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I have been convinced that the most convenient travel bass is a Wingbass. So here is my new addition, with a poplar body and maple fretboard.

Just thought I'd put this up, I don't remember seeing anything in the rules to say civil engineering can't be posted, but I'm not going to diarise it here. Anyway the point was that after yesterday's talks at the MBB5, here's another example of it's probably not the right way to do it, certainly it's not the professional way, but it worked for me. Even civil engineering needs clamps!

We were in a similar boat and I’ve started to get a basic rig together. I made the classic mistake starting out thinking it was about lighting the band, so have two pole mounted 4 panel LED bars for either side of the stage. We leave them on a basic slow fade from one colour to the next, they’re the same brand so I just set them off at the same time! The best things I’ve bought so far are two LED bars for uplighting the the back of the stage. Thomann jobs, 70 quid for a pair. They make a huge difference, especially if you’re playing in a marquee or up against a white wall, the colour gets soaked up and it’s like you’ve got a screen behind you. I also have two single floor mounted flood panels hooked up to them, lighting the drummer’s silver kit (we call him Ginger Bacofoil) What I’ve since learned however, is that you light live music from the back, going out to the audience. Next step for us is a basic frame and some moving heads running on automatic. Thomann is amazing for lighting gear and it’s easy to carry, small and cool as well- gone are the days of Turkey basting bulb powered lamps. Obligatory photo of our rig in action (also highlighting how hard it is to keep leads tidy on a white floor!)

Here's a representative selection. The abalone is too thin to use with a bass, but too pretty not to keep in the tin :-)

I'm not sure how interested anyone will be in this cab but I'll offer it up for comments and questions in the hope that some of you might find it useful. At the recent South West Bass Bash I demonstrated just about the simplest way to self build a bass cab. I took 42 minutes from the first glue to a working cab, my aim was to demonstrate just how easy building your own cab can be. It was really just built for a demonstration and I didn't expect to use the cab much but it turned out better than I expected, so I thought I'd share the design. This cab is effectively the little brother of the cab I designed on here a couple or years ago, 14kg, 350W, 122dB and costing about£150 to build. You can find the information here https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/227904-1x12-cab-design-diary The original cab was a 50l cab based upon the Beyma SM212 driver and designed to produce lot's of deep well controlled bass with a neutral uncoloured response, several people here have built versions of the cab and I've been gigging it for two years. My problem with the original cab has been that in rooms with poor acoustics there has been too much bass and I was tending to dial down the deep bass and boost the upper bass. It sounds great in non resonant rooms and out of doors but has way too much bass if you are shoved into the corner of a low ceilinged room. Since I had promised to demonstrate a cab build anyway I thought I'd squeeze the Beyma into a smaller cab which would reduce it's bass output but give it a 2dB boost in the lower mids/upper bass which I thought would help cut through in difficult spaces. UPDATE It looks like Beyma are about to pull the SM212. Coincidentally I've just been given a Beyma 12CMV2 to try in this cab, it has the same magnet but with a heavier cone, stiffer suspension and a new voice coil. It also has a pressed steel chassis and is considerably cheaper. The good news is that in this cab it actually sounds better. The bass response is basically unchanged, but one of the frequency anomalies of the SM212 has gone and there is a broad boost in output in the upper mids which makes the sound lighter and more detailed. I'm still investigating and haven't tried it at a gig for COVID reasons but I'm happy to recommend this speaker if anyone is thinking of a build. If I get more information I'll put it here. If you do fancy building one yourself then the panels for the cab are 2x 374mmx290mm, 2 450mmx 290mm and 2 450mmx350mm (all 12mm ply) the front baffle is set back 30mm to allow for the grille so internally the cab is 350mmx450mmx236mm. the ports are made of drainpipe/downpipe which is 64mm internal diameter 160mm long You should be able to build it from these dimensions and the video. thanks to WoodinBlack for filming this. I loaned the cab to derreybass who has written a review, many thanks to him too. I'll save a space under for the review and put up some more pics when I get my upload problems sorted. Thanks also to Mrs Scrumpy for lunch which is far too obvious in the video

If only there was a way to get virtually lag free use of my software synth patches ( or any of the multitude of patches of my daw plug ins etc etc) but triggered from my bass out on a gig and save the need for three different pedals to do a sub standard pastiche of said tones. Oh wait! What’s that Orange? The Teleport allows you to convert both analog audio signals (an instrument for example) to digital to be processed with the many applications available. Additionally, the Teleport gives you the ability to convert digital audio signals to analogue (through mixers, D.I. boxes, amplifiers, etc. £99 for said device!! https://orangeamps.com/omec-teleport/ Have I missed a thread on this or have folk just not been aware of it? Looks like it could bridge the gap for using the bass to basically trigger killer synth and more via a laptop/desktop/iPad either at home or live without fancy pick ups and such! Looking forward to giving one a go!

The Plastic Mojo Band played our first real gig this afternoon, and I thought it might be interesting to compare stories. (It's probably been done here before...) We came together as a workshop project a while back, which led to a friends-and-family gig in March with a few peeps drifting in off the street. Decided to stay together as a band, using a practice room over a local pub. The landlady overheard us and asked us to play this afternoon, clear that we would just be background noise - which suited us, as it took some pressure off. Apologised that she could only give us beer and food and not money - we weren't expecting even that! This a completely acoustic gig. (Yes, acoustic bass.) We started inside the pub, which has a decent piano, but the very few customers were all outside in the good weather, so she asked us to play outside, which meant that the keys player had nothing to do for the rest of the afternoon but drink with his friends. (We did drag him up to play hand percussion for a couple of songs.) A new (very good) guitar player who we'd barely met. Our excellent lead singer couldn't be there. Luckily we're a blues band, and can jam most of the standards. We played for three hours (well I did, the others drifted in and out) making up most of it as we went along. We got a bit of applause, and we've been asked back, so we must have been ok. I've been playing om's and jams for a few years now, but it's still sinking in that for the first time I've played a gig that was booked by someone I didn't know, and thanked with food and beer. After 45 years of believing I'd never be able to play at all. I realise this will seem pretty pathetic to many of you, but we all have to start somewhere... So how was the first time for you? :-)

↑↑↑ Agree with this. I play weddings/functions and the FOH is 100% covered by the PA, so my only concern is the on-stage sound. Try doing gig with no bass amp, and instead put the bass through the monitors. What I did for a while to give me confidence was set up my bass rig as normal but then keep it muted. Therefore I did not have to worry, since I reasoned that if could not hear myself for whatever reason during the gig, I could just unmute the amp. But in the end, I never needed to. I have now sold my bass rig and just use a powered speaker monitor.

Well, I didn't do much this weekend as it is really hot and everyone was out wanting to enjoy their gardens without the sound of routers. Not that anyone else around here cares but I do. I did actually do a bit of sanding on saturday morning. The shed is almost ready, so won't be a problem for long Anyway, couldn't let the weekend die without any work, so I routed the pickup and neck from the template to the depth of the smallest router I bought (I think half an inch). Did the whole thing by router, what fun that is! Anyway, it is enough to see how it is going and enough so that if I need to change anything I can. The pickups fit well in the holes. A bit too well, ie, if I paint or finish it with anything then it won't fit any more, it is a little snug! Haven't tried the neck yet, but I believe that is a little snug anyway, because it is what I was most concerned about. Anyway, it now seems to be becoming a thing, slowly but surely.

Did four gigs this weekend.. first (Friday) was in the Cheyne Walk club in Northampton, hoping to see our regulars in, but Craig Charles was at the Roadmender, so our audience was thin. Saturday night was at Joes Bar in Higham Ferrers - big boxy wooden floored pub, but it got very busy so we got a pretty decent sound and the crowd loved it. "That Bloke" that you always get at a gig was dancing on the bar, completely off his face - almost fell off the bloody thing twice. Sunday started with a 4'oclock gig at the Desborough services club - out in the garden - loads of families - very hot, no-one danced, but it went down well. Then rapid tear down and dash to the Cuttle Inn in Long Itchington, near Rugby. Set up in 45 minutes including backdrop, lights, PA, Kit backline and had a great gig. 'That Bloke' here was a huge geezer who was trying to dance, despite him being totally plastered - he fell over onto our PA stack and almost brought it down (we were using a great sounding, but lightweight BOSE system with Sub cabs and an array of small speakers for the mid and top. Doesn't stand up to 15 stone TW*TS falling into them. That aside, the pub was packed and they danced and danced from the off. Despite being totally knackered after four two hour sets plus rig, derig and travel it was one of those nights when you could have gone on for ages.

Love the fade on the body! I’ve been speaking to Andy @ Wingbass myself lately. Really helpful guy who is pretty much willing to do almost anything I’ve suggested, which is very cool. I’m saving up...! edit: Saying that, based on the recent chat over in the ACG thread I may end up going the home grown route.

I always get the feeling that you are reading the words but not getting the meaning. I was trying to illustrate the point: focus on playing well and sounding good and you will open more doors than by just playing expensive gear. I bought that Wal for £700 but the price is irrelevant. Expensive strings (or anything else) are certainly not a prerequisite to sounding good but there are points in the scale of prices where "sounding OK", becomes "sounding good", becomes "sounding better". We all decide where we are on that scale, but my point is to try a little further up the scale and see if that brings benefits. Don't be satisfied with "OK", try for "better". If you do or don't find improvements at least you tried and you might actually end up sounding better than you did.

@Al Krow I agreed with everything you said until you mentioned playing through your MB Combo.....

It's easy to confuse the terms 'cheap' and 'inexpensive'. They are not, however, completely interchangeable. Cheap in price does not systematically equate to cheap in quality. The opposite is also true: higher cost is not necessarily higher quality. Just sayin'.

@josie how about a pic of what sounds like quite an amazing pic collection?

I make mistakes at nearly every gig, everyone in the band does I think. It’s never anything major, and probably only we notice it. I aspire to make no mistakes, but I don’t beat myself up about it if I do. I’m sure the pub crowds we play to wouldn’t notice anything but a complete howler anyway. My worst mistake was some time ago when we played Seven Nation Army. I start the song with that famous bass riff, but on that occasion I played it in the wrong key somehow. The drums follow, then the vocals, which follow the key of the bass line. It wasn’t until the guitar came in that we realised something had gone badly wrong...

You've made me look up Wishbass - I can't un-see those now!

\Wayne's World!

My Schroeder 1212L/Burman set-up. Wish I'd kept the Burman gear, but it was incredibly heavy... Sounded (and looked) like nothing else.

As below, plus $40 to have the fretboard dyed from the 0-12th fret. Still debating the microPOG option as I owned one a couple of years ago for a day and immediately returned it as I wasn’t a fan of the tone at the time. Andy has said he would happily install an Aguilar Octamizer for me though! That’d be another couple hundred bucks on top... I’m thinking Aguilar or Nordstrand for the P-pickups. Leaning toward Aggy at the moment.

I will definitely look at doing some mods, yours seems so versatile, but in the meanwhile I'll just play it every chance I get. The sound is good and it is the only 5 string I've got, so I need to practise a bit more on it. I played in through my Ashdown head with Markbass cab, both with and without octaver pedal and it just sounds awesome. I was also concerned about reaching the strings, due to the single cut design, but so far it's no problem.

That's an earlier one. There was a headstock shape change in later models. I had one of these in 94/95 so it's before that. Looks like it'll clean up fairly well!

Aye! You and your bloody tyres!!!! On that, My £3k Honda Del Sol got Falken tyres at £250 a wheel. My £25k Nissan QQ gets £75 no name tyres.

That's a lovely story Chris. And I guess if folk can easily afford to splash out on a Wal they won't need to have second thoughts about expensive strings. But I think Dad nailed it when he said: My point is this - you don't necessarily always need to go for the 'very best' when 'good enough' will more than adequately do, when it comes to gear. Using your same logic everyone should be saving up for a Wal, when frankly a Squier will get the job done fine. And don't get me wrong 'good enough' is also not the same as 'crap'. Yes we should all avoid 'crap' gear. Always. I'd be happy to wager you that the you weren't offered that pro band gig 'cos you had a Wal and an Ampeg, but 'cos you're a bloo*dy good bass player! And if you had been playing my Ibby SR (or a Squier) through my Markbass combo it would have been plenty 'good enough'.

At MBB5 on Saturday Andyjr veneered what we think was a Paulogrady body. It offered no indication that he was cutting into it when he trimmed the veneer with a scalpel. There were a couple of places that got unintentionally scalloped. On the plus side, it is dead easy to dress out minor damage. It is feather light though. Probably about the same as Balsa. For these, I'd say a veneered top and back would be a good way to go. Y'bugger! You've got me thinking about a scratch build now.

Hey Mark - I'd say go for it! I've totally come round to benefits of having an active EQ as an alternative to purely passive and the s735A gives you the choice of either! And it's around half the price of a P35. Just did a quick trawl of the thread to see who's posted they have one. Well there are several guys who bought (and seem to love) their s734A with @hookys6stringbass describing it as being almost on a par with the legendary BB1200s (which lucky so and so - he also has!). The guys who bought the s735A are @jazzbass and @ChrisJaxon. Jazzbass got his back last Sept, so it would be interesting to see how he is getting on with his and whether he still has it. And Chris certainly seems to be VERY happy with his.

The only help I can offer is to check the planning regulations. Where I am, if it's wood you can build anything up to a certain height without planning permission as long as it's far enough away from a road. Brick built and planning permission needs to be sought and building regs apply etc.

It’s a slippery slope I think building is more addictive than crack!! I’d go for a mix of option 1 and 2 as you have a lot of choices for lightweight timber ie Paulownia, Swamp Ash, Basswood etc also semi hollow it and that would make it even lighter......

Crikey, from briefly scouting the internet these weren't cheap. I picked one up for my spare bass but I'm tempted to grab another.

IMO we should all strive to sound the best we can. If someone doesn't care about how they sound then we are not on the same bass planet and none of my posts are for them. I used to play in a smoky dive off Regent Street. A horrible, smelly, bad sounding dump of a place. I insisted on bringing my Wal, and Ampeg gear rather than using their awful no-name combo. One night I was offered a gig in a pro band by the band leader, who had dropped in for a beer. That lead to touring the UK with good musicians and paid a lot of the bills. OK so you might not want to go pro but its a nice feeling and an affirmation of your bass playing if someone asks. I don't care where or what you are playing, you shoot yourself in the foot on every gig that you don't try to sound your best and play your best. And I had a set of DR's on my bass that night.

excellent video, Phil. Thanks!

Excellent work and very fast! Puts some of us to shame.

Got the routing done except for the bridge I’ll wait till I get that first Funny you say that, that’s what I have done I had the same thought last night (great minds and all that!!) The arm rest is ok I kind of play with my arm diagonal anyway as I find that more comfortable Got the first coat of poly on, I was going to go Matt but I think this one should be gloss and looking at my last build I’m going to refinish that one gloss as well when I move the bridge, Just in case anyone notices I’ve still got the clean up the bottom of the neck pocket.........

Fantastic stuff, Phil. Thanks for sharing. I do love my Orange OBC410 but I definitely don’t enjoy lifting it (neither do any of my band mates!) so I’d love to give a pair of these a try. I’d best get myself down to Wickes!

I still love mine, I intended to upgrade nearly everything and so far I’ve upgraded nothing, I’ve not needed to. I gig it regularly and it’s a joy to play.

^ Thanks bud! Acoustics is a big subject and I didn’t really know where to start or what to aim for when I set out... so hopefully some of the detail above might be useful to other noobs. But yeah, it took quite a lot of faffing around - probably more than the industry standard recommendation for faffing around! - but it was also strangely enjoyable. ...I clearly need to get out more.

Hey Josh - thanks very much for taking the time to give me your thoughts. As it happens, I had an unexpected bonus from work, so the B7K Ultra is within budget now. However, I think I will take the time to give the EHX a whirl. Cheers buddy!

Playing at the Ska & Northern Soul festival yesterday in Berwick upon Tweed... while we're not exactly either fully ska or Northern Soul... but it went pretty well. I only got my hands on a little mobile phone video of one of our newer songs... It was fun. https://www.facebook.com/jose.d.heras.7/videos/10155999696566273/

Got the top shaped and arm carve done, just got the belly carve to do tomorrow I wasn’t 100% happy with the top horn so I took a little bit off the bottom to thin it out a tad which I think looks better

I knew it was him before I saw the seller ID!

Come on guys, we all know who this is, and he's been doing this for many years. It's cheap publicity. He posts the most outrageous piece of cr4p he has in stock with the most outrageous price tag he can dream up, then sits back and waits for online addicts to take the bait. I've admired his work for ages.

That is quite right - there is a difference (although I would be strangely interested in hearing someone trying to play Whole Lotta Rosie in fives)...!

Update: Thomann have said I can have the bass repaired in the UK and they will just refund me direct

INITIAL THOUGHTS When I first got this rig delivered, I just enthusiastically went plug and play, with little thought given to much proper adjustment to the controls. After an hour or so of playing time, I decided to sit down with the setup guide sheet that is provided. A few things made a little more sense to me after that. I connected the extension cab to the 500w combo with the XLR cable provided and set the volume to about halfway, for the time being, with the volume control on its rear panel. There are clearly marked cabinet connector sockets for the XLR cable. I then looked at the U500 top panel and its controls: Left to right: Input jack / -15db cut switch and clip indicator / Input gain / Voicing switch / Drive / Drive selector switch / EQ – low, mid + frequency, high / Effect switch / Response / Compressor / Compressor on-off switch / Master volume / Power LED. Using an active bass, the player should set the cut switch to -15db. Using a passive bass, the player should set the cut switch to 0db. I tested the rig with a Fender Precision Deluxe bass and a Rickenbacker 4003W bass To start with, I turned the drive knob absolutely flat to get rid of the overdrive effects for now and selected OFF for the CHORUS and OCTAVE effects. Then I adjusted the EQ. I found the LOW knob to be extremely powerful when the inboard effects were added in– to the extent that it shakes the cabs a bit, so I rolled it to about halfway temporarily. Without them – or with them blended in subtly, I am confident to have the LOW knob set full on. Then I set the HIGH EQ knob to full on. The MID and FREQUENCY knobs make the final fine adjustments to the sound. Selecting either the CLASSIC, MODERN or FLAT VOICING adds or subtracts body from your sound, to give you more tone. I selected FLAT, but that may change when the rig gets into a venue. CLASSIC and FLAT seem quite similar to me. MODERN boosts bottom ends and mid tones Heading to the RESPONSE knob, I selected 6L6 (which apparently replicates a 6L6 valve sound). I switched the compressor on and just engaged the COMPRESSOR knob a little. If you are going to use the Overdrive, Distortion or Fuzz effects, there is a little bit of adjustment to do. There are blend controls for both on the rear panel of the amp. They need to be blended in carefully against your regular playing volume, otherwise they just give you a terrifying and immediate leap in volume that could potentially damage your speakers. I suggest turning DRIVE knob right down and then blending the effects in to your taste. The blend is very subtle, so keeping the DRIVE setting low to kick off with is vitally important. Once that was done, the footswitch can be connected to switch the effects on and off. Button A controls whichever of the DRIVE effects (OD, DIST, FUZZ) are selected. Button B controls whichever of the CHORUS or OCTAVE settings are switched on. Combining the distortion and Octave sounds can give a very interesting and gutsy result (with very careful blending of volumes) and that will be really useful to the more metallic of bassists. I find the supplied FS13 footswitch that controls the effects a little flimsy and, as I just use a flanger on my line in, along with a tuner pedal, I am just filing the footswitch away. A cable is also supplied, to connect the footswitch to the rear of the U500 in the FOOTSWITCH socket. You can buy an extra FS12 5-way foot controller to control the top combo effects and provide a tuner. From there in, it’s just a case of experimenting with the voicing and response settings and setting your input gain and master volume and away you go. I notice that after being on for quite a while, there is no heat given off and no smell from the rig. It is also pretty silent when the jack is out and the master volume is left turned up. It’s a really solid sounding amplifier setup, well-constructed and really attractive. Not stupidly expensive and the rig could be extended with further ACT 250's that can be daisy chained together. It is feasible to have a pair of U500’s and a pair of ACT 250’s running, but the player would probably need to link the two 500w combos via a splitter box and then go to the two inputs. Last thing, switch the extension cab off first, as it doesn't like the combo being turned off first at all. i WILL POST ABOUT LIVE USE AFTER THE WEEKEND.