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And as promised... I currently own three Bass VIs (Squier, Burns and Eastwood Shergold copy) and used to own a HB Mosrite-influenced 28" scale baritone guitar tuned B-B). My take on it is, that while most Bass VIs tend to be positioned as bass guitars for guitarists, the baritone guitar is very much a guitar with a lower range. A lot of this is down to the type and positioning of the picks on the two different instruments. Baritone guitars usually have the pickups in the standard guitar bridge and neck positions and they will either be P90 types or humbuckers. Most Bass VIs will have 3 single coil pickups with the middle one roughly in the P-bass position in relation to the string length. However what I have found to be the most important difference is down to what you can play on them. IME anything you can play on a normal guitar can be played on a baritone guitar, it will just be either a 4th or 5th lower (depending whether it is tuned B-B or A-A). All the standard guitar chord shapes work across all the strings and you should be able to get a clear and articulate tone even with full first position chords. On the Bass VI, while you can play it like a guitar, chord voicing are pretty awful until you venture up the neck or stick to the highest three strings. Play a first position E chord and it will just be an un-defined mush. Baritone guitars only go down to B or A so you won't get the full range of bass notes that you will out of a Bass VI. What I have found with both instruments though is that the supplied strings in every nearly case are much too light to get a decent tone out of the lower 2-3 strings. Baritone guitars suddenly sound much better with the heaviest standard baritone set from D'Addario, and Bass VIs are a completely different instrument once you fit either the LaBella Bass VI strings or the Newtone Axions. The only downside to putting heavier strings on the Bass VI is that the vibrato mechanism (if there is one) becomes almost impossible to use due to the increase in string tension.

I own a Fodera. This of course means that I can't actually play bass and am just a collector who likes looking at basses, which is unfortunate, as the consensus seems to be that Foderas are ugly and Vinnie needs lessons in design. Luckily for me however, I drink a lot of coffee, so it comes in handy as a place to rest my cup on. If I was serious about learning Bass I'd probably either get a Gus (for a Sigue Sigue Sputnik tribute act I'm thinking of forming🤣) or a Harley Benton to mod. If I do get a Gus, what colour long balloons would you guys recommend for the horns? Do they come with an air pump? Does the type of balloon impact the tone?

Ace gig at Katie Fitzgerald's in Stourbridge last night. I don't think we played our best, but the energy in the room more than made up for that. I think the fact I'd decided to record the set might have put us on edge a little I was photographing my cymbals and remote recording setup but our (excellent) bassist decided to spice up the photo a bit

Some of you may have seen my Alembic Spyder bass in the sale section. I had listed it on Reverb, the Alembic forum and eventually on eBay as well, where it received a few enquiries, most of which were from outside the UK. I didn't really want to ship it anywhere, firstly because of the value (I would have gone out of my way to a UK buyer personally to ensure no loss or damage) and secondly because the bass in its case weighed over 40lbs, not to mention that I didn't have anything large enough to put the whole thing in. Mid-January, I received another message from someone who was interested in buying the bass....but he lived in the USA. After some messaging back and forth, temporarily suspending my worries about it getting lost and/or damaged, I agreed to look into it thinking that the cost of shipping this behemoth would most likely rule out any further interest from my prospective buyer. Here are the quotes from UPS: I must admit, the quotes weren't as high as I thought they were going to be given the size, weight and value. I sent them over to the buyer, let's calls him B, and he was happy to pay if I was prepared to get it organised. I have to admit to sitting there thinking about it for a while, but I figured if it managed to arrive in this country in one piece, why not the other way around? Now I've shipped a few basses in my time, internationally too, but this is the most expensive and heaviest one by far and over the furthest distance. I think my previous record was Kazakhstan (don't ask). First I had to make a custom box. Fortunately my neighbours had bought a large piece of furniture which came wrapped in cardboard, so I saved the bin men a job and stashed it away in my garage. It took me and my son over an hour to pack the bass, make one cardboard box, wrap that in bubble wrap and then make another box to go around that. I think we did a pretty good job. After B had decided which shipping method he wanted (UPS Express Saver) and paid for everything in full, I then booked the shipping online. I've never used UPS before, but I found their online system to be very intuitive - a heck of a lot easier than some basses I've sent via DHL etc. Even better was the fact that the earliest collection date was the day after I booked it. Very efficient. It turns out that up to this point i.e. UPS taking the not inconsiderable sum of several hundred pounds from us, this was by far the easiest and trouble free part of the story. My collection slot was between 12 midday and 5pm on Thursday 3rd February. We live in a close. It's easy enough to get into. Tesco and Sainsbury's seem to have no bother with home deliveries. About 10am on the Thursday I happened to see a UPS van at the end on the close. It turned in, turned around and left again without coming anywhere near the house. Odd thinks I, but you can guess what is coming. It gets to 5 pm and I've been in all day. No-one has come near the house at all. It gets to 5.15 (see what I did there?) and I decide to ring UPS. Getting through to UPS isn't the easiest thing I've ever done. Ringing the main number doesn't give an option to speak with a human. You have to wait to get through a whole cycle of the options and then say 'Customer Service Representative' and it attempts to connect you. I spoke with someone who said the driver called and there was no reply at the address. Unable to contain my disbelief, I let a 'well that's bo11ocks' slip out before I knew I had said it. The female American voice didn't seem to register what I had said, but got the gist that I wasn't happy and arranged for the local UPS depot to ring me back. I put the phone down thinking I'll be ringing them back sometime tomorrow, when much to my surprise my mobile rang about half an hour later - and it was UPS! I explained that I had been in all day and that the lady I had spoke to initially said the driver called with no reply. This second lady couldn't apologise more if she tried. She said 'I don't know why he didn't get to you, but I can see he didn't' (presumably though tracking). I'm not sure why the first person I spoke to couldn't see that, but never mind. She arranged for a driver who was just ending his shift to divert to me on his way back from Southend to make the collection. I thank her and we end the call. A UPS driver, a very nice man, calls 30 minutes later and collects the bass. I message B to say it's on it's way. B is happy. The following morning my mobile rings. The conversation starts thusly: Man: You booked a shipping through UPS Me: Sorry, who is this? Man: UPS Exports Dept. You booked a shipment to err.....Dallas Me: Yes Man: What's it made of? Me: Wood and strings mainly Man: Is this as a business or a one off? Me: A one-off. I've never used UPS before Man: Has it got any Rosewood in it? Me: No Man: Oh, that should be OK then. As long as it hasn't got any Rosewood in it Me: I can send you the full manufacturers spec which I just happen to have in front of me, along with the original build certificate from them if that helps? I then read him the full spec of the bass including materials Man: That would great He gives me his e-mail address Me: Is there anything else there we should be worried about? Man: No. That sounds fine to me Call ends. The UPS system is set up to notify of any changes or updates to your shipment. It works well. I was informed it had been held prior to export and that UPS man had then cleared it and off it went. The bass was scheduled to be delivered on Monday 7th February. I could see from tracking that it made it over the Atlantic. B can see this too as I signed him up for e-mail updates as well. I continue to receive updates and I notice one that says 'your package has been held by a 'Government Agency' as there is no Harmonisation Code on the package invoice. I'm not surprised there isn't because firstly I wasn't asked for one and secondly I don't know what that is anyway. I contact the UPS Export Man (I have his e-mail address and his mobile number so he can't ignore me) and ask him what is going on. UPS Export Man, who works for one of the largest international shipping organisations in the world, says he can't access any of the USA UPS systems or speak to the UPS people in the USA!! Well, one things for sure, I'm not ringing them from here! I explain about the missing code. He is no help. Fortunately, B is switched on and gets on the phone to UPS over there. Eventually he manages to speak with someone who finds out the bass is being held in Kentucky - which is not close to Dallas - roughly 15 hours away. They require him to give his Social Security number for reasons that we've never got to the bottom of. Various phone calls, e-mails and enquiries are made by him. We look into the code and find a massive list online and agree one that fits electric guitar. They seem happy with this. It then appears there is a problem because the bass has Mother of Pearl inlays in the fretboard. I receive an e-mail from the Fish & Wildlife Analyst at the UPS Brokerage Office asking for the following information: "Please assist in providing a detailed invoice listing the scientific name (genus and species), source (wild, captive) and country of origin of the mother of pearl inlay included in this shipment." My heart sinks. I didn't have any of the answers to these questions. Fortunately, I knew someone who did. Mica at Alembic. I've had a few conversations with Mica in the past and she has always been super helpful. This time was no exception. She came back to me within 24 hours with the following: "Hello! I see you have run into the Fish and Wildlife Department and form 3-177. The mother of pearl we use is: Field 16a (Genus Species): Pinctada Maxima Field 16b (Common Name): Oyster Field 18a (Description): SPR Field 18b (Source): C Field 20 (Origin): PH This means the mother of pearl originated from a captive breeding program (pearl farm) in the Phillippines. SPR is the code for "shell product" Hopefully this is enough information to clear up the issues you are experiencing. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. Best regards, Mica." I send this information off to UPS Brokerage and after another few calls by B, they seem to be happy. We receive e-mail updates that the bass has been cleared. We then receive e-mails saying the bass is being held pending payment of import taxes. Question: Does a bass that was made in the USA and is then exported become liable to duties if it comes back into the USA? Actual Answer: No. UPS Answer: Yes. There was no getting around this. The charge had to be paid or they weren't going to deliver it. End of. B got his credit card out and paid UPS over the phone having been advised that the correct answer is 'No' and that there is a process to challenge it and get the payment refunded. Everyone seems to be happy again and we are back on track for delivery, although he tracking shows it as 'on the way' (not to be confused with 'out for delivery' which is the next step after 'on the way') with no delivery time/date shown. B gets on the phone again. Tracking gets updated. By Friday the 11th, the shipment is now shown as 'out for delivery' by 7pm which is 1am Saturday in the UK. I'm not going to get any sleep until I know how this pans out, so I may as well stay up. We get to 6.55pm Dallas time and B sends me a message saying the van has just pulled up - then nothing.... I then get this message: "The UPS guy wouldn't give it to me because I paid the duties online, like I was supposed to. Tried to leave with the guitar. I grabbed at it and he then flew into a rage and thought I was trying to hit him. Had to write another check for $613 that I'm going to have to cancel. He said it doesn't matter if his little digital pad doesn't show it and then threw the box about just to be a Richard". This tale does have a fairytale ending though. B opened the box and the bass was it had left me and he couldn't be happier. Never say never again, but never again.

The 1980s called, they want their gender/sexuality/occupation specific colours back.

I was asked to contribute to a Ghost cover my bandmates did and I used my Spector Euro LE4 1977 If anyone's interested here is the video of it

Latest bitsa. G&B Ash body, SD vintage P, 42mm nut width neck. “Finder” decal (all my bitsas have one of those).

No smug NBD yet but it was me! It arrived today slightly later than anticipated and I’ve just put a new set of D’Addarios on it. It’s very nice, the nut width is slightly wider than my Corona Precision but the profile is flatter and very comfortable. The existing strings were heavy Rotos so I’ve given the trussrod a tweak and am letting it settle in. The Jack socket was scratchy so I swapped it for a new Switchcraft one, gave me an opportunity to have a look under the lid. All very neat and tidy I must say. A very classy bass, I can see why a lot of players rave about them. Coincidentally I was emailing Jon Shuker just prior to seeing this with the thought of having one made. Not a signature instrument person usually but JJ Burnel was my first bass hero having seen him on TOTP and then buying the Walk On By EP with my pocket money! The JJ signature on the back of the headstock is a nice bonus. I told Jon I’d got it and he gave me loads of info about it and said I could bring it in for a service if need be. It’s about the same as my Corona bass weight wise so not too heavy. I’m going to play it at the weekend and see how I get on with the nut width, I’ll only know after a long gig. If it doesn’t work for me I’ll definitely get one made by Jon but so far I’m very pleased with this.

Er. Well. This never quite got out of the starting blocks due to various reasons. This was a blessing though, because last year Mike shared some photos of a bass he’d built for a guy in Japan and I got a bit over excited about how lovely it was. So on Mike’s suggestion we paused this idea and switched. I popped over to Essex today to catch up with him and finalise “my” version of that spec. It’s going to be tasty: Zoot Funkmeister 5 string, 32” scale (slimmed down standard Funkmeister 5 body to suit) 3-piece maple neck with black stringers, stolen unashamedly by me from @GreeneKing’s recent Zoot Maple fingerboard with dots along the top side (rather than middle of the fingerboard) Aguilar AG 5P 60CL pickup Passive, volume/tone plus series/parallel switch Chrome hardware Badass bridge from Mike’s stock, cut for ~17.5mm ish string spacing Hipshot ultralite tuners High gloss “Arctic White” finish on body and headstock front Tort scratchplate

The thing is that it probably would...! I mentioned Phil from Bass Gear earlier, who reckoned that people who were sceptical about a Fodera could quite often change their minds when they played one. This was mainly because they found that it made it easier for them to play more difficult things. Certainly the one that I used was very easy to play.

Slow progress.. I started to wet sand the finish to smooth it out and ended up sanding through the paint. Good thing it was only a couple of spots in the back, but had to spray the back again to fix it. "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing over and over and over and over again..." Now I'm attacking again trying to build up the final lacquer layer again. This time I have a new weapon. I got this cool little airbrush second hand and with 50/50 lacquer/mineral spirits, it's producing a nice aerosol. It's a slow process with such a small spray, but much easier to control and I'm avoiding extra buildup and "pools" of lacquer that otherwise would have to be sanded down. Specifically, it's now easier to get more lacquer on the edges where it's more needed. Spraying the neck is also producing an extremely satisfying surface.

A Gus might be alright for a Sigue Sigue Sputnik tribute band, but otherwise why would I want a bass guitar that looks like it was designed by someone who used to work in the props department of Blake's 7? Generally I want something that actually looks and sounds like a bass guitar for most of the gigs that I do. To be fair that is something that would put me off some of the more expensive 'coffee table' Fodera models.

Did you pay extra for relic shielding?

Pulled it apart today and gave it all a good clean and polish. It's definitely a more modern one but is surprisingly well built. Nice tidy routing and tight tolerances. Lovely snug neck pocket. I haven't shielded it, I'll see if it's noisy at all first. If it ain't broke... No clues as to age in here. Basic but tidy and no work needed. Magnets on underside of PU, so I assume they must be ceramic ones. Don't know if they are Wilkinson or not, but it doesn't matter. The good thing is they run on unleaded. 😁 Gave the body and pickguard a good clean and polish, and washed and scrubbed all the metalwork. The body would benefit from a wet flat, then polish, but as I've no idea how much lacquer is on it I'm not going to bother in case I break through. It's only a cheapy bit of fun and it's perfectly acceptable. Body's all built up and I'm about to tackle the neck. I've used cream felt strap pin washers to match the pickguard but black might be better, I'm not sure. Again, it doesn't really matter.

Wait a few months and you'll be able to get them on the Black Market.....

It's cheap, it's an Encore and I don't 'need' it in the slightest, but it's money in a good charities coffers. Ah the reasons we find to justify a new bass. 😄 To be fair St. Lukes Hospice is a great charity in Plymouth and has really helped a few people I know so that genuinely sealed the deal. I'd seen this on eBay and liked the look of it, you know when something just has 'a look' that grabs you somehow. I had to go Plymouth today so decided to pick it up while in there. With a good clean up I think it'll be a little gem. Nice trans red with some nice grain (I can see a three/four piece body so don't think it's a photo job), aged pearl pickguard, nice grain on an amber neck, and it plays and sounds really quite well. Pots are a bit scratchy but if it cleans up nice and a good set up and fret dress gets it playing really nicely, it might even get treated to a upgraded PU and loom. Who doesn't need an extra P bass knocking around for £50? Oh yeah, included a strap and gigbag, both cheap but the bag will keep the dust off once clean. Does anyone have any idea on age? It looks like an older Encore but it could equally be a modern one with a vintage look. I've no idea on the history of Encores.

Found this slightly beat up body when going through things the other day. I currently don't have a P Bass so I'm going put one together. Going to have a go at aging the hardware and neck to suit the chips and dents on the body. Anybody with spare P bass parts feel free to drop me a message!

I recently got my hands on a Jack Casady Epiphone Hollowbody, it sounds great and is actually a pretty versatile instrument. It’s got a old-school thumping tone to it and sound good played fingerstyle or with a pick. I've been in the market for a hollowbody for ages and up to now I haven't found one that feels comfortable to play. But with its 34" scale fretboard, this one feels nice under the fingers and is a keeper. I've put together a short review video where you can hear what this bass sounds like and what features it has. I’d love to hear if you've got a hollowbody bass and what you think of this one. Or if you've been thinking about getting a hollowbody bass, what else you've tried out. https://youtu.be/t9ONW4dRw-M

Some routine maintenance a day keeps the GAS monster away. Last night I shielded my G&L CLF L-1000 (see rant in Tech forum). Tonight I took care of some annoyances on my Epiphone Jack Casady - namely that the Epiphone E on the pickguard was only stuck down in one place and the pickguard had developed an annoying sympathetic rattle when certain notes were played. So some careful use of double sided tape for the E and a general tightening up/adjustment of the pickguard later and it's all solid again, no rattles and the E is stuck down flush on the pickguard again. Feels better knowing that's taken care of. Then I played some tunes. Hang in there, bassfolk. Abstainence isn't easy, finding little ways to amuse oneself within the confines of the gear you have is key to lasting the course...

They are D'Addario strings. Most probably EXL Nickels by the look of them.

It looks like the cover's on too far back on the pink one.

‘ItS NoT bLaCK ItS ChArCoAL…’ I love pulling that one, sorry and thanks! It really is a lovely bass - came to life with flats funny enough, it’s a Motown machine! I’m really in love with it…! take care buddy! Ander.

Looks like a fun troubleshooting project! It's a nice tidy PCB, and the output transistors are cheap to replace if needed... Many multimeters won't measure low resistances very accurately, so I wouldn't be too concerned initially about the 0.33R resistors not reading correctly, especially if you're doing it in circuit. Some things to check: If you disconnect the transformer secondary from the board, it shouldn't draw much current. This rules out the transformer and the mains side. Check the power rails are OK - if one of them's present and one's very low, that'd suggest one side of the output has failed. Even better if you can find a way to temporarily break the circuit between the DC rectifier/regulator and the rest of the circuit. Those output transistors are meant to have their tabs insulated from the heatsink. Check that they actually are! (And that there isn't a stray nut trapped underneath, or something.) When you power it up, what's the voltage on the speaker output (before the output filter if it has one)? If it's stuck positive or negative then again that hints as to which side has failed... The electrolytic capacitors are all past their design life at this point - they may still be OK in practice, but you might want to think about replacing them (with 105C versions) once you've got it working.

When I tried the Alembic, I found my fingers flying all over the neck. I tried a little fiddly bass run I've always struggled to play cleanly - the bass/synth run in Yes' Machind Messiah - and I did it! It's not all guff you know.

So I took delivery of a US Kiloton today in a gorgeous metallic Tangerine colour. It's built beautifully and the colour is even more striking in the flesh. Unfortunately though it was pretty unplayable as the open A string was buzzing something chronic and the action was really high (certainly for my liking). I contacted the retailer and it is due to be picked up tomorrow and hopefully given a decent set up (if it's nothing structural). To say it was a disappointment is an understatement. I'd actually cleared my collection down a bit to get hold of this. My other G&L's have been great straight out of the box, so I was very surprised that this one had "issues" but can't imagine the retailer had taken a look it it before it was sent out. There's no way they would have sent it playing like it is currently. I've found G&L's to be a cut above in terms of fit and finish in general, so I'm hoping they maintain their standards with newer instruments too. Fingers crossed that it gets it sorted. It was a bit beyond me and I really didn't want to do anything as it's under a distance Selling Regulations. Here's hoping I hear back soon and it's nothing too bad.

“ look at the size of my blister” 😀

Low Levels High Steaks ～ Allan Holdsworth

I've bought instruments (and other stuff) from all over the world and sold them to pretty much all the major continents too. Until the UK left the EU I'd only had two problems and they both happened while the item was still in the UK. However since the beginning of 2020 the situation has become for more complicated, I had one parcel disappear c in customs in Belgium and another returned after several months in limbo for no apparent reason. Therefore I will no longer ship outside of the UK, as it is just too unpredictable. As a result I've lost some sales and what was previously a fairly lucrative print contract for my business because the additional time, effort and therefore cost I now have to put in to shipping things outside of the UK negates any price savings I was getting my customers. The OP is a braver man than me!

Yes, I had the unfortunate displeasure of having to deal with UPS when they lost an imported parcel last year. Shambles from beginning to end. Happy to hear yours had a better ending.

And I'm getting stressed out about picking an amp up from Bridgend this afternoon... 😂

That was more gripping than most of the films I have seen recently 🤣

I guess it would be useful to keep a note of that information to trot out if asked again in the future whether it actually applies or not. It’s clearly an acceptable answer and how are they going to know if it’s true or not?

Check this site out, it’s a fantastic resource for Soul, Motown and Atlantic bass transcriptions. https://freebassparts-pv24.pagesperso-orange.fr/Bass_Players.htm

I agree. Wow! That things hideous!

A nice, broad range of short demos of it in this video, from 1'55 to 5'35" (and it's good to hear someone talking naturally on YouTube for once)