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Update: We've made excellent progress just lately. The Falls Clinic and the physiotherapists have got Jack standing and sitting well enough to manage the passenger seat of his own car with minor adaptations! We had a trial run out this afternoon. All being well, we should be attending with our own transport. Many thanks to @Andyjr1515 and @Stub Mandrel for their kind offers of a lift. We are optimistic as always but it's reassuring to know that we have options if the rules change on us again suddenly.

And, for the sake of completeness, the third knob:

We as a band have decided not to incorporate any Cyril Smith tunes in our set.

And for even more completeness, I present fleabag, the 4th knob

Kingston town by UB40... I prefer the original by Lord Creator, but it was relatively unknown... There's a heart-warming story about the effect that UB40 had on him... "In 1989, the British group UB40 recorded Kingston Town. There is a story that after this, Eccles saw Creator, who had become homeless and destitute, on a Kingston street. When Eccles called out to him, Creator fled thinking Eccles had come to collect $30 he owed him. Eccles chased him down and told him UB40 had recorded Kingston Town and that Creator had earned substantial royalties. With the money he earned in royalties, Creator revitalized his life and career. He appeared in oldies shows in Jamaica, and even toured Japan." https://www.westburymusic.net/ArtistDetails?Aid=WBM_AR_274

Might make sleeping a bit awkward.

The third knob is in the clamp gluing but I thought I'd take a photo of the other two in place and in better light: By the way, the horizontal line in the walnut is a natural fissue emanating from the knot you can just see round the corner. It's treated and stable. There's still a lot to do, but I've got to the 'still to do' list stage (presently 14 items and falling) which is always a good sign Andy

Depends which 80s basses you're talking about, and also the (sometimes hilarious) disconnect between what some sellers ask for & what people will actually pay. By way of an example, I give you: Fantasy Reality

I got a neck and pre-fretted fingerboard for a 23" Ukelele off the 'bay. Still needs a lot of fettling. Might go with a danish oil finish. The scale length is 17", and I've adapted it (not yet glued in) to suit a body made out of three chunks of inch-thick mahogany from an old table. I've got a piezo ukelele/mandolin bridge pickup but haven't quite decided what it is yet. Tempted to fit (at very low tension) bass strings, dampers and tune it CDGA like a cello. Maybe fit a coil pickup as well. Or silicone strings and bass tuning. Or with lighter strings it could be DGBE for a tenor 4-string guitar, or mandolin tuning GDAE. One thing it won't be is ukelele tuning because it hurts my brain.

This is likely to be the most likely scenario, but I don't know much about the laws of commerce in the UK, nor the costs involved in importing, taxes, fees, agency inspections, distributing, stocking, selling and supporting/servicing the product. I do know that Westside operates a substantial and well qualified service center with some outstanding service engineers, that costs something. From what I have seen, they go out of their way to be helpful to those of you in the UK when service is needed. This is not my area of expertise, I'm "just" an engineer/designer. Please forgive me for this

Neck sanding done and satin lacquer applied. Really pleased how this is looking....just need to get the rest of it finished!! As a little future experiment, I'm going to make another neck for this or the other shortie but with a scale length of somewhere around 30" just to see how a normal short scale feels on a headless bass. I've quite enjoyed building a couple medium/short scale basses and like the way they feel so I'm curious to what a 30" headless would be like. That's the trouble with this building lark, there's always the next bass and always something else to try!!

Could be worse... it might have chaffinched its woodpecker or got pigeon-holed by a great big bustard. It's not a garden out there it's a jungle and we all know... Jungle is massive!

A Rolex knock-off.

Just got my 1972 Telecaster Bass back together after completing renovation. I think the before and after photos speak for themselves? Spot the differences....and just one thing missing! Before: After:

Like that bumper sticker - " i'm not a complete idiot. Some parts are missing "

Right, that’s Ave Maria off the set list.

It has arrived. After a small heart attack of strange noises that I quickly realised was being caused by my wireless but being too close to the preamp I got it plugged in. But first the weight.... 6.58 lb!!!! Astonishingly light. It felt so odd I wondered if it was too light for me, but that feeling passed quick. So far I've had a 20 minute blast at lunchtime through my Helix and studio monitors. Even through the monitors and not my usual BF One10s it is really punchy. Very Marcus Miller. Neck is super smooth, fretwork is very nice. Strings... meh! But I either use D'addario or TI Flats and nothing else. I forgot to order any at the same time as the bass but thanks to Amazon Prime some D'addarios will arrive this evening. I have a rehearsal tomorrow morning so I think I'll jump in the deep end and use it straight away and see what happens. I'll report more after rehearsal

Out for delivery between 12:19 and 14:19 Going to be a long couple of hours!

I have a bit of a beef with the current fashion for trial by media being used in place of, or to pre-empt trial in a court of law. I'm not a fan of MJ, but far as I can see; nothing criminal has yet been satisfactorily proven against him, so I would not let the current media circus persuade me to avoid playing his songs.

Things come, things go. 10 years ago I was routinely trading Wal basses with Clarky. He'd buy one, sell it to me. I'd buy one, sell it to him. Not one of those trades was valued at more than £2000 and some were sharply cheaper than that. The same basses now trade in the £3k - £4.5k range. They're the same basses, and the intervening period has (allegedly) been one of austerity and low inflation. Go figure.

Very insightful... Reminds me of the story about Paul McCartney when he worked with MJ back in the 80s.. Apparently so the story goes, they were working on a song together and Macca was telling MJ about the financial value of music publishing. Next thing Macca knew was that MJ had bought ATV Music Publishing, the publishing company that owned Northern Songs, which itself owned all the rights to the Beatles songs! I don't think Macca was best pleased.. Innate musical talent aside, MJ was a very intelligent person IMO who knew how to operate and make things happen for his benefit in the very grown up and fiercely competitive world of the music business. He had other talents in abundance too, especially in terms of projecting and manipulating a public image and persona that always seemed to allow him to come out smelling of roses That he wouldn't have intuitively or knowingly transferred all of those talents, skills and personal attributes into his achieving what he wanted in his personal life would beggar belief frankly. The jury's not out for me on this one and I certainly wouldn't want to play bass in a band covering any of his music from Off The Wall onwards.

I'd keep the cabs and replace the amp if it were me. A combo is much less flexible. Frank.

Seriously, I doubt two retailers could even agree on where to eat lunch.

Should have gone to Specsavers.....🙄 😄

I thought that, but it’s the fluffy stuff lining the case!

I found some old daddario nickels lying about so I’ve put them on. They feel like 35-95 (for my Les Claypool attempts) and I quite like the lightness on this bass. Big band rehearsal tomorrow morning! Can’t wait.

Virtually all of @Andyjr1515's builds?

I know what you mean - it's not something you think about with double ball end strings but they only come in 34" scale (double ball end strings are so convenient and quick to change). The Nova headpiece clamp is similar to what I've seen on other headless basses using single ball end strings so should be a tried and tested approach. Here's the two head pieces side by side for reference. The Nova is a nice looking piece of work isn't it?!

Yeah. Pile of shite. Would rather pleasure myself with shards of glass.

In early January I bought an almost 10 year old ABM 500. Used it on a gig and it was as good as I remembered. Get to it`s second gig and at soundcheck it started making a very bad noise. I mailed the guys on here and they said send it down. A couple of days later, I got a call to ask if I would be at home on Thursday so TNT could deliver my amp all fixed and ready to go. And all this was done for free! They wouldn`t even take payment for the courier. Ashdown didn`t have any obligation to repair the amp: I bought an old ABM from a shop down south that looked newish but could have been abused to within an inch of it`s life. These things don`t come with logbooks, mores the pity. And DPD didn`t handle it with kid gloves on the way down to Essex either! So a big thanks and thumbs up for Ashdown.

I saw a partial tit in the garden this morning, it was missing its 4th knob.

It's a story, thanks. Also you lot are all still very lovely. Thanks to all.

Here's an insane comparison. My Mono Vertigo gigbag is 6.2 lb empty. This bass is 6.58 lb. The bass is almost as light as the bag!

You may like this Dave

Well an update on the EHX Mono Bass Synth.........tried it for 3-4 hours.....sent it back.......!!!! Now don't get me wrong, it's not at all bad, some tracking issues, but not major at all, all depends what you want from a Synth Pedal, but there's the crux, it just didn't offer me the Sounds n Options I wanted. I get the feeling nearly all Synth, or Synth type pedals are created for crazy expressionist sound scapes, and that's fine for those that want that, I want to emulate many classic 80's Bass Synth sounds, and thus far nothing has achieved that in a single pedal, you'd think manufacturers might actually realise this as going on all the stuff they cram into some of these pedals it's well achievable. The sound(s) I lust, well check out Billy Ocean/When The Going gets Tough, Chaka Khan/I Feel For You, Madonna/Get Into The Groove, to name-check just a few, there's 100's. I know many have said just buy a bass synth keyboard, but I'd rather wait for the ideal pedal (standalone) Looks like it's the Future Imapct after all. Now, anyone looking to try the EHX Bass Mono Synth, don't let me put you off, it's a neat little pedal, has lots of sound options that are useable, I did have the sensitivity all the way up on most settings as I found tracking an issue when I had it anywhere else, it's a good wee unit for the price, as are most EHX, just got a Bass Muff Deluxe real cheap on Ebay, and PMT online are selling off the last of the Bass Metaphors at £40, nearly £100 off the retail price.

I'm building a bass to show my bridge, is it appropriate to create a thread here to show it?

Derek Forbes selling me his Vigier. Lovely bloke and a great bass that will never be sold again.

Hoping you post some images.

Go @fretmeister!!!

Been listening to this recently and I'm totally in love, the full album is insane! X

I think you won't go wrong with either. They're my two favourite strings. I tend to favour Fat Beams. I don't love them initially as they are pretty bright as most stainless steel strings tend to be, but they quickly settle into a slightly tamer zone that lasts a LONG time. They feel nice on the fingers, smooth and flexible, and sound great on anything I've tried really. They are the only strings I use on my Stingrays. SunBeams are slightly differernt but they really aren't that far from Fat Beams. When fresh they're not quite as bright, so they don't have that initial period where I wish the zing weren't there, and they're maybe a little more 'polite' than Fat Beams... but it's not that one is better than the other. I have been using them on my Precision and PJ basses, where I previously had Fat Beams, and I can't say which is better. They're just slightly different, but both are very good. SunBeams a bit smoother perhaps and the low mids stronger on the Fat Beams... but there really isn't that much between them after a week playing them. Both are great choices, for my liking, with Fat Beams slightly being favoured. I discovered Fat Beams by chance. I bought a used USA MM SUB a few years ago. The strings had a lot of life in them and sounded good, so I kept them, which is unusual as I generally rip off whatever strings any bass comes with and put my own, especially if used! The bass sounded great. I thought it was just the bass. The pickup is wired in series rather than parallel and I seemed to like that punchier sound a lot. I was in a RHCP tribute band at the time. Then one night, I broke a string. The only time I ever broke a bass string, and of course it was live. The G string. We were playing Blackeyed Blonde, which makes the G string in particular take a beating as I am not the subtlest kind of player when it comes to slap, especially in a fast song like that. I finished the song without it... and took a new set of strings from my bag while the band started jamming with made up lyrics making fun of me and how I broke my G string 😛 I had a set of nickel D'Addario roundwounds, which were what I generally used then as they sounded and felt good and the price was reasonable. I replaced just the G string, to be quick... and I wanted to cry. It was so out of balance! Same gauge (I measured it with calipers at home) but there was a distinct lack of volume and body. It wasn't just quieter... it just didn't have... girth... Finished the gig, replaced the other strings... and what a sad bass that was. I mean, objectively, it wasn't BAD... but it felt like it was a sad depressed bass compared to the happy confident instrument I had before. So I took pictures and set out to find what strings they were, in this very forum, as others do at times. The consensus was they were likely DR Fat Beams. I didn't like that answer as the price was over 2x what I was paying for D'Addario at the time, but I bit the bullet and bought a set. When it arrived... I was happy it very much looked like my old strings. I installed them and they were so much better than the D'Addario ones! Still.. not quite right, I felt. But it only took a week or two to start feeling THAT sound. The strings I was used to were clearly not new, and I just needed to get over the initial extra zing of the new strings. Very soon, that bass was happy again. I've tried many other strings since, as I'm always curious to try new things... but Fat Beams are the ones for me. The only other roundwounds that I've liked enough were SunBeams. I use both 45-105 and 45-100. Gauge 40 on the G is a bit too weak and didn't like it. The 45-100 is the better balanced one, in my opinion. The E string is strong but not overpowering and the G has good volume. Great strings to bend, if you're into that.

There's no special reggae bass however there's reggae feel - and the bass sound needs to have enough definition to hear the pitch of the notes - not boomy blubber - otherwise you might as well have a second bass drum booming playing the bass guitar beats. In the 70s, the guy in Steel Pulse used a very smart natural Stingray. Family Man used an Acoustic 370/301 stack in the 70s. I use Stingrays through a Markbass LM3 and combinations of MB 2 X 10 speakers. Plenty dubby enough played over the neck joint. The HH Stingray 5 Special with neck pick up only engaged is very dubby but still defined enough. The Stingray has ample bass booty both from the construction and from the EQ - even more so the Special with it's 18 v preamp. IMHO feel, bass response and note definition are the key ingredients.

Couple of nice 32 " scale Maruszczyks in Bass Direct. I think there was even a Jake 4p for sale on this forum too.

*waves*