scrumpymike

Busy day yesterday so just sitting down to report on Friday night's gig for my covers band In Like Flynn. It's a new start-up by 4 experienced musicians and our gig count hasn't reached double figures yet. We were playing in the beer garden of the White Hart in Castle Cary for the second time in our short career. Nice venue recently taken over by proper people who you really hope will make a go of it. By the advertised start time of 7.30pm, the garden was full with a crowd spanning 3 generations (come to think of it, I span 3 generations on my own 🙂). Despite a few mistakes - annoying to us but probably not noticed by the punters - it was one of those gigs where we felt we'd reached that kind of comfortable plateau where the enjoyment of playing finally overcomes the anxiety of not being totally familiar with what you're doing. It was the first outing of my active Sandy s-s TM with its Aguilar upgrade through my Ampeg SVT 7 PRO + LFSys Monaco + Barefaced SC3. Absolutely amazing sounds with more than enough tonal flexibility to cover the wide range of stuff we do!! So that put a smile on my face from the sound-check to the final encore. The icing on the cake was that we got a booking for a private function. Life's good!! If you get a minute, visit https://www.inlikeflynnband.com/home and have a look at our show reel.

Hi kiat, more than happy to give advice but not really any need for me to travel to Bass Bashes out of area because a) one a year is enough and b) people tell me that I have the best in the country on my doorstep. (Sorry if that sounds immodest, it's not meant to 🙂). My best suggestion would be for you to come along to ours. That will tell you all you need to know. Otherwise, just jump on at the bottom of the learning curve in the way you've already suggested. I'd say you need between 10 and 20 attendees bringing lots of gear to qualify as an 'event' rather than just a few mates getting together for a chat. However, you may need to start small before you can get bigger. From memory though, our first Bash in 2017 was very well attended and that's been the case ever since except for the pandemic year. We've found that presentations like our amp and cab shoot-outs and diy cab-build workshops have generated a lot of interest but you need people who have the knowledge and know how to present it. The other big seller for ours is all-day catering laid on by Mrs. Scrumpy and the Scrumpettes. That part of it is damned hard work by an excellent cook for a couple of days though.

Got my Cali ll TM SL Short ex-stock from Thomann. The only thing it didn't have compared with my configurator design was a roasted maple neck. I was happy to trade that off against immediate delivery plus a cost saving of over £400, which has funded the Aguilar pick-up set I've just had fitted. Now the Sandy is definitely 'the one bass that rules them all' - in our house at least 🙂 The pic is the shot of my actual bass taken by Thomann.

The Bash starts at 10am but anyone who wants to come earlier from 8am is welcome to have breakfast served from Mrs Scrumpy's kitchen and maybe help us set up.

Gigged my Aguilar-equipped s-s Sandi Cali ll TM bass on Saturday. Relieved to report a big improvement on the OE pickups. Much enhanced presence in the mix thanks to extra heft compared to OE pups. So I'm well pleased with the mod but getting hold of the Aguilar AG 4M/J-HC set was a saga of marathon proportions. My starting point was the decision to get the Aguilars based on how good the J-J set is on my Vox Starstream. My online search proved fruitless as none of the UK or EU retailers were showing any stock. Next step was to call round to Taunton Audio Visual Services for a chat with Kevin, who would be doing the pup change-over. He found the set listed in his Barnes & Mullins catalogue at £285 and gave them a ring to place an order. All B&M could offer was that they had none in stock and delivery would be 'several months'. Plan B was to find a set in the USA, preferably before any UK government response to Trump's trade war doubled the price. Sweetwater were listing the set at USD259.99 but temporarily out of stock. With the weak Dollar that price converted to around £210 although I knew there'd be import taxes and charges to add on. Sweetwater assured me that Aguilar could ship to them 'within a week' so I placed my order after checking with my friend in California that she was happy to take delivery of my order and forward ship it to me. What could possibly go wrong? The first problem was the shipping quote she got from her local Post Office for a USPS delivery was a staggering USD150 for a fully insured 2 to 3-week delivery service. WTF?! So plan B was on pause. Thankfully I remembered someone on here (forgotten who) mentioned that lots of Talkbass members were recommending a service called Pirate Ship. Next stop the Pirate Ship website, where I discovered that they are effectively a shipping broker offering USPS deliveries at massively discounted rates. I won't extend my already lengthy post by going into too much detail. The bottom line is that I got the Aguilars in 3 weeks fully insured for a staggeringly low price of USD29.99. I did have to collect them from the Post Office sorting office in town and pay the £53 import charges though. The final all-in cost of the pups came to £280. Inly a fiver less than the UK RRP but I'm betting that, when/if they finally re-appear in the UK and Europe the price will have increased. Most important of all, I've got mine NOW 🙂 and this is how they sounded on a mobile phone recording at Saturday night's gig. Sandberg s-s Cali ll TM with AguilarAG 4M/J-HC set

Yes to all three questions Dave. Only compromise was I sacrificed the coil-split function. My tech guy phoned me to say that the Aguilar M pup wasn't wired for splitting. He said "I could modify it but that would probably invalidate your warranty." To be honest, it's not something I used much anyway so all it means is that the mini rocker switch doesn't do anything. Here's a link to one of last night's mobile phone videos to give you an idea of how it sounds. Aguilar AG 4M/J-HC upgrade

Great private party gig last night celebrating a 40th and an 80th so wide age range watching. Outdoors in the garden of one of the local farmhouses and all up for a good time. Only the 5th gig of the new band but they liked us so much that they paid us more than the agreed going rate. Same happened last at last gig so we must be doing something right. First outing of my s-s Sandberg Cali since new Aguilar pickup set fitted. Much more heft that OE pups. Didn't realise just how much in fact. No need to engage the 'deep' button on my Mesa D800+ from now on methinks. So nice to see all the old folks having such a good time. That includes me btw 🙂

Got the Sandy back yesterday with the AG 4M/J-HC set fitted. Based on a quick noodle at home, definitely worth all the cost and hassle. Will post the full story after tonight's gig.

As William Shakespeare put it: "The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune". 🙂 I'm just dodging some of those right now!! Nothing that will get in the way of the Bash I hasten to add.

Well said Rich - and seconded by me 🙂

EXCITING DAY!! I've managed to buy an Aguilar J-M pickup set from Sweetwater in the US and get it shipped over with the help of a friend in California. I tried to buy one 'locally' (i.e. UK & Europe) a couple of months ago but no-one had stock and or even any deliveries scheduled. I was told it would be 'several months' at least. Anyway, the set arrived yesterday and I'm just off to see Kevin at Taunton Audio Visual to get my Sandberg upgraded (he also sells guitars). And I am definitely expecting it to be an upgrade based on the wonderful Aguilar J-J set that's standard on my Vox Starstream A2S. Watch this space!!

There was a very nice red one up for sale on here a couple of years back. Probably should have bought it but didn't because I wanted the blue finish that I had. They were £33 new back then.

This design is based on the Watkins Rapier that came out in the late '60s. My first bass was a pale blue one (also available in red) and I'd be all over one of these if the bridge wasn't so far from the bottom edge of the body. It just adds to the weight and negates the 'easy reach to the lower frets' benefit that many s-s basses offer. Even so, I'd still have a test run if I could find one locally.

Just jumped on for a look after seeing your posts on my S-W Bass Bash topic. Top marks!! It's good to see people pushing the design and build envelope using latest technology. I'm speaking as the proud owner of a Vox Starstream btw 🙂