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This is all getting very silly!!

Wow, double binding the body, neck and headstock, is taking ages! I'm still only about a third of the way through, so to take a break from trying to get titebond sodden tape off my thumbs, I routed the headstock slots......hmmmmm...... Cutting them was slightly precarious: But I think they look lush:

I have to confess I have a blue 4003 sat in my living room right now. Our guitarist, who has more Rics than you can shake a chainsaw at, has a bass, which after playing my home set up 4005 replica, declared I should work my magic on. I'm covered in cuts and bruises from all the sharp bits and it still won't fit in the woodburner. I'm just having a cuppa and then back at her, I won't be beaten.

I think Rics look lovely. I like the sound they make. I've often thought about buying one and I nearly pulled the trigger on a 620 a few years ago. But there's something stopping me.

Finally.... grilles. These were always a bit of a problem. But now we have several options. First, I bought a sheet of expanded metal and cut my own to size. It took a lot of experimentation and some hardware purchases to figure out how to do it properly. That's the one that funkle has, and you'll no doubt see it very shortly in his build thread. It's primed lightly with zinc primer and painted with Plastikote. I have enough of the expanded metal to make a few more. So if you're interested in one of these, let me know and I can include one with your kit. Luke brought the other options to my attention. There is an Ebay seller who will cut punched metal to size and send it through the post. He offers mild steel and aluminium. I decided to get an aluminium one for £15. Now, the problem with aluminium is that it won't take normal paint directly; you have to use an etch primer. That adds about £10 to the cost. So you're looking at around £30 for an aluminium grille. For some, the weight saving will be worth it. Others might like to go for the mild steel alternative. The mild steel one costs £8.95, and you can paint it directly with Plastikote or similar spray paint. The German discounters regularly sell an equivalent for around £2.99 a can, and it's not bad. These paints do a fairly good imitation of powder coating and are quite tough in practice. Anyway, here's a photo of the aluminium grille on my cab. The white coating is a protective film which I've not yet removed as I've not got around to painting it yet. The photo of the grey paint on the wood is probably the best one I took. That's more or less how it actually looks.

As you can see, the Euro Car Parts plastic primer worked a treat on the port. Two coats - so I have plenty left. Shame I got some Tuff Cab over it but I'll fix that later. The baffle took three coats of Tuff Cab applied thinly with a brush. I used some of the Everbuild wood filler to fill in dents, etc. and highly recommend it. You can even use if over the Tuff Cab paint if necessary. I wanted a dark grey cab this time, but as Blue Aran didn't have any of the new 'pro' paint in stock in dark grey, I decided to order a litre of black and a litre of white. As luck would have it, a 50/50 mix gives you a nice dark grey, which makes mixing fairly easy. I used a 1-litre yogurt pot to create my custom colour. You have to use a spoon, by the way. The stuff won't pour.🤨 Should anyone want to make a custom colour, there are a few ways of doing it. You can add some normal domestic acrylic paint or undercoat - I tried that and it works fine. Or you can get some pigment from your local art shop and mix it in. The new 'pro' paint doesn't seem very matt to me, although it is slightly less shiny that the original Tuff Cab. It also seems to take longer to dry, but that could be my imagination. I applied one coat with a 2" brush all over while I was painting the baffle and left it to dry. I then tackled one panel at a time, applying a thick coat with the brush all over the panel and then working it in with the foam roller. It only took light pressure with the roller to spread it evenly and create the 'spattered' pattern. There's no need to press hard. I applied two thick, rollered coats and reckon that will probably do. So, three coats in total. A handy tip when painting is to drill the holes for the cabinet feet (make sure you leave space for the corners). I know I should have photographed this, but please bear with me. Start painting with the cab upside down. Paint the bottom and just over the edges of the bottom. Then insert the screws. You can now turn the cab over and paint the rest of the cab without waiting for the bottom to dry. Just turn the cab round by grabbing the inside of the cab through the driver hole. When the paint takes two hours to dry, you'll be glad you did this. Here's a photo of the top of the cab - not quite dry yet.

So you were leaving the cable plugged into the jack most of the time when not playing? If so I think you were lucky to get more than one month!

Active basses usually use the input jack to activate the preamp (I. E. When the jack is plugged in, the battery circuit is made and the preamp activates), therefore whenever the cable is plugged in the battery will be draining, even in passive mode. At least you know passive mode works without a battery, so even if it does mid gig you can carry on playing in passive mode. Not all active preamps are like this, sometimes 'passive mode' isn't a true bypass of the preamp, and it won't work without a battery.

Ok

Ok. Some feedback, now that I’ve nearly finished painting and what is on is dry. (Still need to texture the front edges of the cab around baffle later today). I did 3 base layers and 2 texture layers, and potentially it might benefit from another texture layer. However too many layers make the finish shinier, so I’m stopping here. Plus I want to wire everything up and play, dammit, lol. In retrospect probably only 1 base layer needed. I probably over-egged it in my enthusiasm/desire for safety of finish. Then I could have layered more texture layers on top. Nonetheless, I have a very nice (if subtle) faux leather effect, and now that it’s on all surfaces, I really like how it looks. The photographs are not as clear as I want, but it is tricky to photograph. I tried the honeycomb roller from Tuffcab but it didn’t want to turn/roll correctly on my paint roller handle. It kept sticking/stopping. Weird. So I abandoned that. Now, I want to finish this cab this weekend.

Dave mentioned a page or so back that he was now in a calmer place. Plenty have contributed, there can't be anything else to add that is going to benefit anyone, so I reckon it's time to close it whilst everyone is feeling happy, content and ready to get back to talking about flats v rounds, P v J etc.

If one cannot transpose a half step one would be best advised not to play jazz gigs. FWIW I once found myself depping a jazz gig entirely by accident and without any warning. There was a fearful stramash, hard words were exchanged on stage and the gig ended prematurely. In this example, I would have been advised to practice saying 'Maybe' rather than 'Yes' to every dep that came along.

For tomorrow's gig I asked my guitard: "Shall I use one or two?" Without hesitation he said "TWO!" That demands an explanation. We are gigging on one of the town's bigger stages, with massive PA support. Massive! Still, it is nice to have a lot of air pressure behind the back, so I go for a twin 810 setup with two tube heads. Necessary? Heck no! Will it feel good and look good? Absolutely! They are not identical, but close enough. I have to work a bit with getting the cabs equally high. Just for visual appearance. The Super Bassman into Bassman 810 Neo, daisy-chained to Bassman 100T into Hughes & Kettner 810, masked as a Fender cab. Jule Amps Monique in front of everything. This is surely the first and last time I do a stupid thing like this, but I can always blame the guitard: "You said I should!!!" 😁😁😁

You have to sacrifice your right arm anyway if you play fingerstyle. Is @Ricky 4000biting yet 😉

This could be the winner in either category. Enjoy:

First time I encountered this phenom was on a friends Fender USA Deluxe Jazz - amazing!!! A Fender that I actually liked!!

My next gig is a week from tomorrow, at Cockfosters football club. An unlikely sort of venue for us, but we played there earlier in the year and got a decent crowd in, so we're doing it again. Being at the end of one of London's tube (subway) line helps, I think. After that, I'm doing a one-off dep gig with my old band in Marlborough, then two more Grateful Dudes' gigs in Camden, October and December, and apparently the first Saturday of every other month thereafter.

Think Teebs and Skinnyman have agreed your date

Fleabag, Just had a moment of enlightenment and checked what's currently powering my bass board (the Vittoos is powering my guitar stuff at the moment) - If you need a 15v outlet then a Mooer Macro Power S8 might do you. It has a switchable 9/12/15/18v outlet. Back up to paying ~£60 again, but looks like it meets your requirements. https://www.bonnersmusic.co.uk/mooer-macro-s8-power-supply.ir

I bought a player series precision about 3 months ago as a back up to my maruszczyk Jake and since I got it I've gigged with it exclusively, excellent basses , light playable great neck no discernible difference between it and any of the American P basses I've had certainly not worth the extra cost for me wouldn't hesitate to buy another

Here's a comparison of my new grey cab with my previous black one - both painted with Tuff Cab. It's actually slightly darker grey than this, but that's photos for you.

My paint finally arrived! Unfortunately, I only managed to get back into my workshop yesterday to start painting. But here we are:

I haven't seen a circuit diagram, but this doesn't sound completely right... Certainly my BB735A works as normal when I remove the battery (in passive mode of course). This would make me think that the battery is not in the passive circuit.

I've got both though the LM3 is an earlier class AB Italian build, the LM3 is now in back up position and the MM the main. TBH the core sound of both is very similar to my ears and both are equally usable in gigging situations - I'd be surprised if many in the audience would detect the difference. I don't tend to stray too far from 12 on the eq either so I guess I won't notice the differences in the frequency centres too much - I generally use the 'Milleriser' or VPF filters which get me where I need to be quite easily. The only thing I prefer on the MM over the LM3 is the mute switch (and associated visual indication); they're both great amps.

The best cover of a Beatles track I’ve heard is Helter Skelter by Motley Crue, so I suppose I’ll have to name Siouxsie & The Banshees version as the worst (tho it’s not bad, just not as good as Crues)

Not strings related. Looking for Special PJ like that for some time. let me know if decide to part with it.

Small body Framus Star bass. 60 watt Nashville valve bass amp. 412 Crook bass cab. All pretty good gear for a learner and the aim from day 1 was to go gigging. I worked all summer to buy the bass and amp, then worked all the next summer to buy the cab.

People's priorities change over time. My old band reformed after a break of 25-30 years for a couple of charity gigs - great fun but it made me realise that I couldn't commit full time to a gigging band. When the guitarist asked me if I'd be interested in carrying on in a new group with him, I had to turn him down (no hard feelings - we're still very good mates). For me, at this point in my life, family time is more important than a band. Sounds to me as if you & you're guitarist have different expectations, so best to have a chat with him so at least you both know where the other stands. At least then you'll be in a position to plan for the future, even if he has to take a step back & you have to find a replacement. If you're only booking gigs for 2020, you have plenty of time to find a solution.

So the overall view is that I should buy both the C4 and the Spectrum? That's what you are ordering me to do? I don't have a choice? Damn you guys are harsh. Still at least my wife will now understand I didn't have a choice!

My thoughts? Please stop misusing apostrophes. I'll go and lie down, now 😉

I'm more of a stander than a strutter.

A contract requires "consideration" typically money, even if just £1. From what Dave has said, no payment whatsoever was made here.

If you are anywhere near Offton, @jonunders has proposed a Bass Bass (a kind of informal gathering where people get together to try out each others gear and shoot-the-stinky poo ) at the Limeburners on 2nd November. I'm assuming this is still on, although the thread has been tidied up a bit.

Well today I've uploaded a further 28 transcriptions to the site. http://tomreadbass.co.uk ...and click on TRANSCRIPTIONS. This takes us to 714 accurate bass charts, all in standard notation, and all completely FREE for you bass players, with my compliments. If you want to filter the lookup table to see what's new, simply enter "Sep 2019" in the search box.

First band practise with the Duff tonight. Very happy!

Gigs booked first . Arrange holidays around gigs holidays booked first. Book gigs around the holidays

I was chatting with Joe Dart over a beer after a recent Vulf show and he said these basses were going to go on general sale in the Fall - which I guess is American for Autumn? He also said that he put some electrical tape over the pole pieces of the pickup as he plays super hard and got a little bit of noise from his fingers tapping on the pickup. I thought it looked like felt actually, neither would affect the magnetic pull anyway. Going by the recent Vulf live videos, he has really worked out his sound and it’s like a Jazz bass bridge pickup solo’ed on steroids! Fat, punchy and warm. Very tempted!

I think this will always happen when members of a band have lives outside of bands, music , gigging and don't depend on band incone to survive. Blue

I'm with Lozz. He should work his holidays around the gigs. He needs to show some professionalism.

Couple of things i can answer there. I was offered an amp at a price which i agreed then the seller said he'd seen the amp at a lower price and suggested the lower price. I told him i would pay what we agreed on . Answer to your question is YES i did pay what we agreed on initially. That's morals and ethics for you. Its what makes people honest and trustworthy (possibly stupid in some peoples opinions on BC) Old fashioned decency i guess but its what defines a persons character. People on BC can joke all they like about ethics, morals, decency and honesty but i'm happy to be known as someone of good character that can be trusted to do what i say i will. Your last point is YES again. I think if the seller had approached me in a different manner i would have been disappointed but understood where he's coming from and that choice to agree on not proceeding would have been mine and i can tell you now i would have accepted that without issue. I guess that's what this is down to. Its how you present yourself. Some people can do it well while others don't have the ability.

I think this reaction is a bit strong to be honest, I completely understand it’s frustrating, but getting so heated about ‘honour’ and a ‘code of ethics’?! The member probably just thought that they were doing something rash and suddenly wanted to keep the bass, no harm no foul, it happens. If it were me, i’d be understandably sad that I wasn’t getting it, but probably just say “I don’t blame you, looks like a cracker, let me know if you decide to sell again”. That way you’re more likely to get a second shot at it than by somewhat outing them on the forums! 1st world problems and all that. Si

don’t think so much about the chords, but rather the interval. The diatonic chord chart is a good starting place.

From experience of owning a Fafner (mk I): Even though it is only a 3U head, EBS recommend using a 4U rack case. This is on account that the fan is located on the side and there is the risk that there is not enough space in a 3U to give the fan enough space to be effective. A 3U rack might be okay, but I have never wanted to take the risk. You can always contact EBS directly, I'm sure that they would be able to confirm. I ended up getting an EBS 4U rack which is fine, but being wooden it is much heavier than a Gator equivalent.

Briefly furious, then.