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My band* played at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool at the weekend. Another of my favouritevenues, always think about standing on the same stage that has graced The Beatles etc. Crowd are great there too, we had around 1,800 in. Had a good soundcheck, with top guy Sam on monitors getting a good stage sound for me - used two monitors as it's such a large room, which made for a loud but comfortable balance. Anyway, the gig went okay, but only just - our singer Andy was struggling with a cold / flu kind of thing and his voice was not as strong as usual. I tried my best to cover some of his higher parts and we managed to get through it, largely down to the crowd being so supportive. We unfortunately couldn't do our gig in Stoke on Trent the following night though, and have had to cancel Sunderland Empire theatre this Thursday too. There's just nothing you can do when illness hits so hard, and we feel bad at having to let our audiences down. Hopefully he'll be right for next week's gigs. Our brill sound engineer Paul is a nifty bass player so we've been bringing basses along to gigs to show each other. This week he brought a nice early 80's Tokai Jazz, pictured below. Tried it out and it is really fine - good job it's a bit on the heavy side for me or there would have to be a serious discussion to be had. *The ELO Experience

And so to cutting the new chambers. @PaulThePlug has given me loads of photos and accurate measurements of the positioning so this morning was all about marking on the body the centre-lines and corners of the pickups and then the outline of the two halves of the P pickup, including a 1mm clearance at the sides and ends: On point worthy of note for other builders is the lugs on these types of pickups. The lugs are offset. And the radius of the lugs is actually MUCH bigger than you think. Including the clearance I had to use a 14mm drill!! Surely not???? Yup So first job is the drilling the radii for the lugs and corners: Then roughing out part-depth and up to the line with a large forstner bit: Followed by tidying up of the edges exactly up to the external pencil line with mallet and chisel to create an accurate and smooth run for the router bearing: And finally routing to depth: And new chamber done: Next and pretty much final job is sanding down and a quick slurry-and-buff, which I should be able to get done by the end of tomorrow

Arriving at 8.30am this morning and weighing in at exactly 9lbs, here is my Ultra Violet Spectorbird Euro X. I can't decide whether I like the back or the front better.

As a longtime Spector endorsee and collector I have always wanted to see a mid-price Euro version of their custom USA-X (Spectorbird) model.... So, using my contacts and linking up with UK retailer Bass Direct we organised a special limited custom run (less than 25) of just that! After a 9 month wait they have just arrived. Black, white, tobaccoburst flame and an amazing ultraviolet quilt! Equipped with EMG pickups, Tonepump preamp & gold hardware, they have turned out amazingly well.... I'm so pleased 🥰😎 Thanks to Bass Direct for their assistance and here's to our next custom build!

Your wish is my command !

Well, that's very pretty.

^ cocktail sticks... check depth glue em in, just below the surface... attach the machine heads with the holes that align... Use electrical tape across the machine head to avoid scratches, and drill thru the machine head holes to try and stop the drill wandering... i would use an old style had drill for 'feel' and less likely to snap the little drill bit in the wood... Some dry bar soap or candle wax on the little screws to lube the threads....

So pleased with this fit

Well, thought I'd update - the order has been placed... I ordered directly through them via email with a pro forma, and transferred the funds via Wise (Transferwise). This seemed cheaper to me? Including shipping, we're looking at £390 that left my account (409 euros plus 27 euros for shipping, 436). The Reverb ad was showing as £416.69 + £29.63 for shipping, so about £447 plus then I'd assume looking into VAT and all that stuff (probs a 20-22% on top?). Aware this % is what I'll have to add to what I've paid for already, but thought I'd share the numbers in case anyone is on the fence. Anyway, what matters is that I shifted some gear and I've already burnt that cash. Oh, life - but also, pretty excited for this pedal coming in! Best, Ander.

Arrived in need of a bridge saddle (in truth, a whole new bridge wouldn't hurt... see below), strings and a proper clean-up, and those tuners want straightening too. A few hours later, the hardware's off and it's an awful lot cleaner, and the battery (which was dated 2009 ) is in the bin, and now it's got me thinking... do I stick with black bridge & tuners, or change? Don't want chrome, but maybe nickel? Or even gold, for a bit of a JPS Lotus vibe? There's a black bridge in the mail, but I can always return it and get a different one.

Eh, no-one seems interested in doing business, it would seem. I was in the market for a couple of special order DiMarzio pickups. DiMarzio themselves to be fair replied straight away to say they couldn't/wouldn't do custom shop orders internationally direct. I emailed the UK distributor (Headstock) and got hee-haw reply (not entirely surprised as they're a distributor so under no obligation to reply to a pleb like me who's not in the trade, but still they could have been helpful and pointed me to some retailers). So I went to Andertons, knowing that they sell DiMarzio pickups and asked for a quote. Well, that was 31st January. They took all the details and said they'd get back to me. I chased them a week later. They replied and said they'd chase it. I have had not a peep back, although I'm sure this is as much the distributor's fault as anyone's. So the pickups are on their way across from the States thanks to a very helpful eBay seller who I contacted on 30th Jan to speculatively enquire about the pickups I wanted (which they didn't have in at the time). In response to my speculative and rather non-committal query, they got 2 of the pickups in anyway and out of the blue got in contact with me directly to let me know they had them and they'd just gone live in his eBay store. Legend! Snagged! Sorry Andertons/Headstock - you snooze you lose!

Cocktail sticks.

For all my Peep Show bros out there, I bought this INSANE octave synth with distortion and ability to add even more distortion! It is a truly insane sound, the adding More Dread, increases the output by about 20db its LOUD. But i mean how could I not buy it after seeing how it looks..

Dutch band The Analogues have a ‘no outfits, original gear’ approach to playing the Fabs, usually albums in full. They come over to the UK once in a while.

Wadding, more properly referred to as damping, serves two purposes. One is to reduce internal reflections in the cab, which cause peaks and valleys in response. How much will give the best result varies from cab to cab, with between one and two inches usually being good. The other purpose is to lessen midbass boom, which takes more material. In sealed cabs with high Q drivers, which have a tendency for boomy response, the cab might be fully filled. In extreme cases it may be not only filled but also compressed. Well designed ported cabs don't use high Q drivers, so they usually don't boom and don't require filling the cab to tame it. Of course not all ported cabs are well designed, so more than an inch or two of damping could be beneficial. A ported cab would never be stuffed and compressed, as that would mess with the cab tuning and could kill the low frequency output. How damping affects response and impedance can be software modeled by changing the Qa value. 100 is a bare cab, 50 is lined, 10 is filled, 5 is filled and compressed. It's an approximate result, as different materials have different indexes of absorption. It also is only accurate to roughly 2 to 3 octaves above the box frequency, as are all the results with speaker modeling software. The only reason to not use any damping is cost. 🙄

These are really common, it's a really simple solution to protecting the speakers, mainly the tweeters. The bulb has a very low resistance when cold but as the current increases it heats up and the resistance rises reducing the current to the tweeter. In the quieter sections it cools down and full power is restored.

okay, this is technically not NBD because i've had it for a couple of weeks now, but i didn't want to post too early and jinx it. so, after not really having the chance to do any music due to moving around a few times over the last few years, i've finally settled down and found a local project i might want to get involved with. but i realised that i don't really love either of my current basses, and i've had my eye on one of these for a while, so... i bought one. and i'm glad i did, because i love it. as well as the two magnetic pickups (Bartolini MK1 - i know not everyone loves these, but they work well here), it has a piezo in the bridge and blending the three pickups gives a pretty good range of tones for a fretless bass. it's got the lovely thin SR neck, the hardware seems pretty good, and it's on the light side for a 5er (around 8lb). they're making the fingerboards for these from panga panga now, which i've never heard of before, but it feels good to play and has a pretty pattern to it: it came with Chrome flats on, but i put some TI Jazz flats on after reading a few positive reviews, and those sound pretty nice. they are fairly low tension though, especially the B which is a bit floppy (it's 34" scale) so i don't know if i'll stick with those. any complaints? i don't love the vol-vol-vol control setup, it's a bit awkward to change the tone and keep the same output level, so i'm wondering about putting a new preamp in with a more sensible control layout and an active-passive switch. and i wish there were more colours available than brown burst, which is nice enough, but i'd rather have a natural finish. but overall, very pleased with it and i expect this will be my main/only bass now. i might even sell my SR300E...

I've recently got a GP-200. I already had a Zoom B6 but of course, now I'm getting more into guitar again and my ancient Behringer V-Amp is pretty dated (although it has some decent sounds, that thing). I was looking into Boss GT-1000 and the Line6 Helix Floor/LT... but the Valeton GP-200 was getting some great reviews, and although not covering nearly as much ground as the other units, this was under £300... so I figured I'd give it a try, and if no good I'd return it and get a better unit. No need. Yes, it's limited compared to the others in routing capabilities and a few other things, but quite honestly, I quite like it. The amp/cab modelling sounds very good! The FX are decent enough in general, and with a user-positioned FX loop I can easily add a couple additional pedals to supplement the built-in FX if I decide I need something extra. One reason that made me want to try the GP-200 was the dedicated amplifier controls on the face of the unit. The interface seems really well thought out: everything is easily accessible without having to get lost in menus and submenus. I use it on my desktop mostly, playing through monitors, using it to record demos and share stuff with the band. Really impressed by this little thing.

Yep, I have one in ultraviolet. Beautiful bass, lush roasted maple neck and classic Spector tones from the EMGs etc. To my mind they're the best all round 'value for money' Spectors you can currently buy...

Oasis?

You can simply download other people's patches, however, if I can set up a sound on a pedal while actually playing the song live, and it's better than one I spent hours working on at home, I think that tells me something.

True story: did a gig recently and Don't You Want Me Baby came up. I had a couple ready made sounds on my C4 pulled one up and it was horrible, just didn't work live as it did at home. Before the riff came around again I twiddled some knobs on the Poly Blue, and produced a way better sound .

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Woah, now we are on the fringe of thread descending into chaos. Sub placement, separation, stacking, cross firing... or... cardioid! Oops - forgot to include... the answer to underpowered band pub sub placement is normally coupling with a wall! (And then there's the risk of your band turning into swampy bass mush. Use with caution! )

Delivery day! So i got lucky! Everything seems to be tailored for a 62mm heel including the genuine fender pickguard It's odd in that all the "higher end" builders are only doing 63.5mm neck pockets on their bodies. This genuine fender replacement neck i bought is 62mm and it fits this body like a glove! Very very pleased all around. I took a punt on the body having a 62mm neck pocket and it paid off. Now just waiting for kiogon loom and will pick up the cans for painting.

I remember when I was a kid an had started mucking about with electronics, I had an idea… I had been given a pair of 1x12 speaker cabs. They were huge, something like 24”x18”x18”. I assume they were PA cabs or something, they weighed a lot, too. Anyway. Each had a port along the front bottom (haha!) of the cab, and I had the bright idea (pun totally intended!) of wiring a painted (by me) car light bulb in series with the speaker. The idea being to give me a kind of disco light effect shining from the port. Surprisingly it worked! But I had no idea, at the time, that I was actually making the cabs better! (Although, they didn’t actually have tweeters).

Correct. In effect they work like a compressor, taming transient peaks that otherwise might cause the tweeter to fail. In extreme cases of overpowering they'll blow, turning them into fuses, although that's not their intended purpose. Those extreme cases are usually the result of using distortion effects, which increase the high frequency power content well beyond what most bulbs or tweeters can handle.

I’m nerdy about gear , and I’ve been on TB for over twenty years. I was an old Pbass guy that got into Rics and now seem to play just about anything but Fender shaped stuff. Today I seem to have a thing for Gibson shortscales and Danelectros. I always found people supportive and was able to consult with some who are recognized authorities. The beauty of the internet. I initially started coming here to get some insight on amps and cabs that are popular in Europe and the UK but have very little presence in North America. I enjoy this site. Here in Nova Scotia the available gear in most music stores leaves a lot to be desired. And they only push what they have , so I am thankful to learn of other options.

Well, I’ll go and get myself a chufty badge. been a while… A broken clock is right twice a day etc.

Some PA Speakers (and possibly cabs?) have a bulb in them as a circuit breaker to protect the speakers… I’m sure peavey did this. I might be wrong…it was a long time ago and I’ve met many beers since then… if I’ve imagined this - I’m very sorry. God…I answered that really quickly and now I’m doubting myself. now I’m trapped in an internal monologue…

https://bootlegbeatles.com/gigs/

I’ve seen The Bootleg Beatles twice, really good both visually and musically. Took my son in law who’s a massive Beatles fan and he was really impressed with their authenticity and presentation. Probably the best / certainly the best known tribute to the Fab Four

That Atelier is 😍

Massive Beatles fan here - without the slightest interest in seeing a tribute act. But my nine year old daughter has developed a bit of a thing for them and has asked if there is somewhere you can go to see people playing their songs... So I've got to do it. But if I'm going to go to a tribute show I want to be left awed - I know these songs inside out so I want to see the weird Hey Jude chord shapes, I want the dual guitars spot on in And Your Bird, I want every vocal doubletracking error slavishly recreated and I want every last second of Revolution 9 recreated in all its hideous glory. Failing that, something that touches on all eras and is musically competent with a couple of era-specific costume changes will do. So, what's the Basschat real-world experience - who should I book tickets for? Bear in mind that this poor child has only ever seen her dad's bands play so this could be a crucial formative experience...

I use the Vanderkley 2x12 in the diagonal configuration. It's very clear and articulate. For the most part I play progressive metal. With one band I play a Wal in drop D. Think Justin Chancellor. In another I play a Rick in C# standard with a more biamp setting through a Tech21 Dug pedal. I have other basses like Alembics and it just works. Really well. Plenty of crispness and cut if you want it.

Massive thanks to @cetera for banging the drum, setting this up and pushing through the production of these basses. Here are my two - awesome basses that look great and sound great. Weight is a nice surprise to at approx 9lbs each.

@Obrienp It was over six years ago that I mailed BF regarding my 1x10 issue (still have the original mail exchange) and I would agree its probably an uncommon occurence. In my case it wasn't the actual fixings that were the problem, it was lack of wood at the rear of the baffle where the nuts had fallen off. Also worth mentioning is that too much torque when tightening can cause the t-nut at the rear to rotate and chew up the timber that its fixed into. It then has little to hold it in place and will eventually loosen off with vibration from use. I never use power tools or power screwdrivers when mounting bolts and t-nuts with speakers because of this. Then again i'm not operating a production line😉 IME its much easier to over torque when working with thinner baffles. Less likely if its 18mm voidless plyboard and M6 fixings. I'd be interested to see how you get on with your plans.🙂

Mate... such a neat 'n sweat looking job! Taking the pickup pair that 8 - 10mm further forward to the neck, from the measured P position, really gives it a look of balance and symmetry, spanning the old cavity... Pleasing to they eye... great job by @Andyjr1515 it's those little details that make all the difference... Thanks.

Does that qualify them as unsound injuneers then? Just asking for a friend...

Yep, glued in cocktail sticks for the win.

Massive lineup for Reggae land festival: https://reggaeland.co.uk/

Whilst you have the cab apart have a look and see if there is any internal bracing of the panels. If there are large panels with no stiffening then even a thin strip of wood across opposite panels (side to side, back to front, top to bottom) will stiffen the box and reduce panel resonances. Something like a length of broom handle or a wooden batten fixed properly with screws/glue will do it.

I don't mind it at all but it's a bit strange that they've asked Ron Jeremy to demo it, especially with all his legal issues he's facing right now.

Thankyou all and sorry if its needed reiteration for me to get it. There's a lot to it. Thankyou Bill for the answers,and I realise you had already said how to work out the amp power.i didn't pick up it's fundamental (!) significance as there was a lot to take in from scratch. Apologies Downunderwonder for not using proper terminology for things. Actually, people who KNOW about this stuff may take certain fundamental things as obvious to those who don't,but they may not be- actually no one has ever told me that you can never put too little power into a cab! Another ignorant presumption of mine that maybe if you didn't apply enough,it might not make the speaker operate ..erm...properly. And yes it is an excellent learning thread for me and I'm deadly grateful. Its just like the thing Bill said about 'the tube sound' coming from the power stage.- I have not seen that simple truth stated on any of the things I have read up on trying to understand it on my own. Bill have you ever thought of writing "Bass Amps For Dummies"??!!! Seriously man.I'd buy it immediately. I've already screenshot all advice and have started an amp notebook,and I'll continue learning. Jrixn1 Thankyou- that is an interesting alternative and I hadnt thought of it at all. I think I remember reading an interview with Jimmy Johnson saying that he did that at one stage. Thankyou Mcnach that has put the cat among the pidgeons! The specs are great, and they're really reasonably priced. Could get a new one for the same as the BBII used i have seen Hi Mario- yes it is worth keeping in mind. To be honest , I know there's no one sound/tone -there were and are hundreds, on all the classic records. Being extremely careful what terminology i use here-I just look for a useable fairly loud and round sound! Thanks all.

You'd be better off replacing the jack socket on your bass. Use of this type of plug is the reason why it doesn't work well with others any more.