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The crowdfunding page ended today and I would just like to once again thank each and everyone of you for going beyond the call of duty and making a donation to this fund, I never thought we would raise this much to help against Funkinshui's and my losses after being ripped off by he who shall not be mentioned YET. You have raised a mind blowing grand total of £620 pounds and have restored our faith in humanity, just to mention once again, I was the end of the chain in this fraud and I ended up buying the bass face to face with the fraudster, which was his biggest mistake as the police couldnt link it to him. But seeing as I can id the guy without doubt and we know who he really is he should get whats coming to him. I have requested an update from CID and will let you know whats going on as things progress. I being the end of the chain would of recieved nothing and lost all my money. Thanks to Funkinshui being so genorous and offering to split the loss with me and you guys suggesting we open a crowd funding page, we will loose a lot less than we expected. I cant really put into words how grateful I am for your generosity, Basschat is awesome and the community is like no other I have been part of, I tip my hat to every one of you, thank you all once again

Can only echo Stephens message. Great group of people on here. Thank you so much.

HB PB-50 - v3.0 Becomes v4.0... *AUDIO CLIP* You'll be pleased to know that this will be the final reincarnation of this HB PB-50 Precision Bass. Yes... I know I said that last time - but Shoreline Gold, though a very nice finish, isn't really my thing. My thing is basses that are white. Or cream. Or aged Oly White. Or yellow, basically... you know what I mean. I was particularly taken with the new Player Series 'Buttercream' P bass - hence this refinish and reworking - saving myself £649. This one has a custom handmade Herrick dual-coil pickup in it - and very nice it is too... warm, taut and punchy, with the mid-range push typical of a 57-type split-pickup, but in a 51-type four-pole format. It's a beast... check out the audio clip. https://www.herrickpickups.com/ The previous version 3.0 bass is here. Now read on. Body refin in TV Yellow nitro Pickguard in Acrylic White Fender American Deluxe Bridge, Top-Loading or Through-Body Herrick Dual-Coil Telebass '51' pickup overwound to 11k ohms CTS solid-shaft pots, Chiclet cap .047uF, Switchcraft Jack in cats-eye side plate Fender Chrome '51' Pickup Cover Fender Tug Bar Fender dome-top knurled control knobs with grub screws Wilkinson WJBL 200 tuners La Bella 760FS Steel Flatwounds 45-65-85-105, Through-Body Stringing Is this really the final version..? I hope so, because I just don't have the time (or disposable bass tokens) for any more finishing shenanigans... I thank you!

I am sure that there is no aspect of this video that any of us will recognise.

It's confirmed - delivery to @Len_derby tomorrow evening Here it is with its little brother: My 25" scale (PRS-scale) 6-string electric on the left is 5lbs 14oz; Neil's 34" bass on the right is 6lbs 6oz

Tedeschi Trucks - take the Blues and do all sorts of weird and wonderful things with it.

..and by the magic of a rough hack with Photoshop, we have the full progression: Left to Right: Pete's piccolo bass, my Swift Lite, Jane's Nyhavn Swift and Neil's Swift Lite Bass

I bought a pair of humbuckers for my B2A from Kent Armstrong and they came with surrounds drilled 2 on one side and 1 on the other. Might be worth a call.

Adjunct to this thread, I would advise anyone with this Hohner licensed Steinberger headless bridge to make sure the threads are really well lubricated with grease. I've had several old ones where the threads strip in the string pullers. Easily fixed using stainless Helicoil type inserts, then will be good for life. If I had kept mine, I would have done it with all of them. HTH

New video!

Looks good! Fonkay playing too

One of our gigs last weekend was at a pub whose landlord, Phil, used to own a different pub. We used to play regularly for Phil at his previous pub but the new owners cancelled all the bookings when they took over. At last Saturdays gig two minibuses turned up full of locals from Phil's previous pub who'd come especially to see us, a thirty mile round trip. Money in Phil's till and two fingers up to the new landlord at his previous pub. We were delighted to see them

Most of what is happening now is what I call "smooth blues" which is main stream blues for the masses. Like Joe Bonamassa and Gary Clarke. Blue

Got the top on and all back together The strings are VERY close to the edge if the fretboard I had a little play up and down the neck and the strings didn't fall off the sides so it might be OK?? If not I will get a 5 string neck and do it that way instead, Just got to order my strings and then I can give it a proper go!?! 😀

Just watching this on BBC 4 now. I'll be honest and say that this is probably a little too intellectual for my tastes but I am giving it a go. So what do I think? Incredible talent. Total control of each of his instruments. Is clear about where he wants to take the listener on this journey. Its just that I'm not at all sure where we're going. And not really enjoying the trip either. There is also a fine line between stage presence and showing off. I still haven't decided on which side of the line Mr Collier falls.

Is this a bass solo? Maybe. You decide... 😊

Not a bass I know, but a cool story so thought I'd share. The guitar is an EKO Ranger, made in Italy in the 1960s. While it's nothing really special in itself, it has great sentimental value to the owner as he has had the guitar since new, when it was given to him by his wife as a present. Disaster was just around the corner though as early on he tried to fit an output jack to the lower bout, unfortunately instead of fitting an endpin jack, he decided he was going to fit it on the lower bout... in the thin side wood. So when he came to drill for it, the side split and it generally made a mess. He repaired it, but the fix was....umm how shall we say - less than professional! So I was asked to put it right. Here's the mess, while it's certainly ugly looking now, it's about to get a lot worse. Some sanding revealed the repair, there's wood filler, screw holes and a piece of plywood around 3 times the thickness of the side! You can see by all the light coming under the straight edge here how far it's been pulled in and distorted. Without drastic measures (coming up!) nothing can be done to make this look right again. Obviously having a 1/4 piece of ply stuck to the side of the guitar is less than ideal also... Problem solved...an extra sound hole (joking of course). In case it's not obvious, here I have cut out the damaged, distorted, ugly wood and removed all traces of the repair. Here's the "repair" I dug out. As mentioned above, he used a very thick piece of ply, then drilled holes in the side of the guitar to insert screws to pull in the repair to the side. It was never going to work and there was still a decent sized void between the ply and the side, so he filled that with expanding polyurethane foam! Now onto my repair and filling the large gaping hole. The best material to fill it with (and any hole in wood) is wood of the same species, being a guitar builder I have no shortage of Mahogany and some of it is quite old, meaning it's very stable. It's also nice to replace material with wood of a similar vintage. But first I need to make a frame to support the new patch of Mahogany. I also make this frame out of strips of vintage Mahogany, making sure the strips are a good deal longer than the patch to give plenty of gluing surface. They also need to be bent to match the side of the guitar, this is done with steam (and patience!). In this picture you can see I have bent all the frame material and the patch itself (on the left). You'll have to ignore the dodgy pickguard on the guitar, I'm guessing that's another story! Here's the frame all glued into place. I used traditional hot hide glue, which is exceptionally strong and period correct. The strips are glued to the side of the guitar and also to the kerfing on the bottom edges. Now I glue in the patch, using a caul which I made up to match the profile of the side, this is made up of two pieces off a body blank screwed together to give the required width. This caul ensures even pressure during the glue up. A nice tight fitting patch all glued into place. It needs to be a tight fit as if there were any gaps you could get problems with the patch "telegraphing" it's outline through the new finish over time. Fortunately no gaps here, just a few lacquer chips round the edge which will need to be taken care of during finish prep. I mask off anywhere I don't want lacquer and spray a couple of coats of clear Nitro to get an idea of anywhere which may need more work/levelling. I repeat this process until I'm 100% happy before spraying the colour coats. Then I mix up some black Nitro to match the original finishes colour. Here the colour coats have been sprayed, the masking on the binding removed (the binding gets clear coated, but obviously not painted black!). This is the clear coat straight out of the gun so there's a very slight spray texture, but so minor it won't require too much wetsanding and it's reflecting a clear image (i.e me!) without too much distortion. I now need to leave this for a month before proceeding with 1000 grit and through the grades before buffing. The finished article! No trace of the repair and straight sides! Thanks for watching.

Love that colour mate, what sort of prep did you have to do to the body before spraying? Did you clear coat it? I have the red one and would love to do It that colour. Great job.

ok - what is the secret thing on the shelf behind the guitar?

Thanks, I'm now in touch with him and seeing whether he can find what I'm after

Same bass here.

Yep. A lot of people (bassists included) think he's just a one trick slap pony, but his finger style playing is sublime. Check out their True Colours album - the tracks "Seven Days" and "A Floating Life", which boasts an immense groove in the middle section. I love his playing. 😊

That's the best one so far 😎

I've got no idea what you are on about...?

Well yes, "Hot and dark" for a start LOL. It's a long story how I got to that decision and it's largely an uninformed decision at that! The short version is many years ago in some guitar magazine there was an article about some super dooper new boutique guitar that I liked the colour scheme of or the principle of the colour scheme at least. It was a transparent red over rippled Maple, a maple fretboard and gold hardware; the fretboard had been sprayed with a yellow tint that ridged the red and gold nicely and I thought then I can improve on that but I never got around to it. The magazine has long since been thrown out but the idea has been festering ever since, over 20 years. Since then my love of Thunderbirds has escalated to daft proportions and what I'd like are gold Tbird HBs but they aren't readily to be had. I suspect Mojo who's pups I'm using on this build might do them as they are using a standard cover that can be had in gold but I just find the way I have to order them difficult. SO! The easy option is to use black pups and gold hardware, simple I like buckers and Nordstrand have a very good reputation and I've heard some samples on Youtube which sound as if they are close to what I'm looking for sound wise but it's youtube... Mike Lull uses DC4 and DC5s so they must be quality so I won't go far wrong. I also want to use a pickup I can order on any day of the week or month without any complications, I don't mind waiting but I like to get that order in as soon as the decision is made, just a quirk of mine so I'm thinking I might use Nordstrand exclusively (perhaps) if I really like them. They can be had from Bass Direct so the annoyance of importing is avoided, I pay just once! (another pet hate of mine, you can see I'm a deeply flawed person LOL) The preamp, well here I'm out of my depth and maybe I'm being too hopeful that they will give me the chance to eat my cake and eat it? I want that dark sound but I also want a brighter bouncier sound as well especially when played with a pick and I hope (totally uninformed) that the preamps might just give me that option along with the option to run passive. My knowledge of pup preamps though is almost as bad as my knowledge of prosthetic limbs for hedgehogs. Almost totally uninformed and full of dreams but they have the reputation of being cracking so I hope I won't go far wrong and I have plenty of time to become informed and change my mind

Still one up from The Smiths then.

Are you spying on me? No, I suppose we are all the same I'm pondering Nordstrand DC4 pups for my next build, I think I'm set on them but trying to decide if I should add a preamp to them too or not

Thanks mate I keep on seeing the Steve Harris chequered bass so I thought I'd give it a go his is different it's White backed with a black pickguard but I thought the Orange just gives it something a bit different You just heat the vinyl with a hair dryer and stretch it round and it manages to keep the shape I love the chequerboard look I so I've decided to refinish my Jazz its either going to be White or Orange with chequered pickguard and black hardware??

Gosh. Everytime I see this it's COMPLETELY different. I'd missed the reference to the chequerboard in your earlier post! You seem to have retained the squareness of the vinyl despite going round some significant curves. How on earth did you manage that? Looks great. Love the chequer against the orange pickguard. Looks very special

That's really kind gents, thank you. If you did get a chance to send me some pics that would be great. I'm going to stand polite but firm because I've not only paid for the bass but also an extra £26 to send the neck back, after they forgot to install the luminlays, and then a further £68 to send the bass back to the workshop in Poland.

Went to the Blue Dot festival at the weekend where we had a blast . Reliving some of the best bits by playing back to back Chemical Brothers albums, a good chunk of Lamb, Public Service Broadcasting and a band new to me, Little Dragon who were terriff.

Okay, I wasn't going to mention them and it's hardly news, but if we're including the Black Keys, well there really is some good bluesy stuff amongst The White Stripes stuff. Death Letter springs to mind but there's plenty more.

ace! Loving the funk sound clip as well

I have listened to a bit of Joe Bonamassa and I don't quite understand why he is the big thing; no doubt he can play but it all sounds a bit blues by numbers. Robert Cray is a far more interesting guitarist imo. Also has a great voice.

Bought Bas' Zoom MS-60B and have to say he was incredibly helpful, polite and informative. Asked me if I wanted him to leave his patches on there and recommended me the ToneLib software for patch editing. Pedal arrived so well packed I thought he'd sent me a Faberge egg and the item was exactly as described. Wouldn't hesitate to buy from again.

I like the really rough and dirty southern blues the best. Not sure if there is a modern equivalent.

FWIW I've an old (70's?) Carlsbro 60W head. I doubt it was designed as a bass amp, but I used it as my main amp for bass through most of the '80's. Still sounds nice, and more than loud enough for most pub-type gigs.

Mind set - interesting. I was thinking that a few weeks back. Turned up to do a festival on a pretty big stage and the sound man took one look at the pedal train nano and the K10.2 and said "er, is that it? where's the head and cab?" After explaining, he mumbled something about weirdness and plugged into the through port on the QSC. Afterwards he wandered over and said he liked the bass sound very much and found mixing the FOH bass much easier as there wasn't a massive big cab blaring it out which he had no control over. I had my onstage monitor, rest of the band was happy, soundman was happy. It's a mind set.

Be very, very careful with anything involving rosewood or any other species covered by CITES. The paperwork is expensive & complicated and unless done fully & correctly, the instrument will be confiscated and destroyed. And you won't get a refund.

Still my favourite demo of BOTH our fretless SWB-1 *and* our Fuzzster Fuzz Pedal.

Well; you try getting the strings taut without one, it’s a right pain!