Leaderboard

Fretless Sterling Ray 34... Don't see many of these available. I also think this one was professionally defretted, I can't remember the lefties being available fretless. It has only arrived today but so far my thoughts: the fingerboard feels lovely, I think it's some kind of ebony. The neck profile is a bit slimmer than my US Stingray. Flatwounds sound great on it, I thought I'd need rounds of some kind but there are decent strings on it right now. Bad points: The machine heads feels a bit flimsy, will need to see how it settles. Also the preamp and pickup is nowhere near the league of my US Stingray. More discovery to be made after work

Nice little venue in Manchester, good sound and engineer, and we played pretty well, but the audience weren’t into it. I wheeled out the Yamaha RBX A2 5, which sounded fantastic, ace low B, so I’ll defo use that again. My TCBQ500 via a house Warwick 4x10 sounded decent, and so easy to walk across town with just the bass and head in a rucksack.

Before @cetera jumps in… Big Horizon were fantastic at Pizza Express Live - Holborn in London last night. A lovely evening of Yacht Rock, 70s West Coast pop tinged music. These guys are absolutely top of their game (which explains why the spend most of their time backing megastars on tour). Great set, great playing and what a fabulous voice Iain Hornal has! They did a couple of Jeff Lynne’s tunes (an obscure ELO one - Four Little Diamonds, and Handle With Care by The Traveling Willburys). As Jeff Lynne’s backing band for the last 10 years, they paid tribute to him and the unfortunate way the tour ended with him being too unwell to continue to his big Hyde Park retirement gig. Wonderful evening! Lee Pomeroy was a highlight, of course but watching him mangles my brain because all the strings and fingers are in the wrong place. Fab to see Gary PB and Costas there too!

My EUB / Guitar set up as of last week, a friend made me a silly offer on the MOOD so there's an empty space at moment, been thinking reverb maybe (after Echobox). Starts at the MINI on the top right and works left, then Onward to Meris X (bottom right). Some pedlas may look a bit wonky, only 3 have velcro at the moment. Its desk top use rather than floor, makes editting easier on the fly. Sounds f***ing awesome!

This is my whole current collection: Modulus BassStar 1989 Squier Precision 1983 ESP/ Vox Humana 1987 Modulus Funk Unlimited 2008 Fender Jazz Bass 1965 Fender Mustang Bass 1970 Fender Vintera Bass VI The BassStar and the Squier (equipped with La Bella flats) get the most use at the moment at home. When my band will restart (hopefully next month) the Funk Unlimited will be the first choice. I'm still downsizing, but would also love to add a 34" Modulus Quantum 😁

Thanks, it’s a little darker than it’s bigger brother - also Starry Night finish.

My circular saw proved capable of cutting a triple layer sandwich (once I set the cut height right). I used a different cutting pattern as I was cutting a maximum of 610mm - first a cut across at 300mm, then a second and third at 376mm. After that, I stacked the three pieces and cut at 276mm twice, so a total of five cuts. First, I made the sled - I'd glued and screwed a length of batten across the panel, and just cut across using that as a guide. Then I clamped up for the first cut, and found that when I'd just nipped up the fixing bolt for the blade that my definition of nipped up and the instructions definition of nipped up are different. Once rectified, off we went. The first cut is the shallowest. After that first cut, I was able to use the piece I'd just cut off to rest the other side of the circular saw base on. Another cut the same and then I stacked the wood. And at last got to the final cut. I still have to cut out holes in the front and rear.

Last night (Darren was hiding in the corner).

Tried a new rehearsal space with the originals band tonight. Tea, coffee a fridge with milk and cans of pop. Even a packet of choccie buscuits. Played a Warwick Gnome through a ~12" Orange speaker, sounded ok but when I gently boosted middle and cut bass it went very brittle and odd, so I set it back where I found it with a fair bit of bass boost. Gain and master both low. Decent electric drum kit (dodgy cymbal feel apparently) so we could keep volume down. Less space led us to a good sound. Apologised for going increasingly ott towards the end of a song that starts slow and speeds up, but that was liked. It's a three chord fairly slow number (66bpm) so getting more intense and doubling the tempo (bars don't get shorter, we just put in more notes) halfway keeps it interesting. All enjoyed it.

Fixed that for you!

All of that is no problem

A little tease. Wasn't sure about which Chameleon patch was more accurate when I made them yesterday (I need to go back with fresh ears). FI4 tease.mp3

When using short scale strings, the E string always sounds somewhat dead and disconnected from the sound of the other 3 strings on my U5. Yesterday I used an old long scale E string strung-thru the body, and what a massive improvement!

Cheers for that, just purchased one 👍🏻

Yep, Big Horizon were fabulous. Great to see you there Trev..... Gotta say that Lee Pomeroy and Donavan Hepburn are a seriously tight rhythm section... wonderful to watch and listen to!

These are on sale on a daily deal at Guitar Guitar for £849

A much more accessible chart today. The complete Steve Rodby part for the tune 'Afternoon' from the 2002 Pat Metheny Group album, 'Speaking Of Now'. I am hearing it in a gentle 12:8 because of the triplets throughout. Could be 6:8 or 4:4 swung triplets. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/afternoon-pat-metheny-group/

My exes, original '55 on the left, Fender Custom Shop (ex @AndyTravis) on the right

This advice offended one Basschat member so much that they left when I gave it. But it’s true.

Potential Walnut control plate finished for @HeadlessBassist walnut jazz bass build. Just waiting for his graphite neck to land and the assembly will begin!!

ok i briefly have the whole lot out of storage together so i took a quick pic! ...so rare to have them all in one room these days on account of the wife..

My Rics..

Thanks Stub. Herea link to us performing Ohio last year.

Battens already cut to length and drilled. My circular saw proved capable of cutting a triple layer sandwich (once I set the cut height right). I used a different cutting pattern as I was cutting a maximum of 610mm - first a cut across at 300mm, then a second and third at 376mm. After that, I stacked the three pieces and cut at 276mm twice, so a total of five cuts. First, I made the sled - I'd glued and screwed a length of batten across the panel, and just cut across using that as a guide. Then I clamped up for the first cut, and found that when I'd just nipped up the fixing bolt for the blade that my definition of nipped up and the instructions definition of nipped up are different. Once rectified, off we went. The first cut is the shallowest. After that first cut, I was able to use the piece I'd just cut off to rest the other side of the circular saw base on. Another cut the same and then I stacked the wood. And at last got to the final cut. I still have to cut out holes in the front and rear.

Anagram and Wireless on a PT nano back of the stage. Front of the stage a cheap midi footswitch

I have a few basses here, but for the last 6-months my go to bass has been a slab body 51 RI. It's hard to pinpoint the reason, I love the neck for sure, it's a baseball bat in every respect, and my bandmates appear to like it to the point that when I pulled out a late 70's Precision for a rehearsal the singer actually complained about the tone, and he never complains about anything. There is something in that slab body/SC/baseball bat space that really does work, certainly in my experience.

Ergonomics for sure... the forearm and belly cuts. Then he had a bit of a wobble with the Jazz Shaping and those Single Coils again! I have a Harley Benton PB50 modder and myopia - saved a bundle!

All my builds are in fact custom jobs. But they have to be Brooks basses. I don't build 1:1 copies. Nor do I have a desire to build fantasy shapes or amoebic creatures 😉 I am not an electronics wizard. So I don't offer to build custom circuits. I did work together with an effects builder for a weird bass a while ago. But I will not go that path again. But using pre-amps (like EMG or Bartolini) that are readily available is no problem.

Another one from the 'Saturday Night Fever' soundtrack, written by the Bee Gees. 9th Scott Edwards transcription and more to come. Yvonne Elliman - If I can't have you

Looks (and sounds) like an absolute beast! I had to stop and admire that bridge design - very clever way to get that many strings into that space.

After seeing his work so far, it seems nothing is impossible for him. I would say: very custom!

To be fair, that particular piece of kit has to be a good 40 years old. Model A or B, btw?

I appreciate that @Basvarken you're a Gibson person. How custom are you prepared to go? Is the basses being active possible? Custom circuits? Is putting say a pair of EMG's in something that might be considered for example? It's just a question. They're spectacular instruments by the way.

My Stingray acquired a little brother this morning. I think the previous owner has had the fingerboard professionally replaced, and a very good job has been done too. Hardware and electronics are not great but am hoping I can pickup some secondhand upgrades. Update: I am told by the previous owner it was bought as new in fretless. Lovely stuff.

Except it's not a complete non starter is it? Because you're taking you time to post on a thread about a pedal that actually exists and is selling well for bass players that uses pitch detection to drive a synth engine. Is it a solution for every case, obviously not. Is it the perfect solution, clearly not for the reasons you've just explained... yet here we are with other people working around the limitations and bending the laws of physics. Some folk will decide the MXR is the perfect flavour for their band, others will use something else, or will use keyboards, or in your case you will skip synth bass sounds as you don't have space for a keybords or want to use pedals other than your multifx unit, and others will have no interest in synth bass whatsoever... the point is different people will come to different conclusions and decisions. Someone who owns the pedal the thread is about and giving opinions on how it tracks on "does your mother know" is far more interesting.

Gary (Cetera) and I went to a Big Horizon gig last night at the Pizza Express, Holborn, so nice and intimate. For those of you that are not aware of this band, they're the backing band for ELO & Take That and they released their own material about a year ago which is in the vein of The Feeling and Yacht Rock and they're bloody excellent! Nice to see @TrevorR there, too, and the legend, Graham Gouldman. Anyway, Gary and I know busy and in-demand Lee and I think most of us are aware of his bass skills and he had a great sound last night. Whilst an EBS player, he does use Kemper rack units, but last night, he had the smaller, compact Kemper Profiler and it sounded great. I just wondered if anyone here is using one of these and how does it compare to the HX Stomp? Thanks

So i eventually succumbed to this......

I can promise you all this - if I ever get to do an international tour outside Japan I will definitely buy both an actual key synth, a MXR and FI4vip and take them all around the world - comparing them for all my basschat fans. You'll then see at least one of the three in the for sale section here post tour. This is my solemn promise to you all.

I regularly see the Hamish Stuart Band/360 band and his bassist is Steve Pearce - a top echelon session player and one of the best bassists I have seen live. He uses one of these. Mic'd up but you can still hear it.

That's good advice. Underpowered, so called practice amps are the best way possible to put off anyone starting out on bass. Get a small 'real' amp that will sound great at home and make the lovely full sound that made us all want to be bassists. They don't need to be huge either the BG250 has been mentioned. My first proper amp was a Hatrke Kickback 10, It sounded great and was good enough to see me through to first rehearsals with a drummer. I even managed a few gigs with it. Small enough to fit in any car but tbh it weighed more than it should have. It might be worth looking at separates if funds allow. Something like the Warwick Gnome will fit in a gig bag and combined with a 1x10 can be a very portable rig. Go for a good condition used amp and avoid the starter amps completely, they are a false economy as you can't really sell them and they really aren't fit for purpose. They will also kill any enthusiasm for bass. Probably the best thing you could do would be to go along and listen to a few things with her. Do you know what the budget is?

But why's that a sadness? It's a few pieces of wood and metal put together in a factory, to many people it's just as much a piece of visual art or a historic antique as it is a musical instrument (as I said above, you can get instruments just as good for around 5% of the likely price of this). As Leo would have agreed, there's nothing particularly special about them as instruments, it's not a Strad

There are quite a few high profile players using these kinds of pedals on stages: Mohini Dey, Chris Wolstenholne, Mike Gordon, off the top of my head.

Dang, that's got to be worth a few bob. Tom's Guitars is a great little shop that has carved out a nice little niche. Tom Smith specialises in weird and unusual second-hand instruments, unique and interesting things that fit in well with a vintage/craft market like Greenwich. It's not an approach that would work in many places, but I think the high footfall he gets in that spot makes it possible to find someone for all his odd 1960s East German guitars, electric bouzoukis, 80s shred machines, etc. I think it helps that he gets a lot of bored blokes who have been left dangerously unattended while their wives are off looking at the market's excellent selection of jewelry, fancy soap, handbags and antiques. I sold a home-built baritone guitar on commission through the shop last year – the sort of instrument that would have sat for years on ebay or in most shops. Tom shifted it in about three weeks.

I picked this up cheap because it's in a bit of a state and I felt sorry for it. It's not a particularly common bass around these parts, so I figured I could get it back to being hale and hearty again. It's pretty dirty - the tuners are green in places and I had to wash my hands after stringing this bad boy back up - boak! But that's just dirt. The main issue with this bass is the neck pickup. The coil windings have been... interrupted shall we say. Thankfully most of the coil is intact, the break is pretty close to the beginning/end of the coil so I'm going to try to unwind it slightly back to good wire then solder it back up and see if that works, failing that I guess I'll need to get it rewound. A wee project for the weeks ahead. Its mostly cleaning and polishing, the pickup to attempt to repair, and maybe some finish repair on a couple of nasty chips in the neck finish. Dunno if it's worth a build diary, so I'll probably just document my progress here. FWIW, the remaining pickup sounded pretty decent in my wee Laney 30W combo in the office here. For all the dings/dents/scuffs/scrapes/lacquer cracks, the bones appear to be solid and it feels quite nice to play. I think with a bit of work this will end up being a fine counterpoint to my BB1200.

1985 Yamaha BB1100S My old Mexican P bass was rather uninspiring after having it a few years so I replaced it with this and its really nice to play and sounds great. Huge tonal range

Wasn't feeling the gig. I made the mistake of not eating anything before the gig. This was a multi band gig. We played from 5:00-6:00. Well attended ticketed event , $35.00. Part of the problem was the room . Huge room on the marina ( Lake Michigan)with extremely high ceiling and lots of glass. Great lighting with smoke but the stage sound was not good. The amp provided was SWR cabs a 15" and a 4 10s. I stood right in front of the rig and couldn't hear a thing. Not much coming from my monitor either. Our band leader/ front person stayed engaged and positive with the crowd. Daryl