MoonBassAlpha

On 31/01/2026 at 22:21, HeadlessBassist said:

Well, I seem to have fallen into the world of the short scale again... I took this lovely & unique little beast as a part exchange the other day and after a little work to get it set up properly, it's coming on very nicely. Oh, and apologies if this bass has been featured on this thread before. I got bored after scanning through more than 20 pages back.

 

So what is it? It's a Maruszczyk 'Mr.Tee', a 30" scale 5-string hollow body Telebass with a Tele-style floating single coil pickup and a Piezo Bridge. This is all backed up by a powerful three-band preamp with sweepable mid frequency. The body is Alder with a Buckeye Poplar Veneer, and the neck is made from Flamed Maple with a Macassar Ebony fingerboard. The bass was originally built as a 5-string short scale fretless, but someone had it professionally fretted by a luthier. They did a very nice job, too.

 

The original flat wound strings (tuned E-C) had way too much tension, so I ordered a set of 40-95 Ernie Ball flats with a 35 gauge C string from Rotosound. Had to fight a little with the truss rod before realizing that it's a two way affair which tightens backwards.

 

Anyway, enjoy!  

It's a thing of beauty. I  was wondering how the balance is with a 5 string neck on a Tele shaped body?

Stripped like this? I  left mine plain. That DiMarzio in that position is great for fretless sound

9 hours ago, Lockout77 said:

Very cool what does the toggle switch do?

If it's like the Vox Standard it will be series/parallel 

4 hours ago, Wolfram said:

Yep I missed it again. I was going to do an acoustic slide piece with some nice long reverb, but haven't so much as picked up a guitar since Christmas so it wasn't to be...

Shame, sounds cool!

On 16/01/2026 at 11:46, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

If I were a 5 stringer this would be the bass I’d go for . Groovy ! 

Errr...

Reflections on a sad year, a roaring fire and a warming dram

Oh, yeah, failed in the bass-as-baritone-sax experiment. But, hey, you gotta try things out!

I've just uploaded! The track is apparently being processed so can't share right now

Take your time, see the sights, take in the scenery...

Oh dear, looks like I'm going to be a late submission on this one. I  still need to do the drums, and work out how to make my bass sound like a baritone sax.

Bear with!

On 22/01/2026 at 11:57, eude said:

Status Graphite sell short scale flats, darned good price too.

I think they're made by Picato for them, could be wrong.

Yup, last really well too, like flats

I sold mine (the stripped defretted one) a couple of years ago 

On 11/01/2026 at 14:24, Maude said:

 

I know I'm being super fussy, ideally I'd like something that doesn't look particularly 'electric'. The band is doublebass, and either two acoustic guitars, mandolin and ukulele, or a mix of them between the two GUITARISTS, plus singer and drums. 

The Rivolta is borderline 'too electric' looking and I think the Italia takes it's too far. I do like them though. 

 

 

The Allen Woody has been on my radar but I've never played one, are they very thumpy or can you get a decent range of tones from them? 

I've been using my Kay K162 at rehearsals but it is just pure thump, you cannot get anything remotely bright from it, I even put DR Hi Beams on it and nothing. I love it but I could do with some highs. I might look at changing the electrics as I love the bass itself. 

 

Edit, I've also got a Hofner Club, only an Ignition but it ticks the boxes, but the narrow spacing at the bridge feels sooo different jumping between it and upright. I know I know, first world problems. 

 

The truth is I love the look of that Rivolta 😁

The Woody Rumblekat I referred to was my best friend's. I  only played it when he first got it and I did a setup with half-round strings. He wasn't a fan of very bright tones. I  do know it was nice to play but if you need twangy tones, probably not the best choice. 

13 hours ago, Maude said:

I've just seen an email from Eastwood Guitars about Rivolta guitars, a separate brand/maker(?) but sold through Eastwood. The Duocata bass caught my eye. 

I'm kind of low key after a lightweight, acoustic styled shortscale to double with upright bass in an acoustic band and I nearly splurged my cash there and then. 

Only trouble is Eastwood are now based in America so there'll be high shipping and taxes. 

It doesn't state the weight but I'd love to be able to try one of these, I think they look fantastic, very Rickenbackeresque. 

 

 

https://www.rivoltaguitars.com/products/rivolta-duocata-bass?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=email&_kx=vG68xHWzTsaizKkGhKLlOsD0rYhHzD2CI48Nt4-TTUQ.MTbQ9E

Have you considered the Epi Allen Woody? 

I had the Session 4x10 too. The preamp was great. I imagine a 600W class D amp and 4 neo 10" speakers would have made a very tidy proposition as it  wasn't a super heavy cabinet. 

On 08/02/2024 at 12:33, Dan Dare said:

Thanks for posting this. I've used a Sessionette 1x12 for many years for my electric fiddle. It doesn't have that baked in mid peak that so many guitar combos have, which clash horribly on a fiddle. It's nice for jazz guitar as well, probably for the same reason. It's been in need of a refurb for a while - pots getting crackly, etc - so you prompted me to get in touch with them. I emailed this morning and Stewart replied to me within the hour. Have booked it in for some TLC. He told me they are to stop making new amps shortly, but will continue to service/repair existing ones until 2029. 

I've been meaning to get the Retrotone upgrade done on my Rockette 30 and received a reply that they are no longer doing the  service work. I  shouldn't have put it off for so long

On 30/12/2025 at 12:20, BigRedX said:

Unless you have vast amounts of money to spend on studio reference speakers and serious acoustic treatment for your control room, the best thing to do is to pick a set of speakers and headphone and spend a couple of months listening to your favourite music on them so that you know how they sound. Then you'll be able to use them to make proper evaluations of your own recordings.

Wise words

20 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Fear of a White Egg.

 

Great name for an album...

Or albumen...

Oh, wait, that would be Fear of Egg White.

As you were...

2 hours ago, skankdelvar said:

A Happy Christmas to you all.

 

Well done Skank, IBTL!!

Listen to Girls Talk Dave Edmunds Cover by Jules Moss on #SoundCloud

https://on.soundcloud.com/U1KQi8rPaCRsPZKFyL

My December cover challenge, massive thanks to  my band's singer Matt Sewell for singing this, my own efforts were unbearable!

Bass, drums and many guitars by me, recorded in Reaper. 

This tune is a particular favourite of my wife, so also a small bonus Xmas pressie...

I've got the music done. It's too high for me to sing so I  got my singer to do it. He said he wasn't happy with his first go and would do it again tonight, but  unfortunately has found himself in the pub instead, so if I do get another version, it will be in the 'pub style'! Oh dear!

My old luthier's wife had one. He said the neck was so susceptible to changes in humidity he could use it as a hygrometer. He put it down to the wood/ebanol fingerboard neck combo.

Do you record in your bathroom? It's somewhat buried in the reverberation. Quite a narrow stereo field too. I'm sure these are artistic choices though. 

27 minutes ago, Lord Sausage said:

Hi, Thanks a lot.

 

M AUDIO HDH40

 

 

Ah, those aren't in the  list. Another thought I've had is some 3.5mm to 6.35mm adapters don't always make great  connection with the sleeve of the headphone plug resulting in a very odd frequency response. Might be worth trying a different adapter if you have one, or comparing the sound at your  mixing setup to plugging the headphone straight into your phone without using an adaptor?

My take is that the string in question isn't making contact at the fingerboard side of the nut,  but  further back. This would result in what they're finding.