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One of my favourites is ..."You're The One That I Want"...from Grease.

Well, here is the latest family photo. Don't hate me for buying them all... but I think I have a problem... 😉 Top Left to Right TT4 Creme - Masterpiece TM2 Orange - HCA Panther - Bocote Top & H/Stock Bottom Left to Right UMBO Red - HCA 48 Red - HCA Grand Dark San Remo Blue 😀

Guess most of you have seen this, but it's interesting if you haven't

That’s funny - someone took the graphite thing a bit too literally! Leave it as it is - it’s a great conversation piece!

Forgive me Basschat, for I have sinned. On my way home with a matte black BB735a from Wunjo 😬 😈

Artists would often record different versions of the same song, sometimes with different arrangements, sometimes with different musicians. I'm not overly familiar with Jameson's or Kaye's history, but it's quite probable that each would have been called in for different takes/versions of the same song. As time goes by, for some songs, even for the featured artist and producer, knowing exactly whose bass part ended up on the released version would be nigh on impossible to ascertain.

My latest offering to the pedal gods...

I think the binding is going to work well. Once the fingerboard has been scraped and finished and the binding corner rounded off, it should look pretty integral and - more to the point - it should work well from a playing perspective. I think this may well become my preferred method: Next task will be to cut the pickup chambers but that will probably be at the weekend earliest

Color sample time. Gold over pick guard material scrap, both black and white. I use Didspade pigments. Very economical and available in small quantities. Satin gold pearl powder in clear acrylic lacquer. Pearl gray primer/ surfacer is the way to go.Touch up gun for samples. Matching headstock on this one.

Blah blah blah weight blah tone blah blah. Get a grip everyone. Matching black headstock trumps everything.

So the most important head is the only one you can't change? Though filling it with oil seems strangely attractive 🙂

How would it defeat the point? You have an accelerator on your car... you decide how far to push it down. I also don't need to know how much 'power' I'm putting into a cab, it is irrelevant. I turn up the volume, it complains, I turn it down... I've ran a 200 watt cab with a 2000 watt power amp and never once had a problem; because I used the gain/volume controls. Not trying to be awkward but folks are seriously wrapped up in the numbers and seem to forget that the obvious deciding factor in all of this is 'human' and you are in control. Just to throw this in the mix; my present set-up is a 750 watt amp which I use with a 2x10 cab (or two) and have done for some years, I recently trialled a 100 watt amp with the same cab(s) and I managed to continue gigging without killing any piece of equipment or ANY detriment in tone that the audience heard (no trickery with PA back-up).

Whoah! That’s a WHOPPER!! Look at how big it is compared to that house.. Is it 34 foot scale?!

Why is no one discussing that blue LED? Very subtle - less is more.

Father, forgive me for I have sinned. I didst count the strings to four and all was good. And then I didst count yet another string. Five was the number of strings and the number of the strings was five. And yea, did I allow myself to yet pluck the string and the sound was good. I turned aside from the path of righteousness and found within myself that I did yet make music that was pleasing to the Lord God of Bass with sinful lack of effort, and the music didst exceed that which I could yet play when the number of strings was but four. And Lo! The band of disciples - for always shalt the other players of strings follow the Lord God of Bass - did say that it was good and did promise to wreak a plague of locusts upon my soul should I worship at the Temple with but four strings. They spake in tongues and didst proclaim 'thou now hast a decent instrument and we do dig thy grooves, man'.

That looks great! Can you do one in roasted flamed maple?!? Mmm, roasted maple...

I stick to the Holy Scripture, as outlined below: A Reading from the Book of Bass, Chapter 4, Verses 16 to 20: 'First enter thou the purveyors of the Holy Bass. Then thou must count the strings to four. Four shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be four. Five shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count three, excepting that thou then proceedeth to four. Six is right out.' 🙂

The Christmas gig offer was lovely “Trav, I need a bass player for a high profile gig in Manchester - I don’t want anyone else, but I appreciate you’re on a break. Would you consider it?” Suppose it’s nice to be wanted 🤔😂

We'll you should see my new Kramer Forum IV !!! .... Purple/Pink animal print body wrap, Spector pickups, Kent Armstrong 2 band active, not sure if that’s original but sounds beefy ... Mr Leopard will be very happy \m/

I bought on of these v for a project Aria Pro II Magna: https://www.amazon.co.uk/MADE-JAPAN-High-Quality-Brass/dp/B00IC9QW1C/ref=sr_1_15?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1542014383&sr=1-15&keywords=bass+nut+brass Seems to be good quality & works a treat. Was posted from Japan & arrived fairly quickly. I'd replace the nut, add new strings & then set-up. If you've still got dead spots, maybe look at tweaking the truss-rod (if you think it needs it), adjust the bridge. If all else fails, get a quote for a luthier set-up. Good luck!

If you wear a glove to pluck, why not sew a pup into the palm - then you can learn to move up and down the neck to always be on the 'sweet spot', and subtle shifts in intensity will be possible too. Shouldn't be too difficult to master.

Thought I'd show off the basses I use when playing with THAT 80s ROCK SHOW as my character 'Jeff Leopard' Check out www.that80srockshow.co.uk / www.facebook.com/that80srockshow Charvel 575 Deluxe / Washburn B80 Chicago Series / Kramer D-1 Bass

Hi I'm pleased that I've pretty much finished my dreadnought acoustic because the next two to three months are going to be busy! I limit myself to one full build and one major mod at any one time. That way, the timescales that I can estimate are unlikely to be exceeded and I generally don't put someone's neck on someone else's body! @eude 's VI is the major mod I've just started (ditto the build thread) and running alongside that is a full build I had just started when @eude contacted me with the thumbs up. This full build is a second Swift Lite bass, similar to @Len_derby 's one finished a couple of months ago. Indeed - the request came about from the 'Bass of the Week' win of @Len_derby's bass featured in the "No Treble" e-zine. The added challenge of this one is that it is to be shipped to Hawaii! Although @Len_derby 's bass contained no CITES Appendix timbers, there seems to be confusion in some US and UK customs operations (and some associated scare stories) to make me believe that I need to be particularly careful that this does NOT contain any such woods and that I can prove that in a way that would satisfy a well-meaning but ill-informed customs official who might think, "Bass Guitar - impound" or even worse - and just my paranoia because I'm sure this would never happen - one who might think, "Hmmm - bass guitar, impound ...and keep" Anyway, generally a repeat of @Len_derby 's lightweight bass: ...but PJ configuration and a slightly different front end. This is going to be the revised shape: It's just the front horns that are different and, of course, the P pickup at the neck. I'll keep you posted! Andy

Since I made the move to fives I have had a blast and totally got my head around it. I have just picked up a nice 4 in a trade and have enjoyed setting it up and playing it. I was concerned that going back and playing 4's might play with my head and muscle memory? How do you guys find swapping between the two types of bass?

Sorry I’m crap at science, my degree was in Chemistry 😂

Hahahahahahahahahahaha. I have actually heard it done, but it is the exception rather than the rule. If your drummer can then never let that drummer go.

Understandable, Dave! I really ought to get it out and advertise it. I put a few straps I no longer use on here yesterday and the first sold in about half an hour, most of the rest went overnight. The Smooth Hound is a great bit of kit, but I simply found myself not using it at gigs, and for the last few months it hasn't even been in my kit bag, doit might as well go. If you are a little less lazy than me, then I am sure you'll be very happy with that Christmas present

Two pots, one pickup ? That reminds me of something....what was it now.... Anyhow, I don't see why you couldn't wire up something suitable - just need to split the usual connection between the volume and tone and wire in a switch there.

Nice looking bass Andy, snapped it up in double quick time too! 👍🏻

One band I was in decided to get a female vox in as a departure from the (often tedious blues) stuff we were doing. She asked us to learn some songs and one of them was this, so I tried to learn it it pretty much note for note and after we'd gone through it the keyboard player says 'it sounds a bit busy, do you have to play all those notes'. I left the band within a month of that.

Apart from no soundcheck and the middle band having some politics with the venue it was a good one. One tiny faux-pas.... I'm wireless now, so thought "I know what would be really cool! If I wander out into the crowd and stand on a chair while busting out this bass solo like a God, everyone around me will gasp in amazement at my super human bass ability. Literally nothing can go wrong with this plan" It didn't fail in the way you think... I just couldn't find a free seat and I really couldn't bring myself to ask someone to stand for a sec while I amazed the rest of the crowd, so I just wandered around a bit like a lost usher before returning to the stage.

One that's inexplicably stuck with me was an American comedian with coyote glove puppets that did a turn on, I think, a Ben Elton hosted show back in the 80s ... "Woke up this morning, My woman was dead Reindeer came down the chimney, And stood on her head." Could always try doing a Jon Anderson. Use words that fit the rhythm of the song - use them for the sound they make rather than have them making any sense at all. That way people think you're being all mystical, and search for hidden meanings in the nonsense. "I've seen all good people turn their heads each day, so satisfied I'm on my way."

I’ve never really got on with Gibson’s method of binding - especially the “nibs” - it all seems a bit of a faff that doesn’t really seem to help playability. I’m really liking your solution though - I love the feel of an old board where the frets are worn away from the edges so you can’t really feel them at all.

Secure yourself a place in the hotseat by allowing the temptation of BEADGC to confirm your reservation!

For the tweeter? Usually just below half way, but one of the things I love about the BB2 is being able to adjust the tweeter, I usually leave the amp eq alone and adjust the tweeter up or down to suit the room.

I think the argument that "doing it this way it'll keep working even if the bass amp packs in" is a spurious one used by soundmen as an excuse to justify the way they wanted to do it anyway. There are loads of things on the stage that could potentially stop working and thereby screw up the show: the guitar amp, the keyboards, the drumkit (or drummer) might fall over, a mic lead might come unplugged - the list is endless - why worry about the bass amp in particular?

Used my new RM500 with 210 and 115 RM cabs last night for the first time and I'm well chuffed! Finally I have the sound and portability I have been craving for with little or no compromise in tone. One happy Ashdown user! 🙂 😮 🙂

For the fretting, I am going to try a different way of trying to avoid the possibility of scratchy fret-ends. It's going to be a bound fretboard but this time, I'm going to add the binding after finishing the fret ends. I must start a thread for us builders to compare how we do fret ends! It's not generally one of the greatest features of my builds! First, the frets were installed using my normal method of 'tiny bead of titebond, hammer in, clamp a radius block on top' method. The frets were tang nipped before fitting: Then I trimmed the edges to an overhang around the thickness of the binding: Next was filing down the fret ends on my levelling beam until they were about 0.5mm shorter than the binding and chamfering them. Then I rounded the fret ends with a diamond crowning file: So the theory - if I've got it right - is that the fret ends will not only already have the sharp edges removed but, once the binding is fitted, will be separated from the players hand by a touch under 0.5mm of (rolled, eventually) binding. It's different to the Gibson technique but hopefully will have a similar result:

I use TC cabs. The RS210 & RS112. They do indeed colour the sound but I really like how they do it. They are quite old school warm and middy to my ears and handle drive really well.. Then again I never have the horns on. Probably not the best if you want clean, flat response from your cabs.

After 40 years or more on four strings, I bought a couple of sixers, and after two or three months of playing only them, my fours seems very limited and he necks very narrow. I would need a week or two or re-familiarising myself before i was willing to gig a four string again.

Been meaning to transcribe this up for a while, so your post was a good boot up the bum! Here's the verse groove which will hopefully get you started http://jodiebremaneson.tumblr.com/post/179996854396/waitresses-christmas-wrapping-bass

I wouldn't bother asking Jaco as he's unlikely to reply....😉

Nearer the neck makes the sound more "rounded". Nearer the bridge for a more aggressive "clipped" sound. So there is no "Right" position. Some will talk of a sweet-spot but it's down to personal preference.

Looks like a reverse body to me.

@Bearfist FYI, this is a reverse headstock....

Don't put it in your gig bag. When I use it, I carry mine separately. After a couple of very near misses, these days I just put the bass in the gig bag when it's not being played. Safer that way.

More of an issue is this.... All the blocks are white, apart from the one at the fifth fret (block 3) which is blue. What the...?!%@%! I didn't notice before because they were only rough sanded, but once glued in and starting to sand it was obvious that it didn't match at all. This is the first time I've used MOP and as a natural material I'm sure there is some variation in hue, but that is ....well, a bit much. Very disappointing. I guess I have two options: 1. Grab my router, and zap that little bugger. Hope I can get it out relatively neatly and re-rout the channel. Get the retailer to send me one that is the correct colour, re-glue, re-radius and put it all down to experience. 2. Relax. It is at least at fret 5, so I can pretend that it's a design feature. And no one will notice apart from me anyway. Anyone with any opinions? (Oh and also I'll email the supplier and ask whether that blue is in fact within the accepted range of 'white'....🙄)

Thanks both 'EBS' and Nick. I'm now sorted and my order has been placed with Nick - looks like such a useful piece of kit! In case anyone else is wondering what we're going on about or might be interested: