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So yesterday was my (60th) Birthday. Can't believe I'm 60...anyway, I got this T Shirt which I thought I'd share here.

So then! I play in a VH tribute band and I wanted to build something along those lines. It's a bit of a combination of Eddie's Frankenstrat, Mikey's PJ BB's and P basses, and Wolfie's blue striped Jazz. More details as it progresses 😀

I had a very apologetic email from Music Square today and all is good. By all accounts they've been impacted by the Brexit "deal" and the general impact it's had on logistics (amongst other things) which I had suspected and a few BC'ers had also confirmed. What a mess all round. Still, at least we get to have blue passports again. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, it's been much appreciated

Well - you know what I think about routers. But there are times when only a router will do. What I do try to do, though, is always be working with a 'captive' bearing bit. I forgot to take the shots, but I started like the weight relief - hogged out the chambers with a forster bit with the edges straightened up with a chisel. Then the bottom-bearing flush bit couldn't go anywhere but follow the chiselled line: I've included the provision for in-chamber battery for both general layout options (although I think @Jus Lukin is going for the straight-row toggle option), with the non-used chamber useful for coping with the excess loom wire. We could even go battery box if @Jus Lukin preferred and then use both battery chambers to cope with the excess wire In the photo above there is the rebate bit - again, it can't go anywhere - for the hatch. Here is the rebate with the battery in one of the recesses: And here is the healthy channel to feed three looms with their multi-wire connectors to the pickups, with the battery in the second recess: As usual, I will leave it until the morning before I glue this wing on...just in case I've forgotten something, and while the glue is setting, start on my cunning neck pocket plan on @Fishman 's Wal save Who says that men can't multi -oh sorry-just got distracted task

Ah really. Man it’s pretty shitty either way then. I’ve just sold a bass worth a fair few quid on here, paid by bank transfer and I’m arranging my courier (man with his van) to deliver the bass direct. I guess it’s down to trust on some things too.

Touching on our heritage as part of the violin family. This bass goes too low to even hear!

Look at this Yamaha Bass everyone! Oh wait I'm in the wrong thread 🤦

Well, it's been a few days now, still getting used to that 5th string, and overall I can give a big thumbs up. 👍 It's not perfect, but whenever I think of something that's not quite 100% then I realise that I was comparing it mentally to other basses that cost me up to 10 times more It's a very decent bass, and a ridiculously good bass for the money. Mine looks like it had been on display for some time. It didn't have fingerprints or anything, but there was dust accumulated on the bridge/saddles and on the same side of all three knobs, and it seemed a bit... messy in general. By comparison, my girlfriend's Precision in the same finish was absolutely smooth and impeccable. Quick wipe, and all is good. It's pretty light for a 5-string bass: 8.6 lbs. My old EBMM SUB5 was close to 11, and the G&L L2500 was around 10 lbs. This one is only 8.6 lbs which is nice. The balance is pretty good, on a strap it stays where I put it, but I can feel the neck is very nearly in the 'too heavy for the body'. It's one of the things I've found in many light basses, they seem to achieve that largely by using light bodies, and then the neck pulls it out of balance. This one is ok. The neck is full, slightly on the chunky side for a 5-string, not far off the L2500 as I recall. The SUB5 and Lakland 5502 were shallower (and also slimmer for the SUB5). Is this bad? Not for me, I favour meaty necks: Precision/Stingray styles. The string spacing is narrowish but wider than on 5-string Rays, and the G string doesn't fall off the fingerboard because there is enough room. It is BLACK. Like... none-more-black. In a guitar rack it looks like a blackhole-shaped guitar. I love the finish. Not sure what the fingerboard is made of but it's very nice, very dark, smooth, shiny. Fretwork is good. Originally the neck had far too much relief and the saddles were too high. I think that maybe the same person who put it on display noticed some fret rattle and decided that one way to alleviate it was to ensure the strings were as far as possible from the frets. If that was their goal, I expect they slept very happily that night, proud of a job well done. If they wanted to still have a bass you could play... then not so much. A quick adjustment (what took me longest -minutes- was to adjust the curvature of the saddles, they were all over the place) soon made it very playable. I haven't played 5-string basses in years and even back then I never really adjusted to them, so I still feel a bit lost and hit the wrong string, between the narrower strng spacing hand having one more string... muting is getting rapidly better but I still have work to do to get to an acceptable level. Right now I can play ok for a while and suddenly KLANG goes the B string, ooops... I definitely don't feel comfortable to play it live yet, not that there's any hurry, unfortunately Sound... definitely on Stingray territory as you'd expect, but not amazing. It's a perfectly usable sound, and between the two volumes and the passive tone it's decently versatile. I love Stingrays, and this gets me close enough... and again, if I think "hmmm, I wish it had more X or less Y" I quickly remember the price: if something bothers me enough, it would be very easy to modify it while retaining the total cost low when you consider how good the resulting instrument is. The only thing it needs is to file the nut slots a little, as it's a little high as it is, but that's trivial and it's perfectly playable as it is anyway. Other than the pickguard (not a fan of the tortoiseshell look) I have no intention of changing anything in a hurry, but I suspect that if I end up using the 5-string more and bring it to my bands I would change the pickup. My favourite is the Seymour Duncan alnico (SMB4A for 4-string) or the original (Nordstrand MM4.2 is very close to it), unfortunately the 5-string version comes in a differently shaped enclosure so I would have to find something else. No hurry 'though. I think a black pickguard is the way to go. This is without one at all:

I now have a collection of 6 Action Fraud Reference numbers and 2 police report numbers from numerous people. I'm happy to collate an open document with this information in to share with others and to add to as things develop and if other people get ripped off. Names will only be included if I am given permission. Quote me and send me your reference numbers. I am still trying to find details on his businesses. Seems difficult..... not suspicious at all

Hi all, starting off my first bass build at last! Back when I was touring with my ukulele band, Ukebox, we ended up in the South Pacific for a couple of weeks at one point in 2015, island hopping as guest entertainers on the MS Amsterdam. I spotted most islands we visited out there had a variation of what turned out to be the tahitian ukulele- basically a solid-bodied ukulele with 8 strings made of fishing line, and a carved internal bowl with thin soundboard- and vowed to make one one day as they looked amazing despite having basically just been made in someone's shed to sell to tourists. Fast-forward a few years; I'd left the band and got a job at Jack's Instrument Services here in Manchester, where after a couple of years of setting up and repairing guitars I felt ready to try and put one of these together during the lockdown! I altered the design a bit, doing radical stuff like putting on a separate fretboard and designing a slightly different shape with a lower horn for playing while sat down, and ended up making three. Each one was a bit of a learning curve but the third is definitely the best so far- Spanish Cedar compared to the other two which are obeche, plus it's concert scale so seems to be the sweet spot for string tension in this tuning(GGcceeAA). Moving on to bass things, keeping in with the ukulele theme I had been planning to make a U-Bass scaled model with a Piezo pickup/preamp, but hit a brickwall trying to get hold of anyone at Shadow about a UBass-specific piezo, so decided to go with metal strings rather than the usual rubber ubass fare. Then I figured since I was going to need to buy regular bass pickups and hardware and since the short scale of a ubass makes intonation... 'interesting' I thought for sake of a few hours more woodwork I may as well make a full-size bass that I could use at gigs without being laughed at(if gigs ever end up being a thing again). So I ordered a five-piece neck blank and a massive chunk of wenge off eBay(bought wenge because it looks amazing, but the more I've read about it since, the more I've realised this was a terrible idea- but I have it now so I'm going to use it). Looking at this I realised I was basically going the direction of my favourite era of bass design- the 80s; where, from what I gather, your quality as a bassist was decided by the weight of your bass, the number of knobs and outputs on it, and how convincingly you can sound like Mark King. So I decided to lean into that somewhat. I decided to design a bass with the shape of my tahitian ukes so I could use it as a giggable advert for them and their shape, but the weight, bells and whistles and general vibes of those early 80's custom jobbies- think BC Rich, JayDee, Alembic et all. I'm particularly inspired by the Westone Thunder Mk2, even if the bridge pickup is wayyyy to far from the bridge to give me that JayDee sound my Vox Standard bass used to have- So then came ordering some hardware; Badass MKII, Grover GB707 machineheads, 2x DiMarzio Model Ps (big thanks to Howdenspur for selling me his, as literally all of my suppliers at work had run out after Northwest Guitars sold me their only cream one), Bartolini NTMB+F preamp. I've also an Indian rosewood fretboard on order... need to get a trussrod on the go too once I work out how long of one I need. Knobs will be the old Boss style ones and switches will be those flat paddle throw ones, naturally. So I'm currently sketching out the shape onto a bit of 6mm MDF which I'll use as a template for table-routing the bass(I'll be doing it as a neck-thru). Resizing my tahitian uke design from 15inch to 34inch scale is proving something of a challenge... but I'll suss it out eventually. With the tahitian ukes, most of the time went into designing the template, so I imagine this will move fairly quickly once I get properly started. Buying the Model P was my first time on BC in years and I'm a bit out of the habit of forum-ing but will hopefully remember to keep this thread updated! I'm lucky also to work with some extremely clued-up people, including of course Jack of Jack's Instrument Services, and also Adam of Dolan Custom Guitars who's made some ridiculously good basses since I've known him so I should be able to work things out as I go... Control wise it'll have volume, blend, 3band EQ; 3x series/parallel and one active/passive switch(possibly phase too, but they're basically a 'make it sound naff' switch so probably not), and of course, the totally useless terrible idea that is an XLR output in addition to the jack socket, which probably won't even be wired in and will literally just be there because they look AWESOME. Very much looking forward to actually making some sawdust on this one! (hoping my image embed links work... last time I was on here everyone was still using photobucket..![edit- sussed it!])

Instead of basses I’d buy time. I’ve had all the basses I’ve ever wanted and no time to play them...

Hoping this will be with me by first week in Feb.......................

A bass that can't be heard? Many soundmen achieve that without any new instrument developments 😀.

I don’t think the three-bolt neck plate in itself is a problem design (don’t Musicman basses also use them?) I think there was some decline in manufacturing quality during the same era, meaning the three-bolt models are also associated with sometimes shabby neck pockets, poorly aligned necks etc. But like anything else there are plenty of good, bad and indifferent ones around regardless of the year. I wouldn’t be put off a good 70s Fender bass just because it had a three-bolt neck.

I've just built myself a studio desk at home as I'm doing more post production mixing now we're not allowed to gig. I was given the bay window space, with the strict directive that it wasn't to protrude in to the room. Think I've squeezed as much out of it as I can here! The two end bays under the monitor shelf are sized so that I can add rack strip if I want to fit kit in there in future. Going to build a small guitar rack to hold two or three off to one side too.

It's time to make a pick guard – I've ordered a few different sheets of A4 veneer to make something laminated – each sheet is 0.6mm, so 4 sheets should do the trick The next step will be to scan this and make a paper template, fine tune that, then make something out of thin MDF, then onto the veneer

Building a bass is sometimes like doing a logic puzzle! I'm working on the chamber size and position and the cable channels (remembering I have to feed those large loom connectors to each of the pickups) before I glue the lower back wing on. So what are my limitations? Actually, ironically it's about how much offcut of the back wood I have. Because I will be using an offcut from the waist cuts of the back panels to make my chamber hatch. And, if possible, I want the grain to be in the same direction. So the hatch has to fit within this area, minus the 8mm rebate all round for the hatch and (hopefully) magnets to fit: And, ideally, it needs to be able to accommodate the battery. Yes - I could fit a battery box, but it would be neater not to have to. And that leaves me the area cut out of paper here - and actually, a couple of options would fit in that area. In both cases the battery could be slotted into a pre-made semi-chamber carved into the side of the chamber: I will add the battery cutouts both sides so that @Jus Lukin can decide at his leisure which type of layout or variation of these he prefers. But in both cases they share the same external chamber size and position so that can be cut on the scroll saw now:

Looong time since the last update! Apologies for the blurry pictures, they look OK on my phone screen but like hot crap on my desktop screen where I'm typing this. The tearout was 90% fixed by building a masking tape dam around the edge of the tuner holes and using the glue and sawdust method. The face of the headstock was sanded up through the grades again to 400 grit, then given 8-9 coats of tru-oil. Looking OK if you don't get too close! I also used an old beer can to cut out some pickup shaped plates and a thin strip of aluminium. The plates will go under the pickups (largely pointless as the cavities are already shielded with copper tape) and the strip will run from the bridge to the neck pickup cavity and make contact with the plate. A ground wire will then be soldered to the plate for grounding purposes. Time to level the fretboard. A piece of square edge steel should be dead straight, so I cut and stuck several strips of 80 grit paper to one of the narrower edges of the beam using double sided sticky tape. I alternated between the raidus block and my new straight edge sanding beam, using pencil marks over the fretboard until it was all sanded off evenly and checking using the non-sandpaper covered edge of the beam until I was happy it was dead straight. This took a long time, but should be worth it in the long run. The 'mwah' sound from fretless bass comes from the fretless equivalent of fret-buzz, and needs a dead straight board to sound. All done. Now for the side dots. I clamped the neck to the fretting template and used a 90 degree square to mark off the location of the dots. Then I used a 2mm bit to drill a few mm into the side of the board, inserted the plastic rod dipped in a tiny amount of superglue into the hole, and then cut it as close to the wood as I dared using a small pair of cutters used for delicate electronics. All done, I sanded the dots level with the wood using 400 grit paper. Why not put 2 dots where 12th fret should be? Because my sleep deprived brain forgot that was a thing. All done, I used the radius block again and sanded up to 400 grit on the fretboard, wiped the dust off with a damp cloth and then gave it a coat of lemon oil once the water had dried. The lemon oil dried pretty unevenly which told me I'd have to do another coat or 2. Turned out to be 2, but the oil looked great and dried evenly after the third coat. Time for assembly. You can see the grounding strip installed here, along with an annoying scuff I stupidly did while re-drilling the hole between the pickup and control cavities, as the first one wasn't wide enough to pass the wires through. Everything is soldered into place here. Time for some strings. Without a set of nut files, this is as close to finished as I can get for now. Nearly there though!

That is one very small man!

It’s a Dubbeez morning, with the fantastic Olivia Davina on bass

I can't stand Miley Cyrus. But I love this.

https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2020/12/30/gear-review-sandberg-guitars-victor-brandt-signature-forty-eight/?fbclid=IwAR2LaOhh_YqCErzHJd0_2dEbHhlMOOTFBIyDjdqtT-r9KBnDqZ-i6zYLqTY nice review here on the Sig 48

It looks like it means business (the same way the triple pickup Dingwalls do.) Of course what it really also needs is a button that switches the pickups between the 3 settings in a wave pattern (like the Source Audio EQ1) - maybe with colour-matching flames coming out of the head. (It's snowed too much here today, I'm losing my marbles...)

This is mine.... one day....

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You aren't helping my seller's remorse one bit. Yes, if Klingons played bass...

The cardboard tube from a roll of paper towels / gladwrap makes a handy listening 'sniffer' for finding the source of noises.

You sir are the legend. I just have a 3D printer

Hi folks, really enjoying the site. I would be great if you guys could help and support my channel by hitting the subscribe button. I've got lots of free content uploaded for beginner bassists. Here's a link to a video lesson explaining the circle of 5ths within the context of the bass neck: Thanks for looking, and new subs would be much appreciated. Jamie (Groove Tube Bass)

Heres a wee lesson I put together;

The military may find a good use for these sonic weapons.

Assuming it's a 'third generation' model (if not, you don't need Control...), download here, with no hassle... Focusrite Solo Control... Hope this helps.

Honestly, the Reggae doesn't get much of an airing. Big fan of the mighty Black Uhuru... see em back in the 80's. Ini Kamoze - with Shocking Out / Statement and a bit of Tosh. but that was a long long time ago... TDK C90 Tapes and a VW Scirrocco, Red Leb, Squidgy Black and Grass - Pre CD and Super Skunk days... Just found Sly n Robbie Hits 1978-1990 CD in a draw so ripped it to mp3... Taxi! What has just come to my ears as well as the Drum n Bass is the Trump n Trom... Fence cant hold, too much bull-in at the pen! - The S-P-A-C-E in the music...

Me too. Excellent bit of kit.

Well - TI's "installed" and it's a step in the right direction. Probably need to spend a little time tweaking the set-up to get the last 10% but I can't put the bloody thing down long enough to fiddle with it! A shout out for the strings it came with though - they seem really good (for roundwounds) - I might put them onto my other bass just to see how they feel on another instrument . So, after a month, it is definitely the nicest bass I've played, the neck is pretty much perfect for me - not too chunky but not too thin, nice and smooth with no resistance from the fret ends. The slightly smaller body is also very comfortable, feels lighter than the Fender, balances really well and I like having the extra frets. The tuners are great and it stays in tune for ever. It just has that certain "je ne sais quoi"! Need a live session to see whether I can work out how to get the best tone, as playing in a little room in the house it's a bit brighter than I'd like - actually it's probably more "middy" than bright, but I suspect that'll be really good in a band setting. I'd really like to try a passive P style Sandberg - and I did configure one on their web site - just like this one with just a split coil ....... nice ....... . I do hope no-one puts one up for sale on here as it might create a little domestic tension ..... when's Christmas again?

Who labelled someone “dishonest”, have I missed something or are we off on a theoretical tangent? Ive negotiated and set a price, which makes him a few quid - he’s mulling it over. if he doesn’t want that, then that’s fine.

My fender us 62 RI was a nitro finish , I paid quite a lot for my one but you do see them occasionally come up for around the £1200 mark

Wasn’t there a big fuss quite a while back about someone listing an original OC-2 for a really high price and loads of folk piling on the for sale thread criticising the asking price? Folks were chiming in about cost, cheaper alternatives etc which on a for sale thread isn’t allowed in the bc rules I think or certainly not appropriate. Not that the bc rules appear to always apply or people feeling like they’re somehow exempt. It’s come up before and it’ll come up again no doubt but if someone wants to list an item for more then they paid it’s up to the buyer to decide if it’s a good deal irrespective of the platform. Back on topic... Yamahas are good eh!

£350 - that's an arm and a leg!

Thanks Richard. The north coast is truly stunning, world class scenery. I had a great day once cycling from Ballymoney to Bushmills (where the whiskey is made) where I joined the coast road and rode on into Portrush, stopping for chips and a rest then onto Portstewart for an ice cream at Morellis and then back inland to Coleraine. It was a beautiful sunny summer’s day and the scenery was breathtaking. Grub was good too 😁 It’s my hope to retire there in 10 years or so if I’m still able.

Fixed

Welcome back onboard! I finally got to visit NI this summer when travel was briefly possible, and spent a week up near Ballycastle and along the north coast. Lovely part of the world and I'm looking forward to going back and exploring the whole of NI sometime soon.

I've always been fond of this one... https://youtu.be/uF0DP82dcIA

Here’s a rare one Barbanera Low Pass Filter - Mongerfooger MF-101 Clone.

That doesn't preclude the burning though...

Someone came up to me in Asda once!! They seemed pleased to see me!! But they just asked me where something was in the store. Perplexed I told them I didn't work there. They got annoyed and told me I was wearing the shop's uniform. "No," I replied. "Sainsbury's have blue shirts, not even the same blue," as I gestured to the one I had on. #NeverWillBeARockStar

It just goes with the territory. It suits me, I’m not good-looking and I enjoy being anonymous. I don’t think even top-class bass players are generally recognised by the listening and watching audience. If they are, it’s because of their status as singer or front-person. Like Macca, Sting etc. I’m a firm believer in the wisdom of Martin Ace, long-time bass player for Welsh rock band Man. “If you’re bothered about being overlooked, ignored or misunderstood you’ve probably chosen the wrong instrument.” Look at it this way. If the audience don’t notice we’re on the stage surely they can’t put any mistakes down to us. 😂