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Many of you wil have followed the Basschat 1x12 Cabinet threads over the last few years with sterling work from Phil Starr and Stevie. The latest version has been compared favourably with boutique cabs such as Fearless. The MK2 cabinet design is just about complete and with the availability of a flat packed cabinet kit, has attracted a lot of attention. The cabinet has a Full Range Flat Response but many people like the idea of an active FRFR with the amplifier built in. This thread will follow the development of the active version. Initially we will add pre-amp and power amp to the exiting passive design. Unlike FRFR PA speakers the circuitry, the inputs will be limited to those needed by us bass players. Maybe, if there is interest, a fully active system will be considered. The current spec is: The current thought is for the following facilities. Balanced line input, XLR with sensitivity of 0dBm(0.775V). Balanced line output for DI or to feed a second cabinet. Jack input instrument level/high impedance.* Speakon output to passive cab. Fixed HPF tuned to the driver/cabinet combination. Actual Frequency and filter order TBC. (Added 4/05/19) Volume control. ICEPower 125ASX2** or 700AS1 power module. (Added 4/05/19) **The 125ASX2 wil output over 280W into this cabinet at 1% THD+N more than enough to power this and one other BC1x12 and is easier to obtain. However the 700AS1 is an even better module but much harder to get. (Added 4/05/19) Apart from the mechanical differences the electrical interface is almost the same.. I do not intend to put any EQ on the unit as that would be a combo.

Just a quick post for a big up to Dawn and Rob at Status for helping to rejuvenate my beat up old matrix energy #844 - the original BP1 board sadly expired (with a teensy bit of help from my soldering skills) and Rob was kind enough to entertain finding a solution and had a spare 4 knob boardless solution - this required an extra hole drilled in the body and a battery cavity routed into the back - previously i had also swapped out the original passive J status pups for the hyperactive J versions. When i acquired it from another basschatter about 5-6 years ago(?) it also had an adjustable schaller bridge so that was removed and the original black/brass status bridge replaced this particular workhorse has been around the block a few times and probably been previously owned by 'quite a few' - back then it always felt very nice to handle but the tone just wasnt getting there - now with the replacement pups and the 4knob status circuit it actually sounds exactly like it should do - so big thumbs up to Dawn and Rob for helping to get this sounding like it ought to - it may not be as pretty as miss myrtle but tone wise it's now up there with the rest of the status gang and makes a superb working instrument knowing you lot you'll probably be zooming in on the pic to see what the cd's are 🤣

Just arrived this weekend after a year long wait since ordering..... a fantastic flipflop blue/purple Dingwall Dbird Standard! Loving it.... particularly the sound with all 3 pickups on! Solid lows, glassy highs and piano-tone tight mids.... mmmm.... Thanks to Mark at Bass Direct for sorting this for me 🙂

I've just won one on eBay! Well, bought one Got it for £56 which makes me very happy indeed. The dirt quest is never ending. Very excited to see what it can do! Will I like it? Watch this space...

Cherry LPJ fretless... La Bella white nylons on and away we go 👍 No fretless eh? Missing a trick on a mid-scale which looks like it would have a really good midrange voice. What's the score re rosewood boards - can't sell from US to EU with rosewood. I'm surprised they can use it at all on current production - didn't they get into serious bother over rosewood of 'unknown' origin a while back? And on the Tbird I notice the EU store only has ebony finish, and it appears to be quite hefty (and oddly small):

Not even for Jamie Lannister?

When @bigsmokebass sends you Machine heads, he throws in 80’s sweets. (might just be for me...not sure...)

Just a short one this time - both the thread and the bass A couple of weeks ago @tauzero contacted me to see if I was up for taking on a small job on his beautiful Sei headless: He explained the problem: "Six years ago, I dropped it in a gig bag and it landed on the lower edge of the bottom bout. Because the core is quite thin, there's not a lot of meat around the jack socket area, and the impact cracked the centre core and sheared it away from the front and back laminates" At the time @jayDee did the fix and - wow - FANTASTIC job! It was an invisible mend and, honestly, I STILL can't see the join! But in recent times a second problem has shown itself - a bit like @TheGreek 's Alembic-esque of a few years ago - the top wood had started cupping and had pulled itself away to form an impressive gap! : The lines on the core, by the way are just lacquer cracks - probably from the original impact. The failed glue joint of the top was probably weakened, although not visibly split, at that same time. Two of the challenges were: The cupping is strong. I could only JUST close the gap with both hands pressing as hard as I could. Again - a bit like @TheGreek 's The joint area - the control chamber goes very close to the edge - is very narrow round that curve. We are talking 10mm max - in fact before the curve levels off at the top The glue joint that had failed is actually the bottom of a 2mm wenge demarcation strip which further round you can see the crack has also split the wenge So the challenge, apart from working on such a beautiful and valuable bass, was how to find a glue that was going to be strong enough to hold the continuing considerable force of the top wood trying to pull itself away. And how to try to fill and level any rough and damaged bits of the crack edge. I gave it some thought and also bounced off my ideas on a pro-luthier friend, Rob Hodgson, who gave them the thumbs up. The glue? Old fashioned leave-it-all-night-to-harden Araldite original. This is much stronger than the Rapid version or other shorter set epoxies like ZPoxy, etc.. Filling and smoothing? Wenge sanding dust mixed in with the epoxy Application? Syringe for the main gap, encouraged in with some very thin cellophane, and then re-syringed This was a test mix before I added the wenge dust. I did LOADS of trials of shapes of cauls. The top and back cantilever over the control chamber so you have to be VERY careful not to apply pressure to the edges. There was already a hairline crack at the back, maybe from the original bump. So the back clamping caul needed to be as big as possible to spread the load: The clamping would be on the very edges, with a middle clamp to act as the fulcrum. As such, I could leave the electrics in place: Masked right up to the gap line and epoxy syringed in. I also wicked a couple of drops of CA into the disappearing gap at either side of the main crack to prevent future spread of the glue fail Then clamped, 3 clamps at medium pressure - until the gap closed but not much tighter than that - with the load balancing clamp nearer to the body centre: I removed the bulk of the squeeze-out and then left it the rest of the day and overnight to fully cure. Next morning, I gingerly loosened the clamps - and it had held! To smooth off the joint lines, I just used a single-edged razor as a mini scraper. Quick wipe of the scraped joint with Osmo-dampened cloth, and we have the fix: The top is the repaired one I'm well chuffed (and moderately to majorly relieved)

Progress has been much slower than I hoped on this. Deciding to put my house on the market and all the stuff that goes with that has somewhat delayed this. I am hoping though to find a house with a double garage meaning more workspace but these things take time..... Anyway, I have progressed with the neck. Truss rod channel routed: The fretboard has been slotted (correct dimensions this time) and glued to the neck. This has then been cut on my band saw and tidied up using the router to give the final shape. I have a log made from ebony that matches the fretboard which I think contrasts nicely. The neck is birds eye maple and if it finishes anywhere as nicely as the last one I made, should look really nice.

Support your local music shop (by buying five quids of plectrums every couple of years) 😆

Man.... I will call it...butterfly from caterpillar .... I bought the bass ...old strings, dusty... smoker flat, dogs.... but even with the old (!) Warwick red label strings it was a promissing sound... Came home and spend some long time cleaning bass and fretboard, oiling etc...it turned out to be a very beautiful bass! With new d'addario steels it sounds superb!!! I am realy happy. Had a BB424 last year (white) that did not sound like this one. Bought and sold a BB1024 last year..it had a baseball racket neck and was far to heavey. This one plays and sounds great, will try to do some recordings tomorrow. 1 pic: from the advert 2 pic: the dirt of the fretboard..... 3 pic: start of cleaning / oiling 5 pic: Shiny beautiful new bass

Contacted Status. I did not get any info on the bass but they assured me that that The 1 / 2 batteries does not affect the tone it's just the 'headroom' on the EQ that is improved with 18 volts.

Here's two pictures of the Häussel's I am going to install in my VM some time by the end of this week. My take on replacing parts of a guitar/bass is that: If something is perfect, don't mess with it and try to improve it for no reason. However, many luthiers throw in whatever third party vendor pub(s) they think will fit best. So why not disagree and go for another pub-brand if YOU think it will be a better fit? I would not consider changing the pubs of my Music Man Bongo since this is the heart and soul of the bass (in conjunction with the pre-amp). In a Sandberg with Delanos it's a totally different story, especially since they are more than happy to install Häussel's on your request by default.

Weights and balance The P35 actually 'hangs' a little more comfortably off my frame than my other three Yammys. So when I put them all on the scales I was a little surprised to find: P35 and NE2 - 10.2 lbs 735A and 1025 - 9.6 lbs The combination of a slightly heavier body and lightweight tuners on the P35 gives it more of a balance between neck and body and, in consequence, there is a touch less neck dive on the P35. Still getting used to having individual volume controls on the P35 - it's actually a really nice feature, but the flip side is that it's a bit less easy to switch pups than by using the selector switch on the 1025 or dialling a pup selector knob mid song, as you have to deal with two knobs rather than just one. Fortunately not something I'm needing to do too often. @M@23 - my Ibby SR1825 weighs in at 8.3 lbs, and is therefore nearly 2lbs lighter than your old P35 so if you want a lightweight bass, like a touch of the Warwick growl from the pups, appreciate a 3 band EQ and find a fast neck a delight then I'd definitely recommend you also checking out the Ibby SR Premium range; you'll have plenty of change left over from your Berg into the bargain!

My current set up... Genzler Magellan 800 head, Aguilar SL410X cab, GB Rumour bass with Lakland Duck Dunn bass as 2nd option. Nice compact & light rig with loads of power. I’m very pleased with it.

SOLVED! After taking it all apart what seems like a hundred times, the culprit was the connection between the battery poles and the contact strips in the battery holder. TFFT! Thanks again to all who got involved in trying to help. I know a lot more now then I did at the start of this. Cheers!

I get the same grip problems. I found that Herco heavy thumbpicks are just the job for me. As an unexpected benefit, I've found that I can now switch between fingerstyle and pick on the fly, quite handy for a change of dynamics within a song.

This is the selector layout

Enjoy 😂

Great - the positioning of the Dunlop strap locks (and the small headstock) means it balances nicely!

Haven’t posted for a while. Here’s my Rumour4 number 0052 made for me by Bernie in 2001. I sold it a few years back when I stopped playing. In 2017 I was offered the opportunity to re-join my old Band, and I was able to buy back my bass (I’d kept tabs on its whereabouts) . I won’t be parting with it again!

I'm fairly confident the round-end J pickups were used by different manufacturers, having owned 4 or 5 different basses fitted with these. Despite years of research the vintage MIJ community has found very little info on different electronics & hardware suppliers during the 70s / 80s era. We're pretty much limited to Nisshin Onpa (Maxon) and Goto/Gotoh for pickups - simply because these have brands marked on them. There's a vague assumption that Matsumoku wound their own pickups because many late Mat instruments have MMK-stamped pickups - but that's not exacty conclusive. Hardware's the same - we know Chushin & Gotoh made tuners, bridges & other fittings only because they put their brands on the parts. Chushin was also a major instrument manufacturer in its own right so it's possible they produced in-house electronics too. I think it's beyond doubt there were numerous other, smaller manufacturers of components, just as there were numerous instrument builders that are now gone with little or no record.

I'm just hoping that there'll be a Les Paul Junior DC guitar in there (and not one of those horrific tribute models).

Yep, I use the Dunlop Tortex Wedges, big, easy to grip, and as they are triangular you essentially get 3 picks for the price of one.

Gibson new range announcement later today, fingers crossed the LP Jr DC is finally introduced...

Absolutely agree. However, personally I would add two additional bullets... but those differences in harmonic content will still be noticeable to the human ear meaning that while it still sounds fundamentally like a bass guitar the design, materials, hardware and construction will all contribute to appreciable differences in the nuance of that harmonic content. the non uniform nature of wood as a material and the inability to ensure that other factors are identical (esp in terms of construction and assembly) mean that the differences may not be entirely predicable on the basis of a predetermined prejudice (e.g. mahogany is always mellow, maple is always bright, x wood sounds warmer than y wood), expensive wood sounds good while cheap wood/other materials sound bad.

@Al Krow that’s the nub, isn’t it. Musical instruments are complex systems so EVERYTHING has some effect the question is how much. You hear such daft opinion spouted as fact in the tonewood debate. Like “negligible vibration gets transferred from the strings through the bridge into the body because of its mass” yet you can tune a bass by resting your ear against the body and you can turn your wardrobe door into a speaker by touching it with your bass’ headstock. Personally, I err on the side of the body resonance/filter interactions being a noticeable part of the rich complex waveform in the strings. “But it’s too small an influence, how could anyone ever perceive it?” I hear the mob cry... Well, we perceive some pretty small tolerances every day... a few parts per million of a volatile organic compound with our noses. Difference of a few hz to get just the right colour. A bass where the string height is 1/1000 of an inch the wrong way or where the string spacing varies by half a mm becomes “unplayable”. I can reliably tell you when the pressure of the tyres on my bike falls below 55-60 psi by the way it feels when I’m riding it. The different waveform between an oboe and a cor anglais. Why not the different waveform between two basses with similar hardware and build and body woods of wildly different densities?

Phil Collins and Percy Jones

I think a lot of the 'others' may be D'addarios.

Yes, there's a "Gigs" thread under "Performance" lower down, but it's easy to overlook, and it's a mix of where BC peeps will be going or actually playing. I've lost count of how often replies to "How was your gig last night" are "Oh if I'd known I'd have been there!" (including from me 😞 ) So would it be a good idea to have this thread here as well? Happy to take "No" for an answer... (mods?) Plastic Mojo Blues Band will be playing the open jam in Tyldesley run by @12stringbassist tomorrow evening 🙂

Cool, thanks for that. I've been playing my P today and thinking I could do with a little rest just where a jazz pup would be, then I see your post. Think I may see if I can get one 3d printed 👍🏻

Welcome to the flip-flop club! it's beautiful!!

Photo of Josie 'in the wild'

Nope, I plan on keeping my MS-60B (metal case & very robust) for tuner and HPF then the B1Four (not the X) for amp Sims, cab Sims and compressor duties. Bass>> MS-60B >> B1Four >> Tech21 VT Bass DI>> Amp (Fender Rumble 500 or Mesa Subway D800)>> BF Super Compact x1or 2.

Excellent. For the money, it's almost a no brainer! And looks a lot of fun, particularly with the expression pedal. I can't really 'justify' getting based on my lack of gig use of my existing pedals, however for the money it's almost a no brainer. ...oh dear, I seem to have got caught in the Looper 😂

Just got the pulse joke... My mate with the silent bass can't make it, as his wife has got him tickets to a comedy festival that weekend. I'm hoping to borrow the bass off him anyway because, we'll, that's more interesting 😁

Cheap Warwick Reds, just not the usually seen rough steel version but the NICKEL ones (only available from thomann AFAIK), the lower 4 strings of a .045-.135 set.

I remember a thread from a year or so ago regarding using various lubes such as nose grease on your fingers but I thought at the time and still do that surely that's going to deposit more gunk in between the windings of your strings making them go dead quicker? For me it was a matter of finding the correct strings and string height. I use D'addario EXL nickels as they are the smoothest roundwound strings I have found after years of using flats. String gauge is also crucial - too light and the strings feel like rubber bands, too heavy and it can become a real effort to play. A case in point is that I use 45, 65, 85, 110. I tried the balanced tension strings either side of this. EXL220BT are 40, 55, 70, 95 and EXL160BT are 50, 67, 90, 120. They both felt wrong so I went back to the ones that I normally use Unfortunately everyone is different so it is up to you to find the correct balance that matches your playing. A second issue is that it can also depend on your bass so if you find yourself changes basses regularly then you can soon find yourself going through lots of strings to get the right ones for each bass

My piece of string is longer than yours