Leaderboard

Whilst I love my '71 Precision, I wanted something a tiny bit more solid (it can be a little rickety), but mostly I've wanted a C width neck P-bass for a while. Lakland was the obvious choice for me (owning a couple already), so last year I ordered and paid for a 44-64. It arrived a day before I left for NAMM typically, so I've only just plugged it in (sounds awesome) and it's first gig will be this weekend. La Bella were also brilliant and sent over a set of 760FS flats over to Lakland for me, simply so I could have them setup at factory, rather than redo it all when it arrived. It joins my US 44-94 custom passive P/J & my upgraded 55-01. Cheers Si

Ok. So I've been working on a variant of this design that reduces the size by another 17mm.... I call it the "super compact"!!! Granted there may not be much demand for this version.... But it's the one I will put on my board as I control via ES8. length is now 82mm from 154mm, that's a reduction of 46% The trade-off is that the switches are now only operated by hand! And protrude a small distance from the side of the pedal. I will be offering both designs for those that want one.

i've had a few people asking me if ill give/sell them the design... After some thought, i've decided not too. Not yet anyway. I've spent quite a few hours now honing the settings to make the text look acceptable. The chances are, anybody who prints this themselves will have to do the same... Also, i'm intending on selling these things. I have sunk quite a few days into this, and by giving the design away it allows others to do the same, and therefore potentially devaluing the design

Epic fail on at least two levels. 1. Define 'best' - best chops, best playing for the song, best songwriting...? Get promptly mired in controversy. 2. Last time I checked, people don't play bass with their genitals, therefore 'female bassist' is as relevant as 'gay bassist' or 'black bassist.'

The rizzen wah wimmin gets luked at in pop music izz becos that's how Art werks. All uv Art is bessicly nekkid wimmin cuz that's what blerks like to luke at and its only blerks what historicly 'ad brass, like, so that's what penters pented if they wunted to eat. Only bit of art wi' a nekkid blerk is that sculpture Michalengeloze Devvid by Leonardo Der Vinchy and thats cuz 'e were a bit light on 'is feet, knowarrimean? Same wi' pop music. Pipple buy music by blerks cuzzit's proper music wi' a tune. Music by wimmin's allus a bit suzpect so they have to dress up nice, like, wi' baps out fer lads ser they'll luke at 'em and buy the rekkerd. Fair exchange is ner robbery, sam fairy anne.

EVOLUTION!!!!

I used to travel with work quite a bit and often had a Hohner B2A in the car boot. I had a go on Ped's Wingbass at a bass bash and quite liked it - thought it would make a good travel bass. I decide to have a go at making one but 23" scale, which I did but then changed jobs so am no longer working away!! I'm still building a second one anyway....

How about videos of bass players who just happen to be really good?

Wouldn't have much of a forum

I know they're inanimate objects, but I'm down to a stable (I hope) core of four very different electric basses* that all look and feel and sound very different, are right for different styles or situations, and all feel like detachable body parts. I'm in love with them, and to me they have what I would call "personalities". I respond to them differently when I play them. I tried to call my first bass (the 5) Chrissie after Chrissie Hynde, who I hugely admire, because it?/she? has the same sort of ballsy but musical sound. But it didn't stick. Then another bass player said admiringly "It looks like a bird!" so I called her The Bird for a while, but that didn't stick either. So they don't have human-like names, but if a strong enough connection comes up they could. See my .sig 🙂 * Ibanez BTB1406, GMR Bassforce 5, Jack Casady Epiphone 4 strung EADG, Fender Jazz Aerodyne 4 strung BEAD

Preface: I’ve always wanted a mustang bass in a pale blue / green. When they announced that they would be producing it in Sonic Blue my heart lept and with memories of the Sonic Blue Jagstang in mind, I went as quick as my hatchback could take me to the music shop to try it out. The spotty Saturday child proudly handed me the bass, proclaiming “Sonic Blue” in his squeaky voice. “Sorry Son, this might be your first day, but this is Olympic White”. He then handed me the Olympic White one, or was that the blue? They looked the same, far too pale. My tail drooped and I left the shop. My Dream Bass: 2018 arrives and I notice Fender release an overpriced Seafoam Green Mustang. It’s not the green / blue I wanted, so I start getting quotes to buy a new one and have it refinished in the colour I had in mind. While surfing the web for colour codes I spot it…my dream colour. And hang on….it’s on a mustang bass, and it’s for sale from an actual shop! Seconds later, it’s added to the cart and I hit check out. So end of story? No. The retailer says that they aren’t willing to ship the item outside of the U.S as they “won’t be to promise their usual high level of customer service”. I mail them, offering them whatever costs they need to send it, with the promise I won’t cause a fuss. They still refuse. Even more angering is the fact that this is an exclusive deal with Fender – They are the only shop in the world allowed to sell this bass and they wont ship it to me. I’m not willing to fly to Indiana. So the story ends. Against All Odds: A glass of wine or seven later (that’s only one in dog glasses) I have an idea and fire up Google maps. I find where Sweetwater are based and start looking for pawn shops / secondhand music shops in the area on the slim chance someone has part exchanged one. Highly unlikely as they have only been out a few months - Then the unthinkable happens…I spot one. I mail them asking about it, they respond within minutes explaining that it had a ding in the back, and the shop selling them could no way put that on the shop floor as an exclusive, so let him have it. He attached a photo of the tiny ding. For the princely sum of £120 he would courier it 3,875 miles to my front door. Done and Done. Customs: Five days later I get a phone call “Hello Mr Smith, it’s Customs and Excise here”. They had my guitar at the airport, it’s now only 30 miles away from me. They’re concerned that the fretboard is Rosewood (its not), and that it will need certification. They ask me to put it in writing that it is not rosewood, and that if I lie it’s a criminal offence etc. As she hangs up I swear her mutter something about Leroy getting a new twink for his cell. Hours later the same number pops up on my phone, the lady is a bit more chirpy and thanks me for my confirmation. “And it’s just the extra tax to pay before we can release it”. What? Why did no one mention the 20% import tax! I finish reading out my credit card number through gritted teeth. “Thank you Mr Smith, now I just need to take our admin fee for that transaction”. Arrival: The next day I hear the postman whistling as he walks down the path, I run to the door, tail wagging. Instead of something the size of a bass he hands me a box about the size of a pizza box. Minutes later I get a call from the customs lady, “We’ve tested your neck, and it’s not rosewood, we can now release it”. Oh FFS! “We just need to take the import fee for this oh and our admin fee”. For the next 24 hours I made suggestions about what she should do with the neck, that I won’t repeat here. Then I hear the whistling from the path… Like some sort of weird sommelier the postman is holding the neck like a posh bottle of wine, or the world cup. I bolt everything together, string it (hybrids) strap lock it (new Schaller S types) and it plays like a dream. Would I do it again? Not sure. But I now have my dream bass.

BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz: "Ah divvent ner where yu nicked this from pal, but ah rert it originally, laike. Did yu steal wor quote?"

Ok, just bought a new amp! But in fairness it’s the newer, lighter version of my Ashdown RM500. Looking at it I’ve bought a new amp and a new pedal, but both are newer versions of the ones I had, and both old ones are going to be in their way. So I don’t see this as adding to the fold, just updating, which makes me feel better.

My ‘1’ bass is called ‘bass’...I am not terribly sentimental. Though, i did name all of our chickens after porn stars. The kids and wife did not realise, my wife only found out after a fox got to them and I exclaimed that I would have to remove cicciolinas head from a large tool, which rather amused me.....I do hate it when people question why you think something is funny and then get all moral.. Though in bass world naming i don’t think that ‘Thunderfunk’ will ever be beaten, unless Dave Funk teams up with Ernie Ball.... BallFunk? FunkMan?

Yes, it's not formally recognised as an addiction on the scale of other indulgences (other than the odd horror story of credit card debt) but I have a very close relative who's life is a complete mess because he cannot stop buying blu rays. I know, sounds daft, but he genuinely has an addiction - his main interest in life is films, which he takes very seriously (says the man typing into a bass players forum and who has just bought the Super Deluxe version of The Song Remains The Same, an awful album that I am unlikely to listen to more than a couple of times, but it's the last one to get the Super Deluxe treatment...I can understand that aspect of it all) but that has grown into a steelbook collection (his main problem, because these come in limited quantities so he has to pre-order them in advance to make sure that he gets his copy and he can't stand the thought of not getting them), multiple copies of different editions of the same film (because the Canadian version has a different making of documentary to the UK one, and and the Korean one has some really good artwork) and if there isn't a special edition to buy he'll just get some more films to watch. Literally every spare penny he has goes to Amazon or Zavvi or HMV. Because he can't stop spending money on it, he lives a much reduced life - a tiny studio flat in a rough bit of town (stuffed to the gills with blu rays), no social life to speak of, he lives off of the cheapest food that's on offer in his local supermarket, no savings or finances to fall back on when something adverse happens (other than the bank of ma and pa), and living hand to month by paying most of his salary to cover his groaning credit card bill and then surviving on what is left after the monthly interest has been taken and his pre-ordered blu rays have been paid for. While he's not a high flyer by any means he could live quite comfortably on what he earns if he took better control of his finances. This isn't a hard luck story of somebody scraping to get by on the minimum wage and tax credits, but he certainly lives like it is. Every time he has an opportunity to improve his lot in life, he chooses the wrong option - for instance, he finished paying off a bank loan, and made a great noise about now being able to start actually paying down his credit card...what actually happened was that he found that he could use the extra money to buy some of the stuff that he wanted to get but couldn't previously afford. This happens every time. His life would improve immeasurably if he just stopped buying blu rays for the next six months. But like all addicts in denial he doesn't think he has a problem - he knows what he needs to do, and tells himself that in due course he'll start doing it and everything will be fine. He's like the fat man staring at the cakes in Tescos, he knows he shouldn't buy it, and he knows that he's going to start his diet and start doing some more exercise, so he can just have this one cake and it doesn't matter, he'll be slim again before too long. the only time he ever cuts back is where there is an external reason for his finances to change - a rent increase or an office move that increases his travel costs - and he then bemoans how he's had to cancel a lot of pre-orders and how unfair it all is, having sifted through his lists to see what he can absolutely live without. Sorry, didn't mean to bring the thread down. I'm not against people collecting steelbooks of buying films or basses or anything else that they don't absolutely need...but sometimes it is genuinely a problem

Well, yeah. I can laugh at this stuff now as was the point of my post. If I couldn't laugh about stuff like this then I think I'd go mad. If I had said I started drinking when I was 10 (which is true) then maybe my post wouldn't have had such an amusing undertone. However, I'm all good at the moment and wondering if I'll get through the challenge. 😜 Stay strong kids. The new Darkglass amp will be superceded in 18 months by V3 and then they'll be cheaper.

*SUMMONED* Hi! So. Biased opinion alert! Our goal with these was to create a 24 fret lightweight bass that sounded exactly like a vintage stingray. The stinger pre-amp is based on the original 1977 pre-earnie balls stingray preamp (it's kind of all boost and no cut) and the choice of pickups means this bass sounds pretty damn close! There was a video of the "Old Smoothie" Stingray on Andertons website and it was notable how close it sounded. We're pretty pleased. We have stock of Surf Green, Cream and Black (my favourite) if you were considering one. They still have a jazz width neck. They do however feature the Stinger pre-amp as standard.

But if you buy the Pino, you'll be able to play as good as Pino.

I asked Mrs. Pook if she had names for my basses and she told me that no, naming objects is silly and anyway, she knew what they all are so why would she need names ? To prove this we went to the spare room of basses and she proceeded to give make and model of the half-dozen basses on hanging up, and just as she left, very pleased with herself she asked me "Well, where's the Geddy Lee then ?".

Oh, and - "Brexit".

I'm bored to death of this topic and this thread, and yet it keeps coming back like the proverbial. I wonder if we can lock threads because they're pointless and irritating?

The issues with lessened midrange dispersion and high frequency combing when drivers are side by side are eliminated when one side of drivers is low passed, meaning they have no midrange or high frequency content. It's a very simple concept, so simple that one can't help but wonder why it's not universally employed in 4x, 6x and 8x cabs. I don't do so in any of my cabs, because I don't do a 4x, 6x or 8x. But I did describe why it should be done and how to do it on bass forums ten or more years ago.

Now then. Play together nicely or it will be early to bed without supper, and a short sharp visit from the spank fairy.

The manual is here: https://www.acousticimg.com/#/support/manuals It gives the definitive answer. (Spoiler: it's ok to operate without a speaker load.)

Best I can do for now, because I have to go out in the SNOW!!

DO IT, DO IT!

Can you quote professional guidelines to backup that supposition? That's a straw man argument as well. I don't watch much TV, but I bet you a fiver that (for example) a presenter of something like "dancing on ice" would compliment male skaters as well as females on their appearance. Please don't make me youtube for evidence! 😁

That's true. When I was gigging, after the show, people never said 'wow - you're so hot' or 'what a fox'. They might say 'meh, you were okay' or 'oh, have you been on yet?' It saddened me

I think that depends on the sexuality of the commentators. Two hetero' women watching men's athletics or sport - do you really think they wouldn't be likely to comment "Oh, he's hott" or "he's good looking"? Of course that is just as likely as two hetero' males watching female wrestling on TV. Or two gay guys watching a men's rugby match. And importantly - which ever way around, admiring somebody who you may find attractive is not being "sexist"... at least not yet it isn't.

Oh dear cliff ! What a stunning colour. Carve away gramps

You may well be right, but Silvie bought me one of the Snapdragon folding basses for Xmas and I have to say that I'm delighted with it. The fact that I normally play expensive boutique basses with more strings and a different scale length doesn't impinge ... this is a very practical travel bass which absolutely delivers, and can only be judged in the right context. Would I play the Snapdragon on stage at the O2? Well, not by choice, no, but if I had to then it wouldn't be a problem for me. Can anyone get me a gig at the O2, just to prove the point, you understand?

Just built this today to accommodate the Duality. (Still undecided if it should go before or after the B3K)

i've been working on my own haptic feedback platform (mentioned in to @Gunsfreddy2003 not too long ago) that has a more uniform feel that the Eich and P&D boards that I've tried. Also, they are a lot more smaller (60x60) than other boards, so more friendly for the smaller venues. I'm working on getting my drawings CNCed now that I've completed them. The prototype is pretty mean and I'm proper happy with the results that I've got. I'm getting some machined for my band - and the cool thing is, they should come in substantially cheaper than the competition. Operational noise wise, they are near silent - which is great - as the design has eliminated anything that could potentially cause noise. Sound interesting? Once I've got the first built, I'll share the details here... so if anybody is interested, I may be able to negotiate some volume discounts for everybody. I was going to wait to post the pics... but meh. Threads been quiet for a while!

Oh come on, there is Cycling, Brexit and religion, ok, but Jazz? Some people have just got to go that bit too far!

Brexit cyclists

Cyclists

And then there’s this.... https://www.snap-dragon-guitars.co.uk/snap-dragon-e-bass-4-p.asp

Everyone ends up with a Precision. It may take decades. But we all get there at some point. Took me about 25 years! Sorry, couldn't resist. I thought you might have been talking about the offset body on the Jazz. I prefer the Precision body shape. So much so I'm going to replicate a 1960/61 Jazz bass into a Precision body and neck ... Davo

Yes, I name them "bass"

I believe sir you have secretly married my wife. Have no worries, you can keep her!

Why does it matter - make your own list. I mean they have Roger Waters as the 13th best bassist. He wasn't even the best bassist in Pink Floyd let alone anywhere else

Well, me. I signed up back in 2013 when life membership was pretty cheap, did a few lessons, got bored carried on with other things. So much so that when I go it tells me that it looks like I am new here! Probably been there less than 50 times in 6 years. This course is the stuff that you just don't choose to do yourself because.. well, why would you. But when it is in one course on its own that you paid for, it makes sense to do it. That is why I did it. And I believe I have learned stuff on this course as well as it has pushed me into really listening to what I am doing. Some of the lessons are - my god, why would anyone need to be told that, and some are wow, thats good - One thing I am not is consistant, I can do some quite advanced stuff while falling down on some real basics.

You guessed right! I know, it was supposed to be humorous rather than scientific. 😉 But, yes, I know what you mean, my dog is a type of sheepdog (Kelpie). 👍 Clever buggers... If my dog has been fed while one of us was out, at some point she will try to persuade that person that she's had nothing to eat, and she's smart enough to do it when the person who did feed her is out of the way. There's many a time I've had to call up the stairs to check with Mrs 4000. The reply is usually "That dog is a bloody liar!". She has caught us out once or twice though. 😁

After watching that 11 or 12 times, I plugged in my speakers and realised what she's playing isn't a bass! 😁

I made mine out of an old pallet I blagged from my local bar. Cut it down to size. Edged with a bit of old tongue and groove I had knocking around. Painted black. Covered in double sided tape and velcro. The feet are actually a couple of old plastic bolts that you get in new washing machines to stop the barrel moving when it's being delivered. Total cost, about a fiver for the velcro and double sided tape. I don't think it looks too bad.

My virginity! Best gig ever!

OK, I get your drift. In that sense, we're all in our own microcosms, with individual likes, tastes and experiences, which often evolve as we come across different stuff. No qualms with that, and I share your views, but on other genres. For me, it's funk, disco, head-banging and punk that I can't understand nor abide, or not for long. I don't dance (two left feet like breeze blocks; worse than Mrs May...), so EDM leaves me cold. Don't feel isolated, then, but rather rejoice in being exactly the same as everyone else, in that you're different, as different as are we all. No, I don't think I'd like to swap planets, though. I'll carry on listening to Jaco (and much more, of course...). Schubert..? Any taste for Schubert..? No..? Oh well; never mind.