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Now, it's this. Some might not consider it much of a change, but believe me, it's a considerable one.

Once, this one used to be my favorite bass.

For me, Thin Lizzy were one of the best bands of all-time. Phil Lynott was an extroadinary talent; singer, songwriter,frontman and teriffic bass player. The complete package.

That'll Be The Day - Buddy Holly

This is a piano piece that my wife improvised one evening. It formed a great basis for me to practice with Spitfire Audio’s BBC SO package so here’s my first attempt at arranging for strings.

My brother used to work in Whitchurch, round the corner from that restaurant. Apparently it's got a really excellent reputation in Cardiff.

We all do. The difference is, people either walk out or clap. I'm guessing the Edinburgh Fringe is kind of like a real life TicTok where you actually see the faces of the people scrolling past. Maybe there will be a point at which someone will put a vertical window in front of themselves so the passing people actually have to stop for a few seconds to look in before passing on to the next performer.

Im really satisfied with my fret jobs now but there was quite a bit of trial and error to get to that point. Particularly in levelking. I try to ensure the frets are levelled avross their entire width as sometimes the edges got missed. I also now use a glass block to help achieve more precise tolerances. Depending on how thst goes I will still follow up with a fret rocker and fret file to catch missed spots but it can ve time consuming. So much of a high quality outcome depends on how well the frets are satted in the first place and Ive encountered some surprisingly shoddy fret installations from nanufacturers who have really no excuse, considering their price points. Big shout out for Fender MiM and Epi necks, getting great action has been very easy.

Zero F's, but many replies. 😂 Mark

I used to be a one strap kind of guy. The temperature was a comfortable 24 degrees, very slight breeze. I had more hair on my head than the rest of my body combined. Life was sweet. Then a strap broke about a third into a gig, and no replacement on sight. I ended up playing sitting on a stool And the very next day I made sure I always had an extra strap in every gigbag and every tools case I'm likely to bring to any gig. But maybe it's just me... I just realised I do the same with extra batteries, strings, cables. When any hardware/cabling needs something, I'm the first one they ask, as I often have something useful in my magic box

Im not an expert on Vigier by any means but their all graphite necks were excellent. The 90/10 ne ks have a curve carved into the fingerboard which changes according to string tension. Its less than ideal and may actually be an example of over design. But the bass does sound good. Late night discussions last night sugfested that PEEK wont be rigid enough for a Vigier neck. Not a stupid question at all! Yes, the graphite composite neck should be stiff enough to resist string tension on its own which means the fingerboard material can be selected for tone shaping potential. The early Alembic necks by Modulus, Vigier necks and Status necks were really well made, stiff, flat and very low action was achievable. Later necks, by multiple manufacturers in the nineties, tended to rely more heavily on a phenolic fingerboard for strength and if the recipe for the resin wasnt mixed precisely, the necks bowed under string tension. Conversely if the resin was too stiff, the bass would sound brittle and glassy. My Alembic has an ebony fingerboard, I've tended to prefer wooden fimgerboards for this reason. It removes one variable.

Mark

On Any Other Day - The Police

Or Sgt. Rock?

Welcome HPB.

I should have mentioned (confessed) my latest bass - a Kay Gremlin. I suppose starting on a Kay guitar, I feel sorry for them- I have a Kay Tulip too.

Are you General Clamour..? ...

This journey, into bass playing? What made you pick up that first bass at the start of this long and winding road? When I was about 6 or 7 I heard Bert Kaempfert’s A Swingin’ Safari and Ladi Geisler’s bass just captivated me. From that day I wanted to play bass - wind forward forty years and my mid-life crisis finally gave me the impetus to actually learn… Do you still have the same fire and enthusiasm? Do you still love it? I still love it but the enthusiasm to play has been tempered by the realisation that I’m not actually very good and I now spread my lack of talent thinly across lots of instruments rather than just being poor at only one. What has changed along the way? Your taste in music, taste in basses? I used to be a bit of a music snob and wouldn’t listen to a lot of stuff. Learning to play and being in a few bands has widened my appreciation and there’s not very little I don’t like. What was the first bass? And what’s the latest? First bass was a Tanglewood that was quite decent to learn on. First “proper” bass was the Ric 4003 I’d always promised myself and which I got as soon as I knew I was going to stick with it. Since then dozens of basses have gone through my hands and all of them have now gone with the exception of that first Ric (which I will never sell) and a bitsa SG Nanyo Bass Collection that I’ve recently brought back from the brink and is now my go-to recording bass because it sounds so….fat-but-focused if that makes sense.

There is still time! The jb mould will be started this week.

Sounds great!

I still feel 'imposter' syndrome about my bass playing. It feels like I've got away with this huge bluff.

Hi All, I've been playing for a very long time, a little bit stuck in a rut, would love to take advantage of SBL, but work and family eat up practice time. Currently gigging once a month roughly with soul band, have previously played classic Rock covers, jazzfunk originals & covers. Just love the instrument. I'm left handed but play right handed, not many left-hand basses around when I started playing. Anybody else in a similar position?

Yes, the '78 I had was a B width, but the neck was significantly bigger in the hand than my early 70's P basses, it felt too big for me in the end, despite the bass being super lightweight, and sounding great, I did let it go.