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I have discovered that Nigel isn’t at all well. He fell, broke a few ribs and punctured a lung back around October and has since been in and out of hospital. He is back in at the moment. Nigel has been a stalwart of this board for many years and interacted with many of us. Please keep him in your thoughts. Edit: Updated with funeral arrangements

I recently traded my last five string for a warmoth with a usa Fender Jazzneck. Good looking wood on the body! What do you think? Hardware is all fender and tuners too. Pickups are Lundgren (swedish pickup maker) vintage style.

More Berg' Bergantino B|Amp and a triplet of HD112 cabinets. A super modular rig for all occasions!

When we're done with this, we can match up basses with shaving foam, and then washing machines.

I recently picked up my new Safran Semi Acoustic. Umut Dal build it for me. This one is different compared to his "standard"semi acoustic. I wanted the semi acoustic as a single cut. This was a bit of a challenge cause the semi acoustic has a single coil mounted under the fretboard (together with a piëzo in the bridge). The normal semi acoustic has a bold-on neck so the PU can me mounted on the body before attaching the neck. With my bass the PU is glued to the bottom of the fretboard. It has a cedar body with a palo naranja top, maple neck with purpleheart centre stripe, ebony fretboard, bridge and tailpiece. Custom handwound PU, custom piezo in the bridge, John East MPM02 Preamp, volume & blend control in the recessed in the tailpiece. 34"scale. La Bella Deep Talking Bass 760N Black nylon tape wound string. It plays very smooth and sounds lovely, it sounds very "woody"and almost like an upright. Especially the blend between the magnetic and the piezo PU is gives a lot of variety in sound. Here are some pics of the building process and the end result.

I was trying Monique with Bergs yesterday.

What is this “changing strings” you speak of 😁

Can you not start the session with the old strings and change if you need to? It's only a 5 or 10 minute job to change them. I am assuming you give them a good stretch when you fit a new set.

Ah, a thread where specifics are insisted on. Right... Aston Martin = Southwold Pier Liberace = flock wallpaper A celocanth = The Upanishads Brutalist civic centres = revivalist music hall Turnham Green tube = a skip full of shish kebab Cumulonimbus = Sherbet Dib-Dap Pete Postlethwaite = fiscal parity Tofu = forcemeat bälls Telly Savalas = tungsten carbide drills Carbon offsetting = Antique pinball machines North Utshire = moderate, occasionally rough later ...there, sorted.

If you’re a certain age and went to live gigs progressive rock was pretty hard to avoid. During my first couple of years going to concerts (72-73) I remember seeing King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Faust, Camel, Hawkwind, Barclay James Harvest, Stackridge, Blodwyn Pig, Man, Deke Leonard, Budgie, Back Door. All in a provincial backwater. I wonder who I saw that I can’t remember 🤔. Progressive was a pretty broad church. Something for everyone, I reckon.

Depending on the bass, I'm quite partial to a bit of pimpage. Usually reversible, but not always. A few victims examples: My no. 1 bass is a 1980-ish Japanese CSL Jazz copy, which I picked up for £60 from a local pawn shop 20-odd years ago: Schaller 3D bridge, DiMarzio Model J pickups, stacked controls, black pearl plate & lots of T-Cut. Bought this to hose down & flip, ended up being the nicest-playing J I ever picked up, and the one I'd save in a fire. Next - simple but effective bling on my MM V7 fretless - clear acrylic scratchplate & replacement knobs: Still haven't ruled out reshaping the headstock to Tele-style... This one goes beyond mere pimping into full-on butchery. Denizens of the builds folder may already be familiar with this particular exercise in nightmare fuel: It's a cheapo Ebay thing called a Wesley Europa, picked it up for £100 brand new. neckthrough, active, 2-way truss rod, quite a nicely made thing but with a finish on the back that fell off after 2 or 3 gigs and a misconceived headstock. Languished on the to-do pile until last summer (full uncensored story here), on reflection my Laurus-esque headflap wasn't quite the aesthetic improvement I wanted, so it'll have a second appointment with the hacksaw as soon as it's warm enough to work in the garage...

That's how i calculated it when i bought the WB-100 but it only came to £47 so wasn't complaining. I had assumed 20% VAT plus Import Tax at 3%. For an amp of this quality at under £1k for the WB-100 incl all taxes and perhaps £800 max incl taxes its still far superior to any other amp of this type. Honestly you wont be disappointed. I've now gigged mine a fair bit and it just gets better and better. I love it. Dave

Here's one for @EBS_freak.....

Practice nook at the inlaw’s the playpen

I'm rescutating this zombie thread as I've done exactly the same! Sadly, Fretmeister's original pictures are long gone, but using the ice cream stick idea as my starting point, I came up with these: Nope, they're not skinny shoebrushes... The wooden part is from a bit of leftover edging - something like this. The original plan was to make three with different sorts of foam on each, but the superglue I used to attach the "washing up" sponge I tried to use, practically melted it... maybe I'll use two sided tape for that type of foam in the future. The two that survive work really well - one is made with fairly dense foam (the sort that you might find in a fitted case for a drill or similar) and the other one is more spongey. The spongey one gives a slightly better tone - to my ears anyway. The denser foam needed to have slightly wider slots as the notes were choking a little. The hardest part for me was cutting the foam neatly. Maybe I should have watched more episodes of "Blue Peter" as a kid. I rounded the edges of the wooden part a bit and gave it a rub with some wax. I gave it a little handle so I'd know which end is which, although it doesn't seem to make much difference. Neither will get me a job on "The Repair Shop," but they cost me nothing to make and took about half an hour from having the idea to sticking the finished thing on my bass. Now I can get a nice "Carol Kaye" sound quickly and easily. And it looks quite cool.

For so many years, it was the love that dare not speak its name so, finally, I can come out into the open and say it; I like prog. There. I’ve said it. God, that feels good. Er…., I also like jazz. Don’t hate me.

I'd say keep them if you like their current sound and are sure it fits with the band's sound. Maybe, if you have the possibility try a quick recording at home just because amp sound and recorded sound might be quite different. And I'd bring the new strings with me, just in case

Leaches (sic) - The Stranglers

More than worms - Extreme

Played a couple of gigs at the end of last week in Weston Super Mare and then Wimborne in Dorset. Both theatres sold out, which always makes for more atmosphere. A long journey in torrential rain but still well worth it. Absolutely knackered the next day though! 😫

I have a Ukulele bass - it's a Countryman, bought it about 4 or 5 years ago when they first appeared. Tried a few, and couldn't see how the Kala models were nearly 3 times the price when the sound and quality were so similar so I went for the Countryman. (on the right in the first pic) Used it quite a lot at first, and had so many people interested in it at gigs. Sounds great in my acoustic duo, with a nod to an upright bass kind of noise! The strings did take some getting used to, as well as the scale length but with a bit of use it gets more familiar. Great little thing though. Couple of years ago a friend of mine got an Ibanez PNB141E short scale, and I instantly loved it. Bought one straight away, and it's now taken over as my main bass in the duo (see 2nd pic). It's 24.7" scale length, and combined with my Fender Rumble 100v3 makes for a great gigging combination. Strings are the same as on the Taylor GS mini bass (which I also had but prefer the Ibanez).

I don’t even do my own pickup swaps! you know instructions on a soldering iron that say “don’t hold the hot end”? That’s my fault!

Nah

Anyone Who Adder Heart - Cilla

Prog's my favourite. It's where most of my favourite albums, bass players and bass sounds can be found. It's such a broad description though, there's very little musical similarity between Pink Floyd and Yes, for example.

My mate, the drummer mentioned in my post above, was the product of an art school and he was the most prolific writer of tunes during our prog phase. He was the keeper of the time signatures, too. He was a better drummer than I was guitarist and I gained a lot from learning to play his songs, which I transferred to bass when I saw the light many years later. I even had a twin necked guitar and used it on stage. It's good to be with people who understand these things and don't judge. 🤣

I'm just going to leave a bit of Gentle Giant here, 'cos more people need to know about them.

Have you heard your rig from the same distance that you have heard other bands' rigs? It could well sound very different when you are not next to it.

My current situation is everything I have is bloody good. I don't even know what i'd WANT to have that could add to the repertoire in a practical manner, but that doesn't mean I can resist a bargain to tinker with and flip. Temptation has been low in the last few weeks, but that may be more indicative of a quiet market post Xmas. I still check the usual places a few times a day however.

@mrtcat - have been thinking your comments through and discussing with my band, in particular about rejecting suggestions on personal preference. I guess where I'm coming from is that there's gotta be enough cheesy floor filler songs out there which audiences love, so that the band isn't forced to play particular songs week in week out if one or more of the band members can't stand them? Particularly ones which have been done to death e.g. Wonderwall, Sweet Home Alabama etc. Playing live music has gotta be fun, if it becomes a chore then that's a real shame. Had a bit of banter with a pro bass-player last night who's just helped me to put the debate over one band song we're currently not doing to bed: you don't need to play this song to be doing 60+ function gigs a year!

In all seriousness, don't. I used to manage the call centre contract for a well known retailer. If you emailed the CEO your complaint went into a fast track. If you expressed yourself politely it was dealt with specially, if you just send profanity it gets binned. I expect most call centre type operations work to similar processes.

This looks absolutely amazing! ❤️

This makes a lot of sense. I was geeky enough to measure the inductance of a Seymore Duncan SPB-3. It was 7 Henries which is typical for a bass pickup with a lot of wire (more turns = more inductance, and more resistance). This forms a low pass (treble cut) filter in conjunction with the resistance value (12.5k). I'm not sure why SD quote resonance (10.2kHz) as it is far out of range of a bass , so any peak would be lost due to the low pass effect. There is some data on inductance somewhere for some PUs but adding more wire (more resistance and therefore "hotter output ?" also increases inductance.) There must be a trade off on adding wire to get more output and loss of treble due to added inductance. If you have ever re-wired a series neck humbucker (I had one on a cheap SG copy) because it was too muddy and then wired it in parallel, the inductance drops by a factor of four, you only get an output drop of half (2 coils now in parallel) at the low pass end, and the treble range increases significantly. (by treble range I mean the point at which treble starts to drop off due to the low pass effect of the resistance/inductance). This is the easiest explanation of the effect of inductance I can think of without getting too complicated and geeky. In this case the pickup response rolled off at around 280Hz rather than 140 Hz before re-wiring. If anyone wants to measure inductance (don't all rush!) there is a way of doing it with 2 bits of free software (a signal generator and an oscilloscope) a known capacitor (around 2nF) and a DAW interface. A Focusrite works fine. Not all oscilloscope software works as there needs to be no phase shift between the 2 channels. You have to disconnect the PU also!

My very first Bass Guitar (I owned a ukulele bass at the time) was a Greg Bennett Corsair MCR-1 mini bass (24.6 inch scale length). Over the course of a few weeks, I made the following mods: Changed to a 3D printed black pickguard. Changed to a black high mass bridge. Upgraded to an EMZ Geezer Butler pickup, I shielded the electrics cavity with copper tape at the same time. Swapped in better quality (and black) tuning machines. Added in a diy passive diode based fuzz and a diy rotary multi-position tone control (Similar to the Tonestyler Bass 6 but much less expensive), this required enlargement of the electronics cavity (and reshielding!). I later changed to an EMG active MMCS pup (no photo) with active EQ, which required further enlarging of the pickup cavity and a reprinted pickguard. Being small and all black (nearly) I named it 'Ponty'. I loved the sound and playability of Ponty. It was the success with these mods (which just a few months before would have seemed impossible for me) that got me into building my first bass, Twiggy. (Sadly both Ponty and Twiggy were destroyed in my flat fire) S'manth x

In my experience, when it comes to building a budget bitsa, it's the neck that is the crucial factor. As long as the body is sturdy enough to accept a bridge and is a colour, shape and condition that you're happy with, all is good. I'm sure that more learned BCers will be along to discuss tonewoods, but it's never been an issue for me in terms of choosing parts. Make sure the neck pocket is wide enough for the neck, otherwise that can open up a whole world of pain. On the other hand, one of my main gigging basses has a 2mm gap between the body and the neck of one side of the pocket. It's been like that for about 10 years, with no discernable issues.

What type ?

More of a makeover!

But back to @Stub Mandrel's topic. The first bass I bought myself was this lovely red Ibanez I bought for a song from a guy in Gloucester: And my first pimp-yer-bass attempt was on this one and was also my first attempt at veneering. Admittedly, beginners' luck! And it was this that led to me having a go at all the other stuff As a post-script, I eventually sold this to a Nepalese Buddhist who played in a Heavy Metal band in Luton and who was 'spiritually drawn' to the bass. A niche market, admittedly

I started playing rubber string basses with a Guild Ashbory. Sounded good but I hated the banjo-type tuners, and upgraded to a DeArmond Ashbory with proper tuners. I used that with a ceilidh band, switching between the 18" scale Ashbory, a 34" scale Warwick Thumb fretless, and a 42" scale NS WAV-4 EUB which was fun. I also bought an Ashbory Mk2 - one of 73 made. However, it's got a dreadful hum which I haven't diagnosed - it's part of my project pile for my retirement, which started today. Because I like 5-strings, I bought a Kala SUB 5-string - I'd rather an unfretted one but the SUBs didn't have a fretless 5-string option, and a Cali would have cost about five times as much. This one isn't mine but it looks the same, apart from the untrimmed but better spaced strings on mine. And finally, I've bought a Batmanking electroacoustic 4-string which I haven't used electrically yet but which seems a pretty good buy for under a ton. Again, the photo's not mine but apart from an extra turn or two of the A string round the tuner, there's no difference.

This is nearly as anorak as the God I love fusion thread! PS I love prog...there I've said it...

My Newcastle stories. . . . It's the only place in the UK where, after asking directions, we had to drive around the corner and ask again. None of us understood a word! After a gig we were looking for the road out of town. It was late and we stopped at a bus stop to ask a guy the way. He opened the passenger door, pushed in and started giving us directions. We drove the cheeky sod to his front door!! Then he told us how to get to the motorway.

I understand your logic however, having sold and shipped more than 40+ basses to international buyers with zero incidents or damages, it is my experience that good packaging wins every time. I always pack the bass extremely carefully - lossening the strings, placing layers of kitchenroll between the strings and frets and strings and pickups, surrounding the bass with foam within the case - so it cannot move in any direction at all. I also remove the strap button from the bottom of the bass - this mitigates damage to both the bass and the case, if the parcel is dropped. I then package the case within the box it came in - or if I dont have that box anymore, I wrap it in double-walled cardboard and use plenty of duct tape to secure it. Of course accidents can still happen thanks to negligent handling but at least you, as the seller, can say that you have done your absolute best to ensure it got to the buyer in the same condition it left you. You also give yourself the best chance for a successful insurance claim in the event of damage during shipping... an example of my packaging for a bass i shipped to the US:

Don't be daft, in the 22nd century they'll look like this....