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Geezer doesn't carry his own amps! He has a butler for that.

First of all,its my honor that bass players and builders are talking about my bass. In the end of the build i will thank all the people that helped me with this,because behind of this build,are so many great guys hidden,who helped me with their knowledge I will see if i can edit the earlier posts and upload again the pictures. This bass,actually,is not an ergonomic bass. The 2 main reasons,are dimensions and weight. If a person need ergonomic bass,he must look for max 30" scale.The smaller the scale,the smaller the frets,and easier to play This bass because of the bigger scale,have more wood than a common bass guitar and that means it weights more. I will try to make 36mm body thickness to lose weight. I am not a luthier,just a DIYer. In the beginning,i wanted to build a multiscale.Also a headless.So,i make the decision to build a multiscale-headless. From my previous 40" build,i know that if a bass be longer than 40",the wrist on the left hand is gonna be i difficult position.So it must be torzal neck. I choose to put all these in one single build,just for the fun and the challenge to see if i can make it. There are still things that i didn't know how i will do,but as the build is going on,i see what it will be nice or good,and do it. Tha playing positions are these at the pictures.The neck is angled,but there is nothing to rest the right hand like the normal basses,which i like,but there are so many players,that don't rest their right hand on the bass

Rumble 500 V3 Combo - Revisited There have been a number of threads about gear you miss, gear you should never have sold, and gear you got back or re-bought... such is the GAS carousel. I bought a Fender Rumble 500 V3 Combo in February of 2016 and reviewed it on this board. I was very pleased with it in every way, but sold it - as the band I was in, and the number of small gigs it was doing, needed an even smaller and more portable set-up... yes, it is just about possible. A G-K MB200 and a BF One10 cab. However... I missed the Rumble ever since it went, so when one came up for sale here, I bought it. I'm a little further down the road and possibly more able to appreciate the subtleties of gear that I may have once missed. Or maybe not. Anyway, here are my impressions second time around. Now read on... Model: Fender Rumble™ 500 (V3) Combo Amplifier: SS/Class-D Colour: Black and Silver Controls: Gain, Bright/Contour/Vintage Presets, Drive/Level, Bass, Low-Mid, High-Mid, Treble, Master Effects Loop: 1/4" - (Send/Return) Inputs: 1/4" Jack; 3.5mm Stereo; 1/4" Overdrive Footswitch (not included) Outputs: XLR with Ground Lift; Headphones 3.5mm Stereo Voltage: 230V UK/EUR Wattage: 500W RMS @ 4 ohms (with Ext Cab), 350W RMS @ 8 ohms (Internal) Speakers: 2 X 10" Eminence Ceramic Magnet, Compression Tweeter, Twin Ports, Cloth Grille (removable) Cab Material: 12mm Baltic Ply, Black Tolex, Chrome-Nickel Corner Protectors Handle: Moulded Plastic Strap with Chrome-Nickel Plated Caps Controls: Vintage-Style Radio, Cream Dimensions: 23" X 19" X 14" (59 X 49 X 36cm) HWD Weight: 36lbs (16.3kg) I've been using a venerable Trace Elliot Combo for a while (which is really very good) and looked forward to comparing it with the Rumble. I imagined the Rumble would be far superior tone-wise, but this was not the case. They both do the same sort of job, just in different ways. Both the Rumble and the Trace sound best in a band situation, both are powerful and punchy, both have lots of headroom and both are true gigging amps. But their Gain controls work entirely differently. On the Trace you need it high, to work the preamp and EQ. On the Rumble it's more about pushing the Vintage and Drive circuits, which add harmonics, depth, warmth and, er... drive. It also progressively adds compression, which is very cool indeed. But it brings little or no volume or grit to the table when used in isolation... and you don't want it at more than 9 o'clock if you're looking for a super-clean sound. Just push the master a bit more. Dispersion is really excellent and the tone is smooth and consistent. Sounds very lush, professional and 'right'. The combo is small, light and it can get very loud. It's sold as a 500-watt amp, but you need an extension cab to get full beans - thus negating the purpose of a combo in my opinion, but there it is. In practise, the 350 watts on tap without an extension are more than enough in most situations. And of course there is a DI out should you need to go front of house. It's not 'better' than my Trace combo. The Trace has a lot going for it. But the Rumble is much easier to use and is less than half the weight, making it a one-hand lift. You still wouldn't want to carry it very far with that one hand, but at just over 16kg it's just about the smallest and lightest you can go down to, yet still plausibly vibrate the floorboards, annoy guitarists and compete with the most shed-building of drummers. And if you're inclined, a Rumble and P-Bass wearing a set of flats will get you into B15 territory on the cheap. Fantastic with a pick, too - you can really nail that Joe Osborn 'Wrecking Crew' vibe. You can pick one up second-hand between £325 and £350 (they are circa £510 new), so there's not much stopping you from owning one. What's not to like?

The Plastic Mojo Band played our first real gig this afternoon, and I thought it might be interesting to compare stories. (It's probably been done here before...) We came together as a workshop project a while back, which led to a friends-and-family gig in March with a few peeps drifting in off the street. Decided to stay together as a band, using a practice room over a local pub. The landlady overheard us and asked us to play this afternoon, clear that we would just be background noise - which suited us, as it took some pressure off. Apologised that she could only give us beer and food and not money - we weren't expecting even that! This a completely acoustic gig. (Yes, acoustic bass.) We started inside the pub, which has a decent piano, but the very few customers were all outside in the good weather, so she asked us to play outside, which meant that the keys player had nothing to do for the rest of the afternoon but drink with his friends. (We did drag him up to play hand percussion for a couple of songs.) A new (very good) guitar player who we'd barely met. Our excellent lead singer couldn't be there. Luckily we're a blues band, and can jam most of the standards. We played for three hours (well I did, the others drifted in and out) making up most of it as we went along. We got a bit of applause, and we've been asked back, so we must have been ok. I've been playing om's and jams for a few years now, but it's still sinking in that for the first time I've played a gig that was booked by someone I didn't know, and thanked with food and beer. After 45 years of believing I'd never be able to play at all. I realise this will seem pretty pathetic to many of you, but we all have to start somewhere... So how was the first time for you? :-)

My first bass was a 5, and I completely agree with all said above about the hand-position advantages. My lead singer favours E, and it's easier rooted on the 5th fret of the B, plus you have an easy 5th below anything on the E string. Constance Redgrave (Spikedrivers) strings her 4 BEAD, and I'm thinking of doing that with the one 4 I love too much to give up. One of my 5s is EADGC, set up for my ex-band where a lot of the songs worked well with a high bassline. Again it's about position rather than range. I'd been playing above the 12th fret on the G, and it was much easier to move down the fretboard on the C.

I still love mine, I intended to upgrade nearly everything and so far I’ve upgraded nothing, I’ve not needed to. I gig it regularly and it’s a joy to play.

If it made the sound I was looking for, I'd use a dustbin lid

Many do and can. As I just said, it's all about preference and choice.

We had a blast of a gig at The Inn, Greatworth near Banbury last night. I expected a country pub with a couple of chilled out villagers. No, we got a pub full of the most ‘up for it’ party people we’ve seen for ages! Greatworth appears to be the kind of village where everyone goes out to the local at the weekend; it’s just far enough out of town that it’s easier to stay in the village than start getting into taxis etc. We were squashed into a corner of the bar which meant we were eyeball to eyeball with the friendly crowd, who made us very welcome incidentally, which I always enjoy. Pretty much the whole pub was up and dancing from the word go, and didn’t sit down all night. We were still playing at midnight, they wouldn’t let us stop. Really good tone from my MIM Jazz Deluxe and Genz Benz rig, sounded great. When we were packing down I asked the landlord if the residents minded bands playing into the early hours? ‘No’, he said, ‘they’re all in here!’ We left having made some new friends and a return booking for later in the year - can’t wait to go back!

I'm not sure how interested anyone will be in this cab but I'll offer it up for comments and questions in the hope that some of you might find it useful. At the recent South West Bass Bash I demonstrated just about the simplest way to self build a bass cab. I took 42 minutes from the first glue to a working cab, my aim was to demonstrate just how easy building your own cab can be. It was really just built for a demonstration and I didn't expect to use the cab much but it turned out better than I expected, so I thought I'd share the design. This cab is effectively the little brother of the cab I designed on here a couple or years ago, 14kg, 350W, 122dB and costing about£150 to build. You can find the information here https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/227904-1x12-cab-design-diary The original cab was a 50l cab based upon the Beyma SM212 driver and designed to produce lot's of deep well controlled bass with a neutral uncoloured response, several people here have built versions of the cab and I've been gigging it for two years. My problem with the original cab has been that in rooms with poor acoustics there has been too much bass and I was tending to dial down the deep bass and boost the upper bass. It sounds great in non resonant rooms and out of doors but has way too much bass if you are shoved into the corner of a low ceilinged room. Since I had promised to demonstrate a cab build anyway I thought I'd squeeze the Beyma into a smaller cab which would reduce it's bass output but give it a 2dB boost in the lower mids/upper bass which I thought would help cut through in difficult spaces. UPDATE It looks like Beyma are about to pull the SM212. Coincidentally I've just been given a Beyma 12CMV2 to try in this cab, it has the same magnet but with a heavier cone, stiffer suspension and a new voice coil. It also has a pressed steel chassis and is considerably cheaper. The good news is that in this cab it actually sounds better. The bass response is basically unchanged, but one of the frequency anomalies of the SM212 has gone and there is a broad boost in output in the upper mids which makes the sound lighter and more detailed. I'm still investigating and haven't tried it at a gig for COVID reasons but I'm happy to recommend this speaker if anyone is thinking of a build. If I get more information I'll put it here. If you do fancy building one yourself then the panels for the cab are 2x 374mmx290mm, 2 450mmx 290mm and 2 450mmx350mm (all 12mm ply) the front baffle is set back 30mm to allow for the grille so internally the cab is 350mmx450mmx236mm. the ports are made of drainpipe/downpipe which is 64mm internal diameter 160mm long You should be able to build it from these dimensions and the video. thanks to WoodinBlack for filming this. I loaned the cab to derreybass who has written a review, many thanks to him too. I'll save a space under for the review and put up some more pics when I get my upload problems sorted. Thanks also to Mrs Scrumpy for lunch which is far too obvious in the video

No one is saying get cheap crap. But IMHO you don't need to be shelling out £70 every six months on a set of strings either. We both know regularly gigging bassists who are not spending loads on a strings budget. Happy to disagree - but let's just say my choice of strings has had zero bearing on the number of gigs and our gig fees and the appreciation from our audiences. Ever. On the other hand our choice of vocalist...

Just read up on the little switches on the pickups. Interesting idea...

I think equally importantly is what bass do you play? Some combinations go well together depending on what sort of sound you are after - for me it is Musicman and Gallien Krueger

I am not a pioneer.Multiscale basses exist,headless basses exist,torzal basses exist..i just put all these in one single bass

If I ever get this ingrown big toenail removed I'm curing it like a conker* with the intention of using it as a plec. *How to cure a conker

That makes it a little easier to understand It's good to see this coming together now. It's spent a long time looking like a twisted fence post

Well, its not good value if it doesn't work Having said that, I doubt it is an Ashdown amp thing specifically, things can and do fail when they are new, from all brands. I would sent it back as faulty, as it is faulty, describe the fault, that after an hour it cut out, so it cuts out when hot, then not accept anything other than a replacement or a refund if they can't replace. No reason you have to worry about how you approach it, if they know it cuts out after an hour they are either going to just send it back to the manufacturer (most likely) or test it for an hour (unlikely).

+1 Your preferences and prejudices may want to lead you into other areas but, IME armed with enough time, an open mind, a good pair of ears and the manual, most bass players can get a good bass sound out of most gear.

Nice looker. My problem is that although they're excellent in their own right, I just can't get used to the 'nearly but not quite' thin bodies. If they came usual Fender thickness, I'd have half a dozen.

Same here - little village pubs where the age range is 18 to 80 (actually 82). Very friendly as it is the drummers home village. Very very cosy but had a certain charm to it...

I could always paint the top third pink to make proper neopolitan

Also message Ashdown to see if this is a fault they`re aware of, and if they can advise as to how to progress. I`ve found them excellent on customer service issues and having their advice to provide the seller with could be a real help.

Bobby Vega is the only player who has ever inspired me to play with a pick, and trying to sound anything like him is a totally lost cause.

Give them a call and explain what has happened. Say you want a replacement not a repair - reasonable as it’s new. If they don’t play ball return under distance selling rules and look elsewhere.

Whatever you're comfortable with, suspect this might be controversial, but it doesn't matter (unless you're a slapper ), I've seen bass players change from pick to fingers mid gig I it didn't make any perceivable difference to their sound, being a punk bass player I'm firmly in the pick camp, with eqing a pick can sound like fingers, listen to Macca

Nice, we were jamming Time Is Tight at a soundcheck the other night.

I get that, but from the other perspective. I am 5'5" tall and weigh 59 KG so a 34" scale looks like I am a child playing an adults instrument.

So no pics then Dave

@Al Krow regarding synth keyboards in our youth, you must have had a different childhood to me, Moog gear was off my pay scale. I would have thought with your love of Japanese instruments you may not have had a Moog, or is that what put you off USA made stuff?

I've been putting off posting this. My problem is that all I have are the sketches and notes that I used to build a prototype, and I do not have the skills (nor the motivation) to redraw everything so it is as clear as the instructions you would get with a kit. If there is sufficient interest, and someone wants to take that on, I wouldn't have a problem with that. This is the layout of the current battery powered head. At the back of the head, the feed to the amplifier is fused, and the feed from the battery is fused, so regardless of whether the amp is being run from an external battery, or the internal battery is being connected to a an external power source, they have some protection. I transport the head with the external battery-out and amp-in connectors disconnected, so that I cannot arrive at the venue with a part-discharged battery due to the power switch being knocked in transit. Slightly left of centre is a stereo class D amplifier pcb capable of giving 22 W into 4 ohms per channel on a 12-13 volt supply, or about 10 W into 8 ohms per channel. Each channel contains two amplifiers in bridge mode, so you cannot bridge them to obtain more power. The pcb is designed around a TA2020 chip originally made by TriPath (and marketed as 'CLass T' just to confuse things). Various pcb designs are available, but I can only comment on this one. The sensitivity is high enough that you can plug an active bass directly into it, so if you have on-board EQ, you just need this pcb amp, a speaker or two, a battery (hopefully with a fuse) and you are go to go. Alternatively, you can buy an off-the-shelf amp and preamp in a box. Googling [Tripath amplifier pcb] found this supplier of the amp module that I used - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MKIII-Tripath-TA2020-PCB-25watt-Class-T-amplifier-UK-/251464814688?clk_rvr_id=1520242820360&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=twenga&utm_campaign=twenga&utm_param=eyJlcyI6MCwicyI6OTcyMDIzNywiY2kiOiIwMzhhMTZkNDRlYWJmMDNmNjZiODRkYzNjZWUzYTQ1NSIsImkiOiIyNTE0NjQ4MTQ2ODgiLCJ0cyI6MTUyNTQ1NzQ4MCwidiI6Mywic28iOjE1MDAsImMiOjE0OTcwfQ%3D%3D&rmvSB=true Power supply To the right of the enclosure is the power supply pcb. This is the circuit and layout. The stripboard tracks run along the longer dimension, and are only shown where they are needed; links run across the shorter dimension; cuts in the track are shown with an x. This provides a fused feed for the preamp circuits, and a mid-supply voltage rail so that the op-amps can run with plus and minus supplies. The chip used is a TLE2426 which will be difficult to get cheaply unless you have an account with CPC or RS Components. An alternative would be a pair of dividing resistors each parallelled by a capacitor, as discussed here - http://sound.whsites.net/project43.htm Input circuit The front right pcb provides input buffering and gain, muting, and a feed to the tuner jack socket on the back of the amp. This is the circuit and layout. There are two input sockets, for active and passive basses. Plugging in to the passive (right) jack socket feeds through the left socket switch contacts and into the first stage op-amp. Alternatively, plugging into the active (left) jack socket opens the switches and places an attenuator in the signal path, bringing the level down to match that of a passive bass. The two jack sockets are standard Cliff or similar, where the jack socket contacts cross the tube where the jack plug fits, and are physically lifted by the insertion of a jack plug. These sockets are available with pcb pins, but they are not at 0.1 inch spacing, and do not fit stripboard. However, if you take one with solder tags, cut off half of each solder tag, and squash the remaining bit into a crude pin, it will be pretty close to the spacing you need, although the stripboard hole will need to be enlarged. The first stage op-amp feeds a buffer to the tuner jack socket, and feeds the filter pcb via the mute switch. The other pole of the mute switch is used to change the supply polarity to the front panel LED, so it shows red when muted and green when live. Filter circuit The front left pcb in the first image contains the variable HPF, variable LPF, volume control and buffers to feed the line out and amplifier pcb. This is the circuit and layout. The dual op-amp 1A and 1B is used in two standard filter Sallen Key circuits giving a roll-off of 12dB/octave. The HPF is optimised as a Butterworth filter, giving a sharp cutoff and good transient response while the LPF has a more gentle transition, intended to take out fret and string noise. The HPF operates between 30 and 120Hz (copied from FDeck's design), while the LPF operates from 20KHz down to 200Hz (copied from a Walter Harley design from 2000). I prefer to use Omeg conductive plastic potentiometers because I like the way they feel, but they have a gap of 2 rows between the two tracks. Conventional carbon 16mm potentiometers have a gap of 1 row between the two tracks, so if you want to use them you will need to modify the layout slightly. The authors of the original designs both recommended antilog potentiometers and lamented their lack of availability, settling for a log pot working backwards instead. I have used linear potentiometers and they work well over the important part of the range, but antilog pots are now readily available in carbon, although not in conductive plastic. The dual op-amp 2A and 2B is used to feed the amplifier module at the right level, and to provide a buffered line output. On both the input and filter pcbs, there is a link to allow ground-lift for the tuner, line out and amplifier out in case there were earth loop problems. I had no problems, so the earths can be hard-wired in. Apart from the supply-splitting chip TLE2426, and conductive plastic dual 100K potentiometers, all components are available from www.bitsbox.co.uk and the conductive plastic potentiometers from rapidonline.co.uk. David

You need to work on your repairing skill my boy.

Zach has finally got hold of a Squaver P1+. I tried it at Superbooth yesterday and it is a definite improvement on the original.

Will do.

Thats why i have respect for Tony Levin playing fretless in the pitch black for P Gabriel

I should bloody hope so given the price.

Anything that lets me do this (even with shocking playing) is fine by me Future Impact.wav

Yeah, it is. I wonder how the Aguilar stuff compares?

Ta for the replies. I think I`m going to order a J&D. But they don`t have the white one that I really like the look of until the 22nd of April Must resist!!

+1 to that! Too much mystique surrounding playing a 5 string bass. It really is not a big scary monster! It allows you more freedom to play at one position on the fretboard without having to go up and down like a yo-yo and to access them low notes down below an E. And the B string is a nice place to rest your thumb when you're playing the top 4 strings You'll pick it up in no time.

I know this sub ject has been discussed before. I have been suffering from painful finger joints in both hands for some time. I take a high dose of glucosamine every day. Just lately I can barely close my fingers in the morning (no masturbation jokes, please). It eases as the day goes on. I did a gig last night and today the joints are quite painful. I've starting taking other supplements and fish oil. Any advice would be welcome.