Rich

Any excuse to get it out (ooer). I first posted about this in a remarkably short-on-detail entry back on page 1 (15 years ago!), and it's still as gorgeous now as the day I first picked it up in March 2007, more so in fact. Behold, my custom J5... English white ash body with a burr poplar top, matching front/back facings on the headstock and matching ramp, all in a satin baccy-sunburst finish; neck is maple, wenge and flamed maple with a bird's eye maple board; orange side LEDs; Delano quad-coil humbuckers with coil taps, and Jon's own 3-band EQ with a push/push switch on the volume control for the LEDs; ebony control knobs; Hipshot Ultralite tuners. I originally specced it with EMG-TW pickups, but I changed them for the Delanos a few years back and they're a thousand times better. The tap setting on the EMGs just made them quieter, but with the Delanos it's a proper tone change. The neck pickup adopts a split-P arrangement when it's tapped, which is ideal. I didn't gig the bass much (if at all) for a few years, using my Sire V7 instead, but I've started taking the Shuker out instead of late and to be honest I've barely even looked at the Sire for months. As good as the Sire is, this is just perfect. Even now after all these years, I have to keep looking at it to make sure it's actually mine. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... when I took it to Jon to get the Delanos fitted, he told me that another customer had seen his gallery pics of my bass and loved it so much that they had him build a six string version to a virtually identical spec.

Lovely pics! OK, roll call time! 1. neepheid 2. kateplaysbass 3. MichaelDean 5. Buddster 7. GrahamT 9. Breadbin 13. Rich 14. verb. 16. sandy_r 17. moooper 17a. Sully (moooper jnr) 19. basstone 20. obbm 22. scrumpymike 29. Mrs Scrumpy

On the rare occasion when I get a £50 note these days, my first reaction is "oh FFS, now I've got to go to the ruddy bank"

Yes, wouldn't it be a shame if somebody showed it to her? By the way, I was just thinking how nice your Mesa amp would look in my rack...

I hope you're taking her to the jeweller's Mike that crumble alone is worth 18 carats..!

And I woulda gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for you meddling, errm, kid

You were missed bud

If there are a handful of things I've taken away from yesterday, it's these: 1. Oh god, the food. And oh GOD, that crumble. ❤ 2. What a lovely, lovely bunch of people you all are. It was like spending the day with people I've known all my life. I could almost get emotional about this. 3. Between us, we don't half have some nice gear. Oh my word yes. Playing @Buddster's lovely '76 Jazz through my own rig was a personal highlight, and possibly a big mistake... 🤤 4. A renewed deep sense of satisfaction with my own gear. Having drooled over everyone else's gear (especially @Kateplaysbass's immensely cool little green number), I was playing my Shuker and realised that I was really listening to it in a way that I don't normally, almost never have in fact, and I've fallen in love with it all over again. I'm a lucky so-&-so. I think we all are, actually. Thank you all again for a wonderful day. I only wish Norm and yorks could have been there with us.

Fixed.

Level 42 - A Physical Presence Recorded at three gigs: Woolwich Coronet, Chippenham Golddiggers and Reading Hexagon. I was at Reading. Surprisingly, the bit where Mark King told us that "Woolwich is a sh!thole but they can sing better than you" didn't make it on to the record.

It looks like a 50s Cadillac. Love it.

I've just been googling the Warwick Gnomes and have found how ridiculously cheap they are. Bah, GAS again. Curse you, Bass Bash.

Yes, the Ampeg sounded really good. I was most impressed with the Warwick Gnome too.

@neepheid, please let us know when you arrive home safely.

Agreed, what a super duper day, helped in no small measure by the wonderful weather, but chiefly by the forest of amazing kit and the company of smashing people. I love this place. Huge thanks to Mike for the organising and to the wonderful ladies for an awesome spread as per. The crumble. Oh god, the crumble. @BreadBin, your car is not supposed to sound that good 😍😍

If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night) - Me'Shell Ndegéocello

Oi. I saw them first

Sweet Gene Vincent - Ian Fury + B/heads

Swords of a Thousand Men - Tenpole Tudor

I'll have my Genz Benz Shuttle 9.2 with me.

The Fuzzdog Fat Furry Freak is an excellent Woolly Mammoth clone, I've got one on my board and it's superb. Definitely raffle these two separately.

Overrated: Behringer BDI21, stock... mid scoop that colours everything. US Fenders, specifically a} insane pricing and b} the fact that when they trumpet about "NEW basses!" you just know it's going to be the same old same old but in a different colour. Underrated: Behringer BDI21, after the single-resistor mid mod... totally transforms the sound, gets rid of the scoop. Instant Geddy. the old Nemesis by Eden cabs, e.g. the NSP115. Absolutely fantastic things, I had a pair of the 115s for many years and they were superb. Very lightweight in terms of, errm, weight but certainly not tonally. Yet I hardly ever saw them mentioned anywhere. Shuker basses. But then again I would say that, wouldn't I. But if you prefer passive anyway, surely that alone will make it difficult to gel with a preamp, whether said preamp is brilliant or not? I would add Klotz to that. I've had two of them since 1986 and not a single problem with either of them. Brilliant things. I guess it depends where you're approaching them from. The neck on my Q4 is a delight to play. I'll second that, the Wilks pickup in my P bitsa is fabulous. Having said all that: 100% truth.

My first fretless (a Jaydee Roadie) was unlined and had 3/5/7/9/etc dots where the frets would have been. My current fretless neck - ironically also made by Jaydee - has edge markers a bit like the OP's pic, with the dots where they would have been on a fretted neck. I have painted those dots black and put new dots at the fret markers, because that's what I'm used to on a fretless neck.

Off the Top of My Head -- Biz Markie