Latest Posts

brushfirewolf said:

I'd say, at that price, it is in fact mostly about playing better. There's absolutely zero chance your cheap bass will play anything like a ~$10k bass assuming it's from a reputable builder and not just some super inflated vintage bass.

From my experience, the more you spend on an instrument, the better it feels to play. It may not sound 10x better but you should for damn sure feel it.

Click to expand...

Right. It feels better. you feel better, you play better.

They played the crappy Beds are Burning cover today at gym so I got off machine and went to the overhead monitor to see who the band was. It was a live performance by AWOLNATION of their cover. I could not find it on YouTube but listened to their official studio version, which is much better than that live cover. The official version has rhythm, it's just more drums oriented, no real bass. The official version also plays the whole song, the way Midnight Oil wrote it. Either AWOLNATION just got lazy live or they could not reproduce the more complex studio version live. They just hung on the chorus, repeating it over and over again, for the whole song.

SharpCat said:

Hopefully this isn't considered a zombie thread?

Sometimes you are a bit lucky...
View attachment 7546382

BOH AND a lime chew.

Click to expand...

The SW Bit o' Honey Bunch is NEVER a zombie thread. We arranged to have that written into TB's rules.

And, yes, could not agree more... scoring a Bit o' Honey AND a lime Tootise Roll at once would have been worth the purchase even if SW didn't send you what you originally ordered.

Thanks for all the replies! I ended up choosing the Sire V5 and I'm very happy with it. Feels great and sounds pretty decent too!

Stickk said:

2 volume, 2 tone.

Click to expand...

When you said (2)Vol/(2)Tone do you mean using 5 pods all together or for example instead of (2) 500K/ea using (1) 250KVol and (1)250KTon?

For anyone talking about oc2 glitches...yes it does do this, but to avoid it you need to play up the neck. For example, play a D on the E string 10th fret. The pedal seems to love the fuller, fatter signal

I voted mostly no.

I'm in a similar boat. Same age, similar music, and the likelihood of me ever joining a band isn't zero, but it's so close there's no incest laws that cover it and the resulting offspring would be some unholy abomination.

I didn't want to play fingers, until one day I decided to do it. Now I do it sometimes, but I still prefer a pick. Do whatever's fun.

Is the GA-FC EX compatible with the Katana Bass line yet, or is it still exclusively just for their Katana Guitar amps?

The general opinion over on the other Katana Bass discussion thread is that the GA-FC is the one to use with the Katana Bass amps, but that was based on info from well over a couple years ago, and that Boss would have to issue some sort of firmware update for the Katana Bass amps to make them compatible with the GA-FC EX.

Is that still the case?

gricko said:

as i said - schematics i received from mt. villex list the value of A50K, pots that came with pickups purchased at that time are A100K and pot that arrived w/ NOS pickups purchased few months ago is B50K.

to spare myself from time waste [re]soldering/recording/listening/spectrogram analysis of different valued pots, i did ask if somebody already tested various pot values for mid control and has real life experience to share.


kind regards

Click to expand...

I’m telling you the technical differences when using a pot as a variable resistor. 100K will give you everything 50K did plus 50K more range of resistance- if he suggested one and sent another it suggests that at some point he decided that extra range was useful.
Frankly you seem concerned enough about it that I have a hard time believing you won’t need to try for yourself!

Quadzilla said:

It's a great bass. Plays well, sounds good. I'll likely swap the electronics to step up the electronics to the next level.

My only real "complaint" is the neck. It's a bit "P-ish" shaped (I prefer a J neck profile). Aside from that and the electronics, it's pretty nice. It's not that the electronics are bad. They sound pretty good. The preamp control layout is just odd to me.

Click to expand...

Congrats. I’m Always happy for those that land an instrument they are happy with.

Ritter667 said:

I do really like the Geezer Butler and the Lemmy setting, though Lemmy is a bit more drive than I would personally use.

Click to expand...

Of course you could roll back drive once you dialed in the Lemmy setting. And the SH1 allows you to toggle two different drive levels with any EQ setting.

I'm also a big fan of the Oxford. Years ago I had a windfall and bought a second one once I learned it was discontinued. I set my Oxford for aggressive 'clank', and the SH1 will definitely do that. Same as pisces_bass, I use the Bite (aggressive high mid) and Cab Sim (fat lows) switches together.

If you like the Oxford then I suspect you'll also like the SH1, which is a bit more bass guitar friendly and more versatile overall. Not saying the SH1 will exactly clone the Oxford, but to my ears it gets close enough.

GUP just came out a few months ago. PoW will probably follow later this year or next.

SteveC said:

I have never adjusted my tone on the fly because I don’t feel confident doing it on the HXS. I suppose I should get that way but it is inconvenient - even if you know what you’re doing.

I’ve also entertained the idea of a Genzler Magellan Pre/DI. I use and love a Genzler amp for the gigs where I’m not DI and I really like the sound. No tube, but cheaper than the Mantle or Khan, and is basically the full front end of a Genzler head. Genzler also has great DI’s. $299.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I edited my post. I meant having the stomp with something that’s tweakable on the fly!

The genz stuff looks great

I use standard size soapbar pups. In my builds,The Amana bits are expensive but works well to finalize the corners.I use the 1/8 top berring bit with my mdf template on top of the body,but only to finalize the corners. they are fradgile so use lightly and you wont break it. I use regular 3/8 trim bit on the sides,and a flat mortising bit for the center area.first .Take your time. Thats the key,practice on scrap wood first. then check the fit.depends how tight you want the corners.

The ground wire is what you’ll see if you strip the gray jacket and bare the negative/ground/shield from around the jack positive center wire. Gather it up and twist it into a nub you can solder back to the ground eyelet on the jack. The main output wiring is a coaxial style cable. Those PureTone jacks work really well. You can keep the jack nut tight by using a dab of thread lock, superglue, or rosin. It will still be removable. GREAT BASS!

Gervais Cote said:

Okay……..you got me with "high-quality amp with a built-in variable high-pass filter" so what brand and model is it ?

Click to expand...

There is a thread:

Metal Sombreros said:

Hipshot bridge, better pickup, TIGHT build my friend.

Click to expand...

Same pickup , Just put a chrome cover and surround on it.

I started reading this thread expecting it to be some nit picky stuff.

The side dots are terrible!!! Pretty shocked someone would think that’s alright when someone is paying them for it. The finish stuff would irk me but probably less. A lot can happen. It sounds like the guy is a good designer and just really sloppy with details. If you don’t think getting your money back is realistic at this point I would save myself the hassle and just have it fixed by someone else. You know the work would be right and you could start enjoying the bass.

Sorry this happened. Such a bummer for something you were excited for.

Helluva story and a good outcome. Good on you for working your back, it sounds like a rough road you hiked.

It's been a while, and not a lot of progress.

I got the pickup routes done. I cut a template on the CNC, positioned it and routed out the cavities. The bright birdseye maple is way too stark.


I recently made a dining room table which I covered in "table top" epoxy. One of the parts is about the consistency of cold molasses, the other part is the consistency of caulk, it's very thick. Since I had a little left over I figured I'd use that for the inlay. When I was "pouring" out the thicker stuff it plopped out in a blob on my workbench and a bit dropped in the cup I was mixing in. It was impossible to know how much dropped in the cup, but it looked about even to what was already in there, it wasn't and the epoxy never cured.

I had already planed off the first headstock skin due to the router slip. I had to plane off this one as well. I used the CNC, it works well for that job, though I kind of wish I didn't know that.

This time I figured I'd do the inlay before gluing, that way if I mess it up I won't be planing for a third time. I have some fresh epoxy, but I don't have any other projects coming up, so I am reluctant to open it and have it go bad over time. I did try to make mother of pearl inlays with the CNC, but the pieces are just too small, I broke 2 pieces pretty quickly and decided that wasn't going to work.

I figured I'd go the other direction with the birdseye maple and dye it black, I'll do that on both the pickup covers and the headstock. It's going to be tricky to fill the inlay without going over as I can't sand it. I struggled a bit thinking about order of operations to get this done, we'll see if I can pull this off. The other consideration is what the sides of the headstock plate will look like once it's cut to size, I doubt the dye will have penetrated evenly. I figure I can either dye the edges once they are exposed or do a binding. We'll see.


I love the look of this dyed birdseye. I've got a fair amount of that wood in stock, maybe my next top will be dyed birdseye

The best basses being made these days?

I'd have to start with Mike Lull. My PJ5 has been my #1 bass for 15 years (and probably for the next 15). The Seymour Duncan pickups and TI flats give this bass a very special sound. The next best bass would be my Sadowsky Jazz. I just love the tone and feel of these basses. I'd kill for another Lakland. An early 55-94 was my #1 bass for 13 years, but since my back injury, they've all been too heavy.

pisces_bass said:

Been messing around with trying to match the tone of Lullabies-era Alain Johannes Queens of the Stone Age. Heavily overdriven, no treble content, super woolly but still sweet and defined in the mix. Can’t say it’s a dead match but I say the v803 is up to the task.
Login to view embedded media
Qtube, flat, crank up the gain, roll off the treble, mild bass boost.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, No One Knows!

edwinhurwitz said:

Modifications are required, but afterwards, the sound is excellent. It's a '68 but was really beat up when I got it, so I didn't feel bad about mods.

Mike Watt got great sounds out his modded EB-3.View attachment 7547270

Click to expand...

Yeah, using Guild pickups. I’m curious why he didn’t just get a JS 2, which was Guild’s EB knock-off(after a fashion), but ironically a much better instrument, especially the neck.

LamarKafka said:

Twins!

View attachment 7546595

Here's some pics, maybe not super helpful but I don't want to take the neck off again right now. You can see the side gaps as well as how low down the neck sits even with the shims. The strings pass through the nut at a bit of an angle and are visibly misaligned with the fretboard:

View attachment 7546598View attachment 7546597
View attachment 7546600View attachment 7546602
View attachment 7546604View attachment 7546606
View attachment 7546607

The current plan is to cut down one of these for the floor of the neck pocket and go from there, though I forgot just how bad the string alignment was which might be a more difficult fix...

Click to expand...

String out of alignment....

Try give some push to the neck towards to E string side.

An update and a question…