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Hey Everyone, With gigs going well this Summer I decided to go and grab a new rig which was a huge deal given I've always been a one-bass kind of guy. It's been 12 years since my last purchase and I've never bought a brand new bass in my life! Here's a snappy video of demo-ing the bass in the shop, setting it up at home and my new backline rig arriving. (Alternative FB Video Link) Following the tricky job of trying to find a bricks & mortar store that had more than one Fender P in stock for me to play (everyone's backlogged), I went to Andertons in Guildford and after a bit of playing I knew I'd found the one for me which is an American Original 50s Precision with maple neck in two tone sunburst. They also had a second hand Aguilar DB115 cab that I specifically was hunting for so I had that delivered the following day! In the meantime, I had a larger EU company ship me the only Aguilar AG700 I could find in stock which was been kicking major derrière, especially at open air events. I knew I was after a classic-looking precision and definitely found something timeless. I had no doubts I'd love the Aguilar stuff seeing as I've previously owned (and loved) the DB751, AG500, the Tonehammer DI and done some recording with the DB659 in the past; didn't even demo the cab in the store! I can't speak highly enough of the folks at Andertons. They heard me out about the stock issue, absolutely zero snake oil tactics and they were really helpful with the logistics of my order which through its course involved deposits on three separate items, one being cancelled and then needing to merge two orders so I didn't exactly make it easy for them. Dead friendly in the shop as well!

Setup time Plenty on the raffle table! First announcements Lunch time Still lunch

Big thank you to Mrs Scrumpy and the Scrumpets for feeding us and to Mike for organising another brilliant day out, so much stuff to try out, highlight for me was the 8” cab @Phil Starr, beginning to regret not trying to take that one home !!!

What a fantastic day! Great organisation by @scrumpymike and excellent lunch that everyone has come to expect. I enoyed listening to @fiatcoupe432 on the six string bass and @TheRev on double bass. Thanks to @Phil Starr for a fascinating cab shootout and @Chienmortbb for his free amp measuring service. The lovely atmosphere at these SW bashes makes them a pleasure to attend. The high spot for me was when @Pea Turgh's son - who has been playing bass for six months by borrowing his dad's bass - won the P.Bass in the raffle.

Absolutely, excellent organisation, scrumptious nosh great company. Even the non-bassy Ms. Stubette enjoyed the bash 😁 Some random pics, one is my Elf being tested!

Such a great turnout Mike you are a star. Thank you.

What a handsome couple of fellas! 😁 Great to see you all, I think that's the busiest I've ever seen it. I can only echo the sentiment - biggest thanks to the team for putting it on and providing the food that makes it so great.

Just got in from my Spacewasters gig at The Escape Bar in Shepherds Bush. Nice venue, parking in the road next to it, proper storage area for equipment, decent stage, provided backline and turned out I knew the guys running the gig and sound, and the headline band as well. All of this made for what we hoped would be a good gig and it was. The provided bass amp sounded great but cut out a few times, however as I was DI’d from my Sansamp it was only the band that noticed. We played well, had a good few people (mainly ladies) dancing, which is an achievement in itself when you’re playing originals. Turns out the guys running the evening loved us so looking forward to a return. Oh and am already in, having just had a free Double Cheeseburger from McDonalds courtesy of my points from the app. Life be good!

Just back from 6hr rehearsal with the WB-100 and my Mesa SW210 & 115 cabs. What a tone with everything flat. Didn't seem too loud with gain at 1 o'clock and master at 12 until guitarist fired up his Freidman amp with his normal volume and i realised how loud i was. Brought the master back to 11 and it was nice in the mix. Please note that this would be my normal gigging volume balanced against our drummers volume. Using my Sandberg VM4 with bass boosted a bit on the VM4 i found i had to increase the mid to 1 o'clock for a little bit more definition. When i wanted a more Ric tone i just hit the Bright button and there it was. I was able to go from my normal warmer P type tone to a nice clanky Ric style tone at the press of a button. On some Glam songs i had to tweak the VM4's treble back a touch. When i was digging in i could hear the overdrive kicking in just enough to keep me happy. The amp has a natural compression and i was able to keep a nice even volume thru each song using fingerstyle with some fingernail click on the more raunchy songs. When i was experimenting a bit i hit the drive button and it was pretty full on overdriven tone but that's not really for me. At higher volumes the overdriven tone is more prominent than at home volumes. Something to be wary off when you start gigging @Clarky All in all the amp has a great clarity with lots of valve depth of tone just what i was hoping for. Very very pleased with the amp today. This is the tone i had in my head. Its been a bit of a journey to get the amp i've been dreaming off (18mths) thru the wait for a Mesa TT800 and then the revised WB-100. Leszek has been exceptionally helpful and understanding throughout and i really can't fault the guy on how he does business and makes amazing amps. Job done i reckon. Whether i would ever buy from outside the UK is another story but that's just been my personal story. Others had no issues with postal service. Dave

Just gathered ourselves up off the sofa and jumped (OK, crawled!!) onto the Bash topic. Thanks for your kind words. We had an absolute blast as always. They're always really enjoyable but on a subjective level this Bash was the best so far. Brilliant to see the regulars back plus some new faces and the usual array of superb gear. My highlights were playing Stewie's Reverends (tempted), Keith's Acinonyx, the cab shoot-out, learning from Stevie that my choice of 'best shoot-out cab' was actually the cheaper one he makes 🙂 - and seeing PeaTurgh draw the raffle ticket that won his son a bass 👏. Mrs. Scrumpy (aka Gabrielle) wants you to know that she is so grateful for the appreciative comments received both at the hall and on here. Back to the sofa - we feel we've earned it. Janey's pics will follow tomorrow.

Played The Water Rats in Kings Cross. Decent crowd in for what is our last gig for a while. Emile the sound guy is fantastic and really knows his stuff. We played really well and the crowd loved it.

Yes indeed, that was a most pleasant way to spend a Sunday. I hope I can make another one Good to meet old and new faces alike

The SW Bass Bash just gets better and better! Many thanks to ScrumpyMike, Mrs Scrumpy and their supporting team of family and friends for putting on another superb Bash. It was great - great venue, great food, great bassists, great basses, great cheese (scones). Nice to meet old and new faces, try out some exotic gear and exchange stories. I’m already looking forward to the next one!

Spill it - I'm getting fat eating all this damn popcorn.

Dep holiday-park gig with function band last night in Bournemouth. Made a weekend of it and stayed over with my nephew who lives here. I was sent the set list a while ago (1 x 60mins) and wrote out some notes, & lyric cribs for my lead vocal songs. Got to the venue, set up, sound checked, and then found out that the venue were expecting 2 x 45s... booking agent còck-up somewhere along the line. Cue a frantic scramble through their repertoire, trying to find another half hour of tunes I and the other dep knew or could busk... Anyway, it worked out ok in the end. The punters loved it, the management were well pleased, and our busked half hour was decent enough that no-one noticed. I've played with them before but never with this particular guitarist, he was getting a lovely sound from his battered old Strat and tiny valve combo... turns out he was Muddy Manninen from Wishbone Ash.

And left the bash with some GASSING for some gear @steviecabs absolutely stunning . Great sounding cabs ! And of course one of @Jabba_the_gut even if thinking to commission a 6 string short scale . TRIED SOME AWESOME GEAR . Thank you all

Thanks so much for a lovely, lovely day. So many friends I didn't get a chance to talk to and so many I did. My apologies to both Special thanks to Mike for organising things and his wife (who must have a name other than Mrs Scrumpy) for the wonderful food.

Thanks again to @scrumpymikefor organising this event. Always nice to catch up with folk again and meet some new ones too. Nice turnout and lots of really interesting basses and amps. See you next time!!

Thank you all for a beautiful day . Was a pleasure to meet you all . Thank you Mike for organising it all and please say thank you to all the wonderful ladies who kept us fed and for they hard work . Love it guys

@Ed_S you get the prize I came very close to buying one a few years back when I was looking for a bass with twin singe coils (and was thinking of installing a pair of those Nordy SCs in Jazz Bass cases and install in a Jazz body, but I couldn't get the PUPs in the UK at the time so gave up). The bridge doesn't work for me so I'm going to find something a little more Fender. It ticks a lot of the boxes I wanted ticked in an electric bass at present, bit of a gamble but c'est la via ......

Exactly. And how hard is it to make a P-Bass? It's an instrument designed to be made originally by relatively unskilled labour using 1940s (at best) technology. The design is tried and tested, hasn't changed in over 60 years, and now the far east can churn out perfectly acceptable copies for next to nothing. Given this, anything built to this design with the words "Custom Shop" in the name should be absolutely perfect in every way.

Chris! Haters are gonna hate! But there’s no shame in going against the grain. One of the UKs most misunderstood craftsman. You’ve got big hands, what can you do?

So... last post from me with updates - it's finished! Re-assembled today and it's a banger! I'm never confident when it comes to electrics but all re-soldered and working and playing lovely. Thanks again to all who commented and especially to @Andyjr1515 with all his advice and countless replies to my messages. It's been an interesting experience and not something I want to repeat any time soon! However, anyone reading this, don't be put off by something of this ilk. I was worried given the fact it wasn't a budget bass that I could pink torpedo it up but a careful and softly softly approach with the wood paid dividends! I think it looks great and I am sure that this one will be sticking around for a while! Anyway.... a few more final pics: Control cavity fully shielded Battery box and control cover added - I hated the stock black plastic battery cover Xotic out in so I added the Gotah double battery box - much better! I am really pleased with the control cover as well - I may have mentioned that! Pups are in, bridge in place and all electronics soldered in and finalised. I added some extra earthing just to be sure! Scratchplate and knobs added: And a few of the final assembly! That's it for this one. I wonder what's next? A 'from scratch' build maybe? Possibly... I am intrigued...

OK guys, couldn't resist a slide show of Janey's 246 pic's - here's a few before bedtime!

Just back home after doing over 650km in the last 36h ... why!?!? To attend the Big Fat South West Bass Bash. It was my very first bass bash, in fact it was (As far as I am aware) the first time I'd been in close proximity to more than a couple of musicians who play bass ever! And every millimetre of the drive was more than worth it! Are you tired S'manth: Totally Exhausted! Was it worth the epic journey: Without a shadow of a doubt! It was delightful to meet so many folks I've only "known" here on BC and in person they are just as lovely (Maybe even 117% more lovely)! Such a a vast array of instruments, cabs, amps, and other goodies ... the GAS was strong but I was able to resist (Well mostly lol). I cannot rain down adequate superlatives on all that went on (Post drive brain drain) but ... if you can go next time S'manth xxx

Thank you @scrumpymike , Mrs Scrumpy, daughter Scrumpy and all the Scrumplettes for their hard work in creating such fantastic day out. The luncheon was stupendous and the Apple crumble was unbelievably delicious. Thank you all very,very much.

Great way to enjoy a day. Fretless Pedulla, Overwater, a Jack C semi acoustic…plenty of micro amps and fantastic cabs. Then there’s the catering!!😎 Thanks to all….so nice to see it can still happen 🙏🏻🤓😜

These go up to 11. What’s not to like? 😂

I've never owned or even played on a custom shop bass but that made pretty grim reading considering the prices. You'd have to expect nothing less than perfection. I bought a Vintera Precision off eBay a few weeks back and have to say it's one of the finest Precisions I have played. Lighter than my other Pbasses. looks great with the gold scratch plate replaced with a white one. The neck and frets are perfect with a very low action which I raised quite a bit to suit my liking and it sounds killer, absolutely no need to change the pickups. I can't fault it in any way and all for under £500!

So the headless is now done….. 3.45 kg. Very nice weight. I am missing a knob…. But have one in the house so should be all done tomorrow. Appears I will not need to do too much to make it play nice, as the action is pretty decent already.

If by 'discipline' you mean sitting in a corner giggling at my own farts then you can count on it.

A few weeks ago I wanted to scratch an itch of wanting to try a Fender Custom Shop Precision. Having had a look online there was nothing local to me so went done the route of having to buy and making use of the 14 day return policy if I wasn’t happy. Good job I did as I wasn’t happy! I ordered 2, an Olympic White ‘63 Journeyman Relic and a Dakota Red ‘63 Light Relic Olympic White (£3200) Pros: Nice ageing of the body paint and neck, neck was lovely and worn and beautiful to play. Cons: Heavy (over 9lbs) Strings misaligned over the fretboard when aligned over the pickups. Pickups were tilted towards the neck as if the foam underneath hadn’t been placed properly. Tuners were so stiff you almost needed 2 hands to turn them! Dakota Red (£3500) Pros: Lighter than the Olympic. Nice ageing again and tuners actually turned! Cons: Electronics were completely dead! Plugged in and nothing at all!! So did I think either of these basses were worth over £3000 each? No! If I’d paid £1500 I still would of been miffed so obviously they were both returned post haste! I then managed to get one of these Fender Classic 50’s Lacquer (Nitro), about 12 years old so nicely aged neck, body and hardware (naturally) Neck is gorgeous and worn so silky smooth, nice low action and frets are impeccable. Pickups sound great and weighs under 9lbs. Cost? £700! This one isn’t going back! 😂

Thank you @scrumpymike and family/friends - awesome day out with beautiful food and the best company! It was great to catch up with everyone. Emlyn loved his first bass bash, and is absolutely landed with his prize, so again, thank you @fiatcoupe432 for donating the bass and @yorks5stringerfor donating the gig bag to the draw! Also thank you @BreadBinfor the pedal. This means I get my own bass and zoom pedal back from the dark depths of the lad’s room! Played @wrinkleygit’s @Jabba_the_gut hollow-bodied fretless - I now “get” fretless! I need one (of Jabba’s) in my life, together with one of @stevie’s new cabs. What a combination that would be!!! Thank you everyone 🙏

Another great Bash and great to see so many there. A big thank you to @scrumpymikeand family and all the others who helped make the day a success and so enjoyable.

@Old Horse Murphykindly tipped me off that BassBros had a really nice American 70s reissue Jazz just in, so I contacted Will before it even went up on the site and snaffled it. Super nice with flamed neck but - get this - weighs 8.0 pounds! The lightest Jazz I have ever played, fantastic! Only changes I made were to swap the stock white for a black scratchplate and to pop some Fender flats on. Pics or it didn't happen:

Something like this

American Pi Don Mclean

Diameters Forever Shirley Bassey

They give that same impression in person too... I had the unfortunate need to visit the store a few weeks back and had to deal with an exceptionally rude member of staff, massively patronising from the get go, made a clear point to make the occasion as awkward and difficult as possible, shouted across the store for my bank details while other customers were there. All the while another member of staff was attempting to find a specific bass for a customer that had bought it online, the staff member came downstairs about 5 times with several completely different basses to the one the guy had bought, each time the guy said 'no, that is again not the bass I've bought'. The staff member even came down with a left handed bass and tried to pass it off as the correct bass with the customer having to insist he is not left handed. It all just feels like unless your some quasi-famous customer or you're ready to drop 5k on a bass without asking any questions, you're just an inconvenience to them. Such a shame that they act this way, its a very poor reflection of the bass playing community.

Congrats on your incoming Gibson Gene Simmons Thunderbird, Chris 🤣