Stub Mandrel

A fair enough point, but if that makes it a Christmas song, then so is Shipbuilding, in which case it has to be the winner 🙂

i've always like Rotos too, they are the Marmite of bass strings!

It's a lottery but the prices can be silly cheap. Took me two tries to get a Jazz pup cover that wasn't completely wonky, the bridge cover took a few minutes on a linisher to get the right shape but the scratchplate looks great (even if it needed a tweak to fit a Squier..)

I've no idea what an old hohner j-bass would cost, but not a lot. Met up with my old one a little while ago and it is still very lovely 🧡 so worth considering if you see one.

Has to be worth looking at! Correction, looks with hunting one down for a try!

You can have a custom Bulgargaz one 😉

Room for a 22nd fret there. Actually, room for 23 if you squeeze them in a bit... Seems such a shame as some aspects of the aesthtics and choice of woods are pretty good, Is suspect more sympathy with working the timber and little practical knowledge of the instrument.

I tried basses through a Fender Rumble 40, which was very light (18lbs) and sounded much better than older rumbles I've tried and surprisingly loud. I preferred the sound to a Markbass 802, which was more expensive but sounded rather 'clinical'. What else is there in this sort of price bracket/power level that has the same sort of volume/old fashioned sound? The Orange Crush 50 might be an option (although I hate the 'crunch' setting, I love the sound of my Crush 25 but it's not very loud at all) and I fear the Crush 50 a bit quiet as amps in this sort of range go - plus it's lot weightier (32lbs) than even the Rumble 100 (22lbs) but this is getting a bit large. Don't suggest more powerful amps as I already have a 150W head and a 300W combo. I want something more portable (the alternative is using the head with a lightweight 10" or 12" cab but it woudl be nice to have a rig I can carry bass in one hand amp in the other). I'd be interested in any experience of gigging with the Rumble 40/100 and any alternatives people might want to suggest with similar sound.

Macca.

My Thunder 1 is supposedly about 10lbs and is noticeably heavier than my others. Fortunately my 'dodgy' shoulder is the right (it moans if I wear a rucksack ever since I was in my 20s) but my left seems to manage anything (touch wood).

Merry Christmas all you Bass-Tards 🙂

My brother's got one of the HB bass ukes, sadly a left hander... but it's very nice otherwise.

Flats AND a pick! That needs a double:

If the red, blue and silver/grey are metallic they may look a lot tastier in the flesh.

Anyone who takes my opinions too seriously needs to spend some time scanning the 'Den of Iniquity' thread...

🤣

My Kay KT-2 six string camo with dead flatwounds fitted in 1979. Only ever used roundwounds since... (tip for flatwound users, have you considered using the tone controls 🙂 a much cheaper way of sucking all the character out of your sound)

OK. I'm amazed they haven't been mentioned but the definitive Christmas songs are Merry Xmas Everybody and I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday. Trivia time, the ISO9000 consultant for a landscape consultancy I was a NED for, John Heath, lived opposite Roy Wood's mum when he was a kid and was one of the school choir on I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day (he doesn't get royalties). But my favourite Christmas song is one of Jethro Tull's ample canon - first appeared in the wild on Dave Pegg's Cocktail Cowboy Goes it Alone, but there's also a version on the reissue version of Broadsword and the Beast: Through long December nights we talk in words of rain or snow While you, through chattering teeth, reply and curse us as you go. Why not spare a thought this day for those who have no flame To warm their bones at Christmas time? Say Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow.

The most unlikely choice of Christmas song ever - mentioning Christmas does not a Christmas song make!

Just out of curiosity, how on earth do you retrofit fretboard lights?

I'm quite happy with it, one of our guitarists is keen to get one as well. Our new practice room is at least 15m long, so I was able to get a decent idea of what we sound like. I haven't found a latency problem so I suspect @Maude or his/her setup may be more sensitive than I am to latency...

Dear God... the string spacing is uneven in different ways at each end of the bass... You have to wonder what other, unseen horrors there are other examples with similar 'quirks'. And look at that neat pickup rout and carefully applied varnish: At least this one has even string spacing, even with the unique intonation and failure to line up with the laminations... I suspect the frets have been spaced 'by eye' (or perhaps it's just intonation?) Ouch..

The colours all look dark and a bit desaturated, I think the issue is with the photo's colour balance, is this better?

And channelling that Ed Sheeran look too 🙂

Hah! I'll photograph it tomorrow 🙂