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Bass cabs, and amps, we have in plenty. They do a fine job, for small, pub gigs, festival stages and rehearsals at home. However, a new genre has turned up : garden party, or living room, jams or micro-concerts. The essence of these will be almost spontaneous, light-weight affairs, with minimal gear (but of good quality...). There's the rub, presently: we have a practise combo, but it's a bit past its sell-by date, and puny, even then. A recent garden event showed up its weaknesses. It doesn't 'cut the mustard', and for these events, we don't want the faff of a Big Rig (in this context, a 4x10 Ampeg is a Big Rig...). That's the issue; here's the solution... A while ago now, I bought, from a fellow BC member (thanks again, PPP...) a set of six Phil Jones five-inch speakers (OK, 'drivers', but I'm old, you see, so they're 'speakers' to me...). Now is the time to see what can be made from them. Daft as I am, I immediately thought of the Phil Jones C2-type of cab, and decided to see if I could 'copy' the concept, and make a combo of it. We have on hand an amp (Hartke HA3500; overkill, really, but we have it, so...), so I sketched out a few ideas, and popped them into Blender (a graphics tool I use for 3D printing, making virtual model trains and other stuff...). Here's the result, modelled into 'real-world' panels and carefully assembled to check the measurements... If you've read carefully, you'll remember I had bought six speakers. Let's see what a modular system could look like, with a 4 x 5 extension cab... More modelling; this is what comes up ... All very well, but what will it look like really..? I don't know; let's find out. Here they are, stacked in a virtual salon, with a bonhomme for scale... Well, that's the idea, anyway. I spent two sleepless nights working out a cutting list from one single 2500 x 1220 x 12 sheet of ply, took it to the wood folk and had those panels cut. I've a few lengths of 17² for gluing into the corners; we'll see how it all pans out. It won't be quick (a couple of weeks, maybe..? We'll see...), but I think I have all we need to get started, anyway. To be continued; wish us luck ...

This popped up on youtube & is an interesting take on the pedal

I will be playing this for the first time this evening at a rehearsal! Flats for punk and ska will be interesting?!

Bought this lovely amp from Musik Produktiv on Friday arrived this morning. Arrived safely. It was £286 delivered, brand new. Some of the Ashdown stuff is really cheap at the moment, RM112 cab £132 delivered @javi_bassist Whats not to like 😊 Sorry about the rubbish picture, busy day today

Would be interesting to know what that same bass would go for on the Japanese equivalent of Gumtree, rather than an Ebay trader trying to sell to a global collector's market. I doubt it'd be anywhere near £1400! There's a curiously increasing trend in genuinely crazy prices from Japanese sellers. Apropos of absolutely nothing at all* - apparently Matsumoku was the first guitar manufacturer in the world to introduce CNC manufacture, at some point in the mid 70s. *Which like all unconfirmed MIJ-related factoids, might just be absolute b0ll0cks made up by some random Ebay gouger (not me) trying to flog their latest bit of £5 car boot tat.** **Such as this: It did need some work, but yes, £5 from the local car boot.

Was asked at start of week if i'd be interested in joining our drummers other band as their current bassist has decided to leave. My main band is a 70's Glam Rock covers band but they can only manage to gig 6-8 times a year due to work commitments. 2nd band is a blues/rock based 8 piece band incl 2 singers, bass, drums, 2 guitars, keys and sax player. The material is more Paul Carrack, Flletwood Mac to Peter Green amd Clapton. They only want to play their local pubs around the borders towns near Galasheils Kelso etc I'm 40 miles away from where the band are based and rehearse. The new band is a classic Punk covers band who gigged fairly regularly before Covid and have had 3 requests in the past week alone to play various types of gigs in next few months and they haven't started looking for gigs yet. I agreed to give it a try altho i do still have long hair and dont look like a typical punk but i can see a ponytail coming on. 42 songs to learn for their first gig on 18th Sept but they are all quite short. Total of 2.5hrs worth. The singer with them is our backing vocalist in the Glam Rock band too. I've never played punk songs before but have to say i'm really quite enjoying learning them. I normally wouldn't play in more than one band at a time but having spent a lot of money on my new Mesa rig i want to get as much use out of it as i can plus i enjoy gigging. Dave

It’s funny because I prefer Dan’s slower delivery to some of the more chipmunk type high energy reviews that come out. I like to sit and watch it with a nice cuppa and relax.

Here's a clue ... None the wiser..? No, It's not a P-Bass. Here's another clue : the cutting list ... No..? Still stumped..? Read on; I'll explain in the next couple of posts ...

Pretty happy, neck attached to correctly place bridge. And just fit the tunes etc for fun. Going to be a sweet bass….. Put the strings and remaining hardware on top to weigh it = 3.6kg. Oil finish weighs nothing, so pretty close to end weight I’d say.

Shielding done and neck ferrules in too….! Basically just a shed load of sanding to do now and finishing with oil.

+1. Love Dan's vids for that exact reason.

As a follow-up to this, I managed to track three of these down. They ended up in the US so it’s likely that rest are there too.

I’d agree with @Dood’s (near) closing statement about it working well with the One10s; it really does sound bloody marvellous paired with them. I am using it for a variety of band situations now, I’m not sure how I would have achieved those things without this on the board

As with most things in life, I think the Simpsons put best (albeit being about something slightly different!) We're the sauce on your steak We're the cheese in your cake We put the spring in Springfield We're the lace on your nightgown The point after touchdown Yes we put the spring in Springfield We're that little extra spice that makes exsistence extra nice A giddy little thrill at a reasonable price The gin in your martini The clams on your linguinie Yes we keep the BOING in Springfield

I just recorded this clip. I tried for ages to get it so that the song played and the basses switched between as you go through but I gave up in the end. There's a few mistakes and so on but it should give a fairly good idea of how they sound.

And 1 Bubinga headstock cap and trussrod cover …. Check! intentionally left the cap sit a little proud, I think it looks really cool that way.

FWIW I'm currently running the latest version of Reaper (R6) on an 11 year-old 32-bit W7 PC with a 2.4 Ghz processor and 4Gb memory. So, pretty basic, but it works OK. Things occasionally get a bit sticky if I've got more than 10 tracks and I'm running shed loads of plug-ins on all of them but there are workarounds like freezing or rendering tracks, and bunging multiple tracks into a sub-project to get them out of the main project while still being able to hear their combined output. As ever, I recommend checking out Kenny Gioia's Reaper Mania channel on YT. He's a god-send.

It's odd how none of the original / first wave punk bands wore tartan bondage trahsis, had mohawk hair dos etc. Being the pendant that I am 😉, it's an error to call the punk hairdo of choice a Mohican. In the fillum Last of the Mohicans, it was the Hurons led by Magua that had that hairstyle. Chingachook and Uncas who are Modhicans don't.

This may not be a problem with Bass Direct, unless usual delay not communicated. Other shops I have sold through have made it clear that they have legal obligations to the buyer including a cooling off period maybe a week just in case they return it with an issue, then money clearance etc. So even if you see it on their site as sold you may expect a two week wait a least for them to then send you the money. Does this sound like your experience.

A lot of drummers that I work with have been working with have been doing things like using 2 snares, putting a splash cymbal on the snare, or using an Octapad for a while now, because they know that one size doesn't fit all. It's not even a new thing anymore- I know drummers who were incorporating electronics and things 30 years ago. You might not think that it makes a difference but people do notice these kind of things, especially in this day and age. Edit... This is well off topic sorry, and might make a cool different thread.

My two

The big advantage of building your own is that it opens up choices, a difference yes, a significant difference? Well probably not. John's right, the reason I've used this method is that it is the easiest by a distance and probably the strongest. It's also really quick. The only tool you need to build the basic box is a screwdriver, any other method needs extensive clamping whilst the glue sets. Technically the joint is a reinforced butt joint and the main aim is to increase the glued area, all the screws do is hold the battens in place whist the glue dries. There is also a sonic advantage; the butts transfer energy across adjacent panels and help a little with panel damping. If you remove the battens you should probably look at other methods of transferring energy between panels but internal braces should do that and almost always using less material. If you are a competent woodworker though there are loads of other methods you can use. Dovetail and finger joints will also double the glued area and hold panels in place with minimal clamping needed, dowels certainly help with lining everything up and a well made simple butt jointed cab is still a fairly strong structure. My method is for those without a lot of woodworking tools and less confident of their skills. the important thing is that you are comfortable with whatever you choose.

Years ago when my rock band had imploded, I was asked to dep. for the bass player of an all girls punk band for a couple of gigs. Their bass player was my girlfriend at the time, so I knew their material pretty well. She was off to Uni and they had a few gigs booked that they wanted to do. They played a lot of their own material, plus some Pistols, Clash and Godfathers. Looking back those 3 gigs were some of the most fun I've ever had playing. You can really let yourself go with a good old punk gig. I even wore a kilt for the final gig - which on reflection was a mistake. As were the pigtails I did with my long hair. Go have some fun. I'm envious.

A short comparison of 60’s vs 70’s jazz bass pickup spacing on the SAME BASS! I haven’t found such clip on YouTube. The pickup position was changed by a luthier. Which option do you prefer?

First gig back for me in a couple of weeks. My band Soldato opening things up on this.

Ordered some Status 40-100 flats; £22 posted and never seen a bad review. I thought they’d stopped making the half rounds, they have for long scale but they still have the shorties! I have some of them on a 34” fretless. Defretting this shorty Stingray has crossed my mind!

Thought it was more Charlie Watts myself

He started it.

Only if they don't lose it.

That’s what I do 😁

So, here we are. One fine piece of maple shaped and dimensioned. As you probably are aware, there are many steps involved here. But I personally think the most involved and meticulous was to come up a way to plane the surfaces to be as parallel as possible. For this, I came up with this kind of an routing "swimlane". If you get some dimensionally accurate plywood, etc this is is doable. How did I hold down the wood on the surface? Masking tape on both surfaces and superglue in between Also, I was working on top of a table saw surface, to keep everything as flat and straight as possible. Tuner holes are not in final size, I'll wait for the tuners to arrive before drilling the final holes. Good to be a bit paranoid. Oh, and the templates... laser cut Found a local business that takes AI files and can cut 6mm plywood. @itu protip: https://www.lasercutstudio.com/

Nothing wrong with the Dano, just scoping out alternatives. The look may even be appropriate for the slightly psychedelic stuff we play. I assume they're pretty light too?

I'm sure that's what Lemmy would have wanted ........😀

The easiest way for me to adjust it when its on, is to just tip the headstock of the bass towards the floor, that brings the backbeat up and over your shoulder, then your fretting hand can turn it up or down. The feedback issue is definitely having too much rumble. The second version is even more sensitive, I find mine sits roughly at 30% for optimum rumble without feedback, and thats with my Sadowskys which are also stupidly powerful. Having said that, it’s a useful practice to roll the volume of the bass off in between songs/quiet passages

Also Liverpool and Rome.

That doesn’t excuse the poor communication. How long does it take to ping an e-mail to the commission seller saying ‘your bass has sold, but we are legally obliged to hold payment to you pending the prescribed cooling off period’. No time at all it seems.

Phil Jones is a god. I'm just coming out of PJB ownership but not because I didn't like his stuff, just fancied a change and a more cost-effective downsize. Go for it.

Worth a try in my opinion - I had an Epi EB0 with a DiMarzio DP120 and it was surprisingly bright and lively with light rounds (40-95 I think). To be honest, I find the EB0s to be a very useable bass in a lot of situations, though I think the DP120 made a positive difference

I think it that now there are also many more "boutique" brands that make their pedals for more than 200 bucks. So "normal" brands also want to make these "boutique" pedals and they rise the price. It's true that the Helix it's not for everyone, but even adding "extra" pedals, you decrease the cost of your pedalboard. And it also gives you the freedom to use effects that you don't have in pedals without the need of buying the effect to try it. But as I said, it's not for everyone of course. There are sounds that you need the specific pedal that it's not in the Helix.

I once owned a white B2A. It came in a flight case almost as big as me 🤪😂 EMG pickups and a great sound, I couldn’t get on with it then, but wish I had it now

That's the thing, you see. Different with e-drums, nowadays, but how many Drummers will swap out their snare to get 'that' sound that's on the original being covered..? Any of 'em have timpani on hand, or the gong that sounds in the intro..? Are the drums even tuned appropriately for the various songs to be played..? In my experience, drummers tend to play on one kit for the whole evening, whatever the tune 'needs'. For bass it's very similar; one size fits all, if one decides to just get on with it and play, instead of tap-dancing like a guitarist. Yes, we all different, and some are more 'precious' than others, but it makes very little, if any, difference to the evening, in many bands that I've played drums, or bass, in. 'Old school'..? Indeed.