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Perhaps I should have gotten round to posting this thread sooner. Indeed, just having a Warwick Dolphin in my collection at home is grounds for celebration. I had waited, however, to get it set up and get used to it. More on that in a bit... Now, I wouldn't normally preface every NBD thread with a backstory. Or would I? Perhaps I would, because these days I don't really buy a bass unless it's something I really, really want or have wanted for years. Maybe this leads to less 'wildcard' revelations but all the same, I have never been disappointed by taking a more selective approach to buying. I keep saying I'll get back to selling or trading but so far, I keep getting things I can't bear to let go. I've wanted a Dolphin since I was about 15. I've long been a Warwick fan and I've had Thumbs and Streamers in the past. There is room in my collection for a few more, I dare say, so watch this space. My affection for Warwick goes back to the turn of the millennium, when I was first getting into Talkbass and discovering the world of boutique basses along with a world outside of rock and metal. However, I was very familiar with that world at the time and Warwick were very visible in that field. If you were anyone in the nu metal game, you probably had a Warwick bass and a great tone to go with it. I remember the Dana B. Goods Warwick website (indeed, I'm sure that they owned 'www.warwick.com' and enquiries would take you to their site rather than Warwick.de). In short, Warwick were everywhere and I loved them. Nothing sounded like a Warwick, particularly the 'dark' wood models (bubinga Corvettes, ovankgol and walnut Thumbs, boire and ovankgol Dolphins etc). I had consigned myself to never seeing a Dolphin in person, never mind owning one. The one I ended up buying was in fact, the first I've ever laid eyes on. The moment of seeing those unique and unusual proportions in person will stay with me forever, a bit like seeing the leaning tower of Pisa or whatever - you know them innately, by exposure, but seeing them in person is an experience on another level. So there I was at work in late March on a night shift, idling away. I'd seen the advert here for the Dolphin in the classifieds and considered it but thought restraint was more satisfying than indulgence. In that moment though, I decided that spending a little dough on something I'd wanted for two decades was a fair trade. Communications were made and a deal was done. The bass came looking, plainly speaking, like a new instrument, save for the frets. Like most Warwick bell brass frets, they need occasional attention to polish them up. But the wood was as smooth and satin as any Warwick I've touched and the gold hardware completely unblemished. The action was sky high and the strings were absolutely dead so despite getting the bass in my hands, there wasn't much to report on getting it home. I played it for about ten minutes and felt it had a huge potential, then put it back in the Warwick flight case and put it away. On another note, should nuclear war ever start I'll be hiding inside that case. I trapped my fingers between it and the car's B pillar when I brought it home and howled in pain. I accidentally stubbed my toe on it putting it into my car once and felt like I'd kicked a boulder. Built to last, it is. A visit to the greatly-esteemed Bass Doc, Howard Satterly, finally had the Dolphin ready to play. Strung with some EBMM stainless steels in .45 and with frets polished and the action brought down to a realistic level. An instrument of this level deserves a professional setup and will receive any necessary tweaks by my own fair hand in future. But man, does it play nicely now. Getting it home and plugging it in, I could finally give the full appraisal. The weight is surprisingly light. This is no Thumb and whilst I have no means of measuring it, it is lighter than my Spector NS-5CR and my Pedulla Pentabuzz. The rhomboid body gives it an offset position over the body, such that the bridge is almost offset from your midriff. It doesn't quite hang in a jazz bass position but it's not far off. If the central position and long reach to first inherent in the Warwick Thumb is not to your taste, you would probably prefer this. Seated, it's a joy to play in a classical position over the left knee. I never do this with my other basses but I could find some mileage here, since it seems to encourage a very right hand position that produces a very clean and articulate sound. The sound is absolutely classic Warwick, hi-fi and crisp with a distinct growl in the low midrange. The humbucker back pickup sounds absolutely great and so far, I've been running it solo. With both pickups on full, the sound is so rich with bottom end that my neighbours have been banging on the wall in a show of appreciation. There is little to none of the 'tone suck' that some basses experience when running both pickups on full. The coil tap for the back pickup is also super cool, as running both coils gives a big, juicy sound. Splitting them gives a more classic jazz bass style honk, and you fan further accentuate this by pulling the other pot up to run the bass in passive. I've mainly been playing it through my Markbass Jeff Berlin CMD-151P so far, occasionally running it through a Samsamp GED-2112. However, I've found it most satisfying just running straight into the Markbass and getting some very sweet hi-fi sounds as a result. Well, all I can do now is put the miles on it and see how my opinion of it moves. So far, it has been absolutely and unwaveringly positive and I've been having a total blast with it. A Thumb or Streamer could yet find it's way into my collection, but I feel as though the crown jewel has already been located.

YESTERDAY! Another gig that's not really a gig... played Sousaphone at Upton Folk Festival with Beorma Morris - a Border Morris side from Birmingham. A beautiful day in a beautiful part of the world, dozens of Morris sides from all over the place - lots of different styles on display, Cotswold, Border, Clog, North West and even some wacky medieval/game of thrones style belly dancing (it's not really 'Morris', but each to their own). We had a good turnout and danced really well (so I believe .. I can't really tell) and we were joined by my lovely Trombone playing friend - she's Japanese and had never seen anything like it. Bumped into lots of people I know (the Morris world is quite small, so is Upton-on-Severn) including my old boss and the other Morris Sousaphone player, a lovely feller called Mark. He joined us for a couple of dances - stereo Sousaphone action! Lots of people asking about the Sousaphone (mainly "What is it?" and "What's wrong with you?") and lots of requests for pictures and selfies... Obviously I demurred as I'm a shy, shrinking wallflower 😀 The day ended with a massed dance - about a hundred dancers and forty musicians making an unholy scene and having a whale of a time. Shoe update: I wore the New Rocks for that goth/steampunk vibe, the highlight of the day was taking them off when I got back to the car. Back to the 'proper' gigging tonight!

Just got home from our now monthly gig at The Sun Inn in Beverley. Usual request style gig with my acoustic duo, and some great tunes asked for including ‘A town called malice’, ‘Shotgun’ and a bizarre Pulp Fiction medley comprising ‘Miserlou’ segueing into ‘You never can tell’! At one point they had the door locked to prevent any more people coming in, and also ran out of glasses - the place was absolutely rammed. Although a great crowd of people, it is one of those gigs that is very full on - we do three 40 minute sets and with so many people it is impossible to play all their requests. Still, plenty of good comments afterwards, and the landlord was pleased with the turnout too. ( Picture below is from last week at Scarborough, just sent to me by a punter).

Circa 1990, the band I was in practiced in a large room set up as rehearsal space by a band we knew. In one corner was what looked to be an odd-shaped, ancient and unloved bass coated in a thick layer of nicotine and with utterly dead strings. I paid £80 for it in in instalments. It was only about four or five years old! Now my precious Fender Performer which I gigged solidly for several years in the '90s and have since only gigged a handful of times. But definitely the easiest bass to play I have ever tried.

Last nights gig for me was absolutely amazing. It was a sort of open night in a beautiful venue called The Mill in Elstead. Backline is provided and 5 bands played, each getting about 25 minutes each. The sound is amazing and it's super intimate with a really appreciative audience of music lovers and musicians. We play very stripped back, heartfelt singer songwriter stuff with lyrics personal to the singer. I'm on fretless creating some ambience and our drummer is very chilled and percussive. The first song is very atmospheric and as soon as I started playing, our singer said the two young girls sitting in front me who were about 16, their jaw's hit the floor. They'd never heard fretless and I had reverb and chorus and apparently they couldn't take their eyes off my playing. Mid way through the song, I get a sort of instrumental lead part and as soon as I go into it, the lady at the table whoops and shouts out, 'woah, go the bass player'. When I finish my little piece, the whole place applauds 😮 I've never had that and it was very much like what happens at a Jazz gig. Anyway, we play a blinder and we even had some of the audience in tears by how the singer had captured them with his lyrics. We get to the last song and we are improvising massively and our singer got the who room singing followed by a standing ovation 😁 Afterwards, we got a tonne of compliments and it turns out the lady who shouted 'go bass player' used to be a singer back in her day and one of the two girls was her daughter who is a singer songwriter. Her husband was also there and after chatting to him, it turns out he's a Jazz trumpeter 😎 What a amazing night and just makes it all worthwhile 😁

I've got two: Many moons ago, I landed a Hamer FBIV on eBay. It was a Sunday morning, I'd just bought a while Gibson Thunderbird and I was just perusing, like you do. No Case. £375.00, BIN. I did a little panic thing...found some photos of Nikki Sixx for verification purposes and clicked. It arrived intact, wrapped in about six inches of bubblewrap: Next up. Friday night, Gumtree. Spotted a chap locally selling off a job lot of guitars, a bass and a practice amp for £50.00. My heart did a little jump. The bass was a 1978 Aria Primary Bass. I've played a few Precision basses in my time and this one is easily as good, if not better than the Fenders. It's gnarly.

Lookatthelittleguy! Boss TU-2 > Hotone Harmony > Yamaha CO-10MII compressor > Joyo Monomyth.

The pedal I was waiting on to finish my sci-fi board arrived this week and the board is ready! Thanks to @lee650 for selling me the pedal that got the ball rolling a couple of years ago and to @pbasspecial and @andybassdoyle for a couple of other excellent pedals. The signal chain is: WTF > T-65 > Grand Tarkin > Destroyer Bass Fuzz > Dual Knightfall > Tarkinfall > Han-Taun > Kaiburr > No Moon > Resurrector > Hyperspace Bass Chorus > Darth Fazer > Harmochorus > Blue Harvest > Dark Father T-65 FX Loop: Boba Fuzz

Pickup covers and knobs finished.

I don't entirely agree Daryl. There is an audience for most types of music, just the more niche it is, the harder it is to find it. But as long as there is a 'critical mass' of enough people interested in the type of music you want to play, then a project will be viable. And the audience for a blues, prog, AOR, ska or whatever band will be more appreciative and generally be prepared to pay more than the audience for a mainstream covers band in a bar. Of course, if you actually like the music that you play, then you will sound more authentic and come across a lot better to punters than if you don't care for it...

Nothing too drastic since the last time I posted the board. The new pedal is the Mooer Soul Shiver, which is an odd bird. Its effects don't quite follow the conventional expectations. The Vibrato setting has some Tremolo going on, while the Rotary does a better Chorus than the Chorus setting. For the little it cost, I'm impressed, though I don't use it heavily. I got it since I thought my Bass VI could use a bit of that. After the Peterson tuner and the Orange KongPressor, the main change is the way I'm using the Complicator (the Simplifier clone) at the heart of the setup. I don't really need the parallel loops since I mostly have effects with blend controls anyway, avoiding the dreaded tone suck. So I've reconfigured it to give me two switchable channels: Green (main) channel: Parallel Send to the MXR bass octave deluxe, Mosky Silver Horse (Klone, low gain) and JHS 3 Series Phaser to the Donner A/B switch. (Yep, I still think Phaser is a must-have, and this is a good one.) Red (alt) Channel: Complicator Internal Preamp section (mild gain) to Preamp Send, T-Rex Diva Drive, Tone City Matcha Cream Fuzz, Mooer Soul Shiver and Sonicake Sonic Ambience, to the Donner A/B switch. (The Matcha Cream fuzz, which is not subtle, doesn't kill the bass if I keep the tone setting low.) Then from the switch Y output back to the Parallel return and cab sim. I use the headphone output to the USB-powered wireless transmitter for my wireless "TV" headphones; they do colour the sound a little, but it's good for practice. I can feed music from my old iPad to the Aux in too. Plans? I'm thinking about a different fuzz, maybe the Pigtronix Octava Micro. I'm still searching for a good pseudo-8-string tone, so I want a solid octave up, analogue if possible. I've read good things about the Pigtronix here and elsewhere.

I always fancied the idea of a Prog covers band rather than a dedicated tribute to one band. That way i could cover songs by all my fav bands from Genesis, Floyd, Camel, Hackett, Kansas, UK etc. I think the Bruford level of musicianship is probably a bit of a stretch for me. I agree that for me its best to compromise and be good at what you do. I never thought i'd ever play in a punk covers band but its actually great fun and the stamina required is quite a stretch when you play fingerstyle. Dave

It’s a Status S2. Generally my go to nowadays, that or a beaten up FPPR S1 for even tighter venues where cats cannot be swung and I’m likely to be knocking into things all night. Both really solid in tone, light and playable. The Wal doesn’t often come out to play at gigs anymore & just used for recording.

Landed back from hols at sparrow’s fart. Bit of a nap then lock and load. A couple of ‘how does this go again’ moments to start but woke up and cleared ‘flight throat’ for backing vox and overall a great fun night as ever at a small but appreciative pub 🤘😁 I still need to get things sorted with the IEM feed as something doesn’t seem quite right. I should be getting pre-fade, but I’m not convinced that I am. I set my mix, and then it changes leading me to suspect I’m getting post. i also need to get a damn sight fitter and shed a few stone!!!! New bike due I a week or so so I must get on it regularly!

So I have a 1963 precision which I love to bits, however I was concerned about taking her to gigs, not that’s its irreplaceable but I’d hate to see her sprayed Matt black and sold for £250 at cash converters if it ever got stolen. I had a Tony Franklin fretless precision a while ago, and it was a superb bass, played extremely well and the build was top notch. I just had no need for it. I’d seen the fretted model in pictures but they seem to be like rocking horse sh!t, so when I saw one pop up at Bass Bros I got myself down there sharpish. I’m playing in a psych rock band now and the precision is a great fit, but occasionally I wanted a little more growl and bite so the three way toggle switch and jazz pick up (I know this sound from the fretless) would be ideal. I wasn’t disappointed. For those that have owned/played a Franklin signature you know where I’m coming from, they easily match the stuff coming from the custom shop. For those that haven’t, I’d highly recommend you find someone who has one and try it, it will start your search. The action is low, I play in drop D and it handles it well, I was disappointed there wasn’t a dtuner on it like the fretless, but I can fix this. Anyway it has surpassed my expectations so much the 63 will be up for sale soon, this meets all my requirements.

Decent gig tonight in Blackwood. Took my Thunder 1 and used it for the first set. Was a biker pub so the blues rock went down well. We knew dj on later, and about 20 minutes after we finished the jukebox got cut off a short way into a Metallica song, and awful club music started. By the timecwe finished packing up the clientele were almost completely different. I wore my Ryuk/Deathnote t-shirt I got sent from the USA which always gets more compliments than my playing!

Little update - added a preamp for my fretless ABG to hopefully tame it at volume.

We have a band in our area dedicated to playing just prog covers, the band is made up from the cream of the crop musicians in the area, they only do a few gigs a year and they are always rammed with punters and a lot of local musicians seeing how it’s done, the musicians in the band play in mostly party/wedding bands on a regular basis.

I’m still not sure how this site works, or if you can see my Thunderbirds and EB’s etc., but here’s some more.

Starting to get the hang of it, my 1964 Thunderbird II, 1965 Embassy Deluxe and 1965 non reverse Thunderbird II.

I’m still struggling with working out what buttons to push, good job I’m not flying a bomber, I’d be dangerous.👍

We've organised a gig at Exchange with some friends on the bank holiday Sunday at the end of the month. Should be fun!

Off to the New Foresters soon. Going to take the Thunder 1 I got from @stewblack of this parish. Just had a quick warm up and it is ridiculously gnarly, the hottest p-bass pickups I have ever come across. Cafind a pic, so here's a gratuitous one of my brother with his Thunder 1A many years ago.

The Psychodahlias are headlining The Hope & Anchor in Islington 17th May. Come along and say ‘allo. John

I love that performer - was tempted to get the one in mansons in exeter, but they wanted too much, but there aren't many around, always easy to critise fender for not doing anything different but when they do, noone buys them!

Although quite simple - root-5 with a run here and there, but I found the bass lines a lot of fun to play. No drummer in our band, so the bass and banjo were the rhythm section. I played on upright too, which always adds a bit of theatre.

What I like about blues rock is the freedom to improvise within a structure. There's always new things to learn as well. Having a 'set of rules' isn't always limiting. One of my favourite live songs we do a long playout in Em where anying goes, sometimes Alex and I do simultaneous finger tapping 😁

Best bargain I think was my Squier Jazz, bought unseen as a backup and dropped off by a mate. Turned out to have a Fender replacement neck and £250 of pickups in it. Bought for the grand price of £40 non-working, which turned out to be a broken earth wire and sorted in less than half an hour. Not worth massive money but I have hundreds of hours of pleasure out of it and happy to bounce around like an idiot with it, which I certainly don’t with more expensive basses.

I cancelled my order with gear4music as I had a Gruv Gear Kapsule I’m not going to bother with now holding up the order. Re-ordered the last one on Amazon and should be here Tuesday.

The £820 I paid for a Pro Precision a few years ago wasn't massively underpriced but it was a good price for the time. Its value for me was massively enhanced though when it turned out that it was a total player; light, resonant, perfect fit & finish and already sporting a few pre-loved blemishes. So good in fact, that I culled the herd in the knowledge that I'd be hard pressed to find another bass I enjoyed playing more. In a roundabout way, it's saved me a fortune. (I still can't help but occasionally pine for a Jazz to go with it)

A modular 212 is the way to go.

Thanks Pat, much appreciated but I should elaborate a little, based on your reply. Firstly, it's not that Blues or pub rock is, nor has to be, any less demanding for a bass player than any other genre. It's just that I don't want to play it. Regarding standard of musicianship, in my case, I'm certainly no more than your average, intermediate player but, I'd like to be playing with people where I don't have to worry about their performance in addition to mine and, who also like the same music. Your reply also suggests that you're in a blues band or doing covers because you think that's what your ability limits you to. Having heard and seen you play on a few occasions, I would argue that you seriously underrate your ability. You have a great sound, you're seriously tight and, because you have confidence in those on stage with you, you enjoy what you're doing and, make it look easy.

My trio of Fender JMJ Mustangs.

This Gibson Guy will not give a flying v what anyone has to say about Gibson bridges of any design, and how!

Funny you should say this…. have been in a very generic ‘jukebox’ covers band, good musicians, very competent, ok gigs. Accidentally (long story) have formed a Hendrix tribute (not an easy thing to do until you meet the right guitarist!) and the gigs have come pouring in.

Cpt. CaveeeeeMaaaaaannnnnnn!...

15 posts in and nobody has made the Dam Busters joke. We're slipping.

Yay, less than 2 weeks to go!

Yes, I do, but only for basses, not pedals/amps/speakers. They're all contained in a single document which is quite scary to look at. It has dates for all my current basses bar the first two as I'm a bit hazy on where from and how much as they were bought in the 80's. Once they are gone they move to the sold section at the bottom of the list.

So my Ric is back. The tech recut the nut and set the bass up. The action is set at 1.5mm at the 12th fret (that’s about 4/64”). There is room to go lower or higher on the saddles. Before doing anything to it he contacted Rickenbacker. They weren’t interested in any potential warranty issues - I expected this as I’m not the original purchaser. They did however provide him with a set of measurements. His view is that the nut was causing the problems. I asked about the neck showing signs of twisting as there was more relief under the E string than the others prior to him doing any work on it. He said that with a single truss rod this can happen due to the difference in tension on each string, however on my bass as set up it isn’t going to affect the playability. I’ve played it a couple of times for 20 mins or so. The action now feels consistent across the neck and I have no pain playing the low F. I’ll keep an eye on the neck but I’m happy with the bass following the work he did on it. Hopefully you won’t hear about any more concerns with it.

The Digitech fs3 is a cheaper alternative to the tc one 😉😉

I’m using a pair of Super Compacts now. This is my first weekend away with them both, four gigs in total. But I’m using them as a modular rig, two gigs with one cab, two gigs with two. They “say” a pair of Super Compacts is the same as a Super Twin, although I do wonder. I’ve had four of the BF 10” cabs, and when I got these 12”s it took me time to get used to them, they are very different. The 10’s are far more coloured in comparison. I’m getting used to them now though. I do sort of desire a 12 that sounds more like the 10 in that rounded rolled off top, old school way, but I can get there with amp choice and eq.

My lefty Mike Lull PJ4