Leaderboard

Out of interest, I just tried some nail varnish remover which seemed to remove the sticky stuff. I also removed the broken mechanism and replaced it with an allen head bolt (there was already a tapped hole) - works a treat! So ended up with a working, non adjustable stand, better than binning it.

I picked this up on Thursday and haven’t been able to put it down since (including last night’s gig). It’s a 2018 Fender Professional Jazz Bass, now restrung with Ernie Ball Super Slinkies. The pickups sound amazing and although I’ve never been a fan of maple fingerboards on a Jazz Bass, it just works for me with the natural ash body. This bass belonged to the bassist from Funeral For a Friend who I bought it off (nice chap) Here it is alongside my trusty P Bass wearing the obligatory TI Flats.

Well, finally, I got to sit down and test it. Thankfully it sounds like everything is hooked up right. Used my GK MB800 head as the amp. One must be careful when describing a cab one has built, because there is going to be some bias. Lol That said, it sounds like this: This is the frequency response chart of the cab that Stevie sent me. It sounds like that - everything is very balanced, top to bottom. (NB: frequency range on chart is 200Hz - 20kHz). The highs are really clear and present without being harsh. Superb. I have a Celinder Update which tests treble perfectly - it has about the most top end I’ve heard out of an instrument. This cab shows one of the delights, and pitfalls, of FRFR cabs. Every single string noise and bit of technique is highlighted - you must be very clean in playing. I elected to turn down a bit of the treble knob on both my Celinder Classic Jazz and the Celinder Update and I still had all I needed treble wise. Yes, I did the Marcus Miller slap thing and it sounded fantastic. The highs here are similar as the very best cabs I have heard in this area - the Fearless F112 and the Barefaced BB2. I’ve always said I liked the BB2 highs just a little better than the F112, but this cab I think pips the BB2. It’s close though. One of the design goals of the cab is that you can be immediately in front of the cab and hear yourself well. It achieves this well. The mids are even and I hear every instrument’s character clearly, mid EQ tweaks are clear. Very smooth. The lows I tried out in a few different ways. Keeping the cab off the floor on my workbench, the lows were even and clear, and you could EQ in a huge amount if desired. I always like to push cabs here and see if I can make them fart out. I maxed out both the bass boost on the amp and the John East J Retro pre - which is a frankly insane amount of boost - before I could get the woofer to distort a little. Took it like a champ. (The only cabs I have never seen distort with that much boost are the Fearless F112, which already has a walloping low end [probably a bit too much, but it is intoxicating], and the Audiokinesis Thunderchild. No coincidence that both share the mighty 3012LF woofer. However I often found myself turning down the low end on those cabs.) Once I put the cab on the floor to get the boundary effect giving a moderate bass boost, the cab sang. Beautifully meaty, tasty tone. Gorgeous. Balanced. Responsive to EQ and hand placement. Insert your favourite hyperbole here. Etc It took the B string well also. An even volume with all the other strings, even when turned up. No issues there at all. I do wonder if the cab will open up even more on the low end as I play through it. Wait and see I guess. Loudness. I haven’t fully tested it - it needs gigged at volume for a period of time to fully judge. That said, in my opinion it is louder than the F112 and equal to what I remember of the BB2. Very, very, very loud with 500W. Windows rattle, the house shakes, and I hadn’t even tried maxing out the gain/volume. I’m going to need to make sure no-one else is in the house before I can do that. For me it is certainly a one cab solution for anything I will play. Take what I say with a pinch of salt. I built it, after all. But in my opinion the nearest cab I can think of to compare it to sonically is the BF BB2. It feels like boutique performance for a lot less money. It’s an FRFR cab without a doubt.

We're even closer... Eude

Hey guys! I did a little solo piece on my Fodera 5 a while ago! Hope you like it 🙏

I'm thinking the loft definitely killed mine. However, with some judicious application of gaffa tape, we have a working stand again. Aradite, gaffa and WD40, if you can't fix it with any of those, chuck it!

I think you can get similar faults with other stands but the thing about Hercules is that they seem to acknowledge the problem and be quick to rectify it. I actually think it makes the brand worth using.

I’ve been working on the manual several hours each day for the last few days. Still need to alter a couple of things in the filter section and am awaiting clarification on a few bits elsewhere but I’ve got through a big chunk of it. I’ve still got the two biggest sections to tackle (envelopes and the new flexis). One thing that is proving tricky is the choice of how much new information to include which explains a bit about synthesis along the way. The manual is currently written in a way that assumes a lot of prior knowledge of synthesis and I think many users coming to this pedal don't have that knowledge. There is a bit of a time pressure, I’m doing this for free in my spare time alongside my full-time day job and it’s a lot of work so I’m not sure I’ll be able to turn it into exactly what I think it should be (at least not yet) but will do my best to make it more digestible.

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.

I use a plastic credit card as a fret rocker. Straddling 3 frets at a time only, the long side does the lower frets, and then switch to the short side as the frets get closer together. You should rock at the bass and treble sides of each fret, and the middle for good measure. High frets will often be at the edges and less so in the middle. Hope this helps!

New Cab Day I was originally looking for a 15" cab to pair with the Lil' Stubby but this VS-212 popped up on eBay this weekend and the seller let it go for £140. I was seduced by the vintage looks but it actually sounds really great with the head. A bit weighty at 30kg but manageable.

Exactly. I've always thought you find out what a company is really like when things go wrong and they have an obligation to fulfil, a single report of a customer who's had problems and has been treated properly makes me much more likely to spend my money with them.

Did a wedding gig at Chawton Hampshire - just 10 mins down the road for me. We got booked via contact on our Facebook page - was a bit of a surprise cos we don't do many gigs and it was quite short notice for a wedding. Our previous gig in June was at a pub in Alton; we did fine job but played to a relatively disinterested and sparse crowd, found out last night that it was the reason we got booked for the wedding, just goes to show that a disappointing gig can lead to better things. Back to the gig..Lovely informal and relaxed vibe - gig was at a farm in a marquee set up in a field. From the first song folks were up dancing and singing. At the end of the first set we had lots of positive feedback, this is great and gets us all well up for set two. Some tunes got extended as peeps are clearly having fun - a particularly lengthy version of Monkey Man due to bride and groom madly dancing etc. At the end a chap introduced himself as a fellow bass player and said some lovely stuff about the band - what a fab evening!

Ah well, I bought one from another seller at the original’s BIN price.

Have completed another Lego video for the band, is for the song, Reverse the Charges, that features on our third album, Demonic Dinner Dance, which we released in 2014.

That's more than likely to do with the performance of the cell than anything, the times are simply converted from the voltage readings. Some cells can have steeper drop-offs than others, so try a different brand or chemistry if it keeps happening. Mine's been really accurate so far, I always run it on Philips alkalines 'cos that's what the nearest shop sells!

We don’t do weddings often as we’re not that kind of band, but if asked we will consider it. Two occasions spring to mind. We played a wedding in west Wales, near Aberystwyth in 2015. That’s a five hour drive for us - no matter, we were promised hotel accommodation for 4 x band members plus 1 x driver/roadie. It was all in the contract, and we were paid upfront in full. On arrival we were told our accommodation wouldn’t be ready until later. Turned out the accommodation was in a pub, not a hotel, but that’s ok. Anyway we finish the gig, hit the free bar and eventually retire to our accommodation in the small hours. Turns out our accommodation is a twin room. For five men. We had been given a key to gain entry to the pub earlier in the night, by the time we got back there was no one to take it up with so we had no choice but to squeeze in. The prospect of sharing a single bed with our sweaty lead singer was too much to bear and I finally passed out, Norwegian Wood style, in the bath. Last summer we played a wedding in rural Lancashire. Again, a long drive from home. By now we’re a trio and we head up the M6 to the gig to play, again paid in full up front with the promise of a yurt each to sleep in after the gig. We play the gig (in a marquee, we were on fire incidentally, one of the best gigs we’ve ever played). We then hit the free bar again, and await the meals we’d stipulated in the contract. But no food, they’d forgotten to provide anything. Now this gig is in the middle of nowhere, with not even a phone signal, let alone a McDonalds within reach. In the end one of the guests managed to get one of her friends at a local farm to make us some sandwiches and bring them over, in the dark, on a bicycle. By the time we’d finished those we were suitably well oiled and taking it all in our stride. Eventually we started to run out of steam and decided to head off to our yurts. Or not, as the yurts we’d been shown earlier were now seemingly occupied by several guests who decided crashing the band’s accommodation was preferable to getting an Uber home. They refused to move, and our drummer, who isn't the most diplomatic person in the world (especially after inbibing several gallons of Peroni) flipped his lid. I distanced myself at this point as things were getting out of hand, and ended up sleeping in the hire van. In the morning I located our drummer asleep in the marquee, and no sign of our singer. He eventually resurfaced with a sheepish grin and we loaded the van for the long, jaded drive home. Next time we play such an event we’ll be more stringently enforcing the agreed accommodation, food etc. To paraphrase Terrorvision’s legendary rider: ‘No Moet, no show-et. No Chandon, no band on.’

We got one in the end 😀

Ok, good news. I managed to lever up the woofer and, after a lot of fiddling, get the mole pliers locked on, and unscrew the bolt out. When I checked the state of the hole behind, it actually didn’t look too terrible, and a T-nut still fit within it. I didn’t have time to get Araldite, but I did have some Loctite (not the same, but good enough as it turned out). I ran Loctite on to the ‘catching’ surface of the new T-nut, pressed it into place, and when it dried, ran some more around that. Then threaded a bolt in by hand to check it all worked ok. It did. @Phil Starrmade an important point about using T nuts. I unconsciously, I think, was leaning in hard against it when I was trying to thread the bolt in the first time around. So I made it pop out, especially when I cross threaded it by accident at the same time; it made it easy to apply too much force. Having determined that, I was wanting to avoid any issues this time around. So I hand screwed in every single bolt on the woofer to make sure none of them cross-threaded, making sure not to lean or press down when doing so, until they were all about half way in. Only then, did I use the Allen key to tighten them all to the full tightness. So, it’s now all put together. Tomorrow I’ll test it out and see if I’ve wired everything in right. Hopefully so! Then I can look at sorting the grill and badge. By the way, current weight: 28.3 lbs. Nice!!!

Some ideias using 2 basses , hope you like 😃

My advice is to just get a Big Head. It’s more compact than the Bass Buddy - appreciably more compact than the Stomp, thus making it worthwhile having as an alternative standalone headphone amp. My Big Head lives in the tiny pocket at the top of my gig bag, always charged, for those occasions when a plug socket isn’t nearby for my Stomp.

So am I right in assuming that Hercules have rectified these problems with their new stands 🙂

Didn’t know about this group. Now joined 👍

I think there was a period during which some Hercules stands developed this problem, I have stands from before and after that period and they are fine. I bought a couple earlier this year and I checked with the salesperson that the stock was new and assured me that the newer stands were made of different materials. He knew about the this fault in particular and assured me that Hercules had taken steps to rectify it. Never had a problem with any of mine.

I gig three squiers. Replaced the pups on them but otherwise great basses.

They told you all you needed to know. Lazy criticism more like, and rudeness doesn't reflect well.

While I’m here, I’d like to thank Quatschmacher for all his help, both here and on the occasions where we’ve met in person. It really is a huge help chatting with someone who is both a user and has such expansive knowledge of synthesis.

I'll save terrible gig stories for another thread. As for accommodation itself, two word. Ibis, Budget. I was on a tour and was bunking with the singer (whom I had only just met). The beds (in a twin room) were separated by about 6" if that (or so he assured me 😉 ) but that was ok. Less ok was the fact that the sink was in the room itself, the shower cubicle opened into the room and the only privacy was in the (tiny) toilet cubicle. In fairness, we were ok but I wouldn't want to go through that again if I had any say in the matter.

Something that amused me recently when I was in the market for an old Trace Elliot combo. I can't recall the figures now but there was a low starting bid with a 'best offer' button, so I made what I felt was a fair offer above the starting bid. It wasn't just declined, it was completely ignored. I then found an old Peavey combo so all was good from this end. The TE combo auction ran its course and sold for less than my offer

The neck on my CV Squier P bass is fantastic. It's shallow, fret ends are smooth and polished and I can get lovely low action on it. Which is more than I can say for the neck on the Fender Elite Precision I bought last year, for silly money. I've also owned a MIJ Silver Squier Jazz bass. It was also a fine instrument.

VK 210 MNT 8ohm has a great deal going for it in terms of quality. I certainly rated mine. At a similar size / weight / power handling and price point - I'd recommend also checking out the Fearless F112, a cab which really does knock it out the park.

Yes a bitsa. No serial number and a fake decal.

Fenders are so easy to fake, from the Limelights, through the Chinese counterfeits, to bedroom bodgers with a Squier and a transfer decal.

There are a few hi-mass bridges with five screw holes which should just drop straight in. I’m considering, Gotoh, Hipshot, Omega etc. who all do bridges in black finish. Fender hi-mass are very solid, good price too, and I’ve installed them before, but they only come in chrome sadly.

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.

Playing here tonight (6th), last but one gig before we knock it on the head. Played at Pod many times and it's always a cracking atmosphere, will certainly miss it.

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

Ibanez it is then. Thank You! Actually I could not play the bass before buying it that's why I'm knit picking everything up.

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

I'm nor sure whether you're showing off or just being greedy...😉 Either way...nice collection😍😍