Leaderboard

First Video - bit ropey, I’ve possibly tweaked the bridge to be too low, so there’s a bit of rattle going on. I’m going to leave it now until the strings settle. Second Vid - just seeing how viable it’ll be on some new ideas I’m sending the band. I’ve been doing these on my Spector so I have to remind myself the JC is a bit more agricultural 😂

The ever changing Trav bass couch...

I almost did...

I'm going to be being disappointed that I might actually have to meet people in person again.

So I chiselled the moved piece flat so that I could properly detect any movement. I didn't want to remove it because that bridge over the trussrod end thread is useful for keeping wood glue out of the thread So basically the nylon block is supposed to be fixed. Theoretically there are two timber haunches (marked in yellow) stopping it simply moving in the direction of the arrow when the trussrod is tightened. But, clearly, it has moved at some stage. It's moved forward to leave that small gap at the back and enough for the top of the nylon to snap the timber bridge over the rod. That may have happened the very first time the trussrod was tightened - it is only about 3mm thick and the force is pushing it's weakest grain line. Or it maybe that the haunches themselves are weakened and every time force is applied, the block moves forward and loses the force applied to the rod. So now I can see right up close, I can do a live stress test. First I clamp a block along the neck - I am not applying downward pressure - but I am stopping the neck rising up from flat: And now, watching the block and split wood very closely, I start tightening the trussrod. The neck can't go anywhere so the allen key starts becoming difficult to turn. I turn it to the 'luthier's touch-point' - the point where you would normally stop because you know from experience (quite) that much more will break the rod. And it passed with flying colours. No movement, no creaking, no cracking. This will be fine in service. So the neck and rod are confirmed sound and now I can get on and start making the new fretboard. In the meantime, there's a Wall 1e pro template winging its way across to me to start thinking about the body that this will eventually be fitted to. As always, thanks for looking

Just to clarify, I've successfully navigated opening the box without injury.....didn't feel particularly high risk tbh.... 🙄

Took a few pics today. Really loving this bass. I’m finding it really comfortable to play. It’s wearing some rather old Cobalt Flats currently which suit it really well. They came off my P bass as they were too lively, so as you can see they’re chewed up pretty badly at the headstock - but they’ve been stable for a few weeks now and it would be a shame to waste them!

Landed today! Nice box and well presented. I've only had 15 mins with it at lowish volumes with a clean amp (streamliner). Obviously need to test this in a band context at volume with my main amp, because dirt never the same at home, but my first impression is really solid. A really nice spread of tonal flavour on both the distortion and fuzz sides and engaging both delivers a fatter slab of them both. I'll tinker with it more over time of course, but wondered if anyone elses had landed, and thought I'd throw a couple of pics up (sorry for the mess...rebuilding my board)✌️

Final update (now with audio sample) : Original post : Just got my yearly revenue of streaming/playback money from my music production and it excelled all expectation, almost thought that it might had been a mistake. I am not complaining though. So I decided to use most of the money on musical gear, among that a 6 string bass, which is the Ibanez SR306EB in the weathered black finish. This is going to be my first 6 string bass, and I am really looking forward to get it. I am going to tune it in D standard tuning though (D - G - C - F - A# - D#), as in 2 half steps bellow regular E standard 4 string bass tuning, and I've ordered strings to accommodate that too. I'd imagine it will be very useful both for my progressive psychedlic stoner rock bass/vocal and drums duo that I have with a drummer friend of mine and for my drone/ambient solo project. Generally it gets really good reviews and the demos of it I have been able to find on YouTube sounds great too. Looks like this (Nyatoh body, 5 piece Maple/Walnut neck, 24 medium fret Jatoba fretboard, 54mm nut, 16.5mm string spacing) :

The box is made from plywood off cuts from the cabinets. Makes sense to keep costs down and is Eco friendly. Box is well sized, great fit for the pedal, safe transport. Thats a winner in my book

Have to say Neil has been such a great guy answering so many questions i've been storing over the years. He has shared some of his vast knowledge about everything from basses, amps, strings, playing and recording. He has confirmed my thoughts that he is a true gent and just a really nice guy. I was gobsmacked that he even took the time to reply. Just goes to show that some pros are still nice people after the fame. Dave

i m tyyyoiing ths witttttthhhmu nose becooooss i m sitttingg onn myy handf to stop mw makinnnnn a pollllitiiiicl commmnt whuch wooood gt the thred ckosed.

Keep an eye on my next review gear videos in Guitar Interactive, I think I have a new angle!

I've had some of these and thought they were very good. You can make an offer, got mine for a tenner. 😉

Got mine. Box sounds great

I call that my 'cellar by desklight' look. I believe Dulux are interested

Sorry mate. Kids have gone to Blackpool illuminations so I’ve got 5 minutes without Iris or Maggie climbing on my head...and Dan/Ella airdropping irrelevant teenage memes or Gifs. ”DID YOU SEE THAT ONE DAD...IT WAS WELL FUNNY” 🙄😂

Well it all got a bit weird! I bought this Chapman pictured below as my ‘congratulations for not dying bass’ after the whole COVID thing. It was money I couldn’t afford, but I was struggling to manage the weight of my jazz bass and found that playing really helped me mentally and cognitively. So I bought it. ...But I had to keep it in the living room for fear of mould getting in the open pore wood (my gear is in the cellar) which wasn’t ideal. Nor was having borrowed the money from savings to buy it, or the fear of damaging such a beautiful (to me) finish with my clumsyness or the kids knocking it over in the living room, or making a dent with my thumb while playing (done this to Warwicks before). So sadly, I sold it. I also, even more sadly, sold my lake placid blue fender marauder guitar as I’m not playing guitar anymore. I started looking around at Harley bentons, (I needed a maple neck for the cellar an all, and I fancied a musicman humbucker ) I also looked at sire (I fancied active, but like having a passive tone control and like fender shapes) But also quite fancied a P bass sound...but don’t like p basses...and I missed the lovely blue of my marauder and whatever I got had to be cheap and light. A big ask! Then I spotted this Cort GB74 ‘gig’. Cort is a brand I’ve always sniffed at. It was cheap, light, had a maple neck, was the right colour, with a p pickup, a humbucker a jazz single coil and active electronics with passive mode with a tone control! Literally everything I’m looking for in one bass. Bar the block markers (decals incoming!) I pulled the trigger and it came on Weds Apparently it’s made in the same place as Lakland skylines and it has a sandberg preamp. It feels lovely and familiar, is set up perfectly, hip shot ultra lite tuners are dead stable. Sounds fab and let’s me jump from passsive p to active jazz to musicman (ish) all in one bass. Plus that brilliant truss rod adjustment location and what is basically a badass bridge as standard. Its not the prettiest or most prestigious bass I’ve owned. But it’s perfect for the music I play and I’m not worried about it getting bumped or nicked. The negatives... I don’t like the plain white pickguard, I’ll have to have a custom Pearl one made. The bridge pickup has a little buzz. Only a little. The satin neck looks anaemic but feels amazing. no blocks and binding. The MM sound isn’t quite as close as I’d like, but whatever. It has a silly name! (Who calls a bass ‘Gig’) I certainly won’t be sniffing at Cort anymore! It looks ‘stretched’ in the pics, it’s not. It’s a jazz shape near as damnit. I just took poor pictures🤣

When Matt visited my workshop, he decided to go for a sunburst type finish and he also decided to give the bass a retro vintage look with a chrome control plate and Tort' scratch plate. Well today I finished the base colours and sealer coats. I now only have the top clear polyester coats to do and then a flat and polish to finish the paint job. Here's how the sunburst colours went.

Every. Single. Time. 😂

Well, this morning the 4-sticks of Luminlay arrived from Japan - and one is for this save Posted in an airmail envelope in Japan on 21st Nov; Arrived UK 22nd Nov; Customs notification 10th December; £0 duty £5.80 VAT and £8.00 Royal Mail handling charge (most of the handling on their automated system was me); received 12th December And our leader is energetically and enthusiastically heading towards a no deal, no delay Brexit?? Hmmm... 2021 is going to be a joy...

On the colour - it’s mental, it’s about 50 shades of green and blue. The walnut stain back and sides are a lovely contrast.

🤔

I'm was looking for those Badass shorter saddles screws for a long time, then I saw that Dave had some. He simply sent them to me for free, just asking to put some Euros in a charity box. What a real gentleman. Cheers Dave.

I've already put my name down to get one for a video review in Guitar Interactive - It should be over soonish.

Well, a lot has certainly been said about the symbols! Have to say the hieroglyphic knob labels make a lot of sense to me. Whether you’re familiar with the symbols for sawtooth and square waves is irrelevant. The pedal enclosure couldn’t be more clearly divided into 3 sections so *at most* you’ll only be thinking about 4 knobs at any one time for each. The top row of each drive section is just gain and volume, bottom rows being EQ shaping. Once you know these basic rules of thumb it’s a walk in the park. And I don’t even own the thing.

I've coped reasonably well through the year so far with lockdown, Tier 3 etc, cancelling about 40 gigs and only meeting up with the band 3 times since March but I'm finding December hard. As a 70s Glam act we put on a XMas show with lots of cheesy songs and props and I really look forward to the 4 week period each year. With this being in abeyance this year it's crept up on me and the glumness has hit. Anyone else finding the lack of XMas giggage hard to take?

Nice crotch shot on the first video Andy.

Mine arrived today too. I have only managed to play it through my practice set up with headphones. first thoughts are that it’s great. I could get easily great sounds out of both sides and they work well together. I think it will end up overtaking my cog as my go to pedal. I can’t make a full decision until I hear it with the whole band, I have a practice this week so will update then.

Clear, concise, technically detailed, thoughtful, insightful even. If anyone was thinking about spending some money on ‘these amps’ then the information here would be crucial in making an informed decision. Masterful.

Thank you for the good wishes, I appreciate that. I lived in that area for many years before I moved about four hours north to a very rural area 40 years ago and built a house and a new life. Up here we have real winters and I snowshoe and ski on my trails on my 100 acres, much better than the dreary slush and rain and crowded life in the south. Still missing the gigs and playing with other musicians although it's no better in the areas with higher/denser population. Sigh...

I personally think May is rather optimistic. At least as far as full on gigs go. I can't see there being enough of the population vaccinated by then for things to get back to "normal". There might be gigs, but I suspect there will still be some form of social distancing and crowd control in place. That's if there's anywhere left open to play.

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Just spent a happy hour with mine. Its one of those basses feels like it was either made for me or I've had it so long it's become part of me. I love it when a new bass has this effect.

I like to think I have got better, but you never know until you are standing there thinking 'God, I have no idea how we start this song!"

We had a studio session yesterday, recording for a stream to go out in the New Year, which is the closest thing we've got to a gig. I thought I'd bring out the big rig for it...

I used to fix 3 or 4 ‘Dots’ Casinos and Sheratons every Saturday for 12 years...they’re awful for it 😂

Hiya bazzbazz Well I was hoping for a solution that means I can avoid re-dialling in amp e.q. if I'm to switch basses. Preferable to gnireggub about retuning between standard and drop d, I'd have thought. No, we're not gigging (yet, if ever) and we're only getting to the point where about half a dozen songs are roughly into shape (boundless & prolific creative talents we are not) You rolled off your tone - Yes, yes I did, but not for no apparent reason. It might be a bit noddy but isn't a 'nice sound' (insert subjective or objective descriptions as appropriate) one of the things we want? I was looking for a sound that roughly equates to what I was used ro from my Ibanez. Complain? Not sure there bb, I think what presented was a (possibly incomplete, with a lack of understanding) description of what I perceived a problem to be, and a query as to how I might resolve it. The obvious point is that they're different instruments, but I'm pretty sure performers big and small swap instruments mid set every once in a while without disappearing or overpowering the mix? Put all your tone back and try again? Ok, I already know that works, in that I can hear myself fine, but I sound like a banjo. Unless we're saying super bright twangy treble-y sound = 'tone' and that's the end of it? I know we aren't playing RnB, but ideally like a little bit of round/fat to then sound. Maybe I'm asking too much. Hey, that level of pragmatism actually works for me, maybe I'll just roll with it. Apologies if my tone is off, I might well be a little triggered (as the kids say) by you saying I'm complaining. It MUST be a case of I'm doing it wrong - because if I knew I was doing it right, wouldn't have needed to ask...

I bought a Tascam 2488 portastudio, sick of every windows update screwing up my pc. Sick of glitches. We are gonna start recording our new album next week, need to learn the manual,all 90 pages yikes. Gigging is not much fun when you play all originals so no real loss there.

So after nearly a year long wait my new build Smith has arrived! Very pleased with it The sound is very tight and focused and the EQ is very subtle. Reminds me of a Glockenklang amp I had in the days before the size and weight of my amplification became the primary driver behind what I use... Not 100% on the strings I'll swap those out for Newtone Diamonds this weekend, but all in all very glad I've added it to the arsenal It's my understanding that Kevin Brubaker and his team do the woodwork on Smith Basses these days and this example is credit to the work he's doing over there in Baltimore. Kevin has a very fine range of his own basses which are no doubt also built to this level of quality. I no longer seem to be able to link to stuff from imgur for some reason (it's been a while since I posted anything) so have had to attach these. I need to do some better ones in natural light to fully show off the figuring, but I snapped these shortly after it arrived A different tonal option to add to the stable A big thumbs up for Mark at Bass Direct as well for organizing the build. I did try to order one directly from Ken but I couldn't seem to get him to agree to build it for me 😂 *update Better pics in natural light...

I've had a few Status basses over the years. My Series II was bought new in 1985 - I still use it regularly and it's sat next to me now. I've had a few Streamlines too and still have one. Weirdly, back in the '80s, I had the choice of the Status or a Wal. A Wal might have been worth more now but I've had a number since and they don't last long - they just don't really suit me. As above, the SII still here and is played all the time. As to what you can expect, well with an S2 classic, you can expect a very modern, powerful and focused tone with a rich and detailed fundamental - almost a compressed in a way. though they're a versatile instrument and can offer a range of more 'classic' tones. The mid-scooped slap-tone is certainly there and you'll hear videos all over youtube. As for tuning, it's super-accurate and super-stable. Balance is lovely on the headless instruments, and, if you like a flat D neck profile, then this is the classic Status shape. Fit and finish is of a generally very high standard, fretwork is always good (in my experience), and the brass hardware is well designed and easily adjustable. The SII isn't a light instrument but it looks very classy and isn't ridiculously heavy - there was a lot of graphite in the earlier models (not so much now, and certainly not with the bolt-ons). The notion that Status basses are 'sterile' is commonly held but much over-played in my opinion. There's quite an organic tone available if you're prepared to look for it. I tend to favour the bridge pickup with treble rolled back and bass boosted substantially - through an Avalon U5 on setting 2, this is close to the grail of bass tones for me. Lovely instruments and a company that stands behind its product - very easy to deal with and always helpful should you need anything. I also like Status own brand DBE strings (30-90 is my favoured gauge). Good luck - if you're around Manchester, you're welcome to try my Series II