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BF defines things more accurately than other manufacturers. For instance, using a range of suitability with respect to amp power, as opposed to a finite figure, is neither new nor unique. The hi-fi speaker industry has been doing that for as long as I can remember, which is probably longer than the average player here has been alive. I don't see anything Alex saying as being out of line. The only problem is that for the most part he's the only one saying it. What people should asking isn't why BF offers the information that they do, but why the rest of the lot don't.

Rumour has it that Gibson have backed out of suing Guild and Gretsch for their use of tha capital letter G. Instead their lawyers have filed a suit against Nestlé, quoting Golden Grahams., As these can be more easily be confused with a gold top Les Paul.

COMING SOON TOIce Road Truckers: Wales

Received this '78 yesterday. I've owned a 2006 4003 once, but this one plays way better with it's thinner neck. Sounds great too with enough meat on the bridge pickup, so probably the feared .47 cap has been removed earlier. The bass has a cream colored truss rod cover. It looks original to me, but haven't seen this before.

Ref @SpondonBassed 's query, the fret tang nibbler/nipper is like a mini punch tool. The fretwire slots into the shaped die: Firm squeeze and your tang is well and truly nibbled (now then, John! Keep it clean! ) Cut in the middle and you have a fret where the tang won't end up as the irritating sharp bit as the neck and fretboard progressively settle down after assembly and finishing: And that gives a sneak preview of the inserts I've just fitted to the neck: I normally use M4 (4mm) machine screws but for this one, because I want maximum clamping on the unknown timber neck pocket floor, I'm using M5 screws: When I tidy up the body carve, I will make the pocket run parallel with the curve of the plate - it will take very little off the area of the pocket but will make it look like it was always meant to be attached like that So I'm pretty sure I can fit the trussrod and glue the fretboard... ...and it's tipping it down so no chance of any useful outdoor domestic stuff just at the moment

It's sad that the average bassist can't evaluate cabinets by comparing their manufacturer's specs. It should be possible, but it isn't. That's because the manufacturers don't provide specs in a usable format. There are standards for power handling, but hardly anyone quotes them. It makes more business sense to exaggerate. So when Barefaced say their cab is 600W rms or 800W rms depending on which way the wind's blowing, how does that compare with the 600W cabs from, say, Vanderkley? Well, Vanderkley's power ratings are to AES spec, which may not be perfect for our purposes, but at least it's a standard. So I can compare the (thermal) power handling of a Vanderkley cab with any other cab that uses the AES standard. Which is how it should be. Another example of a manufacturer who has tried hard to provide meaningful specs is Mesa Boogie. Although they don't actually say so, Mesa also use the AES spec for power handling. And although they don't provide frequency response curves, their low frequency extension figures are informative. In the PA world, most good vendors supply detailed specifications about their products which, by and large, are accurate and useful. That's because an important section of their target market are professionals who know whether the manufacturer is telling the truth. So the manufacturers, on the whole, don't lie because doing so harms their reputation. This is why Behringer, for example, has such a poor reputation in the professional sound reinforcement world. So, to get back to the OP's question. Why would a supposedly 500W driver morph into a 600W driver when you put it into a cabinet and into an 800W driver when you add a tweeter? Fair question. To find out, you need to ask another question: what standard are they applying to their specs? If they (or anyone else) don't quote a recognised standard or specify their measurement process, their figures are meaningless, i.e. they're making it up.

Bass playing is not a competitive sport. Our job of supporting the song and acting as the glue betwen the rhythm & harmony of the song far outweighs the need to play flashy stuff that draws attention to the bass, and away from the lead voice or instrument.

Usually find P’s a bit boring....but I think this is lovely. And there’s a Jazz version..

So finally got the bass back from being wrapped. I’m sure it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but I am a Batman Fanboy. It was wrapped by a company in Oxford called Vinyl Revolution and I can honestly say they were an absolute pleasure to deal with. They have wrapped the pickguard to match the image but also wrapped the same image underneath in case I ever want to change the pickguard for a clear one. I supplied the image(found on the internet.) They did the rest. Cost £115 + VAT. It’s obviously cheaper if they just supply the wrap and you do it yourself. I think that was £30 + VAT to produce a wrap in an image you supplied but I’m not that patient or handy to fit myself lol.

And they are great.

Saw an awesome bass on a Lee Ritenour live video. Tracked down the bass player as Hadrien Feraud, and then the bass as a Mayones Jabba Hadrien Feraud 5. Sure would like one of these! I'm hoping to make a bass later this year, it may well look like this ... https://mayones.com/page/jabba-hadrien-feraud-5/

proper update

A nice tune here from the Gladiators from around 1976, which I’m not 100% sure but I believe Clinton fearon played bass on , sweet Bassline, And here’s Clinton playing one of my favourite tunes,

Aye, RB. Imagine this: Girl, you really got me goin', you got me so I don't know what I'm doin'. Fill from Car Wash Yeah, you really got me now, you got me so I can't sleep at night. ... Fill from Car Wash! Etc 👍

The answer is that chances are you'll never run that 800w amp at more than -3dB from maximum, and that puts you at 400w. A more likely -10dB puts you at 80w. What engineers consider is voltage swing. Watts don't cause a voice coil and cone to vibrate, volts do. An amp's current limit determines how low an impedance load it can drive. That just proves that they're not experts. Eminence builds OEM drivers to spec with off the shelf parts. It's like a Chinese restaurant menu. Choose a frame and motor from column A, a voice coil from Column B, a cone from Column C, a dust cover from Column D, and so forth. With the number of parts at their disposal the number of possible permutations is almost endless. The minimum number of drivers you must order to get your own OEM is fifty.

Probably why mine's pretending he's never heard of it!! 😂

We also do a mean version of this , the trick is to have a drummer who is confident enough to get the fills right 😉

I think you're all being very harsh on these guys. I too would want to keep it all below the radar if I was re-forming S Club 7.

Totally agree

I had vast experience but had nothing going on so resorted to whoring myself out on line it can happen. Just give it a go, might be fun.

What a cool setup! I’ve always loved the PJB stuff and will own another briefcase one day soon. Hope you don’t mind me saying but that photo has a whiff of Spinal Taps Stonehenge about it 😂

Took it to band practice tonight. Genuinely stunned how good this thing is! I didn’t expect it to sound so much better than my other basses. much more full low end without any boominess. wish I’d took the plunge sooner!

Feeling a tad chuffed with myself tonight so I thought I'd post on here (because my wife doesn't really care). I got a call from a guitarist I knew yesterday asking me if I'd stand in as bassist at a jazz jam night he was going to this evening. I've never really played Jazz in a band setting before, though I've been listening to a lot of contempory stuff lately so I thought why not. This is very much out of character for me, I'm normally pretty introverted - shy and reserved and dont do anything unless I'm well prepared / rehearsed. No idea why I agreed to this. Anyway, already feeling way out of my comfort zone I rock up tonight and get informed by aforementioned guitarist these guys used to be the house band for a local Jazz club. Anxiety levels shoot through the roof, here am I this imposter who's been playing for just 4 or 5 years or so in low key rock cover bands now having to hold my own with these guys at 24 hours notice and no practice time. I set up and they throw me a book of what must have been 100+ numbered chord charts and started calling out numbers. And that was it, we were playing, no prep and no song played twice. 2.5 hours later we finish up, I lost track of how many tuned we actually played but I was exhausted. I've not had to work that hard in a long time!! I had to keep things really simple just sticking to roots or basic arpeggios. If I tried anything more complex I'd lose myself on the charts but I survived it and it was an amazing experience. The guys were a really lovely bunch, really warm and welcoming and no judgement on my playing and numerous mistakes. The drummer even commented on how much he liked my tone :).

Well...now wearing 40-100 d’addario. wonderful thing. And I’m back up to 2 BB’s. 1600 next.

Most of those who write the ad copy and so forth don't explain it because they don't know what it means themselves. The larger the company the more likely that is, as the engineering and marketing departments tend to not be in the same building, if even the same country. If you've read anything Alex posted here in years past it's obvious that what's in his literature he either wrote or approved, so with BF you're getting it from the horse's mouth, as opposed to the other end.

Send for the immodium! Ricky's got the pentatonic runs!

That would explain the 'Gibson' style spacing...

Montezuma Brown. i guess it has the elongated heel at the headstock end too. I've got a push-pull pot on mine so I can bypass the .0047 series cap, like they do on the 4003. I've no idea what those screws are for - it certainly wasn't the stock Ric pickup surround and it doesn't look like where they'd be for a 50s style pickguard.

My jazzcapades continue too. I would imagine I'm just a few stages ahead of you on the journey, since I decided I'd make myself learn how to play walking bass and get some jazz gigs. When I started, I felt like this was a specialist area that was on the other side of a chasm. I realise now that it's doable and that I've pretty much made that leap across. I'm depping on Sunday with another jazz band and we had a rehearsal today. They were old band mates of mine when I played sax in a latin jazz outfit. They were all very happy with my walking bass and other stuff today. Hooray. Stick with it. Dave Marks and Scott Devine have sensible approaches straight off.

There is a parallel universe where Supper's Ready jumps from the end of Lover's Leap, straight to Apocalypse in 9/8. What a wonderful universe that must be.

I think I had my pro experience handed to me on a plate. I had been a secondary school teacher for 5 years, my dad had just been murdered and I was questioning my very existence on the planet. One day at work I had a voicemail from an ex bandmate asking me to join his band, they had just been signed to a major label and needed a bass player. It took me about 1 second to decide I was going to do it, even though I spent a long time trying to talk myself out of it. In the end I did it, it was short lived but it allowed me to experience the music industry - good and bad. I quit my job and lived off the band wage, which was financial suicide (I have only just finished clearing the debt!) but it saved my life.

@Andyjr1515

Does we have any information as to how far apart James Curleigh's nipples were at the time of the photo-shoot?

Current coverband pedalboard. A Strymon R300 is hidding underneath the board, which is a Metro 20👍

Funnily enough @Happy Jack has a double bass, that could be converted into a wheelbarrow 🙃

Our guy (Paul the Drums, as he's known at the SouthEast BassBash) was so keen to nail this that he booked a couple of sessions in a drum booth at Bell Drum Studios (Acton) and just worked on it until he had the whole thing down. It makes a real difference ... playing live, you sound so much more convincing if the drummer is playing it exactly right.

Hey thank you buddy - been a great tour so far and last night was no different. Had a really good sound. Lovely venue. Thanks for your support!

I borrowed one of our PA tops to use a wedge for a gig that had supplied PA. The 712 wasn't enough for me. My gut feeling is that there is quite a gap between the 712 and the 732.

Some people just aren't very good at expressing themselves through the written word. Every new venture carries some element of uncertainty and risk. If you're looking for a band what is there to lose by pursuing this until you find out, one way or the other, for sure? Just my thoughts.

Right, I had the mini-blog sitting in my Wordpress account, almost but not quite ready for publication, for MONTHS! I've finally remembered it/brought it up to speed - and here it is. Much shorter and less detailed than usual, mostly because I was at the bash only for a couple of hours and missed quite a lot of the day, but at least we've got a formal memento.

I drunkenly promised the CEO that we could get a rock band together for the Xmas party. 6 months later the band played said gig and now 3 years later three of us are in the same rock cover band. As for the OP - a lot of amazingly talented musicians out there in YD-land but I'm not worrying about it as it has no impact on me either in a positive or negative way. I turn up every 2-3 weeks at a venue, set up my gear, play a gig to a bunch of people and make them smile then go home after a great night with mates and a few beer tokens in my back pocket...it's enough for me.

Naw, 99% of those are playing over the original. I'm not saying the YTers aren't any good (I'm sure they are), but it's flattering to mix yourself over a track where the original bass player is there playing just under you. Listen to a few famous isolated bass tracks to feel better. 👍

OK - it's not a real Ric...

I've only ever played rock; mostly covers, a few originals. This was a totally different experience. I've been feeling bored with rock music for a while now , this reinforced the feeling that it's not what I want to be playing any more.