Leaderboard

Owen has a problem with his neck! Or more correctly, Owen has a problem with one of his necks. Or to be utterly precise, Owen has a problem with a G&L 5-er neck that has a snapped off truss-rod end. Getting fretboards off in one piece always carried a risk - but I haven't lost one recently and so it is worth stacking up the odds a little further and giving it a go. It's a very nice neck - but those edges are mighty thin, with the fret slots almost fully through to the maple: And so there is the possibility of ending up with 22 rectangles of fretboard rather than one whole one. BUT, it's a case of taking that risk or scrapping it. Most fretboards (but not all) are glued with heat-softening wood glues - and so you basically heat the fretboard up with an iron or similar (I use a travel-iron) and then ease a blade, and eventually a thin steel sheet slowly, slowly, slowly along until it's off: And it's still in one piece! You can see that the truss rod was fully tensioned when the adjuster-end snapped off. Interesting, though, that only one half of the strip is bowed. Sort of defies physics - I've never seen that before but maybe this is why it wasn't doing the business: Should be a pretty straightforward replacement as long as I can get a rod that fits properly.

I've started on the bracing. The blanks I've got are very oversized, so by cutting some off at the line I can end up with a brace which is almost perfectly quarter sawn: Putting it onto the platform, I use a biro sticking through a Gibson selector switch washer to mark out the shape of the top onto the blank. You can chose either Rhythm or Treble depending on whether you want thundering lows or blistering highs.....It also means you can get a pretty much exact contour. Because the top is arched in both directions I mark both sides of the blank. With a spokeshave I then carve down to the line... ... My makeshift 'go-bar deck' is ugly but very effective. I find myself using it all the time either for gluing or just holding stuff down. Here I'm using it for both. The brace get's held in position on top of a piece of sandpaper (150G). You can adjust the go-bars very quickly so they apply just the right amount of pressure so the brace is held in place but you can still slide the sandpaper back and forth to get good fit. Finally the brace can be glued down in the same way. I use West System epoxy. I use the Ken Parker method (as usual). Which is wet the brace, put it onto the top, then remove it so you have an imprint: The idea is to let the epoxy soak into the wood as much as possible. I've got a silicone brush which I use to go back and add more epoxy to any parts that soaked it up. Finally, clamping in the go bar deck. One of the (many) good things about epoxy is that it needs very little clamping pressure, just enough to stop anything moving. Squeeze out I clean up with a cotton bud soaked in acetone. Tomorrow, brace number 2...

🎶 "It's the Time of the Fivers It's the thrill of the Five Rising up to the challenge of our rivals And even Jaco, with a butter knife, couldn't deny That for some, it's the time..... Of the Fivers!" 🎶 (sorry, it's been a long day)

Their website is pretty awful and has been known to show gear that they sold months ago! However, they are good people to deal with, but I wouldn't do so online. I would strongly advise you to give them a ring and have a chat about what you are interested in.

Very chuffed with my second 1st Gen ME recently purchased from Thomann, can't believe it at only £349. It is also much lighter than a Sire in the same price range and the quality on this one is truly excellent, quiet electrics, a nice set up will low buzz free action, great fret work and a beautiful neck. Really happy with my decal job too

I ordered The P bass Looks like October for incoming. Gives me a chance to get rid of a couple I'm not using in the meantime. Will report back.

I use a few different wireless units (for practice, rehearsal and gigs) and the ones that dont come with a clip (LEKATO WS-90 and Smoothound) I came up with a solution that works for me. If you're jumping around the stage then you'll probably need something more substantial. I simply use a hair wrap the strap end is fed through, patch cable and jack to jack socket!

So in swapping out the stock tuners for a set of Gotoh Res-O-Lites, I managed to crack the headstock finish on my brand new Sire bass! My initial plan was to have someone repair it professionally, but in my late-night googling I discovered GluBoost products and decided to repair it myself. I bought GluBoost Fill n' Finish thin and a can of the GluDry accelerant, plus some fine wick tips to apply. Steps were as follows: i) Remove B E and A tuners ii) Remove worst of the cracked poly to try and get as close to a flat finish as I could to minimise sanding. iii) Fill cracks with the Fill n' Finish, spraying the GluDry after each pass. The crack on the edge took one fill, the other needed about three. iv) Wet sand with 800 grit to get the finish flat, then carry on working up through the grits to finish at 12000. v) Buff and polish I do need to get some swirl remover and give it a final buff, but I am really pleased with the results. Yes, you can still see it a bit, but it's sanded flat and overall for £40 and a couple of hours work it's a job well done. Particularly impressed at the total lack of white bloom in the glue. I would recommend these products without hesitation. Before And after

Get some really good earplugs. Get another 212 same as the other one. Stack them tall. Assumes the first cab is 8 ohm. You seem to think it is but worth checking. If it is 4 ohm you are SOL. In case of 4 ohms you could add a powered sub and line out of your fx loop to it and have it return the highpass back to your fx return.

NBD Decided to pull the trigger on this, arrived today. New to Sandberg, wanted a new Fender Jazz to replace a Mexican deluxe a regrettably sold 3 years ago, but heard good things about Sandbergs and having shopped around saw this in sale at Bass direct (Bit of a bargain)

To be fair to G&L, there is a 10 year guarantee on their instruments. They sent me a brand new neck from the US at their expense without even flinching.

As everyone is sick of hearing me say now. Line6 Helix Floor. As my core sounds I'm using the 10 band graphic EQ, Teemah! Distortion and 70s Chorus for one band; and Obsidian 7000 Distortion/EQ, 70s Chorus and Elephant Man Delay for the other. No Amp or Cab models, except where I'm using an amp specifically for the drive sound on a couple of Presets.

Hi All, After a week of waiting I finally received my Ibanez SR655e and I couldn't be more happy! It feels like the body was moulded just for me. As a bonus it also came strung with flats so I get to try flats! Excuse my poor photography it's not my forte

I am well chuffed to have taken delivery of this ACG Graft 4 today.

I adore mine, it nails that beautifully twangy/clicky 60s muted bass sound. If you buy new, factor in a set up with some heavier strings, the factory ones are too light to be effective as bass strings. I don't use it in my current band but it's one of my favourite messing around at home basses. It's just such a fun instrument.

Baby It's Code Outside - Tom Jones & Cerys Matthews

My Bass VI journey started with a Burns SSJ that was good fun. Although I bought it for a studio project where a Glen Campbell type line was required, that song was quickly shelved. It sat in storage for a year until finding new life playing 80s Goth type stuff. Seeing bands like The Cure using them, reignited my interest. I upgraded to The Squier ltd edition purple one and it immediately felt better. The string spacing is obviously different to a regular bass but I approach it as a different instrument. The finish is excellent, the tuners are stable and the frets / hardware all well finished. The one little gripe is that the tremolo very occasionally rattles on the lower notes BUT this doesn’t do that through the amp. I think a lot of people buy these for projects, only to sell them on so there are plenty of second hand bargains to be had with a bit of investigation. Here's my colour coordinated picture I have previously shared (featuring the old boy in the tuxedo suit).

Y,Y,Y, Delilah- Tom the Voice

"Real" is entirely subjective, as is what constitutes a "powerful, low, fat bass sound". I'm a Helix user, but either device should be capable of producing a suitable sound so long as you program with your ears and not with your eyes. Despite having ditched my traditional bass rig for just the Helix going direct into the PA, I very rarely use any amp or cab models. Remember that the important elements of your sound that the amp gives are the EQ section and, if it has valves, the drive sound. The cab is just essentially a LPF. I found that using a good EQ module and a distortion module is far more flexible, as you can mix and match to find a combination that you like, and the two elements are not tied together in a single amp sim. If you do decide to use amp sims don't forget to try all of them - not just the ones that are supposed to be for bass. Remember that many vintage bass amps are simply guitar amps with a different name and occasionally the EQ frequencies adjusted for the lower notes. And unlike the real thing there is no possibility or damaging anything by using the "wrong" amp model. The worst that can happen is that you won't like the sound, in which case you can move on and try another.

Music lessons in my schools (70s-early 80s) were largely a waste of time... There was nothing in primary, just a bit of singing at assembly. And in secondary we had music in years 1-3, 1 lesson a week. They consisted of Mr Bird playing some music (usually Young Person's Guide, or The Planets, or for a contemporary feel (!), Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Yawn). Then folks would say if they liked it or not, though because he wasn't particularly good at discipline this usually meant him shouting above a general cacophony of rude comments. And then we'd do some very rudimentary theory. This theory would be tested at annual exam time. However, they discovered I had private piano lessons after I got 100% in the first exam (my mum's a piano teacher) so from then on I got different exams from everybody else - though this was usually about grade 1 theory when I'd already done grade 5... So music wasn't really a thing for us at school. Though in 6th form, Mr. Q had the bright idea of forming a one-off band to play before a viewing of that banned anti-nuke film (wot I can't remember the name of). I played keys, Cossack played guitar and Mouse played his violin bass - someone rattled a tambourine in the background while we did a couple of BarclaysBankHarvest and Dylan songs. I was so fascinated by Mouse's bass that I took it up when I got to Uni - and strangely it turned out that the Hofner bass belonged to Mouse's brother, our very own @lurksalot!

The filler experiment continues, it does appear that a wood filler works best at the moment. I don't need a lot but PETG is quite difficult to sand down, it's pretty tough. Did a lot of filling yesterday, let it dry overnight and if I find an hour today, I'll have another go. It turns out that PETG fills the sanding disks very quikcly, even though not a lot comes off. Its a funny material. Also been experimenting for the first time with multi colour printing. As my printer is limited to 220 by 200mm (or so), I assumed I would have a pickguard made. The pickguard I wanted is below Currently I have to print this in two pieces, but I wondered if I could print it in two pieces, join it together with a backing plate and sand it down. I then wondered about putting a layer of white in the black. I've never bothered with multicolour printing, but set it up in PrusaSlicer, put a roll of white PETG and ended up with this. Quite pleased as the white line is subtle. It's a sandwich of 1mm black, 1mm white and 1mm black. There's a chamfer around the edge as well. I'm not too concerned about the top as I'll sand that down, spray paint it and then either lacquer it or epoxy resin it. The finish is still to be decided. I'll print the other half of the pickguard during the day and glue them together. A tiny amount of filler along the seam and I suspect that it will be invisible. If this works, then larger multi colour pickguards are an option. Rob

I'd get this setup then buy red leather sofas to match.

Sides are nearly finished. The final kerfing was glued in this afternoon....

I actually find it easier to play a 5-string now. All the notes are right there, 2 octaves within 5 frets, going back to 4 feels a bit like when my dad removed the stabilisers from mi bicycle. I know you won't believe me, just like I would not have believed it myself not that long ago.

I've never bought from them online, but have bought stuff in the shop and they set up and fix all my basses. No help to the OP but they are great guys to deal with in person.

I have recently bought an Ashdown Pro DI pedal to do exactly this. I normally use the RM500 evo2 but with my Police tribute going IEM I feel I can ditch the bass amp and cab I havent actually tried it yet (at a gig) but it sounds good in my practice place, I just need to mount it to a pedal board or maybe just used it as a table top thing (so it doesnt get mucky)

If the TC K212 is an annoying/impractical size I'd be selling it and getting a cab or cabs that work for you. I have various cabs for different needs and my pair of Aguilar DB112 cabs (effectively a modular 2x12) will keep up with the loudest band.

You want more volume than the (theoretical) 300w you are presently getting and another 8 ohm cab will (theoretically) get you 500w but that is only (give or take a few percent) 10% 'louder' than you are presently. More speaker displacement is certainly going to help but it is going to make for a very loud stage environment... should the PA not be doing the heavy lifting? If you must be louder and have more speakers why a 15" cab to go with your 2x12"? If you say for more bottom end you'd need to do some reading around on BC. The ideal solution if you like how it sounds now is to simply add another 212. A suggestion might be to sell the 212 and get a better/more efficient cab, which should be achievable for your £600 (+ sale of TC cab)... but that opens a whole can of worms.

Best one I ever got was as I was wheeling my bass down the road on its Bass Buggy: "Nice phone mate, from the 90s innit".

I have two J's at the moment, a vintage '73 and a 2003 '75 AVRI. They are quite different, the AVRI is natural/maple/black blocks, and the '73 is classic SB/Rosewood/Tort. The AVRI is light, maybe 8 1/2 lbs, the '73 is about 9lbs 2oz. They sound very different, the '73 is mellow and deep, but can get honky on the back pickup if you need it. The AVRI is much more what you would expect a Jazz to sound like, and can get very funky on the back pickup. I've not had a MIJ, but I had a MIM Roadworn. It was nice to play and very light, but I did have to change the loom and the pickups. I have an '87 MIJ P bass which is a very well made instrument, but again, changed loom and pickup. If it were me making the decision for you, and you could only buy one bass, I would be looking for a vintage one but at a reasonable weight. Good luck! Rob

Agree, the drive from Watford to Northampton about an hour, to Banbury look to probably double that.

Which effect were you using on the Stomp? I regularly use Poly Capo to drop a semi-tone or two and it works great, although I’ve not tried it below low E.

Well I decided on a shortscale but couldn't decide between a Mike Kerr and a Mike Watt so recklessly bought both. I'll post how I get on with them. Merchant City Music in Glasgow were brilliant- great service and a decent discount unlike Guitar Guitar who wanted £210 deposit to send me some photos of a Sandberg. It was refundable but completely ridiculous and lost them the sale.

Just a bit of fun full demo coming soon! so happy with the sounds so far!

So, for context, my experience is all from an infamous south London comp (most of the notable alumni on its wiki page are murderers) between 1997 and 2004. I did school music classes (as in the academic subject, not instrument-specific lessons) during my first three years at secondary school. We just had the one teacher during that time, who I'll call Mr Johnson. Looking back, Mr Johnson was a sad, haunting sort of a figure. He had a big bottle-brush moustache, side-parted brown hair and a pinkish face that was always shiny with rage-sweat. I remember being told that he was apparently one of the country's finest players of an instrument that there's absolutely no demand for – like a contrabass Saxhorn or something like that. He'd typically start his lessons by yelling at a volume that sounded genuinely painful. Once everyone had shut up, he'd start working through some rote lesson, interrupting himself at increasingly frequent intervals to do some more red-faced shouting. Eventually, there would come a point in every lesson where he'd completely lose his temper, slam the lid of the classroom piano down and scream "SILENCE!". Then we'd sit for the rest of the lesson in tense, terrifying silence. He'd glower at us; we'd stare at our hands; and the clock would tick away in the corner by the door. Sometimes he reached that tipping point less than 20 minutes into an hour-long period. It was white-knuckle stuff. I dropped music at GCSE, and I think Mr Johnson was encouraged to find a new career about a year later. I believe his last term of teaching was the one where the lid of the piano finally broke, though the actual final straw was when he gave a kid a concussion by repeatedly slamming his head in a door. --- There are two parts to this story though. After Mr Johnson left, he was replaced by an NQT – a guy who had done a teacher-training degree in his early 30s because he was fed up with life as a touring musician and cruise-ship performer. I'll call him Mr Smith. About six months after Mr Smith started, I agreed to record a bass part for a friend who was doing a music GCSE. I'd been playing for less than a year at this point, but this kid didn't know anyone better. I went in after school, set myself up, and we recorded a bunch of takes for a (truly dreadful) song he was working on. Mr Smith was around during this process, and came up to me after the session. He said he thought I sounded really good, and asked if I'd be willing to play on some other projects people were working on in the music department. I explained that I wasn't doing music, and he explained that this didn't matter. I ended up as part of a sort of spotty-teenager wrecking crew that backed singers and played at school events all the way through sixth form. Mr Smith led rehearsals and occasionally filled in on guitar, and also dispensed more musical education in ad-hoc explanations of chord changes or walking basslines than I think I'd gotten in several years of classes. When I started a noisy rock band with some other members of the group, he helped set us up with rehearsal spaces on the school grounds.

Jamming with James Oliver at the Earl Haig open mic yesterday.

I cannot see where it’s based on talent. What you play and how you play it is your preference. Lots of bassists at lots of levels playing lots of different instruments…makes things richer and lots more interesting.

Spend a day each at Bass Direct and The Gallery and try anything and everything that takes your fancy. It's the only way to find out what YOU like.