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I have autism and prefer e-mail or text messaging to phone calls. I've been using Bass Direct since before Mark had a shop, and I've always received exemplary service from them. I've been using Bass Bros for the last two years. Again, I've had nothing but exemplary service from them as well. I think people should remember that both are small shops, staffed by knowledgeable, but small workforces. They don't have 24 hour call centres or customer service centres. They probably receive dozens of emails and telephone enquiries each day. As such, it's easy for them to miss one or think they've replied to an email when they haven't. It's also a simple matter to follow your enquiry up with another email or a call if you don't get a reply. We should be supporting these fantastic businesses, rather than criticising them over silly things.

A lot of the gigs I have been playing recently are with my rick 5 string 4004, I thought about getting a 5 string 4003 made. i looked into it but ultimately you end up paying the same as a real s/h ric for the same price so I decided to just get a normal 4003 and see if I got on with it. So that turned up today, a matte 4003s - I have a practice tomorrow so I get to hear what it sounds like, but I need to go through my normal set and try and adapt to having a string missing. Traditionaly it has never worked, and I ended up ignoring the 4, but we shall see- its a bit harder to convert a 4003 to a 5 string with the bridge! First impressions are good, apart from the obvious lack of strings! Anyway, useless without pictures, so here we are

I'm on a course to learn to refret and fret level and general setting up of guitars and basses it's 3 days long I've refretted a squier strat and fret levelled a couple of my basses including a Harley Benton PB50 One of my bitsa P basses didn't need doing but one has been quite a problem as the neck won't truss dead straight (this is fairly common apparently) Final fret polish and set up this morning, so we'll see how it turns out It's been great. I've learned a lot of things but also talking to and watching the other students with their instruments and problems They do full build courses and all sorts My luthier is in his 70s and is retiring so I wanted to know how to fret level just in case I need to I might go back for a custom build course (apparently a lot of people do)

I went for the Dunlop and after a few gigs they are worn in and the Vox is now my go to bass. Had a gig on Saturday and it was the first time I've felt totally comfortable with the whole package. This £350 purchase is currently my number 1 bass above my JMJ, Cat and American Precision and Sandberg SL. Who would have thought it? This was Saturday -

I found one yesterday that still seems to work - - a warning against him by Rockers Reunited: https://www.facebook.com/100057087835235/posts/dear-sir-madamsee-below-email-going-out-to-his-theatres-maybe-they-will-take-no-/1328868242359424/

Just arrived as it happens. Completely out of the blue as I had no notification from the courier. To say I’m relieved is an understatement and no doubt the shop is too, they must have been sick of my calls.

So this band imploded after the September gig. The new band is the old singer and drummer… With 2 bass players sharing the stuff with strings. Should be absolutely fine now.

I just looked up the music shop where this came from (sticker on back of headstock) It opened in ‘72 so this bass must have been some of their first stock https://www.soundpad.co.uk/about-us

The website has now passed a quarter of a million hits.

Not perfect but I'm pleased with it. Not your average black cab.

I could do. Years from now, vintage experts won’t understand why the mythical ‘ped’ only worked at fender long enough to make one neck

BBC Symphony Orchestra was loading out at the Barbican last night… walked by just as the basses were manhandled into the truck.

As you liked it here's another from the same gig. It's much better sound than the usual phone videos because we record every gig on multitrack on the stage box.

Yes, I'd recommend it to anyone. I'll get my coat...

Firstly, should you do so, don't buy cheap aftermarket Luminlays, but the originals. Secondly I have these on my two main (sixer fretless) basses and it's working great. I have two original Luminlay torches too, but black light (UV) will charge them as well as cell phone torch and daylight, so I don't think there's any hassle there as it's all quite common including onstage black light. So, to me, the real Luminlays are totally worth it, and avoid the others.

I read that as slow blow, 100 mA, low rupture capacity, 250 V, which shouldn’t be hard to find - CPC website is down right now otherwise I’d find it there and give you a link. Is it 20 mm or 32 mm long and is it from a device’s mains inlet or something else?

I've had my eye on one of these for a while and have been reading the comments/reviews on the topics that mention the Z7. On Wednesday I had my replacement credit card and it had to be road tested and... well... ummm... I was looking for a natural finish but when searching Anderton's website, the only Z7s with this finish were 5 strings. But search for natural finish basses without using the manufacturer's name and these pop up. The QC and setup out of the box were great and I don't see (hear?) the need to fiddle to make any improvements so far. The pre-amp set up will take a while - I've only played through headphones so far but it seems there are a lot of potential options. I can see what everyone is saying about the knobs feeling cheap and I'll be looking for replacements at some point. I also think the two stacked knobs seem quite vulnerable to knocks, particularly if the bass is on a stand on a stage. Mine weighs in at 4.4kg (9.7lbs).

Theresa Scanners? John "x-ray" Scanners eldest daughter? She was legendary at Taunton Aerodrome Security as nothing got past her. Eventually she was sacked because so many passengers complained they had to board the planes without their luggage or clothes.

Guitarists pine for them.

Get there behind me, Satan 👹

The one there is not. The chase only there is.

That's definitely worth plastering over any social media accounts one might have. Thanks for the link. 👍

You do find some gems occasionally in Pawn shops... I've bought many a guitar from Cash Converters over the years, the 3 quite unbelievable ones that spring to mind are: ● The original Warwick Vampyre bass, serial number 1001, which in Warwick terms IS no.1. This was confirmed by Hans P Wilfer. ● A Gibson Les Paul signed by 35 artists including Aerosmith, Guns n Roses, Alice Cooper, Meat Loaf, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath etc. ● An LA Custom Shop Ibanez Iceman owned and stage played for years by Sam Totman of Dragonforce. None of the above Cash Converters really knew what they had... Makes you wonder how/why some people give up these gems.

We reply to all emails that come into our inbox, if you could resend then we will reply instantly, thank you

I've bought from Will on two occasions and will do again I'm sure, compared to my experience of other bass specialist shops or UK based instrument retailers, BB or Thomann is my preferred route. It's all opinion when you strip everything else away, for me personally I appreciate being given the time of day, rather than being treated like a potential transaction only.

hello guys, Christophe from CMC Audio here, thanks for the kind words! I hope you'll like this one, I'm here if you have any questions.

In my old blues rock trio I used to do the MC stuff. I'd always start with 'We are called Toredown. If you've seen us before we have some new tunes. Probably some new mistakes. (pause) But the same old jokes'. 'If you haven't seen us before we go something like this'... the launch into it straight off. We found that the more blues rock orientated punters liked to know something about the songs, especially the more unusual ones - what they were called, who they were by. Not each time. At one point in the gig guitarist Alan would change guitars and, if it was the right kind of crowd, I'd say something like 'There are always people who come to live music who are interested in the gear we use so while Alan is changing guitars I'll just take this opportunity to talk about his stufff. Earlier he was using a cream coloured guitar with two pointy bits and is now changing to a caramel coloured guitar with one pointy bit (pause) It's small details like that can make an evening, I find'. It usually got a titter.

Terry it's certainly not a competition to who's the biggest bass shop, it doesn't matter. Everyone seems to be doing ok so that's all that matters, so no more go under. We (Bassbros) offer the same returns policy, as required by law. On the email issue, I'm sorry if you haven't had a reply, we have had ongoing issues with our account which we're always trying to get on top of. Most emails seem to come through as we usually receive a large amount a day which we reply to, but it seems some may not be coming through (sometimes the 'sell your bass' page) . If you don't get a reply feel free to call us to check. Also we work flat out, there's only a couple of us here, so always doing the best we can working long days every day and just expanding the showroom currently on top of all the usual things. We sell around 1500 basses and guitars a year and ever growing so we have a massive turnover of instruments, with only a couple of us here it's a lot of work so aways doing the best we can. Thanks, Will - BassBros

When I was watching Lockdown Licks with Guy Pratt back in 2020, I had this idea to put a truly outstanding bass together based on things that I love and things I really loved in a lot of Guy's basses. I decided that now was the time to get myself a Status neck, and I'm glad that I did, I don;t think anyone saw the end coming so soon for the production of Status necks. I've had 2 Warmoth basses in the past and they were exceptional in terms of quality and fit and finish so I decided to go with a chambered alder body Dinky jazz bass with a mahogany top with 70s pickup spacing and routed for a double battery box. After watching many Warmoth videos, I settled on Taos Turquoise but not gloss - the satin finish. The rest was easy - EMGs, BTS 2 band EQ, Fender Hi mass bridge and neck plate and the humungous Gotoh EB=P3 strap buttons with Fender rubber washers. Once the bass was put together I played it for a few years and loved it, except from about the middle of 2023 I had an unexpected issue - I had lost lot of weight, going from a mighty 19 stone down to 13 and a half and the bass no longer sat right. I tried other basses and they were all the same. Eventually, I got fed up one night and decided to resurrect my Harley Benton 75 thing with the heavy ash body - that was it, the extra weight made it balance properly. For some reason, after 30 years of playing, I couldn't play unless the headstock pointed upwards. Level was no good to me anymore, I needed the headstock to be higher than the body so I began designing Lockdown Bass #2. It had to be heavy so I decided to go with solid maple and specified somewhere between 6-7 pounds and omit the truss rod trench as the Status neck adjusts at the top and I didn't want to have a scratchplate. I tried many different finishes until my wife saw one of them and said - That's the One! I wanted to do something slightly different so have this time gone with EMG X series pickups and the BQC 3 band EQ but used the same bridge and neck plate. Anyone with a weak back or a fear of heavy basses might want to look away now as I weighed it once completed. The body they sent was 7.4 lbs and the whole bass, considering it has Hipshot Ultralites fitted weighs 13lbs! That's nearly a stone. Luckily I am in great shape and train three times a week so the combination of that and a really good neoprene strap should see me through many a wedding gig. Anyway, here it is in it's original form followed by the new and improved (and heavier) version in Holoflake:

It's fine thankfully. They did state that the bass will come with a professional set up. If it was was up by a professional I'd be interested to know as to what the profession was! I'm glad it came with a tool kit...

Sometimes I just use a low-gain overdrive into my bass. Si

Theres scanners at the door so people don't sneak out with the food, no show, no eat

Hope it all goes well. If you decide not to come, do you want us to save you some crumble?

Another one for the Sean and P bass fans, I haven’t seen it all yet as I’ve got to go out but will watch later , love it

Thanks for your input chaps 🙏🏼

In case you didn't see it in the Mustang Brotherhood thread

Years ago, when I was broke, a guy I knew found a a Yamaha TRB 6-string made of some fancy, exotic wood for about €100,- He asked me for advice, 'cos he had no idea about such things. Had I not been broke and/or had it been a 5-string, I would have snapped it up. Instead, we flogged it for about €900,- (it needed some serious TLC) and split the money.

Already 6 years have past since this topic. I will not open another one, just say Hello again !

Mine has the twin pole jazz pick up and I haven't noticed any significant drop off in volume. It was one of the things I was prepared for after reading other reviews, but it hasn't manifested itself here. Thanks. The finish was the trigger for me. I would have gone for the Z3 but I didn't like any of the finishes.

I figure it’s their band, their music and their choice who plays it.. so it's completely irrelevant what the public thinks. I love that they’re doing what they want to, and if people like it too then great, but they certainly aren't doing it just to please others, or to get public approval. I saw them with my brother on the Roll the Bones tour. We were three rows from the front at the NEC. We are both going to go and see them next year, assuming they do UK shows.

I’ve been a user of Luminlay for a number of years. Very content and, in my opinion, a worthwhile upgrade. The luminosity is enough on dark stages without that “look at me” element that some LED setups have. I don’t use a UV lamp regularly and they still work in a subtle, useable way. The original Luminlay product from Japan is expensive. Other products are out there (e.g. Glowtech stickers) that I haven’t tried. These may be good as well, and they may be cheaper. “You pays your money”, as they say.

You sick weirdo … you’ll be “experimenting with chords” next 😳

Truly fugly, though I'm sure it sounds amazing . I'd prefer the Les Paul next to it TBH

Level 42 supported by Roachford tonight in Cambridge. If I’m honest, Roachford is the draw for me. Amazing songwriter and performer. Still, the other lot aren’t half bad too!