neepheid

Out of all the main "more affordable" brands, I've been thinking for some time now that SBMM have been taking the mick more than most in these times of inflation and increased prices.

What kind of strap are you using?

My amp for the past 12 years has been a Red Sub BT5110 (G4M's amp brand), the only thing that's gone wrong with it in that time was the headphone socket needed replacing. Make of that what you will, it's just one instance of one product they sold which has worked out fantastically for me. I bought a G4M bass once, unfortunately it had been damaged in transit. I sent it back without issue but didn't get a replacement, I just went off the idea of it in the interim and got a refund. It was pretty cheap feeling, but it was pretty cheap, so can't really complain!

56 basses have entered the building, 48 have left. They left because they weren't being played, less favoured ones were sold to finance new acquisitions, and the occasional fire sale when things got financially grim (like when moving house). In the latter case, I kept the ones which weren't worth that much and sold the ones I'd get the most back from. This unfortunately meant selling some tasty stuff I would rather have kept, but that's less important than keeping a roof over one's head.

Correct

I dunno about long periods of time, but it's always zero music in the car on the way home from playing a gig - I've just spent the best part of 3 hours being part of the music, that's quite enough in one sitting, thanks!

I did go through a wobbly period during COVID lockdowns - I picked up a bass twice in 2 years and did wonder if I would get back into it once the restrictions were eased. Gave some serious thought to quitting both my bands and jacking in playing bass. Glad I didn't though. I'm somewhat worried about motivation though - I haven't written a song in years, and I remain pretty lazy when it comes to learning new stuff. We're having to change our singer in the covers band, so maybe that'll provide some impetus, to not appear incompetent if nothing else.

John East <mic drop>

Ahh, the Auld Alliance isn't what it used to be then?

Ach, you don't need to justify it, it's just not a phrase you hear every day and couldn't help myself commenting on it

You bought a Rickenbacker 4003 "for a laugh"? Nice position to be in

As some of you will know, I recently took ownership of a prototype Harley Benton HB-50, and as outlined in the NBD thread, the bass is ergonomically, structurally and aesthetically sound but the wiring leaves much to be desired. I had this mad idea of getting a 5 or 6 way switch to do all the things one can do to a single humbucking pickup. Then I had a word with myself and thought "what would I actually use some of those settings for?" Am I just doing it for logical completeness, or showing off? In the end, I think I'm just going to fit a 3 way rotary and do simply parallel/single/series and be done with it. I'm on the fence as to whether or not parallel and single sound that much different from each other as well. Fitting the Freeway 10 way switch to my Reverend Triad made more sense with the 3 pickups (not to mention it's a super neat mod that requires no modification to the bass other than the wiring), and I do actually use some of the combinations it offers (like the series options), but what's the point of out-of-phase, even in series? Just making work for myself to no obvious benefit. I dunno why I started this thread really, maybe to spark some discussion about the whole "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" type thing. Over to you...

I could have bought my current car six times over. Perspective.

Oh, the humanity!

Rude, innit?

Just as well none of my menagerie were for sale...

That's fighting talk! Don't make me invade again, I've only just got back!

So, would a £100 note from a Scottish bank be out of line?

If I want a drumstick thrown at me, I'll suggest playing to a click track...

Interesting mod. For my semi-hollow/hollow thinline basses, I opted to mod myself rather than the bass - with an elasticated wrist sweatband pulled up my arm to where the contact point is.

Nah, I don't like flats - I've got a tone knob

Ahh, sorry about that! Thomann put it up for £199. What that means for a price in 2024 I don't know, all I know is that it had better be more than £199, beta testing costs money!

I like the ergonomics - it has got a chunky neck, good fret work, balances fine. Dunno the weight, scales need a new battery. Doesn't feel excessively heavy. Sound is fuller and I don't need to turn the amp/practice device up as high now.

I suppose I should let the cat out of the bag now. This arrived last Thursday, but I wanted to keep it a surprise for the SW Bass Bash. So there. I was speaking to some folk on LowEndLobster's discord server and someone shared a video of some coverage of Harley Benton's stand at the recent Guitar Summit show in Germany. They were showing their prototype stuff, not set to release until next year and this semi-hollow beastie caught my eye, the HB-50. Looked nice, sounded good when the guy in the video played it. The conversation moved onto whether or not it was long scale and how it might compare to Harley Benton's extant semi-hollow bass offering (the HB-60) so I idly went on to Thomann's site to look at the HB-60. Lo and behold, listed next to it was a B-stock HB-50, only a single piece of stock, hadn't even been photographed. I quickly realised that this was Thomann selling some of their show demonstrator instruments. Long scale indeed, semi hollow, looked like a great mod platform, so... tae me! Enough effin' preamble... First impressions - Good - "light signs of usage" means fingerprints (phew!), looks great, very well made, doesn't feel cheap, fret ends are inboard of the neck binding so absolutely no sharp edges, 22 frets, uses a standard pickup shape (MM) so easily modded, tuners feel fine - turn easy with no play, plays really nice. Bad - pots are garbage (taper is dreadful, like only the last 10% of the turn does anything), pickup switching is lazy and pointless (north coil, both in parallel, south coil - the differences are imperceptible to all but the pickiest of listeners and I'd challenge any of them to hear a difference in a band mix), pickup is too far from the strings so it's a bit quiet and it won't go any higher - screws just come loose. I intend to rewire this. I think the pickup sounds fine - according to the specs it's an Artec of some kind - I wonder if the finished pieces will have their frequently used Roswell pickups instead? But it needs rewired. New pots obvs, but thinking of replacing the switch with a rotary of some kind for series/parallel options. Fixed the pickup height issue tonight - there were a few paltry squares of foam under there, but nowhere near enough to push it up to where I want it. I had spare springs from my Epi Les Paul black and gold nonsense, so I put springs on the screws, now I can have the pickup as high as I want it. Seriously, it was at least 5mm lower than this when it arrived and unable to go higher.