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I went out today, ostensibly to check out a MusicMan Cutlass bass, in Diamond Blue, with maple fretboard. But with a whole day at my disposal and visting a shop run by a friend, I had to check out a few alternatives. My 2 main basses at the moment are EBMM Stingrays. A classic and a special. So the Cutlass seemed a very nice alternative to the Rays. I also played a mapleglo Rickenbacker 4003s, which despite it's rediculous hardware (bridge & string cover-rest), felt very nice to play and was a nicely built bass. But I didn't like the sound of the pickups at all, thick, harsh and a little crude. I had a quick go on a couple of 5-strings, an MTD Kingston and an EBMM 'Ray. Neither convinced me to have another go with a fiver. Alao had another try on a Marleaux Consat 4-string, I'd played before, but still didn't gel with. The Cutlass was pretty much exactly what I expected. Like a passive Precision but IMO, better. I was close to saying I'd have it, when Gary, the shop guy suggested a Jazz Bass. Now I've owned/played a load of Jazz basses but had gone right off them, about 3 years ago. But he pulled out a real nice one, although my intial comment was "not a pink bass!". It was indeed shell pink, with an off white (mint?) scratchplate, being a Fender Limited Edition American Pro Jazz Bass. But what grabbed my attention and got my juices flowing, was the all rosewood neck. A thing of beauty that played as well as it looked. But it had the narrow nut of a Jazz and it was pink! I plugged it in and was surpised at how much I liked the tones available. I mainly settled on middle pickup up 100%, bridge pickup and 75% and varying the tone from 100 to 75%. Then I said to Gary, this would look much better with a tort scratchplate. He agreed and produced one. We slid it into place and it transformed the looks of this bass. Wow, now I was really interested. So Gary said he'd replace the plate and put some Elixirs on for me. Yes please! Trouble was the plate fitted everywhere, except there was a small gap between it and the chrome, control panel. stinky poo! So the original went back on, with the Elixirs and Fender are sending a tort plate for this series, for me to put on ASAP. Got it home and have been blasting along to my tunes and loving it. I've been playing actives for years but my ears are enjoying this passive bass. And my hands are feeling very comfortable on this lovely neck. Just need that tort scratchplate, to perfect the aesthetics.

Soooo, after my least thread about reliability I was convinced to get an ABM, but after scouring the used for a few weeks, I couldn't find one close enough to me. So I just went and ordered a new one! 😁 Doesn't quite match my cab like my old Ampeg, but its got the heft I wanted. I'm one happy bunny! Sounds great with my Dingwall and my Mustang. Really looking forward to the next practice now!

I joined the yamaha BB club last week... genuinely blown away by both the build and tone, at any price point let alone a smidge above the price of a mex fender!

So I guess your (or someone else’s) mass purchase distorts the market? I’m not phased by this, although the high numbers available could compress the price. Perhaps delaying selling or buying so many would have an effect. My theory is a bit loopy, and echoes previous comments however. Sorry

@GisserD I’m using your “Amp Tone’z” Stomp patch on quite a few songs on my current Panto gig in Ipswich. It’s proving to work quite nicely in a mix! Special mention goes to the Yamaha DXR12s supplied to us by the sound crew. They sound great! My monitor comfortably fills the whole stage (and the whole rehearsal building!) with full fat bass.

Best thing you'll ever do. I retired when i was 56 altho remaining hols meant i did actually finish my last day when i was 55. After 40 yrs with same company plus voluntary redundancy i hit it very lucky indeed. Full pension no penalties plus a lump sum pay-off. Like you i can't holiday in exotic countries every couple of months but i live comfortably plus my wife was able to finish her work at 49 Make the best of life while you can sir and i wish you well. Hope your wife picks up with her health. Dave

Was a great few hours. Some lovely basses amongst that lot. They all did sound different in one way or another. After yesterday’s get together I’m gonna be selling two of mine that are pictured as I really fancy a vintage stingray now! That’s cd_davids fault!

A handful of us got together in Newcastle today to talk nonsense about our basses, mostly Precisions. We had 18 in total.. Here's some pics.

I think it ebbs and flows. Sometimes folk are after something specific, sometimes there's a flurry of bargains. I suppose there is lots of competition from Facebook Marketplace these days although that probably hits Ebay more than BC. Also some folk go on extended buying sprees and end up with 20 distortion pedals *cough* then the day comes when they realise that actually one is enough and suddenly the market floods.

Much better with tort. Great choice (and I’m not a tort fan) lovely looking bass, really like that neck. nothing wrong with a pink bass. 😂

Me too😍

For your perusal....

This big beautiful blue beast is in coming soon. I can't wait & neither can my back! 😂

Another satisfied Ashdown customer here... Ashdown do not get the recognition that they deserve IMO. British built, well priced, great Customer service and VERY under-rated gear - seems like a not very closely guarded secret that should be more acknowledged.

This my 2nd NBD in 2 days. It wasn't planned that way. In fact I was planning on getting a MusicMan Cutlass and upgraded amplification. Instead I got a rather special Jazz Bass yesterday and whilst at the shop, I A/B tested my amp gear with the gear I was going to get. And TBH, there wasn't enough difference to warrant the outlay. So I had some cash left over and remembered a couple of basses I'd tried out, a couple of weeks earlier. Both were Fenders. A Vintera Mustang and a Precision. The Mustang was a nice bass and I seem to have an inkling for a short scale, every few years. The only thing was that it's overall tone just didn't quite hack it. Pleasant but lacking in depth, fullness and quality, to my ears. How much is down to the smaller size of the bass and indeed the pickup, is hard to prove. But I think those dimensions do really count to the overall tone. The Fender, MIJ, Midnight, Traditional 60's, Precision Bass however, has tone in spades. That full, Precision tone is instantly recognisable and rather glorious to hear and play. Yes, you can fiddle with the tone knob but basically this is a one sound bass, that lets your fingers and skill sculpt different tones and feel. The build quality, as you'd expect from a bass made in Japan, is really good. The fretboard and neck are particularly well done and that U profile and 7.25" radius, is very comfortable to play. I'm not a fan of gold hardware, but when it's on an all black bass like this, it's very pleasing on the eye. Over the years I've heard many folk say MIJ gear is brilliantly built but lacking in the pickup department. That is definitely not the case here. These pickups do everything you need, from a Precision pickup, with plenty of output too. This bass pretty much has all you could want from a Fender Precision, except for the dreadful gigbag you get with it. They'll say it keeps the price down but surely a half decent quality, heavily padded gigbag would be appropriate at this price point. Other than that, well done Fender Japan.

Is it just me but are the price of new basses just getting to the fr%ckin ridiculous stage?

@Dood is looking old and tired. 🤣

Marillion. A 40 year career with a large percentage of it doing the DIY thing. Much respect is due.

Let us know how you get on. Good luck

Frets installed ... EVO FX4 & EVO FX5 necks in progress

I've got a lead from OBBM on here which is a dual 1/4" and 3.5mm one, which, before I had a wireless pack and receiver in the PA rack, I used to run from a headphone amp on my rig. you just plug your inears plug into the 3.5mm socket at one end of the cable, and the plug at the other end into your DG headphone out. Definitely the cheapest way to get bass monitoring to your ears...tho you'll miss some of the main band sound, possibly. I still think the drums and the bass should be balanced on stage, tho...if the drummer's louder than you are, then won't the moaners start on him...no matter how cute he is?

I now see that SD has a wiring diagram for two Jazz stacks, which pretty much fits the bill 👍

most of the yellowish discoulouration (supposed to be fake cigarette smoke stains?) on the pickguard of my JMJ mustang has rubbed off so I think it is in better than mint condition

@Al Krow we never did explore the possibilities of turning the cab upside down, placing on a small revolving disc, attaching a light and spinning it around during gigs. Problem solved. 😉

Nad Sylvan must be doing something right. He's got people talking about it on BC. I'm not much of a Hackett fan these days and find his recent material a tad boring. Loved the first few solo albums which i bought at the time and saw them few times many moons ago with Richard Cadbury, John Hackett, Nick Magnus, John Shearer and Pete Hicks. That was an amazing band and all very talented musicians playing a style of Prog i really enjoyed at the time. Altho Nad is playing characters i guess its what made Peter Gabriel so popular with Genesis. I've only seen snippets on youtube and can't really take to him. The band still sounds quite good in the songs i recognise. Sometimes its nice to take an old classic and do something a little different with it. Hackett is now 69 so maybe he just gets a little bored with the old songs On an aside i managed to get the full Hackett autographs mentioned above on the Genesis Seconds Out Music book along with the full Genesis line up on the Duke tour including Tony Smith and even a few of their wives at the time signed it for me. Yes i was a bit of a Genesis nerd in my teens. Still have it too. That was the day Phil Collins bought my lunch for me and chatted with us for ages in a hotel lounge in Glasgow. Top bloke is our Phil. Happy days. Dave

I've had some sense knocked into me yesterday by a couple of mates on the forum with a very sensible suggestion (alternative 1). Alternative 1 - normal backline set up Guess I just need to get over my concern/prejudice that our 310A tops won't handle a bit of bass & kick drum plus full-on vocals & acoustic guitar/sax. My concern here has always been that as they are just 10" speakers and not particularly tuned to handling bass it's going to compromise the most important bit of the sound which IMO (and with due respect to everyone else on this forum) are the vocals. "put some bass through the PA: you don't need much, just a hint of it to get it out over their heads of the audience. The rig can supply the low end and the PA the definition. And then just turn down the volume from the cab so that the stage volume is not too loud." Bingo - great advice! Alternative 2 - keeping the cap at the front? Turns out that the DG AO 900 amp has a very versatile DI & headphone out set up. The headphone out and "post" DI out are both taken post comp, drive and EQ. The gain knob impacts both DI and headphone out, but then there is an additional independent vol control for the headphones and the master vol only impacts what is being sent to the cab, so in effect I have 3 independent volume controls to DI, headphones and cab. So should I want a personal IEM for bass monitoring, I could in theory just make use of the headphone out.

Only if the other band members can't be relied on to get the right tempo. We all make mistakes but we all ought to be able to get the tempo right 99 times out of 100?

Lovely - shell pink and tort is well yummy!

As you are planning to smooth and paint this body i would be tempted to reduce the amount of aluminium to a minimum, you only really need the high strength round the centre to counteract the string tension, the outer areas could have a much thinner skin of only 1 to 1.5mm, with a thicker central area for the bridge etc, i'd suggest some kind of bonded in threaded metal insert to take the strap buttons as well. if this was my project i would be tempted to go for a clear coat finish to show off the construction methods! a brushed or polished finish on the aluminium parts with the printed section visible at the edges could look really striking. the only thing that i would be wary of is the thermal expansion of aluminium, i seem to remember that alu necked basses were a thing at one point and they had tuning difficulties if the temperature was not stable (under hot stage lights or coming in from a cold journey) this might cause bonding issues between the aluminium and the printed parts or tuning issues. it might be worth making a small test part to check (simple printed block bonded to a small sheet of aluminium. then try warming and cooling it to see how it holds up. it would be embarrassing to have the body split or crack after all the work. I should say that i am a mechanical design engineer by day so my first reaction is usually to look for the areas that would cause a product to fail (i spent a long time designing access platforms for offshore use and they get a little shirty if people fall through them into the sea) but a little bit of experimentation before launching into the project could save you from making an expensive paperweight. Matt

FFS!

Surely the drummer should just count in, communicating the tempo to everyone else, even if he doesn’t actually start the song? Or am I missing something? It’s surely one of the basics of playing with an ensemble.

Blue Aran have these on offer at the moment for £11. That's likely to be a lot cheaper and less trouble than getting a replacement diaphragm from the Mesa distributor. https://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=PAUPHT406&browsemode=manufacturer

Hi !!! There´s my version of Dean Town VulfPeck

Fixed that for you 👍

The skip find build (which I’ve dubbed “The Skipper”) is almost done now I’ve cut a new pickguard today as I wasn’t happy with the one in the photo but I think it’s looking good.........😀

@Pea Turgh I can definitely recommend the Eden WT amps. I had a WT400 for many years and it was wonderful. They're classics.

Word from the Facebook "Marillion and fans" page is that there are quite a lot of lapsed fans reinvestigating the band again and plenty of newcomers, judging by the variety of posts. Many seem to love the "with friends from the orchestra" format, naturally not all do. But more seem to like it than don't. I can't see them repeating the format too often for future tours. Maybe for fan club conventions and the occasional "special" gig. Next year they are working on the next studio album, so in 2021 they are likely to be touring again, but this time with an emphasis on the new release. Personally I'm loving that the band is getting the wider recognition they deserve. But I do understand they are musical marmite and not to everyone's taste. In the meantime Fish has started to announce 2020 tour dates. Looking forward to seeing him again, and watching Steve Vantsis's bass playing.

Acoustic amp/cabs too, one day, one day...

Mostly pics today. The neck is pretty much finished. It ended up with an interesting scarf joint - I'm not sure I've seen one like it before! Other than that, it's mostly just little jobs before finishing. There was bit of a chip in the binding so I repaired it using epoxy and black furniture powder. It seemed to work pretty well. I may use it to grain fill....time to do a few more experiments. Finally I did the pickup routs. Me being me I decided to rout the neck heel at the same time. So I double sided taped the neck in, cut the side off the template, and whizzed away, praying the tape didn't fail! A test fit and the pickup ring was right up against the end of the neck. Perfect!

And this is a lot of complete knobs.

Let's not forget that John Entwistle had his favorite Precision refinished Salmon Pink. That is cool enough for me ! I have an eye on a pink Mustang PJ at Chicago Music Exchange.