uk_lefty

A few months in and this is where we are... I no longer play bass through my Positive Grid Spark. It was ok for bass and is very useful as a recording tool but the Bassman gets all the home practice now. I no longer play guitar through my Positive Grid Spark. Absolutely nothing against the Spark here but my Bassman is a great guitar amp without having to make huge EQ adjustments. Also, it's already set up and ready to go so it's plug n play for guitar or bass. The Bassman is really handy for various gigs. Whether it's a "big gig" with really good monitoring and low stage noise, or a smaller gig where space is at a premium but there's PA support for bass, this amp works admirably. At one gig in a music venue in Cardiff the soundman fell in love with the sound from this amp. It's not getting on as well with my Stingray as I had thought. This is no disaster but it's really a Fender amp for passive basses. That's fine, I play my P and J quite a lot anyways. It takes multi FX well. Since buying the amp I've gone from separates to a Boss ME90-B. This amp handles the effects perfectly and even the amp Sims. Need to be careful on balancing EQ and gain but overall it's a good match for the digital effects. All I need now is a cover...

A drop D tuner on my 4s works fine for me when I need it. I have owned the same fretless fiver for coming up to 23 years now but never made it stick on any other bass, though I have tried a few times. For the gigs I play a 4 is perfect, so a fiver just is not really needed.

Progress has been slow. I only recently moved house so tools are being used for all kinds of jobs and I have no idea where my soldering iron or hand drill are! I've got a wiring upgrade for my Harley Benton jazz and will transplant the electronics from that into this bass. I've completed the vinyl wrap of the body but it was quite difficult on the pointy edges. My single string bridge has arrived so I need to fit that while also remembering to leave some room for the earthing connection. The fretboard needs a light sanding down and I already have the Monty's wax to try and do something to perk up the fretboard. I have also misplaced my adjustable spanner so I can't yet get the tuners off to vinyl coat the headstock... I know what I'll be doing tomorrow.

I tried on Amazon, results were underwhelming and often difficult to get a whole design into the template. I would avoid those. Sorry I can't be more help but I may have saved you £4 on a trucker cap with a logo so small it can't be seen.

I strung up a bitsa P bass BEAD and it worked fine. My head couldn't handle it but the bass could!

It looks better from a short distance away... Vinyl wrapping is easy to do but hard to do perfectly. I still need to clean up the fingerboard, probably treat it with some Monty's wax or such like and then wrap the face of the headstock before refitting everything. I've got black individual string bridge pieces on order, I will transplant the wiring loom from my Harley Benton bass which is receiving an upgrade, and add in the Squire pups I bought. The tuners seem ok so they can stay.

It looks a bit different now...

Hehe not so much an argument now but... For those of you who perform a medley of covers, not a "mash up", a medley. How do you manage the whole process? Situation: we chose six songs from the same genre we wanted to medley. Now, once in a medley having everything quieten down and the drummer counts in for the next song is probably ok but managing the transitions is tricky. Took me a while to convince others that while it may be very skillful to try to manage transition from one key to another, sometimes the flow is better and the audience experience better if we just change the key of one of the songs, perhaps. We were close to giving up until moving one song half a step down seemed to unlock the whole situation. I think we could have done the whole thing differently... And we were thinking of doing another medley from a different genre. It's a good way of getting in audience favourites that are too weak to stand on their own as whole songs. So next time round how would you manage this? Would you pull out the songs you want irrespective of tempo or key? Or would you target songs in the same key or tempo or at least not far off? Would you bring it to the band with you able to play it on an acoustic guitar, for example? Interested in others' approaches. Thanks!

1967 Fender P. I have no affiliation with the seller. Import tax will be painful on this one. Fender Precision bass 1967 lefty https://reverb.com/item/85651170?utm_source=android-app&utm_medium=android-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=85651170

Haha you know I was thinking about something like this but with a Spiderman type theme. Obviously this was in the back of my mind all along.

Yeah, I was thinking about going to town on it with the paint but I could also do a vinyl wrap thing, might be more successful.... I will investigate. Nothing shall happen quickly anyways

I bought some Squire pickups because the ones that came with it are dead. I've disassembled it ready to strip it down and rebuild. I think it may have been a kit bass. The paintwork is... Unusual. I'm not sure if it's gloss or emulsion. Luckily I have a power sander.

@redbandit599 sounds like a good mix of stuff to keep the night going but keep it interesting for the band too, I like it! @Lozz196 agree also, for a long time Black Stone Cherry have been one of my favourites. Unreal live too.

Yep. I don't think I will be parting with any cash to that seller. Thank you all.... My search for an EUB goes on.

Yeah it seems like an AliExpress style knock-off but it's actually not on AliExpress. Scammers absolutely everywhere and no info whatsoever about this bass in the usual places. More than likely a total scam, not even a shoddy knock off.

So... I've always fancied an EUB if not the real thing. I've never really had chance to really sit down with one and have a go, partly due to being left handed. Harley Benton do their EUB in left handed for just under £600. Then somehow I came across this... I know it will be pretty rubbish. I know it could in fact be completely unplayable. But, as a starter? https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1812776253/sound-sphere-crafts-left-hand-electric I would normally dive in for the Harley Benton but I moved house recently and I'm spending like there's no tomorrow on boring stuff, so cash is tight right now.

Though I usually prefer a set of Ernie Ball slinkies, whatever it is in the pink packet, I really believe in experimenting with different strings to make subtle differences to how you hear and feel the instrument and consequently what you play. I recently put some Rotosounds on my Jazz bass having steered clear of them for years but they sound great and they're very durable. Also some of the best strings I've used have been some of the cheapest top, Maruszczyk flats are excellent at least than £20 for a four string set, and Fender nylon wrap strings were dirty cheap but great on my old p bass. I really want to go back to flats on a jazz but I think that means a new bass....

I forgot about nylons somehow

You need two P basses. One for flats, one for rounds.

Absolutely love your work on one of my favourite albums, Lexicon of Love.

Loads of dints in the headstock from clashing with right handed guitarists when we wonder about on small stages.

We try to add a new song each month, or a handful if we have a few weeks between gigs. The problem is that the second half of the gig often remains the same, I really want us to always go bigger and cycle through some of the typical closing songs. Some new songs don't last long due to indifferent crowd reaction, and some go down far better than you'd expect. One thing I found that works with covers bands is if you're getting tired of playing a certain song by a specific band but it always goes down well, why not replace it with another hit by the same band? Then you have a good level of confidence that you will make it sound great and that the audience will love it. Seems like a good compromise in a lot of covers bands.

My last Evri delivery was two parcels. I got an email saying delivered so I looked outside... A car arrives and gives me a bass. Great. But where was the other parcel..... Delivered a few houses down. No idea why. I like the ones where you get a uniformed driver in a branded van, because typically they are regular staff who might just be paid a reasonable wage. When it's anybody with a car paid £0.05 per delivered parcel you really are taking a risk.

Loving this thread. You could have a very niche TV show... Ok YouTube show... A bit like Repair Shop, Hoarders, Storage Wars all rolled in to one. I can imagine you and @TheGreekracing towards a "first come first served" bargain Trace Dual Band compressor for sale in Torquay.... In all seriousness, Trace amps sound phenomenal and we're built to last. It's great that someone is keeping them going. I'd be tempted but I already have too many amps. I am also a fan of the Marshall DBS amps and like with Trace Elliotts there's a quality in the sound that you just don't get from modern amps.

Donated! Iris is a gorgeous name... Named after the Goo Goo Dolls song?