Sibob

Most of the main pickup manufacturers do MM style pickups. From what I've heard, Seymour Duncan are pretty close to a stingray sound. I've had personal experience with Bartolini as I've got them in my OLP, they sound great, smoother than a standard MM pickup although I'd only use those if the bass was active, they're severely under-powered when run passive. Lots of people on the board swear by Wizard pickups also, although I haven't heard anything about their MM pickups specifically, mostly their P & J setups Good luck Si

Well I'm at 3 Jazzes, and my Precision has a Jazz neck lol Love 'em Si

Fliplowe, it might be worth sending a little follow-up email. Yours might have been lost in the muddle, and it's unlike Dan to not reply! Si

Utterly rediculous!! ....in a good way you understand! Nice one mate, it's been a long time coming! Si

It all started with about 9 years ago with my mid-nineties Encore Precision, when Encore were actually alright. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this in it's original form, the exact same one came up on ebay recently and am gutted I didn't buy it for old-times sake. It had a pearl white body (alder I think), maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, white scratchplate and white pickup. This served me well until my first upgrade, being my Yamaha RBX 260. I loved this bass as it had a smaller body with a natural finish, which at that early point in my playing career, I considered to be fairly 'boutique' : After I got my Yamaha, I went at my Encore, turning it into a fairly useless fretless, but last year refubished it: You can read about the Encore/Parts build HERE After the Yammy, came my Bass Collection SB335 (I think that was the model number). A trans purple 24 fret 5 string, with soap bar pickups and active/passive switch. This was a massive step-up for me. I was doing my A-level music at the time and strung it EADGC to help with my solo performances. I actually managed to get hold of a 2nd Bass Collection, exactly the same, colour and all. This I had defretted by Martin @ Bass Gallery, so I had a matching Fretted & Fretless pair. Here I sold the Yammy Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of these to hand Around this time I got hold of some 'fodder' basses like an Ibanez Artcore semi-hollow thing, and a Crafter acoustic bass. Both quickly bit the dust. At a similar time I got hold of my OLP Stingray bass, it was the first giggable 4 string I'd had in a couple of years (no longer owning the Yammy and the Encore having become a rather odd fretless). Almost instantly I swapped the pickup for a Bartolini and had an 18v East preamp installed, along with Schaller Tuners: This served a while in standard tuning, before being setup in it's current tuning of C, F, Bb, Eb for my band First Signs Of Frost. While the OLP was still being gigged in standard tuning, I decided on having a Shuker Electric Upright built: I gigged this plenty with a bluegrass band and a singer-songwriter, until eventually selling it late last year to help fund a mid-2008 purchase. Around the time of the completion of the upright, I played one of the new Warwick Corvette $$ at London Guitar show. I loved it and quickly purchased one, similarly with the OLP, I swapped out the stock MEC's for Bartolinis: It was around this time that I sold both my Bass Collections (regret getting rid of the fretted 5), to fund the Warwick. Then I managed to get hold of my 2003 USA S1 Jazz Standard, for silly money, £275 if you must know. My Jazz quickly quickly became my main bass, shadowing the Warwick in everyway, and so I swapped the $$ for a 2001 US Jazz Deluxe: I really didn't get on with this at all, and within 4 months or so had sold The Jazz Deluxe, and purchased a Lakland 44-02D: This I kept and gigged with for a bit longer, perhaps a year. It is easily the 'prettiest' bass I've ever owned, the quilted top was ridiculous! It became apparent though that the bass was just too 'polite' for me, and wasn't really getting the use that it deserved, still being overshadowed by my US Jazz Standard! When the opportunity to purchase my dream bass arose, I looked the gift horse right in the mouth, sold the Lakland (and eventually my Shuker upright) and purchased forum member WoT's 1973 Jazz bass: This is really a thing of beauty, and is my main bass for standard tuned projects, between this, my Jazz Standard and my Precision, I can cover all bases!. Around this time I decided I wanted to have a passive bass, built slightly more for purpose, for First Signs Of Frost. So i set about creating what became my Shuker/Parts Jazz Bass, meaning my OLP has become my backup for Drop C tuning. You can read about the build HERE: So there we have it, a brief, albeit it slightly obscure, time-line of my bass ownership. And now for the family photo L-R 2003 USA Fender Jazz Standard, OLP 'Drop C' ThingRay, 1973 Fender Jazz Bass, Encore/Parts Precision, Shuker/Parts 'Drop C' Jazz January 2009 Thanks for reading! Si

Ooo you live in Poulton-Le-Fylde my surname is Poulton cool Si

Slightly off topic, but have you got any pictures of your Bass Collection SB565 Delberthot? The P stills looks the nuts btw! Why didn't you find some gold sparkle paint for the headstock though? Si

[quote name='woodster' post='391908' date='Jan 26 2009, 04:54 PM']Steve Bailey, surely...?[/quote] haha, i did notice that and though I'd changed it, obviously not! Si

I believe they're sorting auditions at the moment, PM me for details Si

The Vampyre and the Katana were competitions! Lets hope this one has better results! Si

Not sure if it was an introduction at Namm, and not that I'm interested in it as a purchase...... .....but the new Fender Steve Bailey 6 string looks kinda cool! [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] Available in fretless as well obviously Si *edited for the right bass player name HA*

I'm a long time advocate of Ashdown amps and their customer service! I've had my UK built ABM EVO II for 5 years ish without any breakdowns, until the start of Jan '09 that is....thats 5 years without a service, not even a change of tube, hundreds & hundreds of gigs. The minute I tell them about the fault, they say its fine to come over to chelmsford for them to fix my amp (see my related thread in General Discussion), provide me with some great hospitality and all for a very very reasonable price! Obviously I can't comment on their products made in China, but what I will say is that they're still making amps over here, so maybe you should give them a try before dismissing the entire product range as flawed. I'm even pretty sure that it was just a few batches of the chinese line that was dodgy, and most reliability issues have been ironed out now. Si

Well, the bass performed exactly how I wanted it too on my tour, sounded massive, was solid, barely went out of tune between shows/during transit, perfect. I've definitly found 'The Bass' for First Signs Of Frost. It is still a prototype of course, and money permitting I'll have something built for purpose heavily based around this, but for now, I'm really happy with it! Anyway, here's some live shots: [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] Si

Yeah Andy is a great player! (do you do private lessons actually mate?) A very good bass player mate of mine, Dave Troke, is his dep for JTQ Si

FSOF London show added Covers shows edits! Si

Interestingly, and this is obviously open to debate, but according to Jon flamed maple isn't as strong as regular (rock) maple, and so doesn't make ideal necks. Obviously I learned this after the initial neck was built! But yeah, Love the bass in its current state! Si

I did notice a loada cars housed in plastic see-through type tents!! Maybe that was the Lotus' that you speak of lol Anyway, heres a pic of the state my amp was in mid-repair lol [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] Si

I found some time....pre-tour pictures! Sorry for the quality, just off my phone, but gives you an idea: [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] [url="http://imageshack.us"][/url] As with any photos, with some professional exceptions, you can't really see the beauty of the birdseye fingerboard....which is apparently 15 years old according to Jon!! I think the Binding really sets it off though! On this neck I went for 'structural integrity' over the more fancy wooded construction of the previous neck. The neck wood of this neck being Rock Maple with two carbon fiber rods for reinforcement! Anyway, as I said, this is coming out on tour with me tomrrow, so come check it out in action! Gig listing in the 'Gigs' forum! Oh and it feels and sounds awesome as well, fantastic Jazz growl with a Piano like roundness! As I've mentioned before, this bass is tuned C, F, Bb, Eb. Si

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='377232' date='Jan 11 2009, 10:13 PM']Are they running the Lodestone basses operation from the same place, then?[/quote] I think so! Well, in as much as they had a load hanging up and even more in boxes scattered around! I don't believe construction of the Lodestones is on-site though, could be wrong of course! Chris said that they have taken delivery of the LG's, even he mentioned that it had taken an AGE for them to be delivered Si

Should be on about 9:30ish, but maybe get there for 8:30 ish to be sure!? Cheers dude Si

So about a month after I sent the guy an email, this is the reply I get: "hi there i'm based in Lerwick,Shetland Islands,if this isn't a problem for you i can send you some pictures thanks" Idiot! lol Si

So before I go out on tour this coming tuesday, I had to go and get an intermittent but fairly serious problem fixed on my ABM EVO II 500.......oh and before you say anything about reliability....it's taken the amp 5 years of playing hundreds and hundreds of gigs without a single service to develop this issue . A slight side point, turns out my amp is a 2003 UK built. Anyway, got there about 2pm and the guys were busy doing stock-take and getting ready for NAMM the next day, within 10 mins of me chatting to Russel (my tech for the afternoon lol) and identifying the problem, Chris Bates* (head of sales) had offered me a cup of tea and told me to keep the (Ashdown) mug haha!. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have a secondary angle for my visit, that being to make them aware of my band, how long I've played and enjoyed Ashdown for etc etc, try and get them behind FSOF!, but I didn't really need to, Mark (head dad) Chris and Dan Gooday (artist liason) were both genuinely interested in what one of their players was upto, asking for further press kit, photos and quotes etc! After about 30mins of Russ trying to sort the issue, which had been narrowed to the EQ/Preamp board, he decided to simply replace the whole board, this took him about an hour and involved my amp being in complete pieces....a sorry but necessary sight . Mark offered to lend me an ABM 900 for the tour if I couldn't wait for mine, but I wasn't in a hurry, very nice of him though. During this time, I had interesting talks with Mark, Chris and Dan about their current product line, future plans and their imminent trip to NAMM. Dan was very kind and sent me away with some Ashdown wearables and a shoulder manbag type thing (very handy for tour). Russ put my amp back together with the new board, along with a new valve (seeing as it hadn't been changed in 5 years), totaled up the bill, i was nervous that he had to use a calculator to do so, although he assured me it wasn't because the number was big lol. I won't say what the figure was, but I was very very happy with it! Overall, I guess I just wanted to say that I had a fun trip to Ashdown, really nice guys, family run business, very accomodating and genuinely interested in satisfying their customers. Si *correction

It is a beauty, and proper solid as a rock! I haven't had time to take pictures just yet, will get on it today, but I'm going on tour with it on tuesday (13th), so come to any of the gigs listed in the gig listing forum or at www.myspace.com/firstsignsoffrost, and you can see the young lady in action! Other than that, pics a little later today Si

Jan - June 2009 covers shows added FSOF Tour dates added on the front-page (some venues and dates amended from previous listing) Lovely Jubbley Si