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So, after lots of procrastinating, I have pushed the button and ordered a Yamaha TRBX174BL from thomann.de Thank you all for your advice - much appreciated. Once it arrives and I have had a play around, I will post my impressions and may post some further follow ups... just in case it is useful feedback for fellow novices (or maybe even experienced folks here might find it interesting too 😂)

Want to know what Teebs and Skinnyman are waiting for ? You'll be amazed at the answer !!!!

You're such a bastard.

Evening chaps and chapesses! Picked up a MIJ Jag body colour partially taken down, and I have taken the project on..... sanded all the way back to pretty much 1500 grit from 80 Bit of Amber Stain.... then some rub n buff gold.... gave it a bit more depth of colour. Gun oil with wet sanding and then buffing and take a little sheen off.... Neck not prepped yet, but this will go on it... Neck will get a Matt Gun oil doing - Neck is walnut with Tigerwood finger board There you go!

After about a year of the first inception its finally here! I'm so happy with the bass and would like to thank the Overwater team for the great service, workmanship & help. Some specs for you all - A standard Overwater 5 string P body & 35" scale length. I initially wanted a 36" but soon realised that 35" scale length is ample for a tight low B. Of course the P style body is classic & I love a classic (I wanted a P bass anyway) 5 strings because of necessity as a player & loving a low Eb for some Stevie Wonder grooves! Surf Green colour & the matching headstock. A classic look & some cool retro vibes. It was either going to be green or Daphne Blue, but I'm so happy with the colour and the brightness of the bass and the lovely gloss finish which is off-set with a classic off white scratch plate. Also they kindly added a lovely PC Custom signature to the back of the headstock. We've got a swamp ash body & one piece maple neck. This just stems from the similarity to my Am Deluxe Jazz & have always liked the response from that combination. Its hefty but not overly so. Indian rosewood fretboard. I haven't played a rosewood in ages but wanted that old school look & feel. This is where the no front markers came from. I wanted a clean crisp look similar to some other basses I've lusted over. It takes some getting used to (I didn't realise how often I looked at the actual fingerboard!) I have 2mm mother of pearl dots on the side though Thank goodness! We've got a reverse P & a MM style. The chunkiness of the P in passive is pure old school and filthy. Then we have the phattness off the MM style in the bridge. Another thing to add is the Neutrix locking jack socket which gives me great piece of mind. While experimenting with the John East/Overwater 3 band boost & cut EQ with mid range sweep, passive tone & pickup blend I fell in love. I can solo the MM, boost the bass & treble a little bit & Bam! it sounds exactly like a MM bass. pan all the way to the reverse P and we have that funky chunky stank face inducing thick loavable tone. Hardware wise we have a huge chunky Overwater bridge with 18mm string spacing. Which gives me plenty of room between each string for the old slap pop and its solid, designed so well especially for set ups and string changes. Next we have the classic Hipshot Ultralite 1/2 post tuners which weigh nothing and move very smoothly. Or pick both in active and have a warm crisp defined tone perfect for more modern grooves & soaring crisp top end (EQ is flat at this point) Comprehensive isn't the word for this circuit & pickup combo, it doesn't do it justice. I took it for a spin at a recent The Special Brew rehearsal and was met with compliments on looks, tone, & general grooviness (sadly not personally!) It cut through when needed for my solos & provided some great round bottom too. Following this I've also had my first show with it too! A depends gig with Ska Band The Navarones. I kept in passive with the tone rolled off a little for 80% off the show then bumped it into active with a slight bass boost for more "Dubby" styled songs. The bass is very comfortable, although it is a little heavy! and easy to play. Its very even between pickups & over all the strings too which makes life easier simply. It balances well and although the neck is wide it fits my hand perfectly with a lovely rounded edge to the fingerboard which screams quality. Iv'e also added a few videos using different tone/pickup combos here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa9pBo2qQ_6843_HoIfhT5B1MQ-S_Llfi

😁

Huge Mani fan here, and that black and white rehearsal footage of them after getting back together still gives me goose bumps, seeing the connection and smiles between them, is a joy. I actually bought that black Epiphone bass from Mani that he used at those rehearsals and the early gigs. Reni is also one of the best drummers I’ve ever heard or seen.

What, ALL of it? Bet that took ages! All your posts, all those months - pages worth of unfunny... 👍

We all know that ex-Bananarama-ista Siobhan Fahey was half of Shakespeare's sister. But who knew that 'the other one', Miss Marcella Detroit, co-wrote Lay Down Sally when she was a backing singer for Eric Clapton and performing under the name Marcy Yaxley-Lennon?

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 cannot believe I managed to answer that. I am such a wood whisperer.

The potential for errors in parsing that sentence is not negligible. Possibly add a comma after 'parents'?

As per my response to the other thread: I wonder how many people have bought cheap and poor quality musical instruments over the years, struggled to be able to play them then abandoned them? Most beginners, indeed even a lot of seasoned players don’t possess the knowledge or abilities to make the necessary adjustments to get an instrument playable. I always tell students to beg or borrow that little bit more and get something decent, that won’t either inhibit their creatively or put them off playing.

Hey @Ant1972, we have a thread here about BCers prepared to help folk get their basses set up; Now we know where you are, we can see there are 2 gents who're not far from you. I'm sure they would be happy to take a look at the bass when it arrives, if you wish. To make sure it's set up to play well. @obbm Obbm Farnham, Surrey @neilp Neilp - Crawley There will be other BCers about too. Good luck with the bass.

I think having piles of amps on the stage is kind of expected for a Grateful Dead tribute, to be honest. Ideally, we would have a replica Wall, but even the Dead couldn't afford the costs of running that!

Nope. Its Welsh for 'genius'

Really??? 🙄🙄

Heres a post I've written about my new Overwater Custom P5 including pics, videos & specs https://www.phillcourtmusic.com/single-post/2019/05/14/My-Custom-Overwater-Bass

As a bloke playing £1000 plus basses I've been well impressed with 2 Squiers ,A vm jazz 4 and a 5er .Top quality build and sound

The difference is not great. Variation in individual fret spacing boils down to very little between 32" and 34" scale length . Unless you have very small hands, I'd stick with regular. There is also a much wider choice of instruments in regular.

No. Thats origami.

Isn't that one of those little furry things that turn into gremlins if you feed them after midnight?

Good point. I guess even a someone who has never driven will sit in a car and understand if the seats a comfortable, they can reach the pedals and like sitting in the cabin.

Yeah, it can be great, but on the other hand, there are more risks for a newbie if the used bass happens to have been used and abused (worn frets, snapped or rounded off screws, knackered tuners, dodgy pots, iffy jack socket, warped neck, twisted neck, seized truss rod - followed by snapped truss rod adjuster) ... I do agree with you personally, but then I have more than one bass, and a "project" bass is an interesting hobby for me, rather than a big disappointment / royal PITA. 👍

That Stevie is a damm good point and one I haven`t though of!😊

Have you got a job in a library? I like it - all that peace and quiet! Quite jealous now!

Best of luck with it @Ant1972 - remember practice and persistence are very important Even if you just "noodle" with it for 20 mins every day - when you don't have lots of time to practice A little here & there will help improve strength, stamina and accuracy in your fingers Obviously, you need to spend some good longer sessions on it too - and definitely some warm-up exercises for your fingers once again, I say, see if there are any friendly local BC'ers who will help EDIT: I meant to add - enjoy your new toy as well, and welcome to the fold

Teebs -> <- Skinnyman

@FinnDave where the venue has a decent sound system including monitors and a competent sound engineer, I turn up with just my bass and a lead! I may pull out the stops and take along a Zoom B1X-4, which fits into my gig bag, going forward...

I dunno. Is "wag" Scottish for tosser? 😛

Don't worry Ricky some of us find you mildly amusing...………... occasionally😜

Sorry Ricky

I don't think you'll go far wrong with this approach. I wouldn't agonise too much about the practice amp - avoid anything super cheap but anything with a 10" or bigger speaker should be fine. Effects are nice but unnecessary at the stage and if you can find a second hand Roland bass cube or a fender rumble at a decent price, jump on it.

The bass itself is lovely and I'd highly recommend it if they fall within your budget. But would I recommend one for a beginner? Hmmm, I'm not sure. Pros - shorter stretch to the frets especially at the low end. Lighter (generally) so easier to manage when you're practising for hours. Cons - shorter stretch to the frets which means you don't start building up the reach in your own hand. As a simplistic analogy, it's a little bit like learning to play tennis with those oversized kiddy rackets and balls and then trying to play with a regular sized set. It might have the advantage that it makes it easier to focus on learning to play the instrument and worry about the stretch later when you're proficient. Or it might restrict you to playing short scale only for a considerable time. Personally, I'd go for a small, light full sized bass - the Yams you mention are great (i started on a Tanglewood and would recommend that too as a starter bass) and only consider short scale (at this stage) once you've got used to full scale. Others may chip in with more compelling arguments the other way (they usually do around here!) but that's my two penn'orth. Whatever you get, enjoy playing it - and feel free to contact any of us for advice or tips....

Good shout. Thinking on it, it's also been recommended that he get in touch with a local BCr to go shopping with.

a good point, so borrow one or buy a cheap 2nd hand Squire learn to play a bit, or have a couple of lessons, then go and test out some basses

Got a Squier 70s VM Jazz in Olympic White earlier this year - love it! Only thing I did was change the strings.

To be honest QC issues affect most brands. I certainly would not recomment buying Affinity on line, but if you try one in a shop and it has no issues you might just pick up a bargain. Just a shout out for Squier VM - I play one rather than the US Fender I also own as it sounds better. The VM was bought as a backup but its just so good.

Oooh yes, I forgot about her. I remember Clare playing a Bass Collection.

That was about the one thing I did know about Shakespeare’s Sister. Never liked the band back in the day but I used to really fancy their bass player, Claire Kenny! Good bass player too. Played for quite a few pop acts back in the 80s and played a lovely Aria SB just like mine. Wonder if she’s still playing?

If you are near to Andertons, go in and play any bass you can afford (imo you can`t go wrong with a budget Yamaha or Ibanez) and ask them to check the set up if you decide to buy. If you buy it online, most of the big stores don`t open up budget basses and check the set up no matter what they say so always better to go in person if possible. Save yourself £80 on a set up!

I watched it again too. Excellent stuff. What a bunch of players!