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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.

First time I can say I've ever seen "balls of the day" on a menu.

Partly because it isn't that far from the truth.

If you want to save a few quid and have some most excellent nosh, his brother's signature Penne is only £15. There's a pizza too, but personally I recommend the fiorentina.

Wednesday week. Undertones

I have a couple and so does our lead guitarist which is a bit much! Pink Floyd eat yer heart out! It's ridiculous how cheap they can be and that even on usb power they are bright enough for a club.

Hi, I recently picked this bass up as I was looking for a 5 String to practice on. I can find much info on the brand but it plays well and feels really well built and solid, especially for the price

Same here - all of my basses these days are FSOs, so the same strap works for all of them. I always make sure that I carry a decent spare, as well as a cheaper nylon one without straplocks for emergencies, loans, etc.

Oops. I slipped and sourced a trio of strymons.

It really can be just a RAT type pedal. The RAT has three knobs. The first is the drive/crunch/grit keep it between 8 and 10 o'clock, that's where the magic happens. The second knob is a high roll off filter. Anti-clockwise is bright, twelve is still kinda bright but in a nice way, fully clockwise is warm and thick. The third knob is just level or volume. I got a Rat2 this year and it replaces all the boutique tube preamps I have amassed.

Good vid 👍

A-strings is my favourite shop, because you buy a new Fender and the 'free online lessons' sticker is in the goody bag, unloved and unwanted.

Heard a rumour there could be up to twenty local bands playing throughout the big day including several disbanded ones that are reforming to just perform on the day.

They still do that tint but it's on the Indonesian ones. These are Chinese, like the original classic vibes, though the serial points to it being a different factory. I'll definitely check these out. I'm a big fan of the original CVs and I really like my Vintera Tele Bass so I'd be interested to see what the Squiers are like.

I just ordered a Boss OC-5. Why? No idea. I don't really need one, but it sounds cool.

I think that something we all missed is what bass(es) are you playing and enjoying for their tone right now? With this in mind, we should be able to point the correct direction to look at...

The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks, Pretty Things and Animals were a bad influence on everyone in the 60's, and I was going to the party. I was going to be rich, cool and famous. In any order! The Spanish guitar my parents bought me had an action you could fly a plane under. I couldn't press all 6 strings down at the same time, so no chords, just single notes. A friend and I got together to play songs and all I could do was single notes. He showed me the bass lines and hey presto, turns out I could do that. The penny dropped and my course was set. An electric bass (Framus Star Bass, small body) followed the next year, an amp and my first band followed the year after. Two years after that I was a professional musician. Many decades have passed and I'm still fired up every time I pick up my basses (Sadowsky and Mike Lull).