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Bought this from my guitarist friend's brother in-law, pretty immaculate, it's actually the first bass I've owned with a maple board since my first ever bass (a 90's Sunn Mustang by Fender) way back in 1994. I used to have the white/rosewood version of this. I thought they were both based on the 70's precisions, with the neck dimensions somewhere between a P and a Jazz, but this has got a definite "proper" P profile - feels fairly chunky and nothing like my old white one. Not complaining though... Not bad for £100. 😁

I've seen some basses that look like they've been hit with the ugly stick, but I've never seen the actual stick before.

Another impulse purchase on my part. This came up locally and intrigued me, I'm a sucker for black with gold hardware - I have a much loved BB3000 with the same. It's been heavily gigged by the looks of it, plenty of scrapes and dings but nothing overly significant. Played by a chap in an 80's metal band called Samurai! I've found a couple of photo's online of the bass in a strong hair-metal context (one of which I've added below...)! I've never owned a Jaydee before and can't seem to find much information about these online. I'm assuming it was a custom order. If anyone knows anything about them, I'd love to hear. It plays surprisingly well and has a massive sound, even unplugged. I would like to reduce the action a bit however the bridge screws (Allen key type) seem to have seized up and won't turn. Also, how do you lower the pickups on these? Cheers.

Today I welcomed into my fold a brand new Fender Duff McKagan Signature Deluxe bass guitar. I’ve been thinking about getting a PJ configuration bass for a while. I had one a while back and it filled the gaps very nicely in my rock covers trio. I saw the Duff in a store last week and thought it looked awesome. Lots of online research, followed by a return visit to try it out and the deal was done. It’s a beauty, finished in a lovely pearlescent champagne colour. It’s not quite white, but it’s close enough to tick my Paul Simonon fanboy boxes. I’m not usually a fan of black hardware but it looks great on this bass. You can find all the specs online if you’re interested. The neck is substantial but not overly chunky. Nut width is 41mm I’d guess, it feels similar to my EBMM Stingray. Despite the Jazz Bass Special name on the headstock it’s definitely got more Precision DNA in it than Jazz. Despite being a Signature instrument there is no trace of Duff’s name anywhere on it, only a ‘skull’ motif pressed into the neck plate. It’s slightly neck heavy, more noticeable when playing seated but strapped on it balances well. I love the fact that I have master volume and master tone (that’s how I’ve always had my J basses re-wired) and a pickup selector. All three positions give very individual, useable tones. The secret weapon is the TBX tone control which I’m looking forward to experimenting with. Very useful to me is the factory fitted Hipshot D-tuner. It’s not properly set up though so it will need fine tuning, which I hear is a bit of a faff... The set up was ok: intonation and action all good, although the relaxed tension on the E when the Hipshot is engaged results in a lot of buzz, so that will need tweaking too. General fit and finish is excellent, as you’d expect from a £1000+ bass. It comes with a Fender gig bag which they describe as ‘deluxe’: it’s anything but - thin and fairly useless, so I’ll be using one of the excellent Mayones gig bags I own, which are very heavy duty. It’s definitely a ‘rock’ bass, and as the man himself plays almost exclusively with a pick it’s easy to get a punchy rock tone by doing likewise, with both pickups on. But I think the Duff is more versatile than that. The Seymour Duncan J pickup in isolation is honky and funky but not thin and weedy, and the P pickup in isolation is warm and full, especially played finger style. I like it very much. I’m looking forward to giving it a proper high volume workout tomorrow at rehearsal. Nice!

A band I used to be in was booked for an outdoor event 3 months in advance. Various emails passed between band and booker, until less than a week before the event we were asked whether we needed any electricity. Having replied in the affirmative, they suddenly pulled the gig!

Sorry, can’t talk about them 😂

My misses said You're not buying anything until you have few rehearsals 😄

Unfortunately I've just glued binding on to the headstock so some of those lines will get covered up😮 Luckily I'm adding in 3 new sets of lines with the binding😀

With you on the benefit of having headroom from your rig, should you ever need it. One point to correct though, if I may: my understanding is that the Rumble 500 is 350W (not 250W) solo'd at 8ohm 'internally' through the combo speakers and 500W with an extension cab.

Mine's 007.🤩

For rehearsal you want it as quiet as possible, no point deafening yourself because the guitarist thinks he is at Wembley. We have had a fight in one of my bands to get to sensible levels as the guitarist would bring a massive Marshall stack despite there being a perfectly adequate rig there.

Looks like a good choice. There's no doubt in my mind that the way to go is to get the noise level down on stage and put as much as you can through the PA. All that noise going through the vocal mics just means you can never get a really clean sound from the band. why carry fridges around when the PA's are so much better than 20 years ago. With a 23 year break you must be in your 40's at least and you'll need to protect your hearing also. Having said that we aren't there yet. The sound levels from drums aren't easily done away with and there are a lot of technically illiterate band members who think they can only sound good with their amps up full. Not every band has a top PA and there are a lot of people on mixing desks who don't really get it. The Fender or something like it will do just about everything you want. Onstage monitoring, driving the band from back line with vocals only PA and it has DI out for the PA. I've learned not to go on without backline, I've had too many gigs where soundchecks have been fine and you go on and someone has lost the settings and you have no bass through the monitors. If I've got an amp with me I can turn it off if the monitoring is good or turn it up if something goes wrong. If you've got something like the Rumble you can cover any situation, loud enough to keep up with the drummer, DI for the well engineered PA and a volume control for everything in between. Everything else is down to taste.

Ready for sea trials! I still need a jack plate and strap buttons but I couldn't resist posting some pictures, I'm really pleased with the look and feel of it. I'm going to play it for a while and see what refinements are required.

My blue '78. Incidentally, the Ric bass is the finest design ever, IMHO; up there with the classics like the Coke bottle, the Barcelona chair, the Spitfire, the red phone box, the London tube map, the red bus, the BIC biro.

Just been reading this thread and wanted to add my vote to the "just do it" camp. I have always loved the idea of luthiery and thought if only I had the space/time/money/knowledge etc. One day I decided I was going to build a bass from scratch, no matter how long it took, and my god was it worth it. The wealth of knowledge resources available on youtube alone is staggering. Crimson Guitars is a personal favourite. I amassed the tools gradually as each payday rolled around (and I'm very much still amassing, of course) and my very patient girlfriend lets me use half our our tiny spare room as a workshop, where I built myself a rough and ready workbench and put a shower curtain up to protect the other stuff in the room when I'm doing something particularly dusty. It's not ideal, but then nothing ever is, is it? It's hard, for sure, but weirdly, it's also - I think - perfectly within the capabilities of anyone with a creative spark and some common sense. As others have said already, it is certainly an all consuming rabbit hole of a hobby. Forgive the long winded post. The short version is give it a bash - live the dream 😀

TOMORROW?? You have patience beyond the power of human imagination.

Doesn’t matter what equipment or wattage etc those guys will be using, they need to learn EQ and balance

Get thee behind me, Satan. I really don't need any more PJB kit. I don't want that 6T at all...

Instruments would come into the hotel room with me.

I am actually tempted to try the Earbox at that price, but it's to fix a problem which don't actually have. Oh GAS your an evil mistress 😁

Colour is so over-rated, au naturale please 😁

Here you go... https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/171229320033008--fender-rumble-studio-40?gclid=Cj0KCQjwqs3rBRCdARIsADe1pfTrD614Jo4ZS2mKM8PqU9dduNg2Jdr-se1ys5ccfc7EmwNJ6xRgwzwaAsCIEALw_wcB

Are you binding the inside faces of those headstock slots...?

Would have to agree that the Squier i tried was nowhere near inferior to my Fender Jazz. I would in fact say its far better than my Fender Precision deluxe PJ i bought few yrs back. The neck feel and fret edge finish is far better on the Squier. The general feel of the bass just feels better than my P deluxe. If both the squier and my geddy CIJ were put in front of me blindfolded i just couldn't tell the difference. Quite a shocker for me as i always regarded them as being slightly poorer quality than original fenders but definitely not the case. The Squier is the Classic Vibe Jazz at £330 in Guitar Guitar. How can you beat that. Even if you had to change the pick ups and put a badass bridge on it would still be far less than the Geddy bass new. Dave

Nice, a squier vintage modified with fender flatwounds = perfect p bass imho. £100 is a steal. 😃

Cut dog plays stratocaster...

I could get used to the binding again - I've lived with it for ten years after all - but i really think the only medically safe course of action is a 4003s.

This

Question is, will gigs have PA support? Also you said ‘maybe’ gigs - be a shame to buy stuff and then no gigs happen. Why not use it as an excuse to get them to play at sensible volume, also saving your ears while you arrange and get it together, and if it comes off and looks like it will be a go-er then splash out

Yeah, lovely basses. I don’t know what’s happened but throughout the Fender range quality has improved dramatically. The modern Mex Fenders are (to me at least) every bit as good as Japanese ones.

This! Get a Rumble 500, and if needs be add cab later.

The Rumble 500 combo will be plenty (unless the guitarists insist on bringing their 100w stacks along, and playing them at full volume!). Even something like an Ashdown ABM/MAG 300 will be plenty. But if you're happy with the Rumble 100, then go with the 500, and add the cab at a later date as and when you need it. Definitely check out the second hand market though. You can get some pretty good deals on gear.

Looking really good, makes me want to build some cabinets, reduce my car loading :). On previous builds I got a 'leathercloth' / Vinyl finish look by dabbing the Tuffcab with a washing up sponge. Pour / brush a reasonable amount onto the cabinet then dab away.

You can't go too far wrong with the Fender Rumble gear. Its light, loud and fat sounding. I just picked up a second hand Ashdown ABM 600 head to go with a barefaced retro 410. That rig is astonishingly loud and deep. Ultimately there's a mountain of stuff out there. If you like the Fender Rumble sound then the 500 is excellent value for money.

Another vote for Joe Cocker for best, but the worst version of 'a little help from my friends'? Sorry to say, but The Beatles' original. Sounds like a 'SingalongaMax' treatment (there’s one for the oldies!) in comparison.

Utter rubbish. A small-ish amount of flesh removal & bone shaving surgery on the inner forearm -- and you're good to go. Well worth it IMHO. 🤗

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

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.

This could be the winner in either category. Enjoy:

Not really an effect. But this is what I just built. you can power a single module from this and send various control voltages for testing/calibration purposes.

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:

Let the games begin!

I went for the stealth look on mine. I planned with (Jon) Shuker to create a fully adjustable ramp - mine can drop right down in to the body and it practically disappears. Jon now uses this design for most of his orders that ask for a ramp now unless they ask for something a bit more specific - @MacDaddy I’m looking at you mate