rushbo

Another vote for a partial refund, here. Those chips should glue back on pretty well. I've always found that black poly is a pretty "forgiving" finish when it come to repair. Add to that the fact that the damage will be covered by your strap means that you'll probably be the only person who'll ever notice it. I'm sure I'll be shot down in flames, but I've covered many chips and dinks in black instruments with some carefully applied, black nail polish.

Very lovely indeed. It actually looks like play wear and not the usual "take it into a field and shoot it with a pellet gun" relic finish. Kudos sir.

I tend to replace blend pots on my basses with a three way switch, as I find this way easier than fiddling with a pot (even with a detente) for live work. I'm not too fussy about how nuanced i want my tone to be. You might lose a bit of flexibility, but with a switch, its way easier to change sounds quickly and you've got a strong, visual signal too.

Nice, bold, clear graphics. I wish they'd have carried over the design from the Filter, Fuzz, Octave and Compression pedals onto the remainder as I think that works really well. A little bit of (almost) seventies retro to brighten up your board!

(Thread Hijack) I had to re-read that sentence 4 times. On reads 1-3, it made absolutely no sense at all and just looked like insane gibberish. However, on the final read, the penny dropped and I became enlightened. Not only do I now know why there's a difference between a splined and a solid shaft, I've also got a very useful life hack for bass guitar maintenance. Thank you Mr. ThePlug. That is probably going to be the highlight of my day.

A nice shot from Saturday night's gig with Roxy Magic at the lovely Buttermarket in Shrewsbury. Nice to have Brian Eno singing along in the back projection!

I'm a big fan of the P/J configuration - I have 4 instruments that use that format. On three of them, I've modded them with a three way switch in place of one of the volume pots. For live work, I prefer the ease and speed of throwing a switch, rather than dialling in something on a rotary pot. You may lose a bit of tonal nuance, but this set-up works for me.

I had a BC Rich Warlock in custard yellow in the mid eighties. It sounded great, but not really the thing for playing REM/Americana stuff on. The look of that sort of instrument and all it's pointy brethren is so nailed to the glam rock/metal genre that they look really incongruous anywhere else. However, a nice BC Rich Mockingbird in a natural finish is on my bucket list...

I've been using the Sennheiser XSW-D Pedalboard Set for quite some time - probably 50+ gigs and many hours of rehearsal. It's been faultless. I used a SmoothHound for a while which was great, but I liked the idea of combining the pedalboard receiver with a tuner to save space. It's not the cheapest set-up, but spare transmitters are available in the UK and the build quality is excellent.

I'm rescutating this zombie thread as I've done exactly the same! Sadly, Fretmeister's original pictures are long gone, but using the ice cream stick idea as my starting point, I came up with these: Nope, they're not skinny shoebrushes... The wooden part is from a bit of leftover edging - something like this. The original plan was to make three with different sorts of foam on each, but the superglue I used to attach the "washing up" sponge I tried to use, practically melted it... maybe I'll use two sided tape for that type of foam in the future. The two that survive work really well - one is made with fairly dense foam (the sort that you might find in a fitted case for a drill or similar) and the other one is more spongey. The spongey one gives a slightly better tone - to my ears anyway. The denser foam needed to have slightly wider slots as the notes were choking a little. The hardest part for me was cutting the foam neatly. Maybe I should have watched more episodes of "Blue Peter" as a kid. I rounded the edges of the wooden part a bit and gave it a rub with some wax. I gave it a little handle so I'd know which end is which, although it doesn't seem to make much difference. Neither will get me a job on "The Repair Shop," but they cost me nothing to make and took about half an hour from having the idea to sticking the finished thing on my bass. Now I can get a nice "Carol Kaye" sound quickly and easily. And it looks quite cool.

In my experience, when it comes to building a budget bitsa, it's the neck that is the crucial factor. As long as the body is sturdy enough to accept a bridge and is a colour, shape and condition that you're happy with, all is good. I'm sure that more learned BCers will be along to discuss tonewoods, but it's never been an issue for me in terms of choosing parts. Make sure the neck pocket is wide enough for the neck, otherwise that can open up a whole world of pain. On the other hand, one of my main gigging basses has a 2mm gap between the body and the neck of one side of the pocket. It's been like that for about 10 years, with no discernable issues.

I was the long term bass dep for Brum based R&B band that did a load of shows with Wilko Johnson, the current version of Dr Feelgood, Eddie and the Hotrods etc. Often, when it was my turn to man the merch table, I'd get people asking me to sign CDs. I'd always say " no problem, but I don't actually play on any of these albums!" No one seemed that bothered and I ended up signing them anyway. As a result, I wonder how many people searched Wikipedia for a bassist called "Rushbo (Dep)."

Hi, I've gone back to using medium-light picks, so someone else can get the "benefit" of a bunch of heavy (.88mm+) plectrums, with a few other sizes and shapes thrown in. Yours for a small donation to Birmingham Childrens Hospital, ta.

It's probably just my dumb bad luck, but every Rickenbacker bass I have ever had in my hands has (IMO) played like a dog. In 1986, I was besotted with REM and with my pockets bursting with about two months wages, I spent nearly a whole day in Musical Exchanges in Brum, trying to convince myself I liked one of the 7-8 Rickys they had in stock. I couldn't. I left with an Ibanez Roadstar 850. The Ricky would have been a better investment, but I doubt I'd have had much fun playing it.

I call plagiarism, sir! That's (almost) my board! You've got a hell of a lot of options there, haven't you? And Warwick Rockboards are brilliant, aren't they? I love my B3 and unless it goes "bang," I can't see myself changing anytime soon. The BDI adds a bit of dirt for when I'm feeling saucy. I'd recommend the Ashbass B3 mod as it's fairly simple to do (as long as you've got a soldering iron...) and means that you can scroll through patches really quickly. The switches are housed in the orange pedal on my board. The other pedal is a page turner for my Ipad cheat sheet program. Not necessary, but very useful. What's the HB Wireless system like? I was considering that, until a Sennheiser one came up on here at a great price, so I went for that.

PM'd

Well, obviously this is the best advice that anyone is going to give in this thread. I once "went rogue" and ignored this sage proclamation and my Fender P bass turned into a two headed viper which ate my entire family. Or... There is some good advice on the Fender site: https://support.fender.com/en-us/knowledgebase/article/KA-01903 If I'm setting up a bass for someone else, this is what I use as it's a good, basic starting point. When I set up my own instruments, I drop the string height until it starts to rattle under normal playing conditions, then pull it back in tiny increments until it stops. Your mileage may vary, as they say on The Interweb.

I guess it depends on what you really want it to do... If all you're after is a way to put songs in order from a list, then Word or Excel should work. If you need cheat sheets as well, then I'd recommend forScore - easy to use on the fly, reliable and with loads of useful teatures. The only downside is, I think it's only available for Apple products. I've used it for years - it links seamlessly with DropBox, so importing files is a breeze. I use mine with this page turner. And this mic stand tablet holder - although that has been discontinued.

As a big fan of The Tubes, I was saddened to learn that Rick Anderson passed away on December 16th. He was a great player - solid, supportive and flashy only when he needed to be. https://ultimateclassicrock.com/the-tubes-rick-anderson-dead/

"The Dildo Trend" is the name of my Prog-Rock side project. But on a serious note... I've never been a fan of instruments with an image on. Or in this case, a bit of lovely, faux Jackson Pollock. They all look fantastic close up, but from any kind of distance longer than an arms length, the beautifully considered brushwork and elegance of line just end up looking like an amorphous grey splodge. "Amorphous Grey Splodge" is The Dildo Trend's new album, btw.

(Resucitating a Zombie thread...) I've just picked up a second-hand, 4 string JP-45OP in sunburst for silly money from FaceBook marketplace. Oh my... It plays beautifully and sounds gorgeous. With a bare minimum of tweakage, I was able to get a nice low action with no annoying rattles. Hardware is decent and even the no-brand tuners seem robust. There's no excuse not to have one, really. I bought it with a view to modding it, but having played it, I might just leave it as it is, with one exception - I might replace the dots on the edge of the fingerboard. The black dots look lovely, but in a sweaty club, under subdued lighting, they won't be much use, so I suspect the dremel will be coming out before too long. Other than that, it's a peach.

That surf green one looks lush. I hate this forum.

Hugo Largo. They made two brilliant albums in the late 80's.

I put up a "wanted" ad for a set of P Bass bridge and pick up covers - Pete replied promptly, the deal was done and a few days later (my wait time was lengthened by those pesky striking postmen...) they arrived chez Rushbo - beautifully packed, shiny and lovely. What a guy. Buy and sell with confidence.

Yes it was - a fantastically entertaining gig. I went with a mate who is a real hardcore Devo-tee and his jaw was on the floor for the entire performance. We'll be at the Brum show next year.