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A bit of a ramble, but last Saturday we played at Alfold Rock and Blues Festival. We had a great slot at 8.05 pm - the last band before Martin Turner’s incarnation of Wishbone Ash. It was our second post lockdown gig, the previous being four or five weeks prior. Sadly we couldn’t rehearse - our drummer’s daughter had been isolating with Covid, then I had Norovirus, then the drummer had to go abroad for work for a week - so we blagged it! I’d been looking forward to gigging my lockdown acquired Peavey VB-2 for a second time but was uncomfortable because I’d not really got to know it at volume. Also I’m recovering from a screwed up back and although we have roadies, I still had to manoeuvre it into its case and get it to the door and was really worried about putting my back out again, so I decided to use my Bugera Veyron - the one with the valve pre. I’ve never seen Wishbone Ash before, but I have the Argus Album and it’s one of my top albums, love Martin’s bass on it and how much it contributes to the songs. Del had promised to introduce me to Martin, and true to his word, prior to our set, he introduced us and what a lovely bloke he is. We talked about his Rickenbacker which turned out to be a rare one with the extra fret. I asked why he changed to a Thunderbird. Apparently, the neck on the Rick got broken and he needed a bass desperately so he borrowed a Thunderbird from the bass player of Mott The Hoople. The Rick stayed at the record label offices from where it was stolen and he’s never seen it since! Anyway, we played our set and played a bit of a stonker. Big ups to the monitor engineer, he quietly asked each of us what we wanted in the monitors and set them (no sound check) and off we went - none of us had to ask for anything to be changed. My little Bugera? Well I think I got the best sound I’ve had yet with Stray, so if any one’s looking for a Peavey . . . . . No just kidding - I’m going to spend some more time with it yet! I really enjoyed Wishbone Ash. There were a couple of Jazz moment but it was lovely hearing most of the Argus album played live. And Martin’s tone? Wow - awesome. It looked like he was using an Ashdown ABM head through a couple of maybe 2x10 or 2x12 cabs - hard to see. Really solid sound. All in all it was a fabulous day. To top it off it was my final official day of employment before retiring from the railway after 42 years of service, so a fabulous way to bow out!!

I recently picked up a very nice Player Series P Bass in a lovely butterscotch finish. Weighing in at 8.5lbs the bass is super-resonant and sounds great. The previous owner had put a white pearl scratchplate on it, but other than that it was stock and in very good condition. However, as an eternal tinkerer, I decided to pimp the bass up and made a few basic modifications: Hipshot HB7 tuners - much more stable and accurate tuning with these Hipshot Kickass bridge - a new interpretation of the classic Badass bridge, very impressive! Dunlop straplocks - these go on all my basses Fender pickup and scratchplate screws - all changed just to get rid of some rusted screws Fender thumbrest - I don't use them, but I love how they look on a P bass in the tugbar position CTS 250k Mojotone vintage taper pots - the original Korean pots were nasty .047 orange drop capacitor I did toy with the idea of changing the pickup, but it sounds pretty good so I have left it alone for now. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.

I do wish you wouldn’t keep showing my work 😁

Can time wasters apply? It doesn't say.

He sounds like Morrissey. Oh, wait, just read the end of the ad. He also sounds like Morrissey, I see.

Probably should go in technical and repairs, or jokes, but I’ll leave it here.

I’ve been lucky enough to play with 3 very talented keys players, one of whom has become a very close friend. However, he had to be ‘told’ a few times in our early days…

'Clemenza... get Sticky Labella over here. Tell him I gotta job for him.'

I popped into the bass gallery in camden earlier today and tried four basses: *fender P bass 1961 *fender P bass 1975 *fender P bass professional 2015 *yamaha bb2024 On the fenders, the necks was so so different. The 2015 felt in between a jazz and P. I really liked it. The 75 felt the most awkward to me. chunky in terms of depth as well as being rather sticky. I didn't like it. The 61........................ Wow it felt completely different to anything i have have played. The shaped seemed like a very shallow U but the fretboard was wide and flat. You would think that it would feel weird but it honestly didn't. The 2015 Felt like similar to my squier in terms of the shape but miles better. Trying out the four above made me realise the importance of getting a bass in your hands to see if you gel with it. Shame the 61 fender was 8K loool.

I must stress that I am a very good and very dedicated musician and so there is no point in contacting me unless you are too and feel similar to me. There's quite a few posers and wannabes on this website and I don't have time for people like that anymore. It's his modesty that's holding him back.

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to try one. I’m not sure I’m going to bother with the k mod actually - it would be nice to keep it original. Realistically I’d never use my J or MM if I did!! The slap sound on this is something else - it’s got the best bits of everything else rolled into one. And as I’ve been playing my SB1 so much over the last few years, the identical neck and feel makes it super familiar. Reckon it could be my only bass if it had to be. One thing I really like about the SB1 is how the knobs do so much - really altering the sound in a musical way (I tend to leave 2/3 band active EQs basically flat) and this bass builds on that theme to the extreme.

Proper Hip Hop.

Is this reply to the Morrissey wannabe the work of a BCer ??? If so, you've summed it up beautifully. 😁👍

I think this is from the same place..........

Thanks a lot! Here is the new one from today ☺️

I've just spotted this on Facebook marketplace. Doing a little research it appears that Svetano is a custom builder / luthier here in Bulgaria. There has been a couple of them listed on here over the years. But it looks like all the photos are now defunkt. I've been gassing for a fanfret 6er for a while, and this looks like it could scratch the itch. So I thought I'd post it on here for the more experienced and eagle eyed amongst you to give it a look and see if I'm missing anything. All I can see "wrong" with it is the pickups look a bit shoddy with a couple of the poles slightly sunken, and they appear to be held on with couple of DIY wood screws. I know that this is a retro done by the owner, and not original work by the builder. The spec, as I can best translate. Top - 100 year old Madagascar Ebony. Base - Sapele Mahogany. Neck - Mahogany / Maple. Acoustic openings. Pickups - Alnico 2 humbucker 20 kohm divided into 2 singles (I'm assuming he means split coils) 3 band active electronics with 4 selectable frequencies 440, 550, 800, 1000hz 33-36" scale. Elixir medium guage strings. The builder's work looks pretty good, at least to my untrained eye. Those with Facebook can see more (plus the original build of this) here. https://www.facebook.com/zvetano-custom-basses-225369094171732/ The price at the current exchange rate is around 560 of her majesty the Queen's British pounds. It looks like a hell of a lot of bass for that money to me. Am I missing anything?

Did you say charcoal frost… managed to get this at the end of the run. Not sure if it came with the CS pickups but is a 2012 serial number.

S'all right Doc, I've gots Oxy Acetylene and a 12" Stihl disc cutter.. Oh, and lots of hammers.. I sometimes ask girls if they'd like to come and see my collection of hammers... 😈

I’m feeling a bit guilty/dirty tbh… experimented with a John East preamp and Aguilar pickup and it sounds blooming amazing 😁

Right now "in the car park, walking towards my car" looks like the optimum spot....

If you send me your bass I’ll have a go, I think I’ve got a chainsaw somewhere 😁

For me, Martin’s tone and playing are absolutely essential to my enjoyment of the WA sound. YMMV.

Correct. Originally it's the Slot Drive series, but due to a misunderstanding they now call this series the Pozidriv.

It’s his equivalent Squier series.

For those not familiar with much Hip Hop there is a four part BBC Radio 2 (yes Rap is Radio 2 now!) series by Romesh Ranganathan (yes the comedian!) where he gives a pretty good intro... the first one has expired and the second only has three days left Romesh Ranganathan: For The Love of Hip Hop https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000yvxd

Love the wonky bass line in this

All those years of play making that ‘61 neck feel like a week worn bannister! Would of had a nice wide nut too. ’61 is a such a great period IMO, great wood and a nice slab of rosewood 👍

You don't need to use identical drivers, but they should be spec matched as close as possible, as should the enclosure. There's no need for a low pass filter in the extension, the woofers aren't doing much above 3.5kHz anyway. That's one reason why a 2kHz capable tweeter gives a better result. If you're going to run into problems it would be using an 8 ohm 210 along with the 8 ohm 110. That puts half the power into the 110, half into the 210. Doing that you might as well have the extension be a 110 as well.

I think that's why I prefer unlined - you're not driven as much by your eyes.

Looks to like he's playing high up the neck and doing some swoops up and down. Seems he does play some barre chords on Bass

I’m locking down anything in off topic the second it gets unfriendly. Don’t like it? Go elsewhere.

Sorry to hear that Jake. I had similar before where I got invited to an audition at short notice. I was told it was going to be a jam session as there was no time to learn any songs and they also lent me a bass as (it really was that short notice). I turn up to be given a 5 String (I don't gig with 5 strings) with an action as high as Clifton Suspension Bridge. We went through the songs and I thought it sounded generally good, as did the band leader (guitarist) who thought it was really tight. I was quite disparaging about my own performance though as I felt it was very much in the fly. He said they had another guy to audition a week later but they'd let me know soon after. Sure enough, a week later I got sent a text saying "sorry mate, the band thought the other guy was a better fit and seemed to play better on the songs we asked him to rehearse". Well, go figure.... Approximately five weeks later I got another text saying "tell me to do one if you want, but the other bass player isn't working out." He wasn't learning the songs and wasn't particularly musical and when he reached difficult passages, he started playing very quietly! After a long chat I decided to give it another go, this time armed with my own bass and having been given a chance to learn some of the songs. I was asked to join in the spot. Funny how these things work out an if you think of the audition as a job interview, then often the first few sessions are the probation period. As my Dad always says, what's meant to be yours won't pass you by.

I’ll let you know..:

Don't knock the 'A1 lead guitarist songwriter'. He had some success backed in the late nineties. 😄

I think that would make me a ZX81. 😆

Seems a good time to link to a rig rundown. Lou’s bit is from around the 30:20 mark, should you not wish to listen to J and his socially awkward drawl!

I'm weird - I love them chunky 70s necks. The 60s profile is too planky for my liking.

Sounds very much like the neck on my beautiful Modern Vintage P bass,it's really nice to play,wide & shallow but so so comfortable.

This x1000 is what I've learned from trying to form my own band over the last year. An audition has to last more than 1 session. It's in the 2nd, 3rd and maybe 4th session that you see people get comfortable and show their bad habits like not learning songs, suggesting Katy Perry songs (for your 80s covers band!!!), wanting to play other instruments, wanting to bring their mates in, all the daydreams coming out when really you just want to get a good handful of songs learned properly.... You may well get that call and you get your opportunity to say "is it funky? Slap or not, is it funky? Yes? Then that's all that matters."

What dig you do? 😂

Alborosie 'For the Culture'

Just got my hands on one of these from a mate and looking forward to trawling the user patches for some 80’s flavoured sounds. Not sure that I’ll need that much as there’s a keys player but it should be fun to bust out a few ‘unexpected’ tones from the bass amp on the unsuspecting band😀

If this weren't so literal, it'd be the best BC euphemism ever!