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Finally they have addressed the Sire headstock controversy! 😂

OK new server is purchased and we're migrating everything in the next few days. We'll test it for a bit and make a switch over soon. This will involve importing the database. The site itself shouldn't be down/offline at any stage but I'll let everyone know.

But how will anyone complain about the ugly headstock if there isn't one?

After a longer than anticipated wait, I got the news that the neck is finished, the bass assembled and set up today. It's due to arrive tomorrow, I'll do an NBD post when I've had a chance to get to know it, but for now I'm really happy with the aesthetic.

It's fan fret time... as someone alluded to in a thread about fan fretted basses, Sire have unveiled their new M6 range: Looks like fretless is probably on the table also, dunno about lefties yet. Skeleton official pages (subject to change and probably removal when things go proper official) 4 - https://sire-usa.com/products/refn1ay3zbjam3bq-36831494282 5 - https://sire-usa.com/products/refn1ay3zbjam3bq 6 - https://sire-usa.com/products/refn1ay3zbjam3bqs So have at it - the headstock's gone, they're using their own body shape (adapted from the M2/5/7), so you're going to have to find new things to complain about

Years ago, I got a bit hot under the collar about an offer, which on reflection I shouldn't have. Not a musical instrument - a motorcycle. Me, vaguely attracted to some other bright shiny thing in the shop: "How much would you give me for this?" Them: "We're not really interested in that" Me: "How much?" Them: "£1000" At which I took umbrage (scrap value of said bike was about £1500), but on reflection I was really ignoring what they kept telling me, that they didn't want it. It did take me many, many months to get to that point of reflection though. I think (going back an awfully long way to the OP) there is an awful lot to consider in terms of a "straight trade". The shop has bought in an item with a certain level of mark-up. There's VAT considerations on this as well. It becomes a lot more complex in terms of profit and loss than "you're selling A for £x, here's B that I'd like £x for". There's a few on here that have actually worked in shops who could give a more informed view than me.

So the monthly jazz jam I go to has moved venue and whether it's because the 'stage' was on a hard floor and is now on carpet, or something else, I don't know, but I just can't hear myself through the house bassist's down-firing Acoustic Image combo any more. 'I know what' I said to myself, 'I'll bring my own rig next time, the compact transportable one, then I'll be in charge of my own sound. Job's a good 'un!' 'There's one problem,' I replied, 'you don't have a compact transportable rig.' 'Ah,' I said, 'fair point. Guess I'll have to get round to building that Basschat 1x8 then.' So then (and no more internal dialogue, I promise): driver and hardware obtained, timber supplies assessed, and a trip round the side of the house made to cut a bit off the length of spare drainpipe that's been lying around there ever since we moved in; deadline for completion, next jam on 13th Feb; let's go! I already had some bits of B&Q 12mm ply, and one of them was a strip I got cut 280 mm wide for some forgotten reason, so to save me a couple of cuts I've slightly adjusted the size to use a 280 mm wide baffle and back panel. Do not mix these two up Remaining cuts made with the handheld electric saw, using a batten or piece of board clamped to the workpiece as a guide, after careful adjustment (and checking the guide piece is actually straight). This could easily go wrong, but I seem to have got away with it. I cut the driver and port holes with the Dremel and circle attachment. This was very easy but in my excitement I forgot to properly allow for the cut thickness, so both holes have come out a couple of mm bigger than planned. Bit of a pain for the port, which will need packing out with something, but still plenty of wood left for the speaker to seal on as long as it stays properly centred in the aperture. To ensure that I cut some little pieces of a moulding I happened to have spare, and glued them to the insides of the cutout, and that seems to be just right to keep the speaker located. Now off to watch Phil's assembly video one more time…

Yeah - hope so; the shares and well wishes online show how much love there is for the big guy.

10 weeks actually. End of the financial year. Great. Spend more on an amp with someone's name on it and slightly different knobs. Neither of them will be any different from standard models I bet.

Rex will be endorsing something else within 6 months 😉🤣

I got an immaculate P10 for 499! [OK not ss] Sires look gorgeous.

Have you seen how far the tuners extend beyond the confines of the bodies? They're only going to last five minutes etc. 😏

This is always the argument but it doesn’t hold. You get capital flight from people like Philip Green (remember him?), but the majority of people want to live in their country of birth and close to existing friends and family. I imagine a lot of this stuff is auction fever. People getting carried away and buying what look to me like pretty average guitars (apart from the genuine vintage pieces). When your £10k gig bag arrives, the big question of course is how you’re going to display it so all the guys at the golf club can wonder at how low the action is and how incredible the sound must have been when Jeff unzipped it.

To me these delirious prices paid are simply the proof that solutions to definitely solve starvation, poverty and in the end all problems in the world do exist: Tax these wealthy people a lot more than they are and redistribute everything as nobody needs to own millions of grounds.

Any Overwater bass owners here? I have two Overwater bassess, both fretted and fretless. Been using it for gigs over the last two years and am very happy with them. I think Overwater is like the Fender Custom Shop basses in terms of build and quality. When I placed my order with Chris, initially I went for the hollow body series but later on I realized(or I think Chris told me) only both wings are hollowed. There is a centre solid block of wood in between. Well, that wasn't what I wanted as I was looking for a totally hollow body one in which 2 years later, I ordered a Stradi but that a story for another time! Anyway, so I changed to the J series instead. Don't think Chris was too impressed with the switch, sorry Chris! The first one was a fretless and I like it so much that I ordered a fretted one afterward! 😁

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFLB1L-Pqqo/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link They look lovely! https://www.gallien-krueger.com/rb-legacy

Chris and Martin built me an Inspiration in 2013, and I also have a J5 with a J-Retro and Bartolinis from 2007. They're both phenomenal basses. The Jazz was my number one for my whole career as a functions bassist. I've been to the workshop in Carlisle a couple of times and met up with them at the LBGS a few years ago too. Great guys (and girl) and terrific craftmanship; they've really set the bar for me as to what fit and finish to expect on a high-end instrument.

Meanwhile in my madness… gloss on Matt black - looks pretty good!

@ped & @Woodinblack Loving your work guys. ❤️

When I bought mine it was only a couple hundred more than the Fender artist range! So I was always going to opt for something hand made to my spec in the UK! Plus you can guarantee it will sound great with an Overwater, unlike Fender, even custom shop!

Regarding whether Alembic.basses are worth the money, whilst I don't want to set off the usual Basschat "is any bass really worth more than £7.50 and a bag of pork scratchings?" debate yet again, what I will say is that Alembics have something unique to offer in terms of sound. Most other high end basses, even equally expensive ones, don't. You're talking about elite level instruments with their own design philosophy, built by proper craftsmen. That isn't going to come cheap. No one needs an Alembic. You buy one because you want one, and because you can.

Reverend Triad 5 Strings. Nice.

I know its a small detail, but I wish Fender would bring back the early 70's headstock with the full size (Gotoh shape) tuning keys. I wanna see a nice TV script decal too, I really have no idea why they thought the newer shape looks better?

A Cort with a Fender logo you say? That'll be an extra £200 please!

There is a Barefaced Big Twin for sale for £800 in the listings. I have no connection with the seller but that seems like a fantastic deal, if you want something that is not going to fart out on the lows at volume. If you don’t need the highs, you can turn the compression driver down. I suggest it is all the cabinet anyone is going to need but might be eclipsed by my next suggestion. On the modular front, LFSys has been mentioned and I can second that, being the owner of a Monza (10”). The Monaco (12”) must be even more bullet proof. Rated at 600 watts AES @ 8 ohms it’s going to cope with all but the highest output amps at full chat. Don’t take my word for it though, search for the threads about LFSys on here and/or drop @stevie a DM to discuss your needs.

Wow!

I thought I'd bring this thread back up, since we're finally seeing some action in the mid-to-low price ranges: Gear4Music have rebranded their Coliseum basses as the G4M 972 range, in 4, 5, and 6 strings (link to 5) Andertons are stocking the HILS NEXT HNB5 in a few colours: here's the Rose Gold for £599 Yesterday, Sire showed their new M series multiscale headless basses at NAMM: so far, the only info I have is from a photo via Reddit, nothing official yet. There are 4, 5 and 6 string models too. No word on scale length, but I see they are highlighting low weight (under 8 lbs):

Decided to try my hand at a layout for the simple Alembic SVF that's been around for a while. I have yet to send the files to the fab house, so hopefully it works. I also changed the power supply to a ±9V supply which I nicked from Peter Rutter at VFE Pedals (brilliant designer). He uses a similar supply for some of his designs.

Any number of late '70s/early '80s post-copy era Japanese basses. Single P unit, usually (but not always) symmetrical body, 2-a-side headstock was a blueprint for dozens of the things. Westone, Westbury, Vantage, Washburn, Kasuga, Hondo - pretty much every brand did at least one. Prices start around £200ish, DiMarzio Model Ps used in lots of them, a good few with neck through builds. Got a couple myself, funnily enough.

Aguilar Tonehammer does dirty

Leave any amp out in the garden at this time of year and it will go dirty 😀

Looking at Ashdown's website for the Rex Brown amp, it is just a UK made Rootmaster. None of the specs are any different, but they've just added his name to it. Other than the initial description, the rest of the product pages are the same.

I’ve lost the plot now. Got 8 new pedals coming this week though five are loaners.

Prices have risen so much in the last few years that they've found space for a new range between Squier and Mexican Fender.

Everything depends on your type of 1982 Jazz Bass. Is it a JV series? When yes, only the pickups were American, so indeed with cloth wires, but the remaining wires were mainly plastic types, but sometimes fully cloth, hey, that's Fender. I own a 1982 Squier JV Stratocaster that still has the sticker on the pickguard saying "Pick up made in USA". When no, the pickups were Japanese with only plastic wires all over. The pots on yours are Japanese period correct models.

Oh, very cool! If they could make a more compact chassis, but keep an old school power stage, that would be marvellous! I have a Legacy, and I actually like it a lot, since getting the right cab for it, but I do yearn for some old school power goodness, although, my back does not. Having grown up playing through the 90s and 00s, I miss the comparatively effortless power that we took for granted back then, from properly powerful old school solid state units, Trace and Peavey in my case. Class D is OK, but what we had before was better, way better actually, just bigger and heavier. Whoever can really crack the proper power stage in a small box puzzle can have my money!

We're running out of room on the server. I'll look into an upgrade - a quick look at current offers shows we can upgrade to one which will be 3x faster with double ram and storage... It'll happen in the next few days, all being well

Sire goes headless

The Pushbike Song - The Mixtures

Even though I'm on the other side of the Atlantic and I've never found these in stores, I have to buy 36-bar boxes of them from Amazon, there's nothing quite like them!

And for those interested, the link to gear's list with their selling price: https://www.christies.com/en/auction/jeff-beck-the-guitar-collection-30401/

Any shape you like with a P shaped pickup in it. Not P sounding enough for you? Change the P pickup.

Their offer isn't a rip-off, it's just too low. My local PMT have advised me in the past not to trade in with them, as they are forced to make lowball offers and have said I'd do better on Ebay or FB marketplace.

That've very kind of you @BassApprentice, to return the favour I've got some space in my wallet in which I could probably store some cash on your behalf also 😃

I worry that matter might meet anti-matter if you two meet 🙂