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The very first NBD I've ever posted! So, I got a new shiny today. 😊 It was bought for a project I'm working on (more about this will for certain be posted about here at a later date), then I realised I could actually do something else that I have been thinking about for a very long time, so it's now a two project item. The neck is much much nicer than I expected it to be. It's lovely to play. I haven't changed the strings yet to my preferred flatwounds. So here it is, my new (to me) Ashdown Lodestone Primal Artist 5-String … See the full album over on Flickr. Mark

I had a message from the owner of the Rick...the bass has been returned to a lost property office and she has collected the bass. All is well and she is happy to have the bass back.

So I woke up early and thought why don’t I make a 400 mile round trip up to Glasgow to go see the Reverend bass collection at Merchant City Music - I may have a problem - I’m selling most of my basses but keep seeing the buzz and Reverend - and had day free so hey. Anyway tried the Decision P which was ok - neck was alright but i can’t get over the extra offsetness of the bodies. Next I tried the Triad and it had 2 really really nice pickup options out of the 5 - the bridge pick up was thin but the neck and middle together was great. But the aesthetics are not for me. Whilst I was there, the staff were attentive but also let you get in with it. So I tried some more options- JMJ Mustang - yep good 👍 Nate Mendel P - awful set up and just wasn’t feeling it - FGN Jazz - didn’t note model about about £600 - very great playing neck - sounds good but not for me - then the Gold Foil Fender Jazz - WTF is going on with MIM Fender? The neck felt awful- £1300 to feel fret edges under binding - it just felt not worth it. Then at more than 6 times cheaper the SX P £200 - great neck - the pups had less output - but some good pickups and maybe bridge upgrade/ tuners could be a really useful back up. I stupidly didn’t have a go of the anniversary 4005 Ric- can’t afford it anyway. Had quick drive round the city then drive home £60 petrol and no bass bought but tempted to get an SX and upgrade it

Just don't make the same mistake as this bumbling idiot.

I've just had the Monaco cab on the last leg of its UK tour. For most of the gigs my band does, our instruments do not go into the PA - so a great onstage sound quality is essential. We're a blues-rock four piece, and my regular gigging rig is a Fender Bassman 500 into a Fender Neo 1x15. The only pedal I use is an always-on HPF. I didn't gig the Monaco while I had it on trial but did run it at gig volume for a three hour rehearsal. While I'm very happy with my Fender rig as it sounds and looks great, when the opportunity came to try something different / state-of-the-art I was very interested to explore possible differences. And differ it did, the Bassman through the Monaco was different to the Neo - cleaner, smoother and more even through the frequencies, and very articulate/sensitive, with the amp on the 'vintage' channel and eq set flat. Tweeking the eq from flat as the rehearsal progressed, I ended up with only a very slight bass boost, mid and treble staying flat. Hearing my sound through a neutral speaker made me think the Bassman is a really great amp, it pushes out such a lovely, warm & laid back sound. It was an interesting experiment to pair it with a very high quality 'neutral / reference' speaker, so the 'sound' only is created by the bass, my technique & the amp. One less item in the chain to contribute to confusing differences! In fact, it made me think what role a cab plays in creating a manufacturers' 'signature sound'? If I was in the market to downsize my gear I would definitely consider getting a Monaco. But I like the physical appearance of Fender gear (does any manufacturer's kit look better?), I think it is important how the stage looks and Fender gear has real presence. I'd say the Monaco sounds close to perfect, meaning to me that it pumps out pure, even and uncoloured sound, and should be a perfect platform to shape your sound to your spec with the amp and pedals if the natural character of the intended cab is not doing it. Also, it is a one-hand lift and I don't think you'd need a second cab for the average pub gig as it seemed to handle volume OK, so two more plusses there. I think it has been a great idea from the company to let a cab do the rounds on trial and I hope they get good publicity and sales as a result.

First a photo from Friday night's gig at the Fulford Arms in York: There should be some better photos up soon. There's also some pretty good videos but unfortunately they are embedded into Facebook so I can't repost them here :-((

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway - Genesis

Is that kinda the founding ethos of Fender guitars, though? They were designed to be mass produced as quickly and cheaply as possible by unskilled labour. They were workhorse instruments, made for the masses with replaceable parts (indeed, part of the reason behind the bolt on neck). It's only more recent times that people are convinced vintage fender instruments have some kind of mystical mojo. At the time, they were just mass produced instruments.

Last night (Saturday) we were in the somewhat misleadingly named Acoustic Couch in Bracknell for the final gig of this mini tour. Anyone expecting a small intimate venue showcasing sensitive souls with acoustic guitars will probably be disappointed. It's a massive space underneath a multi-story carpark, with a good sized stage and big PA and lighting rig. Probably the largest venue we played on the tour. Didn't really know what the expect and were very pleasantly surprised. Good sound on stage (and FoH so we were told) although our tour support band Gothzilla struggled to hear their backing and it was somewhat swamped by the guitars FoH on many of the songs. Still they managed to put on a good show. Like York there were people dancing from the first number even though it wasn't a predominantly goth audience, and apparently afterwards we sold all of Anthology CDs we had brought with us. Only photo I've found of the evening so far: In Isolation will be back in Nottingham on 29th April supporting Autobahn at The Chameleon, and my other band Hurtsfall are opening the Goth Friday event at the same venue this coming Friday.

Starting to suspect the BFR and FCS instruments exist purely to make the prices of the standard offerings of EBMM and Fender seem reasonable 😡

Got this a few ago ,a used Harley Benton MV4 Gotoh jazz.Never owned a bass since last year I wanted a cheap jazz just to mess about on in the house,very impressed.

Ha ha. They thought they’d stolen a decent bass and were disappointed to find out it was a Rickenbacker 😂. (it’s a joke - I own one myself)

FIFY

Was in studio all weekend laying down tracks. Used it almost exclusively. Did one trackwith my jazz. Producer loved it. Used mainly the mudbucker but dialled in the MM/j combo on a track or two.

I’m a bit late on this one but I’ve got La Bella low tension flats on both my acoustic basses and the sound sweet to my ears. Mellower sounding than the Fender flats I used to use.

Your pedals will only take what it needs, so if it needs 30ma it will only draw that much, it could be plugged into a 1000ma supply wouldn’t matter.

I'm guessing no Thunderguns?

I’ve noted a few discussions lately on the Squier Classic Vibe 50’s P-bass, so I thought I’d post my mods to one that I did a while back - at least a couple of years ago. I’ve always had a fascination about Chris Squire’s modded Telecaster bass - since seeing that picture on the little booklet that came with the Fragile album. When the Squier CV’s first came out I thought to myself - hmmm, you could do a nice “Squire” modded version to one of those. So, the first thing I was going to do was to add another pickup at the bridge position - then things went a little bit crazy. Seeing as it is an “inspired by” rather than a clone I thought - what about a humbucker in the neck position ? A mudbucker would take up too much space, what about something alternative - how about a Ricky, given the Squire connection. After a bit of rummaging around the internet I came across Creamery pickups in Manchester. As it turned out, as well as a toaster, I ended getting a set of 52-Pbass pickups too - Alnico 2 for the middle and an alnico 5 for the bridge. A three hole telecaster control plate was bought which needed a little bit more routing of the existing cavity so that the concentric pots fitted. A Jazz Bass pickup cover was used to cover the bridge pickup. In a final bout of madness I got the luthier who did the work to add the “Squire” decal. How does it sound ? Well, the middle pickup has a lot of that early 50’s sound - great attack and definition. Maybe not as much weight as a 57-Pbass but has some nicely judged mids. The bridge, having alnico 5’s is quite aggressive but not thin and nasty. I think if you like Jean Jacques Burnel’s sound you’d like this bass. The toaster has less mids than the P-bass pickups but has a bigger bottom. With all three turned on it sounds almost active ! So, all in all very pleased with the way it turned out. Going forward I might be tempted to sand down the back of the neck for a more satin feel and get a bone nut installed. I really do like the smaller body shape on these basses - very comfortable. Sorry for my ramblings - hope you enjoy !

MC 824.

Yep, pick and place machines for SMT parts at vendors like JLCPCB have made that a quick, easy, and often very cheap alternative by now. Au contraire, I do it all the time and have been for over a decade. There's excellent free circuit design and PCB layout software available these days and I can start a design from scratch today and have a finished build by the end of next week very economically, no problem.

I know a guy here in the states, left his Rick in the back seat of his car. When he got back to his car, he saw the back window had been broken. As he approached the car, he saw in the back seat two Ricks.

I use La Bella black tapewounds and my two basses, fretted and fretless. Like Paus says, expensive but entirely possible a set will last you decades.

I have the same problem,but I noticed it only occurs when I wear teeshirts, not shirts with collars. There is a seam running across my shoulder with a teeshirt, but the yoke on a collared shirt moves the seam elsewhere, so I wear a pad under the teeshirt and the problem has disappeared. Hope this helps. David

Bloody lucky to get that back..

Well done you. You tried your best to help - very commendable.

Fortunately the fates have allowed me to buy a replacement ABM from @walshy (with more than a little help from @merton who is proving himself to be a saint) so hopefully all is well.

Y'see, this is why they invented the 5-string bass ... 😂

Good enough for this guy

A forest - The Cure

I've no doubt that it is! 😀

This. Worth or value is predicated by how much people are willing to pay. How much they are willing to pay is governed primarily by desirability. Quality plays a part in determining that, but so do scarcity, the "right" label, appearance and so on.

The other thing that surprises me at the price point, is that the decent set of strings they come with, which at this price represents a fair percentage of the overall price!

I like it, too. But that tort plate has to go, and a BWB one in its place! Alnico pups, too. And stainless steel frets!

Stumbled across this recently... YYNOT are an American band, they do a lot of Rush stuff but mainly originals, and this is one. The bass is phenomenal.

Here are my basses having a rest on the settee. (Edit)forgot to mention sofa is a 2009 black leather model from dame hannah rogers charity shop, mods are i have raised it on some bricks to make seated playing more comfortable for me.

Brought the ToneMonster into the studio this weekend. Got 4 tracks recorded. That alone is worth the work i put into it. sounded absolutely unreal. Played so well it was inspiring. It's not going to win any beauty contests and it's too heavy to play a full show with, but as a studio tool it is just amazing... I took a break and recorded a 10 minute effects wankathon with it. Will i post it or too indulgent? You dont really get the tone as it's mostly heavy effects.

As it stayed a bit too wet and humid to think about doing any paint spraying in my garage, I decided to finish of the fret job and do the levelling. Fret board protected Levelling in progress after truss rod tweaked to get the board as flat as possible Levelling and polishing done. Unfortunately, when I took the tape off the fretboard, it pulled out part of one of the dot markers. One was already partly missing on 3rd fret. I have a matching marker now on the 5th fret. More shopping to do now I guess and another job to do...

Just got in from a gig with the punk covers band that I play guitar for. Was good tho sparsely populated, but those in the pub enjoyed it. Had the inevitable continual request for something we don’t do, Arctic Monkeys this time, which then changed to Irish music. Ah yes we can help there, and proceeded to play Suspect Device by Stiff Little Fingers. Said requester not happy, you just can’t please some people!

This is my favorite bass - If any one buys this one , i salute you!