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It's here! After a little wait & as usual, exquisite luthier work by the team at Overwater Basses & continued support. We have an Overwater Custom J5 Fretless with a few custom options. 35" Scale Walnut top & headstock facing Swapping out the bridge position J pickup and dropping in a Musicman pickup. Added passive tone control (as usual for myself) Luminlay sidedots This bass was specced & delivered very quickly for a specific tour to start shortly this year. It was commissioned due to the need of a 5 string fretless bass for quite a few tracks. Have two fretless basses in my collection already - 1976 Musicman Stingray & an early 1970's P Bass. Both four strings so not ideal for the job. I would like to send my thanks to Kirsty, Martin, Chris & the whole team at Overwater Basses for the amazing basses they make daily & for the continued support from the company also. Full Specification - 5 String 35” Scale Length Neck - Standard Bolt On One Piece Maple Straight Headstock with Walnut Veneer Fretless (24 fret neck) 46mm Nut Width 18mm Bridge Spacing Plain Unlined Ebony Fingerboard Luminlay Side Dots Body - Swamp Ash Walnut Top Electronics - Active Overwater 3 Band + Passive Tone Control Pickups - Overwater Jazz Single Coil + Musicman Humbucker Locking Jack Hardware - Overwater Bridge Hipshot Hardware in Black Satin Natural Lacquer Finish

Hello It has come to my attention that NBs need Declaring so here it goes 🙃 I’ve been considering getting a Reverend Decision P for a while, I tried to find one to try it first but couldn’t make it work, I researched youtube and the internet in general for info but there wasn’t so much and then last week, i jumped. It’s not the right thing to do (buying without trying) but I must say this time it worked out for me. My midnight black Reverend Decision P arrived today and I’ve been playing it all day. Love the thing. The way it feels, the sounds you can get out of it, the weight and yes also the way it looks. I will probably change the strings to flatwounds but in the meantime here’s a little vid and a photo for happiness Hope everyone is well DDR NBD.mov

One of our guitarists won a Les Paul from there. He was a bit wary, but it turned up - very nice too, must have failed Gibson QC due to not having anything wrong with it.

Great rehearsal with The Spacewasters last night, the first one with our new line up. The singer/rhythm guitarist has dropped guitar so we’ve brought in another guitarist and it’s made a really good change as he’s able to trade on lead solos with the regular guitarist, plus the singer is now able to concentrate on his vocals much better. We’ve a gig tomorrow evening and really looking forward to it with this new line up.

Happy new member of this club! Just got my EHB1505 today. Really delighted with it so far. Love the look, it's super comfy neck, and the sound. Plus it's ridiculously light!

To be honest, I associate Rex more with Spector than a Thunderbird

I seem to have added 'Laptop operator' to my tasks! This is a great sounding rig.

Recently picked up an Epifini UL901 and Bergantino 410 from @Mama Huhu. It has passed the rigorous approval process of my son. Looking forward to giving it a proper go at band practice tonight!

Theatre at 41 3rd March @ 19.30 Reelin' In The Years', 'Rikki Don't Lose That Number', 'Do It Again'...the classic songs of Steely Dan can be heard live at Theatre@41 in York on 3rd March thanks to The Steelers! An 8-piece band comprising of musicians from around the UK, The Steelers will perform a selection of timeless classics from such iconic albums as Pretzel Logic, The Royal Scam, Aja and Gaucho. Book your tickets at: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/.../e8107140.../booking Comments

A good half way house (and including an excellent LED tuner for dark stages), is the Zoom B1-4. It has a significantly bigger feature set than the MS-60B and is amazingly good value for what it does. Recommend checking out.

Since 2010 the average dibble has gone from having 12 years service under their belt, to less than 3. Anyone who knew what they were doing and had the experience to be able to actually do it has long since gone. Mrs B still has friends in the job and she says it's a farce now. One sergeant she knows recently took a call from the irate mother of one of his young bobbies demanding to know when he was going to be home for his tea. Another brings his pet snail (I believe its a giant snail, not a garden variety) to work to help with his anxiety. Why is he even in the job at all? That's the service the government think we're worthy of. These days you're better off looking after yourself, being wary of scammers, locking your doors properly, and doing the best you can never to be in a position where you have to rely on the dibble. I don't blame them for that state of affairs - the cause goes much higher.

The way I have the SOL fixed to the underside (Velcro and a long cable tie), it does sit a little further down than the stock Nano feet can cover. So I bought some larger feet from B&Q for about £2.50 (pic 1 below). They actually fit perfectly over the stock feet (pic 2), pushing on nicely (pic 3), and then popping off to go back in the bag. Gives you a slight rake/angle when in use which is nice (pic 4). In this setup you may well find a ‘naked’ 1590a would fit, I don’t think it would with just the stock feet. Cheers Si

Update on the quiet aux in issue... Contacted Laney, who arranged to have the unit collected, modified it so that the aux in is a much better level, and shipped it back to me under warranty 👌. Can't get any more fair than that!

Just bought back my old Streamer LX that I sold on here something like 15 years ago. Always missed it, so pleased to have it back. Sadly it’s had some damage in the meantime, and it’s cost a bit to get going, but now with its new EMG insides, it’s sounding great. Last two pics are from the first time around, back when I still had long hair

Good luck Steve. Make them good ones. If you do 'retire', don't leave BC though. Best S.

It's arrived! I've made a a separate NBD post over here

I hope you manage to get one together before that 🤣

I'm a big Rex fan, a huge Pantera fan and I loved my old Thunderbird but £1400? Not a chance. I paid a third that price for a new Vintage Pro only three years ago and that thing was brilliant. I really wish I still had it.

Sorry! I thought this might be a thread about parliament. As you were.

I bought this bass off this very forum about 5 years ago. Got it because it's a YOB bass, it was cheap, and it looked like it had a bit of mojo and had the idea of a project. When I got it, it played well, but the "Wear" was more like the wear you get from throwing it down the stairs rather than through 40 years of hardcore sex, drugs and rock n roll. And, for some reason, I got it in my head that all the bits were very specifically to this bass so it would involve more than a bit of DIY to get aftermarket parts fitted. Turns out i was wrong. I've used it a few times, but has mainly sat in a case. I'm doing a gig with an indy type band next month so felt a more edgier bass might look more the part so got this out. Still not happy with the look, I decided to give it a wee spruce up. Hopefully the original owner doesnt mind me nicking his photo's as unbeleivlably in 5 years of ownership i never photographed it. Things I did: sanded the body - took literally 40 minutes - the finish was extremely thin and I'm convinced not original resprayed with £6 furniture stain from The Range Lacquered with furniture lacquer from the Range - sanded then repeated. put on new pickup covers as the old ones were cracked cleaned the pick guard with car black cleaner. before it was old matt and faded, now it is jet black and almost shiny brasso'd the bridge resoldered a joint in the electrics as it disconnected during the taking apart put on new brass knobs Things I learnt: if the new pickup covers are tight, don't force them as it's now impossible to get the pickups out the covers - it's not longer a reversible mod the stain colour was far darker than i was expecting. I was aiming for a more red-ish stain, this is almost black. brasso is incredible What I will say is it plays superbly. It balances great, and the action can get quite low so its a breeze to play.However, for me its a bit too mid range growly; almost too characterful. So, I might look at changing the pups at some point. The finish is not pro level but i do like that you can see the grain. I wonder though if i really should've just left it!

What strange language is he speaking ? I cannot understand him at all.

Why not take your MB cabs to a rehearsal?

30th Anniversary Ray - yum, yum. Certainly love mine. Here it is with a couple of mates.

+1 ^^ But 5 banks of 10 patches, right?

Tokai (and Fernandes, Greco, ESP/Navigator etc) & their replica-standard copies were the reason Fender launched Fender Japan/Squier, but Tokai didn't get involved themselves until the late 90s CIJ era. In 1982 Fender did a deal with Kanda Shokai to produce Japanese Fenders at Fujigen Gakki, which meant Kanda stopped producing their Greco-branded Fender clones. Anecdotally the very first JV Fenders & Squiers started their trip down the production line as Grecos.

From what BD have said this morning, they still have no definitive date for the Rio's. They did say the date had been pushed back and that they keep asking when they're likely to arrive, but nothing so far.

Just to clarify: that's from me just looking at their site; I have no other knowledge. The last mention of these from BD was in one of their newsletters, mentioning "in the New Year", as I recall.

Unless it happened this morning and they didn't know it was coming, I think it's unlikely. I've been in contact with BD this morning.

Yup, that's fair! Worth just checking the manual to give yourself an idea of what the Zoom wah is going to bring to the party. I had the X version briefly but didn't feel the wah pedal did that much extra and I quite like having a separate wah for use with other pedals - the Zoom wah will only be available for the Zoom multi, but maybe that's all you want to use it for? And tbf I'm not sure that the standard B1-4 pedal can be used with a separate wah anyway.

B1x Four (I've a B1xOn..) Build a Patch (or 2.. or 3!) Per Song Label them, and put em in set order... ToneLib Or Zoom Software Could do the lot... and strait to desk but via 1/4" Jack not XLR...

If that's important to you then forget the SMX, you'll always just be wishing you had bought the MetroLine no matter how good the SMX is, and if you can afford to spend the extra £2k then go for it. If you can get past that though then you'll have a great bass and £2k to spend on something else.

You have 5 banks of 10 patches available to you. So you can set them up as you please and in the order you want. You can select a bank via a push switch and then paddle up down through that bank. I've personally not gone down the individual effects within a patch route with the B1-4. I tend to have a preamp setting with added presence as my default, and then have my most commonly used patches - which I've set up and edited myself using the super useful Tonelib (free) software with whatever effects are appropriate (Xotic BB, Z-Synth, Motown, Volume boost etc) in the first bank. I probably end up using no more than two or three at most during a gig.

I don't think any bass is worth two grand more than any other bass, to be completely honest.

Owned a Lakland Skyline DJ5 a few years ago and have played other Lakland Skylines and their US versions; if you're going to a public forum for affirmation that ANY manufacturer's USA Series models (at $4-5K a pop) really worth double/triple the price of the Korean/Indonesian versions, then you already know the answer. Sure these companies (Sadowsky/Lakland/Lull/Sandberg etc) have a business in which their core models are largely based off Fender copies, but at ridiculously expensive prices. As I've posted elsewhere this week, the market has swung from original basses and cheap copies thereof, through to original basses and very expensive copies thereof; the bass market is broken. We've already proven that people can't even identify the tone of their own basses in a blind test, I'm sure that the temptation of custom colours, clay dots etc. are really worth the extra £££. Just go with the cheaper models. You won't notice any discernible difference, your bandmates/audience/soundguy won't give a rats what you're playing. As an additional bonus you won't lose so much when you sell it on!

I've used wood veneer as a shim before. It's about 0.6mm thick IIRC. Also toneshim! Lovely bit of walnut in there, will totally change the tone of the bass, can't you hear it?

Bound to attract a few folks to Laney gear having a big name like NE attached to it!

Depending on the thickness I need, I just use a slice of out-of-date credit card (usually that's as thick as you would usually ever need) or thin sheet plastic or other non-crushable material I come across from time to time and snaffle it to keep in my bits box. I also am not convinced by the ski-jump argument.

The Ultimate Act Of Betrayal - Toranaga

There are great basses and s**t basses, regardless of the origin of the manufacturer. My Chinese Tokai Thunderbird is my number 1 bass. It's the only bass I use live. Admittedly I've modded it pretty significantly, but the pickups and the neck/body are original. It's awesome. I love it and the band love it. I have 12 other basses, Warwick and Ibanez etc... but the Tokai is number 1. It doesn't matter who made it, where it was made, when it was made, or how much it's worth. If it's good it's good. If it's s**t it's s**t.

The 'wannabe Luthier' shouldn't talk the talk, if he can't quark the quark! 😉

Yamaha are smart. They know that the B string is just a thumb rest and the G string isn't really a “bass” string, with frequencies only audible by dogs and small mammals like lead guitarists.

Hi, me again. It's important to remember the ages and original resources available to luthiers making orchestral basses. Bass sizing is only a recent thing (as is players quoting "D" necks or "Eb" necks. Up to about 1920 you never heard of a 3/4 or 4/4 size.... They were just "big" or small, or chamber bass or baroque or parlour or solo basses. Also basses made in the 1600's were small as the developing chamber music was much quieter. Weras basses made in the 1850's facing Brahms, Bartok, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn had to be huge orchestral tone cannons. (then William Tarr, Panormo, Kennedy, Lott, JTL, Rubner and the big Germans were even bigger for Shostakovic, Bruckner, Walton, Wagner, R Strauss etc!) They were built for a purpose not for a set size - there weren't any set sizes. If for example in 1835 a Luthier like James Lott Snr received a commission from a tall gentleman he would make him a big bass and for a smaller chap would make a small bass to fit him. They were literally made to measure. There were no set sizes back then (there were for violins though). Additionally if a Luthier was making stock (like Kennedy did often) if he had a small lump of wood then he'd make a small bass, and vice versa. I've seen and played huge basses with short string lengths and one small English chamber bass with a almost unplayable 45" scale!! 😳 *hands like shovels.. Yes, it was all the rage around the turn of last century to cut down the top bouts and ribs but now luthiers can adapt a bass to be more acceptable and playable using less evasive techniques. The basses in pro orchestras are regarded as "full size" because they're just big original 150 to 350 year old basses. Modern orchestral instruments (from 1920) are made 4/4 so that they simply fit in the section with the original ancient beasts. Although my 1840 James Cole bass is tiny - these days I suppose it would be classed as a small 3/4, although the top ribs don't fit into a 3/4 size case! 😂 More than the sizes it's the sound. Just by listening I can tell the difference between an old big German, a French and an old gorgeous English bass (although there's also a massive difference between London built mid C1900 bass to a similar aged Northern English basses (Tarr, Howarth, Cole, Gilkes, Forster etc) superb sound but about 25% cheaper! Master Italian basses are harder to spot as they're so different and, well, just a bit weird... There you go, that's my two peneth. Orchestral basses are usually 4/4...... because that's what they've always been!