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What did you do with your "beginner" bass?

my "beginner bass" was a '72 Fender Jazz. Black with a bound and blocked neck. what did I do to it ??
I defretted it during the early Jaco years
I stripped it (very poorly) to natural wood
I played the living crap out of it for about 10 years
I sold it. Don't regret it as it was just an ok bass that I wore the life out of. Never missed it, just got another Jazz bass.

Shopping at Walmart for a bass amp?

Playing through a TV at band practice, i'd love to see it.😂🤣😂. That reminds me of when I was using a 1950's Scott 99c hifi amp paired with 2x12" record console speakers stuffed into a 10" Yamaha pa speaker cab that was previously destroyed. I installed the 12" speakers in an isobaric configuration. I used the phono input, which had 5 different eq settings (before RIAA became standard). No pic of speaker because it's in storage. The amp needs a refurb as it let out the magic smoke years ago. It's on my to do list.

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M-Vave IR Box review

Controlling the M-Vave IR BOX over Midi (USB midi): You'll need a controller than can send SYSEX messages as a host over USB to the IR Box. I used a M-VAVE Chocolate Plus, but anything that can send as a USB host should work (including your PC). There's probably gadgets to make non-host-mode USB things talk to each other but I have no way of testing that.

For whatever reason, M-VAVE didn't make this simple with Midi Program Change or Control Change messages. They buried their own format within Sysex messages. I figured these out by using Wireshark/USBPCap and watching the data sent across USB.

The first 32 are for memory slot selection. So you'd assign a Sysex message to a button (M-Vave sometimes calls these 'custom midi'). So to turn on Memory 5, you'd set your device to send the message/sysex: F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 04 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 04 24 00 F7

1 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 00 34 00 F7
2 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 01 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 01 30 00 F7
3 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 02 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 02 2C 00 F7
4 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 03 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 03 28 00 F7
5 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 04 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 04 24 00 F7
6 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 05 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 05 20 00 F7
7 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 06 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 06 1C 00 F7
8 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 07 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 07 18 00 F7
9 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 08 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 08 14 00 F7
10 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 09 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 09 10 00 F7
11 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 0A 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 0A 0C 00 F7
12 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 0B 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 0B 08 00 F7
13 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 0C 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 0C 04 00 F7
14 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 0D 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 0D 00 00 F7
15 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 0E 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 0E 7C 03 F7
16 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 0F 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 0F 78 03 F7
17 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 10 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 10 74 03 F7
18 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 11 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 11 70 03 F7
19 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 12 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 12 6C 03 F7
20 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 13 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 13 68 03 F7
21 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 14 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 14 64 03 F7
22 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 15 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 15 60 03 F7
23 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 16 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 16 5C 03 F7
24 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 17 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 17 58 03 F7
25 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 18 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 18 54 03 F7
26 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 19 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 19 50 03 F7
27 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 1A 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 1A 4C 03 F7
28 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 1B 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 1B 48 03 F7
29 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 1C 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 1C 44 03 F7
30 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 1D 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 1D 40 03 F7
31 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 1E 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 1E 3C 03 F7
32 F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 00 02 1F 00 00 00 1E 00 00 00 1F 38 03 F7

The above seems to work reliably.

The following codes will turn the sliders for IR and EQ on and off (if you're monitoring with bluetooth and hit the sync) but don't seem to actually change the EQ or IR status. So more work needs to be figured out here. It may be something outside of Midi sysex, and perhaps not something we can control with MIDI. Meanwhile, if you need a bypass, I'd set one memory to have both EQ and IR turned off, and change to that program when you need to bypass. You could also fake a mute switch by having IR on, but volume set to zero on program.

IR ON F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 40 02 11 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 01 4E 03 F7
IR OFF F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 40 02 11 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 50 03 F7
EQ ON F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 40 02 12 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 01 4C 03 F7
EQ OFF F0 00 32 09 49 00 00 40 02 12 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 4E 03 F7
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Strings to a Hagström Swede Bass?

Wow!!!😱😅😁👍
I’ve been away a couple of weeks and this thread took off😁
Thank you all for your replies👍

First, I bought some Labella Medium Scale Flats, and they fit perfectly, and sounds great👍

Second, about the bridge😁
I’m not an engineer, but I think it holds the tuning just fine, and seems pretty solid.👍
As I wrote, I found this bass at the city dump, so I don’t know if it is the original bridge, but I don’t have any reason to think otherwise.
Works for me anyway😁👍

Marriage and significant other relationships

Some really good stories and advice in this thread.

My story: Even though I had a couple of serious girlfriends in college and after, marriage never happened for me. Fast-forward to my early 30s, and I had just broken up with a 'boy toy' relationship with a divorcee. (That was actually fun.) But I told my mom at the time, "I don't think I'll ever get married. I give up." A year later, a mutual friend introduced me to my now wife. She said she knew after our 2nd date that we were going to get married. In fact, when I did pop the question seven months later, she said, "If you hadn't asked ME, I was going to ask YOU." I was 36 and she was 35 and neither of us had ever been married.

We really are best friends and get along great. Sure, we've occasionally had our disagreements, but they never last long. We always appreciate each other, and I kiss her goodbye every time I leave the house. We have a wonderful 22-year-old son and will be celebrating our 24th anniversary in November. We both have a bit of OCD regarding cleanliness and organization and are both big Stephen King (and horror/sci fi in general) fans. Now I can't imagine my life without her and our son.

Engagement pic:
View attachment 7537408
Best knees on TB.










:ninja:

Simple, Free Bass Pattern app

There are many scale/pattern apps online, but, I wanted a simple one. I also regularly work with Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini AI, and I thought it would be interesting to have one of them build a simple one. I am sharing it in the attachment.

Download the file. Rename it so the extension is .html not .txt. From a Windows machine, simply double click it in File Explorer to open it in a browser.

It's fairly self explanatory, but here are some quick notes:
- First Set a Folder you want the program to save to and load from
- Type a name of the pattern/scale/chord into the Pattern Title box
- Choose from the settings - Dots or Notes, Dot Color, # Frets
- Click on the fretboard to select notes
- Click Save Pattern to save the pattern to a data - json - file.
- Click Save PNG to save an image of the pattern. Not necessary, if you have the data file, but, you can if you like.
- When you fill a folder with several pattern/scale/chord data files, when you restart the program next time around and set to that folder again, the program will show you a list of all of those in the left Recent column.

Let me know if you have any questions.

1784227737149.png

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MXR Bass Synth + Pedalnetics

They also make great small stage, desktop and pedal board friendly DI boxes with their Dim Stick and MiniDI.






ENJOY your tap switch!!! :bassist:

Pearl inlay on a matte-black headstock: doable?

Thank y’all so much! I don’t have any pics currently, but I’m refinishing a dingwall NG3 in matte black. They don’t come with inlays so I had a guy make one and am going to add it to the headstock.
In that case, I would install the inlay, mask it carefully, spray the black, remove the masking and clean up any edging, then I would spray clear and bury it so the whole headstock can be leveled. At that point, I'd either top it with matte clear or do a hand-rubbed matte like Fodera. I used to spray mattes but I moved to hand rubbing them without looking back. Way easier to return to matte when touch points eventually polish out. :thumbsup:

Ampeg V4B RI

Some general comments..

The Ampeg procedure, step 7, wait 10 minutes in playing mode, can be extended. I like to wait half an hour. Playing through the amp allows it to warm up faster. You want it to reach a thermal steady state where components are no longer drifting. The readings at the tubes should be consistent from one reading to the next.

In North America, the bias procedure assumes 120VAC at the wall. Always note the AC wall voltage when setting the bias. If your wall voltage is higher or lower, the target bias setting will change.

There is hysteresis in the bias pot caused by slack. Initially turn the pot fully CCW as instructed. Then turn slowly up to the desired bias voltage. If you exceed the target, turn the pot CCW again, then turn CW to the desired bias voltage.

Note that the optimal bias voltage is within a range that both sounds good and which allows the amp to remain within a safe operating envelope. Their procedure is basic. A tech can optimize the bias setting using test equipment.

Has anyone ever found that one style of P pickup particularly suits being used for a Reverse P?

..... The ceramic MFD pickup reversed made a boxed-in sound ..... I'm happy with what I've done .....
A few months later — and I've had enough of the ceramic reversed. It's been really picky about strings, and I've only found one basic sound that I'm happy with (and not especially happy with it neither)

The traditional alnico will be going back in, but in the newer, reversed routing.
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