Leaderboard

and finished... back together and looking much better than that awful tesco express looking logo...

Benylin & The Jets — Elton John

Just seen on FB, Vintage have announced two new bass models at NAMM, the Supreme (semi) and the Callen. The Callen definitely has my attention.... 😏

Fazley Mini Pedal Case... Joyo Irontune > Future Chorus > Time Magic Delay > Nebulous Phaser > Orange Juice Amp Sim Edit: Had to drill some holes for the 9v Daisy... Sorted.

Essex Machine — James Brown

I've played 12lbs+ basses. It's all about the strap - wide, cushioned - spreads the weight. To this end I use Neotech Mega straps - neoprene and memory foam. I quite like the "grounded" feeling I get when wearing a heavier bass, like I'm the anchor. It's not a competition though, some people shouldn't wear a heavier bass if they have shoulder or back issues - it doesn't make anyone a hero or somehow more worthy - listen to your body.

Local Facebook score. Always loved the Hartke HA heads. This one needs a new valve…but came with a 410XL cab…🥳 needs a service but feck me it’s decent

Covering a blemish in the finish in this instance. But they can serve any purpose Share them here. Or just tell us all how much you hate them, if that gives you joy.

Can't afford it, don't need it at all, I already have everything I need. Bought it anyway. headless bass itch well and truly scratched. Series S4000 I believe, serial number is 235... I have no idea how to age it though, any ideas? I had no idea these things were so heavy though! I changed the batteries and one of the connectors fell apart as I unclipped it, so it now has shiny new battery clips but everything else is perfect. Can't wait to wheel it out at a rehearsal.

Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehe. He said supreme semi.

After years of rugby and general wear and tear I have shoulder and lower back problems and struggle with anything over 8.5lbs. I’ve fallen in love with many a bass over 9lbs, taken it home and thought “this time it will be different”. It never is and after much soul-searching and disappointment they’ve been moved on because I just can’t manage them without causing issues.

Patience ～ Guns 'n' Roses

Aesthetically, the ST:TOS communicators of the guitar FX world.

Hated the original natural alder so I stickerbombed it

Nothing better than playing in a band with good musicians! It lifts your own game, and makes it easier to play with them.

Come flu with me- Frank Sinatra

It's here! After a little wait & as usual, exquisite luthier work by the team at Overwater Basses & continued support. We have an Overwater Custom J5 Fretless with a few custom options. 35" Scale Walnut top & headstock facing Swapping out the bridge position J pickup and dropping in a Musicman pickup. Added passive tone control (as usual for myself) Luminlay sidedots This bass was specced & delivered very quickly for a specific tour to start shortly this year. It was commissioned due to the need of a 5 string fretless bass for quite a few tracks. Have two fretless basses in my collection already - 1976 Musicman Stingray & an early 1970's P Bass. Both four strings so not ideal for the job. I would like to send my thanks to Kirsty, Martin, Chris & the whole team at Overwater Basses for the amazing basses they make daily & for the continued support from the company also. Full Specification - 5 String 35” Scale Length Neck - Standard Bolt On One Piece Maple Straight Headstock with Walnut Veneer Fretless (24 fret neck) 46mm Nut Width 18mm Bridge Spacing Plain Unlined Ebony Fingerboard Luminlay Side Dots Body - Swamp Ash Walnut Top Electronics - Active Overwater 3 Band + Passive Tone Control Pickups - Overwater Jazz Single Coil + Musicman Humbucker Locking Jack Hardware - Overwater Bridge Hipshot Hardware in Black Satin Natural Lacquer Finish

Weird coincidence - After not seeing these anywhere since I last owned one, I wandered past The Music Shop in Inverness yesterday and there's a green SGV for sale. Cool looking thing.

I just mentioned it elsewhere, but probably worth a mention here too: The Dubmatix Reggae shows are worth a listen. https://dubmatix.podbean.com/

People! (Deep breath) We really need to move away from the thought that just because something looks similar to something else that it's going to deliver something similar to what it pertains to be. [Sorry deep EDIT here: I've seen too many posts here and elsewhere where someone buys a Harley Benton Stingray clone or a Chickenbacker and goes, 'Yeah it really growls like a Stingray' or 'It clanks just like the real thing.' These remarks just seem to be some kind of affirmation by the buyer of a bass costing 10% that of the original that it apes, is somehow vindicated. I will continue to cite the blind test at one of the SE Bass Bashes, which kind of proved that a) people don't know what basses sound like at all and b) people couldn't identify their own bass from anyone elses.] Voice of reason here. Again. I'd argue 'til the cows come home that tone is subjective ('all basses sound more or less the same and nobody aside from you gives a rats as to what you sound like'), more to the point tone is about synergy; the interaction of all the component parts, from your fingers/pick, the strings, pickups, wiring loom and cap, lead, stomps, pre-amps, power amps, speakers and your ears. Apart from saying the stock pickup leaves you a bit flat, you're not really saying why. What do you want a replacement to do for you that the original doesn't? I'm genuinely interested (see elsewhere), having swapped out a fair few pickups in my time and finding that a non-badged pickup from an old Strat' copy sounds virtually the same as the Mike Lull hand-wounds on a £5K bass. I'm very much of the view that it's not worth changing anything on a whim; you'll have a perceived opinion of how much better the pickup sounds (which will be a direct correlation to how much you paid).

Thank you to all who contacted me with offers of DBs, what a wonderful community this is. I’m taking up young @BreadBin offer. Me and Brendon have a long history of handing each other instruments 😂 Cheers all! John

New colour way for NAMM.

Doesn't matter what anyone else thinks is heavy, it's how it feels for you that matters. For my fragile back anything over 8.5lbs/3.9kg is too heavy.

95% of bass is about turning up on time, following the chords and doing the basics. Finding the groove is what we live for!

I had some lovely Strawberry Conserve from Lidl on a Croissant this morning.

That's some super attention to detail in the EBMM aping then

I definitely get withdrawal if I don't play it for a day or two because I always want to play it. For me it's also a job but I also absolutely love playing it and apart from a few years where I fell out of love with it in my twenties (I got fed up with being a touring band musician and lost sigjg of why I loved the bass) I've been playing it since I was ten so it's been like a best friend and I find practicing like a sort of release in the same way people like going for a run or a walk!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/315115929354?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=bfhrrjgbtge&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=Fd5SLCkkT3a&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

My go-to recommendation for a UK manufacturer is Cosmic Ears. I'm a touring monitor engineer so spend an enormous amount of time with them stuck in my head. I've been very happy with the service I've had from them, and with the IEMs themselves (CE6P), they sound fantastic. I had an issue with the cable connector and they were very responsive and got it sorted quickly too. Moulded IEM are a big investment, but they're night and day compared to generic-fit models. The isolation is fantastic. One thing worth bearing in mind is that getting high end IEMs will expose the limitations in the rest of your monitoring setup! You'll likely want to add ambient mics to your mix as the isolation from outside noise is so effective.

Drop a note on their website and you should get an answer pretty quickly.

Thanks Rosie. I literally just got another recommendation from a friend for the same company. I've been trying out various models. I used the Shure 215s cheapish ones for a bit but for bass they were not great. Upgraded to some Mackie's which were better for bass reference but I've struggled to get them to fit well. I think I've actually hurt my ears by using them, did a LOUD gig just before Christmas and my left IEM kept falling out and I stupidly kept turning up to compensate. Thought the moulded ones might be the solution. 👍🏻👍🏻

It is all relative depending on what your body is comfortable with - though 4.8kg is on the heavy side by any measure. I never used to worry about the weight of instruments, but now I’m older I really can’t do anything over 4kg at all. I’ve tried a few times but it always ends with pain and I’ve finally accepted my limitation! There was a certain authority to the tone and feel of the heavier basses I’ve owned, but with the kind of amps, cabs and pedals available today I have no problem getting a relatively lightweight bass like a 3.6kg Mustang to sound fairly mighty. It’s striking that balance between tone and weight I guess.

I had Alan build my Krell 5 string at 17mm which feels better than my SR5's at 17.5mm but not as good as my old Thumb 5 at 16.5mm...! I couldn't get on with 18mm basses at all, which is a shame as the multi-coil pups he uses are brilliant but only come in 18mm spacing. Speak to Alan, he's usually got an answer for most questions.

Recurring shoulder injury means that anything over 9lb is, in my books, heavy! I have basses ranging from 5lb (Aria Sinsonidia/Hofner) to 8.5lb (Sandberg/Warwick) and I can do 2-3 sets no problem, as soon as a bass exceeds 9lb(ish), even with a neoprene/padded/wide stripe, my shoulder will ache over the next days.

Hi @Beer of the Bass I've Been using Platinum 5 string sets for years I find them to have more smooth growl to the B, I think they feel played in straight out the pack. I'd say order a set and try them out. They will take about 2 weeks to arrive but I think for the money they are great strings. My usual is 50-130 round core nickel plated platinum. Jonny

I don’t take any notice of the weight myself and I don’t mind heavy basses, strangely I don’t really like ones that are too light, but if you’ve had a back problem then standing with it might be uncomfortable after a while, cool bass though

Vush ～ Kula Shaker

Yeah I think you’re right actually! Cool will order a sample pack. I’ve experimented with a few other brands but always end up playing for a few hours before shifting them to a backup bass and popping the DRs back on. Keen to see how these go!!!

I can't give you technical reasons, all I know is that, after years of trying different brands (Rotosound, Ernie Ball, D'Addario) the first time I tried a set of their strings my P-bass sounded exactly like I thought it should. I haven't looked back since. I'm still digging D'Addario strings on my Sire, but I'm keen to try Newtone strings on it at some point. They aren't the cheapest but they certainly aren't outrageously priced, and I'm happy to pay a little extra to support a British company that makes a quality product.

It means that I have the basis of the controlling software for a winder. As far as I know, there is no code around for doing this, so I wrote my own, I know that people use electric drills and similar to do windings, but I wanted anything I did to be defined. I'm not very good mechanically so Id rather write software that does things for me, as thats easier for me.I have nothing but admiration for people who can make things creatively. So if I can make this work (note the word if) and they sound OK, it's repeatable. If I want to make a pickup with 10,000 loops of AWG 44 wire or 5,000 loops of AWG 42 wire (thicker than AWG 44), it's a matter of changing the Wire Width parameter and the number of loops. The software should do the rest automatically. If I want to make a thicker bobbin or thinner bobbin, thats just a parameter change. I now have the CNC shield setup, added the stepper drivers, DRV8225, set up 1/8 microstepping, I have a 60V/10A bench power supply but now I just realised I don't have any jumpers to fit the stepper motor wiring to the CNC shield. These are DuPont connectors. I can make them, I even have a kit, but I hate making them, Sod it, Mr Amazon to the rescue. £10 for 6 of them, I only need two (at the moment), so a bargain. Everybody uses their own connectors Rob

Burgundy, really? Mark

Wait... walk on music for pub gigs? Where are you walking on from?

They have a well deserved reputation of being great basses.