Bridgehouse

It’s arrived... And sorry chaps, but the grain is so nice that I won’t hide it. Nice simple danish oil finish it is. It’s too good to hide away. So there.

When I tried to sell mine nobody wanted it! Still, decided to keep it now

I change my bass/cab and basses far too often...

What are the knobs actually for? I don’t touch mine. 😮

*cough*

Yeah, but.. stuck in their ways and all that...

Lol - not famous but it might as well have been

Don’t worry, I witnessed so much “check out my all valve tweed hand wired iron chassis head made from air dryed 100 year old special tone wood into my 24x12 mega uber face-melt-o-cab with my epic totally exact replica of a Les Paul custom double cut special with authentic neck break, weak heel joint and dangerous wiring” along with hair metal shred-widdling-till-your-eyes-fall-out this weekend to ensure rock and roll will remain firmly alive in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s for at least another 20 years. We are deceiving ourselves. We think we are killing rock and roll. There are guitarists out there yet to discover the 1970s.

It was great. More versatile than I thought. The EQ stage is nice and flexible - it’s really authentic genuine drive, and the output feels very “amp and cab”. I do think the P-Retro Preamp helped - but I also chucked the new semi hollow and a standard P though it and it did a really admirable job of sounding like a P bass going through a good quality valve amp and head that was then mic’d up. I know a mic’d up sound is always different from live, but I really couldn’t criticise it at all. There was a rumble 500 with a fender 4x10 in the studio which I compared and contrasted with - there was more volume out of the 4x10 (well, dur..) but it didn’t have as much fruity character to it.

As an aside - bass was mostly my ACG Finn 4 with the recent P-Retro upgrade. Very nice. Highlights were nailing a version of Boulevard of Broken Dreams, managing a good thud tone for Come Together, doing a fun version of Power of Love, managing enough dirt to do Zombie and being in awe of someone with the talent to pull off a very good version of the EVH solo from Beat It...

The guy at the studio had a Dave hall preamp - and as I’m thinking of getting one I decided to try it. The valve tone was pretty damn good.

They were a diverse bunch - from total beginners to pro level full timers in big function bands to originals, long term shredders, blues freaks and everything in between. Some of the amps were epic 200w all tube guitar heads - granted they weren’t on full chat but man they had some girth My little 10.2 didn’t skip a beat or let me down at all. No parping out and enough depth to just about keep up But the real advantage? All my gear fitted in the boot along with my bedding, and it was DI’d into the desk for recording.

Right. Been away all weekend in a studio with 20 guitarists, a drummer and a studio engineer for a Jam weekend. Took the k10.2 and borrowed a preamp with a valve in it. It lapped it up. Sounded brilliant. Was loud enough to balance against a drummer 3 feet away in a room 6m square, with up to 3 guitarists all thrashing it through some pretty big expensive amps with 2x12’s and 4x12’s plus vocals PA. Didn’t flinch once and never felt I didn’t have enough welly. Stuck a lot of drive on the Preamp pedal - and on one song I hit a massive low E at one point and got stares from 3 guitarists, a vocalist and a drummer who all had a “wtf where did THAT come from?!” Chuffed.

Bassed for a Jam weekend full to the brim with guitarists.. last night played a bowls club with them - 20 guitarists in total swapping and changing in a full and varied set list. Brilliant. To top it off it was 3 guys first ever live gig and so they popped their cherries. Lots of really chuffed players, lots of beer, and a brilliant brilliant night of entertainment. Having a setlist that went from boulevard of broken dreams to fortunate son then on to comfortably numb was cracking...

Eh...?

Well, it was delivered today! It’s on! However, I’m away at a Jam weekend so no work on it for a few days.. you will all have to be patient!

That cheap P build to use up a spare neck and a b grade body is looking a smidge more expensive 😁 Why can’t you lot come up with el cheapo suggestions?

With no router access I’m reluctant to rout the body.. I may go wacky on the paint scheme, but would prefer to stick to trad P pickup shape - a hidden piezo sounds good tho - what should I use?

I’m not sure this thread is quite going in the direction I intended it to, as a documented P build....!

I already got one... a proper one!

@rubis - I’ll have a look into Ceruse - looks interesting!! @tommorichards - some food for thought there too! Thanks!

I’d say 90% of my recording is DI - especially when out and about, but you know how it is.. at home.. every now and again you get a hankering to go all trad and retro and spend two hours arguing with a mic stand and all that faff 😁

Certainly an option. My preference is something with valves for recording - but worth checking all the available choices out