Leaderboard

Hey gang I'm doing a couple of sold-out shows at Newcastle City Hall this weekend in the house band for the Auf Wiedersehen Pet 40th anniversary celebrations. 21 tunes, most of which I've never played before, all of which are bangers. We've been in rehearsals all week, with everything laid out as close as it will be in the night (albeit in a different venue). We're getting monitor mixes and FOH mix as close as it can be, so there shouldn't be a whole lot of work to do when we have production rehearsals in the hall tomorrow. Usually with gigs like this keys and arrangements can be rather fluid, right up to the show itself, and this one is no exception. It keeps me on my toes, especially as a non-reader. A few scribbled notes, a decent memory and a following wind will see me through. Gear-wise, I'm using what I use down the Dog and Duck... Handbox R-400 head, TKS S212 cab, and '71P with flats, and a Maruszczyk Jake with rounds (haven't decided which will get the nod yet), and an LR Baggs Venue DI (used only for silent tuning). FOH is getting the cab mic'd with a Beyer M88 and a DI from the R-400. I'm told a 50/50 mix is being used. The band are a bunch of great lads, and it's been a pleasure so far. Tomorrow, we're moving into the City Hall. I'll post updates when I can. This is Jamie. Jamie's a mixing GOD. Monitors...

With my JMJ on hold and the Mikey Way in the classifieds I thought I’d take a quick group shot of my shorties before they are reduced from 4 to 2.

Here’s the latest iteration of my Nano pedalboard. Sounds great

Last night's board

My '66 Precision. Bought in the early 80's, from Tiger Music in Brighton (for £260). Pictures are almost 40 years apart.

Just picked up this cab today, a rather tasty Epifani UL610 1500w beast. Currently paired with my Epifani UL901 head to make quite a monster of a rig. Not disastrously heavy for a 610, about the standard weight of a 410, so a tolerable one-person move. Set it up in the studio today for our first band practice in 6 weeks, it didn't disappoint! Snagged it for a mere £250 from eBay. 👍

Thank you so much everyone for posting about this bass, it looks like I’m going to be the new owner! I’ve wanted a Wal bass since I started playing bass guitar when I was 16… I’m 34 now. I’m a huge fan of Flea/RHCP, he is why I play bass and I love Tool/Justin Chancellor and my old bass tutor is a big fan of Rush, we saw him do a talk together last yet… I have my own alternative rock band called Earls of Eden https://www.instagram.com/earlsofeden https://www.facebook.com/share/iTN6fLnVYZxkh2Zt/?mibextid=LQQJ4d and we have our debut album coming out later this year so give us a follow! I own quite a few basses including an Alembic Europa, Rickenbacker 4003, Music Man Stingray Special, American Standard Fender Jazz & Precision basses. In “real life” I work in HR in a bank - the day job pays for the hobby! Would love to be a full time rockstar but happy to just for fun. Anyway, I’ve been hunting for a 4 string fretted Wal MK2 for several years now. 2 years ago I emailed Wal to enquire about pricing and Wal owner Paul Herman said they are not taking any new orders and have a backlog over 4+ years long… I’ve emailed them a few times since and they just don’t even reply anymore so I figured getting a new one now is just impossible… so I’ve been searching online the past few years on every guitar shop website and reverb trying to find one. The handful of Wals I did find were all either MK1s or Fretless or left handed or 5 string MK2s ranging from £6-12k. I tried out a Wal MK1 in denmark street last week and they were asking for £10K!? Fretted MK2s seem to be very very rare and sell almost as quickly as they appear online in minutes… So I was on the Facebook group “Bass Players” https://www.facebook.com/share/grWV6JkPGoL4nUsS/?mibextid=K35XfP and I noticed on Tuesday someone had made a post asking about how long it takes to order a Wal bass… https://www.facebook.com/share/p/rxY21NrA5VMrchkD/?mibextid=WC7FNe I then from that thread started chatting to a guy called Michael who had just bought a 2nd hand Wal MK2 from someone off this bass chat website and suggested I check there so I made a login on Tuesday night around 10pm… …Then on Wednesday afternoon while I was working at home on my laptop, I was bored so browsed basschat, noticed this thread talking about a fretted Wal MK2 in a guitar shop in Wales and I was excited and shocked… I immediately called up the shop at 3.20pm (they closed at 3.30pm), spoke to the owner saying I wanted to buy the Wal. He said he had already sold it to some American. I said I would pay more and it’s easier to send it & sell it to me in London than a dude in the USA. The owner said he would think about it and call me later. That evening at 9pm he called me and gave me a price to outbid the American and we agreed. The shop owner from Wales is actually coming to deliver me the Wal in-person next week… (he needs to be in London for his band’s producer apparently so an excuse for a visit haha). I’m so happy and I almost can’t believe it!!! Thank you again everyone, I’ll send a pic once I have it in my hands!

Son's 16th Birthday pressie...

So, we’re setting up for an Islamabad open air spring festival… 6 bands and plenty of side stalls. Typically 36 degrees and sunny all week then a thunderstorm this morning. Hopefully the weather behaves itself for the next 24 hours as we’ve postponed it once already due to storms. I’m in three of the bands so should be a long but satisfying Saturday!

Just got back from a Sweden tour with this pedalboard, with most of it sourced from here! The Starlifter and compressor are absolute gems and are staying put for the long haul. The OC5 has been a solid addition for octaves. Considering swapping out the Aftershock for a Pork 'n' Pickle as I don't need such complex overdrive. Also thinking of letting go of the Phaser since I don't use it much. If I could manage to power a Boss GT1000 Core or an HX Stomp alongside the Starlifter, I might consider going hybrid. But for now, this setup works fine, just looking for a couple of tweaks. (And that empty space on the board is really bugging my OCD!)

Not quite a weekend rig but it was the one of choice for a gig last night. New band time and doing some Jazz/blues fusion with a sax player, and as it was just a short two hour gig to a quiet weekday crowd, we played low volume so the punters could still talk when the band was playing. Worked well and I am enjoying the low wattage rig and sitting down while playing these days. Laney R210 200 watt/4 ohm cab and an old mid nineties TE GP7 SM130 amp, in limited edition green leatherette of course. Sounded fab.

The Green Green Grass Of Homeopathy — Tom Jones

Bass: Shaftesbury Tele bass copy from 1989 until 2018 which was the first bass I bought. Before that, I just borrowed other people's basses. Otherwise it would be the Tanglewood kids sized Precision copy that I bought around 2011 and still have now. Guitar: 1997 Danelectro DC59 (2006 to present). Previously I had a 1968 Fender Telecaster from 1988 until 2018). Keys: Casio VL-Tone mini synth / calculator hybrid that I got for Christmas either 1980 or '81. Still have it and use it now. Also a Casio MT-65 keyboard that I bought secondhand in 1986 and still use today. Wife: 1993 to present. Bonkers, but a keeper. Some light relicing, etc... 👍

I’ve not seen this thread before - I’m a massive Lakland fan, I’d go as far as to say it’s my favourite brand, started with a 44-01 and just bought a 55-02 Deluxe with an ebony board (pic below) which is immense. I also want to get a 55-01 at some point to make a ‘super jazz’ out of - gonna stick Nordy big singles and probably an East Uni 5 preamp in it. They’re such good basses to play, the necks are fantastic, they do everything you ask of them and you can gig them forever!!

I wish Sire would roll out Champagne Gold to more of their models, that's a lovely pale gold, not so yellow.

Yes. The final slot in each block can be changed to one of a pre-determined list of other effects. I put a chorus pedal on that block so that I can use the mod block for compression and the the compression block for octave, which is how I’ve set it up to use in manual mode. Writing that took me longer than actually doing it! Only caveat is that you need the Boss Bluetooth thingy to do it. But that is worth getting anyway so you can stream music from your phone or tablet to play along to, and I baked that into my buying decision.

Yeah, it sounds a bit clearer and more open. Seems to have a bit more punch to it. I did a few A/B comparisons at home with headphones. Not sure the difference is as noticeable with the band though.

Here's the view after a load of sanding, veneer, routing, finishing and all that!

Rockin' my Parker!

Good thing I don’t want either Works great as an OD or in EQ mode on the verge of break up, it enhances my tone beautifully, it adds that extra magic on top. Effectively the core of my sound is Cali + SansAmp, I could potentially do without the DCX, but when I turn it on, it adds that little thing on top that I like. Very versatile pedal.

Well... Now it is here. I expected a tube amp, and it feels very close to that. Tone from clear and soft to smooth growl: not the harsh broken sound many amps produce. A fine growl... The only downside is that it doesn't look like a Fender Bassman, but that is no issue. The amp responds to your touch in a pleasant way, the tone blooms according to touch. With all controls at noon, except for master volume, you get a good starting point. The only thing I've done is cut som treble to 9 o'clock. The lean/fat/thick switch in fat position is what I prefer. My main bass - the Unicorn Purist - has rather low output, and due to that very wide tonal range. With that bass I set the mute/on/boost switch to "boost!". On my other basses I set just "on". Powerful! Dynamic! Neat! Yep - a keeper! I like it... And - I like the new knobs. The old ones were a bit difficult to see when tweaking...

An A/B switch at the end of your effects chain. A goes to the amp. B goes to a headphone amp.

I got the email from DPD today that it is on its way, so should arrive next week.

Which is exactly what I’ve just done! 👍🏻

Yeah, it’s a bit of a step back from my Helix Stomp. I miss the ability to turn off one effect and turn on another with one switch. I do like that becuse it is more basic i wont want to keep tweaking it. I found i got bogged down in all the possibilities with the Helix and my playing suffered a bit.

And also one of its downsides. You are playing something, you want a chorus, ok, you have 10 choruses, with a load of settings for each one. You get a sound you like, maybe one of the other choruses is better? lets try the next one, and fiddle with the settings. No maybe the next one is better. hmm maybe the first one was better at this settings.. oh hang on, I have run out of practicing time.

“… that’s livin’, alright”!

Hi All Bit of a delay in posting. The front and back are now glued on and i've cut the binding channels. I forgot to take photos but I use a router and take many passes.... Next, a very simple end graft made out of two bits of binding stuck together. It's not glued yet, first is binding. There was then a slight delay as while I was cutting up some veneers for the binding I managed to slice my finger open. Turns out surgical scalpels are actually quite good at cutting humans..who'd have thought! A quick trip to A&E and a few sutures later, I'm fine. As usual, mistakes like that happen because I was hurrying. Sharp things and haste do not go together well. Being a numpty doesn't help of course. Anyway, the bindng channels I cut with a router, the side binding though is done by hand. First a gremel, then a chisel to clear out the channel. The binding gets bent on the iron the same as the sides. The binding layout I'm doing has got black/white inner lines that will be mitred to the lines of the back stripe. The most difficult part is here where they meet at the bottom: In the picture above it isn't glued. I'm trying to get those white and black inner lines to line up nicely so it looks like one continuous line. The black one is fine, but you can see that the white one still needs a bit more work. I glue everything together (bindng plus white and black veneers) all at the same time which is not the normal way of doing it. And next time I may well try doing the purfling lines first. The back is bound, so we'll see tomorrow how successful the mitres were. Edit - In case you're wondering, the two white strips on the left hand side are teflon. I slide them into the joint so that when I glue the binding on the right hand side it doesn't gum up the left hand channel. Dried titebond is difficult to get out of small gaps like that. Speaking of titebond I've gone back to using it for binding. For a while I used superglue, which seems easier because you can get everything completely ready and taped into place before wicking in water thin glue. What it doesn't do is soften the binding, so it's a quite unforgiving process. Because titebond is water based it seems to soften the binding allowing it to bend into the corners better. So for now I'm sticking (ooh nice pun) with Titebond (original). Though next time I may try fish glue which apparently has a longer open time. Binding can be pretty fiddly so being able to take it more slowly would be good....

The instrument I've had the longest is a red Warwick Streamer LX. However, I haven't really gigged it for years and it currently lives in my Mum's attic as I'm short of space here and I haven't got round to selling it. I did used to have a Ken Smith Burner for many years, which I always said that I would never sell, but promptly did when I needed funds for a Fender Precision AVRI57 that I wanted for a blues band I was doing loads of gigs with. The better story is my 78 Fender P bass, which I bought when I was 18 (in 1979), sold when I was 25. I always regretted selling it, so was really pleased when I saw it up for sale a few years ago during lockdown. I managed to buy it back and have been gigging it again ever since.

Still got my first ever bass… bought new in 1982. An Aria Pro 2 SB700. Fabulous bass. Still love it and sounds great. Playing it in a university musical around 1985.. Playing it last November for an “80s” set…

I think I’d look at a used Mexican Jazz, the Player range is very good but the quality of Mex basses really upped from 2012 onwards imo. You should be able to source one for around budget. I’m a bit traditional, figuring if looking at a Jazz or Precision go Fender first then if you feel anything lacking try other brands that address those points if possible.

We've both been on the go the same length of time, give or take a few months. Sadly, I've more wrinkles 😀

That 71P looks really nice and not too ridiculously priced!

*low pass filter 😝 but yeh the VTC is essentially the same as the tone control on a Fender, but it works in active and passive mode - very useful with Sadowsky preamp and it’s so hot and has a huge amount of sizzle at the top end, I found boosting bass by about 25% and treble a little more, then rolling the VTC/tone control back at least halfway and then fiddling to suit worked well.

Here's my original video about using Zoom recorders for ambient mixes. I'm building a solution (when I get round to it) that could be an interesting tool. The soldering iron needs to come out!

The moral of this story is, if it seems too good to be true then it probably is. I remember when a new four string Wal cost £880, and you could get a deal on that price for cash. Allowing for inflation, that's £2560 in today's money. (GigSounds in Streatham did them for £729 without the case, which would set you back another £90.) I also remember when used Wal basses were hard to sell, and you could pick up a decent one for £600, no problem. Mid to late 1990s. They are without doubt magnificent-sounding basses, but definitely a niche product and not likely to suit everybody. Anyhow, I hope the new owner is delighted with his purchase. Nothing sounds like a Wal, you've either got one or you haven't.( I haven't.)

Informer ～ Snow

I love this bass soooo much, since fitted my VTC pre, scored some Villex pickups and got a tort (ish) guard on it. Plays and sounds great.

The bare necessities 😁

one mad fuzz off for another

I'm sure it's gotta be 99% emperor's new clothes for those who are upgrading. I'd definitely go for a V2 if I was in the market for a comp, but never if I already had a V1. The metering is nice, but also in an odd way an admission you didn't really know how to set it before? 😅

Here are mine! - FSR CV60's Precision - Contemporary Jazz HH V - Affinity Jaguar H