LeftyJ

Nice! Excellent bass face too

I think that's the case here too, the black tummycut and forearm contour are usually a dead giveaway for either a plywood body or a body made up of more than 3 narrow strips of wood with a veneer top and back to cover up the multipiece body. Which isn't necessarily bad, but can be. Maybe @Bassassin can be more specific about the origins of the body. I agree with @Paolo85 that the neck appears to be aftermarket.

Most of my basses always sit ready at hand in a rack, but for the last few years I've owned more basses than my rack fits. Currently my Status S2 Classic 5-string lives in a Mono gigbag because it's the one that gets out the door most, but it also means it sees less use at home. The real forgotten favourite has to be my Ellio Martina Forza 5-string though. It's more or less an active Jazz Bass, built by the guy that also builds the elusive and unobtainable Bassmute, and it's fantastic. It used to be my absolute number one, but it fell out of grace with my band after I first brought my Warwick Streamer LX5 and they all said in unison: "This is the one!" Here's a pic from 2014, which was probably the last time I used it live

KLOS sent a new mailing out last night, with an update regarding the graphite aftermarket necks which looked promising. They're now offering necks for most 25.5" scale Fender and Squier guitars with a more traditional Fenderesque headstock shape. Prices will be $700, but there's an early bird deal of $400. I wonder if and when bass necks will be available!

I'm not sure I get this. Is the neck too concave or too convex? And does the bass have a two-way truss rod, or is it single-action?

Not mine, but I was able to testdrive this wonderful Herr Schwarz 5-string back in 2012 and it still haunts me in my sleep. It was incredible, and the attention to detail on it was just astonishing. So well thought-out and well-executed, and almost no off-the-shelf parts!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175427909532 Lovely!

Real happy with this TGI case: https://www.southernukulelestore.co.uk/tgi-abs-tenor-ukulele-case-very-tough-best-value/ It was affordable, it's tough, it looks great and fits my Kala KA-STG perfectly.

Beautifully crafted, but em... I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2022/07/25/bass-of-the-week-kio-extraordinary-string-instruments-design-waldeinsamkeit/

I'm really happy with my TC Electronic Polytone 3 Nano. I bought the Noir edition, to match the black of all other pedals on my small board. I also have two TC Unitune Clips that I use at home a lot.

Wholeheartedly agree. I own a Kala KA-STG which is one of their most affordable tenor models with a solid top (spruce, in this case) and I love it. It is by no means perfect (I had to level one slightly raised fret, and lower the action) but now it plays and sounds great. I love the looks, it's plenty loud and sounds warm and rich. For now it has a regular high G string for traditional re-entrant tuning, but I will be trying a low G at one point.

Is it that new tulip-shaped monstrosity?

Nice job, by the book! (courtesy of @NikNik)

Ooh, I love that! That's the first time I see one with two pickups in that layout. They posted one earlier without a pickguard and with a true bridge pickup, but this is new to me. Very nice! Sorry for the poor resolution, it's the only pic I could find:

Just make your own A guy I know built one as a tribute to Steve Harris, but painted it in the colours of his local pro club ADO Den Haag. I think he later also added a custom decal with the Fender badge but in his local dialect (in The Hague that would be "Fendâh"). I think it's awesome

I've never pledged allegiance to any specific brand or model. I've owned lots of different types, and still do. Different tone and feel makes me want to play differently, and I like to switch. I do favour basses with a Jazz Bass pickup configuration, but I like to meddle with humbuckers, both longscale and shortscale basses, both 4- and 5-string, both headed and headless, wooden or graphite neck, active or passive, and I like them all equally much. My current favourite is an active shortscale 4-string with two J pickups and narrow 16.5 mm string spacing.

@leftybassman392's old Regenerate Axiom is for sale, due to the passing of its latest owner: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284963014186

Interesting to see a lefty 6-string Combustion too! So far I had only seen 4- and 5-string Combustions and NG2's/3's. Shame it's hanging upside-down

The barrel saddles (instead of threaded) and the smaller Gotoh GB10 tuners with narrower tuning posts give the '57 away as likely a PB57-53, which is in fact not made of alder as the website suggests, but of basswood (which could explain the weight). It's the most basic and affordable version of the PB57. The ones to look out for are the ones with period-correct hardware, which do have alder bodies. At 799 GBP this PB57 is well overpriced IMO. The same likely goes for the E-series PB62 as well, as the little sticker with the 55 on the back of the headstock could designate it as a PB62-55.

He only started his company in 2010 though, and not in the UK but in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. This site pictures a fairly modern build with a serial number of #51: https://jedistar.com/jgs/ I Googled a bit, and apparently there is a Jim Cairnes who was a pickup designer for Burns, but also dabbled in luthiery. Maybe there's a trail worth investigating? https://jedistar.com/jim-cairnes/

I believe the CW only has a front and rear facing glued on? Hence the black tummycut and forearm contour. Would have been extra cool if the facing followed the forearm contour.

I got an email a few days ago from KLOS guitars, announcing they're considering selling aftermarket necks. The accompanying picture showed a Strat with their own proprietary headstock shape, which is... less than thrilling. But they included a link to an online questionnaire and one of the questions is about the headstock shape (whether to use their own, or one matching the instrument it's meant for). Might be interesting to those of you considering a neck swap: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScknOTzlKQTuHNZdGlzOQRbTuBYO_bcxowza_ryg1utKejftA/viewform

I'm a huge fan of the EBS Drome. Not the Chinese-made, tolex-covered Drome Classic (which doesn't have a tweeter) but the Swedish-made, carpet-covered Drome and NeoDrome. I've owned a Drome 12-150 for years, and only sold it because I found a NeoDrome (same amp, but with a neodynium speaker which is 1 kg lighter) at a steal. They're no longer available new, and were pretty expensive for what they are, but can be found used at great prices. They're portable, the 1x12 is not too big (the 1x15 is, though!), they're built to last, have no annoying cooling fan, and sound brilliant. Very effective and versatile EQ too. There's an extra handle at the bottom to slightly tilt the combo backwards, and it has a clever monitor input so you can use your own amp as a monitor on stage (the input sits behind the XLR out in the chain, so the line out signal is unaffected). Only downside is it has no external speaker output, but it delivers the full 150 watts to the internal speaker at 4 Ohms and is pretty loud by itself. I've used mine as a bass monitor at club shows and had no trouble hearing myself clearly.

Opeth - Blackwater Park Dead Letter Circus - The Catalyst Fire Dredg - Catch Without Arms The Gathering - If_Then_Else