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All put together and setup ...it plays lush. Really pleased with it for a budget mainly scrap parts build.

Since a few months I am the happy owner of a Sandberg TM5 with Delano pickups. I too have my doubts about them and to be honest in the past when trying out basses with Delano's I never got exited. This bass came with these pickups and I thought I would swap them for something different later on but I think they are growing on me a little now. Played alone without any other instruments they are kinda clean sounding and not that exiting, but within a band setting they somehow don't seem to lack character anymore. At least that's what I'm thinking now. And the Glockenklang preamp is rather good I would say, it has a lot of finesse and you can dial in (and out) lots of nuances. Maybe even too much, I tend to find a great setting sometimes and then later I'm unable to reproduce that exact setting. So maybe not the easiest eq for lots of changes when playing live but indeed a rather good one. In the end it all comes down to personal preferences so maybe this can help some of you to decide if Delano's are right for you. We have done a monthly live streaming with our band (since january) and this is our latest, it's about 45 minutes long and there is some talking but if you scroll a bit you'll get to the next song quickly enough. I hope this gives you an impression of how a Sandberg with Delano's behaves in a band, in the end that's what it is made for.

You realise that the cat now legally owns the bass?

I feel I should point out that this rule only applies to cats, so don't try this in your local music shop. I learned this lesson the hard way.

Ill be honest I've listened to bits and bobs of FNM over the years, and the musical chameleon that is Mike, what I have listened to is great. then i got into Mr Bungle which is sooooo good. Girls of Porn being a favourite . I love this though. The bass line from Bill is really great and totally owns this recording. I know good music when I hear it. I think.

True. And in my case, be pathetically grateful for any and all favours bestowed. The age difference between Mrs S and I is a little larger than any of those quoted so far and, again, I'm neither a millionaire nor am i the world's most attractive man. And bits of me are laughably small. But while she needs help getting up the stairs, I'm here for her....

A nice little restored TE20 ("Grey Fergie") would only set you back £2,000-3000. Hook a trailer on the back for the fambly...

If this happened to me I'd only have 1 cat...

Picked this beauty up from @Moos3h last night... thank you so, so much, and I hope you had a safe journey to the Riviera This really is a 37 year itch finally scratched... these were all the rage when I started out playing, I'd always fancied getting my hands on one and now after all these years I have. Yes it has some issues, as James pointed out in his ad: the electrics are not working and one of the switches is knackered... should all be straightforward (oh blimey, that's the kiss of death isn't it ) and if it still doesn't work I've got a Yamaha 2-band eq I can put in there instead; there's a hairline crack in the neck... I'll flood some thinned glue into it if it needs anything, but it doesn't seem to affect stability or playability; it's got a few major league dings in the body as the pic shows... I'm not sure what to do with these really, a refinish would cost a fortune and I don't want to spend a shedload of cash on it. I might just seal the edges of the dings with glue to stop any more flaking off, and call it mojo The serial number places it in December 1982. The neck feels great and it plays well, action is fine and all the hardware works. The missing knob is present, I'd taken it off when I took the pic. I've not yet plugged it in so I don't know how it sounds, but from what I've seen on yootoob the 1A core tone appears to be P-bass-on-steroids. I have a feeling that my bitsa P is going to struggle to keep its place in my working group. Happy day.

I feel a little uncomfortable if I dress on the right. It's not pleasant and it often results in crotch manipulations that make it look like I am a fan of Michael Jackson. Ow!

And this is it

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F352656249187

I think it's one of the Cathedral Cities. You've Gouda admire whoever thought of it. You couldn't do it with a Limberger - sorry, Steinberger but there's Stiltons of other things you could do with it. Like putting a trap in the bridge pup position. Whoever did this must be crackers. Or playing at the Ritz....

Just saw this was ending soon on the 'bay, and thought I'd best check there was a cheese-based thread about it! Is it "collection only" from Cheshire or Wensleydale? 😀

Angel Dust is a frickin masterpiece!

That's what Harley riders tell themselves anyway. Repeatedly, I'd imagine. Riders of other motorcycles may take a different view.

This build is going to be a Pine slab bodied '51 style P bass I'm going to stain the body black with either a White or Mirrored pickguard and Chrome Hardware I'm going to go for a Maple fretboard with perhaps a matching headstock I'm thinking 2 soapbar pickups on stacked pots with independent Tone and Volume controls for each pickup................ 😀

Regulars of this parish will know that I like to play around with numbers. I quite often run random number things around in my head as I'm waking up. (No, I don't think it's weird at all but thanks for asking. ) This morning I got to thinking about the relationship between concert pitch (A4, commonly standardised at 440Hz) and Middle C (C4, often thought of as being at 256Hz but historically it's a moveable feast, and in truth comes about for slightly different reasons). What follows is a bit of an exploration of the numbers involved and is a bit theoretical. When it comes to tuning actual instruments of course, things can get a bit fiddly (as any piano tuner will be happy to tell you). Most modern instruments are tuned using a fairly complicated mathematical system called Equal Temperament. If you use 440Hz as the standard (not everybody does - more in a mo) you can work out the frequency of every note in the audible spectrum. The great advantage of this system is that it allows you to do all sorts of clever stuff like modulation and transposition that are much more of a challenge in traditional tuning systems. The downside is that it's mostly a teensy bit off-pitch - not a lot mind, and in truth we're so used to using it that we generally don't notice anything wrong. Electronic tuners that show cents use this system. In past centuries, scales were assembled using a variety of systems based on the natural harmonic series (2:1, 3:1, 4:1,...). The earliest, commonest and most easily understood method was what most will know as cycle-of-fifths tuning. (Historically it's actually more accurate to call it Pythagorean tuning, but I digress). The upside is that the pitch relationships are absolutely bang on harmonically (which makes it popular with specialists in medieval and early renaissance music), but the downside is that if you try to play in a different key without retuning your instrument and/or adjusting your fingering it can sound catastrophically out-of-tune. I'll be happy to demonstrate these methods at work if anybody wants me to, but for now we'll keep things simple. So, Concert Pitch. The internationally accepted standard is A4 = 440Hz. Not everybody uses this though, and it is possible to find people using a standard anywhere from around 420Hz up to around 460Hz. (This isn't the same as detuning by the way. When you detune a guitar or bass, you're raising or (more commonly) lowering the pitch of your instrument in multiples of a semitone relative to whatever your standard pitch is.) Using 440Hz for A4 and using an Equal Temperament calculation gives middle C at around 262Hz. This is about as close as you can get to a standard for this note using Equal Temperament. There's been a bit of a thing recently about setting A4 at 432Hz. People who do this like to talk about the sound being slightly darker. Personally I'm not convinced - the only way you can tell the difference is by playing them directly back-to-back (which of course nobody in their right mind would do in a performance situation). At the risk of being slightly controversial, it strikes me as being a bit of trendy oneupmanship. What is more interesting is the Maths that sits behind it: If you set A4 at 432Hz, Equal Temperament gives middle C as a whisker over 256Hz. More interestingly still, if you work from middle C at 256 Hz and go in the other direction using an old-fashioned Pythagorean sequence (A4 is a major 6th above middle C4 with a ratio of 27/16) you get A4 at exactly 432Hz. Kind of suggests to me a bit of putting the Pythagorian cart before the Equal Temperament horse. Except of course that 256Hz is by no means universally accepted as the standard for middle C in the first place... As I said up front though, I'm just playing around with numbers.

Hi Luke - pulling you onto this thread to deal with your very valid question. I posted quite a detailed rationale for why I, and a much more experienced US bassist (Jimfist), were both going back to a simpler Zoom pedal having had the Helix HX Stomp. Please see my post: Posted Wednesday at 00:23 where I share our combined thoughts on the matter. In my mind there is no question that the Stomp is the better, more capable and more sophisticated piece of kit and I barely scratched the surface of what it could do / only got round to making a couple of cursory initial patches. Interestingly a BC mate of mine gave me quite a hard time for not getting to grips with the Stomp and the fact that it was sitting on my board as an expensive tuner! However, the very fact that I felt little motivation to get into it whereas (as can be seen from this and the related Zoom patches thread) I've gone to town with the new Zoom pedal, kinda reflects very well the ease of work flow point I made in that post. (The slightly amusing thing, is that having got a Stomp himself and indeed got to grips with it - my mate actually came to the same conclusion as I did, which is the Stomp was more than he was going to need and he's returned his). For balance - there are of course a ton of happy Stomp users on the Stomp thread and a number of both Zoom and HX Effects users who have 'upgraded' to the Stomp. And I'm certainly not ruling out going back to the Stomp (it's successor or similarly capable multi) in the future.

Anthony Joshua is fighting that night too. Although I suspect ring time will be about 2am. it’s also my birthday and I won’t be fit to play a note 😉

I'm so lucky with our keys guy. He's happy to set up behind me. Sharing space with my cabs usually

Same here in that I prefer stage left, for the same reasons you mentioned. We have a new keyboard player who is very good at keeping off the lower registers, perhaps because he's a bass player himself (he used to be the bass player in this band a few years ago, but family life meant he had to quit). The problem I have with him is he doesn't seem to realise that I'm not made of ether and need some physical space. Every-single-time I need to go through a whole process of showing him my gear, showing him the space he is leaving, and showing him the much larger space he has farther along. He always seems surprised, and not happy to be asked to move. I thought that if I put my stuff in first he would get it, but no... he'd set up right against my amp. And I like to wait until the drummer is done, unless we have a big enough stage, before I set my stuff, to give him room to manoeuvre. Last weekend I arrive and the drummer is still setting up his kit. next to him, his monitor. And next, keyboard's monitor and himself. Literally no space for me. I said nothing, dumped my two cabs, head and bass case in front of him and went to get a beer, then sat there watching. - "You're not setting up?" - "I don't see where, so I thought I'd have a beer and watch you instead" Still didn't get it. I sat there for 5 more minutes, chatted with a few people for a bit, and then just had to go and do the usual routine. He moved to the left and angled himself a bit, I put my stuff in, and all was good. We have 2 weeks off now as we're going to be recording, and in two weeks we have a couple of gigs. If he learns the trick by the second one, then there's hope. If not, I am just going to either start moving things myself, or bringing a lot of extra equipment and take up all available space until he chooses to change sides :D

Glad you like it mate! And no, the journey was bloody awful thanks to the A38 *and* the A380 being shut...swines! Back now so all done for another week hehe. Enjoy

I tried bi-amping with a split signal and octave up and got a ton of noise from the 2nd amp until I got an amp switcher with an isolated output - worth bearing in mind if you ever hit the same problem! Some good info on the subject here: https://www.radialeng.com/understanding-aby-switchers

I've played in bands on both sides. I prefer stage left since I'm right handed and being on the other side usually ended up with my headstock in amongst the cymbals. Always had problems with drummers encroaching in my space though. They seem to think that a guitarist needs extra room even though they're playing a much smaller instrument. I've also played with 2 guitarists where I share one side of the stage with a guitarist and the bloody drummer always used to set up in the middle. I gave up trying to explain that he needed to move over - it seemed too much for his brain to handle. It's an old story but I understand how Bill Wyman ended up playing his bass almost vertically.

For the moment, just tune to your 12th fret harmonics rather than a fretted note at the 12th. That way, your open strings should be in tune which is the most important thing at this stage. It sounds as if your intonation is slightly sharp. No biggie. If you're otherwise generally happy with how the bass is sounding then just leave it alone. If you're not happy, wait till it needs a re-string then take it to a tech or post here for advice. If your guitards are tuning their instruments by fretting at the 12th then they'd be best advised not to do so. Open strings are fine, 12th fret harmonics are fine.

-

Got home from work at about 8:30 last night, 2 cats come running up to say hello, I go over to the Mrs & one of the cats puts his butt towards my bass (which was standing up) & did a full on parney. Filled up the bridge pickup & soaked the body, strings & strap. Chased the cat away & then spent the following hour & a bit stripping the bass down & giving things a good clean with dettol wipes. It even got underneath the bridge! The strap is in the washing machine along with a guitar gig bag that he managed to include. Anyone else have such fun with their pets?

I agree with you. My honey is 13 years younger than me. As somebody wise once said "you gotta make 'em laugh". It's awful that we have to justify ourselves to @Teebs though. He is such a hate criminal about these things. 😔 😃

Hence Bach's Well Tempered Clavier.

Actuall the more I cogitate on the Harley/Rickenbacker parallels, the more persuaded I am. In fact I think they should emulate HD and give all their basses names that sound like gay porn stars - V Rod Muscle, Fat Boy, Softail Slim, Bad Boy, Street Rod, Street Bob - and his good buddy Fat Bob...

Donkey's years ago, a couple of work colleagues (who had just become an item) went to Glasto. I was quite jealous as it was a good lineup that year with loads of bands I'd love to have seen. When they arrived back in the office I was dying to know who they'd seen. Every time I named a band, they said "nah, didn't see them either". Turned out they had spent the entire weekend in their tent smoking weed and banging each other's brains out.

After careful deliberation I've decided I'm going to do both builds a 51 P bass and a Stingray so I'll start a new thread for the P bass............. 😀

An old pal of mine had a call from his wife asking how to clean baby poo off his Custom Shop Strat... his boy was standing naked in front of it and did a projectile wet one all over it, even went under the pickguard. Clearly more of a Gibson kid.

This is a good knob resource https://blog.philadelphialuthiertools.com/2013/05/16/choosing-the-correct-knob-for-your-guitar-or-bass/

Exactly. My issue was really about the fact that (like most of us here) if you give me a set list and ask me to learn it I will. If you don't want to play those songs any more, don't ask me to learn them - let's agree on some others! Putting that much effort in over a relatively short space of time and then being told it was wasted is very frustrating. My protestations about this did not go down well (I felt we should gig the set we now had at least a few times and make changes from there) and it was clear to me that they were not going to make it out of the rehearsal room any time soon and rarely. It meant it was clearly not the band for me. It was a side project for me alongside my main band (which they new - that was not an issue) and they had specifically told me when I auditioned that they were looking for someone to learn the songs quickly so they could start booking gigs.

It was a belter. Nottingham Metal to the Masses Semi Final. We aren't a metal band - more an atmospheric art-rock with classical singing type of deal - so we weren't really feeling any pressure, despite the music being tricky to pull off live due to all the twists and turns and dynamic shifts. Our singer is due to give birth tomorrow(!), so it was definitely a case of 'above and beyond' but what with the impending hiatus, the previous gig being a total car crash for reasons beyond our control, some higher profile shows coming at the end of the year and the venue (The Maze in Nottingham) about to close, we really wanted it to be a good one and somehow everything just clicked. We've regularly been given horrible live sound at the Maze, thanks to 'that' sound engineer, but it was a different guy last night (Phil, who often does sound at the Salutation) and everything sounded great on stage and off. Very loud but super clear. I borrowed a couple of 1x15 Yamaha cabs and really loved my sound and felt much more in control than usual. I even managed a couple of big jumps. Decent and enthusiastic crowd, lots of Friday night drinking and hanging out going on only added to the good vibes. Three total strangers complimented my playing (I assume they were bass players, because ...er who else would notice the bass playing?). Unexpected but a nice detail, plus everyone who had seen us before agreed it was the best they'd seen us. I feel really beaten up today mind.

No, Harley is not a good comparison. Despite the basic configuration of the engine not changing (erm apart from the V Rod and the Street Rod), Harley have done loads of stuff, but they do it in a way that to the casual observer you’d not notice. if Harley were running Rickenbacket they’d have solved the bridge, but it would be able to palm mute, look the same and sound exactly the same. With no additional issues like the Hipshot. they'd also be making a Far East version and making more money on Tee shirt sales than anything else

Well, guitar shops paid my mortgage for a number of years. From my perspective a few things. Yes, the internet is the big issue. 1. A warehouse with boxes guitars/amps etc is vastly cheaper to run from a website than a chain or even singular shop. 2. Big chain guitar shops need to shift units so the service suffers hugely (the chain I worked for now no longer offer a repair/restring service) which means people aren’t interested in going. 3. The big brands need to shift units...so go with the big chains with ridiculous dealership demands. I think the last buy in for a Gibson dealership was £35k. Small chains cannot do this. 4. The markup/margin/breadwinner is accessories - see point 1. A website for accessories once set up will run itself. 40-50% margin on branded strings and accessories, own brand/Chinese import accessories 60-75% - again, smaller stores haven’t got that buying power. You don’t need to ‘try out’ regular slinkies, so you don’t need the experience - you just buy them 15% cheaper online... 5. Second hand...a shop will buy a £200 retail bass for £100 as a part ex. Why would you part ex for £100 when you can sell it yourself for £180/£200 on eBay/Shpock/Gumtree/Facebook/Basschat. So the shops used to be more varied, and interesting - now they’re not. 6. Trend. It’s actually not that cool to be a muso at the minute. In the 80’s/90’s music was a bigger deal. Kids now don’t want it like we did. 7. Money. I haven’t bought a new (from a shop) bass in the 5 years I’ve not worked in a music shop. See point 5 - why buy new when there’s a glut of cheap second hand gear online...see point six...less buyers, more gear... I could go on...think that covers most of it.

I thought the point with JH was that he’s changed nothing. He’d have put a square steering wheel on a car and tell everyone to go f**k themselves for 30 years

So the bass is now done; custom Kent Armstrong floating pickup fitted and sounding awesome. Very pleased with how it’s turned out.

Billy was such an influence on me that my first "decent" Bass was a black Aria Pro II. Here's my 16 year old self throwing a pose with my Integra 😂

You can create your own Glastonbury festival at home. Pitch a tent in your garden,put on radio 6 Then get whizzed and stoned out of your mind. Don't forget to steal your own shoes and urinate up the side of your tent.

Festivals are my idea of hell, both as an audience member and is a performer. If I was on at Glastonbury, I'd want to helicoptered in 5 minutes before I was due on stage and out again the moment the last note of the encore was finished. Having said that I wouldn't mind seeing the Cure, but I won't be going to Glastonbury to do it.

Chuffed...well done to Stratosphere 2 days from America to here!! Roll on The Weekend

The most important thing is that the drummer can hear the bass loud and clear - then he's got something to keep time to 🔊...🔊...🔊...🔊... ☺️

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

As a kid I'd go holidaying to my relations up in the Western Isles and these poor things were used to haul peats home from the moors. The drivers used to bounce around on that seat. Must have done wonders for one's spine! Classic thread!