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Kind of surprised how little discussion there is out there for G & L basses. so here is a little recent story... I have owned a couple of SB-2 in the past and have to say they are excellent gigging tools of trade, fast necks, light, punchy. Recently i was reflecting on how good they were and decided to pull the trigger of a preloved L2500 and an excellent thing it is to. Now this bit is where I just got the g.a.s. Watched the video for 'riot' by Ritchie kotzen, the bass player absolutely nails it playing a G & L JB 4 string. So off I go to Anderton's and order a tribute version. Taking its time to get here (getting even more irrational..) I decided to cancel the order and flip to a Kiloton. Never played one before but knew it would be structurally close to the SB-2...and what a bass it is, one of, if not the best decision I have ever made on a purchase. Think passive stingray, almost the same level of output, single/series and parallel switching, Jazz neck but with more character than a single MFD humbucker bass should legally have. Brilliant. Instant #1 bass.

There's also a reverb. Ok, it's a well know fact that Jaco Pastorius used only Rotosound RS66LD round wound strings. To get closer to the sound here, you'll need to double all you parts to get that chorusing effect (also used by Mick Karn, by the way), or try to approach it with a very slight delay. Use only the bridge pickup (no neck pickup as he almost never used it) with tone completely rolled off (the capacitor was a 47 nF with a 250 kOhms pot). Play, as mentioned, over the bridge pickup with a heavy attack. Boost the mids, but higher at 800 Hz. This is what makes a fretless sing. And you'll need that Acoustic 360 kind of slightly to heavy distortion, so use this, with the mids all the way up, it's amazing how close you'll get : http://www.one-control.com/blue-360-bass-preamp.html I owned a Fender Jaco Pastorius Relic Custom Shop bass with this preamp and the settings mentioned. The sound I got was really close to Jaco's sound (just adding a bit of 800 Hz to make the bass sing easily). He was also using a bass cabinet with an 18 inches driver (Acoustic 361) that is also a great part of his sound. Good luck in your tonal quest.

Yep, he double tracked fretless, so it’s almost exactly the same lines, but there is some natural variation in the intonation- gives it a very organic and musical version of a chorus effect. Live he would have a slight (MXR) delay on one amp, with another amp dry - again, producing a chorus type effect, but more natural than a pedal. The other elements are roundwound strings (yes, it is😜) and a heavily coated fingerboard..that really makes it growl. It’s a pain, but it was a key part of his fretless sound.

When I was assembling my fretless PBass, I ended up with a spare bridge. I can’t just have a spare bridge laying about, so I gathered a few other parts. My neck choices are a one piece maple tele, or a rosewood Pbass, I think a TeleBird might even confuse me, so I’m leaning toward the rosewood. Either neck works well on my fretted Pbass. EMG JV pickups, and a cheesy Chinese gold neck plate... I had to wait a while for this body, but I should have it within the week. I’m going for a lighter blue than LPB, not certain on the shade... For the next build, I’m starting with only a Pbass pickup and wiring harness.... I’m thinking double Pbass pickups and a non reverse body and a full rosewood neck...

Bought this neck off ebay, second hand but unused. My arriss is it a G&L, although it looks nice. Jazz width, rosewood...its an odd one, cos the frets are nicely done and the fingerboard well finished, but the tuner mounting holes aren't all well spaced and E is well out of line with the corresponding groove on the nut, which I'm not happy about. The pic doesn't show this to good effect. But there you go, can't be too fussy for 13 sovs. Plan is for a jazz type build. I want a sort of relic'd patina look, but I want it to look well used, as if its worn though years of loving use, and not beaten or abused is if it's been in a blender with a pit bull and a breeze block. You know, that warm kind of look that develops through years of handling where the skin on your palm wears things gracefully and makes them shiny. I don't want to spend a fortune. Bass is still early days for me having recently converted from geetar, and I'm saving for a proper Steinberger, and simultaneously trying to pay off the final dregs of my mortgage. Add to that that I have the fine craftsmanship ability of a Glaswegian blacksmith who's half cut on single malt and angry through being forced to work overtime, and you can see that this could be challenging. More pics to follow as this progresses.

Entering beta-test phase for Project Pickguard (scheduled while awaiting delivery of pickguard attachment screws from the far East). Decided to go with the stock Yamaha part as it only cost me £14 including shipping from BTN and it only took a few days to arrive! I did lightly scrape it with a scalpel as the 'guard is designed to join onto a metal plate that covers the controls (as on a jazz bass). That part of the pickguard is cut straight so I just needed bevel it slightly. Not necessary but I think it looks a bit better. Currently held in place with double-sided tape and the little plastic truss-rod access doodad. Realise the jazz-style knobs are non-standard but I hate the way I can't see how the stock ones are set. I think they look OK, particularly with the black 'guard which I think, rather like The Dude's rug, really ties the bass together. Overall, I like the look and think I'll stick with it.

I've seen something similar on YouTube (can't remember what video it was now) where they used a flat (rather than a round) shoe lace to wrap around the shaft below the knob and then pull the lace up slowly but firmly to remove the knob. Is there room to squeeze a flat shoe lace around the recess? More innuendos are available on request.

I came across a Uke Iron Maiden tribute band called Nylon Maiden. I'm still traumatised 😵

I'd tell them to get bent, with 3 possible responses... You entered into a contract to move parcel of ABC size. If they then collected a parcel of XYZ size without referring back to you then that's their problem for making an unsolicited co,election and delivery. Or... The parcel was the correct size, and their records are faulty. It's up to them to prove otherwise. Or... If you din't sign anything when it was delivered just deny all knowledge any any oversized parcel.

We played immediately before Martin at the Acoustic Festival of Britain last year. I got to talk to him at length and had a good look at his current Ric, a ‘72 Burgundyglo 4001. The action was literally about 3 times as high as mine. It was the opposite of low! Can’t speak for his TBird as he didn’t have it with him. He was using a Hartke head and an Ashdown Mag 2x10; I helped him carry his rig onstage. I think his full rig includes an ABM head as well as the Hartke; not sure about the cabs. Have to say he was an absolute gent, extremely warm and generous and extremely funny. In fact the whole experience of chatting to him, playing, then getting to watch his (blinding) set, - Argus heavy, obviously - then chatting to him some more, was my most memorable gigging experience ever. I just wish I hadn’t been quite so embarrassing a fanboy! Got him to sign my Warwick Alien, which I used for the gig. Watching him made me feel a lot better about my style too, which is very similar.

This was the state of my ‘64 Precision when I got her. This is her now. Life’s too short to own a bass you don’t play because you want to preserve its value. The crass analogy is that it’s like remaining celibate from your supermodel wife to keep her pristine for the next guy...

MT has always had a great tone. The bass on "Argus" sounds amazing.

Sounds good, looking forward to a few pics bassfinger , I do like a build 🙂

I bought a Jazz body from Ebay. "Maple", they said. "My arriss", I said when I received it. I'm not an expert woodologist [new word, (c) Bassfinger Enterprises 2019] but I suspect its basswood. In any case, it's one piece, no joins or evidence of bookmarking anywhere. It was also infernally cheap at a score, and well shaped and finished. I rubbed it down to smooth it fully, and braved the spiders and startled hobo in the shed to look for unguents to colour it. I have shotguns and air rifles and found half a tin of mahogany tinted danish oil which hadn't congealed solid, so out that same. Further rummaging revealed a can of gloss polyurethane that the hobo hadn't sniffed so I snaffled that too. The danish oil worked fine, but seemed a bit more orangey in hue than I recall. Perhaps it had aged, or maybe the hobo had wee'd in it? No matter, it looks ok so I wiped on 3 coats on the body. I let that dry a day and used 800 grit wet and dry to rub it down wet, almost but not quite rubbing through on the edges, body contours, and bits where high wear might be expected. I then rubbed a final coat all over so the whole thing is done, but the colouring is now noticeably thinner in the high wear areas. Faux wear, tres trendy. 4 coats of spray poly, which is currently still hardening. Once its cured properly I'll buff that to a glossy shine, again with extra attention to the edges etc. Seems to have darken the colouring slightly, which is good. Careworn rather that roadworn. And that's where it's at now. Once the buffing is done I'll post up another pic. I've plumped for a cream scratchplate to go with the aged look, and the vintage style knobs. Undecided as to pick ups or machine heads as yet. I like the look of pickups with rails rather than individual poles on a Jazz, so will keep my eyes peeled. Bridge will be Wilkinson because it's cheap, very neatly finished, and only £8.99.

Going back to some parts of my roots : I found it in Pisa, Italy. Bought it straight as there was only this one built in right handed. Remember that the great Yves Carbonne is left handed. I also bought its fretted cousin, as it's not an Yves Carbonne Signature, but a bass built for Bruno Ramos. Now, I'm really into 8 strings basses and love them. And, urm, urm, I ordered a custom made Leduc U-Basse 8 strings fretless... So for now, I have a perfect pair :

I’ll sue if you get white pearl Pickguard 😂

I'll tempt you guys with a little sneak peak of mine.....

It's a pretty early Origin by De Gier: serial number #020. Cocobolo fingerboard, spalted maple top, padouk body. Bartolini pickups, Aguilar OBP-3 preamp and a sustain to die for.

Shame. If we'd got another two versions of the idea you could have had a four paned poster Andy Warhol stylee. (Remember where you heard the idea first, heeheehee.) Edit: If you like that, what do you reckon to a panelled quilt as band merch?

Full size body design

go through the Interparcel quote page, ask for a quote, get the price you should have paid, on the size of the parcel actually delivered and offer the difference..might work.

Shes crying because her Mum bought her a PB for Christmas instead of the JB she wanted.

There's an Ashdown RM500 head in one of the rehearsal studios I use... ugh. Nice sounding amp, but that mirror face... whose idea was that??? It's great if I want to retouch my make up, but it's a pain if I want to read which knob does what.

I was carrying out a fret levelling job at the weekend and had Argus playing on the Ipod. Still one of my fave albums and even having listened to it countless times, I had to keep taking a break from the fret filing to enjoy the bass playing and his tone.

Pretty much a stock answer to this type of question: "Talk to David at Bassbags" They used to (and I assume still can) get custom sized cases made to measure but also have lots of stock (I guess the clue is in the name of the company!). My own bass is the opposite to this one, being long in scale and body, but not very deep. I assumed I'd need a custom case so took it to BassBags, where David looked it up and down and pulled out a stock Westbury case that fitted like it was made for the bass. www.bassbags.co.uk

A picture of an a$$ with daft hair in sunglasses? No problem!

Chatting with Mick earlier and he told me to check this out. Utterly blown away by it. What unbelievable craftsmanship and so good to see an instrument saved like this. I am now looking at a couple of my own basses which have niggling issues and wondering what fairy dust the magician might be able to sprinkle.

Dont be knockin' Cliff! His epic late 70s/early 80s trilogy of Devil Woman, Carrie and Wired for Sound is right up there with Copacabana in my house. Only Sir Clifford of Richardsville can make being given a shove from stage left whilst teetering on rollerskates look cool.

Looks like my ex-wife having a polite conversation.

I use New Moon, easy to set up, and there was a 10% discount for Basschat members.

I've got an ART MP studio V3. It's good in the sense that using it doesn't sound worse than going straight into the interface but there's no startling improvement in what you hear, IMO, YMMV, etc. The biggest audible differences occur as one scrolls through the various pre-sets and that's as much down to EQ variations. Before you lash out on a valve pre-amp, just for fun it might be worth checking out some VST saturators get a sense of what sounds are available. There are scads of freebies out there including the Ferric TDS a tape simulator which doubles as very flexible saturator / compressor, also the Shattered Glass 1566 and the Klanghelm IVGI. I've used all three, they sound nice and they have their uses.

MyFader is deprecated I believe. From MF4 onwards the same app download is used for both monitor mixes and iPad mixes - the software presents the monitor mix on iPod touch and iPhone and the full app on the iPad.

Never even thought about that. Cant see me ever doing it, but I suppose one or two large smartphone protectors trimmed to size would work fine.

That's exactly what he did on 'Continuum'.

I had a friend (a confirmed 4 string player) try out my Mike Lull PJ5. Their comment when playing it was, "I wish I'd played this one first".

Can you hook a bit of tooth floss or fishing line down the back of it?

I've just been reading an article and although there was details about mics for guitar cab and acoustic instruments half way up his mic stand there was nothing about micing the bass cabs, they don't wear in ears as the stage volume is kept at around 90db upto 105db for rocking stuff. I suspect any bass cabs you are looking at you can only hear with your eyes, the much higher quality monitor wedges in front of him is what he's listening to via whatever high end processing is going on at the desk.

Don’t get me wrong. Their is nothing wrong with the design of the Thumpinator. My point is that you can go higher without really affecting the speaker response. Remember that few speakers have any great output below 40Hz but going to 35Hz at -3dB does not affect your sound but does significantly reduce the sub-sonic movement.

It’s like saying “don’t watch youtube! Ever” Tuning by ear comes with time or not at all. It really doesn’t matter if you can’t do it. I still can’t get it right and you know what ? The sky has not fallen in. I don’t see the harm in ten minutes of random notes or noodling to a simple drum beat (as part of a balanced practice routine). How else will you gain the confidence to play with a drummer without the crutch of a metronome?

Hah! Reminds me a little of the practice of 'buying indulgences', which resulted in some chap nailing his theses to a church door. But he was more of a Luther than a luthier I understand, so probably unlikely to result in similar reformation of your behaviour by Sibob 😁