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After my clear-out of what I deemed non-essential Basses (Blueflower and Player P, then Gretsch Electro) I just happened upon an ebay ad for a Korean Pro Series 4 String Warwick Star Bass. I'd seen it for some while, so made a cheeky bid, had it rejected, then we settled on a mutually beneficial price and it arrived today. It dates from 2012 and is totally immaculate, strung with flats and although missing the strap part of the strap locks, the seller is forwarding them on. It comes with the case candy and in a Warwick gig bag too. I traded a Gold Coloured 5 String version a few years ago and was toying with buying a new one, but they are Chinese and the 4 stringers, unless the Lee Sklar version at £930, are all 32" necks. I've been a bit influenced by watching LS do his thang on YT every night, but the sound is every much as good as I can remember, and the construction is first class. Here's a picture lifted off the ad, as it's too hot to go outside and get snapping at the moment!

For me it has to be my Fender P. Not only are these MIA’s very rare, I found this on line in on a small dealer’s website for £700 posted, inc nice gig bag. or, the two free Sire gig bags i get sent to me when i asked about buying one here in the UK. Direct from the top man at Sire.

New Custom RickenFaker Day. So I now have my dream bass. A cross between a 4003 and a 4004 (though more 4003 to be fair). Utterly gorgeous, grinning like a buffoon.

And it's pretty much finished. Got to do the set-up and final polish before Rog picks it up on Saturday but, as the weather is going to go off, I'll catch the light of this afternoon to take a couple of fully assembled shots. So this is where we began: And this is where we've got to: And, for good measure, this is that it looks like from the back: As always, thanks for your interest and encouragement along the way

99% finished. I just have to wire in the headphone amp and make the covers.

clearly the only reason to have two drummers in the band is so that you still have a drummer when you have to sack one

Latest video is up

Hey all, Today is a great day. I've always wanted a year of birth instrument and let's be honest, the late 80s were not a good time for Fender. However things were going pretty well in West Germany. Here is my new 1987 Warwick Thumb. I'm it's second owner, the first bought it from Warwick direct. I spotted it on ebay with less than 2 hours remaining and knew I had to have it. The owner delivered it today because couriers are a nightmare at the moment. It's been played, loved and looked after. Here are some photos. I really couldn't be happier with it. I've done the obligatorty send some photos to Warwick in the hopes of getting any more info on its history. It sounds like a thumb should too. It's taking a bit of getting used to. I'm always 3 frets higher up than I think I am. Here are the photos. I've never seen the edges of a pickup wear in this way before. It's in incredible condition I think. Enjoy!

It will be difficult to beat the Fender Rumble for the requirements.

That second sentence suggests that in fact an acoustic bass is probably the MOST useful instrument to have. Certainly in my house, my kelly Dragonfly gets played a lot more often than any other as I don't have the faff of having to plug it in (and the amps all live in an outhouse anyway). Add a bung in the soundhole and the piezo on it means it will hold it's own against 2 guitarists when we do an acoustic set.

The best deal I got was a good few years ago I got talking to an American woman online. She seemed nice enough but started getting a bit full on. I mentioned that I played bass and my dream bass was an American standard P bass. She only went and bought me one and sent it over. I was embarrassed as hell and offered to pay for it. She wouldn't hear of it. Then I got a message from her husband calling me for everything. I had no idea she was married! I cut off all contact after saying I will pay for the bass. Again she said not to. So now I have an American standard that was completely free and she most likely has a broken marriage 😕

I have dozens of these. Bass books, books on Jazz harmony, piano voicings, arranging, orchestration, instrument treatise, guitar chords, Jazz lines, BeBeop theory, solo transcriptions, guitar transcriptions, bass transcriptions, saxophone transcriptions, trombone transcriptions, studio recording techniques, MIDI orchestration and any number of other subjects of a musical nature. I have bought all of them in good faith in an effort to develop some insight, knowledge or skill that, at some point, I felt was in need of attention. As I stand here looking at my comprehensive library of publications, I realise that I have hardly ever got past page 12 in any of them. I start in earnest and then, when it gets complicated, I bail (not consciously; I just move on to something else. My theory is clearly, if I only read 10% of each book, if I buy 10 books, then I will have read one. I have looked through my stack of books and I think there are about three that I can honestly say I have done cover to cover. Is it just me?

Hey guys, during a rebuild, I stupidly lost my intonation screws and springs for my A style bridge. I e-mailed Hipshot and got a speedy reply. I was prepared to pay any price but I didn't have to. The parts all arrived from America to N.Ireland today, free of charge. Brilliant service, so I thought I would give them a mention. Regards Michael.

It may come to that. The latest Guy Pratt lock down instalment hasn’t helped! 🤣

Sibob I ran through the Windows optimisation information earlier tonight and had a look at all the settings and made quite a few changes to things I never knew were there to be honest. I am not sure what I have done to help things exactly but it now seems to work as it should and the distortion has disappeared. Thank you so much for your help and time in answering my question. Cheers Martin

If you can stretch your budget a tad, Ashdown have a "b"stock Rootmaster 2x10 combo in their clearout sale. If you like the ABM, a Rootmaster should suit you fine.

Yeah, i was surprised with that. I’m definitely hearing a Guy Prat style in all these now.

Update ............. Went for the SpectraDrive. Cost a little bit more than other options but extra features like compressor and drive on top of EQ and headphone and aux in made my mind up. And, it can go on my pedalboard so not just a practice tool.

There is value in partial transcription. I suspect a lot of details in a full transcription are repetitious and the actual learning is limited. My transcriptions are mostly complete to make them fun for people to practice reading (which is why I publish them). Two written bars of a lick that is otherwise hard to pick up by ear is one thing and is perfectly legitimate. Learning to read a score end to end is another skill that requires a different, but equally legitimate, approach.

Thanks for posting that - always a treat. Someone 'paged' me in this thread, we (the Grateful Dudes) have three drummers, of whom we usually play with two, though we did a couple of nights two years ago with all three (one on a regular kit, the other two swapping between kit and percussion) and a year ago in Germany we had a guest percussionist on some numbers, which was very enjoyable. We have also played with one when neither of the others is available. Playing bass standing between two drummers is an interesting experience, I can definitely recommend it.

I don't know - people waste more than that on fags!

With Barefaced, I found calling them works better than emailing. https://barefacedaudio.com/pages/contact_us

The guitarist has just lent me one of these pedals. As mentioned above, it works well into a Scarlett - I used it straight into a Scarlett 2i2 to record the bass for a "lockdown" video - sounds pretty good, though I say it myself. If anyone's interested, here are my pedal settings ...and here's the result

They just counted themselves lucky you didn't decide to be a drummer.

My sisters tell me stories of them and Mum trying to stop the plates and ornaments rattling and falling off the shelves, whilst I was up in my room trying to emulate Burke Shelly. My Aunty ,who lived two doors away could here every "note" apparently. No one ever said a thing to me at the time . I suppose I should apologise to the rest of the street!

Because this sounds great!

Started sanding with 2500 for more satin finish.

I came here to post about Adam Ant but reading through the comments got me to thinking of Curtis Mayfield who had the congas going with the full kit. Throw Joseph lucky Scott in on bass and you have a killer rhythm section right there.

How do you find the Ashdown pre amp? There isn't much in the way of reviews online. I'm intrigued to hear how the valve drive sounds.

Amen to the Gizzard! How many kits though? Vulfpeck are known to have 2 drummers on one kit.... sound most splendid too!

No one did it better than Melvins in their Big Business phase - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpgZ5MUnkkE

Can be a bit of a racket - works best with full on live bands. Adam Ant did / does it well. Really enjoyed him live a few years back. King Gizzard a great current example

Though to be totally honest, my solo gigs are generally a perfect example of social distancing 😆.

The Doobies sounded pretty fine with two

Definitely spoilt for choice just now aren't we! Hadn't looked at the Chowny site for a while and the new Trans Blue is 😍 it would probably be my pick of the short scales readily available just now.

A can of worms is right. The Peavey miniMax is cheap as chips and an excellent gigging amp. Another is the Quilter BB800, also sensibly priced. I'm happy gigging either through Barefaced BB2, Super Midget, or both together. I don't find the sound suffers at all from being class D amps and neo speakers. Then again, I worked for well over 40 years in heavy industry so my hearing might be shot. Frank.

I emailed Warwick to get the history of the instrument and got a response from Hans-Peter Wilfer! "Dear Mr. Cocco, thanks for your request and interest into your Warwick Bass and for giving me the requested information. Please note as following : - Bass Thumb Bass NT 4 string Serial Number G 971 87 Year 1987 Month July Number 971 Neck Wood Wenge Wood with Bubinga lamination stripes Fingerboard Wenge Wood with real mother of Pearl Dot inlays Frets Bronce Warwick Frets Nut Just a Nut Brass Version Neck construction Neckthrough hiddenneck construction Body 3 pcs. solid Bubinga Wood Surface Oil Finish / BeeWax surface Pickups active EMG JJ Pickups Electronic active MEC 2 Band electronic Hardware Black Hardware made for Warwick Made in Germany / 08258 Markneukirche We wish you an ongoing pleasure playing your Thumb Bass NT 4 string Warwick Bass and if you have time and personal interest to join our Facebook or Instagram page please signe up under - Warwick/Framus Facebook https://www.facebook.com/warwickframus - Warwick/Framus Instagram https://www.instagram.com/framuswarwickofficial/?hl=de with best regards Framus & Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG Hans-Peter Wilfer 02.06.2020, 10:15 CEO

If I am buying a DI box that can be used with phantom power, I always try to make sure it has an LED which indicates whether it is on or not. A small feature but it avoids having to use guesswork about whether the battery will go mid gig.

Never played a Sandberg that I didn't really, really like... not played yours (of course) but I doubt it would be the exception to that rule. Lovely looking bass - love that idea of the JMM format - I can only imagine how lovely it sounds and feels. I quite fancy the idea of a PMM format. I know that if I was buying another bass tomorrow 99.5% sure it would be a Sandberg, Enjoy!

Now released on YouTube! Cannot wait for his signature bass to be released 😀

,Body and neck meet for the first time. Nice snug fit.