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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.

Picked up a steal yesterday. Ashdown RM 220. Wanted something smaller that would fit on my BF two10 neatly. Does a fantastic job and can easily dial in the same tone as my ABM. Nice small packaging, still solid state not class D so has a good weight to it. Kicks out a storm though, great head.

Here are a couple of mine, if we are on a CAR theme. Any excuse...... love the 66 btw.

Struggling now - need to take this to pieces to finish it off but having too much fun playing it!!

Body is already contoured, but thanks for the tip. I did the belly cut and the arm contour using a belt sander, finished off with scrapers. Fine tuning the neck angle. Finding the bridge position. This pic also reveals the "special feature": 2 pickup locations. I plan to make a second pickguard later for the second position. Most of the parts I had already waiting there, so it was just a matter of getting the neck and "integrating" everything. At this point, I could finally get some idea of the sound, acoustically at least. It's LOUD, like a proper P bass-kind of loud. So output will not be a problem The sound is also very piercing and seems to have all kinds of frequencies represented. So, it will be just a matter of EQ-ing to get what you want. Oh, about the finishing. At this stage, it already has 2 layers of wax on it. I went for wax since I really liked the look & feel of it on some test pieces. It's also a super easy way to finish. I still plan to take it apart once more, lightly sand and rub one final coat to get rid of some marks. Maybe one testament for the finish: everybody who comes to the shop wants to touch and feel the wood going like "ooh! aah" The only issue really is the weight. This is not your bass to haul around in a gigbag. It's not been on the scale yet, and I'm afraid to put in on our small kitchen scale I have been entertaining the idea of finding a lighter block of wood, tweak a few things and make an even better body with all the experience I got from this one. Let's see....

Here’s mine. I’ve had a fair few but I’ve paired it down to one. Objectively speaking, it’s probably not as good as the modern Fenders, but, just look at it! It’s a 66 with the lollipop tuners. All original bar the jack socket which had to be replaced.

As mentioned in another thread of mine, I'm attempting to get back into bass after years in the doldrums. Back in the day I rose up from nothing to being the best bass player in my bedroom. Sadly after year of decline I now see myself as the worst bass player in my bedroom. Basically I went from 5 string to 4 string and somewhere down the line I drifted away, basically playing various other instruments but not really bass. I have been galvanised this year by the fact that oldest son and oldest daughter play bass occasionally and I have 'seen the light' a bit again. So yeah, the plan is to make my own bass for the fun of it, and go back to 5 strings, where I was definitely more comfortable. Shape. Well I was going to be boring and go for a jazz bass shape as I rather like them, but then I was rather taken by the shape of Hadrien Feraud's signature Mayones bass, so I have based it upon that. Being a graphic designer I tend to draw up my own precise and detailed plans. So here's the bass plan: er .... the precision pickup will be the right way up! Ebony fretboard, Plastic MoP type block inlays, J-retro 01 (cos I have one spare) and ...... it's gonna have a pretty weird hand painted finish that probably no one will like but me! Anyway, it has been underway in serious since the lockdown thing started. Not that I've had any more time as I'm a key worker. I should add that although this is my first attempt at making a bass, I have previously made 5 electric guitars all of which I am very pleased with. I have already discovered that it is quite a bit different making a bass, and certainly more expensive! That is all for now.

First post my new Matamp GT200 with matching 4x10

Of the vintage Fender’s I’ve owned, these were my favourite 3. A ‘64 Jazz (refin), ‘64 P, and a heavily nodded, and awesome, ‘71 Musicmaster. All were sold years back as I needed a deposit to buy a flat, out went a load of other vintage gear too. @Davo-London has the P, it’s in very good hands. I’ve been lucky to have some other great old Fenders before and since, but these 3 were a special combo.

A couple from the 70s... The Jazz is from ‘73. I bought it in the early 80s from the original owner. I was a factory apprentice and worked with the guy (he’d just bought himself a Music Man). I’d played the Jazz a few times and loved it but couldn’t afford it. The guy just said take it and give me what you can afford each Thursday (pay day). A wonderful gesture which took me years to pay off - he let me off with a fair bit of it in the end! And the first thing I did... took it to a local luthier and had EMGs fitted!! I’ve since sourced a set of ‘73 p/ups for the bass but I think the p/ups are Seymour Duncans in the pic. The bass has been everywhere with me, and will be the last to go... The Precision is from ‘71. Lovely sound, and sporting an A-width Jazz-width neck.

Job centre? 😂. Hmmm dammit I went down as far as Swadlincote this weekend picking something up myself. Unfortunately nothing on the cards but if you do struggle I'm happy for an hour's trek down the M1 for a basschatter

I love to dig out these photos

Maple Road has been out gigging since March. However we have not played any traditional bar/ pub gigs. We have been playing private parties and events with budgets. We have not had to discount our services yet. We have 3 gigs next weekend, however we have nothing on the books for fall. Blue

My late 1962 Jazz (refin)... It’s the nicest bass I’ve ever had the good fortune to play. The plant is an essential accessory..!

Got to gig last night at an outside event at a social club. Great atmosphere, about 90 people turned up all on separate tables, felt amazing to be gigging agin, got rebooked for a bike rally there at the end of the month. Enjoy the guitarist bum notes fluffery toward the end..I did!

That’s great! I’ve been fortunate to meet some really nice people in life, especially in music. In the early days there were a few people who really took a chance on me and gave me an opportunity. In the first band I was in I was really out of my depth. They were fabulous musicians and I was a bit younger and nowhere near as good, really struggling to keep up. The easy thing would have been to have gotten someone better (locally they were a decent draw and could have had their pick of players) but they gave me a go, taking me under their wing and mentoring me. Sometimes all you need is someone to believe in you, isn’t it. The guy who sold me the bass was a fabulous player - he’d played in a semi-professional capacity, backing all kinds of acts from Frank Carson to Englebert Humperdink on the cabaret circuit! - and was really encouraging. Never turn down a gig, he’d say, and of course he was right! He could see I was really keen on music/bass (to say the least) and just decided to help me along the way. The bass is special to me, and I’ve an agreement with my wife that (in the hopefully significantly distant future!) when I shuffle off, as long as she doesn’t need the money, the bass should be sold and the money donated to a charity for mentoring underprivileged kids who want to play music but may need a bit of a leg up... As I say, hopefully that’s a long way off yet!!!

My two keepers. Black and Maple 1973 and Mocha/Walnut 1978.

Al - I think you have some kind of misunderstanding regarding these products and comparison between the two. First of all, on the TT-800 each channel has its own eq because the eq circuits are VERY different nad in the case of the Boogie channel, is fundamental to the voicing and texture of that channel. A single eq, no matter how many bands, is a non-starter for us in a 2 channel, channel switching amp. On the WD-800, which is a single channel amp, there is a 2 band Baxandall bass-treble eq, a passive mid that is also part of the amp's inherent voicing, and also 3 bands of semi-parametric mid that is foot switchable. This is our take on eq that's appropriate to these products. Regarding rear panel features, I don't see things that both the TT-800 and WD-800 include, things like level, ground lift on the DI(s), nor a tuner out, full size aux input jack, USB(A) power port. The parts that we use are a little bit larger in order to capitalize on mechanical robustness. Making this layout smaller is a non-starter regarding player-friendliness. I don't follow your comparison on size. The WD-800 and TT--800 are the same size, a little larger than the Darkglass amp you mentioned. IF you wish to compare based on size, then either the D-800 or D-800+ would be about the same (or smaller). Your assumption about the differences between the TT and WD make it clear that you haven't played either. They are entirely different amps, different tone profiles, different texture profiles, different feature sets and are designed to appeal to different players. The number of tubes is relatively independent to this, the signal path for the Boogie channel uses 1 tube and the signal path for the Subway channel uses 1/2 of a tube, one tube is common to both channels. It's HOW the tubes are used that matter, no different than every other aspect of a design. May I suggest that you try the amps before making performance comparisons?

Collected today from Jon Shuker ....😁

I've been playing lots of Clash tunes recently... had fun with Rock the Casbah, Stay Free, and White Man in Hammersmith Palais. Paul Simonon mightn't have been the best technical player in the world, but his feel was great, and he was perfect for the Clash (not to mention he looked cool as fcuk on stage!).

as usual, it's me (and drummer) who set up PA (as well as transporting it and storing it plus guitarists amp and 412 cab), so I'm always the last to set up my gear with minutes to spare before sound check (this has been an ongoing issue for 10 years now). If there's any time left after before we start I have to set up at least 3 cameras, switch them on, focus them, check gain levels etc so there's no time to get a camera on me as well, plus I edit all the videos, get all the gigs (well 90%), edit the FB page pretty much myself, etc etc..you get the picture...

Any fans of Incubus here?

Damn! You mean I should have read his post before replying? Well that's just not the Basschat way ...

In the TT one of the additional tubes is in the Subway channel which is 'new and improved' over the standard subway amps. The size of the WD800 likely harks back to the design of the original Walkabout - keeping a recognisable form factor which loads of players loved and found to be very intuitive. I think both these new heads look great. I also believe that the TT will be all the better for having dedicated eq for each channel as there is always a compromise on shared eq amps which have additional drive capabilities be they guitar or bass. A killer clean tone can become a little bass heavy when drive is added or need more mids, need less top end etc etc. Having two independent eq's potentially removes any such niggles. The Walkabout was always designed to sound like a big tube amp in a small package and I'm sure the WD delivers just as the original Walkabout did - the demo's seem to suggest it does! The price drop will obviously encourage more folks to consider one of these now they're more competitive but they still appear to have a really solid set of features which players want and christ knows they moaned about on various forums for years I cant imagine either of these amps would be bulky to carry in a should bag and it's certainly not heavy at 3.2kg considering what some peoples pedal boards clock in at! I know it's fickle but out of all the class D amps on the market right now the Boogie WD and TT appeal to me a little more than the competition. I really like the feature set and the overall form factor/design. In saying that I gigged a Walkabout for a few years way back and it's a cracking little amp and I fell in love with Boogie amps in general as a teenager (a local music shop stocked Boogie amps way back in the 90's and they were so cool!). I can only speak for myself but I think the Mesa drive sounds might have more wide spread appeal than the Microtubes amp circuits. I've yet to hear what the AO amp can do drive wise but I am familiar with the pedal and I know there are some good gain sounds - my interest would be in the lower gain application.

Here's my '66P. I have dozens of pics of the various bits that would probably bore folks on here to tears but happy to share with the OP if of interest.

That’s a great resource, as is this book:

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:

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...

From what I'd heard and read about these pedals I was expecting the poor man's Sansamp. OK sounding but flimsy and cheap. So what did I actually find? As to the Sansamp comment, I suppose it is valid inasmuch as I won't pay the price of one of their pre-amp pedals, so this is, if not exactly a poor man's, then definitely a tight fisted one's alternative. I have never played the respected Tech 21 pedals so can't compare the two, suffice it to say I've read enough from Basschatters who really love them to know they must be pretty good. As to flimsy and cheap, well, it feels extremely solid to me, and the word cheap has two meanings; either inexpensive, or of poor quality. This is firmly in the inexpensive category, and not the poor quality. It is very clean, my previous favourite the American Sound hisses like an angry kettle in comparison. As I type this I have the pedal on, presence and treble and level all up full, amp at gig volume and there is the faintest sussuration. Even taking the drive up to 75% there is very little to hear, knock it back a fraction and silence reigns. Impressive. There's a blend control, which no self respecting drive pedal should leave home without, three tone knobs labelled bass, treble and presence but treat them as your basic B,M,T and you won't go far wrong. One complaint, the controls are black and notched at the ends but otherwise unmarked. Even here on my desk I can't tell if they're set to 5 to or 25 past. With everything flat the BDI 21seems to warm and very, very slightly cut the sound. I found myself immediately easing up the level and the presence. If you like a really bright clanky sound you might find yourself reaching for the tone controls on your amp. However, where this little beauty really excels is in the drive sounds. It starts incredible subtly, just scuffing up and fattening the sound in a way which would work as an always on for when your amp and cabs are just too nice. From this starting point you can start adding all of those valve sound adjectives in ever increasing quantities. Fat, warm, grinding, dirty, rich, thick, filthy - yep it does them all. I climbed through the gain settings with the blend at 50/50 , tone flat. At about 10 past you're in John Paul Jones territory, 1/4 past it all starts going a bit Jack Bruce, beyond that things start going totally Lemmy. Go back to midday with the drive, turn up the blend and you get much the same sort of sounds but at an earlier point in the travel of the drive knob. Oh and with much farther to go. Totally max both blend and drive and the sound becomes this tube train of noise. Utterly compressed, nothing leaking from around the edges, a viscous serpentine fluidity, and really quite, quite lovely. A worthy addition to my ever growing pile of drive preamp pedals, I suspect they'd sell more if they doubled the price.

I'm lucky to have access to a big plotter at work - well, I was lucky, the b****y thing has died! Still it was working long enough to print my plans at full size. Needless to say, it is a very accurate plotter. First job was to make body and neck templates out of MDF I should add at this stage that I am not one of these people with an amazing workspace and fancy tools. These pictures show one of my two work areas, this is a small corner of table in our tiny utility room, and perched on here is where I do most things that aren't messy. I do the messy stuff either in the garage (horrible place with a leaky roof), or out in the back yard if it is dry/light. My only other work bench is a rickety thing with uneven legs.

In the interests of full disclosure, the J is 66 dot/bound/lollipop and the P is a Bravewood with a 63 plate.

Not really sure - would Brushy One String come anywhere close?

Sorry I can’t help , I love these bass relays, it’s so good the way people chip in to help 👍

Turning the One10s sideways makes the lows less deep but thickens them up. Not better or worse, just different. Some rooms will suit one orientation more than the other.

BB1200S it is. With some issues: missing original tuners, P pickup & pot knobs, new cavity for bridge PU seems routed with a chainsaw, tone pot swapped for bridge PU volume, P pickup frame ruined, ugliest thumb rest ever bolted on, body scratched & dented all over. It has an old EMG P/J set installed. The P sounds ok, the J doesn’t really bring much extra with it, thinking of removing it. Would also like to locate an original Yamaha P pickup with its frame, just to find out how the bass is supposed to sound. Very heavy, on the other hand it feels extremely solid. Thick neck, great sustain, biting attack, balanced sound, plays nicely with Rotosound Monel Flats.

trouser flapping goodness 😎

I did this version at a charity gig a little while ago which I really enjoyed....

There’s a reason why later versions of Whitesnake, the various WS tribute bands and most cover bands generally play a version in between the two recorded versions but without the original bassline. Whilst we are all in awe of Neil’s original part, it does mean that you can’t go for a bigger sounding arrangement and you have to play the song a notch slower than perhaps feels comfortable for many bands. The cover band that I’m in play a few classic WS songs, but we tend to go for the later period live arrangements. This because that is closer to what we naturally sound like, having all been a product of the 80s hard rock scene (perhaps not quite so much with me, but then I have played in more bluesier bands as well). Both versions of Whitesnake have their strengths (especially live), although after 1987 the songwriting suffered and the albums tended to be pretty poor. Also, Coverdale’s voice suffered, losing a lot of the richness he had in the earlier days as he tried to sing right at the top of his range.

I'd happily gig with just the Helix and an FRFR, in fact I am considering selling my Aguilar DB751 and matching 4x10 cab!

Suggest the Rancid tune to them. It's great fun to play and our crowd go absolutely mental for it.

I auditioned for a band once and they had this song on the list. I asked which version - "The original, it's so much better" was the reply. Imagine my horror when they actually meant the mid-80s version. Thankfully by that point in the audition I'd realised the band wasn't for me so I played an interpretation of Neil's line. (They didn't notice as the guitarists were too busy trying to out-shred each other through EVERYTHING hence my decision...)

Hey everyone, I was looking into ways to play outside just now as it's summer and UK indoor performances are all cancelled due to Covid. I got some useful advice on the Battery Powered Bass Amps thread for different types of battery powered bass amps and also ways to connect a battery to normal bass amps or run from car generators. After a lot of looking into it, I ended up not going down the bass amp or battery/generator route at all. I'm also a drummer and had a couple of outside jams with a quartet where the double bassist owns a battery powered PA speaker. He said a few local double bassists use these, and to get the 40W one instead of the 100W as the bass sound is better. It's a Behringer battery powered PA speaker https://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_mpa40bt.htm I bought this and the Behringer V-tone bass pre-amp for around £20 for a DI, which actually has turned out not to be all that necessary. Apparently the battery lasts up to 12 hours, it's small/lightweight and it has a second input as well as a bluetooth function to pair with a microphone or MP3 player. It sounds great with guitar coming through and can get an impressive volume out of it. When I have been on drums, the guitarist had the volume around half full and it sounded fine. It doesn't deal with the lowest notes on my 4 string Precision too well at a really loud volume, although changing tone and pre-amp settings helps. It comes with a mic and cable. Just wanted to let people know that this has turned out to be a reasonably simple and cheap option to allow outdoor playing.. hopefully we'll be allowed to play indoors again soon. Caroline

I like 70s jazz basses because of the different rear pickup placement which gives a unique sound especially for the odd popped note. I should have news on that front and be able to show you mine soon...

Here's my 72 Telecaster with original and replacement scratchplates, original is off the bass

Plus one for Trend. Don’t get cheap ones!

trend are a very good make 🙂