Leaderboard

Happy New Year, everyone. Fingers crossed... And so to - the important test. With that unusual graphite/carbon/whatever plate representing the greatest proportion of the gluing surface to the fretboard, was it going to be able to stand reasonable tightening of the trussrod without a sharp *CRACK* and a demonstration of the removal of the fretboard around 45minutes quicker than using the iron and steel sheet? It is an interesting difference, of course, between the 'traditional' style of single action truss rod and a modern one. In the modern ones, the rod itself bends, pressing down at each end and pressing up under the middle of the fretboard. Here there is a possibility of the rod popping off the fretboard. With the traditional single-action anchored ones, the shortening rod bends the neck wood and the fretboard bends along for the ride. So the theory is that there is less force on the fretboard joint with a traditional anchored rod. Leastways, that's how the logic seemed last night after a couple of cans of 5.2% marshmallow stout! But the test has to be done because there's no point in fretting this if the joint isn't sound under normal strain. So this is the before - my aluminium box-section straight edge laying on the neck with trussrod loose: And this is after tightening the rod to a normal extreme - the kind of back bow typical of when you remove the strings on a set-up bass: And the glue joint held. Which makes it my first 'phew!' of 2021 So over the next day or so, this should be able to be fretted up

Glad you liked the manual. I wrote it along with a LOT of contribution and detailed editing by a couple of seriously seasoned TalkBass members, one who is a very technically inclined and one who is a journalist, both are solid players. The primary focus of the manual was to provide accurate, detailed information that is useful to players and form a player perspective. These guys started with the WD-800 manual and the response was so overwhelmingly positive that it was a no brainer to continue this way. Writing manuals is unbelievably time consuming, and these guys stepped up to the plate to make it clear and player friendly, especially when describing features that have not been implemented before. Here are links to the WD-800 and TT-800 manuals, they might help those who are interested better understand the amps to determine if they might be a good fit or not. WD-800: https://mesa-boogie.imgix.net/media/User Manuals/070556_Subway_WD800.pdf TT-800: https://mesa-boogie.imgix.net/media/User Manuals/Subway-TT800-web.pdf

Whilst I don’t like the overdone vocals of Ms Carey / Dion etc, I think the majority of Whitney’s stuff ( certainly the first couple of albums anyway) didn’t suffer from this malaise. She was definitely in a league of her own and IMHO was one of the great female vocalists, who died way too soon.

After scraping the fretboard edges (easier before the frets are in) if was time to start fretting. @Fishman has gone for nickel silver rather than the harder - but slightly brass-coloured - EVO Golds I tend to fit to my builds. The nickel silver are no more difficult than the EVO Golds to fit, but this being a flat board - and the fretboard already on the neck (On a 'new' build, I would generally fret the board and then glue to the un-profiled neck) it needs a slightly different approach. For the flat board, I went for flat wire rather than coiled. But what's this??? Why would crazy Andyjr1515 take flat wire and bend it to fit onto a flat board?? Well, the theory is to hammer one side of the fret, then the other. This leaves a 'hump' in the middle because the wire has been bent. Then I hammer the middle and it forces the barbs that have already gone into the slot sideways, locking the fret in. On the actual fretwire, I made the curve quite a bit less than in the photo above. I also use tang nippers to ensure that you don't get the sharp tang ends protruding from the fretboard as it settles: The last two things I do before hammering the fret in is run a triangular needle file gently along the fret slot to take the sharp corners off and also run a tiny bead of titebond along the tang. Then it's the 'hammer one side; hammer the other side, hammer in the middle; wipe off the glue squeeze-out': You can see the hump in the middle here before I flatten that with the mallet. Finally, I clamp a caul on (a radius block in the case of a radiussed board) for 10 minutes or so to hold it firmly flat (or radiussed) while the glue grabs: 5 done, 16 (I think) still to do

As half English, half Dutch having spent a large part of my early youth in the UK and my teens and adult life in NL all I can say is that I regret seeing all the polarisation, lying and political failure on both sides of North Sea. Can we please accept what is and move on. Neither side needs to add anything more to the intellectual side of the discussion, it is all just details from here on in. In my mind this thread can do with closing, it has run it’s course.

This - absolutely loved it. Made hairs on my arms stand up, having played this in several covers bands - I was really happy to hear this reworked version. Roisin Murphy is absolutely ace.

This bass is going to have an EMG 40TWX pickup fitted. I used an EMG MMTW on one of the 4 string version of this bass and I quite like it as it can be used as a single coil or humbucker so provides a few more options for a single pickup. I already had made the template for the body with neck and bridge cut outs so i added another for the pickup and then I would route all of them in one go. I used my usual method of making the template - I use some straight pieces of wood to make the outline of the pickup, cut the centre out then tidy up the edges with a template cutter in the router. I clamped the template securely to the body and made sure everything lines up (measure twice, cut once - definitely!). I remove most of the wood using a drill and a forstner bit before changing to template cutters in the router. I use a few different diameters of cutters to suit each radius of the pickup corners, bridge corners and neck. Before I join the two body halves together I drill holes to allow for the wring later. Just seems easier for things like the battery box and pickup cables. The holes are set at depths that should be correct when the pockets for the control cavity, pickup etc. are routed out. The hole for the pickup has ended up perfectly in the corner of the pickup pocket - quite pleased with myself!! Next job will be to cut the pockets for the control cavity and battery boxes. I think I'll put two batteries in this - one for the pickup and one for the neck LEDs.

***UPDATE*** As I mentioned MM finally sent me my refund in full after filing my Fraud case with Barclays and Action Fraud. However a day ago Barclays fraud department have managed to also get my money back from MM so a conundrum for me! I now have 2 lots of money! Having had a chat with @prowla going through some options, ive sent the money back to MM this morning via Bank Transfer. I was so tempted to pay a couple of people money they have lost but I think the right course of action was to give him the money back. It means I’ve done everything by the book and keeps everything right. I hope you agree? I could have kept it and said nothing but I’m an honest guy and it would rankle with me being dishonest

Picked this up off a fellow BC'er (El Capo) last year and it has been sat round gathering dust. First photo is his. It is a beauty considering the price so I have decided to spruce it up. No as my fat fingers are pretty ropey at doing anything practical, a friend of mine is doing the actual graft on this. I am just calling myself 'project manager'. Now despite 75% of my basses have been sunburst, I am not too keen on them. So with this we (well he) is stripping off the sunburst, which appears to be a wraparound coat (see picture) and going to paint it TV yellow/Butterscotch blonde. However, not decided which yet. The head stock was already shaped to mimic Fender one and there is a decent fender bridge on there. Going to take a wee bit off the neck, but not much as I like a hefty neck. Other than that, not much to do. Will see how PUP gets along and swap out at a later date. Just need to order a black 3 ply plate to finish it off and may do something different with the volume and tone wheels. So purely aesthetics at the moment. Really I am using this as an experiment to learn a little about building and re-painting guitars (although I can't shadow hime now!) so I know what needs to be doen and how much to spend if I see a project for sale in the future.

In the summer I bought an excellent MIJ Squier Bullet Bass from Gareth of this very forum. And it really was excellent. It recorded beautifully and looked handsome, which always helps. But I ended up having difficulty playing it for long due to the state of my left shoulder, neck and back problems and this made me move towards something short scale and hollow bodied. I'd planned to sell the 34" scale Squier Bullet and buy a 30" scale hollow body bass, before emigrating on the 17th of December. I'd advertised the Bullet on here but it didn't sell so I was resigned to taking it with me but still getting another bass before I moved to France. And then maybe buying something online from Thoman.fr or Le Bon Coin once I'd moved. On the night of the 14th I googled 'Hofner Violin Bass' just out of curiosity and the search results threw up a load of results but at the top of the first page were a load of ads for Hofners, from Thomann, Absolute Music, Guitar Guitar etc. And among them was an Ignition series Hofner Violin Bass at a stupidly cheap price with 48hr delivery so I hit the buy-it-now button and hoped for the best. Me and my wife were fully occupied, still packing up boxes of our belongings for the move, so I didn't have much time to think about it but hoped it would arrive before we left for France. On the 16th I had a mate come down to Brighton to buy my old 1960's Philips organ. He's a pedal-steel player by trade but he's just got a studio space in north London and before he set off for Brighton he was looking for a bass on the Facebook marketplace in East Sussex. He hadn't found a bass but he did collect a Fender Twin from somehwere on the way. Then he got to our place and he saw the Bullet bass, picked it up, said "God, how light is this?!" and fell in love with it and we did a deal. While he was playing the Bullet, the doorbell rang, it was the courier guy with the Hofner Bass. When he handed me the box I thought it was an empty box, that's how light these things are. Even double boxed with bubblewrap it still felt empty. When I opened the boxes and got the Hofner bass out I was surprised at just how light it was. I don't have any scales so I didn't weigh it, but it's probably about the same as two packets of crisps or something daft like that. Big packets of crisps obviously, but you get my drift. Our move was being co-ordinated and handled by Douglas a.k.a. @Dad3353 and he knows a fair bit about Hofners so I handed it to him and he said, yeah they're all usually pretty light. Didn't have a lot of time to spare before the morning of the 17th so I boxed it back up ready for the move. I was sad to see the Bullet go but at least I knew I was going to a good home, and I did mates rates on it because I've known him for years and we'd done sessions together etc. All good. Anyhow we did the drive from Brighton to South of France (well @Dad3353 did, I just looked out the window and drank fizzy pop) and the day after we settled in I got the Hofner Violin Bass out, plugged it into a little practice amp and fell in love - It's such a funky sounding little thing, super light, and has more bottom end than it looks like it should. Couldn't stop playing it, didn't want to put it down. The neck is so easy to get used to, and the pickups are great. It has more sustain than I was expecting but flats and a bit of foam at the bridge should sort that. The whole feel of it is superb for the money, I can fully recommend the Ignition series violin bass if anyone is thinking about one, they're ace. I removed the guard as I prefer the look without one, and I couldn't get on with the roundwound strings that came with it though, so tried putting on a used set of Roto black nylon flats I had hanging about. But the E string was too big to fit into the tiny little guitar machine heads that the Hofner has. No problem, I've got a set of D'Addario Chrome flats that I'd had on my last Mustang bass, I'll just put them on. But no, the gauge is still too big for the tuners. Fergling little Bergstedts!!! 😡😆 So I've ordered a set of Hofner Contemporary flats from Thomann. They haven't arrived yet so I'm still making do with the roundwounds, but once they arrive I'll get them straight on and record some clips. Meanwhile, here's the obligatory pics: And because @Len_derby asked for a pic of it in the sunshine I took it out onto the balcony of our apartment and took a quick pic. It's not my best photo, but the sun was out and it was 14 degrees here. I was even wearing shorts but of course nobody wants to see that 😂 Anyway here's the bass in the sun: If anyone is on the fence about buying one of these, or can't quite make their mind up, all I can say is the one I got is brilliant. Wish I'd bought one years ago. If you see one at a decent price go for it 👍

Massive thanks to @Steve Browning for all his work for us on this matter.

Is it not just that the body beyond the bridge and the number of frets mess with the perspective?

The table of cab impedances and amp settings is particularly welcome I expect.

Queens of Soul sounds good but I cant bear Ms Houston's yodeling style.

The manuals for both heads are very impressive. In general I think that the Mesa manuals are really good. (I own a Walkabout, Big Block and Rectoverb 50 combo). However, I think that the manuals for the WD-800 and TT-800 have set a new standard for how I would like instruction manuals to be written for amps.

This red one is a one off and he’s hinted that it could be a prototype for a sig model.

+1 But if they make you sound like a better version of yourself, that's a win.

I think this is an informative thread, I know very little about import charges etc, and lots of the vintage basses I look at are abroad, so it’s good info for me 🙂

The BTB will not make you sound like Dave Swift, but they are cracking basses for the money. Even the “cheaper” versions.

My position has always been that having the same bass as another player won’t make me sound like that player, so why am I now doing searches for used Ibanez basses? 🤔

Hi guys! Happy new year! This is Nick doing a quick reply! Yes, this is an E Basses Valiant 5 string bass, I was the co-designer and came up with the name! Ian Hancock did all the hard work in terms of the actual build and sadly he stopped making basses a few years ago but has mentioned that he might start making some new basses at some point, sadly I won't be involved as am now working with Grainger Guitars of Rutland on two brand new bass models! Cheers! Nick

Is it just me or does the body look a bit slab sided too?

And they wisely left the 'rape, murder' bit out of the lyrics! 👍

I've got LaBella flats on my Club. They're the set designed for the Violin bass so will definitely fit. Not too high tension but definitely not low either. I really like the feel but I do prefer a stiff flat to a flexible round. They sound great though. https://www.labella.com/products/760fhbb-beatle-bass-stainless-flats-50-100/

Oh and btw, if anyone needs to move house from Brighton to the South of France, and they need someone to drive the truck full of all their stuff I can absolutely recommend @Dad3353. He’s an honest bloke, he’s just done three years in Parkhurst and you can trust him. Lovely man ❤️ Total dude. The best!

Some folks prefer naked 😱 Or maybe just with underwear 🤣

A question for @Chownybass, perhaps..? Can you post a photo..?

I feel daft. I asked my wife if it was an African or Indian elephant. 'Mechanical' wasn't the answer I expected. I don't even know where Mechanica is.

They come with a padded gig bag. There is a footswitch that will handle the channel switching if you want to do it on the fly. There wasn't a 2x15 when I got my cabs but they're a great pair.

I appreciate you were being specific to the situation, not a generalisation! From the perspective of a working bassist who loves working in the EU, (and missing working at all!)... My friends/colleagues and I are just feeling devastated at the moment. We've lost people, we've lost our livelihoods, and at least some of it feels avoidable. We'll do anything to feel like we have some say! Not to mention the obsession with fishing rights.... When you're desperate you tend to do seemingly pointless things, as the other options start running out!

For those who like neat and understated without being overly crowded.

"Phone a landlord" is a generic phrase for chasing venues, not just a landlord - I personally just don't think it's the time to be doing it. Way too much uncertainty and stress for those in the hospitality trade to be worried about gigs for weekend warriors IMHO

Oh man, even the thought of minus one degree and hard frost makes my cobnuts go back indoors. 😂I’m from Hartlepool and I remember what cold winters were like when I was a kid. Never again! (I hope). Happy new year to you. 👍

He's a true gent, always willing to answer any queries about his gear or who he's played with i've asked a few times & always had a reply he's endorsed by Ibanez

Ah thanks man, I appreciate the knowledge 👍 I’ve got some La Bella Deep Talkin Bass flats on my little Tanglewood bass and they are perfect in tension and tone. I’ve had their Mustang flats sets before back when I played Mustangs and they were a bit variable to be fair, which surprised me. Am always happy to try them again if the Hofner Contemporary flats aren’t up to the job though. Cheers, and happy new year to you.

Just 2 x bike rallies. I don't even have the heart to phone a landlord that's barely managing to keep his head above water and have the bare faced cheek to ask for a gig in 2021!

Yeh the lh1000 will just do it, no messing, no frills. Just plug and play. Proper rock n roll.

Yamaha's specs pages for the 424/5, 1024/5 and 2024/5... BB 2 series ...and the 234/5, 434/5, 734/5 and P34/5: BB 3 series

Sorry, you’re all wrong. This was originally a feature to prevent passing slugs from taking a shortcut to the other side of the body under the strings between the pickup and bridge. It doesn’t happen now of course, so the strip is unnecessary but it was a common occurrence in the early 60s.

It looks good to me...

I've just added this to the reviews section. These amps arrived from the US a couple of days ago and I immediately booked a rehearsal studio in order to check I'd wired up the rack correctly, and to give the amps a good go. As with all my Boogie amp purchases, I was buying 'blind' but I have never been disappointed so ordered one as soon as they were announced. My first Boogie head was a Bass 400 in the mid 80's and the fact that this used the same tone stack made it the amp for me (and my back). You can see I was running through two Subway 1x15 cabs. The basses were an SVL Reserve with flats, an old Precision with rounds and my A/E fretless which is active) with flats. I was joined (socially distanced-like) by @rumblefish who brought along an active bass - and his ears! The signal path was bass - tuner - amp - rack EQ in the fx loop - cabs. The EQ's were in bypass mode. I got the unit merely because the 400 has a graphic and I did use it on my one. The amps were rack-mounted using the Mesa kit. The ears weighed a good bit more than the amp I reckon!! This review is a first impressions review and I imagine I've only scratched the surface of what it can do. First of all, a big shout out to the manual. The best one I've read so far. Not only did it have all the info on the amp, it also had a comprehensive table of the ohm settings and power distribution for a number of cab combinations (1x8ohm + 1x4ohm etc). It's a question that comes up regularly and here was a table with all the permutations and the relevant ohmage setting. So, on to the amp. The 'executive summary' is an emphatic 'wow'. The amp (I was pretty much just using the Boogie channel) has all the tone you need and the combination of gain and volume give you everything you want in terms of grind. By way of comparison, I had my channel gain (on the 400) at about 1 o'clock. I ended up at about 3 on this amp. This gave it that bit of 'bite' when digging in a bit on the bass. The EQ section is typically Boogie with loads of variation on all the controls but the biggest differences coming in with judicial use of the mid controls. I had started off with the deep switch on but decided it was not needed in the end, the high pass filter remained fully counter-clockwise. With everything set at 12 o'clock it sounded wonderful and I didn't get a bad sound out of it. To my ears, the sound was pure 'me'. It's the sound I've had since those 400 and Diesel 2x15 days right through to today. It's a sound I love and always makes me smile. This barely scratches the surface, as I said. There are so many possibilities on the amp that I neither had the time, or the ears, to fully explore all the subtleties in this brilliant package. In my opinion, Mesa have delivered again. They took me from all valve to valve/mosfet without losing any of my sound and have now taken me on to valve/digital, again, without losing any of the sound. An exceptional amp and I now just have to wait until circumstances are such that I can run it up 'in anger'.

I'm not going to play whack-a-mole with this thread. Keep it on the practicalities of the thread subject, or it's getting locked.

I've been 37 years a VAT professional. Shall we do willies next?

This often gets cited in "worst headstock", but to me it's perfectly functional, minimalist, and sculptural