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Just got in from my first gig on guitar in 15 years. Punk covers band The Dogmattics at The Oddfellows Arms in Hemel doing the regular punk stuff plus a few non-punk but punked up songs. Went well, I made a few minor mistakes but given I’ve only been in the band since January, we’ve only had three rehearsals and we’re doing about 40 songs I won’t beat myself up about it. Thoroughly enjoyed it, plenty of good comments from people who have seen the band before which was nice, and I’d almost forgotten what it was like to get paid for playing in a band, this gig being a nice reminder.

I went out early this morning, to meet up and collect an EBMM Short Scale Stingray, from Basschatter Bunion, who had been very accomodating, in getting this superb shorty into my very eager hands. This little beauty was made in August 2020 and when I took hold of it, this a.m., apart from a little pickguard wear, it looked like it had just come off the assembly line, in California. My previous Stingray experience was 4 different full size models, including an HS pickup version, that to my ears had the best sound but unfortunately had the widest fingerboard of any bass I have owned. I also, not long ago, had a Sterling by MM, S.S. Stingray, in Daphne Blue. That Sterling was very nicely designed and made and opened my eyes to the sounds available on a passive Stingray, with series, parallel and single-coil options on the pickup. And I have to say, I love this passive short scaler. Even before I bothered with the tone control, I spent ages playing with the 3 pickup settings. Enjoying every one. I think parallel is how the usual Stingray pickups are wired and to my ears, this certainly gives this bass that edgy, almost throaty sound. For my playing, which is 95% fingerstyle, I think the series and single coil options probably suit best. And although the pickup is far closer to the bridge than most other single pickup basses, this bass sure has plenty of bottom end. No amp EQ fiddling needed here. Just pluck a little nearer the neck and you'll be sweetly rewarded with a deep, lush sound. And it is all the sounds you can get, just using simple technique, that to me, shows just how good this bass is. A compact bass that is a breeze to play. The Vintage Sunburst body and roasted maple neck, not only look great but assist in this short scaler's excellent feel and sound.

Gig with my blues/rock trio Toredown last night - the second gig into our monthly 'residency' at the Shamrock in Ipswich. Set up is getting quicker as we've played there a lot and pretty much know where everything goes, what the levels are like, so we arrive later and just dive in. Which means I can leave home later by which time the Friday traffic has calmed down. I managed to get parked just down the road, which is a bonus. I wouldn't say it was packed but by 10pm it was busy, most of our regulars were there. We played a couple of new songs that were, frankly, under rehearsed and not as tight as we'd like. Got away with it but next time they will be on point. Other than that, we played well, went down well, picked up some new followers. The staff there love the band, which is great. Unusually there was a bit of bother and one of the punters, who I hadn't seen there before, had to be escorted out although that didn't impact on us. This was my first gig with a bitsa 50s Precision with its newly fitted Retrovibe single coil pickup. Could be a game changer, the tone is just exactly what I want, sat perfectly in the mix with bite and grit. Also guitarist Alan sat his amp on a stand which made a massive difference to the overall balance - I think last night ws the best we have sounded. A12 was shut on my return journey, diverted through small roads following a caravan of lorries so it took an extra 30 mins, got home at 2am. Still, a good gig and £100 in my pocket can't be bad.

Having become wrapped up the recent Epiphone Newport release and furore, I completely forgot about the last SS that caused quite the stir (I am a bear of very little brain). However, following a desire for some tort on black action, not least because of a recent interview with Bruce Foxton in Guitarist, where he’s sporting a P in this combo and our own @Frank Blank’s recent Nordstrand purchase, I remembered the last SS that caused a stir, the HB Mustang-alike. Anyway, at £205 delivered, it was a no brainer and I pulled the trigger this am, before I could talk my self out of it. Also ordered a blend pot to replace the volume so I can get some in between action. Should arrive Thursday/Friday and will hopefully not look too different from this…

More teasers…

A week or two ago I took a drive north to pick up a bass I bought from the BC marketplace. I kept looking at it, passing it by, thinking about it, not thinking about it, continuing with my macrame antimacassars, essentially I was curious but not gassing. I sent a message asking if it was still available and the buying process began. Anyway, the seller was far enough away that after driving up I booked a hotel and we arranged to meet the next morning. On seeing the bass in the flesh so to speak, I was struck by how beautifully made it was, how light it was and yet I remained stoically underwhelmed by it. I paid up, put it on the back seat and set off home. Arriving back I stuck the bass in the rack and left it there to languish, I'm not sure I played it for a couple of days, when I finally did I was, again, just south of whelmed. Another bass bought on a whim that I'm going to lose money on I thought. A few days later I had a jam with a friend of mine, just some songs he's learning with his guitar tutor, some Beatles, Neil Young etc, I plugged the Acinonyx in and kind of forgot about it, and that's the whole point. I have gassed after some lovely basses and, more often than not, I've bought them purely on the basis of aesthetics, not ergonomics, not sound/tone, and, I shouldn't be surprised should I? That a huge percentage of these basses didn't suit me or my needs, they simply satisfied my desire to own something a) because I could and b) because I liked the look of it. Rarely (if ever) did I take my needs as a band member into account. To be honest that was exactly what I did again with the Acinonyx, only this time I wasn't even sure I liked the look of it, after all, it's a funny looking f***er innit. That whole point I was on about. When I was rehearsing with it I forgot about the instrument, how it looks, how it feels, entirely, I just played it. It was supremely comfortable, ergonomically right for a change and, so comfortable, so 'right' that, well, we just got on. It has a limited range of tones and yet play it in a band setting and those tones are the right ones. Given my druthers I would never set my bass to any of those tones, which is obviously why I've never been satisfied with my tone! The Acinonyx doesn't give you room to fånny about tweaking stuff for ages until you tweak yourself into a sonic corner. I play through an FRFR powered speaker so I just set that to 'default' and then pressed a couple of these crazy buttons... ...I can't even remember which, and I forgot the bass and just played music. If you push all four pickup buttons down at the same time (easier said than done!) it switches the pickups into series mode. Anyway, I'm no good at technical stuff, it was more how, for some reason, I was almost totally indifferent about this bass until I plugged it in and loved it. We are always looking for something perfect, exactly the right tone, exactly the right look, essentially we are looking for something that probably only exists in our heads and that no physical bass can actually live up to. Inevitably I'll buy a bass, clearly for all the wrong reasons, rush home, plug it in, declare it to be the best bass I've ever had and invariably sell it a fortnight later at a loss because there's a lot more stupid stuff going on in our heads psychologically than any of us is prepared to admit to. I should, at this point tell you all that the Acinonyx is the best thing since sliced Fodera but I'm going to stick with underwhelmed because underwhelming is clearly what I should have been looking for all this time, I'm not even going to say this is a keeper, I'm just going to stop typing and play it.

New pickguard arrived for the Electra today 😍

Halfway through the second set of our gig last night my MB amp died. I was able to grab my Elf and hook it up to a single 1x12 cab without too much drama and used it for the rest of the night. We are a loud band and I had the master vol full up but it sounded awesome. There was no head room but I was able to keep the pre amp from clipping and I got through the rest of the set. It was very hot at the end, not sure it’s sensible to run it that hard for long but it dug me out of a big hole and sounded excellent as well. If TE did a 500w version I’d be at the front of the queue.

Just swopped the stock Pups from the Player Series and added the Dimarzio PBass pickup These are a bargain at present and for anyone liking rock these Pups work well More mids and growl ( fairly hot pups ) and for finger playing they are an improvement I feel

I played a four-tune set with my jazz band students on base ( RAF Alconbury) last night. We don’t have a student bassist this year, so it falls to me…good fun and very well received by the crowd. The pub band I play with might have gotten a gig at the same venue as a result as well.

Body arrived... Spent a while just holding it, turning it over in my hands, although you can see all the fillings, its so smooth, thanks to the Oil Slurry Finish. I gave it a quick rub over with some Warwick Wax Pickups in, I went with the Maida Vale Alnico IV Low Rider, these are wired Black Hot, Red & Screen Gnd, Join Green and White for Series (4 Wire Pickup)... Earth Wire and Bridge on... Aretec QTP Tone Selector Sw in... Vol Pot Wire Prepped and In.. Wired up used sleeved Tinned Copper Wire from Vol to Tone... Jack wired up. [Is that bit of wire Orange, Red or Brown? Yep... I'm Red/Green Colour Blind, Ex-MoD Electronics Eng!..] Neck on, Flatwound Strings On... gonna leave it a bit to accustom then a bit of Truss Rod, Saddle and Intonation... Probably the only Ibanez SR with a touch of neck dive! Now 2.65kg (5.8lb) - yep i checked it 3 times on the luggage scales Fingers crossed it sounds as sweet 'n smooth as it looks. Thanks again to @Andyjr1515 and the companies that supported my build - I'm chuffed... 😊

https://www.zoom-europe.com/en/zoom-b2-four Features look great! Bit of a wait but will definitely be getting one to try, I always liked the older B3 and this reminds me of that.

More filing and stuff, marked and drilled the holes in the metal plates, they seem to sit in the slots OK-ish. I'll have to come up with some patent bull$hit like "Ferr-O-Tone solid steel Sustain Plus Blocks" A trial fit looked OK, strung it up to see what sort of action it might give, and had a nasty moment when I thought the truss rod nut had stripped it's hex socket, a search thru my tin of Allen keys was unsuccessful, however I tried the one that came with the Squier P bass and it fitted, so was able to do it up a bit ( I'd let it right off when disassembling the thing originally) will no doubt be tweaking further. I'll leave it to sit a while now with tension on the strings, I did them up in stages, they're a semitone flat from standard now, which is what I generally have basses tuned like (unless I've got to play with other people who won't tune down) I'll attempt to get it so its action is kind of playable before messing with the next bit, putting PUs in etc

These guys will make you one for sure https://www.designacable.com

In the meantime, my Guild Starfire is 1 year old now. This bass has been perfect so far: great finish, fretwork, electronics, comfort and sound! can’t think of anything to upgrade, apart from probably its thin plastic volume and tone knobs the photo is from 1 year ago just out of the box

Spent an hour fitting a set of Hipshots to my Player Precision and put some Roto flats on that I had lying about. Also got the black Aerodyne out for a comparison photo.

Fender Bassman 100 Preamp (bass channel):

There are two factors in play. In the lower frequencies where the two woofers are spaced close enough to mutually couple, which means they act as one, the dispersion angle across the sound field with vertical alignment is twice that of horizontal alignment. In the higher frequencies where they're too far apart to mutually couple their outputs alternately reinforce and cancel each other as you go across the sound field when placed horizontal, what's referred to as comb filtering. When placed vertical the response is constant across the sound field. Standing next to the cab you wouldn't notice it. Further away standing in one spot you wouldn't either. But when you're even a few meters out they will sound different as you walk across the sound field. Where comb filtering occurs they'll sound different in the highs with as little as a few inches of listening position shift. Long before I knew a Hz from a dB I knew that two cabs made a world of difference. This was in 1967, when I got a second cab for my '65 Bassman. With one cab the Bassman was barely usable. With two it was tolerable. Wanting to know why was the impetus for my heading to the engineering section in my college library the following year. There I found 'Acoustical Engineering' by Harry Olson. Even though it was written in 1957 it remains to this day the Bible of loudspeaker designers. A year later I began designing and building my own.

I'll be interested to see how this pans out, too. I was on the verge of chucking some serious money at a '78 Mustang before I knew the weight and still feel there is an itch that needs a scratch. Too late now but the Thomann E-Guitar gigbag is a country mile better than the Fender. It is longer than the average guitar gig bag and fits all my short scale basses, has several useful pockets, more padding. And it's only £27.

It's clear that Scott isn't pitching his courses at the likes of many of us who have been playing 20 years plus. I like Scott and his videos. Not all of them have something to offer me but those which do are really helpful. More power to him I say.

Thanks , the last picture was before the Dimarzio upgrade This is my other Player Series with black pickguard except it also has HiMass Bridge fitted

Well that didn't last long. Incoming package from Thomann with all sorts of bits and pieces.

I've got a Skyinbow violin pickup in my Freshwater octave mandola - it has a small piezo sensor set into the bridge, with a tailpin jack that includes a little preamp running off a supercapacitor (you plug a battery into the jack briefly to charge it up and it lasts for a few days). This was a bit of an off-the-wall suggestion from my local guitar tech about ten years ago, but it's a very neat install and I've been really happy with the sound - it's much more like a microphone than a typical piezo pickup, and I've not had problems with feedback when playing live.

These are the pics from @castlemaine22's advert (hope he doesn't mind). This is the actual bass I bought..

I will make this brief, there's always someone who has to be unreasonable and do it differently!, why have you done this? We have a "200-year-old harmonic concept" with "four master patterns hidden on the bass fretboard." and you have now undone the hidden bass ninja masonic mastery that we have kept guarded. I do not know how many "gruelling months of trial and error" you undertook to "learn it for free", however giving away "Guild of Master Bass Player" secrets will result in excommunication or worse (have you seen the effects of having your machine heads removed!). Finally I must warn you in no uncertain terms that disclosing the TS "master patterns hidden on the bass fretboard" - I, IIX, V, III and bIII in all keys is strictly forbidden unless authorised by the Grand Master Wizard of the Guild.

Lol cheers🤣 He made one for My BB1024

I returned to the pub I had my wedding reception in for the first time since 2018 last night. It was a lowkey acoustic set as the main part of a newly establishing open mic night (we had the long main set). As with a lot of Wiltshire pubs, a couple of all day drinkers in there who had long gone beyond the point that they should have stopped. I replicated my bass parts on a mandocello and took some lead on the mandolin too. I sung some lead lines and did a lot of the onstage banter. It was just a fun evening. My missus came down to support us and I was amazed how many people remembered me from 5 years back. The pub has a Dr. Who theme due an old John Pertwee episode being filmed locally in 1971. Here we are just before going on. The Dalek didn't come in. There are steps! Some of the locals...

Managed to persuade our very own Beedster to part with his gorgeous Japanese fretless P bass. It's even more lush in the flesh.

As someone still part of such a metal scene, can confirm not a lot has changed in that regard!

Yesterday, I bought this rig. An Ashdown CTM-100 head in pristine condition and a quite rare CL-414H cabinet. For those not familiar with Ashdown reference system CL-414H means it's a 4x10" cabinet with a 4 Ohms load, an adjustable horn and it can handle ... 1050 Watts. 🤦🏻‍♂️ The seller was an ex Ashdown reseller and still have plenty of Ashdown gear... I tried the 3 all valves heads he had there: a CTM-100, a CTM-300 (which was what I thought I was going to buy) and a BTA-300, alongside the 2 cabs I was interested in, the CL-414H and the CL-810 (which was what I thought I was going to buy). The 8x10" was quite nice sounding, but impossible to put in the car (stupid Peugeot 508 trunk and it could not be put on the rear seats too) and sounded a bit too much 8x10", if you know what I mean, so with loads of these muddy mids à la Ampeg and a shy low end, typical 8x10". The two CTM heads were very close soundwise, but I preferred the more useable 100 Watts power of the CTM-100 and also its lack of fan, even if this very fan is on the quiet side. The BTA-300 was a bit of disappointment as it sounded sterile and artificial with the active EQ, quite dull, in fact. It surely is great as a studio amp, but lacks a real valve sound signature to me. The CTM-100 and CL-414H was the best combination as it's responding fast with all the low end missing in the 8x10" which is normal as the 4x10" is a true bass reflex model. I tried everything with my Baldman-Fender Jaco fretless and it sounded excellent, really the way I want, with all the growl and mwah needed. I disengaged all the buttons, the gain was around 30%, bass were at 10 o'clock, mids at 15 o'clock, treble at noon and master from 10% to full on, ... which was way too loud. The funny thing is that I went there to buy the CTM-300 and the CL-810, and because of the stupid trunk of my car, I decided to try that CL-414H and what a revelation, even my wife said it was sounding better, rounder and more defined. It's not a great idea to buy such things with a broken back, but it will not move from the house as I wanted to have a full valves head or combo at hand. So this rig ticks all the boxes. A happy player.

Some one owes Bees a lot of money for the intellectual property. That bankrupts it before it starts🤣

Only one of those is actually an input, that'll be the "Echo Return" socket. The remaining 3 are all output sockets. And only one way to know for sure: Try it out! You are not going to blow up the amp.

Elixir string tension chart nickel-plated bass strings: Elixir string tension chart stainless steel bass strings: String tension calculator, based on D'Addario strings: https://wahiduddin.net/calc/calc_guitar_tension_from_size.htm

Wrong bass thread I know but this is the beauty Earlpilanz made for me, it arrived today.

From the description: Surely a typo - abuse is spelled wrong

Well far east can range from £30 piles of rubbish to Japanese luthiers who make fodera look cheap and nasty so….

No he didn't? I am intrugued by these, are these a Far East jobby or do Nordstand build them? Assuming the former as they seem very keenly priced!

Here's a lawn that people can live in

I made one from 6082 first, but something happened and I had to make another. This time from Alumec-89, which is far harder than the previous Al, but very reasonable to machine. This still lacks colour (anodized black) and some finishing, but you get the idea. I didn't make those DBE slots, because there are lots of ordinary strings available.

I think the black, with tort scratch-plate, is my favourite of the colours these intriguing basses come in.

I have a Fusion S 800 which is a fantastic amp, lots of character from a tiny head. I've used with all sorts of cabs and even through the BF two10 I was pleasantly surprised how well it kept up. It has a great range from clean warm tones to gritty modern distortion. Hard amp to fault! Don't get to use it much because the guitarist in the new band has a VBA400 which just sounds incredible, even if it does need 2 people to carry it! In all honesty if it was just me I'd be opting to use the GK purely for convenience but that all tube sound is really hard to beat!

Aw considering the crap he comes out with, particularly about women, I thought he was very respectful with her as he gets schooled! Video link added:

In this case it looks to me like 3d printing gets you something that you could make just as easily from a chunk of wood... And if you are able to prepare the data, you could get that chunk machined by a business with a CNC router for not too much money.

Just got this sire Great Basses love the maple fingerboard 👌👌