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Could be very messy, Robert does wear a lot of lipstick. 😀

I think we have a winner! @JapanAxe has kindly agreed to have a look. I am the least amp savvy person (beyond knowing about my tone preferences) so it's a nice little reminder of what a great community we have here on Basschat!

Me, when I first got the KCC a few years ago. Seemed like a good idea at the time ...

I have had a blonde Engelhardt ES9 ("Marilyn") for three years and much as I liked the lovely look of the bass that thin Kay/Engelhardt neck was starting to bother me and I was finding the full size neck on my Yamaha SLB 200 to be much easier to play. So...last weekend I made a one day 779km trip to Stand Up Guy Bass in Toronto to try out a blonde '70's Czech laminate bass. After some discussion we worked out a deal and he took my bass in part trade and put new Obligatos on the Czech bass and set it up the way I wanted it and "Peaches" came home with me. I have a silly thing about blonde basses and it seems most people know me not as "that old guy who plays bass" but as "that guy with the blonde bass" so I wanted to find a blonde. I need a ply bass due to the weather here and because it gets hauled around a lot and I hope this will be just what I need. So far I'm loving the sound and feel and it works well with the KNA DB1 pickup, no preamp, direct to the amp and since I always need an amp in my bands I'm happy. I had Zyex strings on my other bass and have them on the EUB so this is my first time with Obligatos and I'm liking the feel and response, I play pizz in my bands and only use the bow at home. The bass has aged to a butterscotch colour like most blonde basses and has a few marks but that's OK, it's 50 years old. I've included a photo of the endpin, it is a prototype made by John Hay, a luthier in Michigan and uses more modern technology than most endpins. Some of you will recognize a quality bicycle post clamp that holds the carbon fibre pin. It is adjustable and clamps all around the pin rather than at one spot and is very easy to operate and has worked well so far. He sent these to some of his luthier friends to try out and Paul at Stand Up Guy Bass had several and I got one on my new bass, I believe he plans to produce them in larger quantities in the future. It's not a beautiful bass and it's a long way from high end quality but I think "Peaches" will be the working bass I need.

Testing out the new boys ready to transfer to the big board,and have made a lovely little "Bare bones" setup 😁 FEA Optifet IE subterranea EBS Unichorus EBS Microbass 2 Leads would need tidying though!

Such lovely words - I was FOH engineer for this stage over the last few days..

Need to solder a few last bits and clean the chrome and we are done!

Managed a pleasant outdoor gig in Charlbury last night; somewhat jazz, but rather ska influenced. The audience seemed to enjoy it, and the whip-round afterwards will more than cover fuel and a pint each.

Quick update Played through both my scrap ply cabs at the weekend Loud glam rock band (heavy drummer) Social Club environment - room probably 25m x 25m ish. Quite a low ceiling. Coped admirably with my TC BH550. A little bit of compression and very little twiddling of the volume control Again, droppped lows and low/mids a little on the EQ Still can't believe the bass output from 10" drivers in 30l cabs Top cab with tweeter on, bottom with tweeter off Had been a bit peeved about the lack of brightness, but thought it was just me... Changed my strings yesterday (owned the bass 10+ years and never changed them 😲) BINGO! Clear as a bell Still wondering what to do grille wise. I like the silver fabric grille, but i don't think it affords the protection the drivers need. If you're still umming and aaahing about having a go... DO IT! Once again thanks to all contributors 👍

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Love this thread... I was born in Kingston Jamaica, army brat...I saw UB40 live many years ago, and fell in love with that first album... So much truth in this.

Rock n Roll Hall of Fame inductees 2019 (check the interview footage on YouTube for the coolest ever interview), still filling stadiums around the world and 2 new albums (admittedly one Robert Smith solo) recorded for release. In my mind they should be heralded as a national treasure and spoken about in the same tones as David Bowie. Guess they just must be operating under your radar.

Are you kidding? You honestly think this legendary song is wishy washy noise?

Easy Check fuse, if blown replace, if not buy my Ashdown After Eight Simples, as the meerkats would say

Every little helps

This is a bit of a revelation for me having never owned a P Bass before. Right away ive noticed that this bass makes me play very differently. I don't know what it is about a P Bass but the feel/neck and the tone makes me slow my playing down. Im quite amazed that you can buy a bass of this quality for this much money. It seriously is a very well put together instrument. Ive been playing it all afternoon and im at a loss to find anything bad about it.

Yeah definitely, this is a good version with Tiken

I am sure if you had asked he would have given you one too?

Er, you've got the mic stand set a little bit high haven't you?

“How excited are you about winning this!” “By the sounds of it, not as much as you.” or something like that. he’s a slippery bugger.

Fortunate to own a 2015 Stingray and the incredible Big Al.....................

I tend to resort to my tried and tested ‘polite, nasty, kick it’ method. 1) talk to it calmly and politely whist switching it on and off, and twiddling the knobs. 2) start muttering and swearing at it whilst switching it on and off, and twiddling the knobs. 3) lose my temper and give it a good kick.

Here's a nice video of Simon Gallup playing to bassline to 'Cold' with his feet, and, only occasionally playing a high solo line on his Rickenbacker

I'm not sure about that, yes- the song is made up of lots of simple parts working together but it is the Bass that is prominently repetitively driving it all along throughout as other parts come and go, I'd go as far to say say that song is a classic example of a Bass driven song.

Stop practicing?

PM’d

It wouldn't surprise me if the real reason is back problems, 40 years of being almost bent double must have taken some toll!

Whatever bass she buys, get her some lessons so that her technique will be correct for the new instrument. Having small hands doesn't have to be a problem when playing 5 string basses if you are paying then correctly.

My collection

I’m sure that the true luthiers amongst you with time-served and well-honed skills will yawn at an imposter pretending to ‘build’ a bass by throwing a few ready made parts together, so apologies in advance to you fine craftsmen. Like many before me, I started off learning some basic set-up stuff and then swapped a few bits out here and there. As a result I ended up with some machine heads a bridge, some pickups, a pick guard and a couple of other bits and thought, all I need is a neck and body and I could put another bass together. I decided to go for a vintage P-Bass look and started to look for a cheap body and neck. I found a used P-style body on eBay which looked OK from the pictures, but when it arrived it was immediately obvious why it was cheap! It was so light I could swear it was made of balsa wood, the pick up routing and the holes for the bridge didn’t line up particularly well with the neck pocket. Never mind I thought, with a bit of filling and fettling I could probably make it work. Getting a cheap neck was less easy and, given that it’s such a key piece of the jigsaw, I thought it was probably worth spending a little more on that. I eventually got a used Fender licensed Might Mite neck which looks pretty good. However the neck wasn’t going to play nicely with the neck pocket on the body and yet more fettling with the body would be needed. As the body was going to be the weak link in this build I decided to abandon it and ended up buying a new Northwest Guitars P-bass body which arrived today. It’s like chalk and cheese and the new body is way better, a real quality piece. The neck fits in the pocket like a hand in a glove. One challenge is that it doesn’t have holes drilled for the bridge so I’ll have to figure out the best way to do that. I’m sure I’ll have many questions when I start to piece things together but for now, here’s all the bits: -

I'm working on it, I will get it from Paul at Stand up Guy Bass tomorrow(I hope), I can't find anything when I search. I was told it was a prototype(he made a few of them) and he wanted to see what kind of response he got before he produces more, it gets a definite thumbs up from me. I'll get back to you ASAP.

Although I do know of one occasion when this came up trumps for the smaller band. My pal's Prince tribute was booked for a bar in Dublin the night the man himself was playing in town. I think the bar thought they might pick up on those that failed to get tickets. Prince eneded up cancelling at very late notice and my pal ended up with a packed house!

I paid £4.82 for a pack of 12 picks, that's 0.40167 pence per pick. I'm not drilling holes in them and devaluing them. I'm not a super rich rock star like you.

He’s Definitely lost in the music during this performance

Yes, makes you proud to be British don't it guv😀

Just a quick update, and to say thanks @jimbartlett I went back to my local PMT the other day and had a listen to the Elf 1x10, and I really liked it - So I bought it Took it to a rehearsal that same afternoon, and it sounded great with my EUB and bass guitar. I can't get over how much punch it has, what a great range of sounds it can produce (EUB and BG were set up with very, very different EQ's). Although there's no tweeter, it produced some really sweet higher frequencies when needed. Moreover, although I've got other compact lightweight cabs - the Elf 1x10 is so light & compact, it's lighter than any of my others. The built-in solid handle is great too. I've got a few gigs coming up this month, and the Elf is going to be a real boon - especially at one festival where I know I'm going to be parked some way from the venue. I can do all my acoustic duos (and some of the trios) in one trip from the car now. Thanks all for your thoughts. One very happy Elf owner here

I was stuck in boarding school and a day boy mate of mine worked at the locaL club....humping gear prior to sound checks and after the show so, he got me involved and I used to risk expulsion every week to go a gig on a Friday night. 2 years seeing some amazing bands, so worth it!!! UB40 were amazing, just hearing the whole place shake when Earl played!!!!

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Hi Adam, great to have you here ☝️, there’s been so many great contributions posted here by many people it’s so good . I agree, signing off was definitely their best album, I remember the day it came out in 1980 and I’ve still got it on vinyl 🙂

Genuinely a bit gutted at this...such an integral part of The Cure, both in terms of sound and look over the last 30+ years or so... Still, if the call comes...!!! 😏😂

Hey! Rise of the robots. Stranglers

I don't have big hands. I can play extra long scale basses as competently as I can a shorter scale. But on a 3 hour function gig I'll take the comfortable option every time. Problems and Comfort or lack of it are not the same thing. It's the same as balance and weight etc. With the massive amount of options available these days there is no reason to make it more difficult / annoying than it has to be. The best instrument for any player is one that seems to get out of the way of the music and playing.

I did wonder if he was just drunkenly posting on Facebook - that's where it came from, his personal page - The Cure haven't made an announcement (yet). The alternative view is that they are all older, things change and perhaps it's time to move on. Bill Wyman seemed happier once he left The Stones. I am a massive fan of Simon and he was a major early influence. Whether he stays or goes, I hope they work it out.

well he did leave for a while in the 80s, but for him this was a pretty cushy number, I'm honestly a little surprised he would quit now.

Since slow isn't always meant as a compliment, I like to think of the P-bass making me play with greater poise

I have a Squier Standard PJ - you can pick them up for around £150 - like B5 I was surprised how good a bass it is for such little money. There are lots of basses for not much currently that deserve more recognition - this is one of them.

The DR Black Beauties on my ska Jazz (not for much longer) are the worst strings I think I've ever used. The G was dull straight out of the pack, the replacement string I eventually got was the same, and they're going dead already after just two rehearsals. And they sound crap too. The only thing in their favour is that they look good. New set of Elixirs in the post as I write.