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Most things are these days...

We're providing acoustic background music for a posh fund raiser tomorrow night, 10/16. The real value with this gig is not our fee. This is a giant networking opportunity. All the town elders and business owners will be there. We got into The Bend Theatre from doing events like this and hitting up the real " money people" "Roots and Branches is Celebrating 35 Years of Beautifying West Bend! Honoring our roots…it all started in July, 1990. Maradel Sager and about 20 volunteers organized the West Bend Beautification Committee, now known as Roots and Branches. Join us as we celebrate “our roots” at our largest fundraiser of the year, The Garden Party, on Thursday, October 16, 5:30 pm, at The Prairie Center, West Bend. Tickets" Daryl

So, I am a sucker for Oly white Precisions and certainly for ones with dark rosewood necks. Big thanks to @Willfunk at BassBros for sorting me out with this Pro ii. Perfect weight, extremely resonant and has some serious grind!! And as per usual the service was nothing short of exceptional 😊

The bass looks really poor, I have to say. It's not just one issue here but several, which is what tends to convince me that the overall workmanship is poor and the builder doesn't care. Letting a bass go with one flaw and hoping it wouldn't be noticed is lazy and unacceptable but to send something out with a number of flaws like this, all of which are quite obvious, just shows contempt for the customer and the £2300 spent. The binding is stained. The paint is flawed. The fret ends look ridiculous (is one of them casting a shadow in one of those photos?). The scratchplate looks like it's been hand cut with an old tin opener. The neck and bridge are out of alignment, and the OP didn't even notice that! I am guessing the OP is in the UK given that he stated what he'd paid in £. I do often wonder if UK customers now are given short shift at times because of their apparently meek nature and the additional issues and costs with shipping in and out of the country. In this case, we once again see an OP tip-toeing around the issue of naming this botch-jobber in the hope that this would give him some bargaining power to get the bass fixed, unaware that bending the knee at such an early stage just signals defeat. FWIW, I wouldn't want such a sloppy bass back; I wouldn't want an ornament of insult sat around my house reminding me of the episode. OP, you're the customer and you're supposed to get what you want when you're spending the thick end of two and half grand. Grovelling and hoping the builder will deign to fix his issues is just... not what I would do. It reminds me a bit of the Letts bass saga, or the handful of posters on Talkbass clutching at straws and hoping Joe Zon would finally build them the bass they had paid for a decade ago. We've had it here before with dodgy builders like Cristian Grosu and Grosmann basses, where builders were named for sending out subpar instruments and it saved the community plenty of headaches in the process. Not here, but on Bass Upfront and groups like that, I was able to warn a few people to read up on some of the horror stories about Grosmann including one on this very site. I'd like to think I saved a few people some cash and some disappointment. OP really should name the builder in this instance to prevent others going through what he has had to put up with.

Hey Burns-Bass You'll have to excuse my mammoth sized pendatry 🤣 Not only will the string be quieter when further away from a pole-piece, it will have less 'transient' tone and lack more frequenices often described as 'punch'. (I'd say mid-range, but it can vary). You can test this by lowering your pickups in to the body as far as they will go and then record the bass (adjusting for overall volume drop). It will sound different. Adjusting for transient response (making it more even) is why Leo Fender moved from a single-pole piece on a 51/54 style pickup to two per string as per the Split-Coil as an example. This change in construction also changes the tone of the pickup too, but that's not what's being discussed. For bassist that bend strings, the distance from the pole-pieces makes a huge difference. I'd demonstrate with a bass I have just recorded video for, but it is all boxed up already. It was really noticeable when the string moved out of the direct field of the pole pieces - which, is why i personally much prefer rail or bar pole pickups. The transient response is much more controlled offering a better, (louder in comparison) "bloom" of the note and therefore a richer tone. TL/DR .. is relevant 😊☺️

Absolutely my all time favourite player, and he rarely gets any credit….. the bass lines for XTC on Drums and Wires or Black Sea, are absolutely outstanding and completely original. Nobody sounds like that…. go and listen to Roads Girdle The Globe from Drums and Wires, and give your ears a treat.

There was a story Jeff Berlin tells about listening to the Jaco record. Jeff said it his brother “I can play all that, it’s not that hard.” To which his brother replied, “yes, but could you write it?” I’m paraphrasing a bit but the essence is the same. Coming up with this stuff is the hard bit, there are plenty of others in the world who can play it.

It's one half of a pair of northerners carrying a ladder.

I'm definitely borderline artistic, or at least on the artistic spectrum

Certainly not from a work device 👍

Why buy a cheap one from China, when you can pay a king's ransom for one from America that's almost as bad? 😁

Maybe in its simplest for, music, acting, painting, performing, writing, photography etc. is a creative art and thus, one who does this is an artist. One who crafts things, for example builds, designs, repairs, constructs etc. is a craftsman.

A few small tweaks for tonight’s rehearsals. Pretty sure I’m going to be going back to the PedalTrain Jr Max to fit a few extra bits on, but for now, this is rocking!

The plural of Status is Statuses. A group of Statuses is called a reputation.

The 2 x Paul's (@NancyJohnson & @prowla) and I convened for a lovely curry last night..... and, as Nancy says... it was indeed a windy night Just had confirmation that Chris Childs (Thunder etc) will be a special guest and will do a Q&A, short career chat and demo at around 2pm on the day. We're also working on another guest or two (subject to their availability) as well as some fun stuff...

I don’t know what that is, but I know not to google something with that combination of words in it.

I've just booked into a hotel for three nights. The 'above lively music venue' was an attraction... I enquired and it's karaoke on friday and saturday...

Ponce. ...

Brilliant, we've Basschatted the thread 👍

I'm guessing Maruszczyk?

Chris is a top bloke and a very tasty player. I’ve seen him with Thunder, but mostly I saw him with local legends (when I lived down south), Bad Influence, when I making the jump from the 6 string thing, to the righteous instrument. I count him as an influence because of this timing. He also has a great singing voice too. Very much the complete package - so when I say top bloke, I mean utter, utter bastard . Seriously, those attending are in for a treat.

I guess right now, it's the Fazley Hot Rod. This is the result of my "£150 giggable bass challenge", and it has quite a story to it. Buoyed by the positive result of buying a bass for £150 (the Gear4Music LA Select bound P bass thingy) and then mucking about with it (replacement pickup, tuners etc., bit of fret work), under the banner of "how bad can a £150 bass be?", I decided to lower the bar further and set myself a new challenge of setting the entire budget of the project to £150 - that's initial cost of the bass plus any remediation required, new parts only, (postage ignored) because I'm quite mad. Back in September 2024 I spied the Fazely Hot Rod on Bax Music and thought to myself, damn, I like the look of that. Surf green, no pickguard, reverse P, single volume control. £84 at the time, perfect as the starting point for a £150 project. It was out of stock but I placed the back order anyway, knowing that it would take several months for a new batch to arrive. It's not like I don't have other basses to play after all. So the ETA begins to lengthen - was initially end of 2024, but the date kept slipping and you probably know why - Bax Music went bankrupt in April 2025. I am in the privileged position to be able to shrug off an £84 loss so shrug I did. In the interim, as I had pickups lying around waiting for basses to go into, I snagged an Epiphone Embassy Special IV locally for £150 and chucked an Entwistle neodymium pickup in it, and very nice it is too, but that's another story. To my surprise, rumblings of Bax Music being bought over and coughing back into life happened, and to my further surprise, I got an email at the end of May saying that the newco was going to fulfil back orders. Despite my scepticism, I played along, answered any questions they put to me (like opting to wait on the goods ordered instead of getting store credit now). It took a few months for them to get around to my order but to my amazement, a parcel was dispatched to me on 7th August and I recieved it a few days later. So it took the best part of a year to arrive - but was it worth it? Oh hell yeah. I honestly don't know how they did it. The only cost saving areas I could find were the comically bad pickup (which I was going to change anyway), the finish is a bit wibbly wobbly in places (like ripples in it if you look really close) and zero cavity shielding. Oh, and the stock strings were absolute thin, rough garbage. But the fretwork is great, it even has a subtle chamfer/roll to the fretboard edges. The tuners are acceptable at the price point, and acceptable as tuners go in general. The bridge was your bog standard BBOT, nothing to complain about there. So, to get it up to snuff, I replaced the pickup with a Tonerider Duke, shielded the cavities, replaced the bridge (didn't have to, but I had a £19 Guyker bridge lying around which has partially slotted saddles and hides the ball ends of the strings for a cleaner look), fitted a triple string tree (because I like them), and the finishing touch - a giant volume knob! Final tally was £144.67. I've only gigged it once so far, but it was great - I'm not much of a knob twiddler at the gig but there was this weird sense of extra liberation when there's nothing bar a volume knob to p!ss about with! I'll shut up now, but TL:DR this is currently my budget #1.

I've just PM'd the three of you about Matt Gleeson's slot. 😉

Lob a set of these in. 😎

I just noticed a post of mine from 2024 when my £200 Yamaha was my cheap but cheerful bass. Things have progressed. My current cheap one is Squier Affinity which cost me nothing at all - it was given to me in a very neglected state, with rusty strings, manky fretboard, and buzzy electrics. It had previously been refinished nicely though in an aged Fiesta Red nitro and a decent tort plate so it looked the part at least. I’ve since cleaned it up and installed a Tonerider Classic P pickup, a Fender Vintage 60s bridge which has been in my drawer for about 20 years, and some GHS Precision Flats. Ive used it at three of the last four gigs and it’s done very well - does that fairly rudimentary “P bass with flats” sound perfectly well, weighs about 3.6kg and is quite a joy to play, in addition to the satisfaction of resurrecting something and bringing it back into gigging use.

Bravo

L’Etts

It was me!!! I BUILT IT! And I'd do it again to! Dang those meddling kids for ruining my plan...

I don't know what the original is supposed to sound like for comparison but I couldn't hear much "synth" bass in that clip. I'd get pretty close to that sound with a bit of drive and EQ, and IMO it certainly wouldn't be worth all the effort of using a synth pedal to sound like that.

But we all thought it...

It's not that Phillips guy from ebay is it?

I just like making a lot of noise.

Hee hee, got a borrow of an expression pedal - guess who's having some whammy fun tonight with his XS-1...

This is my current budget cheap one. A 2021 Indonesian Squire PJ picked up in July for £125. The only change I have made is to swap the scratchplate for the one in the photo. It was bought to act as a 'look-alike' back up for my PBass for gigs that needed the P Bass look and sound. It sounds great, particularly with the bridge pick up volume backed off a little to emphasise the 'P' pick up. I haven't touched the action or any of the hardware and the only work I've done to it was to give it a good clean. It's currently the bass of choice for an upcoming Country & Western gig the Hulla are doing in November.

I think that this is the nub of the issue. The interpretation, or understanding, of what the term 'artist' means to any one person is not necessarily in accordance with the dictionary definition, and has 'cultural' connotations. For my part, I would agree, generally, with the feeling of pretention when using the term, and have no great esteem for those that apply it too widely. Anyone can be taken to be an 'artist', whatever their 'skill' level, in whatever discipline, and there are many that do, indeed, claim the title, despite turning out what I would call 'rubbish', or worse. I have more esteem for 'craftsman' (OK, craftsperson, if you must..!), as that, to me, implies some mastery of the discipline in question. I'm rather wary of 'art' in general; this is simply my own notion, and I am quite happy to allow others to have a wider appreciation. There is no definitive, objective, way of determining what constitute an 'artist' except that offered by the dictionary, so, in that wide sense, most folk are 'artists' in one field or another. Does that give them (and I include myself...) any 'special' status..? I think not.

Personally I've always considered that the electronics package and construction has more bearing than the tonewood. I generally look for something reasonably lightweight but not so lightweight that blowing on it causes a dent.

From personal experience, it depends on where in the north you play. If you go to the north east or up into Scotland, you know you are going to get a great audience. But you wouldn't necessarily say the same for gigs in, say, Yorkshire. We play quite a lot gigs in the south east, which always have good sized and appreciative crowds. There is always a positive vibe, they react and sing along in all the right places. Of course, they're not quite on the same level with the north east, but more fun than most other places in the north.

Just in case it helps, I'd be happy to print a port up for you to play with. This is a cross section of a 125mm port. The purple is the drain pipe (or whatever, it's simply there to show where it fits), the red is the flange that the pipe connects to. It's all parameterised so I just made it 50mm as opposed to 125mm. It even has your name on it I've added chamfers in but no idea if they help or not. Rob

Neck... My Mock-up Neck-Thru

There is that Chris. I'm someone who is quite particular about how I sound. I can say that @stevie's cabs are possibly the best I've ever played. A lot of people gauge things on the low end. I always compare on the treble end. If that's off then I'm not interested, because if it is, you can pretty much guarantee the mid range is wrong and the bass end will probably be hyped or coloured. I hasten to say that I'm not on retainer, nor do I even own an Lfsys cab. They're just really, really good and if you value sonic fidelity of what you put in is what comes out, then this is what you're after.

Excellent. Not someone I’m likely to cross paths with then 👍

Dodgy luthiers stay in business through customers like this. They send out shonky rubbish knowing that some customers are marks who won't ask for refunds and will keep the identity of the builder a secret so others can fall into the same trap.

Im not sure if thats correct tbh. Asking for other peoples input and opinions is always going to be tricky if you won't give all the info ( builders name ) and then get offended at the end. Ive only ever found that 99% of the people on here are genuine and are willing to help anyone sort out a situation. Theres the odd one of course... Hopefully he gets the bass he wants and originally ordered.

Calm down, man. I had already decided it was unacceptable, I was looking for help and solutions on what to do about it. I have sent the bass back and he is going to refinish 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.