Byo

Hi Shep, Nice to see the Chris' updated board and a little more info about his work. Hope you can keep these interviews coming mate! All the best

Interesting, it was a shame to see G-B disappear as they did some great stuff and their customer service was top notch. I will certainly keep an eye out for his new stuff.

In theory any "gain" pedal will give you feedback, it is up to you to control it. Your setup and how close you get to your amp will also dictate this. The only "controlled" feedback that I know of is the Sustainer pickups in some guitars and also the Moog guitars that were built a few years ago.

Just bought a Fender Sub-Lime from Ben. Great guy and super easy communication. It was a shame that I caught him on a break from work (I live 1 Overground stop away) as I am sure we would have kept on talking about bass amps and cabs for hours! Will sure deal with him in the future.

Another good option is the EBS Multicomp, 2 knobs and a 3-mode switch. Fool proof compressor and it fattens your sound a little too due to being an "opto" style comp. Check http://www.ovnilab.com/ for reviews of many of the comps on the market and all done by a bass player.

[quote name='Thunderpaws' timestamp='1433240543' post='2789178'] Managed to have a wee play with my Bass Soul Food last night, using my Anerican Special Precision and my Streamliner. Absolutely delighted with it. The blend knob is the key. Had that just about 11oclock, drive about 1 o'clock and treble about 2 o'clock. Added some weight to the signal and brought a nice slight overdrive to the sound. Harmonics sounded more prominent. Excellent with a pick. Will see how we go at practice tonight. [/quote] I used very similar settings too.

Just bought one today at GAK down in Brighton as I was going over to jam at Brighton Electric. I got it without trying it out and went straight to meet my band mates. I was using my bitsa P with flats through a Markbass LM3 + Ampeg 8x10's. Normaly a pedal with more than 3 knobs scares me, but the Bass Soul Food is easy to dial in. Volume, Gain, Treble, Blend and the pad for active basses. I set up my basic sound on the Markbass, pretty flat EQ with the bass rolled off a little and the VLE @ 11 and the VPF @ 9. Without the Soul Food the bass sounded good, thumpy but still had definition. Once I stepped on the pedal I could not hear much difference but you could tell it was doing something. When the band started playing, that is when I noticed the difference. The pedal fattens up a little the low end and also makes you cut through the mix better. Not only you could feel the bass but you could hear it. It is not high gain pedal and I only got a little bit of breakup at high settings with the gain and treble full on. I think it sounded great with flats and I trust it will kill with rounds and the tone full open for a rockier vibe. Great pedal for an always on situation and it is certainly a keeper for me.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1436083589' post='2814734'] I was wondering about that. I have a theory that chunkier necks produce a thumpier sound, but have no proof, of course... [/quote] Same thing I have heard. Tim C from RATM loves his P-necked Jazz basses.

In the late 60's and 70's many inexpensive guitars had a zero fret fitted, this allowed the nuts to be cut without taking much into consideration as the fret would dictate the height over the fretboard. This saved time and unfortunately it was associated to cheap instruments. We have many high quality zero fret instruments in the market today therefore the idea of "cheap and zero fret" is slowly fading away. I have never had a zero fret instrument, so not sure what difference it can make if the whole thing is setup properly. Just to add another option to the main topic, what about adjustable nuts? (i.e. Warwick just-a-nut) I think that having the ability of adjusting the bridge, truss rod and nut makes much sense.

2. My current #1 a Fender Road Worn Jazz and a lovely '79 Yamaha BB1200 (P-Bass killer). And an impressive FX collection too.

Also my bitsa P has an All Parts J neck. I have read that Jazzes with P necks tend to have an interesting tone.

B3K all the way. I have the "vintage" Finnish version and it still blows me away.

I purchased a kit from John a few weeks ago for my bitsa P-Bass. Amazing customer service from John and great tips too regarding other hardware. The kits are idiot-proof and they even include a mini-screwdriver for the solderless connectors. The tone of the stock electronics was ok'ish and to be honest, I did not think that the pick-up could be improved but boy was I wrong... the tone pot is very versatile and you can go from rock to dub and everything in between. I have just put some flats on the P-Bass and rolling the tone half-way down gives me that Motown tone we all love, but you always have some extra juice if needed in both directions which is welcomed. I have always been full-on or full-off with tone controls, never bothered but with this kit I seem to play a lot with the pot and can fine tune the bass with surgical precision. Great product with top quality parts at an unbeatable price. Thank you John!

I think it looks pretty cool, quirky pup configuration for a P-Bass that I am sure sounds killer in Pino's hands

Where's he based in SE?

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1435257887' post='2807102'] Sell the P and buy a Squier VM Fretless [/quote] +1 on the Squier. I have one and it's a really nice bass out of the box.

Totally agree with the OP and specially about the new Squiers. I have the fretless P-Bass that was great out of the box, super light and really loud for a passive bass. I decided to mod it to my specs, but just because I am a little picky too, and attached an All Parts fretted J neck and a KiOgon wiring kit. The bass has greatly improved, but the stock version was very well put together and priced at only £299! Squier is catching up with Fender and I would not hesitate to buy a modern one versus a pre-2008 MIM Fender standard.

For the price of the work done, you could probably pay a little more on top and have a custom ACG built to your specs.

Hi guys, Thomann has the "Volo" in stock for just over £600. http://www.thomann.de/gb/ibanez_btb33_ntf.htm I would go for it if it had a SR or even an ATK body, but I just do not like the BTB shape at all...

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. I know CNC routers are very expensive and I cannot justify the price of one. A pin router with a template, like the old Fender´s may be a possible alternative. I am going to do further research as I am very interested. Keep the comments coming!