Leaderboard

I had one of these back in the day and really enjoyed playing it. Foolishly though, I decided it wasn't particularly practical so moved it on. Fast-forward at least a decade and a bit, when this one came up for sale. It's a 2003 model (which I think is the first production year) in a lovely Lava Pearl, the same colour of the one I had before. It's a lot more orange in the flesh which I really like. It is virtually spotless and even the ubiquitous tip chip being less than 1mm long. It weighs in at sub-9lbs and I love it. Not sure if it's a forever bass but I'm planning on having it around for a while yet. I appreciate they're very marmite but I'm getting increasingly old and grumpy now, I don't really care. I intend to play it and enjoy it as part of my ever-dwindling bass collection that has somehow gone from three basses up to six...oops

Don't do it! You might end up with a subscription to Scott's Bass Lessons. 😱

Started new job at Bass Gear Magazine October — Product Video Reviewer and Columnist 10/26/2021 The Bass Gear Low Down #45 "We are so thrilled to welcome long-time friend Dan Veall to the Bass Gear Magazine team. Dan will be joining us on a regular basis...." - Tom Bowlus https://www.facebook.com/dan.veall/posts/2886319634965407?notif_id=1635330337347733&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic&ref=notif

I don't know what planet you're on @acidbass or if you're mistaking ACG for another builder, but I can without hesitation say that your above comment is factually incorrect. I have owned, and still own, basses made by some of the most revered luthiers on the planet and ACG are right at the VERY top. So much so that I have 3 ACG basses, 1 ACG guitar and another ACG bass currently being built. Alan's work is absolutely exceptional with flawless wood working skills. Shuker made excellent instruments too, I've owned 2 Shukers, but I did end up selling them as for me ACG are a better fit. @bassmansam, it's really a personal choice, I can say ACGs are most definitely not 'amateur made' instruments, they are outstanding basses and exceptional pieces of skilled woodwork. See the below picture for evidence of this.

Tonight’s rehearsal reminded me of how important it is, originals wise anyhow. We record everything with a zoom h4n - and I’m the lucky bugger who transfers it all to the WhatsApp group - I don’t mind this, I do it with a few beers and as I use GarageBand it’s all a matter of Bluetooth and review. The laughs we have - Jesus, honestly. We have a great time, we learn our parts and play them, but then develop the tunes in the room. But from my point of view, it’s a time away from being “just” dad and “Mr Travis” at work. I adore my one night a week - a bit sad really, but it’s me being me. And listening through it all - I have a sense of pride the band is developing. Anyhow…rehearsal really works for our band, I know other settings/bands don’t work that way - but I’ve done the “here are the chord sheets, transpose it to B flat” gigs and I really don’t want to do them again. I use it as a social thing. 4 hours - 3.5 of which is playing music.

They are not all £3k if that helps at all. Cheers Alan

I sold all my dogging gear on eBay. I had loads of watchers. (I'll get my coat)

It was easy. Factors are : * Shipping has gone up 250-450% and lead times are SLOOOOOOOW * Prices in India have gone up * It insulates us more from currency fluctuations * It allows us to control stock better * We are also making careful changes to the range to be more efficient in production without a cost in quality. The cost is effort. Expect some improvements to the SWB. Announcements to follow but sneak peak. It'll be : * Lighter (chambering in the body) * Design tweaks * New Deluxe Edition Thanks EVERYBODY for your positivity. We're excited and nervous in equal measure!

@owen will often pop up in threads to say "there is no one [bass] just the chase" - and I think there's some truth in that... but playing lots of things does help you work out what you like... and I like P basses.... my first proper bass a japanese '57ri... then a Squier series JV '57ri ... then a gap and a Yamaha BB1200 (sounds nothing like a precision) and then bought Gareth's green G&L L1000, a kind of super precision that taught me how much I loved bolt on basses. Fast forward a few years and my main bass is a sadowsky jazz that oddly has a lot of mid punch and not much Jazz bass scoop... and the L1000 and my old Warwick isn't being played so last spring I sold them both and set out looking for a precision.... Firstly, it's taken a while and I want to say thank you to everyone who's ear and expertise I borrowed... @warwickhunt, @Hooch, @boroman, @AndyTravis, @marleaux62, @walshy, @gareth, @owen and whoever else I've pestered with opinions of a billion different basses... There's a man in the UK who when I started playing was making basses that looked like old ones, I wanted one of his creations for at least 15 years... except he doesn't do custom orders at all now and builds what he wants... I had an idea, he liked it and started building it. A year later I got asked if I would like to buy what he had built.... It looks pretty cool I think!

Yeah. It started life as a whole Lexus.

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Even though the main bass has had the West Ham colours for about 30 years, he'll always be associated with it being sparkly blue and the mirrored plate in my mind.

He will be crucial in assembling them as well as setting them up! All in our new Bristol workshops.

Finally put a fretted P together to go with my fretless PJ G&B Ash body (very light) Unknown neck but bleedin’ lovely 42.5mm nut (same as fretless) Schaller machineheads Custom matt black scratchplate Nice vintage bridge CTS pots/orange drop cap Pup is a Wilkinson but I’m changing that for either a Di marzio or a Tonerider to match the fretless. Fretless has an Ash body Unknown neck (ignore Jazz decal, it’s a 43 mm nut) tonerider PJ pups series parallel pull on volume Lovely players, nice low action for my light touch. Here’s the 2 siblings.

Managed to find a 2nd hand mex road worn in fiesta red and gold. Absolutely lovely thing. What a great sound! Much wider, flatter neck, but the sustain is unreal. Lovely growl to it too. If I could find one in sunburst too, I'd have that.

You may say Al and I are dreamers But we're not the only ones I hope someday you'll join us And the world will talk about Yamaha BB basses for 308 pages as one...

I'd like to see a black-and-white checked signature bass 🙂

It's all incremental cost but for little benefit. The reason why the 215 and 535 sound so different is the move from the dynamic drivers to the balanced armatures in the 535. This immediately gives the 535 higher definitions in the high which will immediately make you think "wow, these reveal a lot more detail in the highs - and everything sounds a lot more crisp and airy and spacious in the details" - that's the balanced armatures for you. The point is, having all this quality is great when listening to prerecorded music - but live gigging isn't prerecorded music. Unless you've put everything you do live through a "faux mastering stage" with shed load of compressors and limiters, you aren't comparing like with like. And the reality is, you don't want to put your liver performance through a shed load of compressors or limiters when you play - as it will impact the dynamics of you playing. If there is any compression and the like going on, that's best left to what's coming our of front of house. Next we talk about headroom. The Shures are still a single driver in the lows (edit: oops - see following posts - I forgot it was a single case dual woofer design for mid/bass). This means that if you drive the drivers hard, it can lead to distortion - which is the worst thing to have in your ears. And here's the thing, even if you don't hear the distortion distinctively, if there is distortion going on, it will tire your ears very quickly. The whole point is that you want to deliver the lows with enough room to hear the bass as it should be heard (without distortion) - but keeping your ears fresh. This is why headroom is king. The more headroom, the less chance of distortion, the less chance of ear fatigue - and the better the reproduction of frequencies - especially in the low end. So how do you get better low end response and headroom? Either add more drivers (which is why I tend to recommend a quad balanced armature as a minimum for bass players (treble, mid, bass x2 drivers)) or change the driver type. Dynamic drivers give up the clarity of balanced armatures - but have greater headroom and a single unit can handle bass better than a single balanced armature. So in the case of the UE6 (which is a hybrid triple - dynamic drivers in the bass and mid and a single balanced armature for the treble) - you have a set of drivers that give you that low end extension and headroom but by including the balanced armature in the treble, you retain that treble response where all the sense of air, space and clarity comes from. The UE6 is unique in this respect - I'm yet to come across another unit which is similar in performance for that price point. It's also why whenever I'm at the bass and drum shows, people listen to them and invariably end up buying them. (I'd say 9/10 sales at these shows are UE6s - the other sale tends to be somebody that wants to go full in and buy towards the top of the range). If you listen to the UE6 next to a quad and compare the price difference, it's kinda hard to justify not going with the UE6 as it's a good 4 to 5 hundred quid cheaper. As I say, you can tell the UE6 is warmer in the lows, due to the dynamic drivers - but a lot of people prefer that and also, most people wouldn't be able to hear that unless they directly a/b them with balanced armatures. Interestingly enough, there are a few higher end pieces by manufacturers that market the inclusion of dynamic drivers as a selling point (especially JH Audio) as it would seem that there are people out there that appreciate the smoother/warmer mids (yes, it's all hifi nonsense speak)- and they enjoying hiking the price tag for the privilege. In reality, there's no better or worse driver, they just have different characteristics - which I've referred to. The important thing is, is that if you have a IEM with multiple drivers (which of course you are going to have), then they need to have drivers that can deliver the frequency range for which they are responsible - and work cohesively with the other drivers (whether they be dynamic or balanced armatures, or hybrid) that they are partnered with, properly crossed over and phase aligned, to actually work properly and sound great. There's lots of IEM manufacturers out there - but there's a big difference between those manufacturers who are actually building them where the crossover network is correctly designed, tubes appropriately damped and where the units are all phase aligned - and those that are just banging drivers into housings. In regard to a custom - yes the price is higher - but a lot of that cost is the case. The comfort of a custom can't be beaten - because the housing is a perfect match for your ear. Once that housing is built, the components of those inears are all hand soldered and using a scope, tuned to be perfect to your ear. This is a world apart from a universal where drivers are put in a prebuilt, usually tubeless housing. So yeah, due to the hands on nature of the builds of IEMs, it's not truly a like for like comparison - custom vs off the shelf. This all factors into the costs I guess. Also worth noting, that in off the shelf offerings, the balanced armatures are usually off the shelf offerings from Knowles or Sonion. You get what you get. For a lot of custom brands, they use the same. For the top end custom brands, they can have their own balanced armature made to spec. Infamously, JH were the first to have a quad balanced armature in a single housing - to get rid of any phase issues of combining balanced armatures. They could do this because they are large enough to absorb the cost of doing this. Large CIEM companies can engineer themselves out of corners that other smaller CIEM companies just can't afford to do... and they have to work with what they can get off the shelf. So what does this mean in reality? Well, I've just given one example... but also, consider your frequency response - something is not quite right and I can't get it sounding like I want it to. Simple, I'll have something manufactured for me to fix it - and I can do that because I'm going to put in an order for thousands. If you crack open Shure, KZ, AKG etc etc IEMs, you'll notice they'll tend to be Knowles balanced armatures... and off the shelf ones at that. It's all about box shifting and profit margins. When you consider what you can get for 40 odd quid in a KZ and a Shure when the components are pretty much comparable, you'll see that with some of the bigger named manufacturers, you are paying a lot for the name. Granted the tunings may be better in some of the more notable names... but then again, there is only so much you can do with a chambered, tubeless design that has to fit in everybody's (or most people's) ears. A lot of people are put off IEMs because "they've tried it and it's rubbish". I hear it all the time. When I press them on the issue - I'll guess that they have either used 215s or whatever came with their phone - and they've wired it up in some hooky way to their amp. This is all nonsense and "not trying" IEMs. I say to people, they have to try it properly. 215s despite what people think - are not decent, not great, not amazing or whatever you may want to call them. They are trash as an IEM for live use. They are not even a good gateway drug to IEMs. The KZs dump all over them. My first customer were ACS T1s (800 quid triple drivers). They were absolute trash too. No headroom and they sounded nasty (imho). It's only because I couldn't believe that people would put up with something like that I started delving further into IEMs as I refused to believe that people raving over IEMs were hearing the same as I was through my experience. I'll still stand by my recommendation. ZS10s to check the concept with a view to move to UE6s. PS I'm not a UE fanboy or anything like that, I don't get kickbacks from anybody - I don't actually have any UEs at the moment - but obviously having had access to the whole range of JH, 64 and UE, I have got familiar with the certain pieces that really resonate well with me. I'm just trying to act in people's best interest and not have people waste money like I have. The UE6 is actually my second favourite IEM, next to the A12t - however, the price ranges are astronomically different. I would however, be over the moon with a UE6 - they sound that good. And for the money, they are quite the extraordinary offering and sit in their own arena as there's literally nothing comparable to challenge them.

Its completely meaningless. In fact, anything that happens in the first 6 days 23 hrs 59 mins of an eBay auction is meaningless. The serious buyers either use sniping software or are active in the dying seconds of the auction. As with any auction, it is the price the SECOND highest bidder is willing to pay, which determines the eventual sale price of something. In all my years selling on eBay, someone who has contacted me before the auction has NEVER gone on to buy/win an item, so bear that in mind with the time & effort you put in to replying to messages.......

OK I can't resist. Eight screws later. The internal anatomy of a Gnome.

I can't believe Ebay haven't taken the lead from TradeMe on the last second thing. On TM if a bid comes in with less than 2 minutes to close another 2 minutes is added, and added, and added... You are getting the 2nd best price most of the time. There is no advantage to sniping the following 2 minute extensions. 2 minutes is just about long enough for an outbid person to get the email ping and log back into TB for another dab. So I often snipe the original closing in case they might be a bit slow to react. Most people aren't quite as disciplined as Ped.

I've sold hundred of guitars and basses on eBay and at least 95% of the time the majority of the bids come in during the last 5 minutes. Of course this leaves the 5% of bidders like @TheGreek, but the absolute majority of bids come in during the last few minutes. To add a caveat, all my auctions start at £1 with no reserve, so these are the kind of auctions where the action happens in the dying moments!

I’ve never heard that before, I think the track in the background is this

Not sure if this should be here, but I heard this this afternoon and loved it:

There's a big warning on his page... https://www.facebook.com/ScottsBassLessons

Being 'merely adequate' has nothing to do with not having regular rehearsals. Like I said in an earlier post, the bands that I play with who are the busiest have never had a rehearsal for as long as I've been with them. It's not like they are playing pubs either- it's nearly all decent venues or theatres. It also becomes difficult to rehearse a band when it's members are spread around the country, so a quick run through of any new stuff at soundcheck and it's ready to go. If you have good players in the band, it doesn't take much to get things right.

I'd drop them an email to check first!

Now it's wedged in my cranium for the rest of the day. Thanks very much!🤪

It's my dream amp, and it's at home !

That's a sexy jazz!

That won't be a dead cut off frequency, probably a -3db point (or sometimes manufacturers use a -6 or -10db point). The roll off is anything between 12-24db/octave. Sealed cabs roll off more slowly usually but there will generally be less bass anyway with a sealed cab. The designer can manipulate that a little, I forced the -3db point to 70Hz with my micro cab at the expense of a slightly faster roll off. It's much more complex than a single variable but one trade of you can make is making the cone lighter trading efficiency for a higher roll off point. you won't get rolling thunder out of a cab if f3 is 90Hz but most of the information is in the frequencies above 80 hz so it will still be useful. Placing it on a hard floor and against the wall or even in a corner will help add some of the bass back in.

I've been a bit busy in the studio this week... anyway, Saturday night we played The Boulevard in Wigan. Ace venue, great sound, strangely early start, but plenty in by the time we went on. Nick's new bass rig is still making me grin. I'm sure we're tighter

It’s already been bid on, and I don’t *need* it. If it was silly cheap - I’d jump. Thank you though guys - much appreciated. The bb1600 sounded ace last night and something arriving by end of the week which was a bit unforeseen 🤦🏻‍♂️😂

Yup, I use EZD2 on a practically daily basis. Nearly all of my gear reviews with drums on use EZD2! It's brilliant.

These Bongo basses really are superb instruments, I cannot say enough good things about them. I've got a 4HH and I would never part with it. What I like so much about the sound of these basses is that they have a unique personality that is unapologetically modern and identifiably Bongo Bass . One of the few newer basses on the market that is not trying to refer to the past or present itself as a retro pastiche. It's a sound that really cuts through the mix, that's for sure. As others have said, great playability too. These are just about my favourite modern hifi tone active basses, and I am including boutique instruments that cost far more than a Bongo, even at EBMM's eye- watering new prices. I just wish I had bought a 4H while they still made them. 😟 Anyhow, I hope you get a lot of pleasure from playing this beast. Just don't be surprised if you have to dial back your usual amp settings!🙂

Maybe I'm the weirdo or maybe it's you, but I often ask about stuff before I get onto bidding / buying. If I get a half arsed answer I am less likely to pursue it!

There's so many variables here. How many gigs you play, how good are the players, can you read, what's the material. To the OP, if you felt the need to rehearse lots and the others didn't, then you were in the wrong band and you did the right thing. I hope you find some like-minded people to hook up with a get a nice tight well rehearsed band together! 😁

BBC4 this Friday at 11.45pm. On Bass - Tina Weymouth. I’m pretty sure it’s been on before, but for those who want to see it again or haven’t seen it, check it out.

I got this from a guy in Stoke iirc:

Good stuff and best of luck. If it's a Theremin, don't forget to advertise it as "never touched".

I don't believe that "everything happens in the last half an hour". I have placed ludicrous lowball bids on items days before and won at bargain prices. I'm also a watcher of things similar to those I own to get an idea of selling prices.

I really enjoy rehearsal. Group of like minded people in a room playing music. What's not to like? My band mates are good people, we get on well, take the fosters, jam around some punk riffs to warm up and have fun with it. You can learn the parts. individually at home but you need to practice together to get used to each others playing and get your sound working together and get things wrong without an audience.

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Why do they think big name professionals go into rehearsals for weeks on end before a tour? The mind boggles! They plainly want to do jam nights under the guise of being in a band. You’ve walked away, a sensible move IMO, you are not wrong in your thinking process.

Also no. Here’s how it works for me… Everyone practises their stuff at home until they absolutely nail it. Then we get together rehearse until the band nails it. Then we gig. Does that always happen? No… but you can always hope. I joined a band just before covid and spent 18 months “nailing it”. Now the band seems to have morphed into some sort of social club.