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With much thanks to Jon @Bassassin for all his advice, knowledge and patience. I've had the hots for one of the old, better quality Japanese 'SG' style basses for a while and this one popped up for sale on Reverb at a reasonable price. A Fujigen made, Antoria branded, short scale EB-3 copy finished in what I guess you'd describe as a dark walnut lacquer. It arrived a couple of weeks ago now. A serial number on the back of the front pickup dates that, at least, to 4th August 1972 and, apart from a few dings in the paint, it seems in remarkably good nick for a bass that is approaching it's half century. Lots of life in the frets. I believe everything is original and, more importantly, still works. It arrived absolutely spotlessly clean, the neck dead straight and the action to my liking so all I needed to do was tune it up and lower the bridge pickup a tad to balance the output. I took off the middle chrome hand rest that I found rather in the way and there was a (original?) foam mute under the strings at the bridge that I also removed. The bridge adjustment is crude but, then again, so is my playing Edit - re-strung it with my favoured TI Flats. Weighs in at 3.4kg and sits nicely on the strap, no neck dive. Slim, shallow neck with a nut width of maybe 39mm. Have to say I am really impressed. Build quality is everything you would hope from an early Fujigen. It is the tone I was unprepared for. The neck pickup in particular is warm with HUGE character, a million miles from the Epiphone EB-0 I had years ago, even with the industry standard Dimarzio upgrade. Wander up to the 7th-12th fret area and there is a hollow, almost choral sound - hard to describe but I like it lots. And that is just at home. I suspect that pushed it will break up nicely and growl - really looking forward to trying it in the context of my blues trio. I have one of the Gibson Les Paul Jnr DC basses and I love it to bits. But, big question, do I prefer this? Possibly. I like that this is old. I like the whole quality Japanese copy thing. I particularly like that it cost me well under £300.

Sorry to hear about the crap you're going through. Your description of my responses on here is accurate in every sense and I apologise to the folks on here for that. I was a Sir Richard Head III, 100%, no mitigation. I'm also sorry that the gear we discussed for your charity didn't work out, although having checked I've no idea what the story is there. Anyway, if you need to move on gear, do not see this forum as a stinky poo show just because on occasion an individual member acts like a Sir Richard Head III, there are some extraordinary people here, who will support, advise and humour as appropriate. Ped, my apologies. BC members, my apologies. Alex, my apologies with the condition that I really do wish i hadn't ripped my finger open and carried the residual anger about it for about a year. No, scrap that, my apologies. I think there are moments in time when you realise you need to perhaps take a good look at yourself, so please trust me when i say I am. Anyway, back to the pedal Chris

Well that was a fun way to spend a Sunday lunch. I too don't come here that often. Only when looking for something or have something to sell. I too have a year from hell, and have not acted as well as I should to some folk due to the stress - it's very easy to judge. Pre Covid my best friend was murdered, My studio has been effectively closed since March, all touring work obvs out the window, and in September my lifelong partner was discovered to have cancer. Now post major surgery, we are about to start chemo. I'm selling gear to make ends meet and clear space as I do when times are hard, but this shitshow made me think again about doing so on here. I particularly liked @Beedster throwing his teddy out the pram, then airing some dirty washing, and shaking @Alex like a dog with a rabbit on the grounds of him not liking criticism Thought it might be a good time to bring up the conversation I had with la Beedster when he very kindly offered some gear on here free to a charity. Got him a lot of kudos publicly that did... I run a music based charity helping disabled and deprived folk enjoy what we take for granted. I sent him info and have a guess what happened folks... Anyhoo I came for a review of the Machinist. Didn't get very far, but now despite the times, I'm gonna go buy one. A) because dirt is my fav thing and B) I want to help Alex out. He and his company have been decent with me and folk I work for, and I admire what he does. I might put a review up

An original on which I contributed the bassline and BVs was played this afternoon on the radio. OK, it was internet radio being broadcast from someone's back bedroom somewhere ... we're not talking Radio 2 or Capital here. But it remains my first ever radio broadcast. Box ticked. Next up? Television. 😂

A 1x10 Trace Elf just got delivered to me and I’m so impressed. I have the Elf amp and an Elf 1x10 cab for about the past year. I mainly play with the Elf cab and a VT500 head, using the Elf in my bag as a backup just in case. Anyway, I plugged in the 1x10 combo and POW! Bags of power, great sound, great tone for a little speaker and so light and portable! Where this really sings though is when you add the 1x10 extension cab. I can’t get over the power/heft for such a little lad!! These are also built like a brick outhouse my cab fell from a stand during a gig and not even a scratch on it. Definitely worth a look into if you are in the market for a lightweight portable rig.

Hahah not quite, I wish it were true as I'm not exactly falling over my money at the moment.... I am doing 2 builds though. My last build, a Carl Thompson tribute, worked out so well I decided to do a couple more and see if anyone would be interested in buying. This time I'm building both a bass version and also a short scale 6 string piccolo bass. AKA a "guitar". Starting as always with wood selection. I'm using up some stock I've had lying around as much as possible. So the body wings are sapele. The bass is getting a centre core made from a sandwich of figured sapele and fumed ash (this was leftover from another project). The guitar body is getting a centre core of Iroko, which I've not used until now. For the necks I'm going with a maple & wenge lamination on the bass. And a 3-piece maple lamination on the guitar. Both will have scarf joint headstocks and wenge fretboards, Here you can see my scarf joint jig. I built this so the guide rails can be pressed against the baseplate on my belt sander Gluing up the bass headstock with a wenge sandwich to create a fun detail. So here we've got all the bodies glued up, ready for planing down to final thickness. And the necks all cut & shaped. And getting my fretboards all done. I print out the layouts from Ekips on self adhesive vinyl. Using real MOP marker dots here, and boy those side dots sure are a pain to install. Here's those bodies. All planed down and carved. Once the necks are complete I make the pockets by using straightedges to form a routing template conforming to the neck. Et voila! Both builds all necked up. Also, the headstocks have a wenge veneer now. Getting to work on neck carving here. I go about his in the few ways. On the all maple neck I actually used my bandsaw to slice away a lot of material like a wooden kebab. Then I do the rest with a shinto rasp and drill mounted drum sanders. In the background is all the work I should be doing instead of wasting my time on this luthiery nonsense. Tapping in some frets with the finest of tools. Pickup cavities routed, and this one is just about ready for finishing. And, much applications of shellac later, this is where we are on this build. Just awaiting pickups & sundry hardware which should hopefully arrive next week. And here is where I currently am on the bass build. More to come as I get to it!

That Russian P I bought from @Beedster now with Badass II and 1972 tort and pick ups. CTS pots and switchcraft Jack. Man she growl!!! Look how pretty she is.

Yesterday’s updated Precision family picture, all ready for Xmas 😂

reidmar 750 and proline 410. Very recent, only managed one rehearsal

1990 Stage I 5string with Bartolini preamp and pickups 1991 Stage I 4string with EMG preamp and pickups 

This is fabulous news - but wait. I was foolish enough to click on one of the pro Trump you tube blogs so I've suddenly received a number in my You Tube feed - I read one which had some recent Trump clips (the ones where he's at a little desk with a huge badge on it, and seemingly wearing, what the Americans call a diaper (adult nappy in English) under his suit. So here's the gen:- 1) Trump is taking personal credit for all vaccines wherever they come from 2) The democrats are all criminals who should be locked up 3) Joe Biden couldn't possibly have received so many votes - and some of them may be from illegal immigrants 😏 4) God (and lots of evangelists who may be considered certifiable in other countries) are on Trump's side 5) Any vote for the democrats is suspicious and may represent voting fraud (without any evidence but rhetoric and unsubstantiated allegation and the republicans couldn't possibly have received any corrupt or fraudulent votes) Any other view is fake news and a conspiracy (and there is no way Trump is trying to stage a coup d'etat as per the sort of corrupt dictators in some smaller countries have done in the past). So there is the source of all the vaccines proposed 👍😂

Couple of pics. He did a lovely job.

An unexpected bitsa. Recently, I posted in the Wanted section, looking for a sonic blue Squier Classic Vibe Precision Bass, to which @Philboyo duly obliged. However, on arrival I realised I didn't get on with the shallow C-shaped neck; that was the reason I sold my old Fiesta Red CV Precision. I was fortunate enough to find a Japanese Squier SQ series P Bass near me for cheap, so picked that up a couple of weeks ago and gave it to my guitar tech, along with a vintage-style, threaded-saddle bridge to replace the high mass stock unit, and a set of Gotoh FB30 lollipop tuners which were intended for another bass, but dropped into the existing screw holes and replaced the crap Wilkinsons that came with the neck. It needed a fret dress, a new nut, and the screw holes in the heel of the neck were slightly stripped, so had to be filled and redrilled, so a bit more work than was expected, but now it's all together it plays wonderfully.

Gorgeous. This is exactly what I want to do to my sub ray4

Apparently the story of the Fabulous Wealthy Tarts name was that they (along with Pino) were playing with Jools Holland (before Paul Young). Jools wanted to have a name for the band and especially the backing singers. They agreed as long as it didn’t make them “sound cheap”! Over to Jools...

I saw Paul Young around this time, great band. The backing vocalists were introduced as ‘The Fabulous Wealthy Tarts’. The album ‘No Parlez’ had just been released, first time I’d heard of Pino. Happy days.

he's reminded me of how not good my playing is 😪

The only way is Harrow 😀

Hi mate, great question. First thing, are the routs on a body standard Fender size, especially the neck pocket and PUPs, I've found a few that weren't Second, price, it's tempting to pay £300 for a lovely neck but the bass is eventually going to cost more than a complete bass you could buy new. Unless it's really special, I try to stay under £150 each for both bodies and neck (my black relic body broke this rule, as did 'The Russian' and the Musikraft neck) Third, always buy used, many of the new parts that sell below £100 on eBay are simply not very good, for example a body I bought a while back had a pocket that put it about 5 degrees out of line with the neck. NEVER get into an auction with a seller of bespoke items, there's a guy at present on ebay who has a photo of a nicely reliced body on the item page, but this is not the item you'll get, he's going to make that once the auction closes. And let's face it, the quality of the body you get is going to be a function of your winning bid, the guy is not going to spend weeks perfecting your body and relic finish if the winning bid was £90! Re parts, Warmoth and Allparts make consistently great parts, Mighty Mite slightly less so. Fender and Squier parts are generally good. I would stay clear of nay body or neck that has been deliberately reliced, some of the stuff that people do to wood is shocking, but can look OK in the photos on eBay Fourth do not but from the US, the part will cost you at least twice as much by the time it gets to your door I'm sure others will add much more

Just picked up a 78 P bass and not just any old Precision, it’s my first decent bass, the one that I cut my teeth on and then sold about 33 years ago. I sold it back in the 80s when I started using active basses. I had two precisions and sold the good one as it was worth a few quid more! Always wished that I had sold the other one instead. It just came up for sale by a guy who's got a studio in Leeds. The only problem is that I paid five times what I sold it for all those years ago! I remember somebody here posting about buying back their old P bass. Like him, I’ve had a couple of precisions, but they never seemed to compare to ‘my’ old P bass. To me, Fender Precisions define what an electric bass is, despite me happily using many other basses over the years. I remember that when I originally bought this bass, I knew that I was now going to be a proper bass player! You have to remember that when I started playing, virtually all of our heroes played a precision! A few played Ricks and the odd one played a jazz bass, but me finally having my own P bass was a big thing! Quite emotional to get it back...

Yeah I have. Amazing tonal variety if that's your thing. Personally I get a sound I like and stay there. Big old chunky neck on this baby. If you like them thin front to back this may not be for you. But the access to upper frets is great, it looks good even though pale fretboards are not my favourite, and sounds huge too. Downside? The only thing I've found is if you like slapping and pulling the huge neck pick up leaves you very little room for manoeuvre. There's no space to get fingers under the string comfortably.

It takes proper fortitude to hold your hands up like that. I applaud you, Sir. 👏👏👏

Hartke VXL, first edition, built like a tank, spend the other 80-100 notes on bar snacks and mince pies

This is the same song but Pino plays some outrageous stuff on this version, especially near the end.

I thought this thread was going to be about spotting notable bassists on public transport!

The producers of Midsomer Murders wanted our band for filming some village fete scenes. I declined because I didn’t want to become yet another murder victim. Actually I couldn’t get away from my day job but the above is a better story.

Looks great!

You've got some awesome kit on that board! If you mail it to BC OCD Services Ltd c/o @lee650 they will (a) tidy it up beautifully for you (for the cost of return postage) and (b) probably put an offer in for several pedals... 😁

I think you’re right. I saw them at a venue in Hull called Dingwalls, which was part of the famous London venue’s attempt to open more clubs throughout the UK. Didn’t last long I’m afraid, 6 months max. Was a great venue though, small/medium sized room that had previously been a German style drinking establishment. I saw loads of great gigs there - as well as Paul Young they included Bo Diddley, Aztec Camera, Orange Juice, Eurythmics and John Martin as well as many great local bands.

I remember vividly the thrill of hearing Tommy Vance reading out my name on The Friday Rock Show when I did a session for them in 1981. What I never realised at the time, when I was 17, was that this would probably be the highlight of my career 😂

I'd expect better quality from nigh-on a grand's worth of cab, frankly.

I've got enough digital and computerised annoyance in my life that I don't want to introduce it to other parts of my life where I don't find it beneficial. I like digital recording because it makes massive track count and good sound quality affordable (not really bothered about all the editing potential, I'd rather just nail a good vibe as live as possible). I like streaming audio at home because its freed up a lot of space now I have small people taking over our house and it allows us to play random Disney things without buying the CDs. I don't like anything with menus etc when I'm in my musician instrument-playing headspace - I want a knob or a switch to do what it does. I hate when things crash. I don't want to plug a USB into my amp. And I don't like the tendency of digital gear to become obsolete, or fail and be unrepairable. How many of us have analogue stompboxes that are decades old and still sound good? How many of us have older digital FX that we still use? Yes, digital gear can be cheaper and yes it can give more options. But unless I can see a clear benefit for how I approach music then I don't want to use it. Hopefully some musicians will have a similar viewpoint and will buy our stuff - for everyone else there are lots of alternatives!

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I don't want to make just another amp with a Barefaced logo on. There's a lot of stuff I want to do with an amp, and I want to build it here and make it as serviceable and long lasting as possible because that's something I believe in. It's not easy to do...