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With much thanks to Jon @Bassassin for all his advice, knowledge and patience. I've had the hots for one of the old, better quality Japanese 'SG' style basses for a while and this one popped up for sale on Reverb at a reasonable price. A Fujigen made, Antoria branded, short scale EB-3 copy finished in what I guess you'd describe as a dark walnut lacquer. It arrived a couple of weeks ago now. A serial number on the back of the front pickup dates that, at least, to 4th August 1972 and, apart from a few dings in the paint, it seems in remarkably good nick for a bass that is approaching it's half century. Lots of life in the frets. I believe everything is original and, more importantly, still works. It arrived absolutely spotlessly clean, the neck dead straight and the action to my liking so all I needed to do was tune it up and lower the bridge pickup a tad to balance the output. I took off the middle chrome hand rest that I found rather in the way and there was a (original?) foam mute under the strings at the bridge that I also removed. The bridge adjustment is crude but, then again, so is my playing Edit - re-strung it with my favoured TI Flats. Weighs in at 3.4kg and sits nicely on the strap, no neck dive. Slim, shallow neck with a nut width of maybe 39mm. Have to say I am really impressed. Build quality is everything you would hope from an early Fujigen. It is the tone I was unprepared for. The neck pickup in particular is warm with HUGE character, a million miles from the Epiphone EB-0 I had years ago, even with the industry standard Dimarzio upgrade. Wander up to the 7th-12th fret area and there is a hollow, almost choral sound - hard to describe but I like it lots. And that is just at home. I suspect that pushed it will break up nicely and growl - really looking forward to trying it in the context of my blues trio. I have one of the Gibson Les Paul Jnr DC basses and I love it to bits. But, big question, do I prefer this? Possibly. I like that this is old. I like the whole quality Japanese copy thing. I particularly like that it cost me well under £300.

Sorry to hear about the crap you're going through. Your description of my responses on here is accurate in every sense and I apologise to the folks on here for that. I was a Sir Richard Head III, 100%, no mitigation. I'm also sorry that the gear we discussed for your charity didn't work out, although having checked I've no idea what the story is there. Anyway, if you need to move on gear, do not see this forum as a stinky poo show just because on occasion an individual member acts like a Sir Richard Head III, there are some extraordinary people here, who will support, advise and humour as appropriate. Ped, my apologies. BC members, my apologies. Alex, my apologies with the condition that I really do wish i hadn't ripped my finger open and carried the residual anger about it for about a year. No, scrap that, my apologies. I think there are moments in time when you realise you need to perhaps take a good look at yourself, so please trust me when i say I am. Anyway, back to the pedal Chris

Well that was a fun way to spend a Sunday lunch. I too don't come here that often. Only when looking for something or have something to sell. I too have a year from hell, and have not acted as well as I should to some folk due to the stress - it's very easy to judge. Pre Covid my best friend was murdered, My studio has been effectively closed since March, all touring work obvs out the window, and in September my lifelong partner was discovered to have cancer. Now post major surgery, we are about to start chemo. I'm selling gear to make ends meet and clear space as I do when times are hard, but this shitshow made me think again about doing so on here. I particularly liked @Beedster throwing his teddy out the pram, then airing some dirty washing, and shaking @Alex like a dog with a rabbit on the grounds of him not liking criticism Thought it might be a good time to bring up the conversation I had with la Beedster when he very kindly offered some gear on here free to a charity. Got him a lot of kudos publicly that did... I run a music based charity helping disabled and deprived folk enjoy what we take for granted. I sent him info and have a guess what happened folks... Anyhoo I came for a review of the Machinist. Didn't get very far, but now despite the times, I'm gonna go buy one. A) because dirt is my fav thing and B) I want to help Alex out. He and his company have been decent with me and folk I work for, and I admire what he does. I might put a review up

An original on which I contributed the bassline and BVs was played this afternoon on the radio. OK, it was internet radio being broadcast from someone's back bedroom somewhere ... we're not talking Radio 2 or Capital here. But it remains my first ever radio broadcast. Box ticked. Next up? Television. 😂

A 1x10 Trace Elf just got delivered to me and I’m so impressed. I have the Elf amp and an Elf 1x10 cab for about the past year. I mainly play with the Elf cab and a VT500 head, using the Elf in my bag as a backup just in case. Anyway, I plugged in the 1x10 combo and POW! Bags of power, great sound, great tone for a little speaker and so light and portable! Where this really sings though is when you add the 1x10 extension cab. I can’t get over the power/heft for such a little lad!! These are also built like a brick outhouse my cab fell from a stand during a gig and not even a scratch on it. Definitely worth a look into if you are in the market for a lightweight portable rig.

Hahah not quite, I wish it were true as I'm not exactly falling over my money at the moment.... I am doing 2 builds though. My last build, a Carl Thompson tribute, worked out so well I decided to do a couple more and see if anyone would be interested in buying. This time I'm building both a bass version and also a short scale 6 string piccolo bass. AKA a "guitar". Starting as always with wood selection. I'm using up some stock I've had lying around as much as possible. So the body wings are sapele. The bass is getting a centre core made from a sandwich of figured sapele and fumed ash (this was leftover from another project). The guitar body is getting a centre core of Iroko, which I've not used until now. For the necks I'm going with a maple & wenge lamination on the bass. And a 3-piece maple lamination on the guitar. Both will have scarf joint headstocks and wenge fretboards, Here you can see my scarf joint jig. I built this so the guide rails can be pressed against the baseplate on my belt sander Gluing up the bass headstock with a wenge sandwich to create a fun detail. So here we've got all the bodies glued up, ready for planing down to final thickness. And the necks all cut & shaped. And getting my fretboards all done. I print out the layouts from Ekips on self adhesive vinyl. Using real MOP marker dots here, and boy those side dots sure are a pain to install. Here's those bodies. All planed down and carved. Once the necks are complete I make the pockets by using straightedges to form a routing template conforming to the neck. Et voila! Both builds all necked up. Also, the headstocks have a wenge veneer now. Getting to work on neck carving here. I go about his in the few ways. On the all maple neck I actually used my bandsaw to slice away a lot of material like a wooden kebab. Then I do the rest with a shinto rasp and drill mounted drum sanders. In the background is all the work I should be doing instead of wasting my time on this luthiery nonsense. Tapping in some frets with the finest of tools. Pickup cavities routed, and this one is just about ready for finishing. And, much applications of shellac later, this is where we are on this build. Just awaiting pickups & sundry hardware which should hopefully arrive next week. And here is where I currently am on the bass build. More to come as I get to it!

That Russian P I bought from @Beedster now with Badass II and 1972 tort and pick ups. CTS pots and switchcraft Jack. Man she growl!!! Look how pretty she is.

Yesterday’s updated Precision family picture, all ready for Xmas 😂

reidmar 750 and proline 410. Very recent, only managed one rehearsal

1990 Stage I 5string with Bartolini preamp and pickups 1991 Stage I 4string with EMG preamp and pickups 

This is fabulous news - but wait. I was foolish enough to click on one of the pro Trump you tube blogs so I've suddenly received a number in my You Tube feed - I read one which had some recent Trump clips (the ones where he's at a little desk with a huge badge on it, and seemingly wearing, what the Americans call a diaper (adult nappy in English) under his suit. So here's the gen:- 1) Trump is taking personal credit for all vaccines wherever they come from 2) The democrats are all criminals who should be locked up 3) Joe Biden couldn't possibly have received so many votes - and some of them may be from illegal immigrants 😏 4) God (and lots of evangelists who may be considered certifiable in other countries) are on Trump's side 5) Any vote for the democrats is suspicious and may represent voting fraud (without any evidence but rhetoric and unsubstantiated allegation and the republicans couldn't possibly have received any corrupt or fraudulent votes) Any other view is fake news and a conspiracy (and there is no way Trump is trying to stage a coup d'etat as per the sort of corrupt dictators in some smaller countries have done in the past). So there is the source of all the vaccines proposed 👍😂

Couple of pics. He did a lovely job.

I thought this thread was going to be about spotting notable bassists on public transport!

An unexpected bitsa. Recently, I posted in the Wanted section, looking for a sonic blue Squier Classic Vibe Precision Bass, to which @Philboyo duly obliged. However, on arrival I realised I didn't get on with the shallow C-shaped neck; that was the reason I sold my old Fiesta Red CV Precision. I was fortunate enough to find a Japanese Squier SQ series P Bass near me for cheap, so picked that up a couple of weeks ago and gave it to my guitar tech, along with a vintage-style, threaded-saddle bridge to replace the high mass stock unit, and a set of Gotoh FB30 lollipop tuners which were intended for another bass, but dropped into the existing screw holes and replaced the crap Wilkinsons that came with the neck. It needed a fret dress, a new nut, and the screw holes in the heel of the neck were slightly stripped, so had to be filled and redrilled, so a bit more work than was expected, but now it's all together it plays wonderfully.

Gorgeous. This is exactly what I want to do to my sub ray4

Apparently the story of the Fabulous Wealthy Tarts name was that they (along with Pino) were playing with Jools Holland (before Paul Young). Jools wanted to have a name for the band and especially the backing singers. They agreed as long as it didn’t make them “sound cheap”! Over to Jools...

I saw Paul Young around this time, great band. The backing vocalists were introduced as ‘The Fabulous Wealthy Tarts’. The album ‘No Parlez’ had just been released, first time I’d heard of Pino. Happy days.

he's reminded me of how not good my playing is 😪

The only way is Harrow 😀

Hi mate, great question. First thing, are the routs on a body standard Fender size, especially the neck pocket and PUPs, I've found a few that weren't Second, price, it's tempting to pay £300 for a lovely neck but the bass is eventually going to cost more than a complete bass you could buy new. Unless it's really special, I try to stay under £150 each for both bodies and neck (my black relic body broke this rule, as did 'The Russian' and the Musikraft neck) Third, always buy used, many of the new parts that sell below £100 on eBay are simply not very good, for example a body I bought a while back had a pocket that put it about 5 degrees out of line with the neck. NEVER get into an auction with a seller of bespoke items, there's a guy at present on ebay who has a photo of a nicely reliced body on the item page, but this is not the item you'll get, he's going to make that once the auction closes. And let's face it, the quality of the body you get is going to be a function of your winning bid, the guy is not going to spend weeks perfecting your body and relic finish if the winning bid was £90! Re parts, Warmoth and Allparts make consistently great parts, Mighty Mite slightly less so. Fender and Squier parts are generally good. I would stay clear of nay body or neck that has been deliberately reliced, some of the stuff that people do to wood is shocking, but can look OK in the photos on eBay Fourth do not but from the US, the part will cost you at least twice as much by the time it gets to your door I'm sure others will add much more

I will be going to Glasgow show I think. Pending the obvious... Hopefully they have a new album out by then. It has been about 7 years since the last one.

Carry on My Wayward Son by Kansas. It’s a tricky one, with timing changes & plenty of different parts in it. I can play them all it’s just remembering them all and the order they’re in.

I worked with both the girls backing them for about six months (at the latter part of the 70's, I was in the resident band). It was a six night a week night club called 'The El Nile' (just off of Oxford Street). The girls had a cabaret act and used to do the late shift. Quite often coming in after doing other gigs/shows earlier. They were a great laugh, especially Kim. I believe she lives out in the States these days.

Did another little mod yesterday and found out the bass's weakness, installed the Warman pickup and expected it to instantly have more output and grunt.....but no! Wired it in just as a humbucker and it was a little better than standard but still disappointing compared to other basses I have with the same pup. I noticed a bit of fluffyness to the sound, put a set of strings on that I had lying around and voila it's the monster it was meant to be, the standard strings are rubbish! Just need now to give it a couple of weeks till I get the Kiogon loom and switch and my mods are done!

The producers of Midsomer Murders wanted our band for filming some village fete scenes. I declined because I didn’t want to become yet another murder victim. Actually I couldn’t get away from my day job but the above is a better story.

My only bitsa is my Frankenjazz. Body and neck bought from a guy on eBay called “Build-a-bass”, Hipshot tuners, Graphtech saddles, Audere preamp. Turned our to be a monster Jazz. Was going to swap the pickups but once the Audere was in never felt the need to. Maybe one day I’ll add some split “single coil” humbuckers? Similarly was going to add a high mass bridge but I like the old BBOT bridge plus graphite saddles fine as is!

From the 1981 Rush album, 'Moving Pictures', this one is the full Geddy Lee bass part to 'Vital Signs'. Vital Signs – Rush – Bilbo's Bass Bites

It just feels great in the hands Stew. The moment you pick it up you get a frisson of pleasure because it just feels so complete. I mean, it pkays very well indeed and sounds very decent (im particularly susprised at the pickup's output) but its the indefinable feel of the thing that puts it several classes above the asking price. Honestly, if they slapped a fancy brand name on the headstock and charged £400 then no thinking player would think anything was amiss. Indeed, the makers slap the word 'Epiphone' on many of their other products and charge 400 quid for some of them, and buyers don't think twice about it.

I've got enough digital and computerised annoyance in my life that I don't want to introduce it to other parts of my life where I don't find it beneficial. I like digital recording because it makes massive track count and good sound quality affordable (not really bothered about all the editing potential, I'd rather just nail a good vibe as live as possible). I like streaming audio at home because its freed up a lot of space now I have small people taking over our house and it allows us to play random Disney things without buying the CDs. I don't like anything with menus etc when I'm in my musician instrument-playing headspace - I want a knob or a switch to do what it does. I hate when things crash. I don't want to plug a USB into my amp. And I don't like the tendency of digital gear to become obsolete, or fail and be unrepairable. How many of us have analogue stompboxes that are decades old and still sound good? How many of us have older digital FX that we still use? Yes, digital gear can be cheaper and yes it can give more options. But unless I can see a clear benefit for how I approach music then I don't want to use it. Hopefully some musicians will have a similar viewpoint and will buy our stuff - for everyone else there are lots of alternatives!

more seriously- I imagine there's a part of this pedal which is @alexclaber coming up with something cool with a mate and wanting to release it - just cos it's cool and exciting for him. If they are made to order then there's no real biggie if they don't sell crazy well - worst happens is nobody buys them and he just ends up designing his own pedal for himself... Cos it's fun and interesting is a reason people do things sometimes - I guess at some point Crazy Kiwi and Ped thought it would be fun to start a forum to chat about bass in the uk...

Thank you. It’s probably best to leave it as it is, it’s more honest. I think a lot of people have a very different idea of Barefaced to what it actually is. For better or worse, I’m not really financially driven, I just want to make the best possible products in the way that I believe is right. I want to make things that people use for years and years and years, I don’t want to make things that are at all disposable. From a business perceptive I am horribly cursed by a desire to not screw up this planet any more than possible - I know making speakers (the actual drivers, especially the magnets) is not environmentally friendly so I want those speakers to be really valued items that people cherish and thar even outlast me. And I also strongly believe in trying to manufacture here, creating jobs where you get to use your hands, not just poke at a computer. So because of those decisions, everything we make costs a hell of a lot to make. Everything we design takes a really long time to design (I can’t tell you how long we’ve spent on the amp so far...) We operate from an almost comically tiny factory and no-one here, me included, makes much money. Thankfully I’m not a big spender, my wife is very frugal and you can get an awful lot of things free (hurrah for sharing/freecycle groups) or cheap secondhand, and the children don’t seem to mind (yet). Last year I bought a new car because the front wheel snapped off the 15 year old one as the suspension had rusted through - and I really like cars. Well, I say new, it’s almost five years old but that’s new to me! I need to do an official announcement updating customers etc on what Barefaced is up to, but with the massive fall in orders due to the lack of live music, I now have half as many staff as in March, and the staff who are still here are only part-time and mostly furloughed. It’s really hard. I know it’s even worse for all the pro musicians who’ve lost their entire income, the events companies, the list goes on. And of course those who’ve been seriously ill, or had close friends or relatives suffer, or even die from this. I don’t know where I’m rambling with this but I guess I’m trying to say that I’m not sitting in some ivory tower making fancy products, I’m just trying to do something I believe in and earn enough to live. And because margins are fine and right now turnover is much lower than normal, I’m spread very thin trying to wear too many hats so that I can pay the rent and my mortgage and payroll and feed my family and not have to lay off more staff.

OK, I'm sorry everyone. Running a business that specialises in making gear for live music is really hard when pretty much all live music is currently on hold. It's harder still when you have two small children and a very challenging baby. Can you just ignore my last comment, I'm just trying to stay the right side of a nervous breakdown whilst trying to not have to make all my staff redundant.

In my 10+ years on this forum, I’ve seen countless members remark that if only they were younger and had a better back, they’d be running X or Y rig. I therefore feel it is my civic duty as a 28 year old with a functioning spine, to own such a rig. Sadly it’s consigned to a storage unit at the moment because COVID. I present you a ‘97 USA made SVT-II Pro, complete with a battered USA made SVT-810E. Yes, it truly is what dreams are made of.