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It's a Hofner long scale Verythin. I bought it new in 2016 and it's been all around Europe and maybe 6 tours of the UK. Probably one of my cheaper but most used basses.

I suppose I should let the cat out of the bag now. This arrived last Thursday, but I wanted to keep it a surprise for the SW Bass Bash. So there. I was speaking to some folk on LowEndLobster's discord server and someone shared a video of some coverage of Harley Benton's stand at the recent Guitar Summit show in Germany. They were showing their prototype stuff, not set to release until next year and this semi-hollow beastie caught my eye, the HB-50. Looked nice, sounded good when the guy in the video played it. The conversation moved onto whether or not it was long scale and how it might compare to Harley Benton's extant semi-hollow bass offering (the HB-60) so I idly went on to Thomann's site to look at the HB-60. Lo and behold, listed next to it was a B-stock HB-50, only a single piece of stock, hadn't even been photographed. I quickly realised that this was Thomann selling some of their show demonstrator instruments. Long scale indeed, semi hollow, looked like a great mod platform, so... tae me! Enough effin' preamble... First impressions - Good - "light signs of usage" means fingerprints (phew!), looks great, very well made, doesn't feel cheap, fret ends are inboard of the neck binding so absolutely no sharp edges, 22 frets, uses a standard pickup shape (MM) so easily modded, tuners feel fine - turn easy with no play, plays really nice. Bad - pots are garbage (taper is dreadful, like only the last 10% of the turn does anything), pickup switching is lazy and pointless (north coil, both in parallel, south coil - the differences are imperceptible to all but the pickiest of listeners and I'd challenge any of them to hear a difference in a band mix), pickup is too far from the strings so it's a bit quiet and it won't go any higher - screws just come loose. I intend to rewire this. I think the pickup sounds fine - according to the specs it's an Artec of some kind - I wonder if the finished pieces will have their frequently used Roswell pickups instead? But it needs rewired. New pots obvs, but thinking of replacing the switch with a rotary of some kind for series/parallel options. Fixed the pickup height issue tonight - there were a few paltry squares of foam under there, but nowhere near enough to push it up to where I want it. I had spare springs from my Epi Les Paul black and gold nonsense, so I put springs on the screws, now I can have the pickup as high as I want it. Seriously, it was at least 5mm lower than this when it arrived and unable to go higher.

Long day, feeling a bit stinky poo, nothing serious just first world crap. Then on the radio comes Tom. Feel better already

Got the clamps and inner tubes off today (thanks @Rexel Matador for the technique!) And it all looks good. I've just been busy getting the fretboard flush with the neck. I've just ordered some black carbon fibre tubing and stainless steel rod for the side inlays as well.

No doubt, nothing goes to waste in our house - just mostly goes to waist 😋

Update to this. They offered me a 15% discount, which I'm happy to take. I have bought new roadworn basses before so no real stress for me having a ding where it is. I guess I might lose some resale value because of it, but hopefully it's a keeper anyway.

Not a bass but I sold my Merc SLK to an elderly gentleman who turned up to collect it with 12k in notes in a Sainsbury’s carrier bag. All good:-)

Another Saturday night gig, another North Dorset Carnival at Gillingham this time, so another early start (5.15) for me to get into the town before the roads closed at 6.30 for the procession at 7.15. Set up in the Royal British Legion, again a bit squashed with our temporary 6-piece line-up, but all neatly done - sat around swapping stories until we were on at 9pm - 10pm, then 10.30 to 11.40. Very good post-carnival crowd, some a little bit wobbly after too much cider, but no aggro and an invite back to play back at the club again in December. Our dep singiste did extremely well to cover all the material our regular lady does (she's away on a cruise somewhere), nice to know that there's essential backup in case of future emergencies. Back home to West Bay at 1.10 am, head still buzzing; nice that our Persian Cat Nunu was so glad to see me that he immediately deposited an epic present for me in his litter-box before I could even grab a cuppa... a sign of real love or an adverse comment on my absence perhaps? No pix of the gig unfortunately, but here's the glare I got when staggering in!

Been using this setup since september last year. There's a thumpinator, a neuro hub and a di under the hood. FIts easily on a carry on luggage with clothes and cables.

The gig was taken by these guys ...

Wondrous Tories ～ Y̶e̶s̶ No.

Read the comments from a Buyer for this pen, maybe..? Ah, a Sainsbury's bag. Obviously a trustworthy bloke. Now, a Lidl bag, on the other hand... ...

Not a real "gig" but just a few songs for extended family members at a Thanksgiving dinner (I'm in Canada)on Saturday. My nephew's 15 year old daughter has been playing flute at school for about 4 years and is also taking private lessons. She has played in various school bands and a flute choir(who knew they existed?) and is quite good and is a good reader. When I saw her in the summer I suggested that she should try some jazz charts, she had never played anything like that so I sent her a few charts and some advice and a few links to the songs. After a bit of rehearsal time we played a flute and bass duet(I used my Yamaha SLB 200 and Acoustic Image amp instead of hauling my DB around) for our little family audience and it sounded pretty good, she wants me to send her some more charts and is planning to talk to her teacher about some music. I'm hoping she will get right into it and we are already talking about a flute/bass version of Canadian Moe Koffman's Swingin' Shepherd Blues when we get together in a few months, should be fun. On Saturday we played Gravy Waltz, Perdido, and Four and a couple of others and played them at nice snappy tempos and she did a fine job, I hope she gets into some more jazz in the future. We live a long distance apart and only see each other 2-3 times a year but we are both looking more to playing together. Sorry if it doesn't quite fit the topic but it was her first "gig" other than large bands so I hope no one minds.😊

Sprite in the sky - Dr and the medics

More pic's taken by my buddy Richard, Scrumpette Lorna's other half. S-W Bash of '23 by Richard Robbins

So, would a £100 note from a Scottish bank be out of line?

WOW i had no idea counterfeit money was even an issue these days. I'm never gonna buy or sell again. Dave

My finest upgrades are probably in my Star Bass. Got a MIK ProSeries Star Bass 5 for real cheap in 2020. First thing I changed was the stupid strap pin at the heel. Relocated it to the upper horn. It helped both with neckdive and most important with the bass facing down when strapped thru' said heel located pin (can't describe how much this sucks, sucks the same in my Epi EB0, but it's somewhat more tolerable due to its nimbleness). I drilled a pilot hole... ...filled the tip of the upper horn with epoxy using a syringe, then screwed the the pin in and left it headstock down to cure. Absolutely solid. I managed to take this photo of the inside of the horn with a mirror and a mobile phone thru the upper f-hole. You can see the solidified pool of epoxy and the tip of the pin screw back there. Then I also added an "armrest" to play more comfy when seated. Yes, it's crappy foamy rubber cornering, the kind you put on furniture edges/corners when you have little kids. Comfy a/f to play seated now. Finally, I don't like VVTT at all, so I changed it to a VVT arrangement, with a tone cap selector rotary switch (values 10, 20, 32, 43 & 57 nF), much more useful now. Chickenhead knob for the win! I also did a mod to both my Stingray5s (both pre-2008, 3-coil ceramic pickups) to be able to use the neckside coil on its own (from factory, the single coil -plus phantom- position gets the bridge side coil sounding). With the use of a 4PDT switch I swap the bridge for the neck coil and also invert its coils/change its phase (so that it'll still be humcancelling with the phantom coil). Barely noticeable in terms of timbre to the untrained ear. Made a world of difference to me (was using the single coil position, now this is definitely MY Stingray5 tone). It's like a slightly P'ish Musicman (a more mid/lo-mid focused tone), close to the series tone, but throatier. You can hear al 4 positions here, the 3 stock ones and the neckside coil one.

Custardglo

I had to take my 10-year old out for several hours today, to allow my wife some study time. He plays trombone (grade 2), and is curious about other brass instruments. So I took him up to London to visit the Yamaha shop (it’s the only brass store open on a Sunday that we could get to). Knowing we wouldn’t be purchasing, I was a bit sheepish about asking if he could play their Bb/F trombone. But they were SO helpful and welcoming. Not only did he play the £1400 trombone, they positively encouraged him to try a French Horn and a Tenor Horn. This weekend, it seems they’ve been having an event, so they also offered him a free 30-minute music lesson. We went downstairs to the guitar section and he was taught a few chords and, erm, Smoke on the Water (he plays it on trombone in his band) Meanwhile, I had time to try out a couple of basses, including a 5-string that has made me reconsider whether I should only have 4s. And an upright electric which has confirmed that I definitely shouldn’t go there. All in all, a great experience!

Amazing Dingwall Z3 that arrived this morning from Bass Freaks in Belgium. Can't stop looking at it!! Its a work of art. Dingwall Z3 Body: Swamp Ash Top: Maple Burl Neck: Wenge Fretboard: Wenge Pickups: 3x FDV Luminlay fret markers, side dots and Dingwall logos Finish: Green-Yellow-Red-Brown-Black sunburst

rumor has it Nordstrand is working on a Cat 5... its not a rumor. I work there.

Dr Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Beatles

Fanta Stick Day Haircut100

Clowns - Goldfrapp

I always thought a click would be stifling, a straight jacket. Then I tried it and it is so liberating. The ultimate effect is that you just get tight. The creative person who won’t or can’t play in time isn’t really being creative. Unless they are playing solo they are just making everyone else sound worse. Just like the guitarist who can only get their tone by cranking their 100W amp. Ultimately you can only play together if you are together. If your drummer keeps good time then there is no need for a click and it’s good to know they’ll cover any mistakes and pull you back but if your drummer is really good you’ll be playing strict time anyway. If for whatever artistic reason you want to accelerate or slow or change tempo it’s all good but surely you need to stay together not half a bar after a random band member has decided to be ‘creative’. You shouldn’t need a click ideally but everyone should be playing the same time and the click is just one way of achieving that. Strict time is relaxing, liberating, you can be way more flexible if you know where the band will be in four bars time

With luck, by the way, I will be able to get some clips of it in action next week.

Covers arrived...

A picture missing a flashed 'arris, definitely attending next year, if for no other reason than to give my rump an airing and ruin another group shot.

Ok so had the gig on Saturday, was a blast! The AMB 500 performed flawlessly through a beat up Ampeg 4x10, and I could really feel how effortlessly the Ashdown just filled the stage with sound through a pretty dense mix (crust/punk/thrash metal). Master volume was about halfway up, and I didn't need any monitor support. Great purchase, 10/10. I'll be using this for all my local shows going forward, it's a no-brainer. I found that if I balanced the input correctly, the compressor would work just fine without any real volume difference, but the input does need to keep being adjusted according to any EQ or drive changes. It takes a bit of a balancing act, but absolutely worth it because the tone is GLORIOUS. Clear, articulate, immediate power, with a lovely drive and top-end sparkle I've been sorely missing from my class D amps. I didn't use the sub harmonic at all, but can see it coming in handy for certain other types of shows. That video that Mark Gooday posted where he says 'Look, class D amps are great and all, we make and sell loads of them, but they'll never be the same as a proper A/B amp and... come on guys, this is a one-hand carry' really made an impression on me. It honestly wasn't much more hassle than any of my other local gigs.

Sheep - The Housemartins

I said I'd report back from the shootout, a disclaimer here I was behind the speakers so I personally couldn't hear the direct output maybe John @Chienmortbb or @stevie or any of the other bassists there would like to comment? Even behind the speakers you could immediately hear the differences in sound and up on stage I could see the difference in audience reaction and I talked to people afterwards and a bit of what I'm saying here reflects those conversations. So the set up was straightforward: we had two LFSys Monaco speakers (very high quality FRFR bass speakers) with yours truly swapping the amps whilst @MichaelDean did the honours with the bass. Initially all the amps had the controls set to 12.00 except the master volume. Gnome first: no reason other than it was my amp and was set up before I went out looking for the others. It caused quite a stir on first few notes and at the end a couple of people said they were suffering GAS for one/going to get one. They are very bright airy and modern sounding. Next up the Elf: again this created quite a reaction. It's immediately quite a loud sound, a bit richer in the bass and with a really pleasing mid scoop. It kind of did have the generic Trace sound as proven later when we tried a proper Trace amp. It had a noticeably higher gain and was initially louder with the master at 12.00. Obviously that doesn't give you any extra power but it's going to jump out at you if you get to try one in a shop which is why they do it of course. Finally the BAM: to be honest it didn't get quite the same audience response but that was probably about the way we tested, I know from the measurements we did last year that it is in between the other two amps and that is exactly how it sounded. the Elf has a stronger bass and the Gnome a stronger top end sparkle. Like any taste test more always creates the stronger initial impression so the other two got the attention. It's still a fine amp. Once we had all three i went back to the Gnome and asked Michael to forget 12.00 and try to make the Gnome sound like the Elf, within 30 secs he was getting there and you should be able to get all three amps sounding similar to each other with just a little patience and without maxing out the tne controls. Again from last year's measurements I know the mid control works in the centre of the mid scoop they all have so it's relatively simple to remove that or to increase it. Finally I cranked the Gnome to demonstrate what sort of levels you could expect from 130W into 8ohms. There was still a bit of bass boost from the tone matching to the Elf and i took it to clear distortion and cut back to where i could just hear the distortion from behind the speakers. I could still hear the peaks being limited but this would be louder than I'd be likely to need on stage. In practice when I do use back line the Gnome doesn't really struggle as a stage monitor for bass and I only use my bigger amp when I have no PA support. The LFSys Monacos are 98db/W @ 1m. I'd like to thank Stevie for providing them and I've now bought one of the ones I used. I don't think there is a better FRFR bass speaker out there at the moment based on sound quality alone. I'd like to thank all the people who lent me their amps and Michael for being brave enough to demonstrate the amps to a room full of other bass players, I'd have frozen

Maybe some Jethro Tull? 😎

That is a Paddington Stare of the highest quality!

sulk! I'd love to attend one of those but, alas, I'm too far away. 🥲

I've modded a number of basses over the years sometimes for aesthetic reasons and sometimes to "upgrade". The first one I did was when I was about 17. I had bought myself a brand new Squire jazz in white poly about a year beforehand but was obsessed with the look of neck through wood basses and wanted to try and emulate one. In my wisdom what did I decide to do? Yep, break out the nitromors / heat gun / sandpaper and take it back to wood. Part 2 of the plan required me to mask off the centre section of the bass so I could stain it to look like my desired neck throughs. Did it end up looking like a prized Ken Smith.....er not quite! 🤣 I'd underestimated the ability of stain to leach into the other areas of the wood. No photos have survived thank goodness. Did I learn my lesson and decline to modify basses after this first calamatous excursion?....nah! Over the years that followed I've refinished a JD calibas, replaced several bridges and hardware with more functional ones and changed out several pickup / preamp combinations. All much more successfuly I might add. 😁 Apart from installing a updated preamp into my Overwater which was a simple swap out, the last major modification I did was to my Roscoe. It'd had several owners so at some point the original Bartolini pre had been removed, an hole drilled in the body for a mid-control and the pre swapped out for something else. This setup wasn't working correctly so the last owner had taken it into a shop to get it changed out to an Audere, all now working tickety-boo. 👍 I quite happily bought the bass and played it for a number of months but was never quite happy with the Audere sound and as I had a Sadowsky preamp going spare.....Only problem was it was a 4 knob pre going into a 5 hole body. The solution was to wire the pickups to a double DPDT switch so I could fill the 5th hole and get parallel / single / series options. Reworking the electrics / pre / wiring was the easy bit. Once I got into the cavity and emptied out the old pre it was aparent the wood had been "modified" as well as a heavy coating of shielding paint. This was no recent change as there was evidence of years of tinkering in there. There was only one thing for me to do, break out the Dremmel to remove the shielding and router to flatten the cavity for the pots. Rather nervously and VERY carefully I spent hours Dremmeling (?) the shielding off and routing small amounts away. Eventually I got it so that all the pots and switches would now fix flat and copper shielding would adhere successfully. I've added a couple of before / after photos showing the controls and the cavity. The sound from the bass is now what I was looking for with the flexibility of the DPDT switch added in 👍 Controls before and after: Control cavity before and after:

Tango Till They're Sore Tom Waits

It's all been said already but let me add to it - absolutely beautiful piece of work!

Interesting mod. For my semi-hollow/hollow thinline basses, I opted to mod myself rather than the bass - with an elasticated wrist sweatband pulled up my arm to where the contact point is.

If you often have to deal with cash, it's worth investing in something like that (there are cheaper ones, just search): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Safescan-30-Counterfeit-Detector-Pen/dp/B00E485Z72

I can. "Hey, you know the click you suggested really works out, key player programmed the bass lines too and will just send that to the FOH, so erm we don't really need you."

I’m rehearsing in addlestone all of November so will definitely pop down to this, can’t wait!

Great pics! Eating outside? EATING OUTSIDE??? And...is that SUN I can see???? MrsAndyjr1515 is still testing Covid positive. Mind you, she must be getting better - she's started b*ll****g me again. This time it's for not catching it (yet). I'll admit, it didn't feel right, not getting shouted at this past week Anyway, looks like it was up to its normal splendid standard. Count me in for the next one - missed you folks

It's some dude's weirdo tribute bitsa. Nothing to do with John D & not a replica. I suspect it has a limited market - and that's who's trying to sell it! Looks like he's handy with a laser engraver, at least.

My daughter wants to play! Happy days! Also twice as much gear to buy which I see as an additional plus point. She quickly dropped playing guitar after a couple of tries but has stuck at 4 strings and asks me to use a bass almost every night. She got the bug big time and is soooo excited by anything and everything bass. I'm loving it ❤️

Glasgow Barrowlands 2017