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Mwah... looks good in person. A proper test will have to wait until after my dog walk!

Due to arrive tomorrow and continuing a trend for Japan Exclusives (my third), here it is. I've had an eye on it for months. It's one of 5 made in that spec. EX = Exotic, LTD = Limited, NAM (Spector Colour Code) = Natural Maple. Nothing to do with NAMM but one of the 5 of these was at NAMM last year to show dealers what is possible with special orders. It's a 3-piece roasted maple neck with a 4A North American flame maple top, walnut sandwich layer, empresswood wing-backs and the headstock matches the top but seems to be gloss vs the matt finish of the body. The wood build is as per the standard RST but in a limited edition finish. It has EMG P (reverse) + J pickups with ivory coloured covers and the DG Legacy Tone Capsule where the standard RSTs have Aguilar humbuckers and an Aguilar preamp. There's an LHZ-04 preamp on standby ready but after playing Gary's CST the other day, I think I'm going to leave the DG in there for a while.

Alpher making some very tasty looking classic styled basses...

I bought the recent Classic Vibe " re-issue " its REALLY grown on me i wouldn't have picked it over any other finish but playing wise ... through luck or setup kicked the crap out of all the other options and i needed to leave the shop with a bass or i wasn't playing the wedding . Changing the Antigua Scratchplate to a black one was a massive improvement IMHO , the " colour matched" one is going begging if anyone is DESPERATE for Antigua on Antigua . Its Standard Fender screw pattern.

OK, had a bit over an hour on it so far. These are my first impressions. Obviously take them with a pinch of salt and do try one for yourselves rather than trusting one person’s opinions. The other big caveat is that I’ve never played a real B15, so best that in mind. Mostly just played my Fender American Pro II Precision with rosewood board and 4-year-old Labella 760-FS strings. I’ve so far only played it out of the 1/4” output (so no cab sim) into the Shift Line Cabzone Bass and using its headphone output. I’ve run it as-is and with the Shift Line B15 cab sim (the same one that is the stock one in the Ampeg SGT-DI incidentally). I do like it. It’s not going to replace my Grand Slampegg (though I never expected it to; I was thinking this would be more a case of something close but without the reliability risk of tubes). Going from memory, the Fifteen has more bounciness in the string feel compared to the Broughton Fliptop; on the latter, the D and G strings always felt a bit “stiff” above the 7th fret. Would be interesting to be able to compare them directly as I played that pedal as my only preamp for a good couple of years. As the Grand Slampegg doesn’t have a gain control, I had to dial in a fairly clean sound on the BassRig (drive knob around 10 o’clock) to match. Bass knobs at 3-4 o’clock, treble knobs around 10 o’clock. The GS definitely has more “squishiness” to the feel, if that’s the right word (it’s hard to describe); sort of like it makes the strings feel like they’re made out of a different material compared to the dry sound, more rubbery or elastic. (The way I have mine set, I actually find the ‘64 Black Panel seems to feel a bit squishier to me compared to the Fifteen, though I have the former dialled in with drive set to the point where anything played above a medium level breaks up a fair bit. The Fifteen feels a bit more like the Super Vintage under the fingers to me.) Compared to the BassRig, the GS also has a noticeably fuller/warmer bottom end and the attack of the notes have a kind of slight softness or bloom to them that isn’t present in the BassRig. The BassRig does seem to have a certain midrange note that pokes out more than on the GS. Out of the three BassRigs, the Fifteen (at least when set to match the GS) sounds good with both my P basses (the second being the same type of bass but with a maple board and (I think) the stock Fender nickel roundwounds; the way I have the other two BassRigs set at the moment (64 set as above, SV very clean with boosts to bass, mid (@ 220 Hz) and treble) they sound great with the flats but not so much with the rounds. (Maybe I just don’t like the maple/rounds combo much; need to experiment with different strings and using rounds/rosewood and flats/maple to compare.) And just to emphasise why you should take my findings with a pinch of salt, could anyone recommend what XLR cable I need to hook between the BassRig and a Scarlett 2i4 interface? It has combo inputs which take standard 1/4” and some other kind of connector I’m unfamiliar with. Also if using XLR-to-1/4” from the BassRig, could I plug that into the 1/4” input of the Cabzone so I could use the BassRig’s cab sim and monitor on headphones (instead of having to hook up to the computer interface)?

So, its finished, and it works. After a long WhatsApp with the estimable Andyjr1515 I decided to at least postpone my original plan of shaving down the heel and do what Andy was suggesting, file down the frets where the strings are bottoming out. He reasoned that in filing down the frets, I'd not be doing anything as drastic as removing material from the heel of the neck, plus of course its easily reversible. After messing about with the bass a bit I decided that every fret from 21-24 would have to be lowered, so I pretty much ground them down as far as I could. Its wasn't too bad a job only being the top few frets. Anyhow, I put the bass back together and its all pretty good. There are two buzzes on the neck now, but I that's more to do with my shoddy refret than anything else. It plays pretty nicely although the neck is a bit of a cricket bat- and thats after me slimming it down. I decided to simply ignore the slope on the neck where it stands a couple of mil proud of the body just in front of the pickup. You have to look closely to see it and even when you do it looks like it could just be a raised centre block á la a Gibson T bird. I'm delighted that this lovely and interesting old bass has been saved from the scrapheap. It will now sit in the corner of my living room as my noodling instrument. Thanks everyone for the comments, advice and encouragement. Special thanks to Andy for the idea. Top quality basschatting! A picture of the finished article below.

Hired CGI starting 12/1/26 if anyone works there and knows it to be a 21st century version of “the satanic mills” featuring Dickensian levels of worker oppression, please tell me @Richard R the original people I told you about dicked me around from mid-September till today when they finally worked out they didn’t have the budget for my clearly planet-sized talent (joke! I’m not a guitard…) CGI called me exactly four minutes later to make an offer. It’s been a rollercoaster of a day. Huge relief at Chateau Geek. Been treated to a fancy Costa by Madame Geek which indicates approval

Just thought I'd mention a guitar/bass shop I came across recently in Maidstone (postcode ME15 8QF). Its called The Guitar Tech and has an interesting selection of new and used basses (plus many more guitars) as well as amps and accessories. I bought a really nice 1990 MIJ Fender Jazz from there recently for a very reasonable price. I think the shop has sufficient stock turnover to make it worthwhile checking in from time to time. The main bass salesperson/technician there is Graham (BaggyMan on this very web site) who also continues to independently buy, upgrade and sell on his own account on Basschat. I can attest to his bass tech skils (setups and electrics) and am very pleased there is a physical shop/luthiery/guitar tech facility nearish where I live to visit for advice and help. God knows they're getting increasingly rare. I'd thoroughly recommend anyone in Kent, East Sussex, SE London, maybe even Essex, to check out The Guitar Tech if they're in that neck of the woods. We need to use these places or lose them!

It seems we're quite popular in Athens. This was our ninth gig there. We played Gagarin for the first time back in 2009 - we've also played at The Rodeo Club twice, Six d.o.g.s once, The AN Club three times and played the Death Disco festival in 2023, headlining the second stage. There have been two promoters fighting over the right to put us on for several years. The Death Disco festival was the first with the current promoter - he seems to be able to do a better job so we'll stick with this guy.

Nah- I think price point will be ok - they have sold plenty of the other bass rigs - if you can afford it it won’t be a problem, and it’s cheaper than an amp and cab.

No connection just thought someone might be interested https://fenderfever.com/collections/bass?filter.v.availability=1&filter.v.price.gte=&filter.v.price.lte=&sort_by=created-descending

If you liked the Black Panel, I highly recommend the Shift Line Olympic (its (multiple and swappable) cab sims are defeatable). @tayste_2000 has a brand new one for sale.

The other observation I forgot to mention (and this applies to all the BassRigs compared to tube-based pedal recreations of those amps): there’s something different in the way the overdrive decays. On the tube pedals I have used (Shift Line Olympic (roughly like the ‘64 Black Panel), Shift Line Flex (supposedly B15 but uses 12AX7 and sounded closer to the Super Vintage) and the Grand Slampegg), the drive has a softer attack and noticeably longer decay time compared with the BassRigs. On the BassRigs it reacts with more of a quick spike. The drive character when digging in to cause breakup is also “smoother” on the tube-based pedals compared to the BassRigs, though some of that may be to do with my having used the 1/4” output on the latter.

I sent a new FX block proposal to Ivan from Darkglass proposing a synth fx block idea. It's basically the same blueprint of Entropia but synth engine where you can play around with LFO, Filters, Dirt, Sine waves to achieve classic synth tones. Just like how Entropia has different templates, same with Synthropia where you can achieve song ready synth tones like what you hear on Stevie's boogie on reggae woman, PYT, 24k Magic , moog related sounds and then tweak parameters to further improve your desired tone. The icon I made is just a quick render during my break at work. I just matched the same design elements in the Anagram's fx block icons. I really hope they have something synth related lined up in the future.

'Tis puzzlement for sure. If they have the chops to design and build good bass cabs they have the chops to design and build good PA cabs. On the flip side: The same absolutely applies to bass cabs.

Currently in my possession😂

I wondered that too. It would make sense I think. As for the £449 price, it's something I'd be willing to pay if I knew it was going to be the answer to what I needed but as with all gear you never know until you've thoroughly tried it, which usually means owning it for a while. It's just a bit too high as I ended up flipping the other BassRigs. As of yet I've never preferred a 'cab-simmed' sound no matter who makes it. I did particularly like one of the Origin Fifteen demos but it was impossible to determine whether the mojo was a good P bass or not as the pedal was always on. But I do keep coming back to that demo.

They've got 3 years of sales figures to analyse on the other 2 bassrigs so it's clearly working for them. If they are selling all they can produce then there is no need for them to drop the price. Doesn't mean I have the means to just go out and buy one though, but I can't buy a fancy watch either. I'm looking forward to someone doing a good comparison with the Noble DI. The Noble is more than double the price and if there is a non-valve competitor that sounds as good in a mix then Noble sales might suffer. I wonder whether the 2 previous bassrigs will get a "Cab Off" Mk2 in the near future.

I am not sure this are 8” cabinets.

>> Unheated Great band name....

Unheated.

Using jacks for cabinets is a terrible idea, as this photo clearly shows:

On Saturday we played at Gagarin205 in Athens - the venue looked fantastic lit up at night. Sadly I only have a daytime pic: and an aerial view of the soundcheck in moody black and white: and a view of the audience from the stage: We sold 1200 tickets. The venue was full. Punters were being turned away! We had a few technical gremlins but overall it was a successful (and profitable) adventure. My kit for the night: EBMM Sterling 4HH> Shure GLXD16+ wireless> Empress compressor> Cog CE-2B clone(some songs)> DHA EQ >DI Box (split off to PA) > locally Ampeg B5R > Ampeg 4x10 PS - Athens was full of Scotsmen attending the football:

My two boards updated: Board #2: Simple. Peterson Tuner-->JHS Prestige-->Ampeg Opto Comp-->JHS Colourbox v2. I use the Prestige to give a little boost and also to have similar signals from different basses. The Ampeg Opto Comp because I wanted an optical compressor and I kinda like it. And the JHS Colourbox is a really really good clean preamp. I made this board because last time I recorded for a singer, the producer just use a Neve kind of preamp and an LA2A compressor and I just love the sound. The Colourbox is the closer I got in a pedal. The Opto Comp might be replaced in the future, but so far, so good. And this is my main board: A few days ago Jad Freer uploaded this image. I must admit that it took me some time to fully understand its potential and I think it is a game changer (for me). With the HX Stomp I always had this "internal fight" that if I put the preamp before the HX Stomp (or in the loop) I lose the ability to have a DI, and if I put it at the end, there are some effects that are affected by the preamp. With this solution, I can have the Capo anywehre in the chain inside the HX Stomp and still being able to use the DI. I can even use both DIs out because one would be still totally clean and the other one with all the chain. So this is my pedalboard, plain and "not-so" simple: Canvas Tuner-->Jad Freer Capo In the loop: HX Stomp In the loop of the HX Stomp: Cali76 With this pedalboard, I can have the Cali76 and the Capo anywhere in the chain of the HX Stomp. I hace currently a chorus effect after the Capo and it sounds much better after than before it.

The cables that came with my TE amp weren't in the best condition. But I was in the electrical aisle at ASDA a couple of days ago and spotted this lime green mains extension reel. Being in the "mains flex is fine for speaker cable" camp a lightbulb appeared over my head! Edit: Jacks and XLRs for speaker leads do give me the heebie-jeebies and I did think about converting my cabinets to speakon but that was faff and I thought it might devalue them should I sell.

A weekend of Eagles tribute shows. Halifax Playhouse on Friday - a beautiful old hall, formerly a methodist church. A lovely, friendly crowd. A bit of a nervy trip back to Tyneside which involved negotiating a couple of floods. Next day, another Playhouse - this time at Alnwick, a little closer to home. Another lovely crowd. The front row of seats is int he same level as the band, and one particular highlight was when a chap in the front row spilled his drink, sending ice all over the stage. He got on his hands and knees, and crawled around under our feet trying to pick it ip, which he couldn't quite manage as ice is rather slippy. It all went on for a comically long time. This is the stuff you really remember in years to come. Next stop - Edinburgh & Whitehaven. Pics...

I’ve just seen this case on Thomann. Thought it could be useful to a few of us who don’t use the supplied PSU. https://www.thomann.co.uk/thomann_bag_darkglass_anagram.htm

https://fatbottomguitars.co.uk/blogs/news/the-accidental-birth-how-the-fender-antigua-was-born

Hiromi' sonic Wonder. Starting in 40 minuts 😎

And reported

I've had mine for about an hour now. My first impressions..... where have all the bass and treble frequencies gone.? My signal chain. Passive Serek Midwestern 2 five string. Dunlop flat wound strings. AEA active DI. Midas MR18 Presonus Air10 & Air15 sub. I've tried so many preamp di pedals that I've almost given up. I prefer going straight into the mixer with a high quality transparent active DI. I usually use an AEA active DI with just a little eq boost ( 3-4db ) around 80hz and 2khz. Also HPF around 50hz. The Presonus PA is an entry level system with a defused sound that is just ok. No matter what I did the Fifteen just sounded wrong. Bass was lacking and the treble was dull. Of course that is exactly what the B15 sounds like. I took a break and came back with fresh ears. This time I used headphones connected to the Midas MR18 and I finally got the idea. It sounds like you are playing through the Ampeg B15, a fabulous vintage sound. The pedal feels very responsive and the sound reacts to how hard you play just like a real amp. I think through my Presonus PA the sound is a little lost. But with a better PA or while recording or using headphones the sound is very amp like. I'm going to spend all of tomorrow morning playing with the pedal with backing tracks of our set. This should give a better idea how it sits in a mix. I'm sure it will sound great. If not it's going back to Andertons.

I believe Subdecay contacted them as most of his new pedals (Noise Theory, Pixelwave, M3000) are basically software in a stomp. So I’m hoping they could be ported and be the first they add to an “app store” style system.

The Scarlett 2i4 interface uses standard XLR cables I believe.

Great. Now I want a Mustang type. Dagnabit.

We seem to get lumped in with 'darkwave' (recently played gigs with Sisters of Mercy, the Mission, Lebanon Hanover, She Past Away, etc ) but we're not. The greek crowd, well you can see from the audience shot, look sort of goth/darkwave - I don't get the connection. Check out our Spotify and you tell me

The Noble is a different beast. Not a 6SL7 tube like the B15 and won’t overdrive without something else pushing the front end. A closer comparison would be the SushiBox Grand Slampegg which uses the same tube and tone stack as the B15 (but again won’t overdrive by itself).

America says "hold my (wishy washy) beer"

I'd never heard of the 3 bassists pictured and don't recall being particularly taken by any New Order/Joy Division basslines, though I'm sure they do a great job if you're into that sort of thing. Mick Karn is another one who I don't actually know who he is/was. Having just looked him up I don't know of anyone in real life who listened to Japan. But again I'm sure he was great. What I think this illustrates nicely is how much we all live in our own tiny little bubbles as to what was 'important' or 'influential' back in the day (or indeed now). And the music critic part of the modern media seem to exist in an even tinier bubble - see various critics/radio DJs (men) of a certain age (gen X) who all fawn over particular (punk/new wave) bands from their youth as though they were incredibly important in the entire history of Western music despite a very limited output for a very short time that anyone outside of their very narrow age bracket (or different racial background) would barely recognise much less care about. Could be wrong but I don't think anyone has mentioned Robbie Shakespeare, for example. Or Leon Sylvers, Aston Barrett, Oscar Alston, Louis Johnson, etc etc. Which is fine, but objectively they have all sold an awful lot of records with very recognisable basslines!

I’ve always thought “millionaire playboy aristocrat” would be a good swap … compare and contrast … reading/writing code, talking to users, hoping you get your bonus and that nothing bad happens over Xmas versus getting up at lunchtime, endless sexual partners and having a bath in actual money whilst sipping the finest wines available to humanity hmm…tough choice

Here's one of my current builds...... The body is made from an old hardwood door and old floorboards with another mystery veneer on top...... I'm going to handmake the bridge on this one out of polished aluminium..........👍🏻🤟🏻

Jack Bruce's NS-2 https://www.digimart.net/cat03/shop5033/DS09888998/ Jack owned this. PJ Rubal has given it the thumbs up. The switches are killswitch and phase switch. I'd love a factory fitted killswitch. Walnut wings, Badass bridge. Sadly, JB moved on to Warwick after this. To save you doing the conversion, it's £35k.

You saucy minx, you.

So she has arrived. Quick unboxing on my lunch hour with full details/review etc to follow. My 1976 P bass 😍

We don't play at The Thornton (club) very often but it's always a nice friendly place. We managed to pull a few in, so it made for a good time. Lots of dancing. Lots of compliments. Although we were totally upstaged by one of the guitarist's young grandchildren who stood on stage dancing while we played the last set. The heat combined with a very busy weekend meant that I was pretty tuckered out by the end of it. I have next weekend off so hopefully can crack on with a bit of spannering on my old VW camper.

We played the Wheatsheaf in Calne last night with the drummer from our first band, 35yrs back. We’ve reunited a handful of times in recent years and it’s both nice to have a real drum beat & good to have 60% of my Sixth Form band back together. We’re just so comfortable in each other’s skin. I thought we played well. I was on my mandocello for 90% of the show and there were flashes of us all being really on it at times. The two bands who were on after us both came up after and said “how are we supposed to follow that?”, which was typical of the ego free and friendly nature of this multi band gig, raising money for Bristol Children’s Hospital. For the record, music has never been about competition and both bands did their thing well. I was particularly impressed with some of the earlier bands who were so young. I was talking to some 17yr old bassist who really impressed me and it’s so good to see that generation getting out there and doing it. A great day.

Last night we had our first stadium gig. 80,00 screaming fans, helicopter in and out, 50kw PA, individual dressing rooms. Then I woke up from my pre-gig nap. It's true we were in a stadium - the Swansea.com stadium - but sadly all the rest of it was fanciful daydreaming. Last night the Hull band played in support of the annual 'Big Sleep Out' event, raising money for the local homeless charity drop in centre, Matthews House. We've been raising money for them for years and we regularly play with their choir so they asked up to do a short set at the event, in which folks get sponsored to spend a night sleeping out in the open. We were due to play in the stand overlooking the pitch (the pitch itself was strictly off limits to all) but Storm Claudia put paid to any open air performance, and instead we played in the main concourse under one of the stands. The audience was limited to the people who were volunteering to sleep out, the choirs and the staff and volunteers who were helping out on the night - about 200 in total. Swansea City football club were sponsoring the whole event, hence the venue. We were due to play for about 30 minutes; the choir kicked off the entertainment and we joined them for three songs before carrying on. We ended up playing on longer than expected as the audience kept asking for one more song. Well, you can't say no to the punters. Eventually, the stadium's own noise curfew brought us to a stop. Great atmosphere, dancing, singing along etc and more than £42,000 raised by the time we'd finished playing. And no, that wasn't money paid to get us to stop. We used the stadium's events PA but our own desk as we are a 13 piece and we brought our own sound engineer. My kit for the night was my Squier PJ into a Behringer pedal tuner (I just can't get on with clip-on tuners) which also acts as a mute and my Ampeg SCR DI. Straight into the desk as usual. Outfit was geared towards remaining warm and black boots completed the look. Highlights for me included dedicating and playing the song 'Heroes' (already a favourite) to the folks staying out overnight and dancing with the choir leader at the back for our encore of 'Hey Jude'. The Matthews House choir The stadium. Ready to soundcheck Mid gig

We had a good night last night.