Leaderboard

And here she is, bought as a project/something to do over Christmas. Was located just 20 mins up the road so hard to resist!Totally stripped down, every screw and component cleaned, tuners dismantled and straightened and repaired, fretboard gunk cleaned, oiled and frets levelled, all chrome polished, body polished and some chips repaired, neck correctly realigned, new strings and full setup, plays and sounds great! A lot of bass for a small amount of cash.

In keeping with the "Mini Board" theme, I took a few off the big board to make a small one for my NYE gig 😁

Bit too much IPA in the blood to start tonight. but…lovely @Machines sent me a Mexican Standard Fender P pickup he had spare. so I’m going to give it a go. Done the approximate groundwork for tomorrow morning’s episode of “woodwork with a brew”.

No new invention, but again just a copy: Trace Elliot V-Type Preamp as a pedal

It’s about time I updated this. I now have two sets of non-identical twins plus a cousin for one set of twins… Zoot Funkmeisters: ACG Finns: ACG Skelf:

Finally dragged myself out of bed. First impressions of the HB MV-4M in Daphne blue: Build quality seems excellent. Tight neck pocket with no gaps. Lovely satin-feel dark maple neck with skunk stripe. Feels fairly flat front-to-back compared to my G&L Fallout. Headstock is a little smaller than my G&L and my Lakland HB30. Gotoh tuners feel surprisingly small in the hand. String hole in middle may possibly restrict string gauge choice. That said, I fitted 45-65-85-105 halfwounds without problems. Body finish is almost flawless - no odd colour patches or orange-peel finish anywhere. Daphne blue is pretty bright, and I think I would have preferred not to have a matching headstock. The overall look is a bit, errrm, "pretty". Not sure why a tug-bar is fitted as stock - does anybody actually need such a thing? For me, it doesn't get in the way, so I'll leave it where it is. No discernible neck-dive on a wide, rough-finish leather strap. Hands off, and bass stays still - just what I was after. Factory set-up didn't suit me or my favourite strings, but 30 mins of saddle-adjusting, intonation-setting, half-turn on truss-rod sorted that out. All adjustments working smoothly. Very clear that string choice is critical. 45-65-85-105 Status black nylons just didn't work well at all. Too floppy, with intonation issues, especially on E string. Same gauge Status halfwounds are much, much better - higher string tension, lower saddles, straighter neck, clearer/less muddy tone. Big difference here. Through my 50w practice combo, overall volume seems a little low compared to my other basses, but absolutely fine through 500W rehearsal rig. Lack of pickup selection was initially a bit perplexing, but I found I quickly got used to a mid-point position on tone knob, making small final adjustments on the amp. Once set, I just got on with playing. I only play finger-style. Tone sounds more towards J than P, but pushing the bass on the amp quickly thickened things up. This was at home - of course, it will be different again with a full band in a rehearsal room, so I'll wait and see. So, initial bedroom impressions are of a well-made, nicely tuned-out bass that I found easy to pick up and play after the ususal personal set-up adjustments. I'm not immediately feeling like I need to replace pickups, or add a pickup selector. Certainly a good back-up for my No.1 bass, the Lakland HB30. Very pleased with the purchase, after dithering about it for a week. Amazing value.

I also find it helps to go 'two twists forward, one twist back' to ensure that the threads in the screw are cutting clean threads in the wood. This is also a pretty essential technique with small wood screws, like those used on tuners, to avoid the nausea-inducing head shear (which usually happens on the last one you try to put in )

Just been added by the official account (But not Zeppelin, Obvs.). Starting here...

Hi gang Just part-way through Trevor Horn's new autobiog, and it's blummin' marvellous. He's a humble, likeable bloke, and his journey from the pit villages of County Durham to the global pinnacle of polished pop via dancehall bands and Yes is remarkable. There's a reasonable amount of bass content in there too. Well recommended.

I used to be in an Elbow tribute band, called a r s e. Most people couldn't tell us apart.

Putting together a board for new year's eve. Running parallel effects out of the Ampero to two separate amps. Just because. The Ricochet is to drop the pitch a tone for one song.

I was just getting pics of my 32” scales for that thread and decided I needed an updated family shot for my shorties. Left to right: ACG Mule fretless ACG TKO Classic Conway Instruments Taranis fretless 5

Running a government isn't easy, but it doesent endear you to them when they've kissing the backside of big business who have been, (and are continuing) getting away with everything they can do to avoid paying tax, making massive profits and their rich tory pals have their hands in the till creaming off public money (ppe scandal). There's a lot of people in government and business who should be im jail IMHO. We need to seriously rethink how this country is run because its corrupt as fck, with theTories and Labour both mastubating over the horrific financial model that the USA has. Make a small amount of people super rich, and fck the plebs. Its almost like they want you to be poor. Thanks Brexit wenkerrrssss 🙃

If they start sectioning vocalists there won't be too many bands left

Here you go...has a purple tint in some light

Very chuffed this week! I've wanted one of these for over a year. They allegedly only did 200 in this colour as a special run then discontinued them. So, when this came up I was very lucky. Took a chance and it arrived in unused immaculate condition, still with the plastic coverings on. The colour is stunning. Not obnoxious green, but not subtle! I have a fender player in sunburst so I knew what to expect, but the maple neck is lovely and bright and the whole bass is fantastically balanced and plays superb.

I used to be in a Cure tribute band. We were called Prevention. Some say we were better......

Brexit has been a massive success - for those who planned and orchestrated it, they have made billions and don’t give a damn about ordinary people.

Get a second identical 1x12 and stack it vertically on top of the first. Problem solved.

It used to be delivered by European drivers employed by the chemical manufacturers but now they don't want to deliver and British haulage companies don't want to collect because getting through Dover is now incredibly slow.

I find the interesting thing how much of pedals seem based on hype and sometimes carefully chosen components … like one Klon clone gets raved about, the next one not so much and the £30 Chinese version rubbished… and electronically there’s not much between them. sometime price correlates to “better” components, other times not.

A handful of newly ordered (or required for gigs) bass transcriptions, swelling http://tomreadbass.co.uk to 1143 FREE accurate charts for bassists for the end of 2022. Including: If I Ever Lose This Heaven - Average White Band https://www.tomreadbass.co.uk/_files/ugd/238d8f_37059968bfb44280bd4d92dacd2626dd.pdf Treasure - Bruno Mars (the arrangement played on the MTV Awards) https://www.tomreadbass.co.uk/_files/ugd/238d8f_067cfc7674a54c339df728246251a3b7.pdf You Are The Healing - Scott Soper https://www.tomreadbass.co.uk/_files/ugd/238d8f_11f3b13597864d8098b1aa924bff7450.pdf No sign-up, no log-in, no cost, no limit - just find the charts you want and download/print at your leisure. A very Happy New Year 2023 to everyone - and if you need it for the 31st... Auld Lang Syne https://www.tomreadbass.co.uk/_files/ugd/238d8f_f44ac18c60c747dc9b89973a312b83c9.pdf

All of the above. Also tape some thick cardboard over the body with an opening so you can get to the the neck-plate. Minimises any potential damage through dropped or slipping screwdriver 😱

There’s always the sun. Stranglers

The Shinto rasp is a must have I believe. The one I have has a course and fine side and is great the main part of neck shaping. I also have a couple of rasp files like these https://www.rutlands.com/sp+more-carving-japanese-carving-files-japanese-half-round-wood-carving-file-110mm-medium-rutlands®+r1303 Cheers

A very belated update on this thread. I raised a complaint with the vendor and they offered to send new packaging for a return at a cost to me of £15. No complaints there, since I recycled the original packaging before checking the instrument out. Meanwhile, I checked it out a little more thoroughly. As I suspected, the first two frets were high on the bass side, hence the buzzing. A few days after the return packaging was delivered, a replacement instrument arrived with the same courier that then took the original one away. The setup on the replacement was fine, no buzzing and for a ham fisted player like me it needed no additional adjustment. So, I'll name the vendor - Andertons. I'd still prefer that they perform a decent pre-shipping check on all instruments they sell, but fair play to them as they replaced the bass at what would have been no additional cost to me if I hadn't chucked the original packaging away.

Got into a discussion with a chum about this a few years ago, and picking positions/techniques in general. He just kept his thumb wedged on the bridge pickup and that was it. I tried to recall the various places and ways I pluck the strings and went home and came up with this montage… Tried the floating thumb thing but never got on with it so I’m somebody who rests the thumb on the pickup or E string. However, I also move position a lot for different tones. Also use the old fashioned thumb plucking technique for softer tones too. Plus a weird pseudo upright plucking thing over the neck sometimes (but I’m odd like that! 😉🤣).

Buy another and return this one for a refund in the new packaging. Effectively they'll be sending you a replacement that you'll pay a 100% deposit on, refundable once the defective bass is returned.

Factory setups are a waste of time. The temperature and humidity of wherever it was made and setup is likely entirely different from where you are, meaning it will go all out of shape by the time it gets to you. I'm guessing it was out of tune, too? Learn how to do a setup. It's very, very easy. There are countless resources on youtube which show how easy it is. If you can change a lightbulb, you can set up a bass. The neck will usually need a gentle tweak twice a year, anyway. Save yourself time and money for the rest of your life and do it yourself.

Badly. ..

not caused by Brexit, but a shortage of lorry drivers according to this anyway, which is affecting all EU countries last time I heard https://www.water.org.uk/news-item/driver-shortage-statement/#:~:text=There is no shortage of,is solely one of distribution.”&text=What's the current situation%3F,small number of water companies

Just like the water companies. Little investment, high bills, dumping tons or raw sewage into our waterways, while paying millions to investors. Its a sick joke.

Pointless reminiscence: That was the first year that the current Mrs S and I were together, we'd just moved in to a small flat and Life was a huge adventure. The night before we'd had a dodgy takeaway and we'd both been extremely ill all night - not eaten vegetable pakoras (the dish we shared) ever since. Felt like crap all the next day so just collapsed in front of the tiny portable TV we had and watched the lot.

You forgot BT Before they were sold for next to nothing to those in the know who could get the shares they were the biggest asset owning company in the world because all the profit was constantly reinvested. After the asset stripping they still have to find profit for the shareholders with sod all reinvestment.

And they feel great - it’s a perfect Goldilocks neck for me. The PB70-US I have is a keeper above all else.

In 2015, Jeremy Hunt imposed a pay rise on them that was below what their pay review board recommended. From this arise (at least) three points: Junior doctors hate the Chancellor of the Exchequer The pay review board can be overridden Junior doctors have probably been treated the worst of any NHS staff in real terms pay cuts in the last 12 years A survey showed that 40% of them were looking to get out of the NHS. A third of them were going to try to work overseas, Australia being the favourite destination. One of my nephews is currently training to be a doctor. He intends to quit the UK - he wants to work in an English-speaking country as communicating in his first language will mean less risk of misunderstanding, so I expect he'll head off to Australia or New Zealand.

Not that I've done loads of bass building (or even finished the one I started!), but I like a Shinto rasp for taking off a lot of material pretty quickly. It is a tool I wish I had bought a lot earlier than I did! Great for roughing out a forearm or belly contour and neck profiling. https://amzn.eu/d/0KCrJIC

What...who...where... ...and why is everyone in my bedroom????? I do most of my finer carving with a simple set of card scrapers. Pretty much all of the neck carve with these and quite a bit of the body carve. There are various sets but you need at least one rectangular one (2-3 in different sizes is ideal) and a goose neck one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Irwin-Marples-M2450-Cabinet-Scraper/dp/B0000DD4NQ/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=card+scrapers&qid=1672263585&sr=8-6 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Proops-Cabinet-Carbon-Scraper-Postage/dp/B00AIN9Z8C/ref=sr_1_15?keywords=card+scrapers&qid=1672263585&sr=8-15 They generally come with the essential burr already on (they act like mini planes) and that would last long enough for a build so you can avoid the black art of reapplying the burr. ....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I love making pedalboards for guitar and bass; very rarely do I play two runs of gigs with the same effects (less true on guitar now I have a Kemper). I've got a Hogmanay show coming up and I decided to buy Cioks DC7 to make a mini board with the Metro 16. It's easy for me to fall victim to wanting to pack everything into one board and future-proof it for any gig possible, but today I decided that I wasn't going to splash out on an expensive multi-effects and instead just pick what I actually use. 95% of the time this is all I've needed on bass (the other 5% being the occasional chorus effect), and even then the ODR-1 is just for one song in the set. Feels nice to travel light for once!

This is played on a Sire. I consider it to be a truly fabulous piece of playing and the sound is just right. I am such a bass snob that I had just presumed that it was something fancy cos the guy playing is so clearly very accomplished. Then I clocked the headstock and did a double take. As an aside the whole thing is just fabulous ensemble playing and I suspect the bassist is depping cos there are several things he does when you can see other band members clearly responding with surprised pleasure. The guitar work is also a case study in playing for the song.