Leaderboard

Having sold some gear and cleared a couple of things off - I’d hoped to get a Status Groove from these very pages. Typically - it’d sold about 4 hours before my gear had been paid for. “Oh well, they drop up from time to time - will have a mooch on Facebook marketplace...” I saw this. Hours later, a deal was struck. It was our very own @Geddys nose who I’ve dealt with before. tis very good.

Cleaned up the neck and headstock and did the rough neck shaping. I need to finalise the shape, but at least most of the wood is removed.

Missed out on a Groove bass. Was gutted - then spotted @Geddys nose was flogging this. Been around the block a fair bit (think it’s been sold on basschat once and bass direct too...) So. Although I’d planned to not buy for a bit, this absolutely grabbed me so I had to chance my arm. East pre - the switch is a DFA remnant of the old status circuit. May look at remedying that. Light, a P neck, factory relic - which considering they’re not known for it is actually a good job. Clean down, restring, Set up...and will play Tonight when I’ve done my Sunday afternoon messing about.

Coming soon (about 3 weeks) a kind of upside down neck Thunderbirdish shaped thing. It's the same finish as the utterly stunning p bass I bought from Thomann a while ago...

Indeed, turns a ugly, nasty, twangy, shrill, uncomfortable thing into an muffled ugly, nasty twangy, shrill, uncomfortable thing 😀

Bob Marley, Legend. Just right for the evening.

I was the same about Telecasters for decades... nasty twangy, shrill, uncomfortable things... Then a few years ago I got it... USE THE TONE CONTROL. Now I love them. So simple, they just work and let you concentrate on PLAYING. And single coils really cut when pushed into dirt. They are now my fave guitars.

I think it was originally in Hanway Street. Just north of Oxford Street near Tottenham Court road Station. That was my downfall really as my Uni was just 10 minutes walk away. Somewhat spookily I just read the article that showed those pictures and someone mentions going to Hanway Street & buying African Dub Chapter III in 1978 as it had just come out. They were playing it in the shop & I asked what it was. I recognised Dennis Brown's voice but not the dubby version that was being played The guy behind the counter said he'd only tell me if I agreed to buy one - was never sure how serious he was, lol. Anyway, I said OK and walked away with a copy 'fresh off the boat' I think it was my first purchase there Of course, what I didn't realise was everything they played on the shop's sound system sounded bloody marvellous - cost me a small fortune that place!

I spent much of my mid/late teens listening to roots and dub. Moved to London in ‘78 and spent a huge chunk of my student grant in Daddy Kool’s. Much of the best stuff on import was £4.50 for a rare 12”. To put this into perspective my first job paid about £50 a week before tax so just one single was equivalent to half a days wages 🙈 I still have them all though! Here’s a typical example:

That's an 'interesting' guitar design... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-STRAT-STYLE-6-STRING-FLIPPED-REVERSE-BACKWARDS-SEAFOAM-GREEN-ELECTRIC-GUITAR/302200847914?_trkparms=aid%3D555021%26algo%3DPL.SIMRVI%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20190711100440%26meid%3D31c14be938214a4b896a01e2fadf92d0%26pid%3D100752%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D10%26mehot%3Dlo%26sd%3D193366176256%26itm%3D302200847914%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplRVIAMLv5WebWithPLRVIOnTopCombiner&_trksid=p2047675.c100752.m1982

This is definitely not a guitar of course... It's headless, it has strings, it's made by one of this parish, therefore it counts! A Reiver Kompakt T7 with ART burl top and a flame Sycamore board.

The Guardian guitar This is a guitar I have had for years as wall art; never played, it's a custom Leverty guitar, the design and artwork is by Jim Fogarty, who told me he worked on this (on & of) for over 4 years, (the grandchildren love it). Can post some build pic's if there is interest!

I bought this Harley Benton Tele early in the year for £77. They really are excellent value for the money!

Thanks, that’s a great one I haven’t heard in years👍 Daddy Kool records has brought back some great memories, I used to go there every Saturday On the central line, I remember the sign very well , and I think it moved further up the road at some stage 🙂

Culture - Lion Rock

still love my BB435. My everyday Workhorse...

I am back to thoroughly hating my router. No major upset thankfully, but I had a kick whilst trimming my neck and darn well nearly took a chunk out..... luckily I literally just grazed the wood so it will sand out. Not much to show as I only rough cut the neck and still need to trim the sides properly, but I guess I can show you the trussrod and carbon rods installed.

And so, as a post-script. P and his delightful wife arrived last weekend to pick up the Guitar Bouzouki. And I think he would be happy in me saying he loves it For me, that is a great pleasure and relief in equal measure! P was able to bring his standard Irish Bouzouki for me to have a look at and listen to and that was fascinating. We both agreed that the Guitar Bouzouki has a much richer sound (which would be hoped and expected) and a strummed chord just goes on, beating sub-harmonics all the way, for a long, long time. The neck between the two instruments was quite different, part designed and fully expected and part more of a surprise. P had requested it to be wider and shallower than his original which will always change the curves and feel, but the thing I noticed straightaway was that the 'V' on the original felt distinctly V shaped to the hand further up the fretboard than my build. It doesn't really show on the profile drawings but it does give it a different feel further up the board. Not necessarily a bad feel, but certainly a different feel. Changing that, if P's conclusion was that he wanted that tweaking, is actually a very easy fix and the sort of thing that can be done on a 'while you wait' basis. And there's a crazy coincidence (that I won't go into detail on) that might mean that finding a convenient time to do that would not be too much of problem. But, that said, even at first play, this is P showing how a Guitar Bouzouki should be played. Glorious! And particularly glorious through headphones

In a perfect would I'd buy a Fodera MG Mini but it isn't perfect and I don't have $10k to drop on anything nevermind a custom bass. Or an even more perfect world be a sponsor of Ibanez and have them make me a short scale fanned-fret GWB35 with Aguilar or Nordstrand strung E-C. As neither are going to happen I bought a TMB35 about a month ago as reviews were solid although most about 4 string. Almost immediately or even before it was received I decided it was going to be a bit of a project bass to mod. (This seems to be a trend with the new shorter scale Ibanez basses and rightly so for the quality and pretty brain prices - @therealting has done an excellent job on a Mezzo). @walshy had a set of AG PJ5 HC so thought what the hell...they arrived next day and then so did the bass. Tip for everyone else; the routing for the Ibanez Dynamix pickups are not the same as the AGs. Before doing anything else I strung it E-C with some strings I had laying about (bought some Foderas to go on post-mod) and recorded this quickly - From Within - Michel Camilo (Anthony Jackson Bass Cover) and was already suitably impressed with feel and sound for £200ish. Luckily I had just spoken to my mate Jimmy about doing some fretwork on my basses and he recommended 'Rob' who does his guitars. So I set about getting them over to Rob with no rush on them. A few WhatsApp back and forth we agree it needed a bit of a reroute and the pickguard would need changing to cover any holes I left it all up to him. It'll be ready to pick up tomorrow after one more minor mod. I was excited anyway but after his comments I can't wait to pick it up tomorrow now: his nonchalant 'turned out alright hasn't it' got much more excitable with 'mate these pickups...I had to phone my bass player to tell him about the sound'. Then I got a pic...I'm totally into the new 'board shape. I have a 4 or so additional mods in mind but will get it back and finally play it a bit before deciding what to do next. Will check back in with a video/audio of it soon. Tomorrow will be a New Improved Bass Day

Unbiased review: Sire U5 short scale (30" scale) P/J bass First Impressions: Straight out of the box I notice some flaws that shouldn´t have gotten past quality control, but I´ll get into more detail regarding that later.* The neck looks wonderful and the rolled fret board and fret edges, combined with the satin finish on the back of the neck make it really comfortable to play. The body on this one is finished in a nice tobacco sunburst with a white binding which just radiates class. The bass is nice and light with a total weight of just 3,78 kg. With the bass hanging low on the strap I could notice just a small amount of neck dive, but when strapped higher on the body it appears to be nicely balanced. The neck: As mentioned above the C-shaped, hard maple neck feels really smooth, the rolled fret board edges make this neck a joy to play and the fretwork is nothing but excellent. The nut is made out of synthetic bone and 38 mm wide, which combined with the shorter scale makes it very easy to play for people with smaller hands. The fretboard has a 9,5" radius, which will make Fender players feel right at home when playing this bass. The black dots on both the fret board and the top edge of the fret board make it really easy to navigate around the neck without getting lost. The shorter scale length certainly makes a difference, making it a lot easier to do those wider stretches and fast runs, thus reducing hand fatigue. The body: The body is made out of North American alder with a very beautiful flamed maple veneer top that pops up nicely through the see through tobacco burst finish. The back of the body has a see through dark red finish which shows the nice grain of the alder underneath. It is a slim carved body shape that feels very comfortable while playing both standing and sitting down. Factory set-up: Straight out of the box, the playability was excellent, it was set-up with a medium low action, and I was able to set the action even lower with just a few tweaks of the bridge saddles and the truss rod, making it play even better without any disturbing fretbuzz noises. The split coil Precision pickups needed some tweaking as the pickups were set higher under the E and the G string than under the A and D string,resulting in a lack of volume in the mids. The same problem occurred with the bridge pickup which was a bit too close to the strings on the treble side and a bit too low on the bass side, but after some light tweaking with a screw driver I was able to balance the string to string volume pretty easily, which made the pickups sound a lot fuller in no time. Neck pocket, tuners, pots and knobs: Here we get to some of the flaws i mentioned in the beginning of this review. On this particular test-model there was a noticeable gap in the neck pocket (as seen in the pictures), also there were some scratches in the black paint on the aluminium knobs. Everything worked fine though, the tuners feel solid and do their job, the pots turn smoothly and seem to be of a decent quality and the black aluminium knobs that are used for the passive tone controls (volume/volume/tone) are definitely a nice touch. The bridge: The bridge is a sturdy vintage type bridge with threaded saddles, with grooves underneath that keep the saddles from moving sideways. It´s bolted firmly into the body and it allows for both top-loading and string through body stringing. Although there´s a lot of discussion concerning the up- and downsides of both these options the fact that you can choose between top-loading and string through body stringing definitely makes it easier to find a suitable set of strings for your personal style of playing. Again I was slightly disappointed in the quality control of the Indonesian factory where these are made as one of the bridge saddle was completely covered in rust. Amplified sound: After raising the pickup height to my preferences I was able to get a nice Precision bass tone out of the split coil pickup really easily, the jazz pickup sounded nice as well and although it might sound a little thin compared to more expensive jazz pickups it certainly had a nice tone and it combines very well with the Precision pickup. Some of the people that are used to having the very versatile pre-amp that comes standard on most Sire basses might have the feeling that they are missing out on something on this bass with only having the volume-neck pickup, volume-bridge pickup and overall tone controls, but to me, being a fan of passive basses, these easy controls really made me feel like coming home as you can have a variety of tones at your disposal without having to worry about running out of battery in the middle of a gig and/or accidentally touching a knob of the active pre-amp and thereby possibly overpowering the gain stage of your amp. All in all both these pickups sound really good considering the price point of this instrument, especially compared to the pickups that are in some of the similarly priced alternatives like the higher end Squier basses and although I will probably replace the pickups by a set of more expensive after market pickups at some point I can easily understand that 99% of the people that buy this bass will see no reason to change them at all and are totally happy with the sound of the bass as it is straight from the factory. Acoustic sound: Even when playing unamplified you can definitely hear you´re holding a quality instrument, the bass has plenty of natural volume and the hard maple neck gives it a snappy attack with plenty of brightness and resonance which makes it easy to hear all the details of your playing when doing some late night acoustic practice. Pros: - Superb playability - Rolled fretboard edges, rounded fret edges, excellent fretwork - Compact and lightweight - Despite it being a passive instrument it is still very versatile and it has wide range of tones on tap - The stock pickups sound pretty good, especially considering the price point of this instrument - The flamed maple top, body binding and aluminium knobs definitely give the instrument a classy look and make it look a lot more expensive than it actually is Cons: - * QUALITY CONTROL! As mentioned above a couple of times there were a couple of issues on this particular bass that should have not got past the quality control. As shown in the pictures there is a noticeable gap on the top side of the neck pocket, one of the bridge saddles is covered in rust, one of the aluminium knobs has some scratches in the paint and also in the truss rod cavity I could see some scratches. I must mention that this could just be "a bad one" though as none of the other Sire U5 owners that I´ve spoken to so far encountered any of these issues. - The tone control could do with a wider sweep, so experimenting with other capacitors might be one of the mods I would suggest for this bass. - The U5 does not come with a gig bag or case, so it might take some time to find a fitting case or gig bag for this bass. - Not really a bad thing, but compared to my Fender Mustang and Medium scale Squier Jaguar the U5 is about 0.3 kg heavier, at 3,78 kg it is still a very manageable weight, but I thought I should mention it anyway. Conclusion: Even though there clearly were some issues with this bass, I´m really impressed with the playability and overall quality and sound of the instrument. As I´ve talked about this with other U5 owners that I know and none of them mentioned having any issues like the ones I found on this particular bass. I choose to believe that I just got unlucky by receiving a "dud" and therefore I mailed Sire concerning the issues I found on this bass, and they agreed to send me a replacement immediately. So, thumbs up for their customer service! Since the (those few issues I talked about left aside) overall sound, quality and playability of the new Sire U5 left such a good impression on me I´m definitely considering keeping the new replacement if it turns out to be a "good one" this time. In the long run I do plan to replace the pickups with Dimarzio´s and while I´m at it redo some of the wiring and replace the bridge saddles with Graph tech replacements, but that has more to do with personal preference than necessity as the bass is probably good enough as it is for most people. At this point I´m really looking forward to getting the replacement as I´ve already tried most of the newer short and medium scale basses on the market today and if this new one has none of the issues this "bad one" had, it could easily be in my shortscale top two next to the Schecter Banshee bass (which has a slightly better bridge, lightweight tuners, carbon rods in the neck, but is also almost double the price and comes with only one pickup) and it could definitely become "my go to bass" for quite some time. Some extra info about the Sire factories: The CEO is Kyle Kim, and the company is an offshoot of his company Dame guitars. Dame is big in Korea but could not break the international market, so they started the Sire company in co-operation with Marcus Miller with the goal of putting high quality, yet affordable instruments in the hands of youngsters and musicians on a budget. While Kyle Kim´s other brand Dame guitars (Sire/Dame, see the link?) is produced in both the Korean and Indonesian factory Sire has expanded it´s factory to China in 2015, having the entire Sire range being produced at both the Indonesian and Chinese factories.*** ***Quote from Sire: "Hello Bass Players! We would like to let you know that our factory has expanded to China. Before, we had only a part of our factory in China that makes other parts of our products. But with a strong demand for our products worldwide, Sire Guitars expanded its full product line-up in China as well. So right now, basses are coming from our Indonesian and China factories. The reason why we expanded our factory to China is that all the component, parts, accessories and the new technology for building better quality instruments is based in China these days. Those who are familiar with musical instrument production will understand this. China has a great potential and possibilities in producing high quality instruments. Such as high quality CNC, 3D printer, preamp parts, coils and all the good components which is necessary in building guitars. So in order to pursue our revolutionary vision, Sire Guitars decided to expand in China, and we will continue to produce quality instruments at an insane low price. We've heard some of our customers who are worrying that our China made instruments quality will not the same with the Indonesians. We at Sire Guitars assure our customers that this doesn't affect the craftsmanship and quality Sire Guitars is known for. Our factory is not an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and we only produce Sire Guitars both in our factories within Indonesia and China with the same high quality standards. For everybody's information, other major brands of guitars and basses are manufactured in a number of OEM factories. This huge OEM factories deal with more 10 brands under 1 factory alone. There are higher risks for quality to be low within that process, but we at Sire Guitars choose not to accept any OEM orders as this can greatly affect our high standards for quality control. (By the way, we had been offered to make guitars and basses for some of the top-notch brand that everybody is aware of, but we refused to do this.)" Ps: I will add an update to this review as soon as the replacement U5 has arrived. Greets & Grooves! Bassdude's Bassment

I had recorder in school and piano lessons once a week after school. I ended up playing truant and missing the lessons my parents were paying for. Mum isn't interested in music and dad listened but never played. When (inevitably) they found out what I'd been up to, I knew to fear the wrath of my mother. It was with a certain bewildered relief therefore that the loving, gentle man my father always was, decided to handle the disciplinary hearing. He asked why I bunked off lessons when I clearly loved music. I told him yes but not that music. Two days later he came home with an electric guitar he'd seen advertised on the buy and sell notice board at work. He waited until he saw my bloody tattered finger tips after a few weeks of Bert Weedon or somesuch, and organised lessons with a young guy over the road. Oh and he built me my first amp out of an old radiogram. It wasn't just the single most important event in my teenage years, the start of a life long passion, but it was, and remains, the most wonderful inspiration for how to be a parent I could ever hope to achieve. I miss him so much, and I don't think he had any idea just what he'd done for me.

Nobody musical in my family and my parents thought pursuing music was a terrible idea. I started playing guitar at 13, and after a few months on a borrowed acoustic, asked for an Epi Les Paul Special II for Christmas, on offer from Soho Soundhouse for £99. "Can't you find a cheaper one. It's not like you can really play it anyway" was my Dad's response. When I wanted to take music for my GCSE options at 14, the blocks were put on by my parents in collusion with the head of year "You can't read music now, there's no point carrying on studying it". Didn't stop me playing, and a few years later my shitty unsigned band ended up being one of the first shitty unsigned bands to be offered a headline tour of O2 (or Carling as they were back then) Academy venues. With my parents still nonplussed, I was pressed to stop chasing my dreams and ended up at 21 working with my dad at the same company he'd worked for since he was 15 years old, and the band folded shortly afterwards. Seven years of increasingly dull corporate misery later, engaged, with an infant son and a second one on the way, I took a chance, to my parent's sheer horror, and left the sensible job to make a living from music. Until COVID struck, I'd managed to sustain a career for eight years, although I do very little bass playing now and primarily work as a sound engineer and tour manager. I don't see my parents any more, but when I landed the biggest gig of my career last summer, touring as a monitor engineer for an artist who's music was always played in our house growing up, I finally got some acknowledgement, with a one word comment from my dad on a post on my company's Facebook page after mixing the main stage headline slot at Boomtown Festival - "Congratulations". That was it. I didn't feel compelled to reply!

Never look into a heat gun - you’ll burn your brows off and probably your face too

I was thinking more cream pearl...

Just found this posted on Reddit, a bit harsh maybe....

Is it like this? Tort would look better.

I’ve given stuff to a local pub which hosts a regular open-mic/jam night. They attract a lot of youngsters who don’t have much gear themselves.

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I think the only option would be to put another neck in there.

I have this album & the 12" as well. I always wish it was longer but it is 2:33 of loveliness! The 12" adds nothing to the album version - maybe a bit thumpier in the low end but not worth the money I paid for it though. Maybe I was feeling a little Dennis Brown at the time. . . I have the original import of this as well Prefer this one though: I think this might have been my first 12" reggae purchase. Not sure though, it may have been this:

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Isn’t that just @TheGreeks bass before it got left in the sun and melted a bit?

It’s how the early left-handers were made !

Love that Bassline, And again here by Jacob miller 1976

The body is getting some paint this week I’m told. Really looking forward to seeing the progress. I shall report back in due course.

I quite fancy one of these

I have a couple of Eastwood basses & like them a lot. My favourite bass player / influence Sami Yaffa was playing the Orange Eastwood for a while. I wouldn't normally be affording the Gretsch but it was second hand & I had that payout. 😻

Still looking for some Diamond Socks to wear with some Earthman Shoes. . .

Heft! (I'll get my coat)

Round here? Throw a stick!

Local Youth club??

It works out quite well really as by Christmas I'll have a shortage of cash to match the shortage of basses 😫

Whilst this is true, for the pedals @mik900 has described I’d just use a One Spot (or similar) daisy chain. Seems a little overkill to get a full blown power supply just for a Sansamp and a tuner.

Driftwood Junior made by my son from wood found on an Essex beach. 1936 Regal Parlour 1931 National Triolian I don't play bass anymore if I can help it - I just sits myself down, sticks a glass wine bottleneck on my pinkie and whine away until her highness tells me to shut up.😎