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My jazzies😊

UNDER DEVELOPMENT Hi All, as most of you will know a few of us here have been developing a series of cab designs on a similar line to creative commons. Free for anyone to use, share or add to so long as it is done on a not for profit basis. So far we have developed a 1x12 Basschat Mk1, a smaller easy build version of the 1x12, a very high quality lightweight FRFR 112T currently described as the Mk3 (the mk 2 was withdrawn when the drive units ceased to be manufactured) and a low cost 110T. I've also built a 1x6 'House Jam Combo' in the build diaries along with a 6" House Jam home practice speaker, a lightweight 2x10 and a 1x15 not yet published but which I'm happy to share. I'm sure there will be more to come so that we will have a fairly comprehensive set of designs. The problem has been that with the passage of time (we started in 2014) the designs have gradually become lost in the thousands of topics posted on BC and a lot of the original illustrations/photo's have been lost when file sharing sites went down or became subscription only. My aim is to make sure you can get all the links to the original designs from one place and to go back and retrieve as much information as I can to aid anyone who wants to build these designs. I'd also like to achieve a little standardisation to keep the design threads as short as possible but with plenty of helpful practical hints. At the moment most of the designs are long rambling threads going on for many pages. I'll link to those threads to start with but replace them with links to the edited designs as I get time to do them. I'm going to reserve a few replies so i can easily edit this thread please don't comment for the next 10-15 mins Basschat 12 Mk1 single 12" driver, 350W, 122db, 14kg easy to build 1x12" Mk1 112 Basschat 'Easybuild Cab' Smaller version of the Mk1 with a tailored bass response to match difficult acoustic spaces (pokey pubs ) this has a video of a live build (in under an hour!) at the Southwest Bass Bash Easy 12" cab build Basschat Mk3 lightweight 12" neo driver with neo horn very high quality FRFR design. FRFR 112T Basschat 110T Easybuild Lockdown project. A lightweight 'easybuild' 1x10 with a good quality horn. The crossover has only three components and requires no soldering. Basschat easy-build 110T House Jam Combo/speaker A remarkably competent and loud 1x6 perfect for home practice and semi acoustic work. This is a build diary with minimal design details but I'll look to write this up as a design as soon as possible A House Jam Speaker

Already did a NBD thread, but what the hell; Squier CV Mustang with a mint scratch plate. Looks way better than tort, I reckons.

As I understand it, John Hall's been wheeled off to a quiet little room with soft walls where he can't hurt himself (or anyone else) and I think a younger Hall (a son? I dunno) is now running the show. This can be seen in almost-sane product developments such as a bridge that intonates mounted on a tailpiece that doesn't bend in half, and the adoption of those weird, crazy & radical single truss rods used by those rule-breaking futurists at Fender, Gibson and everywhere else in the world circa 1955. It's also quite possible that they no longer have the same dementedly litiginous attitudes to people trying to sell on 45 year old Rick-shaped Japanese basses. Although I'd continue to support the ban on sales of Rick copies and real Ricks here, because they're still a bunch of tw@ts..

Just got hold of a Epiphone Ravoli , sunburst . Arrived with a cracked neck joint ( UPS again ) seller is claiming for a repair from them , and has refunded me the repair ammount . NICE ! This one is a 1997 Korean , made at the Peerless Factory . Had one about 10 years ago , and the pickup was crap , changed it for a D`Marzio No1 , but the sound was not suitable for the band I was in , so it had to go . The pickup on this one is superb , balanced output from all strings . not microphonic either . Now playing in a Stones Tribute band , so its gonna fit in perfectly ,

Don’t know why but this popped up on my YouTube, I quite enjoyed it

Had a great gig at a small private club in Mirfield last night. The club don’t normally have bands on but wanted to liven up a Saturday night. Two great sets with them up and dancing from the start. Mugs of tea provided gratis and rebooked for NYE. Even had time for dressing room selfie shenanigans.

I've just been perusing a certain bass online, looking for decent images of the actual finish. Most online retailers have low quality generic pictures of the bass where, once zoomed, you just can't see any detail. Not Peach Guitars, oh no. Their photos are consistently the best available on line. I discovered this when looking at the Jack Casady basses, and I've just been trying to see what the colours of the Embassy look like. All pretty meh until you look on Peach Guitar's website, the green is lovely and the almond, oh my! Anyway, well done Peach Guitars for taking photos of the actual instruments rather than copy and pasting a poor, generic image. PMT photo Peach photo 🙂👍

Great gig ( & food) last night in Carlton le Moorland...2 1/2 hrs of 60 & 70 pop nostalgia...raising money for a local cause...pic of set up after sound check...I know I keep banging on about a silent stage...but we wanted to rehearse a new encore medley...so we did this with FoH muted so the organisers could lay out the room.

Really like the bb1600 in this “gunmetal” finish. But they seem to be a unicorn amongst unicorns…

Rutger Gunnarsson was a terrific musician. There was a lot more to him than just Bass playing as well. The bassist became a part of ABBA in 1972. After struggling for a couple years, the band won the 1974 Eurovision contest with “Waterloo.” It would be the band’s first major U.S. hit, but certainly not the last. Gunnarsson played on all eight of the group’s albums in addition to multiple world tours. He played the bass lines on “Dancing Queen,” “Money Money Money,” and many more. He also contributed his arranging skills to several albums and worked on several musicals including Chess, Les Misérables, Rhapsody In Rock, 007, and Mamma Mia! After ABBA’s breakup, Gunnarsson continued to play bass and arrange for artists like Celine Dion, Elton John, Gwen Stefani, Adam Ant, and others. ABBA paid tribute to Gunnarsson with a statement on their Facebook page. “Our friend, the bass player, guitarist, arranger and producer Rutger Gunnarsson (born 1946) has suddenly passed away in his home in Stockholm at the age of 69. His unique way of playing his bass, his beautiful string arrangements and thorough work as a producer for countless Swedish and foreign artists and musicians have colored pop music from the early 70s up until today. Rutger got the most attention through his long and intimate cooperation with Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and ABBA, participating in all of their albums, numerous singles, tours, movies and musicals. Keep plying your magic bass where ever you are Rutger.”

Apart from Brazilian Rosewood they're not really. Alder, maple, mahogany, Indian rosewood, poplar, pau ferro are relatively cheap, not exotically figured and not in short supply. Ash is becoming a problem due to the beetle which is decimating trees but for most of the last 70 years has been abundant and inexpensive. Ebony and purpleheart are more expensive but do show up on relatively inexpensive production instruments. More exotically figured woods typically used as tops like buckeye burl, poplar burl, figured maple, etc., are generally not considered to be tonewoods. Most builders say that a top has little to no effect on tone.

Oiling has begun. There have been some very informative threads on BC about how best to do this - I must thank Honza992 for an incredibly detailed account of his telecaster build here: I am in the grain-fill stage, 3 coats of tru-oil applied. I am going to take it slow, and just keep going until it shines. It won't be perfect, it's an old bit of wood, but I am very happy with how it's going so far. I have a feeling the body will match the neck nicely in terms of colour and general 'vibe'. It's got some of the maddest grain I've ever seen on a body.

For me probably the best 'buzz' comes from playing on home turf to a bunch of friendly faces, mostly ones you recognise. That's what we got last night and it was a blast. This was a fundraiser organised by me and Mrs. Scrumpy for our wonderful village hall - well known to some of you as the venue for our S-W Bass Bashes. The band played for free as promised in return for freebie practices in the hall during covid. So no money for us but £717 clear profit for the hall and a bunch of very happy punters who danced and hammered the cash bar all night. My old school mate Malc who lives locally saw me in Silverback for the first time and was deeply impressed, especially with our ZZ Top covers. Hopefully impressed enough to give his cousin Billy Gibbons (honest!) a ring to recommend me as Dusty's replacement. Life's good ☺️

First weekend of Tulley’s Shocktoberfest done - Friday and night and Saturday night. Great vibe and fantastic costumes from the actors around the park. 2 nights down, 22 to go!

You can see why Rickenbacker are so protective, Fender struggle to sell anything with all those P and J bass clones everyone and their mum is selling. Who would spend a grand on a genuine P bass when you can get a clone on Amazon for £60?

More a poet than a singer….love this one.

Purists avert your eyes! I found the stock bridge pickup a bit anemic and noisy in the bb350f. The pup route is not standard though as it has rounded ends rather than squared like a Fender. I had an Enwhistle jbxn lying around so I printed a new pup cover for it to adapt to the Yammy rout! I might get closer for the exact holes at some point but this will do for testing.

Finally made it back to the Polished Knob in Todmorden last night to play the thrice cancelled booking that should have originally taken place in April '20. A mixed night overall: The bad It was pretty quiet. We normally play Saturdays and it looks like that's the busier night. There were about 30-40 people in having a good time but another 30 or so would have tipped it over the edge. Plus I always find it more difficult to summon the energy after a full day at work. We've only played together once since the end of August. It was pretty good considering but you could hear the 'joins' in some places. It wasn't as polished a performance as the Knob deserved. Amp failure. Plugged in, unmuted and....... nothing. Did the usual idiot checks, swapped the cable and still nothing. Turned our background music off and could just about make out a static-y, fuzz pedal type noise that didn't change volume when I played with the input/output dials. Of course, I'd forgotten to pack my backup power amp pedal. Fortunately the DI was still working fine, so I went through the FOH and turned the bass up in my in ears. Checked everything today and it looks like the problem is with the speakon connectors on the amp (DI is fine, headphone out is fine, cab works with other sources (originally thought it was a cab issue). **Edit** Turns out it was user error. There's a 'headphone' button on the back of the amp that is proud when disengaged and slightly less proud when engaged. It'd got pressed in the amp bag and I didn't spot it (never used the feature). If I'd posted about it on here at the time then I'd have had the answer in 10 mins (like just happened) but I was too busy swearing! The good The pub has its own PA & lights, so no lugging it around and a quicker setup and pack down. Raised stage means that you don't spend the entire night worrying that you're going to get your mic knocked into your teeth by enthusiastic dancers. Despite the kit issues and basically setting the bass levels by guesswork, feedback was that it sounded pretty good. A little FB clip here: https://fb.watch/8ottck_Xkx/ We decided that the first gig back at our regular venues would be a freebie. It's not much, but if these places shut then we've got nowhere to play. The landlord last night gave us the cash and told us to donate it to a charity of our choice, so the Booth Centre in Manchester will be getting a few extra quid in their coffers.

Yeah, it's a shame there don't seem to be shops that have a big chain of envelope filters (or any other type of pedal) plugged in for customers to come along with their Bass and compare. Recommendations are good to narrow things down but in the end it comes down to setup and personal taste. I'm grateful for Basschat as buying/selling second hand on here is a good option, most things are fairly priced and can be re-sold for similar prices.

IMO a filter is very hard to recommend to someone else because it depends so much on your playing style, your bass and everything else in your setup as well as your personal taste. These suggestions are good places to start but there’s no shortcut to finding one that suits you the best!

If you're only looking for which filter let's you blend in your clean bass, rather than filters which keep low end. There arnt too many! In my experience most clean blends are done with band pass filters, as a low pass filter has plenty of bottom end. Ones I've had/heard of with a clean blend MXR BEF- Great sounding,bubbly,funky little filter. Is band pass,but great for finger funk tones. It isn't a hugely expensive pedal. EBS Bass IQ- has an internal trimpot which allows you to dial in the clean high frequencies only, not a full range clean signal. Not too badly priced and has up/down sweep. 3 leaf Wonderlove/GR/GR2 - has clean blend and up/down and a lot of control. Currently very hard to find and expensive when you do. EHX Qtron - big box/modern smaller version (not mini or micro)- very wet and lots of control, with up/downsweep. It has a "mix" mode which is 50/50 band pass and your clean bass signal. Fairly expensive if you can find one. EHX Enigma Qballs- lots of control and a variable clean blend knob. In built distortion which isnt great. You can set the start/stop frequencies so you can get up/down sweep. A pig to dial in, but not mega money if you can find one used. There is also a Guitar tuned version called Riddle Qballs, which can be picked up fairly cheaply. Source Audio Spectrum/C4 - loads and loads of filter models, sounds great. I can be set up via a PC or yiur mobile phone and has every parameter possible (incl clean blend) not mega money for what it gives you. Subdecay Prometheus DLX- I've recently got this. All Analog and has up/down as well as dozens of step/pixelated/LFO And expression control (like a manual wah) it's synth heaven. It has low pass/band/high pass, however for bass players there is a,switch inside that adds clean blend to the band pass. Hard to get hold off and quite expensive. Lovetone Meatball - good luck!! Guyatone MR3- again good luck. Exotic Robotalk 2- 2x band pass filters, each with a differnt tone. But both have a clean blend. Not too expensive. Iron Ether - Xerograph deluxe- very synthy filter, has ton of control incl a clean blend. Fairly hard to get and expensive. Seamoon Funk machine- a reverse sweep filter with a clean blend. Bit of a one trick pony, but very funky indeed. Quite expensive for what it does. MXR Auto Q- more of an auto way than an envelope Filter,but has a clean blend and not expensive. It all depends what you want a filter for. Low pass is all bottom end and great for adding to octave/fuzz to create synth sounds, however hard to dial in for finger funk. For the latter I prefer a band pass with a clean bass, sounds clean precise and funky,with no loss of bottom. Another solution is to buy a boss LS2 and you can add a clean blend to any filter you like,as well as lots of very useful stuff 😁 IMO for what you're after the MXR is very hard to beat,Ive had 4, i keep selling them though, mustn't be enough and my C4 has a decent model of it.

Lol, what was I thinking. I won't disassemble, paint and resemble the Traben until I have a new pickup and extras. I've chosen, EMG mmcs EMG bqs control EMG tko kill switch I will disable the neck pickup. Just need to save up some money, hopefully this time next month.

I'm a Fall devotee of many years, they could do no wrong in my book. Their last, and longest standing line-up, were incredible. I would be the first to admit that live, you could get a mixed bag. It was always said that MES would rather perform some bad gigs, followed by a jaw-dropper, than a consistent run of simply 'ok' shows. He is not appreciated......still!

I saw Yard Act on Wednesday and this lot were supporting - Deep Tan. They sounded great, looked great and fi to the post-punk idea. (BTW Yard Act were bloody amazing too)

That is excellent. Unfortunately, the Mark E Smith I saw live was a completely different person. This is really very good.

I had a Golden Ratio, which I sold on here: I also have a 70s Clone Theory and the GR was identical-sounding, though much quieter and with more flexible control options. Overall though, I just preferred the slightly fatter sound of my original CT, hence the sale... I bought it off reverb and, despite customs charges, the experience was relatively easy. Also, the owner Tim is a very friendly, helpful guy.

Had a look and walked straight away sadly. Firstly it was fretless which the seller hasn't mentioned! Not a deal breaker but not really that useful to me as I don't gig fretless much at all. Secondly it was far from immaculate - not terrible, but definitely used. Action was also awful, but neck was straight so probably just needed lowering at the bridge. Apparently the ladies Dad worked for Status and built basses for Rhino amongst others - had some photos of his previous builds. Doesn't have any real info on the bass itself though or know about them (hence not knowing the difference between fretless and fretted!). I forgot to check the serial number unfortunately or I could have checked myself. Not for me, but if anyone else near Chelmsford is interested I can pass you the details!

I had my LM800 head in my CMD121P combo for a while and the heads swapped over/back just fine. This might have changed in recent times, but when I did it, the procedure was... - remove the 4 long screws from the back of the combo to let you push the combo-head out (can need a good push from underneath - they're in fairly tight) - remove the top from the new amp head. - remove 4 or so screws from two short strips of metal that are attached to either side of the combo-head and screw these back onto the new amp head in the same place (these strips have the holes in them which line up with the long screws from the back of the combo - be careful to note which way round they went or move them over one at a time, as mine weren't perfectly symmetrical so had a 'right way' for all the screw holes to line back up - yours may be different, of course) - slide the new amp into the combo (again, can need a good push, and I used one of the longer screws as a 'feeler' to know when it was in far enough - the screw dips into the hole in the converter strip) - put all 4 long screws back in, being careful not to strip the thread in the converters as the metal is fairly soft (slowly back the screw up anticlockwise until it 'bumps' to let you know it's at the start of the thread before driving it home) At that point I actually put the LM800's top on the ComboHead2 and used it as a standalone amp for a while - all the holes were there and lined up, but they weren't all 'tapped' as some had never had a screw through them, so I took the top back off and hoovered any stray bits of metal away once I'd fitted it for the first time. I use Markbass gear and am pretty much resigned to the idea that if any of it breaks out of warranty I'll either chuck it away or do some donor surgery as above. That said, I do wonder whether the whole 'right to repair' thing that was being discussed a while back means that you could potentially ask for a quote for a main board and change it yourself now?

They dont' need to make customs, they already produce the pickups for the 1505s etc.

I had one of these a few years ago. They're lovely little basses. At £800 for one in spotless condition, I'd say that was a good buy and you should definitely get your money back on that if you decided to sell it.

Are you sure about your eye? Maybe you should drive to Barnard Castle to check?

It does look like an s3000. I bought one on here for around that price during lockdown and love it. Although it had been ‘modified’ and I’ve just spent a few quid with Status to get it back to standard. They have an active 18v circuit but it only does treble boost and cut. If you get the serial number then status will have a record of when it was made and original specs etc. Serial should be on the brass fitting at the nut end of the neck. Lovely looking bass.

Starting easy this morning

Last night I teamed up with my old friend of 32 years to perform a few 80s Alternative / Darkwave / Goth songs on acoustic folk instruments. So a bass free gig. It can't be everyday that you walk into your local and someone's playing Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart on a bouzouki!

While Roger Sadowsky is a well-respected luthier, he does have a vested interest in "bigging-up" the contribution of the woods used in solid electric instruments to defining the sounds of those instruments. He is after all a maker of instruments that are essentially Fender copies (admittedly very nice Fender copies - I've played several in his workshop in NYC - but still essentially Fender copies) and therefore to downplay the contribution of the wood to the sound of the instrument would be to instantly remove half the USP of a Sadowsky bass. The problem I have with "tone woods" for solid electric instruments is that they are given as absolutes (which the article very much re-enforces) instead of what I think as VERY rough guides. I've played instruments that contradict probably all of these presumed absolutes. Perhaps if you are Roger Sadowsky and you get all your wood from exactly the same source (and here I don't mean the same wood merchant but from trees grown in the same small geographical location for any given species) then maybe we can put some weight behind those generalisations, but no-one can tell me that wood from an ash tree grown in the US is going to produce the same tone as wood from an ash tree grown in Europe (not withstanding the fact that "ash" covers 40+ different species of trees). Even Mr Sadowsky himself says: "When I coach people on buying an instrument at a music store, I tell them to try to listen to several of the same model, made with the same woods..." If wood of a certain species was a absolute there would be no reason for this statement. The when you consider that most small scale luthiers are at the mercy of whatever their usual wood supplier can get in stock, and the large scale manufactures will on the whole buy with best value for money in mind, it is impossible to make anything other than most sweeping generalisations about tone when it come to choice of woods for an instrument. My position on tone wood is similar to that of Carl Thompson who said that the choice of woods used will have a impact on the sound of a solid electric instrument, but you can't tell what it will be until the instrument is finished. The problem with all these so-called tone wood comparison tests is that none of them are valid from a scientific PoV because of both flawed methodology and sample sizes being far too small to give any meaningful results. I've stopped worrying about the woods used for my solid electric instruments and concentrate instead on how each individual instrument looks feels and sounds when it is complete. It is only sane thing thing to do.

Small changes to my board, but I dropped the reverb and just use the spring in the volante. I want to use complex reverb pedals but having been through a load, I'm not sure they ever quite work for me properly in my bands context. Not sure how many people use a treble booster here, but the war pig is brilliant. I used it through a cranked amp the other night and it really was wonderful. Anyway, this will be my board for a while now. I don't use the G3 to its fullest, but it opens the volante up for me and makes transitions really easy. I still kinda feel my boards a bit big in footprint....ah well. Stick for now 🙂

Very much enjoying the latest album from Public Service Broadcasting, Bright Magic…

That gig went well... nearly a riot when we finished, and with a song i've never heard before, let alone played. Thang god gor 12 bar blues! end of the night the landlord came up and said 'are you booked for new years eve?'

And here it is with its Jazz cousin:

Went down to Camden at the weekend and collected my Wilcock Mullarkey. Viv’s been building it since May and it’s been worth the wait. A beautiful looking and sounding guitar. Instantly my favourite!