Leaderboard

I had the body made/finished from a Italian ebayer. Cost £280 and the finish is outstanding! All parts meaty neck. Has a brass shim. hipshot tuners. Omega bridge. Seymour Duncan quarter pounders. Scratch plate is acrylic - finding a real chrome one is difficult! Plays great! Drilled through the headstock when mounting the tuners! Oops!

Just a suggestion, My Sandberg California TT is considerably smaller and lighter than my jazzes, and plays absolutely beautiful 🙂

Well the Vintera arrived and it's awesome. I needed to change the strings to some Labella flats, and that really brought it to life. The weight is just right, I've not weighed it but it's comparable with my lightweight ACG basses. And it sits well too, rests more horizontally than my other basses but it's no bother, so no neck drive issues.

I have a standard P bass and soon to finish a 51/54 P bass so I thought I’d make a 72 style P bass as well to complete the set!! (I don’t think I’m missing any p bass styles but please correct me if I’m wrong!!) Its going to be P/J pickup config body is going to be bright yellow with black pickguard/hardware possibly a black neck I haven’t decided yet?? but if I decide not to have the whole neck black it will probably have a black faced headstock tho Just got to fill in some of the pickup cavity first................😀

I was kidding but am a bit pished at the pub and couldn’t find emojis, @Bluewine is an exemplary American and definitely an honorary Englishman.

This one was fun...

@Jimothey don’t be so hard on yourself. The main defining factor is simply if the listener is familiar with the track in question.

@EJWW I've read down your OP, interesting. You spend the first six stanzas doubting your ability and the final one of which you're saying these guys were PROS; you then follow this by saying you had an uninterested audience, you started Teenage Kicks in the wrong key (I'm sure Michael Bradley would be having a meltdown at this) and that you got the evil eye from the singer. Never feel that you need to be in awe of other players and never be scared of whatever ability they may allude to have. While you may consider them as being PROS (your capitalisation), they're just a covers/wedding band; testament to the fact that they're covering 40 year old punk covers to an uninterested crowd. I've encountered many bands like this, many Creme Brulees.

The photo is slightly deceptive, I had marginally more cat-swinging space than usual. For anyone interested, here's the tap dancing monkey at work...

I rather suspect a disconnect between what was said, what was meant, and what was received.

My guitarist and I cabled my board today. Using practical patch leads (https://www.practicalpatch.co.uk/) Finally chuffed that I have a board that works! Fair amount of fuzz and no noise. Yassss!

Morning all! I have always had a hankering for a 2 P bass as per the Old Fender Elites, always loved a shoreline gold and since getting Geddy’s book of bass as a present - it’s got stronger, so...... Mighty Mite Body. Sanded to infinity to about 1000 grit, mixed stains sanded dry, sanded wet, stains diluted etc and also some rub n buff metallic gold for added depth of colour. Here we currently are..... So that’s my base bass colour - nice seasoned wood. Here we go, like or loathe a relic, (I like them!) I may still try it. White primer, then Shoreline gold, then start to relic back so gold to white to wood in places. Yes - sad dad socks, no I will not do tort! will measure up for a bridge and if there is enough space which there should be, rout a second P cavity, I want to do this, but I still may not.....🤷🏾‍♂️ I have 2 necks (for this anyway!) a mighty mite neck which is tighter than a gnats chuff in the pocket and a thinner more modern profile, bought second hand but screw holes in the right place, or an unused Allparts neck, pre relic’d, relic brand new Gotoh tuners, and is a nice chunky old school piece of meat. Both maple boards. All parts will require a tiny bit of pocket work to fit. Pick ups I have an EMG GZR and a Wizard Thumper hanging around. If I go double P wizard at the bridge as it’s super hot at about 20k. I have also been chatting to radioshop pick ups (really nice chaps) and I quite fancy one of their 61p’s which may replace the GZR in the sweet spot, or I May use on its own. Electrics (if I go 2 pick up) I do have a Sandberg 2 band EQ and if I got the right pickguard, or drilled another hole it could work, or I stay completely passive pop one of my new fave manufacturers Noll electronics stack potentiometers and make it vol/vol or vol/blend and use a Tonestyler Duo6 (or if one pick up a 6 or 10 if I stay one pick up). Noll do a vol/tone so I could do double stacked knobs. Anyway - current thoughts an progress, got another couple to finish off, but will update this, but hope to finish over the coming months.

I love Gold Teeth for its Jazz funk slide. But this is just stunning musicianship in every way possible. They are/were so superb, from the amazing harmonies, to the bass playing to the drumming. to that excellent guitar part from Denny. Its absolutely magical... imo.. I love soul and funk but if I was stuck on a desert island .

I am, as it happens. And I have to say that this sounds like tabloid-level nonsense in that a half-truth is being discussed out of context in order to suggest an attention-grabbing non-truth. I have no doubt that prolonged extreme sound levels can defeat the protection provided by ear plugs - whether by overcoming the protection they afford or by transmission through the bone but I also have no doubt that most musicians would rarely, if ever, find themselves in that sort of situation. If you need ear defenders, you need to turn down would be my rule of thumb. I'd be interested to know if this chap was a medical doctor with an interest in audiology or an audiologist (with a PhD). And also, as I said before, what commercial interests might be influencing the advice he is giving (or the apparently sensationalist way he is delivering it).

The site was the inspiration for this one and there’s a huge amount of experience and some great people on there. With any site that size you’re going to get some arses who like the sound of their own voice but imo if you ask a good question and don’t give them any room for stupid replies to generally can find what you need.

For the first time in weeks, I didn't find this thread on the first page! I'm currently editing together a full video running through all the tonal possibilities of the BB735A (which it turns out between blending pickups and active and passive EQ is quite a lot!) as I feel I owe the world one, and something more detailed than Yamaha's original vids at release. In the meantime, I took just one camera angle and a handful of the passive tone option from the longer vid and put together a brief demo, which I think goes some way to explaining why so many of us are running our 734/5s in passive mode!

Shame that the 1k is no longer being made? And they don't seem to come up for sale that often. Yeh, yeh, yeh... all very well bringing out the nuances of bass tone of your different basses, having a brilliant EQ and generally making you sound great on stage. No one is interested in that guff... what we really need to know is does it look pretty? 😄

Boz Scagg's classic done by the best in the world.

Well done for having the bottle to do it.

A good way to practice charts is to get the iReal Pro app. You can download thousands of charts, change key, and the app can play a backing tracks in various styles. If you don't know how to read the chord symbols themselves then it's worth spending time learning this as it'll be a big help next time you need to learn new tunes in a hurry.

Try mids at 10 o'clock, character at 2-3 o'clock, drive at 11 o'clock, bass at noon, treble at 11, and blend just past halfway. Since playing this more however I've come to prefer the YYZ! I have to boost the mids and treble to get the same kind of bite that the VT has naturally. The top end is a lot less shrill on the YYZ too, which I like. The low end on the VT gets kind of blurry and indistinct as its being driven, whereas it's so much clearer on the YYZ (when the tight switch is pressed in), especially on a low B. When it comes to this vs the DP3X, the YYZ sounds miles better when auditioned solo, or when you want the bass to take a main role in the mix - but the DP3X works better when playing it alongside a full mix, which is where it counts I guess. Bearing in mind this is not with a live band as I'm not in one any more, this is playing along to album tracks either in headphones or my bass amp combined with hifi speakers. Pretty sure though I'd get just as good results from the YYZ by adding some additional compression and EQ. Also, if you're a fan of Geezer Butler's grindy tones on the last Sabbath album 13, the YYZ nails that! Anyone interest in getting one, check with @tonyxtiger first to see if he has any going at the discounted rate, otherwise Guitar Guitar currently have 1 in stock right now!

Good to see the bass player given lots of room as usual

I think the thing to remember when choosing your speaker is that there is no magic pixie dust. the Technology and Physics involved in the speaker drivers is the same and indeed sometimes the drivers themselves are identical or near identical. To make bass you need to shift lot's of air. To do that you need big cones and they need to move a long way. In turn this means you need powerful magnets and long voice coils with good heat handling. All these make for expensive drive units and ultimately more expensive cabs. There are value for money speakers out there and some offer less value but there is no magic budget speaker that breaks the laws of physics or common sense. RCF and Barefaced are doing the same trick essentially, handling all the bass with a single small driver by using an incredibly well specced bass driver with a long coil and a big magnet. That's the other factor. Increasing the cone area increases the efficiency of the system and increases the volume of bass. A cheapish 15 may well match an expensive state of the art 12 for output and a 12 however good isn't going to match an 8x10. So when you come to choose don't expect a Headrush or Alto to match QSC or RCF (btw these are equal in quality but the RCF's are currently cheaper) any more than you'd expect a single basic TC or MB/Ashdown to match a Barefaced. If you can't get what you want out of a single 12 at any price point using a bass cab then moving to a single 12 PA cab will still have the same limitations.

The ACS PRO17s have changed by life. A flat response, I can have conversations at a normal level with them in, and I can sing without it feeling strange. Custom moulded, and only £40 quid(!!!!) via the Musician's hearing scheme. Incredible. I don't know what the audiologist referred to in the OP is on about, but when I gig with these in there seems to be absolutely nothing that could damage my hearing. I'd need to know more.

There probably is sound transferred through the bone (probably lower frequencies rather than higher frequencies) but take an ear plug out mid set and hear the difference. IMO they are definitely reducing the volume getting to the ear drum.

Hi Thank you for all the advice. Went with the focusrite scarlett 18i8. Only started farting around with it but it does seem to do what I wanted so I'm happy? Cheers

I keep waiting for a cheery, yet confusing explanation of Modes from the one on the left.

This site is very biased towards bass guitar though. Sort of assumes all bass comes from a bass guitar.

Buy a Sandberg, they're just brilliant.

I’ve just received my BQ500 and just thought I’d leave a few comments. 1st off the active passive switch is the correct way on my unit. I guess this is now fixed in the later batches 2nd, some have been reporting a loose screw. No signs of that on my unit 3rd, I was a bit worried I wouldn’t have the same amount of volume as my Hartke ha5500. Although I haven’t played the tc in a band environment, comparing the 2 side by side the tc seems to be generating similar volume levels. overall, early signs are good. Although I wish I could of found one with a black fascia, they look pretty cool! If I have any issues I’ll post them

I like my valve heads and I make it a point of referring to them as valves . Tubes my derrière.

The 1x15 Traveller is a nice cab, well built, reliable and sounds fine, I had one for a few years and used it below my 102 Traveller cab, I haven't used the Fender so cannot comment on that cab

Sandbergs are slightly smaller than a Fender, not quite Fender shape though. And if weight is the issue their Superlight series weighs under 7lb.

Ain't nuthin' but a party!

How about - Earplugs Don't Work in situations where the level of attenutation is not enough to reduce the sound pressure levels acting upon your inner ear (through bone conduction and the earplug itself) to a safer level.

'The plugs don't work, they just make you worse...'

That's a very different explanation to your click-bait "Ear plugs don't work" thread title. It's also very different to your opening sentence of the thread: "I was talking to a specialist audiologist Doctor last week and he says ear plugs don’t work." That is a definitive declaration. It is not an "ear plugs don't help as much as we think" or "Ear plugs only help for some sound levels but not all because of bone transmission." You claimed that an expert told you they "don't work." If a point has been missed that is due to your inaccurate title and opening post. Considering how important hearing is to musicians the last thing this topic needs is sensationalism.

Totally failed to recognise that despite having the album. One thing that strikes me about this thread is that you can divide bass lines into two camps: 1 Those that really define a song and stand out a mile even without accompaniment - like Space Trucking or London's Calling. 2 Those that sound thin and incomplete without the rest of the song. Without any judgement on how they are played or what they are played on.

Sounds like, asides from putting one song in the wrong key, you probably did pretty well. I've never depped myself but would be interested to try. Even if they don't call you back it sounds like you've learned lots from it. I think playing with people at a higher standard makes you raise your game too. So that should stand you in good stead. Plus you have £150 in your back pocket. So win-win!

Maybe if they took their earplugs out, they'd be able to hear him shout..?

Thanks. So earplugs could only reduce sound levels by 40-60db. Most of us are wearing 15-20db plugs for an hour and a half tops and I’d be surprised if we were even approaching 110db on stage so plugs are perfectly adequate. Construction, factories and Orchestras and other professional environments are different. You’re exposed to loud volumes for up to 8 hours a day at much higher levels. If you’ve ever been in a steel pressing plant you can feel the floor move when walking past the presses. I’m guessing you’d be deaf after 5 minutes without protection. The plant-room doors we have at work have ear defender signs on them, not ear plug signs and that’s because the sound level has been measured as being potentially above 85db with defenders on at the ear. http://www.hse.gov.uk/noise/hearingprotection.htm

Believe me parking a Ferrari at any of my local Tescos and expecting it to still be there when you return with your chicken nuggets, demonstrates a very optimistic world view...

This reminds me of a lesson I learnt having read loads of HiFi magazines in the seventies. Enthusiasts would follow an upgrade path that whilst satisfying the need to improve one aspect of music reproduction at a time would, at each stage of upgrade, identify a new weak link in their systems. There is no end to this upgrade cycle once you are obsessed with the search for perfection in sound. At a certain point though, specs become irrelevant. It's whether you like the sound that counts. Also, there is a danger that you start listening more to the equipment than to the music coming out of it. What's different about this discussion is that the sound systems we use are generally expected to perform well in a variety of different conditions depending on the type of venue. I'd argue that it is futile to expect to find one product that satisfies all conditions absolutely. Good as the quality of equipment is these days, live music is still not HiFi anyway.

I have had a cloth fronted Four10 since the model was launched, I had a Roqsolid cover made (padded version) with front board pocket and inserted a very thin piece of ply, no problems whatsoever.

Dont care who he is or what his qualifications are, but he is wrong. I have used quality ear plugs for years and they have made a huge difference. Over ear defenders are good for industrial noise but hopeless for gigs where you need to hear the music, but quieter.

Ditto! Many basses have come and gone, but that Freeman neck is sooo nice ( for me anyways) it ain't going anywhere,if anyone has the chance to buy one do it! .......although I've changed every bit of hardware, pickups, wiring and a cheeky logo 😄

Debut gig with Blockbustarz last night at Ivory Blacks in Glasgow. Fantastic night of 70's Glam Rock music. Very warm night and a great crowd all having a great time dancing to some classic Glam music.