neepheid

You know when you're stripping wallpaper and you find some funky 60s/70s wallpaper behind the stuff you're stripping?

You're all as bad as each other.

My strings arrived today (well, yesterday, technically - but I got the delivered to the Amazon locker at work, and they arrived after I left work).  Happy to report that all are fine, look legit and all the Players Circle codes worked.

1 minute ago, Rich said:

OK, I'm definitely going to stop mucking about with it now

HA

All barrel jacks are the work of the devil, regardless of who made them.

Neutrik make barrel jack sockets - although I think they are branded Rean these days, but it's the same company.  And people love to get sloppy with the naming when they think Neutrik sounds cooler and it's not "wrong" enough to be officially called on it.

https://www.rean-connectors.com/en/product/nys2203

Here we go again

4 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

My thought was that it would be a great bass to drop an unusual pickup in. A shame it's short scale.

Like the Lace Aluma-P I put in the G4M P bass I bought last year...

Phew, they're shorties.

Saturday night, playing with Nine Lives at Wilsons in Aberdeen.  Some context for you non-football following types, Wilsons is a football bar.  That afternoon, Aberdeen FC won the Scottish Cup for the first time in 35 years.  So we were expecting busy times, and so it turned out to be - especially in the second half when people either came in from other bars or had made their way back from Glasgow (where the match was played).  It was loud - in most breaks between songs an Aberdeen FC football chant would erupt - we politely let them complete the first few, then we kinda ignored them and just cracked on regardless of what they were singing, lol. 

So, the gig was going great but unfortunately, as is so often the case at these kind of affairs, one person (there's always one) had overindulged and had a massive navigation fail on the way to the bogs, stumbled over - past the front of me and taking out the singer (who ended up on her backside) and landing in amongst the drums!  FFS!  I grabbed his arm as he went past, but he was a hefty bloke and there wasn't much I could do versus the inevitablility of gravity

So there was a break in the proceedings as we checked on our poor singer (who thankfully was OK, just a bit shaken up) and then the drummer rearranged his kit back into some semblance of order.  The guy was steamin' - super apologetic, in that annoying, insistent drunk way - we politely but firmly instructed him to just go to the bog as originally intended.

Thankfully, the rest of the gig went without a hitch, I played pretty well - couple of bloops when I was more concerned with protecting my pedalboard from being accidentally stood on, but decent all the same.  Roastin' though!  I was absolutely disgustingly damp by the end of it.  Still managed to do a wireless walkabout during the last song, difficult at times though it was to get through folk - guitarist was soloing his fingers off and beginning to wonder if I was ever coming back!

All in all, great night though.  Bit of a bummer at the end though - it had been raining during the gig and while we were unloading stuff and packing cars, the singer, having already been poleaxed by a large, drunk guy missed the kerb outside and ended up falling on the pavement, skinning her knees!  Talk about being in the wars!  She's OK though, bit bruised and battered but unbowed!

Gear was the Burny LSB-80 followed by the SGC Nanyo into the usual Markbass cubes.

I've put Epiphone Jack Casady basses in both the Rockbags.  They offer decent padding/protection, but the geometry is a bit off - if you put it on one shoulder it can swing round on you.  But in the paucity of other options, they're pretty good.

I don't know how available they are but I briefly owned a Blake Bravo gigbag, it was a very impressive gigbag - loads of padding, moveable neck support.  You can see it in this sale ad - I sold the gigbag with the bass it was protecting.

https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/495701-harley-benton-hb-50-sold

That's the best I can do for you.  Good luck with finding something suitable!

27 minutes ago, mike f said:

@neepheid

 

Doesn't look too bad - you might want to clean up that milky looking area with some IPA (isopropyl alcohol, not india pale ale, lol).  Solder joints look solid enough, so my money is on the DC jack itself having failed.  I'd replace it.

Wonderful ideas, people, but I don't want to attack this bass with power tools any more than it already has - it's already had holes filled and redrilled for F pattern 5 screw bridges.  My ultimate goal would be to obtain an original Fernandes BB-8 bridge and return it to how it was designed in the first place.

I'm here to ask a massive favour - I'd like to buy something small in Japan from a Japanese only site.  They do not appear to offer international shipping and you can't even register for an account if you don't live in Japan.  Does anyone have a contact/friend/family member in Japan who could act as go-between on my behalf?  Is the site even legit?  Just going by Google Translate here.

It's this bridge here - https://fershop.net/product_info.php/manufacturers_id/38/products_id/1003 - I'd really like to get the original bridge for my Burny LSB-80, but as you can imagine they don't come up very often (yes, I just missed out on one recently on eBag).

I would be very grateful if anyone in the BC community could help me out with this, long, convoluted shot that it is.  Thanks!

Well, turns out these Musiclily knobs take a fair amount of shoving to get them to go on the solid shaft pots and grip really well with friction alone.  So hopefully now it looks a little more like... itself.

1 hour ago, Supernaut said:

Just trying to pass on bargains to other BC members. These strings won't take months to arrive either. 😉

Neither will mine - I don't know why they quote an initial ridiculous and vague ETA, but mine are arriving on Tuesday - just under 3 weeks since I ordered them.  If I need strings in a hurry, I got to my local shoppie anyway and pay full price for my lack of planning

Total scam. As soon as I saw the URL, I knew.

1 minute ago, mike f said:

@neepheid thanks man. I’ve had a peek inside and I think it’s cracked. The soldering around it looks unhealthy, milky white. 

Got any pics of the offending area?

From this pic I found online, the socket does appear to be soldered direct to the main board...

1 hour ago, mike f said:

My Boss LMB-3 has died on me! It’ll only come on if sideways force is applied to the power supply lead. It goes off as soon as this force is taken off.

 

Anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do? Thanks 

Crack it open.  See what's happening around the power jack.  If you're lucky you could reflow the solder joints, if unlucky and the socket is actually broken then it could probably be easily replaced.  If super unlucky, and the power socket is attached to a board, the board has had a mischief befall it such as a crack, a broken trace or a solder pad come away.  That's less fun.  You might be able to bodge around it.

On 21/04/2025 at 14:00, floFC said:

I have bought one of these (70’s Squier Precision Antigua finish), new - it has a 2025 serial number.

I can confirm it is a painted single ply pickguard, but I wanted to raise something else (minor) I encountered. The bass is very nice and well made but I wanted to lower the strings a bit - using the Allen key provided, it fitted perfectly in the higher strings saddles, but the “holes” in the grub screws for the E string are a larger size - the provided tool just spins round and round (I don’t think they are sheared).

Why would that be? Anyone else found that?

In my experience, sometimes the supplied allen key with basses is of dubious quality (and dimensions) - use a decent one which you know is 1.5mm or 2mm or whatever you need.

This thread's about D'addario strings...

Update, my ETA has been pulled forward to next Tuesday.  It was July/August initially, lol.

I have owned one of these in the past.  Don't be put off by the shape - I found mine surprisingly ergonomic - it balances well and the top edge of the body formed what I can only describe as a "shelf" for my forearm to rest on.  Really quite pleasant playing experience, and sounded good too.

I felt enriched and enlightened by the experience of owning and playing one.  And yes, you feel like a bloomin' rock god when you're playing it - you will throw shapes and pull faces.

GLWTS!

Hmm, it would appear that my bass has seen some sun.  The letters on the neck heel ("SL") and this page of the Burny/Fernandes catalogue from 1991 suggests that when it was new, it was silver...

It's gone a bit gold/green/yellow depending upon the light.  I love finding out stuff like this

Heh, I can't leave anything alone...

I also swapped the bridge for another one which let me get the action a touch lower but I'm still not wedded to the chunky high mass bridge look on this bass...

1 hour ago, EssentialTension said:

#553

 

Never knew we had club numbers like on Talkbass.

We don't.  Thank goodness for that!