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I really can't remember if I've posted this in here or not so here is my gorgeous Stingray SR4 with fretless Pau Ferro fretboard.

Interesting, I think that's the first time I've seen the words 'Sting' and 'bell' in the same sentence without the word 'end' .

Arrived today. Initial impressions - stunning! I had some quite specific wants from the placement, radius and feel of the ramp (trying to emulate the feel of a bass I once owned and loved, and which really helped my playing style). Alan absolutely nailed those aspects, while making a stunningly lightweight and well-balanced instrument. The ACG flavour is really clear and it compliments the spec I put together perfectly. I can honestly say that its day-1 'wow' factor has surpassed any other bass I've ever owned. I'm very much a 'feel is more important than tone' person, but the tone here is also outstanding. Clear, transparent and very punchy. You'd never think this was super lightweight. I can't wait to spend some time finding my way around it!

Journalist, technical author, 'South Wales' most hirsute bass player 2021' and now engaged as Mr Sting's head extraction tech. Is there no end to Stubzy's talents? @Stub Mandrel

It's a mandrel they use to get Sting's head out of his @rse so he can sing.

Here’s my current board, black box is an Octave Fuzz I’m working on.

I've added and swapped around a bunch of pedals in the last few months, the biggest change being adding a tuner pedal (always used a clip-on before).

As promised a couple of pics of my impending big 70 birthday treat, sold to me as a ‘76, originally rosewood fretted neck, defretted soon after purchase. Around 1980, ebony board fitted and neck completely refinished and “new” decal applied. Now restrung with my favourite Labella Lt flats, spent some time on setup and fettling and it sings as it should.

The towel-rub sanding next. Two handed side to side. That's getting pretty close. Probably a bit more off the haunches near the heel but the rest of it looks OK: And the clamps did their stuff - a completely gap-free join for the fretboard (phew ) :

A tiny tweak to the trussrod (in either direction) can also help to shift or reduce a deadspot.

Necks swapped back to how they were but pearloid guard from the Sledge now on the 3TS as I’m ordering a WD black abalone guard for the Sledge.

This might be of interest to some here. This is very decent. Kim and Matt from Soundgarden, Krist from Nirvana, Bubba from Void and a couple a really good singers. The riffs are pure Soundgarden, never a bad thing, and it has received quite a few listens from me. Very good indeed. It's nice to see Novoselic playing again, I have to say.

I'm beside myself with excitement as I had a new (to me) Jazz Bass delivered today. It's a 2012 model, with the Customer Shop '60s pickups and high mass bridge. This is a significant upgrade for me, from my Squier Classic Vibe 60's (which will soon be for sale) and the first American Fender I've owned for over 10 years (I had a USA Std Telecaster 6 string which I instantly regretted selling). It's also the first ever maple necked instrument I've owned and I love it! I've had it less than an hour and it's well...perfect!! Detailed tone, very growly. The neck is absolutely sublime and is set up with a really low action. I'd be tempted to say it "plays like butter" but I've never actually played butter, so I don't know what that's like. It's just a BEAUTIFUL instrument. Picked it up from Bass Brothers, who were great to deal with. That colour as well though 😵

The pedant in me cannot resist pointing out that a 16 hour band practice might be quite draining.

So i'm a bunch of rehearsals and 3 live shows in with the Super Vintage. In short? I love this thing. I've always been an SVT Classic guy but i don't play anywhere that remotely justifies 300 watts of tube and a fridge and even when i ignored that and bought one, I couldn't turn it up anywhere near enough to get close to that punk rock Ampeg grind. I've been on the search for convincing SVT tone most of my bass playing life. Search over. The cab sim on the DI to FOH really makes the difference, too may times i've had a great sound coming from my cab but the DI out front was thin and clanky as no soundmen seem to like using a mic for bass these days. I'm using the effects return on an Orange Little Bass Thing to push my cab. The amp out high and low adjustment really makes a difference tuning to other cabs i'm borrowing without affecting my consistent FOH sound. Dialled with some breakup it still takes my drives very well.

A little bit of flat fun with my '71 and La Bella 760FL's. Love that bass and those strings.

I think I'll go for it, exchanging the Pod Go for a Bassrig sort of masks the cost, the trouble is that I'll need a compressor and I'll probably faily quickly justify to myself that it 'needs' to be a Cali 76, and if I'm spending that much then I might as well get the matching colour (which I'll immediately feel like a mug for paying £30 more for)....before I know it I'll have spent £680 on two pedals! What I'd hope though is that they are two very good pedals and if I ever tire of them they'll hold their value well (Cali 76 seem to rarely hang about 2nd hand at £220), so most of the £680 is an investment and pretty much a refundable deposit. Justified!

I can't believe you overlooked the Meltenbacker https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002978070985.html?spm=a2g0o.store_pc_groupList.8148356.12.416345edrycNhX and the Wrongo https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003623655796.html?spm=a2g0o.store_pc_groupList.8148356.66.416345edrycNhX

Right, this has been a very pleasant purchasing experience. Good communication, set up to taste and a set of DR Nickel Lo-Riders included in the price. Extremely well packaged in a good quality 136×46×19 box. Condition is equal to the strong claims made for it. Delivered on the day I asked for. Edit a few days later : after a couple of days I discovered that, through absolutely no fault of the bass, I physically had a problem with it. Returning it was as straightforward and pleasant as buying it had been.

1969

It's one of these for when he does Roxanne.

A rotary clothes line in its folded down position? Sorry, I've got nothing.

It's a camera, placed by Copeland, Vinnie and Hakim so they could observe how much better the gig would have been had one of them been there! It wasn't there on Saturday I don't think.... it should have been.😂

I've just put this one together - I say put together, but I can't find my velcro so only the tuner and compressor are "in place", hence the OCD-annoying misalignment. I also have EBS flat cables ordered to tidy things up a bit. First pedalboard I've had in a long time. The Cali76 CB is outstandingly good - I've never been a compressor fan but this has changed my mind! The Oxford has just turned up and it's a brilliant pedal. The Element is excellent now I know how to work the thing properly - I was convinced the touch pad was broken and even contacted customer service at Darkglass about it.... It wasn't, just designed to be pushed harder than I thought! I'm not overly fussed on the X7 in conjunction with everything else yet so it may be getting replaced... I always feel guilty about having a lot of money invested in pedals (probably because I spent so long as a straight into the amp kinda guy) so I'm always on the hunt for "same effect, lower outlay" alternatives. The DIY pedal bug has reared it's head again and I have Vintage Microtubes, B3K and Fat General clones to build so I don't imagine this combination will be fixed for very long!

I used a carlsbro amp briefly in the 80s. Maybe they’ve improved over the years, but In your position I’d be looking into getting an Ashdown rig - possibly secondhand.

The End - The Doors

Bonio fae U2

Mine are .095 - I gave them a quick wipe down with some brasso 😜

It's as @neepheidsays above. Zoom in in this picture, the disc is in the tray with the bridge. And this one shows the choke mounted to one of the pots.

I would LOVE to see a Paul McCartney signature Flying V! 😎💕

…. yeah tell me about it, I priced up my main board recently and it was just under being able to get TWO Neural DSP Quad Cortex units…. …. but I like actual pedals 😁

me too fan/stalker of this bass

Sounds better on that PMT video, but look at the state of that finish on the head: On a £2.5k bass? Honestly, I'd send it back for that. Oh and 'It's got Gene's logo on it; a skull and crossed basses'...ummmm, since when was that any identifier of Gene Simmons? You know, the bloke with the most identifiable face paint on the planet? Pffffft again...

I rather suspect that this is a variation on the 'wolf note' issue that acoustic instruments like violins and cellos can suffer from. Essentially it will be a resonance issue with (presumably) the note/fret being at some sort of node. This is the inverse of the issue with acoustic instruments. With cellos the wolf note is created by the resonance and you have to find a way of damping it, or moving it to somewhere where it won't be heard. I'm lucky in that my cello doesn't have an obvious wolf, but I know some people have big challenges with it. With acoustic instruments, you need to suppress the resonance or alter its pitch so that it falls in between notes. There are various 'wolf suppressors' you can get... The bass issue is obviously the other way round in that you have some sort of node/dead spot. I don't know enough to know how to change that - or if it's even possible. I don't know if strings of a different mass or tension might 'move' the dead spots? I would guess the issue relates more to the body and neck.

The only thing I ever wanted out of this , was to be in a good band with consistent gigs that made money. I didn't get that until 10 years ago. I enjoy it and have no plans on stopping. I need the attention and the money. Blue

Every fretless I’ve owned - a status graphite necked apart - had dead or dull spots at or close to where the OP describes. Frustrating but almost inevitable in my experience

The basschat epitaph

Here's mine to go with Skank's fine pic. Our hero is doing his bit for the war effort but he keeps on picking up sounds from the wild and wonderful world of pop music. Nonetheless, he'll do his very best until he can have a well earned drinks break. Westfield violin bass, Epiphone guitar, Hydrogen drums and an air raid siren from Freesound. All recorded on wax cylinder from those fine phonographic chaps at Wavepad and Audacity. Lyrics hidden below.

Benny hill had a bash too with Ernie (the fastest milkman in the west)