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Just got home from my Musical Youth gig at Hootnanny in Brixton and winding down with a cuppa. It went really well the sound quality especially the bass i thought was exceptional, and when I got off stage I had a number of conversations with punters including some who told me they were bass players raving about the gig, complimentary of my playing and the sound of my bass. Always good to hear, and honestly that bass is such an incredible sounding instrument and played through Alembic F-1X/SF-2, power amp and Barefaced cabs is just something else. I think giving the FOH my sound from the post pre-amp signal via the DI worked really well tonight. It is something i have been doing for reggae gigs as my norm unless the sound guys explicitly request otherwise. The team at the venue really took their time to give us a great sound. That is my reggae setup (Picture is from another gig).

Here's a pic

As I get back into bass after a long injury break...here is my lovely bass, been through a lot!

Day 2, Aberdeen Beach Ballroom. We met Mr Sutherland today, who was very pleasant. Another good sized crowd, obviously not there to see us, but appreciative and friendly and they seemed to enjoy our set. We're stylistically similar to his music, so it's a dream support slot for us. For some reason, I always seem to have my eyes closed in these pictures now...

This week I completed the build of a guitar (yes, six string). It is a hybrid of a Les Paul Junior Double Cut and a Tele (or actually Esquire). The Brooks LP-TC Amalgamation - Mahogany body - Bookmatched Quilted Maple top - Mahogany 3-piece set neck. Glued in - Wine Red stain - Ebony fretboard with abalone inlays - Jumbo frets - Checkerboard binding - 24 3/4" scale - Buffalo horn nut - Telecaster style bridge. With compensated saddles. Black - Double action spoke wheel truss rod - DiMarzio The Chopper T (DP-384) humbucker - Gotoh SG-381 locking tuners. Black - Push-pull Volume knob for parallel-series switching - 250k Tone knob - Black knurled barrel knobs - Mallory Mustard Tone capacitor - Weight 3.25 kg Serial number: 2022006 With a special Amalgamation logo on the headstock and Starman logo on the custom pick guard. How does it sound? Like this! I'll post pics of the build process in separate posts below.

Ricotta Get Out Of This Place ～ The Animals

Ordered this back in May and it's finally come through. Very pleased with it. Just waiting for the case now

New mute switch painted, decorated and hardware fitted. Now to stuff the boards in and wire it. This is the first time I've used a Gørva footswitch and it wont be the last. Very nice gentle click.

Nice!!! Wish they did the lefty in that blue. I love mine, I usually play a Stingray but like to bring out the JC for some gigs for a different approach and sound.

If you're the type of guy who holds on to a single bass over extended periods of time you're going to struggle on this forum Only joking, lovely bass, sincerely wish I could find one bass to rule them all, god knows I've tried........

Im not asking anyone to blow smoke up my derrière, Im aware there are some very accomplished musicians on BC. Im just asking for some honest reviews. Its a cover from Bruno Mars/Anderson Pakk's Fly as Me of course. I never seem to play what the original bassist plays and you may be able to tell if you now the original. I tend to add my funkiness if that is possible. Im putting some vids out there to see if I can get some work as a semi pro bass player. Anyways any negatives or positives are welcome.

Yesterday I picked up this Yamaha bb BP35 bass after wanting one for a long time in this colour. It really is a fabulous bass, and you can play pretty much any style on it. The slap tone is fantastic and it's passive. I'm not really a 5-string player, but love the B string power, so was using it a bit here, but this bass was local to me, so i got my hands on it. Please use headphones, the bass is removed from the track, you get them from karaoke version, great for this sort of thing. thanks

Music for people who don't like music will always sell more than challenging music. That's why Coldplay, Nickelback and Imagine Dragons sell so many records, it's background music rather than music to listen to.

Tread Caerphilly Julie Collings

Just tell them you’ve had a fiddle with the knobs and absolutely nailed the Rumble tone. They’ll never know.

Power amps like Crown, QSC etc are designed for pro audio applications. If they were designed for musical instrument use you would be able to easily plug in a low output high impedance instrument into them. This is not the case. This doesn't mean that it's impossible to use other devices with them but you need to be aware of the input sensitivity of the power amp. Instrument level devices like our DI's can achieve anywhere from instrument level (-10dB) to consumer line level (0db) . This depends on the way they are set. Microphone, instrument, consumer and pro audio levels represent an "operational range" which the equipment is designed to work with. They are not a constant like a voltage or impedance measurement. If using one of our DI's with a pro audio power amp you want something that has an input sensitivity of .775 volts (0db) or lower. Some power amps have adjustable input sensitivity. It also depends on how much power the amp has in relation to the speaker system though you tried to use components that are properly matched. The other thing that many people get wrong is that you don't want to drive a power amp at its peak power. You need headroom to prevent the peaks from clipping the power amp. What we see with many players is that they get bogged down in the numbers and try to use a small speaker system with high wattage heads and think they can play any gig. If you need a lot of volume you need a lot of speakers. This is why we made our B410-DP cabs at 16 ohms for dUg Pinnick. He uses 4 cabs to get the thunderous volume he is known for with his 1000 watt signature dUg Ultra amp.

I use the rounds it came with. If I get fed up of those, I'll put my usual D'addario XL nickel rounds on it. I like how it sounds with rounds. Actually, I have no desire to put flats on any of my basses - they've got tone controls if I want to suck the treble response out of them

Remind me what band you're doing a tribute to...

It's like a simplified version of Squid Game. Everyone takes their favourite bass. We then stand in a circle and bash each other unconscious. Last one standing takes all the basses.

Parcelforce like to lose guitars, park them in lost property, fail to attempt to join the lost to the found, and then sell them at auction. Try emailing this lady with the full details stated clearly, briefly and politely: [.....] and cc in [.....] Hope is not yet entirely lost!

We are indeed which is why we are now spoilt for choice when it comes to buying basses, with makers offering virtually any finish we want. I definitely prefer darker woods.

We are a fickle bunch aren't we? 🙂 I have a dislike of Blue basses🙄

Yes, you are both right it is an Alembic. When originally made it was based on their Europa model with the following custom options. Elan style headstock and narrow neck, signature electronics (vol, blend, 2 filters and 2 position q-switches), side neck LEDs. I recently had an upgrade from Alembic to their anniversary electronics, (vol,vol, 2x 3 position q-switches, mono/stereo switch and pickup switch selector with mute which I haven't yet drilled a hole for). I too prefer wood finishes on any bass or guitar for that matter and this is the only solid coloured bass I own. A few years ago I did plan to have it refinished to remove the black and reveal the flame maple woods. However, based on the previous interest i'd had from rock band bass players especially ones covering Metallica tracks,. I decided it may be better to leave it as is.

Playing a mex player p bass at the moment strung with la Bella flats for my acoustic band set, can’t fault it at all. Great neck , tone , playability etc. the hardware is “ok”, not amazing but I won’t be changing anything because it all works fine. Good value for money imo.

I love mine. One of my favourite basses for sure. And much more versatile than people expect. Before I get mine, I have a couple of friends who had one and both said "it has its sound. If you like it, fine, but it's not suitable for everything". Maybe not for everything, but with the tone control, it can be played in most of my projects. That blue finish is gorgeous. I love mine, which is the typical gold finish, but the newer red and blue finishes are tempting.

I finally got round to watching the series which I quite enjoyed, although, like most TV series, it paints a slightly different picture than reality. I thought the Lydon/Rotten character was well done. Big boots to fill and he came across as almost likeable, a term I’ve never strayed towards with the real person. They tried the same thing with the Ritchie/Vicious character, but it didn’t work for me. I’ve always thought he was an a*se and the series did nothing to improve my opinion. Vicious always was a complete waste of space. Utterly useless in the role he was given.

With regard to style, note choices and timing, what I thought was that OMG LOOK AT THE DOGGIE!!!! AWWW HE'S SO CUTE!!!!!!....sorry, what were we talking about?

Routed the neck pocket. Using the laser cut template Shaped the heel to make it a good fit Checked the angle Before I glued the neck in, I drilled holes into the headstock Then glued the neck into the pocket Routed the pickup cavity Checked if it fits. And if it lines up properly Drilled the string through body holes on the back side of the body Taped of the fretboard. Getting ready to stain the body Stained the back and sides a dark brown with a hint of red Then stained the top a wine red / blood red Scraped the binding clean. And sprayed the first layer of clear Sprayed the headstock face black. After many layers of clear and lots of sanding in between I put the decals in place Made the custom pick guard per special request. The guy who ordered the guitar is a massive fan of the band Rush. Used the laser cutter to engrave the Starman logo. Then filled it with white acrylic paint.

I started with two nice slabs of Mahogany or actually it's called Khaya. It has a nice and even grain and it is very light weight. I asked the timber supplier to make the neck blank a three piece for me. It saves me a lot of time. For the 12th position inlay I use a tube of aluminium and cut off a ring. Bought a pre-slotted ebony fretboard at Holz Faszination in Germany. Drilled holes. And glued then inlays in The inside ring of the 12th inlay is exactly the size of a regular black inlay. So I just glued that dot in. I mixed the superglue with ebony sawdust, just in case there would be a gap Then sanded the inlays level with a radius block. Sorry no pics. (forgot) Taped off the fretboard to get ready for hammering the frets in. I fill each fret slot with a few drops of super glue./ The tape makes sure it doesn't splatter onto the fretboard Cut off the excess on both sides

I wouldn't expect a bass I bought to be setup how I wanted when I got it (unless I had asked for that), but I would expect it to be playable.

Space. NMA

The Keeley Bass Compressor is a nice easy to use pedal.

For this kind of thing I'd do the work myself as the stress of repackaging, shipping it and waiting for a replacement would be too much of a faff. Like the other posters wrote, I'd check neck relief, string height, neck pocket, then the nut itself. I recently bought a Squier CV fretless Jazz that had control knobs that didn't grip properly. A new set ordered from AllParts cost a tenner or so - for the great deal I got on the bass, I didn't want to hassle the shop over something like that. If it is a nut problem, a GraphTech one is a great upgrade for very little cost anyway.

I just use cheapie Warwick red roundwounds and adagio flats. They do the job

I didn't say, there's a variation of intensity, I said there's a variation of intensity of intention. I'm wondering how else I could put it.... Some notes sound like their articulation is exactly what you intended; other notes sound less focussed - they arrive in the right place, they fit in nicely enough, but there's less sense that their articulation is deliberate. Raising the level of intention of every note to the quality you're already achieving on some of them is, by definition, something you can do any time you choose to, and is something that will make a big difference. (PS I wrote that before going on to read how the conversation had developed, so apologies for kinda repeating what others have said.)