uk_lefty

It's annoying though trying to find the DHL depots. I went all over three towns to either be told "don't bother, the DHL guy hasn't been seen in ages" or "we have never been a DHL depot"/ "we send DHL stuff but can't do returns..."

Why not contact the venue and ask what they've got? Our guitarist does this everywhere we play because he's fussy, but also cos he's gone to IEMs and wants to know if they can handle that, do they want him to bring an amp? Etc. If you've got a while before the gig I'd do that and then you can discuss anything you need to with the sound guy or girl and everyone is happy.

And bears. Bears eat folk musicians.

Sehr gut!!! I love it, it will be a shame to cover it up.

Yes but it's pot luck. Some places tell us we are too expensive and decline, that's ok we don't want to undervalue ourselves, and others say Yes without hesitation. It's rare that there's much conversation about it though, it seems to be a one-shot thing. We try to charge similar types of establishments the same for the same type of gig... If we supply PA and lights etc we charge more than going to a venue with lights and a sound guy, if we do a function we charge more because we play longer and usually have a much earlier set up and lots of waiting around. Pubs tend to have a set budget and they can either afford us or not, we are trying to move away from playing pubs though.

Arrived in the post recently... A Fender hi-mass bridge and a neck from China. The neck is about 1mm too wide for the pocket, but I've kept the black headstock style of the original, we just have blocks instead of dots now. The nut needs to go because this was a "reverse headstock" right handed neck but that's no bother at all. The cheap plastic nut can go and I'll replace it with something better and left handed. This is going to be a slow build as funds dictate but next is pickups, wiring and scratch plate.... Tuners also required but I'm hoping to find a good set second hand.

Exactly this! While agree some bands are nowhere near what they used to be I just won't pay to go and see them. But they won't miss my £250 out of the millions they're making from everyone else. It just seems like the natural order of things now. Young, exciting new band has to sell cheap tickets, graduates to established band, cashes out with greatest hits tour/ no more tours/ we swore we'd never tour again.... And so it goes on. It's like the Vegas residency but coming to an arena near you.

I had the HX Stomp and.... It does TONS. It can do so much it's mind boggling. But. I was barely using 1% of it and found I had to buy so many additional pedals because the few things it didn't do well happened to be the few things I needed. Plus extra buttons. My view: if you only want a few functions I would buy good quality dedicated pedals that do that, then you can just power it on and tweak some knobs.

Ah... Wouldn't be knowing about that.

Yeah the 40watt Spark is a bit meh for bass but it does the job if you accept it for what it is. You're never going to gig it or record by mic'ing it up so for playing along to MP3s it's doing the job. Far better as a guitar amp.

Black Star BEAM and Positive Grid Spark are great for this. They are multi instrument amps, recording interfaces, have loads of effects, just use as a v good quality Bluetooth speaker too.... They're fantastic as a practice tool.

This is very, very annoying. It makes for a big, chunky and not very sturdy mains connection, perfect for kicking out of place by wandering singers. And although their after care is, IMO, excellent I bought a pedal power pack that turned out it had a dodgy UK adaptor. Took ages to work out what was the broken component because I stupidly wired in the power pack and all my pedals before powering it on to test it. Still, they sent me a new adaptor FOC very quickly.

I've seen tons of ads for Teemu, it looks like an updated wish.com with ridiculous prices for stuff that can surely only be knock-off tat?

Excellent work, bravo

Great looking bass! Similar to what I have in mind for a Hofner 189 body I picked up

The only rooms I've had to EQ for have mainly involved cutting bass because there's a big hollow stage that makes it sound boomy. I don't do extreme EQs anyways, I'm always everything centred and either bass and treble up,I'd slightly cut, or for the semi hollow and the fretless basses it's treble and bass flat and mids boosted. I tweak from there but it's rare that I'd need to.

I haven't measured up yet but I'm seeing Epiphone Thunderbird pickups at good prices on eBay... Fingers crossed!

Yes but as I've learned before there can still be a lot of variance. I went through three Fender/ Fender copy necks on my last bitsa to get one that both fit and was actually half decent. I'm going to find a neck I like and if needs be see if I can get it made to fit.

Here's what I have so far...

I recently acquired a Hofner 189 body on eBay after a speculative low bid. It's "new old stock" so has never been used, not even neck or bridge holes drilled, but it's quite nicely aged and scuffed up. I need to start adding bits to make it into a functioning bass and wanted to hear from anyone who has or had one any of the pitfalls of this beast? It's a bit of an oddity in that it's a jazz style bass but the pickup routs are MASSIVE. Also wondering if there's anything else I should watch out for? I am definitely not looking to faithfully recreate the 189, far from it, but I'd like to be a little sympathetic to the origins of the body. Thanks!

Awesome photo

Body has arrived! This may take some time as I'm coming out of some expensive months and I want to shift some gear too, but I'm looking forward to making something unique with this!

If I had a gig in Dublin coming up I'd be buying this! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394925054013?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=IpdWCYRCSCi&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=XRJhsZSpS5O&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Well, here goes again... I bought a 1970's Hofner 189 body on eBay for a good price. It's new old stock, doesn't even have holes drilled for the bridge or neck, yet it's nicely aged. Sunburst lefty body, two huge pickup routes and controls route. Originally I thought I could finally do the unlined fretless I want... but recently I've been thinking it would be better with Thunderbird style chrome pickups and a right-handed maple fender neck. Tough decisions ahead! I made up a bitsa in the past and learned a lot in the process. While the bitsa previous was a nice bass I just never quite got there with it and think a bit more patience and money thrown at it could have got a better result.

I've been toying with getting the 2x10 for a while... following this with interest!