Leaderboard

Wind back five years and you’ll hopefully understand why this bass is as special to me as it is.... In Feb 2013 I was diagnosed with a massive tumour on my right kidney. It was at Stage 3 due to the size (an unbelievable 9.5kgs!) and I was told by the surgeon that it they didn’t operate soon it would kill me one way or another. On Thursday last week, I was given the good news that I had no signs of recurrence and that they were leaving it to me whether I wanted to continue under observation; in short they were happy for me to be discharged. To get to the 5 year milestone was something I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to, so to say I’m relieved is an understatement! After a few tears (something in my eye) my wife told me to treat myself and knew I’d been hankering after one of these: who was I to refuse! After an early morning start I picked this up from Bass Direct on Saturday. The guys kindly restrung it with TI Flats and it really is the best Fretless I have owned. It is more special to me than words can adequately convey. Here it is:

Gibson: how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways. Here's the new 'Modern V' - apparently a new take on the 1967 V OK, not all bad, you think. You look closer and see a list price of $4499. Ouch! But - still - there's something about it that intrigues you. Then you discover it's got a richlite (compressed paper and resin) fingerboard. Alright, Martin use richlite on their cheaper (but still nice) acoustics. And you know that at least one reasonably well-known luthier's refretted a richlite board and pronounced it acceptable. But Richlite on a four-and-a-half grand guitar? Even so, the look still tugs at you. It's one of the less butt-ugly models Gibson have put out recently. Unique, almost. Then - being of a certain age - you dimly remember the Jackson Roswell Rhoads which first came out in the 1990's. Wow, must be worth a fortune, right. Secondhand Roswell went for just under £700 on Reverb just before Xmas. Another one went on the bay for £1500. So, $4499 for a slightly less-than-unique V mash-up with a richlite board. Thanks, Gibson. Thank you so very f**king much.

The problem I had gigging with Hitler was he was always booking shows hundreds of miles from home, usually in the dead of winter. Getting back was often a nightmare; we'd be on the road, up to our nuts in snow and he'd just swan off on the train with his mates. It all started well enough; touring the continent, big crowds, good money. Then we took on too much work and the quality began to slide; eventually he'd call band meetings then just ramble on about 'the future' even though we weren't getting the gigs anymore. It all collapsed when he suddenly told us he didn't want to carry on and that he was more interested in marrying his girlfriend. I'd do it all again, mind you.

Of course mate, especially in the jazz venues ;-)

Still my favourite looking bass. A super rare Hamer Impact neck through, from the 90's..

Unfortunately nowadays "Made In America" for mass produced instruments mostly means overpriced, for the build quality.

Oh my, they are lovely. Very nice @ped As soon as the new bass arrives, I will certainly post a few pics. I'm super excited and have always wanted a purple bass and like you, I have never seen an EXCESS 5 in purple but I have seen an ARPEGE V 5 string. I have attached the picture below. It is stunning

Hmm. I can see one of those in my future soon. I don't think I've seen a purple one, so look forward to pics of that... Inspired by your picture, I just opened a bottle of '65 and gave mine a polish!!

That is beautiful @Snarf I love that finish and colour. I have attached a picture of my no.1 and when my new Excess 5 arrives in purple this time, I'll post it then. Enjoy and this has turned in to my new fave BC thread ha ha ha ha ha ha

I play very lightly, I can play very fast too. It's just practice, ergonomics. I find that if you're 'digging in', then where can you go when you need to move up a gear?

Excellent - I'm tempted to bring one of my old Arpege basses to the show after I missed the chance of showing it to Patrice himself a few years ago. I showed him a picture of it and he said 'Thank you for looking after it' which I thought was pretty legendary.

Before anyone else mentions it: Scott Walker and Sunn 0)))

As I said up top - EQ pedal. Gain reduction.. with buffer in front of first pedal...

I didn't vote because it makes little difference. Go with the one that is lighter and/or the one you most like the look of. Then make sure your electrics and hardware are top-notch and the neck is a premium product. PS: Go with the maple board.

Generally have a beer or two on stage. Our last gig was at a bar with a huge number of TV screens and I was caught watching the cricket at one point - in my defence it might have been during Sex on Fire.

I find a Pot Noodle fits nicely into my drinks holder on my microphone stand....

My admiration for the organisers of any Bass Bash in the country is immense. Its a big task & you guys have my gratitude. I will always try to attend & support as it is the best fun to be a Bass Basher! The South West Bashes (my local) have been great & very well organised by members Yorks5stringer, then Jimrs2k & now taken on by Scrumpymike. Last years was the biggest yet that I have attended, onward to this years Big Fat South West Bass Bash on 8th April 2018!

Remember this? David Paton on the bass we don't mention....

Looks to me like a supreme level of skilled craftsmanship and incredible attention to detail was needed to create that instrument. Shame really then that to me it also looks bleedin orrible! A bit like if you'd gotten Leonardo Davinci to paint you a picture of a Ann Widdecombe in a string bikini.

Bass Heaven - Finally bringing home from the shop the bass you've been dreaming of for months and plugging it in for the first time Bass Hell- The following day when you're bored of it and already looking for something else.

Anybody tried the new Acoustic Image Upshot extension speaker yet? https://www.thomann.de/gb/acoustic_image_upshot_s4plus_speaker_cabinet.htm

Hello. Ive been getting in to pedals over the last year or so. It started with a tremelo for my pianet, then an octaver for my bass, an analogue echo for general mixing and so on. Now I need somewhere to put them, so here’s the fruits of this evening’s labours... 1. Started off with a few planks taken from an old bed base. 2. Cut to size (ish - I’m too impatient to wait for the correct tools). 3. Remember to charge the effin’ screwdriver! 4. Glooo and scroooo 5 & 6. Not looking too bad! Next I’ll need to fill the duff holes, give it a sand, then apply whatever suitable finish I find in the shed. Then Velcro up and see if I can attach the power supply to the underside, and finally attach some rubber feet on the bottom. Whattaya fink?

Not at all surprising, it's all obscure and/or one off stuff. L-R: Marco Bass Guitars SC5 prototype, Crescent Moon fretless, BSX Model 2000 EUB. I've personally organized quite a few Talkbass "Get-Togethers" over the years, and traveled as far as 2500 miles to attend others. Most of ours are free for the attendees, with varying degrees of vendor and "rock star" player participation. The picture I posted is from last year's Seattle event, which I think drew around 60-70 players. One had the option of catered food and beer, or not. And that beer in cans is not even available at the brewpub the event was held in, BTW.

Generally speaking spraying poly over Nitro is not a good idea. Nitro will out gas and shrink for a long time after sprayed. It never really cures like poly does as Nitro can always be dissolved. So that could well be your problem. What poly are you using? Moving forward I'd suggest cleaning as throughly as you can then a light coat of shellac in between (which sticks to just about anything). edit: in between=before continting with topcoats.

heaven, bass below the waist played with a pick hell, bass just under the chin played with fingers, I'll get my coat and put my tin hat on

Nothing wrong with a Mexican Fender, I had a Harris Fender that was Mexican and if it wasn't for the weight I would have it now!

Hi, Nick ! Thanks for asking, since I think many other Basschat members wonder about that. There are many knobs, and all of them have a function ( on EARTH! Just kidding, Nick, ok? ). So.... From right to left, on the bottom line, the 3 first are : main volume, piezo volume, MIDI volume. From right to left, on the upper line, the first is pick-ups balance. So, as you noticed, this piccolo bass has a big electronic system (MIDI, and piezo pick-up) and, for the "regular" pick-ups, the Alembic-style filters systems. For each pick-up, you can select the frequency you like and modify the Q width. You can check this on the pic I uploaded just for you! Don't hesitate if you have any question; have a very good day ! Xtof

The only thing I can think of is that maybe the preamp is wired up incorrectly.. there are tons of Sire users using pedals and never heard of this before. I wonder if this is the kind of symptom you might get if the preamp output is hooked up to the jack with the wrong polarity, and your particular amp happens to work but the input stage of one or more of your pedals doesn't like it? Got any other amps or audio interfaces you can try out to see if they can reproduce the same issue with no pedals in the chain?

Go with what’s lightest followed by what looks nice. Your electronics will determine what it sounds like.

I don't eat or drink anything on stage. Usually, with the bands I play in, there is no time (dead space) between songs. I've been in bands who like to take it easy during the set and have a drink, a chat and a joke amongst themselves. I always hated that. IMO we are here to entertain so we should be socialising off stage.

Shipbuilding with Robert Wyatt.

Yup me too they will have all three colours there I understand

I get that. Having the luxury of space in which to spread out I can say with certainty that it is too easy to let things go slack and end up with several jobs running concurrently. Often it would be best to finish a job before starting a new one. It's okay to have a couple of things going when curing times are involved as the wait can be used to progress the other jobs. If you get it right, you have the basis of a profitable occupation. In the seventies Toyota shared its JIT (Just in Time) production method, also known as TPS (Toyota Production System) with its competitors and the world in general. This proved that lots of warehouse space is not necessary in large scale manufacturing if you get your chain of supply to deliver to tight deadlines. This removes the delays between production of sub-assembly parts and the final assembly of those parts into the end product. Less storage costs, shorter lead times, repeat orders as a result of delivering on time every time - everyone wins. Many large companies around the world adopted JIT and it is a well established principle in manufacturing today. People often produce their best results under difficult circumstances, in this case, the need to live in the space where you want to do the work. Admirable.

Some of the ones my wife calls me I can’t publish

Great band. When I was in my teens it was either the Stones or the Faces that held my interest. Most of my mates at school were into ELP / Yes / Sabbath etc, but I always preferred the more blues driven rock bands, still do! Ronnie Lane was fantastic , both as a bassist and songwriter. Watching this makes me realise how sad it is that we lost him so soon, along with Ian MacLagan too. The Faces live had that wonderful 'loose but tight' thing going on, which didn't always translate to record IMO. Thanks for posting!

... and Ronnie Lanes bass if you're interested:

I prefer Alder or Ash! In all seriousness I am of the opinion that the neck, and in particular the fingerboard wood makes the biggest overall contribution to the dynamic of the instrument.

Reef’s ‘Naked’, appropriate title for such a sparse bassline. It works perfectly for the song, but I hated playing this when my band had it in the set, bored me silly,

I'm guessing Sadowsky, but by no means 100% sure!

My favourite was a guy who bought an Epi 335 and a lead to go with it. Came back in complaining his new electric guitar didn’t work. he’d gone home and somehow wired a household plug onto the end of his newly acquired cable... he’d been plugging it into the mains. how he didn’t die I’ll never know.

I'm fine with Behringer - my hearing is rubbish and we're using it for stuff like this to get a better sound than just off the camera...:

This is just based on my personal experience and I'm in no way disparaging EUBs, but unless you absolutely don't have the space, I'd go straight for a DB. EUBs definitely have their place and you might get one at a later date if you need the portability, but the satisfaction of getting a sound out of a big acoustic instrument is hard to beat.