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I've just sent an email to Jamie Body, the author of that Stage piece, giving him the background on Mr Mason and have given him links to this thread and the other Mason-based one.

I couldn't find a thread about this shop so thought I'd just make people aware of it if they weren't already. I was having trouble finding a HX Stomp XL online, you can order them but most places are out of stock awaiting delivery 6-8 weeks. I managed to find one apparently in stock at a shop in Stevenage that I hadn't heard of before, Coda Music. I emailed first at the end of last week, they very quickly confirmed they had two units in stock. I decided to go up rather than order online, I wanted to take a look at the old skatepark at Bowes Lyon House, a place I skated many times in my youth, it was also a venue where I saw quite a few gigs too. Anyway, we aren't on SkateChat are we? So I called before I set off, just to double check I wasn't wasting a three hour round trip, again, two units in stock. The shop address is in the High Street but it appears to be quite an old part of the town, small interesting shops, you can park for free right on the High Street or in the surrounding streets, I parked about a minutes walk away. I strolled in just as heavy rain started. Two gentlemen of, shall we say, a certain age were behind the counter, no disinterested teenage minions chewing gum and texting rather than serving, no idiots playing Slayer's entire oeuvre at Wembley volume, in fact no music on at all, it was as quiet as a library, just the clicking of PC keys. I asked for the Stomp, stock was checked and one of the chaps said "It's in our store, I'll just go get it." I took the opportunity for a snoop around, it appeared at first to be a tiny shop but on walking through to the back it opened out and there was a whole other floor jam packed with an amazing array of guitars, interesting guitars too! I noticed there were no acoustics but they have another branch in Stevenage dedicated solely to acoustics! They had a rack of basses too, one or two interesting but mostly Fenders obviously. The Stomp arrived, payment was taken by the extremely helpful and polite staff who even put up with my foul language when they asked for my name/address/email shizzle, not their fault, it's usual practice these day. I left and then came straight back in as it was really tipping down, without me saying anything one of the chaps found me a large plastic bag to wrap up my purchase. All in all a good experience. It's a lovely shop, not at all like the chain music stores. I wish I'd had time for a longer look around, all the instruments looked interesting rather than just the usual stuff, even the Fenders looked enticing (I'm not a Fender man) particularly the dark blue metallic one at the front. Cool shop, nice staff, highly recommended.

Pricing here is predicated on the notion of older = better, which given that they're both Fujigen basses, is nonsense. And FWIW an MIJ 'E' serial isn't specific, it's 85-87, if you want to split hairs. My opinion - maple looks better, lighter is always better, and the £75 saving buys you a black/white/black pickguard and cream pickup covers to transform the aesthetics from generic P bass to ultimate rock monster P bass. Which you should definitely do.

I would love one of these basses but £40 grand is my limit, I'm afraid. It's a good job the seller isn't trying to flog this on Basschat, though : "If only this was a five string I'd be all over it." "What does it weigh?" "Would you consider a trade with an Elric fretless and can you ship to Moldova?"

Steve's latest Farcebook post: "I got my mid point chemo CT scan results back and my tumour has shrunk by approx 80%. In the words of my brilliant consultant, it's the absolute best news we could imagine right now. So yeah, we're celebrating. I'll write more about what the scan means longer term soon, but right now it's making me very happy." Great news on this solemn day.

He’s getting some media attention now, though for his entertainment scams rather than his thievery. https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/news/booking-firm-owes-us-tens-of-thousands-claim-tribute-acts?utm_source=facebook-instagram&utm_medium=fb-insta-stories&utm_campaign=stories

Black one with maple neck, stick a bwb scratchplate on it, that is all.

My Forte 6 that I had have quite a fancy top. Ebony board too, Spector branded tuners.... In fact the only things separating from an NS-6XL were the inlays and the HAZ. So this whole Forte thing got quite blurred out in the end.

Man, how good is Nate Navarro!

When I were a lad it was all quite simple...

If the seller isn't playing ball I would contact them and let them know that the situation cannot be resolved without their input and, should they not respond, the order would be cancelled and a paypal refund request submitted.

Into The Valley - The Skids

Also - price of a pint in town and about a week or two from ordering…. hopefully they work!!

The people have spoken, you'll just have to buy both.

lie like a Persian rug😃

More amusement. Despite the ' live ' chat ( real person in real time, ) telling my she was cancelling my booking, and refund back to my card in 5-7 days, the money has not appeared. That was over 8 days ago Back onto live chat again today, i ask where the hell is my money, go through all the same carp as before, postcodes, tracking, ref numbers, invoice numbers etc, tell real person that the previous real person cancelled my booking because of Yodels rediculous system, but my money has not been repaid Real person says she's looked into this and it wasnt cancelled by previous real person. So first real person, she lie like a persian rug. Outright lie. Today's real person cancels my booking and this time i get .PNG that downloads from the chatbox to my PC so i check the file, and this time , it's official. Another 5-7 day wait. Marvellous. Bonobos could run a tighter ship than this bunch of degenerates

Just wanted to give an update on this - took my bass to a luthier and they identified a slight ski slope at the bottom of the neck. Took the frets out, sorted out the bump and re-fretted the neck. After putting the same La Bella strings back on, the buzz reappeared. The fretwork has certainly helped as it now plays much better in the higher register, but the strange sitar like buzzing from the G string is still present. The luthier did a great job and is very experienced but even he couldn't get to the bottom of it. He suggested it might be an issue with the strings themselves. Went down a bit of a rabbit hole and discovered that this is an issue that some others have experienced with La Bella strings - particularly the G string. Sure enough, if I string my bass with different strings then the issue disappears. Furthermore, putting the buzzing string on another bass creates the exact same issue - so I am certain that it is the string. I have tried a couple of sets of La Bellas and unfortunately all have had the same issue. I've been in touch with the shop I purchased them from, as well as La Bella themselves, and both have shown great customer service - should have some replacements coming soon. I'm hoping that I have just been unlucky here, as I've never had any issues with La Bella's in the past.

All together now ... low end WASTE-land, just a low end WASTE-land

Always plug in the cab 1/4" first. Always disconnect the power before unplugging the cab. Nil danger unless there's a chance the lead can be yanked out midstream.

Aberrations sanded away (leastways, I hope ); Finishing Epoxy arrived; hatch sanded curved and flush; CA hardening reapplied: So nothing for it, time to brush on the finishing epoxy and see if it does the business! It's quite quick curing so I am hoping to get all sides covered over the day. Rubber gloves and squeegees at the ready!!

‘Craft facility liberates expression, and I am constantly amazed how many artists think the opposite to be true.’ - Ansel Adams

Aaaaand... American Original 50s Precision:

Hi all! Somehow I've ended up with these. Can't quite remember how it happened, but there you go. First up - American Original 60s Precision:

Both of the two speaker output terminals are not at ground potential, so when one of these terminals (say the shell/barrel of a 1/4" plug) touches ANY ground including the chassis, it shorts that amplifier to ground. Depending on how the protection circuit is designed, it can damage one or both channels pretty much instantly. The shell/barrel of the 1/4" plug is not at ground but is a driven connection. On high powered amps this can be a shock hazard, though generally you won't get injured unless you are surprised and jump backwards into something else. On very large amps, the shock can certainly hurt. As long as nothing grounded (another cable plug that's ground referenced) happens to touch the shell/barrel of the bridged amp's output plug. Then it's a short circuit and the amp can be damaged.

That fretless riff is gnarly!

The barrel saddles (instead of threaded) and the smaller Gotoh GB10 tuners with narrower tuning posts give the '57 away as likely a PB57-53, which is in fact not made of alder as the website suggests, but of basswood (which could explain the weight). It's the most basic and affordable version of the PB57. The ones to look out for are the ones with period-correct hardware, which do have alder bodies. At 799 GBP this PB57 is well overpriced IMO. The same likely goes for the E-series PB62 as well, as the little sticker with the 55 on the back of the headstock could designate it as a PB62-55.

Is it a compressor that you're looking for? The short answer is possibly. The long answer is more complex. Skipping over the OC-2 issue for the most part, it sounds like the make up gain from your SD compressor is helping to compensate for the volume drop there. I don't have an OC-2 and haven't used on for 25 odd years so can't really help any further with that. But my stock answer regarding compressors and their use is, if you don't know much already, do your homework. I cannot emphasise that enough, there's a lot of misunderstanding and misconceptions about them as well as some outright nonsense written about them - even on Basschat unfortunately. But to get the best out of a compressor you need to understand what they do and how to best apply compression. And that takes time as compression is (mostly) subtle. The impression I get is that a lot of people treat a compression pedal as an effect because it's a stomp box, right? But they make much more sense when thought of in terms of shaping your sound, so more in line with using tools like EQ , high pass filtering rather than an effect that will dazzle or impress anyone like a filter or synth pedal. Someone far more clued up than me on compression said that you need to think like a sound engineer rather than a bass player to use them properly, and that perfectly sums it up! Having got that out of the way... What do you feel is lacking from the SD? That might help identify potential replacements. If you're just looking for a volume leveler you might be better off with a limiter, for example. The Spectracamp is a great little pedal and infinitely configurable, off the top of my head there's something like 48 individual parameters to tweak. And if you have the understanding they are incredibly powerful. There's also the new Source Audio Atlas that is making me all moist around the nether regions, if nobody else! But being brutally honest, I suspect the inconsistency between your strings is down to the BDI21. Like the Sansamp Bass Driver it rips off it has a baked in huge void in the mid range which sounds sexy when the bass is played in isolation but is pretty much the last thing you actually need to get the bass to sit in the mix. The audible frequency range of the bass guitar is predominantly in the mid range frequencies and scooping them, especially as extremely as the BDI21 does, is in essence turning much - but not all - of the instrument down. As well as the absent mid range I also find the inherent sound of the pedal is too overly compressed anyway, certainly for my taste, so adding even more compression on top is unlikely to help. My suggestion would be to switch the DBI off and kill it with fire to see how things sound. If you still want that edge to your sound try something like the TC Electronic Spark Booster, the 4 knob version not the mini one. That way you can add some grit to the sound without completely f@cking it up making the sound difficult to work with. All IMO, of course 😃

If you're in London and can get to Enfield then it might be worth dropping in to Fender Fever. They have loads of MIJ reissues, including ones that are pretty similar to the ones you're after ..... https://www.fenderfever.com/bass They're a bit more spenny, but you might be able to haggle him down a bit.

Yeah, if a big majority of people on here said 'definitely go for X' because that is a great deal and is technically a much better year/pickups etc and the other one looks like a fake then it would've swayed me but with the votes exactly 50/50 so it sort of confirms my indecision! I'll do the sensible thing and will wait a while to see if my current Bass sells on here, if it doesn't then I'll make the journey to Bass Bros at some point to take them up on their part-exchange offer and will try out both Basses in-person (or perhaps others will be better). So thanks everyone, (for nothing! 😀)

Thanks Andy. We need a way to make the equivalent from something organic, that breaks down rapidly in water. Not just for bass makers and model aeroplanes.

It most definitely was Malcolm 'Harry' Wragg! We were called Stupidity, and although we didn't market ourselves as a tribute act, we only played Dr Feelgood material. I've attached a pic of us in rehearsal (not in the marquee), where you can see Mal on the drums.

...and listen to the fanbois (s)cream...

Beat me to it! Although the US models normally have spiral saddles at the bridge on the 62 reissue. It doesn't look like this one does, but I have seen them with regular saddles before so nothing to worry about. I think the 62 is a non export US model with US spec pups in it, so that'd be my choice for you seeing as you prefer rosewood. I prefer the 57 on looks alone, so I'd buy that and change the pups/guts if needed if it were me. Can you buy both and send the one you don't like back? * I'm doing this on my phone and pasted this link in by mistake. I now can't remove it from my post, sorry! 😆

Yeah ‘57 for me in this instance

The real thing - fnm

Have given the retailer and UPS to have this sorted by 07:00 GMT tomorrow. If no clearance by then, game's a bogey and 'Item not received' it is.

Maybe. Communication is mostly by beacons or horseback.

Might be quite a few bass players... just not with internet access...

First coat for top and sides done, using a handy cottage cheese container and sponge brush. Decent stuff to apply - just got to see how well/easily it sands down. I've worked it into the grain and finished cross-grain. Hopefully, that will maximise the grain fill and will also give me a ripple indicator of when I'm down to the level when doing the wet-sanding tomorrow. The epoxy will take around 3 hours until it can be handled and then I'll flip it over and give the back the same treatment.

Don’t underfeed the pedal otherwise you risk losing presets at some point. I learned the hard way.

Hey Lewis. I once tried to run mine on a Cioks DC5 on one of the 100mA outputs (I know yours is higher, but may still be helpful). It seemed to work fine, but occasionally it would malfunction and give me a flashing green light and stop producing sound, as if it was in a permanent cycle of trying to boot up. I now keep mine on it's own 300mA output on the cioks now.

You only just lost out on disproving the old adage ''you can't please all of the people all of the time''. If you had played Apache for the finale it would have brought the house down.

Rib13 Bass - Find The P Bass Challenge Answer Key - YouTube

There is a very interesting and unique Euro on the BC marketplace. A real bargain in comparison to what Euros cost nowadays (and what that particular bass cost). Just saying 😉

There are only two bass players in my entire country. No wonder people here think I'm good. Most of them have never heard one. 😆