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Thought it was time for an update on my WB-100. Took the amp down to our very own WoT who confirmed there was something not right with the amp. While there Leszek asked us to complete some tests and vid record it and send to him. Leszek offered a replacement or refund right at the start of this and again made the offer and assured me it would be resolved to my satisfaction We agreed a plan that my local tech guy in Glasgow would have a look inside first to check valves and look for anything obvious. He did a test and found valves ok and that something was happening inside the amp to cause clipping. At this point he contacted Leszek directly and they agreed it would be better to return the amp to HB. I can appreciate from a privacy point of view he wants to have the amp back at HB for a thorough test and repair as required. Leszek sent me a message last night while i was at rehearsals telling me about it and will cover all / any additional costs. I will pick up the amp from tech guy today but i'm going on holiday for 2 weeks but Leszek has no issue waiting until i get back to ship the amp back to him. He will send the replacement amp out next week. I have to say that Leszek has been fully supportive in the issue. I cant fault HB in their response so far. Its unfortunate that the amp has an issue but these things happen to all manufacturers at some point. No-one's fault, it happens. Hopefully in another few weeks of anxious parcel tracking i will have a new working WB-100. Anyway i'll let you all know when it arrives again. Dave

So I was visiting the thrift shop near my house, I do find some cool stuff there now and then (record player, NAD amplifier) and behold: there was a vintage Acoustic 118 combo there. A bit dusty, but it works perfectly, there was some dust in the pots as well but I had that out with a vacuum cleaner and some knob turning. It sounds absolutely killer! It has that typical Acoustic compressed solid state sound, very tight and an awesome combination with my fretless Jazz. It does remind a bit of Jaco's sound through his 360 amp Best of all: it was only 50 euros!

Dear Friends, attached a few pictures of the fantastic paint job done by Valérian Werner !! Hope you’ll like them …

This is 3/4 through sanding: Basically, anything shiny means the sandpaper hasn't got to that level yet: So most of the grain is clearly filled, but here are some dints that either need sanding down to or filling more. Once all the shiny bits are gone all over, I'm reapplying finishing epoxy, albeit thinner...wiped on with a lint-free cloth: Later this evening, when the top is handleable, I'll wipe a coat onto the back too and leave it overnight for, hopefully, a final filling-sand tomorrow.

One Hot Minute by Red Hot Chili Peppers. Dark, brooding and psychedelic and coming from a bad place, featuring, IMO, Anthony's best lyrics he's ever written, tackling some really heavy stuff (for once). Along with Uplift Mofo, it's my favourite Chili Peppers album. I think it's s*** on a bit, as unfortunately, there seems to be a bit of the 'cult of Frusciante' around the band, and anything with him not playing on, (in this case Dave Navarro) seems to be derided, completely forgetting dear Hillel was the OG.

Make sure both you and Handbox sort out all the relevant customs forms to say that the amp is being returned for a warranty repair otherwise you all be stung with another round of VAT, import duties and handling charges for the two additional trips the amps will have to make.

I remember all the abuse Iron Maiden got for Seventh Son of a Seventh Son because of the keyboards. I thought it was excellent. A band that was growing and wasn't afraid of trying things.

Got rid of a few posh pedals, as I'm not using so many effects in my bands at the moment. Used the money to buy more basses 😁 EBS Microbass 2 - A/B box/ Preamp/DI/ Overdrive/ headphone amp and Effects loop. Very very useful bit of kit and great quality sound. In the loop I have all of the effects, so I can use them through the Headphones. Darkglass Hyper Luminal- new arrival and jury's still out. Analog pedal with a digital sidechain, with models of three popular compressors. All sound great and very different, so lots of variety, and fairly easy to set up, with lots of pretty Blue lights. Need to use this with the band, to get a feel for it. BOSS LS2 - splits the signal after the comp, so all effects have compression beforehand. Has two seperate lines of FX that I can switch between or run in parallel Loop A - general effects. MXR Bass Octave Deluxe- I had one of these before and while I loved the tone and tracking, it had a noise issue. I really needed an Octave thst tracks well with active basses, and this was the best I'd tried in that application. To different voices to mimic the EBS and OC2 Sounds. EBS Bass IQ - this is a great sounding filter!! Lots of variation with the modes and simple to use. Not as fat or resonant as some, but has a great tight/clear filter tone that cuts through really well. EBS Unichorus - Chorus/Flanger and pitch mod. Gorgeous Analog tones in a bombproof box EBS Dphaser - As above but a funky, swirly,fat and very cool Digital Phaser. I love this thing Donner Deluxe Mini tuner- kept losing the Headstock thing and got fed up of asking the the Keyboard player to give me an E 😂 Loop B - Synth Channel Emma - Okto Nojs - Octaver and synthy Dynamic Fuzz in one pedal, can be used individualy or combined for Dirty synth tones. Source Audio C4 synth- had one of these before, with a posh midi thing, only used 6 sounds in it 🤣 Synths/octavers/filters/phasers allsorts in here, but just sticking to thd six sounds this time. Nice "just a bit more than I need" board, and everything's nicely spaced. Just need yo sort the cables out 😁

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.

And neck now in Edinburgh and out for delivery today.

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.

I made this version of "Something About You". All the instrument's parts are played on a 4 string bass, with me singing all the parts, and drum loops. Here's the spotify link:

Shush, we agreed to keep that quiet.....💘

...and just to derail this completely! EQ disengaged (by engaging the flat/shape button ), Ashdown designer core tone only (note I didn't say flat) and the OPs 'perceived' flat sound will sound anything but flat if played through cab A / B / C. I learned many years ago (through Bassworld / Basstalk / Basschat) that I actually like the sound that certain speakers make regardless of diameter. Oddly at the time I thought I just liked 10" speakers but it turned out I liked the distorted (not 'distorted') sound of the Eminence 10" drivers in my H&K combos, since then I just use my ears and judge the tone coming from a cab regardless of manufacturer or driver size. Fast forward just a few years and I stumbled on Thunderfunk amps which just worked for me with the EQ set at 12:00... I had plenty of scope to go up or down if room dynamics needed it (which I rarely did) due to the semi-parametric EQ. I've still since then tried different amp flavours to see if I could get even better sound; many/most were 'different' but rarely better (IMHO) so I went back to TF. It appears to have been established that in the world of commercially available domestic bass amplifiers, FLAT physically can't exist but amplifiers should have a position at which EQ can be adjusted. I'm sure it has been said but if an amp gives you the sort of sound you like with the controls set in such a manner/position that you can tweak to meet acoustic peculiarities, then you are sorted. Whether that be a Helix/processor/preamp into as uncoloured a power section/IEM/PA or full fat valve amp into ceramic/neo 5"/10"/12"/15"/18" cabinet is immaterial, it has to meet your needs which will be different for all of us.

Going against my own nature over the last few days I've listened to Led Zep, all their albums and all the way through. In conclusion, for me In Through The Out Door is by some margin their best album and I'm not trolling for the hell of it. The reasons? 1. it features lots of tasty keyboards which flesh out their sound by some margin 2. Plant actually mostly sings with his banshee yowling/screeching that marred their other albums out of sight...kinda. 3. The production is cleaner, tighter and lighter with the plodding heavy sound of the early albums reined in 4. I dislike Blues heavily influenced rock intensely but there's little sign of that here I understand that John Paul Jones -the best musician in the band - had more input here than on the other albums so that explains the heavier keys orientation So, what allegedly weak albums by well-known bands would you say are among their better, if not the best albums

The Pass is the one for me. The first chords are hairs on the back of the neck time.

Interesting experiment with my Fender Rumble head (old 150w) and my channel strip. Output from channel strip into effects return on rumble so bypassing eq. Alternating between bass into the rumble and into the channel strip. I left the head flat and adjusted the channel strip to sound as close to the rumble head as possible. Quite an obvious mid scoop there I’d say.f

Ahem.......! I do some work with Markbass, I just don't shout about it! I was lucky enough to be invited out to the MB58R launch in July. The Richard Bona show afterwards was absolutely bleddy amazing! The new cabinets, heads and combos are incredibly light, picking up the new head is more like picking up a paperback book, rather than a 500w bass head! I personally currently use a pair of STD121hr cabs (which are slightly lighter than the NY121) with my Casa head... the replacement for these cabs will save me a total weight of 6kg, and I have placed an order, without hesitation, having heard them! All the MB58R products are to be manufactured in Italy. This is partly because the company is proudly Italian, but also because it considerably shortens the supply chain, optimise shipping costs and yes, saves the energy cost of shipping large quantities of wooden boxes halfway around the planet. No greenwashing here, just sound business reasons and less heavy diesel oil being burned for the sake of us low enders The new cabinets are constructed using a revolutionary injection moulded, dense and recyclable foam, which is incredibly strong, very light and with high performance acoustically. There are three flavours to choose from - the "Energy" cabs have a tone signature similar to the current Standard and Traveler cabs, the "Pure" have a more hifi treble response (which can still be attenuated), akin to the Marcus Miller and Richard Bona cabs, and the "P" models are similar to "Energy", but have ceramic magnet speakers, which, because of the weight saving in the cabinet are still as light and in some cases even lighter than the current range wooden cabinets. I understand that, ultimately the MB58 range will no doubt be the new Markbass standard, Marco's work has always been about innovation, but in the meantime there are understandably some very popular current models, which will continue to be made for the foreseeable future. The new models should start to become available from late October, starting with the cabinets and heads, with the new combos following later in the year. As a result, while the CMD121H has been marked on the MB website as officially discontinued, I am aware the UK distributor has secured some stock for the UK, so it'll be around for a good while yet! Thats about all I know for now, but if I hear more I will happily share! I have been asked to help with an Expo day at Absolute Music on 1st October, and I believe they are hoping this will be the UK debut of the new cabs and heads...

Clockwork Angels has some great tunes on it but I find Nick Raskulinecz’s mix awful, a complete mush with little separation. IIRC there was a remix of Snakes & Arrows that was warmly received, as the original release suffered from the same mushy mix, I hope they do the same for CA.

I pop in there occasionally, there's always something interesting in there. They had a secondhand Warwick double buck I would have bought online but went in and played it and the neck was thicker than the Hulks thighs.

Coda sold me a Rickenbacker in 1995, but I don't hold it against them😄 They were great back then, good to hear that they still are today 🙂

When I read the thread title, ‘Tonight’ came to mind immediately. In fact, I did an interview on radio a couple of years ago, when ChangesTwoBowie was still a going concern, defending the album. The problem is that it’s up against some really stiff competition from the rest of Bowie’s oeuvre. As much as I like it, would I say it’s his best work? I don’t think I can, but it’s definitely nowhere near as bad as some would have us believe.

Here is my contribution to the September 2022 Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by a picture chosen by the previous winner: Doctor J It all started innocently enough. A fun day out in the fresh alpine air... Two Monster Drums tracks for the percussion, four Kontakt tracks playing a new (to me...) Foundations Synth Bass, Staccato Strings and the Text To Speech samples, Little treatment, other than a bit of compression/EQ on the voices, and my standard Reaper NY Glue on the Master tracks, as usual. Thanks for listening, if you already have; if you're about to, enjoy.

Post-Brexit and Post-Covid, the shipping industry is a nightmare. After a week or so of inaction by UPS, my bass neck is now out for delivery today (see my Import nightmare thread) but the Alnico speaker I bought three weeks ago is stuck with Hermes in a transit 'incident'. The seller is keeping in touch but I feel a discussion about a refund coming on by the end of next week. Of all couriers, Hermes are the worst, and rebranding as 'Evri' isn't going to cure that by a long chalk!

I'll pitch a couple in there. Metallica's Black Album, I understand it was thought to be a commercial sell out by die hard fans but I'm not keen on anything before or after. Queen's first album. Had a fresh rawness the subsequent offerings lacked. Deep Purple's Fireball. Apparently DP fans were never keen, it is my favourite.

If you buy a cheap instrument and spend your money and/or time getting it just how you want, then it's not a cheap instrument any more. How my used Squier P plays and sounds now I've invested £££ in it bares no relation to how the Squier I took down from the wall in gear4music plays and sounds. If the factory producing Squiers put the same time, effort and attention into every instrument they make as my tech has put into mine, then they would be selling at a very different price point.

I would offer the Lou Reed/Metallica Lulu collaboration with Metallica as a further bar. Ian Astbury from The Cult loved it: https://thequietus.com/articles/07865-loutallica-lulu-ian-astbury-the-cult Frankly, there is more artistic beauty in Astbury's defence of the album than in the music itself. On The Cult, I actually think that Beyond Good and Evil is their best album. It was released on 2000 and they were kind of going for a harder edged sound to fit in with the nu-metal crowd. They then made a brilliant psychedelic/stoner rock album almost by accident. I still really like it.

Here's where the bar is set

I was in contact with Flavius for more than a year regarding the sale of one of my Dingwall Customs. I decided to lower the price and check if he‘s still interested and we made the deal happen in two days, including payment via wire transfer and shipping from Germany to Romania! Polite, quick, friendly communication. Great dude all-around. Deal with confidence. Thank you Flavius, and enjoy the new bass!

I I just had to update with an updated "circle of friends"'-photo 😀

Just One Fix - Ministry

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.

A decent bass is a decent bass, no matter what is written on the headstock.

I have two older ones , a 4001 and a 4000. Spent years looking for a 4001 , they were rarely coming up for sale in the pre internet days , and then I picked up one visiting Toronto. The sharp edges were never a bother for me and I bypassed the cap and strung it with TIs , I was looking for a thump rather than that prog rock zing. It quickly felt like home and became my primary bass for quite some years. I mostly play short scales now , but still love a nice Ric.

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.

This whole thread has confused me. So far as I can see, or hear, surely it makes no difference where the starting point/flat is on the eq if you are then adjusting it to find the sound you want? if you have to move it from 9 o'clock, noon or a quarter past 3 the end result will be the same because you are looking for a sound, not a position on a control knob. And if you still can't find a sound you like, move on to a different amp. Or have I missed the point? Wouldn't be the first time

Well ....... I struck lucky ....... I've been browsing for weeks, nothing turned up. Then I tried searching randomly for p instead of precision bass and found the perfect bass..... A bass centre power bass in John Deacon spec! It was in Scotland, but the kind seller even dropped it off for me on his way to a work event! This feels nice and has a wide but not too wide neck, but is quite shallow so it's easy to play. It has the optional babicz bridge - which I had on my jeff berlin bass - which are great. I've got it booked in for a dimarzio pickup fitting tomorrow, and then we are good to go!

Mousetrap! Boomtown mice

bass is an old silver series squire jazz and a blackstar 250 unity which has a very good overdrive on it, and much lighter than the Ampeg rig.