basexperience

A Cali, and Ampeg and a joyo sharing a board?! You're braver than I thought (as they say...) hehe tidy looking rig

@dmccombe7 yeah, the bass is a Rikkers Bodyline - absolutely beautiful olivewood bass, sounds amazing. Has switchable humbuckers for HB, in-out of phase and single coil, for both pickups. Serious gear! The bass has pics on the luthier's site over at https://www.rikkersgitaarbouw.nl/en/basses/bodyline/

I'd say hold on to it. Basses take up very little room: it's also a beautiful thing. If you need money, sell it: but not until then. Hell, hang it on the wall as a trophy if you want to: there are plenty of very very rare instruments which wind up in safety deposits and never being played at all. I have a number of 4 strings, but I mainly play 5: I actually like swapping back occasionally, and I've considered fitting a D-tuner on one of them. I also have a drop pedal on the board in case I ever fancy playing a 4 with BEAD without having to retune (it sounds OK in a band setting, it works). You love playing the Dingwall, but if you pick up your old warhorse, do you feel a bit of mojo? It'll feel different, too: necks feel different. That difference could be something which inspires you a little to play something different. Why not have some tunes which use 4-string which you play on that one only, just for yourself? The bass doesn't need to justify its keep unless you feel like it has to. I love keeping older basses: I've never actually sold one since I started in 1988. I have a fair number.

Bredon Cider Fest 2025, Jagged Little Alanis (www.jaggedlittlealanis.co.uk) headlining Friday night - this is a wonderful small festival with a big feel when you're onstage. The crowd are great, no lairiness, everybody happy as anything. Cider selection (and beers) was outstanding, food was good, and neither was extortionately priced. A great example of a well run fest, getting in and out was easy and seamless. They ran like clockwork and the sound guys were excellent, even though they'd come on board late in the game and didn't get the spec sheet (which is extensive for the band). The wig was a £10 TEMU job, it's surprisingly good haha Video is of the crowd singing the first verse. Ends abruptly as I suddenly realised I had to get my arse in gear on bass! Tribute acts aplenty (really good ones!) over the 2 days, such a great little fest. IMG_3761.mov

I've depped now for a good 20 years, with increasing amounts in the last 10 years or so. I've done a couple of weddings already this year, and even had to turn a couple of last minute ones down last Saturday or risk being treble booked. This setlist is so familiar, and that's a good thing! Also - they've given you great key information. Excellent work. I think the key things which help me feel comfortable when depping, in no particular order, are: I play a lot of jam nights. Those songs - those core function band songs - these get played a lot. That helps keep them fresh. I make notes on iPad and have these on a mic stand in front of me. I'm using Gig Notes now but I was using OneNote. The notes are a sort of evolved shorthand shorthandbnotes with basic chord sequences and cover the gotchas like where the key is different, and include the chords in the right key. I try to keep them to a single page if possible, and note any silent bits or modulations / middle 8 weirdness. This really helps for songs I haven't played before. I might include a small piece of notation for some bass figure which *really* matters to the song. A lot of the bands who need a dep are playing standard sets and play them a lot. They'll be great, and that's half the battle when dipping - you need a solid drummer who is picking out something familiar to latch on to, ditto for at least keys or guitar. I always make sure I can hear myself well. I'm actually building a small personal monitoring system which will split the DI from my bass so I can feed a pair of in-ears, and I'll mix the ambient level separately, so I can use those if required (you find out pretty quickly during soundcheck if the band are balls-out) I get to the venue early so there's less stress full stop. I like to help break everything down - it's the right thing to do, and people will remember that you pitch in and don't just blow in, play, and vanish. I bring the bass I'm most familiar with, which I know is the easiest to play. That matters for comfort and confidence. Hope those help. It's a fun thing to do: I'm actually on a pretty large FB bassist-only messenger group which shares deps between bassists and there have been some great ones on there!

Interesting idea! I've built a bits jazz myself, from a rescued eBay AllParts body (a beautiful sunburst some guy had tried to mount everything on 3 times, including the bridge - took some fixing, but it's a gorgeous body) and a Warmoth ebony fretless neck I bought nearly 30 years ago, which had been languishing on a terrible Hohner body for years. Slapped in a pair of Squier jazz pickups I found and it sounds lovely, so I know where you're coming from - I actually repainted the Hohner body when I fitted the neck to it, just rattle can but it was a nice shade of midnight metallic blue. I've read some of the responses here and one of the ones which struck me as a good point was the sheer number of fender type basses out there you can get - and Squiers, too. I wondered if there might be any challenge / fun in finding a "good" chickenbacker from e.g. AliExpress, then upgrading it with better parts (making sure the basses were through necks, or whatever) - using the bass as a starting point. I understand some vendors do sell kits, as well, unpainted. You'd have to sell in places like Fakenbackers on Facebook, and you wouldn't be able to list here, unfortunately (IIRC)... they have other fake basses too though, there could be a USP in taking e.g. fake Dingwalls and making them far better basses. Could be fun finding out how to do things like round out sharp fret ends, improve neck condition, even finishing the kits, I guess. It is fun putting bits together and getting something playable out, no doubt. I'll probably do the same when I retire (when I'm not gigging)!

Great question. The way I just rebuilt my board means I can have both, as I've put a HX Stomp in near the end (and I'm building daughterboards to plug into the loop on it). I've got a Cali76 up front, which I leave on continuously - very handy when triggering synths for consistent triggering, plus it's a lovely sounding thing anyway. When I hook up e.g. the filter board I'm building, the compressor (or possibly a limiter) in the HX stomp will ensure things like the original Q-tron I have don't suddenly spike (as they have a tendency to do), so I can see my using both for particular applications, but I generally put the compressor up front so I have a consistent level into pedals on the board, which I like. I'll give myself more headroom using the compressor if I need something for a specific pedal. I've been playing more than 30 years, and I've used pedals for most of that, although I've only recently really got back into them.

That is literally the first thing which comes to my mind when someone says Bass Chorus. Sweet

I've done more work on the pedalboard - the HX stomp is in, the FIv1 has a new output pot (better job than last time too), and it's in a compact case. MIDI is working nicely via Thru (FCB1010 for control there), and now I'm building daughterboards (the HX loop is terminated to 2 outputs on the back of the board). Recent discussion on Boss Slicer SL2 pedal - this thing is so much fun, and if you put a freeze in front of it, you can have a lot of fun. Ditto x2 after it to give me looper capability as well. Fun fun fun! Now working on a filter daughterboard. Already have a Soundblox Bass filter, original Q-tron and SZ funk face to go on there, and looking to source a Digitech bass synth wah. Great way to give pedals time off the shelf and instant availability.

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Awesome - I'm actually relatively local for that! I'll put it in my diary...

So cheeky to use that “R” - it’s *exactly* the same as the Rikkers guitars guys - based in the Netherlands. looks like a lovely bass, saw it over on FB.

In use yesterday at the Dubs in the Middle festival (wicked stage, and the backline provided was an entire 1x15 / 4x10 Ashdown stack on castors - impressed!) - TBH I've seen promo shots of Absolution 5a Elwoods where the binding looks completely identical to this. The finish is impeccable! The binding is the most amazing job, and the bass performed beautifully!

I'd certainly ask what truss rod they're using now. This bass was made in 2014, I think - I bought it from Quent: manufactured in 2014, so it's an 11 year old bass now. I'd hope they have improved things since then.

I can recommend @Manton Customs - Robin just did an amazing job on my Maruszczyk Elwood 5a Absolution, truss rod replacement for the "soviet era" rod in there after it gave up (seriously, it's not a good design) - also put carbon rods in. Sourced, aged and replaced binding for the board which looks excellent. Now playing so nicely! There's a thread for the work over here:

Another update - THE BASS IS BACK! Arrived very early at 8am yesterday, and after a little time to warm up in the house and a couple of setup tweaks for relief and action, this bass is now 100% where I want it. Low, low action, fast to play, great tone, and looks amazing. Robin has done a great job of getting the finish right - you have to look really closely to tell it's had work done to it at all - the neck binding in particular is a lovely piece of work, blending back into the original around the headstock. Truss rod now works in the normal direction, with a seriously long key available (nice one!), the carbon rods are in there doing their job, and the whole bass just feels so much better. Thanks @Manton Customs!! If anyone would like to see some pics of the completed article on here, let me know. Cost was seriously reasonable considering what's been done here - the bass overall cost to me is still a lot less than a new one, and I can have confidence that it won't need work like that again. It really is a stunning instrument.

You’ll be fine. I’ve got 2 wicks with bell brass frets and a couple of basses with stainless steel ones, and I only use D’addario XL nickels, no worries at all. I’ve used stainless steel strings a couple of times and I don’t think you need to worry about excessive fret wear.

I recognise this feeling so much. I've played a lot of jam nights in the last 2-3 years, and they can be just like that. One particularly rough pub in Reading yielded occasional moments of inspired stuff, truly eclectic song choices and some hair on the back of the neck moments. Random people telling you they love the bass and normally it doesn't get a chance to shine - when I hear that, I just know someone really heard what I was doing. That's when the house band fee feels like it's worth the candle. I hope you get that feeling as often as possible - it's the feeling of having actually entertained someone. 🙂

Yep! I wound up finding him on Facebook via the FI group there. Blue case coming this week!

As it turns out, I can! I didn’t realise there was anyone still making them - but there’s a fella on Facebook who’s in the Future Impact group, and I’m now in touch. Yay!

Oh cool, not heard of that one, I’ll make sure the band know about it!

Christ, that’s a good idea