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No, not all immediately recent - obtained over the last year in various ways. First one was the Thunder 3 fretted, acquired locally about a year ago. It was the classic been under the bed for 20 years job, but had a failed pickup, green frets & was a bit sad looking generally. I could see it was fundamentally sound though and just needed a lot of TLC, which I gave it & got the pick up fixed by Kent Armstrong via my local (most excellent) music store, Kempsters. Second one was the Thunder 1A, picked up off of here about 6 months ago. Paid probably top dollar for this one, but it did come with an original case. Also needed some TLC but not as much as my first one did. My first ‘proper’ bass as a teenager in the ‘80’s was a Thunder 1A. By now I was smitten with my more recently acquired Westone’s, & the 1A sounded even better than I remembered when played through my modern decent backline. So when a mint Thunder 3 fretless came up for sale about three months ago at Bass Direct, I was in like a shot! No second thoughts. Due to a talent shortfall on my part, the fretless will probably stay a home player lol. The fretted 3 & 1A have both been out on rehearsal duty already & sounded brilliant. I’d never owned a Thunder 3 before and after playing bass for 40 years or so, I’d say the one I have is one of the nicest basses I have ever heard. Very happy with this trio, it has to be said 🙂.

Last week I took my ukulele to a local folk session. I wanted to have a couple of pints, so instead of driving I went by bike. Uke/case on a shoulder strap. That reminded me of the Uke/bike based adventure I treated myself to for my 50th birthday. Hope it's OK to share the memory. My hobbies at the time were open mic nights and a bit of cycling. Basically I put some clothes and toiletries etc in a rucksack, and strapped the uke (in a case) to the back of the rucksack. Then cycled from my home near Dunstable to Portsmouth in 4 legs with overnight stays in hotels. Each of the 5 nights I played the uke at an open mic night. Got lift home. It took a fair amount of planning and preparation. Also had to increase my bike stamina as I was a 10-mile-ride guy prior to this. It only rained once (but absolutely whizzed down for a few hours).... but it was the last leg so didn't seem to matter as much. Here is the itinerary and map (the map still shows a stop at StAlbans which was cancelled by the venue, and replaced by an extra night in London) May 10th – 14th 2015 Sun: Paper Dress, Shoreditch Mon: Bedroom Bar(?), Dalston Tues: Jolly Tanners, Staplefield Weds: Fishbowl, Brighton Thurs: Crown Inn, Portsmouth It was an absolute blast, met some great people - one of my treasured memories.

What a man. Thank you Mike.

Mike and his family work so hard to bring this event to fruition. Without them I would spend another day typing conversations with distant strangers here on Basschat. Instead I got to meet some of those people in real three dimensional life. I got to geek out about pedals with people who care about them like I do. I got to share stories, to sit and eat wonderful food with folk who felt like old friends within minutes of striking up a conversation. I got to try instruments I'd never seen or heard of, to show off a couple of mine and to compare the dimensions of two tiny amps with men who care as much as I do about such things. This didn't happen by magic. It happened through hard work, an awful lot of time and dedication from @scrumpymike and his family. You made my day, and I am truly grateful.

Well, Gabs and I have just finished unloading all the stuff, putting everything back where it belongs and had a slump on the sofa with a cuppa. It was another great day for us too! Thanks to all of who attended, and we are looking forward to seeing the regulars who couldn't make it next time 😊 If everyone's agreeable, we're going for early October next year as it's between the holiday season and the winter bugs. Watch this space for today's pic's and confirmation of 2022 date! Special thanks go out to those who helped in any way and to Phil for putting the home-build cab session together single-handed AND at short notice.

Inspired by my last licence plate 3 string cbg I decided to build something 'different'. 30.9" scale, flat ebony fretless board (10mm thick) , hollow body, parallel neck and as small a headstock as possible. . Stainless inserts and a 'mistake' in drilling the the bolt holes despite using a pillar drill. Note the anti neck dive fitment, 1 lb of lead! 20mm neck depth and 48mm width (easy using the planer-thicknesser). 48mm neck width results in 13.5mm string spacing. From using the 3 string cbg I hoped that this would be playable (if not the design will let me replace the neck with a conventional taper one). Extended neck join and angle to get neck tilt with shim. Next time I will set the neck support block in at an angle in the body (or rout an angled pocket). Those with sharp eyes will notice the little infill at near the fingerboard end. Careful measurements can fail when user stupidity intervenes in simple mathematics! Wanting to keep the headstock as thick as possible, get the maximum break angle (and not cut / carve / rout a Fender type headstock thinning) I copied this sunken method that I found on another guitar build. If anyone does use it remember to make the depressions large enough to get a box spanner or socket over the machine head bushing nut. These did, just! Self made ebony nut, made with rat tail file, really pleased with how that turned out. Cavity for recessed piezo pre amp control panel. Due to this 'design' evolving rather than being planned correctly (ironic that my professional career relied on planning to prevent p**s poor performance) I ended up routing the recess after assembling the body shell. Much easier if done before. Body is sapele, 60mm wide, 20mm depth. Bridge with stainless adjusters. Angled machine heads to reduce turning moment (and hopefully help with neck dive). Machines are from Retrovibe, 20:1, excellent quality and fairly lightweight. Good price as well. Neck dive has been averted, all up weight is 7.9Lb Joyo piezo pre amp, chosen beacuse of price and features (£24, 5 band eq, tuner and phase. It also had a piezo undersaddle rod thrown in). Bought direct from Joyo so no risk of a 'knock off'. Finish is Tru-Oil. Very easy to use and get a 'glossy' finish. The neck is so stiff that I have had to (for the first time ever in any bass I have owned) use the truss rod to add relief. If you build one be aware that not all USA licence plates are the same thickness, some are very flimsy, some are steel, others aluminium. The Colorado plate was easy to use, the Nebraska one was 'buckled', difficult to get flat and eliminate buzzing / vibrations. Strung with some status flats I had lying around it is quite a 'fun' thing. The box format is surprisingly loud acoustically, string spacing is tight and playing it requires finesse (not my normal right hand technique). Will hopefully post some sound clips, I am pleased with it, it has a jazzy EUB, double bass vibe, plenty of string growl as well.

Hear hear absolutely and completely.

Not sure if it belongs in her so if it's in the wrong place feel free to delete or move it. Did my first ever open mic last night, OK it was on zoom and harmonica not bass but the same nervousness applies. Thoroughly enjoyed myself and although I was up third I didn't freak and played my piece almost flawlessly. Very interesting with folk from around the world playing different styles of music. Only lasted an hour but I'd have been happy for it to last all night, I even had a second piece ready to go.

First coat on the body - 1:1:1 oil based poly varnish, boiled linseed oil and white spirit. Used to use this mixture when finishing oak doors and architrave in a previous job, always worked well.

So much besides the point stuff going on debating wether or not it is to be considered a Sadowsky. Only valid question is is it a good bass for its price compared to others in the same range. ... and that has been answered quite extensively a while back in this thread. This makes me wonder what point some people are trying to make other then being negative about stuff without actually playing one of these basses.

Thanks to Scrumpymike, Mrs Scrump & the Scrumpettes for another great Bass Bash! Nice to see all you familiar faces too! I'm all socialled out. Played some cool stuff today. Highlights were lunch (of course) then the bass highlights were Pinball's shortscale Supro Huntingdon & G&L (with beast mode toggle switch!!!!) Rich's Sire 5er (very nice feel). Yorks5stringer's Warwick Star bass (lovely). Woody's Shuker Uberhorn (Ooerr missus etc) & mind blown by his Chapman stick (still boggled). Stewblack's Hofner Beatle bass (never tried one before, was pleasantly surprised). Jabba's really cute Telecaster short scale build & Stub's Fender Flea jazz bass (very noice). See you next year!

Great to meet friendly new faces and see others again. Big shout out to Mike and the wonderful Kitchen Crew and their Marvellous Munchies (and limitless tea, thank heaven!) I got distracted by all the wonderful basses and missed the cab shootout DOH! Thanks to Mike and everyone involved in the organisation and for bringing along lovely basses, cabs and even stranger things . P.S. that's a fantastic photo of @scrumpymike by @stewblack) P.P.S. Dropped in on my brother on the way back, turns out his band is starting back up, rehearsing next week and a gig booked already 🙂 P.P.P.S. He persuaded me into doing a pre-order on a Green Epiphone Embassy instead of waiting for one to come into stock. Let's hope it's a good one!

Legend.

Pic's taken by helper Richard. I'll post as soon as I get them

Yes! I'll add my thanks to Mike and the team for another great day with fab food as always and good to meet faces old and new. Cab shootout was very interesting and good to know that the BC112 is well up there with the commercial cabs.

The only bass I (currently) have that has financial-emotional strings attached is my Chris Wolstenholme sig Status. My mum gave me some birthday money shortly before she died and this part funded the bass. I think I’d really struggle to part with it now even if I didn’t like it.

Just got back from the Bash. Big thanks to Mike and his team for all the organisation, everything went very smoothly and the food as usual was tasty and plentiful. Not so many Basses but enough to keep me gassing and great to meet up with old and new Bashers! Oh, and thanks to Phil Star too for organising the 12" cab sound comparison beauty contest!

Neck pocket started. Not yet in final depth, I'll do the final depth after I have frets installed and decided on what bridge to use. Routing a neck pocket is a bit stressfull as well, it's very easy to mess up the centerline and the overall fit. But I managed to nail this one, phew.... Also drilled the screw holes, quite a moment to have the neck installed, even for a brief time.

Last night was my first full two set gig with a full band for about 26 years. Bluesfire played the Two Brewers in Chepstow. I had been sceptical of the amount of gear - pa, lights, banners, miked up drumkit. But the sound was immense - I took a five string, only used for one song but with the pa it shook the whole building 👷‍♂️ 😅. Only down side was hum, so I ended up using the jazz with both pups on full for almost every song. The list of upcoming bands showed this was a pub keen on blues rock and they were totally into the music. We played two sets of about an hour with an encore on top. On the way back m4 was closed so had to detour through cardiff, managed to get 6 hours 😴 now working myself up to going to the bass bash. Really buzzing 🙌

Blimey, first gig back and you are playing the O2.

My black P Bass is the same for me Mart. My family chipped in and each gave me some money towards it, including my Grandad who passed away not too long afterwards. It's the only Bass I own that I could never part with. It's not worth a lot and has definitely seen some action, but I don't have to think about anything when I play it. It's an extension of me now and music just sort of happens.

I’m privy to what all the new stuff is as I’ve been consulted on some of it and will be beta testing, but can’t divulge details until given the go-ahead. It’s pretty exciting stuff though and I’m very much looking forward to getting stuck in to it.

I will second that, Mike and his merry band have pulled off another stellar event, with a special mention of the rhubarb crumble, looking forward to next year already.

C’mon guys. I need to ‘bash’ vicariously.

Anybody who attends Bass Bashes will know that even we Bass players struggle to identify instruments, even when they're our own. Check out the various tests at the SE and Herts Bashes for more info. In short, we might like to think we can hear the difference but in reality we're nowhere near as good at it as we think.

Been playing this one this morning , nice Bassline

Question 1) yes - the 2 band was an option from when the 3 band was introduced at the end of the 80s, till 2017 (with the rest of the standard Stingray features including contoured body). Not very many people bought them, and particularly in the 90s. The 3 band is arguably far more versatile and you can get close to a 2 band sound by cutting the mids back significantly and boosting the bass and treble a touch. The 2 band does not have the HPF which the 3 band does - which avoids the boomier bass frequencies. Question 2) yes - I’m my experience they are capable of the normal sounds you’d associate with a Stingray. In fact I did a dep gig (mostly R and B), sone of which was recorded - I used my SR4HH Special - and I was pleasantly surprised that the bass tone was reminiscent of Bernard Edwards with Chic or Alan Spenner using a Wal. Which pleased me greatly as those are my favourite bass sounds. There are comparison videos on You Tube between the Special and the earlier Stingray. The main difference is headroom and the mid range voicing - there is also more bass boost available with the Special. Question 3) The Stingray nut (standard neck size) measured on my basses (not massively accurately) is 1 and 11/16”. The Sterling (US) and Stingrays with ‘SLO Special’ necks are narrower (1 and 1/2” I think).

Alcohol. IMG_6435.MP4

I read this thread last week and I was considering this modification or selling the amp as I always had to use an eq pedal to counteract the sometimes muddy sound from this amp . However the lack of a local amp tech made me relook at the amp as-is. I think I found a good workaround (well it worked a charm today). All the buttons switched on . The biggest impact was using the high input (intended for active basses). I think it gave me a very clean sound and I had much more control over the gain. I was playing a precision bass, fender player , stock everything and using a Schroeder 2x15 cab. I had the amp up for sale but I’m glad I took the time to get to grips with the settings , sounds great now.

Did two sets with two different bands at at IOW Festival. Ampeg SVT Classic and 6x10 was my favourite rig of the day. I’ve played through plenty of 8x10, but never a 6x10. Unsurprisingly, they still get the job done. If the Ampeg 4x10 wasn’t quite so heavy, I’d probably get one.

Well, since I slept with Simon Cowell our career has really taken off!

Absofeckinlutely, any excuse...

I am honestly considering having that logo sanded off and adding a Sadowsky decal. The story of why the Sadowsky name isn't on the headstock as such (but as part of the RSD brand) is clear and easy, but still, yes, that logo is awful.

...a bit of Corona magic...

Pub gig last night, it was dead - I think it being mid-month, the weather being decent and that the venue have changed their name recently all didn't help. I didn't really want to be there and to be honest made more mistakes than usual, partly as it was with a (very good) dep guitarist, so the set-list was a some of our less performed songs. It didn't seem to be an issue with the punters who were there though.

I've only just recovered from Friday night's gig. I played a double header. Opened with a 45 min set with the newly formed Queen tribute who were supporting my regular Bowie tribute. I don't think I've enjoyed a gig so much for quite a while. The audience were completely into both bands and we had some promising offers of further gigs for the Queen tribute as a result. Couldn't be happier.

Played a regular gig in Witney again, bigger audience than last time so it went well. Drummer was trying out his first electronic kit which sounded fine to my ears and has a volume control. I'm playing there again with another band in a couple of weeks.

Yup. NS NXTa 5-string. Black. My wife had been pestering me into playing an upright at some point, then suggested my birthday. My mother-in-law is chipping in too. I've only ever played one on two occasions, 30 years apart. How hard can it be, eh? 😂

Great post, Blue! Jut as a funny aside, the moving even goes for classical orchestras: Someone I know applied for the job as second flautist in the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Everything went well during all the auditions where candidates were playing behind a screen. The very last, visible, round made her fall through because of her being like a plank. It was explained to her: if something happens and the solo flautist can't play, the first flautist takes over. Then if something happens and the first flautist can't play either ...