Rich

A 16 year zombie thread? Whoa, that must be some sort of record.

I did ask the question earlier in the thread, "So what do you mean by 'budget gear'? Do you mean cheaper to produce, or cheaper to buy?", but nobody answered, so, yeah. Has anyone got any sweet'n'salty? Dad's is running out.

I'm here. Sharing Dad's popcorn.

I only have two straps... a generic black leather one with buckles that goes very well with the black Spector, and a Maruzsczszcyk one in the 'retro' finish that goes nicely (albeit not a match) with the burst of the Shuker and Sire. More by accident than design.

That's amazing, making music with a bandmate from 30 years ago. I wish I was still playing with the frontman from my 1988 band, he was a good guitarist but he had a singing voice to die for. Glad to say I managed to get in contact with him a few years ago and we're mates again. Although he lives 300 miles away, so starting a band with him would be tricky

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) - David Bowie

Wow, that's even better close up. I'd seen these on the BC Farcebook page and was wondering about cost, but you've answered that for me. And now of course, I'm GASsing for a model of my Wal or my Shuker... or both... arrgh...

Oh I say, those are rather nice. Yum.

Any excuse to post my fretless baby Nothing major has changed... still an OLP body with a lovely edge-marked ebony-boarded Jaydee neck, and EMG-HZ pickup. The passive electrics have gone however, to be replaced with the 2-band eq from my old Yamaha RXB765A... I'd forgotten I had the eq until I found it in the depths of my spares box, so I routed out battery space under the pickguard and plumbed the guts in, and it's brilliant. In an ideal world I'd get a 3-band with sweepable mid, which IMO is the best eq for a fretless bass, but this is more than adequate. And I'm even getting to use the bass in my new prog project. Happy days

Yes Sour, I Can Boogie - Baccara

Excellent. Please make sure you post pics of the whole board then. 👍

I'm saying nothing other than to agree wholeheartedly with this: and this:

Nice. 👍 The rat's nest of wires is playing havoc with my love of short neat wiring runs though

A bit more tweakage to my board... 'Loopy de Loop' is a new send/return loop switch I've made using this latching relay switch PCB**, this uses a single-pole momentary footswitch so the action is loads softer and smoother than a normal true-bypass 3 pole switch; it works perfectly although I might re-do the graphics at some point. I'm not using the Bass EQ as a low-pass filter any more, I've programmed a patch on the Zoom to do that, so I'm using it as a booster & mid-bump for when I use my fretless (in an attempt to balance its signal with my much-louder Shuker). This means that the eq would be better placed towards the start of the chain in front of the Zoom, so there might be some major shuffling around at some point. For the moment, it all works nicely. ** If I build another pedal I will absolutely definitely use relay switching again, although I'd try the Musikding 'NoPE' switch instead as it's cheaper than this one was.

Speaking of ska gigs... since I bought the Spector Q4 as a basket case and restored it to working order, the Skabass I put together during lockdown hasn't made a single sound. Visually it's perfect for the band, and it sounds great too, but it's over a kilo heavier than the Spector and that weight really makes a difference. And now the Spector has its full fat EMGs it sounds better too. We're mulling over a photo shoot at some point and the Skabass will definitely come out for that, but otherwise... I really should gig it at least one time, but the Spector is... well, it's a Spector, y'know?

She'll probably dump them all on your side of the bed... you won't need it, you'll be kipping on the sofa...

That's literally what it is... I keep my basses on a multi-stand in an old wardrobe. Keeps them out of the sunlight and away from the dust, safe and accessible.

Here Comes the Judge - Pigmeat Markham

So what do you mean by 'budget gear'? Do you mean cheaper to produce, or cheaper to buy?

Trace Elliott (sic) is budget gear..?

To my utter shame and embarrassment, up until last year this beautiful, extraordinary Shuker custom build had spent a good 2 or 3 years shut away in my bass-drobe while my Sire V7 got all the 5-string gig action. I felt that the sound of the Sire suited the gig best, but it wasn't until I sat down and properly experimented with the coil taps and eq that I realised this beauty worked even better. As you'd expect. I mean, as great a bass as the Sire is, it's not this. So now, the Sire is the one sitting in the bass-drobe. I occasionally wonder about selling it, but I won't for the moment because a} it's bloody good and b} we all need a Jazz in the armoury.

That's not poor customer service. That is way, waaaay beyond the merely poor.