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Tonight's little set up

On ebay at the moment, Oxford collect only. Currently £93 !! (OK, it'll rise but how far). Also on ebay at the mo, another '84 Westone Thunder fretless, 1200. One of these 2 is worth a look. here's the fretted 100 quid one

Tonight Friday 17th March BBC 4 9.00pm Phil Lynott - Songs For While I’m Away The story of his life. 10.30pm Thin Lizzy - Sight & Sound in Concert Archive concert highlights from the Regal Theatre, Hitchin.

Shout out to Dave and Chris at Ashdown for the amazing customer service I have recieved this week. I bought a secondhand LB30 head and LB112 cab quite a few years ago and shortly after owning it, it developed an issue where by the amp sounded like static/white noise when the amp was on with or without a bass guitar attached. I kept hold of the rig and thought I would get round to getting it fixed, but you know life gets in the way. I messaged Ashdown a couple of weeks ago and Dave Green responded back to say to give them a call and arrange to bring the head in to be looked at. When I called, Dave said that the head could be brought in anytime, he then realised that Chris lived very close to me so suggested that rather than I bring it in I could drop it off with him to bring in. I dropped the head of with Chris last Saturday, it got into Ashdown on Tuesday and I got a call from Chris on Wednesday to say that its been fixed. Previous owner had swapped in a couple of substand valves for some reason and this was the cause of the sound quality issue. The valves were swapped out and the head given a clean bill of health. Picked up the amp from Chris last night and a quick collection became a decent half hour chinwag. I really cannot fault the service, its great in this day and age for a company to go above and beyond to look after customers like this.

I'm out, managed a whole week more than last year. This cost me £80 as Gear4Music B-stock, it's now repaired and am quite happy with it, looks way better than the website pics. https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/RedSub-Coliseum-Fanned-Fret-5-String-Bass-Blue-Burl-Burst/31J3?_gl=1*j1qqvl*_ga*MTQyMjAyMDYwMi4xNjc5MDU3MjIy*_up*MQ..

Just as an aside, here's some shots of my own JMJ . . . I'm constantly astonished by how something so 'simple' can utterly change the vibe. Taste is subjective, & it's horses for courses of course, but each to their own & long may we be able to express ourselves freely eh 🙌 Cheers all T

Hi again. FINALLY I have results..so: 1.THE BENT TUNER - I immediately gave up to write to RIC - overseas customers mean NOTHING to them..I wrote to Schaller, quite nice people, quick responding.They sell the tuner here: https://schaller.info/en/machine-heads/287/bass-bm?number=10250401.26.71&c=53 Firstly I tried to strighten the original tuner by myslef.I used "bench vise?" to strighten it.I did it simply..Fixed the "wing" in it and strightened the "leg" with hand...slowly and carefully.I posted a photo. 2.THE FOAM-I cut it "longwise?".Now it no longer touches the strings.Anyway I don t need it at all.. BTW I don't understand WHY is metal plate bent...See photo.It causes the foam muted the strings. 3.Thank you for truss rod adjusting advices.I adjusted only slightly 1/6 of a round and after 3 hours another 1/6 of a round.On another day I put the strings. I am adding 3 photos and 2 videos that I made and uploaded on YT. I THANK YOU ALL FOR THE ADVICES AND VERY NICE COMMNETS.Jan

What The Fůćk Have I Bought Bass Day So Bloody Gumtree,again!.. Cheap 'n Local-ish and dodgy add pics... No Name? Hour later i'm picking it up on the bike with a Rucksack Gig Bag... Looks like some one... or some thing, has set about the headstock! unless someone knows otherwise? As I've been on Ibby SR's and Jazz Necks... this thing feels huge! so much so i'm wondering if it was a 5 modded to a 4... 43 at the nut, 44 at the fretboard end and something like 68 at the back of the pocket, and wearing big thick black flat or tapes - black silks... could it be those Mahoosive Roto Tru Bass? Neck looks like it is a fretless conversion having had the frets removed as the dots are between the lines. Very flat fretboard. Body was covered in stickers so White Spirit and GT85... only distinguishing mark is the 'Tonic' logo between the pickups, Screen Printed or Decal, not a sticker. Had some emery cloth in the neck pocket as a shim removed this and tidied the over paint at the edge of the pocket, hoping one will cancel the other.... Youngest has been playing a bit of Guitar (as well as his fretless bass) and was asking about a fretless guitar, so we were talking about slide. As the action is a little high, with the neck width and monster strings, think this is gonna be a Lap Slide Bass, with a Behringer BDI for some drive and a Wah-Wah... Fun afternoon project for £20! Need some push on knobs...

This night I do an amp battle!! test A/B Jad@Freer stack (sisma head and two 1x12) VS aguilar db750 and Bergantino HDN210

THE BLODDY VLE AND VPF IS TO HIGH. NOT ALOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT!!! I had literally just walked through door and plugged in so hadn’t even looked at the set up lol thanks for pointing it out tho.

Andrew has just sent me a photo of my Roadie Active :-

The frets were all parallel. ...

A good example. Xmax of the Greenback, and for that matter most guitar drivers, is very short. The result is high distortion at moderate power levels. This relates to us in the form of the original 1969 SVT. It was loaded with short xmax musical instrument drivers, as there were no long xmax tens in 1969. Even eight of them couldn't run clean with the 300w SVT head. The cabs were rated at 240w thermal, while the mechanical capacity was at best 120w. That's why those who could afford them used the Ampeg recommended two cabs.

Added these too: Would be good to be able to switch off the option which sends out the previously-detected note before the new pitch has been detected. It’s very useful for lots of uses but it would be good to be able to disable/set it on a per patch basis. Would also be good to have this accessible via the top panel and via dedicated MIDI command so that behaviour can be set quickly according to the user’s immediate needs. While we’re here, if there’s scope, adding a third (user-assignable) footswitch might be cool. Perhaps at a raised height in Y and/or Z axis to aid access/avoid accidental presses of the existing switches. Also, a pitch CV with +/- octave offset of at least up to to two octaves. Could be tied to the input signal. Or could be slaved to one of the FI oscillators as that would make the pitch more stable (taking advantage of the pitch locking). Also, would a stereo audio output jack be possible? Could then have some oscillator/dry signal panning options added in software. Would also allow for the delay and chorus effects to be made stereo! Could even have a pseudo layer detune between the stereo outs (there is a user on the Facebook group who has created something which does this). Maybe even a stereo input so that you could have a sidechain function added to the envelope triggering. These could be TRS single jacks or stereo pairs of TRS jacks if possible.

I prefer the original chip. The sound is warmer than the new one will be. It enables me to express my innermost feelings more succinctly.

FWIW these were some of my suggestions (I have many others that I have submitted over the course of the last rounds of development): Biggest improvement from a circuit point of view would be to add a class-compliant USB port (C or mini-B) to remove the need for an interface for updates and connection to the editor. As for CV, if there is a way to direct the envelopes to the CV port so that they could be used to control the expression/CV input of an analogue filter pedal, this would be a HUGE improvement that would create something I’ve been asking pedal manufacturers to make for ages. This would also strengthen the case for having amp envelope be made a Flexi mod source. Would there be any scope to add more hardware knobs or more options to the existing parameter dial? (Could be done by having more “notches” on the dial, or by combing the dial with one or more button that switch what options the dial controls. Having top-level access to, say, the individual envelope stages would be most welcome for users that don’t use the editor. There are quite a few fleshed-out ideas that I’ve already shared in our communal Trello board and via emails for improvements on the software side (such as my ideas for having access to all 128 values for the on-pedal parameter knob, increased oscillator resolution, etc) so would be good to revisit those. Would phantom power on the MIDI port also be a possibility? Any scope to have an on-pedal expression port? Perhaps integrating what you did with the 4Control into the pedal housing (could solve the USB thing too, but would need to be possible to do all updates without recourse to any external interface). An OLED screen update showing patch names wouldn’t be a bad thing either. Not sure I’d this is a hardware limitation, if so, this would be a good time to redesign this aspect - have note-on level and note-off level control be a per-preset setting as opposed to only global. (An optional global override of the per-preset setting would still be a good idea too.) For an eventual CV on the MIDI port, the adapter would need to be designed such that it still allows the MIDI out port to be used. So it should have three output wires - the two CV ones plus a standard 5-pin female MIDI out. In software, would be great if one can choose what gets sent out over the CV - one could then use envelopes, LFOs or whatever needed. Probably a per-preset thing.

The pitch detection thing is a software thing, but yes, I’ll be pushing again to have that be an option at preset level, though I don’t know how much software updating he’s up for doing.

3.5" wide padded leather Maruszczyk item, won as a raffle prize at the South West Bass Bash a few years ago. It's starting to get that gorgeous beaten-up patina you get with brown leather sofas, flying jackets, etc. First time I used it, the dark brown padded inner left a massive big brown stripe right across the white t-shirt I'd been daft enough to wear. I gave it (the strap) a good scrub with some leather cleaner and got rid of the rest of the excess dye and it's been harmless ever since.

It's sitting on my bench at the moment. Paint stripped and various odd holes under the paint being dealt with...

Wánker! ～ The Darkness

Went for this in the end.

For the uninitiated, the original Mutron III pedal, launched in 1972, has been seen by many as the ultimate envelope filter for a range of instruments, not least the Bass guitar. It's design, robust build and new sound meant that it became widely used on seminal recordings by artists such as Stevie Wonder and Bootsy Collins. Wikipedia does a better job of explaining why this legendary pedal has such a following. I bought one a few years ago, serviced by Soundgas in Sheffield. I made sure I could return it if I wanted to, as I expected to find, as with many other 'super hyped' pedals that I've had over the years, that the reputation has entered the mythical realm that the pedal itself can't back up. I'm happy to say that I was wrong, and the filter is the most greasy, wobbly and liquid of them all. It looks and feels fantastic and although expensive, it's probably not going to nosedive in value. It's partly due to this religious following by sometimes perhaps overzealous owners that the version which was released by Has Labs in the 90s (unsure of exact date) has been widely regarded as inferior and often downright hated by those who felt that the filter not only didn't compare audibly with the Musitronics version, but also because of the way it came about - Haz jumped in and copied the Musitronics design because they didn't protect their IP properly, and there was bad blood between the two companies over this. I read somewhere that the designer (Mike Beigel) has recently chilled out about it a bit but I het the feeling that just a mention of the name will send him into a destructive spiral of rage. I wanted to see if this reputation is deserved, and putting corporate fallout and in fighting to one side, judge them based on their sound alone. Although there are lots of threads around where people are asking for comparisons, actual A/B tests are thin on the ground. Most testimonials are based on hazy memories and preconceptions; people are even piling on negativity about the Haz despite not having tried one, or a Musitronics either. To my mind, the downsides of the Musitronics design is the bypass, which is a little bit lossy, and the fact that the gain is coupled to the output volume, so for example a lower output bass either needs boosting before it enters the Mutron or you turn up the gain which will result in a volume increase. This is the case when bypassed as well, which can give some interesting effects, but if you want to bypass the pedal in a loop it isn't convenient to jump above unity gain. It's not actually a problem with my instruments particularly, but I see how it could be for some. The Haz has several 'improvements' - or evil changes to the original holy design depending on your POV. I think either Haz or someone else claimed that the circuit was 'exactly the same' as the Musitronics, which it absolutely isn't - being digital instead of analogue for one. But is that a bad thing? Actually some of the differences give some improvements, on paper. First you have a good bypass. Secondly you have a depth control in place of the gain, and a battery level indicator which can also function as a peak indicator. I'm really happy with digital or analogue gear. The hub of my whole setup is digital so everything gets converted to 1 and 0 anyway. If it sounds good, it sounds good. The Haz has some really useful DIP switches inside which give lots of options over the range of the filter, the peak of the sweep and so on (see attached manual). I'm getting used to the Haz and I haven't started fiddling with the switches yet, but this morning I gave it a quick blast in my favourite setting (high range, sweep up) and I have to say I was mightily impressed. Whilst I own most of the other filters that come out to emulate the Mutron (AF9, Qtron+ etc) this game me that sound right away, with plenty of range either side of the dial to further explore. I'll do more comparisons over the next few weeks, maybe a video - and add my thoughts here. Cheers ped

Is this the bit where we can openly talk about Barclay James Harvest? Les Holroyd was my hero when I was 14.

Much like @Dad3353 mine is a hollow bodied 6 string. A no-name Japanese copy of the Gibson Barney Kessel guitar. Very much like this Shaftesbury - probably from the same factory. I can even forgive it the sunburst finish!

Many, too many. But this always haunts me: Classy bass, indestructible, shed load of tone on tap, best fret board I’ve played, blah blah. Sold it to buy something shiny that got moved on quicker than a Tory prime minister’s term in office.

Not a bass, but my very first electric guitar, a Hofner Thin President E2, Florentine cutaway, just like this one... I've been looking for one like it for over half a century, to no avail. The stupidity of youth.

I've got an un-named and un-marked 4" strap of fairly thin plain leather that I bought 15 years ago. The leather is really soft and flexible if a bit smelly from all the sweat it has absorbed over the years. Apart from the softness and flexibility of the leather there is nothing at all exceptional about it except that it is the most comfortable strap ever and has long ago moulded itself to my shoulder. I've never found a replacement as everything else is either padded or made of super stiff leather. I've wondered about looking to see if I can get something made up, in deepest Somerset we have a lot of saddlers so finding someone shouldn't be difficult, anyone else tried this? Option two is to invent a gift from a now dead relative and a sob story about feeling them looking over my shoulder every time I gig so Susie on The repair shop makes me something

Koffee, Lonely

No, it's just daft.

... and sod the abstinence if there's something that gives you a Birthday Buzz.

I used to run a Marshall JMP1 valve pre-amp into the effects return of my Laney Richter 7 to bypass the Laney's pre-amp. The band I was in played rock and blues and it gave me a nice gritty sound. The JMP 1 has 99 memory slots and a midi interface enabling me to change settings - I used this mainly to vary the level of the effects in the loop. Later, I added a Zoom rack multi FX unit and had this under midi control too. Very versatile but it was all getting too heavy to cart around (as I'd got myself a hernia) I retired it in favour of a TCE BAM200 and a couple of pedals. Recently I've been using an Eden Glowplug in the board which warms the sound up and is last in line before the amp. I don't like the sound of the Eden overdriven, but just before it begins to break up is a nice tone that I leave on all the time. It's a bit of a nuisance having to use a second power supply for the 15v it requires. Before writing this reply, I went and dug out the JMP 1 and I'll be playing around with that this morning.

I think I might call my next band "plus support" I reckon we could get a good few gigs out of that...

Interesting announcement from Andras of Panda on TB today: Dear Friends, In the last time there were very few posts here. No wonder, there was not much news to discuss. Now, by the end of this year there comes the most important news since the original release: the hardware will be redesigned. This is necessary, since the manufacturer of the audio codec chip (the chip that converts audio to digital and back) stopped production of this chip, the current hardware cannot be produced anymore. So, I will have to redesign the circuit. Redesign and production of the new series must be ready before the limited stock that we have from the current design will be sold out. This makes it possible to make some changes based on the experience that we collected. We always appreciated very much ideas and suggestions that we got from visitors of this forum. Gabor reported me several times that potential customers asked for the possibility of 1Volt/Octave CV and Gate output. True, in the last years modular analog synthesizers have a great revival. You can drive them from keyboards or different sources, but not from bass or guitar. I was thinking about this. With relatively low additional costs it would be possible to include this feature optionally in the new FI. “Optionally” means that the circuit board would be designed for the additional CV/Gate possibility, and the necessary components for this option would not be assembled for the majority, but a smaller portion of the production would have this feature for some extra price. While the box was not designed with this option in mind, the following layout would be possible: CV and Gate would be connected to the two empty pins of the MIDI OUT socket, and we provide a Y jumper cable from the DIN plug to two mini TRS sockets to connect to a modular synthesizer. What do you think about this? Any ideas? Andras Szalay

Post deleted due to embarassment lol.

Wow....That was one of the nicest compliments I have ever recieved....Thank you so very much...That made my day

😎