Leaderboard

This is the loud rig. It’s really rather a lot better than I am:

A shot from last Friday: 414 with Fender bridge and Hipshot Ultralites (inc D-Tuner)...the perfect 'Don't worry about it' gigging P-Bass... 🙂

I only have two basses with the same finish. I like most finishes except anything with gross sparkles (but love CAR as that's subtle). Blue burst is a favourite, but I finished a guitar in it, so recently I went for this:

You can change this stuff?

Just a quick update, this is now in my bass room ,and my sceptical thoughts about a 12 not being able to put out enough low end for me has been absolutely blown out the window, the big baby 2 is a beast, really deep clean lows and the V4-B sounds superb through it

I know, I know, this one may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I am still tempted to get one next year.

Messy new setup for recording a new project, home use only hence the very tight spacing - intended for bass and guitar. Few brandeds creeping back in but still largely DIY

I have a Line 6 HX Stomp tip, albeit a basic one. Don’t sell it then regret it almost instantly to the point that you are cussin’ yourself driving away from the recipient’s gaff. That is all.

A couple more pics from ACG HQ! Neck is looking awesome, fretboard is mounted and fretted. Looks stunning. Big thanks to Alan for his hard work on this stunner so far!

Just had a wee server hiccup at BC central, nothing to worry about. A severe thrashing from Ped saw the IT gnomes working to the brink exhaustion to restore service as quickly as inhumanely possible. All hail the IT gnomes for their tireless devotion to our cause.

Are there any HBs you haven’t got? I reckon you’ve now got more than Thomman !

Tuners fitted, neck screw holes finalised and electronics cover screw holes done. Did also the cutout for the truss rod adjustment wheel. The back of the neck has only a thin coat of finishing, I have a feeling that after the first notes I want to fine tune the neck shape.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone - plenty to think about. As some have alluded to here my worry is that something is up at the anchor and and I'm compressing the wood. I really like this bass so am not opposed to forking out for having proper work done on the neck - I'd just rather avoid it. For now I think I'll take of the heavy strings and just see if i can adjust it using my old roundwounds just to see if the truss rod actually works. Will get some graphite grease and maybe try a clamp as suggested in the stewmac vid. Think I'll try and get try and get a closer look at the threads too and see if I can clean them up if needed. Will report back

-

As a Gibson man, I'm guessing that translucent cherry red is an obvious choice... So happy with my 20th Anniversary JC Signature, combining cherry red (wine red, technically) with flame maple. Noice. I'm a sucker for all metallics though. Currently got a "Smoked Almond Metallic" (gold, basically) Epiphone Embassy... And a G&L CLF Research L-1000 in Royal Purple Metallic (purple, basi... oh wait, it's not a stupidly named colour) And there's something inherently classy about black with cream binding... As long as there is a colour though (not too keen on natural finishes), I'm happy.

This was mine. I’m never happy. Sold about 10 years ago

I gigged this AH200 outside at the weekend through a Bergantino HD210. Performs like a 500 watter. No roadie necessary even for a wimp like me!

Latest from Alan today, Neck ready for mounting.

If you listen to these recordings with the string section really carefully through a decent set of headphones via a high end stereo, you can actually hear the scraping sound of the bottom of the barrel! 😏

I have always thought of action as something you do by preference. Many years ago I tried to have really low action because I thought that would make me faster and smoother. I ended up with clicking coming out of my speaker. It was only when someone said you can hear that out front that I realised how bad it was and so I raised the action and it disappeared. Whatever is comfortable for you would be my answer. Some people prefer low, some high.

Reason for bank transfer is we don't accept Paypal for large purchases because If you change your mind and want a refund, PayPal keep the fees which can be £100 on a guitar. Watch this space to see the total irradiation of PayPal on our site. With a bank transfer we would just send back your payment and no one loses out ,except PayPal. Call me personally if unsure I've been around since 1997, I ain't going anywhere and we certainly don't cheat people, we are musicians first and salesmen second. Robbie Bryan

Where have I been? I've only cottoned on to Precisions in the last few years in a proper way....and this bass....absolutely killing. https://shop.fender.com/en-GB/squier-electric-basses/precision-bass/classic-vibe-50s-precision-bass/0374500501.html I very rarely gush about instruments. I have owned many very fine and expensive ones, and still do. But I am telling you right now, in a way that is very rare for me, that this is an absolutely astounding instrument. Not 'for the money'. Just plain great. I could easily recommend everyone have one in their collection. Originally, I was looking at getting a Fender roasted maple neck for a project P bass, then realised I could basically just buy a new inexpensive bass and be content with project one 'as is' for now. Been tempted by the Harley Benton version of the 50s P bass for a while, but didn't want to do any fettling at all....so stumped up £339 on the Squier on the assumption that if I didn't like it, back it would go to Thomann. Was very inspired by this video and its super gnarly tone - linked below for your pleasure: Now all I can say is this bass - or at least this particular one - is killing. It sounds just like the video, which was my main criterion. The fit and finish is excellent. Two tone burst is well done, I like the vintage tint on the neck, the neck pocket is tight. It looks great. I will take the pickguard off and report whether there is routing under there or not, but reports from others are good on this. The hardware is good, not Hipshot, but good. The bridge is BBOT with threaded saddles - I like this and find it perfectly functional. It intonates well and the strings don't move side to side. The tuners are better than those that were on my cheapie SBMM Sub Ray4; they aren't so stiff and they work fine. Tone and volume pots feel and work fine and tone pot gives a fair bit of variability to the sound. I do have a niggle here - the edge mounted jack doesn't feel as 'tight' when I plug into it as it could. I may need to open it up and tweak that. The nut and fretwork is frankly unbelievable for this price. I was surprised. Proper bone nut, properly cut; I don't need to file it down at all. Narrow tall frets with no sharp ends and well seated. I can get a setup of my customary low relief (0.003" - 0.005" at 7th fret with capo at first fret and holding down strings at last fret) and 5/64" action on E string 12th fret going up to 4/64" at the G string 12th fret. No buzzing anywhere. This is good quality fretwork in my view - I won't need to consider a fret level. The neck is a modern C profile and is glossy. I have no issues with this finish. I have plenty of instruments with different finishes on the necks and find it easy enough to accommodate them all. Nut width 42.8mm and feels comfortable. It comes with 45 - 105 D'Addario nickel rounds. My favourite string brand and one of my preferred gauges. Sweet. It's a light instrument. I need to weigh it, but it feels just under the 9lb mark I think. I will report back. There is a slight tendency to neck heaviness on the knee, but not on the strap. It's about normal for what I see with most Fenders or Fender-style clones. Unlike the Ibanez Talman TMB105 I bought earlier in the year, I see no need to get lighter tuners. Sound. Everyone's hands vary, but I think this bass could cover any style. I played slap, pick lines, fingerstyle, jazz, funk and felt delighted with all of them. This pickup is really responsive to right hand dynamics in a way I haven't appreciated in a while and it has a beautifully gritty tone if you dig in just a little. I see no reason to change the stock pickup. The sound responds nicely to where you place your right hand; I think it by and large sounds best directly over the pickup, especially digging in. There is hum if you take your hands off the strings - it is a single coil - but when your hands are on the strings, I hear no hum. The tone knob is useful. I don't see any need to mess with the pots/electronics, apart from my previous comment about having a look at the tightness of the connection when I plug a cable in. It could well be the one I picked up is one of the better ones out there. But this particular instrument is an absolute peach. I can heartily recommend this instrument to anyone, which is relatively rare for me. It's not a good bass 'for the money', it's just plain good. Thanks for reading. Pete Nearly forgot...pics or it didn't happen...

Even by BC GAS standards 115 is a lot of cabs. I’ll get my coat…

OK, OK; I'm on the case. We'll see what I can do. (No peace for the wicked, eh..? Still, keeps me fit'n'active, up to a point. Mustn't grumble, and it's good to feel wanted...)

It's really interesting to have the US perspective. We've shot ourselves in the foot by choosing to chase off much of our immigrant labour in the middle of a pandemic. I'm sure every country has special circumstances of course but Brexit really isn't helping our problems. Trying to get a feel for how much of this is worldwide and then breaking that down into pre existing structural problems and COVID related ones is difficult enough. Thomann is a German company and ships from there. Clearly Brexit's not the biggest issue if the problem is worldwide but it'd be good to get a sense of what is happening to us.

Indeed. The low side of medium for me, typically 3-3.5mm at the 17th. No lower. As you say, sounds much better than super low for the sake of it. Also, too low compromises manipulation for hammer ons, pull offs, etc.

Early The Jesus and Mary Chain

Count me in please. It's replaced a TC Electronic RH750 & RS212, the cab was just too long and didn't fit in this space well. Haven't had an Ashdown rig for about 8 years since my ABM was also heavy, this is the same tone but more than manageable.

My Shuker is proper fàg-paper stuff, as low as I can get it without choking completely. The Sire V7 fiver is about 2.5mm across the board at the 12th fret. The ska jazz is more like 3-3.5 -- what with the music being that bit more energetic, I tend to get carried away and hit it pretty hard especially with the pick, so it needs to be a bit higher.

Pictures, mister… where are the damned pictures

Couple of 2-10 Vanderklay cabs,1800 watts of mayhem mated to my Galien Kruger 800 fusion and sometimes I use my good old Trace elliot head

I do wonder if we shouldn't boycott MarkBass stuff until they sort out their customer support. The idea of paying out a fairly substantial sum just to be told your amp is uneconomic to repair is just not a great way to treat customers. I'm another facing a £200+ repair bill for a complete board change for what is probably a simple component failure. I'm fairly competent with electronics but the idea of taking on switch mode gear and surface mounted components is fairly daunting particularly without a circuit diagram to work from. I don't know if the rest of Europe is better served but I'm certain that if MarkBass cared about their customers they could negotiate a better deal than that currently offered by Real Electronics. It is possible that with a fair proportion of bassists signed up to Basschat we might have enough muscle to gain better support from MarkBass in the UK. @MoJoKe is this something you could raise with MarkBass?

New in my herd. Ibanez EHB1005MS

Natural gloss.

Now you can join all the Rickenbacker groups on social media where an embarrassingly high number of bassists get disproportionately upset as to whether to keep or remove the USA flag sticker! Whatever you do, they are great fun basses and hopefully you'll get years of enjoyment from it.