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I really can't remember if I've posted this in here or not so here is my gorgeous Stingray SR4 with fretless Pau Ferro fretboard.

Interesting, I think that's the first time I've seen the words 'Sting' and 'bell' in the same sentence without the word 'end' .

Arrived today. Initial impressions - stunning! I had some quite specific wants from the placement, radius and feel of the ramp (trying to emulate the feel of a bass I once owned and loved, and which really helped my playing style). Alan absolutely nailed those aspects, while making a stunningly lightweight and well-balanced instrument. The ACG flavour is really clear and it compliments the spec I put together perfectly. I can honestly say that its day-1 'wow' factor has surpassed any other bass I've ever owned. I'm very much a 'feel is more important than tone' person, but the tone here is also outstanding. Clear, transparent and very punchy. You'd never think this was super lightweight. I can't wait to spend some time finding my way around it!

Journalist, technical author, 'South Wales' most hirsute bass player 2021' and now engaged as Mr Sting's head extraction tech. Is there no end to Stubzy's talents? @Stub Mandrel

It's a mandrel they use to get Sting's head out of his @rse so he can sing.

Here’s my current board, black box is an Octave Fuzz I’m working on.

I've added and swapped around a bunch of pedals in the last few months, the biggest change being adding a tuner pedal (always used a clip-on before).

As promised a couple of pics of my impending big 70 birthday treat, sold to me as a ‘76, originally rosewood fretted neck, defretted soon after purchase. Around 1980, ebony board fitted and neck completely refinished and “new” decal applied. Now restrung with my favourite Labella Lt flats, spent some time on setup and fettling and it sings as it should.

The towel-rub sanding next. Two handed side to side. That's getting pretty close. Probably a bit more off the haunches near the heel but the rest of it looks OK: And the clamps did their stuff - a completely gap-free join for the fretboard (phew ) :

A tiny tweak to the trussrod (in either direction) can also help to shift or reduce a deadspot.

Necks swapped back to how they were but pearloid guard from the Sledge now on the 3TS as I’m ordering a WD black abalone guard for the Sledge.

This might be of interest to some here. This is very decent. Kim and Matt from Soundgarden, Krist from Nirvana, Bubba from Void and a couple a really good singers. The riffs are pure Soundgarden, never a bad thing, and it has received quite a few listens from me. Very good indeed. It's nice to see Novoselic playing again, I have to say.

I'm beside myself with excitement as I had a new (to me) Jazz Bass delivered today. It's a 2012 model, with the Customer Shop '60s pickups and high mass bridge. This is a significant upgrade for me, from my Squier Classic Vibe 60's (which will soon be for sale) and the first American Fender I've owned for over 10 years (I had a USA Std Telecaster 6 string which I instantly regretted selling). It's also the first ever maple necked instrument I've owned and I love it! I've had it less than an hour and it's well...perfect!! Detailed tone, very growly. The neck is absolutely sublime and is set up with a really low action. I'd be tempted to say it "plays like butter" but I've never actually played butter, so I don't know what that's like. It's just a BEAUTIFUL instrument. Picked it up from Bass Brothers, who were great to deal with. That colour as well though 😵

The pedant in me cannot resist pointing out that a 16 hour band practice might be quite draining.

So i'm a bunch of rehearsals and 3 live shows in with the Super Vintage. In short? I love this thing. I've always been an SVT Classic guy but i don't play anywhere that remotely justifies 300 watts of tube and a fridge and even when i ignored that and bought one, I couldn't turn it up anywhere near enough to get close to that punk rock Ampeg grind. I've been on the search for convincing SVT tone most of my bass playing life. Search over. The cab sim on the DI to FOH really makes the difference, too may times i've had a great sound coming from my cab but the DI out front was thin and clanky as no soundmen seem to like using a mic for bass these days. I'm using the effects return on an Orange Little Bass Thing to push my cab. The amp out high and low adjustment really makes a difference tuning to other cabs i'm borrowing without affecting my consistent FOH sound. Dialled with some breakup it still takes my drives very well.

A little bit of flat fun with my '71 and La Bella 760FL's. Love that bass and those strings.

I think I'll go for it, exchanging the Pod Go for a Bassrig sort of masks the cost, the trouble is that I'll need a compressor and I'll probably faily quickly justify to myself that it 'needs' to be a Cali 76, and if I'm spending that much then I might as well get the matching colour (which I'll immediately feel like a mug for paying £30 more for)....before I know it I'll have spent £680 on two pedals! What I'd hope though is that they are two very good pedals and if I ever tire of them they'll hold their value well (Cali 76 seem to rarely hang about 2nd hand at £220), so most of the £680 is an investment and pretty much a refundable deposit. Justified!

I can't believe you overlooked the Meltenbacker https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002978070985.html?spm=a2g0o.store_pc_groupList.8148356.12.416345edrycNhX and the Wrongo https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003623655796.html?spm=a2g0o.store_pc_groupList.8148356.66.416345edrycNhX

Right, this has been a very pleasant purchasing experience. Good communication, set up to taste and a set of DR Nickel Lo-Riders included in the price. Extremely well packaged in a good quality 136×46×19 box. Condition is equal to the strong claims made for it. Delivered on the day I asked for. Edit a few days later : after a couple of days I discovered that, through absolutely no fault of the bass, I physically had a problem with it. Returning it was as straightforward and pleasant as buying it had been.

1969

It's one of these for when he does Roxanne.

A rotary clothes line in its folded down position? Sorry, I've got nothing.

It's a camera, placed by Copeland, Vinnie and Hakim so they could observe how much better the gig would have been had one of them been there! It wasn't there on Saturday I don't think.... it should have been.😂

I've just put this one together - I say put together, but I can't find my velcro so only the tuner and compressor are "in place", hence the OCD-annoying misalignment. I also have EBS flat cables ordered to tidy things up a bit. First pedalboard I've had in a long time. The Cali76 CB is outstandingly good - I've never been a compressor fan but this has changed my mind! The Oxford has just turned up and it's a brilliant pedal. The Element is excellent now I know how to work the thing properly - I was convinced the touch pad was broken and even contacted customer service at Darkglass about it.... It wasn't, just designed to be pushed harder than I thought! I'm not overly fussed on the X7 in conjunction with everything else yet so it may be getting replaced... I always feel guilty about having a lot of money invested in pedals (probably because I spent so long as a straight into the amp kinda guy) so I'm always on the hunt for "same effect, lower outlay" alternatives. The DIY pedal bug has reared it's head again and I have Vintage Microtubes, B3K and Fat General clones to build so I don't imagine this combination will be fixed for very long!

Not Fade Away - Buddy Holly (Mum was a fan of Buddy Holly, Everly Bro's, Duanne Eddie, Fats Domino... my early intro into music at about 8 or 9)

A quick look at Gumtree to see if anythings local is always worth a try...

The End - The Doors

I doubt many people here, if any at all, that build basses, have worked with an unknown like Richlite. So i doff my hat to you Andy. Lovely work

Mine are .095 - I gave them a quick wipe down with some brasso 😜

I've always liked the look of the Gibson Rippers and Grabbers, and in turn the 70s/80s Japanese copies. That's why when this popped up on facebook not too far from home I had to have it. After a quick message to our resident expert on Japanese basses, @Bassassin, for some much appreciated info I'd agreed a price the seller and I were both happy with. These are the sellers pictures. I picked it up yesterday and had a chat with the seller. He acquired it forty years ago in a swap for a 4x12 guitar cab, the seller is also a guitarist so it's spent the last forty years hanging on his wall, with the occasional play just for his own fun so it's in really nice condition. A couple of dings that were there when he got it and a couple of little issues that have been sorted but obviously have left it non original, which is a shame but can't be helped. Firstly, the original scratchplate was a celluloid one and had started gassing off and crumbling, so he has fitted a replacement. The original would've been a very dark tort, as per the early Gibson Rippers, the later ones were black (I think). I was going to make a single ply black one but I actually quite like one on there now. Secondly, the original three point bridge had snapped and this is a generic replacement. It seems a pretty good copy and looks the part so it'll probably stay as well. The only issue is the strings are higher than I'd like but the bridge is bottomed out, something I'll address. I've pulled it apart for a good clean and polish, and to sort any little issues such as the pots which are a little crackly. Very clean in the cavities and nice, tidy routing. Maybe newer manufacturers could learn something from the Matsumoku workers as I've seen some more modern basses that are much rougher. The electrics look good and all original so just a squirt of some cleaner/lubricant will hopefully quieten things down. You can see the 'burn' marks where the celluloid scratchplate had started to react. It's constructed in a kind of butchers block fashion but build seems really good. The rear with a rather nice grain to it. Three piece neck construction so should be stable. And a set neck. All the wood joins are nice and tidy and in all honesty most of the woods match really well. I'll update in a couple of days when it's rebuilt, set up and been put through it paces with some new strings. Hopefully the pickups will have the same edge to them as the Gibson ones.

Thought I’d let you guys know I went with Tim at gig.ink stunning job and I’m really pleased with the results 🤙

Beautiful venues and working with professionals makes it all worth while for me. There are places we played 2 years ago we wouldn't think of playing now. We turn down more gigs than we accept. Blue

One of our guitarist has switched over and goes direct out into the sound with one of those modeling amps from Kemper ( they're not cheap). It's a floor unit. He walks into our gigs with his guitar in one hand , stand in the other and the Kemper is in his back pack. I'm exploring this type of option for myself. Blue

Congratulations. As you know, I’m a bit of a fan 😍

The basschat epitaph

Darth Vader after a crash diet?

That's what I went for. Irresistible.

I’ve just sold my Burnt Apple HH and bought this beauty.

I implore you to look into your heart and remove Ernie from that list. A simple (milk) man digs deep into his soul and wonderfully and poetically finds a way to tell of his love of and devotion to another, whilst battling a ne’er do well (with only one sordid thing on his mind, btw). He follows his heart with catastrophic and heart-wrenching consequences culminating in his own demise, and this doesn’t move you?! “Was that the trees a-rustling, or the hinges of the gate, or Ernie’s ghostly gold tops a-rattling in their crate? They won’t forget Ernie (Ernie)…” And neither should you, my friend. Neither should you… (My Ding-a-Ling, on the other hand…)

Benny hill had a bash too with Ernie (the fastest milkman in the west)

Well, credit to Gibson. Cool video. However, like so often, the ad is much better than the actual product it tries to sell.