Happy Jack

Glancing at a Topic I haven't visited for a while, and noticed this: I just love the box with "Four months later" in it. Is that a new thing?

In truth, my life is one continuous SouthEast BassBash. But I'll still be there when the event returns ...

In fairness, Sir Isaac Newton was never a Reverend endorsee. As to where to try one, next time you're up London way ... 👍🙂

If that offends you, Si, best be grateful that @Silvia Bluejay forgot to photograph the side dots ... 😂

No - even though the bass is ridiculously light, the positioning of the strap button behind the set-neck join (very old school!) seems to offset any neckdive. Incidentally, that button positioning means that any strap which is comfortable for you on a Precision or a Jazz will feel about 4" too short/high on the Wattplover. I had to fit a much longer strap than I expected to get the Watt to hang right for me.

I'm with Fretmeister on this. If your village doesn't put on music regularly, you won't be on anyone's radar and nobody will care. The amount of money that will fail to reach the big music conglomerates that own most of the copyrights will be measured in tiny, tiny fractions of a penny.

The beast is not extinct, Gary, merely dormant. Watch that magma chamber go ...

Looking at the waveforms, what is really striking is how smooth and quiet the Mudbucker is as opposed to either of the two split-P selections. The Normal P is slightly louder than the Reverse P, which isn't really a surprise. What IS a big surprise (to me, anyway) is the impact on the volume level of rolling off the tone control. It doesn't actually sound any louder in the room, and of course it cuts through rather less, but the amount of energy goes way up.

Seeing as I will shortly be fitting flats, this is the only opportunity I'll get to record some samples with the original strings. I've cobbled together a simple backing track from some raw, unprocessed recordings I made last Xmas, just to provide some context. I've selected this particular guitar break because the bassline takes me across all four strings. Here are the six recordings in sequence: Reverse P Open Tone.mp3 Normal P Open Tone.mp3 Mudbucker Open Tone.mp3 Reverse P Closed Tone.mp3 Normal P Closed Tone.mp3 Mudbucker Closed Tone.mp3 And here are the same six on a single file: All Six Recordings.mp3

Yup ... I'm perfectly happy to resort to cliche and use words like 'punchy' and 'thuddy'. Once fitted with LaBella flats, I expect that only to become more pronounced.

Well despite what I said about launching into a 'review' five minutes after taking delivery, one thing that is immediately very in-yer-face with the OE roundwound strings is the amazing sensitivity to both pickup selection and plucking location. The Mudbucker is less distinctive than either of the split-P selections, but you can certainly hear the differences between the three switch positions. Bring in the Tone knob (which is not just an on/off switch, as is so often the case) and you have a very good range of tones available before you get near the amp's EQ section.

It starts and ends with the punters ... if they don't like what you're playing then you lose the gig. One of my two main bands (https://www.facebook.com/DamoAndTheDynamites/) started as a purist Rockabilly outfit hoping to get onto 'The Scene'. They weren't very good. There may be an element of understatement in that last comment. When @Silvia Bluejay and I got involved, we steered them quickly towards playing bog-standard pub gigs and introducing far more crowd-pleasing rock'n'roll at the expense of obscure rockabilly tracks. Success followed. Somewhere along the way, bandleader Damo has written four originals. They're pretty good, a couple are really good, so much so that during Lockdown 3.0 we recorded them and then released a CD/EP to local radio. These originals blend very well indeed with the mainstream material, and we play all four at every gig. They get a positive response from punters who are committed to this sort of music, and a neutral response from those in the pub for other reasons. We like playing them and they certainly haven't prevented us from getting gigs, so there's no problem. However, should Damo write another four originals I wouldn't be at all keen to play all eight at a gig. I'd be thinking in terms of keeping the originals content at a small but noticeable number.

@MacDaddy

Nail --> Head. I hate it when people buy something new and immediately 'review' it. I need to spend some time with this before I know what to say. Something that was instantly obvious was that the strings are going to have to go. Nothing wrong with them at all, but I won't be happy until I hear this bass with LaBella flats.

Someone here on Basschat posted something about this bass (which I'd never heard of, despite spending time on the Reverend stand at NAMM in 2020 just after the launch - doh!) so I went and had a look online. I was so smitten that I used what was left of my old Pasadena bank account to buy one from LA.

Yup, 3-way selector gives 'Reverse P', then 'Normal P', then Mudbucker.

Due to my new-found interest in video editing, I now have an excellent monitor. The Dark Theme looks simply sublime. Nice work, Mr. P.

I hadn't noticed that it was a Bartolini but yes, that combination of effectively three pickups was one of the main attractions to me.

All photos by @Silvia Bluejay (natch).

If it's at The Gallery, just ask Martin what would be involved in making sure that crack really does remain stable. If anyone can tell you, it will be him.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124702385682?hash=item1d08d76612:g:Y0QAAOSwyo9gis3O

So instead of lifting the speaker to shoulder height, you get to lift the speaker and its stand to shoulder height ... 😉😂