Tokalo

My 10-year old son was showing an interest in my basses, so I put an ad in the Wanted section for a small Jackson. Mick answered by offering to lend us his Squier mini p-bass. 
It’s the perfect size, and the lad was clearly comfortable. He’s played it every day, learning Living on a Prayer, Crazy Train, Back in Black etc.

We’ve given Mick his bass back now (I believe he’s sharing it with someone else). My son is getting his own mini-bass for Christmas now. 
 

Mick is just the most generous and helpful guy. Not only by sharing a bass, but also selfless with his time and advice.

My 10-yr old is currently borrowing @TheGreek’s black one to see if he wants to play bass. (He loves it!)
As well as the ease of playing, and super light weight, I’ve got to say I was shocked how punchy the p/u is.
So we’ve bought him one for Christmas. 

I put Ultralite lollipops on my PJ Mustang.

Neck dive solved!

(And I think they look less outsized /ugly too)

Jonny D has a review out: 

https://youtu.be/005lrJFMyRc?feature=shared

Looks like pre-order only on the Ashdown website at the mo. 
 

(8.2lb makes the PJ a bit tempting if I get a bonus this year!)

2 hours ago, TheGreek said:

New luthier in the Hatfield, Hertfordshire area:

 

https://www.kerseyguitars.com/

 

Matt installed the Aguilar OBP2 for me after two others let me down.  He's a nice fella and knows what he's talking about.  

 

I'll probably put a few bob in his pocket in the years to come. 

Isn’t his workshop on the same farm site as the Three Brewers brewery? Could make for a rewarding trip.

2 hours ago, SumOne said:

 

I think I've been focussing on Basses too much as just had a look at their other stuff available, it makes a £4k Bass look cheap: 

• Grand Piano £150k
• Bassoon £25k
• Saxaphone £11k
• Vibraphone £10k

 

As we were leaving, one member of staff said “have you been upstairs and tried the concert grands?”

Now, I’m not a particularly scruffy guy, but I’m sure I don’t give off the air of someone who can afford £150k for a joanna. It was a bit surreal that they were so encouraging.

I also played the Nathan East, not realising what it was nor how much it cost. What a delicious experience! Up till then, the best bass I’ve played was my Sandberg Electra VS4. How do I get it out of my head now?!

Yes, definitely not normal retail. 

A handy addition to my list of “Free Things to do in London”, though!

I had to take my 10-year old out for several hours today, to allow my wife some study time.

He plays trombone (grade 2), and is curious about other brass instruments.

So I took him up to London to visit the Yamaha shop (it’s the only brass store open on a Sunday that we could get to).

Knowing we wouldn’t be purchasing, I was a bit sheepish about asking if he could play their Bb/F trombone. But they were SO helpful and welcoming. Not only did he play the £1400 trombone, they positively encouraged him to try a French Horn and a Tenor Horn.
This weekend, it seems they’ve been having an event, so they also offered him a free 30-minute music lesson. We went downstairs to the guitar section and he was taught a few chords and, erm, Smoke on the Water (he plays it on trombone in his band)

Meanwhile, I had time to try out a couple of basses, including a 5-string that has made me reconsider whether I should only have 4s. And an upright electric which has confirmed that I definitely shouldn’t go there.

All in all, a great experience!

If it’s a job, doesn’t there need to a contract of employment, albeit that does not necessarily need to be in written format.

For my gig next Saturday, I didn’t organise it, and I have no idea if I’m being paid, let alone how much.

I’ve played 5 gigs so far this year, and because it’s for fun, the average I’ve received has been about £40.

I can’t see this being covered by employment law, even if it’s only inferred.

I put a Kent Armstrong pickup in my Electra VS4 because one band needed a more vintage tone for a couple of gigs. It does that brilliantly, especially with TI flats. And it still rocks with nickel rounds in my dad rock band (I play through a TC

BQ500, which has a very clean, modern tone so the Sandberg p/u was a bit too bright).

I also swapped out the pre-amp for a K10gon passive loom because the volume control was faulty.

I couldn’t be happier!

The two packs I’ve used have been fine; great, even.
Long-lasting and easy-to-play in a hot, sweaty pub. 

At £22-ish a pack, I find they’re good value.

G&L Tribute Kiloton

Really versatile bass with a great range of awesome & powerful tones.

Jazz neck (38mm / 1.5”);

Same hot MFD pickup as in the USA basses;

3-way switch for parallel/single coil/series (series is aka “OMG” mode because it’s got so much wellie!);

G&L hi-mass locking bridge (still has the grub screw);

It’s got a custom pickguard; the white original will be included;

Comfortable contoured body and lovely, smooth neck;

Fitted with new DR Pure Blues strings (45-100);

Weighs 4.3kg;

It’s in really good condition with no dings or scratches, apart from a small chip in the lacquer (pictured).

Specs:

Body: Poplar

Bolt-on neck: Maple

Fingerboard: Rosewood

Fretboard radius: 12"

Scale: 864 mm (34") long scale

Nut width 38.10 mm

21 Medium-jumbo nickel frets

Pickup: 1 Leo Fender-designed G&L MFD Magentic Field Design Humbucker (made in USA)

1 Volume and 1 tone control

3-Way series/split/parallel mini-toggle

Can post for £30, or happy to meet up within a reasonable distance.

Oh, if you need some downsides…

1) it’s got a traditional jazz body - it weighs 9lbs, so it’s not as light as you’d expect from a Spector (but still not “heavy”);

2) the modern machine heads look a bit funny on a trad shaped bass;

3) er, that’s it.

The tonepump jnr and EMG HZs sound great, although I replaced the preamp with a Glock 2-band because I wanted a balance control and a passive option.

In passive, the pickups are fine: I see no need to “upgrade” them, even playing in a loud Dad Rock band - I easily hold my own.

37 minutes ago, ahpook said:

 

Ooh, that's lovely, and thanks for the info.

 

I like narrow string spacing - it's one of the things I really dig about my NS2000.

And that’s not even the nicest thing about it; the neck is to-die-for (in my opinion)!

On 17/08/2023 at 23:07, ahpook said:

 

Beautiful !

 

What's the string spacing at the bridge, do you know ?

It’s 18mm (I got a black one earlier this year).

It makes it easier to play, although a fussy person might say it makes the pickups look a little too wide!

Awesome.

(Though the thought of all that washing up is tempering my wonderment)

6 hours ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

 

Do you have a link to the retailer?

 

Thanks. 

They’re sold by Music & Piano Centre in Ireland via Amazon.

Update after 8 months.

I’ve had the strings on my main gigging bass (Spector Coda 4) all year: they’re still going strong and sounding/feeling great.

I suppose I should compare them with Elixirs - but I tried some of those once and wasn’t particularly impressed; I certainly couldn’t see why they cost so much more. These Blacksmiths, on the other hand, definitely seem to be good value for money. 

I’ve just put another set on my second bass.

I had a set that I used on a couple of basses for several months last year.
I thought they were sticky, and kept cleaning them (alcohol, then washing-up liquid - in case it was caused by skin debris/grease etc).

But they’re not properly “sticky” - if you slide up and down, they’re smooth like a flatwound should be. It’s when you lightly touch them that there’s some extra contact between your skin and the metal.

I've come to the conclusion that the “sticky” feeling might be something to do with charged particles in the cobalt reacting to my body’s inherent magnetism.

I don’t use them any longer.

Source Audio After Shock distortion /fuzz /overdrive pedal.

Includes original power supply, phone connector lead and box.

Source Audio’s Neuro app that gives a load of additional options and controls is free: you connect your phone to the pedal using the supplied lead.

Excellent condition.

£125 posted (UK mainland)

My Sandberg Electra VS4 is light (3.5kg) and a delight to play.

And now I’ve put a Kent Armstrong pickup in, it has a beautiful vintage sound too.

I previously had a G&L Tribute SB-2; it was a tad heavier at 4.0kg, but was very easy to play/hard to put down. The pickup has a great classic tone at about 8/10. When you go up to full volume, it reaches a whole new level of woah!

7 hours ago, cheddatom said:

When I was a kid we got a hash of the school's network admin password and cracked it in just over 3 days with a computer running constantly at home. That would have been 1999 ish

Ah, the good old days when you got a proper education at school!

(I'm only jealous - I left school the year they brought the first BBC PCs into a classroom).

I nearly got scammed by my bank just now.

I went to pay in cash the band had given me for practice room hire last night and the bank machine said I’d used a fake tenner. When I asked the teller to check for me, he came back saying actually the note was ok/must have been folded funny.
If I was in more of a hurry, I might easily have taken the bank’s word for it, and then fallen out with the drummer.

Anyway, I’ve just updated my BC password to something unique to this site.

3 hours ago, Franticsmurf said:

… I'm wondering whether my Digbeth pre-amp and Peavey Minimax 600 will do the job into a pair of TE 1x10s.

Would that be using the “tilt” control on the Digbeth between bass and treble?

It seemed like a possible bonus feature of the pedal when I bought mine, but I’ve never had a chance to test it with guitar in a live situation. Would be interesting to hear how you get on.

I put some Wilkinson tuners on a CV Squier Jaguar, and they were a definite upgrade.

However, I read somewhere that Harley Benton had to stop using Wilkinson on their above-basic instruments because their factories in Asia kept receiving counterfeit/sub-standard parts. Hence the move to Roswell pickups.