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FFS! Martin and I go back about 10 years!! We bought and sold each other so much gear it was a borderline joke. When we had our youngest in hospital (Martin was a hospital Porter), he was there - and brought his left field humour to keep us going - he checked in with Jen and I as well as saying hello to family and the kids. “I’m yer dads mate…I buy all the bass stuff he regrets” 😂 What a bloody awful shame. gutted.

Following my recent Ashdown deliberations, I finally made the move last week, as mentioned in the topic about Musik Productiv and their (almost too) cheap offers. I was going for a RM500, and two 1x12's. However, with things going so fast, I had to make a change, Instead, I opted for the 1x12 combo, and the remaining 1x12 cab. Same thing, I guess, just in a different package. Ordered last Friday evening, delivered by UPS today. No extra charges, nothing sinister - it was all new, sealed, well packaged. I can't try the cab until tomorrow (speakon in the post, sold my OBBM one when I stopped playing for a bit), but the combo alone is a beast. It has much more heft to the tone than others I've owned. With the cab, it's hopefully all the 500w I'll ever need. Any more, and I'd want to be DI'd, as I wouldn't want any more volume behind me! Bad photo attached to prove it's existence. I'd call this the cheapest 500w rig I've ever bought - £460 all in!

On the plus side, I still have somewhere a copy of the massive black and white poster that came in the Women and Children First album which used to be right above my bed. Boyfriends of the 1990s wishing to have relations with a younger Ms. DawnPatroller were forced to do so under Diamond Dave's watchful eye, right underneath the lovely image of him handcuffed to a fence wearing nothing but a pair of leather trousers.

My RM800 arrived this morning from MP. Contained a European mains cable and UK adapter. This is not a problem for me as I have lots of spare UK cables. The amp sounds fantastic and I really wish I had discovered the Ashdown sound earlier. Clear with lots of punch.... What's not to like. Also EXTREMELY loud.😄

Well I've been sorely tempted to dip my toe and try out a HB for a while, as they seem to get consistent reviews as being fantastic value for money e.g. Harley Benton Enhanced MP-5EB which costs a fraction of a Sandberg VM5 and is one of the few other basses with a reverse-P set up on a 5 string bass. Weight has been the key deal breaker for me - the HB basses are on the heavy side (e.g. the 5EB in the clip is around 11lbs!) although I have managed to get hold of a decent wide strap this year which has made my heavier basses much more comfortable to play for longer periods but, personally, I'd still prefer basses ideally no heavier than 10 lbs. Thomann are pretty reluctant to confirm the weight of their basses for some reason - I did think about messaging them today, but rather than hang around and get another "sorry we can't confirm that for you" response, I thought it might be time to come off the fence and find out for myself! They had a B stock Marquess available for £233 (including VAT and shipping) and a 30 day return policy. I've spent that much (and more) on a single effects pedal but also on a used Yamaha BB 425, which is actually quite a high bar as basses go. I'll report back in a couple of weeks to allow time for delivery and when I've had a chance to put it through its paces.

Had another reshuffle as I had to unlock some equity for a new fretless. So the latest version is thus!! 😁 EBS Microbass 2 - this is the third one of these I've had, and I'd forgotten how brilliant they are. Works as an A/B box for 2 basses, or two channels for one, and an OD, DI, headphone amp it also has a loop with a control for parallel to series operation. I've put all my effects into the loop, so I can use them with the headphone amp and set the dial to 100% effect as I don't need any clean blended in. first in the loop - FEA Optifet- I've always loved the warm sheen given by some of the great opto comps I've had (Diamond/3 leaf Pwnzor/Effectrode/nemphasis) and I like my compressor to be a tone enhancer,rather than a plaster for bad technique. So always wanted to try this! Fantastic quality and a warm tone to die for especially with a P, I've got It set to the first warm setting. It has loads of control and the EQ in the side chain gives me a second threshold response,which is great for going between clean or effected sounds. This then goes into the main input of a Boss LS2, This then goes back to the EBS, this is my main clean sound, I can switch effects in/out using the Ls2 Ls2 Loop A - Analog Channel Emma Okto Nojs -Octave/fuzz Great synthy machine, one side a decent tracking octave with a filter to go from deep dubby tones to raw and gritty. Reminds me of my old COG T16. The other side a dynamic synthy octave up fuzz, which also has a square wave tone an Octave below and a tonal filter for that too. Very nasty tones I love it, the two effects are independent and can act like an Analog synth on its own. EBS Unichorus- An old favourite of mine,and i always seem to go back to it. Its a stronger less subtle sound than tbe MXR, but can be mixed with your clean via a trimpot. The Flanger setting, isn't the deepest or whooshiest (technical term) but gives a very nice variation on the chorus (Very Anthony Jackson like) it has a pitch mod setting but I find that too warbly to be of use. EBS Dphaser - fabulously funky multi stage phaser, with lots of control and sounds very deep and cool Ls2 Loop B - Synth Channel Iron Ether Subterranea - A very cool Analog octave with a filter for tonal variety as well as two synth voices one in unison to what you play and another an Octave below. Each voice has a three way switch with square/pulse/triangle waves. I turn the clean off and set the filter to sound similar to the OC2 it's a fairly dirty/Lofi kind of tone,and I like it mixed with the Xerograph patch on my C4. Source Audio C4 synth- this has so many sounds and I'm finding it's able to replace more and more of my board. Loads of octaves/filters/phasers/bit crushers/fuzzes and synths. I have the Disaster Area Micro DMC so I can access 128 sounds from the C4. So versatile. These to channels can be mixed via the LS2 (the most useful pedal in existance) Thanks for sitting through yet another of my board carousels. Hoping this one will stick 😂 pic was my hastily put together version,the bottom is a mess😚

My new geetar (paid for with nectar points) has arrived. I felt it might need something extra to make it sound like it looks, so I ordered a pedal as well. The guitar is a FSR Squier bullet mustang in grafitti yellow. The neck is wider and flatter than my telecasters, but it is still comfy to play due to the shorted scale length. Out of the box the set up was pretty good, I've only needed to lower the B & high E strings a little so far and will give it a more precise setup once I've had it a while. The ceramic humbuckers sound surprisingly good especially with the pedal which also arrived today. The Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz pedal is a dead-on recreation of the discontinued Boss FS-2 Hyper Fuzz which in turn was a recreation of the even longer discontinued Univox Super Fuzz. The guitar & fuzz pedal sound great together and I'm dead chuffed with them.

They’re cheap because they tend to copy other manufacturer’s designs. Investing in their research and develop department means they’ve bought a new photocopier.

In my experience they are not cheap and nasty but just cheap and good. Never a trendy brand but good bang for your buck. The usual issue that people raise is the plastic casing. Frankly I cannot see how you would damage them unless you drove over them or abused them in some other way. Lightweight plastics in planes, trains and automobiles are lauded but if it is a Behringer pedal they get a slagging.

Just sat messaging @bagsieblue welling up, some amazing stories. “Kermit” the bright metallic green Ford Ka, covered in bird poop. And the subsequent revolving door of Mini’s - had nowt but trouble with them, but kept on buying them! Nearly bought mine actually 😂 Our last deal was a few months ago - he came to my rehearsal space, the sat nav took him to a separate car park…he was rarely late. Phone rings… ”Andy. Martin…er…anybody home?” He really was a bloody great bloke. The world is going to be a bit less fun. Mrs T has just relayed a story - he was finishing his shift one evening and popped by Iris’ ward - “hiya Mrs T, do you need anything from the shop before I get off” - just a brilliant person. He didn’t have to do that. Humpf. Really sad.

I think it’s the imperfections that help to make the songs be as good as they are, as I’m sure there are similar in the guitars & drums. Sometimes being too perfect sterilises a song imo.

Will miss this ”MB1 😎 - Local Bump…”

So, while I sort out some things about ordering the fretboard I turn my focus to the body. Finding hardwoods, or "noble woods" as they are called over here is really hard. Finland is such a small market that availability is always an issue. Especially when you want to physically inspect the wood before buying. There is just one place in Helsinki that keeps these kinds of wood in stock ( @itu knows...) so I went there. I knew it was not going to be cheap, but eh.. at least I save in shipping. And I get to pick and choose. Initially I had some kind of a light colored wood in mind, but I'm not picky. In the basement of this special place there were interesting planks from all around the world, even zebrano. Man that's a wild looking wood. But heavy. So as previously posted, I really wanted to nail down an optimal weight for this instrument. Not too heavy, but still "substantial", you know what I mean In my cad model, I could calculate a rough volume for the body, therefore I was able to aim for a certain density for the wood. Which turned out to be around 580kg/m3 for a ~2kg body when cut and contoured. That together with the neck and all the hardware should land me on around 3,5-4kg for the finished instrument. So I rummaged through in the basemend and tried to get a feel of the weight of various planks. I finally ended up with 2 pieces of something called "Bibolo". It has many names: Dibetou (France, Belgium) African walnut (UK) Lovoa wood (USA) Noce africano (Italy) The shop did not have a scale for me to weigh the wood, but having felt so many instruments and pieces of wood I was confident that we might have a potential winner. So I left with a lighter wallet and some wood wrapped in plastic, trying to manage a rainy day in Helsinki... This wood does not have a strong grain pattern, so it's kind of boring looking. But let's see what we come up with.... I measured one of the pieces and put it on a kitchen scale and got 583kg/m3 0,0037821185107499m3 583kg/m3 2,2kg I'm happy.

DiMarzio Model P with authentic 70s cream coloured covers. Obviously!

Friday night mix me bredren ...

I wish everyone would stop criticising Paul's voice. He's been sounding great since he started lip synching to the backing tracks!

As a die hard Roth era VH fan, DLR has never been much kop live, but those albums.....superior to every rock band of that late 70's early 80's period.

Just to confirm, oiling the fretboard made a huge visual difference. Fretwork and nut (bone) are absolutely perfect. Very lively, responsive and articulate bass, as opposed to my previous "good" Precision, the Nate Mendel, which was somewhat stiff in comparison, quieter unplugged and kind of sounded always the same.

This ^^^ x1000. Christ, they need to write this in every manual going. I've had my live tone positively commented on many, many times. I was never happy just plugging in, too much 'ponk'. [Edit/addition: I favour a bit of a Geddy/dUg tone, controlled dirt/clank.] About 25 years ago I had a lay-off from playing, sold everything except from an old Precision bass. At a mate's insistence (he's a drummer), we took a visit to Andertons and he said to try plugging a Bass POD into the effects return on an Ashdown Mag combo; I thought he was nuts, but it was an aah-there-it-is moment of clarity (cue angels singing) - through the front input jack the POD was just mush, overloading a pre-amp by plugging another pre-amp into it. From then on, irrespective of the amp, it's always been into the FX return or into a poweramp.

I inmediately got a feeling of Marleaux basses. Both name and looks. Edited to say that I really like the looks of Marleaux basses.

Try it, though (OK, maybe just the once...)..? Take the first page, work out, laboriously, what the notes are, and where they are on the bass. By the nature of the piece, the rhythmic notion is quite easy, and once you've worked out a line or two, you'll see how it works, and what it can bring to the party. It's a great introduction to 'dots', and doesn't imply that one has to become a 'swot', or pour over pages of operatic libretti. Just a couple of lines, and you'll impress yourself, I'm sure.

Damn, a truly wonderful guy, one of the few humans with whom I was able to communicate telepathically Beedster: Hey Martin....... MB1: You want me to reopen one of your For Sale threads don't you? Beedster: Thanks Martin He bought a rig from me a while back and there were complications involving, you guessed it, a courier, and we had a chat on the phone. What a bloody lovely guy, bloody lovely. Great sense of humour and a great attitude. Every time we PM'd since I could hear his voice and his accent as I read his words. Up there in the great gig (and even better gear forum) in the sky now mate. I'll raise a glass or two to you this evening, as will a lot of musicians in the UK and beyond who you touched with passion and humour. Sincere condolences to those you've left behind Chris

I thought the same. It sounds crap. Then again, that's often the case with bass in isolation. For me, it just doesn't work as a solo instrument.

Couple of things: Part the first Mr Mick Fleetwood and Mr John McVie might gently disagree. It's their names on the band and, really, everyone else is just passing through. Where you are at this stage, it's a matter of perspective: if you pitch yourselves as just two guys that's how you'll be seen. As of today you are a rhythm section. I mean, you've actually got a drummer, the lack of which is the thing that sinks most start-ups. No guitarist of any quality or experience will look askance at the opportunity of picking up (as he might see it) a bass player and drummer in one fell swoop. Anyone silly enough not to take you seriously is one less numpty to audition. Put some swagger in your stride, Sir. You two are the Mick and John, the Sly and Robbie, the Bill and Charlie of Branksome Chine. Part the second Halve your personnel issues by finding a guitarist who sings (as opposed to a singer who plays guitar). OK, guitarists who sing may throw solos in at will and mumble the words they haven't learned but that's better than a pitch-perfect singer chopping out cowboy chords. Also, it's so much easier to do Blues as a three-piece (unless you really must have keys and a brass section) and you'll each get 33% more money than if you have to split it with a singer. Blueprint Take confidence in your general desirability. Scour the online and real world ads. Audition guitarists who claim they can sing. Don't worry if they look a bit dodgy on paper - try out as many as you can so that you and drummer can work together. Eventually you'll find some that are half-decent then get them back in. Also, tout yourselves round the blues jams as a working rhythm section. That might flush out some talent. It will take time. Let time be your friend.

My first post on this excellent thread. I'm kind of stuck in the 70's - early 80s. I keep coming back to this one. Never get tired of it. Multidimensional sound scape created on a Tascam 4 track. Bass is so good it's scary. Pure magic.

Concur with @Quatschmacher about the Future Impact especially after the latest couple of releases which Q was heavily involved with. I like old gear and still love my Octavius Squeezer for the Envelope and Brown Dog Gated fuzz and the Matryoshka for the craziness but I can't really see myself ever needing another bass synth pedal as the FI does everything I ever need synth-wise. For standalone envelope filters although I always keep an eye on new releases, the venerable Mu-Tron III still just has that sound for me. It does the slightly dirty funky quack better than any other filter I've tried IMO.

I wish Kiss would just say farewell….. Kiss Off so to speak.

He certainly had a good grip on his Jack Daniels bottle

For me, playing music and listening to music are two totally different things.

TBPH, if it's Blues Rock then I'd rather work with an arrogant but red-hot guitarist / singer who overplayed a bit than with a nice guy who lacks the necessary chops. It isn't like it's a flat-share. There are methods both psychological and musical to mitigate a guitar hero's excesses but you can't manage talent into someone if it ain't there. OTOH, if they're obviously arrogant, they overplay and they're incompetent then you don't hire them in the first place.

Lol Zombie thread! I had one for a while Stew and regrettably I didn't keep it for long. Its quite a large pedal and takes a lot of power to run. It has loads of parameters to tweak and they all interact with each other and I found it a challenge to dial in a sound a that wasnt a huge WHOMP. That's nothing on the pedal,just my lack of patience. The stop/start frequency works similar to the micro synth and can be set for reverse sounds, It also has the usual sensitivity/attack/decay etc as well as a clean blend. It has a built in distortion which I didn't like, it was mega loud and very grainy sounding. You could reduce the volume with a trimpot inside,but it still massively overpowered the filter sound. Funny How the fuzz on the bassballs is great, they shouldve just used that circuit. Apparently it can get close to the old Qtron but i couldn't get that sound otherwise I would be kept it,despite the size/power requirements. It has thw LP/BP/HP modes too,but we all know that only LP or band pass with clean blend are useful on bass. IF the price were right, I'd have another one, if only to try again to coax out the sounds this unit is apparently capable of. Our own Quatschmacher has owned one of these for a while and he loves it,and I'm certain he'll be the one to talk too to get the best out of it 😁

Fixed for ya!

Bonkers.

Can't argue with any of that really. Love abit of Diamond Dave but there really did come a day when youth would pass away 😉

Mmm, that sounds highly unlikey, the current UK government have always conducted themselves with the utmost decorum and decency in all matters, public and private. History will show them as above reproach. 😂

It does seem that there are getting to be more hurdles to jump now to be able to gig. I'm not sure it's just the venue being awkward to push bands out in favour of discos. There's legislation in place that requires the venue to put in place safety measures and be as safe as possible. Maybe it's a function of their operating insurance that it's a requirement for performers to have PLI & PAT in place(?) For the larger chains it may be a way of distancing themselves from potential legal costs eg: someone gets injured by the performers equipment (ooh eer missus! 🤣) the band are in the initial firing line for any claims. Any performer, disco, band, solo singer etc will have to provide the same documents. It's just that it's usually cheaper to hire a disco / solo singer than a full band. I took out PLI for my band to help protect US. Even a minor claim from a punter (or the venue) can cost a lot in solicitors fees which tend to be higher than your average pub bands earnings 🙂 I used to use AMPband (Link) for my 5 piece band covering us for all our gigs. It was usually hotels or clubs that asked for PLI & PAT etc. but I had it in place for any venue. I never needed to use it but did notice that there were more potential incidents to use it in a bar gig where the drunk punters grab onto the PA stands for support or try joining you "on-stage" 😮😡 Also the cost of one off event cover was nearly the same as a full year. I'm not affiliated with them in any way but based on my experience and others who reccomended them to me its probably worth giving them a call. An unfortunate fallout from the need for PLI and PAT etc is that in general it cuts into whatever you are paid as many pubs etc are still paying the same (or less) than 20 years ago. But that could be a WHOLE other thread 🙂

Last night I played pedals with no amp at all, no amp or cabinets its.. it was wonderful - but, I do have a really lovely amp rig that sounds stunning with no pedals. (especially with just my old P bass plugged in! WOW!) It depends on the gig I suppose! I use what I need to.

You left fingers off the top of the list. Fingers plus a touch sensitive overdrive is my nirvana when overdriven tones are allowed.

May he rest in peace. A fine tribute, BTW, Ped.

This may be of interest, then; it's very good, and not that difficult ...

Very often the case when heard alone, as its just a basic "signal" really.. It's all in what you do with it in the mix / production Rather like the embarrassing "dry" vocals thing !

Incredible how unremarkable it is in isolation. Some of it is even slightly scruffy- the first prechorus for example but…. The other version with the bass and drums is a different story, for some reason it’s a powerhouse, even though you can hear JD frequently rushing onto beat 2 compared to the drums. Music’s a funny old thing.

Yeah I've always felt they lack imagination with the bass finishes. Perhaps they feel bassists don't need the groovy colours or fancy tops. My desert island BB would be a classic BB shape and neck through 5 string. Sporting an Aqua finish and quilted maple top (like my old NE1) and the NE2 bridge with piezo and pre (as per TRB 5P) with a music man pick up in the bridge and a jazz lust like a Lakeland. I'm hoping Yamaha are taking notes on my "signature" bass 😂

I've always gone from the bass, straight into the amp, and am very happy with the sound. I use a clip-on tuner. I'm somewhat of a minimalist, 'old-school' (being old...), and don't like the 'dirt' sound. It helps having a good bass, amp and cab, though; without those elements, it's just chasing a dahu. My advice would be to get a sound you like with just the basics first, then add pedals etc if needs arise. I may be alone in this, though. What's to not like with your current gear, and what is it..?

The distance only needs to be a few inches. Just saying'

I have a lot of rechargeables*, not only the gigging stuff but also I have outdoor wildlife cameras. Over the last month I tested all the batteries I had as I had suspicions on some of them. Doing that I threw away 2 silver duracells (very old), 4 energizers, 1 ikea, and a couple of lidl batteries, again old. I marked the batteries as to how much charge they had. Anything below 1400 I threw away, 14-1800 marked with brown for internal house things, 18-22 marked with blue, and the 22+ marked with red. most of them are red. The ones that have surprised me the most are the coloured batteries I bought from lidl, for £5 for 4. I have quite a few of those. as I said I threw 2 away, I have 14 left I think, they are all red. The 3 ikea batteries that are remaining are higher than specified (they say 2480 and two are over 26). My new duracels are all good but I got them a few weeks ago when I threw a lot out. The duracels and the lidls (and ikeas) work a week in the trail camera. * Just counted 56 AAs, 12 AAAs, but there are probably some I am missing in gigging stuff.

Possibly because I am best known for talking complete bollocks

Need to solder a few last bits and clean the chrome and we are done!