JPJ

I can’t help thinking that ‘roasted’ has only come about as a result of CITES restrictions on the sale of rosewood and other dark fingerboard materials such as ebony. I don’t remember seeing a roasted neck before CITES became a thing? Personally, for some unfathomable reason, I cannot get away with maple fingerboards on basses I play live. I had a beautiful sunburst Stingray 5 that had to go as I could not adjust to the maple board.

Doesn’t look too difficult to build but wouldn’t be very portable. I’d also question whether there would be any significant volume increase given that the contact is limited to the tip of the end pin.

Result! Looks like you got it for a good price as well so congratulations. One thing I forgot to mention in my earlier post was how good the PJB one-knob limiter/compressor is at just tightening things up. Enjoy!

My solution to making my NS NXT sound more “acoustic” is to use a TC Impulse pedal loaded with the superb 3Sigma IR’s. This then goes into one channel of an EBS Stanley Clarke preamp then off to the PA or amplifier from there.

My experience was generally positive until I needed a repair. I owned both the Briefcase 2x5” combo until redundancy forced sale and the Bass Buddy preamp (basically the front end of the Briefcase amp). All was well until the Bass Buddy developed a fault and went off to Selectron, the so called UK service centre. After almost a year and numerous chase ups Selectron decided my Bass Buddy was unrepairable and wanted a ridiculous amount of money to return it to me that I didn’t bother, swearing to never touch another piece of PJB gear. Might also be worth reading the thread “Phil Jones in crisis” posted in the general discussion section by @cetera here before parting with any cash.

We took our southern rock covers band to Trillians, a small independent venue in the centre of Newcastle. This venue has in-house PA and engineer. We took our Behringer XR18 to run our IEMs using a passive split. Gearwise, I used my Overwater 5 string jazz, Shure GLXD16+, Empress compressor, Jad Freer Capo, and SushiboxFx Finally DI. I did have my Ashdown ABM 500W 1x15 combo on stage but that was more for show due to the aforementioned in-house PA and our IEMs. Despite being down a fiddle player, we still had a great night and the punters seemed to enjoy themselves with the venue full from the get go. One of those gigs you wish you could play every week 😎

So tonight was the night. Venue provided the 10 y-splitters we needed to run our own IEM rig and we provided the XLRs from the splits to our XR18 and the gig went off perfectly 😎

If I can get in early enough ie before the punters, and if the venue doesn’t complain, then this is what I do with the DriveRack auto eq feature. But, as the majority of our gigs are pub gigs, this rarely happens.

Slight change of direction, at least in the short term. I’ve managed to snaffle a couple of EV ELX18P bass bins that are the ‘perfect’ match for my EV ZLX15P tops (at least they are listed in the DSP) so I will be going with this setup for at least the next six months. I still like the look of those NLX24’s and may well still take the plunge once the 2026 diary fills up a bit.

I did once, and the cables were clamped in place mechanically, two prongs bent over the exposed cable ends which themselves had an aluminium sleeve over the copper wire. Looked like it had been done in a press.

Check out the TC Electronic BG250 combos. Great for home practice but loud enough to jam with mates and even gig. They come in 2x8”, 2x10”, and 1x15” formats. I’ve got the 2x8” version and I love it, and yes I’ve gigged it albeit in an acoustic gig. They seem to go for about £120-£150 secondhand and will be more future proof than a 30-50 watt practice amp.

Congratulations and welcome to the (addictive) club. The best advice I can offer is get help with hand / body position before you start to bake in problems that can even result in permanent injury. If there’s no tutors near you, then there’s some great advice for free from Discover Double Bass on YouTube. That said, I’m sure your cello experience will come in useful 😎

Not quite, but typical of what you can face on the UK pub scene. It sort of brings the whole speaker placement discussion into sharp focus.

Every now and then you get a gig that completely defies logic. This was the “stage” area we were presented with last night. We were basically in a corner with a 1 metre (3ft 3”) partition in front of us with the main ‘audience’ watching through the window, and a small bunch of music lovers off to our right. Solution, one top pole mounted on a bin facing right and running at about half power, and one top facing through the window running flat out. The problems were compounded by ceiling beams and a low ceiling. Did we get a great sound - er no, did we get an acceptable sound at an acceptable level for what was a small’ish villiage pub, then yes. Sometimes life gives you lemons and you just have to get creative.