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I’ve not written a new bass day post before but if I don’t do it for this bass I’ll never do it. I sold my flat at the end of 2022 and my partner and I are now renting somewhere together (i.e. a home that could house two people and bass gear) while we save for a new place together. I figured that this is probably the only time I’m likely to have the cash balance to justify acquiring my dream bass (even if only for a while) so I went for it. Shortly before Christmas, I was lucky enough to have my prayers/wanted ad answered by a kind member of this forum and acquired my holy grail bass: Please meet the newest member of the family, a beautiful Wal Mk III 5-string with shedua facings. It’s absolutely thunderous and everything I hoped it would be: the preamp is a dream, the B string has the smoothness of my Warwick Streamer’s mixed with the raw aggression of a Stingray, and the gorgeous tiger-esque facings seem to move in the light. I’m sure like many folks on here, I’m a big fan of Justin Chancellor’s playing with Tool (I tried quite hard to avoid saying I am a big Tool fan/fan of Tool there) and the preamp gets me in the tonal ballpark (my playing is miles away from his though, sadly). While not really on topic for the NBD post, I was lucky enough to bump into Justin Chancellor when Tool were in London last year. I was entirely starstruck and stunned into incapacitation for a short while before recovering my senses enough to ask him if he wouldn’t mind signing a wedding card I was carrying for my brother and his now wife as they met owing to a mutual Iove of the band. He was very gracious and my partner and I seem to take it in turns to wear my/her hoodie that he gave to me at the show. Anyway, back to the post… If you happen to see me posting basses and pedals in the classifieds over the next few months, this is the reason why. A big thanks to those that helped make this happen, particularly @dyerseve and @TrevorR. May you all get your holy grails in 2023!

TL/DR : I bought a bass. I have been on the hunt for a Warwick Buzzard 5 strings for a long time and finally bought one about a year ago. It took me a few months to realize I couldn't quite get used to it, the string spacing was too narrow. I finally traded it againt a Sandberg TM5, custom made for Fernando Mainer, bassist for the Spanish metal band Mägo de Oz. At first I din't quite like it, the neck was not an immediate match. But the sound, the wide array of tones that you can get out of this bass and the sheer coolness of the Hardcore Aged treatment, mixed with 10 years of professional playing made me stick to it. And I finally end up playing this bass a lot. To the point where I thought of ordering a custom made one. And, browsing through the wonderful ads we have in this Parrish, I stumbled accross this one, proposed by the great @Fettsman I've seen the bass for sale by the BassCenter, but missed it (and of course, being located in the distant and exotic country of France, transport and taxes just killed me) Intereste'd, I was. But needed to find a way to let this bass escape the UK to come to me. I have a few friends in London, but alas too far from the bass. Thanks to this wonderfull forum spirit, I was quickly helped by @walshy, that already used the service of a trusted "Man In A Van". I contacted Tim, the Man in the Van, that offered to deliver the bass directly to France at my door. The fee was not ininteresting, especially when factoring the taxes and VAT costs. So the bass traveled a bit through the UK, crossed the channel, traveled to the south of France, and then back in the NOrth where Tim The Man In The Van droppe dit at 2AM (yes, he kind of had a rough traffic and had to be on the Ferry at 7 in the morning so we managed a drop-off in my garage). And this morning, I experienced the only real annoyance of this transaction, as the pack Fettsman made was really difficult to open. 🙂 But then the bass was there, in my hands, still perfectly set up and IN TUNE 🙂 And then came the second annoying thing, I had to go to work so I'll play it tonight. I wanted to thank Fettsman, Walshy, and the very good spirit of this forum to make this happen. You already have photos in the ad so I'll post some more when I'm able to properly review this bass.

I've just sent Sue a photo of the Bash. Lovely picture of Norm smiling. Mrs Scrumpy.

A few years back I importedt an old '64 P bass in bits and in quite a sorry state. The previous owner had been able to afford a neck refinish from John Kallas (owner of JohnK Vintage Guitars who's built or restored some crazy amount of instruments over the years!). However, he ran out of money and offered it as a parts bass to get it finished. When he first bought it, the entire neck & body had been stripped back & finished some sort of horrible, slightly sticky to the touch, lacquer: Here's how it arrived to me in it's original, but totally knackered, case: I contacted a few people about refinishing the body but quotes were either really high or they didn't want to take it on given how nasty the existing finish was. Then, one day, I was chatting to my good friend, and local luthier, Julian Mullen. I mentioned that I wasn't sure what to do with this albatross and he took a look at it. He had actually closed the refinishing part of his business because it was too time consuming and a pain in the donkey to try and run a paint shop. He had a good look and confirmed that everything definitely appeared to be original and that the first colour would have been Olympic White as you can see the overspray in the pickup and wiring cutouts. He then said he had just one pack of genuine US nitro paint kicking around in his workshop and it just happened to be Olympic White - it then became a bit of a challenge for him and he decided to take it on. One of the first things he discovered, having stripped away the lacquer, was that the body was a little thinner than it should be for a '64 but that he could rebuild it up using a few more layers of paint than usual. This was no easy job as it required several coats of primer and nitro with full sanding down between each one. ules is something of a perfectionist and carried this out over a long period, making sure it was completely dry and ready between every coat. He then fitted all the parts that came with it, pickguard & pickups not show in the pic above. After all this work, this is how it looks now, I couldn't be happier: All pics taken on my phone so apologies for the quality. I've tried to show the true colour of the paint and this has darkened the board and guard a little. The guard is a lovely deep red tort and the board has some really nice dark grain running through it that almost looks like ebony (it will be brazilian rosewood). Hopefully you can see that the nitro is already checking nicely and the neck has begun to do this as well (the neck was refinned back in 2011 so it's had a good 10 years to 'catch up' with the body finish). It should now continue to age gracefully

I'd say very few bars and restaurants understand the business from our perspective. The Harley Motor blocks off special parking for bands, they greet you and drinks and meals are comped for the band. They get it. Blue

This is the clamp end of my Shuker custom. I mentioned to Jon about the sharp string ends issue (I cut mine as close to the clamp as possible) and when my bass went back for its service and refinish a while back, he redesigned the headstock clamp to have a brass end cap. It has cut outs for each of the string ends and posts so that the cap fits on snug. The nut Allen key is of course the same size as the ones for the clamps themselves. All very neat and tidy!

Been after one of these for ages, but every time one came up, I was either skint or needed something more urgently. But now, thanks to GuitarGuitar, I finally have one, and I must say, it has all the tones I had in my head. It's very easy to dial in Messiers Giblin, Thompson, Pino type sounds, and just as easy to make it sound like a "normal" bass. Obviously, the two magnetic pickup volumes and their active bass and treble eq, the Piezo volume and tone, make it a very, versatile bass with Mwah to die for. Construction is nice. All round and smooth, though because of the extended cutaway and finger (arm length, more like) board, I was playing one position up at first The only thing is now I'll probably get rid of my Ibby SRH500F even though it sounds more double bass-like, as We are now operating a "One in, One out" policy. So I've been told

First impressions are that it's very orange. Very orange, but I like it. Fit and finish is very good and while I need to set it up to my liking the action is not too bad. There's definitely an out of phase when the pickup blend is in the middle but a bit either side of middle is fine. I can't work out whether someone hasn't had a go at filing the nut a bit as although it's a nice height (for me) there was mere filings still attached to the slots but it soon easily cleaned up.

With a name like that I’d expect to find them in a bedroom draw 😂

How it started vs. how it's going...

Hi @Norris Anyway - this ^^ Fret pulling pincers have to be flat-ish shallow and sharp. So pretty much any budget set of end pincers, held closed and flattened/slimmed on a grinding wheel will do nicely. But why bother with that when you can get a pair already done from the excellent Chris Alsop web site for less than £12 https://www.chrisalsopguitar.co.uk/shop/guitar-tools/fret-pullers-and-fret-cutters Nut files have to be decent quality. I also use Hosco and have never regretted it.

It's also called " take the money and run " Blue

Got this today - I’ve been bass-curious about these since launch but was bit meh about colours. Anyways - I just noticed they’ve gone and put out my fave p combination- rosewood board, natural body with that neck. So instant trigger pull after an hour watching reviews. Now I see what the fuss is about. All necks should feel like this outta the box. Sweet and chunky but not baseball bat, smooth no sticky gloss pickups growl and seem pretty hot - need to check spec - body contour is sexy and bridge seems solid as are the heavy control knobs. Tuners are ok but probably wouldn’t swap them I wouldn’t say it’s a Fender killer - the Am Std I just sold was better but this reminds me if the 2018ish MIM FSR PB70 Reussue I had but with no sticky neck, better pups and half the price when you add £55 for la bellas to the £419 outlay If you’re looking for a P back up - I’d recommend this. Not had out loud yet but it’s a great deal - it feels much more premium than it’s price

Yes, I saw that one. Agreed that it's way too expensive and yet, and yet, and yet that's actually a far better price match for the quality of that bass than the piffling numbers they used to change hands for.

I can and still do for people who ask for the original Zoot bass shape. Not sure what was going on with Geentext and the neck situation, all I know is Mike Birch would have thrown it straight back at me if I made it like that, meaning someone has tried to do something and had the neck off and then not got it back on again properly. Oh well such is life and these things happen.

Nah, it's Garth

I bought it. If you are interested let me know.

If you're looking for a new best friend I'm sure that there are lots of willing candidates here. Nice bass.

Funnily enough I have a ToneX on its way too. Stepping aside from Bergantino for a moment. I was only reading a comment from a facebooker yesterday saying they owned the Helix Stomp for a matter of days and had to send it back because it was way too complicated. Pedals such as Super Pre could (for many) bridge the gap between a fully featured analogue pedal and the multi-effects market. (especially the top tier processors such as Helix, Quad Cortex and the axe effects). Yes, I understand the price point versus ToneX, but then Bergantino are no mass-produced factory brand and neither are the likes of Overwater, Barefaced and Tech 21. With that comes an understanding of the costs involved that have to be passed on. The preamp on B|Amp sounds awesome, it's brilliant, so Super Pre is going to make a lot of people's ears "smile" I am sure.

Sold a flat (in London?) to buy a bass. I applaud you - that is next level commitment to the gas! Nice bass though - definitely one to hold on to!

Have added Nottingham to the title. Hopefully it doesn't actually put people off!

er ...this thread started off as a full on rant ...let's keep it going ...i still think the mods at tb are a bunch of snowflakes and to hell with the consequences ...there i have said it.

Couple of pics from our biker rally gig on Sat night. I've already described the gig further up the thread.

Red looks Way better on a Rick than blue, purely IMHO of course..

Red cars go faster than blue cars…

With a bit more thought and effort Fender could probably make a half decent BB copy. 😉

Another band / album title right there...

Astonishingly quick service, I now have it in my grubby hands 26 hours after I ordered it.

I think that the cabs were discussed in passing along with the thread for the new amp I have linked below. However, I think that a new thread for just the cabs is fine considered this is Basschat and not a forum which requires all posters to do a detailed search before posting but then accuse posters of thread necromancy if the poster actually does that. Anyhoo, I haven't seen any of the cabs or the amp in person. I really wanted the 4x10 to be four ohms so I could use it with my old V6 which has a 2 or 4 ohm tap. They look cool, but they are pretty heavy for modern cabs and very expensive for a made in China product. Generally they up there with Mesa Boogie/Bergantino premium pricing in US and goodness knows what the eventual price will be in the UK.

We had a three-sunday-in-a-row residency. A combination of weather and no students saw us playing to handfuls of people. We still got paid, the bar staff loved us, as did the small quota of punters (several of them bought merch!) Can't have blamed us as on their recommendation we got booked at another branch of the chain and played to an almost full room.

EHX switchblade pro. I got one for exactly this and it is killer.

One mod in particular needs the stick removing from his back passage. Zero appreciation for the British sense of humour. Cannot distinguish nastiness from good natured ribbing, lets fly with the ban hammer. F that noise. Nice to be here.

I have one on the way right now for a full video review, (expect nothing less from me!) so, keep ya eyes peeled!

So glad it worked out! Enjoy! That is a stunning piece of shedua - well, two stunning pieces, front and back. Shedua used to be one of the standard wood options included in the base price but a few years ago Paul changed it to an upcharge - using zebrano as a standard facing instead. The reason was that good flamed pieces were becoming harder to find and he didn’t want to offer the bog standard plain tops. But the upside is that, since it’s an extra charge he now only sources really special, super funky looking, high quality pieces - like you’ve got on yours. And yes, as the angle of the light changes the flame does move. It’s quite a stunning effect and absolutely gorgeous without being blousy like, say, a PRS-style quilted maple. Gorgeous, gorgeous bass. Enjoy exploring the tones you can get from that preamp!

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Good lord - the chatoyance of that shedua! 😲😍 Absolutely gorgeous; a grail bass if ever there was one. Makes me pine for my old one. Congratulations!

I have just watched last night’s church service back. I had the 1st 2 paragraphs in mind - minus the Quo bit as I tend to do my wandering in the direction of the drummer (we didn’t have one last night and the guitarist was also the lead vocal). Looking at the video, it seemed to work. Thank you. (I hope the missus didn’t clock the bit about doing stuff round the house though - unintended consequences and all that😁). Age wise I’m a (relatively) fit 55, but not fit enough that I fancy trusting my hamstrings to an on stage pogo - or a “Shadows shuffle” for that matter.

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.

I've had this too, we did a pub type thing, ( it was geared up for bands so not a one off) and literally one guy turned up, he'd heard us before and came specifically to see us bless him.. We gave him a millionaire style private show, requests and all, and had a drink with him afterwards of course. We did get ( albeit grudgingly) paid by the rather surly landlord, but hey they shoulda' advertised it better...