Leaderboard

So, in a few days my big brother turns 40. We played in bands together for years, and him having guitars in the house was my gateway to playing bass. Recently he’s expressed frustration that he’s not playing as much anymore and wants to get back into playing. When we were kids, I had an old yamaha bb300 and he got a matsumoku Westone Spectrum ST. Spoiled really - both of us playing really decent quality beginner instruments. In an ill-advised (probably cider fuelled) bout of “I want to be Kurt Cobain” he started sanding paint off and cutting bits off the westone. Eventally, the bits all ended up in a skip as he absolutely destroyed it. That was about 1998. I came across this at a lovely little shop (Marvel Guitars in Timperley, Altrincham) And away we go…

It's finally here and it's absolutely beautiful. Plays like a dream too!

What's better than learning bass with your metronome, drinking coffee and watching your toddler get up to mischief? Not much! Thought I'd post a positive post, sure why not.

But does it mute the sound differently to, say, turning the volume off on your amp or bass? I find the point in the signal chain at which the sound is muted has a massive effect on the type of silence produced.

Played a final gig with the old band last, a fundraiser for local hospital radio at the hospital social club. A real blast. There was another band on before us playing 80’s/90’s stuff which they pulled off really well. They then stayed to watch us - really supportive, nice people, lots of musicians chat and beers shared before we all packed up. It’s good when that happens.

Well after my debacle with the Zoom B1four packing up recently, I have experienced a slight mishap today, whilst recording something today ,my take on (Strange town ) I got carried away and the Focusrite 2i2 2nd gen I was using to record with was dragged off of my recoding bench onto a carpeted floor. So after quickly re plugging into my PC using the USB cable nothing happened, no power going to the Focusrite .Oh no i thought ,I haven't knackered this up as well I thought .Anyway after some deliberation I decided to give Focusrite a call, and I can honestly say their customer service was second to none, it was 5.30 pm this evening and they answered the Phone,i told the customer service guy Andy what had happened and he immediately pointed me in the right direction as to why i was not seeing any power going into the unit .He went on to say that the problem lied with the actual USB plug in the machine which was damaged during the drop, a common occurrence he alluded, and he ordered me a new plug FOC there and then ,Now I'm not one for doing reviews but i can say with all honesty that this chap was great with me, so with that in mind I'm giving Andy and Focusrite 5 stars for customer service. Well done chaps, I will report back back if and when the thing is fixed.

Just to merge the two topics and play devils advocate. Is there a possibility that top luthiers are also artists and choose their materials according to their own tastes, experience and skill, including the wood as they know what they are trying to achieve. The audience are probably just teenage dorks and middle aged duffers talking twaddle on the internet?

Love it when someone reveals a previously unknown musical talent. I've never heard of Ian Fergusson until now but as well as doing the weather on a local BBC station he likes to smash his favourite Ernie Ball's back door in in his spare time. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=919436542006592 Apart from Martin Bashir are there any other well known bass player broadcasters?

So recently I decided to make a return to my rosewood roots, and have bought a few really nice Precisions (US2015, Mex2014, Squier Affinity) to fill this void. But last night at rehearsal I just found that I was "missing" my maple fret-board. I suppose it`s because for years I`ve only played maple fret-boards and I`ve just got so used to them, but I think it will have to be the maples for me from now on. Although I like the rosewood boards I just feel more at home on maple. So as usual a few basses will be moved on (all black/white/rosewood in case any eagle-eyed spotters decide this is what they`re after). It`s good fun buying new basses & trying things out but I think I`ve finally reached a point where I know exactly what the right gear is for me and maybe I should just acknowledge that and try and only buy new strings from now on (when the old ones die of course).

At my last gig I trod on my cable mid-song. That created a more effective and profound silence than any pedal.

Thanks Pete. No worries, I'm used to dealing with Adrian Maruszczyk! 😐

After having a couple of false starts with short scale I have finally picked up a beauty of a bass. A 2005 CIJ Fender Mustang in Fiesta Red. It arrived earlier this week and the first thing I did was put some TI Flats. It has a great vintage tone and is a joy to play. The neck is really nice and feels like a jazz bass. I had a JMJ for a few days before returning it due a to a few little issues. I think the JMJ had the slight edge in terms of tone output from the pickup, that is a very special pickup. But I do prefer the finish and neck on this instrument over the JMJ. It is such a fun bass to play with a lovely tone. This one is a keeper for sure 😀😀

What’s going on @neepheid @Reggaebass @RhysP? Proper measured, tongue in cheek, friendly interaction? Where are the bared teeth, shouting and machetes at dawn? Shame on you

Break out cables = cack.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell you that you're wrong.

What sells well? Looks pretty? Their customers think sounds best? Years of experience? Is rare and exotic? What they have in the lumber room? CITE? Habit? Convention? Independently refereed scientific research?

In he's case it won't work. But if I tell him that there was someone at the bar asking about that Bb%#dim@%7min chord he took in the bridge on that song we are safe.

There is music and there is the music business. They are not the same thing.

Another blue Jaydee

Well more like not sticking to it and then realising! he even had a jazz bass phase a few months back!

Sona Jobarteh

This one looks fantastic, I’ve seen it on Google I think, what model is it 🙂

As promised some updates that John kindly sent me this evening...

Could i disagree on not updating the design... I love how Jaydee and Wal have maintained their brand and designs , they have included new designs like the series 3. I really dislike all the new status basses and prefer the original series 2. Also, look at fender, alembic etc most bass guitar brand dont update their classic original designs - thank god!

Hi, it's been a while since I posted here , I've been concentrating on gu*t@rs for a while but I have a bass build that I'm keen to get started with. If you haven't seen my stuff before I use reclaimed timber exclusively to make guitars and basses , most of the wood I use comes from 100 year old scrap pianos. I've just completed this thinline telecaster , walnut neck with oak board and ebony dots, poplar body with walnut and rosewood veneer front. This build will be slightly different... I front a tongue in cheek country rock trio and until now I've been using this bitsa that came together over a few years. It's made from various spare parts and plays like a dream , looks and sounds just right for the music we play (if Motorhead played country you'd get some idea of what we do ) As we are gigging again now and I also play the same bass in another band Ithough it was about time that I started using my own Scavenger branded reclaimed timber basses. I did have ideas of making some sort of cowboy bling bass a bit like the Thinline shown above but to save time, effort and money I have decide to go with something a little more gnarly .... I've been through the wood store and picked out the "character parts" : For the body: most pianos are poplar with veneer but this one has oak under the mahogany. Oak, gnarly oak! The woodworm holes were filled in under the veneer so they even predate the piano. Just to the left is a bit from the same source that I planed to make a fretboard but didn't use on account of the worm holes ....until now. From the left: two bits of an ancient bench that I may use for the neck although I still haven't decided for certain yet. The oak panel that will form the back of the body. Oak fretboard with ancient wormholes. An old orange box that I found in the garden. This will form the front face of the body. It's going to be a thinline style precision bass, the idea is to make something that looks like an ancient family heirloom rather that a barncaster. It's being fitted in around other more profitable builds so don't hold your breath ...but I've made a statement of intent and that's where it starts. Close up of a rotten , worm eaten orange box.

I can't find a thread on Sivcak Basses and I don't own one but am keen to so my question is - are they as good as they look? https://www.sollerguitars.com/index.php?option=com_flexicontent&view=category&cid=28:seria-ndhs&lang=en

Just picked one up as well but you've pretty much covered my comments. I was torn between the sunburst and white as although I generally dislike sunburst I've been after a '59 with anodized, a la Michael League, for ages. I went for white in the end as I felt there were more options for changing pickguard out in the future but am second-guessing myself now as the transparent finish shows some not particularly attractive dark wood under the upper counter of the body. This isn't a shadow in the pic below - it's the grain. It's a real shame because the rest of the bass is gorgeous. The neck is really nicely done and it sounds incredible - it's that grindy P bass sound I've been after in my head for years and I don't even have to try that hard to get it. It's good enough that I would consider swapping the body out at a later date, but I'm loathe to do that on a brand new bass rather than just returning it and getting something I'll be happy with. I'm going to leave it sat up in my living room where I can see it to percolate for a bit longer and see if it's a dealbreaker.

My mate Rick owns it. It’s a brilliant little shop - he’s quite acoustic heavy, stock wise…but has the odd used Gem in. He’s also better on string prices than a lot of places. I try to order/buy bits from him regularly - he’s got about 10/15 basses in - and occasionally some nice used bass gear.

There's lovely, isn't it?

I hadn't thought about it until now. I need to experiment at tonights gig. I want absolute silence when i tune so if there is a better way to get the perfect silence when tuning i'm all in for trying. 😂 Dave

Probably not. DL16S runs on master fader 5 which is a ground up rewrite and been plagued with bugs since it’s release. The XR18 is defo more feature rich than the Mackies - however the Mackies interface is far more accessible than the Behringer one. I still run a pair on Dante connected DL32Rs - but on MF4 - and they are solid. However, I don’t think The 16S supports MF4 (MF5 was introduced with the new range of mixers). Like the XR18, the Mackie inbuilt WiFi is rubbish too. Id probably recommend the 1608 if you want to go Mackie - and run MF4 on it! Or look at the RCF M18 which has a more simple interface than the Behringer also. But first of all, check out mixing station as above. You may prefer that app.

Sorry, I'll try harder next time. 😂

You must have been able to hear that you were more in tune, surely..? 🙂

Very nice ... I have a CIJ in Fiesta Red too.

After a few comments here , out of interest I tried seeing if there’s any difference in the sound using a tuner between my bass and amp, and there’s none 🙂

D’oh, I meant 16”.

What I've done with my last 2 basses is to buy Squiers then replace the pups, electronics, bridge and nut. It comes in cheaper than a fully blown Fender but I have exactly the hardware I want.

I posted this before but to your point the options for pickups meant some routing and ultimately I asked for the plate to be made around it to hide any nastyness where the screws on the pickups didn't align anymore. If you don't mind a bit of work the Aguilars do sound fantastic

I was literally doing just that. My JMJ bought from here arrived at lunchtime today. Such a lovely instrument. Enjoy your new bass @Folkesy

Tuner pedal for silent tuning (and changing over basses if necessary). Put a fork in me, I’m done.

Hi Phil, Yes, it exceeded my expectations. All my band mates commented on it. Our drummer is the bassplayer in another band and he was very impressed. I had folks wanting to know about the modelling for the cab design. That's way to techie for me but I based it on the GK Neo 112 cab I already had and extended it to suit. It came out the same dimensions as a Barefaced SuperTwin, and weighed almost the same as the GK 112 cab, due to my using 12mm ply. I wont change anything other than adding the 4 pole speakon and possibly changing to series wiring to allay agedhorse's fears of me blowing it up with 900 watts! And, of course, he is quite right.

It would be incredibly rude of me not to contribute something to this thread... This is John's "Infinity" Custom GA24 that he made for me - over a period of about 18-months - in 2000/2001. I've owned at least 6 other JD's through the years'... She is 20 years' old this year - and still plays as well as she did when I first brought her home. This may sound a little strange... but you cannot "slap" her. I kid you not!! The on board pre-amp has an added "presence" boost control, for extra bottom end; and the truss rod's (as far as I know) are made of graphite - rock solid sh*t. Thank you J.D. More Jaydee Basses on my Pinterest here:- https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Simon08edward/jaydee-bass/

I think sticking to an original design which works is a good thing. There is no denying where it came from. Getting something which is not run of the mill but that also is not "did they design that in the dark?" is a fine line. And this is on the good side. And painting it blue makes it proper lush

Keeping things simple here for some rocky, post punk tunes. Shout-out to @Berserker for sending me the Sansamp so quickly! The FS-4 offers a great deal of flexibility and everything goes straight into the front of my ABM600. Underside and all the grizzly bits not looking too bad either. Everything's securely in place with a bit of give. I don't like it too tight with too much pressure on jacks etc. Cheers!

That's real tidy compared to some of mine! Draws full ...

Am I abnormal that I've played rosewood, maple, ebony and pao ferro boards and found not one jot of difference between them all beyond the aesthetic? Am I incompetent? Am I fortunate? Edit: forgot laurel.