TrevorR

Just spotted the hollow headstock... interesting. Weight/neck-dive reduction? Headstock design is one of the hardest bits of a guitar to get right aesthetically. And we all have a personal list of the brands we reckon have failed!

The guitars look amazing but I hate that headstock. Given the very high level of design and organic shaping everywhere else on the guitar the squared off shape looks undesigned and an after(un)thought. Can’t wait to see how the bass looks!

I use Italia Leathers 4” straps on all my basses. Those would be far too thin for my Aria or Wals. Happily use one on an acoustic guitar though...

As Esther Rantzen used to say onThat’s Life, “If it looks too good to be true it probably is!”

I’ll nominate “Love Is An Open Door” from Disney’s Frozen. Cheesy, cheesy ditty but in the background Abe Laboriel Sr is laying down some amazing, tight bass playing! Exquisite fills being thrown in here and there and the slap line on the second verse and prechorus is simply sublime! Really! Frozen!

Well I thought I should do an unboxing video... and then I thought “No, no SBL-style ‘Look at this bad boy’ shenanigans” from me. I will try post some playing videos later as I’m planning to take it along to our church Worship Team practice on Thursday. It seemed unscathed by the journey all save the E string needs raised a bit for my tastes - it’s just too growly and snarly for me. I will need a touch more string height. Just on the E. Instead here are a few unboxing photos - it was certainly well wrapped. I’ve stowed the packing away for next time. In the flesh the bass is a lovely as I remember from the SE Bass Bash. There are things I would change, some places where there could be improvements but those are more or less polishing rather than problems. Anyone would be proud to have this bass slung around their necks.

Look what was waiting for me when I got home from the office!!!

GB’s over complicated for what you want. I use VoiceRecord Pro as itallows you to save the files as MP3s, export them etc. Other apps will be just as good

Blimey! Three manuals, pedals, phasers and photon torpedoes!

Blimey! Starlord’s let himself go!

There really were some lovely basses at the Bash this year. He Mouse was stupidly good, as everyone has said but the one that most smacked my gob and made me fall a little bit in love (OK a big bit) was one of @cetera‘s Spectors. This finish to be precise. NB no photoshop involved, just a very slight change in camera angle... get a load of this if you missed it...

Happy for it to come to me next. I’ll PM you...

Fantastic blog (as usual)! Brought it all flooding back. Great idea to be using some of Richard's talk for the next podcast. He was so entertaining. Disappointed at the poor quality of your photography this time though. The photos of Jack are fine, but those ones of that bloke in the blue shirt with the camera strapped around his neck. I remember him being much more handsome in person! Shame about the photos of Paul too, there are some subjects who are too much of a challenge even for the greatest photographers! 😂

Oops, I think that was a reply that never got sent a week or so ago... where are we with the bass’ location and next moves. Or has it all gone quiet in the absence of @Grangur to keep it going? As and when it does get to me I wondered that there are no other London Surrey Berks Herts folk who would be interested in trying it and doing a review? Tempted @NancyJohnson @Wolverinebass @Happy Jack @Hamster @cetera @Graemeross Or any others?

That would be brilliant! We can work out logistics somehow...

Easy answer... immense levels of processing power that would make the guys at Cray feel ashamed. All crammed into a compact mobile housing with a range of hugely sensitive sensors built in. Amazing thing the brain.

It's an unashamedly populist explanation and I'm sure that academic types could poke many holes in the details of the explanation but as a layman's guide to how scales and temperament work this is a good watch. The whole of the Howard Goodall's Big Bangs series was hugely informative, watchable and entertaining.

What do you mean "in all likelihood"...? I was there too! I didn't spot one of the 15 basses correctly!

This looks like a bit of a bargain... same model as mine with the preamp on the upper bout... https://rguitars.co.uk/collections/faith-guitars-uk-specialist/products/faith-ftne

I’ve got one of these. I think it’s the old model, not seen the mag you’re referring to. It’s no Otter but it plays nicely and sounds very pleasant both acoustically and amped. It’s got a simple Shadow preamp with a single tone control which is actually quite clever as it seems to be a preset smile curve that varies in depth or something.

That would be brilliant! We can work out logistics somehow...

OK... you asked for it... so the results were... all different types of basses basically sound like bass guitars and even we couldn't tell the difference (and usually couldn't even identify our own bass), valve amps don't particularly sound any better or have any more "heft" than Class D transistor amps, they all sound perfectly fine. It was all very depressing! LOL! 🙄😁

Let's not talk about the results of the blind bass test or the valve vs class D amp heft test at the SE Bass Bash... it was quite the revelation. Quite the depressing revelation...

Don’t you mean “...my memories of highly desirable premium price point vintage 70s Fenders leave me reminiscing about what amazing instruments they were...” It makes me laugh/weep when I see late 70s early 80s Fenders described in these terms in ads these days. Like you I’ve been around long enough to remember what we really thought of them at the time and through the 80s and 90s. And before anyone gets all flamey... yes I know that your 70s Fender is the best built, best playing and best sounding bass in the history of the brand but 90+% really, really weren’t.

Well let’s see... I bought my No 1 bass in 1993 and my No 2 bass in 2001. And my amp rig in about 2006. Never been slightly tempted to change either since then so they must be doing something right for my ears and for my fingers.. 😉😁