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Must be nice to have space to have monitors in front of you to demark the stage a bit @Bluewine (sounding great btw!). Second gig of the weekend was at Cheers in Fraserburgh on Sat night. First half went pretty well, but the singer was beleagured with ladies cavorting in front of him (drunk, so thinking that they're being sexy when really, it's all a bit ridiculous), wanting to grab the mic and sing, getting pouty when that doesn't work etc. Just got rid of one pest because thankfully she didn't like the song we were playing, only for her to be replaced by another pest the next song! Ladies bouncing around in front of you when you're trying to do a job, some people might say it's a nice problem to have but it's really just an annoyance of the highest order - we're all spoken for men at the end of the day. Some other lady tried to start a conversation with me while I'm playing. I just act dumb - I cannot multitask worth a damn. She complained later that we were too loud/heavy. D'oh, we're a rock band - awa' hame and listen to some Ed Sheeran if it bothers you that much! Oh, the joys of performing at floor level. Towards the end of the second set the bar emptied quite noticeably, but a table of three attentive and appreciative ladies stayed until the end so that made up for it. During Highway to Hell, I went and sat down with them at their table - I've got naff all to do for half the song anyway. It's a bit I sometimes do - pretend to sleep, grab a chair and sit down, that sort of thing, usually gets a chuckle. I usually get back in position when I need to play but Saturday night I just stayed at the table and played my bits there, only standing up for the end of the song. All in all, an OK night, Friday was better though. New venue for us this coming Saturday - the Black Abbot in ... Montrose! Maybe we should play Smoke on the Water and modify the lyrics to "We all came out to Montrose / On the North Sea coastline..." but that's probably too cheesy. I suggested learning "I Got the Fire" by Montrose (the band) but we figured folk might not get the reference... Oh, and seeing as it'll be December, I guess it's time to dust off the Christmas songs again...

Harley Benton alert! https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_mv_4msb_gotoh_bm.htm

IME it's never a good idea to have dictators fitted to your bass. I tried a Muammar Gaddafi on my Squier VM fretless Jazz once, started playing double harmonic scale in my rock covers. Got rid PDQ.

Know what ya mean... but the 'Attila the Hun-bucker' is a monster!

Last night's gig was my first for two months! Played with Oxford Grateful Dead band 'Franklin's Tower' at the Tree Hotel in Oxford. We were supposed to be the final band of the three booked, but the duo before us had to pull out due to illness, so we went on a bit earlier than originally planned, and were asked to play on beyond our expected end time. This meant that the songs we had cut from the set list at last week's rehearsal were reinstated, much to the confusion of the two percussionists who managed to miss that information. All went well, lots of people up and dancing, some singing along. I played the 60s Classic Jazz bass that I bought new nearly ten years ago, and used my Orange LBT and Barefaced Super Compact. No problems other than I had forgetfully left my gear in the car when I arrived and by the time we went on the bass was way out of tune and refusing to hold pitch for the first song or two. Sorted out before the second number though.

Recent stupid (& not serious) hand injury made playing my 35 scale 5 strings a bit of a mission so to keep the cobwebs at bay I've dug out my favourite 4 string. The pain of the hand injury just melted away as I remembered why I love my Stingray so much.

Some video from Wednesday night. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=704796184315362&id=100000222668845&sfnsn=mo&mibextid=RUbZ1f Blue

Well, I'm embarrassed to say it was the battery, which despite being pretty fresh and powering the preamp and PUP lights just fine, wasn't powering the LEDs. We live and learn! @itu many thanks, and many thanks to everyone who pitched in! I've never used these before, they are extremely bright, it's going to be interesting to use them live I suspect, can't help thinking I'd love a set of these on my upright

That is not a problem normally in our group as the singer is just very good at handling those people and doesn't get at all annoyed about it. I couldn't handle it at all, irritates the hell out of me, but he kind of revels in it and is really good with the crowd. Never understood it myself, but quite grateful that he mostly acts as a shield. I get people trying tto hold a conversation with me while I am playing - I have IEMs in, I can't hear you anyway. One woman once I pointed to my headphones as a 'I can't hear you' - she pulled them out of my ears to tell me she didn't start some fight somewhere and it was some other woman, like I cared about that - didn't go down well. Its either that or the drunk guys whos only idea of dancing is to hold their full pints up in the air while hovering around dangerously near your pedalboard. The last gig I was at, there was a tall guy, quite drunk who was just standing in front of me and pointed at me when I was playing something he presumably liked. Highway to hell is great, like all right now, plenty of options for finally getting a bit of your drink, check the bass is in tune, video a bit of a the band or crowd etc

Well well well! I have completed my mini pedalboard after a solid 2-3 years of not using pedals! polytune 3 mini - Effectrode PC-2A Compressor - Fuzzrocious Lil Fella - Zvex Woolly Mammoth fuzz - Zvex Instant Lo-Fi Junky chorus the Zvex design is not very inviting or friendly for stomping especially if placed on the side (against all knobs) so I stacked them under each other… very impressed with my Pedaltrain Nano!! My wife even asked me to pose with it as I accept it as my new Lord and Saviour (probs just taking the fosters at my excitement):

Presumably the PJ would also have an ash body if left behind in a house fire. Sorry. Someone had to be the smart alec so it may as well be me.

Saturday's gig was cancelled. Something about our singer having a "sore throat" or some other nonsense. Ah well, better to have a break than look like a bunch of numpties, as our backup singer was also struggling, and my singing voice is probably accurately described as "untested" and "only fit for singing in the car". I did suggest an instrumental set but that didn't go down well...

I don't see this as a problem. Coming from synth playing background, I have never found any presets much use to me, and also I have my own ideas about how my bass should sound. Consequently, when I got my Helix I started with a blank patch with just the volume pedal enabled and then started adding modules one at a time. I found having one of the EQ modules far more versatile than any of the Amp sims, so I only really use them on a couple of patches where they have been chosen specifically for the drive sounds rather than any particular EQ (but that's just my preference). I then added a compressor and chorus and got a basic sound I like, which I then tweaked at the next band rehearsal until I (and the rest of the band) was happy that I had the right sound for our instrumentation. Only then did I start to add specific effects and EQ tweaks for each individual song. I rarely take any notice of what specific devices the various modules are supposed to emulating and simply ask myself is this giving me the (EQ/chorus/delay/filter) sound that I want? If it is then good, if not then try another of the modules from the same range until I get something I like and that fits with the rest of the band sound. This whole process took about 4 rehearsals for about 12 songs, building up patches between practices and then tweaking them with the whole band playing. Now when we start work on a new song I already have a few "core sounds" one of which will be the correct starting point for the song depending on the overall feel.

Well - my bits box is certainly wide and varied. As I vaguely remembered, I do indeed have some genuine and unused Mustang/Jaguar slide switches. The great thing is that I therefore also have the proper short and threaded screws This is where @ped and I agreed it should go: For the pickguard I drilled the corners of the slot, cut the middle out with a scroll saw and straightened everything up with a couple of needle files: For the chamber, the same as the pickup chambers - hog out with a forstner bit and then chisel the 'waves' straight. This is before I did that latter step. For cable access, I simply need to drill a short hole between the controls chamber and this new switch chamber. And it's in: Tomorrow will be sorting the two pickup ring 'skirts' if I can find the material I'm hoping to use. And after that it should be all of the actual construction work done - it should be then just a case of wiring it up and putting it back properly together

The core of my stage rig for keyboards remains a Hammond SK61 with a Korg Kross above it. Between them, those two can deliver pretty much everything I need in both my 5-piece soul band and my 7-piece functions band ... in both of those I supply piano, organ, strings, brass and synth, plus occasional weird 5hit like banjo, accordion and mouth organ. BUT that's "everything I need" rather than "everything I want". Solution? The Yamaha Reface series. https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/yamaha-reface-series I suppose you could use these as your main stage keyboards but, assuming you already have a decent keyboard or two, there's really no need since you can control them remotely just to get access to the range of sounds. I have no need of the YC seeing as I have a genuine Hammond right there but I've now ended up buying the CS, the DX and the CP. For live use the CS is of quite limited use unless you really like fiddling with knobs and sliders in front of an audience (and your impatient band mates) so I have one 'universal' setting which works where I need it and I just vary the octave in which I use it. The DX is a whole nother thang. Essentially a much-easier-to-use version of the classic DX-7 this allows you to create / download / tweak / store up to 32 presets reachable at the tap of a button, and many of those presets are just breath-taking. It's a superb piece of kit and - unlike the other three - it has an on-board transpose function. The DX now forms the top tier of a 3-level keyboard rig. In another way, the CP is equally gob-smacking. No presets needed, since a rotary knob gives you instant access to a Fender Rhodes Mk.I, a Fender Rhodes Mk.II, a Wurlitzer, and a CP80. You want Stevie Wonder, Supertramp, Michael MacDonald? It's all right there. Don't like the mini-keys or the 37-key restriction? No worries, just slave it to a larger keyboard like the Korg Kross. All three of the Reface series that I now own are merely bolt-on goodies, but my, what goodies they are! I can't leave this without also mentioning the stage stands I now use: https://www.staymusicstands.com/products/supports-for-keyboards/ I would happily recommend these to any keyboard player. Very clever and sleek design, very portable.

Well, that would be wrong 😂

At least he didn't have to use 'con-stip-ay-shon' or 'in-flay-shon' when out of words with rhyming phonetics... The track sounds like a load of bits put together, especially the intro, nothing sticks. Not a cause for e-lation.

Absolutely this. Start with a blank canvas every time, exactly as you would with a new amp/cab & effects setup. It is a fair bit of "tweak time", but it's well worth it.

GZR pj set and a kig0n Blend/Tone loom and it’s a done deal😀

Damn you sir! And Damn you again!

Both good points and - now I have the inner shape sorted - when the 1ply black blank comes, I will cut two of three outer shapes to bounce off @ped for him to choose whichever he prefers. That said, the first one I tried was, indeed, rectangular with small rounded corners...and it looked like a piece of black plastic trying to cover up a hole This shape (at least in my minds-eye with the radii exactly matching the ones of the pickup) looked much more like it was meant to be there. But, yes, you are right - it can and will be any shape @ped prefers While I'm waiting for the black 1 ply blank, this is now the finished surround for the neck and the same round-ended mock up for the bridge which, in the final version, will have bevelled sides and a pickguard fixing screw either side:

Pressed stop after the 37th consecutive line ended with "ay-shon".

Proof of concept day for the pickup ring/gap cover stuff. For the neck ring, it needs to be thin. The bass has a very low action and so I don't want to lift the pickup ring much at all. My experiment is using some thin plasticard which will create a 0.5mm thick skirt, about 1mm proud of the ring all the way round (when I do the final one). This is my trial, just having an overlap front and back (the finished one will be all round the perimeter): And for the bridge, something like this. This sample is black/white/black - no good as the pickguard is now, after decades of light and smoke, close to ivory and it would clash with the white once the edges of the cover are bevelled. I have a sheet of single-ply black on order that should be with me on Wednesday. Oh - and I will use a set of compasses to get the curves correct for the final version :

Just a reminder that Hurtsfall will be playing The Lending Room in Leeds on Saturday 3rd December supporting Skeletal Family:

I'm loving my cheap shorty so much it has become the first bass I grab. The long scale instruments seem so cumbersome now. I think I'm converting to being a short scale player simply by habit. I need to do a few gigs with the shorty and then see whether I keep the long scale ones. I also seem to be swapping more to Precision types rather than Jazz. Getting old is really sad.

Last night was my first gig since just before Covid (I've played loads in church during that time). I was depping in an originals and covers band (Hurly Burly). We did about 15 songs - 3 or 4 originals and the rest covers (Rolling Stones, Housemartins, Beatles, The Clash type people pleasers). It wasn't a big crowd, but they were in party mood, so there was plenty of dancing and singing going on. I really enjoyed it. We even got fed😀. I can hopefully get hold of some decent footage of it.

The gig where: Access is easy. The drummer has turned up early and is almost set up as you arrive. It’s IEMs all round. Audience dance all night Fee is decent Drinks tab included. You're not driving. No queue for kebabs. Does it get any better! 😎

We had a gig in Portsmouth last night, bit of a schlep in pouring rain, but thankfully the rain had stopped in time for load in, we played a working men’s club and during soundcheck their was a table of oldies sat with fingers in ears complaining that we were too loud. By the second song the oldies that were complaining were in full flow, singing and dancing and it carried on that way all night😁 i was using my Trace Elliot RAH600 back up amp as my DB750 started banging and popping during rehearsal last Tuesday, heard something rattling in the case so thought I’d take the lid off and found a loose capacitor!? Guess I need to find an amp shop around Wiltshire or Bristol….☹️

Gig in Marsden, nearly ‘moors country’ last night. Didn’t look too promising at first with only 8 punters in at 8:30 so we delayed going on until 9:30. Placed filled up to capacity before we went on and two great spots were had and enjoyed. Did the first Christmas song of the season, the full Christmas show starts in earnest next week at one of our favourite little pubs in Huddersfield.

Done 3 gigs this week. Sunday was my favourite venue for our acoustic duo at The Lookout on the Pier in Scarborough. Usual brilliant audience, with some great requests which we managed to fulfill. Forgot to take pics but this was the view as I was loading out.

Played with the covers band yesterday, an after dinner gig for Marie Curie fundraisers. We set up in the morning and the BL of a very successful local band popped inn recognised the guys and lent us a small lighting rig. After pa sound issues at last gig, we just used it for vox (four of us have mikes) and bass drum (tiny gretch kick) I just set all the eq flat for a morning soundcheck, all we did was tweak up one guitar and the keyboard and sound was ace. Knew my sound would be ace with squier anniversary p into bass terror ans gr bass cab 😎 just had a tiny bit of treble boost. What on earth are all those tone knobs for 🤣 Unshamed dancy crowd pleasing setlist. One guitarist plagued by tuning issues and other things went off piste but no total disasters and the audience were dancing from our first song and had a riot of a time. Venue want us to do gigs, one audience member said she wants us to do her wedding.

Now, folks, stop right there! I know, I know, I KNOW!!! And more to the point, so does the owner of this 56 year old beauty (the bass, that is), our very own @ped And the bass is a delight. My Canon SLR doesn't cope well with reds, but this gives you at least an essence: OK - to stem the torrent of 'DON'T DO IT' posts, it is clear that it has already, in its past, been significantly and irreversibly modded. I'm pretty sure this is closer to what it would have looked like out of the factory: So, originally: no bridge pickup; early, smaller, split neck pickups. And so to @ped's wish and desire: - The present PJ pickups, while parallel with the bridge, are absolutely not square to the strings and neck. So is it the bridge that is wrong? And if so, was it always? Or was it the replacement pickups that were put in skewwhiff? Or is it the neck? Or all of the above? - The pickups aren't as originally fitted. Neither the bridge nor the neck pickups are original. Nor is the P the original size. So the body has already been retro-routed and the scratch plate has already been retro cut. - And so, if @ped fancied some different pickups, there would be no major impact on the value...and it's probably a keeper anyway (and if he doesn't want to keep it, then I will - and I don't even really play bass! It really is a thing of beauty) - And if different pickups were to be fitted...well could the bridge be straightened up at the same time? And there was a long PM discussion And it's now on my workbench

I’ve currently got the v2 Sansamp, which isn’t as scooped in the sound and has a mid control as well. I find to get a weightier sound on the higher notes/thinner strings that backing off of the blend, treble and presence, then increasing the gain gets this. The gain seems to add in high end as well as thickness so I end up with the same eq, just a thicker version.

Ooh, more colours (Thomann don't have them all listed under short scale). https://www.thomann.de/gb/search_dir.html?sw=Harley Benton MV-4MSB Gotoh &smcs=57032f_905

I prefer Precisions in every way.

There’s a guy called Ollie in Bristol who has the user name Ampstack - he used to be on here and he’s definitely on Facebook.

Likes a Classic Simple P Bass... My bitsa ha a Jazz Neck. But also like the Jazz body, but have gone Jazz PJ... Best of Both and makes a change from a P PJ...

And yes - this has some decent mileage. It will be one of the mock-ups I will do as an option with the all-black material.

Could the bridge pickup surround “extend” from the bridge plate? Like the rounded edges closest to the bridge plate not be round? The neck pickup surround looks perfect 👍

The Towers this Sat, Elvis to Blondie !

Here you go. The control plate was cut from a ‘Phil Lynott’ style mirrored scratchplate. Ideally I would have preferred a chromed metal one but couldn’t source one that looked like I wanted. I had intended to get one custom made but never got around to it. A word of warning if you go for the MusicMan style plate like the Leland Sklar bass it won’t fit in the right place with opening up the control cavity routing. This is mentioned in my build thread.

I whacked some Bart’s into mine and a Ki0g0n wiring loom and it’s a nice improvement over the stock electronics. Mine is heavy at over 4kg but the balance is great and I’m not that aware of it being overly heavy whilst wearing/playing it - I do have wide straps so I’m sure than helps. I always like coming back to a jazz bass especially with a little hair of dirt as an always on tone - there’s just something about that scoop! The Bart’s sound good in this one and I’m very pleased with the overall package. The neck really is a thing of joy and was the deciding factor for me in opting to try one. Got my final gig with the 80’s band this weekend and I’m stoked that I’ve got all the upgrades done and tested ‘on the road’ in time for that show. It fits the band sound really well and has that nice zing for slap without being too brittle in the top end.

A lot of updates from the last few days. While levelling off the back of the neck on Thursday, I found a void in the beech towards the heel end, not sure how I missed it when putting together the neck laminates, it may have had filler over it which prevented discovery, but it wasn't a very nice discovery... Didn't take any pics, wasn't in the best of moods at that point. After getting over the initial thoughts of binning it and starting again (which was a serious consideration at first!) I tried doing a mix of wood glue and beech sawdust, which ended up drying an orangey colour, then tried CA glue with sawdust, but again it turned orange, not quite as bad, but not good enough. So final option was to chisel out a section 3mm deep and put in a new piece. Made the new piece very slightly bigger than the chiselled out section so that it had to be squeezed in place with clamps to fit, put a thin coat of wood glue in and then clamped it in place. After giving it time to dry removed the clamps and had a look. I then set to work levelling it off and bringing in the profile so that I could assess the repair. Still needs to be sanded up through the grades, but it has levelled off well. Can still see some glue where it squeezed out around the edges, hopefully when it has been fully sanded it won't be too obvious. Next on the list was the walnut caps on the headstock. Cut the headstock thickness to size and drilled out the tuner holes, then sanded the front to make sure it was level across the face and then after cutting the truss rod access in the walnut, glued and clamped it in place. After the glue had dried, it was out of the clamps, then on with shaping and re-drilling through the tuner holes from the back. Gave it a quick clean with white spirit to give an idea of the finished colour. Then moved onto the back. Did some work on the volute first to get the shape right, then levelled off the back face, cut the shape of the volute into the walnut, then glued and clamped it in place. After it was out of the clamps, it was shaped and the tuner holes re-drilled from the front. Quick clean up with white spirit again. And final pic of the day with the neck profile cleaned. All of it needs plenty of sanding through the grades and the heel transition needs to be sorted out, but overall I am pleased with the progress. Need to decide on final headstock shape yet, think it is close...

(Resucitating a Zombie thread...) I've just picked up a second-hand, 4 string JP-45OP in sunburst for silly money from FaceBook marketplace. Oh my... It plays beautifully and sounds gorgeous. With a bare minimum of tweakage, I was able to get a nice low action with no annoying rattles. Hardware is decent and even the no-brand tuners seem robust. There's no excuse not to have one, really. I bought it with a view to modding it, but having played it, I might just leave it as it is, with one exception - I might replace the dots on the edge of the fingerboard. The black dots look lovely, but in a sweaty club, under subdued lighting, they won't be much use, so I suspect the dremel will be coming out before too long. Other than that, it's a peach.