Leaderboard

Hello dear bass community, on my first attempt to create some youtube content with halfway valuable information, I created this topic. I had my early 80's StingRay customized with a passive bypass switch back in the 90s and never regretted it. What are your thoughts?

I would say, I am not particularly a fan of deep purple, they seemed like an old peoples group to me when I was first into rock music (not sure why, considering most things I listened to were a similar age), and most people who liked them were 'car guys', where i was a bike guy (not a biker, never been one of those, I just used to ride a bike all the time and hang round with other people doing the same). Anyway, seen them a number of times, know there stuff, even played a few songs in various bands. I was on my walk today, with my headphones on (which I don't normally do- the headphone thing) and my iPhone on random played highway star. Can't say I had really thought about the bassline on it before, but that first descending riff at the start of the song is pretty fast, so I was thinking about whether I could do that, so I searched for this when I got back. Its actually very busy - I know the 'dont' like busy bass lines' people will hate it as it isn't just roots and 5ths, but considering the song is just a straight rock song quite a few bass players would have just played the roots on it, but it pulls the song out a bit (as well as the keyboard playing) and makes it something a bit different. Still not going to be a deep purple fan but I have a bit more respect for what is going on here.

Just found this... not bad for a street busking band!

I got together with some of my pals to record this recently. It's one of my favourite tunes to play. Hope you enjoy it!

I only joined this forum a few weeks ago, but it's pretty clear to see there are some proper snobby musos on here! I'm so glad I love all sorts of music and love it for what it is, rather than look down on some of it from my ivory tower 😉 Anyone who says the Ramones didn't have a huge impact on music (especially punk/new wave/rock) and inspired generations of future musicians in general, are either seriously misinformed or slating it purely to get a reaction imho.

As above just wanted to put some positive feedback up for g4m I normally use them for most music gear and found the. them spot on recently I had a parcel go awol so I emailed them to ask if they knew where it was sadly it was untraceable so a fella called Alex emailed me back apologising and has sent me a new item via tracked delivery no nonsense or messing around a real positive bit of customer service

Coat 1, lovely Tung Oil..... such a great finish. Check out my little tripod too 😂

David and I played in a band called Downtown Loft together. David has also played with Hamish Stuart (Average White Band, Paul McCartney, etc.), Glen Tilbrook (Squeeze), and others. I've played with Tom Jones, Chris Rea, Craig Armstrong, amongst others.

See, he was that busy not making a P clone that he didnt have time to let me know

The 12XN is very different to the 3012LF although it does share the same aluminium basket and neo magnet. The bandwidth is wider, the dispersion is broader, and the sensitivity is far higher. Very few bassists can use 3012LF drivers without needing a midrange driver whilst many can use a 12XN and get "full-range" tone for their needs. This difference and the increased sensitivity means you need less than half as much amp power compared to a 3012LF.

Getting there...

Busy morning! The neck is off: How about a new bridge? Simple enough job! Just like that, a Gotoh 201 bridge is installed! In my haste to test the pickups with the new loom, I forgot to cable tie the wires before closing the bell plate. Another job for later...

A topic on The Ramones sure does bring out the snobbery in you "real musicians!" FFS! When you've wrote songs that are known the world over, done the world tours, had your music in movie soundtracks, had the album releases and sales figures to justify your high and mighty stances. Your opinions might be worth something!

I use a fungicidal cream

Well, I am sure we have all seen this, but just so we know where things end up, it turned up here! A Shuker 6, with a neck like a major runway. A series 2 I believe. I am not a 6 player and I am not fond of a spacing greater than 17mm, this goes past both of those, its neck is so wide it doesn't fit in any of my hangers or stands, so it will have to sit on the floor! I figured that although it might be difficult to use, if I never manage to get on with it I should be able to not lose on it like I normally do Although a the moment that isn't an issue as I am getting on with it fine at the moment. Plyed it a bit last night but then it started hissing and sound went down, which struck me as a battery problem, sure enough it was, replaced the batteries, all seems good now. Anyway, here are the pictures

I finally took the leap and ordered a EB, MM Cutlass - it arrived last week and I'm very pleased. After a bit of time with it including a little recording I can say it's a beautiful thing and sounds great. I was looking for passive P-style bass. I didn't want go Fender because none of the ones I tried were really speaking to me except a sunburst professional which was out of my range - these things need a bit mojo! I got a deal on an ex-display which had, apparently suffered a bit of a fall - chip on the headstock, a couple of small dents on the body - otherwise pretty immaculate. Pluses I love the neck - it's pretty close to the pre EB stingray I tried (in an amazing 70's brown) and really invites playing up the neck in a way I find the flatter radiused boards just don't I thought I didn't like the pick up - it doesn't have enough of the nasal cut through thing that I was after, but after some recording it sits effortlessly in the mix without much tweaking. I though I could just drop in a p-pickup but I'm going to sit with it for a while. A lot of attention to detail - sloped edge for your thumb on the pickup, case coveniently has 'cutlass' on it in case you forget where you've put it, pots feel right - smooth and solid - fit and finish is all really top notch. Cons Still expensive, and why did I buy a not a p-bass p-bass? I can't help myself sometimes. And before you start on 'ugly' - I like it - it has a nice look for me, slightly generic, but well considered and tight aesthetically - some how feels a bit 60's, which I like - future retro!

So my latest project comes together, albeit a week late thanks to Royal Snail. Phil Jones D200 head, Cab 27, Cab 47; Revelation P bass fretless with flats Nearest I'm likely to get to a DB.

You sound like me last night ...

Jeez, 40 years since Permanent Waves, feels like yesterday. The first time I heard Spirit of Radio was one of those definitive moments that stays with you. But wow, 40 years has gone by quick!

A simple 12 bar written for my Nephew James (Bindy) Hornsby

Mine is currently being repaired. Full new set of six 6550's is going in to replace the original (!!!) 1991 or 1992 tubes. Am stoked about getting my fave amp in the world back in working order again. The tech also fixed my RAH600SMX which I will use in the rehearsal room. Isn't this stack sexy as __ck? Good times ahead and screw class D amps.

My first brand new bass in many many years. Going to be a little project bass. Out of the box seems really good quality for £160 delivered! Came with a little paper thin soft case too. Probably going to be changing most of the hardware on it and maybe routing for a J pickup at the bridge. Not plugged it in yet but initially very happy.

Made in Japan = best ever live recording, will never be beaten IMHO 😎 When the bass comes in on SOTW it's enough to blow your speaker's bollx off 🤯

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/180807331010008-5125272--gl-tribute-lb-100-3-tone-sunburst-black-pickguard-bc-ex

Hopefully, from now on, to be referred to as Linda?

Well someone put the jinx on me. The element on my 40 year old Antex CS18 iron had gone open circuit. Nothing is built to last these days 😁. Of course the iron is still made so a new element on its way. I am back to using my 45 year old 15W Antex for a while. That works well for larger stuff like pots and speaker tags, but I would not do that on small electronic components, they are likely to overheat. I would also tin the solder tag/pot first but you must use fresh solder.

https://uproxx.com/music/ramones-debut-album-punk-rock/

When your bass isn't delivering the sounds you want and was put together saving every penny possible on components and the lack of skilled workers? That's only around christmas and special holidays when my elves come and help in my man cave 🧚‍♂️ You might get a kit mounted on part of a cardbord box that used to contain a magic liquid, that's what he means 😄 He's only my half twin 👱‍♂️ Different is working properly, as it should 👍

I do get such a lift from Scottish country dance music!

I just twisted the ground wire and pickup wire together. Seemed to work a treat!

I think you'll find it's only a teeny-tiny percentage of the membership who harbour a substantial animus against The Ramones. Most people here probably don't care that much about the band either way as long as everyone's happy. Which is as it should be.

I’ve uploaded a bunch of envelope filter patches today which use my Mu-Tron Micro-Tron IV as the basis. Here’s a clip of one: @Bo0tsy, @GisserD

The ancient Marshall VBC412 cabs are lighter than the new “ultra lightweight “ Darkglass 4x12. DG really are pushing the marketing bollocks on the cabs.

I’ve got a ki0gon loom in all 4 of mine. I suppose if you buy a top quality bass with top quality parts you won’t need it, but the components were upgrades for each of mine, so made a noticeable (jv p) to very noticeable (Hohner Jack & a bitsa based on a lower quality squire), and pleasing, difference in all 4 basses.

To be blunt, yes. I honestly have no idea why someone who claims to understand these instruments would say yours was made by Matsumoku. The only reason I can think of is that he is conflating the standalone Diamond brand with Aria Diamond, and then presuming that every Aria guitar was made by Matsumoku, which is demonstably not correct. If you'll bear with me I'll try to explain - it's difficult to do without being longwinded so this might be both boring and overly detailed. Brevity is not my forte (that's probably a prog rock thing!) but I'll try to make sense. I should explain that while I might only be some nobody on a forum, I'm some nobody on a forum who's been playing MIJ instruments for 40+ years, studying them for much of that time, and for years made much of my living restoring and selling them. I have owned, played, worked on, assessed and sold multiple hundreds of these things and along the way picked up a bit of info. My MIJ rule of thumb no.1 is, with a couple of exceptions, ignore the sticker on the end, if there is one. Most brand names have absolutely nothing to do with the manufacturer, and can be more often misleading rather than helpful. So, taking your bass as just a Japanese bass, I'll try to explain how I, and anyone else who knows these instruments, can tell that it's not a Matsumoku product. Many manufacturers had various individual traits which can make it straightforward to ID their instruments, or, like I said earlier, to be confident about what something definitely isn't! First - the neckplate. On their 70s era copies Matsumoku used two styles of plate: Both styles are exclusive to Matsumoku - a "Steel Adjustable" plate constitutes a 100% confirmed ID. The only Mats instruments that did not always use these styles were brands commissioned by specific distributors, for example Univox & SLM Electra, who specified their own logos and serialisation. The plate on your bass, with its lower-half MIJ stamp is a standard style mostly associated with Fujigen Gakki but also used occasionally by several other manufacturers including Kasuga and Moridaira. Importantly, this style has never been seen on a Matsumoku instrument. If you read the quoted section in one of my earlier posts, that gives a bit of insight into how metal parts such as neckplates were sourced by various different builders. I didn't talk about the serial on your bass earlier - as an aside, it's interesting (I have never seen that format or positioning before) but I think a red herring as far as a manufacturer ID is concerned. Looking at the irregularity of the characters compared to other serials, it appears to have been hand-stamped after the plate was manufactured. The pickups on your bass help to exclude Matsumoku as manufacturer. On their J bass copies, Mats used a couple of distinct styles which are quite different to standard J units: As the 70s copies were based on 60s & 70s Fenders, pickups were intended to be hidden under chrome covers, so authenticity wasn't considered that important. The earliest copies pre-date the existence of accurate J type pickups, so often manufacturers used whatever was available - it's common to find chrome Telecaster-style units under the covers of budget basses. Anyway, as time passed, the basses became more authentic & Matsumoku moved to using conventional J-type pickups, interchangeable with the original Fender units. The round-ended pickups like yours are common but broadly, not used by Matsumoku or Fujigen. Identification of electronics & pickups remains one of the big grey areas in the MIJ community knowledge - Nisshin Onpa was responsible for Maxon pickups which were very widely used, and very helpful in dating pre-serial instruments as from 1971 they bear a code which defines the unit's actual day of manufacture. However there are various pickup styles, including most bass pickups, which aren't coded or branded, so beyond the overall style not much use for date or ID. I need to explain how I know your bass is not early 70s. Simply, it's the headstock. Accurate MIJ copies of American designs started appearing around 1970 - bodies, headstocks, fretboards, the whole aesthetic, was intended to look as convincing as possible. It's entirely fair to say that no MIJ Fender copy made before mid-1977 would have a headstock like yours. You'll have heard the term "lawsuit" bandied about in relation to these instruments. Leaving aside the fact there never was a lawsuit, the threatened legal action by Norlin, Gibson's then-parent company against Elger Hoshino, the US arm of Ibanez brand owner Hoshino Gakki Ten, was in relation to Hoshino's use of the trademarked "open book" shape on Ibanez-branded guitars. No lawsuit took place because Ibanez had stopped using that style over a year earlier, as the brand started moving away from copy instruments towards its own designs. However a consequence of the stir caused by the legal threat was that it precipitated a general move away from copies, and other Japanese manufacturers followed suit, meaning most headstock shapes on exported instruments were modified from that point on. Matsumoku changed their Fender copies to this shape: It's worth mentioning that Japanese home-market copies weren't modified, and while by 1979 MIJ copies in general had pretty much vanished from export ranges, they continued in their home market for decades. As I said in my first post, I've never seen a bass the same as yours before, and while not getting a pat answer about its ID & manufacture might be frustrating, for the likes of me it's intensely fascinating. I think most of the MIJ intelligentsia elsewhere will probably conclude it's a Chushin - and they might be right - but I'm not sure. Chushin Gakki was a massive manufacturer which supplied an immense range of instruments of all levels with a countless number of brands - but their scale & significance is something that's only become obvious in the last 10 or so years. It's meant the name's become something of a catch-all for anything we can't be certain about, and realistically, that's a lot of stuff. I'm skeptical broadly because there are lots of examples of confirmed Chushin Jazz copies which are the same standard as yours but have very different woodwork details. It makes no sense that the same factory would produce two different versions with the same appearance, spec and price point. This is part of the same logic that can be used to tentatively rule out other manufacturers whose instruments are well-recorded such as Fujigen, Moridaira, Kasuga. I think your bass - and the related Cimars & CSLs - came from a specific factory whose traits we're as yet unsure about and whose role at the time isn't clear. The likes of Terada, Iida, Dyna, Kawai, Nagoya Suzuki & Kiso Suzuki were all active at the time and certainly on the copy bandwagon, along with numerous long-forgotten others, and of course Matsumoto Gakki Seizou Kumiai, the manufacturers' union mentioned in an earlier post, about which we still understand frustratingly little. I've often compared understanding these instruments to a form of archaeology - there is little information about the hundreds of manufacturers that came and went during the Japanese guitar boom, a period that broadly spanned the late 50s to the late 80s, and the ones we know most about are those that were most successful at the time, and that survive today. Everything else is the result of years of piecing together scraps of what's left behind.

This always has a feel good vibe for me

As soon as I hear the intro to this, I'm instantly up: The Isleys version is great but this one edges it slightly for me.

You can have the plate if you want bud, i've got another one cut out & ready to drill..

Doesn't ring a bell. I asked my Mrs, who has an uncanny ability to remember everyone and she doesn't know them either.

I suspect it boils down as to whether you like the Ramones or not, they're an easy target if you don't, "anybody can play and write their simple songs with dumb lyrics", the same argument could be made about the early rock and roll stars like Buddy Holly, and anybody can write simple songs, the trick is to write good catchy simple songs, IMO the Ramones and Dee Dee in particular, continually pulled that trick off

The 6-8 week process - is that for the finish on the bass, or you to be finished with the bass and sell it on for another?!