Stub Mandrel

I bought one of these as a fanless alternative to the Elf to stick on my PJB C2 as a quiet 'practice amp'. Supposedly modelled on an SVT it sounds surprisingly good with a certain amount of breakup at all volumes even with low gain levels, and some pretty heavy-duty distortion at high gain. It's worth remembering, 5W is only a quarter of the perceived loudness of 500W and even with the C2 cab it's fine for jamming along with guitarist. I must try it with the GR Bass cab to see how loud it is. I must admit I love experimenting with small, cheap but decent quality amps - these days they are surprisingly good.

Any Planet Rock fans will know she's a real deal blues player.

I've played one, it was OK, but the sound isn't a patch on the basses with probuckers, plus an epi/gibbo without a set neck seems wrong. Get an Embassy instead for far more guts and sonic versatility for not much more £££ - and good balance.

Yes, I like to be able to bring on distortion by really digging in.

Used it through my main rig last night. All I did last time was drop the gain. This time I arrived early and played with the EQ, only small changes but really lifted the sound. Also cranked it up with no-one about, nearly took the roof off 😳

I took my embassy to a rehearsal yesterday, through the TE combo it was all bottom end. I put in the preshape which helped, but it took some eq tweaking before I got a really good sound, cutting through and able to dig in and get a serious clank when needed.

For the other (i.e. non-blues) band we've agreed about seven new covers, mostly straightforward (With or Without You for goodness sake!) but this one is a cracker:

Yes, some people look down on blues rock, but it gives you freedom to improvise and stretch things out on the fly.

I got it thrown at me for an encore, not having heard it before, on my second gig with the band... We've put The Stumble in the set, also playing stuff like Gary Moore, John Mayall, Gary Clarke Jr, Michael Burkes, Erick Steckel, ZZ Top and a few classic tracks like Radar Love, Roadhouse Blues and Suzie Q. I'm in my element and the audience enjoy it almost as much as we do!

Some of the guitars do - the 'old gold' LP and the Coronet.

Has anyone tried the fitted case? Are they any good? I'm minded just to get an ordinary one that other bases can share.

Couldn't really be anything else...

I ran a scalpel very carefully along the index bits. I don't want to remove the scratchplate unnecessarily. Question... if anyone has had the plate off, are they CTS pots?

Good luck with the scratchplate film! And don't forget the backs of the tuners!

👍

Taking a break and doing this one instead! Definitely on a Freddie King binge... learnt Hide Away yesterday for our rehearsal too.

I'm Torn Down is not renowned as a tricky song... it's just a twelve bar right? But this version is something of a challenge to play smoothly and keep it up 😰

I'd never heard of a Jedson Tele Bass two weeks ago, but they seem to be 20% of all the 'first basses' on this thread!

Ve haf vays of making you play 1FPF!

Mein gott! Used it at rehearsal. Everyone thinks it looks lovely, especially the hardware. It goes with the drumkit (Pearl, slightly darker metallic green of similar hue). It sounds huge. It's majorly louder than my other basses, I have to turn down the gain a lot, or it sounds like death metal. Absolutely love this bass.

Yes scotchbrite would be better. Grade 1000 is enough for toning down a gloss.

It would be interesting to see a video of several people playing the same short selection of pieces to compare their fingering styles.

I can understand why people don't want to do a pinky stretch, it's using ring and pinky together I struggle to understand, as I find it unnatural/uncomfortable. I can see it's a necessity for double bass with long, taught, high action strings, however. I don't have any agenda to stop others doing it though!