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I thought I'd share this pic as I like it so much. My band did a little video shoot last week, and the guitarist is a keen amateur photographer. After we'd finished filming I asked him to take some pics of the basses I'd taken. A brace of '73's. Rob

It took a while longer to come together than expected, but today I took delivery of this absolute beauty and I'm pretty happy with it. The idea (inspired by a mate who's done similar tele and strat builds) was to build a really high quality vintage looking P bass but with modern appointments. The same kind of idea as buying a classic car and putting a modern drive train in it. The body came from MJTs eBay store. I had waited for an Aztec gold one to come up for a few months, one finally did but it sold for more than I was willing to pay. Shortly after this ice blue metallic one came up, I'd never heard of it before but after some googling I was pretty sold. I bid, won, paid the import, waited for delivery and finally it arrived in early August. The bridge is a gotoh 203 and the tuners are gotoh resolites. I'm really happy with both, they look classic but are slight functional improvements over the what an actual vintage bass would have, fitting in nicely with the restomod idea. Pickup and electronics are EMG GZR. I agonised over the decision, it's really easy to get analysis paralysis with P bass pick-ups because there are so many available. I considered Kloppmann, Bare knuckle, Di Marzio model P, various Seymour Duncans and probably a few more. Then I played another bass with the GZR in it and enjoyed it, so because I couldn't test any of the others I ordered the GZR. I may change it in the future but for now I'm pretty sold, it does exactly what I want it to, not that I could describe what that is. The strat and tele that inspired the build both have Warmoth necks. I enquired about getting the spec I wanted built and they weren't able to help, I wanted a 16" radius which they apparently don't do on bass necks, so it was back to the drawing board. I ended up contacting Jon Shuker about building a neck and ordered the same spec as he uses for the JJ Burnel Zenith bass, I shipped the body and parts to Jon, he built the neck to fit the pocket and assembled and set the bass up, all for less money that my mate had paid for his Warmoth necks after shipping and tax! Today it finally arrived and I'm over the moon. I'll list the full spec below for those that are interested. Most importantly there are photos. It weighs a shade over 4kg. Neck (Shuker): Roasted flamed maple. Carbon reinforcement. Stainless frets. Brass nut. Luminlay side dots. Black fret board markers. 16" radius. Gentle c carve. 43mm nut. 20.5mm depth at the first fret. 22.5mm at the 12th. Body (MJT): Alder with usual contours. Lightly aged ice blue metallic finish (nitrocellulose). Hardware: Gotoh resolite tuners in nickel. Gotoh 203 brass bridge in nickel. Gotoh aged domed nickel nobs. Gotoh large nickel strap buttons. eBay special anodized scratch plate. Electronics: EMG GZR pick-up and wiring. I think it came together pretty well!

First gig of 2025 last night was a 40th at Studley Social Club in Redditch. Considering the state of the building on the outside, it was actually a really nice room with a cool stage and friendly staff. I’m really wanting to love my Mustang as I think it’s gorgeous and plays so nice. I played the first set with the intention of playing it all night. But, I swapped it out for the second set as it just doesn’t sound as good as my Gretsch to my ears. Both went through my B3 into the PA and monitored using 64Audio A4t in-ears. All round, a good night and enjoyed blowing off the cobwebs after a few weeks off!

The Bush in Cwmbran with Bluesfire. Tight fit in this old pub, lovely customers and staff. As usual had a blast with some dancing (we aren't very danceable). Used my proper rig this time. Quecha aporoach shoes with custom orthopaedic insert to keep my ankle bearable.

I've had a board of Broughton pedals for a long time and, after a recent flurry of succeeding on releases, I decided to make a bigger board. It's sorely missing the flanger of the Utility Knife (which Josh Broughton helped design) so maybe that will go back on the board with the Omnicomp sneaking underneath. It's an absolute monster though and weighs a ton. It has comp, EQ, fuzz, OD, distortion, envelope, phaser, boost, PLL, tubes, preamps and DI and headphone out, so it covers a lot of ground. I've tried my hand at putting together a few more manufacturer specific boards which I expect will see the light of day here soon. I know that doesn't float everyone's boat but I've still got my main board, clean board and headphone amp boards that do most of the work so the manufacturer-specific boards are just ways of enjoying the pedals I've spent forever F5ing for rather than keeping them in boxes. I really like fuzz into octave and realised there are a lot of competing dirt pedals so I've tried to vary them so that I can various combinations e.g. fuzz into distortion into fuzz into OD into distortion. Not pictured: there is a Broughton BBA and a Studio Boost Mini on the back, along with two Cioks DC7s and two DC8s.

I think I went a bit overboard with all the stuff to try this week! (And that’s not all of it😬.)

Not much demos on youtube but this one definitely adds to one of my fave preamps. I’ve only fiddled with it for a day but dang! It seems like it puts a smooth polished finish on the end of my chain. No matter what I do to the signal prior (fliptop and comp settings) once it hits the Studio One it cleans it up, smooths it out and makes it sound like a better warmer version of itself if that makes sense. I've never been able to get clean low-end like this, I tend to push the low-end a bit but still has nice definition and heft. There’s some kind of Broughton Magic on the red gain knob. You can’t overdrive it unless there’s a boost or drive pedal in front but it adds a rich warmth to your tone. I feel like I can push this further with much clearer, usable results. Studio quality indeed, Love this thing! Here’s how it sounds when I got this few days ago I immediately tested it. Fliptop into Studio One. No mixing on the DAW in my bass track. It’s my settigs on my pedals only.

it’s sounding mostly ace, just getting some warbling on the G string on high fretted notes so I suspect either the pickup is too high or the string is twisted. I’ll sort that out tomorrow. I went with a 0.1uF cap and it goes super dark and reggae like with the tone fully down. and I did my maths right… it’s bang on 7lb.

When I worked in a shop (A LONG LONG TIME AGO) We’d easily upsell from Squier at £179 (Standard Strat) to a £329 Mexican Standard Strat - particularly white/maple… The country of Manufacture hierarchy wasn’t a consideration for those customers - it was the “Fender” bit. That’s the target audience…not us. It was the same reason we had a wall of American G&L s500’s, Legacy’s and Comanche’s which we could not sell - Selling 30 American standard strats to 1 US G&L ”I know this one is better, I prefer it, but I told my band I was buying a Fender Strat…” Brand power. I also presume there are considerations now Mr Anti-Mexico is back at the helm… I bet their manufacturing to wholesale margins are much more profitable using Indonesia too…

Just got planet rock on in the shed here - dedication to Nick just being played now - Gary Moore. Having a quiet moment to myself for a few moments. RIP Nick.

That’s one hell of a carpet. Probably got a preservation order.

Bargain at £350 including case

Had a spare Pedaltrain PB-3 riser and put together this basic board for tomorrow. Love the Fliptop so much it’s my core tone and always on. The Studio One refines it further and just makes it smooth and silky as how I would describe it. Only thing is that it takes time to tweak and find the sweet spot and settings of this thing

So I decided to have a good look into stripping down my outboard gear even more. I played around with my Zoom MS-60B and found - much to delight - that I can use an amp, set 100% flat and still use the cab option. So now the TC Electronic impulse response loader is off (as is the chorus, which as much as I adore chorus, I just don't use it in the pub band) and the Zoom does a decent enough cab sim. The DemonFX Tone Mallet is there only for my Ibanez BTB 6, as a preamp (the older BTBs are brilliant, but the vari-mid eq is a bit bleh after playing the Sadowsky). Before... After... Julian aka Glassmoon

We used to talk about Vigiers a lot, I’ll always remember his blue burst Arpege. There’s a picture of us at the first ever bass bash in Northampton somewhere. Very talented bassist and such a warm, friendly character. Felt like I knew him much better than I did.

Glorious. I need one.

All Fender and Squier guitars will probably end up only being made in the USA, and only be available in a lurid orange colour that's not seen in nature........😆😆😆

In my opinion, there is no substitute for big iron in bass tone (pic of the innards of my SWR SM1500 for reference) 😎

There weren’t many people I’d have sold my (then) 25 year old greenburst Status Series one bass too after all we’d been through together …but Nick nagged me for so long I eventually gave in ! About 18 months later he told me he’d let it go to a student of his,and did I want to buy it back ?I did of course,and Nick arranged for me to meet the lad in a cafe in Sheffield.Same price as I sold it for ..and that was the measure of the man. Lost count of the number of chats we had,running prices and ideas past each other….nudging each other in the ribs at picking up a “bass bargain.” He phoned me a short while back to meet up for a local (to me) Genesis connected gig,and unfortunately I couldn’t make it….. Nick,you were just a lovely guy and a great musician who had a precious gift of being able to bring people together. Rest in peace my friend . Steve.💙

Yeah, great isn't it! I was playing Dawn Penn's 'You don't love me (no no no)' with the band at rehearsal the other day and we unexpectedly just keep going around - guitar solo, around again, vocals, around again, brass solo, around again, only bass and drums, around again...and kept going, like group meditation. And for me, standing in front of a loud cab and just repeating that dubby bass that you can feel almost as much as hear, locking in with the drums and everyone else, nothing virtuoso or flashy - providing a hypnotic foundation is my favourite thing with bass playing. 'meditate with bass weight'

1 Brough became 2 Brough and now 3 Brough. NPD! Just got the Studio One few days ago.

Thanks for this. been at work all day with a lump in my throat, gutted. Do you know, the last time we met was in August - we’d talked a good few years ago about the ‘E’ basses he’d had a hand in making around 2000/2001… One bleary eyed morning - one came up on eBay (about 15 miles from me) listed as “not working, for parts only”. I didn’t even send him the link - I just went and bought it. I sent him a photo and said “this one of yours?” He was bowled over - it’d been made for a lady he’d eventually end up with who ended up passing away unexpectedly…it’d been sold by her estate and he assumed it’d been lost forever. We hatched a plan, he drove up to collect it from me - and I’d fixed most of the issues with it (I just couldn’t sort an LED blackout, but had sorted the dicky preamp and broken machineheads). We started chatting nonsense and lost about 2 hours, messing with basses… Think we did about 4 bass deals over the years, the first one was in 2009 for a Marcus Miller Jazz at Piccadilly train station… We’d message fairly regularly, particularly if one of us had a new bit of kit. Ah man, very similarly to our MB1😎 - you meet people every so often who have an impact. Nick was one…a force of nature. The world got a little quieter this week - and is going to be all the worse for it.

Last night Royal Blues @ The Spice of Life, Soho, that London. Decent size stage with backline provided, so nice to be able to hear myself for a change 😆 One of our backing vocalists is away, which makes a difference as we usually have 3 part harmonies going on. But we were told it sounded good FOH. Multi band line up, with the bands having nothing musically in common, but we brought a few people and apparently it was sold out. Didn't get time to take an office pic, it was a line check during changeover then on. There were plenty of pics taken by the punters, I'll post some when I get them. Gear: Ibanez UB804 (EUB) - Swift wireless - Fender Rumble combo (supplied backline) & Korg clip on tuner. Footwear: black leather brothel creepers with white interlace.

"God tier" is for those who not only don't buy something, but also do not rearrange their pedal board for a whole year...

So how about a few of use get together and organise something, we have a lot of regional events, how about a national one? I'll help in any way I can and will donate a couple of Fenderish bitsas to auction to help cover costs?

Thank you to everyone that contributed this afternoon... and a pleasure to finally 'touch base/bass' with some of you. Mike

Height adjustable nut - like a Warwick Just-A-Nut? Clones available on AliExpress at negligible prices. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007360287741.html

Here's the first pictures of the pedalboard with the Pedal Power strip (click on them to make them bigger). These are 500mm wide, basically I chopped a 1m bar in half. I had gray on the printer so used that. I think it looks quite classy in gray and black. The bottom. The little orange bit is the cable tie to keep the USB-C cable connected. From the back. After wiring it all up a couple of problems are found: 1. The wires are too short, they need to be a longer. I had to reverse the Pedal Power as the 300mA outputs were at the wrong end. I've had to cram the pedal board a bit to get the cable tuns to fit. 2. The Pedal Power can't handle all the devices coming on at once. Specifically the ToneX pedal. This isn't a major surprise or drawback. Pull the power cable out of the ToneX, turn it all on and then put the power cable into the ToneX. I suspect normal pedals would be fine, but I'm sure cleverer people than myself can answer that. Just powered the board from a better plug. my Macbook power adaptor, and it works fine 3. the f$%^^&&*(()ing Behringer pedals having their power supply on the side is a complete PITA. Why? FFS Why? However for the cost of a few hours design, a few hours printing and some cheap extrusion, it looks good. Rob

Or you could use a section of each string glued to something like a piece of wood

'I Can Hear the Grass Grow' by The Move.It has an opening riff played on bass.Took me ages to get right.14 I was.(simper)

And I know where he lives.... Mind you, he knows where I live as well...

The neck is absolutely gorgeous. The way the lines / cracks on the body finish and the brushing on the pickguard align gives it a very unified look. Also the colour of the pickguard brings together the neck and body finish. Enjoy it!!

U2 - New Years Day It kind of blew my mind and made me aware of the power of a good arrangement - how closely musical parts could fit together and still sound completely different to one another.

It's nice, but £445's a bit steep! If you've ever noticed cheapo Satellite through-neck P types, circa 1980-ish, this is basically the same thing. This one's been modded somewhat - additional J pickup & nice Schaller M4S tuners (possibly Japanese copies), and looks in pretty good order. I'm familiar with Maison from the early 90s & only fairly recently came across their earlier output, this 'small Korean manufacturer' thing appears to be a myth, and the fact this is a budget early 80s bass, probably made by Samick, supports that. There's a Maison FB group, and here's an unmodded fretted version of the same bass. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1458034901099196/permalink/3437722686463731/ I had one of the Satellites years ago - mine was in a bit of a state but I do remember it being very heavy & having a massive tree-trunk neck, and the construction being nothing like as good as the through-neck MIJ basses it was trying to imitate. It's possible the build/materials on this are a little better but it's a close relative. Considering the upgrades & the condition, if it plays as good as it looks I'd think maybe £250-£300 was a realistic price, but £445 seems a bit much.

NBD! Tobacco Sunburst Sire V5. Looks and Sounds killer!

It’s all bollocks guys, really 👍

Come as you Are - Nirvana.

As others have said it's not going to be any different and/or better than a Squier. It's to get an extra £100 out of punters who need Fender on the headstock rather than Squier.

I really struggled to get something for this , the idea was to get a soundtrack for each of Lurksalittle's favourite bears, but I so ran out of time. I am having my carpal tunnel done next week so I have been mad at work since Christmas to make sure I've got things up to date, and this track has suffered ! end of the excuses I guess EZdrummer is probably the best part of this, but I hack around my Ibby 6 string through Waves GTR3 , and my little Fleabass pretty clean ,

I should have done one years ago. I always wanted a P with a J neck. I might start planning another one now! It does seem to be quite a good way of getting another bass into the house past the boss. Parts arriving is far less obvious! I can't afford a EBMM Joe Dart but I do have a good MM type pickup (Aguilar), tuners, an old BBOT bridge and a selection of old pots lying about. Might have to start looking at ebay for cheap bodies... Won't even have to be painted!

I think that was this one in the middle then NickA, 5 String Series I Europa in burl redwood. Great sounding bass and weighty. .

Well, I fired it up earlier. You probably heard it from where you are. JEEEEZUS H TAPDANCING CHRIST, THIS THING IS A MONSTER. The power is just immense. I haven't tweaked the EQ or compressor at all yet, I just wanted to make sure that a} it worked and b} the core tone was good. It's definitely a keeper. I'll do a proper Basschatter's review of it once I've used it in a band setting.

Now that is a nice board 😎