bassist_lewis

I have a 30" scale Serek Midwestern 5 and the low B is great, possibly the best I've had, and I've owned 34 and 35" basses. Before I got ym first short scale 5er (Callowhill) I did a LOT of research into scale length and the effect it has on the quality of a low B. The bottom line is that scale length is only one of several factors that contribute to a great sounding B string. The overall construction of the bass - neck material/dimensions, how it's built (1/2/3/5 piece etc), the quality of the neck joint and even just the properties of the piece(s) of wood used - all have an impact on the sound. I believe Jake Serek gets two bits of flat sawn wood and glues them together in such a way as to create the same effect and stability of quarter sawn. In the past Alan at ACG has used carbon inserts to add stiffness to his short scale 5er necks. The string you use will also make a difference, but there don't seem to be hard and fast rules as to what strings work best, though a lot of players are finding that a lower gauge is (counter-intuitively) better. Electronics have some impact, but they will just enhance what is already there. They won't compensate for a bad B. What I did find interesting was a story from Spencer Lull (I think) of Mike Lull bass/guitars on a the SBL podcast (somewhere on YT). They once built a 34" scale 5 string bass and the B was awful. No one understood exactly why, but it wasn't good enough to sell, so they just rebuilt it (poor buyer was made to wait!). My takeaway is that every builder has their methods of getting a good B, regardless of what scale length they work with, but even then there's an element of chance/magic/je ne sais quoi when it comes to getting a great B. Hope that helps!

They don't fit otherwise!

As we're doing shelves now

What are those along the top??? I'll be uploading my shelf pic imminently

Love me a Jive, and the new paint work (have to resist buying every time I see one)

Mightn't we say it is very obvious when it's in your signal chain and leave it at that 😂

How do you find the MBD? I was eyeing the one on Joe's Pedals

This is probably my favourite documentary ever. I'm a moderate Metallica fan (I prefer they early work), but I find the story told in this film fascinating. I don't agree with the OP that all they needed was another bass player; they got another bass player immediately after Cliff died and the mess we see is what resulted! To me, Lars and James are what you get when you have massive success very early in life: you believe your own b***s*** and can't see anything you do as wrong. They're fighting like 18 year old kids because they've never had to learn how to work with other people, and it seems James had A LOT of "stuff" he should have been working through rather than drinking and abandoning his family to go shoot bears in Russia. Kirk comes across as surprisingly reasonable the whole time, trying to bridge the gap between Lars and James and make the band work, as does Bob Rock. To me the therapist gives them a lot of tools for communicating with each other. You can very clearly track how their language changes across the film: they're asking if they want to 'go deeper' on something rather than getting into a fight, and Lars even concedes his love of the name Frantic when others disagree with him. I also love the therapist's jumpers, they are absurd. All the rich person stuff is hilarious to me. James driving his ridiculous Goth car in a knock off Wehrmacht helmet; Lars clearly being forced by his wife to sell his Basquiat painting(s) for millions of dollars; having drivers; Kirk with his California ranch and subscription to Rich Guy Magazine.

I've never used a switcher with it, but that's because I've only ever had 2 sounds I needed for one band. Leaning down to flick the switch looks a bit dumb I guess but its only two songs.

In my early 20s, before I was gigging professionally, I practiced 2-3 hours 5 or 6 days a week. At that time I would definitely feel the need to play, on reflection I think because I was worried I wouldn't make the progress I felt I needed to make to work as a musician. Then in my mid to late 20s I was gigging 2-4 nights a week or more, and I pretty much stopped practicing unless it was to learn songs for a gig. At that point I was glad to be away from the instrument that was my job. Now I'm a secondary teacher and I've been reducing the number of gigs I do a year (mostly weddings, though trying to transition to more original or interesting covers). I definitely have a feeling of withdrawal from the gigging more than the instrument itself, more out of habit as I spent 3 or 4 years gigging several times a week. My girlfriend tells me a get real weird when I don't have a gig on a Saturday night! I aim to practice or learn a song I wouldn't otherwise have to learn a few nights a week but life is tiring and busy. I haven't touched the bass at all this week (though I might take it to the jam later).

You are... but so am i... I tend to put it in the case as I would use it i.e. the case lid is opened away from me and the pedalboard is orientated as it would be when in use (top of the pedals are to the bottom of the bag). That way when I open it I can put it in position without rotating it. It does mean I'm carrying them upside down though... and that feels off...

Best purchase: Iron Ether Xerography Deluxe. Easily competes with my Moog Low Pass Filter and takes up a quarter of the real estate. Worst: harder to answer as nothing was expressly bad, but the Origin DCX Bass wasn't quite what I thought it would be. I also bought a Sandberg Florence, which is very cool and well made, but I'm just not finding the opportunities to use it.

That's my friend Mikey playing sax, he's an amazing player and a lovely guy to boot. They've been going for like 10 years so its about time they were getting some love outside of Glasgow. And I replaced their bass player (Ollie) in his old band 😅 My fave new music this year is probably GoGo Penguin, great trio jazz that is listenable and innovative at the same time.

The JMJ is 40 or 41mm at the nut.

The Boss CE-2B uses the same BBD circuit and clock driver as the CE-2. They're discontinued but they're not ridiculously expensive, around £130 on Reverb.

Welp, I got another board. For the last year or so I've been using a Schmidt Array 350XDM as my main board, and though it looks very cool and everyone drools over it, its VERY heavy, and I'm hardly using the potential of the Atom, even with my electronically inspired jazz trio. So I'm testing out a pedal train Classic JR. The aim is a reasonable size and weight to allow for the optimum number of pedals to cover all bases, plus some wiggle room size-wise (considered a metro 24 but it wouldn't have allowed for any shuffling). I think this will cover any wedding gig, plus my original stuff, and there's room on the lower half to add a 4th pedal (provided it has top mount jacks), or swap out the C4 for something else as required.

To be a pedant, I'd argue the tracking is best on the OG big footprint Octabvre mki 😱

It the same kind of BS around model trains or whiskey or Star Wars memorabilia or cans of Monster or stamps or Warhammer 40k. People like collecting stuff and the market will decide what it's worth. I alluded to it in a previous post, but I kinda get him getting as much out of his customers as he can. The US sounds like a pretty hellish place to be anything other than very well off. He's hardly the only person making great pedals. Celebrity Pedals makes a Taylor Swift themed octave called the Taylor Shift. That's a winner in my book.

Sweet board! Love the old school Octabvre mini. It was probably the Jive or the Cali76 running at 18v. Anything else would've been burnt out!

Spencer just posted 7+ paragraphs addressing the auctions, scalpers and the pricing. He makes some fair points about the pedal market and the manufacturing industry.