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A small handful may be interested but my musical duo are subject to a one hour radio special this evening on Swindon 105.5. You can listen on your smart speaker, computer, radio or phone. Music, chat, gentle humour. Feel free to dip in.

I went to the guitar auction at Gardiner Houlgate (work is slow) and I played this. It’s a handmade luthier built bass with a Sims Custom Shop neck and full Status electronics. It’s quite bonkers but it’s utterly amazingly well set up, with a pencil thin jazz neck with built-in LEDs. Little play wear and a fully fitted custom flightcase all for £503. It was very much a speculative bid, but I’m really happy with it. The mind boggles at what it much have cost when brand new.

Well, after a spur of the moment "If I dont buy this, someone else will!" while perusing the latest bass listings last Sunday morning... This was listed for about 8mins before I jumped on it. I sold my Danelectro DC recently with a view to finding something else but wasn't quite sure what. Was still looking out for another Jazz with a rosewood board (been looking for a 5th Jazz to round out the collection and cap off 12 months of reconnecting with my first-love Fender model). Was thinking maybe a CIJ or something. Missed out on a couple of cool basses locally- an Epiphone Tbird Vintage Pro, a red Cowpoke Precision (for practically nothing!!!) and a cool Aerodyne Precision Special in green. But then randomly, this pops up and the price was almost too good to be true. I took that as the sign I needed. Cut to today and 3.5hr drive each way (but barely even noticed tbh). But here it is: One 1998 American Standard Jazz in black with rosewood board. Came with a 2008+ American Standard case too. Not long in the door, straight to the jamnasium and plugged into the SVT! And dayum! This thing thunders!!! It is so loud and punchy. almost absurdly It is in great condition overall, bit of swirling on the finish on the back and a light scratch on the front but no dings or dents. The rosewood is beautiful on it. Will give it some oil to bring it up a bit more but it is absolutely lovely. Overall quality feels very good. Very similar to my 97 American Deluxe P. Neck feels great, similar to my American Pro 2 Jazz but slightly different somehow (guessing radius). It is ridiculously heavy though. Like 70's Precision heavy. But will see how it sits on a strap later. Originally thought it would make a good mod platform later but I'm inclined to keep it stock now. Though I will swap out the pickguard for something a bit more 'disco'. Will also have a play with the action and maybe swap out the strings. Pretty darn happy

I just spoke with Dawn at Status and they are NOT closed at all, she let me know that they are currently not taking new orders but are still up and running for strings/parts/cases/their knowledge etc...

Maple Road will be performing (not competing) at The Paramont Blues Challange this Saturday . Were one of six bands performing. I'm not sure how many bands are competing. It should be interesting because we're not a blues band, we just happen to play a few bluesy songs. If your a blues historian Google Paramount Records Grafton WI. Daryl

Well, FWIW I can categorically state that this thing did nothing to usefully enhance tone for me in any way or form. I tried out a F*nd*r himass brass bridge simply because I had a £25 gift card and added £2 so it wasn’t any real loss to experiment. I rehearsed and gigged with it on my P bass for a while and realised I lost all of the gorgeous Precision tone especially on the bottom E. It just wasn’t clean or clear and had me thinking there was something wrong with the fairly new strings. Today I swapped back to the old faithful Wilkinson BBOT and there was that beautiful Fender Precision round fat crystal clear tone especially on the bottom string once more. Maybe a £100 thoughtfully engineered Babicz could sound good on another bass but this hunk of metal casting completely ruined mine. Emperor’s new Y fronts 100% all day long.

My reggae bass is ready. Friend of mine gave it a makeover...

Just won a Shergold Telstar bass via an Instagram competition. Lovely! 🤩

Will listen in....

To allow the ladies an unobstructed view of ‘the goods’ apparently.

I use a Realist Lifeline. It does need an adjustable bridge, but it's fairly quick to remove/replace. Before that I had a Realist Copperhead which goes under a bridge foot, which sounded just as good - though I read there are only so many times it can be removed & refitted.

Many thanks mate, that's really interesting. I was an early adopter of carbon/graphite as a cyclist in the 80's and we became quickly aware that there was good carbon and less good carbon, most critically with wheels where some give/reduced stiffness, although initially counterintuitive as carbon was being used to increase stiffness, was required to stop them failing catastrophically, which was not good for either the rider or on occasion other riders as snapped carbon was an extremely sharp thing to land on in a crash (I know from experience and still have a 3cm scar to prove it, which was one of the reasons I moved back to traditional spoked wheels until around 10-years later when the manufacturers had sorted out the stiffness/safety issues) 👍

I see where you're going with this - it seems potentially contradictory. I should probably clarify that it depends on construction and fingerboard material. Not too stiff because an overly stiff neck and phenolic fingerboard creates a very brittle sounding instrument. I've played early to mid nineties Status Empathy and Modulus Quantum basses with this quality. For extra context, other bass makers like Ken Smith aim for a neck that is just stiff enough because it introduces some warmth into the lower mid range and tames the highs a little. Overdesigned means designed far beyond what is needed to resist string tension. That could mean the number of layers of weave used (typically more than three layers), the orientation of the weave in selected locations and the choice of unecessariy thick fingerboard material. Purely based on observation alone, in the late 70's necks seemed over designed. Super rigid but also very easy to fret dress and achieve incredibly low action. The problems with aftermarket Modulus necks in the early to mid eighties were apparently due to Geoff Gould delegating the mixing of phenolic resin while he was off setting up Modulus operations and the person responsible not paying sufficient attention. It was why Alembic ditched graphite necks as an option. However, I've played early 90's Modulus basses with floppy necks too - just had a 92 Quantum 5 pass through my hands for set up and restoration with a neck that wasn't stiff enough to resist string tension and there was no way to set the bass up with reasonable action. I've also owned a 94 with a neck that was brittle and a 96 with a banana neck. And a 96 Sonic Hammer that was just fabulous in action and sound. QC seems a little inconsistent to say the least. Ironically the Modulus basses with flexible necks sounded great - really growly and warm.

Works on some basses, doesn't work on others. You take your chances 👍

I was lucky to get one of the last CW basses with graphite that Rob made. I’d just finished my immunotherapy and decided to treat myself with the purchase with some money my mum had left me (she passed unexpectedly just before I got my diagnosis so it was a tough time). I called on the off chance and Rob said he was just finishing off a CW with white LEDS and the guy who’d ordered it couldn’t take it for some reason so it ended up with me. I know we all say we have a bass we’d never sell but this one really does hit that category for me. I gig it rarely but it always puts a smile on my face. I hope Rob and Dawn enjoy their well deserved retirement.

A few years ago I put a Badass bridge on a 51 Reissue Precision. To me it modernised the sound, emphasising the highs and tightening the lows. Not to a point where it would be noticeable in a band mix, just at home volumes. Anyway I swapped it back as it had taken away some of the character of the bass imo. Great piece of engineering, much easier to set up/intonate etc but ultimately not good on that bass.

Banished to the back room whilst our living room and dining room are redecorated. My number one and number two into a cali76, a Bassrig supervintage, SVT III non pro and an early 15” barefaced compact. Always with flatwounds 👌

We had a nice surprise last night at the blues jam in the old dive , great little band doing some classics from the 20’s. Steel bodied guitar , trumpet , euphonium ,and drums. Sounded gorgeous.

Strings and Beyond (USA) have twin packs of Daddario XL Nickels for $19.99 at the moment. So about £7.55 a set... https://www.stringsandbeyond.com/flash-sale-on-daddario-bass-twin-packs.html They take about 10 days to arrive in my experience. I've bought loads of strings from them over the years.

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Not a huge job. It depends a bit on how crushed the wood is and what it is. I did some steaming on that Euro LX 5 of mine last week. I used an iron and a wet microfiber cloth. It's much more forgiving and leaves more safety factor than a soldering iron and cotton buds. It was more dents than indentations in that case, though. The lads at BD should be able to to it.

Standard mic pointed at the bridge these days, fed up with expensive, fragile, unpredictable, and ultimately dissatisfying DB PUPs. The mic in question was until recently a rather lovely Heil PR-40 but frankly for live work a cheaper Shure (SM57/58) works just fine.

Progress so far. Old audio gear removed, all three screens up, speakers up, network cabling run through the ceiling, cabling for screens going up, rack built.

If you don`t need all the bells & whistles of the SGT-DI then Ampegs SCR-DI is a good pedal, the drive can be set very low to the point where all it does is takes off the crisp clean part of the note, warming it up but with no noticeable drive. For a natural amp sound I find it better than the Sansamp.

I am just repeating what I have been told, pretty much word for word

Yep, Pino's bass is a 62. At least according to the Custom Shop.

The word "prescious" is an obsolete adjective meaning foreknowing or having foreknowledge, derived from the Latin "praescius". It's a word that is no longer in common use so I've removed it

The all wood Washburn Status headless copies seem to be commanding decent prices when they come up, so I can't see why a full wooden original Status wouldn't do the same (no headless ones to compare though, unless I'm mistaken.......) I had a Washburn originally before upgrading to my Energy 5. I got the Washburn second hand in the early 90's, and wanted to replace the mangled pickup screws in it, so I rang Status direct. I actually got to speak to Rob in person, who was happy to send replacement screws FOC, despite it only being a Washburn. Brilliant guy, brilliant company, brilliant instruments.....🤘❤️

I had an old Peavey combo I did that with. I got hold of a plastic milk crate and cut a 90⁰ angle out of it at an appropriate tilted-back angle, and set the combo in it. It was a good solution- it was very stable as it was a one-piece stand, and it lifted the amp up off the stage so it wasn't so well linked to it. You want to tilt it back just enough so its center of gravity is well inside the crate so it doesn't lean back too hard... it worked really well, I found out how really good this old tank sounded! I moved on to something a bit lighter though, of course...

Or Something like these-Fender Amp adjustable Struts.........? These will up for sale I expect....😜

They are great, and very fun, instruments, for sure. If you are going cheap Harley Benton's take on it, the GuitarBass, is pretty freaking awesome, I got one, though while the stock Strat style pickups do sound genuinely great, they are way too noisy, so expect a pickup upgrade being necessary. Otherwise mine was pretty much perfect from stock, even with perfectly leveled frets right from factory. One thing you need to be aware of though, regardless of which Bass VI like instrument you end up buying, the really narrow, guitar like, string spacing will take some practice to get used to, to not stumble over the strings, both on your fretting and picking hand, constantly. Using a pick does make it a bit easier to handle though. Also be aware that the stock low E string is crap on most of these instruments, usually gauge .084, which is way too floppy to work properly, I would recommend a set with a gauge .095 low E string. Newtone makes amazing affordable custom sets: https://newtonestrings.com/ They do sell a readymade custom Bass VI set, but personally I prefer to put together my own, with my own preference in gauges, via their custom string set creator/specificator (or whatever such a thing is called, online app?).

I don’t know much about pino but I think the custom shop is based on a 62, I nearly bought one

You know what I think of the Z7, in that I approve highly of it. Don't worry about it being "too much bass" for you - you deserve as much bass as can be delivered to you.

It's definitely his Roland G33 fitted with a mirror pickguard. Check this:

Modified Roland G33 midi bass Edit: not midi but it does have a hexaphonic pickup to hook it up to a bass synth.

Cheers man, next gig is on Friday, another bar gig, this time in a place called Fraserburgh, a pub called The Balaclava. Got three new songs added to the set so should be an interesting evening!

I did three gigs with my sunburst HB JP450 yesterday, and it received a lot of compliments for it's look and sound. I have to say it was extremely easy on the shoulder after more than five hours of gigging and I had no problem getting a good sound at wildly differing venues.

the only thing that will make a significant difference is the type of strings, type of pick up and the position of the pick up, ymmv

Mesa Boogie Subway Bass DI Preamp Clone:

I’ve heard back from Robin at @Manton Customs - it’s going really well so far. - fingerboard is off, took a lot of work. Maryszczyk apparently go for serious glue. - truss rod looks like it’s some generic threaded rod which has been fashioned into a truss rod, so my guess is this is why it’s failed - the materials aren’t designed for this purpose. - the binding on the sides of the fretboard is pickguard material (plastic) and didn’t do well with the heat, but it’s already on order along with a suitable proper truss rod. - the good news is the neck is in good shape and with a proper rod, it’ll play nicely. this confirms what others have said about their Maruszczyk when the truss rod broke - that for some reason, they don’t put decent rods in their basses. can’t wait to see and play the result!