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Here’s a thing. My Eldest Daughter turned 11 yesterday. I joined Basschat in the early hours of 1st August 2009, as I couldn’t sleep and was absolutely having a rabbit in headlights Moment at the prospect of being a dad. So...what does 11 years look like... I was annoyed yesterday - due to politics, it was the first time I’ve not had a photograph of her on her birthday taken by me. Ella’s 2nd Birthday was the first one I did solo; the band I was in threw her a party for that one 🤣 Shame I haven’t got photographs of 11 years worth of bass sales and purchases on basschat. I don’t think the servers could handle the upload. Anyhow...happy 11th Basschativersary to me.

I'm pleased with this.

Sold - arrives Tuesday 😁 Thanks for the tip @marleaux62

As I hope I've made clear previously, my problem with "tone wood" for solid electric instruments, is not that different pieces of wood sound different (I'm sure we can all agree that they do, whether or not we agree that their contribution to the overall sound of an electric instrument is fairly negligible), but that a particular tonal characteristic can be universally applied to a particular species of wood and that it is consistently different to other species of wood, and therefore that there is a definite benefit in choosing a wood for its "sound" over it's appearance.

Hey gang! After a laborious lockdown edit, the DVD's out on Thursday. I've seen it, and it's fab. Hopefully I'll have a clip or two to share soon...

I wish I had painting skills. I would love to change the colour of one or two basses. This makeover is just so good. When I worked on the buildings one brickie I laboured on was very fond of saying (of decorators - a breed he saw as inferior) 'If you can gypsy's kiss, you can paint'. It was just one of many quaint colloquialisms with which he tried to educate me. After witnessing my efforts with a 4 inch distemper brush he advised me to see a urologist.

My son and his lady have postponed their wedding 6 months, to April next year (very sensibly, I think). So bang goes the last man standing on this year's gig diary. I'm not remotely surprised and secretly pleased because a] it allows us more rehearsal time to lick into shape the special set-opener we've got planned for them (big horns-driven version of Black Parade by My Chemical Romance... Martyn and Amy were huge MCR fans back in the day), and more importantly b] it gives me 6 months more to polish my speech (I'm best man as well as father of the groom and part of the evening entertainment... no pressure there then ).

This. We have some venues that are struggling due to their size, they have given us regular gigs in the past, paid us well and are very nice people to deal with. Playing one or two gigs for free during the early stages of (hopefully) their recovery to try and make sure the venue continues having live music so we can gig their regularly again in the future is simply an investment in their future and therefore ours. YMMV.

Decided to do a build with parts I have hanging around to clear the decks. I had a block of Black Limba and a P bass Lyte neck - beautiful feeling thing it is. Mocked up my own shape with obvious influences, and did all the carving via hand with my Japanese pull saws, spoke shaves, Chisels and a Shinto saw. The rounding off was with a router as is the neck pocket, I did a heap of sanding via hand, but I did weaken and use an orbital sander and an oscillating one to finish off. The current state is with tinted grain filler from Rothko Frost (great company) and I will Tru-oil finish it (it’s actually gun oil) I do like a gnarly bit of wood look

Unwrapped a suspicious parcel only to find lurking inside, surprise surprise, another bass guitar 🤦🏼‍♂️ Seriously, somebody stop me. Every time I scrape together a few quid I tell myself to save it for a rainy day. Then find myself in a dark alley trembling and twitching as I hand it all over for just one more score. This week I have become the proud owner of a Washburn Scavenger. I have a few weak areas in my feeble defences, of which, early 80s MIJ basses is one. This is a doozy. Really lovely finish, great shape (I think so anyway) and it sounds wonderful. No neck dive at all. There can't be any really. Not unless the neck was another three feet longer and constructed from cast iron. This is a heavy piece of wood. No problem on a comfort strap, I played it all evening and even my dodgy shoulder is fine. It's also string through, which I've not had before. Tell me, does this mean flats are a no no? I know @Bassassin knows a fair bit about these. Any info gratefully received.

I've completed the wiring - this is passive with volume and tone, a series-single-parallel switch and a off-dim-bright switch for the side dots on the fretboard. It's not quite finished yet - I still have to dress the frets and spray a final coat of lacquer on the neck but I wanted to assemble everything to make sure the string height etc would be okay and no more sanding was required. Couldn't resist putting a set pf strings on and giving it a go - I'm really liking the Bart pickup from my first impressions. So here's the headed mini basses:

Number 002 is winging its way to me 😁 It was the tones on the video that sold me (sounds from about 1:20 onwards)

The photo bit got completely forgotten in the heat of the moment. All went well, quite a few people spread out responsibly watching the bands. Played for and hour and then asked to play another song or two, pleasant way to spend and afternoon in good company.

Thanks for bumping this thread. I knew I had one other to update. Thoughts so far... I love this bass! It's my new daily player. String spacing is a little tighter than on an SG (1 3/8" vs 1 5/8" E to G spacing at the nut), which suits me just fine. Two of my other 3 basses were more expensive, but the Banshee has absolutely the smoothest, fastest neck. The SG neck is finished the same as the body, and is a little bit sticky. The Ibanez neck is reasonably close to the Schecter. The neck on my '63 Fender J repro feels like fly paper compared to the others. Some day, it'll get a new neck and bridge. Or sold. I restrung it straightaway with La Bella's, so I can't speak to how the stock Slinkys (45-105) play. While the bridge supports top load in addition to thru body stringing, I decided to try the 760F-MUS Deep Talkers. They're a slightly lighter gage than the 760FS-S 45-105 sets I have on the SG and Ibby. At 43-60-82-104, they're not much thinner, but they have noticeably less tension than the standard set. Should be really good for bending and vibratos, but will take be a bit of time to get used to. The 760F-MUS set is made specifically for the MIA Mustang, but fit perfectly on the Schecter. The only 'surprise' was the red silk instead of black (which I'd have preferred). If black becomes a requirement, I can always top load a set of the 760FS-S strings. And a shout-out to Schecter for using a Black Tusq XL nut on a sub-$1000 guitar! And light weight vintage tuning machines! It's proving comfortable to play, with nice contouring for the right forearm and belly. Hangs easily in playing position. Mine weighs exactly 8 lbs, easily tolerable for me. Setup. In one word...superb! Low, very playable action. Properly intonated (ever so slight adjustment needed on one string). The La Bella DTFs slotted right in. The rosewood fretboard is much darker than the other rosewood fretboards I have. Looks great with the Carbon Grey body. Control knobs are large, solid and operate smoothly. They feel like they'll hold up to regular use. Construction is excellent. I've found no finish flaws. And the 5-bolt neck feels really solid. In my opinion, this is a super value. Great playing. Great looking. Very well made. Now that I've gotten my hands on one, I am SUPER, SUPER happy that I didn't spend $1250 on an MIA Mustang. The Schecter Banshee is an outstanding bass for $700.

Shrug it off, would be my advice. The minute you hit the post button the topic's out there and belongs to everybody. Permit me to expand. When one starts a topic on an internet forum it's like making love to a beautiful woman who gets pregnant, gives birth, the child grows up and leaves home. You can't wrap it in cotton wool and you shouldn't have any preconceived expectations; all you can do is hope that the topic will be happy and will build a life for itself on its own terms. Tip: If you want to share a vid on BC just stick up a link, say you found it interesting then walk away. Sometimes people engage, sometimes they don't. That's just how it is

I think we all missed it. Have an ice cream, smoke some weed, but mellow the hell out. Its a short life

I've quoted this, not for its intrinsic philosophical qualities, but as an illustration for the question I'm asking myself. I assume that English is not your First Language; am I correct..? May I respectfully suggest that, at least on this Forum, you take the posts just that little bit less 'literally'..? I'm not certain that the light-hearted, casual nature of much of the posts here are striking the true resonance intended by their Poster. Your 'guesses' are coming across in a more antipathetic manner than perhaps they were intended by you. It's a pity, as the Original Subject will be overshadowed by this (perceived...) attitude. Am I wrong..?

I never watch videos, I just can't concentrate on them. I always wear mismatched socks, in fact it made my day recently when I discovered you can buy pairs of socks that are mismatched (so not really a pair, more just two socks packaged together).

My next gig is in four hours, with a local Deadhead band in a field in Oxford as part of a four band mini fest. We did the same thing a couple of weeks ago and had a reasonable audience. No money involved, but it's fun to do and keeps the flame burning.

I'm sure some of these close-ups are actually shower hoses...🙃

No, but I think you’re overreacting slightly.

Thank you so much for sharing this. I loved it. Never heard the man talk before but I was spellbound.

I've had two major breakages and one 'lost item' in the 10 or so years of buying and selling probably 1000+ guitars/basses. On all occasions I've been able to get my claim settled (yes it is a pain and yes it takes time). Maybe I'm lucky... But so long as you get proper insurance and you read the Terms and Conditions of said insurance and make sure you're inside of them, I can't see a courier not eventually paying out. I have had to resort to emailing the CEO of Parcel Force when they managed to loose a Spector Euro 5, but again that was sorted eventually. If you make enough noise, and you have a decent leg to stand on, you'll be fine.

The pickups arent listening to to resonance of the wood - they're listening to the vibration of the strings, and that is a function of the rigidity of the structure. The doubters still doubt because the guys who make these instruments have yet to actually prove it scientifically. Where are the before and after audio analyses or oscilloscope traces to back up what they are saying? I'm not saying that they're not right - they may well be...or not - but they're going to have to actually employ a wee bit of science to prove their claims. We've had 7 decades since the P bass appeared and no one has done this, which kind of makes me understand where the doubters are coming from. Tapping blanks of wood is laughably meaningless ins scientific terms. You want to silence the doubters? Then show them the teensiest shred of actual scientific evidence. A before and after audio spectrum analysis using a machine to pluck the strings identically in both cases. Until that's done people can tap all the blanks they want.

I'm happy to leave my payment with @scrumpymike to assist with this. I wouldn't want you to be out of pocket 👍

This stinks of the tired assumption that the self employed are all on the blag. I work in the touring production industry. I trade as a limited company, even though it's just me. This means I'm not "self employed" so I wasn't eligible for that support. I can't furlough myself, because I still have to undertake what tiny little business activities I can, otherwise I'll have no business to come back to. I don't have premises that are eligible for business rates, so none of the grant schemes apply to me (I did have a small unit but it was within a self storage facility and not counted as eligible premises. I've had to give this space up for financial reasons). I've got precisely zero government support. The government support that does exist will cease in a couple of months, long before our industry is able to return to normal. There will be no concert touring, festivals, theatre productions etc in 2020. There is no guarantee they'll be back in their normal form in 2021. Will the government continue to support artists, musicians, technicians, production companies, venues, event trucking and bussing suppliers, tour caterers, stewards, security, all the huge supply chain that supports live events? Like hell they will. Redundancies and dead companies will be all over the place. @dudewheresmybass, like me, will not see his income return to normal levels from live music for quite some time. Our mortgages and bills won't go away. Our kids still need to be fed and clothed. I won't be working for free.

Are you married?

About a third of the price if it had been a Fodera.

Went to an almost deserted PMT in Nottingham today, looking for a strap for my HB kit-build 'Deathburger'. First one I spotted was a big, baby-blue leather one but it was £49 with some pointless (for me) rapid adjustment feature. The chap spent some time looking for a vegan one (he obviously hadn't noticed I was wearing a leather jacket, but perhaps he sensed my veggieness?) The most appropriate was a vintage looking cheapie. After looking at (but not touching) several basses - I like the Gretsch short-scale ones - then I spotted another rack of straps, with this Ernie Ball one, a touch pricey but spot on IMHO with a slightly vintage feel to suit the bass (I gave it a 50s P-bass headstock). I think it's the best match of any strap and bass that I've seen 🥰😍😘

The Spondz made me do it! That's your favourite bit, isn't it?

Still own this beauty I had made in 1986. Sounds great. Fabulous neck. Not too heavy but it's only four string. Prefer my headstock though.

And so it starts with pencilling around the shape and routing with the Dremel in its precision router base: Then some diagonals, parallels and perpendiculars to mark the centre-points of the other dots: And then the key dots routed for a set of diamonds: And glued using 30 minute epoxy mixed with the sanding dust from the fretboard which will glue them and invisibly fill any gaps, including the diamond cross-cuts: And so later on, I will be able to sand these flush and that will mean that, soon, I can start tapering and fretting the board But before I put the Dremel away, there are three more swifts to rout for - the heel end cap (1) and the headstock plate (2). In both cases, I will rout the chambers before I cut out the components shapes so I have a larger surface for the precision router base to work from.

Martyn and Amy hadn't booked a honeymoon yet, their plan all along had been to wait till the last minute and grab a Travelzoo bargain hol to wherever took their fancy. Given the wedding postponement, I think this plan has paid off..! I do feel sorry for people who have had plans really spoiled.

All my day job earnings also got spent on gear.....started around the time i found Bass World 🤔

Hmm... Facebook, Facebook... The name rings a faint, distant bell, I think. Facebook..? I'll have Jeeves search the West Wing Library next time my Earl Grey gets served; we must have a copy somewhere... Hmm; maybe I lent it out and it's not been returned..?

I’d be more concerned with the banjo.

Stew It's not whimsy , it's sensible 🙂 I've done the collecting/sending of goodies in Scotland needed by folks in England and the favour has been returned 👍 Afraid I can't help with this but if you spot something up here give me a shout. That's an offer open to everyone.

Inspirational -

this thread has awoken my build gland. great work!!!

I'm lucky enough to own one of the Heritage models (there's a pic of it on my profile page) - it was a major purchase but it's a keeper on many levels. Gigged it the once, used it in a video, but it's mainly my very pretty expensive house combo.

Ha, I couldn't have a honeymoon because my company were haphazard at paying. I had it the next year instead (and they messed that up). I do however have wonderful memories of the day!

A quick look out of the window to remind myself what swifts look like as they scream round the house before they go off in the next few days back to Africa: That's strange...that looks like woodgrain in the sky!! Oh - hang on...let me just invert it... So guess what I'm going to be doing over this weekend

....but you are starting to sound like the definition of your username. Chill out man.

Oh dear. Trolling and derailling? Sadly while you were losing the plot and getting cross because of a couple of lighthearted comments I was watching and loving the interview. Not everyone will get what you want them to out of life. You might learn a lot by listening to what he says in the interview.

Same here. It’s a great event and the work put in to host it is really appreciated.

Not sure that Stick Figure qualifies as folk-reggae, but that's who I thought of while listening to Edward II. He's a solo multi-instrumental songwriter from San Diego. He'll put a band together for a tour. He's played Flagstaff at least twice that I know of. His early work is more straight up reggae style, but here is where he's at now.