JPJ

So many years ago I bought a Fender DLX five string that was my first foray into the world of low b (or thumb rest depending on your point of view). I struggled with the Fender active preamp and eventually I bit the bullet and replaced it with a John East J-Retro and instantly got the tone I’d been seeking. When that bass was sold it was replaced with the first of my Overwater basses, a J series five string that’s been my main gigging bass for most of the last fifteen odd years, that came with what I considered to be the perfect combination of DiMarzio UltraJazz pickups and the J-Retro circuit. Subsequently I traded into an Overwater Perception five string, and immediately upgraded the circuit to a semi-custom J-Retro (same circuit but in a five knob arrangement). Then when I bought my Overwater Original series five string I removed the filter preamp and replaced it with a U-Retro. The Perception went on to be refinished and defretted by the master, Dave Wilson. Then I got a new gig. I wanted a traditional looking four string bass, and realised that fretless would be perfect so I bought a used Fender Tony Franklin Fretless Precision and immediately fell in love with the simplicity of a passive P bass, so much so I added a beautiful Lakland Skyline fretted P to the stable shortly after. Going back to the Perception and the Original Series, I realised how dark their tone was. No amount of knob fiddling would release the Mwah on the Perception, and having followed Funkles Wal’alike mission I decided to reinstall the filter preamp into the Original Series. So yesterday, I reinstalled the original preamp into the Perception and boom - happiness! Mwah is back as are the harmonics. The J-Retro will stay in the Jazz as it works as it should and sounds great, but I now have a slew of basses that all have their own character instead of a bunch of clones. Its funny how your tastes change over time isn’t it 😂😎

Not yet, I’ll be experimenting this week. I’ll be trying it after the Stanley Clarke and seeing what the EUB sounds like through it.

So, first impressions are everything right? Well in that case I’m in love 😍 Plugged the Finally in tonight between my bass and my EBS Stanley Clarke preamp. Instant warmth, bounce, girth whatever you call playing through a tube. This thing can be super clean, with that natural sounding valve compression thing going on, or as dirty as I think I’d ever need (in fact way dirtier than I’d ever need). Run with the gain at about 9 o’clock and the level at about 2 o’clock and it just sings. Harmonics ring out loud and clear, dig in a there is a little bit of overdrive, play normally and its just your bass but ‘more’. Being able to switch between dry and wet makes comparisons easy, and for some reason the Stanley Clarke seems to like having this in front as the eq just seems so much warmer. Now bearing in mind that I have had a Micro Thumpinator on my board for years in the last position in my chain before my amp, I’m also surprised by how much the hpf contributes (bear in mind I am testing this at bedroom levels via my TC BG250 208 combo). Construction is rock solid, the aluminium housing is beautifully finished in a metal flake silver finish and the valve is glowing with a nice purple glow. Switches feel reassuringly solid, and it’s obvious that the unit is built with quality components as the gain and level controls have a lovely expensive feeling of stiffness about them. Also, Nathan obviously realises that we’re all going to stick Velcro on the bottom so he hasn’t bothered with the little stick-on rubber feet. I will have a bit more play about with this before I settle on a position on my board but given that I double on EUB and fretless with one of my bands, this is most likely going to end up at the front of my electric bass signal chain, after my wireless receiver and before the Stanley Clarke. This might mean relegating the Micro Thumpinator (always on with no adjustable controls) to the underside of my Pedaltrain Metro board (something I’ve been contemplating for sometime). Conclusion: After years of searching, I think I might have finally discovered my ‘secret sauce’ pedal 😎

You couldn’t make this up. 24hrs after Phil’s intervention, and guess what - yes the pedal was delivered this morning whilst I was at rehearsal 🤦

Years ago, a band I depped with used to use 2 or sometimes 4 Mackie SA1532z - 3-Way Dual 15" Tri-Amplified Floor Mount P.A. Speaker Columns. These were heavy old beasts (a genuine 2 man lift) but they worked really well in a pub rock scenario, and paired with Mackie 18” subs made a canny mini-festival rig for those bike rally in a tent gigs. I’d like to see what the Basschat version of this would be today. My guess is the 2 x 15”s would be replaced with one or two Neo 12”s, there would be one or two 8” mid range drivers in there plus a real high performing ‘tweeter’. A real one-box-per-side solution to the pub rock conundrum 😎

Update. Having read this thread, Phil Mann has contacted me directly via Faceache. He has arranged a full refund from Nathan at Sushiboxfx on the understanding that when/if the pedal arrives from its Chinese odyssey, I will repay Nathan. To put it bluntly, I am blown away by both Phil’s intervention and Nathan’s trust in doing this. So all’s well that ends well as they say, and hopefully the pedal will eventually show up on this side of the pond after its world tour.

Sounds like we need a local Basschat PA meet. You're welcome to try your tens with my 15" Peavey powered subs at a gig or rehearsal (provided I'm not gigging the same night), that might give you a better idea? I have 15" tops paired with my 15" subs, pole mounted, standard pub rock 1 pair per side, and regularly get compliments on the sound (strangely not regularly on my playing 🤷‍♂️). I'm not familiar with either of those desks you are looking at, but you might have to think about some sort crossover as well depending on the desk/sub/tops features. I run a dBX driverack which has been a revelation and brought a lot more of everything out of my low spec/low cost rig. Cables, I'd go with StudioSpares basic XLR's. I bought 10 when I built up my rig and they are still going strong probably 15 years later (all stored end-to-end on a reel).

I once bought a bass on here from a guy in Norway. I bought it for the Status neck and the upgraded pickup/electronics. When I took the neck off I found 50% of his library card tucked under the body end of the neck. My fear is I now owe the Norwegian library service considerable overdue book fees 😂

Question to the Basschat collective. So no further updates from USPS. Parcel last seen in Guangzhou China on 3rd June. Both Nathan (Sushiboxfx) and I have drew a blank with USPS (another business that doesnt want you contacting them). So I paid for my ‘And Finally’ on the 17th May, how long should I wait before raising a claim with my credit card company for non-delivery?

I wish he’d bring out his compressor/limiter single knob job that he had on the Bass Buddy and Briefcase amps (and probably others too) in pedal format. That thing just worked in a ‘set and forget’ type of thing. Got close with the TC Spectracomp, and I’m getting there dialling in the compressor on the Plethora X3 but I do miss the ease of use of the PJB.

I recently found the receipt for my X-Air XR18 purchase - March 2015 for £625. Mine has never let me down in all that time. I have added a XTouch controller to mine because physical faders are much easier to tweak on the fly whilst playing. Run mine with an Apple AirPort Express and X-Air Edit on Microsoft Surface Go. And yes I know about Mixing Station but I prefer the GUI/Skin of the Behringer apps which just looks more professional to me. Only had one connection issue and that was when the numpty in charge left an air gap between the mixer and router.

Nice tone Sir!

Ran a Behringer 2x500W successfully for a number of years with zero issues. Can’t remember the model number so not much help I’m afraid.

No updates since 3rd June, getting concerned now that it’s lost in China 😤

Most Laney’s feature good old fashioned British watts, not those puny American/European watts. I had a Laney G120 1x15 combo that was basically a copy of a Trace Elliot GP preamp. Great little combo, heavy but loud enough to gig with back then. Avoid the Richter versions as the got terrible press for being underpowered fart machines.

So five days further on and the status updates from USPS appeared to have stopped. 24-May-24 17:30 USPS in possession of item Dundee, Illinois 24-May-24 20:33 arrived at Chicago, Illinois regional origin centre 25-May-24 18:04 arrived at Chicago, Illinois international distribution centre 26-May-24 in transit to next facility 27-May-24 14:28 arrived at Chicago, Illinois international distribution centre 28-May-24 08:17 processed through Chicago, Illinois international distribution centre 29-May-24 09:21 Arrived Chicago, United States 30-May-24 06:31 Departed Chicago, United States 01-Jun-24 07:47 Departed Chicago, United States 01-Jun-24 10:34 Departed Guangzhou, China 03-Jun-24 09:46 Processed at the on route centre Since then, nothing 😬

Starting to look that way 😬

Maybe I’m being picky but that still lacks something, as good as it is. One thing I’ve learned with the NS is the way the low notes decay. It’s very pronounced compared to a fretless bass guitar where they tend to ring longer and I think that’s what I’m hearing here even with the IR loaded. That said, it’s the type of sound that would confuse your average audience member.

Just listened using Mk1 Apple AirPods. Close, very close, but lacks a bit of ‘thump’. I’ve spent many happy hours trying to make an NS EUB sound like an upright (I’m as close as I think I’ll ever be) and that just has a bit more heft about the E & A strings, and there is the little bit of metallic zing on your higher notes that you don’t get with a db.

I’m a Spotify family user. I used to move around a lot with my day job, so having music so easily accessible on any of my devices was the driver. Apple Music launched after I got into Spotify. I use Spotify to find new music, if I like your band, then I’ll buy the content which will then live on all my Apple devices (Mac, iPhone, iPad) thanks to the additional paid-for iTunes Match service. As I’m an Apple fanboi I should probably move over to Apple Music, but this is a low priority at the moment.

Calling @Andyjr1515 the king of the lightweight bass

So second gig of the weekend at the glorious Old Fox in Felling (on the Gateshead side of the river Tyne close to Newcastle for those born in the south). This is a proper music venue pub, with live music on four or five times a week. The Sunday afternoon slot is a coveted slot because you are almost guaranteed a full pub, and a full pub of music lovers. This could not have been more different to our Friday night gig, and we all played so much better. Our usual eclectic mix of country, Americana, and blues went down a storm with the enthusiastic crowd. Gear-wise, my trusty old Ashdown ABM 1x15 Neo combo, EBS Stanley Clarke, MicroThumpinator, and my fretless Tony Franklin Precision and NS NXT EUB. More compliments on the sound so I must finally be getting to grips with the old PA malarkey (I’ve only been doing it for twenty plus years 😂). A busy three gigs in eight days have bedded new guitarist Steve in nicely (for a band that only plays around 20 gigs a year).

I’m on the journey towards no backline. As I’ve said on here I’ve gone from a 1500W amp and two 4x10’s down to a 400W 1x15 Neo equipped combo. I now let the PA do the work and the combo is there just as my personal monitor. Its taken me a long time and a lot of experimentation to get a FOH bass sound I’m happy with, and I’m just about there with my IEM feed sound too, so I’m not far away from going no amp. That said, both of my bands have guitarists who are wedded to their small all valve combos so it probably won’t happen anytime soon. As to whether I would I ever sell all my amps, that’s a definite no. As others have said, the minute I did Sod’s Law says I'd get the offer of an interesting gig/dep that required decent backline.

So it turns out that USPS are indeed the ba$tard love child of ParcelForce and Evri. Tracking history so far: 24-May-24 17:30 USPS in possession of item Dundee, Illinois 24-May-24 20:33 arrived at Chicago, Illinois regional origin centre 25-May-24 18:04 arrived at Chicago, Illinois international distribution centre 26-May-24 in transit to next facility 27-May-24 14:28 arrived at Chicago, Illinois international distribution centre 28-May-24 08:17 processed through Chicago, Illinois international distribution centre 29-May-24 09:21 Arrived Chicago, United States 30-May-24 06:31 Departed Chicago, United States 01-Jun-24 07:47 Departed Chicago, United States 01-Jun-24 10:34 Departed Guangzhou, China Looks like it’s going to be very well travelled before it reaches me 😂