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I've been booted from one band. I knew it was coming and was fine with it but the way they did it sucked. It followed an argument about the two guitarists insisting I needed to buy an Ampeg SVT classic, I said maybe after some gigs when I know how things are going but they insisted it had to be straight away. They then booted me a few hours later saying it was because they wanted to play 3 gigs a week and knew I couldn't do that. This was back in January this year. No one is getting 3 gigs a week at the moment let alone a new band. I'd rather they'd just been honest. As it goes, the drummer quit shortly after and they've not replaced either of us or played any gigs. I did get a text from one of them last month asking whether I'm in a band now, obviously I told them I am and playing four gigs a week.

About 35 years ago I was informed by an 'acquaintance', about 15 minutes before a gig, that I was "A s*** player with a s*** bass". He was absolutely right on both counts. Rather than chinning him I consoled myself with the fact that I'd been banging his Mrs for the past year and had indeed been doing just that, in his house, in his bed, that very afternoon.

I've had this sitting around for years, waiting for me to decide what to do with it. It's not really a Rick copy beyond the body shape but that meant that the retailer, a fairly short lived UK online brand called Wesley, rapidly got a C&D letter from Old John Hall & panic-flogged all their stock of these for £99. And I bought one. It's called a Wesley Europa, and used to look a bit like this: It's a nicely-made through-neck bass with a 3-band active preamp, 2-way truss rod, flamed top & wooden body binding. It's also got one of the most inappropriate afterthought headstocks I've ever seen on a Rick-style thing - and I've seen a few. It's a nice-playing & decent-sounding bass, meaning I did gig this quite a lot when I first got it, which quickly highlighted a significant problem - the finish that's been used everywhere other than the nice, shiny top. It's basically had a thin coat of matt black applied onto bare wood over the entire body & neck - and this just comes off, on your hands, on your clothes, anything you lean it against - everywhere, any excuse! I don't have any pics of mine at the time but this is one that turned up on Ebay quite recently - mine looked just like this after a few weeks of use! So I temporarily retired it with a view to refinishing it and maybe making that headstock a bit more palatable. Dismantling it & removing what was left of the black 'finish' revealed a rather pretty neck-through construction underneath: It also left me with a dilemma regarding the headstock - I've re-shaped a few before with pleasing results but there's so little space to improve this, the best I could come up with design-wise was pretty much an Ibby Soundgear lookalike, which hardly seemed worth the effort. Hacking the bloody thing off was a more appealing idea but way more complex than I'd originally planned. So as is my wont, I got bored & wandered off, and years passed, as they do. Converting this to headless stayed in the back of my mind & probably about 10 years on, I started seeing affordable & potentially useable headless hardware in the form of cheapo Chinese individual bridge/tuner units. I'd previously thought about that 'Overlord Of Music' Hohner clone system, but that would involve routing (I don't have a router) and relocating or abandoning the battery compartment, which is directly behind the bridge. Anyway, I recently came across some nice looking individual units branded 'Guyker', hit the buy button, and this is what turned up in the post a few days later, direct from Weifang, China, for the princely sum of about £45 delivered. They look halfway decent & seem to be pretty well-made, I think the machined components are brass under the paint, not sure about the cast saddles etc. The lack of thrust bearings is a bit of a disappointment but with a sufficiency of lubricant they should hopefully be functional. Setup is likely to be a bit of a fiddle with the saddles needing to be positioned by hand then locked in place with small & inaccessible allen screws, but likely to be a do it once then forget it task. The head-end string retainer won't win any prizes for stylish design, but it's very solid & the two clamps per string certainly mean business. The plan is - obviously, I hope - to lop off the ugly bit (which I accept might be subjective) and re-shape what's left to be functional and not look like a complete bodge/mistake. I've previously been nonplussed by, and critical of 'headless' basses that retain a sort of vestigial flap where the head should be (Laurus springs to mind) but paradoxically, that is exactly what I intend doing with this! There's an element of necessity - the string clamp requires a bit of 'head' to be mounted on, and I also need to leave space for truss rod access. While it's tempting to make this as minimal as possible, the proportions of this bass mean that the tuners will overhang the end of the body by a good 2-3 cm so it's going to have to live on a wall hanger or neck-supporting stand, rather than be bunged in the corner. So my necessary flappy end bit will keep enough of the 'flare' of the old headstock to do that. Assuming I can cut straight. So now we come the the nailing stuff together & hacking bits off part - I haven't done anything like this in some considerable time and it's a bit daunting! First things first - position the tuner units accurately. I marked saddle travel positions from the original bridge on the body - the new units have a little more range and will be a few mm closer to the bridge pickup, as G string intonation was at the limit of its movement on the old bridge. Measuring from the 12th fret after marking the new saddle positions, the mid-point between them turns out to be bang-on 17". Which is reassuring! Having measured everything (hopefully!) accurately, I made a template for screw hole positions for the individual units, giving 20mm string spacing, same as the original. Using the same template I made a plate to sit under the tuners to conceal the old bridge mounting holes and the earth wire which will link the units. It's less than 1mm thick and should not adversely affect string height. A minor irritation with the tuners is the presence of a screw which sits proud of the base of each unit. It limits the travel of the ball-end retainer to stop the unit falling apart - but also stops it sitting flush on the top of the bass, which is irksome. So in order to make them screw down properly, I'll have to create a row of rebates for the heads to sit in. Lacking suitable tools it'll be down to my ancient Dremel knock-off, a steady(ish) hand and a sense of relief that the resulting mess will be covered by hardware. OK, time to work some wood - out with the blowtorch and nailgun, and onward!

Playing a cheap, battered bass and making it sound amazing is an inherently cool thing to do.

Yes, my cases are all in a cupboard and rarely get used (if at all). I take my basses to gigs/rehearsals in my Mono Double gigbag. That said, I still like the ceremony of opening a hard case to see the bass inside. I wish they added a light to the lid like in a fridge to add a bit more drama!

Seriously Dave?? Get changed??? You don’t call in at a late night food outlet on way home in Spandex, eyeliner and perm? Lazy bugger! 😊

I must have got the wrong end of the stick - I assumed this thread was about necks made in Bolton, Lancashire vs those made in the Yorkshire village of Neckthrough. A bass version of the war of the roses.

From March but wowtastic! Especially love the first bass! NS-1 - Metallic Gold! Apology if this has been posted before...

What makes you think this? I can't stand hardcases. The only time I'd ever think about wanting something more rigid is if I was travelling overseas, and I'd want a proper flightase for that. I would say 8/10 high end bass manufacturers/luthiers ship basses in high quality soft or hard-soft cases these days, and for good reason. They offer more shock protection and support, they're lighter in weight and they often have much more space for accessories.

It's arrived... First impressions are good. A nicely grained bit of ash, frets well finished, the routing looks accurate, neck pocket a snug fit. Time to get started.

EBB5 Head String Anchor Rev 2 lol The brass connector thing is held in place partly by the face being too small for it to pass through and also by the protrusion of the string holding grub screws into their channels. We shall see if this bears up any better under the load. S'manth x

That’s a signature model I wasn’t previously aware of…

Ok so gigged last night with my fusion trio. Really enjoyed it, audience enjoyed it. So why did I enjoy it, when I “hate gigging”. It was 2 miles from my front door, we were finished and away by 10:00, home by 10:30 via McDonald’s. So it’s not necessarily I hate gigging then? I just hate the travelling and hours of “hanging around” for an hour or so of playing. Conclusion? I’m just a lazy sod 😂

Not instrument snobbery but musical snobbery. I went to a Jazz Fusion jam night in Manchester in the mid noughties. I was wearing a motor head T shirt. I got up with a guitarist mate to jam and the drummer said in a derisory tone " you're wearing the wrong t shirt for here mate". I said " just play you're f*##ing drums and try to keep up" We dragged em all over the place, musically speaking.

Never judge a player for having a cheap bass. Alice Coopers bassist uses an Epiphone Thunderbird Alvin from UK Subs uses a Squier Jazz as well as his Fender and he is fecking brilliant. Matt Freeman from Rancid has a Squier P bass as his backup and he's one of the best bassists in rock. Mike Kerr from Royal Blood still uses his budget Gretsch Electromatic even now thar Fender give him their top kit. Judge them by how they play, not what they play. Just because someone is skint doesn't mean they can't play and just because they've got the money for fancy kit doesn't mean they can shred.

I think Orange amps & Jazz basses are a good pairing, Dave, the warmth of the Orange stops the Jazz from being too harsh. Wow, I just wrote out a Christmas Cointreau ad from the 70s in respect of bass amps!

My small but perfectly formed bass board. Does everything I want/need and a lot more.

starving in the belly of a whale- tom waits

And so the good news... @fleabag has the neck And...let's think, there must be some other good news...ah, yes! With a judicious and expected scrape off of the extra finish thickness at the heel, the heel was a satisfyingly tight and accurate fit in the pocket. But it was a little high... It turns out that @Andyjr1515 's Fender-ish donor body with 'fender-size' neck pocket was deeper than @fleabag 's 'fender-ish' body neck pocket. OK - when I say a little high...hmmm...at least 2.5mm high Oh...mmmm....yes...the headstock finish which was, at last, glossy enough to call finished. Well...who would have thought that bubble wrap would leave octopus marks even after a week of curing Oh, yes..hmmm...and the other stuff But the good news, is that @fleabag has done a fantastic job of rectifying those issues Mind you...there's a bit of refinishing needed. So the moral of this story is: the wise sages are quite correct in saying that you should never try to make a neck if you don't have the body physically on hand to fit it to. And if you do, then make sure it's going to someone like @fleabag who has the skills and enthusiasm to put it right

Definitely a signature model, look it was signed 😁

Its the platform boots. I'd need to sit in the back seat to reach the pedals

Far easier option. Undo it and slide the black plastic part out of the housing. You'll see a little screw. Undo that. Then slide the Red plastic thing out of the way. That will show you a spring underneath it. Remove the spring. Then put the red bit back, put the screw back and stick it back together. Ta-DA! Now it's just a regular jack socket without any locking nonsense.

It would have to be my ACG fretless J Type:

I tend toward inverse snobbery when it comes to instruments. There is nothing worse than seeing someone with all the gear who clearly should have invested in some lessons rather than equipment.

OMG I stumbled across a makerspace not 15 minutes drive from where I live. Various shop woodwork machines (saws/planers/sanders), lathe, laser cutter and a kick donkey 3D printer and a couple of industrial size CNC machines being nursed into life. Seem a really nice bunch of folks and and their monthly fee is within my budget .... hmmmm S'manth

Something that bugs me a bit is seeing retailers descriptions of x budget bass/guitar and then saying s*** like ' suitable for beginners and intermediate players' , insinuating that advanced players shouldn't bother considering it. Ballcocks. Any decent player worth his salt can make any instrument sound good. Give a s*** player an £8,000 Fodera and he'll make it sound like the cr@pp13$t Kay.

I'm so proud that I'm actually listening to my band's first sinlge Kodaclips - Drowning Tree

What a charming recollection. Vicar, would you care to stay for another cup of tea, Frank's strolling down memory lane!

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

That new case is a curious choice. Hard case fans will surely consider it too flimsy, but it looks bulky and awkward to use compared to a gig bag. Regarding the SR5, they look so much better without a pickguard, don't they?

One of the selling points and main convenience of Mono cases - the Verigo, and the Sleeve - is they are top loading. Why would you have Mono make a case for you that has to laid flat to open? 😕

Or pebble-dash it and call it Bung-Glo. 🙈

Been after a Blackstone Mosfet Overdrive for such a long time. Finally one popped up on the fleabay “saved search” UK based so I had to jump on it. It wasn’t as cheap as I’d like but considering the condition of it (mint) and the cost of import tax and VAT if purchased new from Blackstone it was still reasonable and less hassle. She’s Definitely little and she’s definitely fierce It’s also exactly what I thought it would be, it sounds very much like an overdriven amp and I’m over the moon with it stock, but theres more! There are trim pots inside that I haven’t explored yet but just to add a twist there are also two capacitors inside that are are designed to be changeable so you can add your own presence and bass if you so choose. Yes I know his bass has too many strings and is tuned too high but it is an overdrive designed and built by a guitarist for guitarists… The external pots are exactly what I want and I think more pedals should head this way, I’m not one to fiddle with stuff, I like to set it and leave it and once set they can’t be knocked or moved unless you want to, although as demonstrated it’s easy enough with a thumb nail or a plectrum. I’ll leave you with some pictures from the manual that are worth a read if your into overdrive I don’t want to swamp the post with to much text, but needless to say there’s a goodly amount squeezed into the little box and I love it (honeymoon phase?) I think I got what I deserved after such a long wait

Have we done the “Jaco only needed 4” comment yet…that’s the royal flush…

Been listening to some Black Roots today, couple of great ones The Father

Like a drag racer……drag…..no?

Cue 'The Two Ronnies' (revamped...) ...

Saw the title & assumed - 'black metal ABBA covers'. But no - obviously that'd be Abbatoir.

Si Tu Dois Partir - Fairport Convention

Sandberg could make you something fairly similar...although not sure that the switching option on the humbucker is part of the std spec.

I love metal but don't know a lot of Doom metal but I would say this song is essential listening [YouTube]

"I've got a 1968 clarinet reed that still has Acker Bilk's spit on it. Never clean it in case it takes away the mojo from my playing"

I only play Alembics and look down on the rest of you mere mortals. Does that count as snobbery?