Leaderboard

On Tuesday I bought a Marshall VBA400 with a Marshall Jubilee 410 and 115 cabs. The handles on both cabs are pretty damaged and when playing through the VBA400 the plastic handles rattled a lot! (I was aware of this prior to purchase!) I gave Marshall a ring on Wednesday to ask them if they knew where I could get replaced handles for the Jubilee cabs (bear in mind these cabs are from 1987) and within seconds I was put through to a very helpful lady that arrange for 4 handles to be sent out to me for a mere £25 all in. They arrived today, very well package and exactly matching the handles from the Jubilee cabs. Great service! 👍

Finally managed to sell my 6x10 cab as it’s a bit too heavy for me to manage and have now downsized to a Barefaced Two10 to pair with my Ashdown ABM 500 Evo head. To say I’m very happy is an understatement, can’t wait to try it out at practice on Monday 😊

In the U.K. .. rip box open the moment courier has dropped it off ! Never had any issue with any guitar or bass or amp for that matter

And yet you joined this forum (1st post) and resurrected a years old thread just to say this, which, despite your claim of "if you can not say anything good about someone it was better to say nothing at all", clearly only purpose is to put this shop in a bad light.

Which absolute psychos wait to open a new present! I meet my courier at the door with scissors and a Stanley knife 🤣 ( in a non agressive way of course )

Just received today. Theyre big mothers...

What with Christmas and our worship leader being on holiday in January, tomorrow is my first day playing at communion for a while. The BL suggested upright would be good for this service too. I've not played it publicly since the bridge was modified to adjustable and I fitted a lifeline pickup. So an exciting day on Sunday!

Another good thing to remember is that the audiences are much more forgiving on jam nights or open mikes. They wouldn't be there otherwise.

So I did go, and… it was brilliant. I'm still buzzing! Superb house band, it would have been worth the trek out just to listen to them; everyone really friendly, including house bassist Gavin, and well organised; really good players getting up, including rhythm section - so I felt stretched, but in a good way, and some people even said nice things about my playing which I'm sure weren't completely deserved but I'll take them! Only really came off the rails on one tune but nobody minded and (as per @Geek99's thread) that's how we learn. The only thing wrong with it is that I have to wait a month for the next one!

How do you wait to open something you have just received? Thats madness. I suppose it makes sense if it is packed in a totally atmospherically and thermally sealed packing method, rather than a hard case or gig bag and a cardboard box, it has been sent from the antartic and you are in the desert, but otherwise, I would say no.

./~ and then I go and spoil it all by saying thumb fin stupid like I love you ./~

PS. Don't beat yourself up too much. It sounds like some of the other musicians have awareness issues. The drums and bass should set the tempo and the guitarist should listen, not lead. It may be helpful to memorise some standard chord progressions as well, such as 12 bar blues (which Johnny B Goode uses). If you use the Nashville numbering system (sounds complex, it's not) it takes the songs key out the equation.

Our first show of the year at a classy venue. South Coast Basschatters are very welcome!

Getting your behind kicked at a jam is never fun - been there! - but it teaches you ten times as much as bashing through an easy tune with no upsets, and infinity times as much as not getting up and putting your behind on the line in the first place, so good on you. You'll be back. Carving out the time to play when you've got responsibilities at home can also be a tough one. I'm only just managing it now the kids are teenage!

Me neither.

It's whatever the person composing the eBay listing says it is. Which is why it doesn't mean anything any more.

Quite recently rediscovered my 5 string Ibanez GSRM25 Mikro Bass, with a just 28.6" scale length, made in Indonesia at the Cort factory January 2019, which I have strung with Elixir Nanoweb guitar strings as well, of the gauges .080 - .062 - .046 - .036 - .026, and tuned to G standard tuning, that is 3 half steps above the upper 5 strings of a 6 string bass in regular B standard tuning. Never really played it much, cause I didn't like the tone that the 2 stock J pickups gave me, trying to wire them both in series, directly to the output jack socket, to remedy it, which did help some, but still it didn't sound quite right. That is until I discovered that the neck pickup was faulty, having a really weak magnetic field towards the the lower thicker string side, which messed with the tone. So I disconnected the neck pickup, and instead wired the bridge pickup directly to the output jack socket, and now the bass actually sounds pretty awesome, really resonant and clear, with exceptional sustain. In fact it has become my new preferred instrument of choice. And it's a quite growly beast, whereas my 4 string Mikro Bass (tuned in A# standard tuning, and equipped with a reverse orientation EMG Geezer P neck/middle pickup), which has otherwise up until now been my preferred instrument of choice, is more of a snappy beast. The fact that the pickup is a single coil pickup also makes it really sensible and responsive to playing dynamics, not only in terms of volume, but also as far as goes character and tone, but it is surprisingly quiet for being a single coil, and a budget model even, not sure how Ibanez managed this, but apparently they did start using shielded wiring, that is wiring where the ground runs as a braided shield all along the independently insulated hot wire, which might explain it. Though I do still ponder on maybe swapping that stock bridge J pickup for a Gemini Pickups Mountain Lightning J bridge pickup at some point : https://www.geminipickups.co.uk/bass/jazz-bass/mountain-lightning It also had perfectly leveled frets right from factory (current action on low E string is just below 2mm at 22nd fret with minimal neck relief, without any fret buzz whatsoever, and could easily go even lower without any issues if I wished). Here it is, Poplar body, Maple neck, with a Jatoba fretboard, 16.5mm string spacing at bridge, named "Mr. Growley - The Noodlemancer" : Ponder on replacing the ugly bridge with black mono rail bridge pieces, milled from solid brass.

I use stick on (and removable) fluorescent dots I picked up cheaply from Ebay after having experienced this a few times. I love dark fretboards so these really helped. I also find that stage lighting can dazzle and cause problems so I always check out any lighting before hand so I can adjust them or change where I stand. I remember once playing 'How Long' (The Eagles song) which I was also singing. Quite quickly I realised the guitarist was out and his backing vocals were off key, as were my vocals and the other guitarist. But at least my bass line was ...er... oops! I was two frets above where I thought I was. Big smile, nod to the rest of the band, carry on in the correct position, celebrate my jazz improvisation. 😂

@Geek99 If you are playing with guys who can't get it right then don't blame yourself. You did well to come away knowing where improvements should be made. So practice, practice, practice and, next time, if no one sensible is in control, you take charge.

My band runs a jam night. One thing we've learned is that it isn't an exam. We happily laugh at ourselves when we get things wrong because it doesn't really matter - there's always another opportunity to play things. If someone else gets something wrong, it doesn't matter. It's all meant to be fun.

@Hutton it’s your bass, so do what you like. Personally I’d give it a short period (say 3-4 hours) to acclimatise, but impatience and curiosity would likely push that time to a minimum. I’ve never had any issues when I’ve unboxed directly a bass delivered in winter, either with poly or nitro.

I quite like his demos, some of the driven sounds are a bit much for me but I like to see the bass lines played, nice to see complicated lines played both so effortlessly and with such enthusiasm. Annoyingly after reading this thread I’m sure all I’ll notice forever onwards will be the gurning….

Titties & Beer — Frank Zappa

Pop Muzik - M

What if your equipment gets cold in transit to a gig? You can't not open the case when you need the instrument? Unless you have a spare...

Tomorrow's gig

I had two basses delivered about a month apart recently. Both times the boxes were freezing cold but there was zero chance I was waiting 24 hours to open them. Both were whipped out of their packaging as quickly as I could and even though they were both cold to the touch and took a while to come up to a normal temperature, neither of them had any issues with the finish

If you want to listen to some of family man’s basslines this is so good, Baby we’ve got a date is a great one to play

Sundae bloody Sundae. - U2

Viennetta ～ Ultravox

Do these count?.. Got one of each

If I wasn't participating in the yearly gear abstinence wheeze this year, I'd have gone and bought something from this establishment right now, just because of your post. Happy now?

Thumb Fin in the way? It moves.

I used some old lawn mower extension cable when I was making up up a long lead for our PA, no problems at all, and it's yellow, so easy to see

Dave, I say never engage a drunk in a conversation without an exit plan. Lol Daryl

Any old flexible 2-core cable will do. 6A or 13A 2-core mains flex for instance. But if you want to go posh try belden5000 10gauge which is about £15 for 2m. http://www.bluejeanscable.co.uk/store/speaker/index.htm Or ...buy a 20m speakon to speakon cable for under £20: https://www.simplysoundandlighting.co.uk/products/roar-speaker-speakon-to-speakon-cable-20m and use your connectors to make it into two shorter ones.

Hi everyone I just found this topic and just felt I should give you my reply. It is such a can of worms to try and explain how or why I behave the way I do but ultimately everything I say or do is driven by "doing the right thing". In life you will never be able to do the right thing by every person and so the best way I can explain this is with way of examples of 2 comments about my business. This will be a brilliant way to demonstrate the frustration of "trying" to do the right thing by everyone... Milky Bar Kid said "[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]The only negative to visiting the shop is that he can't bear to leave a phone ringing even when dealing with a customer, which can be a bit irritating."[/font][/color] [font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][color=#282828]I was aware of this myself so I put in a system where by the phone would ring 4 times and would go to voice mail so I could call the customer back.[/color][/font] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]As a result of this change I then got the following review on Google...[/font][/color] [url="https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/112953112319486779561/reviews/@37.0625,-95.677068,4z"]https://www.google.c...5,-95.677068,4z[/url] Sounds damning - until I did some digging and found this guy runs a business that is literally trashed online for customer service with a 2 star average on Facebook! The Pissed Consumer site charges $1500 PER overview process of false reviews. You will see its been visiting tens of thousands of times and the handful of "complaints" are only there because their website is ranked #2 on Google below mine when you search for my domain name. I think ANY business would be proud of such a tiny ratio of complaints especially as they are completely unsolicited. I sell 2-3 guitars a day, every day, 7 days a week. Every guitar is set up to the customers personal requirement pre sale, I personally play test the guitar and pack it to ensure it arrives how it should. As stated I am immensely passionate about my work. Its my life - why wouldn't I be? Its how I remain so busy! The World of retail works against all my life principals and ethos in life but I have managed to channel a unique way to balance the 2 together in harmony. My business is all about honesty. If that makes me look unprofessional in someones eyes I would be very happy to discuss it on here. The Gordon-Smith scenario is one of many examples I could chat about. There is always a lot more going on behind the scenes that I DONT post in order to protect my working relationship - which in turn makes me feel dishonest to my customers! Hence the balancing act. If I stop selling a product on the grounds of quality it would be ludicrous for me not to demonstrate exactly why I made the decision. Taking Gordon Smith as an example however, 2 years after ceasing the sale of these guitars I have now been invited to be one of just 6 stores in the UK to represent the brand under the new ownership. They came to me BECAUSE of what they read. They realised I was the one and ONLY shop who stuck to my principles and would not sell a product that became more home made than hand made in its latter years. For this reason they knew I was the right person to work with. Life always has balance and for the few I upset there will be many many more who benefit I promise. Regrettably bass is not my main focus in store so I tend to recommend people to alternative sources for bass guitars but thanks for listening and IF you do want to order a bass online from me from the few that I do focus on (G&L, Godin, Cort) you would be in very safe hands. Happy to answer any questions about my business practice if anyone wants to know and happy to chat about any review you have seen on Pissed Consumer - especially the one I wrote about myself locking customers in the basement - I couldn't resist!!! http://www.rguitars.co.uk

Had a blue strip on my pedalboard for a while now…

Music, and jam nights especially, are not the Olympics/ Superbowl/ FA Cup Final. Nobody is paying to watch and there shouldn't be a competitive element. In my first ever gig I fluffed a song I knew inside out having practiced a whole year as a band before the gig, I played a three chord sequence on the A string rather than the E. I left the stage at the end in a huff with myself for messing up but it seems it was only me and the drummer who noticed, and he was laughing it off. The guitarist who was usually a bit of a taskmaster just said "I thought something was off but guessed it was me". Nobody watching noticed or cared because they were too busy enjoying it. Now when I make a mistake I can generally laugh it off with the rest of the band, and work on it later... unless it's a whopper like getting an iconic riff completely wrong, then I accept the bum kicking!

Just do it

Never heard of this I had a Gretsch delivered to me in near zero temperatures in either November or December of last year which was actually left outside in full view on the doorstep outside because the local DPD driver often arrives anything up to an hour before the given timeslot and I wasn't home. No I wasn't happy. But I took it straight into my house and unboxed it where it will have gone from 0° to 20°C in about 3 minutes with no issues.

I'm not downhearted. This is normal TBH on project development. I can easily replace the 8mm pitch with a 2mm pitch that will just slot straight in. I'm hanging on as the options are: 1. Replace the 8mm with a 2mm one. Cost £10-£20. I'd prefer a ball screw but they are a lot more money but are quieter, smoother and more accurate. 2. Use micro stepping, so I can drive the motor at 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and I believe 1/32 steps. So I add 2-3 jumper and go from 400 steps to 800, 1600, 3200. 6400 and possibly 12800 stepers per 360 degree rotation. So the 8mm pitch is cancelled out by going to 1/4 microsteps which costs a few jumpers on the driver board. Since I've not done it yet, I have no idea of the downsides as there will be some Repeatedability is still key Rob

I've just strung my Overwater 35" 5 string Jazz with D'Addario XL Chromes because I've been playing a lot of fretless recently using the same strings and going back to rounds felt like playing sandpaper. I've gone with what they call their regular light gauge (45, 65, 80, 100, 132) and I'm loving them. My bass is top strung from the bridge and the standard long scale fitted fine but they would have been short on a through body strung bass.

It used to be age, over 25 years. Then, as more basses reached that age, the people who owned the older basses took umbrage at basses not as old as theirs being called vintage as they felt it diluted the term. Now it means Fenders made up to about 1975 but, really, it's anything over 25 years.