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This is my contribution to the short scale society, I bought the CV Mustang just at the beginning of first lockdown , I did not really get on with the narrow neck at first , but it’s growing on me the more I play it . Put some ground-wound strings for a bit more thump , makes a nice mini-rig with the Ashdown and the EA whizzy .

Band of brothers

Initial thoughts on the B6: Firstly my fx background. Used Zoom and Boss multi effects since the 90s. Have pedals of all types and monetary value and have had Helix Stomp, HXFX, and Zooms; B1on, MS60B, B3, and B1-Four. Caveat - only used through headphones for an hour and a half. It's a thing of beauty. The pictures don't do it credit. While everyone else produces near identical machines, or apes the Line6 range, Zoom as ever, do their own thing. It's the stealth bomber of multi effects. With bright coloured lights. So not really that stealthy. Touch screen. I've read sniffy reviews from folk who haven't tried it telling the world that the touch screen was rubbish. Seems to do everything I want it to, as and when I want. 🤷‍♂️ Ease of use. With all modern tech one expects a learning curve. I managed to scroll through various boards and patches, alter effect parameters, set up my own board, rename it and promptly save a different board over it by accident. All in about 20 minutes working from the pedal not the computer software. Working from the pedal has to be easy for me because it's only in a band situation I really know how well I've programmed a patch. I don't have a computer at gigs and at present only IOS is supported via the optional Bluetooth. It is extremely simple to adjust. Really, really simple. And having real life, overall tone and volume knobs right there is just great. Silent running? Well that depends. My upper frequency detection system has been lost or replaced with some tinnitus so I simply don't hear the highest noise. I found it to be utterly silent. Unless I plumbed in a high gain distortion followed by a flanger and reverb - but then show me any set up with those pedals which is silent! And there's a noise gate if you want it anyway. Why Zoom? Isn't it just a plastic toy compared with the real deal Line 6 stuff? I didn't compare it with Line 6 to be fair. I chose it in preference to a variety of other multi effects because it has the effects I like and none of the others had all of them. It doesn't restrict me to one of each type of effect as some others do, it doesn't do parallel but the effects all seem to have mix options so that's fine, I know and like the brand. Oh and of four Line 6 products I've owned two have broken on me. None of my Zooms ever has. Is it any good though? Yes. So far I'm very pleased. The synth sounds are ace, the envelope filter is ace, the drives are ace, the Trace Elliot amp sim is ace, the harmony pedal effect is ace, the pitch shift seemed less warbly than on the earlier Zooms but I didn't play with it for long. I see there's a setting for a whammy type shift which I will try with my expression pedal. It sounded pretty good as a standalone octave up. What else does it do? It's an audio interface for my computer. It comes with free Cubase activation code. More thorough review to follow when I've learned how not to lose the patches I create 🤦. Including side by side comparison with other pedals.

I just received a press release from High Tech Distribution to say that after more than 40 years of guitar and bass making, Patrice (Vigier) has made the decision to stop manufacturing by the end of 2023. There will be no new orders beyond March 11th 2022. Vigier have always been one of my favourite bass manufacturers, and I've had the pleasure of owning several instruments. It's sad to see another well regarded company close shop but Patrice won't have made the decision lightly. I'm sure you'll all join me in wishing him all the best for the future and thank him for his contribution to the development of the instrument.

I think this build is coming together nicely..... I decided to darken down the top and back then keep the pickguard natural....... 👍🏻

….further dates in Belarus possible. Prospective candidates should be able to fit in with existing line-up, although any dates outside Russia/Belarus will have to be played with a dep drummer.

SO after some years out of the game, and having sold up everything, my Stingrays, Fenders etc, I'm starting my collection over, and these are the first few to come in: Top: 90s Aria Integra 5, MIK, nice thing, low action, heavy, but very playable. Top left: MIK 90s Aria Integra 4 with Bartolini pups. Light, lovely tone, low action. Top left: 80s Sunn Mustang. My favourite. Very heavy, but a beautiful tone, nice neck, and plays beautifully with the tapewounds. KiOgon loom, .1 cap, warm P bass tone, old school. Bottom left: 90s MIK Hohner B Bass. Immense bass, beautifully made, loads of grunt, easy to play, modern sounding, such a nice neck. Bottom right: MIK 90s Yamaha RBX460. Plays itself, TI flats are perfect for it, P bass ish tones, and although the pickups aren't the most exciting, it has its sound, and it's awesome. 80s MIJ Hohner Tele in the middle, had it from new, changed colour about 5 times, but its still here, and it'll never leave. Literally the only guitar I've always kept. I want.... Stingray, MIJ Marcus Jazz, P bass, something fretless, etc etc, but who knows what will come in next.

I was transfixed watching this. Great TV ! spooky bit .. i know Leburn Maddox with the dreads, the acoustic player. I've met him a couple of times. He even played at mrs bag's birthday party with Spy Austin and Sam Kelly, as mrs bag and Leburn are good pals

I can vouch for Luthier's Warehouse bodies.

Steely Dan- their outtakes and demos are better than most other bands albums.

My opinion - I think it entirely depends upon your aim. If you like the idea of putting together a kit and learning from the experience of how a bass fits together and sets up then, yeah, why not. If you are simply looking at the end result and getting a half decent bass for £205 to then use as a modding platform, for that money you could buy a Harley Benton (or substitute your favoured budget brand) bass that would almost certainly be a step or two better than this, already made, no need to mod.

Although a surprising number of bassists, like myself, are accomplished guitar players.

Any watching "Rock Till We Drop" on BBC2... first episode was tonight? Martin Kemp and Lady Leshur are forming two bands of older musicians (average age 70's) to play off at the Isle of White festival. I enjoyed the first show, looking forward to the other 3. What did you think?

Morning all. A slightly unexpected new bass day a few days back after popping into a local shop. I had thought about getting an acoustic bass for a while, mostly to jam with a guitarist friend without having to take a load of kit. They had this in, with a good discount so couldn’t resist. If anyone can recommend a gig bag that’s not too cumbersome I’d be very interested! So without further ado - pics!

3 gigs for us in 'that London' in the next month. First since the week before March 2020 lockdown. Wooo!

Is it loud enough to compete with a guitar, presumably acoustic, without an amp? My past experience with one was that it was drowned out. Hope yours is better.

+1. One can be perfectly fine with a 30 watt Ampeg B-15. One thing you can be sure of with respect to watts: the more someone dwells on their importance the less they understand about amplification. They probably can't even recite Ohm's Law from memory.

Someone will say this so I might as well be the first. It isn't all about the watts. Extra power will make you louder but so will more efficient speakers. doubling your amp power doesn't give you a lot of extra sound just 3db but doubling your speakers will usually give you 5-6db. That being said most bass amps are of the 300/500W into 4/8ohms and that is going to be enough for most situations, nowadays amp power is almost not a worry. Enough in this case is enough to keep up with a loud drummer. Again not a strict law but a good rule of thumb is that a decent 1x12 will do for a rehearsal or small gig and two 12's will pretty much cover anything so a lot of us go for a couple of 1x12's. So yes the Ashdown Mag 600 plus the Eden cabs look a decent option. Ashdown's after sales service even on used gear is great which is a bonus. Going used is sensible, you'll never find the 'one' first time and you can get most/all of your money back if you decide to change things around.

I think that's just the nature of Fender's, moreso the 70's stuff. All the parts were just pulled from parts-bins when needed, so the dates are all over the place. The usual place to start is that ones bass is the age of the youngest part, ie in your case the bass would have left the factory in '75 as that is when the neck is dated.....unless it's a non-original neck. Just means the other parts were hanging around at the factory for a bit. Si

I'm really looking forward to watching this series! We live in a society that has a built-in prejudice that encourages us to think of older people as increasingly useless and problematic. This program seeks to challenge those assumptions through the prism of rock music. It has all the right ingredients to be compelling car crash television.

Yes, I'm amazing at playing bass because I can do something that isn't a part of playing bass. I'm also an amazing lover because I can change the oil in a car.

She Does It Right Dr Feelgood

Myself and Drummer applied. Story ends 😀

A very sad day for the bass and guitar world. I haven’t luck enough to own 2 beautiful 5 string Vigier basses, and though I don’t own them anymore (I moved back to 4 string), they have been in my top 3 basses to own and play. Vigier we’re an absolutely wonderful company to deal with, and I know the music world has a lot to thank them for. As stated, a sad day. Thank you Vigier ✨

OLD SKOOL !!!!!!

https://bassmusicianmagazine.com/2022/03/new-gear-trace-elliot-unveils-te-1200-bass-amp-head/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=instagrambusiness

Wow, I didn't expect that. I am very happy to own two Vigiers, in fact I have owned an Excess for nearly 17 years and an Arpege for about 11 years. They will never be sold. However, I would guess that closing down is better than going the licensing route and probable dilution in quality.

Not sure how I missed this in January! Yes - I like oak too and have used it in a number of builds, including one using oak for the back of a 6 string electric which is the lightest of any of the builds I've done so far (5 1/4lbs including double humbuckers!) Will be watching this one with interest, @benh

I absolutely agree with the above, DO NOT go straight to a 6er with 19mm spacing, it will absolutely put you right off them! It'll be far easier to get used to and to play if you aim for around 17mm spacing, on a 6ers that'll effectively reduced the breath of the neck by 1cm, which doesn't sound much, but if you're brand new to 6ers, going from a 4 string neck to a very wide 6er neck will feel far worse to play that adjusting your playing to a slightly narrower spacing. (IMHO!) The HB 6ers are perfectly fine, my personal recommendation is to try and find a second hand Cort A6 of some variety, they are (again IMHO) about the best bang for buck you'll get out of a 6er, and if you buy second hand, and really don't get on with it, you can sell it on and not loose a ton of money. The ESP LTD B206SM or B-1006 are good basses too, but are SUPER heavy. Look for a Cort A6, make an offer to someone selling one second hand (there is even one for sale in the for sale section here!), see if you can get a decent price (take a look at eBay past sales to get an idea of the appropriate price to pay) and if you don't like it you won't loose money selling it.

I'm sure the answer must be yes, but PayPal have a challenge here, and won't want to make that easy. While a fraudulent seller is definitely leading buyers to pay this way, using "friends and family" for purchases is surely a breach of their service agreement in which the victim is sadly made complicit. So, they have zero motivation to investigate, as it would imply legitimate use and a requirement for payer/buyer protection. As far as I can see, the only obvious benefit to PayPal to facilitate "friends and family" is to generate useage, awareness, traffic and transactions, as (unless I'm being dumb here) it has no direct income value. They'd probably argue they have no responsibility to provide fraud protection and are more likely to reinforce what its misuse means, or maybe simply stop offering the service. Whether anyone has the power to force PayPal to reveal the attached bank account to a PayPal account is a completely different matter....

Just play the darned thing, that's what it's for......

Q. What’s a bass guitar? A. It’s the instrument played by the coolest member of a band.

Funny how it takes a proper human to be a bass player but guitars and drums get played by all sorts of Troglodytes and Neanderthals and singers seem to be mostly lizard people out to amuse themselves before the big takeover.

I'd like to thank Patrice for spearheading truly top rate state of the art instruments for so long. Having previously owned an early 80's Arpege, I currently own a Passion 3 which I will never sell. The best basses on the market!

As an owner of two Passion series II basses, and that I have had the chance to play few others, I have to thank him for producing quelques instruments extraordinaires. Vigier wasn't my first lesson in French. But very important. Merci beaucoup, M. Vigier.

I just got the bass back today. I would upload some photos but the server photo size problem still seems to be getting sorted out, so I can't...I have a lot of photos on the server I can't delete. It looks rad, lol...especially given it's a real 'test bed' bass. My first impression is that the bass as a whole is going to take a while for me to get to grips with. The pickups sound fantastic, I think slightly brighter sounding than Wal pickups, but a very broad palette, and the ACG-EQ01 is perhaps more confusing to get to grips with than I first thought. I will need to spend a while with it before I do any recording, but the range of tones even from a single pickup is very broad, and two pickups with all the switching options is quite a lot of options. Of course, some of the brightness may well be that it's a maple-fretboarded bass wearing steel strings and the pickups are simply translating that accurately...whereas every Wal Mark 1/2/3 is either rosewood or ebony. I'll post up some clips once I get my head around everything.

It begins... started thicknessing the cherry for the body. Unfortunately it's too wide to go through my planer thicknesser - scrub plane and elbow grease it is!

Pickguard cut, just got to chamfer the edges now and stain it, Making sure everything is going to line up which it all looks good........ Next job start contouring the body and fill the existing tuner holes ready to re-drill them when the new nut arrives....👍🏻