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My birthday and Christmas fall within three days of each other and I was gifted this Retrovibe by the fam as a joint present for both events after me seeing it in Bolton and commenting on it to Mrs ead (not by any means as a hint; as a few of you know I'm selling my basses these days due to arthritis). Having been in touch with David it seems it was one of 8 made in this colour around 10 years ago. Absolutely immaculate although the pickups are apparently not the original fit items, so I will probs restore the right ones if I can find some. Interestingly it's a 33.25" scale and has the push pull on the bridge tome control.

Please add a ‘w’ to Newtownards - I’m from Northern Ireland, not Scotland…;-)

I had this on an Alpher bass:

That reminds me, I bought a TE Elf head a while ago to take to gigs as a backup to my Ashdown ABM, but I haven’t seen it for some time. I must try to remember where I put it. Younger me would never have believed that it would be possible to lose a gigable bass head.

Excellent Len, but please take that 'e' out of 'whisky' - it's from Skye, not Newtonards.

Here is mine ... Eberhard meinel ❤️

The Strat is a lovely guitar, it's a MIJ 87 which appears to be a 62 reissue, thee bolt head etc. I'm not that up on these things TBH but it's lovely to play, has EMG active pickups, the vibrato is locked with a block of wood and at one time in its life was routed for a humbucker at the bridge. Im trying to write songs, so I use the Strat, my 3d printed headless bass and a macbook. It's hard work but it's very different to my day job so it's a good way to unwind.

I’ve used many US, Mexican and Japanese Ps, Js and Stingrays over the years for gigging. I’ve found that if they sound good at home they don’t always work well in the band. I’ve struggled with Js in bands as the scooped sound with both pickups full, which is my favourite setting, often gets a bit lost. I end up going with more neck pickup which is more of a P bass sound but not quite as the pickup position is nearer the neck than on a P. I’m never fully happy with Stingrays. The three bands can sound a bit honky with too much mid. Two bands are better IMHO as long as bass and treble are only slightly boosted. I have one with a J pickup in the P position as well as the humbucker and I often prefer that. All the Ps I’ve had sound pretty similar. I’ve swapped pickups a couple of times but the difference is subtle. Strings make a bigger difference. I now prefer flats. I like the modern 1.65in wide 9.5in radius necks. Wider necks are ok but I find them less comfortable. I recently rediscovered my Mexican Player P which has flats and a Lindy Fralin pickup. After many rehearsals with a Stingray the guitarist said “now that sounds like a bass” when I played the P. I was a bit taken aback because I love the Stingrsy but he was right. It filled out the sound in all the right places. The secret is using the tone knob to focus the sound or make it fuller and warmer. I even found it sounded great for slap. With flats! Usually I use a J with steel roundwounds for slap. I love only having two dials to fiddle with. Volume is always on full. Tone ether full, 90% or 50%. Simples! And it just sits well in the band mix effortlessly. I guess this is why so many bassists use a P.

It's that time of year again, the time to watch this fantastic piece of nostalgia. https://youtu.be/rizRsvBluAA?si=XiqUs8EC6-aLKCpr Edit, well that all went wrong. Accidentally posted the version of Chas & Dave's Christmas Knees Up with the horrible Jim Davidson, tried editing to the version without but it won't let me embed it. Apologies for any of offence caused. I'll try again later.

oops, sorry. I’ve already started on it, obviously…..

When the Cort Space 5 came out, they were £50 cheaper than anywhere else.

As regards V/B/T, I thought I should post a version of the wiring diagram that I worked from: This may be clearer: In this, the opposite ends of both tracks are cross-connected, rather than leaving one end floating as in the diagram in the OP.

A new folding music stand. For practising, definitely not performing 😂 A nice plaid shirt, which will appear on stage with me some time soon. A bottle of Talisker malt whisky for inspiration.

Well done Skank, IBTL!!

It was Peach Guitars in Colchester. Not a dedicated bass store obviously, but a good selection and great staff.

I've done quite a few high level amateur theatre productions. The exact arrangements have varied from show to show, but the most common setup is that the MD is positioned so that they can see the stage and see what's going on. The cast can also obviously see the MD too, and there's usually also a large TV screen somewhere visible from the stage so that everyone on stage can easily see the MD. The band normally have in ears, and each person gets a mini mixer so they can configure their own mix as they want. The MD normally has a talkback mic so that they can let the band know when the cue is coming up. In general, the tunes are played as written, but there will often be vamp sections which are open repeats to cover stuff happening on stage which might take longer than expected. These are agreed with the band during the band call/dress rehearsal. Sometimes there's click tracks too - if stuff goes wrong while there's a click track happening things can get... interesting!

Played one on Sunday with a mate as a duo, me on acoustic, him on his Tele. We did Sonnet (the Verve), Jean Genie (me and him used to be in a Bowie tribute band) and Sit Down by James as a tribute to a close friend who died recently and someone we had done numerous gigs with. It was his favourite song. The whole pub joined in and most of us had tears in our eyes at the end. Hopefully a fitting tribute to a remarkable man. RIP Brian Lund

Sorry to hear so many people have been having a hard time. Take the time you need to be kind to yourselves and work through it. Not a vintage year here either tbh. My brother was diagnosed with stage 4 sarcoma, my mother in law had two strokes and most recently pneumonia. As already said, these are tough times when you’ve got relatives in the later part of their lives and trying to cope with the complexities of that. As others here have said, help is available if you need it. A lot of places offer low-cost or “pay what you can” counselling services, and organisations like Andy’s Man Club offer a supportive place to talk without the expectations of formal counselling sessions. Take care of yourselves and here’s to better times ahead.

Only thing music related was a DVD of the Bob Marley film One Love. Which is excellent btw.

I mentioned earlier today I had 'another idea' - I've implemented it, and it works! When thinking about what didn't work for me about the stacked-knob setup, the main issue was the tone pot taper, where there was little effect until the bottom quarter turn of the pot. I removed the extra 56nF caps and added a 510k resistor between the wiper and the 'hot' lug of each tone pot, thereby converting the existing 500k tone pots to 250k with a somewhat different taper. The tone pots behave much better! Curent plan is to to stick with this, but also acquire a 3-control plate and build it as Vol/Switch/Tone or Vol/Blend/Tone. Watch this space...

I got a new wallet. Which will never have any money in it as long as I play bass. There. That’s bass related.

My J type has Delano pickups, which are actually split coils in a single coil casing. These are wired to a VBT config. I can achieve 5 tonal settings from this, not including the tone control (.100uf) roll off: if 6 o’clock is typical 50:50 blend, 5 and 7 o’clock give either a more neck or bridge flavour of the mid position, whereas anything beyond those points is either all neck or bridge.

Well spotted! The bass came without the correct 6-32 intonation screw (actually a bolt). The original would be 1 7/16in (39mm) long. I sourced some 2in bolts and cut one a bit longer, as I suspected the original had been lost because it didn’t adequately engage with the bridge saddle. This topic is crying out for a PhD thesis!

I got a strap with pictures of Fred and Sybil on it ❤️

This '77 beastie dropped down the chimney.

It forces a rush of compressed air into the tone wood molecules and makes them vibrate more quickly. As a result the bass resonates faster, making the sound sweeter, generates a more purposeful tone, and thusly the player becomes faster, with improved technique and accuracy, and becomes more God-like. 🤣 You did ask. Happy Christmas one and all!

Santa brought me some Pino Palladino Signature Smoothie Flats, I might have to buy another bass now to put them on 😁

I'd be tempted to (as above) fill the chips with something clear, lightly key the current finish and spray with translucent black nitro. You'd still see the grain and save yourself a lot of time and swears. Easy to diy, just wait for the temperature outside to pick up again.

VVT with a turbo switch.

Just got mine too, waited 4 months which by all accounts is actually good … how do you find the Voicing switch, I can’t really hear any real difference between all three clicks can you?

Lovely basses. I’ve got a 4 and a 5 but selling the latter as two of the same is a bit silly 🤪

Dear agedhorse, Dan, tauzero and nekomatic, Thanks for your responses. This is what happend so far: I rang the Eich-office. This is what they told me: A few years ago, Neutrik has changed the design of some of their connectors/plugs and therefor the problems that I'm having in my cabs, are somewhat well known to Eich (and they are really pissed about this!). Therefor Eich offered to send me complete new back plates of the cabs (for free!) so that these bad connections belong to the past (for me). I find that very generous of Eich. As soon as I have changed the plates, I will notify you all on the outcome. For now; thanks for your involvement!

Too complicated for me

I had an Ampeg SVT 3Pro and found it to be a good amp and the power was there if you pushed it Replaced it with an SVT CL 300w and felt I had everything I needed but I was young and lifting it wasn’t an issue I used a 610 cab and this helped ! Again a heavy beast but lots of speakers and everyone could hear it !

Probably too late to this party but I've just read this and.... I had an SVT3-Pro for over ten years and it's deafening flat out. Here's what you need to know:- Preamp is there for your drive and tone. Want more tube distortion? Up the gain. Put a RAT up front or a muff. The peak just means it's driving the valves into the region they aren't linear anymore. They can take it, they max out in a subtle and coloured way and then give that nice valve breakup sound, which is why you bought a tube amp in the first place. Try messing with it and see what it does. The ampeg is a tank. You won't break it. Otherwise get something with transistors and no variation of sound. Set right you can flip between clean and distorted just by how hard you play. I nearly always had the gain set around 60-80%, even with an active bass. Always have it set so at your hardest playing the peak light is at least flashing in and out. I've played Buck Rogers by Feeder without any drive pedal and got a pretty good approximation of Taka's quiet subtle clean and utterly ripped. Set all the tone to 12 O'Clock. EQ FLAT. Always start from there. use the mid control if you need some mid scoop, but keep it subtle. Bass is, well bass-y. don't crank up the bass for volume; it will sound like elephants farting in a large hall 300 yards away. Flubby and muddy. Set to taste and sound, NOT for volume. Everything should average out around 12 o'Clock and zero dB, not all slammed fully one way or another. You can use the DI out to get a better idea of the actual preamp out sound, so stick it into an interface and check it sounds ok on some monitors. FX Loop - stick your modulations here; we all like some flange, chorus or vibrato occasionally. Try to make it so they don't change the overall volume from off to on. Output Section - tube gain is a voltage sag adjustment. lowering it reduces the transformer voltage supplied to the power stage tubes, meaning they saturate more quickly. This gives a warm and glowing colouration and limiting. Think Sister Sledge or The Pointer SIsters, or maybe Bootsy Collins. Turn it to max and the two valves in the power amp section stay linear and and don't saturate (yes there are valves in the hybrid power amp stage). It's in the tech material somewhere. Turn down the Tube gain to act as a soft limiter.. around 50-70% is great for all those soul and disco bass lines. Fully up for clean dry modern power, like a trace. The Graphic should have the frequency sliders set around the middle (0dB) on average too if that wasn't clear. Can't remember if the graphic has a volume slider but put it full up if it does. Oh and master volume - start with it about 30% up. If you do the above first then you will be able to set the tone. Use the master volume for what its' meant for. I rarely had master volume above 50% in a rock band. There are four mosfets in there doing the heavy lifting, solid state buttons of loudness. If you get bad hiss or have them anywhere near flat out you've not set the preamp correctly, you are just amplifying the noise floor of the preamp. Really hope that helps. It really helps if you find out what each part of your signal chain actually does, and is there for. Gain staging is everything. BTW I had the SVT3 Pro, and ampeg 4x10 HF + 1 x 15, Run in Parallel for 4ohms. tbh the 4 x 10 was enough by it's own in most cases. My basses at the time were a charvel 3B '86 through neck, a Cort C4 Limited for the funky stuff and a Sandberg VM4 (music man sound alike, better build quality :))

Thanks to everyone who n replied with helpful advice. We did get an RCF Evox in the end, and it's been a huge success.

If your drummer has a genuinely professional attitude they will see their role as creating an enjoyable experience for the audience and adjust to the situation accordingly. The best drummers will do this. It's a hard night for the sound engineer and audience alike when musicians bring their stadium rock to the local pub.

This stack looks monstrous - that being said I wonder if this is being played in your soundproofed basement or you are lucky enough to: - have deaf neighbours or - live in detached house away from society. 😁

That being the case you don't need the subwoofer bottom cab of a Bose clone, even as meager as it is. You do need two speakers, for even coverage. Size being the issue a pair of powered 8" or 10" loaded mains will do, and you'll get a lot more value for the money with those than with mini line arrays, which tend to be terribly over priced. Another advantage is you can use them with your existing sub when the need arises, and add them to your regular system for outdoor gigs.