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The new bands first outing from the rehearsal studio was this Tuesday just gone. I'm still very much a novice bassist, this beng my second attempt at playing live. Played four songs at an open mic session at the Junction in Rainford, just north of St Helens, Merseyside. You Really Got Me, Fortunate Son, Black Night, and Paranoid on my trusty 5 string Harley Benton. Great live music pub. Allows us to slowly get used to the transition from Rehearsal to Live!

A couple of months ago, I was in Promenade Music, buying a nylon string guitar and spotted a rather lovely, short scale Sandberg bass. It's matt redburst finish, ebony fingerboard and black hardware, really impressed me. So, after 2 months of trying not to think about it, I went over to Morecambe, to check it out. I have owned a number of Sandbergs over the years, including a Lionel Short Scale, and they have never disappointed. It's a simple P-style bass but oozes quality. The split-coil pickup is clear, punchy and full of character, with a lovely harmonic range. The neck, like every Sandberg I have owned plays just right, with a solidity and high quality that matches or surpasses anything else in this style. Yes, this is a serious bass, that looks very cool, to my eyes and really performs through my bass set-up (Galien-Kruger/Mark Bass).

Just acquired this lovely Sandberg California V Short Scale.

It looks a bit different now...

James at Affordaboard’s posting me one out to demo, should be with me early next week. I’ll post my findings & some demos once I get a chance to record.

Several of the folk in my main band, the Hulla, are volunteers at the local lifeboat station. Somehow, I've managed to get myself on the line up for a charity night celebrating the 200th anniversary of the RNLI on Saturday. No biggy, you say. Well, after 35 +years of gigging, Saturday will be my first solo spot. I've sung lead and backing vocals, played guitar , bass and even a bit of keyboards in duos through to 13 piece line-ups. But I've never stood on the stage on my own with just a guitar to hide behind. 🤐

Interesting that BD seem to have fallen into the same trap that I did. They state the neck is dated the 5th of the month, where we now know the 5 denotes a Precision neck. I understand my ignorance but would have thought a specialist would be better informed.

Tuesday 19th November 9pm. 2 support artistes before. The Gladstone Arms, SE1 1QN. That London.

My 80s/ska band Chequered Past are at the Bilton Club in Harrogate on Saturday 16th Nov. Here we are last week in Rotherham. My recently put together Bitsa Precision making it's first appearance . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da_qYng7koQ

Hit me up if you're playing in London and we might work something out 😃 FWIW this is the kind of thing I do when I have a 'proper' camera with me

Looks like the wait is nearly over,excepting these to be on sale end of this month! Gorgeous looking pedal and is the top of my wish list (if anyone is feeling generous🤣). I have no affiliation, altough I'm a big fan of Nathan's pedals. Some blurb from taken the Sushi Box FX Secret Society so save you all trawling through 1200 pots! Slampegg Bee Pre (current): based on the Ampeg B-15N preamp with a 12AX7 tube. Simple 1/4" input and 1/4" output with a footswitch to bypass. I left the circuit as close to the original as possible, and with a 12AX7 or 12AT7 installed it can get a decent amount of overdrive. Grand Slampegg: Also based on the Ampeg B-15N preamp but this time with a 6SL7 tube. I have modified the circuit on this one to stay clean no matter what, but it allows you get the B-15N clean tone LOUD which seems to be what most B-15 players want. I have added a D.I. XLR output so this can be your rig-in-a-box, kept the two-band EQ and also added a fixed frequency HPF like you see in Neptunium and Finally v2. Grand Slampegg has the 1/4" dry pass switch so you can run the preamp out the XLR and send your dry signal through the 1/4" to an amplifier, like Finally. But in this revision I've also managed to squeeze in an XLR source switch like I have in Venus Z. So you can choose whether you want preamp output from the XLR or if you just want it to act as a passive D.I. box. This would allow you to send the preamp signal through the 1/4" output to a power amp and a clean D.I. signal to FOH for example. 'it will not be able to break up by itself. Granted running another pedal into it and pushing the front end will still allow the 6SL7 to break up, but by itself it will just be clean. Grand Slampegg: - 6SL7 tube - 100% clean, doesn't have a gain control - XLR output and 1/4" output - fixed frequency switchable HPF (yup, I throw it in pedals willy-nilly now)

I just noticed it's a significant anniversary for me. The original van (Mazda Bongo) was scrapped earlier this year, but as I have replaced it with a Berlingo I see no need to change my username. I couldn't think where else to put this, so I'll just say to all new arrivals. You've come to the right place.

...not to mention the vibration of the warm wood against your body makes it seem like the bass is alive and loves to make music. Hmmm, I guess that sounds a bit weird and some might be wondering what I'm really thinking about when I'm playing, but it's all good clean fun, although I do enjoy "dancing" with her when I play. 😊

Suppose I'll add this to the pile - who hasn't modded one of these? It's my first 32" scale (that I remember) and has been modded thus: Ibanez CAP double humbucker (from an ATK810) Series/single/parallel switch added Cheapo Amazon high mass bridge (not that I buy into that, but the original BBOT had a rattly spring which was annoying me) Black/white/black pickguard made by earlpilanz "Block inlay" stickers

A slight design change. I'd used the handles as designed by the original people. These handles sat on the top of the board and screwed into the v-slots using t-nuts. They also took up valuable space. One of the really nice things about V/T-slot extrusion is they have things like 5mm holes in the end. These holes can be tapped with a M5 tap set, so pulled mine out the garage and tapped eight holes. I can now screw M5 bolts in. The design for the original handles wasn't quite right, so I did them all again so that the handles covered the end of the extrusions properly. It looks very nice from the bottom and from the top Really pleased with this, if anybody is interested, I'll happily make one for the price of the parts and a donation to Andy's BC donation fund Rob

Took a better photo before, weird as it’s bright cherry in some lights…and dark wine red in others. Anyhow… I want one of these… As I don’t really like the “anniversary” stuff on the truss cover, looks a bit Mickey Mouse…

It's very uncommon to see a failed driver in those cabinets. The best replacement is the 12PR300, it's not exactly the same but the primary difference is in the mid voicing (the 12PR300 is a little more polite) and the original parts have a slightly longer VC winding height. The important part is that the 12PR300 will work with the same cabinet tuning as the GNX-12350 without any fuss. I do not recommend anything else.

So after years of EUB ownership, becoming empty nesters this year has opened the space opportunity to owning a real doghouse. As mentioned in my other thread requesting advice, I have had this lovely Boosey Hawkes Excelsior 50/2 on loan for a little while and today I have bought her. Previously owned and used by @Blartfactor10 she’s an honest workhorse bass with a great dark tone - perfect for my blue grass / country / Americana acoustic trio 😎

Well tbh I picked this up a while back from ebay but just now getting around to posting it. It's a 1988-1990 Guild Pilot bass, I dont really know a lot about them and doesn't seemed to be to much information out there from my limited research. I'll post the photos from the ad as they will be far better quality then my own. Its SUPER light weight for a five string, really punchy and for some reason has Les Paul knobs on it.... which I have grown to really like, being able to know exactly what number to dial in is pretty cool. This thing was pretty beat up when I got it but to me that added to the appeal. You can see how they has really dug into those EMG's. Clearly someone has played this thing a lot or just left it behind a door. Hope its not the latter. Also gets my vote for one of the cooler pointer headstocks So yh thats it. Made in USA, Grover Tuners, High mass brass bridge, 80's EMGs. Love the offset body shape. Love that its all black and evil. Plays like a truck and im super happy with it.

I’ll be gigging my Larry tomorrow too! I put a clear scratchplate on cos that grain is too pretty to hide and popped in a EMG GZR too …

Literally took it out of the box and gigged with it. Just finished. Short review? Bloody brilliant.

I have owned a Lionel, not long back, but am not really sure of the difference. It was a great bass but I'd give this the edge over it. Not sure why. Just feels that bit more solid and classy.

I can’t help thinking that a Lionel is probably the bass for me these days.

... and a review from one of own, I suspect.

There is certainly something very tactile about playing a double bass, and I can certainly confirm that there is a very pleasing interaction between bass and body. As I generally refuse to dance on account of my two left feet, I’d better not start dancing with Lilly or Mrs JPJ will get jealous 😂

That looks great... Wonder how much it will cost?

All seems perfectly reasonable to me

Currently 3 TT-800's in stock at Andertons! https://www.andertons.co.uk/mesa-boogie-subway-tt-800/

I think it is 16 years since the last album. Maybe 32 since the last good one 😂 I love the Cure. I was lucky to be at the Troxy for the launch gig.

Maybe 4: maple+rounds, maple+flats, rosewood+rounds, rosewood+flats. (And then maybe the same but with ash bodies; I can see why people end up with many basses.)

Just had a notification on Facebook of change of venue for this. Apparently now taking place in a small pizza restaurant in Islington. Hmmm….

Peavey also did this with the Grind - the groove didn't extend across the whole width.

Pretty sure a 66 and a 65 will have a 7 for jazz

Exactly the same as I found it, it went from 'meh, its ok' to one of my favourites very quickly although pretty sad - "and Im outside in the dark, looking at a blood red moon, remembering the hopes and dreams i had and all I had to do, and wondering what became of that boy and the world he called his own, and Im outside in the dark, wondering how I got so old, its all gone". Quite a long way from 'just like heaven'

The only correct way to do a medley:

A bit of an odd one, just three of us from our five person bluegrass band played a dinner gig (6-8) at a restaurant/pub in downtown North Bay. It is very long narrow room, not very good for live music and the owners are just wanting to see if music at that time would be a good idea. We played a couple of "bluegrassyish" sets with mostly standard bluegrass songs but some Gordon Lightfoot, Everly Brothers and a couple of other country or pop tunes and it went down well with the fairly small crowd. We kept the volume down so we could be heard but not disturb conversations and it worked out well, a number of compliments and even the staff seemed to enjoy it. We all know that being at the end of a long narrow room is about the worst way to set up but the people who wanted to hear better had tables closer to us and all the diners and drinkers seemed happy with the set up. This was our first gig as a trio and we were a bit worried about how it would go but now we are hoping to get a return gig and maybe gigs at other venues too. We don't take up much room and we aren't too loud and play an unusual mix of music and we are cheaper than bigger bands. Bluegrass is a summer festival type of music here so it's good to have a few gigs in the quiet time of the year. Edit: just got word we are invited back for next Tuesday.👍

I'd kinda forgotten about this one- unfortunately this one never made it to live use as I came home to find the body had split from the heat of my kitchen (the body was very very cheap from eBay, to call it solid wood would be generous) Some day I may attempt something similar but for now- enjoy

Another weekend, another new venue. Played at the Railway Club in Keith last night with Nine Lives. Have you ever rocked up to a venue, only to wonder if it's even open? We feared the worst when the drummer and I arrived first and parked up outside. Tiny door which looks like it should be a side door or something turns out is the main door - pub is actually upstairs. Ugh, stairs, where are the roadies when you need them? So we recce the place and it's empty - save for a guy at the bar with an acoustic guitar playing it, who turned out to be someone we auditioned to be our singer but rejected. I did wonder if this would be awkward. Thankfully, it was not - he was bang up for a good night and came up and said hi afterwards, no hard feelings, good vibes only. Anyhoo, we get set up and just before we start, some people thankfully came in and it grew from there. Turns out there was some sort of fireworks display that night which explains the absence of folk at the start of the evening. It quickly filled up, ended up with a good crowd - it's not a big place by any means but the beauty of that meant that the 40-ish folk who were there seemed like way more. We had a fantastic sound, place was tiny so I didn't even bother with the PA, just used my bass rig to provide the boom on its own. We played really well, no major bloopers. Got lots of good feedback after and the landlord was impressed so hopefully we'll be back. It's a bit of a trek, but I'll travel far to play to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience. Gear: Sire D5 then Squier Jag H (or the ATJ as someone suggested on LowEndLobster's discord server), into the Markbass terrible twosome.