Painy

4 1/2 years ago I received a Squier Vintage Modified Precision 5 string as a valentines gift from my wife. I fell in love with the feel of the neck instantly - enough so that it straight away became my number one over all my other more expensive basses. I have a habit of tinkering with my gear though and since then I've gradually changed bits and pieces here and there. This week I finally finished making changes and thought I'd share the end result. Quick disclaimer - the modifications do include a Fender decal. This has been discussed to death on here already but its my bass, my choice and this bass will never be sold on (in fact it will have to be prised out of my cold dead hands). There's also a Fender logo neck plate but that was only fitted because the original Squier one got a nasty scratch across it and I had this one kicking about already. Here are the other modifications:- Bar string-retainer on the headstock swapped for a pair of round string-retainers. Pickguard changed to gold anodised aluminium (cut by myself by hand from a blank sheet). Black thumb rest added. Chrome pickup and bridge covers added. To make access to the bridge easier for string changes, the bridge cover attaches with magnets which are counter sunk and epoxied into the body. Again to make string changes easier, the bridge itself I've adapted to be quick release by drilling though the tail piece alongside each string hole. Crude but works perfectly! The pickup I've swapped for a Nordstrand NP5V. This originally came from Dave Swift's White Sadowsky P5 so the shell is branded Sadowsky rather than Nordstrand. Dunlop Straploks fitted. I originally installed an active preamp which was an old Dan Armstrong Yellow Humper that @KiOgon kindly repaired for me and modified to include a true bypass switch. It was a simple circuit that just had a 3-way toggle switch to select between a flat eq, bass boost or bass and treble boost. To install this I had to route out some extra space under the pickguard. I also routed battery access through the back of the bass and made a little plastic plate to cover it. Unfortunately the Yellow Humper gave up the ghost a little while ago so this week I've installed an Artec Semi-parametric preamp. Stacked treble and bass, stacked mid frequency and mid level, volume and an optional pickup blend. Because I had, the option of a pickup blend control with the preamp, and because I still had the original pickup, I decided to add a bridge pickup to get a bit more clarity - particularly from the low B. As the original pickup is a split coil I decided to go for the kind of V-shaped pickup layout that you see on the Warwick buzzard bass to try and get more articulation from the lower strings. I don't particularly like the look of bridge pickups on P-basses however so I also wanted to make it a 'stealth' pickup. My first thought was to route the pickup cavity in through the back of the bass so it would sit just below the surface of the body but a quick test showed that it wouldn't get enough signal from there to be effective. Instead I opted to fit it into the front of the bass in the normal way and to just make a wooden pickup cover for it. I made it by hand from a piece of ash and stained it a similar colour to the centre of the sunburst. I think it blends in fairly well. At this point the only original, un-modified parts are the neck itself, the frets and the tuners. I had thought at one point about fitting some Hipshot Ultralights but there's honestly nothing wrong with the original tuners and the frets aren't showing any wear just yet. 🙂

I ended up going with the Dunlops in the end and I'm really pleased with them. I've not tried loads of flats to be fair - as I said, they don't really work in my band - but these sound great to me and feel really smooth with none of the grabiness I've found with others I've tried. I like the fact the silks have a coating on them too which seems like a really good idea. Thanks for the suggestion @jrixn1. 👍

Reading through all the suggestions here for adding various features reminds me of the evolution of mobile phones. If this follows suit, we've now got this generation of micro-amps down to about as small a form factor as they're likely to get. The next step is to keep bolting on more features and gadgets until eventually you end up with something the size and weight of a 400w valve amp - you can still play bass through it but it does a million other unrelated things bedsides! 😁

Dave just bought a VT Bass pedal from me. Couldn't have been an easier chap to deal with. Nice clear communication and very prompt payment. Deal with confidence. 🙂

Me checking my mic level: "1 2, 1 2". Punter at the back of the room yells: "3 4"! Punter then laughs hysterically at his own 'joke' and attempts to high-five his nearest mate who just stares at him blankly. Over the past 24 years that I have been gigging I have played a little over 1500 gigs. In that time I have witnessed this happening a little over 1500 times. 🙄

Design team initial conversation: We need a new design that will set us aside from the rest of the bass market but we're struggling for ideas. How about taking an existing, well established design and just making a few subtle improvements to make it our own? Nah, it's been done a million times already and besides, coming up with improvements sounds like a lot of work. Okay then, thinking outside the box - how about taking an existing, well established design and instead of making a few subtle improvements, we make one large and completely pointless change that intentionally makes it immeasurably worse instead? I'll bet nobody's tried that before. Perfect! Just make sure it turns out to be a complete horror show - if we actually sell any we could find ourselves on the receiving end of a lawsuit!

I can say I've only played in bands with really good drummers (one of whom is now a senior examiner for Rock School grades and another who is now drum tech for Rufus Taylor) but I have had the misfortune of playing with some far from brilliant drummers at open jam sessions over the years. I'm actually really glad to have played with those bad ones though to properly appreciate what it is that a great drummer brings to a band.

I actually had a play on one of those in a music shop in Great Yarmouth probably around 96/97. It was the first 6 string I ever played and I found it really comfortable as the neck was nice and shallow front to back so it didn't feel too big despite the extra width across the fingerboard. It certainly felt like a much higher end instrument than the price tag but I'm afraid I couldn't tell you now what they were asking for it. I know I was shocked when they told me the T on the headstock stood for Tanglewood. I guess if they only made 5 then that would explain why I haven't been able to find another since. I've only actually owned 1 6 String bass (although I've played dozens) and the memory of that Tanglewood stuck with me enough that I bought a Cort A6 (current model) mainly because it reminded me of it. Unfortunately, as decent as the Cort was, I didn't think it came close to the feel of neck profile on that Tanglewood. I paid £500 for the Cort used so, knowing how good that bass will be regardless of the brand name, If I had a spare £500 right now (which I'm very sad to say I don't), I'd happily make you an offer in an instant.

This is my first and only Ibanez - an SRMS805 in Deep Twilight. It's a world away from my Precisions but I like that it gives me that more modern option. It's also now wearing this ramp that I made for it myself which I'm finding really helps with right hand speed. Combined with the narrow string spacing it makes faster lines a doddle! 🙂

I believe they can be purchased from here.

Another vote here for Ashdown for all the reasons already given. 🙂👍

I never normally do the Euromillions but I might have a go tonight. 😁 I just read on the National Lottery website about one chap who went into his local newsagent to buy a ticket for the Wednesday Lotto draw. He asked for "a lucky dip for tonight's draw" but didn't realise that it was actually a Tuesday not a Wednesday so ended up with a Euromillions ticket by mistake. Fortunately for him though that ticket won him £40.6 million! Not bad for a mistake.

The Music Venue Trust put a post up on Facebook in response to this earlier today. They estimate that of the 900ish grassroots music venues currently closed across the country (not sure if they're including pubs in that figure) only around 100 have sufficient space to make it viable with social distancing measures in place.

I never boost the bass control on my ABM as I find it to be too low (more useful as a cut control in boomy rooms - as you would the red graphic slider on a Trace GP12 preamp) instead I tend to use the preshape to give it more depth and then compensate for the scoop by boosting the mids.

The paint is actually surprisingly quite watery so rather than just sitting on the surface which might flake off, it soaks into the paper. I believe it's designed so that, once dry, it actually stiffens the cone. For your Hartke cab, maybe you could try sticking on some bacofoil? 😁

Don't forget my custom pedal artwork! 😁 Thank you very much though. I like to think of myself as something of a talented bodger for what it's worth. 😅

Yeah he's a top bloke. I was mainly speaking to him at the time about a problem with my CTM30 head which he suggested was probably one of the preamp valves. Along with the paint he sent me a replacement valve on the understanding I could just send it back if it didn't fix the problem or phone him back later to make payment later if it worked (it did work and they only charged me for the valve at cost - no charge for postage or for the paint). No better customer service in the business in my opinion!

I have a nice collection of Ashdown cabs (a 610, a 410, a mini 4x8 and a mini 15) that I'm very happy with apart from one slight niggle. They all have Ashdown's trademark blue speakers - apart from the 610 so it doesn't match the others when using them together. After a chat a couple of weeks ago with the very helpful Dave Green at Ashdown, he kindly sent me some proper speaker cone paint in the correct shade of blue and yesterday I finally got around to doing it. It didn't take too long to do and I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. 🙂

To be that happy with the gear you already have is a pretty good place to be. 🙂👍