problems with the drum channels on the desk and decided to just leave them out and play raw along with bass and guitar backline only. Only vocals thru our desk and the venues PA which is always a risky business but it works. Very busy night, all seats taken with every table full and standing at the back of the hall. Its actually a permanent marquee tent they have. Nice set up but stage is hollow and does create a boom so used my Gramma board last night. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. There is some doubt about whether the Hot Rods will run the event next year but organiser for the Park who books us said she would be happy to have us back next year same time provided the event goes ahead. Decided to give the Godin bass a run out and it has a wonderfully deep warm P type tone that i have to admit was very nice IMO. It was in PJ mode all night, both pick ups selected. Godin bass, Shure wireless, Keeley Bassist comp, Mesa TT800 Boogie channel, Mesa SW210/115 cabs. Sandberg VM4 as back up. Really quite liked that Godin tone tho and its a really nice bass to play with a narrow neck very similar to the VM4 but having that typical old Fender-ish tone it kinda suits the music more than the VM4 which has a modern tone in comparison. I believe Godin had Seymour Duncan produce the pick ups for them. 1.5hrs drive home along quiet country roads made for an easy drive home but my eyes were starting to get tired. Home for 2:30am by the time i unloaded the car, quick coffee and a bit of TV before bed at 3am, back up at 6am with a cat bumping heads with me to get fed. Today will be a quiet sleepy day. Dave

We played Capones last night. 7-11. A little long and late for me. BL called out songs we haven't performed in years. It's a good exercise, keeps you on your toes. I'd say it was an okay gig. I'm ok if we never go back. Daryl

Updated pic with fretless neck attached

Well, today was a landmark in the project - the neck's on! Thanks again to the Mechanical Engineering Workshop at my work, as a drill press is not one of the things I own. Of course, it's never easy and there was a small miscalculation regarding screw length... Thankfully an easy fix, the chip wasn't lost and it was a simple fix - push some glue in the void, then clamp it down with a caul covered in tape to prevent the glue adhering it to the fingerboard. A bit of sanding afterwards and it was like it never happened. So I put some old strings on it, just to see how things were. On the plus side, the strings align with the neck nicely. I have some work to do though. Even with that 2mm plate I glued into the bottom of the neck pocket and a 0.6mm shim, the action can't quite get low enough with all the saddles on the deck. Have ordered those "whole neck pocket" shims off Amazon (the ones which actually get good reviews) which will hopefully arrive on Friday. Also I have a bit of work to with regard to pole piece alignment. I enlarged the two cutouts for the mounting lugs on the left of the hole and managed to eke out a mm or so. There is still some finessing to do and then I might be able to eke out another mm and I think that'll be as good as it'll get. Anyway, a big step forward. Oh, and the bridge pickup is ordered. To get the one I want - https://roswellpickups.com/product/jm4-bridge/ - I had to order it from a dealer in South Korea of all places. So I don't expect to see that particularly soon. I have a spare pickup I could pop in there in the meantime, so it won't slow me up.