JPJ

A good friend of mine has had his silver Ford Transit van stolen from the North East of England along with the following equipment: Behringer X32 Compact (Flightcased) [SER#: S1305535AAP] Behringer S16 (Flightcased) [SER#: S1400464AJA] Behringer S16 (Flightcased) [SER#: S1400434AJA] Elation MIDICon (Lighting Briefcase) [SER#: 00719200013310067] Intel NUC Computer (Lighting Briefcase) [SER#: C6YK345002YX] Powerwalker Pure Sine UPS unit (Cased) Pair JBL PRX612M Speakers (w/ Covers) Can my fellow Basschatters keep their eyes peeled for this gear please? There is a £500 reward for information leading to the recovery of the gear.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1475421291' post='3145760'] So....am I forgiven, JPJ? [/quote] I'll let you off just this once ;-)

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1475260701' post='3144595'] Well - for a mere king's ransom.... [/quote] I have your king, I will release him to you in exchange for a black fretless version of this bass 😉😎

In our case, I bought the PA, took an extra share of the gig money until it was paid off, and the PA is now owned by the band. The rule is if you leave the band, you forfeit your share of the PA. We're just starting into an upgrade bought and paid for on the same basis. Regarding the lugging, setting up etc. one of the guitarists owns a van, he collects me and my gear plus the PA from my house. We all help lugging it into and out of the venue and whilst I do most of the setup, I prefer it this way as I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I like to know the gear isn't being abused. Works for us, but then again we are all good friends both in and outside of the band, and there are no egos or prima donna's in the band.

So having lived with this bass for a month or so, I've started to fettle her a little to iron out a few of the niggles. This weeks task has been to shave about 2mm off the bridge which has improved the action and the playability immeasurably. One thing I've noticed is that she eats batteries (2 since I've gotten her) and I'm only using the tuner. I did try her electrically through the iRig into the iPad, but the jack socket (or the cheap jack lead I was using) was providing an unreliable connection. Could be that there is something amiss with the wiring too, so my next task will involve opening her guts up to see what is going on. Having said all of that, this is still an amazing bass for the money, and well worth spending a little time to iron out. I'm loving just picking her up and noodling away and as a tool for song learning whilst away from the main herd, she's become invaluable.

Doh and I must get better at reading....

At the rate you are progressing with this build I'd have thought Swift's were more appropriate than Swallows? Lovely work by the way, can't wait until I have time to get back to building stuff myself.

I like the look of this. I've often thought why have tone controls on the amp when I've got a full three-band eq on the bass (who hasn't cut something on the amp only to put it back on the bass?). Also, the chance to use a preamp of your own choosing, cool idea I shall be looking out to try one of these.

My experience of amp sims is limited to the Line6 Lowdown 300 combo which had a few built-in sims. Frankly, I'm a 'dial in my tone, set and forget' guy who doesn't use effects so it was wasted on me. That said, I didn't find any of the sims 'convincing'.

Having tried this, all I can say is you need good monitoring, either a suitable floor wedge or in-ears. I've tried, loved the simplicity, but will in future take a small combo for personal monitoring.

Mother fetch the gun, the boy has gone near that red stain...... :-)

As I am going to be spending the next 18 months or so in Holland, returning home every other weekend or so, I decided to buy a cheap bass to keep at the apartment in Holland. I decided on a whim to scratch my acoustic bass itch and went with this five string acoustic from Harley Benton via Thomann. [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/7383DD24-AE49-4E5F-81B4-331EAF033E9C_zpsr2ks4luk.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/7383DD24-AE49-4E5F-81B4-331EAF033E9C_zpsr2ks4luk.jpg[/IMG][/URL] The bass arrived very well packaged (cardboard box inside cardboard box with lots of air filled padding) as we have come to expect from Thomann. Immediate impressions were of a well made playable bass, in need of a little fettling to get to where I like it. True, the frets and fret ends need a bit of fettling, and I've junked the original bronze strings for a set of Fender flats, and now I have a bass that's a pleasure to play for the grand sum of £172.00 (£150 for the bass plus £22 for the strings). Sure, like all acoustic basses, it's not going to keep up with a couple of acoustic 6 strings on its own but as it is electro-acoustic with built-in tuner and a surprisingly good preamp with both jack and XLR outputs, you could gig this quite happily. Yes, this is definitely a budget instrument, there are a few flaws in the finish, and as I've tried to show in the photographs, there are a couple of spots where you can see the binding has penetrated the wood leaving little spots of 'light' glowing through the binding. But I really am quibbling now, other than the noted defects, this is a hell of a bass, nicely made for not very much money at all. Now the question is, do I rip the frets out and make this one fretless or do I buy another fretless version, decisions decisions😎 [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/BA0CDBCC-6041-42F0-BBF4-C26EB9BB61C6_zpsk48ig39n.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/BA0CDBCC-6041-42F0-BBF4-C26EB9BB61C6_zpsk48ig39n.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/B6672E1B-29B0-44FF-8F95-1A3E2CEB0A92_zpsjdkqo2pd.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/B6672E1B-29B0-44FF-8F95-1A3E2CEB0A92_zpsjdkqo2pd.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/8D33E536-DDCC-470D-9EC8-650B3C06830A_zpsqiyenws9.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/8D33E536-DDCC-470D-9EC8-650B3C06830A_zpsqiyenws9.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/76BA2EEB-DD1D-404E-B7D9-71DF7839827B_zps5r8zxine.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/76BA2EEB-DD1D-404E-B7D9-71DF7839827B_zps5r8zxine.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/D1D40979-0AEA-4E03-ACE7-842BCC1D0D4E_zpsv7vfr1gt.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/D1D40979-0AEA-4E03-ACE7-842BCC1D0D4E_zpsv7vfr1gt.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/17CEB2F1-3ECF-4DA2-957E-5EABAD7B8B35_zpscvoqonw9.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/17CEB2F1-3ECF-4DA2-957E-5EABAD7B8B35_zpscvoqonw9.jpg[/IMG][/URL]