Leaderboard

Just finished the second leg of a short UK tour, first since covid. Last night was Reading, Birmingham the night before and London the night before that. Completing 6 shows in 9 days. Every show was great and it was genuinely amazing to return to what I used to do before this all broke. Negative LF test upon coming home so hopefully more of this in 2022. Best highlight was playing one of John Entwistle's basses on a brief stop at the studio between Reading and Birmingham.

New BB434. SD jazz pickup added. Strings and action were not good so DR Low Riders and action lowered.

Well, looks like the Geddy is blacked out as much as possible, except these blasted chrome vol knobs on the stack pots. When I find some blacks I will change them out. Otherwise, the only other thing I could change would be to an ebony fingerboard, but I'm not swapping this gorgeous playing neck. New---Gotoh black 201 bridge, black Rotosound Nexus strings, black (cheesey :D) Jockomo inlay stickers that look better than I imagined, and I painted the poles black. I tried painting no hole matte black pickup covers with gloss but they reacted to the paint and it looked crazed. Ah, well. Here it is.

Surprise double gig night last night: first one was a freebie hour's set for a Charrridy Do, an easy one, with backline provided, we then shot off to drop the singist/geetard/BL at another bar (where we've gigged as a band previously) where he'd been asked to do a solo gig, and we (the drummer and I) decided to stay for one while he got going. There was a three-piece band still going in there, some kids (14, 15 and 16) who were fantastic; I love watching kids play - their enthusiasm and energy is a joy. When they finished, the singist had a chat with the bar owner, and then the Dads (and Mum) of the kids, and they very kindly let us use their drums and bass amp (drummer already had his breakables with him, I had my bass, obv) so we could do a couple of 45 min sets as a band and make some money on the night. A great end to a very musical evening... 🙂

Last night the covers band played at a pub venue new to us in Castle Donington, north Leicestershire. It was also the first run-out for my newly acquired Mustang. The bass acquitted itself well, however at the start of the second set it just didn’t sound the same. Half way through the song I realised I’d accidentally knocked the pickup selection switch to a different setting. Oops, I’ll have to watch that. After making the booking for the gig we found out it was Wakes Week and roads up to, and around, the pub would be closed for the travelling fair. This wasn’t as bad as it might have been since, once we’d charmed our way through the barricades, we were able to double park outside the pub. We had lots of enthusiastic drunken dancers. How drunk? A young lady asked for some Bon Jovi, we played Dakota, she was ecstatic.

So with the neck off, I could have a look at what might be going on. This is always a bit of a bad sign - if the neck is pretty straight when the string tension is on it... tension that is trying to turn it into an archer's bow...then once the strings are off, then normally the neck would spring into a back-bow, with the truss rod still pulling in one direction but the strings no longer pulling in the other. If, on the other hand, you still have a forward bow: , then the truss rod is not doing at all what it is designed to do. There are usually a number of possibilities. This is a single action truss rod (there are other possibilities with 2-way rods). Some of the more common possibilities are: 1 - it hasn't been tightened enough/at all 2 - the rod is broken or thread stripped 3 - the rod anchor point or nut collar are crushed or cracked 4 - the rod has reached the limit of its adjustment...usually that the nut is bottomed on the truss rod thread 5 - the rod IS operating, but the inherent bow in the neck is huge and the fully adjusted rod still isn't enough to create a back-bow or even straighten it before it reaches the limit of its adjustment (in this case, the nut bottoming on the thread) And, to an extent, you can confirm or eliminate some of these without having to do anything drastic like taking the fretboard off. First is to try to loosen the truss rod nut... With a single-action rod of this design (please note - do NOT try this with a two-way or a modern double-bar one-way rod where the nut is welded to the rod), the nut should unscrew and be removeable. So that's what I did and it told me a number of things. Nut off - note the relief gap: So this has eliminated possibility 5. If that had been the case, the relief gap would have increased markedly as the truss rod was loosened. But I noted other things: - The nut was fully bottomed on the rod. It took considerable effort to 'crack the joint'. But it did then unscrew. The thread, though, was tight - and I could feel the torsion on the rod as I unscrewed it. This eliminates possibility 2 and confirms possibility 4 - But even when fully tight, the rod isn't applying any back bend to the neck. This starts pointing to possibility 3. But there is an easy way of checking before any drastic action is involved. Fender do some thick small OD washers to give a bit more movement to rods that have 'bottomed out'. It's worth trying that before taking the more drastic action of trying take the fretboard off. The washers are completely non-standard size - it will be as quick for me to get some posted rather than trying to file some larger ones down. But it might...just might...remove the need to attempt to get the fretboard off. So that's the next step

Ah! Thanks, surprised it hadn’t been brought up before. 🤦🏻‍♂️😊 I thought they only increased in value once they’d been “improved” for “perfect balance “ by everyone’s favourite wielder of the chisel?!

Problem with radioactive pianos is they have no sense of timing. They have to be geiger counted in at every performance. Ithankyou. 🧐

no. No he can’t. But he’s never done much for me anyhow 👍🏼

God cannot help you now.

Eventually not such a good idea as lead would protect them against radiations.

I don't know, but it's good for fusion, for sure...

Full disclosure: This bass was sent to me by Glarry Music. We were in discussion about advertising and I wanted to try the product beforehand. They sent me a bass to try in return for a review on Basschat. The Glarry GP bass retails for an incredible £72.99 with free shipping. Yes that's right - this bass costs about the same as an effects pedal or a couple of packs of strings. It can't be any good, surely? Maybe OK for a beginner? I had to try one for myself to see just how bad a bass in this price range would be. Glarry GP in bright yellow I have had a few Precision style basses over the years, and my first bass was a Squier Affinity Precision Bass (now apparently only available as a PJ) in blue. P basses are often associated with beginners; they're cheap, simple and fit in with all sorts of music. That's why many seasoned players end up going full circle and purchasing a more expensive 'boutique' Precision years later. Someone new to playing bass may not have much money to spend, not knowing whether they'll play for long, and with so many other demands on finances - so one might assume a cheap bass is the way to go. I'm going to argue this can be the case, but with some exceptions. The paintwork is flawless The bass arrived in a triangular cardboard box with a styrofoam insert holding the bass. Included are wrenches for the bridge saddles and truss rod, plus a 1/4" jack lead. Although the lead is cheap and rather thin looking, it's a nice addition. Indeed, Glarry sell a pack including an amplifier for £104.99. This looks like the ideal starter kit, doesn't it? Immediately upon picking up the bass, I could see how well finished it appeared to be. The bright yellow paint was even and flawless to my eye - and the fit and finish of the accoutrements seemed every bit as good as I expected. The body is incredibly light, making the neck feel heavy, however as a whole the bass only weighs 3.05kg with the balance point being around the 15th fret. After tuning up I decided to have a quick play to see how it felt 'out of the box', which is how many beginner players would use the bass. I don't remember ever thinking about action or truss rods when I started playing; it wasn't until much later that I started to tinker and get any bass playing better. As some have pointed out, those hard won early battles against high action and poor setup allow us to later appreciate a finer instrument and may even help develop our playing early on, but with budget basses being so well made these days, it's hard to argue now that someone should put up with something poorly setup. The trouble is how the player would know that their instrument can do better. The attractive headstock As such, out of the box, I found it difficult to play. The action was quite high and there was some back bow to the neck, choking out the first two frets. The strings supplied were steel rounds which felt about 0.045 standard gauge - they felt a little rough and there was some 'chorusing' on the E string which I've had with dud strings before - however, the bass was playable; it had a decent output and I'm sure a younger me could have lived with it like that, no problem. Often at Bass Bashes I play someone else's bass and find the action way too high for my tastes, so I think my own preferences should be ignored from this perspective - I should think someone more used to a higher action would have found it perfectly comfortable. I did wonder if it would be helpful for the bass to come with a brief setup guide, but that could appear daunting and I suppose most people would be able to find out some basic tips online if they were so inclined. My own worry would be that some people might not realise and it could put them off playing. The tuners are where the cost cutting is most evident Let's start with the top of the bass and work our way down. The headstock, bearing the quite stylish looking Glarry logo is unfinished maple, as is the back of the neck. It's generally smooth to the touch but has a very slight roughness, though the back of the neck feels great. The tuners are fairly poor quality - after a little grease they started to work more positively but they are quite rough and stiff to turn, especially when stringing up from scratch. Once you're in the right ballpark they seem to hold the tuning well and adjustments are easy and accurate, but their stiffness really gave me a workout as I strung the bass up and down whilst I adjusted and dismantled the instrument. I should have bought a motorised winder! The fretboard is a dark rosewood. It's quite a thick slab and it looked very dry, with small pieces of fluff stuck in the grain from where it has been presumably wiped down during construction. I gave it a liberal application of Planet Waves Hydrate which really helped the look and feel of the board. The neck itself is quite rounded and fairly deep which took a little getting used to but familiar to many with a 42mm nut. Worth mentioning is the fretwork - it's extremely tidy!! No high frets I can detect, not yet at least - and although the fret ends are cut a little roughly they can be easily addressed. Before - a bit dry! After - looks much nicer! Action post shim showing fret ends The neck joins the body in a conventional bolt on fashion. Here, there's a plastic spacer between the neck plate and the basswood body and a four bolt arrangement. I found the neck pocket to be too deep, so I ended up adding a shim to lift the fretboard up, allowing a lower action. Even by normal standards, with the bridge saddled flat on the floor, the action was quite high and I noticed how close the fretboard was to the surface of the body, almost more like a neck thru design. I'm not sure if this is normal or whether mine was cut a little deep, but I added a shim of about 2mm to bring the action into line. I should note that I also had to file the saddle of the G string down another 2mm in order to get a super low action - again, not something everyone would need to do. Neck with shim added I restrung the bass with Ernie Ball Cobalt Flatwound strings, 0.040 size, which instantly made it feel better and reigned in some of the uneven response from the round wounds. Worth mentioning though that the rounds that came with the bass are for sale at only £6.99. The Cobalt flats alone cost more than half the price of the rest of the bass. Worth mentioning and also noticed at this point was the nut - it was quite rough and had a few sharp edges which I removed with a knife and some sandpaper. Otherwise it seems to be cut just right and functional enough. The nut before tidying up New strings The precision bass pickup is a thing of great mystery - there are so many types, overwound, underwound, alnico or ceramic magnets, vintage or modern, poles or blades, you name it. The pickup use here is actually perfectly acceptable - it has a good even response which is particularly snappy in the treble range and though I think it lacks some low end, the output is decent and it has a truly authoritative sound. The pole pieces sit quite proud of the cover which I don't like the feel of because I keep touching them, but I've seen others which are flush with the cover so I'm not sure which is most common. The height of the pickup was a little bit low, and the lack of foam underneath or springs on the retaining screws means that can't be adjusted easily, and I'm not taking the strings off again to add some springs until I have that motorised winder! Electronically all seemed in order - it’s a simple wiring harness, the soldering looked quite neat and the pots are freely rotating and with a nice amount of resistance. However, after reassembling the bass (I removed the pick guard and removed the debris in the cavity and sandpapered off a few rough edges on the plate itself) I found the tone control no longer worked. After some poking about with a screwdriver I found the cap on the tone pot had one leg touching the wire to the volume knob - the post are quite small and the legs are quite close together. I probably bent it a little bit whilst removing the plate, so I bent it back into position and all was fine again. I'm not sure that would have been a problem otherwise. The Glarry P bass pickup The guts and wiring - would benefit from a little extra shielding And finally, the bridge. A classic 'bent tin' affair, with five bolts at the back but also an extra two at the front corners. The saddles are free to move side to side of course, but once strings are under tension it's stable enough. Adjusting the intonation was fine, but as mentioned I did have to file down the string slot on the G string as those barrel saddles are quite tall - but I've had to do that on all sorts of basses, not just cheap ones. Otherwise it's business as usual at this end. The bridge after adjustment My overall impression? I now have a super playable and excellent sounding bass which is great to look at, comfortable, light and CHEAP! I definitely recommend that you buy one if you're confident with doing setups or just want to have a play around - even for the painted body alone you can't say fairer than the price. Others have pointed out how these basses could be the ideal testbed for modifying, but personally I think it's just great fun playing such a cheap and cheerful instrument. Would I recommend one to a beginner? I think so, with a caveat - honestly I think once set up properly these make superb basses for beginners or otherwise, but they really do need some fettling to make them more playable, which ultimately might mean a beginner sticks with it. The trouble, as mentioned, is getting a beginner to realise that they should put some cash aside for a setup when they buy one - however with a test sample of one bass, I'm not able to judge how well setup there are generally. As mine had a little backbow on the neck I think a beginner would be reluctant to try and adjust that themselves. The sound? well, I know some magazines and reviews give a star rating but I don't think it's possible to judge the sound with stars - all I'll say is that this bass sounds great now, with good strings it has all the snap and clank I like from a Precision. You could say it's a little 'poky' sounding, but it has a really nice character and I really do like the treble response of that pickup. Soon I'll add some sound clips to the post but in the meantime, please ask away if you have any questions! Cheers ped

Keith Levene used an aluminum guitar in PiI

Et tu, @jimmyb625 'Aluminium guitarist' don't work as well.

Love this guy

The progress on this will be a bit stop and start, but I've made some decent progress this morning. First job was to work out the string centres for a 45mm nut. And here was a bit of a mystery. Most times, nuts are either equidistant centre line to centre line (where the gap between strings reduces slightly as the strings get thicker) or are equidistant gap to gap between the strings (so the centre lines are adjusted to account for the string thickness). This was neither. The centre lines actually got smaller towards the bass side and so the gaps got even tighter towards the bass side: It's definitely the original nut because the neck finish actually went over the edges at the sides. Curious! Anyway, @Happy Jack and I have agreed that equidistant gap would be the best option And when I marked it out, I realised that the B E and D were going to be in exactly the same position as before! So the whole 3mm width reduction can be achieved simply by reducing the gap of the 2 treble strings to the same distance. And that means that, at 45mm, the strings aren't going to be too tight for Jack's playing I will still have to test it out myself, of course And so the nut had to come out. First - and essential to avoid chipping the finish, a careful score of the varnish build up at the base and sides of the nut: Then a tap from the side with a mallet and suitable drift: One of the bone blanks I have in my bits box fitted perfectly: And with the calculations of string centre positions done, out comes the jewellers saw...think HMS Victory during Trafalgar in the surgeon's quarters... Then out with the Hosco nut files: The above is the planned position of the nut - Jack's thought was to take all of the width off this side and maybe lose some of the epoxy dots in the process. The nut slots will be cut to playing height after all the shenanigans, but this gives an idea of how much the top dots will be out of line given the change...answer, 'not a lot': And it plays just fine - no cramped up feeling at all So next, it's off with the neck!

Just discovered this post. It's bizarre reading. A positive review of an incredibly cheap instrument with one essential caveat - it needs a thorough set up. The responses that followed are then utterly negative as if you'd slated the bass from finish to fretboard! Not great for a beginner but superb for someone who knows what they're doing and is strapped for cash. That's how I read it

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The nut slot had some inconsistencies at the bottom. To level those out and match up with the nut, I made these strips of double-sided sandpaper and pulled through. This sands both surfaces and makes a quick work of any high spots. Oh and the nut: made this new one from a tusq blank.

I too have always liked the Jazz Bass slap sound (and finger style) but to me a Stingray (and particularly a dual pick up one with both humbuckers engaged) gives more girth to the sound - less ‘boingy’ sounding - I guess we all have our own likes and dislikes. Marcus Miller’s active Jazz tone is more beefy than a passive Jazz but the Stingray still nails it for me 😀

I remember playing a couple of these in shops when they were new ( how can it be over twenty years ago 😯?) and I can confirm that they were okay but definitely nothing special. I certainly wouldn't pay a lot of money for one. The neck is significantly slimmer than the standard model . I seem to remember that Sims shaved the neck down as well as fitting the LEDs. I bought a new American Deluxe Jazz Bass shortly after these came out, the one with the Noiseless pickups and fairly nondescript preamp. That bass sounded decent enough but it didn't play very well, and I doubt you would find much discernable sonic difference between one of these MK iterations and the run of the mill American Deluxe model of that era. There is also every chance that one of these basses suffers from the same inconsistencies as my bass did so let the buyer beware ,as the saying goes.

If it's funk then it has to be Louis Johnson!. Go to the master not the legions of copycats and no I've not forgotten Larry Graham but LJ took it s few stages further. BTW he was one of Quincy Jones' go tos e.g. on Off The Wall andThriller

Rick Wakeman tells the story of working with Chas Cronk on the Six Wives album. Forty-odd years later he worked with Chas again; RW: “Is that the same bass, Chas?” CC: “Yep. Same strings too”.

I found that on bigger stages the ABM600 just has a better presence/heft to the sound, but I am talking the type of stages where you can be more than 20ft away from your amp/speakers. And with the 9-band eq there’s more toneshaping too.

Thanks @Hellzero Just thanks. That was the joke! Lead (pb) being too dense to allow α and β radiation through, therefore providing useful shielding in nuclear power stations and the like. The joke was based on the pun 'lead guitarist' (as opposed to rhythm), vs 'lead' (the element pb) guitarist. But no, you had to go and explain it! Sometimes you're so dense, light bends around you!

Mmm. Collect only. If I win it, can you pick it up and ship it to me? 🤣

Did you have the bass and move to north wales because people reacted well to it. Or the other way round?

Also, there seems to be a limited edition 60s Classic Vibe in Sonic Blue with matching headstock. Now that's also nice.

I sprayed & lacquered one on a Ricky copy. Turned out quite nice.

They should've sent lead guitarists to do the research.

Or has a habit of buying bad instruments... Wait a minute, he bought some from me. Erm, erm, Jack is really the most discerning person when it comes to buying excellent instruments. 😇

Frets leveled, crowned and polished. Fingerboard treated with gun stock oil. Shiny.