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Well the story starts from my Sei. Some might know that I sold it. To Carlsim on BC who is a total gent and a very cool guy. Said bass was posted too Carl. Carl then got in contact with me. I posted in my advert that the preamp was a a UNI Pre. I meant to say it was a U Retro Deluxe but I advertised it wrong. My fault of course. Well after a few PMs back and forth Carl worked out that it wasn't either. It was actually a J Retro Deluxe. BUT the bell plate when it was fitted was not installed, so I presumed it was a U Retro Deluxe. Confusion much so. Anyway it was a pain in the derrière for Carl because he had paid for a bass that wasn't what he expected. So I sent him some money to get the Preamp that he wanted which he wanted being the UNI pre.lets hope it fits we/he said.But all was cool. John East sent him a Uni pre and bless Carl. He un installed the J Retro and then fitted the Uni pre which he is happy with. Carl after a few PMs sent the preamp direct to John I spoke to John East about this situation through numerous emails and on the phone throughout this situation which he always answered. I then spoke to John about getting a new Jazz bell plate for said J Retro. He said on the phone that he had a plate no probs. Now this is where John East is not just one of the greatest designers of possibly one of the best preamps for a bass on the market, but one of the most easy to get hold of nicest guys and one on one its like talking to your next door neighbour . I spoke to him and he said to send him the preamp, he would give me a free plate from his stock that has a slight blemish, he would then rewire the preamp and fit new knobs.! FOR FREE.!! all I have to do is cover the postage.. I don't really need to add much to this. I dont want want to endorse asking John to give away free stuff, but what a guy and what a gesture. For me first off this is what BC is about . Honesty, communication, and wanting other bass players to be happy with what you have sold them. But really its a big up to John East. What a gentleman..

..I sure damn do. Dunno why but for me many songs are made by the cowbell. Here's some fine cowbell by the very great Clutch. BTW, if any of you peeps are yet to be initiated into the church of Clutch prepare for baptism... please post your fave cowbell moments. and lots of them!

Finally got round to rebuilding my board today. The promise of a new dub band on the horizon has inspired me to start making some whacky noises again. The FEA opti fet has replaced the spectracomp, and the green bass machine is temporary. C4 and FI are battling it out in the synth department... but I have room for both atm so why not. I feel like this configuration will stay for a while.

Pretty much finished with a lovely set of split coil bartolini's (totally noise free) I have installed recently.

For any reggae fans, there’s a programme on bbc4 tonight at 9.30 called Studio 17 the lost reggae tapes .🙂 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00095ky

It’s honeyburst. Which is musicman for brown.

I've got both. if you need the aux in and headphone then the Spectradrive will always win. I find the natural sound from the Fender to be better and it's easier to tweak all the components on the fly whereas with the TC you're reliant on connecting via Toneprint. Then again, the number of toneprints available means you're likely to find something that works and the standard spectracomp setting are pretty good anyway. The fender is bigger, heavier and has a greater current draw. It doesn't have a power supply, the TC does. The Fender doesn't have an unaffected 1/4" 'thru' output like the TC does. You can switch the effects order around on the Fender and specify whether you want the FX and EQ to be output through the DI. The lights are nice on the Fender too! With the Fender you have more options to switch items on and off (EQ, Comp, OD). So, both have pros and cons - the TC offers much more flexibility in connectivity and also in compression and drive settings IF you plan ahead. It also has a bit more flexibility in the EQ section. The Fender is better if you want more traditional (albeit limited) control, especially in a live environment. I use the Fender more, purely because the default voicing is more appealing to my ears (in the same way as I prefer the Fender Rumble sound over the TC RH750 sound)

Man, I loved that show (and theme tune) when I was a kid!

Really hoping to get along, and everything looking like I’ll be able to as well. Which is nice.

Hi Al, if you want to 'dip your toe' then a couple of suggestions. My subs are Wharfedale EVP's like the Mackies they have the crossover built into the subs. I picked mine up for £250ish for a pair and we've done open air gigs with them. I've also got a couple of JBL's They aren't the loudest or best sounding of subs but it is surprising about how little sub you need to add to fill out the sound and how that in turn allows your tops to do what they do best. I didn't really want the JBL's but someone sold me a pair for £100 and 15" active subs for that price was too good to turn down. There are quite a few subs with the crossovers in so look around for them. If not then a simple crossover for less than £100 is available I'd completely concur with EBSFreak there's nothing of any interest below 50Hz that is going to improve your sound. Technically using subs gives you some genuine advantages. They are going to remove 30%ish of your power from the tops. This means they will run cooler and more reliably. Cooler is good because heat causes the resistance of the speaker to rise and you get reduced output and increased distortion. You will also reduce the excursion of the bass/mid driver in your tops. This means the coil will stay within the linear part of the magnetic field and distortion is reduced. In the end you need to engineer a system that suits your needs.

On the one side, in comparing my roasted neck (Ray Starry Night) to non-roasted neck (Sterling), I would say that most of the differences are cosmetic and that any sonic differences are over-ridden by the electronics package and possible the fretboard material (ebony on the Ray, one piece maple on the Sterling). As a materials engineer, I'm also interested by the material properties, they could have a bearing on the dimensional stability and the durability (ignoring sonics here). Strength is a vague term; I was concerned that the brittleness might be higher in the roasted; so far I've been lucky and my neck hasn't suffered impact to demonstrate failure due to brittle fracture. On the normal maple neck a couple of dings (later steamed out) showed no such tendency. I'd be interested to see figures for difference in strain/stress to failure (tension - as I'd assume the predominant failure mode would be flexural/tension) and MOE between roasted and non-roasted but I'd assume there was a lot of variance as wood is hardly an homogenous or isotropic material. In the meantime I'll admire the looks and play it with gusto.

If it was a Rickenbacker it'd be Sh!tGlo. I can't be sanctimonious though, I have a brown bass: Can't complain, only paid £60 for it...

Anybody wondering what the routing is like under a BC Jive's pickguard -- this is the lefty one that I bought for my lad last xmas:

I have recently changed my pedalboard. This is what I'm trying now. I left the LS-2 out, so I'm running in "serial mode". Planet Waves PW-CT 11-->JHS Pulp'N'Peel v4-->MXR Bass Octave Deluxe-->Aguilar Fuzzistor-->Mooer Ensemble Queen-->TC Electronic Thunderstorm-->HPF-->LPF-->Aguilar Tone Hammer I include the Flanger because in my previous pedalboard I had the Line6 M5 and I got awesome synth tones with octaver+fuzz+flanger. This flanger is different, but it's fun too. The chorus and the flanger will go out when the MXR chorus will arrive, because that pedal has also a Flanger option and I love the sound. The Mooer is pretty good actually. It replaced a Corona Chorus. I'm also considering taking out the JHS and put a MXR Micro Amp instead of the compressor. But I'm not sure about that yet.

..with just a hint of prolapse.

I recognise those lyrics 😁

this thread makes me wish I could still handle a doobie without getting paranoid but has reminded me of some choonz from the past

OK...I think I'm ready. I consider this the musical equivalent of exploding a nail bomb full of anthrax in a pram outside a primary school, on the last day of term before the summer holidays just as the kids are let out into the playground. Maybe.

skibbadiddlywaddaliywhoah!

I would say that your best bet would be to find a shop with plenty of basses in stock, go in, sit down, and work through as many as you can. Be objective, what do you like, what don't you like, can you live with X over Y? Does it feel good? Does it play well? Don't be swayed by anyone but yourself. Buy the one you like the best.

Spend a grand and buy this... https://www.bassbuddha.com/product/sandberg-california-ttp4-matte-black/

New they are around £600 and have a lovely neck and US pickups I believe. However if you are looking for a bargain ( and I have no connection with this): Vinteras are nicer but around £800 new. The Players are Mexican made, the Vinteras, USA

Finished...thumb rest and string tree now in position...👍... Very, very, very happy with it...only teeny, tiny gripe is that I would think more about the positioning of the decal in future, try set it parallel to the string line... Had use a nickel jack socket plate as the chrome one I had was too small, so may change that over too at some point... Ran through a few songs at rehearsal last night, man that Lindy Fralin pup is HOT...

Thank you @jonunders for all your efforts and ditto to all of the above.

I think you've confused us with www.asschat.co.uk it's an easy mistake to make.

You don't need any other gear - the filters/crossovers are built into the sub. Take your two full-range outputs from the desk (L and R) and plug them into the sub (it will have two inputs); the sub will sum them and output just the low frequencies through its speaker. The sub also has two "through" outputs (L and R) which are high-passed; connect those to the two tops. I see the Alto has DSP switch to choose exactly how to high-pass the signal.

Here is the second one, A 5 strings model ellegance! 33 scale Body :Alder And top buckeye burl 😉👍🏽 weight is 1,4kg or 3 pounds

The Ibanez Mikro is another short scale worth considering.

There's something a bit special about a fretless bass for certain numbers. Personally, I would have a fretted...but I'd keep and practice with the fretless too. It really doesn't take too long to make the small adjustment in finger positioning and be able to play either. In terms of playing your fretted bass, I'll bet your fingers always hit the same position with the same precision regardless of the presence of the frets...

It sounds like you need to find someone looking to trade. That would be the simplest option I imagine.

Guitar solo, key changes, it all adds to the.......to the......the....um.... Sorry, I got nuutin' Sammy Jr. knocks it out of the court.

Feck, 2 of the worst earworms you B'strds.

Hi Just woken up from my slumbers... Somehow, I'd missed this thread - apols. Beautiful bass! I suspect the problem isn't about the action height or the geometry - it's much more down to earth than that. It's about how you cut the frets themselves. And it's about the area once the fretboard gets to the body. Normally, the board would be slotted before being glued to the neck. Generally, this will be: using a fret saw; using a very fine circular saw; using a CNC router Usually, the fret positions would be achieved using a specialist jig or the CNC programming, etc. It is possible to mark by hand and use a mitre block when using a saw, but this can be error prone - even with the ability of handing and clamping just a flat board. The options with a board already glued into a through neck are very limited. You can't use a fret saw; you can't usea circular saw. Theoretically, you could use a CNC router, but how do you jig the bass (and not damage it with the clamps) so that it is EXACTLY in the correct position, accurate in all planes to a hundredth of a millimetre? I used to run a factory of CNC routers and that would have been in the category of 'tell the customer he couldn't afford it' category. So the only practical answer if likely to be to replace the fretboard (and even that isn't easy to do on a finished through-neck bass. Hope this helps Andy I think this is probably where Chris is coming from

Possibly the ONLY time i have to disagree with Phil! We always mic up the drums, guitars and DI the bass through the PA, by this we are (IMO) able to keep the onstage racket under some sort of control. Indeed the drummer has mics for snare, all 3 toms and kick as well as often 1 or 2 overheads (to be fair he does all this himself in 10 minutes), kick and bass through Sub also (carefully controlled). Ok we're a pretty loud band but we have to keep under 90DB for most venues these days or the landlords get sweaty over the neighbours. Phil's the expert here but we always get complimented on our sound by other bands.

I'm not a wood expert, but I am an Engineer so I understand the figures. The wood can lose strength up to 30%, but specific to maple I can't see any figures and it could depend on the process used anyway. TMW isn't used for structural purposes in construction for this reason according to a couple of papers I skim read. However, what we are talking about is the ultimate strength (ie breaking point) of the wood, there is no way a bass gets anywhere near that! On the other hand, some papers say there is a slight increase in resistance to bending in TMW - very desirable in a bass. So that's where you get the brittleness. ie The wood is stiffer but will break under less load. Whether it's good or bad depends on the application. I would say it's a very good trade off to get less weight and better dimensional stability for a small loss of the breaking strength - seeing as instruments never get close to that unless you jump on them! A good summary here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/thermal-modification (Just for the avoidance of doubt, I'm saying 'roasted' maple necks are a good thing!)

I pretty sure what is marketed as 'roasted maple' is Thermally Modified Wood. It's heated under certain conditions - no oxygen, pressure etc for a certain time. It was developed in Sweden a long time ago so that fast growing cheap woods (pine varieties) could be used in place of hardwoods. Mainly for cladding I believe. It's not the same as kiln drying and it doesn't mimic the process of ageing. It actually modifies the cellular structure of the wood. You get benefits like resistance to moisture and rot, but it actually makes the wood weaker and more brittle. So I guess it's a trade off between weight and aesthetics vs ultimate strength. As far I as can tell, the main benefits for a bass would be the reduction in weight and resistance to taking up water, thereby being much dimensionally stable - pretty big plusses! But as for mimicking ageing, the process alters the properties of the wood so it will not be the same as aged untreated maple (if anyone cared, but it is often lazily marketed in this way).

I’ve owned a couple of ‘brown’ basses, baby chod and derrière splat being the main ones, sometimes you just have to go brown

My fave is 'You never give me your money' - lovely obligato/dusty end playing during the intro, nice little walking bit and some 'standard' rock/pop playing towards the end. I might have a go at transcribing that one.

That’s not brown. This is brown:

Me and Mica Wickersham at the workshop in 2012. And a shot of the workshop where our babies are born.

I can’t recommend the Yamaha EMX512SC enough. 8 mic inputs, a very loud 2x500 watt output and excellent built in FX and compressors. Really lightweight too, (class D power amps) and doesn’t have a large footprint which is handy in pubs where room is limited. For smaller gigs you can configure one side to run FOH speakers and the other to power monitors too. A pair of decent speakers and you have a great PA for not a lot of dosh. I picked mine up s/h for £150 which is crazy for the quality and spec.

Looks lovely 👍

PM me your email and I'll wetransfer it to you

Steve - pics are always good, so yes please! But you weren't 100% of the fan of the Mackie, so hopefully this flexiblity is available on some of the other subs you're more keen on. However from what you've said I'm not clear that you are managing to feed the subs with just the low end <80Hz range i.e. we really need a lpf not hpf, but maybe that is what the sub has (would make more sense!)