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Right, photos time. My Stanley Clarke.

Stock is dictated by how much the shop buys in and it’s policies on selling - they prob have loads of Fenders in stock - doubt its a fire sale They that have paid ‘full fat’ have likely done so in the knowledge of other prices but wanted a specific spec/finish/colour etc. Used ones are great value precisely because of the quality. Yes they take a hit from new to second hand, then it plateaus shame for other quality brands outside of Fender (which is what most people go for) G&L, Schecter, ESP, Yamaha etc. Doubt half the customers are not happy with Delano’s, you have your experience and that’s fine, but I would think it’s a gross over exaggeration. I think most Nordstands I have played have been utter Gash - still a good pick up. There are other options of pick ups available from the manufacturer - may cost you more, but if for example you do a Shuker build course and want to install a pick up he doesn’t normally order/have a deal with - that costs you more as well, or you buy it yourself. Time for Sandberg to up their game.....🤔 constantly tinkering, subtle changes, brilliant QC, innovation about the best customer care you could ever ask for - when a company is emailed and asked where they can buy a tuning peg which broke on their second/third hand Electra (budget range bass) because they dropped the bass - how many Owners of the company would reply personally and send for free. I think other companies need to up their game

This is my non educated view...though i do have a materials engineering related background so it makes sense to me... Strings vibrate when you pick, strum, etc... They vibrate at a frequency and are held between the nut/fret and bridge. Everything else in the instrument acts as a mass damper absorbing some of the frequencies produced by the vibrating string. This in turn affects the vibrating frequency of the string to affect the tone of the instrument. Simply put, the materials that make up the instrument take away from what’s Beijing produced and remaining vibrations is what’s heard through the pickups.

Just got this feedback on the book from a new 'friend' on Facebook. 'Rob Palmer just so you know 2 years ago I was playing a week in Greece with the great Kirk Lightsey when I was reading it and I end up giving him the book. Kirk was a very close friend of P.C. and he fell in love with your book... this is the best proof your book is extremely valuable. Thank you for doing such a great job '! Warms the cockles.

Orion is a very comfy set-neck ride

I did a Version of Ennio Morricone's Ecstasy of gold. What do you think? Cool or blasphemy?

I thought the body needed something so I decided racing stripes are the way forward to tie in the black neck and headstock I've decided at present not to use the pickguard............... Just waiting for the paint to dry then its time to get it all back together....... 😀

I'd use whatever the manufacturer says is good for bass fishing

An alternative, more visually pleasing approach would be to tie a large, colourful helium balloon to the headstock. The more neck heavy the bass, the bigger the balloon. Thunderbirds generally need a giant rainbow coloured unicorn. 😎

It’s the bass equivalent of going outside with no knickers on.

Many builders offer a choice of pick ups and charges apply according. Marusczyck do and you pay for the different pick ups as per the price it costs them. Having a ‘standard’ spec is pretty normal for a bass builder and if one decides that they want different pick ups it’s not up to the builder absorb the cost same way shuker will charge you for what they don’t normally carry as their ‘normal’ options. Lets remember the likes of Nordstrand pick ups in an Ibanez it’s very possible Ibanez wind those pick ups in-house to Nordstrand spec? It’s not quite the same as Sandberg or any builder offering pick ups from various manufacturers who have their own operational costs, individual overheads and bottom line to make. If one were to buy a Fender what pick up choice do you have other than what comes as standard on that model? Even with the latest up grade to custom shop pick ups. It’s one choice per range.

I'm anaspeptic, phrasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericombobulation.

A lot of these sub sonics come from the percussive element of hitting the strings. When you pluck, before the string is released, it moves over the pickup at a slower speed than a freely vibrating string would, as it's attached to your fingers. If there was no filtering whatsoever in the entire signal chain, you would be able to see the cone move just by wiggling the string slowly over the pickup.

Still can't believe I snagged my Basic 4 for about tree fiddy. Must be the name - not many people want to spend big coin on something called a 'Basic'!

It's in the diary, my first time @ a bash!!!

Here is my latest build. The Brooks Telebird. It is my take on the legendary Fenderbird that was built by Peter Cook for John Entwistle. However I decided to combine the characteristics the Thunderbird body with a 51 P (aka Telecaster bass). The specs are as follows - Two piece Swamp Ash body - Allparts Maple 51 P neck. Bolt on - Vintage blonde finish - Jess Loureiro 51 P split coil pickup - 34" scale - Tusq nut - Wide travel Thunderbird bridge plus tailstop. Nickel - Matte black single ply pickguard - Gotoh GB528 lightweight tuners. Nickel - Allparts push/pull Volume pot - CTS Tone pot - Silver reflector cap knobs - Telecaster jack cup. Nickel - GHS Brite Flats 49-108 I'll post pics of the build process in several answers below.

Yes a bit of googling provides an interesting read! It would appear that a single string can't produce anything lower than the fundamental, but a combination of two notes can produce a tone lower than the fundamental of either. This is called a 'difference tone'. A good example is the power chord on guitar (root + fifth). Because these frequencies have a ratio of 2:3, they generate a difference tone with half the frequency of the fundamental (ie. an octave lower). Apparently this is why power chords sound so fat.

Tell Hölger you heard he was rumoured to introduce a colour called ‘September Sunset’

Here we go - managed to track down the original post:

I've been using these for the past 3 or 4 months on Fender type basses and I'm really enjoying them - I moved over from exl220s (40-60-75-95). The difference isn't massive but the lighter gauge is preferable for me and there's plenty of bright twang if that's what you're looking for. I've been shopping around but picked-up a few sets at about £18-19 including shipping

"Babooshka" came up on a thread about great fretless basslines, and one kind soul directed us to a No Treble article with a transcription of John Giblin's sublime performance, so I've been trying to get my fingers 'round that. I'll see if I can dig up the link and share it on here. Anyhoo, it's been a good challenge for my fretless intonation, as it's not often I find myself having to play up the dusty end in E-flat. Definitely a good workout for the ears!

Get that old 'dodgy kebab' alibi in first 😈

Damn you're good at this. First you have me on tenterhooks then you start reeling me in

Sorry, did I say fishing line ? Of course I meant my patented (ahem) ToneConduit music tether. Want to know why all the session players use it ? You'll be amazed at the answer !!

Sorted, bought an Ibanez SR500 of a fellow BC member. Thanks Stuart!! Off to find an amp!!

You forgot the 'unboxing' part!

Here's an early Tokai Jazz (c.1981?). Originally fretted, the bass has a small issue with the truss rod so a few years ago, while the repair chap had it on the bench, I asked for it to be converted to fretless (now has a nice Indian Rosewood board).

As the list stands- all room costs plus some extra for food and bits are covered

Excellent news ...I was struggling to find the time to read the pdf you kindly sent me. Now I have ordered a copy you get to splash out spending the massive royalties on a debauched life style, and I get to read it without lugging my laptop around. A win/win I believe!

Fresh off the plane. One for flats, one for rounds.

I've experimented with many solutions and the most effective was still a little inelegant. I have a canvass pouch designed to hang from a belt or bag whilst out hiking. This pouch holds a water bottle. So when I cycle to my rehearsal with my tiny travel bass I take the bottle from the bike, fill it with water at the rehearsal room, clip the pouch to my guitar strap (at the bum end of course) and the weight of the water precisely balances the instrument without me having to carry anything heavy on the bike (which would kind of defeat the object of travelling light). I carry the bottle anyway and it becomes lighter throughout the ride as I consume the initial quantity of H2O. So I rehearse with a bottle swinging at my hip. Perfect if, as I say, inelegant. I am therefore adapting the idea for when I'm actually gigging with a neck heavy bass. Quite simply velcro attached to the back end of the strap and a certain number of curtain weights sewn into a flat pouch with the other half of the velcro sewn to the pouch. Balanced bass? Remove the pouch, neck heavy? Velcro it on. The 'certain number' of weights is arrived at through trial and error but by using three smaller pouches rather than one big one I can stick on differing amounts of weight to suit each bass on a case by case basis. Or a bass by bass casis. A bag of curtain weights, yesterday: Pictures to follow. When I've actually done the sewing.

Nice cleans. Horrible drives.

You're not going to 'hear' anything much at all if you have your HPF set to 40Hz on a 4 string and 20 Hz on a 5 string. The low E on a 4 string is 41 Hz and the low B is 31 Hz. So you're already cutting at below what the bass is putting out (and indeed a frequency range below what most cabs are able to convey with any authority in terms of us being able to hear). What you should notice is less speaker excursion because the HPF is eliminating the energy diverting sub-sonic 'crud', and thereby allowing the speakers to work more efficiently in the audible frequency ranges. Fyi - the Thumpinator cuts at 28 Hz. If you've not seen the impact it has on speaker excursion, then the linked video clip is worth watching and listening to through a pair of headphones - you're not going to hear much difference, but you can easily see how much less hard the speakers are having to work! I use my Thumpinator at the start of my signal chain as a 'crud cleaner' and then into a Spectracomp which can then do its thing on just the audio frequency range and will be, itself, working more efficiently, the benefits of which then flow into the rest of my pedal board --> amp --> cab.

I just put this up for sale in /classifieds because I found another poorly pedal in need of my restoration services, a PK6. £50 markup (with the the PSU at £7 and the battery Pack at £3 plus £3 for components plus my time) seems ok?

Thanks for the over share, Ricky.... 😀

Briefly conversing with James Lomenzo via Instagram made my Easter, never mind the chocolate!

Expect lots of wordplay with your username...😉😉

Also... that Sandberg, I thought it was sexy. So I've been looking at this: Ufff... Recite mantra "I don't need it I don't need it I don't need it" (but I might leave the Sandberg configurator open casually so that my girlfriend can see it, in case she is looking for ideas for my birthday... :p)

On the subject of three pickup basses, the Deimel Firestar has three and a piezo. It's a slab of Germanic loveliness. Just for good measure and the lols, Frank also builds them with a whammy bar.

Or the studs on your forehead when you are playing with your teeth...

It can only be a good thing in my view. A genuine patina of use is one thing. Taking a sander to a perfectly good bass almost smacks of sharp practice....

Oh, hell yes. It is a tricky balance to get right, though - I speak from some (limited) experience having covered one for a friend! Obviously you want to give all the musicians a chance to get up and play, but every new person that shows up is an unknown quantity - not just on the axis of technically good / bad, but also the essential axis of modesty vs incorrigible showboating! And of course, anyone who's not playing is there to be entertained. There's a fear that if you bring up too many howlers, punters will lose interest, and other musicians will start to regard the jam as having a low standard of musicianship. (And that's before you consider the internal politics between the regulars - knowing that you can't put Adam up with Ben because neither likes the way the other hogs the stage, or Carl won't play with Diane because she once forgot the chords to that one obscure soul tune he wanted to sing, even though that was weeks ago...) So in short, I can see why they find safety in the musicians they know. But it's equally counterproductive to play it too safe. If you're too scared to take a punt on someone you don't know, you're just going to micturate off the other musicians, and the punters will quickly get bored of watching the same dozen people cycling through the same dozen songs every week. And that's giving the host the benefit of the doubt, and assuming that he/she doesn't see the jam as a back door to having their own personal stage show, where they can dominate the stage with their own dreary guff, and feel alright about the "jam" aspect because they got nine other musicians up wth them. ...can you tell that I've possibly been to too many jam nights? The above are, sadly, all based on real examples I've witnessed. The best two I've known were: one where the host never played, and my current local one, where the host plays the warm-up set, then only gets back up if there's a shortage of musicians.