Leaderboard

Finally put all the bits together (minus the top coat) and plugged it all in. By some miracle, the dammed thing works, not only does it work, but it sounds really good and it's really loud, at least in my dining room The corners are held on with double sided tape as they are supposed to come off later The rest of it is screwed together properly. The Warwick is held on by my "patent pending" mounting system. As can be seen, my "roadie", the CFO, has demonstrated that the Warwick is indeed securely held. I actually tried it in all orientations and it's rock solid. It can also be mounted on the back, but those rails aren't on the cabinet yet. No fears whatsoever it's going to fall off at all. I plugged a Strat in first and it sounds fine, I'm sure a purist might argue it's not a full range speaker (and it's not), but it sounded fine to me. Next up was my headless bass and that sounded fine as well. I did wind the volume up a little bit then and it's bloody loud. No way could I play this at any volume in a small room. I'd certainly gig with both bass and guitar with this. At small volumes it's also fine. The Warwick needs to be setup for guitar or bass with the tone controls. but I have to say the speaker sounds really good. Far better than the Ampeg Rocket 108 to be honest, though it's got significantly more invested into it than the practise amp has. The little rack to the side is a home made one with a Behringher Centaur overdrive, a Mooer compressor and a EHX tuner. The overdrive is not for the bass though. I sill need to get the Armacab on it but not this side of Xmas now Now to build the second one for a little more volume. Rob

Hi folks I've always loved the Stingray fretless sound, but they are quite a few quid especially his sig bass, so I set myself a task to see what could be done for not too many £s to get the look and as much of the tone as possible. Here's what happened next... I picked up a preloved DiMavery MM501 fretless as a starting point. Actually a lot nicer that I thought it might be, well put together (even with quite a weird passive set up). Nice Rosewood board, lovely satin finish to the D profile neck and acceptable hardware. Brucie bonus, it weighs less than 8lbs. I acquired a Retrovibe Stinger '77 with the Retrovide AlNiCo MM pickup (wired in parallel for this project) and put it all together. Finally I decided just to spray the midly unpleasant tort pickguard black to save a few quid. I also swapped the original fit rounds for some LaBella LT flats. Here's how it came out. To my ears, and despite my huge talent deficit, I think it sounds pretty good and I am really pleased with the results. If were to do any further upgrades, I think I'd go for a proper new pickguard, some better knobs to cover the nuts on the pots and maybe a nice metal or bone nut. As ever my timing is appalling as my arthritis means I'm not playing much now, but if anyone is interested please PM me.

Talk about getting everywhere - this was from BBC sports personality of the year last night!

As soon as it appeared on the BassBros socials I had to have it. My 2nd birth year Rickenbacker. Fireglo…..but I kinda feel it’s not actually fireglo but maybe Autumnglo?! It’s a lot darker and brownish to what I’d expect a fireglo to be (pictures show it lighter than it actually is) Either way I love it.

May your days be merry and bright.

Females don't suffer from male weakness. She's had two kids. Don't know about you but I was 9lb 3oz at birth; that's "too heavy" for most fellas on here 😀

Looking forward to 2 sold out gigs this weekend. 1st at Cambusnethan Club in Wishaw area with 200+ tickets sold. This was actually where i had my wedding reception back in 95. Wife's Aunt was Bar Manageress so we got a great deal. 2nd at our Fav venue the famous Rock Club, The Dreadnought in Bathgate that have been booking us every year for past 4 yrs and already booked for next years. Always a great night and always a total party night. Both within 45mins from me so that's a bonus. Got our PA guy doing the hard work at Camby Club and PA is supplied at Dreadnought so no heavy lifting this weekend. Life doesn't get much better than this. I tell a lie - i pick up my new car on Sat morning 11am. A lovely Subaru Outback that has more loading space than my Volvo V90. The dealer suggested i take the demonstrator home and load my gear in to make sure 100% that they fit rather than relying on measuring it at the dealers. This is one seriously exciting weekend. Dave

Finally pulled the trigger on a BB last weekend (BB 5000)!

I know someone selling this... It’ll need an offer. Gary is spot on with that price range.

Folded my band of 15 years up last December for a variety of reasons - here's a few.... The death of my Dad meant that i couldn't put the backroom time in whilst i sorted his house and estate out, nobody offered to step in and do the bookings or promo work whilst i spent 3 months of weekends finalising everything. The singer/guitarist was inacapable of learning any new songs on his own and coming to rehearsals with them semi prepared, that was driving me nuts. You know when you've all agreed to learn a song, everyone does their homework and then someone shows up at a rehearsal and asks what key its in or what version is it? Playing the same 40 odd songs at the same 12 venues for years (and no hope of improvement mainly because of the above) was getting a bit boring even though they weere the best local venues and the band was very good. Finding any free family time at weekends was hard as we were doing 50 odd gigs a year and I was conscious of getting older and wanting to travel around a bit with my wife before we couldn't manage to any more. I was the peacemaker in the band that stopped the drummer killing the lead guitarist because he was totally incapable of turning up at the correct time to unload the gear from the van. The singer travelled with the guitarist so he was always late as well. Me and the drummer frequently unloaded the whole van before the other 2 herberts showed up. Along with the grieving process it was getting me down. So i packed up in December 2024 with the intention of taking at least 6 months off and just noodling at home. Maybe learn to play a 5 string. But have a total break from the band thing. Sold my gig cabs. Put my gigging amps up for sale. Bought a 5 string. Bought a boutique amp and cab for at home. Learnt to play a few guilty pleasure songs on the 5er just for fun. Started getting a bit itchy around April. Maybe if i found something that was just about 10 or 15 gigs a year..... Auditioned for a band that looked mildly interesting. Couldn't play with the drummer, he was very average and i was used to something a bit more solid. Got the gig but turned it down. Realised i didn't like the boutique amp/cab for live work so sold them and bought an LfSys Monaco. Love it. Answered an ad in May from a local drummer putting a one off band together for a festival gig locally in June doing some Americana/new country stuff. Did 2 rehearsals and then the gig. Really enjoyed playing (my new 5 string) again. Gig went well and got invited back to headline next year. Started to feel like gigging again as a result. Answered an ad in October for a local rock covers band just starting out but with 10 gigs booked for 2026 at the best venues locally. Auditioned. Got the gig. Drummer left the following week (was it something i said?). Grabbed the drummer from my old band to help. Now we have 5 people all learning everything at home, doing their homework and just turning up and nailing the songs. No issues. Bliss. Had 3 rehearsals. Learned 28 songs in a month ready for 1st gig on Jan 3rd. Looking forward to it. (Figured out that trying to play songs that you already know on a 4 string on a 5 string is difficult. But learning completely new songs on my 5er is a whole lot easier) Went to my first ever jam night last month. That was fun. Did 2 songs with the singer and guitarists from the new band and then 2 songs with the old bands guitarist. Nice to be on a stage again. Just been offered a gig with someone i depped with at a festival with a few years back. Always fancied doing that one again so we're going to see how it goes. Laid back sort of soul and 80's classics with a gritty rocky touch. John Mayer meets Chaka Khan/James Brown. Maybe 10 gigs a year tops. Need a drummer though. I'm enjoying playing again and feel like i have my mojo back. I've learned about 60 new songs of various styles but all ones i like, figured out a 5 string and made some new friends. Oh and also been travelling around a bit with the missus and son 🙂 The balance is good.

Our Sunday jam night ended last weekend, after 387 sessions (almost 10 years) as the venue is being sold. It was an emotional evening. We are casting the net for another venue, but if we don't get one, it's not the end of the world.

I've been very quiet on here recently, for various reasons, but the main one is that I've been building, and learning to run a music venue! I run a recording studio, and my mate runs rehearsal rooms, all from one building in Stoke. We've built up a decent reputation over the years. There was one bit of the building we didn't have, and that was a garage, but last year the mechanic upped and left, and the landlord offered it to us. We spent countless hours turning a dirty old garage into a spanking new venue and I'm super proud of it. Please check it out if you're looking for live music in Stoke or The Midlands, and obviously get in touch if you'd like to play! www.rifffactory.co.uk https://www.instagram.com/rifffactoryuk/ The bar: Opening week: The garage:

I am finding it a bit bonkers that people are spending Paul McCartney's kids inheritance to save this (failing) business. As far as I know, he bought his Hofner basses in the '60s and despite the free publicity they've had for the last 60 years, I don't believe he's been offered, or they've made, a signature model. Now we've got people suggesting he bail the business out. Why on earth would, or should, McCartney do this? This would like Chris Squire bailing out Rickenbacker or @cetera rescuing Spector.

Höfner posted an update on their socials today to clarify one or two things: Dear musicians, Höfner fans & friends, some of you may have already heard: our company has been going through a difficult period - especially since the introduction of the US tariffs - and filed for insolvency on Thursday, 11 December 2025. We would like to clarify a few things: We are not discontinuing production, distribution or our media channels. In Germany, there is a three-month period before the actual insolvency procedure is opened. This period offers the opportunity to consolidate the company and restructure it for a better future. Within this period, we will continue to build and sell our instruments and the Höfner team is doing its best to provide you with the support, service and warranties you expect. We would like to express our appreciation to all of you who continue to support us even in these difficult times! Thank You! The team at Karl Höfner GmbH & Co. KG

Don’t see many of those around.

Great to see the legend @King Tut last night playing at the Cart and Horses, Stratford - one of my 'home' venues yesterday. We had a great chat about many things including Steve's new sig bass. Stray were phenomenal as always, and I studied Harris at close quarters

I'd say that he's already done more than enough for Hofner. Without the Macca factor, they might not have lasted this long.

@bassist_lewis is right the biggest difference EQ-wise is that the SV gives you more control in the mids - so may make your life a bit easier if the BassRig unit is where most of your EQ flexibility lives. Also he's right that a good starting point would be to do some research on the bands / sounds you like and find out what sort of gear was used. If you name some examples I'm sure folks on here will be able to chime in with some useful thoughts. @Ian McFly With all that said - there is more than one way to get a sound. What else is in your signal chain? The BR Fifteen is there to emulate an B15. (I would venture to suggest) that a large number of studio folks - who have to have pretty much any sound on tap when needed - stick a mic on a B15 as a default in pretty much any situation and make it work. Could you make the BR Fifteen work in a rock / indie context? Yes - absolutely you could. Could you make an SVT work in a rock / indie context - yes absolutely you could. If you wanted to have 2 sounds available (a clean-ish core sound and a dirty sound) you could try the BR Fifteen - set it clean(ish) as a main sound and stick something in-front of it for a bit more grit (maybe a Darkglass Vintage Microtubes for example). There's a nice video on the Origin Effects website about stacking a compressor, clean preamp and a BassRig SV to give you 3 sounds (clean DI, clean-ish amp and dirty). If you wanted to go dirty most of the time with the odd clean sound you could run a nice EQ (the Empress ParaEQ is great) into a BR15 (set for some grit) and use the EQ to give you a bit more mid control that is maybe a little harder to do with the BR15. Leave the cabsim always on on the BR and kick the pedal off for a clean sound. Oddly - I had the exact opposite of your question before buying the SV - "can an SVT work outside a driven rock context"? (Spoiler alert - yes!)

I currently have ongoing involvement with the following, in no particular order: - Bowie tribute 7pc - 2nd guitar (member) - gig booked in January, more in 2026 subject to confirmation - Rockabilly/country/originals 4pc - lead guitar (member) - gigs in 2026, BL actively seeking quality work including R’n’R festivals - Glam covers startup 4pc - lead guitar & MD (member) - showreel completed, BL now looking to launch us into theatres - Dire Straits tribute 6pc - rhythm guitar or bass (dep) - played about 10% of their 2025 gigs, more booked for 2026 - Pub covers band 4pc - lead guitar (dep) - covered for long-term illness but they have a new guitarist for 2026 - Rock’n’roll band 4pc - guitar or bass (dep) as required - nothing in the pipeline with them but they just call me if they’re stuck - Swing band 17pc - bass (or potentially guitar) (dep) - I cover their Monday night rehearsal if the regular guy can’t make it - Prog/pop covers band 5pc - bass (dep) - one member quite well known in the YouTube guitar scene - saw them, loved the set, familiarised myself with the set, dropped shameless hints to the keys player who I know, ended up covering 2 of their rehearsals Also-rans from 2025: - One-off jazz and jazz-adjacent gig on guitar, with the keys player mentioned above and a female vocalist, at a charity fundraiser that was a logistical nightmare - Asked to dep on bass for a theatre gig with a classic rock covers 6pc, suggestion of more opportunities next year - got well into learning the set but then the gig got pulled and I suspect the band is no more (website has gone) - Not long after that gig got cancelled, I got a request to stand in on bass with a blues band for the same night, which of course I did! EDIT: Forgot a dep gig on bass with a 4pc country band!

At Peach Guitars Colchester who sell these you can choose online the serial number / weight / look It’s a far better system so at least visually you can see the top and also the weight of the basses for sale They are working differently to many stores and offer a great personal service especially if you book a visit to try out products etc

Bought a used one of this exact model recently and have found it to be a very full sounding instrument. The previous owner bought it direct from Thomann and hadn't really taken to it. It was more or less as it came out of the box when I acquired it. A few things I would point out worth checking with regard to setup that may improve how your bass sounds. The original strings on my example were a set of unremarkable sounding round wounds. I swapped these out for a set of 45-100 Fender stainless flats, my preferred string on my other basses as well. There was an immediate improvement in the sound. The pickups on my JB40 were also screwed as low as possible so re-adjusting them up made another big improvement. I find the pickups sound quite good and see no reason to change them. The neck is a fairly chunky affair on these and my bass had a slight back bow which wasn't allowing the strings to vibrate properly. A little tweak on the truss rod to loosen tension and add a little neck relief worked wonders as well. For the money these are quite remarkable instruments. My JB40 is very resonant and I think that may be in part due to the very heavy ash body. It does big deep lows and has that fretless mwahhh by the shed load, especially using the bridge pickup. If you aren't keen on checking and adjusting settings then it would be worth asking a bass tech to check the setup for you before spending any money on replacement bits🙂. Sometimes a little bit of setup time can make all the difference.

Am looking forward to one of my last gigs this year. It’s at the wonderful Sun Inn in Beverley this coming Sunday. My duo play here once a month, and for our December gig we get some friends up to sing with us as well. Last year was a hoot, and included landlord Paul who sang really well. They get to choose what to sing, so it’s a challenge for us too!

We played there last week, absolutely superb venue!!

As with many people, I have a load of 'rolls of stuff' that are a pain to keep on. e.g. copper tape or foam adhesive tape. Both comes on a cardboard roll but that has no sides and it falls out (or at least it does for me). So I had a think about it and have come up with this parameterised solution in Fusion 360. The nice bit is this reel comes apart and has a simple screw thread to screw together afterwards. As it's parameterised, everything is adjustable. So the above is 120mm for the reel size, the internal hub size is 75mm (which fits my copper tape rolls) and is 11mm between the reel sides. The copper tape is 10mm so a little bit of a gap. The screw thread automatically adjusts as well, which is great. Here's a larger version that just has the parameters changed. I'll try and upload the Fusion 360 file Rob

You guys have convinced me I will order one

Yes, it's the best performing pitch shifter I have ever tried, and I've owned 3. It copes admirably in a band setting - I use mine all the time. Not only for those requests to play a song in a different key, but I also use the octave up blended in with overdrive for a bit of "fake guitar" action sometimes. I've pushed it as low as -3 live and it's been decent, eminently useable.

Tina's gear list, on wiki, tells a different tale 😀 Equipment Höfner 500/2 Club Bass[29][30] – Two pickup with single-cutaway hollowbody, purchased in 1978 Fender Musicmaster Bass[29] Used in early Talking Heads performances including Talking Heads: 77 Fender Mustang Bass[29] Used in early Talking Heads performances, seen on Saturday Night Live performance Veillette-Citron Standard 4 String[29] – Neck Through, teal green Fender Precision Bass – Used in early Talking Heads performances[30] Gibson Les Paul Triumph Bass[29] – used in early Talking Heads performances Fender Jazz Bass[29] – Used for Tom Tom Club live performances Steinberger L-Series Bass[29] – Seen during Little Creatures period Fender Swinger Guitar – Seen in Stop Making Sense during the performance of "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" Chapman Stick[citation needed]

Our renaissance-rock plays probably our last ever gig tonight. It should be a good one - the last few times we've played the venue it's been sold out. After tonight we're moving away from the UK, and rather than start again from scratch we'll focus on studio recordings and have an online presence.

A used Spector Euro 5LX would be a good shout... Unless you're exceptionally lucky to find a US one for that price! (Did once buy a US 5 for £500...) I've owed a fair few Euro and US Spectors and as utterly lovely the US ones are, there really is not a huge amount of difference between them and a Euro ones. @cetera is your man for all things Spector! Would definitely recommend used... New Euros are crazy money these days (US ones require a mortgage).

I don’t suppose this offering from a fellow German company helped https://www.thomann.co.uk/harley_benton_beatbass.htm HB Beat Bass

I paid 600 quid for mine, when I auditioned for The Fizz. Sang live, they edited it and I was very happy It got me my audition I'm thinking about doing one for my Police tribute too but that would be more money as it's a band set up I've lost a bit of weight since that was filmed, crikey

I've recently had 2 violin basses, a contemporary union jack bass and a 1964 bass. both are marvellous instruments but the '64 is just amazing. recently sold the union jack bass but the '64 is going nowhere. It is so easy to play

I’d like to see a Lionel configured like this….

I'm sure both have their own sound from the circuit, but I think the key difference is the EQ. Both have drive, and on both you've got a lot of control of the highs and lows, but only the Super Vintage has the midrange controls. The mids and upper mids is where you'll get a lot of your tone (I'm assuming) if you're playing rock music for that pick attack. The B15 is typically associated with pop, R&B, soul et etc, so may not be the historically correct tonal platform for rock, whereas the SVT is. You're best bet is to find out how other players/bands got the tones you like. All that said, it's a great piece of gear either way, and there's a lot of videos showcasing it doing more than just the R&B/Motown thing.

Gibson never gave up on the 335, but on the Les Paul back in 1960. They have also been making mandolins which are arguably the best in business since 1894 and still had to file for bankruptcy protection a couple of years ago. Times change.

I'm not sure I understand why Paul McCartney would be interested in buying Hofner. He's played the same one for the past 60 years has he not? It doesn't appear like he's a prolific buyer of Hofner basses, but I could be wrong.

Sasha from Rostoc basses has just bought ught one and posted the photo . Looks absolutely fine to me so in my opinion you should complain

OP buys a bass, ..then one of these... ...sends the crap half back... Problem solved 🙂 !

Why..? I don't understand this perpetual need for 'change'. If it's Good, it's Good. New stuff, old stuff... Nothing needs to be 'changed' just for 'changes' sake, does it..?

Details schmetails😁

Tina is the only one on that list who played a Hofner for most of her career. Nothing against Hofner instruments, but they've been a niche offering for more than 50 years now. Time for a change.

More generally, my initial thoughts on the GX10 having had it for a week or so now are: - form factor is good and it's got a reassuring weight to it reflecting its rugged build; - really like the touchscreen colour interface, which is a nice step up from the GT1000 Core, plus little touches such as a USB-C instead of the older USB-2 connection for PC; - the editing software is easy to get to grips with (I guess helped by familiarity with the Core's similar software) and I've quickly figured out a standard clean preamp patch with a div / mix insert, ready to put in whatever fx I fancy e.g. Touchwah up / down or Tremolo / Clean etc. It has a drag and drop approach which feels a little more intuitive to me than Core's 'standard configuration patch layout. Although it's not got the processing power of the GT1000 Core, it shares a considerable number (maybe substantially all?) of the fx patches / effects with its more powerful sibling, and with the same parameter options, so I suspect it will be more than capable for most of my needs as a gigging bassist - perhaps add synth and an octave up. Whilst the greater power of the Core in terms of nuances of bass tone would likely be something you might pick up on a studio recording it's unlikely to get noticed by anyone in a live band mix. So I may finally have found the spiritual successor to my trusty Zoom B1-4, which sufficed as a standalone gigging board for a couple of years pre-Covid when I was needing to travel light to certain gigs. The key thing I need to see if I can figure out next is how to assign the expression pedal to control parameters, other than being solely a volume pedal, but from @SumOne's earlier posts this shouldn't hopefully be too tricky and will open up some useful additional flexiblity for live use. Finally...who knew that a Slicer fx could be so much fun?! It's got 20 preset slicer patterns and I've taken a shine to #13. Looking forward to seeing my bandmates reaction when that gets unleased on them at the start of 'Freed from desire' on Sat night!

Thanks everyone! The opening week was wild. We're limited to 70 capacity but the first night was probably slightly over that. We had Static Dress play as their drummer is our best mate. There was only one unforeseen problem. The condensation and spilled beer made a mockery of our consumer grade garage floor paint. People were slip-sliding all over the place. The first job the next day was to mix balsam in with a new tin of paint, and get that down in time for the gig the following night. It did the trick! We had 5 gigs on the opening week, staffed by mates, played by mates, and attended by all and sundry. Loads of people travelled in to Stoke for these gigs and it really felt like the centre of a scene for a moment. And we made money! Then we realised we'd not booked any more gigs, and we have overheads to pay, and big bills to pay, and loads of debt... So now we start the long slog of learning how to make money out of a venue. At 70 capacity it's difficult to appeal to bigger touring bands. The other side of that is an other-worldly PA system that out-classes any venue of this size (that I've seen). Proper lighting, green room, potential for live recording etc. so we hope to tempt some names in for "secret" or "super intimate" shows. Otherwise we're perfectly suited to local multi-band line-ups, and the "toilet circuit" in general. Any advice on promoting gigs would be gratefully received, and if any of you are promoters that would like to put on a gig at Riff Factory, please get in touch

Well, we live in a golden age of consumerism and benefit from 200+ years of manufacturing expertise, that’s certainly true. Sadly it’s wildly inequitable, not at all sustainable and will be the end of us but, hey!, why not enjoy it while it’s here. Two hundred years ago we’d have been digging coal or weaving cloth and dead by 35. Two hundred years hence -well, who knows, but it probably won’t involve a Squier jazz. We only get one turn round the wheel, we don’t get to choose when it is, we make the best fist of it we can. Right, enough empty philosophising - enjoy your bass!

A cynical money grab that has nothing to do with Steve Harris in colour, pickups or hardware appointments. It's just a standard P Bass with a silver/mirror scratchplate.