nosnowking

That's great advice, thank you! The keyboard stand to the left of the bass is its usual resting place, à la BassBar. I need to move some furniture to find a corner! 😅

Pulp in may...in Amsterdam. It's one of my wife's bucket list gigs, and I've never been to Amsterdam, so it'll be a long weekend. Plus, an old college friend happens to be their new bassist 😎 #namedrop 😅 Then Janes Addiction later in the year. Can't remember when...

Hi all, Got myself a double bass a few weeks ago after 30-odd years of playing electric. It's not a pretty sight, and has been gigged extensively on the rockabilly/psychobilly circuit. Came to me with nylon strings and painted all over in this silver and black spiderweb pattern. To be honest, it was pretty well done, but I wanted steel strings and the fingerboard was not up to the job with paint all over it. As it turns out it's an Antoni plywood box with a maple board...not exactly orchestral quality but it's suitable for my needs and budget. Stripped the neck, sanded it down, scored myself a set of helicores, strung it up, then realised the bridge was not in a decent shape for steels, so ordered an adjustable from CJ Stephens. Realised I'd cut the bridge too low so had to "borrow" the feet from the old bridge. 😅 The old pickup was in a bad way so I picked up a J-Tone off eBay. Once strung up I realised the fingerboard was in worse shape than I originally thought, and it wouldn't play without rattles and dead spots. Strings off again and sanded some relief into the board. It now plays pretty well with a reasonable action, although it's still a bit high near the octave so I might need to take the bridge end of the board down a bit further. The nut has been cut way too deep and wide for steels. For now I've got some maple veneer shims in the nut slots while I work up the courage to cut a new nut from a blank I bought. So a few weeks have passed and I've grown tired of the paint job. It's not me. Out with the paint stripper again... Not sure if the spiderweb was done with some kind of sheet overlay, but it came off in great globs of slimy mess. Under the silver there's also red, and black, and blue, and primer, and writing, and stickers...🤣 The wood itself shows some battle scars and looks kinda cool. This thing has had more spray jobs than David Dickinson! Found myself some walnut varnish in the garage, and painted the fingerboard black. It's looking pretty good so far. At least I'll have slightly more dignity walking into the local jam night! This has been a fun experience so far. I know it's not a "quality" instrument but it plays alright and sounds like most other plywood basses. It might even speak a bit more freely without 27 layers of paint on the body...although I doubt it! It is what it is. Future work...new nut. Sort out rattly tuners. I need to strip the scroll but that's a fiddly job so the bass looks like it's wearing a tinfoil hat! I have a nasty feeling there's a historical headstock break under the paint, but it feels solid. Tailpiece also needs stripping. The neck join shows no sign of movement, so long may that continue. Need to properly sort the bridge feet, they're not quite sitting flush. The you go, my budget bass-shaped object! 😎

Hi all, I just picked up a Boss Katana to amp up the DB... I only have a plywood box so wasn't interested in expensive analogue gear but did need a decent EQ to tame the boom! Anyway, this is just a plug for the amp in case it gets dismissed as just another practice amp. 1x10 speaker plus tweeter (there is a 2x10 version). 60w through the 1x10 feels louder than it should be. But the best part? It has ridiculously powerful EQ built in, both graphic and parametric with LPF and HPF. Compression, reverb, FX blend, and a decent DI. Oh, and 1MOhm input so it'll take a piezo pickup directly. Definitely worth a serious look if you're after an amp or preamp for your DB. 😎

Masked off the headstock just with masking tape. Took a Stanley blade and meticulously shaved the lacquer off the neck and fingerboard. It's pretty thin on the Bronco so it didn't take too long. Just hold the blade at 90 degrees to the wood and shave away. After that, just freehand sanded the fingerboard edges to roll them. Lost a bit of fretting area and the G string is a little close to the edge, but it feels lovely. Also took the opportunity to round off the neck heel. Sanded from 80 grit up to 1200, then three thin coats of danish oil. The oil I had was "Jacobean Oak" and picked up the grain really nicely with a worn-in look. All in it took probably four or five hours, but that was spread over a week. Very relaxing! 😎🤣

I did a quick measure up with calipers and yes, a standard fender 5 screw bridge will fit. It's normal spacing, not narrow. I was thinking, as mentioned before, of putting a high mass bridge on there.

Just posted this in the Bronco thread ... The Twin Locos are great bass pickups! Very sensitive, high output and punchy. Bit narrow though for the bridge position, so be aware. 😎 The E and G strings only *just* go over the rails.

Late to the party I know. Bought one a few weeks ago. The pickup is utterly pants, as it's a cheapo six pole guitar pickup. Tuners and bridge are fine, although the bridge saddles can skate around on the baseplate. Be sure to give them a nudge if your strings feel off-centre. I did some fettling on mine... Warman Twin Loco pickups, vvt controls, side mount jack, stripped and oiled the neck. Oh, and I disintegrated the nut with a polishing mop. 🙄... Jazz nut from Tusq fits but it needed a little shim to bring it up to height. It's now my number 1 bass! 😎

My current workhorse is a TRBX505 In diarrhoea-brown. I bought it a few years ago, cheap, as a backup bass because I'm playing almost exclusively 5 string these days. It's managed to outlive 2 Spectors, a BBP35, a Stingray 5, a BB735A, and a BB1025. My Fender Jazz 4 never got any use and is now sold. My Stingray 4 is to die for but hardly gets any use. It's got that "best bass for metal" body shape, but in the poo-brown colour it's actually quite understated and cool...and I've had more compliments on this bass than all the others put together! I do love the top end Yams, but they always left me wanting something more that I can't quite put my finger on. But to answer your original question, it's all marketing and nostalgia. The big names have it nailed, they always sign up the new acts and shove one of their guitars in their hands. (I mean, if I was Sam Fender, I'd have left it at least a decade before endorsing Fender guitars, just to f**k with them! I'd have been knocking down Gibson's door! 😂) They like to play the "we invented it" card, but others were doing the same thing at the time... Fender just had a more successful business model and an aggressive legal team. But then I know that by buying a Yamaha most of my cash will go into the quality of the guitar, rather than a sizeable chunk going to the marketing department. If I were to consider another bass from the Fender stable, it would be a Charvel. It feels a bit more rock 'n' roll to leave the £1500+ supposedly "good" basses at home and go out every weekend with a Yamaha marketed at beginners. One of these days I might spray it pink or rainbow crackle. And I might just buy another as a backup-backup.

I've dropped the best part of £4,000 in there over the last few years. Never been in, live too far away. Love the products, excellent range of gear and at good prices usually. Email exchanges in my experience have been "curt and to the point." The website is a bit Windows-XP but it's mostly functional. Bought a used MM Stingray a while back. Arrived fine, albeit the case just had a bit of cardboard randomly sellotaped around it. Luckily the MM cases are decent. Bought a Spector short-scale brand new. The bass had been chucked into the gig bag, not zipped up all the way. You may know that the short scale Spectors come with a full size gig bag...my bass was literally hanging from the opening of the gig bag by a single machinehead where the case hadn't been zipped up...or if it had, it had been zipped up around the headstock. Bass was rattling around inside the bag, inside the box. Luckily no ill effects but it could have been much worse. Had to chase up a free gift where one had been offered but not delivered. The less said about my most recent purchase there, the better. Maybe I'd have different experience if I went in person to the shop. I usually know what I want and where to buy it. I don't need to be sold an exotic alternative, been round the block far too many times for that. It's nice to have a specialist available to us in this country, but I could do without the "specialist" approach to customer service. I bought a cheap 'n' cheerful Yamaha from Peach Guitars a while back and the service was exemplary. Clean, set up by hand, personalised note in the box, photos and weight of the exact guitar I was getting, shipping updates, follow-up emails. That's the kind of wrap-around customer service I like to see, just a shame their product range isn't wider. I'll usually support the independents rather than the box-shifters, but I've had better service from GAK, Andertons, Music Street, even PMT (and that's a low bar!) I'm a sensitive little chap and poor service sticks in my throat.