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Had to show off my new handy work to people who get it (the wife was pretty underwhelmed/didn't have a clue what I was talking about) Backstory: wanted a flat case style pedalboard, didn't want pay £££s for it. So I bought an old synthesiser case from Gumtree for 20 quid and relined it with mounting fabric. Then Covid hit😷, so I thought I'd do some tinkering..... So I've built in some features (cue a lot of cussing at the soldering iron😖). I've add a bank to the side with jack in and out with a true bypass to skip the entire pedal chain, power input and switch and a di (stole the innards of a Behringer 400p passive di box). Cost me total of about 50 quid *smugface*😁 The chain is Input (with bypass)>Boss limiter>polytune 3 mini>Ehx Tri parallel>output The 3 mix loops are subject to change as I've just stuck then all on into the order they fit with the patches I have currently. Loop 1: Boss bass chorus>Boss odb3 overdrive>boss ls2(as a bypass for the 105q tone suck)>Dunlop 105q Loop 2: Mxr blowtorch>agent 00 clone(custom built by BCs very own paul_5)>bass big muff Loop 3: Ehx soul pog(pog 1st)>Donner EQ seeker(effing great eq pedal for £40 if you can find one!)>earthquake dispatch master>dpfx echidna overdrive>boss syb5 synth Whaddaya think?!? I'm pretty chuffed with how it turned out. Any advice on chain or good custom length patch kits very much needed....

Yes - I think that is OK. Phew! Clearly, the fretboard will be eventually properly finished and the binding will be rounded - which I will do once the neck is carved. But you can see the overhang of the binding here (which will slim just a touch when they are rounded off) which should mean that sharp fret-ends won't happen even as the neck and fretboard ages. The demarcation stripes should also show up nicely once the neck is carved: Oh...and, of course, the obligatory mock-up

I was bored at home, and had some Seafoam Green, and custom mixed Smooth Mint (Fiat 500 car colour), nitrocellulose lacquer leftover from previous builds. I wondered how the colours would look together. So, I made this: 2 piece, double bound, Tele body. 1 piece maple neck. Gotoh tuners and bridge. Fender Pure Vintage 64 Tele pickups. CRL 3 way switch, Fender Pure Vintage knobs, and CTS pots. All lacquer finishing was applied here at home. (I masked off the binding on the sides, and scraped back the front edge binding using a scalpel blade.

Pick the one who tunes up with the volume off

So here’s a bit of good news...for once! After sterling efforts from the sender who ended up going the extra mile and also the PA to the CEO of Parcelforce my bass finally turned up today. This after nearly five months of emails and many phone calls and texts. The best bit and a tribute to a Fender is that despite it being unwrapped at some point the bass and case are virtually unscathed. A tribute to modern Fender build quality. It really was in tune too!

I never uploaded pics of my shorty. It's an ACG TKO Modern 4 string. 30.5" scale White Limba body with a Figured Maple top, stained black 3 piece Ash neck, with a reverse headstock, stained black Rosewood fingerboard Reverse Splitcoil pickup, with passive vol/tone Black Hipshot B Type bridge, Gotoh tuner Currently wearing TI Flats (not in the pictures though) Cheers, Eude

As with all these things I can never discern a difference. Personally, to me (and I’m sure I’ll sound like a heretic) a P bass sounds like a P and jazz a jazz, woods and necks don’t make much difference.

Did a dep gig with a 40's/50's band at a retirement village in Surrey on Saturday afternoon. First gig since lockdown. It should have been a dead easy gig, but when i arrived I found out only the guitarist and sax player were from the band's regular line up and myself, the drummer and the girl singer were all deps! Still, it all went OK and the elderly punters loved it. 😊 The girl singer took this pic.

Collected today from Jon Shuker ....😁

@marleaux62 & @GuyR - as you asked for my thoughts... The bass arrived today, I put some flats on and have had about an hour playing. It sounds fantastic, very clear and crisp with some awesome lows on the E string. I’m looking forward to getting to know it over the next week when playing it with less of that ‘new bass anticipation’ thing going on. The vintage vibe is there in buckets, and at times when playing I really did think I was on an old bass when I looked at the neck! It’s not a bass that’d fool a collector or vintage fan, but that’s not really the point is it? I think it’s a great value, but high quality and lovingly made, unique instrument. And throughout the sale John was awesome, especially while two couriers tried their best to screw this up.... but the Bravewood won, and I got it on time.

@Drax speaks much truth.

Go with the one who smelled the least.

Just grabbed my bottle of hand sanitizer (70% isopropyl alcohol) and it did the trick! Thanks!

Struggling now - need to take this to pieces to finish it off but having too much fun playing it!!

Updates! Back from holiday and back in the garage! The Truss rod and carbon rods arrived so it was time to let loose with the router. I Want to have my truss rod access on the body so routed out this space first, it finishes outside the fret board angle profile marked in white pencil. Maybe the first mistake in the build, the truss rod fits really snuggly in the main channel, but I should have perhaps continued the channel with a 10mm bit so the truss rod end was also supported and not sitting free within the rounded access section, it's easy to locate the hole with the hex key but next time i'll do it differently. After the truss rod I installed the carbon rods. Snug! Scariest bit done. On to the bandsaw to cut the neck to size... which revealed mistake number 2... ...The outer wenge laminates are cut through when the neck is profiled, now this is either going to look really cool or terrible. Next time I'll double check the laminate thicknesses in relation to the neck profiles. Alot of this material is removed in the neck shaping profile so you might not see any of this but for right now... it's a bit of a disappointment. Had time to thin down and drill the bridge. I have ferrules coming for the string holes but can't install them until the bridge is mounted to the bass body. I'll only be able to slot the tree once the bass is being setup so that'll be cut much later on. In my opinion looks really nice on the bass, glad I decided to give it a go. Works well with the body ash too. Finally got the headstock wings glued up to the neck, two nice chunks of wenge to match the body at the bridge end. Next! I need to think about doing the fret board so that'll need cutting to size and then thinning down. Then there will be some CAD modelling to do, once I have the fretboard profiled I need to work out how high my bridge should be and how much of the body I need to cut away, it's currenty 42mm and this will be taken down to accommodate the bridge and the saddles so the action can be set nice and low, but this will all be modeled first before I go cutting. Before that the fretboard will need to be glued to the neck so lots of fun to be had. The neck laminate has bummed me out a little bit... but it could go either way it might finish really nicely.

A few points to add to this. What look like ports on the One10s (and all our 10CR models) aren't conventional ports - there's other stuff going on as they're Hybrid Resonator designs. Having the external resonator outlet (that thing that you think is a port) on the underside of the One10 results in a lower tuning frequency for that part of the resonator and a deeper tighter bass response. If you turn the cabs sideways then you raise this tuning frequency, giving fatter but less deep lows. Some people prefer this and it works better in some rooms. It isn't the default orientation because more people/basses/amps/rooms prefer the cab the other way around but it is a useful option. There's a lot of mythology about the coupling effect of putting a cab on the floor. Actual mechanical coupling is almost always a bad thing (despite Orange claiming it a benefit with the skids instead of feet/wheels on their cabs). Acoustic boundary reinforcement is usually a good thing but that doesn't stop when you lift the cab off the floor - it just shifts from acting on everything from the low-mids downwards when the cab is within an inch of the floor to acting on just the deepest lows when the cab is many feet off the floor. If your ears have had years of playing in front of loud 4x12" stacks then they're going to need all the help they can get! 😉

To clarify, I never said anything about being idiotic. There are certainly common tonal themes across most of the bass amp models, going back 50 years. That's bound to be the case of course, given that the designers of those models were consistent over most of those years. The exceptions are (imo and ime) the Carbines, Big Block and Titan (which were very much a more modern take on bass amps, paralleling the rectifier series popularity), the Strategy/Prodigy (which focused on a tighter approach to bass amp overdrive while maintaining the aggressive voicings of the Carbines), and to a lesser extent the Walkabout (which was distinctly different in many ways). I was brought on board to bring more focus into the bass amp/speaker products without the distraction and workload of designing guitar products at the same time. My goal is to take the best, most popular elements of a particular amp family and combine these with new features, new approaches, refinements and to update the products so that they meet the needs and expectations of today's players. For players this doesn't work for, that's fine. There is no shortage of good used amps of all types (and at bargain prices too... a bonus to players that these amps appeal to).

Choose the one with the least obtrusive hunchback.

There isn't any strict definition for vintage, but generally speaking for collectable items it's anything that is more than 25 years old. That now includes plenty of 90s basses and guitars...

Assuming the sniff test is inconclusive, who has the best availability? The best musician in the world is a p.i.t.a. If they can’t or won’t commit to gigs and rehearsals. So, you may have to do some investigation on job, family and other band situations.

I'll be stoned for this, but I can't hear any difference at all. If you hadn't put the graphic up and hadn't told us this was a comparison, I'd have assumed this was one bass playing the entire time.

Another dot/bound/lollipop 66 Jazz Bass! Super clean example that I got off pmjos on here a couple of years back. Absolute beaut to play, hear and look at!

So the back veneer is on and “roughly” shaped and I remodeled the bit near the neck plate. Tomorrow I have a good few hours to work on the bass, so the front veneer is drying and I should get it to a point where I can slowly start thinking finish.

That’s great! I’ve been fortunate to meet some really nice people in life, especially in music. In the early days there were a few people who really took a chance on me and gave me an opportunity. In the first band I was in I was really out of my depth. They were fabulous musicians and I was a bit younger and nowhere near as good, really struggling to keep up. The easy thing would have been to have gotten someone better (locally they were a decent draw and could have had their pick of players) but they gave me a go, taking me under their wing and mentoring me. Sometimes all you need is someone to believe in you, isn’t it. The guy who sold me the bass was a fabulous player - he’d played in a semi-professional capacity, backing all kinds of acts from Frank Carson to Englebert Humperdink on the cabaret circuit! - and was really encouraging. Never turn down a gig, he’d say, and of course he was right! He could see I was really keen on music/bass (to say the least) and just decided to help me along the way. The bass is special to me, and I’ve an agreement with my wife that (in the hopefully significantly distant future!) when I shuffle off, as long as she doesn’t need the money, the bass should be sold and the money donated to a charity for mentoring underprivileged kids who want to play music but may need a bit of a leg up... As I say, hopefully that’s a long way off yet!!!

First post my new Matamp GT200 with matching 4x10

I'm sure some of these close-ups are actually shower hoses...🙃

I picked up a Quilter Bass Block 800 and two BF 1x10's last night. So far, I'm very impressed. The size of the stack looks a bit toy like and comical but it sounds and puts out like a pro rig. I'm looking forward to putting it through its paces and the comments from other band members when they first see it and then after they hear it 😂 Nice pairing of head and cabs. Great sound and farcical portability! Hats off to Quilter and Alex, the brainchild of these mighty but tiny BF cabs 😀

There most certainly is a difference. D is the key our singer can sing in.

Lumping all 212s, or for that matter all of any speaker configuration, into the same performance category is as valid as saying all vehicles with 380HP engines perform the same. There's a big difference between a 380HP BMW Z4 and a 380HP 2.5 ton pickup truck.

You can't go by the specs, as they're far too incomplete to be of any real use. I can say that the vast majority of powered PA, even those loaded with 15s, are made to work best in the vocal range, with the lows handled by subs. They also don't have pre-amps voiced for bass. That makes them very much a try before you buy proposition.

I wouldn't be concerned about the nerves btw. I am an absolute mess with nerves in an audition, or even a soundcheck sometimes. But get me in front of an audience and I'm like a man possessed. If someone had to overcome extreme nervousness and still turned up and played well, it speaks volumes for their determination, character and courage.

I love my Fender Marauder, just the best guitar I’ve ever had. My epi ej200 is a real workhorse but there’s no great love there.

I've just taken delivery of this which includes a 10x zoom, a fisheye lens and a wide angle lens plus two clips - all for £8.49 delivered. Great idea. Thanks for sharing. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01ITGECNC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

In 1979 I spent most of my summer holidays helping out at my local musical instrument store which was in the process of shedding its old "Home Organ" image, and as part of that process had become main dealer for Fender, Ibanez and Aria Pro II guitars and basses. I can remember the afternoon when the Fender instruments arrived, as it was a massive anti-climax. The predominant colours were stinky poo brown and a horrible semi-transparent white (which looked like a mistake with the spraying rather than a deliberate finish). All the 3-bolt necks were mis-aligned - some to the extent where one of the outer strings was no longer over the fingerboard at the top end of the neck and most of the others had some sort of QC problem. About the only person who was happy was the freelance guitar tech who was mentally counting up how much extra money he was going to make trying to get them into a saleable condition. Hung on the wall next to the instruments from Aria and Ibanez which had arrived the previous week (and were still in tune when they were removed from their boxes) the Fenders looked tired and lacklustre. If I'd been in charge, I'd have sent the lot back and told Fender to either send me some properly made instruments or give me my money back.

You do need a half decent singer to even attempt quite a few Whitesnake songs. Something that old Coverversion is finding out as he gets older and his voice is starting to go...

For me, the basses were still as good (and sometimes bad) as Pre CBS until the design overhaul in ‘68. I’ve owned some absolutely cracking 66’s. The excellent ‘Fender Golden Age’ book puts that period as 1946 - 1970. But when I see the yellow & green wires on a ‘68 bass (because fender were using up old amp wires) I don’t know whether to laugh or cry!

If the audience enjoy it and your having fun playing it then its the right version. Dave

Assuming I can receive the bass from @DaytonaRik sometime over the weekend I’m happy to deliver it to Tamworth next week.

Would have been better with the basses playing to a blank screen. That way there'd be no chance of confirmation bias creeping in.

I always wing it...though as it's been in the set for years I have no idea what 'version' we do...probably our own take by now 😁 Looks like the only Whitesnake songs on our YouTube are Ready & Willing and All Your Love Tonight...and listening back again to the original my winging is nowt like it

I'm lucky to have access to a big plotter at work - well, I was lucky, the b****y thing has died! Still it was working long enough to print my plans at full size. Needless to say, it is a very accurate plotter. First job was to make body and neck templates out of MDF I should add at this stage that I am not one of these people with an amazing workspace and fancy tools. These pictures show one of my two work areas, this is a small corner of table in our tiny utility room, and perched on here is where I do most things that aren't messy. I do the messy stuff either in the garage (horrible place with a leaky roof), or out in the back yard if it is dry/light. My only other work bench is a rickety thing with uneven legs.

Note that the control tapers are designed so that there is a smooth increase in volume throughout the entire rotation. many amps use a taper that makes most of the range of control happen in the first 50% of the control's rotation. To that casual observer, this makes an amp appear louder when comparing using knob position only. The downside to this is that the range of real world adjustment is not as wide or smooth acting.

I think they are tiny, it says they are microtubes.......

Any fans of Incubus here?