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I blagged my way into a clinic with FRP as I was obsessed with TOP and particularly his bass playing. I asked so many questions that the people running it started ingnoring my hand each time it went up. Afterwards we got chatting to him and he was very self deprecating. I Showed him my transcriptions and he was amazed that anyone would bother. After a great chat he insisted that my mate and I go to the bands gig at the Forum that night on his guest list. Sure enough when we arrived our names were down. As they came on stage the entire band shook me and my mates hands. After the final encore the entire band did the same. I never got to say thanks him. He was my biggest inspiration and it was one of those rare times when your idol exceeds your expectations. RIP FRP.

Pics as promised. Not pristine in any way, but a very nice bass none the less. But it certainly need a deep clean!

Took delivery of this head today 😊 my dream set up is pretty much complete: I think I’m bass related GAS free... (just need a nice fretless)

She should join, it's the best they've sounded since Master of Puppets.

If the look & feel of the bass are a direct result of decades of you playing it ... leave it alone! If you do nothing now, then you retain the option to something later. If you do a refin now then that history is destroyed, and you can never get it back.

Status necks on any bass - winner

I know its old, but ive not seen this one before. What a great ‘rock’ voice. Never noticed she could do this before. She even appreciates the bass player 😁

Yes you have seen them before, But got mine outside today for a play and a few photo's.

A couple of people asked for pics, these are as recent as I have, the blurrier one was taken around the time when I first got her.

Perhaps not your genre but this is another example of just how good she is:

I've always thought that, even when I first looked at the website years ago it seemed poor. Weird for a company that specialises in cutting edge graphite basses has a crap website, wonder if you could trade them a new Web design for a bass 😁

Maybe one of them is holding the young lady’s trousers. Why is she half-dressed for a rehearsal?

Great quote this morning from Mark Hamill: "That debate was the worst thing I've ever seen, and I was in the Star Wars Holiday Special."

I have been living with a my new Stoneham YI200 valve amp for a week now and I would like to share my thoughts on this British designed and made light weight valve amp. I have no affiliation to Stoneham. The signal chain is as follows, Jack Casady Bass into a Flattley Bass Compressor and Flattley Bass Fuzz using Chord Company Cream Cables. My quest was to find a light weight valve amp ( no more than 20kg ), around 200 watts and with a simple passive tone stack. After looking at the usual manufactures that are seen in music shops I came across an old Basschat thread talking about a 200w Stoneham prototype amp yet unnamed. The tread explained the amp would be light weight and be in the 200 - 300w range. Later it turned out the Northern Basschat guys named the amp YI-200. Nothing more was said about the amp that I could find so I went on a search to get more info and to look for a chance to buy it. The amp arrived from Martin at Stoneham in its custom flight case last week. I opened the packaging and lifted out the amp and was instantly taken aback by the weight. The last time I lifted a valve amp was my old Laney Nexus from about 9 years ago. I remember damaging my back after lifting it up at an outdoor gig. Since then Ive used class D amps but have never really been satisfied with the sonic results. The amp weighs around 18kg and even I with my damaged spine found the lift just manageable ..... now that's a big win in my books. Now for the exciting bit....... Plugging it in. The Jack Casady Bass was plugged straight in without any effects at this stage. I sold of most of my music gear during the first lock down so my cab choices are very limited. I have an old Fender BXR combo that I use just the speaker part, so this was the first go to cab. The amp fired up without a hiss, buzz or fart, which was a good sign. I few valve amps that I have had in the past were terrible for noise on switch on. The amp uses a simple passive tone stack so I set it to the known flat ( ish ) position of Treble and Bass completely off with the Mid set to full. Input gain was set to 3 O'clock position and I set the master volume to the 10 O'clock position. I flicked the amp off standby and was nearly blown out off my seat............ Wow that was loud. I turned the amp down to 7 O"clock and played my first notes. The sound was exactly as I would of expected from a clean well designed valve amp. It had midrange harmonic detail that you simply can't get from anything other than a full valve amp. IMHO. At these setting the amp was indeed tonally flat so I started to just the tone controls. They are subtle in use but have enough range to sculpt a good sound. I settled on the bass and mid controls set to around noon. This gives a subtle bass boost with a bit of mid cut, perfect for my Jack Casady. The amp has 7 valves in total, 3 pre and 4 power. Three ECC83 ( 12AX7 ) handle the preamp duties and four KT120 valves give just under 300 watts of clean output power. Plenty of power for any gig that I will need now and in the future. I started to turn the volume up and up until the house was shaking with every note played. The tone and feel did not change it just got VERY loud. Next was to give it a little overdrive so I turned the input gain fully up. The bass started to growl as the preamp valves started to overdrive. The sound was as expected, perfect for rock or just to have fun. Now this is not my usual setting as I prefer a clean sound so I backed the gain off to around 3 O'clock and it regained its clean composure. The previous mentioned Fender combo that I had been using as a cab has now been sold so I'm without a speaker. I worked out a method to connect the amp up to one of my hifi speakers ( HECO DIREKT ). This turned out to really show off what the amps tonal qualities were. My hifi speakers are less coloured tonally than your normal bass speaker cab. I kept the setting the same and connected the two together. The sound tightened up but did not change its fundamental character which is a win. I'm now using the hifi speakers at home for practice until I can get another cab.................Suggestions most welcome. In summery the amp is clean, refined and the mids contain so much harmonic detail you would not wont for anything else. It's relatively cheap to revalve and weighs less then some class AB amps I've owned. Thank you Martin at Stoneham for an amazing product.

More photos from the paint shop. I’ve picked a few out of the vast amount that I’ve been sent. I know relicing is not everyones cup of Darjeeling, but I find it really interesting seeing the transformation from nice and shiny to worn in. Still waiting for the lacquer to go off properly, but just the shake and bake to go now. I foresee this being exactly how I imagined it courtesy of Professor David Wilson, Paintworks Dept, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

This.

I wouldn’t have said she was dressed up as such, just dressed the part. I can imagine her going down to Starbucks afterwards wearing the same outfit lol.

I think the best of way of establishing whether it started out as a Fender would be to check previous Fender models So no, it didn't start out life as a genuine Fender

I have been living with a my new Stoneham YI200 valve amp for a week now and I would like to share my thoughts on this British designed and made light weight valve amp. I have no affiliation to Stoneham. The signal chain is as follows, Jack Casady Bass into a Flattley Bass Compressor and Flattley Bass Fuzz using Chord Company Cream Cables. My quest was to find a light weight valve amp ( no more than 20kg ), around 200 watts and with a simple passive tone stack. After looking at the usual manufactures that are seen in music shops I came across an old Basschat thread talking about a 200w Stoneham prototype amp yet unnamed. The tread explained the amp would be light weight and be in the 200 - 300w range. Later it turned out the Northern Basschat guys named the amp YI-200. Nothing more was said about the amp that I could find so I went on a search to get more info and to look for a chance to buy it. The amp arrived from Martin at Stoneham in its custom flight case last week. I opened the packaging and lifted out the amp and was instantly taken aback by the weight. The last time I lifted a valve amp was my old Laney Nexus from about 9 years ago. I remember damaging my back after lifting it up at an out door gig. Since then I have been using class D amps but have never really been satisfied with the sonic results. The amp weighs around 18kg and even I with my damaged spine I found the lift just manageable ..... now that's a big win in my books. Now for the exciting bit....... Plug it in. Bass was plugged straight in without any effects at this stage. I sold of most of my music gear during the first lock down so my cab choices are very limited. I have an old Fender BXR combo that I use just the speaker part for so this was was first go to cab. The amp fired up without a hiss, buzz or fart, which was a good sign. I few valve amps that I have had in the past were terrible for noise on switch on. The amp uses a simple passive tone stack so I set it to the known flat ( ish ) position of Treble and Bass completely off with the Mid set to full. Input gain was set to 3 O'clock position and I set the master volume to the 10 O'clock position. I flicked the amp off standby and was nearly blown out off my seat............ Wow that was loud. I turned the amp down to 7 O"clock and played my first notes. The sound was exactly as I would of expected from a clean well designed valve amp. It had midrange harmonic detail that you simply can't get from anything other than a full valve amp. IMHO. At these setting the amp was indeed tonally flat so I started to just the tone controls. They are subtle in use but have enough range to sculpt a good sound. I settled on the bass and mid controls set to around noon. This gives a subtle bass boost with a bit of mid cut, perfect for my Jack Casady. The amp has 7 valves in total, 3 pre and 4 power. Three ECC83 ( 12AX7 ) handle the preamp duties and four KT120 valves give just under 300 watts of clean output power. Plenty of power for any gig that I will need now and in the future. I started to turn the volume up and up until the house was shaking with every note played. The tone and feel did not change it just got VERY loud. Next was to give it a little overdrive so I turned the input gain fully up. The bass started to growl and fuzz as the preamp valves started to overdrive. The sound was as expected, perfect for rock or just to have fun. Now this is not my usual setting as I prefer a clean sound so I backed the gain off to around 3 O'clock and it regained its clean composure. The previous mentioned Fender combo that I had been using as a cab has now beed sold so Im without a speaker, until I worked out a method to contact the amp up to one of my hifi speakers ( HECO DIREKT ). This turned out to really show what the amps tonal qualities were. My hifi speakers a less coloured tonally than your normal bass speaker cab. I kept the setting the same and connected the two together. The sound tightened up but did not change its fundamental character which is a win. I'm now using the hifi speakers at home for practice until I can get another cab.................Suggestions most welcome. In summery the amp is clean, refined and the mids contain so much harmonic detail you would not wont for anything. Thank you Martin at Stoneham for an amazing product.

I have always liked Ga Ga. she has an incredible voice. No fakery or auto tune from her!

I bought a Quad amp in 1971 and still have it. I also had a pair of Tannoy Chatsworths at the same time but sold them ten years ago for £1k, replacing them with a smaller, but not quite as good, pair of Tannoys. I originally had a good collection of vinyl kept in mint condition but unwisely threw them all out when we moved two houses ago. The CD player came along a bit later. So the amp has been with me for nearly fifty years and is still going strong. Edit: And thank you to all those kind people who reacted so favourably towards this post. I should add that in all those 50 years the amp/preamp haven't been revalved. I presume they’ve got valves.

Hi All, Just wanted to share a couple of photos of my most recent acquisition. First HB purchase and for the price point (99GBP) it's fantastic!

Just oil and a black guard.

I had 4 hours left of September!!! 4 whole hours! Well inside. 😁

Yes I had a flurry of images from him today too. I think it looks sweet, the relic work is just about spot on. He’s pretty damn good

@NoirBass WOW! 🤩

I have preordered, sold enough gear to cover the whole thing. Now it is just the waiting left to do.

Heard from Paul a few days back, he was wondering about a Peavey Fury. Handily enough I had the very thing he was after 🙂 A super easy deal and the Fury is now in Essex. Cheers Paul, was a pleasure dealing with you 👍

I had the 55-02, now have the 55-01....as good as the 02 and also much more upgradeable!... great the 02, but a modded 01 is the nuts nuts.

I've had that with a new set of strings, and then not with a replacement, so @Beedster's suggestion looks likely to me. If you like higher action, the amount of compensation required is larger, and it can highlight when you get weird strings like that.

I offer group discounts...

My board 😁

If I’m ever interested in finding out info about what a manufacturer produces I always go straight to the website. If that doesn’t work I usually email them. I always find it a bit strange when people ask on forums without even looking on the manufacturers site.

Yep, I’m a big fan of her’s. Not just for the voice though 😬

See also Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas with Slash. She went up in my estimation after I heard Beautiful Dangerous.

Using the wrong tool for the job rarely ends well.

There are many ways to skin a cat, what is critical is understanding the difference between real performance and marketing performance. There are also plenty of companies/designers that did not understand how the ratings were derived and how the protection schemes were mapped to the various performance parameters, so in order to keep their products from shutting down (or failing), some chose to derate the modules in order to make them work. This is true of several of the modules, where there are different levels of performance depending on the amount of engineering that a company was willing to invest. Regarding the 250ASX2, there is a lot of hidden additional performance available provided the designer understands the intricacies of the part. I actually have a patent on some aspects of this as it relates to this part and it's based on close to 20 years of historical hands on design experience with IcePower products going back to some touring pro audio products I designed or consulted on. The more you know about a subject like this, the more you realize that you don't know... and the more interesting it becomes.

The honourable Mr. Green and his forces can also tint the neck, and satin finish is possible... I like the no-dots-in-the-front, which is one more option in the list. In the order phase I was thinking about the price a bit, but I received something special from the team. And lady Dawn personally called me to tell, that the neck was ready to be sent. Although there were extra options, the neck came earlier than expected. Talk about customer experience... Most of all I love the stability of the neck. It is there no matter what weather. The truss rod does exist, but there is no need to touch it at all.

I'm currently using my studio set up more to make my own music, but I do have a hifi - here with the Leema Xavier speakers - also have some Ditton 66 series 2. Kit is Clearaudio Revolution/SME3009/AudioNote cart into EAR 834Pdeluxe phono, plus Advantage CD player, Denon dvd all into Bow Warlock Pre-amp and Bryston 14bsst power amp. Sounds alright!

Not a pedalboard, but the collection that it comes from...