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I have just complete a tremendous experience, ordered a bass for my 50th and it arrived early thanks to Alan. From start to finish Alan has been great. The bass on the other hand is fantastic. Full specs here: https://www.acguitars.co.uk/project/0328urecurve5/

Went to the local guitar shop to grab a little something - fatal mistake. They have a pretty standard bass selection in there, mainly Fenders and Ibanez's and rarely anything more unusual. And this was hanging on the wall.....i tried one of these years ago in a shop and was close to pushing the button then and have never seen one since. Mint condition and a good price i believe. I had a 10 minute go on it just to see what it was like - lovely sound and easy to play, just felt like a quality bass. Anyway i hadn't gone in there for a new bass so headed home. And you know when you start itching and the mind starts turning over..........and the missus is an enabler damn her!!!! So here is the new addition - A Zon Sonus Standard 4 :-)

Call me crazy, but I just met a chap in Buxton and did an eBay trade deal. Traded my PDN Musicman Starry Night Stingray for a Euro 5 LX. Couldn’t be happier!!!!

Otoh I once had a guitarist look at my hands and accuse me of playing in the wrong key. He hadn't noticed I was playing a 5.

There's a horrible moment, and tragically early in the film, where you realise that the Spinal Tap/Ricky Gervais/Bad News Tour stuff is for real. There was even a moment at which I thought Matt Goss was going to claim that he could play Stairway to Heaven when he was 19

being loaded... 😉

I found this on the BBC News app this morning and while it doesn't go into a lot of detail about Fender's business it's still quite an interesting insight into the man that leads the company: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46546014

Oh, ok 🙂 ...

I quite enjoyed that 😕. At least he wasn’t slapping (which I can’t stand). The only thing is he seemed to be using the term quintuplets to mean 5/8 or 5/16, but they are not the same. A quintuplet is playing 5 notes in the time of 4, but his musical examples were simply playing in a 5/8 time signature. Very confusing. But, being a mathematician and a huge fan of Balkan music I found this fascinating. Robbie

Absolutely nothing done with the triplets since, the weather has been too damp and horrible. Fingers crossed we will get a nice spell in the new year to let me get the last few coats on. Well Christmas is finally upon us and I shall be mostly cooking as well as drinking as much wine as I can in the process Merry Christmas everybody!

Thotch. /I am a Genesis fan, BTW. lol

I used to go to open nights when I lived in Chelmsford in the late 90's. I had some fun nights there, getting up to play on a few numbers. Then one night, Guthrie Govan turned up and joined in. I hid in the bog for half an hour until he went away.

And dropped off a Sire Marcus Miller v7 version 2 vintage jazz.So far i'm lovin it,really nice neck and some nice sounds coming out. The truss rod needed a tweek as the strings were sat a little high for my liking sorted that out so it's just about right for me. Can't understand sire not providing an instruction booklet of some sort,but it's all available online i suppose so no real set back. Here's me hoping this relationship will develop into some meaningful love affair,and i'm sure it will.

To be honest, there’s not really a lot of point to these kind of threads, either “I can’t stand so and so”, or “so and so is fantastic”. All they ever end up in is a percentage of people agreeing and a percentage of people disagreeing. 99% of the time minds are already made up. All they ever prove is that we’ve all got different tastes, which is how it should be.

Looks like your average run of the mill gospel chops totally capable in any situation jobbing pro. Hate him already.

Hi! Here are my 2 'Wicks - 2008 Corvette $$ 5 + 2003 Thumb 5 BO.

Very musical people, aren't they? I mean gospel musicians are! Not the other thing... I'm not Mortimer Duke!! 😁

@Delberthot, this is what I found in the BDI21’s manual. If you’re using the 1/4” output then set your QSC to accept instrument level 👍🏾

Agreed, I get concerned when our band leader calls multiple 12 bar blues tunes. Thing is we have so much other material . However it's not my call. Blue PS: I'm in New Jersey over the holidays and had a chance to jam with my close childhood friend Doug. We started our first band when we were both 12 years old.

I used a 3 band eq live for a long time, and I think there was always a temptation to use the mid control to cut that part of the sound when it wasn't necessary. It's what I call "the bedroom sound" - a bass can sound amazing in the bedroom when you're just playing by yourself, but in a band scenario, a lot of the bandwith you tend to cut in the solo scenario is exactly the bandwith you need to be heard when playing with a band.

I agree with this. The 3 band eq is a great bass, no question. But if you think "nah, this is not for me", don't write Stingrays off until you at least try a 2 band, as it's a different animal. The same basic sound is there, but there's something about the 2 band eq that seems to have more oomph than the 3 band. Having said that, another poster above suggested that maybe it's just not for you, which is also a possibility. Nothing wrong with that, that's why the bass market is full of so many great options.

As amongst the final tasks before the Christmas period, I managed to sand down all of the body and side stain trials and reapply properly. Over the last couple of days I've started laying down the initial tru-oil coats ready for the final slurry and buff coats that will be finished after Christmas. This is how it's looking now: While the final coats of slurry and buff are hardening over the post Christmas period, I will be starting the finish jobs. Allowing for family stuff over Christmas and New Year, it should be ready to ship mid-January Have a great Christmas, all. As always, many thanks for the support and encouragement over 2018 and see you all the other side! Andy

Thanks for all the replies, folks. When I contacted GuitarGuitar they offered to take the bass back, but it's now part of the (ever-growing!) family so it's staying with me. If I had the choice I'd rather have a maple board, but I bought it with the rosewood board, and if I hadn't done that wee bit digging regarding the serial number / date of manufacture, I'd be none the wiser regarding the neck not being original to the body, so I guess it's all a bit of a moot point? I spoke to Guitar Guitar on Friday to see if they had any info regarding the neck swap - they had contacted the fella that traded in the bass, and it turns out he's the second owner; he bought it from his bass tutor in 2011, and had no idea the neck had been swapped. He's offered to contact the original owner and get the story behind the swap, and it would be interesting to get the story behind it, but it's not high on my list of priorities right now. I'm just enjoying the bass for what it it - a really nice EB MM StingRay that looks cool, sounds killer, and plays exceptionally well! Merry Xmas, folks.

This. @Delberthot, the 10.2 will likely match your BFOne10 for volume and low end with the added benefits of easy tilt-back monitoring. If you don’t mind the weight (and cost) increase of the 12.2 then I say go for it. Better to have more and not need it than need more and not have it IMHO.

My 64th birthday party next Feb is going to be a blues jam, with my Plastic Mojo Blues Band as the house band. I've asked them as my birthday present to learn my personal anthem: I was drifting through life like I'd lost my way, / Had no original words to say, / Road was empty and the sky was grey, / Praying Lord, get me home tonight. I was drifting through daytimes, not even trying, / Long bitter nights of drinking and crying, / Cursing myself for wasting my time, / Praying Lord let me sleep at night. Now I'm playing 12 bar blues on a five string bass, / Finally know I've found my place, / Electric adrenalin, state of grace, / Singing Lord, let me play all night. Sorry, seriously ot, and on the "must-know" list for my band but not for anyone else!

Just you... Never mind her wider musical achievements, she's brought so much to bass players through the wonderful John Giblin and Eberhard Weber. Song could be 'December will be magic again' or 'Home for Christmas'. Both great seasonal tunes to my mind...

Merry Xmas Basschatters! Thought I'd share a quick arrangement of "Christmas Time Is Here" by Vince Guaraldi Trio, taken from the incredible "A Charlie Brown Christmas" album. Always loved Guaraldi's contrast of sweet melodies against unusual harmonies so thought I'd have a go at transcribing a piece finally! Have a great Xmas when it comes, all!

http://www.custom-inearmonitors.co.uk/iems/ultimate-ears-ue-6-pro-custom-in-ear-monitors.html

Just goes to show how closely related Celtic languages are. In my nearest town there is a huge Christmas decoration strung over the main street which reads 'Nadelik Lowen' which is Merry Christmas in Cornish. Merry Christmas everyone and I look forward to updates on these when the weather improves.

Got my ticket for the Palladium. What an incredible gig that would be, to play in such a band. Imagine. *sigh*

Wow. Beautiful bass, congratulations

If it’s under £100 I’m ok with that, I’ve got a spare set of original bb machine heads and knobs from my old 300 to sort the banged up one.

Cool!!!

The Quick way!!

In a covers band? Got something recorded this year? Then flaunt your assets in the... DECEMBER COVER SONG CHALLENGE The deadline for entries is today! This is a great opportunity to hear some of each other’s music over the Xmas holiday. So if you have some songs knocking around on your hard drive, then pick one and send it in. SoundCloud links are preferred but YouTube (incl. live footage) is also welcome. And it definitely doesn’t have to be a Christmas song 🙂 Do it now!

Cheers 🍷

Best purchase : Darkglass Vintage Deluxe . Awesome preamp section . I use the drive on it very discreetly, but I use it for all my passive basses as the primary preamp. Clear, concise and very authorative. Worst purchase : Lakland Skyline 55-02. I'm not trying to be contrary here btw, zranyard lol. They're really good basses if they're your thing, but I don't find the 5502 tonal pallette to suit my preference. I used to own a 4402 many,many years ago and I remembered loving it, but it sounded different to the 5502. In the meantime I've bought lots of Fender passive basses and a couple of Maruszczyk custum builds between owning the 4402 and the 5502. That's where my idea of tone lies. In the passive P and J echelons. Bought the 5502 second hand on whim around April time and really regret it now. I've had it up for sale on different platforms to Basschat for a few months.

Thought it was bad practice to allow Paypal payments if an item is being collected - what's to stop you picking up the bass and then registering a dispute, which you would win because the seller had no proof of delivery?

A jam, in my experience, is between the scone and the clotted cream, not on top of it. YMMV moi luvver!

3 band eq.....thats the issue Try a 2 band - it'll take your fillings out

You did put a battery in didn't you?

I think that just means you don’t like them. Not that they are over rated. Good click bait though.

The CR models come with or without the magnetic EMG circular pickups. The EMG units lean towards an "electric bass" sound. That's not the reason I wanted an electric upright, so I opted for the bridge pickup only (which has a blend pot to change between the plucked "pizz", and bowed "arco" modes. The standard D'addario NS Contemporary flatwound strings actually have a modern mwaah sound (think Tony Levin on Peter Gabriel's "Secret World Live" album - especially on "Come Talk To Me", or "Shaking The Tree" - that's the sound you get from the bridge pickup!!) I'm loving using it. http://www.basscentre.com/ns-design-double-bass/ns-design-cr5-double-bass.html

Just spent an enjoyable two hours going through this book. If Geddy Lee wasn't so damn nice, I could honestly hate the guy for snagging so many beautiful instruments. Have to say that after 200 pages of drooling content, it's just information overload. The content steers you round the ultimate question of, 'Whatever happened to that <insert manufacturer here> bass?' before drawing you in for the last few pages of the really important guitars. There's no envy here in the slightest; it's just a lengthy journal about vintage bass collecting. He's been a successful musician for donkey's years and now he's simply kicking back and reaping the rewards of that. It's a beautiful publication.

We're still experimenting with colours and contrasts. I always find that it is only when you pin down one element that you can see the valid options of the next and, with the fretboard and neck now the colour the owner wants, it is time to look at the other elements. And hmmmm….the back.... While the ash was quite dark alongside white maple, this neck is now SUCH a strong colour, the ash looks a bit wishy washy? Also the yellow tint from the strong amber clashes with the brown tint of the ash - certainly when you see it in real life. With a bolt-on you can often get away with this, but a through-neck, in my view, needs to coordinate (whether with contrasts or complimentary shades) between back, sides, top, neck and fretboard and this doesn't yet do that. So time for some more experimenting. One thought was to maybe go for complimentary colour between the back and neck and a greater contrast between sides and top. So I did loads of colour checks with some ash offcut until I came up with this one. The dye on the ash is a totally different mix of dyes in a different strength to that applied to the neck but the result is quite close to each other in the colour spectrum. This is a test only so don't worry that it's a bit patchy! It's sufficiently different to still have a distinct through neck-look but now both back wings and neck have an amber hue on the orange/yellow side And, to my eye, the depth of colour makes the sides contrast better with the top: I've sent the shots across to 'our man in Hawaii' to see if this is getting close to the overall look he had in mind.

OK ..... here is a pair of Sandberg Ken Taylor 5's

Here is my main bass, a 1998 Leduc Masterpiece MP 628 SF in close to pristine condition as I'm a total maniac. The woods are : one piece AAAAAAAA birdseye maple (the brown spot on the back is the heated sugar of the maple which is the proof of its high quality) with AAAAAAAA legal 150 years old Brazilian rosewood fret board and the headstock front veneer for the neck through, AAAAAAAA highly flamed maple on AAAAAAAA ash body (with walnut veneer everywhere between two different woods). The pickups are the famous Leduc/Benedetti single coils (with dummy coil for total hum-cancelling) coupled to the also famous Leduc/EBS EL5 preamp (not made anymore) with the bass pot fitted in the electronic cavity. The bridge is the Leduc aluminium with brass locking saddles. The tuners are Hipshot Ultralite.  The strings spacing is 18/9 mm.  Action is my typical 1.5 to 2 mm at 12th fret.  The weight is 4.1 kilos.