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An alternative, more visually pleasing approach would be to tie a large, colourful helium balloon to the headstock. The more neck heavy the bass, the bigger the balloon. Thunderbirds generally need a giant rainbow coloured unicorn. 😎

Sorted, bought an Ibanez SR500 of a fellow BC member. Thanks Stuart!! Off to find an amp!!

So kind of you But no - this is paying forward what others have helped me with. I suggest getting yourself a massive jug of Pimms on this summery day!

I've experimented with many solutions and the most effective was still a little inelegant. I have a canvass pouch designed to hang from a belt or bag whilst out hiking. This pouch holds a water bottle. So when I cycle to my rehearsal with my tiny travel bass I take the bottle from the bike, fill it with water at the rehearsal room, clip the pouch to my guitar strap (at the bum end of course) and the weight of the water precisely balances the instrument without me having to carry anything heavy on the bike (which would kind of defeat the object of travelling light). I carry the bottle anyway and it becomes lighter throughout the ride as I consume the initial quantity of H2O. So I rehearse with a bottle swinging at my hip. Perfect if, as I say, inelegant. I am therefore adapting the idea for when I'm actually gigging with a neck heavy bass. Quite simply velcro attached to the back end of the strap and a certain number of curtain weights sewn into a flat pouch with the other half of the velcro sewn to the pouch. Balanced bass? Remove the pouch, neck heavy? Velcro it on. The 'certain number' of weights is arrived at through trial and error but by using three smaller pouches rather than one big one I can stick on differing amounts of weight to suit each bass on a case by case basis. Or a bass by bass casis. A bag of curtain weights, yesterday: Pictures to follow. When I've actually done the sewing.

Looking for a jazz neck for my P bass, found this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/202542172424 I think he has assembled it wrong. Shouldn't the strings go in the front?

Right, photos time. My Stanley Clarke.

I'd use whatever the manufacturer says is good for bass fishing

Orion is a very comfy set-neck ride

If you think it would help I'd be happy to give that a go, as long as it was fully funded of course. Maybe the hotel in Antigua where the rehabilitation would take place should have a catchy name like Antigua Support Scheme Inclusive Therapy Care Home, although a bit long it could be abbreviated.

The difference is it doesn't shine - it glows.

Relicing = a very good thing. IME.

To stop neck dive on my EB3 I pass the strap behind my belt.

I'm very much in the realms of a cover being a version of a song, not a slavish copying of the original. That, in my opinion, is the job of a tribute band.

Sounds a lot more organised than any I've attended! Chord sheets are a great idea. I'd also start a Facebook page and encourage any musicians to nominate songs they'd like to play (e.g. posting a YouTube video), that way you could end up with a bunch of strangers agreeing to learn them before the night and playing some lesser known tracks that otherwise wouldn't have a chance.

Now there's a prog band just waiting to happen

Relicking most definitely exists in lots of other areas, shabby chic furniture, ratlook cars and bikes, ripped and faded clothes, tarnished and dented brass instruments, scratched and faded string instruments, etc. All fair enough, whether you like it or not doesn't matter as it's most definitely a popular style, the one thing that does matter is that Antigua finish exists and only exists in the guitar/bass world and should be stamped out. Even the bizarre world of fashion or the unemployable that declare themselves 'interior designers' wouldn't stoop this low, so what does that say about lovers of Antigua. Wronguns the lot of ya!

Cuzzie.. That blob of solder was absolutely it...near it there was a bare wire in amongst the birds nest. I have resoldered to wire to the blob and guess what.. It is absolutely quiet.. No more fizzle. I have maxed out the treble on both bass and amp everything remains quiet. Please PM me your PayPal addresses and I will send you the price of a pint.

As @dmccombe7 says, the black labels have twin pole pieces per string. The pups in the photo above are definitely Sandberg’s “standard” models, hence the little Sandberg logo (4 dots) on the corner of each pickup. Black labels look like this:

Totally normal for that model, bridge weighed about the same as the rest of the bass

I paid £300 and spent the rest on vodka. My bass looks as good as anything out there after 1700 quids worth of vodka.

Well. Long story short. This arrived with me yesterday. I like the way this looks and feels. I love the way it sounds in a band setting (was at rehearsal last night). The purchase wasn’t a pleasant experience, the dealer is someone I’d never use again. I didn’t pay what he was asking for originally, nor did I accept the bass for the price we’d agreed based upon images he’d sent me. Apart from him. The bass for the price, I’m pleased with. If I hadn’t have enjoyed rehearsal so much last night, I might’ve been less polite about the dealer.

Looks like someone has smeared their bum all round the edges of those poor guitars

Or an anvil.

Don't do it...don't do it...don't do it! Don't get rid of your beloved Zoom B3n! 😂 Unless you're gonna be replacing it with the Zoom B1 four / x 😉 Must admit for £70 I really fancy getting that piece of kit as a neat and amazing value headphone amp, with the same DSP power as the B3N; and for another £15 getting the X-rated version with an expression pedal!** (Btw no pics, even the cut down one of your B3n is showing on your FS thread?) **ok I guess I need to self-declare as being a gear abstinence troll after that (and several other) comments on this thread. Soz Sibob. Not sure what the punishment is. Probably need to buy an Alembic bass or something...

The venue put up some photos from Saturday

Alright folks! I've already posed this in the "gigs" section of the forum but I'm super proud of it so I've got to be a cheeky bugger and post it here too. It's a full set, all my own material, from a gig I did last month at the 3 Minute Theater in Manchester. I'd love to hear what you all reckon. X

Poignant lyrics. Who says the days of the literary genius are gone?

Done this a couple of times, and then moved them on again. I’m pretty settled on what I need now for my set-up so can’t see it happening again.

I've cut a new fretboard for this bass and this time I measured twice and cut once!! The previous neck was 31.5" with 24 frets, for the new neck is 29.5" and obviously has to fit in the same neck pocket and the bridge has to be in roughly the same place. So this works out as the replacement neck being 22 fret for it to fit correctly. As the chance of me getting the intonation exactly right having not tried this scale length before I think is minimal, I'm removing the original brass inserts for the bridge and filling the holes so I can repositioning it later. I'm also going to redrill the holes for the string anchors as I have a better version I'm going to install. This is done by widening the top 4mm of a 10mm hole to 12mm diameter. to do this I have a small piece of mdf with a 12mm hole in it that is placed over the original hole. One of the string anchors is used to centralise it before clamping the template in place. This is the body with the brass inserts removed Then this the body with the holed infilled The body had also picked up a very small dent which I sanded out. I tried refinishing but couldn't get it to match so I sanded the finish off the walnut and started to finish it again. Fussy, but I want it to be right This is the body with the topped sanded and the string anchors holes redrilled.

When you say 'finish' do you mean the 'look' of the bass (on that subject, each to their own) or did you mean the quality control / way it's been put together? In which case I'd say that was a BIG claim!

That’s just how you set up a bass with nice low action, gotta get those strings behind the fretboard to get that authentic snappy tone.

If you are in Arduino-territory, then I'd recommend the Teensy instead, it's like an Arduino with build in MIDI support (Also over USB). I'm using it myself for a MIDI-fied expression pedal, and a (preset)switcher I'm currently working on. PM on the way

Excellent pop from the 90s. Happy Easter! 🐰 Simply Red - Stars | Bass transcription | Shaun Ward

I have one of these, crazy right....?

Not seen Sid & Zillah since early 2000s and lost touch. Last time I worked for them was 11th Aug 1984 when they backed up New Model Army (yes, with Stuart Morrow) at Klub Foot. I keep in touch with their later guitarist Steve.

Well I failed utterly to keep a build diary, but the 'Deathburger III' is now complete, strung with the four middle strings froma guitar and tuned ADGC for the time being as a sort of 'piccolo bass'. Learnt a lot, chiefly don't trust spray varnish and don't fit your pickup to the scratchplate (or move its pole pieces) before you know where the strings will end up! Still it works, on both magnetic pickup and the piezo one in the bridge.

That's a stunning looking bass. Very rich colour. Dave

Routers are hugely fun, and they will also completely ruin everything if you don't watch them every second you are using them. They lull you into a false sense of security. you are shaving everything off nicely with a template and they same so simple to use and so great. Then you realise you just want to take a mm off the side of a cavity, you dont have a template for it but what is the worst that can happen right, just a little bit. So you shave that mm off, and it works fine. So then you notice another bit, so you do that. Now you are all confident, so there is just that other mm to shave off and voom - you go over by a bit. Oops, so never mind, you can just even it off by shaving the sides off. oops, that was too much. No problem, you can fix that....

I dread to think what 'Come On Eileen' is about 😲

So what we're saying is that Bohemian Rhapsody has nothing to do with the Czech Republic?

That's really not a very sensible suggestion. At the very least, you're going to need a new set of strings, and a thorough cleaning job.

Absolutely. In my experience, if you want to attend a jam night, it is really a two step process. 1. Go, introduce yourself and ask for a list of half a dozen songs they play regularly, and go away and do your homework. 2. Go, say remember me? Can I get up and play one or two? I learned all the songs in your list, so happy to step in on any of them. Once you have proven yourself capable, you should then be able to attend more regularly and get more opportunity ultimately, I was running a jam night, I would be hesitant to just let someone unknown get up and have a bash when I know I have a room full of regulars who can help me entertain the punters!!

I used to be a pick player as for me it suited the music and was the most natural way to play. Today I play both fingers and pick. The picking hand should be the most automatic process possible and follow the feel of the bass line and song. You don't limit yourself to up/down/up/down as the most efficient process, that's just utter rubbish. It should be what the bass line dictates. As an example, this is an old video (2008) of me playing pick to one of my own songs. The intro is all down strokes, it's the only way it works to give the desired effect. Then the verse is up and down and a mix of both, again, because it's what works. Its all about flow rather than technique. There is also no conection to what the fretting hand is doing. They are both seperate processes. The other thing to notice is if you listen with the volume off, my movement of my picking hand is consistent. This is what I mean by it being an automatic process. My wrist or arm is not changing or moving in different ways. I guess its similar to constantly strumming a guitar. Finally, most of the movement/strokes is in the wrist. So much so that my wrist used to lay against the top of my bass and rub the skin away on my wrist.