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I went to Bass Direct today expecting to buy a Lakland 5502.it was sold. So i looked around and spotted a Nordy. .I really wanted to stay away from the JJ pickups as they never really have the heft that i like in a bass. This bass has Aguilar Super Double soap bars. an Aguilar OBP3 preamp. It sounds monstrous. It still has the Jazz bass sound but its just way more variable. No flashy top wood, its light. It sounds killer. The build quality is pretty spectacular as are the matching knobs. Its a Nordy.

And yes, the hatch all-in-all has probably taken more time than the neck carve did...but it is, nevertheless, probably the best hatch I've done to date . Now complete with the all-essential fingernail cutaway: Trussrod cover and jack plate next

Many thanks for all the responses - appreciated. Guess I am being a little picky. I've owned a good few Rickys, and iffy QC on those I used to chalk up as a regular thing! I've only had a couple of P's, so no real idea of what's okay and what's not. Taken a few shots with the phone - it's quite a hard shade to catch correctly, as in every light it seems to look a little different, Everyone who's seen it has said how nice it is, so I'm hoping it's a good decision. Plays really nicely. I honestly thought I'd never play again - I was sick of everything around bass, including the instrument I was playing. In my lay-off, I started to get the bug, then a couple of people contacted me about working together, and here we are (again!). What was also needed was a total break with my old self, if that makes sense. No more Rickys, Markbass, and dump the picks if poss! Just want to tackle the instrument in a different way. After 25+ years of playing before, I was still emulating influences and tones that had long since left me. I needed to connect to where I am now. Hence the P. Became aware that more of the records I love had them, whether rock, jazz, soul and so on. I no longer wanted that clangy mid-range, that on so many occasions, meant I struggled to hear myself. Time to actually play bass frequencies, rather than a million notes a minute on the mids. I always thought a P was too 'obvious'. Like my first Suun Mustang P, However, I came to the conclusion that it would give what I need without any hassle. Easy to EQ, sound like thunder, I've either had an epiphany, or reached a certain stage in life! Either way, it appears a good place to be. Now for amp shopping.......

Picked up a 2014 deluxe in the limited edition rootbeer finish. I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for these basses - they’re really very good! Going to try and source an H with rosewood fingerboard next. Specific I know but I want it sufficiently different from the one I have on all counts

I’m a little concerned at the design choice of the rubber foot of this mobile stage platform!

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That was my uncle Bob’s favourite saying. Lovely man, terrible anaesthesiologist though.

Today was pickup cover day, glad this is done and out the way! Routed the cavities for the Bart's... Lovely snug fit... So snug intact they don't come out and need to be teased out with tools!! I'll sand the inside edges a tad. Router also decided to go awry on my bridge so I've had to remake that and it's currently gluing up... Of course it's the last bit of routing I needed to do and the first time I've messed up routing on this whole build! Grr!

I no P bass expert so went to Bass Direct I picked my self up a red one of these yestarday, after trying several guitars over about 3 hrs. As I was trading in I could get what I wanted and I eventually got down to two P style guitars. The Boxer and a MARUSZCZYK. Both sounded beautiful and hit the spot to my ears. In some other ways they were quite different. Note: The boxer feels as the name suggests is more of a bruiser, the MARUSZCZYK a bit more classy but was more gentle. I went for the Boxer as it is an exceptional sounding bass, has wider range of tones and it was RED! 😂 👍 I'm liking it this morning even more than when I picked it out....very happy!

I find the band's choice of font in that message far more offensive than any fake encore.

So lucky to find this this week! Picked it up and straight down the practice room!! In absolutely lovely condition, recently revalved and comes in custom case too. Sound wise I didnt really know what to expect. It has lots of eq - bass, lo mid, hi mid (pull switch), treble, deep,, and high. It's quite scooped with everything at noon, but roll the bass back and put the treble up and it's a gorgeous sound. It took me a good few hours to find the tone I was after (as usual not much tweaking needed from flat it turns out) and it just began sitting really nice in the mix to the backing tracks. It isnt a SVT. In fact it sounds absolutely nothing like an SVT, for those of you who were wondering. It's more like a solid state amp with a bit of that 3D sound and warmth to it, but much nicer. It quite similar to my big gk 550. After a few hours I whacked the backing track right up and really dug in. THATS when it comes to life. Gorgeous tone there. And the big bonus - it's only 20 something kilos, so much much easier to move than an svt or any of my previous valve amps. Even in it's hard case it's a decent lift. Very happy purchase!

Disclaimer, NBD was over a month ago, but i've just been too busy playing this to do a write up!! Firstly props to Mark and the team at Bass direct for their excellent help and service! I spent the day at their show room recently, looking for my next level p bass. I've played a Fender MIA Performer P for the last 4 years and as much I love the bass I've been searching for something a bit more! (We're never satisfied are we!!) I spent a day in London before the pandemic playing vintage Precision basses and whilst these are incredible basses I didn't find the tone I was looking for, (I do have an Ibanez Mezzo with EMG Geezers and flats which gives a pretty damn good approximation of a vintage P, for a fraction of the price!) What i was looking for in regards to tone, was solid P bass and a good P/J tone, i don't slap much but i do like the P/J when i do. I found the Performer P to be all or nothing when dialing in the J pickup and whilst the tone was OK it was always quiet noisy and lacked punch. My other considerations were playablility, weight and of course, Mojo, and instrument has got to speak to you when you pick it up! I went to Bass direct as they have a wonderful range of basses in stock and ticked off the manufacturers I wanted to try out that made "high end " p basses, namely Sadowsky, Mike Lull, Sandberg, Maruszcyk and were the only guitar store in the world (i checked!!) to have a Dingwall Super P in stock (they actually had 2 and a Super J). Needless to say, every bass i played was an incredible instrument with great tone and high levels of craftsmanship and i'd have been happy to add anyone of them to my collection, we are truly lucky to have so many quality instruments! The Super was unputdownable that day, as much as i really loved the Sandberg (was just a single P pup model) and if i wanted a "bog standard " P that would it the Dingwall was another level. I preferred the PJ over the P and the selector switch (P, PJ parallel, PJ series and J) gave the bass 4 distinct characters whilst always being true to it's self. It's the best playing bass i've ever played, incredibly well crafted, balanced and light. The tones are fantastic and i've not used my Eden preamp (i used to kick this in to shape my tone for slap) as just switching to the PJ setting gives me a great tone with my current EQ settings (anyone want to buy my Eden WTDI!). Now if i had ordered this from Sheldon direct i would not have chosen this colour! But it was either this or a 2 year wait (and would have been boring and order vintage sun burst i'm sure!) and i'm actually quiet happy i've got something a bit more unique. It's a modern sounding and looking P bass, so i think it's apt it has modern styling!! I've also recently taken delivery of a GSS Baby Sumo (i'll be posting in a NAD soon) and i take the post tranny DI from my Peg PF50T into the sumo so i can push the tubes hard AND play at bedroom levels when i need to (i live in an apartment and both my neighbors have young kids). I'll post a video i took this morning. I've finally got the tone i've been searching for!! This is a link to the bassdirect webpage for the bass put i'll post some of my own pics shortly! Dingwall Super P 4 Ferrari Green Satin Dingwall Bass Guitars:: Super P 5, vintage white, Morado, Active :: Custom hand made basses, exclusively at Bassdirect, London, Manchester, Birmingham, UK, USA< EU VID_20210619_113310.mp4

I'd keep it. It all adds to the character. As my builder mate says, if you want perfection, don't choose wood.

Dangerous ground there. By that standard we’d never do the second set….

I thought the thread was about a Fender P but with an Encore Decal... 😀

They're probably hurt that when they go off stage no one ever calls for them to come back on so they never get to play their three best songs.

I saw these in the flesh today and this is the first blue bass I’ve ever been wowed by. Such a shame the P is in maple only (the jazz is in rosewood only and looks lovely). I love the sound of rosewood. Seriously still tempted by this though.

I shall shortly be joining the club 😀

I interviewed Pino about his gear, his new album and everything else, released last Thursday as an episode of my podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/65MAcnzE1Ja59w5DoXweCx?si=TaQ1xT5uR3eL6Uv50RZYGA&dl_branch=1

It’s tradition - just a bit of theatre. The Wobbly Eggs should learn to relax a bit.

Wow. Just wow. Nearly in tears with how “right” this is. Bigger than I expected, which is good… Full rehearsal is a week off though, so full report to follow.

As a fan of neither, I'd say it was pretty bad.

The top on my l’arrivee bugged when I first bought it (second hand). It’s such a fantastic guitar that I’ve grown to like it - it’s unique and mine!

Time for amp shopping he says……, Well spoiled for choice methinks, but imo the following all work really well with a Precision: Fender Rumble, Ampeg, Ashdown, Markbass All will do a fantastic job, I’d pick Ashdown due to not only being excellent amps, sound great & super reliable, but both being UK based and their customer service being amongst the best around.

Now that's a blemish! 😉

I wouldn't have an issue with that "blemish". In fact, if the bass were ever stolen you'd be able to identify it from that.

I would go as far as to say that in a solid colour body bass, which I presume yours is, that’s a unique marker that makes it distinguishable as yours. I like it.

Yeah, both are more than acceptable for me and I’m also extremely fussy 👍

Cheeky little update: OC-5 bumped for the Phaser. Decided to move the OC-5 on as it just wasn’t going to get used, the conclusion I always reach when buying a straight up octave pedal. Originally planned to grab a Source Audio C4 to replace the octaver, but the cost to get midi set up with the ES-5 was just too much, and changing presets by switch wasn’t an option for me. So I went with a crazy phaser instead and love it!

I'm finding this rather argumentative - who said there was anything wrong with it? I do take issue with your added point to the post I initially replied to - "Pay a bit extra to buy from a shop and save the cost of a setup." So seeing as you brought up how cost effective buying from a shop is, let's see how it tallies up. Travelling down and back to Edinburgh or Glasgow from Aberdeen is at least £40 - be it a tank of fuel or public transport. Never mind your proposed long weekend and the costs that would incur, let's do it in a day (let's face it, you can do the main stops worth visiting in Glasgow - Kenny's, Guitar Guitar and Merchant City - in a day easily). That'll be the whole day - as I'll be spending a minimum of 5 hours travelling. It also depends what you're buying. If I was going to buy a £1000+ bass then I might make the trip - make it a road trip for the ceremony of it more than anything else. But for a £300 bass (which is what the bass I most recently bought cost)? Forget it. Did I mention that I do my own setups? They cost me nothing, save for 20-30 mins of spare time.

On any scale of workmanship, linear or log, Andy will be so far to the right you need another piece of paper.

Regardless of colour (I love that blue BTW) if you get a good one, these new Professional II Fenders are super instruments. I absolutely love my P Bass.

This is spot on. Pretty much every post I do now raises the point that tone is subjective; an earlier post here cites a reviewer saying that in one instance the pickups 'were not that good'. What actually constitutes good? I currently own six basses, broadly they cost me £20-£5,500, they all same pretty much the same, I wouldn't be able to say the pickups thereon are 'good', because what they do is subjective. Christ, it's a £250 bass; if Geddy Lee decided he was going to go the HB route, players globally would be hoovering these up and saying they're the greatest basses since they hoovered up his Signature model.

I interviewed the great Pino Palladino! Want to hear it? I released it as a podcast episode. Check it out: https://open.spotify.com/episode/65MAcnzE1Ja59w5DoXweCx?si=TaQ1xT5uR3eL6Uv50RZYGA&dl_branch=1

I wouldn’t say wound up specifically, I just like idea of having a set list & sticking to it, only doing extra when called for. If a band has 12 songs on their set list and fully intends to do all 12 songs why pretend the last 2 are an encore, to me have the courage to just do 10 and if called back then do the other 2, if not then leave it there. A band can learn from this, more from when they don’t get those calls than from when they do, and a good band will put into practice what they learn from it and get better.

Local Band Throws Down Gauntlet Ziggy Pip: Fake encores 'bigger threat than climate change and fascism ' Lancaster, England: Indie combo The Lovely Eggs have issued a trenchant manifesto railing against the heinous tradition of fake encores. Lovely Eggs front-man Ziggy Pip made his case in a sometimes impassioned paean to the virtue of authenticity: 'Look at us!' said the indie rock wild man. 'We're iconoclasts and we're smashing the fake encore system and look at us doing it'. Mr Pip added: 'Twenty years from now we'll moaning about the price of mackerel fillets in Tesco and we'll still be using that eye-catching font and doing the 'upper-case in the wrong place' thing so that you'll look at us'. Ziggy Pip's solo album DoN't lOok at tHem look aT mE is drops next month.

I can tell by the erratic writing and fake coffee stain that these guys don't have any time for pretension

Tricky one. It’s an expensive bass though, the pro2s aren’t cheap and I’d be expecting a flawless finish for that price new. You’d be justified swapping it for another one, but it’s down to how much it bothers you.

Unless Dave's surname is Grohl or Lombardo then I'll agree with that 100%

Plugged in my bass and tried out the amp. My other amp is a Markbass SD1200., which is a T- Rex. But this thing has to be Godzilla..... Phew, what a sound and headroom.....400 transistor and transformer watts easily outnumber 1200 class D watts. Really happy with this. 😻 grtz, Marc.

Do tell. Wilcock basses have obviously been reading my mind and have made one of their MMs in a trans, ‘burst finish. Nurse, nurse, the screens! I have raging GAS!

Every now and then you buy something you're not sure about and it turns out perfect. What am I waffling on about? A new strap for my pelham blue JC, that's what. 😁 I was browsing straps looking for something that maybe matched a little, rather than my usual grey or black Mono Betty. Came across a teal suede strap on Amazon, only 2.5" wide but sheepskin backed and looked quite comfy. The colour looked different in every picture, but so does the JC, and at only £20 delivered I thought I'd give it a go. Well, now it's here it's absolutely bang on, it may as well be marketed as the 'Pelham Blue Jack Casady Bass Strap'. The blue is perfect, the sheepskin matches the pickup and scratchplate perfectly, and the tan suede back is a nod to the bronze knobs I fitted and the wooden back of the JC. It's made a Canadian company, Perri's Leathers, and seems to be good quality, but time will tell. A bit grippier than I like, I'm weird, I like a slippery strap, I hate that grabbing at your clothes feeling, but hopefully it'll be fine. It does feel really soft and supple though which is nice. No metal adjusters or anything so can live on the bass in the case. I've also fitted some funky strap buttons I came across. With the heel mounted button I can imagine some standard straplocks might be uncomfortable but I found some new ones with an oversized cam shape, you just twist your strap on and it stays put. I really like them, nice and smooth. The one fault, which is a huge design error really, is that as you twist your strap on, especially a new one the cam tries to turn, loosening the button. Not a problem for me as the strap is staying on, but if it was on, off, on, off, I could see it becoming a real issue. Anyway, pictures. 😉 Here's the Amazon link if anyone's interested, they do some other nice looking straps too. Perri's strap

DeOxit D-5 has just the right amount of lubricant for rotary pots. F5 has too much, but works better with linear pots. TINY amount only.

£1800 ?.. Knock a zero off that and it's about right..

I couldn’t choose between them and this happen! My wallet is crying right now 😅