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I had a Peavey BW 115 cab. It fell out of a plane, fell 20,000 ft onto a Mayan temple, tumbled head over heels several times down the steep steps, was run over by a tank, gored by a raging bull rhinoceros, fell off a cliff, landed on rocks at the bottom, fell into the sea AND it was delivered by Hermes. I just mopped it down, plugged in, and it was fine.

Brilliant, Paul! 😂 Back in 2012, our keyboard player selfishly fell in love with a beautiful Australian girl and buggered off to live in that shanty town called Sydney on the other side of the world.. The upshot of which was that I decided I needed to change my rig to 'fill out the sound' in the band a bit more now we were down to just guitar/bass/drums. So, I picked up 2 empty Peavey 115 cabs and with the very kind help of @Chimike, fitted the cabs with 2 pristine Altec Lansing 15" drivers which, to my ears at least, sounded great with my Hughes & Kettner Bassbase 600 amp. At the first gig with the new rig at a pub very near to me, a load of mates and work colleagues came along to cheer us on which was great... After about half an hour things seemed to be going brilliantly and I was feeling very chuffed with the bass sound.. Then out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that our Office Manager's husband made a swift exit for the door, leaving behind an unfinished pint on his table which was a bit strange as I knew he liked live music a lot and his beer. So after the first set had finished, all very concerned like, I went up to her to ask what had happened and to enquire if her husband was ill or something.. Turning round, she looked at me dead straight in the eye and said he had to leave because the bass had made his false teeth fall out! 😬😁 Best gear compliment I've ever had! 😂

Hi all I've spent the best part of 3 hours thinning this topic out to what could be considered relevant and uncontroversial comments. To keep this topic readable, please can we just: Keep to reported facts and updates about case progression Don't feel that you have to comment on everyone else's post Cut out the banter - yes it's funny but it just bloats out the topic to make it harder to read and harder to find relevant information Thanks

My newly acquired original early 90's Ibanez AFR A104F. These are very rare basses, only around 90 ever made mostly as 4 strings unlined fretless, but there were some fivers made too. Rolf Spuler was a true genius. Alan aka @bamboscha owns one too, which I sold him last year, but then had seller's remorse. This is my third or fourth one over the years... This is certainly one of the best ergonomic terrific sounding fretless around. Don't ask, this is definitely a keeper ! And thanks to Chris aka @chrisbass13 for helping me buying this very bass.

Not exactly NBD since I had it for a couple of weeks now or so. This is the black satin 'stealth' finish. They seemed to be on the light weight side, and mine didn't disappoint at 8.6 lbs. The set up was poor to start, far too much relief and very high saddles, but a few minutes spent reducing the neck curvature and adjusting the saddles brought it to a very comfortable action. The nut slots are well contoured but a bit too high, which makes me think that somebody tried to adjust the action by playing with the truss rod and saddles, failing, and then going the other way... I haven't adjusted the nut yet because it plays well enough already, but I'll have to do that to make the top positions a bit more comfy to play. I really like it. The neck is wider than a SR5 (so the G string doesn't fall off! ) but not excessively chunky. I find it quite comfortable. Not as nice as the Lakland 5502, but still very comfortable. The narrower string spacing (compared to my 4 strings) and the additional string means I was a little clumsy to start, but I've been playing this bass exclussively since I got it and I'm getting there now. In fact, I'm starting to really like this 5 string thing. I owned 5 string basses before but I never really got along with any. The closest ones were the Lakland 5502 and the old made in USA EBMM SUB 5. The Lakland had the wider string spacing that I prefer, but I didn't get the Stingray-like sound I prefer. The SUB5 had the sound, but I felt the neck was a bit too narrow and it was a very heavy bass. A Squier Jazz V came and went too, and over the years so did a Peavey Millenium, a Washburn Bantam (that one was pretty good too), a Crafter something or another, a G&L L2500, and maybe something else too. Nothing really stuck. And here comes the Harley Benton. I didn't need a new bass, certainly not a 5-string (by now I had accepted 5 strings are not for me and I no longer wanted to own one)... but these satin black ones looked so good, were so cheap, and the reviews were so positive... that it tempted me. Before I pressed the button, my girlfriend went and ordered one for me, just before they sold out in November. If I had to give it a one word review it would be 'wow'. This is a very decent bass, regardless of price, but when you consider the price... yeah, wow. It has that Stingray vibe and the passive electronics are just fine. Sure, not as versatile as having an onboard preamp, but I actually love passive tone controls, so I'm happy with it as it is. For some reason this bass feels and sounds nicer than any of my previous 5 string basses, and because of that playing it exclusively for the past 2 weeks was not a chore. Yeah, it was frustrating at first, but as I adjust to the different layout it becomes more fun... and I feel like something clicked. I'm enjoying immensely how I can move across strings and reduce the movement up/down the neck that way. I don't use the additional lower notes that much, but I use a lot of the notes I would often play on the E string on the B string now, just moving across with fewer jumps to different hand positions on the neck which also means I look at the neck a lot less. And having the option to play those notes between the low E and A on the E string for more definition or on the B string for additional girth is really useful too. This may be the bass that makes me finally 'get' 5 string basses. How much does it cost? Crazy. I would have paid quite a bit more for a bass that I can enjoy as much as this one. The pickguard will be replaced 'though. Not a fan of tortoiseshell, I think it's screaming for a black one.

This is something that I really enjoy - cutting cavities with a router. It doesn't take very long to cut the cavity but it can take quite a while to make an accurate template. I remove the bulk of the cavity with a Forstner bit then finish the edges with a router using a template cutter. As the cutter uses a bearing to guide it, any errors or inaccuracies n the template will just get replicated in the final piece. I wouldn't be surprised if I spent an hour making a template for a square cavity that then took less than 5 minutes to route out!! There are a couple of templates for this build; one for the main outline and this one for all the cavities. I drilled a number of holes to just short of the final depth to clear the bulk before star And a few minutes later this is what results The control cavity needs to be deep enough for the switch that will be used to select between coils on the mudbucker. When I make a body, I plan out where the cables are going to go and drill holes for them in advance. Then when you route the cavities (if you measuring was accurate: measure twice, cut once...) the holes will be in the right place making the wiring easy and not risking putting a long drill through the front of a body when trying to do if afterwards (he says from learning the hard way!!) Next task are to radius the fretboard and sort some frets and to sort the binding out on the body.

Yes the “was delivered by Hermes” bit is just unbelievable - they lose everything. If he’d said “was despatched in error by Hermes to Reigate, in Mozambique... and claimed it to have been left in his porch” I would have found it significantly more plausible

The 12 after the name in his email address is ringing big alarm bells, bells probably housed in a stone tower built by a Mason.

As it was actually a bit warmer this weekend, I've spent a bit of time in the garage and got on with this build. I have actually done a bit of work since my last post - made a template for the pickup routing, the controls, neck pocket etc., cut the neck pocket, fitted side dots on the neck and a few other things but just hadn't posted it on here! One thing I had spent some time on was fitting some binding. That took quite a long time to do and I just wasn't happy with it so out came the router again and removed it - something you will see in the photos. That will be a task for another day - at least it is something I can do inside when the garage gets too cold!! I had done a bit of shaping of the neck near the headstock but needed to complete the rest of the neck. I also got a set of Wilkinson tuners for the build so I dropped them in place which presented me with the problem that the backplates were a mm too big! I had tried a set of black Schallers prior to ordering the chrome Wilkinson ones and turns out the backplates are different sizes. I'm not going to redrill the holes are different centres so a different set of tuners will be required. I have mounted a set of basic ones for the time being that I might replace later with some better quality ones. I clamped the neck to the edge of my bench and shaped each side using my Shinto rasp and a mini rasp. I like necks to blend into bodies but I'm also trying to be a bit traditional with this build, so I shaped the heel of the neck to make the transition flow a little. This is where the mini rasp comes into its own. The holes for the neck plate and screws were drilled and the neck attached so I could check everything lined up. Next task is the pickup and control cavities.

This looks worth a listen: Don Letts presents the story of King Tubby on Radio 4 Thursday 21st at 11.30. BBC Radio 4 - Dub Revolution: The Story of King Tubby Available to listen on BBC sounds afterwards of course! Here's the blurb: 28 January 2021 would have been legendary sound engineer King Tubby’s 80th birthday. The sonic experiments he created in his tiny studio in the ghettos of Kingston Jamaica during the early seventies helped create a genre that’s now part of the very fabric of contemporary music – Dub. Tubby’s productions pre-empted today’s remix culture, were instrumental in the creation of rap an inspired an eclectic mix of artists from Massive Attack to Primal Scream. Dub went on to inform Jungle, Rave,Techno, Ambient right up to Grime in the 21st century. Don Letts celebrates the godfather of Dub, with contributions from Dennis Bovell, Adrian Sherwood, Hollie Cook and Mad Professor.

And if you tell that to the young people today, they won't believe you! I was going to mention, but everyone beat me to it, that until all this Covid lark, we got a new drummer. He has a rehearsal space with an old Peavey combo with BW15 which I used, and instantly thought cor that sounds good. I used to have a Peavey combo with BW15 which I used for years. Maybe a lot of us like the black widow as it's like coming home, seeing as it seems a great deal of used one before we all went and bought 'better' amps. I used to take the front seat of my Mini out and sit the Peavey on the floor, with loads of other gear on the back seat, my bass would sit on top of the amp in a hard case with the back end resting on the rear shelf. I came round a corner in the lanes, met another car and had to brake pretty sharpish. As I skidded towards the other car, the hardcase shot forwards and pushed the screen out, slid down the bonnet and onto the road. I got out and put the screen and bass in the back of the mini, reversed into a space to let the bewildered driver through and carried on to the gig sans screen. Ahh to be a young d!ckhead again. 🙂

Post of the year to date, and probably true (apart from the Hermes bit of course, we all know that was a step too far) I had a Mesa 15 that we dropped during a load in, it broke my car but the cab was no worse off for it. Ah the good old days, when cabs were cabs

To add a bit of context... whilst I’m not saying that I think the neck is worth it, if you were to look to buy an early 1970s Jazz neck then it’d probably cost around £1000 on the conservative side - as I say, I’m not defending the cost, just giving some context on one of the component parts. Add the cost of the body, finish, Aguilar p/ups and other hardware and it would probably cost what it’s listed for to put together - and yes, I’m aware that it’s entirely possible to put together a bass of similar/superior quality for less money!! Also bear in mind that, given the type of bass it is, then it’s also entirely possible that it’s a commission sale where Bass Direct will be taking circa 20%. If it came up for sale on this excellent site for circa £1000-£1250 it wouldn’t be a great surprise (to me, anyroad!) if it were to sell. As I say, I’m not trying to justify the price (as it’s worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it!) just trying to add some context regarding how much it would cost to put together the same bass, esp. with the cost of a vintage neck included. And personally, if it were my choice, I wouldn’t be listing it as a Fender either...

Another 1980’s Peavey BW115 user here. I never understood why they just put one handle on it!! I also had the 215, the overkill version! That was a nightmare to move and didn’t last long. The best 115 was a Dynacord combo, but for cabs the Mesa RR 115 EV couldn’t be beaten. Loud as flip with the best tone. Damaged my back lifting it but what a great sound.

I’d only do the above if they’re a known (to me) person with adequate feedback/reputation on basschat.

Yeh I’ve seen similar Moollon’s with that combo and they look great. Specs were US standard pickups, blizzard Pearl finish, B width neck. I also love how the body colour matches the logo. Mine has been fitted with Lindy Fralin pickups and had the fretwork sorted out at the Gallery which really helped the action. Just found this old clip I played it on (wow 7 years ago!)

The video reminded me of a photo of my front room a year ago. Can’t think why? 😀

You are wasting your time now, Stew. A good try though. The Peavey BW115 cab club are crawling all over the thread like an out of control, drug crazed Bebop solo....Never ending.

I think everyone on here belongs to the Peavey BW115 ex-owners club! Mine fell out of a moving van and still worked fine. Mesa RR 115 EV is still my go-to cab, along with matching RR 210 EV. Heavy yes, but pretty compact even by modern standards.

Distorted fretless groove. And a young, but already talented Steven Wilson...

1990 - Part ex in Musical Exchanges. A black and white Encore P bass and not much cash (can't remember the actual amount) for this little Thunder II beauty. It's not going anywhere. Custom colour I do believe and the optional xlr... lovely to play. Going nowhere.

You've hit the nail on the head and that's where we disagree. I clearly missed the memo where it said that as a bass player you could only choose to be one.

Bitsa!

I don't think I ever put my fretless ACG on here. It's a Krell SC E Type, headless, fretless, chambered, 6 string and it's a 31.5" scale. I absolutely adore it! Eude

You don't see many of these about. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Greco-Steinberger-Licensed-Headless-Electric-Bass-Perfect-Packing-From-Japan-K/184609214224 It is across the pond, though.

Finished, but forgot to buy some strings! I decided to install the BP122 pickup. No idea how it sounds yet!

The Stanley Clarke shape typically neck dives like crazy. I had one - a fantastic bass - but sold it for that very reason. Certain shapes will always neck dive, whoever they’re made by. It’s nothing to do with quality.

I’ve decided not to pay for items by bank transfer or PayPal friends & family/gift anymore; it does mean that you might lose out on buying some things if the seller won’t accept that, but I’m prepared to walk away if needs be.

Let's Get Physic(al) - Olivia Neutron Bomb.....

Kids and animals have an absolute laser for these things for sure

Tiken Jah, Robbie on bass

Hmmm.. 🤔 Fast 4/4, think Quo shuffle: "So you think it's easy, running this show? You think there's stinky poo that you don't know? Well it's 3am and you're flipping well right, I'm tired and old and been up all night. There's not enough people and not enough money, and not enough time. Do you get that, Sonny?? So get off Facebook and get off your derrière. If you actually want to help us out of this farce. Use your common sense and follow the rules, we know they aren't perfect but don't act like fools. You try leading the team when the game always changes and when half the players are whingers or ragers. And maybe, just maybe, in 40 years time, when we've paid back the debt and the economy's OK and we've mourned the dead we'll look back and say. We all got through"

I've stripped out a lot posts/banter/+1 replies etc that just clogged this important topic up - please read my suggested post before filling it up again. Thanks

Another for the Peavey 115BW. Even reversed over it with the van, sturdy stuff !!

“Apparently, it's even more responsive, more accurate than a flat response normal cab. It's extra accurate, precise something or others." Umm.... "it will self adjust to what ever power you are putting through it" Huh?

Mesa’s are lovely; either the Powerhouse or (my choice) the older EV-loaded Diesels. Not light though.

Nice looking bass that doesn't just follow the need to duplicate a Fender.