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And here's the last instalment from the prolific lens of of resident Bash photographer-cum-food dispenser Janey Scrumpette. As the last shot shows, it was just about warm enough for a few hardy souls to dine 'al fresco'. As in previous years, special thanks are due to Phil Starr for his thought-provoking (and myth-busting) shoot-out, and to Stevie for bringing a selection from his truly excellent range of LFSys FRFR cabs. I've had a top-of-the-range Monaco for a few years now and wouldn't use anything else. If you're thinking about investing in any of his products, don't hesitate. You won't regret it. HALL BOOKED FOR SUNDAY 11 OCTOBER 2026!! 🙂

We're a bass community, anyone is free to discuss any topic that they wish. If you don't want to read a thread because it doesn't interest you, then you don't need to. Anyway, @Hellzero - I never liked you anyway and you've only ever sold me terrible basses at terrible prices, so good riddance! 😆 When you're ready, sell me the Lefay so I can crudely weld some ladder rungs to that steel fretboard and turn it into a proper bass! First Brexit stopped us trading basses, and now youve given up bass! What will be reversed first... Brexit or you quitting bass? 🤔

The first photo my brother sent is possibly too disturbing... The second one shows he's already channeling Duck Dunn... He's insistent that if he'd chosen as bass for himself this would be it. Everyone is knocked out by the burgundy mist finish. But he still plays like a guitarist 😁 received_1864114047862136.mp4

This reminds me of an 'incident' with our old Keyboards Player, Hugh McKenna from the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. Hugh was not very technically literate (but a brilliant pianist). The battery that supported the motherboard of his Korg gave out and we promised to replace it for him before a gig. We had done our research and printed out various instructions on how to do the 'op'. Said battery was buried about 3 mother boards down, so we had his keyboard spread over quite a lot of the stage before successfully replacing the battery. Huw was quite nervous but we exuded an air of confidence. When we put it back together and it went through its set up was the point that I discovered that Keyboards could be tuned to different pitches (I didn't know this at the time). We opted for one only to discover that it didn't conform with all our instrument tuning. We ended up tuning by ear as the audience were wondering what's going on by then. At the very last minute I found the menu option for correct tuning (causing us to have a second panic), but at least Hugh was happy!

Bring back the American Standard.

You've seen pictures of the lovely food. Here are the lovely ladies that prepared and served it throughout the day. Thank you!

At last night's rehearsal we thrashed three songs over three hours to hone their structures. I was charged with finding a satisfying end to one song and after much trial and error found that adding a descending arpeggio of a four note G-augmented chord was an awesome way to take my finishing run down to the final E. I've never found a 'musical' application for one before but it sounded absolutely perfect. We'd tried loads of ideas but going up to the G then down sounded perfect. No punter will ever appreciate six people spending fifteen minutes to get to that!

This happened in a pub in Hemel that my old punk covers band used to play, back around 2010. They used to pay £300 for bands, and pretty much have capacity (120 people) every band night. But once the pub changed hands the new "business minded" owners/managers thought £300 was too much so paid £120 to single performers with backing tracks/duos with acoustic guitars. Who played to about 16 people. Thankfully the pub is now owned/run by a guy who used to be a singer in a band, and he has bands on most nights, pays well, has really put some work into the stage area, and as such punters are back.

*thinks* I don't know how much longer I can keep this in... wish I hadn't gone overboard with the hard boiled eggs at lunch...

Ni.

Great idea for a thread! I've had a few over the years - mustang PJ, JMJ and a squier musicmaster which I had modified. I fancy a vintera 70s or performer model at some point and I'll be keeping an eye out for used squier antiguas in the future...

An interesting contribution to a Facebook thread (not from me, I should add) that has relevance ot us here. I’d just like to chip in my views on all of this, as I hold some pretty strong opinions on the state of things right now. I’m both a hospitality consultant and a musician that plays across the UK, so I can see the issues on both sides. I feel this gives me a fairly balanced take on the problems, though I do think the blame rests mostly with venue operators. 1st issue: Many venues book the band but then expect the band to do everything. The ones that offer ticket split type shows are the worst for not promoting anything. They already have their captive audience, but it has to be a team effort when it comes to marketing. 2nd issue: You have to spend money on promotions. Gone are the days where a crappy poster and a couple of Facebook posts were enough. The time has to go into it. We’ve played around 30-40 gigs this year and most of them have sold out. The common denominator is that both the venue and ourselves have spent money on sponsored posts and time on content. That’s the world we live in now. A crappy Facebook event isn’t bringing anyone that wasn’t already going to come. This should be agreed and decided at the point of booking - it pays dividends on the night. 3rd issue: If it’s a fixed fee, the venue and band should decide what’s being spent on marketing, and that should be factored into any payments or costs. For covers and tribute bands, the best policy is usually for the venue or promoter to head up marketing. It makes the biggest difference as they have the captive audience in their area. 4th issue: Venues need to understand that bands aren’t cheap and stop mugging people off. It’s often a 10-12 hour day including travel. £300 between six people should not happen. Bands also need to stop selling themselves short for £5 an hour. If a venue can’t afford to pay a band properly, they need to rethink their goals - book solo acts, duos, or DJs instead who are better quality. If you’re getting £300 bands, no wonder nobody’s coming. It’s because they’re probably shit and you’ve built a rep for having mediocre bands 5th issue: We can’t change the world, so we have to live with it as it is. Stop trying to run pubs like it’s 1970. It’s a digital world now. If you can’t get on board with socials as a pub manager, employ a company to do it all - otherwise you will inevitably fail. 6th issue: I wouldn’t worry too much about pubs having gigs listed on their website. Most pub websites get very few views aside from people checking opening times and menus. It’s handy as a ticket outlet with direct links from socials, but that’s about it. Socials are the absolute decider in whether venues fill or not. Lastly, for bands: Work on actually creating a brand and image for yourselves. Don’t just be another dad rock band or claim to be the number one tribute. Put some effort into creating something memorable that stands out and stop accepting shitty gigs. Be more selective about who you work with and where you play - it all adds to your image. The first thing I look at before booking anyone is where else they’ve played. If it’s a bunch of skanky, run down pubs that are on their last legs, I’m probably going to look elsewhere. In short, both sides have got lazy or are too stubborn to move with the times. Both must. Formula for a dead night: Shit band + no promotion. Cost to average size venue: the band and Running at 50% capacity. Let’s say a venue can take £6k on the bar on a busy night - you lose £300 on a cheap band and miss out on £3k of sales. Gross for the night: £2.7k (without other factors or overcomplicating it). Formula to sell the place out: Fairly decent band (£800) + £200 on marketing. Venue at 100% capacity. Gross for the night: £5k. Even more if it’s ticketed. Plus a growing rep for having the best bands around on. Why venues don’t understand these simple maths is beyond me. There’s no excuse. If a venue says “Even if I promote it, it doesn’t work”, then either you’re promoting it wrong, or your venue is already past the point of no return and you probably need to start thinking of a plan B.

It lives! Last night I was trying to work out which HT node the excess curent was coming from. The various components up to the third node (C+) all tested ok but I was measuring 121k from C+ to ground where it should have been open circuit. Before I turned in for the night it occurred to me that I should look for leakage in the coupling caps. While I was falling asleep (in the hypnagogic state, no less) I kept thinking that there were resistors where there should be capacitors, but when I woke up I realised that was just daft. This afternoon I checked over the circuit diagram and worked out there are just two 100nF capacitors which, if leaky, could allow positive voltage onto the control grids of the 6L6s, thus messing up their negative bias. I found them on the layout, but when I looked on my eyelet board, there was a 100k resistor fitted in each spot! I had written '100n' (for 100nF) on my layout but misread it as 100k (100kΩ). Consequently there was a straight resistive path from the anodes of the phase inverter to the control grids of the 6L6s, with no capacitors to block DC. I took out the resistors, fitted the correct caps, and was able to bias the amp to a healthy place. I gave it a quick test through the guitar speaker cab that I keep in my music room, and all the controls seem to work as they should. Tomorrow I'll give it a try through my BF Super Twin while Mrs Axe is at work

And you were so close as well, had you replied just 18-years sooner you might have nabbed it 👍

It’s the Letts bass thread all over again! Shonky work delivered to a customer who can’t be bothered to stand up for himself. Unless you name the builder, this thread is pointless. If it’s supposed to serve as a warning, it doesn’t with those details. You’ve already decided it’s unacceptable or you wouldn't have posted it. Get a grip and send it back for a refund and go somewhere else.

The big reveal! @Phil Starr always puts on an interesting demo at the SW Bash. This year, he played a short bass track through all of these cabs - hidden behind an acoustically transparent screen - asking us to figure out what they were. Like everyone else, I didn't have a clue. I knew which one I preferred and which ones I didn't, but that was as far as it went. After the reveal, it turned out we had been listening to a range of cabs containing drivers extending from 6" to 15" - and nobody twigged. Amazing! Which, to cut a long story short, goes to prove something that most of us probably knew anyway: that size doesn't matter. 😀 My personal preference, which I think quite a number agreed with, was for the 8" cab. It sounded cleaner and better balanced to me because it was the only one with any decent high frequency extension. I think Phil is toying with attending the SE Bash. If so, someone should persuade him to do something similar there.

Well, waddaya know - another LFSys Monza! Partnered by a Bugera Veyron - an excellent combination. Note the tiny but pokey homemade cab in the background. @Pea Turgh's, I believe.

This is a rubbish picture of a great bass. I had the chance to play @rwillett's printed headless wonder and it sounded awesome! Who needs tonewoods?

@Sean's awesome Lany valve amp dwarfing his LFSys Monaco. I think that's @Wolverinebass's very noisy Explorer on the right.

Very old and slightly fuzzy photos of a GB Spitfire I owned circa 2009 for about 6 months. Incredible bass and one of very few Jazz style basses I've ever owned. This was Daphne blue with an off-white scratch plate, along with all the funky GB electronics, like a built in tuner and metronome.

"Every time you go away, you take a piece of meat with you."

I hope all works out for you. The thing about dealing with people who make your enjoyment disappear.... I was on the verge of stopping playing a short while since (earlier this year) as our ex-guitarist was just a nightmare to work with and he was making me and my drummer totally miserable and I had been dreading going out to gigs. Once we parted with him, I got the bit between my teeth to replace him with someone far more suitable and we were back out gigging 6 weeks later. Your mojo can come back with the right people.

After our gig on Friday we were inundated with media forwarded on to us: 66 photos and 14 videos. The same people were there at our gig on Sunday and... nothing! (So far). So you'll have to put up with the single photo I took, this time from behind the drum kit for a change... Our second visit to the Donkey (now the Donkey Venue) since the change of management. The old regulars are still boycotting the place, but we still managed to fill it. It doesn't quite have the same vibe though - it's lost the "specialness" we used to feel. It was hot again, and great fun though. However I seemed to use up my annual allocation of cockups in the first spot, starting off in the wrong key on the very first note and continuing downhill from there. Ah well, I got them all out of the way in the first 6 songs so can look forward to playing the rest of the year flawlessly 😂 Usual kit: Stingish bass, GT-6B, Big Muff again (but didn't actually engage it!) into Rumble. Shiny black DMs. Compliments this time included my lights: a pair of Thomann Stairville CLB4 RGBW(?) 4-way bars with a couple of mini kintas bolted on top. Now, it's a simple formula: band plays, beer gets sold, band gets paid. I'm not quite sure if the new management have quite got the hang of it yet though. We could have done without hanging around after we finished loading, for 20 minutes waiting for them to stuff some notes into an envelope. 🙄

Bit the bullet over Thomanns guitar day offer. I wanted something small to bring with me to work on public transport and then on to a pub for a folk / uke jam night. This has really surprised me, it's great fun and has a huge sound. Delighted to have it as a couch bass too

After years of playing with the same gear, I’ve decided to order a LFSys Monza. I was torn between a Monza and a Monaco. Stephen really helped me along in making the choice, although ultimately I had to make it myself, and I went for the more compact and lighter option. I’m very curious, especially whether the cab will provide enough headroom, particularly during rehearsals with a band that has two guitarists, a solid drummer, and a keyboard player who really digs in on his Hammond plus Leslie. A second Monza is always an option, but I hope I can manage with just one. It’s quite a gamble to put your money on a speaker cabinet you’ve never heard in person. I based my decision purely on the posts here on Basschat, the specs, and the info on the website. The cabinet itself (the wood, the bracing) already looks like a beautifully thought-out piece of craftsmanship. I don’t think it could be better. I’m as excited as a kid for the delivery and will of course share how the Monza performs in the field, both in the rehearsal space as a stand-alone and as an addition for stage sound. Live, I always play with my band using in-ears and PA. I could even leave everything at home for gigs and just take my bass and pedalboard with me. But according to our sound engineer, some bass sound should also come from the stage itself. The drummer does that naturally, and the guitarists bring amps and cabs as well. People standing at the front of the stage also deserve the experience of a live band, not just PA sound coming from the sides. It might seem like a noble goal that I’m making this investment for the audience, but of course I’m really buying it for myself (haha!). It’s great to have the finest gear and to purchase something from someone who puts so much heart and soul into their work. That part is definitely not a gamble. I am 100% certain about that and have complete confidence in it. Whether it stops at one Monza, I’ll let you know. If it does, then we’re truly talking about innovation, evolution, and refinement that I can benefit from now, and that younger bass players will also benefit from later. There’s so much commercial gear for sale, including small cabinets at very low prices. I’ve also owned and used larger cabs, like the Chinese-made Kustom 8x10 (a fantastic cab in terms of sound) or Ampeg’s budget B-410 series. There’s good and affordable gear out there. It doesn’t always have to be expensive or boutique to sound great. But I also want to explore the spectrum of the best builders, the ones who make the very best there is. That can cost a bit more, and that’s a personal choice.

Fritz keeps Vlogging us!

Yes, you played through a Monza, Rob.

These are the cabs from Phil's demo (next to a headless @Chienmortbb)

Oh how I miss my Roscoes, especially the 32" Buckeye LG. Here are pics of a few of my old crop. There were two others also missing from list. I now have serious Roscoe GAS again.

Here's Woody standing by his BC112 cab, which looks like it's done a fair few gigs. You can just see his Rickenbacker, which I heard and was very impressed by. I'd forgotten how good they were.

Not sure, even if my ads are saying the opposite... Time will tell. 😉

FTFY

Indeed, big money for those seats.

And the next lot!

Agree with all the views about this being unacceptable. My experience of commissioning a custom bass, which was also a bit of a prototype for the luthier. He was having problems with his spray booth at the time. He made several attempts to get the vintage sunburst right. Showed me the second iteration, while saying I think this is too orange isn’t it. I was about to say actually it’s not bad and he said, I’ll strip it and start again. Third time round, it was spot on as far as I was concerned but he wasn’t entirely happy with it. He had other orders backing up and I said I could live with it but he insisted on giving me a 40% discount! In the end it came out about the same price as Fender were charging for a MIM Mustang P/J. That was with Babicz bridge, expensive machine heads, etc. Later, when I said I was getting a bit of hum (despite the whole thing being shielded with copper tape), he identified a possible phasing issue with the pickups and rewound them for free. He also gave it a free after care service at the 6 month point: dressed any sprouting frets from the fingerboard drying out, set the action, etc. In my view you should be looking for all the issues to be sorted and a hefty discount for the inconvenience. The luthier should pay for any return shipping costs as well.

Apologies but I had to try (I'll keep practicing)

Self built bluey goodness

You could do a lot worse than a Bugera Veyron. I had one as a backup and it was fine. I didn't notice much, if any, difference between it and my Aguilar AG700. Get the mosfet version if you want a more neutral sound (handy as it's a bit cheaper than the valve - only in the preamp, not full valve - model). They're about £230 new, so used ones are not expensive. Ignore the ludicrous claims about 1000w output (you won't need anything like that with a couple of BF 110s, anyway). Half that is probably closer to the mark and the power reserves will keep it clean if you need to push things a bit.

Yeah, that is of course my Grainger Hades on the right. I think a few folk thought it was just "too mad" to have a go on, which was a pity. Naturally, sonically, it's set up for me, so precision with flats it most definitely is not. Noisy? Not really. Loud? Absolutely! I don't think that one can play a bass that visually striking quietly without appearing silly. Especially not when you're playing through a Laney Nexus and one of your Monaco cabs.

You can't beat a home made cab. There were a number of self-built cabs to be seen. Here's one.

Here are a few more pics of the Bash. The first one shows how busy it was. This was definitely the busiest SW Bash I've been to. Most of the familiar faces were present, with a few welcome new ones.

latest edition

A couple of comments that apply here… 1. much of the additional labor applies to correcting previous repair work, and removal of the PCB for the additional work (including cleaning residue and contamination, which is important to minimize leakage currents) 2. 20% of the total repair cost doesn’t go to the shop, it goes to the all government to pay for the costs of running the country, including social heath programs. The pre-VAT amount is similar to the cost of factory servicing.