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damkell9 said:

i tri

I tried one in the shop today with my active bass, when dialling in squash it seemed to give a lot of drive and dirt which i didnt like, but i dont see reports of that online or on youtube.

is this your case also?

I really want to like this pedal but i cant compromise on clean sound and its hard to give a real inspection in the shop where i live

note - this was running with 9v

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The squash automatically applies make up gain, so I have go down with the volume knob when I increase compression. I try to get it at the same level as the pedal being off. I've never gotten distortion from it though. If I get a chance today I'll see if I can get it to distort. I wouldn't like that either!

When you tighten the rod, are you flexing the neck back, or just cranking on it, letting the nut do all the work, crushing and tearing the wood under it?

Ever increasing relief says to me the wood under the nut is damaged and the nut keeps sinking into it yielding relief again. Thinks about it, your rod can’t stretch. Your neck can’t stretch other than small humidity changes. The answer is the anchored ends of the truss rod are not stable.

Flex your neck back, turn the nut and let the neck go. YOU bend the neck flat and let the nut HOLD the position. It’s better to overshoot and then loosen the nut to where you need it.

If that doesn’t help I would look at removing the nut and inserting a washer so the rotating nut isn’t chewing away at the wood as it rotates and you gain a wider area to take the stress than just the narrow edge of the nut against the wood

Matt Liebenau said:

Glad you got that all worked out. Looks good and I’m happy you like it. For future reference, if you’re installing the output jack off from the control cavity like that you don’t necessarily need to go all the way with the Forstner bit and risk it getting off track. You can drill deep enough to install the output jack and plate with the Forstner bit and then drill a passage just big enough for the wires the rest of the way to the control cavity. Again, you obviously did great, just for anyone looking at something similar in the future.

Edit: after rereading your post and looking at the pictures again that may be what you did?

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yup, that's what I did, just deep enough for plug, then across to cavity for wires
would have been good to have a long thin wood drill bit to avoid having to use Dremel, but I didnt have one

In order to put the plug far enough back on the body, drilling with Forstner perpendicularly to body edge meant I would never reach cavity no matter how deep I went, so I belatedly thought of a wire tunnel to cavity

fred2720 said:

Totally understandable…I’m 77 & we are downsizing and moving from Florida to Arizona to be close to our daughters. I’ve developed mobility issues & can no longer climb a step or two to climb on stage. I played my last gig in Feb 2025 & quit my ban a few months later. I donated my PA system to a local non profit Arts Center & have already sold off over 50 basses & guitars. I still have about 30 bass & guitar amps to sell off. I still slightly over 50 basses & guitars that I’m keeping. I’ve stopped buying anything until post-relocation, but plan to use some of the proceeds from that gear sales to purchase some new basses when in our new house.

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Update: We’ve called off our move for multiple reasons, but mainly it was depressing the hell out of us. In the last week, I have used most of the proceeds from the sale of my instruments to six basses that had been on my wish list. Born to be bad.

Nice one, we'll played!

I've been twice to the store this weekend for XLR cables, and made my wife very nervous whether that's all I'll come back with...

Facts about Verdine not playing, even in their heyday. watching him at NAMM, at Bootsys Birthday Party or the disaster when he jumped on stage, turned his volume down and was caught lacking when Marcus and Larry jumped nto an EWF song was painful as well. Doubtful he played on the iconic EWF songs as well. Paging Louis Satterfield.

I love dUg, who is a very nice guy. He has scaled down considerably since going Tech 21. I saw them at a 600 seat bar in Orlando twice in the early 90s, and dUg had two SVT’s and two Fender Dual Showman amps with four 810’s. My friends at the time couldn’t take it and left after a half hour. Wussies!

MIJ Fender Guy said:

Hot Honey is not at all the same as Honey Burst, hunny.

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True, but I bet a number of old honey burst players eventually landed on hot honey. I know I was one of them

Kaa said:

Understand that I am only a basement hack, so take it for all it is worth. You sound great. You play very well. You have the courage to put out a YT video. Keep up the good work! I'm cheering for you.

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Thank You!

Just tried the Punchline through the Rumble's normal input. Can turn off the amp sim and use the drive and compression features, but sounds better with amp sim on and Rumble eq flat (no vintage button). Sounds and feels closer to tubes than the Rumble. Bouncy, defined and full. Also frees up the FX Send to daisy chain both Rumbles Stacksville!!!

fdeck said:

You can even go so far as to install a shell (tmux) on an Android device.

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A shell for iOS:
I didn't test it but have fun…

You're right Who, looks like they sanded the edges of alnico slugs, man, what detail!, I guess that's what you get at the Custom Shop level.

I bid up to $200 USD for a set of Dean Markley Flatwounds but stopped there. I couldn't justify spending anymore. Even though these are as rare as hens teeth, it just seemed too much. If anyone wants to jump on the bidding, the listing is still active on EBay.

Maybe the top bidder might be on TB, so he might chime in......

babbylon said:

This bass amp sound really good. I use the tube version into SWR 4x10s. Either 1 cab or two cabs. It’s a good sounding amp.

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I played a festival type gig a few weeks ago and the guy playing before me played one of these into a SWR 410. Might have been you. It sounded great!

Q6 Update.

This is where I am after spending more time researching and hearing from people.
The Mule didn’t just “kind of work”, when it was set up and behaving, it actually played and sounded fantastic. The neck, spacing and balance were perfect for me.

What didn’t hold up was everything around it.
The tuners and bridge eventually gave out, and even before that, just getting strings on it was a problem. There weren’t proper 6‑string double‑ball sets at the time, so the only way to run it was cutting and soldering strings just to make a workable set.

Sure, you could play it, but it wasn’t something you could maintain or rely on long term.

It’s easy to see why. Adding that sixth string pushes everything harder. More tension, more load across the neck, more stress on hardware that was really designed around five strings. That’s probably why you don’t see this carried into the lighter XL or later Q2 bodies. They just couldn’t handle it.

The Mule being the heavier Q body actually makes a lot more sense; it needed the extra mass just to stay stable.

Interesting side note, an XL 6‑string conversion popped up, and by all accounts it plays and sounds great. But even there, the owner mentioned neck relief / bowing issues and ended up putting the 5‑string bridge back on it.

So it’s not really about whether it can be done.
It’s whether it can be done in a way that actually holds up.

And that's where the weak link was, the bridge.
Not tweaking one, not modifying something existing… actually building something that can handle six strings long term, stay stable, hold tuning, and still feel right to play.

Once you go there, you’re into new design, tooling, and real cost. The number that keeps floating around (secondhand, but consistent) is somewhere in the ~$20K range just to tool it properly. At that point, this stopped being a conceptual idea and became an engineering problem. That’s when the Mule was put out to pasture.

What’s interesting now is that the constraints that stopped it back then don’t necessarily exist in the same way anymore.
The Mule is now in the hands of Jeff Babicz, working alongside RWB Precision, to see if the hardware issues that originally halted the development of a 6 string Steinberger bass can finally be solved properly.

I’m excited to see where they take it.

Anyway — that’s where I’m leaving it for now.

I hear that a customer is 10x more likely to write a review if they have a bad experience, as opposed to a good one.

So I just wanted to go in the opposite direction and tell two quick tales of recent and unexpectedly stellar customer service experiences with two popular pedal manufacturers

First: Walrus Audio.
I stupidly plugged 18v into a 9v pedal, frying my beloved Ages stompbox. I contacted them and admitted that after owning the pedal for about three years, I had destroyed it through negligence, and asked if they could fix it, and how much it would cost. I sent it to them and they fixed it for free, and even paid for the return shipping. They did this cheerfully, and it took about a week. Amazing.

Second: JHS
I have a JHS pedal that I really like. Took it out recently, plugged it in, and it wouldn't shut off. Wasn't sure if it was the switch or what it could be. I wrote to them and asked if I could pay to have it fixed. They asked if it was still under the warranty period. "No, I bought it in 2017" (well outside the warranty period). They asked if I was the original owner . "No, I bought it used off reverb". They said "ok, we're going to fix it for you under warranty anyway." Whaat?? It took them about a week, and shipped it back to me on their dime.

The only thing I had to pay for was shipping to them.

I just wanted to make a post about this to say that I am thankful, blown away, impressed, and feel really good about continuing to be a customer of both of these companies.

I'm an Apple guy through and through.
My personal everyday tablet is an Ipad 4th Gen.
For gigs I use an app for setlists and song notes.
I'm doing a ton of subbing with different bands this summer and grew tired of dealing with horrible/non-existent monitor mixes.
I just bout a second Ipad. A 5th Gen. Refurbished off Amazon for $260.
I plan on using it just for adjusting monitor mixes.
Wish me luck

TomB said:

I grew up on the South Side in the 60’s as well. Agreed about the cracker crust. Italian sausage, pepper, mushrooms was standard in my hood. …never even saw pepperoni on a pizza til much later.

The first deep dish I ever saw / tasted was Uno’s and Due’s, both on the near north side, in the late’60’s. Yes, I think it’s the same UNO’s that’s a national chain, at least the same name. We thought deep dish was amazing and delicious at the time, but never expected it would become “Chicago-style Pizza”, any more than we thought Vienna red hots would some day become “Chicago-style hot dogs”. It’s all good though! …even the New York stuff

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That's right...mushrooms! Forgot about them, lots of orders placed with shrooms. Not me though, sausage and onions (occasionally anchovies) is my pizza jam. Sometimes with Tobasco if the pie itself isn't up to my high standards (yes I got spoiled in the Chi 60's)!

alembicbones said:

So now, I have The Bass Shop here in Seattle about 5 blocks from my house. They along with Thunder Road Guitars have one of the coolest music stores I've ever seen. I'm fully behind all of the basses I have now and really don't need to buy anything. That said, when special basses pop up there (like the EBMM Pino Fretless), I'll give it a try and sometimes, I can't pass it up. The joy of living the bass world.

Bones

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It's hard to pass on a winner!

Sure, if you can't fix the neck you have

gflowers said:

Why am I asked about these notifications every time I log on? Can't this be checked off as a preference?

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People in the know are ignoring this thread, so I have told the robot to never ask me again. When you come in, the blue popup asks for permission. Close it and in the yellow window tell the robot to take a hike.

The Lurker said:

It's asbestos floor tile that Leo Fender recycled.

IIRC, the pearloid is just ABS plastic.

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Emplyees have verified that "clay" dots were made from white fiberboard, not linoleum tiles.

What's goin' on here, @Turnaround retires and EVERYONE forgets all about WITNESS POINTS; learn about them and dress them, most of your adjustment problems will disappear.

Most new strings don't want to make sharp bends, they want to arc around saddles, nuts and posts; as the strings age those arcs slowly conform to the needed bend and the string goes flat. You can force the arcs out of the string and they will be much, much more stable. As a genral rule of thumb, the thicker the string, the longer it takes for the string to conform to the desired shape. For string through you have an additionl bend where it emerges from the body that has to be taken into account. With the string tuned UP, start at the anchor point and force the string to comply with the needed bend. Each time you put a forced bend into the string retune UP. Once you have forced compliance at the post your tuning will be much more stable.

Cleezmo said:

I'm not a luthier, of course, but my take is that there are number variables here in addition to the neck profile. The Yamaha has a 6-bolt mount, including the two that are angled; the JB has a 4-bolt mount. The Yamaha body is a sandwich of alder/maple/alder, the JB is one wood (alder, ash, or empress, whichever yours is). The bridges are different, the Yamaha having it's cool 45-degree angle design and the G&L having it's massive Saddle-Lock bridge. I don't doubt for a second that you can hear a difference between the two basses, but I'd say it'd be hard to pin the tone difference solely on the neck profile.

OTOH, I've read/heard more than one interview with Billy Sheehan describing his Attitude basses, and he always points out that they have big, baseball necks in part because he feels a bigger neck gives you a bigger/fatter tone. And I'm not gonna argue with Billy. Paul Gilbert says the same thing when comparing the necks on his Fireman guitar to the typical thinner Wizard shredder necks of his prior Ibanez guitars.

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I played a beat up used attitude in a store about a month ago. The neck was indeed a baseball bat at the nut and the basic sound was fat and deep.