JPJ

Any basschatters in Newcastle this Wednesday night might like to pop along to the O2 Academy on Westgate Road for a multi band charity fundraiser in memory of a lovely lad and fine vocalist who was taken way too soon last October aged just 42. Monies raised are going to create a fund to provide bursaries to young musicians. 5 top bands for a tenner and all proceeds going to help young musicians chasing the dream just as Rod was right up until his untimely death. If you are around, please come along and support this gig. You can even heckle my hamfisted bassery at no extra charge 😎

Lovely bass, and all them holes are just mojo - you'd have to pay Nash or Limelight a small fortune to drill them for you I've always loved the 70's telecaster bass with the mudbucker at the neck. I almost bought one on my travels in Europe a while back with a view to adding a P pickup in the normal position but stupidly decided against it.

And the third and final one, my Ibanez Roadstar RS940TV from 1982

The second is a bitsa I put together using a ‘vintage’ relic’d body, an allparts unlined neck, Tonerider P & J pickups, and a Kigon stack knob harness giving volume and tone for each pickup

Here’s the first of my three: Overwater Perception 5 defret and refinish by DWilson Guitars.

Me too, and its on my virtual wish list too!

Buy with confidence! I’ve used mine on stages large and small over the last two years. It does have a bit of a ‘baked in’ Aguilar sound but it does have a powerful but simple EQ to play with. Only problem I’ve encountered is the LED’s for power on and mute failing but my local tech sorted both of those easily.

I must have been lucky then, because the upgrade certainly released something that wasn’t there before. Maybe a happy coincidence of a better spec’d driver that just happened to work in the same box?

Take a look at the TC Electronics BG250 208, its pretty small but can still hold its own in a rehearsal or quiet band situation. I've upgraded the 8" speakers in mine to give a total load of 4 ohms meaning I get the full 250W output without an extension cab. Personally, I prefer this combo to the PJB Briefcase it replaced. It 'breathes' a little easier and is warmer and more natural sounding to my old ears.

I’m using J-Tone Reds in the wing slots on my KK Baby Bass to blend in with the magnetic pickup. I found the mag pickup either too dark or too thin on its own, adding the J-Tone Reds and blending the two with a headway EDB-1 gives me a realistic DB sound. Happy to recommend the J-Tones

I’m what you might call an SWR fan. I’ve owned at various times: 1) Grand Prix pre amp 2) Black Beauty 1x15 combo, paired with Workingmans 2x10 3) 750X paired with Goliath III and Son of Bertha 4) 750X paired with Goliath II and Goliath III 5) Marcus Miller Pre paired with QSC poweramp and Goliath II and Goliath III 6) SM1500 paired with Goliath II and Goliath III 7) SM1500 paired with Goliath Snr 6x10 I still own the SM1500 plus the Goliath II albeit reconed with Eminence Deltalites. You’ll find all SWR kit is heavy beyond belief (I can just about lift the SM1500 on my own) but it’s worth it for the tone.

Thanks folks, valuable advice, looking forward to tomorrow’s rehearsal now 😎

The rehearsal rooms we’re using at the moment have Ashdown bass rigs, mainly ABM 500’s. I’m really struggling to get to grips with all the knobs and sliders to get a decent rounded even tone. I can either get a nice sounding D & G string with no weight to the E & A, or a big fat muddy mess. Can anybody give me a few pointers to: a) getting the thing as ‘flat’ as possible; or b ) getting a decent rock/ alt country tone? By way of reference I mainly use an Aguilar AG500 through an SWR Goliath 4x10, and normally run it with the EQ ‘flat’.

So i've been playing EUB for a while, for a few songs in our set. As I work away from home all week, I only get an hour or two to practice with the EUB at the weekends, and then not every weekend. As a result, I'm really struggling to keep my hand strength in my left hand. So my question is, do any of you folk use one of those hand exerciser things, and if so, are they any good?

So despite my Aguilar AG500 performing flawlessly, and the SM-1500 sitting quietly in reserve, I find myself gassing for either an OB1 or 4-Stroke 500's. Looks like the 4-Stroke might be more my thing but any users of both care to share some real world experience?

My KK Baby Bass is a five string, and I believe cost less than the Thoman when new? Granted its really an EUB but it does a very passible DB tone.

I play five string active basses and a KK Baby Bass. I added a Micro Thumpinator a few months back and it has been a revelation for both the BG's and the upright. In fact, I was paid a huge compliment by the professional sound crew at a large bike rally we played just last week. The FOH loved the sound of my bass DI so much he came up to the stage to see what I was using

So as a few of you will probably know, I have a five string KK Baby Bass and despite the issues I had due to Parcelforce, I'm now over the moon and loving playing her. One thing with these basses is that the stock magnetic pickup works best with two 'washers' inserted into the feet of the bridge. Positioning the bridge accurately on the two 'circles' of the pickup is also vital to getting a good tone. The 'washers' are about 8mm diameter, about 4mm thick and have one flat side and one countersunk side ready to take a screw head. I recently had the strings off to replace a broken tuner barrel (self-inflicted) and the washers dropped out, so I put them back with the flat side in contact with the pickup, thinking that the larger contact area would make for a better connection. Anyway, move forward to last week. The bass has a small metal frame over the bridge that is part of the pickup system. I've become used to using this like a handle when moving the bass in the confines of the man-cave (I know, I must stop) and yes, last week I picked the bass up with my fingers resting on the bridge which tipped the bridge over So I refitted the bridge, but this time I put the washers in the other way up (i.e. with the countersunk side in contact with the pickup) and wow, what an improvement in tone! The KK is naturally quite dark sounding with just the magnetic pickup, and I also use a piezo in the bridge to blend in a bit more high end and 'transparency'. However, with the washers inverted, I am getting a much better all round sound from just the built in magnetic pickup. So basically there is a happy ending to my misjudged handling of the bass. Silver linings and all that