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It a new knob day for the Harley Benton PB50 I bought from shoulderpet a few days ago. I made a new loom with CTS/switchcraft components yesterday, and as I prefer to use solid shaft CTS pots, the original knobs had to go as they wouldn't fit the pots. I ordered some extra knurly ones from axecaster.co.uk and chose nickel plating rather than chrome for a more vintage appearance. They arrived in the post this morning, and I think they look the business.

The loss of our Vic knocked the heart out of us really. Although we’d already decided to close the main shop, Vic & I had put a plan together to keep a smaller version of the business running on an ‘appointment only’ basis. Without him I lost the motivation to do anything. Might have something interesting on the horizon later this year though 😉

I flew out to Ibiza to play the opening night of HRH Road Trip. The show was great, although I took my cheap Musicman copy as I didn't trust Ryanair with an expensive bass. The Ashdown rig sounded decent and the show was really well attended. My first trip over to mainland Europe since Covid. Ibiza was surprisingly not Chav!

Fodera Monarch, Skjold Slayer (E-C) Modulus Funk Unlimited JJ5, Modulus VJ, 77 Fender, Warwick Corvette Std, Bitsa P.

´66

Having looked at this in sickening detail, digital calipers use two etched capacitative scales of different pitches that function in the same way as an etched vernier scale.

Yamaha JB600r, Japan, around 1984 Rickenbacker 4001 Azureglo 1974 Fender Jazz Bass early '66, Ibanez Black Eagle 1977

Other band members giving me a hard time about my drink and drugs habit

People in bands need to learn to play as part of an ensemble - mindless constant soloing whatever the instrument just makes me think that they've spent years playing along to recordings without actually listening to how the music was put together.

I’d not seen this documentary before. I’m sure a few people here will enjoy it.

Short scale beauty with Aguilar ceramic P pickups. And stripes. Yum, competition stripes!!! Weighs zip all too.

You can see how far away it is from the house here... taken from my office upstairs. And we now have a door! Still lots to do (rendering, windows, 2nd fix electrics, plastering, bathroom fittings etc)

After a few days catching up with family and domestic stuff, I'm back in the cellar. Which, after a few days catching up with family and getting involved in the domestic stuff, MrsAndyjr1515 says is the best place for me. All being well, I'll be able to get this to staining and ready for return stage by the end of tomorrow. Knocked off a couple more 'to-do' items this morning: Added a third magnet to the trussrod cover to make sure the apex doesn't lift and get caught on something and drop off when @fleabag gets overtaken by the beat and starts flinging the bass around the stage: And the sanding is approaching staining level:

You do enjoy the last word. This is not life and death like the Covid thread...

I've heard great sounding players, terrible ones and everything inbetween regardless of amp choices. Last wedding band I saw (they had just a pair of small Turbosound tops, no sub) the bass player was using a bog standard passive Jazz through a MarkBass AC combo plonked on the floor and he filled the room with it, sounded huge with loads of body and definition.

And solved, after some googling and looking on forums I found out it uses a double action truss rod and there is a place in the adjustment where there is virtually no counter tension and it will feel like the truss rod is not doing anything, turn it past this point and it starts to grip again and adjust

The assumption that the bass is easy to play and that you're just a failed guitarist.

Just think what it would cost if they'd employed a real designer!

A new bass is born! I proudly present the Brooks Thinline Telebird. - Two piece Swamp Ash body. Half hollow - Two piece Swamp Ash top. With f-hole - 7ender P-bass neck with Pau Ferro fingerboard - Sea Foam Green top. - Artec Mudbuckers - 34" scale - Wide travel Thunderbird bridge plus tailstop. Chrome - Pearloid pickguard - Tortoise binding - Hipshot Ultralite tuners. Chrome - CTS Volume pot - CTS Tone pot - 5 way super switch - Chrome flat top barrel knobs - Telecaster jack cup. Chrome - Rotosound 66 Swing bass strings 45-105 - Weight 4.1 kg Wiring by BQ Music: • Neck humbucker in series • Outer coils as humbucker in series • Both humbuckers in series • Inner coils as humbucker in series • Bridge humbucker in series Pics of the entire build process can be viewed here: https://www.enkoo.nl/brooks-thinline-telebird.html #brooksbass #thinline #TeleBird I also made a demonstration video of the Brooks Thinline Telebird. This bass really sounds amazing. Very responsive. Hard to catch the real sound with my limited recording devices...

The nut slots on my J Bitsa neck were a bit low, particularly the A and D... giving a buzz when played open... So finaly got around to doing something about it. Seen the 'ol Super Glue and Bi Carb mentioned and vids on Youtube, so gave it a go. Masked it up... Mixed it up... Built it up... Sanded Flat... Slotted with Needle Files Sanded the slots smooth and pencil lead to lube... Sorted! You can make out the 'Clearer Build Up'... If in doubt give it a go!

Wily Bo Walker Band (Bo is a Grammy-nominated, US 'blues hall of fame' inductee; I just thump along on bass in the background!)

great sound and that horn section...

They're your ears, and you won't get another set. Do whatever you can to keep 'em in good nick for as long as possible, I'd say. Having control of the overall volume is a good start; having mixing possibility is even better. If you're free of tinnitus for the moment, that's the time to take your hearing under your own control if you can. Just my tuppence-worth.

@carlitos71has one and @Bo0tsy.

Done a few necks using 0000 wire wool nice and easy does it, it'll take the grabby feel away no problem. I finished them with a coat of beeswax easy to apply & a rub with a clean dry cloth to finish it. Watch your pickups using the wool as the poles will attract it.

There are far better bassists on this thread than me, and people who know way more about high-end basses than I do, but I doubt there are many posting here who know more about accounting and finance for SMEs (Fodera is deffo an SME = small to medium enterprise). I've seen (I think) no fewer than three references to Fodera making a 10% gross profit (GP) margin, including one which described it as a "pledge". Just to be clear, if any business where I was running the finances wanted to declare a GP of 10% then that's what I would declare. GP is an incredibly easy thing to manipulate in a small business run by owner/managers. I'm making no accusations, and the processes I have in mind are entirely legal and legitimate. Place not your faith in a "pledge" to limit GP to 10%, and I personally would have no interest in working with people who were so keen to limit their own potential. In truth, a well-run boutique business with decent management should be looking at 25%-35%. I have no doubt at all that Fodera are making a mint and so they should be. If people are actually prepared to pay $18k, $30k, $36k for a bass then that's their decision and their look-out. Don't expect to find me in the queue, mind ...

As Jimfist says, it'll never sound the same at home or through headphones than it does live at gig volume! That applies to all/any effects I have ever used... By the way, you may all be interested to know Zoom have just released a new IR pack from Jensen! Available free of charge for all B6, G6 and G11 owners! https://zoomcorp.com/en/gb/news/jensen-ir-collection/ Theres a download link about 2/3 of the way down the page....

Assault And Battery Hawkwind

FX loops are generally for some types of FX pedals. Traditionally time based FX like chorus / delay / reverb etc. That way those FX are in the signal chain after the internal preamp Bass>Amp input> FX Send > reverb pedal > FX return. The most common approach for guitarists is to put overdrives / fuzz etc in front of the amp, and then the reverb / delays / chorus etc in the loop. But You can turn any amp with a loop into just a poweramp by sending a signal from something else - like your B7KU or a Line 6 Helix etc etc. Many bassists don't use the loop at all and just put all the pedals in front. Bass>pedals>amp. There's no rules really. It's all just options to find the tone you like best.

That’s coz it’s scared of Mods.

The bass sounded superb at the Swindon gig last week. Clear, clean, and punchy.

Just watched this - just so helpful and uplifting for someone like me who totally stuggles with this. I know there are some very technical and knowledgeable folk camping down on Basschat - which is brilliant - but I wanted to shout this video out as I found it very helpful. Maybe obvious to some and I guess much of this I probably know, in theory, but Mark explains it and tells the story so well. Get your bass tone from the ground up - the tone controls should be the last place to look for your sound. I now understand why people have loads of basses. I finally have a reason to start accumulating basses 🙂

It would appear the time hasn’t happened yet then. . .

As someone who is a serious hi-fi nut, who has done some rock climbing, and has done some sailing, incorrect coiling of cables, ropes etc is very annoying

Yes, it is true. Actually, there are several stories and one (not involving class D specifically but involving confirmation bias and over-confidence in listening abilities) where I rigged a double-blind listening test to select between the same power amp and added only 1/2dB to one amp's level caused a high percentage of people to be "positive" they were listening to two different amps (presented to the group as 2 quite different circuits). Of course there was the cork sniffing swagger, the golden ears proclaiming all kinds of absurdities, the hyperbole, etc. When the curtain was parted and they saw that they had been listening to the SAME amp, the excuses started coming out and it became clear that I had just finished my last day with that company (and the high end Hi-Fi industry as a whole). This was in 1981 or 82 and I was planning on quitting the next day anyway, so it wasn't an unexpected or even unwanted outcome (This industry was just full of snake-oil marketing that had no bearing on reality or truth of any kind). The point being that even a small difference in level, or in preamp voicing can make a much bigger impression than most folks realize.

77 Fender and 98 Modulus.

Singer/songwriter-guitarists (for it is always these people) who expect you to be able to transpose on the fly when they put their capo on the wrong fret, or expect you to improvise to whatever they're playing without even telling you the key or meter.

Pet peeves? Egos in the band. I can’t be doing with it. Band politics. Ditto.

Cliff Burton joins the chat

I usually like quirky basses, especially short scales; but I don't like anything about this fugly monstrosity

Basically the previous owner had bought this bass in 2021 and a load of other high end gear, had been working internationally so hardly touched it and then tragically died in his early. 30's, his widow was selling them off, there's not really a way to work out the prices of used LeFay as they aren't that common but I didn't quibble her asking price and it was the very max of my budget... and yeah she's lovely and very high end thing... I've never played a headless before, it sits a bit differently and there is definitely no headstock dive. The bass is simply a work of art.... like this is really high level of craftsmanship, the sculpting of the woods compared to say a Warwick thumb is another level - and it feels very much design led. Everything seems and feels thought through and there for a purpose rather than rushed quickest way to do something. The bridge is very sturdy ... and, maybe this is the cleaness of the tone, or just all headless bridges but tunes so easily. I've got an HX stomp and using the fine tuning mode the other basses take a bit of coaxing to get bang on... this just does it - it's crazy Padauk neck! Really easy to play, the widest point is a few mm below the top of the fretboard so it kinda starts to curve back in on itself. Anyway very easy to play. These things in the faux headstock. I will learn more about them when I need to change strings. one of my half thought-through ideas was to learn to make a neck and then make my own Padouk neck... safe to say if I ever installed frets I would not be even attempting them to look like this... it's crazy the top is gently curved and the back doesn't look bad either ... like crazy woodworking chops... and also the bits to the bridge pins - the mind boggles. But what I like (and I work as a designer) was I was playing it and thinking about how well it seemed thought out... someone else pointed out the crazy woodwork to me, it's not ostentatious craft for crafts sake, and also no coffee table wood on view... I like that. Another one of the back... This looks odd to me - there's nothing on the back of the headstock!! pointy grey/silver paint! woop How does it sound... so not like a fender at all.... it's really really clear and consistent all the way up and down, the low notes on the B string are clean and defined and feel in character. It was initially set up with super low action and straight neck, so I imagine I could do a Charles Berthould impression with tapping and slapping if I practiced for about 10 years and had any talent... tonally if I was trying to describe it it's in the same ballpark as Charles' Herr Schwartz - but played by an idiot. It's quite piano like in the way notes have clarity and it seems to reward playing melody and multiple notes at once... The preamp is really nice, volume, passive tone and the 6 position pickup selector (best described as: rear coil, parallel MM, parallel Jazz, front coil, series MM, series jazz) and then 2 band bass and treble boost only. The bass control is really nice, it adds a boost at about 80Hz but nothing below 30Hz - so none of the subby stuff, the high end boost is a nice high end boost. And then the 6 position control makes it sound like completely different instrument. So yeah, I feel a bit like a 17 year on their birthday old let loose on a Ferrari ... and the temperature of the house it previously lived in down south and my cold room the bass live in up north mean I need to tweak the setup, the bow on the neck isn't quite right at the moment. Like I said a 17 year old in a Ferrari!

Here's my 1973 Fender Jazz. My first proper instrument bought in 1983 and it was mint. It's done every gig I've ever played. The finish cracked badly after I left it in a tour bus overnight in Finland at minus 20. It's been re-fretted 3 times and had to have new pickups after the originals died. They are now Lollars. Apart from that it's all original! I still have the chrome covers but lost the pick guard and case somewhere along the way.