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Ok so my GK MB112II combo is loud. Weirdly loud for such a small unit. But when I’ve taken it out the house it’s too small to be able to hear it properly as it’s firing along the floor. So I bought an amp stand. Which didn’t work as it was designed for a guitar amp which is shallower. There might be better ones which work better for my amp but I didn’t have time to find one as I needed one for last night. So I bought a £9 bit of wood, 22mm x 144mm by 1800mm and made one. I cut a 90 degree angle in 2 identical length at the same time so each side was identical, then braced it together with various bits of wood until I got bored. I just tried to get the biggest tilt on the amp with the 144mm wood width - no audio science here. The width is determined by the space inbetween the (rather large) amp feet. Glued and screwed together and sanded all over and it was done. So the amp fires at me direct when it’s maybe 2m away approximately, it’s super solid and quite light and easy to pack away with my other gear. I might varnish it, I might not! Anyway, I’ve not seen anyone else with something like this or even seen one for sale (I didn’t really look to be honest I just needed a solution fast!) but it works perfectly and costs so little!! if you need something like this have a go at making it yourself, it’s not hard and doesn’t need any special tools.

Second two of 4 gigs this week for me. Thursday was at my local pub with the acoustic duo. Got there at 7pm to find it full, mainly diners. Plenty of requests, including ‘Man who sold the world’ and ‘Starman’ - they still like Bowie round here! Free drinks for us, so as I walked to the gig I availed myself of a couple of pints, unusual for me. Home before midnight, and another gig arranged there later in the year. Last night I was at Redditch Palace Theatre with The ELO Experience. A small Grade 2 listed theatre with a modern facade but original(ish) auditorium, first opened in 1913. Capacity of 420 so a sell out gig. Great appreciative crowd as always here, most people up on their feet for the second set. Since I sold my GK 1001RB amp last week, I used my GK800RB head and it sounded fine into my GKNeo410. Small very raked stage meant not much room but we managed ok. On to Shrewsbury today for a gig at The Severn Theatre tonight.

Afternoon its been a. While since I did a NBD thread! Been waiting for this for a while as they don’t come up for sale too often Fender AVRI 75 jazz 5 1/2 hr round trip this morning to collect this, well worth it Owned from new by previous owner and looks like it just came out of the factory, all covers included as is the original bridge serial number dates it to 2005 Currently sat in my lounge whilst the trusts settles down Tony

Played at The Pit at McCann's Rock and Ale bar in Newport last night. Really good fun. Good setup with cabs and drum kit provided, so you just need to rock up with heads and breakables. We hit everything a bit too fast, which we haven't done previously. Need to work out a signal to slow it down a bit. I dropped my pick twice as well, which doesn't usually happen, so that was annoying. Still, good fun and people seemed to enjoy it! We played with a death metal band called Cremulation and a another doom band, Damek, who we're hoping we can arrange for them to come to Bristol at some point. This was the setup. We're Hora, and the gear I used was my Dingwall into my GX-100 and then my ABM-600.

People are quick to moan, but I also like to be quick to praise where it is due. All sorts of grief with the DHL (Damage Handling Loons) over the delivery of my new Fender Precision after a phone dall from DHL to tell me theyd damaged it. George at Andertons was cool, told me not to worry, they'd sort out any damage. Just get it delivered then make an assessment and let him know immediately and he'd sort it. Fortunately the hard case and bass within were fine, it was just the packaging that DHL had mullered. I phoned George back to advise the bass had arrived undamaged, and thanked him for his reassurance. I mentioned that G had been cut a little short and as I tried to tune it beyond F it just slipped round the capstan. Well, not 20 hours a later a full set of spanking new Fender 45's drop through my letter box, fortunately delivered by a different company who didn't manage to drive a forklift over it. I'd have been happy with the one string, but a new set was a very pleasant surprise. Even better as I actually quite like Fender rounds. So top marks to Andertons. Reassuring on the phone, poised and ready to help refund/replace if the bass or case had arrived damaged, and super generous with the strings when I only needed the one. Well done. If anyone from Anderton's is reading this, thank you. You'll be top of the list next time I get a tax rebate that the missus doesn't know about and I go bass shopping.

So, yesterday, this arrived. Before we get to the photo, if anyone doesn't like pointy things, leave. There is nothing here for you but pain. I ordered this in 2021. How has it taken so long you ask? There was a thing called covid if I recall. Also, there were also hilarious parts problems on backorder for ages. Enough of that nonsense. What is it and where is it made then? Grainger basses and guitars are up near Peterborough, and around the time of one of the lockdowns they posted a bass in this shape that had a mad blue acrylic top. The cogs started turning. So, my idea was to have this wired like an Alembic Series 1 bass and it is. After chatting to Nuno at Lusithand about it I bought some filters off him (his stuff is great by the way - check out his site) with the caveat that it might not work. Undeterred, I sought the advice of the basschat massive and many thanks to @Hellzero who provided the Jack wiring diagram. Basically, the bass can be used stereo or mono with different jacks (like a Rickenbacker), but it's active with a filter and volume for each pickup also a pickup selector. So there's 2 jack outputs. I also got Darren and Gavin to make the bass modelling the neck on my own Alembics. They've done that amazingly precisely. Top and back is flame maple, body is walnut with headstock facings and neck strings. There is a touch of neck dive, but I've not used a wide strap yet. The bass is quite light as the upper wing is chambered. Naturally, I've got a hipshot on it for drop D and there's a brass Warwick Just a Nut too. Bridge is Babicz mono rails to accommodate the narrower spacing. Inlays are mother of pearl. Pickups are Nordstrand Zen Blades wired in parallel to keep as much top end as possible. The reason being is that Lusithand Filters go to 4kHz give or take, whereas Alembics go to 6.6kHz. So, does it sound like an Alembic? In a word, yes. If you want that John Entwistle 1982 Who bass sound, you'll get it. Or if you want a great clean sound it'll do that too. Darren, Gavin and Nuno were fantastic throughout this especially when there were wiring issues we had to resolve. If you're looking for a custom bass made by a British company (or anyone actually), then Grainger do really exceptional work. Also, Nuno at Lusithand makes really good preamps and pedals which are well worth checking out.

Hooray, another Brooks bass is born! The Brooks FV-12 - Korina body wings - Bookmatched Quilted Maple top - Nine ply Korina/Mahogany Neck through - Cherry Burst high gloss finish - Pearloid binding - Ebony fretboard - Mother of Pearl position dots. Aluminium Circle dot for 12th - Jumbo frets - 30 1/2" scale - Buffalo horn nut - ETS Custom made twelve string brass bridge and tailpiece. Black - Two spokewheel double action trussrods - Carbon reinforcement strip in the neck - Pickups: Lace Alumitone DB7, Black - Controls : volume, volume, tone - 0.047mfd capacitor - Gotoh GB 350 lightweight bass tuners, Black - Gotoh ST-31 octave string tuners, Black - Output: Pure Tone Multi Contact jack - d'Addario custom strings - Weight: 4.3 kg In posts below I'll show pics of the build process.

Completed a week of Me and My Girl at the Swan Theatre in Worcester for the ever excellent WODs. Properly old school show, which included the running time, full 3 hours with the interval and long sections of dialogue so concentration after the day job wasn’t always easy. This coupled with the fact the chart pretty looked the same for every song, every conceivable root fifth octave it felt like in every key. Love playing with the band though, great players and camaraderie, will be back for the youth show in August which is Addams Family. Obligatory gear shot- G&L LB100 with chrome flats and nordymute, little mark tube and db 110 cab, one trip to the car!

Bongos. They look like an overdone, gaudy, tasteless, ostentatious 80s sports car designed by an LSD-fuelled lunatic in the grip of a psychotic episode, available only in a range of hideous, eye-scorching colours that scream of 'Dante meets Bosch in a crack lounge'. Horrendous looking things. I'd absolutely love one.

“This 1-owner bass came to us via the cousin of its original owner… He played the bass locally in bands until the early 80s when he sadly passed away. Since then the bass has remained in its case with his cousin.“ Blimey, how big’s the case?! Or how big’s the cousin?!

That's just the sort of economic argument I fall for.... I can buy these and say I've saved £8k.

Have now sanded, primed, filled, primed, felled again, sanded again and readied the pickguard. about to paint it in satin black. Wish me luck <gulp>

I’ve played in a lot of 3 piece bands over the last 35 years. Expanding on my Jack Bruce comment… there is loads that can be done in the spirit of the original arrangement. Still follow the chord charges as before but do different things with it. So if the original just has pounding root notes you could keep the root on Beats 1 and 3 but play octaves for 2 and 4. Or Back it off and only play on 1 and 3 to leave space and give more room to build. Then in bar 3 go back to playing all the notes. Depending on the song, behind a solo that builds up as it goes I’m a big fan of simplifying the original bass line for the first 2 or 4 bars, then getting back to where it was, then adding octaves, and then going to a walking bass part with octave shifts, like Jack Bruce did with Cream. It’s important to approach it still as a bass line where the rhythm is the vital element. So jumping up the neck is not a solo, it’s just a higher bass line. If the guitar solo is high don’t be scared of playing the normal bass part up an octave for some of it. The kick drums are still pounding the low end so let the bass move up as the guitar does. Repeating a bar in a higher octave works really well too. So if you are pounding the crotchets with AAGGF#F#EE in bar one, then in bar 2 play it identically but an octave up in bar 2, then down again in 3, and then up an octave BUT also change something in bar 4. If it fits playing it in reverse keeps the structure for the rhythm but also makes it more interesting to the listener. JS Bach wrote the best bass parts in history. Like mini tunes under the melody that elevated the main tune to greatness. I swear Jack Bruce must have listened to his stuff! Tone. Something I’ve discovered over the years is that a mid heavy tone, like a P bass instead of a J tends to work better. Theres a fatness that helps fill the tone out automatically. I’ve got a massive collection of 3 piece live albums and the P bass or PJ seems to rule above all. Theres a lot of flatwound use too, if the player is a pick user. John Deacon’s tone is amazing for it. Have a quick listen to the live version of One Vision live at Wembley. Theres a YT version that only shows JD’s cameras. It’s so fat! P with flats and a pick is the basic bit, but pay attention when the rest of the band have backed off a lot… the tone is actually a bit unpleasant. It’s very mid heavy and has farty drive going on. None of that ice pick Darkglass tone, it’s a wide frequency fartiness that sounds horrible on its own and fantastic in the mix. It’s quite similar to the old Cream live album in that respect. I use a Catalinbread SFT pedal to get that farty drive. I never use it in the house when playing alone as it sounds horrible! 😂 But even just with drums and nothing else, something magical happens and I can’t hear fart, I can only hear fatness and harmonic richness. A different approach is the dUg / Entwhistle / Sheehan split tone, mixing clean and dirt. It can sound great, but it’s also really easy to make it sound like ar$e. The issue is getting the clean portion of the tone to decay at the same rate as the driven part, and that means dialling in compression on the clean to match the natural compression of the drive. Overall though, build the band tone from the bottom. Drums first, then bass, then guitar. Then it will still sound full when the guitar is soloing. If the entire tone is built on the guitar and everything else has fit round it, then the band tone loses all weight during solos. But despite all this… enjoy the space of a 3 piece! A wall of noise gets tiring for an audience. So many bands these days seem to ignore dynamics. Have quiet bits, loud bits, thick bits, thin bits etc etc. The average punter will notice that sort of variation far quicker than anything else and it will keep them interested. Otis Day and the Knights had it right….” A little bit softer now, a little bit softer now…… a little bit louder now….” Anyway, I hope that helps a bit!

The only problem with Andertons is they keep a list of all the things you've bought over the years... I'm terrified the wife may find it one day...

Nice bass but that price is eye-watering! Someone could've got these two and still have nearly £8,000 left over :-

When you start a thread with "not feeling it" with IEM's then all those people who don't like them will jump in, and that's what happened. A lot of the comments here I would attribute to poorly fitting IEM's or ones where the sound in their ears hasn't been sorted properly. @Al Krow asked if there is a 'halfway house' the answer is no, if your in ears fit properly they should cut the outside sound to almost inaudible. The whole point is to cut out all the distorted unbalanced sound mess you get on stage and only hear a studio quality mix in you ears. If you can't get isolation or a good mix you aren't doing it properly and you won't like it. People can and do use in-ears half in and half out so they can hear the on-stage sound but that just increases the sound level and the in-ear sound from the buds is nasty and tinny because they aren't sealed. We've even had people who only put them in one ear. Honestly can you remember seeing a major touring band who don't use in-ears. Do you think every single band are just going through the motions or are 'just not feeling it' when they are closing the main stage at Glastonbury (other large events are available) All the excitement coming from the crowd is still there, all the excitement of playing your music and seeing the response still happens, you are still doing the thing that makes all those people have a great time. I'm not pretending there are no down sides to in ears, it takes time to get used to them. Longer for some than others. It takes as much effort to set up properly as any new skill, you have to put in the miles. If you go wired then you are tethered. It starts feeling very different and 'wrong' but ends up being a new normal. On the plus side you won't lose your hearing, your band will sound better, you will play better, your audiences will have a better time. I don't want to invalidate anyone's personal experience, we all like loud sounds, plugging our first bass amp in and turning it up to maximum is a great experience and it is exciting and adrenaline pumping but going out night after night without hearing protection is going to damage your hearing, limit your experience of music and in the end give you a sense of isolation from friends and family and ultimately life as you hearing fades and the tinnitus rises. Choose wisely.

You cant be serious. Love Sexy,, Diamonds and Pearls, The Gold Experience were great albums. and his live music was just.... He can be hit and miss but so are our ears as listeners. The guy didnt have to have chart toppers to be probably the best musician of all time. Putting lyrics like "We can stroll the mezzanine, buy some dirty magazines" then talk about eating ice cream. I just think thats so clever. A guy that played 27 instruments should have every musician in the worlds respect. Im never usually a fanboy of anyone but when it comes to Prince. Well its Prince.

For Record Store Day today me and my son Joe went to Casbah Records in Greenwich, it was opening at 9am, we got there at 8:50 and there was quite a queue (see pics), got into the shop at about 10:30 and luckily got what I wanted, a copy of Ian Hunter's new album "DEFIANCE PART 2 - FICTION". It was a tad chilly in London this morning and I was glad to get back home !! 🥶😂 Anyone else buy anything for this years RSD ? 😃 John

This iteration of The Pretenders really did it for me. The whole of the first album hit the spot in all sorts of ways.

I promise you they can.

Harley Benton power board (fully isolated multi volt PSU built in). Top row are always on, the three on the top left are my drive pedals controlled by the Joyo LS-2 clone. Parametric and compressor feeding big fat round bass to one channel and the Thruster sending filth to the other, they're blended and switched on and off by the Orthos. The rest just run right to left as you see them.

Not sure what he might say. I could probably ask him. Here's a pic from a few years ago, that's me at the back on the left sitting on the vintage Marshall playing a few licks on his '59 Les Paul "Carmelita", and Joe B himself playing rhythm for me on a '58 Les Paul previously owned by Mick Ralphs of Bad Company. Rob

The drummer controls *everything*. If he can’t, it’s time to get one who can.

Alternatively, seeing as my 61P was sold, you could just buy the Pino and have more than £18k left over. You've just saved another £10k! I should add that my advice isn't underwritten by the FSA.

Here's the inevitable video demo 😉 I injured my left hand a few weeks ago, so my playing is a bit sloppy. I just don't have enough strength in my fingers yet. But the video does give a good enough idea how the FV-12 sounds. 😉

Now was the time to make a decision about the "armpit" in the body. On my previous (long scale) Flying V Bass builds I had used and extra part in the armpit to allow the bridge to be as far back as possible. This would keep the original V shape visually in tact. And my original plan for this bass was to do exactly the same. I was going to use 24 ferrules for the 12 string through body attachment. I figured since it is a short scale bass it was not really a problem to have the bridge a bit away from the edge. And I had my doubts about the strength of the wood with all the holes that would have to be drilled quite close to each other. With all the string pull it might snap a chunk off? And the binding would ba a quite complex affair. One part would have to follow the original V shape and the other would have to follow the black part. So after some restless nights I decided not to used the extra part. I routed the binding channel (sorry no pics) and glued the pearloid binding in https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/brooks-fv-12-qm-binding-glued-in_orig.jpeg Drilled the output hole for the Telecaster style cup And holes for the potentiometers Holes for the bridge screws Time to stain the bass! First I did a yellow stain all over. I really like the korina with the yellow stain. But my customer wanted a mahogany colour for the back and sides. Then took to the burst. I used a light red stain for the trabsition to yellow. Plus a darker red stain for the outline. After a few layers of clear lacquer:

The beautiful set of bookmatched quilted maple that I found at Holz Faszination was ready to be glued onto the body. Then routed along the mdf template to give it the body shape Looks like a Flying V already! Shaped the heel area. Routed the controls cavity form the back Routed the pickup cavities Not the neatest routing job I've ever done. But I was going to use pickup rings so I didn't mind that much. Wetted the top with a damp rag to make the quilt pop.

Had a similar DHL fiasco about two years ago. I bought a P Bass via Andertons, ordered on a Satuday morning, delivery Monday, everything to do with Andertons went smoothly, eg order and delivery confirmation etc. Monday comes....Nothing! Phoned Andertons, they confimed it had left via DHL, phoned DHL, "oh sorry we tried to deliver, but there was nobody in", "Lies said I, I've been waiting in, no one has been here." "Oh", she said, "Let me check the system, ah it's in our delivery centre in Exeter, it will definitely be with you on Wednesday." Wednesday comes... Nowt! Rang them again, to be told that they'd sent it back to Andertons. Phoned them, told them not to resend via DHL as they were useless IIRC, it ended up delivered by DPD.

I have advised Andertons that in the event of my death they must not let my wife sell my basses for what I told her id paid for them.

We bought a Piano from Andertons that got cosmetically damaged in transit. They were 110% helpful getting a replacement to us, and getting the damaged one back to them - a logistical challenge for an item that was 120kgs + Real humans that care about their customers

Can you buy 2 shares 🤔

We own our own sound and lights which includes two haze machines. One for each side of the stage. It looks great, however most of our big stage gigs provide professional sound and lights. For smaller gigs our lighting and sound would be overkill. The pic is from a " tent gig". One of the few gigs where we used our full arsenal of sound & lights. Daryl

Venue specific, but I’m also prone to wander around and amongst the crowd as well!

As I come from Paisley maybe I should buy it and keep it in the town, maybe play it in The Old Swan next month? Only one snag, I`m £21,000 short!

If anyone else wants one I can make another, just message me and I’ll see what I can do. It’d be a fun project. Material cost/bit of money for my time/postage would be the cost. Wouldn’t be much though. .

Next I shifted my attention to the neck blank. Starting with the slot for the carbon reinforcement strip. And then the two slots for the trussrods on either side of the carbon strip. They follow the taper of the neck. Made the truss rod access slot and cover. The body would get a 7mm thick bookmatched top of quilted maple. So I had to take away 7 mm thickness on that part of the neckblank. And it need to have a neck/body pitch in order to get the right action at the bridge. So I made a jig for my handheld router. Place the neck blank under an angle and routed away the desired depth. Here's the routed part. Still had to chisel away the parts next to the fretboard. But first I glued the fretboard on. Used a staple tacker and cut off just above the blank to prevent the fretboard from "swimming" away during the clamping. Then glued it on. Using rubber strip (of bicycle tubes) to get an even pressure Chiseled away the parts next to the fretboard.

My wood supplier made the neck blank for me. It's a nine ply korina with mahogany strips in between I had some triangular pieces of korina in my shop that could be used for the body wings On most builds I start with the fretboard. And in this particular case the 12th inlay. I sawed off a ring off an aluminum tube. Drilled the holes for all the inlays. In this pic you see the 12th position hole Glued the mother of pearl dots in. And also the ring for the 12th position. On the inside of the ring I used a black position dot marker (not very well visible in this pic, sorry) Sanded the inlays flush with the fretbaord using a 16" radius beam Taped off the fretboard to prevent superglue splattering all over the board while I hammered the frets in. After hammering each fret in I used the fretpress to make sure they were seated well.

If I ever get a boat I'm naming it "Unsinkable II".

Alternatively, just get a Zoom MS-60B (not a Plus) and set it up to cycle between patches. Use the Tonelib Zoom editor to set up the patches.

Haven't played with a 5-piece since 2010 except for one dep gig with them in 2016, just consulted photos and I was second row on the drummer's right, one side or the other of the rhythm guitarist. Although now my smart-alec answer would be "I don't, I sit down".