Leaderboard

Out of the box, it’s a really lovely thing. Actually nicely set up, I assume by Andertons QC, it play’s really nice…. the nut is cut a bit high, but that’s easily fixed, and I already have a set of Gotoh tuners here, but the rest will stay stock. I’ll post some opinions on sound later

Purchased from Danny at Bass Japan Direct and waylaid in Germany due to labour strikes, this arrived safe and sound on my doorstep this morning. It's all original and the date is a close approximation, as with these sorts of instruments. It's somewhere between 83-85 based on the serial number. Small amount of setup required given it's week and change trotting the globe, and the low E intonation took some dialing in, but playing beautifully now at 1.75mm (as is my preference) and the pickups sound superb. It's perhaps a little difficult to spot in the photos, but there's a lovely sun tan effect that's happened on the headstock and neck, sending the white into a more cream colour. Definitely got the played-in feel that you'd expect something pushing 40 to have. I'm mostly just sad at how played-in I feel at only 30 😂

I've just had a preliminary noodle after inspecting for any marks or holes. It's really very good indeed. Set up to my tastes and in tune out of the box, it plays like a dream. I don't worry myself about the weight of instruments, so have not the means to scientifically measure this aspect. However, it feels about the same as my HB Enhanced Jazz. Too heavy for some of you, no doubt. I have to say that the balance is perfect, and with a wide strap it felt fine to me. The versatility of sound is the first thing I noticed. With the pick up selector in the middle and tone similarly set to neutral we have a pleasant middley kind of sound. Not nasal, warmer than that, but the kind of noise which is nicely audible in most band situations. Just nudge it towards the P pup and hang on tight - this beast can roar. It's a really powerful, and rounded Precision sound, fair leaps out at you. Dial it back to the MM pup and you have that classic funky freshness. Lighter, jaunty and altogether more musical. The active treble and bass controls are responsive and very hot. This needs to go into the active input unless you really want to drive the gain stage. The most important thing is of course how it looks. It's bloody gorgeous. Firemist is a wonderful marketing term for the deep golden copper colour. The black binding and pickguard compliment it in quite a classy way - but that is purely subjective. As the kids say, your mileage etc etc. The neck is a lovely hunk of wood, and the whole ensemble looks and feels good to me. This concludes my first impressions.

Loving the colour and the feel. Really impressed with this. I tried one in a shop ages ago and wasn't impressed but the feel of the neck, tuners and the overall quality of finish has really impressed me so far. Once the kids are asleep will get it through the amp!

I’ve been playing 40yrs, and I’ve lost count of how many hundreds of basses and guitars have passed through Rayman towers in that time. This… is the first brand new bass I’ve bought…..

Jealous! I've always wanted a Fragile.

*Ahem*

My bass does sound like that, just not with me playing it 😁

Get some Liquid Threadlock. It's a lower powered glue designed for keeping nuts / bolts done up but not preventing them from being purposely undone with the right tools.

Here she goes again! I've built a couple of DIY MIDI Foot controllers in the past, sadly now resigned to a slag of melted bits due to my fire. The time has come ... to build another! I've 'sorta' settled (at least as much as anyone can) on a pedalboard setup. A MOD Dwarf is at the heart, an insanely powerful audio processer providing multi-fx, audio synth, IR and AI Neural modelling. I've an expression pedal for those ... times! And some bits and bobs to link these elements together. I initally had a setup with a MVave Foot Controller, a very cost effective device, nice and small ... but not very sophisticated in MIDI configurability ... thus Trampa v3. This diary is to share my progress, seek ideas and feedback and keep a record of my progress. Features: Four footswitches (due to pedalboard size constraints) , each with a scribblestrip display so I know which does what. Expression pedal with TRS input (Which will be translated to MIDI). USB to connect to my Dwarf (To carry MIDI and supply power). Ultra flexible MIDI configuration (Think Morningstar!) eventually via a web based editor. Inexpensive - Totaly hardware costs are likely to be under £50. This is my current prototype (A bit Heath Robinson at present as my 3D printer is not yet operational). Once operational I will look to getting a more ... robust ... enclosure sorted. Warning - Geekspeak ahead Hardware: Raspberry PICO W microcontroller. Cheap, powerful, readily available and with WiFi connectivity. 4 OLED SSD1306,I2C Displays (driven using a TCA9548A I2C Multiplexer) 1 Adafruit 24LC32 I2C EEPROM (For holding configuration data) Switches, wires, housing, etc Software: I started off using platformio/c++ to prove out the concept; this allowed multiple displays (with scrolling), button action detection (Tap, Double Tap, Long Tap, Repeat and multiple button tap), expression pedal reading (With automatic calibration, this converts the pedal position to a MIDI CC message)and MIDI messaging over USB. All these basic elements worked, but performance/responsiveness was poor when I started to use them all together, as a result I've switched to using the PICO C++ SDK, heavier lifting ... but it is very fast and also allows me to more readily use both input interrupts and multicore (The PICO has two cores) to ensure this wee beast will run like lighting. Operation: Press a footswitch and it will send MIDI message(s), release the footswitch and it will send MIDI message(s) (This is the toggle mode). Tap, Double Tap or Long Tap a footswitch and it will send ... MIDI message(s). Press the left or right pair of footswitches and it will shift banks (A Trampa bank is a set of MIDI messages assigned to each footswitch and the info that will be displayed on the scribblestrip). The ultimate goal is to have all configuration carried out using a web browser connected over WiFi. My aim is to have a tightly integrated setup between my Dwarf and Trampa. The Dwarf has the ability to use its footswitches to select a pedalboard (a configuration of plugins and interconnections) or snapshots (A set of parameter setting for a particular pedalboard) and it is possible to get it to send a MIDI message when this happens, this MIDI message will be recognised by Trampa and used to select the Trampa bank appropriate to the pedalboard/snapshot, for example if I load a pedalboard with a looper, Trampa will be configured to load (among other things) a looper configuration bank. Conversely, Trampa will be able to send MIDI messages to select pedalboard/snapshots on the Dwarf. Whilst aimed at my Dwarf, Trampa should be suitable for any MIDI controlled system. More developments as they occur. S'manth x

Spector fans, here is a very nice 2003 Spector Euro in Amber. Excellent condition and a good price too. Can someone please buy it before I break my "selling is the new buying" mantra? 😉 Here is the link (not my bass and no affiliation): https://www.andybaxterbass.com/collections/bass-guitars/products/2003-spector-euro-4-amber

Just leave Lizzy to slow their own versions down, here is a classic example.

4th coat.

I have a Kimbara Ripper. It's definitely above average build quality wise for the time and it's not overly heavy, big body but not very thick. It plays really nicely with that comfy, worn in feel that you don't get with a new bass. That may be physical but may equally be psychological. Mojo eh?

Nothing else matters taliker

I just took my board to a gig in Leicester without any other backline other than an old trace Elliot 1x15/12? house combo. I sent my post DI to the FOH, the output to the Effects Loop return of the Capo... Love the presence of this thing especially when combined with the Broadcast, extends the distortion range on B>A (my preferred setup to high gain) whilst keeping it thick and at point of breakup on side A. Very happy - I designed my board to have enough redundancy to not need to bring my Mesa WD800/BT2 for short/less relevant gigs. Worked an absolute treat!

So, a couple of minor things…. the mudbucker screws are not all tightened down, one is, three are still considerably untightened. The nut, as per all the reviews is cut high. I’ll sort that too, so no big deal. It really plays nice, feels nice and honestly the tuners are fine really? Lobster wasn’t impressed with the tuners, but, they’re ok. Very nice tone, but the weird out of phase thing with both pickups on the central indent is a bit odd, but, back up slightly towards the bridge pup and bosh, it sounds ace. So far so good

from a quick google search, that tool appears to hold the inside of the socket whilst tightening the nut. Should do the trick

You CANNOT leave us in suspense - OPEN THE BOX!

This demo sold me

Serrated lock washer... All the pots, jack sockets, switches over recent years have all only had a plain washer, and one nut. What's that all about? Lock Washer, Plain Washer and 2x Nuts for 'depth' fitment...

Not a gig as such, but the first rehearsal of a new three piece, 'The Rip', last night. I've played with the drummer and guitarist/singer individually, but never in this line up. All competent musicians but great to have something that works from the start and for everyone to be on the same wavelength. It was formed to play a one-off gig at a festival but we all agreed last night that there's more life in the project. 😃

I'm the worst person to ask as I've either been incredibly lucky with all my HB basses or I don't notice the problems other people find so irksome. The jazz basses are heavy, sure, but they balance so well it isn't an issue. I'm old, bad back, shoulder injury and I've done two gigs in the same day with the jazz without a problem. All the other basses are beautifully light, play like a dream and sound splendid.

Easily done, I did the same a few years back,to be honest I’d never heard of him before then, on a non reggae front he’s become one of my favourite players, I think I’ve watched every video with him playing, I think it’s his style and the way he can groove that I like, this one is so good and I try to play it often

Is it tomorrow yet?

I wouldn't dismiss @Silvia Bluejay quite so easily. The better your band is the easier it will be to get gigs. Having an identity is key. the first question the booker will ask is 'what do you play?' and if you can't answer in a couple of words you've probably lost your booking. Eclectic means you've shoved a set together at random and marks you out as unprofessional. You'll need something recorded so they can hear you and see what you do. The more professional it looks the better chance you'll have getting the gig. You've got to look at it from the pubs point of view. Times are hard for them so they have to be hard nosed. If a band charges £250 they are going to have to sell 250 extra drinks to pay for the band. They probably have to attract an extra 60-80 customers and keep them in the pub long enough to buy a few drinks. To do that they need to play songs people like at least competently, even if the band is brilliant they still need to play stuff people like. An unknown band is a risk. A bad Saturday is often the difference between making a profit over the week or a loss. Look up Lemonrock too, it isn't strong all over the country but where it is a lot of pubs will use it as their go-to for booking bands. In Cambridge itself it looks to be strong. It's tough if you are a start up band, you'll probably be asked where else you have played. There isn't a formula for promotional material any more than there is a chat up line that will get you a partner. Some decent recordings and video will help but to get people to even look at it you'll need someone to do a lot of leg work. They are the most important person in the band

I've cracked. It's on the way.

I've had a Limelight and a couple of Bravewood's (I still have one of them), but if I was seriously thinking about getting another FSO, I would have absolutely no hesitation in ordering from Jon Shuker. You'd get exactly what you asked for down to the last detail, he's incredibly supportive in after sales and I reckon he's give any Fender Custom Shop instrument a run for it's money - and it would be cheaper.

Stumbled across this… loved the saturated/distorted tones, giving me one-switch Capo vibes in terms of character. “Luckily” I’m sorted for pedals (he says…)

Ok so you can see some of the cost saving elements but that neck looks great and overall looks wise at least it seems really good! These should prove popular if they sound as good as they look! At least the strings stay on the neck and line up with the pick-up which is better than some people can manage.

Looks ace - love that colour

Firmware 3.60 just released. We get… Agua Sledge - based on* the Aguilar® Tone Hammer & Bass Cabs (Single and Dual versions) 1x12 Epicenter - captured from* a 1x12" Epifani® Ultralight series 4x10 Ampeg Pro - captured from* a 4x10" Ampeg®PR-410HLF There is a ‘Dumble Clone’ that guitarists have been raving about too but I’ve not tried it myself…

Top colour!

Hi everyone proud owner of a New FGN mighty Jazz Bass absolutely love it bought it from. BAX MUSIC for a good price

They got back to me on face tube. There is a staff player demo in the works but I’m just going for it. Time to sell some pedals 😳

I'd suggest that a good epoxy resin type adhesive / filler might be a better bet. "JB Weld" works well on metals. https://www.jbweld.co.uk/

I’m a Spector Lover who is currently craving a Fretless. After 20 Years on other forums, I decided it was time to see what’s up with Basschat. Here’s a pic of my Euro 5LT LE. Love this bass… I’ve been wrestling with the bass for way too long. 😆

The Barefaced One10 is now available with a Tweeter. If that floats your boat.

Must have been a bad one I tried a while back. This is just quality all over. I've had Japanese Fenders and a Mexican Fender before, they're way behind this. My measure for quality is my Stingray which is from 2018, this Fender might even be ahead of that. I wasn't sure about the colour but decided to just go for it. I haven't had more than five minutes with it plugged in but I have spent a long time just playing it unplugged. Band practice tomorrow evening will be the first proper outing. The guitarist has already said he will cry if I bring it in a soft case!

Used the new ABM at rehearsal on Sunday and got lots of positive feedback from the band. I take this as proof positive that I've found my setup.

Tomorrow!

I have to take an occasional ‘moment’ and take stock every now and then. every pedal I buy seems like a *must* but then after a while, their importance seems to wane, in favour of simplifying. it’s a weird sine wave rollercoaster for me. The big problem is I fear that I’ll want them again if I get shut, so I tend to hang on to everything. It’s sad really. but no regrets! It is what it is. good luck with your quest for the perfect path bud! oooh. I just realised, you’re a fellow Sheffielder! I’ll be watching the for sale forums for a local purchase! Lol.