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Chances are that China now has 100,000 cases of coronavirus. The population of China is 1.4 billion. For the arithmetically challenged, that's 1,400,000,000 people. So a full month into the outbreak, one Chinese in every 14,000 has the disease. Looked at another way, out of every 14,000 Chinese there are 13,999 who don't have it. "Yet", I grant you, "Yet". Some more will get it as time goes by, but at the moment the odds are firmly in favour of humanity surviving this. Not all of those 100,000 will die, of course. The Chinese death rate (if we can believe anything their Government says) is a surprisingly high 5%-ish. Estimates for Europe are suggesting that we will see less than 2%, probably 1%. All statistics change over time. That's the nature of things. But if you were to assume, just for the sake of the argument, that one in every 14,000 Brits were to develop the disease, and that 2% of those affected were to die, it doesn't take long to work out that the extra 80 deaths - each an individual tragedy for someone - would represent two weeks' road deaths. You can't sell newspapers, or garner cheap clicks, by publishing this sort of thing. Far better to fire up the panic-stricken auto-headline generator, tell everyone that (1) we're all going to die, (2) it's all the fault of those slitty-eyed b@st@rds in Chinky-land, and (3) that this may affect property prices in the Home Counties.

Dudda, dudda dut, dut, "My Corona".

That's right word puzzle lovers, that's 'new what the f**k have I bought this for bass day'. I saw an old Kay bass listed cheap enough on Facebook just ten minutes away so I went to have a look. I really quite liked the look of it and fancied another little project (like I'm not trying to do enough already) and expected it to be awful. But it looked OK, good frets, reasonable action, all original parts bar the bridge, and when plugged in I was even more surprised, it didn't hum, crackle or buzz and sounded really good, apart from a fairly non existing tone control. We had a chat and it turns out it is a righty, but was converted to lefty and then put back to righty, hence the upside down painting of the hotrod (yeah I don't know why you would either). Anyway it looked and sounded so good that I bought it, it's great in a kitsch, tacky way but I don't know whether to refinish it in a totally different style as per original plan, or try to remove the painting and just restore it. Also if anyone knows from the serial number what year it is that would be interesting, calling @Bassassin 😉 Here's the awful thing in all it's, erm glory? 😂

Just re-visited some old Doobies and realised how much i love the simple but wonderful bass line on that track from Tiran Porter, who was on the 2nd album Toulouse Street and subsequent albums I know the vid isnt live, just the track playing over the top, but Tiran is sporting a T Bird and wondered if that was the bass they recorded Toulouse Street with On a side note, Tom Johnston is one of my all time fave male crooners

Hi folks I prefer fabric or nylon straps on one of my basses but don’t like the buckle you get on adjustable length ones. Call me weird but I also don’t like that part of the strap is doubled where it loops back. I tend to have my strap quite short so this ends up being most of the length. After measuring my preferred length from hole to hole (100cm) I went to Etsy to find someone to make me a fixed length job. A few emails and the next day it’s ready - being posted as we speak (from Ukraine I think) I really like Etsy for this sort of thing. Cheers ped

'Wish I'd got something I could shamelessly cash-in on.

Well have you seen the prices of cocaine and hookers these days?

Overview: Developed during the mid '70s as an evolution of the former 'Super Bassman' and later 'Bassman 100' models, the Bassman 135 was released in 1977 and looked outwardly similar to it's predecessors albeit with a few revisions. The new model claimed more power with less distortion thanks to an ultra-linear output configuration plus extended tonal variations thanks to a new mid control on the 'bass' channel. Allied to the high powered 4-valve 135, a smaller, two-valve, lesser featured model appeared around the same time named the 'Bassman 70'. All models shared the late '60s 'silverface' cosmetics which had a silver control panel, blue printed writing and black skirted knobs. Sometime later, the 70 model was dropped but the 135 continued in production until 1983. There were a few cosmetic variations of the 135 over the years with the early eighties models being modeled on the mid '60s 'blackface' amplifiers. As for the cabinets, there were various models in the 'Bassman' range from compact 2x12" through to very cumbersome 4x12" with a few 1x15" and a couple of 2x15" enclosures. The enclosure discussed here will be the larger 2x15". It is a ported enclosure of 'average' double-fifteen size loaded with JBL 140 series speakers. They are vertically aligned unlike the smaller 2x15 which was usually supplied with the 50 and 70 watt amplifiers where the drivers are diagonally configured. The smaller cab doesn't give the flattest low end response as the box volume is very low whereas the larger cab is much better suited to the T/S spec of the JBL drivers. Most of the cabs of the time were loaded with 'Fender Special Design' drivers which were re-branded Eminence, Oxford, Jensen and Utah although the JBL units were available as a factory upgrade. Matching 135 grill by VTypeV4, on Flickr Features: The front panel is a simple affair with two channels labelled 'Bass' and 'Normal' - each have the same control set comprising of a volume, treble, middle and bass controls and two quarter inch jack inputs. The only difference in channels is a switch on with a 'deep' option for the bass channel and a 'bright' for the normal. On the far right, there's a master volume control and a 'jewel' style indicator lamp. On the rear, it's almost as simple starting with a voltage selector on the left, mains fuse and the mains / standby switches towards the centre of the panel. Next, there's two jack sockets for speaker connection although their labeling isn't quite as straightforward as earlier Fender designs which were just a parallel pair. There's a 'main' speaker connector and an 'ext speaker' both suggesting a minimum 4 ohm load. As I understand it, the 'main' one is a 4 ohm tap, the 'ext' an 8 ohm tap but when the two are used together, the switching jacks put the the connection in series so a single 4 ohm load, a single 8 ohm load or dual 4 ohm loads are correctly matched and even mis-matched 4 and 8 ohm loads are almost matched - it's all a bit complicated but the idea is a good one. The final jack socket is an unbalanced line out which is tapped from the output transformer - very handy for connection to a larger system or for recording - something I've used many times. Lastly, there's two recessed trim pots for setting of the output stage 'tube matching' and 'hum balance'.. The former sets the bias balance between the two pairs of output valves so they all pull the same - it becomes more handy if the valves are mis-matched although it's a nice feature to keep all four inline with each other. The latter of the two adjust the centre operating point of the heater circuit to keep hum to a minimum. 135 number ten by VTypeV4, on Flickr Sound quality: It's a classic Fender - say no more! The amp has a very much has a 'baked in' character with the tone controls merely being variations on a theme. To put it simply, it rather apologetically, sounds how it sounds. Whether it gets used with the Fender cab or any other of the cabs I have, it's vintage character shines through and rather unsurprisingly, it works best with traditional Fender basses too - my Squier Jazz works great. As to exactly what that vintage character is, it's pretty difficult to put into words until you put the sound into a mix at which point words like 'warm', 'fat' and 'it just fits' always seem come about. I do give it a helping hand to get a bit more of 'me' out of the rig by using it with a Yamaha NE-1 and a Boss LMB-3 although most agree, it sounds more like a vintage Fender with them rather than without. I should also mention that I 'jump' the channels together using both in parallel taking tonal benefits from both and generally making the whole thing sound a bit 'fatter' overall. I have used the rig for both live shows and recording sessions and for the most part, it's excelled. I sometimes feel I want to dial some extreme lows out but this is only ever at very high levels when using it live and suppose this compromise is part of it's vintage charm. Also using it live, the claimed 135 watts only go so far (even with the reasonably efficient JBL drivers) so sometimes the cleanliness at volume can be marginal with a noisy stage but having said that, I've never felt like I was under-powered either but as ever - YMMV. Where the rig truly shines is in the studio. I have the recording output connected to a DI box so between this and putting an SM57 on the cab, it's a great sound pretty much every time. When recording at my studio, for most genres, it's my go-to amp - pretty much everyone that has ever plugged into it has admired it's charms. With reference to the cab, the JBL drivers compliment the amp nicely and help to add a degree of 'thickness' to the sound. 140s don't have the efficiency or super bright edge of the famous 130s but they do have a solid low mid character and have much greater displacement capability which I believe add to the warm characteristic of the cab. Unlike a lot of vintage speakers of the time, the JBLs don't tend to fart or bottom out - they retain their composure at all volume levels and even by today's standards are still be considered to be a decent speaker. As a final note, the 135 doesn't outright 'drive' like other amps of similar vintage. Compared to earlier Fender amplifiers of the late fifties and sixties, the Marshall, Hiwatt, Ampeg, Vox ect, the Fender is very clean most of the way through it's volume range only breaking up right at the end of it's volume capability. Even the pre-amp stages of each channel can't really be pushed into overdrive until they're pretty much all the way up and even then, the breakup is harsh and not particularly pleasant sounding. The design engineer, Ed Jahns must have wanted clean and warm with minimal distortion hence the ultra-linear topology even if the claimed 135 watts RMS might have been a little optimistic. 803 Fender 135 b by VTypeV4, on Flickr Build quality and reliability: It's very good overall - I don't feel there's much to complain about. According to the serial number, my amp was built in 1981 so considering it's the best part of 40 years old and still firing on all cylinders, Fender must have done something right in the old Fullerton factory. The tolex / upholstery are well finished, the hardware including the handle still look original, the chassis is thick steel, all components look over-spec - especially the Schumacher mains and output transformers. Even the cloth and metal Fender badge on the front are still original. It has had some replacement caps before I had it plus I treated to new valves a couple of years back - JJ 6L6, ECC803 (long plate '83) and an ECC81. It has never missed a beat, popped a fuse or had any wobbly moments - truly rock solid. Buss bass by VTypeV4, on Flickr Bad bits: Not many other than the usual observations and compromises regarding 'vintage' equipment. To me, these include the fact that it's reasonably heavy (~20 Kg), the weight distribution is poor with the transformers being mounted at one end and centrally. The amp always 'dives' when it's picked up by the central handle. Also, it's not ridiculously loud compared to modern gear so it shouldn't be expected to compete like-for-like with something like an Orange Terror Bass 500 for example. I would expect the modern Bassman 100T and Ashdown CTM100 (about the closest current gear I can think of) will probably out perform the old 135 in terms of power and usable volume although their character is likely different. Lastly, being old it might require a little more maintenance down the road but having said that, I only changed the valves on principle - I still have two of the original US made Fender branded 6L6s . It's an oldie but a goodie! Bassman studio by VTypeV4, on Flickr Conclusion: It might not be for everyone but personally, I'm still very pleased with it 3 years on. It's limited with regards to what it will do and as I said previously, it's character is part and parcel of it. If you're used to valve amplifiers then this might be something slightly different (it's very different to my Trace Elliot V4 which is apparently based on Fender circuit) and if you've only ever plugged into modern SS amps, just try one as you might be surprised. New jj 6L6s 1217 by VTypeV4, on Flickr

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 :).

I will be reviewing this. It’s practically a must.

I’d say that’s not ply , but they have laminated the timber to get the width for the headstock, if it was ply you would see the lines on the curve of the neck .

I'm learning a set for Tuesday. I am. listening to two tunes I'd not heard before. Grace Kelly by Mika and Take your daughter to the slaughter by iron maiden. The first is great fun, a cleverly constructed pop song. They should go far. The second one is not very good at all.

I’d be willing to pay extra for a bass that was guaranteed to have never been touched, let alone played by either Simmons or Sixx. That’s just me though.

Piano strings have an additional feature that used to be commonly available in sets of bass strings. They have no windings over the saddle. This means that it is just the core wire of each string is fixed at the saddle thus leaving the strings a little more free to vibrate. With these you can get close to piano tone with careful adjustment of technique and eq. Combined with multi-scale, you could get even closer to piano tone. Piano wound or Superwound bass strings, as they are sometimes called are not so commonly available now.

Business marketing 101, you don't sell the steak, you sell the sizzle. However, with some due diligence you can tell if the steak is a prime cut of filet or a cheap cut of chuck. The Trickfish ad copy says they use Eminence neo drivers. That narrows down the possibilities to Basslite, Deltalite II or Kappalite frames and motors. They claim 300 peak (which is in itself a red flag) power handling. That narrows it down to Basslites. They won't be off the shelf Basslite 2010, or 2012 , but with a given frame and motor you can only do so much. In many cases the only difference between an off the shelf Eminence and an OEM is that the OEM has spade connectors rather than spring loaded binding posts, and the reason for that is spade connectors are cheaper. All available evidence points to Barefaced twelve inch drivers having a Kappalite frame and motor. That's hugely different from the Basslite.

You’re a sensitive soul

So - the jack. This is one of those areas where Tom and I will be PMing in the background to bounce off the ideas. But the concept is something along these lines: ie, cable round the strap and then in at the back, from the top and at an angle. Could be an actual upside down strat jackplate like above, or it could be a carved piece of timber with that kind of shape - not sure yet. Why not use a strat plate in the normal position? Because the body is so slim, the jack would poke through at the front! Using an actual reversed strat plate, then I would use a conventional jack. If I did a carved solution, then I would probably use a cylinder jack: Anyway - that's the concept. The actual solution will develop anon

S'been done; Skol's on it, big time (I hope and trust...). Watch this space. (Say nowt to Lenny, though, he's going to slam us all with what SH has proposed ... )

Put them on their side???

Here's a video to give you an impression of the sounds of the Brooks Grabbird

With only 25 watts you should consider not trying to get deep lows. In another thread the 30w Ampeg B15 is mentioned, with respect to how one can drive a goodly sized room with it. The answer is that the speaker is high Q, which results in a strong peak in the 80-120Hz region, at the cost of deep lows. If you doubt that is low enough, listen to any Motown recording from the 60s and 70s. That's what you're hearing. The technical term is damping. There's no mystery about it at all, you can model what it does in WinISD and HornResp, and I suspect other programs as well. The parameter you model is Qa, absorption losses. WinISD defaults to a value of 100, which is a bare box. A value of 50 is a with the cabinet lined, 10 is filled, 5 is filled and compressed. The result is seen on the SPL chart, the reason for the result is seen on the impedance chart.

Flavius is a very polite and reliable guy! Only bass players can make such smooth deals like we did today

Think piano as opposed to guitar for string length.

It's a very reasonable question, Si. For many years I was, too, a bit mystified - and put it down to eye-catching claptrap to be honest - until I had the task of building Pete's Piccolo bass: Because that was going to be guitar scale and guitar pitch, how was I going to make it NOT sound like the bottom 4 strings of a guitar. And the problem is usually the G - on a guitar it is often the string where 'smooth bassy' suddenly becomes 'jarry tinny'. And - and yes, I know you can dial a lot of it out at the amp - but I have always thought the same about basses. Might be just me, but through a completely clean and neutral EQ amp, I find that very often the G sounds 'different' to the other three strings. To my ears, it often doesn't have the tone by brain is expecting from a bass. So the simple theory of multiscale - and you have to always remember that the pitch you tune to is unchanged to standard - is as follows: Let's assume that it is like Tom's - 33" for the bottom E and 31" for the G and therefore to compare it with a fixed scale length bass of 32" : - The longer scale length of 33" of the bottom E string means that, to reach standard pitch, you have to tighten the string more than the 32" fixed scale bass. It's the same pitch, but the note will be a little more 'strident' than on the 32" bass, because the string is tighter. - The shorter scale of 31" on the G means that, to reach standard pitch, the string will need to be loosened more than the 32" fixed scale bass. Again, it's the same pitch, but that lower tension will give a warmer sound than the 32" bass next to it. So instead of having a slightly boomy E and slightly jangly G, you have a touch more clarity on the E and a slightly softer G. You can, of course, achieve similar effects by changing string gauges across the range, but that brings its own challenges. And you lose out on the eye-catching claptrap too It worked a treat on Pete's Piccolo - which sounds NOTHING like a guitar and where the G is very much in the same tonal character as the E. And I could do a direct comparison because I had an electric guitar with the same rails pickup at the same average scale length. But it could have been better. The bit I never thought through at the time was the need to also angle the pickup. But I'm not telling Pete, that

Are you using the HX edit software to create your blocks or are you setting them up manually on the unit? Setting up a volume pedal in HX edit was pretty straight forward. I'm using a Moog expression pedal. Step 1. Add the volume block from Volume / Pan menu Step 2. Click Bypass / Controller Assign Step 3. Where it says volume, make sure this says Position. For some reason my software says EXP2 even though I only have a EXP pedal in Interface 1. This goes away after finishing the next step. Step 4. Change Controller to EXP Pedal 1 Step 5. Check Min Position is 0 and Max is 100 Step 6. Click back on Edit, use the pedal and you should see the position value change as you operate the EXP pedal. Step 7. Save

if you really wanted to make good on your investment, trim that bass off that lovely picture and have it properly framed

This is an absolute disgrace. Any fools knows you keep the tumbler at the rear when travelling. This is why he has to sprag half way through to keep on target. In effect he is tracking the machine in reverse. If a track was to snap the tumbler could drive off it and then he'll be stuck with a job to get it back on. F**king amateur. Makes my blood boil

I have no idea what heights my strings are. Assuming the neck is right: I take the action down until all strings are buzzing and then bring each string up until it plays clean, without any buzz pop or clank, along the whole neck.

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

Hello! I've been playing bass since 1988 and never had a lesson. My recent journey into learning jazz standards made me look to getting some professional tutoring on walking basslines and music theory. I ended up opting for Skype lessons with Carol Kaye. The first one was last night. It is probably the best thing I have done in years! Carol was friendly and chatty and genuinely interested in me and my playing and giving me targets and tips to improve aspects of my playing before our next lesson. After 30 years I have picked up a few bad habits and she picked up on these straight away! As mentioned on other threads and forums, Carol considers learning chord tones to be fundamental. Yes we looked at scales and how these fit into the overall picture but it was mainly about nailing down the different types of chords and knowing how they are constructed and how they link together. Not only did we cover this but also a bit on fretting hand position and how to be economical with movement and avoid injuries like CTS. I loved every minute of it, even though I was nervous as hell before it started. If I can still play and teach like her when I'm 84 then I will be very happy!

Obvious place to start would be ‘kind of blue’ by Miles Davis, in fact I’d recommend any Miles album with Paul Chambers on bass, but that’s just me. Billie Holliday’s ‘songs for distingue lovers’ is a great album too, as the mix is great, and it’s not difficult to hear what the bass is doing and how it works with everything else.

Right, it's done. The Tone Pump is out and, at this juncture, I've simply bypassed the tone control pots and gone straight into the output jack (I've done this previously; to be honest, as I generally play with everything open, it's fine).. Had a quick noodle, I just feel it sounds cleaner tonally and a bit more under control. Incidentally (and I forgot to mention this earlier), I was also getting in intermittent loud popping off the neck pickup if I played to hard over it, and that's disappeared too. Happy now.

Utterly brilliant. That headstock/body combo looks better with either parent. Thinking outside the box!

Well whadya know, it's a '69 😆 Pulled it all apart ready for refinishing, I think I have a colour scheme in mind but we'll see what stupid ideas pop into my head today. The heel had a balsa shim superglued to it and after a bit of scraping the numbers were visible. The bass was disgustingly manky under the controls and scratchplate, and some quality routing of a plywood cavity. All the hardware has been cleaned and the scratchplate will be polished tomorrow, being careful not to remove the Kay logo, everyone needs to know what this beauty is. Talking of such, does anyone here make waterslide logos for the headstock? I want a gold Kay logo on there as well.

I've just spent an inordinate amount of time looking at this ...

The Grabbird has a 16'" radius

excellent well done 👍

It’s Matumbi morning I the RB house

Gibson, you build ugly, horribly designed, badly built, heavy, over-priced rubbish.....

Well after my disappointment with hand problems after playing my recently acquired 4003, I decided to move it on and invest in something a little more familiar.... I tried out a new Fender Original Series P Bass finished in a lovely Aztec Gold today and decided that I'd pony up for it. I wasn't massively sure about the colour when I first saw them online but in the flesh it's beautiful. I already own a couple of P Basses including the Original Series 60's model, but this one is different enough for me to justify owning it too (honest!!) A bit of a tweak and adjustment at the bridge and it's good to go.

Woooo

Putting the question of fingerboards aside, I think it's a mistake to buy something where any significant aspect of it bothers you. I think it's more likely to get more annoying over time and quite unlikely you'd just grow to like it.

Lived the dream for two years back in the early 70s. In a band with my mates, writing our own stuff, another mate with a transit and another who just loved to play with amps and the PA. Recorded a demo and hawked it round the record companies in London. Didnt get signed but played lots of gigs and had a great time. After starving for two years I met a girl who became my wife and I went back to the proper paying job. I would not have missed that two years for anything.

With 2 separate switches? The "normal" way of doing stuff like this is to have a wah (for example) block and a volume block both set to use the same EXP input, and have the block bypass for both set to the same footswitch. Make sure one of the blocks is set to on and the other is set to bypass. Now a tap of the footswitch will turn the wah on and the volume off (or vice versa) and the pedal will only have any effect on the block which is active. You could have separate footswitches assigned to the bypass function of both the wah and volume block, but then if both wah and volume blocks are active then the expression pedal will control both at the same time