Woodinblack

So there was an open box deal at Best Bass Gear, for a Nordstrand PBass 5 pickup. I have never really been keen on the P Bass pickup on my Maruszczyk which is a Haussel, picked because apparently it is what fitted with my 16.5mm spacing. Anyway, the Nordy pickup looked the right size and was $70, compared to £140 here, so I thought I would go for it. It turned up today, as did some La Bella tapewound strings from Thomann - I played some tapewound basses at the bass bash and they were suprisingly good, (although maybe it was just one of Jabbas basses that did that!). So I have just put the pickup on (yes, all good bass work starts at 23:00), and it was a quick job. Also cleaned the neck, and as I had to take the strings off anyway, it got the tapewounds, initially bought for the fretless. But I am impressed so far. The pickup is a great improvement, a lot more articulate, a bit dirtier. Before: After

When I first picked the jazz one up, I looked at the controls and for some reason I was thinking that there were two pickups, so was wondering if there was a blend, then realised there wasn't. Normally I am not a fan of 1 pickup basses, but I quite liked it in those designs as it didn't look that fussy. Placement might be a bit hard with that much space!

I actually couldn't tell the difference in gauges, but the brown one just seemed a more solid sound, not sure if it was the heavier gauge or the pickup. Both were good, the brown was just the best (although the other one i think looked a bit better!)

Looks like a photoshop to show you can have rosewood or maple. Although you can get ebony that looks like that. Or many other woods. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Highly-figured-African-ebony-bass-guitar-fingerboard-QUARTERSAWN-GRADE-A/273380501804?hash=item3fa6bf692c:m:m8pz5DLK5LhTjI5ORLzZWNw

I suspect as you have gone from a 4 ohm to an 8 ohm it probably won't go as loud but should sound better when it gets there, unless the previous speaker was literally broken.

He really can, those basses were at least the equal of any other small volume bespoke luthier bass. If he had put a price tag on those basses at the show he wouldn't have been leaving with anything. That semi acoustic one with the tapewounds played fantastically. I don't play a 4 string and it isn't the sort of shape I would go for, but it was so easy to play, I would have ignored all that. I understand pricing for the mini basses would be tricky, they are smaller but just as much effort to make, but I think you would have to had put a really high price tag on them to get to the point where people weren't ripping your hand off to take them. I would. That seems reasonable.

Having had the joy of playing this rather too much, they sound remarkably like other basses! I know that sounds stupid but I was expecting them to sound somehow 'small', but they didn't. This one sounds a bit thinner and quieter than the brown one, more like a jazz, but that could be down to the strings, i believe this one had lighter strings (unless I am missremembering, which is quite likely). I was also surprised at just how high up you could play these things, ok, not all the way to the top fret, it gets a bit crowded around there and there is a lot of wood once you get to where the neck joins. But the access is really good. But the really good thing is once you start playing it, you don't really want to stop.

that group image of us is great, And frank has his trousers on in that one, which is nice! I forgot to mention that the sale basses were great. The Gillet acoustics were great, loved those, and especially liked the little skinny string one. Not sure I have scope for one of those, but I was impressed. Also the walnut Chowny are very impressive. I didn't quite get out of there without buying anything, but I figured I got away lightly, if Jabba had been selling that brown mini bass or the hollow one with the tapewounds it would have been different!

I got a 'so you didn't buy anything at the bass bash then?', which lead to.. "well..."

So how was the acoustic gig, was it ok?

Yep mine has just gone, not sure where it went to!

Just got back and unloaded. Another brilliant south west food bash for bass players I so want a bass like this:

I have a thing for the bass IV. I have had two squier bass IVs, and a SRC06 crossover and don't have any now. But every so often I get the urge for another bass VI. I think the problem is that I am not in the right type of group for one. It would help if the Squier was 'better', ie, fix the bridge, better nut, better other features, which yes is perfectly possible, to do but a lot of work. The SRC06 is just a tuned down guitar and much more metal than anything else.

Entirely context, a pub needs something with a bit of life to it, which is why I hate the slow blues tracks that pub groups always want to throw in. Unless it is a blues night or you are really exceptionally good, there isn't much scope for that in a pub.

I just want everything from one power supply - too many little leads and things around while gigging

Oh not the HX, the power supply!

Finally got round to changing my power supply (which didn't work with the HX) with one that did work. Now soak testing it to see how it works, there is no noise, its quite hot but don't know if that is a major issue

We did wannabe by spice girls. That one was fun but didn’t work with audiences. cant get you out of my head eh? Hmm

We do are you going my way, but we aren't a rock band. Crowd love it, I quite like it as the bass does something in the middle at least. Unlike sex on fire which I hate with a passion almost as much as my hatred for, 'get knocked down'. Unfortunately the crowd love both of those, so there isn't really much of an argument about it. There are a few slow blues one which we sadly can't drop. On the plus side at least it gives the crowd a chance to go to for a fosters and a beer. We do mustang sally, which is interesting as it is supposed to be one of those songs that everyone plays, but I had never been in a group that did it (unlike teenage kicks and all that sort of stuff). I probably should hate it but I really don't, and although we stopped doing it for a while, people complained so it came back.

Yep, i was more than impressed, especially as I had just mentioned to the person playing that I was useless with a looper, and having said that they asked if the helix was the one I was most comfortable with, pointed out I had never used it before. It even plays it backwards.

One of those was true.

Technically on the iPad on my stand, but I don't really look at it much, the singer has the set list and lyrics on his, and I tend to have the mixer up, and a synth that I use. But I do have lyrics for songs I use, although invariably I look at the singers for those too.

Took the HX (which I haven't been using much) to a friends house tonight to see what we can do with some kind of weird busking ambient / prog thing. I hadn't used the looper on this before, and I am not good with loopers, but how good is the looper on it? Answer, very good. I guess I couldn't use one before because they are all hard to use, one button doing multiple things make them useless to me. But you can start looping, go back to the patch and apply effects, and loop with effects etc.

I do - the knobs are the same on all my gigging basses. Althought the G&L doesn't have a mid, but the bass and treble are in the same place.

Pause the flow - he has stopped to tune in the middle of a song!