bnt

Any bands in the Oxford area looking for a gig: James is looking for an opening band for their Oxford Academy gig on 17 August. Send details to [email protected] by 28 July. (I’m on their mailing list.)

I've had to take myself off the list, sadly. It was looking unlikely as it was, travelling from Ireland with all the hassle and uncertainty, and now I've had to change my booked time off work to accommodate someone else who needs it more urgently. 

I think this is the current list:

• @Richard R - Brawley Artemis 4, Brawley Artemis 5,  EBS Session60 amp, something to weigh basses with. + son with his Westfield of some sort. 
• @Stub Mandrel - Fender Performer, Hohner Jack Custom V, Deathburger (HB kit build), TE 1110 combo?
• @petecarlton - Mayones Cali4 "Puzzle" Bass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYAvWZGwc4s&t=13s&ab_channel=BassTheWorld.com; Sterling by Music Man Short Scale Stingray
• @Teebs PRS Kingfisher bass, Godin Passion RG-4 RN (It haz arrived! )
• @SpondonBassed - Jack.  (That's not short for Jack all, it's just that I can't decide until nearer the time.)
• @bassmansam - Rickenbacker 4003s, Eppy Thunderbird Vintage Pro and Ashdown ABM 500 2x10 combo
• @jebroad - Not-fender jazz (maybe), squire silver series jazz, old Kay SC, Dingwall combustion, Ashdown 8x10 (Maybe)
• @Jabba_the_gut - 27" mini basses, Short scale telebass, whatever else I build by then, TC RS210 combo. Cakes
• @Oldman -RUACH NT 35” Unlined Fretless Custom, head and cab
• @NickA Since the last one..  got a second Wal with an extra string and those weird metal things in the fingerboard ( supposed to help you play in tune I think, but cause all kinds of problems ).  So, yes, please. I'll be there;  Couple of Wals and some pjb amps.
• @Geek99 - POSSIBLE ... Ampeg AMP, bass-doc built relic P, homemade jazz with geddy lee pups, zoom b2.
• @Sarah5string Count me in. Dean edge pro 5 bass, Ibanez sr505 bass, little mark III amp, ashdown ABM 115 cab
• @verb Warwick Corvette and a TE Series 6 amp.
• @nickmew Dingwall Z3, Sandberg California II TM5 Fretless, Hofner Club, Roscoe Century+ 5 and probably a Phil Jones Double 4 as I'm not dragging along my big rig.

There’s a NBD thread on one, here!

Which was basically designed by Mike Rutherford and his guitar tech, after Mike (who was about 6’3”) wondered whether his standard Steinberger GL guitar looked a bit small on him! 

On 02/07/2021 at 14:11, Rumple said:

Nordstrand - Acinonyx     I quite like the body but not the headstock design.

Review video:

 The shape & button system is not random; it's an update / fix of the Goya Pantheon from the '60s, made at the behest of Juan Alderete.

I’m going to leave myself on the list while I monitor the evolving COVID-19 situation in the UK & Ireland. My general idea was to base in Nottingham for about 5 days and take day trips to parts I’ve never been to, such as Yorkshire, but if I have to self-isolate, it’s not happening. It’s supposed to be fun, not stressful. I’m fully Pfizer-ed as of six weeks ago. 

My chances of attending are looking a bit less tentative now, as long as the UK gets COVID under reasonable control by then. I'll probably get ferries rather than fly, since the cost of flights that weekend has shot up since I last checked, and make it a longer trip. overall. I'm vaccinated and should be able to get a EU Digital COVID Certificate. Now to see whether the UK will accept those without making me take more tests or go in to quarantine.

4 hours ago, Lfalex v1.1 said:

That's an odd implementation. 

I'd have expected something like;

Pickups- Blend pot- EQ- Volume control- output jack.

Maybe it's to facilitate easier active/passive switching, or is related to the P pickup being very hot.

Since I first rewired mine last year, I went back to the parts I have and this diagram I found on TalkBass. It’s for the MJ but it matches what I remember on my MP:

Now, it’s possible that the 25k volume pot is after the EQ in active mode, but I don’t think so based on that diagram. And even if it was, we would still have that situation  in passive mode. 
 

On 19/06/2021 at 08:07, stewblack said:

So much of the HB preamp debate is actually about personal taste rather than quality.

The specific problem I had, which led me to install active EMGs in mine, was not the active EQ as such, but what came before it: the unbuffered output of the two pickups going through standard passive balance controls, and a 25k volume control, before it got to the circuit. I don't like to see a passive pickup signal with such a low resistance in the signal path.

On top of that, the stock P's output is huge, which I like in general, but it doesn't play nice with the MM pickup, or with the active EQ. The MJ version might be better-behaved in that regard - I don't know.

Note that I don't call it an active preamp, since it's only an EQ circuit: in my view the first job of a preamp is to buffer the signal before it's subjected to mixing or processing. It's probably OK as EQ circuits go, actually, but it didn't stand a chance due to the too-hot, badly-mixed signal it was getting.

Now available with go-faster stripes:

According to this, they're made by a company called Jolana in the Czech Republic. I can't see any basses on that site, though.

I wouldn’t want to overstate it, but pickup placement is one of the things Leo Fender innovated. The central position is awkward in some respects, compared to other instruments of the period, including Fender’s own, which were mostly all the way back or forward. Even post-Fender, he developed the Music Man Stingray with its “sweet spot” pickup placement. There’s another thread on Reverse P placement, where the coils are swapped left/right as in Sandbergs etc. Details! 🤓

This video is a pretty good review, which comes down pretty hard. It looks like the OEM has changed the neck joint entirely, it’s down to 5 bolts with no more body cutaway for upper fret access. G4M says they have 20+ in stock now, but if I was to buy one, what would I get? 

I’ve never played any Fender bass, since I’ve never been able to afford one, and I’m not the kind of player who can take a random bass off the rack, plug it in, and sound good. 
 

edit: if you mean P-style basses, my first bass was one, and I’ve posted about the HB MP-4EB I have, now with added EMG-ness.

Or “suspenders”, as they’re called in the USA. Tony Levin wears them because they help support his Stick, and he told the story of the looks he got when he tried to find some in a shop in England. 😌

Tony Sales used a Vigier with Tin Machine around their second album, and live - sounded really good. 

Thanks, folks. This year I expect to see packs of antiseptic wipes all over the show too. 😷

Possibly silly question: at a Bash, do people play each other's basses? It won't bother me, since I have a cheap bass, but if I brought a Fodera along, I would be paranoid about belt buckles etc. One major reason why I'm hoping to attend is to see and possibly try a variety of instruments, since the music shops here are not great at the best of times.

To me it looks like one of the Fender Vintera 50s P from a couple of years ago:

Ugh. So first we had the hype, now we have the inevitable "backlash", do we? Predictable, and neither tell us anything useful.

I can't see myself buying either of those basses, not even if we got affordable Sterling versions, but I don't have any complaints about Joe's sound in its band contexts. I think it works well with guitars and drums, but then I'm not a fan of bass solos at all.

1 hour ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

This whole thing smacks of some kind of weird practical joke. The tuning, the similarity to the other JD sig model, Stratton claiming to have financed it, all of the promo video in fact, the selling out in a couple of hours - the whole thing has an aura of extracting the P about it. 

Is this the same guy who said, on the launch video for the original model, "no more government subsidies for active basses"? He's a motormouth with a faulty head gasket, he's tossing a word salad in these videos.

It's definitely tuned down: listen to the video, at the start he's hitting some open low Cs. I was wondering too, but checked against my own bass, and it's an octave below C on the A string.

Another factor affecting the bass tone in the video: it's tuned down to C standard (C F Bb Eb), and so those short scale flatwounds are slack. EBMM's website says the bass comes tuned that way as standard.

We have video:

Nice Rutger Gunnarsson namecheck there. 💪

I've been wondering about this amp too, since I saw that video and others. I don't mind the low power out, since that would be fine for practice use, with the option of going in to a powered PA speaker or system if more is needed live. Only three amp models, but they cover the main vintage & modern areas.

One point of concern for me: it uses a 28V external PSU. That's an odd voltage that would be hard to replace if it goes wrong.