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As expected, there's a happy ending to this story. I met up with Andy today and, having got back home and had a quick play, I can report that Rascal Mervyn-Lyte is an absolute joy. Andy's managed to retain the excellent features of the original Rascal (playability, sounds and controls) and make good the things I didn't like about it (weight and positioning on the strap); and that's without even mentioning the lovely walnut cut by my late buddy Merv. Andy's said a few times that he doesn't claim his stuff is perfect. All I can say is that this one's perfect for me.

Scandi-jazz from the North-East

my ex was the same... we shared the musical taste, but she was clueless about instruments. My girlfriend... we actually met through bass! She was a local fan of my main band. I had seen her coming to our gigs in town for nearly a year, so I recognised her in the crowd and we'd say hello, but nothing much beyond that. One night, between sets, she comes to me and tells me she plays guitar a little and has recently started playing bass... and was learning my basslines from the only CD we had out at the time. That was pretty shocking. Even more shocking was that she was nervous to talk to me because... I was the bass player in this band she really liked "omg" But she needed to talk to me because live I play a few things quite differently and she was trying to figure out what I do in one particular song... That song was the opener for the second set so I made sure to make it obvious to her what I was doing, and she was there watching me for the rest of the gig (I was embarrased by then... look, I play bass because I like the power... and hiding in the back! :D) Anyway... after that we started chatting... that led to going for a beer or 16... for walks... lunch... and we've been together for a bit over two years. Bass is awesome.

many, many people would disagree with you strongly on this. it also has absolutely zero bearing on the merit of the case

I listened to them this morning and have to agree. But then again supposedly Radiohead were sued for ripping off 'All I Need Is The Air That I Breathe' by The Hollies, so they haven't really got a leg to stand on!

The fender part no is fender 0994406000 Don't know of any UK stock but ordering from the US has been fine for me in the past. As long as you can get someone to post USPS it will be cheap. Probably cheaper than a UK agent.. if they stocked it.

If you click on your name in the top right-hand corner, you'll see a menu with Sticky Notes as the second item.

bit more progress - got the polycarbonate fitted but need some stronger magnets to hold the assembly in place. Should have them in the next day or so and then I'll make another prototype to check fit etc. Also printed some feet to screw the LT to the board (same thickness as the rubber feet so they use the same screws) also got my new Smoothound wireless fitted (just !) and am experimenting with it being battery powered (via a 5V - 9V converter) and a 5000mAh mobile phone power bank. Seems to work OK - will need to check run times etc but it means no extra power sockets on the board (not that i have room for them anyway!). Just got the XLR jump lead to solder up to save wear/tear on the Helix socket and to act as a basic line of defence if someone trips over the cable and then try it at band rehearsal into two Yamaha DBR15's we use for the drummers Drum-Tec E-Kit I'm using return 1 as my main input as the guitar input can't handle my Vigier Passion IV or G&L L2000 (even with the input pad on) - seems OK though

Is it actually Radiohead, or Radiohead's publishers? There's an important difference.

A 12" LP in a nicely designed and printed sleeve as an artefact is a thing of beauty. As a delivery medium for music it's a piece of crap. Give me a CD or a lossless download any day. Maybe the way forward for selling music is to package your CD in a 12" vinyl type sleeve which gives you the best of both worlds? Wood id still used for solid musical istruments because it is still comparatively cheap as a material and it is easy to shape and finish compared with the alternatives. Plus most musicians are far too conservative these days.

Raucous action for the South West....

'Fairlight Orchestral Hit'. 'LinnDrum'

Outstanding!

This. Keep in mind that learning to play an instrument (or learning a martial art, to give you another example) is basically enhancing your brain/muscle connections, and learning to have better control over muscles you didn't use as much or with such precision. The thing with that is that when you resort to playing hard, you go back to your most instinctive movements instead of doing what you've learnt. Control is key. Once your hands/fingers become evenly stronger, you will be able to play faster without making any effort.

Nice idea! I've been working with a folk band down here called Velvet & Stone lately, really enjoying their music! Haven't had a camera one any of my more upbeat gigs but it's a start!

I might be missing something with what you are asking but as sustain is a measure of the length of time a note sounds for, so why wouldn’t you want a better sustain characteristic? There are way too many songs to list, but to pick one - she sells sanctuary by The Cult, the bass starts with two ringing A notes so without sustain it would sound terrible. You can always mute a note if you want it to sound for less time.

I can't play in thumb for toffee but I fit both rests just to grab it by and to stand it in a corner at gigs.

This is serving me well.

Will do! I'm excited to see what possibilities it has, but the Ampeg rig has been absolutely fantastic for me, so the new rig has a lot to live up to.

I like Creep, there was some right terrible music around at around the same time Spoombung

My website has a page about my 12-ers. There are also some video clips with it on the 'Entertainment' page. I don't use the black Chaparral very often, so may think of parting with it.

I really wanted to replace the strings on my Lakland DJ5 with the same Lakland stainless set it came with, however they have no distributor over here, so the only option was to import them. Given the shipping cost was going to be the same price as a set, I decided to wait until I'd been paid for NYE and then order two sets, to amortise the shipping across two sets instead of one. New Year's Day, I sit down to order my new strings (the ones on the bass now being deader than a Norweigan Blue) and found a bug in their website that wouldn't let me progress the order past the delivery address page. So I gave up and ordered a similar set of D'addarios through my local guitar shop, they've got my bass now to fit the strings and I should get it back next weekend; hopefully I'll like them as much as the Laklands. To the OP though, just be glad your girlfriend doesn't play a 5 string, with a 35" scale and through body stringing 😁

Other rotary options: EHX Lester K / Lester G Pigtronix Rototron Keeley Dyno My Roto Strymon Lex Boss RT-20 Tech21 RotoChoir DigiTech Ventura That Ventilator sounds awesome, I'm gonna have to see how it compares to the others. I really liked the Destination Rotation I had except the drive circuit dropped too much low end, but I could deffo see one of these replacing both the phaser and chorus on my board if I found the right one.

Ah, also the sound of underpowered 412 cabs being pushed within an inch of blowing up. Sounds like there is very little separation anywhere in that studio. If it is a Leslie then let it go. Just use some sort of distortion. With that amount of string noise, sounds like the the bass is tuned down.

Done - who knows, you might leave with more than that

They look just at home on the bass

I bought this bass a few years ago for not much. It wasn't bad sounding at all, it was VERY light, the neck was comfy, it was cheap... it was the ideal bass to take busking where it's more likely to get the odd knock. I have ended up replacing the pickup (first an Entwistle neodymium PBXN, and yesterday a Fender Original) and the neck (I'm a sucker for maple, and the right neck came up with glossy lacquer... similar profile...)... so how much this reflects the original bass is debatable but I love this thing. I've used it as my bass to try strings on, and finally I strung it with my usual DR Fat Beams (same as in my Classic 50s Precision)... I can't wait until the initial zing dies off (I hate new strings). Anyway... I thought I'd use a slow Sunday to post a few pictures of this beast... just because. The alternative is reading a paper I need for work tomorrow and, I really don't feel like doing that I can't find pictures of the bass how it was when I bought it... so that's a picture of an identical one I found online. Then I replaced the pickup. That's an Entwistle PBXN, with replacement white covers... and I put a white pickguard on it: And I found a maple neck for it... and a mint green pickguard too: A sticker with my main band's logo now covers the black star, and changed the knobs, because if I don't change things in this bass from time to time it feels wrong Yesterday I changed the strings and installed the Fender pickup... I like the routing on these basses. If you can ignore the pickguard screw holes, it looks pretty cool: And this is what it looks like now... the original pickguard returns, and changed the knobs once more... I adjusted the action and this thing plays so smoothly now... I just now have to use it regularly to kill the 'new string zing' I dislike, and see how it compares to my Classic 50s... I was toying with the idea of selling the Mike Dirnt (downsizing!) as it's redundant, but I'd get so little for it that I might just keep it. Hmmm, Labella white nylon tapewound strings could make this bass glorious!

It turns out it was the mono jack output from the TC Electronic Chorus pedal - the stereo out is quiet as anything. Typical that I found that out after taking apart my whole board and all the wiring! I have no idea what suddenly caused that output to fail. Very annoying but at least I found it in the end. I did invest in the Behringer CT 100 which should arrive today and there is no doubt that that is a useful bit of kit to always have in the gigbag.

Good evening, Caretaker, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share. @Funkfingers Innuendo..? Can't think what you mean. Reminds me of a little tale, though... A doctor made it his regular habit to stop at a bar for a hazelnut daiquiri on his way home. The bartender knew of his habit, and would always have the drink waiting at precisely 5:03 pm One afternoon, as the end of the work day approached, the bartender was dismayed to find that he was out of hazelnut extract. Thinking quickly, he threw together a daiquiri made with hickory nuts instead, and set it on the counter. The doctor came in right on time, as usual, took one sip of the drink and exclaimed, "But this isn't a hazelnut daiquiri..!" "No, I'm sorry," replied the bartender, "it's a hickory daiquiri, doc."

To be honest I am not sure. Alpha do them so I would be surprised if CTS didn't. Just a case of hunting them down on t'Interweb. RS Components might be a good start. BTW it's a 1Meg reverse audio taper npt 10M

Thanks for posting, @Happy Jack, I joined these guys yesterday.

Following some advice I found on a random web page, I loosened the string tree screw by a half turn and somehow the wolf note is now totally gone. So I've managed to fix the issue without spending a single penny. Which was nice.

Ditch that crap black scratchplate Jose. And sell it to me Good work (as ever) by the way.

Thank goodness you're here to save us, @prowla! Actually, while you're on, I've just snapped up The Mona Lisa for a great price. I'm SO chuffed.

Aye. but I got those weights wrong think 68g & 75g are closer,battery is 20g. A right heavy preamp is my Noll at 200g inc 2x 9v batteries. Think the 3 concentric pots and ribbon cable account for most of that. Pots are huge

Real. it’s the body, the sound, the feel....the sweat, the pain, the expense, the awkwardness, the difficulty....but oh the sheer joy!

Not recommended this time of year, too cold and may upset the neighbours. 😎😀

Something I'll never need again is a comb. Does that count?

My Shaftesbury: Now has a Ric bridge and binding (pending collection).

Sold Andy my Korg multi-effects thing. He was a beaut to deal with, a pillar of the Basschat community. I would have 0 hesitation dealing with Andy again!

Had the pleasure of dealing with Andy over the last day or so , Great comms and super speedy deal ( just the way it should be ) A credit to BC and top chap ! Deal in total confidence Cheers Gary

A friend made a new cabinet for my Peavey VB-2, a very nice tube/valve amp that costs close to nothing. The original cabinet was broken, so I ordered a new made from smoked oak. I just mounted the amp in the box; it looks nice, but will have some more bling-bling before it is ready. A nice grille cloth, a few rounds of oil and then leather corners. Looks rather nice already...

Yes, I bought some more strings - no problems at all with the transaction. I transferred the money straight into his back account, and he sent them anyway... I doubt he'd get very far on £10...

Sold some pickups to Andy. Easy deal, great comms, THanks mate !!

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' timestamp='1488560012' post='3250078'] The Bongo headstock needs to be taken in the context of the body design. Still doesn't make it pretty though, but it makes more sense. [/quote] Isn't that the bass with a body that looks like a slightly melted toilet seat from one of those fancy Japanese hotels? I guess having a bass body that looks like a crapper distracts from the headstock (and thanks Deep Thought, I too am now seeing Pepper Pig!). Still perhaps the most ugly bass to have ever been in mass production.