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if you want to use them, use them. The punters wont care. However, if a muso comes up to you and expresses concern about the backing tracks, just ask them why they aren't out working! Usually shuts them up. As I've said before, your job is to entertain the punters, so do what you have to

Had our first band rehearsal last night since February 2020. We were a bit rusty to begin with - I think that we were all a tad nervous, but halfway through the third song we all started to relax into it and the magic started to happen. Really appreciated playing with other people again, and it was great just to be hanging with the band. I haven't stopped smiling all day, and I can't wait for next week!

Thanks so much Guys! @Hellzero, it does look really long haha, that 26 fret neck that far up the body gives it a somewhat stretched look, but overall its actually pretty dainty. the total width of the body is only about 33cm @TheGreeki know what you mean, but ive already got a few sketches of some more crazy ideas for the next one... as well as some improvements to some of the decisions made on this one, plus ive got a few bits of extremely nice wood for things like fretboards and body wood ready to go. i'm hoping to take some time to refine stuff and then see if i can find a customer for MK II

The new one from Don chandler @donstrumental, great bassline this one and well explained , nice one don ☝️

A pictorial representation of the inside of my head when I attempt to think of all the possible options available for all the factors affecting the vibration of a bass guitar string:

I think the bass playing community must take some responsibility for that. EB has brought out a few different guitars that they have continued to make, mainly signature models. However, when new basses have appeared, the Reflex for instance, the ‘Ray & Sterling were and are still the models that the buying public flock to. The same can be said for Fender’s Dimension bass, seemed good enough but still Ps & Js were bought by the skip load. Being an established brand seems to bring its own limitations; damned if they do, damned if they don’t. However, the price for a new US EBMM is ridiculous IMO.

This:

Suppose I’d better post a pic of mine up here

Sorry to say it my friend, but EBMM basses are not "low volume high end". They are mid-market mass-produced instruments. You are kidding yourself if you think they are manufactured to the same standard as a well designed prestige luthier- made bass. (However, it must be said, I have much more fun playing a Musicman bass than a great many fancy boutique basses. How good quality does a bass guitar need to be? Anyhow...)I think your Rickenbacker /Fender CS comparisons are about right, whilst bearing in mind that most analogies don't bear close examination. That said, there is no doubt that these new Stingrays are very worthwhile instruments. I am not that keen on most of the colours , but each to their own, there is no right and wrong to it. The real controversy is the grotesque price increase which has accompanied their introduction. The pound has been relatively stable against the dollar. Paint hasn't suddenly rocketed in price. They don't claim to be made any different. The only thing that has changed is the profit margins that the manufacturer and/ or distributors have decided they need to make. I am in the market for a new Stingray Special - I bought one last year but it had holes in it so it had to go back - but I can't see myself being the guy who pays three grand for a Stingray. I might as well abandon all reason and buy a new German-made "custom shop" Warwick .(Actually , I would probably need to get some kind of a mortgage for that.) It will be very interesting to see how the market responds to EBMM's new prices. Will this be the guitar equivalent of the European Super League, or will the buying public just shrug their shoulders and accept a new reality where Musicman basses cost that much? And if they manage to get away with it, will other manufacturers follow suit?

They just look like Stingrays to me. All these companies, Fender, Gibson etc. there's nothing new to see really, no innovation. It's just about putting sparkly finishes on 45 year old designs.

I would not want to see (or be in) a band that used backing tracks. But than I prefer bands that have a bit of spontaneity, which(I imagine) a backing track would kill.

Here we go, here we go again. I've kept it simple and dignified (I hope) with strings from the Epic Online Orchestra, some keyboards, a drumming sample mixed up and added to inspired by the Zulu beat and brief sentences from the isiZulu language. The title translates as "Thank you, my friend". The few words are along the lines of "Hello again" and "Thank you", taken from an online English to Zulu site so I apologise if the quality of the translation isn't up to scratch and I'm saying "Bus Replacement Service" or some such nonsense instead. Recorded with Wavepad and Audacity as per usual.

“New” 🙄 £5000? black hardware only...etc Hahah. The fender threads all over gone right off MM basses unfortunately

No, it's not Egyptian Smoke. It's Inca Silver with a black pearloid pickguard. It has a Status Graphite neck with a phenolic fretboard. Officially introduced on 18 January 2001 at the NAMM. All made within first couple months of 2001. Total of 100 made: 49 stayed in US, 49 shipped to overseas locations, 1 retained by Ernie Ball and 1 to NAMM organisers.

Large pedal board is out the window now that I'm using an Ashdown ABM600. While the amp is taking care of the boring stuff like tone and compression the nano board is go! Cioks Adam underneath doing the (not so) heavy lifting. Just need some larger rubber feet so I'm not putting pressure on the power supply when I step down. Fits in my Mono tick too so that's one less thing to carry.

... for some reason, my 235 wanted to visit this page.

Great song and a fantastic advert too...

A Stingray has always been on my bucket list. They do seem to be heading further and further away from my wallet though. Tbh I struggle with the idea of spending £3k+ on any factory produced instrument. In that price band you're moving into Sadowsky territory not to mention any number of slightly less renowned boutique names.

meeting my bands vocalist to start a new side project tonight. haven't picked up a bass since 2019 should be fun

Let's put it this way: if you are good enough, you can use mandolin frets. They are not that easy or comfortable to play. If you or he thinks the fret width is the key to a far better sound, please go ahead. This is like flatwounds are the ultimate, because James J. used them. You probably get my point, do you?

It’s got more punch than Tyson through this rig too.

We're planning an outdoor get-together - I'd hesitate to call it a rehearsal - this weekend. I'm more nervous than I should be, but I'm guessing so is everyone else. If things more-or-less hang together, I'll count that as a win.

It’s begging for @Andyjr1515 to replace the truss Rod and shove a maple board on... If it was a 4. That’s what I’d do.

I thought the 2018 Specials were hugely innovative - ergonomics, preamp, pickup, hardware.... Shame about the new colours or prices - both not for me either.

The definitive conclusion has been that tone doesn’t come from wood, except on those occasions when it does. Or it might have been the other way around.

I've been replaced by a backing track? 😉

Most large touring acts play to some sort of backing track. Done right you can still be as spontaneous as you want, you can loop bars if you want to extend a solo etc. The only thing that would be really tricky would be unplanned key changes, yet if you had someone with ableton live this could also be achieved. Its all about how you approach them and what you use them for. Time and a place for everything.

Or Olivia Newton John/ELO

My hot-rodded 2002 Yamaha BB605. Delano pickups, Aguilar preamp.

Hardly new basses. Just the same old basses in different colours.

We now have a keys player, but, whatever the line-up, we adapt and re-arrange anything we want to play to suit the line-up. For 'Beds Are Burning', for instance, it's the singer that 'mouths' the trombone line in the middle..! (We once had a brass section from another band do the honours; it was great..!). There are many arrangements and orchestrations that, as a 'classic' two guitars, bass and drums, we could not do as the original. No-one minds; our audiences are there to hear us, not a CD of the songs we're playing. As long as the arrangement suits your line-up, I'd say that that's enough. There are complications in using backing tracks that we wouldn't want to get involved in, s'not worth it. Just my tuppence-worth; hope this helps.

1.2mm

My BB605, born 2002, to which I fitted Delano pickups, Aguilar OBP-3 preamp with active/passive and mid-shift, Dunlop flushmount straplocks and TI Jazz flats. I have been able to get the action incredibly low (3/64" on G string, 24th fret) and it plays and sounds incredible.

Yup, my band uses backing tracks for synths/pads etc. Our drummer triggers them from a Roland spd sx and plays to a click, then we follow him. It allows us to be incredibly tight as a band and gives us a fuller live sound than most the bands we play with.

I play in a punk and new wave covers band and would refuse any suggestion to use backing tracks..... just goes against the grain for me. Just a personal view. As a punter I’d avoid any band using backing tapes, especially covers bands of material that was originally played live. However I recognise there some genres of music where recorded backing is part of the genre e.g. rap.

I love Musicman basses but what is up with those prices? They literally jumped from 2k to 3k in a year? Sorry but there's no way a mass produced bass is worth 3k, even if it's formidable and has those lovely colors (some of the best I've seen btw).

None more eighties! 😀

I've posted this on the effects section, but this might be useful here too.... This is my recently reformed 'doubling gig' pedal board. This enables me to process and quickly switch between double bass and electric bass mid-gig, but is also used for a variety of other situations. Signal chain is: EBS SC Pre-amp (tuner out into Korg Tuner) > Seymour Duncan Compressor > DOD Chorus (selected via Bright Onions switch for true bypass). As you can see, the only ‘special effect’ is the selectable Chorus. However, the board has two hidden extra power cables to facilitate the temporary adding of extra effects to suit the requirements of different gigs. All powered by the wonderful Ciocks DC-7 power supply (hidden underneath). Most bits are secured with dual lock. Board is a RockBoard DUO 2.1.

Sorry for the delay on this update guys, its been a hell of a busy week. Lots going on with another little project that i'll share with you all soon, but in the meantime: im building the external power supply for the bass. The original plan was to build a pretty simple pedal with a 12v input, and a normal 24v DC-DC converter. ive changed this plan slightly for a couple of reasons. firstly, this big DC-DC converter is fully isolated, a bit like a pedal "wall wart", which means that i can use pretty much any normal power supply and feed it into this (the input voltage range is 9-18V DC) with a 24V isolated output. the second change is that i found a rather natty red aluminium chassis on youtube, and liked the look of it better than a pedal. sometimes its just something that catches your eye! first step was tapping the holes for the bolts i wanted to use. these chassis come un-tapped so you have the option of different screw types: and once it was all jammed in together, this is what it ended up looking like: i think its fairly smart! plus its small and light enough to fit into a hardcase alongside the bass, so thats a plus. very simple: its just the 4 pin micro XLR on the front, and a DC Jack, a switch and a 1/4" jack socket on the rear, with a switch. the switch lets me flip between stereo output or mono output, letting me use the external power with traditional as well as stereo amplification. in the picture aboce the switch is set to stereo, with a stereo jack cable coming out the back. this then runs to the 2 inputs on the back of the Boss VF-1, which the runs to the 2 inputs of the Peavy IPR-1600, which outputs to the 2 1x10 Eden cabs below. this will hopefully be the normal setup for this, but i just need to carry a standard jack to jack to run it straight into any normal bass amp as well having got a few additional coats of the high build oil and a couple of coats of the Wax, the sheen was bang on where i wanted it. just shiny enough without really being "glossy" i realised there were a couple of small drilling jobs i hadnt yet done, so i used a spare Pickup pcb to drill holes for the threaded brass inserts that will accept the pickup screws: somewhat frustratingly, the gold screws i used for the coil height adjustment dont come long enough for the pickup mounting screws. one change id definately make next time round is shortening the coils to make the pickup slightly shorter. regardless, i did manage to find some nice gold hex bolts that came in the correct length that fit just fine, but with the rounder flatter head like these: So, all holes drilled, hardware in place: we're getting a lot closer now so no we begin to get into wiring... whcih honestly turned out to be not quite as painful as id initially expected! The battery board is a tight squeeze, but that was intentional. the 24v power from the XLR runs to both the preamps as well as to this board. i decided to have it this way up as the little check battery button and lights are visible. i think i may leave it loose in there once all is done as a well fitted cover should hold it in place just fine, and allow easier swaps of the three batteries if i ever need to do that. After lining the control cavity in copper tape, i started to run the various cables from the push/pull volume into the main cavity. some braided sleeving from my PC building parts helps keep everything from looking like spaghetti! The wires from the pickups, as well as the battery connections get the same treatment, wth some 2.54mm block connectors at each ens so i can easily swap the preamps in and out if need to and once everything is in place, it was time for a first fit of everything to see how it all came together... deep breath: the black and white control knobs im very happy with, and the tuners a sperzel locking tuners which seem to hold everything very nice and solid. i cut a fresh nut from another block of Tusq graphite, and strung it with some Optima Golds. they handle the angle round the bigsby really well and help tie the look together, plus they sound fantastic. This may look pretty close to finsihed, but theres still work to do. the cavity covers i haven't made yet, and i think there may be some component changes needed for the preamps once its all up and running but we're very close to a finished bass now once its all buttoned up, ill get some proper beauty shots in natural light, as well as some sound clips!

For those who wonder how a twelve string bass sounds:

... and justice for all, virtually no bass, thanks Lars. This enhanced bass version is worth a listen. Incredible bass tone and playing.

It's been a few years since I did one of these Basschat Challenges but, this one caught my attention. So I thought I would have a go this month. I have always had a fascination with the defence of Rorke's Drift, along with the punch up over at Isandlwana earlier in the day and have read dozens of accounts, watched various documentaries and generally, been curious about the whole episode that happened over those two days. This goes back to when my Dad took me to see the opening of the film 'Zulu' in the West End, back in 1964. KwaJimu' is 'Jim's Land' in the Zulu language... ' Spectrasonics Omnisphere VSTi for Synths / Spectrasonics Stylus RMX for Drums and Percussion / Spectrasonics Omnisphere VSTi for African Voices, Choir and Chants patches. Musicman Bass Guitar. Vienna Symphonic Library for Cornet & Strings. DAW - Nuendo 11.

Couldn’t get past the intro sound of someone throwing a bag of spanners at another bag of spanners. Sorry.

I would like to hear a test where everything was the same....including the wood. Would they all sound the identical, or would there still be variation from one instrument to the next?

Viz the Babylon Zoo and the Stiltskin ads, the problem was they used the best bits of each tune, while the main parts with the vocals aren't up to the quality of the snippets