Leaderboard

At the risk of sounding like blowing ones own on the most popular of bass forums, I bring you some news (which means a great, great deal to me) that I hope you will be pleased to read. I am super happy to have been invited on board and have joined the brilliant team over at Bass Guitar Magazine. To begin with I will be bringing you a column each month best described by BGM's editor in a recent social media post: "At the recent UK Guitar Show, a reader of Bass Guitar mag suggested that I run a monthly column devoted to solving bass players' problems, gear-related rather than connected to personal grooming or relationships, I should add. "A capital idea!" I said, and pondered who the right hack would be. Ideally someone who knows bass gear inside out, is an experienced writer, has the right facial hair and whose picture in the mag won't scare cows at 100 paces. I'm delighted to announce that the great Dan Veall is the chap who got the gig: you can read his first column on 10 Dec in Bass Guitar and 24 Dec in Bass Player. Round of applause for new bug Dan, team! "

I see you lot have been talking about me in my absence Well, I'm back - and it's due back with me this week.....

I am immensely grateful to Ms beabadoobee for having taken such trouble to release this song. It is very easy to evaluate one's like or dislike for a piece of music but far more difficult to quantify one's indifference. She Plays Bass will in future be the yardstick against which I shall compare my apathy towards other releases. I shall ask myself: 'Does (song X) provoke a greater or smaller amount of crushing ennui than She Plays Bass? Is it more or less mediocre?' and the answer will be either 'Yes' or 'No'. To be gifted that sort of mental clarity is to receive a priceless boon.

It is beyond time that BassChat instituted a Lonely Hearts sub-forum. Given the membership's (advanced) age and disproportionately male profile I predict that such an addition would meet with unqualified approval while providing a useful revenue stream with which to fund Mr Ped's account at Messrs Gregg. Of course, I use the term 'Lonely Hearts' in the loosest of senses, my implied meaning being somewhat grittier but regrettably open to bowdlerisation by the much-detested profanity filter.

So, what took so long?

Two gigs on Saturday with In Isolation. First opening day two of In The Black Midwinter festival in Sheffield. Playing at 2.00 in the afternoon wasn't that great as there were only about 20 people in the audience and most of them were either staff or from the next 2 or 3 bands on the bill. However it served as an excellent warm up to the evening gig at the Lending Room in Leeds supporting Rome Burns on their album launch. Played a blinder - even the unexpected Christmas Cover went down well. A great end to our mini tour and 2019. Big things happening next year which I am not allowed to mention yet...

Dave, Thanks for checking out the knobs. Personally, I think it's a great idea (as it's my company) and I think every Helix user should upgrade their knobs to something solid aluminum in your choice of colors, even if it's black. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. And for Basschat users, Please use the coupon code BASSCHAT to get 1/2 price shipping to the UK.

"I only said 'This meal's good enough for Jehovah'"

You may all be wondering why it took so long... well, apart from Jon repairing in between his normal work so as not to delay any of his orders (we agreed this up front), he sent me through a full list of what he's had to do to repair it. Y'all ready for this? 1. Made a jig to rout off the fretboard. The phenolic is extremely hard so was a bit of a job to rout it off the body without causing any damage to the rest of the guitar, so i made a kind of giant mortice block to put the bass in so the router could be supported from above, the neck be adjusted from beneath to get it flat and the same depth to rout from. Steady work but it routed off ok. 2. Made another jig to re-rout the recess in the body for the new fretboard, so it went in cleanly and a nice tight joint. 3. Sanded up the neck surface to remove any last parts of phenolic and sanded up the body centre. 4. Made another jig to support the router so i could rout away the fillet of wood that sits above the truss rod in its cavity. 5. removed the truss rod, it came out ok, the small piece of the head veneer that was above it broke away (thought it might) but i glued it back. 6. Clamped and glued the headstock break, it went back together pretty well, slight delamination of the polyester basecoat but main thing is the crack glued up well. 7. Routed the truss rod channel clean and made a section of wood to glue in it. I enlarged the channel so the new piece was only glued into new wood. Glued it in then planed and sanded it flush with the neck face. 8. Routed a new truss rod channel, installed the rod and a new fillet of wood above it. Planed and sanded it flush to the fretboard face. 9. Made a new fretboard. Sanded up the phenolic then machined it to the correct taper to match the board taper, cut it square at the nut and left an overhang at the end of the body, made sure it was a tight fit in the body recess. 10. Measured up and routed the cavities in the board for the saddle units, just part depth so i could rout them deeper once the board was on without using a template. 11. Cut the fretboard edge slots for the fret position partial lines. Inserted wood, sanded flush. Drilled and inserted the side dots 12. Used masking tape to mask off the surrounding areas then Glued the board on with epoxy. The clamp of course has to extend from the nut to the bridge. 13. Carefully filed back the excess of phenolic to the edge of the neck (only a slight overhang) and sanded it into the shape of the neck. 14. Routed the saddle insert cavities deeper, routed the end of the board to the body shape 15 Set the bass on a jig and sanded the radius down the whole board, went through the grade and finished with the buffing wheel to a semi-gloss. 16. Drilled the string through holes. 17. Sanded the whole bass, flatted the lacquer back then masked off the board. 18. Sprayed new gloss lacquer over the entire instrument. 19. Flatted lacquer back and polished. 20. Cleaned up the board edge and then rolled the edges. 21. cleaned the nut slot and made a new nut. 22. Reassembled the bridge units, hardware back on and wired up the bass. 23. Strung up, cut the new nut, shaped, polished and glued it in. 24. Set it up and adjusted. 25. Noticed an earthing issue with the east circuit, so sorted that. 26. Made a new truss rod cover. It seems I really did gone and bust it proper big style...

Reportage? Nah. I'm minded to sod off for another six months and leave you all in suspenders... Of course there will be a full breakdown and clinical report.

Another Stomp user here. As the lovely @krispn says, your needs will determine which version is the right one for you. The Stomp was the obvious choice for my needs as I gig with in ear monitors so the amp and cab modelling help to give me a more familiar bass sound, you can probably get something similar using one of the many EQ options but I like the different characteristics the different models offer. My core sound is made up of just 2 of the 6 blocks that the Stomp has, an amp and cab in one and a 3 band compressor in the other. Some guys on here use more complex signal paths for their sounds but I like to keep things simple, it makes problem solving easier if there's bad acoustics in the room. The only other part of my sound is a high pass filter but that's done via the global EQ so it doesn't impact on the block count. Both blocks of my core sound are always on so do not need to be assigned to the foot switches. The limited number of foot switches seems to be a common complaint against the Stomp, you have 3 on board and can add a further 2 via an external foot switch if you wish. On top of the core sound I have a drive and reverb together on foot switch 1, a chorus on switch 2 and pitch shifter for drop tuning on 3. The tuner is accessed via an external foot switch. That's more than enough for my needs, indeed I could lose the chorus without ever missing it, the drive isn't that essential and the drop tuning can be covered by using drop D tuning on the bass, but as the Stomp allows me to add these to my existing sound I'm happy to use them. If you're needs are fairly basic then the Stomp is an obvious choice. If you currently have a tectonic plate sized pedal board and want to recreate that then you'd be better of with one of the bigger options. There's no right or wrong answer, just whatever meets your needs.

Good things come to those who wait - not much option if you're looking for one of these. And yes, that's a Kahler Trem! The bass has been modded over the years with the Kahler and a strange active circuit but you can still play it Passive as well and the active and passive each have their own volume control presumably so you can balance the two different sounds. All the work seems to have been done to a very high standard and the original wood working, timbers and finish are all excellent and surprisingly well preserved. It sounds and feels great and (IMO) looks fantastic so well chuffed with this one. I've only been looking for about 25 years!

I gigged with my new Vigier Passion iv 5-string and it is without doubt the best sounding and playing instrument I have owned. And I have had lots of high end basses. I have yet to see how a trussrod-less design stands up to Canadian climate. Time will tell! I am trying to figure out how I can afford to get another!

The really good news from our gig on Sat night is that the promoter has been asked by many of the folks there when or where we are playing again. He wants us back for Easter at a different venue. Here's a wee clip from the gig. Really needs good headphones to appreciate it plus keys player only had 2 rehearsals to learn 30+ songs. He did a great job.

Yeah it’s all well and good making a list etc, but has anyone given much thought or time to get around to finding out if this bass is in fact, overall...actually any good for metal?

You’re only making it worse for yourself!

Somebody said the "R" word!!!!

He’s been getting jiggy

Life has been hectic.. been setting up 2 new businesses and moderating on another forum.. Thought I’d pop in to say hello. Remember the fretless Uberhorn? After an epic repair job which basically involved a rebuild and refinish.. it’s on its way back this week as good as new..

much better performance this afternoon. My band are way more focused hung over than they are whizzed. Pub empty at first but ended up being offered regular work there on Sunday afternoons Which is just brilliant. Is whizzed really a swear word? Come on.

"Get to the back of the queue!"

Worse! How could it be any worse? Rickenbacker Rickenbacker Rickenbacker

Order in the next week! 2020 sorted.

Have you checked using someone elses browser that this isn't just actually directed at you personally? <checks> hmm.. 10 in stock unless you know fretmeister. how strange?

Thanks, Blue - that's only about a dozen gigs this year with that band, a large proportion of the audience comes to them all, and we don't want to them to get tired of us! The sets are always different, though. London gigs are about a two hour drive for me, further for some of the others. I'm playing NYE in Swindon, about 40 mins away, with my old band, which will be fun, and depping with another, more local, Grateful Dead band in Oxford a few days later.

Must have taken him all day. At £8 an hour. That's at least forty quids worth of work. Too rich for my blood!

A 'Ric Wanted' ad would be OK, as replies would be strictly by PM. No pictures, preferably.

He would probably still be working on the first one brought to him... Edit: It was a joke, I like Rickenbackers, don't sue me Mr Hall.

Sadowsky basses are are Roger Sadowsky's own basses that just happen to be Fender shaped. He kept the shape due to the constraints of the New York studio world, ie demanding that the bass players only use Fender basses. They are not "super" Fenders, they are much more than that.

That's gonna be my new ringtone!

Congratulations. Out of interest at what distance does your picture scare cows? (How about other agricultural livestock)?

I went for the Helix Floor. The LT had just come out when I was looking to get mine, but I decided that the extras on the full version were worth it and if I get the LT at some point sooner rather than later I'd need one of the missing features. And the "scribble-strips" are an essential part of my set up and I also use the additional inputs for running synths as well as bass in one of my bands. I use my Helix direct into a powered FRFR cab, but on the whole I don't use any of the amp or cab sims, preferring instead just to have a decent EQ in the signal path, when I do it is either a clean guitar amp for my Bass VI or one that is picked specifically for its overdrive sound and used as an effect. I decided not to go for the rack and separate pedal, because firstly getting a Helix was part of my down-sizing and I don't have an amp or cabs to sit the rack unit on. Secondly having struggled with finding a gig-proof Cat5 cable to connect my BassPod and Floorboard together in my previous rig I was very reluctant to have any home/office grade components in my new set up. Besides I mostly play on proper stages so I don't have to worry about audience inflicted damage. If I was playing cover in pubs, then I might reconsider, but I'd probably also be using a conventional bass rig so I'd have somewhere to stand the rack version. Finally the Helix Floor has a proper internal PSU and connects to the mains using a standard IEC main lead rather than a nasty wall-wart PSU.

I see from the link that they are appearing at Nottingham Motorpoint Arena on Feb 15th 2020 I think I'll...... Be in washing my hair that night 😉

Oh God those lyrics though! "What rhymes with bass?" "Space?" "Yeah, that'll do. Let's shoehorn that in." My brain is trying to remove itself from my ears.

With the Effects you can do all the adjustments with your feet whilst playing, which i really like.

You're using a shared folder in Dropbox, so anything the owner copies into it gets copied to your Dropbox too. If your drummer just sends a link to the folder you can choose which individual files you want, and can download them or copy to your Dropbox selectively, and delete them when you want.

Yup, the Assassin will be all over this like a tramp on a 2nd hand kebab

She’ll understand

Congrats mate 👍🏻👍🏻if you need a subject to test on, pick me. I have loads of gear woes, mainly related to not being able to finance everything I want!! 😂

She messaged me about my BB’s - thought she meant my Yamahas not my tumescent gonads. oh well.

She started liking my comments...thought to myself “yur, still got it...after all these years” 🙄😂

💪🤘👍😎😊

Personally I wouldn't bother with the splitter if the speakers have dual inputs. It's just introducing something you don't need and could go faulty. 1 lead from Amp to Cab1, then a lead from Cab1 to Cab2.

They’re completely different instruments in terms of tone, with the BB435 having a P/J layout vs the JJ of the Sire. I have the 435, and will say that after a fret level and dress it’s one of the best necks I’ve played for anything remotely close to the money.

I always use a strap as it is just more comfortable when sitting. Each of my basses has its own strap and I don't change the length when going from standing to sitting. My preferences are comfort strapps - I use the XXL ones on my thunderbirds, and decent suede ones (Levys or similar) colour matched to the body for most of the others.

My entire rig (replace the Fishman with a HX Stomp though), I’d never go back to amp/cab now...