Leaderboard

Off to Horbury WMC for a 40th party attended by around 150 people apparently, although you wouldn't know it from the lack of audience involvement. Hey ho. The evening started auspiciously as I managed to find a parking spot literally three feet from the door! After I'd recovered from the shock we set up pretty quickly, said hello to the birthday girl and her husband, soundchecked, then sat around doing nothing for an hour and a half. Went with the by now tried and tested Siredowsky - ABM - Two10S combination, which sounded pretty good on a larger stage. At halftime I was approached by a local guitar tech who preferred his business card, so I'll have to look into that as I don't have a go to one in these parts yet. Managed to grab a bowl of curry, made by our guitarist's ex apparently, before heading back on stage. We all played really well, and our newer songs are sounding really good, apart from our drummist truncating Two Tribes again! We had a couple of half-hearted dancers for a couple of songs but that was about it, but star of the night was the 9(ish)-year-old girl who was dancing and cartwheeling on the dancefloor for the entire second set, which have me a bit of a boost. Before we started our singist approached us all and asked if we'd fancy giving London Calling a bash. Hell yes, I would!

Good gig, weird crowd. First time out for the Godin Dorchester, an absolute beast of a bass, massive pickups, massive output, I really had to turn it down. A fun night and a long two hour set, so we were cooked by the end of it.

Hi all, thanks for the support and kind words about the new magazine. I'm super excited about being on board as editor of The Bassist. Our sample issue, a half-size publication designed to show people what we're doing, will be available on Feb 28 at the Guitar & Bass Show in Solihull -- come and say hi 🙂 Feel free to email me with suggestions for the mag at [email protected]. Oh, and you read it here first: the cover star of Issue 1 is a big one. Let's just say his name rhymes with, er, 'Teddy Dee' 😉 Cheers Joel

Gotta 'fess, the juxtaposition of your post right below @SumOne's did make me smile. He needs to be awarded the BCP^* accolade! You shouldn't have any trouble shifting your MXR if recent sales have been anything to go by!

I saw it too. Limelight made me one a couple of years ago and it's really good.

After all the worry, it was great! Really cool venue, The Acoustic Lounge in Poynton. All the good things you want from a venue - easy to find, car park right next to load in doors, loads of plug sockets, great staff, first drink free and they have bands on every weekend so people know to come for live music. By no means full but with a decent crowd for a Sunday night and even some dancers. A very civilised 7pm start and 9.30pm finish meant I was in bed for just after 11 - bonus on a school night. Easily the best we've played - this was only our 4th full gig as a band and 2nd as a 5 piece with sax. Rig was Fender Jazz 5 Kazuki Arai --> (new) Xvive P58 wireless --> HX Stomp --> PA. Footwear was Vans classics. Lots of positive feedback from punters and venue, including a guy from another band who recorded pretty much the whole gig and sent us the 4k files. Brilliant stuff! Don't know if Jon from Loop & Swing is on here, but thanks a million if you are! Here are some of his clips: And I'm even going to risk submitting a bit of me attempting some slap:

Hi everyone, this is Mark Morgan-Richards of Classic and Cool Guitars, and Limelight. First of all, thank you to everyone, this is a great community effort. I contacted the auction house first thing this morning and they withdrew the bass from sale. I now have to try to get it back...🤞 I have learnt a few things from this whole episode: 1) I will NEVER use ParcelForce or Interparcel again. 2) I will not be adding any logos to the headstock other than Limelight (or blank) from now on 3) I really appreciate all the help I got from this post (Thanks Paddy)

Starting a new build for a fellow Basschat member, because this one deserves documenting properly — if only as a cautionary tale. The brief: a paulownia body, finished properly in nitrocellulose, going Dakota Red, paired with a MIM Fender neck. The timing: while fighting a genuinely world-ending case of manflu. The wood: paulownia, which has zero sympathy and even less respect for human suffering. As usual, this will be a warts-and-all build thread — no carefully curated highlights, just the reality of what’s involved in getting a nitro finish right on a wood that actively resists it. This is very much not a “quick colour and clear” job. Paulownia has a habit of revealing grain, pores and dents you were sure you’d already dealt with — especially once primer goes on and you’re already feeling sorry for yourself. The plan (and yes, this is the long way round): Multiple coats of nitro primer Careful flattening Shellac to lock everything down before colour Grain filler, because the grain will come back if given even half a chance More sanding than feels medically advisable Eventually… Dakota Red At the moment it’s firmly in the “primer shows everything you missed” stage — which is nitro’s favourite moment to kick you while you’re down. The aim here isn’t speed; it’s getting a finish that won’t sink, print through, or look like it’s been applied with a teaspoon. I’ve also added a cut out to the neck pocket as the neck is a heel adjustment truss rod. My cunning plan is that it will be covered by the pickguard in normal use but means that the neck can be adjusted in situ by just taking the pickguard off and not having to de-string, remove the neck, adjust, attach neck, re-string, tune and repeat until it’s right. Progress may be slower than usual, fuelled mainly by tea, ibuprofen and stubbornness — but it will be done properly. I’ll keep this thread updated as it goes along, warts, mistakes, fixes and all, including the usual sanding, swearing, re-priming, and pretending this was all part of the plan from the start. Dakota Red to follow… once both the finish and the builder are fully cured.

I have never visited the store, I'm a little far. I have bought a few things from them over the years, mostly FX pedals/strings, but not many, because I often felt a bit 'meh' about their email communication. My last interaction (a few years ago) was just rude, I felt, and I never went back. But... credit where it's due. I have observed this thread with interest, and it does look like they are addressing many of the complaints. This weekend I was looking at buying a set of "Thunderbrown" strings for my little 23" GoldTone bass... and there weren't in stock in most places. BUT... Bass Direct had 1 set in stock, the website indicated. So I decided to give it a go. I placed the order on Sunday, and I received them today, around 48h later (despite ordering on a Sunday!). I got emails confirming the order, confirming dispatch, and even tracking information... for a measly set of strings. I'm impressed. @Bass Direct I am very glad to see how you've improved the online side of the business. Thank you!

So this all started in the heat of last Summer when I picked up a prototype Nitro Jazz bass in Daphne Blue by @Silky999 while I was on my way to a gig in Torquay. Quite soon after, I added some Fender Pure Vintage 66 pickups and an uprated tone pot capacitor. This bass, having grown beyond the sum of it's parts, basically showed that Silky999 was definitely onto something... Again, soon afterwards, I signed up for one of @Kiwi's first batch of Jazz bass graphite necks which he was soon to be putting into production in China. The initial intention was to put the graphite neck onto Silky's Nitro Jazz prototype, but it had already become a very good bass as it was. A few weeks later, I noticed that Silky had started work on his own common shape bodies, and he was in the middle of a Walnut Jazz Bass build. Swiftly adding 1 + 1 together, I came up with the concept for this bass - a sort of homage to my no.1 bass, a 2007 Walnut Status S2-Classic that I've owned for 19 years - so we'd build a sort of Vintage-Modern Jazz with Fender Pure Vintage pickups from the American Vintage II series basses, as well as black Gotoh '66 Lollipop Tuners and other nice Gotoh hardware, but with one of the first Kiwi-produced "Aurok" graphite necks for a modern twist to both the look and the sound. The neck arrived on these shores about two weeks ago, delivered directly to Silky and the build has been completed in two weeks. He's definitely put a HUGE amount of work into this bass during that time, overcoming several teething issues, not to mention learning to drill the inserts into graphite for the first time, but we've got there. It's not perfect, but gawd, does it sound fantastic?! I was originally going to get a John East J-Tone preamp plate for it, but it honestly doesn't need it. The 500k pots and more than ample copper shielding have made this a very quiet, yet shouty and clear instrument! Sound-wise, it's actually turned out better than I'd hoped, with a deep, growly tone & a lovely clear top end, with that unmistakable graphite 'shimmer' underpinning the sound. My errors? Well, the first was in the ordering of the lovely Gotoh Lollipop Tuners from Thomann - they're sold as either "4R" or "4L" sets - which I logically deduced would be RH and LH orientation. Er, nope. They're actually labelled for the direction in which they physically turn. Duh. Anyway, I've now accidentally got another bass with "vintage reverse tuners". Yep, we ended up putting them on backwards. I blame the Japanese, personally. Secondly, I ordered a really nice black Gotoh bridge which is seemingly set up for 19mm spacing, as opposed to the usual Fender-style 20mm, so the strings slightly miss the pole pieces, but it still plays and sounds amazing. It can be easily fixed later with a different bridge with adjustable string spacing. I also really liked the wheeled string tree on my GB Spitfire, so added one of those to the tally of parts, as well as a cheeky black "F" logo neck plate - after all, Fender did design the Jazz Bass, so they should deserve a little credit. So it just remains for me to thank both @Silky999 & @Kiwi again for all their hard work. The bass sounds literally amazing - even better than the Status T-Bass I recently played at Andy Baxter's showroom. No, I'm not kidding. Sound Clips to follow...

One of the joys of having a 3D printer is being able to change things quickly. One of the perils of photographing black is photos look crap. Changed all the corners and ports from red to black. From the back And the top. The corners re black but due to flash have come out gray And of course they can be run side by side. A nice modular system. How's it sound, no real idea as work, dog walking and other stuff have foiled any attempt to fire them up in anger I also now have two red ports and a black port now spare. They have a foam gasket for sealing purposes applied and use M3 bolts. Let me know if anybody wants them. Rob

My first rehearsal last night of the year 2026. I missed January's rehearsals for various reasons. Three new tunes added, and that all went reasonably well. Feeling a little rusty after the new year break when the last I gigged was late December. The rehearsal was also an opportunity to try out a new sound for me. Usually it's a big thumpy scooped P-Bass sound I go for which works well for blues numbers. However I've been playing my Sadowsky quite a bit lately after getting the hang of an active bass again. It has a mid-forward tone being a single Musicman type pickup which is quite near the bridge, and reminiscent of the Stingray I used to play, only more mid focused than the Ray ever was. I've also returned to round wounds after nearly two decades playing flats. A recommendation to try stainless steel Elixirs has worked out well. They are quite smooth to the feel and quite dynamic sounding. The rest of the band seemed fine with the hike in low mids, a slight cut in the lows, and a smidge of zing at the top end. Curiously, I can hear what I'm doing much better now with this new sound and although it's quite cutting on its own, it sits well in the mix when the whole band are playing. Gig on Sunday so will see how the new sound goes down live.

Once, a long time ago, in the late 90s/early 200s, I went to see Monaco play at the Manchester Uni Student Union. Earlier I'd bought a 12" of Blue Monday. My girlfriend of the time and I went to the pub across from the venue, and we noticed Hooky and the rest of the band, and his kids (the lad I then saw playing bass for Smashing Pumpkins a few years ago, but he was just a boy then), sat at a table. My girlfriend went to say hello and get the 12" signed, and Hooky invited us to sit with them - Which we did for hours, chatting. The band went off for soundcheck leaving us with their very Manc roadie telling us stories about him stealing generators from the Buzzcocks and lots about Joy Division (I was a very big fan at the time). They put us on the guest list (probably saving us about £13) and at the end of the gig the drummer and keyboardist carried on playing and Hooky came and stood with us at the front of the gig. On the way out Mark E Smith told me to f*** off. Sorry to go off on a tangent, I'd completely forgotten about that, but this picture triggered the memory. He was a very down to earth guy who just wanted to tell funny stories and play his gig.

I can't. I haven't got a stencil...

With more thought, I would pretty much agree with a lot of what you say - the BBNE2 is quite a pricey bass, and even if the OP got it at a bargain price, a Harley Benton fretless would probably be a better place to start. I would still disagree about the side fret markers. On a converted lined fretless your existing dot markers show you the note, and the line ahead approximately (for proper intonation finger placement varies depending where on the neck you are, and also for the pedants who are going to bring up equal/true temperance - a moot point anyway unless your guitarist/keys/horn players are doing similar) where your finger should go. It's no doubt better to have the dot marker over the line, but it's not necessary, and to say the dots are pretty much useless is completely wrong IMO - I adjusted to this almost immediately; good fretting technique on a fretted bass is to put your finger as close to the fretwire as you can rather than on the dot marker anyway.

Do it. Some people might say that a bass that was originally fretted won't make an ideal fretless, but as long as you get a decent tech to do the work it'll be fine. It's really just a matter of removing the frets, filling the gaps with some kind of wood veneer, replacing the nut with a lower one, adjusting the bridge and perhaps putting some kind of finish onto the board. It'll also be completely reversible if in the future you decide to go back to fretted. I'm sure someone will mention lines getting in the way/distracting you and fret markers being in the 'wrong' place for a fretless, but with daily practice this will become a non-issue, and in the long run will help with intonation, especially beyond the 12th fret. Just had a look at Yamaha's catalogue and the bass in question already has an ebony fretboard, so you wouldn't need to worry about having that finished, which makes things easier.

Love (most) of her stuff as a listener and I've played more than a few of her songs over the years and he bass lines feel comfortable and the kind of thing that I'd improvise/write. Lots of respect from me for SC.

So I saw this on Bass Bros social media the other day and thought it looked amazing. Now sold so some lucky bugger has done well! But then I thought I had seen it before, Google and the Shuker website is proving fairly useless. Did someone here spec it, or even buy it just there?

To me, the point of vinyl is as much the physical side as the audible side. It’s the interaction of reading and admiring the art on the sleeve, taking the record out of its sleeve and placing it on the platter, turning it on and placing the needle, then sitting and listening to the first side, then you get to do most of that again to listen to the other side. Sound quality compared to another format is irrelevant. The only other existing formats that have a similar interaction are CD & Cassette.

Worth is a strange old concept... Some folks think that going to a gig with 50000 other people and paying £400 for the privilege is worth it. Others are happy to pay £500000 for a pokey flat in Willesden Green. I know a vastly overweight bloke who spent thousands on lightweight components for his Kawasaki while losing no weight of his own - it was worth it to him! And most bizarrely of all (arguably!), folks pay thousands for a personal number plate whose main two functions are to aid the police in recognising your motor, and to aid the public in determining the character of said number plate owner. At least with a high end vinyl set up you can attempt to appreciate your music in as much high fidelity glory as you feel it is worth! BTW, in my experience, a well put together and high quality turntable/arm/cart set up minimises surface noise of all kinds...

I've had my MXR synth pedal for about a month now and I finally got the time to try it out last week 😆 It's a great pedal and so much fun. I really wanted it for the Michael Jackson presst which is great but I adore the Hdrbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder presets more. The Sledgehammer preset is also really useful. However, despite it being an awesome pedal, I don't really have much use for it. I play fretless and I'm too much of a traditionalist with my chorus, octave and bit of reverb. So mine will be up for sale soon. Brilliant pedal though and very clever.

small but mighty!

I bet the bloke with the spiky hair was someone famous you didn't recognise. I was once negotiating a purchase at a music shop and Ronnie Size walked in. In an instant it was as if I became invisible and inaudible. I think the staff were all deeply in love with Ronnie.

Apologies for the AI slop - but anodized gold is the way to go here

Like most basses, a lot more than I sold mine for….

I feel old - my STP was to thicken up oil for ratty engines in old cars.

Calling @Andyjr1515

Copper foil helps - but it's not as efficient, and it gets crap quickly with gain pedals. And you never really know about interference levels at a new venue until you get plugged in and maybe find out it's going to be a horrible night. Can't be dealing with that!

"Dimed". Just say "full" or "maximum", we're British [1], not bloody Yanks. [1] Most of us, anyway

Do not. Do not de-fret it. Do not. Meet a luthier. Ask him/her to build you a fretless neck to the instrument. This will be a very good and valuable investment to the bass and to yourself. You shouldn't mess with a fine neck. You just need another. If you do (or do not) like the combination of the neck and the body, you can go back to the luthier and order a suitable body to the extra neck (be it fretted or fretless).

It's one and a half hours long. Haven't got time to watch that. I need an AI to summarise it for me 😉

Do it. Onwards!

Really whatever you want, but you absolutely should not be using a kick drum mic as the frequency response is wrong and you'll be competing with the kick drum sound. The reality is that unless you are playing huge stages with your own sound engineer, any mic on your bass rig will be mostly for show and the main proportion of your FoH sound will come from the DI. Remember also that a single close mic on one driver in your rig is not picking up the same sound you hear from the whole rig when stood a few feet away from it. Save the mics for the recording studio and if you like the sound you are getting FoH from your DI signal path stick with that.

It's funny how people who differ over whether 10" speakers sound better than 15's and upgrade pickups on perfectly good basses also differ over vinyl and CD's If like me you have a collection of vinyl at home and just want to play it on something that won't degrade it any faster than you have to then any of the modern £500ish turntables will do the trick. I'd probably avoid vintage decks just because these are mechanical devices with bearings that wear. I want something I can use for the next 20 years without having to source parts. Once you get into hearing the difference it depends upon the cartridge you are using and the amp and speakers. There's no point sonically spending £1500 on a turntable if the speakers aren't equally revealing. The argument for the used Linn is surely that you like the way it looks and you can get your money back if you sell it whilst the poeple who lusted for them 40 years ago are still alive and feeling stirrings (note to self: sell that old Sex Pistols single) FWIW I have a Rega Planar 2 with the better tone arm fitted, can't remember which one. I've had it for years and have only had to replace the belt and needle. You don't have to replace the whole cartridge but spare needles aren't always available for such old gear. I've gone from Thorens TD160 (rumbled like hell) to a Pioneer 12D to the Rega. I used the Technics 1200 in my disco days. A mate has the Linn with the top arm at the time and the external power supply. It did sound better than mine in the shop but not through his amp and speakers. We spent many happy hours comparing systems to find that some records sounded great on his system and others better on mine. Nowadays we do almost all of our listening via streaming but it is nice sometimes to get the vinyl out and wallow in nostalgia, definitely worth spending £500 on that. Go for a decent cartridge though, it makes more difference than the turntable and will conserve your vinyl. Then just love what you have, if you've ever played bass with a drummer I doubt your hearing is still 100% anyway.

Get yourself over to YouTube and look up Paul Richard’s Milehouse Studios. He’s a self-taught luthier, based in Plymouth UK, who has videos on building guitars, but also videos on setting up cheap guitars to be “worldies”. He demonstrates fret rocking and also rectification of high frets in most of these videos (the are normally titled something like “Luthier vs Harley Benton” or something like that. Then again, if you are of a delicate constitution and easily offended, ignore this post and do not look up Milehouse Studios on YouTube 😂

Which one? I'm guessing the Firebird, because my Embassy which sounds lots like a Firebird is a wall-shaker! D'oh! You mean the other one... I assumed the Godin was a venue in Dorchester... 🤣

Broken Peach at the underworld in Camden last week. This was their first, and only UK date. Fantastic night. Never been to that venue before, although I have been upstairs a few times. They did a straight 90min non stop set, and had so much energy. Almost all covers but all were mash ups which made a change from the usual covers band gig. They took this at the end of the night and posted it on Social media.

100% one of the best shops i've ever dealt with albeit only the once or twice. Always gets back to you when you make an enquiry, extremely helpful on the phone. Just doing things the right way. This has put me in the mood for a Limelight bass now. Darn it. Dave

Blimey, who is THIS young whipper-snapper?? (I’d just like to add that this video is older than 8 years!) - I’m not sure what happened to the Cliff Burton bass review.

Why don't they give the weights in proper instead of groats and furlongs, or at least as well of them? I don't want to have to divide things by 2.2 to get a proper answer. Perhaps they don't want to sell outside primitive countries.