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And this is the trick I was told to use when I started playing double bass. 😉

And he's also very well known for being a mega cheapskate, so he bought the cheapest he could find and that was that Höfner (correct spelling), the rest is history.

Anyone have experience in the Ashdown ABM 900 Evo III made in China? How is the quality? Different from UK built Ashdown?

I've been learning for a while, but have recently had more time to practise, and now have a blister on my right hand index finger from plucking / activating the string (sorry, not sure of the correct terminology)! I don't want to stop playing, if anything, I'd like to step it up as I have more free time over the next couple of weeks. Any suggestions please? Lay off, continue and ignore? Or even use another finger / fingers - currently just using right hand index finger. Thanks wise ones, I hope there are some ideas?

If you like like challenges, there are also some fretless headless neck through multiscale basses out there too... Nothing is indeed impossible.

I've mentioned this before but during Covid I had to take a bass down to Laurence Dixon. Opened the door to the 'showroom' and there were maybe a dozen DBs lined up on the floor, just in from a big London orchestra for fettling and/or repair. Every single one of them had faint but clear pencil marks on the neck where the dots would be ...

Fascinating stuff, but presumably this only really works when you're playing acoustically?

I guess the question is more what is a too expensive bass than what is an expensive bass, because you have to put the work done and the hardware price in balance as well as the research, patent, trial and error, prototypes and so on. So, to me, any Fender is too expensive as it's basically 2 planks screwed together and sometimes really screwed (see what I did here). I've always preferred luthier made instruments than mass production ones, because you know who you are giving your money to and you can get (almost) exactly what you want after a very long dialogue. The limit depends on so many factors that the best answer has already been given wisely: Expensive meaning simply something you can't afford.

Another from the 2001 Gilberto Gil video 'Acoustico' (MTV Unplugged) - 'A Paz' with the late Arthur Maia on acoustic bass guitar. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/a-paz-gilberto-gil/

There are so many Flim tunes I would love to get down but he is all over the place and it takes ages to even get close 😃

The last gig before XMas at the Hilltop club in Dronfield for Glam Viva! last night. This is a great club and was packed to the rafters with enthusiastic dancers. I said on here last week that the silly season gigs can be a bit hit and miss but fortunately this was a hit. Booked back for next NYE with the promise of a mid year gig also. Next Saturday we’re back to pub land, a nice venue we played mid year in Worksop….they’ve asked for some XMas songs so maybe Xmas is over band wise just yet.

Could you instead look at older machines, built when cassettes were a viable option for music? I have an excellent Yamaha KX580, which are still available on eBay etc. Dolby B C and S, plus MPX.

I was wondering what to do with this 5 metre long Midi cable, used to join a midi footswitch to an effects unit. Mrs Dinger suggested that I should offer on basschat, for free. So, I have!

True.

That's exactly what I am doing. I'm working 2-3cm from outside edge, carefully going round, trying to keep the rubber mallet full face onto the metal. Every so often, I turn the grille over so it's being bashed from both sides. I've done over an hour on it and it is slightly better, but if I look at it edge on, I can see where the bends were put in 2-3cm from the edge, its not as bad as it started with. I'm bashing against softwood and I wonder if that's the problem. I'm going to try and find something different to hit against, possible a paving slab or something, cover the slab with material. I can't use plywood and drive the car over it, as I've cut it up for speakers Rob

It's a tricky one to quantify. I spent most of the 80s playing synths and my cheapest setup would have had a replacement value of at least £1k which is about £3.5k in today's money, and that has most definitely influenced what I consider expensive now. Also this was in the days when I had almost no disposable income so finding the money the replace my setup at any point in the 80s would have been a lot harder than finding the equivalent adjusted for inflation etc. today. All my musical equipment has been bought to be played and gigged. If I wasn't going to use it there wouldn't be any point in having it. In my last band I took both my 5-string Gus basses to all the gigs - one to play and one as a, never needed, back up. That's about £12k replacement value (I didn't pay anything like that when I bought them) and an 18 month wait with the current production times. Also the only thing I've lost/had stolen at a gig in the last 25 years has been the jacket which I up until recently I was wearing on stage with my current band and, as it was a one-off bought in a stock sale from the designer, has turned out to be both difficult and costly to replace.

No, I have a harem to manage. Strict rotation is the only way to do this. I accelerate the rotation by playing two different basses at the (two set) gigs. The only sentimentality I have is that Mrs. Neepheid bought me my Reverend Triad, so it would be last to go in a fire sale type situation.