Leaderboard

Scratchplate fettled... just got to find some nuts n washers and cerated locking washers for the back of the pots... the Blend is 18mm shaft and needs spacing back... and wire up... 'All Done for a £Ton' EDIT: Now sporting Entwistle PBX JBX

Hi All, Wanted to share my second bass build with you fine folk (first build here). Overall I am pretty pleased with it. It sounds great if I may say so - reminds me of a punchier P-Bass. I suspect that's down to the pickups more than my craftsmanship or choice of woods, so I'd happily use those EMGs again (if I can ever get my hands on some). I did make a few mistakes and won’t highlight them all here for fear of being too self-critical, but the main things I’d change design-wise are the headstock as the break angles for the strings aren’t great (would also match the headstock topwood a bit better to the body), and the neck profile ended up a little thin for my liking. But this is all a learning process. The next build that I've just started will go back to basics - a variation of a P/J bass, so I can focus on getting the finish perfect and not worry about cutting funky wood shapes, exotic top woods etc. Will also post that here when it’s ready! Main specs as follows: 32 inch scale Chambered mahogany body Walnut and flame maple top Walnut neck Rosewood fretboard EMG CSX pickups EMG BQS preamp ABM bridge system

Hi folks! I've had my eye on the Laney Digbeth pre-amp pedal for a while, and having recently joined a new band I had a good excuse to try one out. I've seen a decent amount of positive reactions to this pedal here and there, so I'm just going to cover some of the info that I wasn't able to find out about before buying. If you want to check out photos and the basic specs, head on over to https://www.laney.co.uk/amps/bass/digbeth/db-pre Before I start on the graphs, I'm aware that firing white noise into a pedal isn't the most accurate form of measurement, and obviously we don't listen with our eyes, but I'm happy that it provides some value by demystifying what some of the controls actually do. First off, here's as "flat" as my audio interface will record - no pedal involved at all: Frequency along the bottom; relative dB up the side There's a little roll-off below ~50 Hz and above ~8 kHz, so bear that in mind when looking at the rest of the graphs. Time to plug the pedal in. Before we touch any of the dials, does this pedal have a baked-in tone? Well, the manual says that the EQ controls (bass, lo-mid, hi-mid, treble, tilt) don't have any effect at their detented centre settings, so let's see what happens when you toggle the "bypass" footswitch. Green: FET (clean) channel, all controls at 5-out-of-10 / 12 o'clock / centre position Red: Pedal in "bypass" mode Pretty flat! Bypassed it pretty much looks the same as having no pedal at all. I've read elsewhere that this pedal is buffered rather than true bypass. Switching on the FET channel with everything at noon, it's slightly above unity gain (i.e. a little louder). There looks to be a very mild bump in the mids, and a little roll-off in the low lows. A good starting point to start turning things and seeing what happens... First, the Bass control: Red: minimum Green: maximum Is that a shelf, or just a peak at a low enough frequency that it runs into the limits of what the interface will capture? Either way, you can get around 10 dB boost or cut at about 50 Hz. On to the Lo-mid. This one's got three possible settings, and the manual lists them in the wrong order. With the switch in the upper position, you get this: The manual says: The graph says: 12 dB boost or 8 dB cut at 180 Hz. With the switch in the middle position: From the manual: Yep, that's definitely wider than the previous setting! About 15 dB boost or 14 dB cut at 480 Hz. Finally, the switch in the lower position: A narrower 15 dB boost or 14 dB cut again, this time at 700 Hz. Now the Hi-mid: Looks like 15 dB boost or cut at 1.5 kHz. I'd say this is closer to the "pop / fret noise" zone than the 700 Hz lo-mid setting 🤷‍♂️ And the Treble: Interesting 🤔 The curve's a little different when boosting vs. cutting. Overall it looks like it peaks around 8 kHz, but with a shallow slope right down to the mids. Last but not least, the Tilt control: Red: minimum (most bassy) Green: maximum (most trebly) As most reviews have pointed out, a little goes a long way with this control! 😂 The pivot point is around 830 Hz. I think the idea is to use this to make slight adjustments to the overall sound for live usage, e.g. giving it a nudge to the treble side if you're on a hollow, boomy stage. But it interacts in interesting ways with the rest of the controls, especially with Bass and Treble adjusted in the "opposite" directions to the tilt. For example, you can approximate a 60s cab where there's a bump in the low-mids, but output rolls off a lot below that. Overall, this pedal has a very versatile set of controls. The EQ points are all in sensible places, and the mid controls are focused enough that you can hear what they're adding or removing, rather than just a big old blob of MIDS. I've used it for a few rehearsals with random studio amps, but not live yet. Currently my starting settings are: Lo-mids 7 (with the switch upwards), Hi-mids 7, and Treble 6 - everything else flat. That's giving me some punch in the lows, and some presence and pick attack further up. Other things: The face of the pedal is covered by a ~1mm thick glossy plastic plate with all the control labels on it. This feels like it might be prone to cracking, given that the point of a pedal is to be stepped on. But I could be totally wrong - it's backed by a flat metal surface after all! Time will tell The Digbeth logo is an additional moulded bit of plastic that sits on top of that. I think it looks cool; you may think it's tacky! As a Birmingham resident, I'll admit that the name did sway me a bit towards trying this pedal out 😁 It's a bit taller than your average pedal (i.e. the distance from the floor to the top of the footswitches is greater) - could be awkward if mounted on a thick pedalboard It comes with rubber feet attached, but they peel off cleanly What about the Tube channel? Well, it doesn't involve any actual tubes. But it does sound pretty good! There seems to be some additional low-pass filtering compared to the FET channel, and some mild EQ pre-shaping even with all controls flat: Red: FET Green: Tube (at minimum Drive) I failed to set these to approximately equal volume, but you should be able to see the difference in the EQ. The filtering of extreme highs means that it doesn't get too fizzy when the gain is turned up - it almost acts like a cab simulation. This means the DI signal doesn't sound atrocious with dirt! 😅 I don't have a lot more to say about the Tube channel, as I've not used it much yet. I might record some clips in the future. Well that's your lot. I hope some of it was helpful! 😁 tl;dr Pedal is good!

I know this gets discussed a lot and there's a handful of really good people out there making custom pickguards... I just wanted to do a little note here for Gig Ink... I think he's on here but can't find the username.... Anyways I have no real affiliation apart from being a paying customer twice over. Once to get a p pickup surround after I'd done some pretty shoddy "routing" and now to get something a bit different for my Stingray. I'll try to do proper pictures in a few days time but this is a mirror pickguard with my band logo engraved on it. It's a bit Phil Lynott without being totally Phil Lynott if that makes sense... And it was turned around very quickly from the original ask so I could have it for a gig this weekend. While I know there's other good quality people out there, I wouldn't hesitate to use Gig Ink again.

'Age 22-40'. My age will soon be 22+40. I have long hair but like Happy Jack I don't usually wear it.

I went for the Yamaha Stagepas 1k and bought 2 of them. They're £1700 from Thomann or £1900 from Andertons, for 2 I guess these are a compromise, since the tops sit in the sub casing. There's connectors inside the top of the 12" sub, and the spacers ( bottom and middle of towers are spacers with electrical connectors ) and of course the very top bit has all 10 1.5" drivers plus the connectors to the spacer below it. The top tower can sit direct on the sub, on one spacer , or on both spacers, depending on the height one wants the tops to fire at.

I got a new short scale yesterday, in the ACG flavour. It seems my son has decided to steal it from me already 😫

6. Too many amps (aka "you look too loud")

*GRUMPY OLD BLOKE ALERT* Here's an episode of Saturday morning TV staple Tiswas, from 1981. Guests include Sting and Genesis. Amongst the chaos, Sting chats about The Troubles in Northern Ireland, whether fans will accept his political content, and how his acting career fits in with The Police. Genesis - with toddlers on their laps - chat about the studio they built, how self-producing has changed their sound, the introduction of Vari*lites into their stage show, and the impact of Phil's solo career on how Genesis write. The presenter even mentions that Phil has been working with John Martyn. This stuff was fed to almost all of the kids back then. Nowadays they have to find it, which (IMO) is a real shame.

Great interview, by Colin Murray of Radio 5 Live, with legendary bassist David Hood from Muscle Shoals https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001947y

30 odd yo Kramer Forum III 🤘

I'm a drummer. Anyone wanting to chat to me whilst I'm playing is almost certainly within range of my implements, and I can get pretty clumsy if disturbed. It happens rarely, but is always over in seconds. I try to keep the bloodstains off the drum heads, naturally.

Update: 1. Will probably aim for adding a bias selector so users can choose KT88 or 6550 for ~100W or EL34 for ~60-70W 2. Preamp will be designed with a Gain control to create drive 3. Power amp Martin says he likes to design as clean as possible but “100W is 100W” which makes sense 4. Chassis more likely to be like the new Ashdown LB30-2 than the Orange Terror; Martin says he wants a fresh, original look that’s different to anything else 5. Nothing will really happen until August or September but when he can he will prototype something and get some local bassists to trial it so as to get design feedback before we go any further. I’ll keep this updated as things progress

This is exactly what we ended up doing after the second time it had happened. Some venues did actually confirm he had contacted them to try and cancel the gigs claiming various excuses. We also backed everything up with an email so they had our new email address, band name and details.

Over The Hills and Pharaoh Way - Gary Moore

Here is the perfect bass for you (It is not my bass and I have no connections to the seller, just saw it) https://thebassgallery.com/collections/bass/products/yamaha-bbne2-nathan-east Yamaha BBNE2. I have never played one (I can hardly cope with 4 strings) but I have heard a lot of good things about it. Worth checking out and London is not too far from Northamptonshire, so maybe worth a trip to the capital? 🙂

Thank you. Yes, I'm well beyond that mindset! Getting old does that to you. When I was young I worked in a music shop for about eight years. The Yamaha guitars definitely weren't cool, but they mostly played better than their price range counterparts and often better than guitars twice the price.

For someone thinking or considering taking up bass i'd suggest second hand or something far cheaper than 2k. Yamahas are excellent basses and there is no shortage of them for sale. Such as this one: You have come to the best place for advice. Undoubtedly someone else will come along with some proper recommendations for you. Have fun shopping around!

One from last weekend. We had a support slot for a blues band called The Cinelli Brothers at Venue 16 in Ipswich. One of the best stage/pa set ups I have ever played (including some decent stages with a Bon Jovi tribute) even though it is mainly a wedding venue. We played well, went down well, sounded good. The Cinelli Brothers I didn't know but will seek them out if they are ever neqarby as they are totally brilliant. 4 piece multi-talented players. I though their bass player was good on the first number. Second number he played lead guitar and was even better. All four had strong singing voices. They played well crafted orginal that somehow sounded familar and turnjed in a high energy performance of Chuicago-style blues. Amazing band and a great bunch of guys. Anyway, here's our opening song 'Toredown' https://www.facebook.com/100002647479877/videos/411731264330822/ And here 'Blue Jean Blues' https://www.facebook.com/100002647479877/videos/364538542461222/

Re the power cut, if only you were named Damo and the Dynamos you could have played.....

I watched the video of him miming on this bass to songs recorded on a different bass over 30 years ago. Rex hasn't been entirely relevant to anything in about 20 years. I'm not sure getting this made with a thinner neck, yet still no volute, is the best idea ever. The signature-model fetish of this era, in the absence of any real innovation, is getting very boring.

I took a risk recently and sold off my Stingray 5 and Rivoli and have ended up with this from Bass Direct. It’s a 2021 Nash PB-J 63 in Fiesta Red. Apparently the first owner already had too many basses. Lucky for be though as it plays like a dream and sounds amazing…

Imagine something with a similar tonality to the SVT-2 PRO with KT88s. Doesn’t need all the controls (if anything the 2 has too many!), but the splitting of ‘gain’ and ‘drive’ onto two separate controls/tube circuits so you can obtain very good clean and very good dirty sounds would be mighty agreeable. Something like that in a smaller 100W package, with a decent DI, would go down very nicely.

Just clocked the price of the new LB - ooft! 40cm wide sounds good, around 15¾inch in old money.

If the answer isn't 'Waterloo Sunset', then it must be The Jam's 'English Rose'. Edit: Or, the older I get the more relevant it becomes, Anti-Nowhere League's 'I Hate People'. 😁

But but, look at his hair!!!!

I believe the answer is ‘Waterloo Sunset’

Oooh, imagine the cash which could be made with the England's New Anthem reality TV series, the winner voted for by the public, of course. Ratings gold! Cash money!

Another endorsement for Labella MUS flats here.

Afternoon (Angel) Delight - Starland Vocal Band

62 pints and a peck it of crisps. Splodginess abounds

Only idiots look down their noses at Yamahas Come to think of it, anyone who looks down their nose at anyone's instrument is an idiot IMO.

Yes, very. I do hope that someone had a little chat with him about that. The sort of chat that begins with "I want a word with you" and ends in "ouch".

@AndyTraviswill probably be along shortly, if I were to look for a Yamaha I’d be speaking to him.

Yeah, like if you ordered a Lamb of God album from wish.com

Pauline Moran comes to mind. She played bass in The She Trinity, a Sixties all girl rock band that had a hit with a version of the Sonny Curtis penned 'He Fought The Law' which The Clash later covered. Moran is much better know as Miss Lemon, the secretary to Hercule Poirot in the David Suchet series 'Agatha Christie's Poirot'. I just looked the band up and apparently they also included the late Barbara Thompson of 'Colosseum' and 'Paraphernalia' fame. I had never made the connection before.

Down On Terminal Street - Be Bop Deluxe

There is an element of that that would be nice, but it depends if you can trust anyone else to do it! When we did the cab shootout, we used just a normal track and my BC112 cab provided the clearest / fullest range. In fact, apart from the markbass, they all did pretty well with just general music. In other news, I bought a RCF Evox 8 the other day on ebay. Having decided I wasn't going down that route it turned up on ebay 15 miles from here pretty cheap, I made a low offer and it was accepted. It was actually listed as a J8, but it clearly wasn't, it is made of wood. Sounds ok in the garden, just need a practice to test it out on

I’d bet if someone at gibson seriously put their mind to it they’d be able to make a bass that looks feels and sounds as good as the epiphone vintage pro thunderbirds

I've never really truly regretted any bass I've sold, long term. I've come to terms with and made peace with the fact that, as a bass player, my needs and tastes are constantly evolving, so I'll always be changing up what I'm playing for that particular moment in time. For example, right now, I'm doing an immense amount of function work, in 4 bands. So a 5 string is a must - meaning my beloved Modulus Flea bass, doesn't get played. So if I sold it now, as much as I love it, I wouldn't 'miss it'. What I guess I'm labouring to say is, always keep in mind, they're just tools. Bits of wood and metal. You as the player are the real item of value!