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I've never known pubs to be so busy in January - another one rammed tonight. They were not very dancy, well there wasn't really the space, so it was a bit of a proggy night instead. We even had a little blast of Genesis - I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe), and I found my lawnmower patch in time 😂 The tools of the trade - Sub5 Stingish bass, GT-6B, Rumble v3 500. Black DMs. Some lovely compliments too. It's always nice when people acknowledge the bass. We have a couple of weekends off now.

Last night we played at the Musketeer in Leigh, Lancashire. It's always been one of those gigs where the crowd turns up 5 minutes before the band starts. We had been talking to them about taking our long-established jam night there, but we couldn't get timings that suited us all. We did a well-received first spot and a lengthy second spot. We certainly blew off the cobwebs in the place. It was great that the 'new' line-up of the band was so readily accepted at one of our favourite venues. It was a bit of a special gig for us, as our guitarist's wife gives birth next Fri (planned birth) and so we are taking the band off the road during February.

After our usual few weeks off in January, we were back at it at a fairly local WMC, Maltby Catholic Club. Despite being local we’d not played this venue before. The gig was well publicised resulting in a packed house. Both spots were well attended by dancers and a promise of a further gig, love it when a plan comes together. Talking with the proprietor, turns out the place wasn’t doing too well when the took it over last year but since investing in better live music acts the place is now thriving which was great to hear. EBMM shorty stingray, Boss pedals, Markbass little Marcus 500, 2 x Markbass NY121. Silver Converse Chuckie Ts.

Hi everyone, I think I’ve come across your bass in a live auction with Wellers Auctions in Guildford. I check their listings from time to time for instruments, and this one caught my eye due to the very limited information provided. A quick Google reverse image search led me to this forum. The auction ends tomorrow, so it may be worth contacting them ASAP. I really hope you’re able to recover the bass. Chris

We played The Shed in Charlbury tonight; it's a small venue but popular with the jazz crowd. This was a fundraising gig to cover some of the costs of the recent refurbishment there (nice to have working electricity which is up to safety standards...). It was a good turnout considering we'd never played there before and the locals wouldn't have known what they were going to get. Luckily, they seemed to have liked it. Edit: Video available.

First gig at the Merriott Social Venue near Yeovil last night. We were pretty rusty not having gigged since before Xmas and having been forced to cancel our last 3 weekly rehearsals due to illness and floods. Singer Kat still hadn't fully recovered from whatever bug had colonised her throat but we all agreed to just turn up and give it our best shot - including several ungigged new numbers. Thankfully Kat smashed it, the crowd loved us, the venue booked us for another gig in May plus their New Year's Eve bash - and a couple booked us for their wedding! One of the new numbers was No One Knows by Queens Of The Stone Age and our percussion was enhanced by the sound of my knees knocking together as the fear of what I was about to attempt took a hold of me. Fcuk the gig money! Nailing that song was what made my night 🙂

Some video emerged from last weekend's gig. Just in case you thought I just set up my rig in random places and photograph it every other weekend 20260124 Harbour Lights - Zombie.mp4

Yesterday morning I picked up a few items that had fallen out of the recycling bag. A bean can lid made a big slice along my ring fingernail. Spent all day with it plastered up and it appeared to have sealed, but I touched it up with superglue just in case... Last night's Fortunate Sons gig was for the Rusty Sprocket MCC and locals at a pub in Rumney. Usually the band play their festival every year but this year the dates didn't work, a shame as it's an event I'd love to play. Setting up this happened... yes leaking either side of the glue patch. It stopped bleeding but a rummage in my hits box later and it opened right up, about 4mm deep and 15mm long. Luckily th drummer has special 'wrap' elastoplasts with long tails. I've still got it on and will leave it for a couple of days. Gig itself was good although I made a few fluffs, only partly due to my padded ginger ... like remembering to tune back up from D but not switching myself off standby. Got an immense sound from my Epiphone Embassy with a nice overdrive when digging in. Great reception and possibility of a slot at a big bike festival in the summer.

Redux. There's a load of photos from Jersey. Stuart We were crawling over the soundcheck: St Helier airport 7.00am (note t-shirt that Stuart gave me). I'd just come back from Spain, hence my complexion reflecting mu Portuguese heritage. And glasses!: I had nothing to sign, so I bought a book and they signed that!

Final update – walnut body / graphite neck Jazz bass Thought I’d close this thread off as the bass is now finished and heading home to @HeadlessBassist Solid walnut body, finished simply to let the wood speak for itself, paired with a full graphite neck for stability and consistency. Classic Jazz layout, clean hardware fit, and set up to play properly straight out of the case. This one’s been a good reminder that while graphite necks are brilliant, they come with their own rules. No compression, no forgiveness, and no tolerance for “that’ll probably be fine”. Everything from drilling to mounting hardware needs thinking through properly. Do that, and the reward is a neck that just doesn’t move and quietly gets on with the job. There were a few moments along the way where it tried to turn into a learning experience, but it all came back together in the end. Structurally solid, cosmetically clean, and exactly what the customer was after. The tuners are on upside down but @HeadlessBassist decided that returning them to swap for the correct orientation was a faff so we made it work! Just the bridge pickup screws to swap for black ones when they arrive tomorrow. Why the strings don’t run between the pickup poles when i used a template to route is annoying but it doesn’t affect the sound and the bass sounds phenomenal especially with the tone rolled off. Very clear and quite a lot of mids and highs. Thanks to those who followed along and chipped in — always appreciated. On to the next build.

I saw Big Country a few times. Just before The Crossing was released, me and a mate flew to Jersey to see them. He worked for an airfreight business, they had an office in St Helier and he got someone to procure tickets; both of us had family working at BA, so we got cheap flights out. We had nowhere to stay and travelled in shorts and t-shirts. Found a room in Pontac. Gig day we thumbed a lift to St Helier (in a Lords Taverners minibus!), found the venue (Fort Regent Centre) and just holed up in a bar there. We saw the load-in and then Stuart and Bruce came in. This was mid-afternoon. Drink was drunk. They're stunned that anyone would want to fly somewhere to see them. We were invited in for the soundcheck...it was just me and my mate and a couple of crew (private gig!), more drink (Stuart gave us fresh t-shirts), then the gig. It was a great gig. Next morning we were on standby flights, so we're at the airport at 7.00am, same clothes. Band come in, see us, Stuart cheers (I remember him putting his arms up like he'd scored a goal), he tells me proudly that he's bought a wristwatch for £2.99 (this memory has stuck with me, him just going, '£2.99!'.). It's noticeable that despite the hour, he's not holding back in the spirits. Cleared to fly, we're on the same flight...Stuart is cheering when he sees us boarding. He's in the row behind us. Amazingly, Kenny Dalgliesh us sitting in the row in front of us. Over the years, we run into Stuart a few times and he always made some remark about the Jersey blokes. I genuinely miss him, it was a tragic, terrible, lonely and pointless death. I often wonder what could have been, but at least his legacy us pretty much intact.

Well well well, that's the first month done and dusted, and haven't you all been a good bunch of abstainers? Mostly. But what an odd January - no-one fell in the first week, so there wasn't a lot to laugh at. Some interesting twists and turns in the whole justification racket (with some enjoyably robust debate - love it), and a few speculative "what if?" type queries which will be monitored closely. January summary - 1 T1 fail and 2 T2 fails. 37 out of 38 still in (T1), 35 out of 38 still in (T2). Well done all, I'm genuinely impressed, or sorry if you've been eating beans on toast this entire month. February warnings - I don't know if it's the same in all local authorities, but up here we've got two months off the council tax Feb and Mar. Don't let that extra scratch in your pocket lead you down the path of temptation!

Did I mention my newest achievement?

Well, I seem to have fallen into the world of the short scale again... I took this lovely & unique little beast as a part exchange the other day and after a little work to get it set up properly, it's coming on very nicely. Oh, and apologies if this bass has been featured on this thread before. I got bored after scanning through more than 20 pages back. So what is it? It's a Maruszczyk 'Mr.Tee', a 30" scale 5-string hollow body Telebass with a Tele-style floating single coil pickup and a Piezo Bridge. This is all backed up by a powerful three-band preamp with sweepable mid frequency. The body is Alder with a Buckeye Poplar Veneer, and the neck is made from Flamed Maple with a Macassar Ebony fingerboard. The bass was originally built as a 5-string short scale fretless, but someone had it professionally fretted by a luthier. They did a very nice job, too. The original flat wound strings (tuned E-C) had way too much tension, so I ordered a set of 40-95 Ernie Ball flats with a 35 gauge C string from Rotosound. Had to fight a little with the truss rod before realizing that it's a two way affair which tightens backwards. Anyway, enjoy!

small but mighty!

I was fortunate enough to play with the Skids, two things struck me, first Richard Jobson is such a nice bloke, second was that although I was never a major fan just how many of their songs I knew. If asked I’d probably have said 2 or 3 max but ended up knowing well over half their set. Sign of a good band that.

New video by my young'uns band. Another single coming in a couple weeks and loads of gigs booked.

Coming soon (probably tomorrow) to a Kiwi near you - I'll just say that you're going to be mightily impressed! (PM coming this evening too...)

This date is now in my calendar, boys and girls. 😉

This is taking "played it 'til my fingers bled" too far!

Now if ever there was a bass deserving of a see-thru Perspex pickguard, it’s this one. That walnut is simply stunning. Congratulations on a fantastic job.

Many thanks to both @Silky999 & @Kiwi for all their hard work on this - it's the culmination of about a year of developing ideas which started off with my reserving one of Kiwi's first batch of Jazz necks, and originally planning to put it on Silky999's Nitro Prototype Daphne Blue Jazz, and then I happened to spot his Walnut Jazz body thread. What followed was a long haul wait for the neck to be developed and shipped, followed by lots of shopping for parts. I decided not to cheap out, so we've got Fender Pure Vintage 66 Pickups, Gotoh Lollipop Tuners and a high mass Gotoh Bridge, amongst lots of other nice bits. The last stage will be to decide whether to put a John East J-Tone preamp plate into it. Thanks again both of you for all your amazing hard work! @HeadlessBassist

A wee twist in the turntable hunt… Mrs saw the Technics SL 1200GR2 today & loves it. So that may be sitting in my living room in the not too distant. 😎

Holy thread resurrection! I started this back in 2021 when I was looking for songs me and my daughter could play together. She's now at uni studying music and one of her bands is an alt rock band with two basses. The two bassists alternate leads and play stuff well beyond my pathetic skill level. They get some pretty decent audiences in Bristol and Bath.

Great day in the workshop today. @HeadlessBassist popped over to collect his bass and we finally got to hear it properly through my Blackstar Unity 500 combo. Up to now I’d only heard it through headphones and already thought it sounded sublime… but through the combo? Superb. Genuinely one of those moments where you stop playing and just look at each other. For a passive Jazz it sounded almost active — but there isn’t a battery anywhere near it. Big, thumpy low end, proper growl when you dig in, and a clarity that just sits right. Soloing the rear pickup was a bit of a revelation too — loads of honk and that almost-slap snap even when played fingerstyle. Properly responsive and alive. Hopefully @headlessbassist will add some sound clips at some point, as he’s much better at that stuff than I am 😄 I honestly think it shocked both of us how good it was — always a nice surprise when a build exceeds expectations, even when you’re hoping it will. Cracking way to end the day.

A fiendish and convoluted plan I wish I had thought of now!

So my theory that you were faking it was wrong. I always thought you borrowed somebody else's bass gear just so you could come to The Big Fat South-West Bass Bash!!

...and the Minimark is back in the race!

Stingray Sunday here a decent 6 hours in the music room today - luxury

For anyone thinking of buying one from Music Store, now’s a good time as they have an 8% promo code until the 8th: GB-8MSA FI4 VIP plus the CV cable for £291.82 delivered (£280.60 without the cable).

You’re time tone is really bad, …very bad, a lot of people say my time tone is the best tone they’ve ever heard…no one knows more about time tone than me, a lot of folk say that…it’s great, really great. My time amp tone has stopped a lot of wars, really bad wars…Star Wars, robot wars (that was a really bad one)…warhammer,

Hi all, This was my bass, absolutely gutted that it went missing. Hopefully we can get enough eyes on it can be found. Mark has been amazing throughout the experience and really helpful as anyone who's worked with or ordered from him will testify. Thanks again all!

I met Stuart and the band in 1982 when they were doing a few warm up gigs around Scotland prior to their first UK tour. Thoroughly nice bunch of guys, and very down to earth. They sat pre-gig at a table having a beer in the lounge with everyone else in the club. The gig that evening was at a local Disco Club called the Mayfair Lounge in my hometown in North Lanarkshire. I was still in my teens at the time, a big SKIDS fan, and quite thrilled to speak with the man himself. Tony Butler was also a complete gent and was quite happy to talk about his rig. It was the first time I'd ever seen Trace Elliot gear in the flesh. He was using a four cab setup with two amp heads, and that evening was playing an Aria Pro II TSB bass. Stuart and Bruce were both using their early trademark HH combos and Yamaha SG's. Mark had an enormous drum kit. I always remember that gig well as it was very LOUD but super clear and perhaps a bit overkill for the size of the club. The next time I saw them live just a few months later was at Tiffany's (the Locarno Ballroom) in Glasgow playing to a crowd of thousands when they hit the big time with their singles Harvest Home and Fields of Fire, and of course their album The Crossing. I always remember them as a lovely bunch of down to earth guys, and fantastic musicians. They made some iconic music in their time, and were great influences for me musically.

My current board Boss TU-3 tuner Sadowsky preamp 3leaf Audio Doom 2 MXR Bass Envelope Filter Boss OC-5 Octave MXR Sub Octave Bass Fuzz MXR Phase 90 Script Boss Bass Chorus Universal Audio Heavenly plate reverb

WOW that's a fantastic find. Well done. Hope it gets returned to its rightful owner and that some poor sod doesn't buy it thinking its genuine and then loses his money when the police return it to its owner. Also hope the seller gets caught, charged and loses his job over this. No sympathy for thieving B's. Dave

From what I’ve read, both Direct Drive & Belt Drive have pros & cons. Direct drive is more stable, but there can be vibrations from the motor. Belt drive reduces motor vibration, but can be less stable (especially if the belt hasn’t been changed for a while. Technics’ ΔΣ-Drive on the GR2 & G models are coreless, which they say is “designed to seamlessly eliminate even the tiniest vibrations originating from the motor.”, so it should be the best of both worlds.🙂

Oh god, that reminds me, that song's on my to-do list as well. Fscking bricking it, mate. Apart from some of the intricacies, it's as much a memory test as anything else!

Ouch!! Glad that didn't happen to me when we played Summer Of '69 last night.

Ah right, I stand corrected. I thought that Direct Drive wasn't ideal for hi-fi and the 1200 types were all DJ focussed. Either way, years of DJing and playing in bands means my hearing wouldn't tell any difference between hi-fi and fisher price!

Humour bypass going ok?

We’ve had older zombies than this, this is barely cold in the grave

Yeah, it's that blasted "beginners tone", if only I hadn't used my boutique Beginner's Tone pedal. Would have made my "time amp" sound so much better...