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Just bought this from our very own @JPJ. Was delivered to the hotel I'm staying at in Geordie Land. Playing it through my Vox headphone amp and Phil Jones cans, it sounds thunderous. Can't wait to get home tomorrow and fire up my Ashdown ABM 500 and scare the crap out of the neighbours.

Glorious, that is all, I've always felt that P/Js lack a little something, P/Ps are clearly where it's at. And wow, Fender Custom Shop build quality in every respect.

Another night of little sleep.....however at around 3am I had what to me is a revelation, an epiphany (appropriate) I'd been thinking about what/how I would work things today as I'll probably be stuck waiting somewhere for a tradesman to come and do something. I was lamenting having to choose which instrument to lug around with me when it came to me, I have 4 instruments in one 1 strings 3456 are tuned EADG - Bass 2 strings 1234 are tuned DGBE - Baritone Uke 3 capo at 5th fret strings 1234 are GCEA - Tenor/Concert/Soprano Uke 4 or I could just leave it as it is - Guitar I know its comes under the heading of the Bleedin' obvious, for my next move I may even stop breathing through my mouth and talking out of my @rse Just thought I'd share 🙄

Yeah Al you've got the wrong end of the stick a bit. I don't think I quite got across my point. It's like this, punters are used to significantly better produced music than they were even 15 years ago. They expect that level of sophistication in order to consider a band really good. They couldn't really tell you this on the whole, I'm not suggesting they are all secretly qualified to critique a live mix on a technical level. But it comes down to getting the emotional connection between you as a performer and your audience. Big tours have unbelievable mix capabilities live now. Small gigs down the pub actually do too. If you can break out of the "I am bassist, simple pawn in game of life" mentality, and embrace an attitude that includes, "We can, for reasonable outlay of money and some fairly significant outlay in time and learning get within a hair's breadth of that quality of output". Then for a frankly tiny outlay compared to 20 years ago you can transform you bands mixes live, and reach more punters. A tiny part of which is learning how to use compression in s live mix properly...

This is wrong. The performance royalties from being played on even local radio are quite substantial. My one quarter split of a song played on BBC Radio Nottingham was a couple of pounds for each play. On 6 Music it was considerably more. Also don't forget if your band is regularly playing live you can get performance royalties from this too. Last time I looked the PRS pubs and clubs rate was £6.00 split between all the songs performed live at a gig. That might not sound like much, but bear in mind that most small bands don't bother to report live performances, so there is a good chance that that whole £6 will go to the songwriters in your band each time you play. Also for bigger gigs and festivals the rate is higher. If you are out gigging regularly it soon adds up. My last band funded all our studio time (3 EPs and a full-length album - approximately 15 days in total) from our PRS royalties, that's roughly one gig a week over 5 years, plus radio play. From 40 years of recording and releasing independent music I now earn a couple of hundred pounds a year from the PRS. It may only be a few pence here and there for each song, but I'm still getting royalties from recordings made and released in the 80s and 90s as well as those I'm making with my current band.

Join the PRS. You'll also be able to collect performance royalties on your songs when you play them live as well as when they get played on the radio or television. A lot of the copyright information supplied by Bandcamp and other on-line music services such as aggregators is aimed at musicians and bands in the US where the mechanism for collecting performance royalties is somewhat different to that in the UK and Europe. Don't sign up for any service on-line that purports to collect your performance royalties for you. If you are a PRS member you won't need it. In the UK you don't need a publisher. All performance royalties go to yourself (and you co-writers) unless you have specifically assigned a proportion to a publisher. In the US it is somewhat different as a lot of collection agencies will assume that you have a publisher and hold back the publisher's share. You can get around this by setting up your own publishing company and assigning them a proportion of the performance royalties. However it is only cost effective if one of your songs is picked up to be used on a US film or TV show.

Ok, this fear of shipping is totally legitimate, but if you do it right, I don't see the point. Seems to most people that the stuff you buy in stores appear the Star Trek way there... First of all, you'll have to remove all the tubes and put them in plastic bubbles wrapping before putting them in a box that you'll put back in the amp itself as there's enough room. Then buy some 2 to 3 centimeters thick polystyrene panels and cut them to make a made to measure polystyrene box that will exactly fit your (amp) head, you can wrap it with adhesive tape to be sure it won't disassemble, but that's a bit tricky to do. After that you can cut to measure some thick cardboard to make a real fit for it box. You can put this box in another box with some polystyrene panels again (if you're a bit paranoid) and then ship it using, for instance EuroSender (10% discount for BC members) WITH THE MANDATORY INSURANCE for such things. Done it hundreds, if not thousands, of time with only two issues in more than 30 years : one (organised by the recipient himself) theft and one serious damage to an instrument totally covered by the insurance as, even with the best package in the world, something dropped from the height of plane will not survive the ground impact...

Not handy at the moment, but I'll see if I can get something together, might take a little while. The trouble is, what is 'decently compressed', its different for every player, in context with the kit they are using and the track they are playing on. Obviously there is no right or wrong answer, its what works in that context to achieve the desired result. And note that the term 'desired result' may be different based upon the perception of the person listening/mixing too. Furthermore its really difficult to graphically represent well, simply because the changes can be over a few milliseconds to get an appreciable psycho-acoustic difference within a mix, that is to say uncovering a previously masked part of a bass sound (or a percussion sound) that was up until then masked by another sound, but the note in question may be half a second long. That makes for an enormously large picture, with an incredibly small change. Or you could be crushing the crap out of the whole thing a la Sledgehammer, or you could be doing something all the time to mirror the way a tube amp can tamp down level all the time a little. Al, if you really want to learn and understand about compression, stop playing bass for a mo, start learning to mix. That is where compression is meaningful, and only trying to learn compression as it might apply to bass is like learning to drive a car only understanding the concepts of going faster, and turning left, on a bicycle... Its a ridiculously nuanced thing, mixing, and the trick is to get everything to be emotive as a whole. This isn't some kitsch hippy crap either, a good mix differs from a bad mix in its ability to stir the listener. Its not about the listener being able to hear that you held a transient on a bass down to allow the transient of the kick drum to always be louder effectively tightening up the rhythm section. But doing that may be the difference between a more or less emotive mix. A favourite piece of wisdom for me is that a great mix cannot make a crap song good, but a crap mix can make a great song stink. There are no number of pictures of waveforms and envelopes of bass notes compressed verses uncompressed that can adequately describe the difference between a good use of compression and a bad one. It doesn't work like that.

Echo a lot of the comments already made. Been playing bass in worship for 30+ years in a number of contexts and situations (tho not for the last 9 months for a number of health and family reasons). From pop-up churches in school halls to conference centres. My current church has its own building now but for the previous 15 years hired rooms at Sandown Park every Sunday. Our general format is a small rock band - drums, bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar and sometimes keys. Lucky that although none of us are pros (and range in age from 16 to 60ish) we manage to play to a pretty good standard. We’re also fortunate that all our keys players know how to stay away from the bass register! Yay! It’s great fun playing in the band as well as really rewarding. Looking forward to getting back to it this month! Here’s a few photos of the band... general typical Sunday set up... An acoustic evening we did... Our Pentecost service celebrating the various nationalities in the church... Me rockin’ the bass...

Zombie threads, it seems, often have trouble coming to life again, but this one has kicked off its shoes and gone for a paddle in the crazy sea. I love it!

I already had a blue 'Stang so I got another one . I call it "Pinkie".

So obviously the whole thing was videoed and will be available on SBL Academy at some point. It was a really interesting session - Hadrien was at times trying to overcome the language barrier for technical musical terminology...but when he played, it all became clear. Great player, very jaco-esque phrasing and sound, but his technique looks like he's playing classical guitar - barre in positions, moving chords up the neck, right hand positioning.... Anyway, although we'd been told not to take basses, because only Hadrien would be playing, just before the start, Scott Devine asked if anyone had a bass in their car? SOOOO tempted to reply "Yes....but my car's in Essex!" but on reflection, glad I didn't. 🤔 Eventually, someone rustled up a 5-string Jazz which was deemed OK, and applicable for the guy with the tinselled dreadlocks who came in and sat at the back. 'Cos it was Thundercat. Of course it was. So they jammed over a few tunes, and even though the amp started screwing up, what they played (and in TC's case, sang) sounded very good indeed. Tried to get some video, but wanted to see it happen rather than just watch in on a screen, so not much of any use. Will comb through what I have and add it later if it's any good.

Can you just run (part of) this by me again. I play in a rockabilly band where we currently perform just two originals written by the band leader. We play them at every gig, and we play mainly pubs. Were we to register the band leader for PRS, are you saying that he could or at least might be able to 'claim' back £6.00 after each live gig? This sounds dangerously like money for nothing (and your kicks for free).

Tuffcab is like Artex for the bass playing fraternity.

She's finished. 500k logarithmic pots have finally arrived. All soldered together, hands trembling with excitement...and she sounds absolutely fantastic!

My three: my 1989 US Standard is the only bass I would never part with; it's been with me too long and I know how every single knock and bump got there. It's been modded somewhat with a new bridge, change of pickguard, it's been active and passive at different stages and had Sims LED's fitted on the side of the fretboard. It's also one of the best sounding P Basses I've ever played strung with roundwounds. Next is my Tony Franklin Fretless P Bass currently strung with roundwounds it's a stunning Bass and plays beautifully. Finally is my recently acquired Fender American Original 60's P Bass. These are something else and easily as good as any Fender Custom Shops I've played or owned. It's currently strung with an old set of TI Flats and is absolutely sublime.

That's a definite possibility

Good call, and the staff themselves could benefit by doing set-ups out of hours for customers, so shop wins by better sales, customers win by getting well set up instruments, staff learn skills that can earn them out of hours cash.

Hi mate, Bought a mint green ibanez Talman and an ampeg Ba108 amp! I'll check them out on YouTube 🤙🏻

Anyone taking their holiday in Croatia this year? Anyone with a massive suitcase and nothing in it?

Set up is subjective, absolutely agree. However, there is a 'rough set up' that I believe would accommodate a very large proportion of people to at least give them an opportunity to play the bass without it feeling awful. We all like different things, but the majority out there prefer a low/medium low action with no fret buzz and no pitching strings, something that doesn't actually put the bass out of tune when you press down on the string in the same way a bend does. The last bass I bought from a shop was a Dean Edge, some time in the 17th century. No idea what the strings were! If I had strings I absolutely lived by, then yes, I'd probably change them too, but that doesn't mean I'd be happy buying a bass that was so poorly 'set up' I couldn't tell it from a 2x4 with an elastic band wrapped around it. Your ideal set up sounds quite far from what the average person would prefer, so for you a 'general store set up' may make a bass as bad for you as these basses were for me, but we're talking in a general manner, not a super bespoke 'exactly what I personally want' manner. If someone who has never played bass before fancied buying a really nice bass to start out with (it happens!) they'd most likely be out right off by the set up that Ibanez had. Even if they offered a set up upon purchase, you have no real gauge to judge the bass properly with how it was when I played it. A basic general set up should be mandatory before they hang a bass/guitar on the wall.

Preferences aside, anyone who works in a music shop with any sort of interest in their job who actually played either of the basses I was handed should have spotted a badly set up instrument immediately.

The Scott Devine Academy has organised a Clinic with Hadrien Feraud for next week. They ran a comp for 20 lucky academy members to be amongst the attendees. Yesterday morning, I had an e-mail telling me that I was amongst that number. What a great way to start my 2020!!

I love a driftwood shipwreck!

Honestly stop worrying about impedance and speaker sizes, probably to least important things to worry about. Find a speaker you like the sound of first. Sound comes first second and third. If is isn't loud enough then buy a second identical speaker to get more of what you like. If you play small and medium sized venues then you only need to be as loud as the drummer and the PA will do the heavy lifting if you play bigger venues on occasions. Size isn't important If you are starting from scratch then a 2x10 or a 1x15 will be loud enough for most gigs but a good, high efficiency 12 will just about get there too. Anything bigger (4x10, 2x12) will be well capable but you don't want capable you want a good sound that suits your playing, and only you can judge that. So have some fun and start trying stuff, you wouldn't buy a car without a test drive.

I forgot how funky this bassline is

Although let's not forget that a £1400 bass these days (let's say a US Fender) isn't miles away from what a £700 bass (let's say a US Fender) was a few years ago...as for a £3400 Rickenbacker 4003, if it's any different in terms of actual quality (leaving aside the fact that I got a dog) from the £1600 Rickenbacker 4003 I bought 5 years ago, I'd be very surprised... Completely agree about the bottom end, though: there are very few honkers sub-£500: very inexpensive and relatively high quality Chinese and Indonesian production has meant the days of the really really ropey plywood 'starter' instrument have pretty much gone...

If it helps anyone, I pulled the lists of models on the HX and popped them all in a spreadsheet so you can look through and filter on type. http://www.cattytown.me.uk/HelixModels.xlsx P.

I've not stopped yet. End of March.

@Stub Mandrel My pal Rick Wilson restored one of the Tutmarcs. It's in a museum someplace. Might have been around the time he was working for George Gruhn.

Skew basses like Payson and Dingwall demand skew rigs, hence my up and coming setup with two Genzler Bass Array 12-3 SLT (for slant...). I believe they sound as good as they look. Now just three-four weeks wait wait wait... Review will follow. I plan to use them with my Vanderkley Spartan with an Origin Effects Cali76-TX (the big sucker) and the Jule Amps Monique in front.

I'd reiterate the point that no-one's asking for their own perfect nirvana on setup: by the point tastes get that exacting, the skills to set it up that way will probably have been developed. The issue is badly intonated (and there's a universal, despite later adjustments if strings are being changed by the buyer), neglected instruments that haven't had any sort of attention given to them: the G-string choking because the plastic cover had wrinkled up? Strings buzzing so much they were on the point of choking? One of them had a £900 price tag...if shanking £900 out of a punter doesn't justify ten minutes to set the thing up to be generally playable, then the staff/shop aren't doing their job, and won't get my business. Ever bought a secondhand car from a dealer that was filthy? A mini valet takes longer to do than setting up an instrument to be generally playable...

I'm guessing it's under our threshold for selling, which means that it's flagged for being approved by a moderator. It stops people dodging the sub by lowballing

Hiya Si. Short scale bass strings are under less tension than full-scale counterparts, so the strings are more 'floppy' This affects the attack and response. I've got the same Gretsch (Junior Jet 2), and the difference in string tension between this and one of the full-scale basses is very noticeable. As others have said, try lowering the PUPs, or giving it less of 'the beans'! Good luck with your gig! 👍

Hi I use this cab. I have put Trace Elliot 500w, Behringer 400w, Bugera 1k, Eden 650w through it and it sounds magnificent!

My job requires a huge learning curve, even if you have the core skills my employer would look for, you wouldn't be able to use our bespoke systems or have any idea whatsoever on how to achieve what is required, it takes learning and training. Something that you would gain on the job. This shop had a good number of employees rattling around the shop, they are employed by a music shop, they should have at least a basic understanding of how to set up and demonstrate an instrument in order to make a sale. If they don't, then they should absolutely be trained to do so. If the shop hired them and just left them to it then that's their massive downfall, they should train their staff to do the set ups and put them to work doing them. If you were an employer would you rather your staff mill around the store like lost children, or have them do something that actively helps the business and assists with pushing sales?

IMHO, after factory set up, every instrument should be looked at once they have settled wherever they are going to be sold (shop etc). The "final" set up here should be, as FDC suggests a middle ground where the set up is as low as it can be but still allow for no buzzes, rattles and produce a good tone. Everyone then will know the action can go higher to suit them. Conversely, when taking an instrument off the hook whose action is sky high, well, the alarm bells start ringing. Why? well, just one example would be that a much higher action at the bridge could suggest a problem with the finish of the fretwork. Lifting the action higher can hide those poorly installed frets causing rattle like nobody's business. Buyer won't know this until they have got the bass home for a tweak. So, if a bass plays badly off the hook, there's a good chance I will leave it, unless a set up is offered for free. Like FDC says, if I want to buy a new car, there's a difference between just having to move the seat back/ adjust the mirrors, verses the clutch biting point being right at the top of the pedal travel, or the headlights facing the sky.

Finished and set up now. The EMG JAX are fantastic. Combine those with the BQS and there's tons of tone on tap. I am so please with the result. Apart from the satin finish, it feels as nice as my Fender Elite. And sounds better. On to the next build now!