Leaderboard

Just prior to lockdown I was invited to play bass and sax in a pretty successful and busy covers band specialising in a lot of 80's music which to me is a dream gig as firstly I love a lot of 80's music and secondly, getting a gig where I get a chance to play both instruments is pretty rare. It soon became apparent though that because of some key changes and because a lot of the bass lines involve a low D or C# that I was in all likelihood going to have to play a 5 String again (I know there are other options but hey, we all need an excuse, right?) I've played 5's before but in all my years of gigging, never actually gigged with one as I've always at the last minute reverted back to a 4 stringer (comfort blanket thing). In all honesty this has often caused me a few sweaty moments in trying to re-map songs on the neck often at very short notice, so I decided to use lockdown to really "learn" the 5 string. The first step was putting all the 4 strings away and just getting on with it....and wow, it worked a treat. I've had a few rehearsals so far and it's really gelled nicely: so nicely in fact, that I decided to move some of my 4 strings on and invest in a couple of really nice 5'ers. I've always loved Music Man basses and always found the SR5 to be a thing of beauty. The ones I've had though have been pretty heavy and sounded either too boomy of too thin, or a strange mixture of both. Having done some research on the new Specials though, I decided to take a visit to Bass Direct and came away with the one in Chopper Blue. They really are fantastic instruments with the usual Music Man build quality but with the Neodymium pickups, 18v electrics and incredibly light weight (both are under 8.5lbs) they're a no-brainer for me. Having bought one, I clearly need a backup (ahem) and so after selling a few basses I also bought the Aqua Sparkle one with ebony neck from Andertons. It really is very very sparkly in the flesh, but it is an incredible bass to play. Music Man really have upped their game here and I have been hugely impressed with the changes they've made. If anyone is half-thinking about trying these I'd recommend they do. Although they look pretty- much identical to the older models, they really are very different beasts and to my mind at least, a step up in terms of quality, comfort and sound.

Via the power of Facebook, we've found the guy! He posted in a music gear group that I'm a member of, trying to sell it for double what he paid for it an hour before! He's going to take it back and get his money back. Shop already aware of what's going on, so should be relatively simple to get it back now. Assuming the cops don't want to hold on to it as evidence for too long. I've already replaced the thing with one quite similar to it! What to do with two blue Jazzes....

Buying an instrument is an emotional experience, we try to make it logical to justify the expense and various other aspects, but at it's core, like music itself, it's about feelings. A good businessperson understands this and aims to make their customer feel good at every stage of the process. The old model of "I'm an artisan/craftsman/genius, you get what I say you get" is either long gone or the preserve of people building £500k violins. Having read this and other threads about this guy, it sounds like he has let his ego and/or laziness get ahead of his customer service, and in doing so has broken the emotional bond with many of his customers, past, present and future. Unless he makes amends quickly his business will struggle to recover. He might be cheap, but these days so are a lot of very good quality basses.

I’d be offended if it wasn’t 100% true

My latest slab body has a reverse headstock because I like the look.

This thread is a fantastic example of someone talking themselves into something! Nicely done!

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jul/20/q-magazine-to-fold-after-34-years Stopped reading this over ten years ago and was a little surprised to find out it was still limping along. I guess they never adapted to a changing world; everything was effectively a month old by the time it went to print. Too much reliance on a handful of artistes (Gallaghers, Sheeran, U2) and a bunch of other ones that really weren't much cop. Q Magazine is (was) the tangible embodiment of Later...with Jools Holland, a publication full of bands you're not really interested in and something you just skim through hoping to find something worth reading.

Was given this bass yesterday. Made in Japan, early 90s from what I can tell. Was filthy but, once cleaned up and restrung, it plays brilliantly. Oh, there was a hard case with it! 😁😁😁

I was in a band with Tom Hibbert (RIP). His dad was a celebrated historian, his brother Jimmy frontman of pseudo-punks Alberto y los Trios Paranoias. And the voice of Count Duckula... Tom was a very clever writer and a funny guy. Thanks for reminding me of him.

normally around here we sell them to @AndyTravis

Glad I just read this whole thread, its taken a long time. I am about to pull the pin on a similarly if not more expensive Elwood-C build. I get the posters original mail could have been better, but that is not what matters to me. The CS response from the company is, things do go wrong and need fixing or correcting etc. So with that being said, I shall be looking elsewhere now.

Well, clearly not *everyone* is welcome, just that there are some people we can't stop coming

Anyone and everyone is made welcome at the bass bashes no matter how long they've been playing. See you there!

My Dusty Hill P has one, but it came like that 😀

well it was Friday actually 😅 I struggled to sell my D roc which was a surprise,so contacted Mark at Bass Direct who gave me a very generous trade in offer against a Canadian Dingwall. So here it is,my gorgeous ABZ & I couldn't be happier,it makes a fantastic partner for my Combustion. Ash body,Wenge fretboard & totally passive. Compared to the Chinese made Dingwall I have to say the Canadian made one is definitely of a much higher quality & it shows when playing it. Not that I'd dis a Chinese Dingwall,they too are totally awesome basses.

Yep, that's the start of the collection right there. I justify multiple basses via the same logic (Precision with flats, one with rounds, an FL with flats, an FL with rounds, might need a Jazz, make that four........ What about a Stingray.....?). Be careful mate, you are about to set foot on a very slippery slope

I've made my mind up... once I finally get it back, I'm keeping one strung with flats the other with rounds. Chopped and changed too many times over the years. Not quite identical twins!

Corrected this for you....

Like my Super Rare SG Supreme!

If you're using a Helix for guitar too (if I'm remembering right) then I'd get a BB2. And you don't need a 2x12XN with the 800W amps you have, unless you're the loudest big band I've ever come across! BB2 with 500W into it will be LOUD.

I just see that bass and think of bands like early Living Colour. Muzzy could have pulled that off.

Just seems like pointless negativity to me. Now if he started making guitars, that would be a different story!

Maybe I've just been lucky with drummers - usually it's them trying to fit enough gear for six drum kits onto the stage Guitarists though...forever without leads and picks, acting like it's somebody else's fault and if we expect them to play then we're going to have to provide their missing stuff for them...one one occasion when, sick of providing picks for two people, the rhythm guitarist deliberately only brought one pick, so I stumped up a spare and the lead guitarist spend the entire practice complaining about how the pick was too thick and that was the cause of all the mistakes he was making, clearly he wasn't at all to blame

Bean juice!!! Arghhhhh, it's on my fingers. IT'S ON MY FINGERS!! 😄

Great to meet you brother! I’m almost phobic about them, revolting things

Thanks! Once the finish has been put on, the bottom half of the sides from the middle stripe to the back will tone nicely with the back (it's cut from the same piece of timber as the back) and - as you say - it will be the same colour both of the rosette and of the headstock plate which have both used offcut from the same part of the timber.

I set out to play music as much as possible while still at school, knowing full well that to do so as much as I wanted would require working out how to make it pay- it's not about being a 'breadhead', but that to play as much as I wanted, it could only be done if there were enough proper payers to sort the bills. It was quite a few years back that I was able to stop 'working' and could 'play' as my work. It has never been easy, and I don't expect it to ever result in a gold watch and a party, but 2020 was looking like breaking the back of the setup of one band in particular, so the real kick in the balls has been the stalling of progress on that. That said, we've done some solid leg-work and have enough traction from previous musical careers (HA! Careers... jeez) that the momentum feels backed up and ready to burst back into action. If anything, it feels that the wheat has been separated from the chaff over this time. Not a nice process, but ultimately valuable. There's probably some trite thing I could spout about learning who your real friends are in a crisis but, well, no-one like hearing that stuff.

I’ve always had a full-time job alongside my playing, and while I’m gutted not to be gigging I’m very glad of my desk job keeping things afloat. I always used to worry that meant I wasn’t a proper musician cos I had a job, but it’s been keeping my little family going since everything went pear-shaped in March. That said, I’ve lost thousands of pounds worth of work this year, as well as most of my social life! But it’s not forever y’know.

OK - back in the cellar! I was going to start on the neck, but decided there were still some necessary things to do with the body before doing that. The reason is that, with an acoustic instrument, the neck angle is pretty much fixed at the initial build - and it has to be right. And to do it you need the actual neck. But you also need the mortised body. And so you need (at least) the top on. So back out came the 25 foot radius dish - and this time with some emery cloth double-side-taped to it. This meant that I could sand the slightly proud linings (yes, @Si600 - being made out of fine worsted wool they would be proud ) to a gapless fit with the spherical top: Then a double check inside and out that there is a good, tight and glue-able fit: Then likewise with the back - MUCH easier to do this before the top is glued on: Note above the notches in the linings where the main X-brace and cross-brace will tie into the side/top joint. And finally, after double and triple checking, the top is glued, using as many spindle clamps as I possess and clamping cauls to spread the load: For reasons I will explain later, I will be breaking convention and NOT glue the back on at the moment. Breaking this convention is something I tried on Matt's Dreadnought build last time and it gives distinct advantages. So the back won't be glued for a while yet

I have a double new bass day post ! A stock SB315 which i picked a month or so ago it's a really great bass lovely to play.... I'm pretty sure Steve who sold me the bass is a basschatter and an SB330 which I just received today. It's an absolutely beautiful bass, somewhere along the line the pickups have been swapped for EMGs and what looks like and an EMG BTS system with an additional passive tone pot. It's all been done really tastefully and on first impressions it sounds fantastic. I was thinking of having one defretted but I don't know they are both so nice.

Here’s my upside down bitsa. The body is an Indonesian Squier PJ, the neck is off a Mexican Jazz, the J pup is an Entwistle, the P pup is an American Fender. It’s got a Schaller bridge, Gotoh tuners and a Kiogon wiring loom and selector switch. It’s been my main bass for the last three years and has never let me down.

With a lot of these "deep dive boxed sets, the pleasure is in the acquisition of the item, rather than playing it.

This one's for metal!

Hi guys, here is my band called DIVA. You'll see that there is something special about the music video. Hope you'll like it !

It's an off the peg colour. Music Man seem to have gone all Earth Wind and Fire with their latest colour offerings

🤣 My man! 😂

So as per my last thread, I've added the other pedals in the T70 loop. Now as above but with an EHX Bass Big Muff nano and the funky little MXR Bass Envelope filter 😁 I've also moved the Cali76 into the wonderlove loop so the dynamics of the filter arn't affected. Works really well for synth tones.

Just completed the mods on my Electra VS4. It now sports a Martin Herrick '58 P bass pickups. Martin tells me he made one of these for a big Iron Maiden fan then made a couple more while he was at it. Mine is #3 of 3. Cracking pickup it is too. Electronics are all passive now with a V/T/T set of controls per spec of the Warwick Streamer CV basses that have a bass and treble tone control, made up for me by our very own KiOgon. Not sure how much I'll use the bass pot but I had a third hole in the pickguard and thought "why not?". Plus I've yet to find a reliable talent control circuit. Taking the bass to band practice tomorrow for a good work out.

I've had a sh*tload of Dingwalls: Prima 6, Sklar, Super J4, Super J5, Super P4, Super P5 and an Afterburner I 5 string HS; the ones I favour are the all passive Super P4 and ABI. ABZ is the barebone gem: no dead meat, just plain good bass.

Obviously not, we all have our tastes. If I could ever afford a Ritter Roya I would get one, it is pretty well a dream bass for me. There is no bass made as beautiful as one of those But sadly out of my league!

Mine offended me so much, i took a jigsaw to it.