Matt P

i think i would be looking more towards secondhand but most of the brands listed so far are pretty good, i've played loads of budget guitars over the years while helping friends buy their first guitar. Vintage - not played a bad one yet, Yamaha - i would try and get an FG rather than an f-series, they are a step up and you should still find something under 100 fairly easily, i've even seen the odd APX go for 100 quid locally in general thouhg Yamaha don't make anything bad. Tanglewood - again if you can get an older secondhand one then they're great, Freshman - again i've played a few and have been impressed. another brand to keep an eye out for is Aria, i have played quite a few of these and they all impressed me, i actually picked up an AW-20 a couple of months ago for a friend who wanted to learn and it was a fantastic guitar for the 70 quid i paid. all it needed was a set of stings and it played and sounded great. the guitar that's getting a lot of use at the moment in my house is actually a Chord csc35 that i got for nothing on a local recycling page, it needed a little work on the nut and a clean but it's a sweet little thing, (i will say that it gets so much use as it sits right next to my desk, it's obviously blown out of the park by my McIlroy but they are more than 20x your budget!) I also have a Gretsch Jim Dandy that i paid about 80 quid for that's a blast to play blues on ( i keep it detuned one tone with 13 gauge strings to help with the bluesy old feel) Matt

for me it has to be Aretha Franklin's recording of Let it Be, she definitely gave it the soul that i feel the Beatles version lacked. there are a couple of compilations by ace records that are full of great covers of Beatles tracks, many of them better than the originals ( IMO YMMV etc etc etc) Various Artists (Black America Sings) - Come Together: Black America Sings Lennon & McCartney - Ace Records Various Artists (Black America Sings) - Let It Be - Black America Sings Lennon, McCartney And Harrison - Ace Records Matt Edit for spelling, and i've just ordered the Let it be compilation as i don't have it yet.

i am really loving this build, i think it's time i commissioned one for myself! @Andyjr1515 I've sent you a PM. sorry it's a bit long-winded! Matt

i'm not sure I can be classed as a millennial, I turn 40 on Friday and i think I'm more the end of generation X rather than the beginning of generation Y/Millennial, I have older siblings and i think i followed their way of thinking. the dates are very vague for the crossover points, and i think your upbringing influences you a lot, my younger sister doesn't think of herself as a millennial, and my wife is of a similar age and outlook. I think it's more to do with when your parents grew up rather than when you were born. @Jack most people think i am younger than i really am, must be my healthy diet (of beer and pies) Matt

Ibanez make a couple of short scale 5ers, the TMB35 and the GRSM25, i was very close to buying a TMB35 during lockdown but have an alternative plan now (in my head at least, need to send an email or two to get it underway) But if you need left handed then ii gets more difficult (or expensive) Matt

i play a lot in church and quite a lot of music is written for keyboard instruments so Eb crops up a fair amount and i like to be able to play the bass line as it was written (or at least try to) i also find that it is easier for me to transpose on the fly with my 5 string as there are so many more options of where on the neck to play. My next bass purchase will be another 5 string.

they look similar but the screws are different and the gear looks different too. the big stand out for me is the quoted weight, most sources quote about 44g per tuner for the Hipshot ones and these quote 70g. I have USA hipshots on my Letts and the licensed ones on my U-Bass, i've not noticed a difference between them, in fact i had to check the Letts to see if they were USA or Licensed as they feel the same.

I've just watched this on YouTube and thought that it might help some people pass a few minutes, I've been a fan of this channel for a while, it's mostly guitar repair but his time he tackles a very worn and modified Jazz bass, i think it's a very sympathetic job, and according to the comments the owner is very pleased with the work. Enjoy

That looks excellent, any plans to paint the headstock to match? I think it would look great with a matching black truss rod cover. (or a black headstock with a body coloured truss rod cover) Matt

in extreme cases i have drilled the hole out to 4mm and glued in (with pva) a piece of hardwood dowel before drilling a pilot hole and re-fitting the button, in those cases i give the glue plenty of time before drilling. Matt

Yes, the speakers will be 4 or 16 ohms so if your plan is to pair with the 4 ohm 4x10 then you will need an amp that goes down to 2 ohms and even then you will only be able to use 2 cabs at a time. Orange quote that the speakers are Neo Eminence, but nothing to say which ones (and there are quite a few different versions available) Matt

the Ikea Markus chair is very comfortable, i had one until my wife stole it. I just didn't fit the arms when I assembled it. the ikea one that i'm using at the moment isn't as good but it was a third of the price. our Markus is the leather one, and is about 12 years old and going strong. MARKUS Vissle dark grey, Office chair - IKEA Matt

as you are thinking of building new cabinets you might do better to start with a known driver and a proven design, a good place to start would be the Basschat 12" cab, as built by a number of members. 1x12" Cab Design Diary - Amps and Cabs - Basschat another good place to look is Bill's excellent range of cab designs, these are very well respected designs with many fans (i still fancy replacing our PA system with some BFM designed cabs) the Simplexx cabs would be a great place to start. https://billfitzmaurice.info I will admit that i haven't built cabs myself, and many years ago i did buy a pair of 10's to build a cab of my own, this never happened (for various reasons) and i ended up buying a pair of lightweight 12" cabs instead. before you start it would be a good idea to find out exactly what drivers you have and get the full spec sheet for them (thiele-small parameters) bass cabs need careful design to match the driver to the enclosure if you want good results. Matt

sounds like a good setup to me, you might consider one of the smaller mic screens to go with the c1000 to help out in that null zone, they're pretty cheap, or a chunk of foam with the mic threaded through it would probaly work ok something like this but home made? the t.akustik Micscreen flex Mini – Thomann UK Matt

the last couple of times i did this i used a pair of AKG P120's placed pretty much as you described, i also ran a feed from the internal pickup as i wasn't short of inputs and the guitar has a really nice mic/pickup fitted (AER AK-15) i've used the same guitar in a studio and got compliments from the engineer on the plugged in sound (i think it made it onto the final mix) to help with the room i usually try to walk round whilst playing the guitar to see if i can hear a sweet spot in the room before i set up, a few cushions/blankets/duvets can work really well if you can find something to hang them off. I am not an expert though, just a keen amateur, i'm sure some more experienced people will be along shortly. Matt

thank you @Andyjr1515 0.3mm shouldn't be difficult to obtain, the gentleman that runs our workshop is a friendly generous fellow so a suitable length of shim steel will be easy enough to obtain. I do have a few pull saws that are probably thin enough if that fails. i will pick up an iron on my next shopping trip, it's going to be a while before I get some time in my little home workshop though. thanks again for the information, it's stuff like this that makes Basschat such a great place. Matt

I'm interested in the method for removing the fretboard as at some point I will be doing it myself (on a very cheap neck luckily so if it all goes wrong I will simply find another less butchered neck) as I don't have a spare iron i will be buying a cheap one for this job, Wilco offer a couple under a tenner, will 1200W be enough or do I need to push the boat out for the 2200W version? also, what thickness is the steel sheet you are using for this? If i ask nicely the kind gentleman that runs our workshop will furnish me with some shim steel but I'd need to know how thin it should be. as I don't intend to reuse the fretboard either would removing the frets and thinning the board with a plane be worth the work or will leaving the frets in be better? thanks Matt

what actually happens when you press the footswitch? does it switch then switch back when you release the button or does nothing happen? I am just going on my experience with a marshall (guitar) amp then needed a latching switch, when a non latching switch was used it would switch to the second channel as long as the button was pressed, switching back as soon as the button was released. if it's not doing this then more investigation is needed. exact wiring of the switch or an issue with one of either switch/cable/amp. Matt

the slight brassy colour is usually just a mixture of tarnish and general grime and is quite common, there are brass frets available and the Evo Gold but the frets on your Ibanez will just be regular nickel silver i'd expect, so when clean they should be a nice shiny silver colour. Matt

I can't give any help on the suitability of a Ric for your band except to say they can be a bit marmite, personally I love the looks and the sound but the ergonomics are just totally wrong for me. my main concern would be that when bringing it back into the UK you most likely need to pay the VAT and the import fees, also I believe that the fretboard is rosewood so you might need CITES certificates too (this might not be valid anymore but would be worth checking) Matt Edit - Rich has managed to type faster than me with the same points!

I'm in the singlecut loving camp, my letts is a singlecut and i think when i have the money my next custom will also be a singlecut, in fact a bass in one of the above posts is incredibly close to what i was considering (except i was thinking shortscale 5 string with a single pickup. @MoonBassAlpha posted a link to the ACG recurve classic, i think this is a fantastic shape, i seem to gravitate to upper horns (is that the right word?) that have this shape where they curve back rather than the ones that taper into the neck. this is my Letts.

have you considered getting an un-routed jazz body and then getting one of the incredibly talented people in the build diaries section to put in the control and pickup routs? the people making the standard bodies should be able to supply a blank body by just pulling it out of production at the right time Matt

it sounds like the reach to the low frets is an issue for you as well so i would suggest that a move to short scale would be a good idea, most of the basses that have been suggested are short scale, i would keep an eye on the balance of the basses too as this will have an effect on how they feel, there are also some alternatives to standard straps that can help. (i'm sure someone will be along to suggest the options.) speaking as a man with a bad back the ergonomics of the bass are as important as the weight (but i will admit that most of my favourite basses are lighter ones) Matt

thanks for that @Deedee it seems that the footswitch you have is different to the one that was posted in the first post, this seems to just be switches with what looks like capacitors across the terminals and no LED's, so the one that @fleabag has ordered should work fine. i have made a search for other pictures or schematics and it just drew a blank. Matt

yes, i admit that with momentary switches the LED's are much harder to implement but as this is an older design there is a chance that it would be possible to reverse engineer and retro fit to the new switch. any chance of some pictures of the circuits inside? i will admit that i've never had one of these in my hands. but i have reverse engineered a footswitch once for a friends amp by borrowing the OEM one and tracing the internals. (it was pretty simple though)