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Thought I would share my latest new bass day, it’s a bit late as I actually picked this up in late November ... but it’s taken me a while to get used to it... my first ever five string a Lakland 55-94 classic from 1999 I think in candy apple red you know when Facebook shows you adverts for basses and you see one that’s at a great price which get snapped up straight away... well then imagine it’s still there three weeks later, and in the next village from where you work... so you explain you probably aren’t interested but can you try it please... and it’s pretty well played and beat up, but it’s as light as a four string, and the neck is just a natural feel and effortless, even with that extra string ... ... and later that week the fella comes over and money is exchanged ... new strings and knobs come from Lakland in the US (hence newer style knobs) and I practice with it and gig it once so far. Mentally harder to play 5 compared to 4 ... but fun oh it can kinda sound like a jazz, or it can kinda sound like a musicman, or it’s own sound with both. The preamp is very very coloured, I need to test out the different mid options and the whole thing is kinda on the darker end of the spectrum... sounds a bit rubbish actually, till you hear it in the mix and it just *fits* perfectly so learning curvd having a fiver, but lots of fun!

I had an old Maya bass which I was doing up before I realised the truss rod was stuck, rendering the neck pretty much useless. Said bass is now in many, many pieces in my basement and I decided to use it to make some templates for bass building. However, if I can't build a neck then any hopes of building full basses are out the window (although I suppose I could do bodies?), so I decided to take the plunge and try it out. I ordered a maple neck blank and a pack of 5 panga panga boards and got to work. I also ordered a neck template which had a 62mm heel width as I think my Maya bass was 60mm which is non standard. I found a centre line on both the template and the blank and drew an outline before busting out the jigsaw and doing a rough cut as close to the line as I could freehand. Looks pretty good if I do say so myself (which I do). I then left it for a couple of days to rest. I have no idea how much truth is in it, but I saw a Paul Reed Smith documentary on Youtube where they said they take a month to build necks, taking a little material off at a time and then leaving it to settle so by the time it's done, the wood has moved as much as it's going to, leaving the neck super stable. I'm doing it for this reason, and because I'm pretty lazy. Once two days had passed, I secured the template to the blank again, using double sided tape to add friction to prevent slipping and C clamps to fix it to my workmate. I was going to use my new, big Von Haus router but the bit I wanted to use was a 1/4 inch shank and the collet installed on the router was 1/2 inch. I could have swapped them around but hadn't used the router before and didn't know how involved a job that was. I decided to plough on with my Katsu palm router and see how I got on. I used a top guide router bit, and using the template as the initial guide took off a little material each pass before lowering the bit and repeating. The palm router didn't drop enough to the the whole neck, but I had a bottom guide bit so once I'd gone as far as I could, I removed the template, flipped the blank upside down and used the already routed sections as a guide for the last 1/2 inch or so. I also watched another woodworking video the day before I did this work that said to use a low speed when routing maple to prevent burning, so I settled on the 2 setting on my router (no idea of the rpm but the lowest setting is 10,000rpm and this is the next one up). It seemed to work anyway, there was neglible scorch marks and it still cut great. Note the slight singing on the template. I'm not convinced it'll last long, so I might use that template to make another template out of hardwood ply or some 18m MDF I have lying around. Anyway, cut done! A little sanding and then leave the blank to rest again both to settle, and to order a truss rod and wait for it to arrive. I also decided to carry on with the neck template from the Maya neck so I could, if I wanted to, make 60mm necks. People with older Japanese copy basses and anyone wanting to make a Fenderbird with a bolt on neck would find a 60mm heel neck useful so I'd rather have it and never need it that not bother. I ran into a slight problem in that the headstock on the Maya is both huge, and not aligned in the same was as the Fender ones. I'd already done a rough cut but the alignment issue meant that I wasn't able to just substitute the Fender template onto the Maya one as there was overhang on the top edge. I could either start again, or use the Maya template for the fretboard area of any future necks before swapping it out to the Fender one for the headstock. That was a problem for future Gareth to deal with though. I've done enough for him.

and there's this fella

@GarethFlatlands donated panga panga, David Dyke sourced maple neck and Tom's African drumwood body...doesn't get much better than this for complimentary colour tones :

I was going to go green, but decided on a crazy orange! I will probably sand back a little. Just got to make a neck now.

So it finally happened, I had enough of carting my Marshall VBA 400 and matching 8x10 around the country and my band wanted to start using IEM. I got so fed up of lugging the big rig to venues only to have it chastised on stage because it had so much power and the room just didn't need it. That and I have been wearing ear plugs for years and just got fed up of not being able to hear my band properly I decided it was time for a change. After a few months of using IEM with my nice Audio Technica M3 system with some KZ ZS10 headphones (which are incredible) I was so happy to hear the band again and not to have ringing ears (even with ear plugs, the sound pressure levels we were omitting were hurting my dodgy ears) it was time to change the rig. I still needed a rig as I tried rehearsals and it felt too sterile without the feel of an amp in there and not all shows can be done without one and need some stage support. I knew I wanted to go to two 2x10s as I had run that before and really liked having the choice of how many cabs I need to take to a gig. The VBA only runs at 4 or 2 ohms so kind of limits what I can do with it. The day I decided I wanted to do this, I found up for grabs on here two Mesa PH210's at a steal of a price. I sorted the deal with the great guy who is Piers Williamson and picked them up a week or so ago. The rig sounded amazing with the Marshall but the amp overhung the sides of the cabs which just cannot happen 😂😂😂. I had kept an eye on the Ashdown HOD Geezer Butler signature head as I tried one at the guitar show in Birmingham when they came out and loved it. Found that PMT were doing 0% finance over two years and bought the thing straight away It's now safe to say I have an absolute killer rig that has so much power and clarity and also nice and easy to maul around as none of it is heavy. I am proper happy with how it all sounds and love it. I just need to find a rack to put it in and able to put a 2u drawer for my pedals in there as well and I will be sorted. Love it!!

"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"

Yes - will do I really love this little amp - the tone is amazing for such a baby beastie! So solidly built & pretty! Hope I can fix it. Promethean Says "Hi"

If you try this or a screw extractor, then before you start, hold the tip of a hot soldering iron against the stub for a minute first. It will make the screw expand and when it cools down again it will be much looser than it is at the moment. But I agree with @ezbass , moving the button up to a centimeter will make no difference to the balance. If you do this, go up from the present position (towards the left in your photo)

Looks like the two Thunderbirds are high fiving themselves.

This one isn't new to many in here, I suspect. I don't think there are many Jaydees with a thumb rest and i'm sure this was once sold in here. I had one new in 1987 and always had a hankering to get one again so finding this one locally at a price i could handle suited me fine. They're not for everyone, but i like it.

So, I recently advertised my Ampeg PF-50/115 Flip-Top for sale, collection only from Canterbury as I no longer trust couriers following a few rather annoying incidents. As it turns out a lovely gentleman named Jeff (aka ToneFree) from the suburb of Canterbury known as Aberdeen indicated that he had his heart set on it if we could make it work. So here's asking whether anyone can help out with a rather long distance relay. If you can, please drop me or Jeff a PM or post below. If the cab makes if from here to Aberdeen in less than one month courtesy the BC community I'm going to make a £100 donation to Barrie/Molan's charity here

Can't seem to find it anywhere. Its portrayed with the likes of Brand X, Soft Machine Jazz-Rock Fusion which i was into quite a bit in late 70's / early 80's. Reminds me a lot of Camel with Richard Sinclair era. Now on my Youtube favs Dave

CAAAARLL!!

I've left instructions with the cat. If someone called Mr Wilson gives you any bad news, that's him.

R&B. Precision. Flats. Ampeg

So that's a real place? (just askin').

It's patchy. Mostly its only in the urban centres, the rest is a bit of a desert - hey, music is where people are. Norwich in particular has a number of great venues. The Reindeer especially seems to have music almost every night, the Walnut Shades is another, and there a handful of others. The regional standard is quite high. The Dereham Blues Fest features A/B list national acts and lot of pretty good local bands. The same people (Stewart and Doreen Aitkin) are behind the very good Norfolk Blues Society jams at the aforementioned Walnuts Shades. Out in the sticks there's not a lot. An exception is the Burston Crown, which attracts high quality acts from Norwich, Cambridge and even London. Which is odd because its bleeding miles from anywhere. One of the best blues acts in the country, Charlie Harper, plays there if he's in the mood. There is a jazz club of quality in Norwich, and a great funk jam at the Reindeer. I have less knowledge of further west and east. Being stuck behind a tractor may be taken more than one way, as you will find if you take your news from the sometimes quite funny spoof news magazine, the Suffolk Gazette. The usual greeting is a high six.

Could you get your next-of-kin to do it, I don't believe in ghosts 😉 Really enjoying this so far, its going to look fantastic!!

I’m happy to do a stint - am in Herts so if anyone can get it to either Scratchwood services or J8 on M1 I can take over and get it as far as Northampton services (J15a on M1).

I am sure a grownup will be along shortly. In the interim, I have also pursued this dream in the past, only to be told variations on : "It cannot be done. Additionally, it is pointless because even if your amp doubled it's wattage output going from 8 ohms to 4 ohms it would only get you an increase of +3db." Never quite got that but there you go. PS love the colour and cuteness of these little guys. You just want to pinch their chubby little cheeks.

Well, that's nowt! You don't know you were born. I could only dream of using string... I used to use barbed wire, and were grateful... ...played a 25 hour straight gig - collar bone exposed & pouring blood by the end, thanked & paid the promoter for the privilege!

Back in the old days I used to use string 😝

The black stealth bass arrived. I opened the case, immediately took this photo, and thought to myself, "It's almost too pretty to play. What if it gets hurt? Could I gig this? Yeah... definitely." It is also a superb sounding instrument.

Maybe I need to get in before March 6th...hmmm. Actually, we're doing OK. Despite having a case of the virus over the road from us, we're safe. Been watching the western media stir up levels of hysteria on social media. Not normally very entertaining but I've finished changing all the strings on my guitars now. Wonderful man. Would love to be sandwiched between him and Lee Sklar at a pub table listening to them talk about Jaco.

Ay caramba, got to page 6 and no mention of this geezer .

@Jakester 's suggestion is still the most sensible suggestion. It's a pretty strap - I don't want to turn it into a 'Frankenstein's Monster'!

I’ll be honest, that didn’t go as well as I’d hoped...

Well, that was an anticlimax...

Close, but no cigar..... wrong band. Broken Wings was by Mr Mister - singing bassist was the fantastic Richard Page. Peter Cetera was never in Mr Mister, he was a solo artist after some 20+ years singing/playing bass in Chicago.

This my fave kxm one dUg has done solo projects and other things like poundhound, supershine, recently released a Jimi Hendrix covers album and toured in stateside Kings X should have a record out hopefully this year after mixing and mastering and he still does stuff with Grinder Blues

You allow other band members to touch the PA?

You will have to make a rather severe compromise there I'm afraid. Decent 1590A envelope filters are very thin on the ground.

Excellent , I am sure everyone approaches things differently , but if you struggle to get inspiration for the second half , copy and paste the first , call it 2 verses, put your lyrics over it and you are done

I experienced something like this years back, a well known retailer said they would accept an instrument in px but wouldn’t offer any guidance as to how much they’d offer. So I said that I was going to be driving 90 miles to them, and that if when I got there they offered me half it’s market value I would hit the guy over the head with it, as such would they recommend I get in my car and make the drive. I was advised to stay at home.

My mate Jerry. This is his band Red, back in the 80's. Keyboardist at rehearsals was ex Tom Robinson member Mark Ambler, though he never made it on the album. He was bit of a prat So, i used to go to rehearsals for this album with Jerry, and gitwrist Dennis, because we shared a huge house with more musos at the time, in Oxford. I loved his playing so much i was influenced by him a lot to take up the bass, even though i was a drummer at the time. Jerry played fretted and fretless Rick 4001's at the time, so i assume the bass on this album was one of his Ricks The whole album is fabulous, though an aquired taste. Not for everyone, but loved it and still have it on vinyl, but would really like it transferred at some point

Nice setup, Jakester. I keep thinking it can't be that hard to do a feedback destroyer in software for the X-Airs. I wonder why there isn't one, especially as I'd hazard a guess that most X-Airs are used by bands running their own sound, often from the stage.

On second thoughts, i’d steer clear of that website. Call me paranoid but none of the big online stores seem to have it yet, so I’d question how they do. They have a bad rating on Trustpilot. Ah, not based in the UK, or stock not in the UK. 3 days delivery.

FFS, even if I could make it over I would be slapped in quarantine for 2 weeks.

Yep i did I mentioned him last, but he is first on my list

One of them, yes. It's in generally decent condition for such an age, all told. Toby though, he can work wonders. This is a bass he's worked on before and after a refinish. Including the laminate stripes, which are part of the finish. The same bass. I'm very drawn to having this done. Yes, it's a very distinctive colour scheme, but that's fine with me.

I see that she has mastered the right hand technique of “cat-paw strumming"

One has to be old to remember this shizzle, but before The Robin Trower band kicked off, Dewar was bassing for LULU , ( old folk here will remember her ) and also Stone The Crows ( again...old folk will remember them ) Trower himself was the guitarist in Procol Harem for a while ( old folk will remember them ) James sadly died at the silly age of 59 in 2002 of a stroke after years of disability resulting from a rare medical condition

The almighty Lemmy, of course. No need for a picture. If you don't know him, you know nothing about bass. Period.